Conquest

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Chapter 6
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Naruto was surrounded by boobs. On his left shoulder he had Sakura’s small pert ones. On his right shoulder he had Hinata’s large squishy ones. His dilemma today was trying to decide which ones he liked best. They say the bigger the better, but Naruto was torn. Yes Hinata’s you could smother yourself in forever and ever and die a happy man. However Sakura’s had their own charm, small enough to grab in one hand and just squeeeeze. She probably had pink nipples to match that hair.


A fist smashing into the top of his head dragged him out of his dilemma. “Naruto! Stop drooling! Were you even listening to us?” Sakura asked in a tightly controlled tone.


Naruto of course didn’t hear any of this because Sakura’s violent tendencies had finally shown their true purpose. He was now nestled face first into Hinata’s breasts, who, no doubt, was as red as a tomato. Naruto felt he deserved to be in heaven so he got comfortable.


Another bash to the head. “Stop molesting Hinata!” and just like that heaven had been taken away.


“You’re just mad because I chose Hinata’s over yours,” Naruto mumbled under his breath, rubbing at his head. Sakura had excellent aim and managed to always get the same spot every single time. Luckily Sakura didn’t hear that last comment and went back to giving her love advice, which was quite good since she was quite apt at sticking to the gay ones.


They were sitting on the couch of Naruto’s apartment, eating ice cream and trying to pry information out of Naruto about his date with Sasuke. Naruto was having none of it though. He wasn’t going to sit here and talk about his ‘feelings’, all he had wanted was to get hammered but Kiba had ruined his plans. As soon as he had figured out vaguely what had happened, he’d called in the girls and then run away.


Huh, some best friend, abandoning me like that, wait… he gave me Hinata as well; maybe he wants to share the joy of her boobs with me. OH KIBA I DO LOVE YOU. He was sure that somewhere out there Kiba could hear his internal declaration of platonic love.


Sakura had also brought her new boyfriend, Lee, with her. It hadn’t taken long for them to become an item, all Sakura really had to do was smile at Lee and he had redoubled his efforts in winning her heart. Naruto had sufficiently been distracted from his problem when he had seen Lee up close. Thick lower eyelashes on a dude were now on his list of things that freaked him out.


Lee reappeared in the doorway having completed his 100 laps around the block. He had accidentally stubbed Sakura’s toe and had declared that he would make up for it by the punishment of running. After he had left Naruto had asked Sakura why she hadn’t stopped him. She had only sighed and said that if she had protested he’d probably end up doing a thousand, it was best to leave him to it.


“Naruto, my Professor, Maito Gai taught me that to return our youth to shining brightness we must train to keep us full of youthful energy! For that is our hard-working student way!” Lee stood proudly in the doorway, without a drop of sweat on him looking really green. It seemed that his form of punishment and cheering up someone were one and the same.


Naruto took all of Lee in and winced. The guy ran around in a green spandex one piece, and it outlined everything. Everything. Lee smiled encouragingly at him, and Naruto found it difficult not to smile back.


“Lee, Naruto doesn’t need exercise, what he needs is to talk about his feelings.” Sakura was putting her foot down about this issue. “Though, you are getting a little chubby around the edges there,” Sakura smirked.


“These are pecs,” Naruto emphasised that by rubbing said pecs, “And these are wash board abs.” Naruto lifted up his T shirt. “Wash board abs, this is Sakura,” Naruto introduced them.


“Hmph. Talk about your feelings Naruto, not your tan-wrinkled body.”


Naruto glanced at Hinata who was still blushing, though not quite as much, for help. She gave a helpless shrug, and voiced her agreement with Sakura.


“Listen you guys, I’m fine, really. It’s The Dagger you all should be concerned about, he’s the one that got shot down, not me,” Naruto summoned up his best, brightest grin and sat back on the sofa, legs spread slightly apart, almost as if he expected them to start lavishing attention on ‘The Dagger’ (Lee very much excluded).


“Naruto, please stop referring to your penis as a separate entity, it’s not funny anymore, it wasn’t funny the first time!” There was no responding fist to his head to compliment the statement from Sakura; instead she held her fist above The Dagger in warning.


Naruto’s eyes became very large, and his hands moved to protect his most precious asset.


“Na-Naruto, why don’t you tell us what happened? W-we can help,” Hinata spoke up, her hands folded in her lap, looking at Naruto with concerned eyes.


Naruto sighed; they really wouldn’t leave him alone, he couldn’t even enjoy the boobs anymore. “I am really stinky.” He sniffed under his armpit, scrunched up his nose. “Ugh, yeah real smelly. I should really shower, you guys had better leave; I don’t know how you can stand it.” Naruto stood up, with three pairs of eyes trained on him. Even Lee and Hinata looked sceptical. “Seriously! You wanna smell this?” He held his arm pit out to Sakura who looked the most suspicious.


Sakura stood up, grabbed the arm, and in one smooth amazing movement, twisted it round, knocked Naruto face down to the floor and then placed her foot in the center of his back. “Fine. Get rid of us. I will be coming back, I’ll bring Ino next time and Gaara’s sister seems nice too,” Sakura said in her deceptively sweet voice.


Naruto shuddered at the thought of the other blondes. Both were scary in their own individual ways. He watched from his position on the floor as they prepared to leave. Hinata was protesting about leaving the dirty dishes and Sakura was trying not to scold Lee for having started press ups beside Naruto, keeping him company, filling in Naruto about his wonderful professor and all that he had taught Lee. They did eventually leave and Naruto still hadn’t moved from his position on the floor; it was comfortable there.


It was a few hours later that Kiba came home and found Naruto half asleep on the floor.


...


Sasuke peered over his glasses at the rest of the class, there was no sign of Naruto, there hadn’t been for a week. Good. he assured himself, he didn’t need the distraction. Not that Naruto was that much of distraction, he just didn’t need it. He had finished giving the lecture and found Kakashi leaning against the door frame of the exit, once again engrossed in porn. Sasuke observed Kakashi’s relaxed position, one eye half lidded, the other covered. His eye seemed to be reading; still Sasuke knew better, Kakashi was well aware of everything in his surroundings.


Sasuke was thinking about all this because he was trying to come up with escape tactics. He wasn’t in the mood for Kakashi. Sasuke didn’t want, or need, Kakashi’s unwelcome ‘parental’ advice. Though how parental was it really to tell him that bondage should be a healthy part of a sex life he didn’t know.


“That was an interesting lecture, was that on the syllabus?” Sasuke paused on his way to the back exit mid-sneak. It was worth a shot.


“If you saw the lecture, why didn’t you take it yourself?” Sasuke snapped. He didn’t often lose his temper, but Kakashi enjoyed tormenting him.


“Mmm, it’s more fun this way,” Kakashi replied unconcernedly. Kakashi’s real reason for allowing Sasuke to take his lectures were in hopes that Sasuke would learn more people skills, (and so that he could sleep in late) but all it had seemed to do was add to Sasuke’s already superior attitude.


“So, tell me about the date with the cute blond,” Kakashi snapped his book shut and gave Sasuke his full attention. It was a little unnerving to have that one half open eye trained on him.


“Did you manage to fulfil that task I set you at the beginning of the year?” When Kakashi had first met Sasuke he had set him an assignment: to get laid. Kakashi thought the answer to all of Sasuke’s problems were a good, hard, fucking. Sasuke hadn’t been put off by the professor’s odd quirks. Hatake Kakashi was an incredibly gifted genius and he could learn much from him. So far all Sasuke had learnt was that Kakashi liked porn and was always late, probably due to the porn.


“There was no date, not that it’s any of your business, but I don’t date the students,” Sasuke retorted, looking around for other escape routes.


“Ah, I don’t see why not, you’re a student yourself. Was the cute blond not man enough for you, Sasuke?” Kakashi’s eye curved down, he seemed to be smiling.


“His name is Naruto,” Sasuke managed to grind out, “and you hired me as the TA.”


“But you’re still a student Sasuke; maybe it’s a bit too much for you,” Kakashi opened his book again, flipping to the marked page.


Sasuke narrowed his eyes. “My brother is expecting me home.” He trusted that would end the conversation.


“Mmm,” was the only reply Sasuke received, he wasn’t sure if it was to what he said or to the porn. Sasuke shrugged, at this point he didn’t really care.


“Remember Sasuke, sex is also a good form of exercise, and always use protection.” Sasuke stopped once again in his tracks and turned to see that Kakashi had disappeared. He really hoped the voices in his head hadn’t decided to speak in Kakashi’s voice; he had more than enough of his share of problems already.


...


Itachi watched Sasuke pick at his food restlessly. It seemed his little brother was having difficulty upholding the calm collected demeanour that was the trademark of an Uchiha. Sasuke was a little off mark lately and maybe now was the time to introduce his proposal to Father. He observed the dark hair, the pale almost white skin so much like his own and thought better of it. Sasuke had a little way yet to go, timing needed to be a little more perfect.


The silence in the apartment was never uncomfortable for Itachi; he rather enjoyed it. Playing mind games with Sasuke was an interesting method of taking his mind off other pressing matters in the company. Itachi continued to observe Sasuke, he could see him tense even further as the time stretched on, and the food was pushed around the plate.


“If you would prefer, little brother, you can prepare your own meal,” Itachi placed a faint sneer on his face and his eyes glinted as Sasuke stiffened and as expected ate more of the steak that Itachi had deliberately asked be extra rare. It added to his satisfaction that Sasuke didn’t share his taste for undercooked meat.


Itachi took a sip of his wine. Studying Sasuke and his recent actions, it had been quite easy to come to the conclusion of what was bothering the younger Uchiha. Sasuke could be heard stifling his moans late at night; it seemed to be the only way he could sleep afterwards. He had been more forthcoming to Itachi’s ‘comments’ and ‘suggestions’. There was obviously someone who had shaken up Sasuke’s repressed little world and during the day Sasuke was trying to stifle these effects. However, at night things appeared to be a little different. Yes, Itachi enjoyed watching his brother grow and mould, it was like the unfolding of a dramatic, poorly acted, soap opera.


...


Naruto sighed and pushed a hand through his hair. He came across a snag, yanked quite hard and whimpered in pain. He was sitting in the medic library occupying an entire table and becoming increasingly frustrated. Naruto had fallen a little behind on his work. He had lectures to write up, lab reports due and a few essays as well. They were fast approaching December, which meant Christmas, which meant revising during all of Christmas for the January exams. He briefly wondered who’s bright idea it was to set exams after Christmas; just so he knew who to whine at.


The pressure had slowly been building up and it wasn’t until he was in a severely panicked state that he noticed it.


Naruto was currently attempting to write an essay for Professor Hatake’s class, but was completely at a loss as to where to start. All the work had so far managed to keep his mind off Sasuke, whose dark cold eyes always seemed to be just on the edge of all his thoughts. Naruto was determined to a fault but sometimes even he had to admit defeat. Yes, he could have done a lot of things differently but if he were to go back and do it all again, he’d still kiss Sasuke and land in this stupid mess all over again. Naruto required repeats of the same lesson until he fully understood. He wanted things to go his way, to his ideal, and there was really no reason why it shouldn’t have.


He hadn’t expected rejection to hurt so much, he didn’t even know why it hurt so much, because all he had felt for Sasuke was physical attraction and maybe something a little deeper than that. It didn’t matter now, since Sasuke was so set on his pansy ass being alone. Even The Dagger had understood that now was the time for staying low and not inflicting more discomfort on poor Naruto, though sometimes it forgot which wasn’t very helpful.


I ate rice that touched animal penises for him and he comes up with some lame, ‘I don’t date students,’ crap. Animal penises for god’s sake! Naruto had decided that in the very unlikely event that his thoughts did stray to Sasuke and his girly eyes he would rant about him and ignore the little twinges in his general heart area. He thinks he’s too good for me, the king sex god of all sex gods, Uzumaki Naruto. What is he, blind?! Overcompensation was also a tool Naruto had taken to using.


He squinted at the piles of books he had accumulated; they all had pretty much the same title, some were exactly the same except different editions. Naruto didn’t often use the help of textbooks, finding the internet easier, simpler, and of course the wonderful Wikipedia but he thought that holing up in the library might help his extremely short attention span. The library was nice and boring in itself, and so didn’t cause much of a distraction; it was just so damn quiet that every sound seemed amplified. He could hear the music of the student on the table one over, the tapping of the pencil from just about everyone, it was unnerving but they had it synchronized and he could discern a beat. He received a glare though when his foot started tapping to the rhythm.


Naruto huffed, and went back to his essay, it was due tomorrow and at the moment his grades couldn’t afford for him to hand it in late. He managed to immerse himself in typing up his essay on the laptop Kiba didn’t know he had ‘borrowed’, drowning out the loud surrounding noise and entering the small corner of his mind that actually enjoyed learning this crap.


This was why he didn’t notice Sakura stomp over until she slapped him across the side of his head as a greeting before seating herself opposite him, eyes spitting fire and a pretty pink mouth twisted into a harsh line.


“I needed those brain cells!” Naruto yelled, getting shushed simultaneously by his fellow library buddies.


“I needed those brain cells,” Naruto said again, in a loud whisper, his fellow library buddies didn’t seem too impressed, but they graciously let it slide.


“What for? You’ve hardly attended any lectures,” Sakura shot back in a harsh whisper, her green eyes unrelenting.


“Yeah, I’ve just been busy…” Naruto went back to typing; hoping Sakura wouldn’t notice that he was just randomly pressing the keys. “I’m busy now.” He felt some shuffling around under the table and saw that Sakura was trying to kick him, except that her legs were too short. He patted the table and promised it he’d bring it some leaves later.


“Naruto, you can’t keep skipping the lectures, it’s been a month now, and you’ve missed 12 lectures, that’s almost half the course.” Sakura gave up on her kicking and settled for crossing her arms on the table.


“I’d be fine if you just let me copy your lecture notes,” Naruto pouted, still pressing keys randomly, he’d been successfully avoiding this conversation for a while now but now his luck seemed to have given up on him.


“You know I won’t do that, you need to attend the lecture yourself to properly understand the material,” Sakura hissed, fidgeting with the need to hit something.


“So, how’s Lee? Did he go up a grade in his kung-fu competition?” Naruto was trying a different tack, smiling conversationally. Sakura hiked up an eyebrow at this transparent ploy to distract her attention, Naruto had never been one for subtlety.


“Lee is fine, he is under strict orders not to hand in anymore of your assignments to Sasuke,” Sakura smirked as Naruto’s conversational smile slipped at having his genius plan fail, but she felt guilty when at the mention of Sasuke’s name a hardness entered Naruto’s usually warm blue eyes.


“I really am busy…” Naruto gave her a pleading look and he went back to furiously typing at the keyboard.


“We have a lecture tomorrow, it’s a revision one doing a bit of recap. Come to that, we need to collect the other essay anyway,” Sakura returned the pleading look, letting her eyes water and her lip quiver. “Please Naruto…”


Naruto sighed, “Oh okay, you twisted my arm,” he smiled brightly at her, having no intention of going. “Uh, so have you done the essay for tomorrow?” he looked hopeful.


“Yes, and no you can’t see it.” Sakura having successfully gotten the answer she wanted stood up to leave. She picked out a not-so-heavy looking textbook and hefted it.


“Make… sure… you… are… there…or…I… will… make… you… train… with… Lee.” She punctuated each word with a light smack of the textbook to Naruto’s head, alternating to his shoulders when he raised his arms in protection. She smiled pleasantly at Naruto’s fellow library buddies and made her exit.


Drama queen. Naruto decided he would invest in a helmet. He mouthed a sorry to his fellow library buddies and start erasing all the gibberish he’d written in place of actual words.


...


When Naruto arrived home, he found Neji lounging on the couch, looking quite relaxed and satisfied. He was greeted with a twitch of colourless lips and a cool once over. Naruto had never really talked to Neji before, despite him being Sakura’s ex-boyfriend and sharing a few of the same classes. Naruto put it firmly down to the fact that Neji’s eyes were just plain scary, regardless of the fact that Hinata had the same ones; Hinata was an exception. Neji was seen at the apartment quite a lot these days accompanying Hinata on her dates with Kiba.


Naruto didn’t really do awkward silences so he dropped his pile of books and Kiba’s laptop on the coffee table, kicked off his shoes and sat down next to Neji with a, “What’s shakin’ chicken?” and a bright grin pasted across his face.


“Nothing is ‘shakin’,” Neji replied monotonously. This time an awkward silence did settle. It would have lasted for quite a while too if Naruto hadn’t started whistling and looking up at the ceiling; except for the fact that Naruto didn’t know how to whistle. He puckered his lips in the right shape and just puffed out air hoping for some sort of sound. He gave up after about 10 minutes and kept glancing at Neji in a furtive way.


Neji was really pretty. He had dark, almost black hair and pale skin, not as pale as Sasuke’s though. His body was lithe and the faint outline of slim muscles could be seen in certain places in Neji’s dark suit. His jaw was broad and his nose aristocratic. The long silky hair tied at the nape finished off the look. If it wasn’t for the freaky looking eyes that were looking straight back at Naruto as he now openly stared, Naruto would have been appreciative of the eye candy.


“Sorry, Neji we didn’t have any tea…” Kiba emerged from the kitchen wringing his hands looking a little distraught.


Neji nodded, and more silence passed with Kiba standing there awkwardly looking as if the strain was all too much for him. Naruto budged up on the couch, leaning up against Neji to make room for Kiba. The three sat there in even more silence.


“What are we doing?” Naruto whispered out of the corner of his mouth.


“Hinata’s in the bathroom, we’re going to watch a film,” Kiba whispered back.


Neji turned to stare at them, as if he honestly couldn’t believe these two idiots didn’t think he could hear them.


“What’s with the chaperone again?” Naruto continued whispering, cocking his head towards Neji.


Kiba didn’t reply, he was looking past Naruto, gulping, and didn’t seem to be able to look away, like an animal paralysed with fear.


Naruto shrugged, wiggled for more room on the couch, turned to face Neji and tried to engage him in conversation.


“So have you done the essay for tomorrow? Because I have!” Naruto beamed, very clearly pleased with himself.


“Yes, I completed the assignment the date it was set.”


“Oh, right, that’s good.” Nerd. Naruto wriggled around some more. Kiba and Neji still seemed to be having their staring contest, a little one-sided since Kiba couldn’t look away if he tried.


Hinata emerged from the bathroom, looking significantly less distraught than Kiba, but still nervous. She was pushing her two index fingers together, once again gathering courage to voice something.


“N-Neji, i-it’s n-nice t-to b-e spen-spending s-so much time with you,” Hinata was stuttering at her worst, “b-b-but i-it’s n-not ne-neces-sary.” She pushed her hands firmly down to her sides, only for them to hold onto the side of her skirt in a tight grip.


All three men were staring at her with varying degrees of shock and surprise. Kiba looked like his eyes were going to fall out; his mouth had already fallen open. Naruto was beaming encouragingly at Hinata giving her the thumbs up and nodding his head vigorously. There wasn’t much difference in Neji’s face unless one looked very closely. Light eyes tightened around the edges, thin lips appeared even thinner, and his neck muscles became rigid.


“Well, Hinata that is really neither here nor there, it is not your decision,” Neji spoke, seemingly unruffled by Hinata’s announcement, though none of his rigidity left him. Hinata’s head bowed down, with her eyes trained on the floor, her hands clutching her dress with more distress now.


Naruto nudged Kiba, giving him a meaningful look, and indicating Hinata with abrupt movements of his head. “Huh…?” Kiba look a little bewildered. Naruto had to contain himself from doing Kiba’s job and pouncing on Neji with his Ultimate Uzumaki Die Villain Die attack. He squinted his eyes in what he hoped was a more significant manner and indicated Hinata again. “Oh… oh! Yeah!”


Kiba leapt up from his squashed position and went to stand by Hinata, boldly taking her hand and squeezing. She looked up at him adoringly. Naruto sighed and smiled, this was all so sweet, just like in the movies and he really wanted popcorn now.


“I agree with Hinata,” Kiba said formally, his back a little too straight and his grip on Hinata’s hand looking a little painful.


Neji’s pale grey eyes observed Kiba and Hinata, standing strong, united, etc. He stood, directed a look at Hinata who shifted closer to Kiba and strode towards the apartment door without a backward look. The door was closed carefully without a sound.


Naruto had his knees up on the couch watching as Neji left, he turned around when he heard a dull ‘thunk’ to find Kiba had fainted.