Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Artist	By : emochickenbutt Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Itachi/Sasuke Views: 2684 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I do not make any money from writing this.

Chapter List
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please don’t hate me for sucking at life and failing at updates. just finished finals and the senior projects. waiting for graduation right now

* * *
888

The next day was rough. With Naruto recovering from a bit of a hangover, Sasuke practically had to drag him out of bed and drive him to work. And then, when Naruto remembered that it was their turn to pick up Gaara, he had to go back and get the somewhat irate redhead. Oddly enough, the student teacher was more annoyed that they had partied without him then by his tardiness.

By the time he got back from dropping them off at school, he only just managed to finish his paper before he had to leave for the bus, though he brought his laptop so he could use the transportation time to edit it. The bus jiggled a lot because of the ice, making him nauseous, but he figured that was the price to pay for going along with the impromptu party the night before.

In class, Hyuuga kept asking about Orochimaru so much that Sasuke almost asked if he’d developed a crush. He knew better, though, because Neji had never been anything but straight. Then again, the older art student did have a feminine face and hair like a Disney Princess, so maybe Neji was considering making an exception.

The next day wasn’t much better, and knowing that Itachi wouldn’t be in class to greet him made getting on the bus even harder. The only consolation was that at least the weekend was here, but he had so much reading and homework to do for class on Monday that it hardly felt like there was any benefit.

Once he’d walked in the room, he was saved from the momentary lonely feeling by an excited Kiba. “The professor’s looking at our portfolios today!”

“What does that mean?”

“Oh, a portfolio is like a collection—”

“I know the definition. What I meant was, what does that mean for us? Am I not needed today?” If so, he wished he’d known sooner. Instead of wasting time coming here, he could have been working on homework or watching TV or something.

“Well, he pulls us all into conferences to go over it with us and talk about what we need to improve on, and then the top three or four people get some kind of reward. Since the majority of the class has to wait, cause we never know who he’s gonna call or in what order, we usually use this time to practice.” He gestured to the chair next to him. “So if you’ll sit just there, I need your head. For some reason I can’t get your hair to cooperate.”

Neither can I, young Uzumaki thought as he complied, taking off his coat first so he wouldn’t be uncomfortable in the heated classroom. By the time Kakashi called the first student over to his office at the back of the room, nearly everyone had crowded around Sasuke, asking him to tilt his head a certain way or make different expressions.

“How about the face you made the other day?” asked Kiba. “I want to try it again. I don’t like how it turned out the first time, and I really was thinking about that as part of my final project.”

Sasuke only raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t sure there was enough sarcasm for what he wanted to say.

Sakura said it for him. “Gee, I’m sure he knows exactly what you’re talking about, dumbass. He probably only makes one facial expression a day.”

“I mean right after Itachi left.” Kiba said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. A couple of the other students nodded.

Well, now Sasuke was a bit embarrassed. He’d probably unintentionally shown how much he felt for his boyfriend, and now they wanted him to replicate it?

“Don’t worry about that.” Sakura assured their model. She rolled her eyes and punched Kiba a bit in the arm to emphasize what an idiot she thought the other boy was being. “It doesn’t matter what face you make—we all just need some more practice, and I need to study your nose a bit more. So just sit real still, ok?”

As he followed her instructions, Sakura kept talking. “I’m really glad we won the other day at the snowball fight. Though I’ve got to stop going with you back to Shino’s house, Kiba.” This wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world, so Sasuke tried to tune her out with little success.

“Why? What’s wrong with hanging out with us? You always say we’re a bundle of laughs.” Sasuke tried not to cringe—with a voice like that, there was no tuning Kiba out.

“All you do is make out, and what am I supposed to do? Its awkward watching TV while you two noisily suck each other’s faces off.”

“Hey! We’re not that bad!”

“Or when you guys play football—”

“I like tackling him—”

“And when you wrestle on the couch—” she seemed to be prodding at something, but Sasuke was quite sure that whatever it was that she was trying to figure about Kiba and Shino’s sex life, he didn’t want to know.

“We don’t do that—”

“Or when you guys play videogames—”

And despite his best efforts not to miss his boyfriend, all his thoughts went back to dark eyes and soft hair and the benefits of winning videogames.

“That’s only—” Kiba interjected, still defending his behavior.

“Shut up. I can’t focus when you’re talking.” She abruptly said, and an incensed Kiba made a few gestures at her in righteous indignation at her apparent hypocrisy until he saw that she had accomplished her goal: she had apparently gotten Sasuke to think about Itachi again, because Sasuke was once more wearing the expression Kiba had wanted.

After a while longer, Kakashi came out and dismissed everyone, saying that he’d get to the second half of the class on Monday and for everybody to enjoy their weekend. They all packed up, and Kiba set out on convincing Sasuke to come with him to a party the next evening. “I appreciate the offer, but that’s not really my thing.”

“Why not? I’m sure there’ll be alcohol, but through a careful process we’ve weeded out the alcoholics, skanks, and crazies. Besides, it’s at Orochimaru’s, and his step-dad is really cool.” He clapped at hand on Sasuke shoulder, a strong grip that wasn’t so easy to shrug off. “It’s not like we do drugs or anything. Though for some of us,” he not-so-subtly pointed to a certain classmate or two, “it’s only because we’re poor art students. Anyway, just come hang out with us, okay? Great! We’ll pick you up around eight!” Since Kiba had talked over his protests and then dashed out of the room like he was headed to a free doughnut giveaway, Sasuke had the horrible feeling that the man would show up at his house tomorrow and force him to attend.

“It won’t be that bad.” Orochimaru walked with him as they left the classroom, surprising Sasuke with how comfortable he felt talking with this man alone when merely a week earlier he’d nearly panicked over the thought. “They are loud, but we’ve had fun so far. Usually it’s at Hinata’s place, so this time will be a bit different, but after playing games or whatever they’ll get tired and leave. If it makes you feel better, we could use a code word in case you feel like you really want to leave before he’s ready to. I’ll drive you home myself if it comes to that.” He promised.

Sasuke was grateful, and had to admit it might be nice to hang out with a different group every now and then. Orochimaru left him at the bus stop with a wave. By the time Sasuke got home he was actually a bit excited, and did as much homework as he could, even turning in his assignments to his online classes early, so that Naruto wouldn’t have any objections to him going tomorrow.

Saturday dawned bright and early. It wasn’t like anybody in the Uzumaki residence knew that, of course, because both men slept until noon. Eventually when Sasuke pulled himself from bed, showered, and was awake enough to be aware, Naruto was just getting home. Sasuke expectantly looked for grocery bags or perhaps take-out, but the blond smiled at him. “Just eat cereal or something, ‘Suke. It’s not like I always come home with food.”

The brunet turned back to the kitchen to scrounge up some breakfast. “Where were you then, this early on a Saturday?”

“I’m sure you noticed, but Itachi had an emergency with his family. I didn’t get the details—something to do with his mother—always a touchy situation and I didn’t want to be a Nosy Napoleon—but he did call the other day and ask me to check on his cat.” At the mention of the animal, Naruto opened up the cage he’d walked in with. “but since I forget to make sure he was okay yesterday, I thought it would make more sense to just bring the little fur ball here.”

The little kitten dashed away from Naruto, who had been petting him, over to Sasuke. He rubbed himself against his leg until he was picked up. “You remember me?” While waiting for his pop-tarts to pop, he pet the soft fur gently. Carefully he kept his back to Naruto (who didn’t notice anyway); but how could Sasuke help but be bothered? Itachi hadn’t told him as much, even though they had been in the same room! Sure, he probably didn’t want to give the whole class the story either, but he could have written something helpful on the paper. And besides that, why did Naruto have Itachi's number and not him? The kitten meowed at Sasuke as if to remind him his breakfast was ready, though Sasuke pretended that the animal was trying to console him. At least Itachi's pet liked him better.

The rest of the day they spent working on homework and grading papers at the couch. Occasionally the kitten would walk around, growing accustomed to the house, but mostly he sat on Sasuke’s lap, enjoying the heat from his laptop and typing a letter or two when he shifted on his lap.

As the time drew close for Kiba to pick him up, he threw on a long sleeved shirt and t-shirt on top of that, then a sweatshirt and his coat, because he didn’t know how warm (or not) Orochimaru’s house would be. “Layering up? Good idea.” Naruto watched him tie his shoes. “I’m glad they got you to hang out with them.”

“Kiba didn’t really give me much of a choice.” Yet the blond couldn’t help but noticed that his pseudo-son didn’t sound so bothered by it.

“But you know what I mean. I don’t have a problem with you hanging out here most of the time, but a change of pace every now and then is a good thing. From what Kiba’s told me of his friends, they’re decent enough kids.” The blond put down the essays he’d been grading to regard his charge seriously, putting his ‘daddy face’ on. “If anything happens, call me. I don’t care how silly it may seem, or if you don’t want to bug me, because it would bother me more if you held something back from me. And especially if your driver seems even a bit drunk. The weather is too shitty for any sort of nonsense affecting his ability to drive.”

He nodded, and a horn outside honked so he stood, giving a last pat on the kitten’s head. “Anything else?”

“Yeah. Call me if you’ll be later than 12. And under no circumstances are you staying the night there.” He said sternly. He accepted the kitten into his lap and held him still so he wouldn’t run out the door when Sasuke opened it. “Have a good time!”

Sasuke was a little surprised, as he attempted to climb into the car, to realize that when Kiba offered him a ride he meant that he’d be sitting squished in the back middle seat with his feet on the hump. It was only mildly horrific, being squished between Sakura on one side and her roommate on the other, but that was only because they stopped talking over him and started talking to him, and they asked every question about Itachi they could think of, ranging from his favorite color to how big he was. in the front seat, Karin’s boyfriend Suigetsu Hozuki, turned around to talk to him, rather carelessly bumping Shino’s shoulder, though the man held the steering wheel steady with his other hand as Kiba, for once, watched the conversation rather than jump immediately and loudly in.

He introduced himself, and added, “They found some beer in my fridge earlier, and decided that I didn’t deserve it.” After a moment of merely staring at Sasuke, which made the boy highly uncomfortable, coupled with the fact that this man looked familiar but he couldn’t remember where, the other man asked him directly. “Do I know you from somewhere? I’m sure I’ve seen you.”

“I have a similar feeling, but I don’t know either.” Well, this was going to bug him until he figured it out. At the very least he was certain it wasn’t because the man was stalking him, for if that was the case he’d feel much more familiar, but Sasuke just knew he’d seen the man around before. Maybe they’d gone to the same high school or something? Well, he could figure it out later.

“Oh, don’t be a dummy.” Karin said with a bit of a slur. “Sakura's art for this semester is all over our apartment, so you’ve probably just got used to seeing him all the time.”

“Yeah. Sure.” But he didn’t sound convinced.

Finally the loud and crowded car ride came to an end, and they poured out of the car and into Orochimaru’s house. To Sasuke’s surprise, he kept the place even warmer than Naruto did, and he was compelled to remove the top layers of his clothing so that he didn’t sweat in the heat of the room.

His stepfather was a large man by the name of Ibiki Morino. During the day he did construction work, and nights were spent at the bars with his work buddies. This evening, however, he was at home. Sasuke was surprised to note that he and Naruto acted more like father and son then Ibiki and Orochimaru did; they acted like overly polite roommates, though there did seem to be some level of comfortable affection between them.

Ibiki stood by the door and shaking each person by the hand and introducing himself, not loosening his scowl though that seemed to be his default expression rather than his feelings about his guests. By the time midnight came, Sasuke was quite surprised that time had passed so quickly and that he’d enjoyed himself so much; he hadn’t expected to have any fun without Itachi here, but these people weren’t so bad to hang out with either. They’d played games mostly, though the brunet did enjoy the chance to show off his gaming skills as he and Orochimaru teamed up against Ibiki and Suigetsu. It was a perfectly cheerful evening, and when Kiba insisted that Sasuke go with them again sometime, the boy didn’t protest.

“You’re only about twenty minutes past your curfew, so it’s not like you’ll get yelled at.” Kiba told him as they dropped him back off at his home. Sasuke wanted to tell the loudmouth that it wasn’t a curfew, Naruto just needed to know when he was going to be back to make sure he got home okay, but let it go. “Thanks for the ride—and tonight was pretty fun. Have a good night!” A genuine smiled tickled at his face as he waved and pushed open the door. As he entered, he was sure he heard Sakura say “ooh! If I top the portfolio assessment, I know what I’m making him wear.” Hopefully she was drunk, because otherwise that might be a very scary thing.

Predictably, Naruto didn’t say anything about his minor tardiness, though that might have come from the fact that he hadn’t made much progress on his work for school. “How was it?” The blond asked, jumping on the diversion while getting himself some ice cream. He loaded fudge, sprinkles, and whip cream on top, as if to suggest that with enough sugar he would get done faster. Instead, once he was back on the couch, he pushed aside his schoolwork and turned on the TV, flipping through the channels.

“Fun, actually. I’m glad I went.” Unable to resist, he put a bit of ice cream in a bowl for himself and joined Naruto on the couch. “Guess I really could stand to be more social. Anyway, how’d it go with you?”

“Blegh.” He said, eating his dessert gleefully. “Let’s not talk about that.” They watched reruns of some cop show for a while until Sasuke decided to turn in. “Alright, I’m going to sleep.”

“Good night, then.”

“What about you?” The blond’s reaction the other day to the implication that he should sleep more reminded him that subtly often worked best with Naruto. As he walked past the bathroom, the kitten dashed and between his legs, nearly tripping him, then following him into his bedroom as he opened the door.

With a sigh, Naruto turned the TV off and opened up his laptop. “I’m going to see if I can find some good porn.”

Sasuke groaned. “Some things I really don’t need to know. Couldn’t you just lie to me next time?”

“Oh give me a break. I don’t have time for a real relationship, and I haven’t gotten laid in almost five months.” Still too much information. “I’ll get headphones so it’s not like you’ll hear anything. You can always put your headphones in, too, you know—”

“Okay. Stop. It’s fine, I’m just going to ignore that you said anything and get to sleep.”

* * *
888

Monday dawned bright and early, the sun melting most of the snow and clearing the streets and sidewalks completely for the first time since snow began to fall that season. With the weather so fine, Sasuke was tempted to skip work and just read outside on the porch. It didn’t help, either, that he wasn’t entirely sure he needed to be there while their portfolios were assessed.

There was something odd in the mail with his name on it (and he rarely received mail)—an almost comically pathetic imitation of the stereotypical blackmail letters featured in cop shows, made from cut-out newspaper letters. Even the message was less than threatening, reading merely “BREAK IT OFF OR GET BROKEN.” This was just the sort of thing Itachi had warned him his half-brother might do, and it was indeed childish. Rather, what sent a shiver down his spine and heightened his awareness was the realization that his half-brother, whoever he was, knew his name and home address.

Still, he wasn’t going to let something like this get him down. Not anymore. If there was any danger, he’d cross that bridge when he came to it. A simple letter was nothing, and anything more serious than that—well, he’d handled much worse. It was like Itachi had said: he had survived until now, and there was no reason he shouldn’t press on. No need to tell Naruto, either, unless something of importance happened.

On the bus he restlessly played with his phone, not really caring what games he played but unable to sit still. After a while, he noticed the lurker in the back of the bus, and in his edgy state he was practically looking for a fight. But whoever it was seemed content where he was today, as when Sasuke tested out the method from before and sat closer to the older woman, Sasuke was happy to note the man didn’t move as well. It still creeped him the hell out, though, so in the event that Itachi wasn’t back yet he decided to accept a ride from Orochimaru later if he offered.

The class thankfully passed uneventfully, and although Sasuke’s intuition had told him that Itachi wasn’t back yet, disappointment made his stomach a bit heavy. Kakashi explained at the end of class that the top three performers, to be announced next class, would be allowed to choose the next three setups for their model. Sasuke cringed, and began to hope earnestly that some of the more reserved looking students would win. He doubted students were allowed to choose anything too revealing, but then again with artsy-fartsy types one never does know.

* * *
888

Tuesday and Wednesday passed, and Sasuke threw out the next two letters that arrived with barely a glance. Lucky for him that he was usually home when the mail arrived, because Naruto obviously was not handling the pre-holiday stress well, probably due to his students’ misbehaviors increasing with excitement. The only noteworthy thing, to Sasuke’s mind, was that Itachi was still not back from wherever he went, doing whatever he was doing. In his dejected state, he hardly cared that the person who’d placed third in the portfolio assessments, Hinata (not Neji’s cousin, he’d affirmed—she looked nothing like the Hyuuga girl, and she spoke constantly about how much she loved her parents) chose to dress him in medieval full body armor. The metal hindered his movements much more than he would have supposed, and distracted himself from their weight by trying to imagine fighting in such an outfit.

After class, Kiba helped him get the armor off, and when he started asking Sasuke what his plans were for Thursday night, the boy had to admit that he wasn’t entirely against the idea of hanging out with them again. “It’s a Thirsty Thursday thing, so it isn’t just our crowd, and the drinking can get a bit out of hand, which I’ll admit saying something coming from me, but we usually stick together anyway. You could probably stand to meet more people, though. You in?”

Oh, so now his opinion counted? This time, however, he really wanted to get his mind off how much he missed Itachi so he agreed. They arranged for Shino, Kiba, and Orochimaru to pick him up the next evening, then they would meet Sakura, Karin and Suigetsu, and Hinata at the party. Plans set, they left.

Predictably, Naruto was happy he was hanging out with them again. He gave his usual speech about responsibility and how Sasuke should call if ever he needed him. The brunet doubted it would come to that. The only foreseeable trouble would be if Kiba started a fight and somehow got their whole group involved. The snow had since melted to slush, and was clearly less than ideal for another snowball fight.

Subconsciously, people can sometimes sense things their conscious minds dismiss; when the subconscious perceives danger, it communicates anyway it can.

Sasuke’s subconscious sent him a dream.

He knew it was a dream. The all too familiar feel of silk beneath his skin, the scent of cologne with wisps of alcohol, right down to the glowing stars on the ceiling when he opened his dream-eyes, he knew where his dream-self was.

He was in Juugo’s house.

In Juugo’s bed.

Wearing nothing but boxer shorts and a sheet, which, coupled with the murmur of the crickets outside, drifting in through the open window—of course. It could only be *that* night. He knew that once Juugo entered, the dream would be over faster, but that also meant he’d have to live through that night again.

The worst part of the nightmare was that he could never change anything, never had any control over his body. The night would repeat itself in all its horrifying detail.

The sound of bare feet slowly slapping the floor drew nearer, and, just like that night he rolled over onto his stomach as they approached the bed, his dream-self between the realms. Hot breaths heated his neck and traveled down as the man leaned over him, sliding a hand down his back, ass, and legs, dragging the sheet off with it. Clumsily, the man pulled together Sasuke’s hands, drawing them together and slipping a cord around them, applying a similar tactic to his legs. Juugo's weight settled over him, one leg on either side of his hips, calloused hands grazing his flesh from the backs of his knees up to the edges of his boxers.

Sasuke’s breathing quickened to counteract the heavy weight on his torso. Bondage wasn’t something he’d tried before, but Juugo knew how to make him feel pretty good so it was worth a shot. Dream-Sasuke feigned sleep for a few moments further, vaguely testing the bonds on his hands. Discovering that they were loose enough in case he decided he didn’t like where their session was going, he embraced the rough hands massaging the backs of his thighs.

A cooler element was introduced. In the heat of the summer night, the chill of the blade was hard to identify. Sasuke only could tell that it felt like metal, and figured it was the chain Juugo sometimes wore around his neck. He arched a bit into the coldness, flinching when it wasn’t smooth like he expected, but sharp. “Hey… what?”

“Shh, it’s alright.” He dipped the edge closer, and dream-Sasuke became aware that it was a knife. With his awareness increasing, he tried to wiggle but Juugo smacked his head smartly, making him feel dizzy. “You were close before, but this’ll get us there… yeah, baby, just stay still and then we’ll be together.”

The punctuation to his sentence was the knife plunging into Sasuke’s leg. “AH!” He let out a loud cry at the pain, edging into a higher pitch when the blade was dragged through his skin. Above him, Juugo growled, and quickly shifted so that his foot was against Sasuke’s neck and shoving his face into the pillow, muffling his screams. He continued on steadily, muttering to himself. Every twist and buck of Sasuke’s body meant little to him; his larger stature keeping down the boy even as he was able to work his hands loose.

All his oxygen spent on screaming, he began to have trouble breathing and his struggles weakened as his energy went to keeping him conscious through the lack of oxygen and stabbing pain of his skin and muscles being divided, soaking the blankets with blood . At last, the word was carved into his flesh. Juugo’s slippery hand, which had been resting on the lower part of Sasuke’s thigh that was now slick with blood, slid a bit and he readjusted his position, letting off the pressure on Sasuke’s neck. He drew his head back as much as he could, stifling the sobs in favor of breathing deeply. Dream-Sasuke’s efforts to escape began again and he twisted, knowing that if he could just get the proper angle that he could throw the orange-haired man off.

But there was a new element in the dream. And Sasuke didn’t like it.

With his head to the side, he could see another figure in the room. Half-hidden in shadow, Itachi stood impassively watching. “What.. the hell?” without realizing, he had broken the routine of the nightmare, only highly aware that Juugo was now dumping the contents of a bottle onto his leg. “AHHH!” he screamed again, pleading to Itachi with his eyes, feeling wetness leak down the side of his face.

“I can’t help you,” he said. Juugo apparently couldn’t hear him; he just pressing down and increasing the violent sting of the cuts. “You can do this.”

Unexpectedly, another figure became appeared, this one more visible than the last, though much more surprising. “Orochimaru?” he squeaked, still vaguely trying to throw off Juugo. The man didn’t answer, just shook his head regretfully. When Sasuke thought the nightmare couldn’t any weirder—or any more frustrating—a third person appeared, and though at this point there was hardly anything to be unexpected, Kimmimaro’s appearance certainly surprised him.

The newcomer looked down on him condescendingly. “If you hadn’t been such a whore, you wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Seriously? The pain Juugo was inflicting was his own fault? Not a chance, Sasuke thought. The man continued with a sneer. “You’re just a stupid, slutty gold-digger. You’re getting exactly what you deserve.” With that, Sasuke and his dream-self snapped. Suddenly, the dream reverted to the way it had been that night and it was all too easy to flip himself over beneath Juugo, strike both sides of his lower back, and then when the man doubled over, he sat up and pushed him off. An elbow strike to the side of his head and a jab to the neck would have been sufficient, but Sasuke made sure to add to it and pushed him further off the bed so he fell hard on the ground.

Without looking to assess the damage, dream-Sasuke pulled on the nearest clothes he could find—a pair of jeans, a jacket and a t-shirt—and grabbing his phone, ran from the room. Sasuke knew that if he stayed in the dream that he would see himself steal a pair of sneakers, sneak out the house, dodging the other occupants, and desperately begin to search for some sort of transportation before finally managing to call a cab and wrapping his dripping leg with the jacket.

But Sasuke decided he had enough of this shit. Thinking of what the dream-Itachi had said about being able to act, he forced himself awake.

He was gasping for air and cold with sweat, but he was awake now. He flopped back onto his pillow and groaned when his eye caught the time—four forty. In another hour, Naruto would wake up to prepare for his job. And while the blond kept telling Sasuke to go to him with his problems, even the little ones, Sasuke had no intention of waking up his guardian. Maybe later, or tomorrow he would tell him he’d had another nightmare, but if he said anything now, Naruto would make him take the day off and convince him to take another sleeping pill.

There were too many disturbing elements, too, and Sasuke hardly wanted to think about why Itachi refused to help him, why Orochimaru refused to speak, and what the hell Kimmimaro was doing there at all. When his attempts to go back to sleep failed, he meandered out to living room and grabbed a book and laid down, happy for the comfort the kitten brought as it curled around his head on the arm of the couch. When a sleepy Naruto asked him what he was doing half an hour later, lied from his position curled up and hugging the cat that he remembered some homework he’d forgotten the night before. Had the blond been more awake, he might have noticed the slight shaking of his best friend’s shoulders as he held the kitten closely.

* * *
888

All day had been spent diverting Neji and avoiding his questions about why he looked so tired. Sasuke had slipped up when they were ordering coffee and had given a fake name like he used to, and Neji couldn’t help but notice the return of the old habit. Eventually, he was able to get Neji talking about his search for Hinata. After telling Neji that for a while he’d though he’d found her until she turned out to be nice but airheaded stranger, the man went into a full description of how he’d been looking for her at all the colleges in the area, and had begun expanding his search for all the universities in the country.

The plan was to take a nap between classes and the party that evening, but by the time Sasuke got home, Naruto was already there—with a houseguest. One of his students, Konohamaru, was also the nephew of one of the managers at the Home. When Konohamaru’s parents had died, his uncle had taken him in; since Asuma Sarutobi lived at the Home, Naruto and Sasuke along with the other orphans had grown up with him. Sasuke’s main memories of him were as a complete brat—whining for attention, even though he was receiving more than anyone else—so the cheerful “hello!” that greeted him was surprising.

The boy was happily swinging his legs back-and-forth, sitting on one of the barstools and sipping hot chocolate. “Heya! We haven’t seen you at home in forever.” The slight reproach could not be ignored, even if it was coming from a twelve-year old.

“I’ve been busy. School, work, homework, stuff,” he shrugged. “Takes up a lot of time.”

“Too much time for us?” It should have sounded whiny, but somehow the sincerity of the question prodded at Sasuke’s guilt center. The fact that Konohamaru had said “us” instead of the singular further reminded Sasuke of the many people he’d left behind. They probably thought he’d abandoned them, just like everyone else had.

Apologetically, he replied, “yes, but no. I shouldn’t let school and work take priority over you guys. Now that I’m getting my life back together, I’m going to make sure that you guys are a bigger part of it.” He smiled, and the child smiled back at him. “I’ll stop by this weekend.” Then he thought of something. “But wait, why aren’t you yelling at Naruto?”

“Most of us see him at school. We get to visit him between classes, and if we stay after he drives us home and sometimes, hang out with us.”

“Oh.” He said lamely. He hadn’t realized at all, and felt a bit more guilty. Those kids were young and easily affected. Not to mention, he had promised not to forget them when he moved out. “Well, I’ll make sure I get my homework out of the way so I can visit this weekend.”

Thusly motivated, he left Naruto and Konohamaru to play videogames and eat all the potato chips while he went to his room to do as much schoolwork as he could. Less than halfway done, he felt himself drifting off. He fought off several yawns. After changing positions twice and migrating from desk to floor and back to desk, he decided that caffeine was the answer. It was only when selecting a soda from the fridge that he realized that he had about five minutes before Kiba arrived.

In the scramble to get ready, he hardly heard the doorbell ring. By the time he made it to the front door, Naruto was giving Kiba the usual talk: if anything happened to his son, Naruto would personally beat him into the hospital. So that Konohamaru wouldn’t hear, he leaned in and added, “I have a couple names you can look up if you don’t believe me.”

Kiba had never looked happier to see Sasuke, and they exited quickly. Once in the safety of Shino’s car, along with Sakura, Karin, and Hinata, Kiba relaxed. “Rock Lee is already there, and Shikamaru and Chouji are already there cause they drove with Orochimaru and he hates waiting. The place is across town, and I think it’s actually hosted by another college. It’s supposed to be good, though.” The closer they got, the more nervous Sasuke became that he might be stepping into the house of one of his old acquaintances that he’d rather avoid. With a sigh of relief he realized that the location was in a slightly different direction, and the distance should deter anybody from his old college.

The party scene was merry chaos. People were everywhere all over the house, laughing, yelling, playing games, and generally making noise. Sasuke walked along with the others, sticking close to Kiba because he was most familiar with the loudmouth. On the bright side, he was easy to keep track of. On the downside, he apparently knew everybody and their brother. Thankfully they ran into Orochimaru rather quickly, and considering he was hanging out on a couch and calmly talking to those nearby, Sasuke opted to stay with him. Kiba, Shino, and the girls joined in the revelry in another room.

The first hour or so passed pleasantly, but before long Sasuke regretted not taking the soda with him. “Alcohol is just going to make me sleepier. Is there any caffeine?” he asked Orochimaru.

The man leaned down, his dark hair falling over both their shoulders. “I took the last soda. Everything else is beer, and the nasty stuff at that.” He offered Sasuke the rest of his cup, but the half-inch wouldn’t do him any good anyway.

“I don’t want to be a party pooper,” he had to inch himself higher on the couch to talk close enough to the older man’s ear to be heard. “But I’m pretty tired, so whoever’s ready first, I’d like to leave with them. Sorry.”

Orochimaru gave him a sympathetic look. “I promised to stay another half hour, but there’s a couple empty rooms upstairs if you want to go lay down. I’ll come get you when we can leave.”

Well, it was better than nothing, so with a yawn Sasuke wove his way through the crowd and up the stairs. The first room he came to was locked, and the second one was… occupied. The couple gave him no notice as he pulled the door closed quickly and quietly. The third one had a couch and a TV, along with several gaming systems. The couch was comfy enough, though once Sasuke was actually lying down he couldn’t quite fall asleep. Most likely because he was in a strange place with tons of strangers. Yet he was extremely tired at this point. He’d been going all day with hardly any sleep and no caffeine, so the effort to keep his eyes open was hardly worth it.

His yawn was interrupted by the entrance of three boys. Two were twins with grey hair and a somewhat-sickly looking appearance, while the third, a tanned brunet with a nasty sneer, lead the way. They had the look of common thugs, but Sasuke didn’t care about that. He knew who these guys were. They hung out with Juugo sometimes, and considering the drug use Sasuke now knew had been happening, it made sense that these were the people he sold to or bought from.

“Oh, is someone tired?” Kidomaru mocked. “That’s what you get for whoring around all day.”

“What the fuck?” Sasuke sat up. Tired as he was, he hoped to avoid a fight, but he also needed to be ready if they started something. They definitely looked the type. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you do. You string Juugo along, mooching off him, then as soon as he threatens to cut you off, you turn him into the cops.”

“That isn’t what happened. You’re obviously drunk. Talk to me when you’re sober.” But it wasn’t true. All three looked very much aware of what they were doing.

“We know exactly what we’re about to do. So you dropped Juugo when you left him—you attacked him when he was sleeping.” Kidomaru defended his best friend. “But there’s three of us and one of you here and now. You’re so scrawny, cheating was the only way you could have hurt him.”

“We’re all wide awake here.” The first twin chimed in.

“And it only seems fitting that we get payback for our friend while you’re half-asleep, too.” The other twin finished.

Sasuke jumped up as they rushed forward, but they easily pinned him to the ground. A twin held him down on either side, giggling at how easy it was to tackle the sleepy man. At the first noise for help he began to make, both twins clamped a hand over his mouth. Their hands crisscrossed so closely that his nose was nearly covered, too, and he tried to stay calm so that he wouldn’t faint from the limited air. Sasuke’s limbs felt like lead, and nervousness turned to fear as he realized his best hope was Orochimaru, who probably wouldn’t come up for another twenty minutes. Sweat beaded at his forehead and his feet struggled to kick at his attackers.

“Juugo told us he gave you a parting gift. Let’s see the tattoos the boss gave you.” The dark man tugged down Sasuke’s pants, heedless of the legs kicking at his hands and face. Evenly Kidomaru sat on one leg and lifted the right one until he could see the back of the thigh. “Nope. Let’s see the other one.” he switched the legs, chuckling at the decreased resistance as Sasuke’s legs went to pins and needles. Finally locating the marks, all three leaned in closer.

The left twin whistled. “Juugo sure knows how to use a knife.”

“They look kinda faded… think we should renew ‘em?”

“Nah. We’ll leave that to Juugo once he gets out.” Sasuke shuddered with his whole being, and the three men chuckled. “You should be afraid. Though we aren’t just going to let you go, either.” Kidomaru straddled his chest, hands resting heavily on his throat. “I’m not going to kill you, but some nice bruises should do the trick.”

A second interruption came, startling the twins’ hands loose. All turned to the door in anticipation, and Sasuke inwardly rejoiced to see Suigetsu. He didn’t even know the man was here this evening. “Get these guys off me!”

The newcomer’s surprised look dissolved into a smirk. “You know, here’s a funny story.” He walked in and distractedly pushed the door shut, not even caring that it hadn’t closed all the way. “Last week I just couldn’t figure out who you were, so I asked around. And no one had heard of any “Ritsuka” matching your description. But there was a lot of talk about this kid named Sasuke Uzumaki, and when I saw a picture, it looked exactly like you.

The man squatted near Sasuke’s head, slapping his hand over Sasuke’s mouth as it dawned on the young man. “No interrupting, now. See, when I saw that picture, I realized that you looked exactly like the bastard that ratted on my best friend when he found out he was getting dumped.” Kidomaru tightened his fingers around his neck, and Sasuke tried to move but he simple hadn’t the energy. Though he tried as best he could, his every move felt lethargic and now that air was taken from him, every struggled move felt as if he were underwater.

“You’re just a stupid, slutty gold-digger. You probably love this.”

The insult stung him, and the unjust accusation woke something anger that had long laid dormant inside. It was as if ice water was thrown over him. With fluid movements, he slipped first out of the grasp of Ukon, then Sakon, and head butted Kidomaru. Dizzy, he clumsily shoved Kidomaru to his right, smashing him into Sakon, and kicked across with his right foot to catch Ukon in the nose. Suigetsu had stumbled back in surprise, now standing near the door and cautiously watching Sasuke stand.

“You know what? I’m glad we figured this thing out—this ‘how we know each other.’ It means that once I’ve beat the shit out of you, I’ll know to call the cops. Because you’re going to need a maximum security prison between me and you so that I don’t end you.” It was a lengthy speech, considering the circumstances, and he paid for it when Kidomaru tried to sweep his leg. Sasuke stomped on his face, knocking him out for the rest of the night.

The twins at least had a strategy. They attacked from each side, one punching for his face and the other kicking at his gut. But he was ready. He ducked the punch and caught the leg, pulling that twin forward and using him as shield as the left twin went to punch him again. His knuckles connected with his brother’s jaw and there was an odd crack and a grunt.

The right twin slumped, clutching his now bleeding face, and Sasuke pushed him into his twin—it had worked a moment ago, so why not use the same tactic—knocking them both to the ground. Sasuke exhaled sharply and steadied his stance, both fists at the ready. Surprise was evident on Suigetsu’s face, but there was no indication that he was backing away from this fight. Adopting a serious fighting stance, he smirked as one of the twins stood up, the other staying on the floor and clutching the lower part of his face. “No one hurts my brother. You’ll pay for making him bleed.”

“You do realize that you attacked me first?” He considered stomping his foot in frustration. “and you’re the one who actually punched him, anyway.”

“Damn brat!” With a yell the twin charged, wildly swinging in rage. Despite Sasuke’s near expert blocking, a few blows connected, forcing the air out of his lungs. Rather hopelessly, Sasuke swung an arm, smirking when it knocked the twin into the wall where he stayed, holding his head and groaning. He keeled over, gasping to get his breath back, and Suigetsu took the opportunity to jab him in the side. An involuntary yell left him as the elbow connected. Snarling, he tackled Suigetsu and punched every bit of him that stayed still long enough for fist to bruise flesh, until he was panting and the man below him looked blearily up at him, eyes struggling to focus.

Every move he’d made seemed to take forever, but the entire fight lasted hardly a minute. Sasuke stood slowly, peripheral vision noting that the increase in light was because the door opened wider. Not trusting such an easy victory, he turned to face the twin that he had knocked against the wall. Although Sasuke received a glare that would probably set him on fire if the owner could manage it, that twin certainly wasn’t getting back up. Kidomaru, lying near him, was in better shape only because Sasuke had knocked him out before he’d gotten to fight much.

The shadow cast on the wall from the light in the hall changed, and Sasuke turned with surprise to see the bloody twin bearing down on him. He threw his hands up to cover himself, but before he reached him the twin dropped to the ground. Like slow motion, Sasuke watched the man fall, then looked up to see who’d knocked the twin down. Orochimaru’s hand was still raised, a look of mild surprise on his own face as if he hadn’t completely decided to strike.

“Um… thanks.” Now that the calm had set in, Sasuke’s panic was starting to catch up. Sure, they weren’t going to kill him. but he had been attacked. He felt horribly vulnerable, and he didn’t want to be anywhere near people, he didn’t want to be at this stupid party, he didn’t want to be anywhere but home, and he wanted Naruto to give him hot chocolate and tell him stories like he used to back at the Home when Sasuke used to cry, and he wanted to just never meet any of these people again, he wanted them all to just disappear, he didn’t want to be this violent person—he didn’t want to be a victim, and it was all so stupid and he really just wanted Itachi there, right then, so he would hug him and tell him everything was okay.

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

He swatted at the hand with three fingers pointing up in front of his face. “I don’t care!” The question wasn’t so insulting, but that Orochimaru thought he would be dizzy or have trouble seeing just because he kicked some ass was an offense to his manliness.

“You’re… alright then?” Somehow Orochimaru sounded impressed. “I thought I heard some noise from up here, and was going to ask if you wanted to stay but then… well, I saw you fight Ukon. Until Sakon tried to hit you from behind, you were doing really well. It looked like you had it under control. Otherwise I would have done something sooner.” He explained.

He noticed the young Uzumaki biting his lip, and struggled to make the right decision—had he known previously… (and those scars, jagged and deep) but it might be too late… Orochimaru shook his head. Never mind that. The repercussions of seeing the boy like this would be dealt with later. For now, he needed to get the boy home. “Maybe you should get your pants on.”

Sasuke was suddenly, *horribly* aware that his scars were visible, and even though he was ninety-five percent certain that Orochimaru had seen them, he maneuvered himself so that he could get himself redressed without presenting another opportunity to show the marks.

“Shall we go?” Sasuke knew that he sounded perfectly normal, despite the slight shake to his hand, but for some reason Orochimaru looked as shaken as he was. “I… er…”

Inexplicably, he was being hugged tight. He tried to pull back. “Hey! Let—”

“I’m sorry. This is all my fault. Or at least parts of it.” Rushed words tumbled out of his mouth, like he needed to say them even if he wasn’t sure what he meant. “I don’t even know.” The man did not let go, but he didn’t squeeze him tighter, either.

“Whatever, just—” Sasuke pushed harder, putting force behind it, but Orochimaru was having none of that.

“Look, you’ve just been hit. I think you need a hug right now, even if you won’t admit it, just to remind you that there are people who won’t try to hurt you.”

Reluctantly, he allowed this, wishing all the while he was being held by someone else. Regardless, he couldn’t be comfortable with this for long, and when a few seconds later he couldn’t help trying to wiggle out again, Orochimaru released him immediately.

A last look around the room showed the twins and Suigetsu collecting themselves, and wishing to avoid a scene, Orochimaru and Sasuke hurried out of the room and down the stairs. Unfortunately, Suigetsu's anger rushed his recuperative ability and the man stumbled out to the balcony. “Go ahead and run, you little bitch!” He yelled over the noise of the crowd as his eyes watched the two head towards the door. As soon as someone realized that potentially big things were happening, the music turned off and everyone shut up to watch. “Once Juugo gets out of jail, he’s gonna beat the shit out of you! You think you’re scarred now? There won’t be skin left on your body that he hasn’t trashed!”

Sasuke had reached the door, and he could so very easily walk out and ignore all this. But he really had had enough. He slowly turned around to look up at the balcony where the raving, beaten man stood. “Is that all you have to say? It’s even less impressive coming from you.

“I’m *so* tired of your shit.” He yelled back. “You know what? I’ve got a message for him. Tell that dickhead to go ahead and fucking try. I’ll even tell Naruto to stay out of it. Because if that fucker wants to try and beat me again, tell him to bring it the fuck on. I’ll be waiting.” He stormed out, blindly following his companion as they walked to his car.

The drive home was tense. Sasuke was filled with frustration. Going merely by the information they’d shouted, people would be able to look him up. And surely Suigetsu would be all too obliging to tell nasty stories about him. Well, there goes his private life. A simple internet search would probably bring to light how he was linked with the jailed Juugo or that he was an orphan. As far as he knew, there wasn’t anything Suigetsu or Kabuto had made public regarding him, but if they did, it only meant more trouble. He wanted neither their pity nor their caution around him. He wasn’t a glass doll, and he wasn’t a ticking bomb either. “This is just fucking great.”

“I don’t want to make a bad situation worse, but you’ve split your lip.” Startled, Sasuke checked the mirror. Well, damn. “You’ve also got bruises on your arms, and dark spots on your neck. I don’t think you can hide this from your guardian.”

“Right.” He sighed. “and thanks for not asking about stuff.” He was more grateful than he sounded, but he’d make sure he said it properly later. “I get kind of paranoid about some things, so I try not to spread my business around, but by tomorrow it might not matter anyway.”

They drove into his driveway then, and Orochimaru and he climbed out of the car. “There’s a good chance he’ll yell at you, at least until I explain, so don’t take it personally or anything.” The other man nodded, apparently still distracted.

There was indeed much yelling. But once Sasuke elaborated on Orochimaru’s assist, Naruto’s ranting redirected itself to what type of hell he would bring down on Kiba, and stupid college kids and how illogical, irresponsible, and utterly unaware of the repercussions of their actions they were. Finally he stopped, and the two men were thankful; not because Naruto had been yelling at them, but because he resumed his usually cheery attitude and offered them slices of the cake he had baked with Konohamaru.

Orochimaru declined, citing the time, and Sasuke walked him to the car. “I’ll see you tomorrow! Thanks again, for everything. Now you’ve got an idea why I’m paranoid about so much, but… well, even with this, I hope to be getting better at trusting people.”

Orochimaru watched the boy re-enter the warm house from his car for a few moments. “When people are out to get you, paranoia’s only good thinking,” he said to himself.

* * *
888

Nervously, more nervously than he’d been the first day when he knew no one or the second day after he’d fainted, he approached the classroom. After standing outside for a moment, he realized what he was doing. There was no way he was going to hide and tip-toe around these people. Elementary and middle school should have taught him enough about how to deal with unwanted sympathy, and his high school years had given him enough experience dealing with people who felt they needed to ‘handle’ him. Confidence, now, as he was in college—he had no reason to let his head hang low.

So he raised his head and boldly walked through the door.

For all his confidence, he wasn’t expecting everyone to fall silent upon entry. A mix of glares and sympathetic looks greeted him. Well, Kiba could at least give him a clue about whether he should even bother trying to befriend the class again. But as he approached the man, he realized that the loudmouth was strangely quiet and wouldn’t meet his eyes.

Is that how he’s playing it? He can’t ignore me, cause Naruto’s already mad, but he’s not going to go out of his way to be nice, either. That’s just freakin’ awesome. Sasuke’s next best guess was Orochimaru, but he didn’t seem entirely pleased to see him either. There was apparently some sort of inner conflict that distracted him greatly—evidenced by the deep brooding look that scrunched his eyebrows so they almost met, coupled with the jiggling of his leg and seeing that it took his classmate calling his name three times before he accepted the paper he was being handed—so Sasuke quickly left off the pleasantries.

The dead silence was broken only by a few hushed whispers until Kakashi arrived. Apparently oblivious to the hostile tension, he ignored Sasuke’s scowl and began his usual introduction to the class. At the end, he added, “by the way, Sakura did second best on her portfolio assignment, so go ahead to the wardrobe in the back with Ritsuka and pick something out.”

The pink-haired girl accepted the applause graciously. Sasuke observed Ino giving her a significant nod, and she returned it. As soon as her face was out of view of her professor, she gave Sasuke a stony look. He couldn’t help but roll his eyes. This day was turning out to be such fun.

In the back room where all the costumes and props were kept, Sakura whirled around and glared at him fiercely. He was unfazed by such looks, but her words infuriated him. “I can’t believe I thought you were a nice kid!”

“And what’s changed your mind? My psycho ex’s best friend?”

“No, I trust the man who’s going out with my roommate and has never been anything but kind and honest.”

“Yeah, I experienced his kindness last night. The way he shoved his elbow into my gut felt like a fluffy kitten.”

“Yeah, he said you argued, but you attacked him. Just like you attacked Juugo before getting him busted on fake drug charges.”

“That’s bullshit!” Anger welled up inside him so that it was hard to think. There were so many things wrong with what she was saying that he didn’t know what to argue against first.

“According to you. And, just so we’re clear: we may not like Uchiha very much, but he doesn’t deserve to be preyed upon by a gold-digger like you.”

Why did everyone keep calling him that? The unjust term infuriated him. “Juugo was the only guy I’ve dated that had money. The others were making little more than I was, and Itachi and I split everything evenly. This is none of your damn business anyway!”

“I have a duty to protect my classmate! Especially from dirty, money-grubbing liars like you!”

“You honestly think I’m lying?! That’d I’d make all that shit up?”

“I do, in fact, think you’re lying. You’ve already lied about your name to us.”

“Because I didn’t want my past to interfere with the present! Because morons like you believe the dumbest things!”

“Interfere? Or show you for the liar you are? It sounds more like you were hiding the awful way you’ve treated other people, and are just playing us for fools as you line up your next victim. Like I said, we don’t have any proof you’re telling the truth. How do we know what else you’ve lied about?

Sasuke was speechless in his fury.

Kakashi stuck his head in then, the raised voices making him curious. “Are you that excited about outfits?” He asked with an eyebrow raised.

Sakura smiled like a crocodile. “Oh yes, professor. We had just agreed on an outfit, actually.” Young Uzumaki felt dread deep in his gut as she maliciously grabbed the girliest clothing available. And he couldn’t even protest, still boiling with anger that slowed his thinking processes and dumbed his mouth.

However, Kakashi could, and reading their facial expressions, felt it his duty to ask. “Ritsuka, are you sure? You are allowed to say no, after all.”

A way out? Inwardly Sasuke cheered. But the way Sakura looked at him—the challenge in her eyes—changed his mind. She didn’t think he could handle this? Fine. He’d shove the challenge right back into her face. “That’s alright, Kakashi-sensei. I can handle anything.” He took hold of the hideous thing. “By the way, sensei, feel free to call me by name. Everyone knows now, so there’s no point in pretending.”

So they left the wardrobe room and Sasuke changed behind the screen per usual, partially hating himself for allowing himself to be baited. It was humiliating, but he did his job without complaint or blush. The part of him that was angry at falling for the bait took pride in the fact the he wasn’t backing down. He was fighting back, like Itachi had said—and it felt awesome to be in control of something, even as stupid as this.

As he tugged the frilly dress up, he calmed himself as best he could. While he was angry, he only strengthened Sakura’s hateful behavior, only let her win. If he could force himself to be rational, perhaps he could push through this bullshit with his dignity intact. His manliness didn’t seem likely to survive, but it was worth a shot. He squared his shoulders in a decidedly unfeminine way, slipping his feet into a pair of flat shoes that were about the same color as the lacy dress. High heels simply aren’t built for men’s feet, so he was glad that at least she hadn’t tried to add footwear to his humiliation.

With his head held high he walked out, seemingly taking no notice of the reactions. The majority giggled, but he was pleased to note that Kiba could hardly look at him, guilt scrambled with shame on his face. Sasuke found a comfortable (well, considering the circumstances, more akin to bearable) stance and held it. In his periphery, Orochimaru didn’t seem too pleased either, and by the end of the period he was fiddling with his phone with apparent frustration, sending numerous texts.

All the while, Kakashi had been studying him more than reading his book, and Sasuke dreaded that another lecture was coming. Yet nothing of the sort came. It didn’t make him feel particularly looked-out for, but since any help offered would have furthered the humiliation of acquiescing to wearing a dress, he was mostly just grateful.

Afterward, he decided that unless Orochimaru shunned him directly, that he would stick close to the man. The whole stupid day was bad enough and he just needed some of the kindness the man had shown last night. But Orochimaru was frantically trying to contact someone on his phone, with apparently little result, so Sasuke left him alone. His only hope for the day to get better was if Itachi came back, but at this point, he doubted that would happen either.

The buses were running late today so Sasuke took the opportunity to read the book he’d brought in his bag while he waited by the bus stop. Barely two pages in, he became aware of a presence near him. Assuming it was Orochimaru, who had stopped to talk with Kakashi-sensei, he put his bookmark in to save his spot and looked up expectantly.

But this person was certainly not the recently-befriended art student. There was something familiar in the set of this man’s eyes, and although he was shorter than Itachi, he stood at least a couple centimeters above Sasuke. The pale skin, light enough that he competed with the snow, peeked out of the few places where his skin was let to show, his short black hair highlighting his dark as an abyss eyes. While his features were familiar, like someone you see every few weeks at the train station, once Sasuke noticed the jacket the other man was wearing, a surge of anger boiled through him and threw him to his feet. “You! You’re the man on the bus.”

The complete lack of a reaction halted the annoyed rant that half a moment ago threatened to spill from Sasuke’s lips. The eyes ever-so-calmly assessed Sasuke, and young Uzumaki had a feeling that whatever conclusion the other man had come to, he wouldn’t like it. After an indecisive moment in which neither party moved, the man spoke. “It would have been better for you—”

“There you are!” A strained voice called out, and both turned, recognizing the voice of Orochimaru. The third party rushed toward them, dark shiny hair streaming out behind him as he made his way over as quickly as possible, heedless of the ice coating the sidewalk. Clearly his breath was short but he spoke anyway, alternating between Sasuke and the other man, talking over his companions’ attempts to speak as if his life depended on it. “So wonderful to see you out and about! I thought you were still with your father—Sasuke, that was a nice class, wasn’t it? I certainly hope I did well with the portfolio assessment, though I know there are many others in the class that surpass my ability—”

“Orochimaru.” The cold voice couldn’t cut him off, but the hand placed lightly around his wrist apparently did. Slowly, the man smiled.

Sasuke knew that he had once thought Orochimaru was creepy, and at times he still felt so; yet the smile on this new man could hardly be called a smile, except that the corners of his mouth turned up and he showed a bit of his teeth. The expression was not dropped as he continued to speak. “Orochimaru, is this… or is this not… the one?” Each word was deliberate, the tone accusing.

With a pained expression, Orochimaru’s golden eyes fell to the ground. Something big was happening at this moment, Sasuke could feel it, he just didn’t understand what. Awkward as it was to stand near them and be almost part of the conversation, it would have been more awkward still to insert himself into the interaction. Inexplicably, Orochimaru's eyes glanced at Sasuke for the briefest moment, and that seemed to turn the tables. With a deep breath, the haze in the golden eyes cleared. They shone like solid metal as he replied with forced ease, “No.”

The smile grew wider. Eyes like holes flickered between Orochimaru and Sasuke. “Have you misled me?”

“No. I was mistaken, having read the signs wrong. I should have paid more attention.”

The smile grew still a bit wider, though thankfully his attention stayed on the man whose wrist he still held like a fragile piece of glass. “Then who?”

“Sasuke, your bus is here.” Orochimaru pointed with the hand not held captive.

The boy had hardly noticed the screech of the brakes from watching the tension hanging around the two. The driver smiled happily at him, though Sasuke wouldn’t feel right leaving his friend—just when had they become friends?—with a stranger whose intentions were unclear. Sensing this, Orochimaru waved him on. “Don’t worry about it. I’m just clearing up a misunderstanding. I’ll see you on Wednesday.”

Given little choice, Sasuke boarded the bus and sat down. Perhaps he had been wrong about the man being the one he’d seen on the bus. Even if he was right, what did it matter? A misunderstanding of some sort had occurred, and if Orochimaru was sorting it out, then he had nothing to worry about. Well, judging by their interaction, the other man was no stranger to Orochimaru, so he should be fine.. He watched the two begin to walk away, and as the bus doors closed, he distinctly heard Orochimaru’s placating voice say “blond, of course.”

Sasuke tried to imagine it. If that man dyed his hair blond, he’d look awful. Black really was the only shade his hair could be with skin coloring like that. Mentally, though, he shrugged. Sometimes friends lie to each other when their advice is ignored.

* * *
888

Naruto’s breath was visible in the air as he waited outside his car. He really wanted to sit inside, but it was more important to him that he made a good first impression on Itachi's mother. The flight had come in on time, Itachi's text had stated. The blond was a bit early, but it worked in his favor because at least now he had the choice of her first sight of him—better to be outside the car, shown in full and ready to help with their luggage than an over-the-shoulder greeting from the front seat deal.

Although he spotted Itachi first, Naruto’s eyes were drawn to the woman beside him. She was half a foot shorter than Itachi but so slender that despite her heavy coat she appeared smaller. Her hair was black and long with eyes to match; a deep blue dress showed beneath the hem of her long coat and she walked with an otherworldly grace, lightly holding onto her son’s arm. It was obvious where Itachi's looks came from, and soon Naruto would see that his intelligence wasn’t merely on Fugaku’s side.

Beautiful as she was, there was a tired, drawn look to her face, and a new layer of stress was visible over the old ones. “Hello. You must be Naruto. I’ve heard quite a bit about you, though unfortunately we couldn’t meet last time. I’m Mikoto.” She offered her hand.

The blond wasn’t sure whether he should shake it or kiss it. Itachi interjected then, looking even more tired than his mother. “Mother, we need to hurry. Please, take the front seat.” He was watching the crowds around them, speaking with a sense of urgency Mikoto didn’t seem to share. Nevertheless, she complied.

“Yes, dear.” Her son opened the door for her and closed it slowly, blankly staring out front window as he tucked in the edge of her coat so it wouldn’t be caught in the door. As soon as he was facing away from his mother, he sighed deeply and turned to the blond finally.

He patted Naruto’s shoulder. “I can’t thank you enough.” Together they loaded the luggage into the trunk. “Hey, I just wish that I could help more. I mean, you still won’t accept any payment for before.”

“Never mind that. The sooner we get back the better. It’s time she moves out, and she needs to do it before Fugaku gets back.”

“Are they getting divorced, then?” The little he knew about the situation—the constant arguing, the general animosity, the second son brought between them—gave him the impression that Mikoto would be healthier apart from him.

He shrugged. “It’ll be up to her, and she’s not in the right frame of mind to make that sort of decision now. But if I have any say in it, then yes. She shouldn’t have to go through any more pain on his account. And if you don’t mind, could you drop me off at my house?—or actually, yours is on the way. I hate to ask more from you already, but security isn’t going to let me past, even with my mother’s permission.”

The ride was smooth, and Mikoto kept a pleasant buzz of conversation going. She was interested in everything that Naruto did. The attention was flattering, but he had a feeling that she was trying to distract herself from whatever had happened. Eventually, she directed him to a high building deeper into the city than Naruto usually went.

Naruto followed Mikoto’s instructions, and once they were parked, he helped her out. Her momentary silences had grown once the building was in sight, and now her lips were pulled into a tight line, a few wrinkles on her forehead forming. There was more security at the elevator, and once inside it she entered a long password before the lift would move to her apartment floor. “You’ll have to let me know how much will fit in your car.” She was gathering her strength again, shoving off the uneasiness that had begun in the car.

“There’s still a bit of room in the trunk, so we could probably fit a few more suitcases, and the backseat can fit more than it looks like it can.”

They entered the lavish apartment, and Naruto tried not to stare at the quiet magnificence of it. Mikoto hardly gave anything a glance, just strode with purpose through the entry and living rooms, past a grand piano and animals mounted on the walls, heading toward the back. They were greeted by a girl in a dark blue pantsuit. Mikoto cut her off when she began to ask how her trip was. “Send for my lawyer. We will meet before noon tomorrow. Call the other girls quickly.” She set down her purse and turned to her companion. “Have a seat, dear. I’ll be ready in about twenty minutes.”

Try as he might, he couldn’t quite get comfortable on the obviously rarely used couch. Instead, he watched the bustling of the three girls (ladies in waiting? He wondered) that joined the first. Mikoto’s soft voice directed them, telling what clothes she wanted, what personal items to pack, what she didn’t want, and so on. As they packed, she wrote a list of things to be sent after her, and arranged with a mover for the items to be shipped within the next few hours.

Surprisingly, they were finished before the twenty minutes were up. She called Itachi to let him know the new address she could be reached at, and the elevator attendant was enlisted to help Naruto bring the luggage out to his car. The man complied, smiling, but he clearly was thinking that his employer’s wife was running away with a younger man. The thought bugged Naruto, so he made sure to say in front of him, “Mrs. Uchiha, are you going to be staying with Itachi? I’d offer my place as a temporary spot, but it wouldn’t be appropriate to live with two strange men, now would it?”

She smiled, the tiny wrinkles smoothing off her face as if they’d never been there. “You’re very thoughtful, but no, it wouldn’t. I’ve been looking for my own place for a while now, and it’s all set. No need to worry.” They left the parking garage and headed to her new place. There was silence, as Naruto wasn’t sure if he should feel more sympathetic for the situation she was in or congratulate her on taking a stand against Fugaku. “My issues have been one of his priorities for far too long, and he just doesn’t listen when I tell him I’m fine. I’m stronger than I seem, but I think it makes him feel better when I let him take care of me.” She gave a small smile, similar to the one her son presented so rarely. The sincerity in hers was softer but no less stunning. “Don’t tell Itachi I said anything, but there is little doubt in my mind that you are the young man he’s told me so much about. I really hope things work out for you two.” Naruto was startled by how little it had to do with her clearly more pressing issues. She deeply cares for her son, and it made him wish once more that he had had a parent like her.

Naruto couldn’t stop the smile from lighting his face. So Itachi liked him too? He had hoped—the man reappearing in his life was like the hand of fate. Itachi was kind as ever, taking care of his mother and watching out for Sasuke, which really won Naruto over because anybody he dated would have to get along with his pseudo-son, otherwise it was a no go. And with Sasuke happily dating Orochimaru—after all, if Sasuke didn’t really, really like him, there was no way the young man would have brought his boyfriend to Neji’s to meet their ‘family,’ though the incidents of last night could not be overlooked—Naruto felt no guilt in looking for a bit of happiness for his own.

“Thank you.” He said sincerely. “I’ll try my best to make sure he’s happy.”

The rest of the drive passed in comfortable silence. The new apartment wasn’t that far from his own home—less than ten minutes—and an assistant was there to help Naruto bring her things up. Mikoto had already furnished the place and there was very little for Naruto to do. A couple of Mikoto’s friends were arriving just as he was leaving, and she made him promise to call if he ever needed anything.

“Who was that young man? I haven’t seen him before.” The blond heard one of the ladies ask as he walked to his car. It was the tall one, probably closer to Naruto's age than Mikoto’s, and her question held no scorn or contempt.

“You wouldn’t have, given how Fugaku feels about my son. He’s going to be Itachi's boyfriend.” A shot of pure warmth ignited in his chest. He’d been alone for so long, and now there was a chance for him to be happy, too.

* * *
888

The dreary ride home, as the bus jerked at every pothole and made him bump his head on the window, was only made worse by the silent home. Music, turned down low, seemed too loud, and the TV was annoying; all his little noises as he moved along the carpet and idly surfed the internet. Every clack of his keys was deafening, and the little noise the kitten made—when he wasn’t trying to make Sasuke uncomfortable and sleep at the same time—were no help, either. If only he could call Itachi. Then he wouldn’t feel so alone.

Distractions had helped—schoolwork, his job, Naruto—but now that his projects were turned in he had a brief respite, and extra time coupled with the absolute nonsense of last night and bitterness from work today made him ache for his absent boyfriend all the more.

Naruto certainly hadn’t responded well to the attack, and Sasuke was moderately surprised he had been allowed out of the house at all—the fingerprint bruises on his neck were light and he was able to cover them with a bit of makeup, so at least he hadn’t had to share the story in class. Then again, maybe he should have—if Sasuke had been the one doing the attacking, what was the likelihood that *he* would end up nearly strangled, and not Suigetsu and co.? But as nice as it would to have his name cleared of the liar stigma, the art class didn’t need to know—didn’t deserve to know it was any worse than it was. If they didn’t believe him, then fine. Thinking about it now, he didn’t want Naruto to say anything to Kiba. This was part of his business, not Naruto's, and Sasuke was starting to get the feeling that he could truly take care of himself again. It was probably only Orochimaru’s account of Sasuke’s counterattack that had reassured Naruto, and Sasuke wanted to give his best friend not a single reason more to worry about him.

Though, speaking of Orochimaru, the man had seemed a little off. Not the way Juugo had been, but something had apparently made him uncomfortable. Best Sasuke could tell was last night, when he saw the scars… well, they certainly didn’t look like tattoos and if the older man had heard anything the other boys had said then Orochimaru knew how Sasuke acquired the marks. That could make anyone uncomfortable.

Reviewing the previous day wasn’t fun, and he certainly had had enough of today without thinking about it more. The plain and simple facts were that Sasuke was lonely and he wanted his boyfriend home already.

He stayed perfectly still, staring at the door, as if that would make Itachi come knocking. After a few minutes he gave up, reached for his computer, and mindlessly stumbled and tumbled around the internet.

Shortly after Naruto’s usual return time, there was an urgent knock at the door. Sasuke muted the computer and listened for a moment, cautious; their neighborhood was relatively safe but he wasn’t in the mood to deal with other people. In the absolute silence, he heard a car idling in the driveway. In that case, his guardian had probably misplaced something and had returned to get it before venturing on to The Home or something. He stood and moved to the door, noting that the little kitten had disappeared while he was distracted, an affectionate smile on his face at Naruto’s forgetfulness. What had his blond forgotten this time?

The very question was on his lips, but when the door was nearly halfway opened he realized that it wasn’t who he thought it was. It had been forever—a week? Surely not—since he’d seen Itachi, yet other than the darkly deepened circles under his eyes and new strains of worry on his face, he looked little different than when he’d left so suddenly.

He let go of the door and backed up a step. Now that the man was here, he couldn’t decide if he should jump him and kiss him hard or ask why he hadn’t called or left his phone number. Or why Naruto seemed to know more than Sasuke was told. Itachi looked so tired, though, that he figured he should let the man have a seat and maybe get him some food. “Welcome back,” he said, and he tried to smile but realized he was already smiling as widely as he could. An identical smile appeared on Itachi's face—somewhat silly, but with genuine feeling—and he waved over his shoulder towards the driveway without looking, stepping inside when there was a answering honk.

“It’s good to be back.” He dropped the duffel bag hanging on his shoulder and it fell to the floor with a thud, an identical thud following as he nudged the door shut behind him with his foot.

“How was your trip?” Though what he really wanted to ask was, what took you so long to get back?

“I’ll answer whatever you want to know later.” He advanced a step forward, and Sasuke found himself reaching for the older man, fingertips grasping the lapels of Itachi’s coat. “Right now, I just want you.” His lips were chapped and chilly from the cold but Sasuke couldn’t be bothered by details like that. He accepted the kiss, quickly warming the other as he was held tight.

Automatically his hands grabbed at Itachi's upper arms, sliding his hands up and undoing his scarf so he could pull him closer by his neck, winding his fingers in the hairs that had slipped from his ponytail. Feeling heat spreading through him, Sasuke darted his tongue out just a little, and Itachi immediately sucked his tongue into his mouth, cupping Sasuke's jaw when the younger man groaned. He could hardly help it—a week of holding out had never seemed so long before—but he allowed himself to push his body against Itachi's as much as possible, annoyed when he realized that Itachi’s thick winter coat was still on.

The older man responded by turning them both so Sasuke was leaning against the wall, and Itachi pressed him into it with his hips, using just enough pressure to keep him there. Itachi pulled back from the kiss, just a touch of saliva at the corner of his mouth, and Sasuke was a bit embarrassed to realize it was probably his own; top half tilting back a bit, Itachi quickly undid his jacket and threw it over the back of a nearby chair. “It’s been far too long since last time.” He said while edging his fingers up the bottom of Sasuke's shirt, his dark eyes barely open as he moved in for another kiss.

This kiss was much slower, as if Itachi were taking his time to enjoy each movement of Sasuke's tongue inside his mouth and the pressure against his now slick lips. Pressure increased below the belt as Sasuke used his position against the wall to push off and into Itachi’s groin, which the older man seemed to like very much. After a few such thrusts, Itachi grabbed at Sasuke’s butt and pulled their bodies closer, keeping Sasuke’s manhood touching his own through their pants. Itachi’s mouth left his again. “I’m too close for that. Which bedroom’s yours?”

He grabbed Itachi’s hand and pulled him along before the words sunk in. As they walked, Itachi kicked off his shoes. However, Sasuke became aware of what they were doing—going to his bedroom, where clearly Itachi wanted to have sex. But… his gaze dropped to the ground as he thought. He didn’t want it to be rushed, and despite Itachi’s ability to appear perfect whenever, he did sort of smell like he hadn’t been able to bathe in the past day or two. And, well…

“I wasn’t planning on going all the way with you just now.” Sasuke started, eyes meeting the brightly dark ones briefly before darting down again. They had stopped near his bed, and the older man cupped his face, forcing Sasuke to acknowledge the intensity of the stare. “Our first time together should be slow. I want to take my time with you—”

Relieved of the potential pressure, Sasuke simultaneously pulled him into a kiss and sat down on the bed with the result that Sasuke sat leaning against the backboard, cushioned by pillows, with Itachi in his lap and his legs on either side.

The older man ground his hips into his once, groaned, and did it again, keeping his mouth on Sasuke's the whole time. Sasuke made a vague attempt to undo the buttons on Itachi’s jeans, but the moment his hands brushed against his crotch, he was met with a thrust and a groan. “Sorry,” he practically gasped. “I want… to get you off first… but I don’t think… I can last.” Hurriedly now they loosened his pants and pulled him out, Sasuke intent on jerking him off while Itachi seemed like his only desire was to get his hands on the younger man as much as possible. “It felt like every time I closed my eyes, I only saw you.”

“I didn’t know you could be so cheesy.” Sasuke replied between kisses despite his blush.

“Shut up,” was the only verbal answer he received, though he did feel the lips stuck to his own twitch upwards at the corners for an instant before his tongue slowly reentered his mouth. Hardly a minute later, the fingers on Sasuke's shoulders tightened and hot fluid spilled onto his hand. He reached for a tissue off his nightstand, trying to respond to the kisses at Itachi’s pace, which had slowed considerably.

But Sasuke hadn’t gotten off yet and he didn’t intend to be left like this. Fortunately for the building pressure in Sasuke's pants, the older man didn’t wait to catch his breath before he was moving down the bed to lay between Sasuke's legs. With an almost painful slowness, his pants were undone. As Itachi tugged them down, Sasuke raised his hips to help speed the process. “Eager, are we?”

Sasuke huffed. “You aren’t the only one who’s had wet dreams this past week.” Finally—a touch on his bare skin, and his thoughts disintegrated at the long-awaited feeling. The slender fingers wrapped around him and he could feel every breath against his so sensitive skin, excitement growing as the remained quick and constant, hinting at .

“Who said anything about wet dreams?” the tiniest flick of his tongue touched the base of Sasuke's dick. He shuddered in response. The slick muscle repeated the motion again, circling the base a little more, going around it and gradually moving upward. Sasuke could barely control his hips from trying to thrust against Itachi’s tongue, his mouth, anything. He squirmed continuously in his efforts to keep from rubbing himself against Itachi and coming too soon, though when that wet tongue stroked over the head, he completely lost the ability to follow what his boyfriend was saying. “You should tell me all about yours. We could reenact them, if you like.”

Sweat broke out on his forehead, partly at the idea of saying his dirty dreams aloud and then performing them, but mostly because of the pressing need in his groin. “Stop talking and put me in your mouth. I can’t handle this teasing,” he ended on groan. “Please.”

The older man gazed at him for a moment with heated eyes, taking in the sight of his open face, a touch shiny with sweat, while his shirt had been pushed up to show his stomach and the dip where his bellybutton was, down to his dick which was wet from saliva and pre-cum that had just begun to slip down the sides. “Anything you wish, Sasuke.” He took just the head in, then pulled back up, then a bit more, then a bit more, bobbing his head each time until he was taking all of it in one go. The heat and tightness of his mouth brought him over the edge quickly and into Itachi’s mouth, and Sasuke lay back against the pillows as he caught his breath, watching Itachi crawl back up to the top of the bed and put the cum in a tissue.

Itachi lay next to him, nudging him over slightly to fit his head on the pillow as well. He sighed lightly as he sank into the softness. “Oh, I’m so tired. I can’t remember the last time I was this sleepy,” he said.

“You can take a nap, if you want. Let’s get you cleaned up first, though.”

“Don’t want to,” he replied, though when Sasuke stood up and walked to the bathroom for a wet washcloth, the older man followed him slowly. After they had wiped each other off, and after Itachi stole several more kisses, they went into the guest room. “This is probably the comfiest place to sleep. Do you want me to wake you at all?”

“I haven’t slept in a few days, so there’s no real use in trying to awaken me before my body thinks I should be conscious.” Though he had looked tired before, his eyes were starting to droop and the ends of his words ran into the beginnings of the next. “Don’t leave yet, though. I promised to explain my absence.”

Sasuke settled himself next to Itachi on the bed and didn’t resist one bit when the older man grabbed his hand and held it, apparently the only movement he was able to make. “Mom had an argument with father—a very serious one, it seems—and I had to go help her out. She started panicking, had a major anxiety attack, and ended up in the hospital. They wouldn’t let her leave at first, so that took some doing, and even after that she was scared to travel. She still won’t tell me what exactly went wrong, but I think my half-brother had something to do with it because I heard from one of the assistants that he returned here just after I arrived there. That bugger would never miss a chance to mess with me, so I think father sent him away. Maybe so he could try to sort out the argument, I don’t know.”

“Will she be alright?”

“I think so. She’s tougher than she looks, and she’s stronger than she used to be. Still, I wish…” he tightened his hold on Sasuke's hand, eyes dropping from where they had been tracing Sasuke's face to the bedspread. “I should have been there for her, regardless of what my father thought or whatever.”

“It’s not your fault.” Somehow, he got the feeling that Itachi didn’t really believe him. “It’s true. Believe it. Your mother’s pain has been caused by his actions, so it’s not your fault. Besides, if you had stayed, would your mother really have been fine with it?”

“No… no, you’re right.” It was difficult to tell between the lines of his tired expression, but beneath the weariness, eyes that seemed almost shallow with strain darkened and deepened and returned to meet Sasuke's own. “Things wouldn’t have changed much if I hadn’t left. And she doesn’t ever indicate that she blames me, but… well, it looks like she’s going to divorce him, so at least this time I’m old enough that I can let her lean on me.” His lips stretched into a vague smile, and it was clear that his energy was down to the last. “Tell me about your week. Everything that happened while I was gone.”

“You’re barely awake. I don’t want to keep you up when you’re this tired.” Despite this, he didn’t move from his comfortable place next to Itachi on the bed. After so long without even seeing him, he didn’t want to walk away just yet.

“I can still listen,” he replied somewhat defiantly. His eyes were fast closing; mere cracks that certainly couldn’t be worth the effort to keep open. “Last Friday… what’d you do?

“I joined in the snowball fight. For whatever reason, I was on Kiba's team, and it took us a couple hours but we won. The last time I had an intense battle like that must have been about ten years ago. It was… fun.” Looking back, it really was—which it made it all the worse that he now couldn’t hang out with the art class like he used to. Kiba he’d probably be able to, once the man realized he was being a dick, and when Orochimaru worked out whatever problem he was having, they could be friends again, too.

Thinking of the latter student, however, reminded Sasuke of the promise he’d made—the promise to stay away from Orochimaru, and the warning Itachi had written before he’d left. This seemed like the moment, then; the moment to either hide their sudden friendship or pretend it never happened. While mulling it over, his phone beeped from the other room and he carefully extracted his hand from Itachi’s. “Hurry back,” Itachi mumbled. Sasuke nodded and rushed to silence the annoying sound.

Speak of the devil! The text was from Orochimaru. Sasuke sent a silent thank-you to the universe for providing him this opportune moment to ask Orochimaru what he thought of the situation. In what could be interpreted as another stroke of luck, the long-haired man already seemed aware of Itachi’s return, as the text message read that Orochimaru thought it would be best to keep their friendly relationship an absolute secret to avoid complications with Uchiha.

While that was certainly thoughtful of him—not to mention a bit creepy that Orochimaru had already caught wind of where Itachi was—Sasuke couldn’t help but think that lying, even about something that could be minor or probably would never be found out, just wasn’t right. He had promised to stay away from Orochimaru, after all, and though nobody could have anticipated the situation, he would have to lie to deny that In the end, he decided to go ahead and tell Itachi the circumstances in which they were thrown into a friendlier acquaintance, and rather proud of himself for making his own decision and sticking to it, he walked back into the guest room.

Unfortunately, though not unexpectedly, Itachi was deeply asleep. Just to be sure, the young Uzumaki nudged him several times but with no effect. Resolving to explain the situation that caused him to break his promise about staying away from Orochimaru later, he fixed the blanket properly around his boyfriend and shut the door, going back out to the couch where he watched TV until Naruto came home.

* * *
888

The car was in the driveway, but neither Naruto nor Itachi were anywhere to be found in the house. Given how tired Itachi had been, it was surprising that he was not still sleeping, and it was further surprising that they were not to be found in any of the rooms. Perhaps they went out for a walk, since when Sasuke poked his head out the back window it seemed rather warm, especially compared to the previous weeks. Snow was already melting, dripping down the roofs everywhere. They would refreeze tonight, probably, but at least the sidewalks were very visible. And so Sasuke decided: it had been a while—well, he honestly wasn’t sure how long, and thus it was all the more important—since he visited The Home.

After he showered and ate, he left a note and drove over. The ten minute drive went by far too quickly, so that by the time he was out of the car and standing by the door, hand hovering over the bell, he realized he had no idea what to say. Buying himself a few seconds, he wiped his sweaty palm on his jeans. Should he lead with an apology, or just walk in smiling and hope that were just excited to see him. He still hadn’t decided, but Konohamaru opening the door kind of made the choice for him.

“hey!” he smiled like he had just been waiting for Sasuke to show up. “we’ve been waiting for you!” oh. Well then.

“how are you?” he asked the boy, patting the boy’s head as he was pulled inside.

“I’m all right. The snow sucks right now, so we were going a little crazy with what to do.”

“videogames?” he put his coat on the hooks in the entrance hallway, and smiled as he passed the office. “Hey, Asuma. How’s Miss Kura?”

Really, he shouldn’t have been startled when the man leapt out from behind his desk, knocking over a couple stacks of papers, to around and give him a hug. Only the slightest shudder need be repressed, and that was only because he wasn’t expecting the contact. It took him less than a moment to hug the older man back. “how are ya, kid? I should smack you for not calling her by her full name, but I’m sure she’ll just be happy to see you. I know I am.”

Sasuke allowed himself to be led down the hallway to the common room, which was packed with about 20 children ages 4-17, all sitting on couches and chairs and cushions on the floor arguing about what to watch on the TV. Sasuke knew about half of them, and there was a tightening of his chest when he realized several of the faces he had grown up with weren’t present. First, though, he had to deal with all the kids he did know, and each one felt that what they had to say was most important and the younger ones all felt that they needed a hug first and since they knew how to do very few things quietly, much less deal with the excitement of a visitor without much noise, the rather minor visit of an old friend caused much hullaballoo and lasted nearly fifteen minutes before three smaller kids dragged him down onto the cushions in front of the now-ignored TV.

He hung out for a while, just listening to their stories and all the adventures they said they had, each tale more absurd than the last. By the time lunch came, he was quite hungry, but since he didn’t want to eat their food if there was a shortage, he ushered the kids into the dining hall, hanging back to ask Asuma. The man scoffed and remarked that he’d be insulted if Sasuke left before sharing a meal with them.

A pregnant Kurenai greeted him enthusiastically as she and the some of the older kids brought out the food. Two long tables had been pushed together and, though it was a little tight, the familiarity of eating elbow to elbow and shouting to be heard just a few seats down made him feel at ease. After lunch, the younger kids went in for naptime and the older kids had homework or study time, and Sasuke felt that it was time to leave. He made sure he said his goodbyes to all he knew and the ones he’d just met and asked Asuma to walk him out. He used the opportunity to ask about the kids that weren’t there.

They stood on the front step, Asuma using the time to smoke where the kids wouldn’t see him being a ‘bad influence,’ as Kurenai called it. “Yeah, don’t worry about Haru and Yuki—they ended up being adopted together, actually, so best case scenario pulled through, and we get regular phone calls every month so we know they’re fine. We heard from Kyo yesterday—you were just a kid when he found a family, but you remember him, right? Thought so. Anyway, he and his adoptive dad, the karate teacher, just won some big tournament and are going to an international kind of thing after the New Year.”

Hearing of their successes made him feel bitter for only the briefest moment before his good sense took over and he felt glad that they’d be alright. “What about Momiji? That kid just looked so young and innocent, and we couldn’t stop all the people that tried to pick on him. And Tohru, she was always a little spacey. Oh, and what about Haku?”

The older man leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed and his cigarette migrating to the side as his mouth turned to a grim line, a stance Sasuke had come to associate with bad news. “Well, Tohru’s at work until late, and she’s always been a hard worker, despite her mental drifting. Haku, however… well, you won’t like this. He was with a family for a year, and when he came back he wasn’t doing so great. We could hardly get him to speak. Now the only times he talks to us he yells, and he’s been skipping classes and he got fired from his job. On top of that, he’s been hanging around this older guy…”

Asuma generally regarded the kids at The Home as his own children, as much as anyone can, anyway, and the pure, genuine concern for one of his charges was what moved Sasuke. Because young Uzumaki knew what his former guardian was asking. “Does he still come home at night?”

“Yes, though he’s consistently past curfew. But he does come home. If he didn’t, we’d have to report him, and he really doesn’t need that on his record. Come to think of it, neither do we.” The man gave him a hopeful smile, letting out a puff of smoke to the side. “So next time you’re here, will you talk to him?”

Sasuke nodded, and the obvious relief on the man’s face seemed to give him back a few years. “Yeah. I’ll see if I can pass on some wisdom. His background may be different, but where he is right now is pretty familiar.” Uzumaki started walking towards his car, when he realized he was still missing someone. “What about Momiji? Is he okay?” he called back.

“He’s working at an animal shelter. Wants to be a vet.” He waved and finished his cigarette off. “See you soon. Christmas Eve at the latest, alright?”

“If I finish finals early, I can help with the Holiday shopping outing.” Asuma nodded and hurried back in, cigarette break over and chilly without his coat. Sasuke climbed in the car and tried to max the heat, but the car sputtered at the strain. “Damn it.” He smacked the dashboard and it kicked on just barely. He drove home, trying to pretend that he wasn’t cold. What happened to the warm weather of before? He’d have to get Naruto to get the car fixed.

Hang on, though… Naruto drove the car all the time, so he surely knew the heat wasn’t quite working. Why, then, wasn’t it fixed? The blond had his scattered brained moments, but the important stuff—like taking care of his only transportation—those things were always priorities. Even if there wasn’t time in the day, Naruto knew enough people during his college days that surely someone could help him out after hours (and Naruto apparently knew everybody that had ever gone to the university because whenever they went anywhere together they had to stop and say hello to all these strangers because, for whatever reason, Naruto had no problem being friendly all the time).

A financial issue, maybe? Possible, he supposed, but unlikely because Naruto kept careful track of the money and he was doing two jobs, and the blonde never really said anything about money. Well, surely there was a reason, and Sasuke could figure it out later. For now, he just wanted to get home and study for finals. Or perhaps Itachi would be there…

* * *

Itachi was, in fact, at the Uzumaki residence again. When he had woken at the crack of dawn, he was annoyed with himself for not sleeping as much as he had hoped (though roughly twelve hours wasn’t bad). Figuring he had already taken advantage of the Uzumaki pair, it couldn’t do much harm for him to extend it just a bit more and freshen up a bit. He had gotten out of the shower by the time he remembered he didn’t have anything clean to wear, but on his way back to the guest room wear his bag was, Naruto stopped him. “Good morning! You’re up early.” The blue eyes were shiny, and seemed awfully distracted by his bare chest. Admiration was usually nice, but Itachi was sure that Sasuke wouldn’t appreciate his guardian staring at his boyfriend like that so he folded his arms across his chest. It had the desire effect of getting the bond to focus once more. “Hope you don’t mind my being forward, but I threw your stuff in the laundry. First load comes out of the dryer in a few minutes.”

The sleep had been very beneficial to restoring Uchiha’s energy, and it was clear to him now that his blond friend was not looking so great. “Thanks. It’d be nice to wear something that doesn’t stink. The emergency bag in my car was all I had, and that was only a three day supply of clothes.” He swiftly moved into the kitchen. “it’s not my house, but I can make you some breakfast as a thank you for letting me stay.”

“That’s not a problem at all, really, anything I can do to help,” he shoved his way in front of the refrigerator before Itachi could lay a hand on it. “But I’ll take care of breakfast. Have a seat.”

He tried not to raise his eyebrows. Clearly, Naruto was hiding something. He nodded, and waited for the blond to step away before reaching around him to take a peek. “Wait—that’s, umm…”

“…Naruto, you…” this didn’t meet his expectations. An excessive amount of beer or strange food or a mess was more in the range of what he thought might be hidden, but he didn’t expect it to be empty. All that was in the spacious fridge was a Tupperware container half-filled with spaghetti.

“I’m just waiting for my next paycheck. We’ll be fine until then. It’s only two more days until it goes through the bank.”

“Yeah?” It was hard to banish the incredulity from his tone, and his lawyer’s tongue fired off follow-up questions.

“So until then, what do you eat?”

“Stuff.”

“How often?”

“Enough.”

“And what about Sasuke?”

“What about him?”

“What does he eat?”

“I always make sure he eats first. I promise.”

“Is he aware of the situation?”

“Yes. No. It’s very unlikely.” The blond slouched against the counter and pinched the bridge of his nose, the shadows of his face darkening. “He mostly just eats stuff like cereal or pop-tarts, and I keep those in the cabinet. He never looks in the fridge since he doesn’t drink milk. He even eats his cereal dry.” He shrugged. “Old habit from the orphanage, eating as cheaply as possible.”

“Is that how you’re staying alive? Old habits?”

“Yeah.” Blue eyes hardened to ice. “And I’m doing just fine.”

“If by “fine” you mean about to crash, then yes, I’d say you’re doing “fine,” Naruto.” He frowned.

The blond glared, but turned to towards the pantry. “Do you want cereal for breakfast, or should I make you some pop-tarts? We also have toast and some bagels… if they haven’t gone moldy.” He muttered the last line, seeing that buying them cheaper also meant they went bad faster.

The dryer buzzed, and Itachi sought out comfortable fresh clothes. He changed behind the laundry room door, thinking of a way to feed the blond without crushing his ego. “Look, how about as a thank you for picking us up and helping out with my mom and then letting me stay here, shower, and for washing my clothes, we go out and I buy you some breakfast.” Once they were at breakfast, he could get the blond in a better mood, and from there he could come up with another way to slip the blond money. Maybe he could leave some on the counter for Sasuke, but with a note saying it was from his guardian… that seemed a bit underhanded though, and he thought he might as well try the straightforward way first.

Naruto frowned at him, but seeing that Itachi’s gaze was unwavering, submitted. “Fine,” he sighed. “but what about Sasuke? He’s had a trying couple days, so he’s going to sleep in a few hours yet.”

“We can bring him something back.” He was honestly touched that the blond’s first priority really was the younger man; though after all these years of taking care of Sasuke like a little brother, it must be perfectly natural at this point. “Do you need to shower, or shall we go now?”

“Give me fifteen minutes.” He dashed into the bathroom, and Itachi took the time the blond was occupied with readying himself to take another glance through the kitchen. It was true; Sasuke's usual foods were stocked well enough, and the blond seemed to be eating just enough to get by. While that was touching, and the sacrifice definitely needed to be commended, he was sure that the blond didn’t realize that this was stupid. There was no way to work a full-time job—much less a secondary one—and hardly eat or sleep and not expect to crash sooner or later. It was absurd.

At the very least, he contemplated as he sat down on the couch to wait, he could order enough food at the café that the blond would have to take some home. Then maybe tomorrow he could stop by and bring pizza or something, on the pretense of helping Sasuke study for finals…

Actually, come to think of it, he needed to study for finals, too. And although his mother had told him to stay away for the day so she could get settled in and so he could catch up on sleep, tomorrow he needed to see how she was doing. Her breakdown last Friday had caused her assistant enough worry to phone him over—she had called it an emergency, and indeed it had been pretty rough. But she had recovered well, and quickly, though getting the doctor to release her from the hospital had been far too difficult. Not that father had helped at all; though Itachi had to give the man some credit, because Mikoto’s assistant (whatever her name was) said that Fugaku was very hard on Sai for upsetting Mikoto and had sent him home immediately. Still, if Mikoto decided on a divorce, Itachi intended to support her in any way he could.

“Alright, you ready? Do you want me to drive?”

“That’s fine. Actually, can we take my car? I miss driving it, and we’ll have to pick it up sooner or later anyway, so why not sooner?”

Naruto agreed, and they drove to Itachi’s house where he got in his car and after dropping Naruto’s car back at his house, they rode together for a nearby café. True to his intent, he bought Naruto as much food as he could without being obnoxious, the blond narrowed his eyes suspiciously, taking the food nevertheless. Conversation flowed easily between them, despite Itachi’s general quiet. It worked for them, however, because Naruto apparently needed to vent about all the problems he’d been having with his students and their home lives and schoolwork and drama with each other, and that fit Itachi’s mood perfectly because the last thing he wanted to think about was his own problems with his family. A few hours passed easily this way, and the sun was high in the sky by the time they noticed.

“Well, I’ve papers to grade and lessons to write, and Sasuke's probably awake by now. Ready to head back?”

“Yeah. Let me just order something for him first.” Naruto followed him to the register, clearly intent on telling him what Sasuke would want, but his pale eyebrows rose as Itachi ordered the younger Uzumaki’s favorite foods without hesitation.

“You’ve been hanging out with him a lot lately. You know him pretty well, huh?”

Itachi heard the curiosity in the tone, but if Sasuke hadn’t yet felt comfortable telling his guardian they were together, then he would wait on Sasuke's timing. Anyway, it wasn’t his place to tell Naruto. he changed the topic, hoping it wasn’t too blatant. “Yeah. I’ve been trying to watch out for him, and he’s doing fine in the class. Speaking of, I can’t stay too much longer at your house. I need to start studying for finals.”

“Sure thing.” They headed out to the car, carrying the food in take-home bags. “When do finals start for you?”

“This Thursday. I’m only taking six classes, and since the art final is really just our portfolio, I only have five tests.”

Naruto made a noise. “What?” Uchiha asked defensively.

“Nothing, nothing. It just… it must be nice to be that smart where *only* six classes is taking it easy.”

“It’s not just that I’m smart. I mean, it’s true, but I also work really hard.”

“I didn’t mean to say you didn’t. I only meant that, well, it’s good that you are taking it easy, even if you’re definition is not the same as most people’s.” The man in the driver’s seat didn’t seem to fully believe what Naruto was saying, so he went the extra step. “And you should put your talents to good use. It was supposed to be a compliment, you know. You don’t have to look so constipated about it.”

“I do not!” He frowned at the man in the passenger seat before realizing what the man was doing. “Oh, haha, very funny.” He said sarcastically.

“Actually, yeah, I am very funny.” He winked. “Besides, it should make you feel better to know that no matter how smart you are, I’m still going to treat you like everyone else.”

Uchiha thought about that for a minute, then decided that the blond actually had a point. But ‘putting his talents to good use’ gave Itachi an idea. “hey, I’ve just remembered that you promised to teach me to play piano.”

“That I did.” The blond nodded.

“How about we have a lesson today? If you’re not too busy. I have to go back to your house to pick up my stuff, anyway.”

“And your cat. I was afraid I’d forget to watch out for him, so I just brought him over. I don’t know if you saw him at all, though, since he likes sleeping on Sasuke's bed.”

“I did see him lurking around the bathroom this morning. Thank you for that, by the way.” Good! Another excuse to give the blond some money. And if he requested piano lessons a couple more times this coming week, he’d be able to get the blond even more money without insulting his manliness.

They’d returned to the Uzumaki residence to find a note from Sasuke saying that he’d gone for a visit to the Home. “Good for him. Those kids need any kind of consistency they can get, and he’s been slacking on that front. Understandably, of course,” Naruto amended, “but I’m sure it made their day to see him again. They’ve got abandonment issues enough.” They had been working at the piano for nearly an hour when Sasuke came home, cheeks and nose red from the cold.

“How’s it going?” Sasuke couldn’t quite stop his frown at seeing the two of them together so closely on the piano bench, and so he hid his face as he removed his scarf and coat.

“I can name all the notes now, and I think I’m getting the hang of chords. It’ll take some time before I can get anything more than this, though.” Itachi played a short melody, something Sasuke was pretty sure was meant to be “twinkle, twinkle, little star.”

“That sounded, umm, good.” Sasuke lied, glancing at Naruto’s grinning face and back to Itachi's frowning one. Itachi gave Sasuke a look that let him know that he knew it was terrible.

“Anyway,” Uchiha said, pulling their attention away from his genuine frustration at the simple tasking of pressing keys properly, “how was your visit?”

A sincere smile shone on the rosy face. “it was fun. Most of the kids I knew were still there, which was good. I mean, it’s bad they haven’t been adopted, but I’d forgotten how much I’ve missed them. And the ones that have left are all doing good, from what I hear.”

“Was Haku there?” The blond’s smile melted into worry and apprehension.

“No.” Sasuke's mouth turned down as well. “Asuma asked me to talk to him next he shows up, but he wasn’t there. He used to be so sweet, but I’m afraid of where he’s going.”

“He definitely needs help, but there’s no way he’s going to ask for it. He won’t tell anyone what happened, and Asuma isn’t allowed to share personal details about how Haku ended up at the Home again, but there was some kind of abuse, for sure.” Beginnings of anger squirmed in his belly at the thought of anyone hurting the young boy. “He used to have such a beautiful voice—you should hear him sing, Itachi—and now he won’t talk to me, his teachers, the younger kids, nobody. Well, except for this guy he’s hanging around, though we can’t get the name of this man from him and since they haven’t actually cone anything wrong (as far as we know), we can’t stop it.”

“They have their Christmas outing next Wednesday, so hopefully he’ll be there, but I’ll try to get to the Home earlier than that.”

“Sounds good. We’ll go together next time.” The blond stood and turned to his companion on the bench. “As much fun as it is to watch you struggle, I really do need to get some work done.” Itachi sent him a half-hearted glare that he ignored, but the Uchiha was set on getting his own form of payback.

“So how much do you want?”

“What?”

“For the lessons. Even if this is a favor for a friend, it would be unjust not to pay you something.” He stopped the blond’s coming objection. “I legally have to pay you for your services. If I don’t, I’m taking what isn’t mine without giving compensation. And that could fall into the category of indentured servitude, or, depending on which state you live in, prostitution.”

Naruto narrowed his eyes. “I’ve heard that before. Isn’t that from a movie?”

“It doesn’t matter that the in-flight movie was Iron Man II. What matters is that you take the money before I decide to be difficult by offering you more.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “just do it, Naruto.” the blond’s gaze shifted to his best friend, and he seemed on the verge of giving in. “come on. He quoted Tony Stark at you. One does not simply argue with Tony Stark.”

“Fine. You win.” The blond threw his hands up in defeat, and allowed Itachi to place the money hidden in his pocket onto the counter. He frowned at it a moment longer before retreating to his room to retrieve his laptop, binders, and folders full of papers.

With a victorious grin on his face, he faced Sasuke. The young man looked suspicious. “What was that about?”

“Nothing, nothing. Don’t worry about it.” He gave his boyfriend a peck on the lips. “Try not to be too jealous, okay?” He smiled as Sasuke huffed. “I have to study for finals tomorrow and wrap up a couple projects, and then I need to check on mom. If I get a chance I’ll stop by, but I’m not too hopeful that it’ll work out. But if I can, may I?”

“of course.” Sasuke gave him a quick hug and handed him his bag of stuff.

“Thanks. I’ll see you Monday for sure, then.”

“See you Monday.”

He watched the older man walk out the door, reflecting that their time together always seemed to flash by. He shrugged and waited to see where Naruto settled when he finally came out of his room with his arms full of stuff—the left side of the couch this time, and Sasuke decided that he would study on the floor since Naruto was monopolizing the table. Time passed quickly, as time on the weekends always does, and they worked late into the night. Soon after the sun came up they were back at it.

Around noon, though, Naruto decided that he needed a break. “I’m going to do a little Christmas shopping. Want to come with?”

Sasuke didn’t even look up from his spot on the floor, surrounded by books and typing madly. “Can’t. I’m on a roll and if I stop now I’m going to lose the momentum.”

“Gotcha.” He quickly got himself together, grabbing his keys and the money from the counter. “I’ll have my cell phone if you need me. Shouldn’t be gone more than a couple hours.”

Sasuke waved in the wrong direction, not noticing as his attention and gaze never left the computer screen. Naruto smiled as he drove to the mall. Watching his best friend work hard really was inspiring, and after the year he’d had, he wanted Sasuke to have something special to end it with. Shopping for him shouldn’t take that long, but since Itachi had been obnoxiously generous, he figured he might as well get a small gift for him and as many children of the Home he could afford. The younger kids always received gifts from donors and sponsors, because those people seemed to think that only small children lived there. Therefore, he felt comfortable in purchasing gifts for the older kids instead. They’d appreciate it more, anyway, and the younger kids wouldn’t even know if presented the gifts later once the younger ones had gone to bed.

With this plan in mind, he visited the usual places and nearly an hour had gone by when he noticed he was being followed. He didn’t alter his behavior at all, but he kept a watch in reflections in the glass as he walked by a couple shops to try to get a look at this stranger. There was no real way to identify this person, as the face was covered with a scarf and sunglasses. The build suggested a man, and the height and rhythm of the footsteps implied an adult. The person wasn’t making any threatening moves, and any interactions with other people were limited to moving around them. He seemed fairly assertive but not necessarily aggressive, so Naruto decided to just ignore it. He had enough problems in his life right now, and if it came down to a fight—well, he’d beaten plenty of people before and surely would be fine in a public place like this, especially with the extra security the shopping center always added this time of year.

* * *

Who is this hooded man? What does he want with Naruto? Will Sasuke pass his finals? What is Haku up to? And will Itachi ever improve his piano skills?

Haha anyway now that there is something like free time (I really shouldn’t say this because I’m just going to jinx it but) I should be able to update faster, though a reevaluation of where we are in relation to the completion of this story shows that there are probably about a hundred pages left to go, and that’s if these characters behave. I’ve managed to unwrite a character back out, but he’s been pushing his way back in so it might end up being longer. We’re at a total of 98 pages so far, and that’s in small font sooooo…. Yeah.

Feel free to yell at me for taking so long, but if it was worth it all, I wouldn’t mind hearing about that too :)
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