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Attraction	By : gelfling Category: Naruto > General Views: 1846 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
Heaven knows how you lied to me

You�re not the way you seem
You look like an angel

Walk like an angel

Talk like an angel

But I�ve got mind

You�re the devil in disguise
I thought that I was in Heaven

But I was sure surprised

Heaven help me, I didn�t see it

The devil in your eyes

--Elvis, Devil In Disguise

A/N: I have the feeling I�ve unnerved some people *evil grin*, but I could be wrong. I�ve also made a fair amount of Gaara and NaruGaara fans against their will *SUPER evil grin* and have somehow made people hate Sasuke. I�m not sure how, but I did. I wasn�t trying to. I thought how to make it SasuNaru and a happy Gaara last Monday though; it�s gonna be�new.
In Ch.6, the Sasuke in Gaara�s cell was Naruto in disguise. No SasuGaara. To answer Bronze Eagle�s question: Sasuke does not know what happened to the village. He has an idea. He does not know. That was important for this chappie, so I really wanted to get that out.
Attraction is Vignette�s semi companion/sequel fic; people are asking me to continue that one, but that one continues here. I know I never stated that one in Vignette, but I�m trying to keep a low profile with Attraction anyway (I am paranoid). But I love my reviewers dearly; I try to deliver well.
I listened to Sade writing this. Yeah. And some Lilo and Stitch from Disney. Yep.
GO READ CH2! I�VE IMPROVED IT!

***
Attraction

By gelfling
gelfling8604@yahoo.com

//Thoughts//

::Invading thoughts::
***
Dear Diary, I know better than to simply assume a complete justification for my actions, but�What a week. What a great fuckin� week.

--Johnny The Homicidal Maniac, JTHM: Director�s Cut by Jhohen Vasquez
If you are the only one talking then it is a clue that no conversation is occurring and it is time to leave.

--Dogbert, Dilbert, Scott Adams
Nonsensical?! Yet you envy me! You wish to wipe my ass, butter my groin!!! Oh you hermaphroditic monkeys you speak with fool�s tongues!!! That�s a nice tie!!

--Happy Noodle Boy, JTHM: Director�s Cut by Johen Vasquez
***
It was a very good thing he couldn�t sleep anyway. With the way Gaara was just taking up his energy, it�d be a while before he could even walk straight. Of course�that wasn�t such a bad thing either.
Things must be up in hell outside by now, with all that land and stuff and opportunity, and not him or Gaara doing a thing to defend it or keep the other little ankle-biter�s mitts off of it, but Naruto didn�t really care about that either. An empire could function without some leadership for a coupays,ays, couldn�t it? Enough time for him to get himself back together. �Enough time to forget, and just enjoy the present.
Naruto opened his eyes muzzily, still pretty worn out but not at all sleepy. He had been having trouble sleeping for a while now, ever since that damned--thing, but�Gaara was slowly changing that. He couldn�t express how grateful he was for that, for the chance to sleep again; the gift he gave to Gaara was being given back to him, and he appreciated the irony with a slight smile.
Fingers caressed along his left cheekbone, the calluses on the thumb scratching against his whisker marks. The corner of Naruto�s mouth lifted lazily, and fingers ran along his lower lip.
Delicate, straw-like pieces of glass hung from the ceiling like icicles, and Naruto�s gaze wafted over them lazily. Most of Gaara-san�s sand was melted there; it wouldn�t be hard for him to get more, but it said something about how long they had been lodged up there. They both had a demon�s stamina and lust, and thankfully their regeneration abilities as well.
Naruto had some rather severe scars running down his back that were quickly becoming no more than new skin, bruises on his hips, shoulders, sometimes his neck and fading to obscurity; Gaara�s skin was a bit more impressive, mostly because of his pale skin color. He had bite marks lining his skin, especially deep ones around his neck, not much more than angry red semi-circles that faded by the hour.
Gaara of the Sand and ivory skin, with eyes the color of light jade in the darkness that seemed to glow with a light of their own, and hair a deep, deep impossible hue of red scarlet crimson that always looked a tangled and wild soft and twisted between his fingers. Gaara, who didn�t laugh or smile, but caught every small twitch and the slightest gesture, and responded to anything.
Blood had crested lightly over the sheets, sticky with semen and sweat, and Naruto shifted his shoulder blades, his skin brushing against Gaara�s. He smiled to himself.
//Life, is very, very, good.//
Warm, humid sensation covered his mouth, and Naruto leaned into it without hesitating, sighing softly through his nose, relaxed and feeling for one rare instant that he belonged. He laughed softly to himself, the vibration tingling Gaara�s lips.
Sanctuary.
Who would have guessed he would find it here?
***
Sasuke was awake.
Naruto had been shoving his left arm into his red duster outside of Gaara�s bedroom door�finally, but he�d be back pretty damn quick--when Temari nearly careened into him. He had grinned nastily to himself, unable to hold back.
He�d been �friendly� with nearly every girl on the compound, Temari alone excepted, nearly isolated from the whole of the female group. One might even say she had been discriminated against, the poor girl. Gaara got irritable and jealous whenever he saw them in the same room together not even talking. Naruto had thought it had been brotherly possessiveness. He hadn�t guessed it might have been jealously.
He didn�t hold back a snicker. He was feeling very good.
Temari hadn�t really cared.
Sasuke was awake. Sasuke was awake, and the staff had been told by Naruto-sama that he wasn�t to be hurt or touched so they were trying hard not to but he had already killed one woman and injured two men and if Naruto-sama didn�t come quite quickly things were going to get undoubtedly interesting very quickly.
Naruto had come quite quickly, and things really were as Temari had said. And now some of his people were back in the familiar old infirmary and Sasuke was taking another induced nap with a growing bump on the back of his head and another nasty gash along his arm.
Naruto moved him from his bedroom, and placed him in slightly more secure surroundings.
Good ole Sasuke-kun. You could always count on him for the fireworks, you most certainly could.
The castle-fortress had been wormed and developed into the moin iin itself; when Naruto came, he had done a little more renovating and a lot of discovering, but mostly had left everything as it was. It even had plumbing!
Naruto had moved him quite some distance underground, the air dead for years with solid stone all around. Of course the castle-fortress would have a dungeon, leaky old cellars fitted with bars, but they weren�t used too often. Sasuke had to be the first actual prisoner they�d taken in months.
Naruto relaxed against the far wall and watched Sasuke behind the bars, bruised and aching, half-asleep on his cell�s stone bunk roughly hewed out of the wall.
Black eyes opened, winced, and closed again. But Sasuke�s body itself didn�t move, and he studied his surroundings from beneath lowered lashes. There had been�
Pain. There had been a lot of pain. There still was, drumming on his arm bones but it was dulled now. His head ached and vision was blurred; he had been knocked unconscious. There had been�
Fire. Lots of fire; so much of it that it had browned his skin, scarred it. There had been ash in the air so thick he couldn�t breathe. And he had been angry. He had been so very angry that he hadn�t cared at all. There had been�
Fever. A bed. The smell of smoke and burnt flesh.
There had been that kid. That blonde kid, that stupid blonde kid, the one he didn�t want to remember. That he didn�t want to believe.
Some things weren�t meant to be.
What Sasuke needed was a vacation. What he got, was that stupid blonde kid smirking at him from far away being the first thing he saw when it was the last thing Sasuke never wanted to see at all. It grinned at his expression; the one in his eyes, Sasuke�s face was blank.
"So...I take you're still angry then?" Naruto asked politely, tone absolutely sincere and lips breaking out into an outrageous smile.
Sasuke didn't see reason to answer; wouldn't give him the satisfaction of reacting. Naruto lowered his head as he scratched his jaw.
"Kinda figured you might be, seemed pretty predictable. Big effing surprise right?�
Naruto coughed, and made a failing attempt to compose himself.
�The real question is: how angry are you really? And how long will you be angry? Are we talking lifetime 'I hate you I'll kill you', angry or are we talking a month of PMSing and 'You jerk that was my ice cream cone' angry? It's kind of important to me, see, so if we could just get over the particulars and get straight down to it, everything could be done a little sooner."
Naruto scratched idly at his collar, before scratching at his knuckles and wiping off some invisible substance from hand, his eyes never leaving Sasuke's. He wasn't moving a whole lot, but he did have his energy and strength back, even if they were cringingly raw and new. He wasn't worried, but Naruto was still on guard.
�Where am I?�
�What do you want?�
�What are you going to do?�
�Let me go!�
Naruto was familiar with the usual menu of prisoners. It wasn�t really what he dealt with, wasn�t something that was necessary. When he wanted something, he took it. Simple as that.
Waiting was for other people.
Naruto was not other people; he never had been, even when he had tried, and he never would be. He no longer cared. He was himself and he was power undeniable, both the mental and physical. He had no equal. Even Gaara, good old Gaara-kun with all his rn srn superiority and natural dominance, knew that. Neither human nor demon was a threat to him any longer; he was a superb hybrid of both, unlike anything the world had seen before. In Hell and Earth, Naruto could rein supreme, a dark god among men. And all it took was a knot and a twitch.
Sasuke would never see that. He was�as always�gloriously blind.
This had been the second time Sasuke had attacked Naruto with intention to kill.
The first time they had been children, and that had been out of jealousy and frustration, not angry at Naruto but at the strength Naruto had, the potential he represented and Sasuke didn't have. The power Sasuke needed and the dobe just fooled around with carelessly. The second time, just now, had been out of real anger, real grief. A gnashing cold empty grief, frantic and sad, saying No, no, this wasn't true this wasn't true!!
Deep grief. Deep betrayal, deep loss.
Silence still. Cold, dead, angry silence, since the moment Sasuke had awoken on cold stone in room with bars and with a creature he didn�t want to recognize. A creature grinning at him, leering at him, with painfully familiar blue eyes and flaxen hair he knew to be as soft as flannel beneath his fingers, wild and alive.
Sasuke didn�t answer. Sasuke wouldn�t answer.
Naruto simply narrowed his eyes, a lazy smile still on his lips that he didn�t feel.
�You know, as much as you love to play the hero,� Naruto began slowly, as if reading off an invisible script. �That isn�t going to work here.�
�You�re alone here, you know. I�sincerely doubt, that there�s going to be any rescue mission of any kind, because, let�s face it,� Naruto shrugged, eyes met, held, neither showing anything but dead emptiness.
�Everyone�s dead.�
Naruto waited for a reaction. He continued to speak slowly, as if to an idiot or child.
�I know. You can trust me on that one. And, really, you don�t have the power to get out of here all on your own. I�m sure that bites into�some type of pride or whatever that you have but� That�s the truth.�
Naruto�s eyes were limp, and surprisingly candid.
�So�while I�m, absolutely certain, that you�d love to go down fighting�To go down in glory and flames rather than give in�That�s really�not what�s going to happen. If you die here, no one will know. If you die here, no one will also care,� Naruto added with a faint wolfish smile.
The fox-boy lowered his head and laughed at a private joke.
�All your life�all your stupid life you�ve chased isolation, because you were too good for other people. And now I�ve�quite nearly given it to you. Isolation. From inferiors�� Naruto was grinning devilishly to himself, eyeseyes focused on nothing. �What I�m not giving, you, is a choice.�
�You will cooperate, as I demand. You will do, as I say. You were spared because I chose to do so, not because I need you and certainly not because I couldn�t kill you.�
�I killed the Hokage, Sasuke.� Naruto�s smile was oily, syrupy sour and deadly. �I killed the Sennin. I could probably even�� Naruto trailed off on purpose, dipping for a moment into Sasuke�s mind. The silence flipped around like a coin.
��even take care of your little problem, should I choose. Since it might be a while before you can do it on youn.� n.�
Now he had his full attention again; it had started to waver as Sasuke began looking for a way out, began thinking constructively. He wasn�t here to think constructively. He was here to keep Naruto amused.
It wasn�t an interested audience so much as an angry one. He had touched a nerve; it was impossible to bring that subject up without touching a nerve, so Naruto hadn�t bothered.
�If ever you can,� Naruto finished.
Eyes like clean obsidian, like an ink kanji portrait on white rice paper with every curve just artistically, aesthetically pleasing, never too elaborate or too much. Sasuke�s outer beauty was moderation, conservation, while his inner beauty was fire and brutal emotions.
�What happened?�
His voice was still hoarse, wet and dry at the same time. No equilibrium yet; not in his mind and not in his body. He�d be sick for a while to come. But not so sick as to be a problem for Naruto. And he was thinking constructively again. He wouldn�t take Naruto on his word; wouldn�t take anyone on his or her word. He did want to know what Naruto wanted him to know though.
Naruto frowned, his lips pursing and twisting in opposite directions.
�Oooohh�That�s so much more complicated than it looks. But I guess, you could say that I�kind of bought my freedom. Eternal. Dating all the way back before you born Sasuke, I�ve bought my freedom from all the way back there.�
Naruto waited; Sasuke kept playing along. Good. It�d be too quickly for him to go out on his own right now.
�You said��
Naruto skimmed through his mind like an albatross over the ocean, picking up the stray fish. He was studying the door lock now, as well as the width of the bars and style of hinges.
�That pe die died? Yeah, they did�Nearly the whole village in fact,� and Naruto was deeply gratified to see a flash of emotion on Sasuke�s face, in his eyes. He wanted a camera to catch that look; why hadn�t he brought a camera? �Maybe more, maybe less� I am thinking more, though.�
Sasuke stared at him piercingly, even with his weakness.
�I don�t believe you.�
�Sasuke,� Naruto put a hand over his heart. �You wound me. Truly. First I try to keep you safe and then you shove a katana straight through my heart,� Naruto thumped his chest again. �I�m hurt.�
::Really hurt.::
Pain exploded in the corner of his neck, and Sasuke closed his eyes and winced. //Fire. The Fox Demon had created the fire--//
�The fox was me, baby.�
---and Sasuke had seen the flames. The village. How was the village? They weren�t dead; they couldn�t be dead. They beat the Kyubbi once, they could do it again. They weren�t as weak as that. It wasn�t as simple as that.
Sasuke opened his eyes again, hand clutching the junction of his neck, fingers pressing into his skull to get rid of the pain. Naruto was on his side of the bars, Sasuke noticed. Inside the cell. Still far away but� How had he gotten inside? When had he gotten inside?
�They beat the Kyubbi. They didn�t beat me. You know that.�
Naruto was still leaning backwards this time against the bars, arms crossed over his chest and leather red duster, blonde hair cut at uneven lengths, some strands hanging over his eyes but most of it hacked backwards behind his ears. He was dressed again in old beaten gray clothes, with strapped up scuffed black boots crossed over one leg. It was his face though that got Sasuke�s attention.
His eyes were pale, regular blue, but very hard and blank, almost offensively blank. The scratch marks were still on his cheeks, and he wasn�t smiling.
//�that smell. That smell is him. That burning�// Sasuke lowered his eyes, flexed his sleeping fingers and felt them tingle. Like burnt cinnamon and greasy blood, fried up nasty-like. //He was the burning. Burnt human flesh. He still smells like that, burnt blood. Why? How the fuck did�//
//�he�s lying.//
Naruto said nothing.
��Where�s Sakura?�
�She�s dead too.� Naruto licked his finger and hissed, crushing his hand to a fist with a clapping sound. �Out like a candle.�
�Really.�
�Yep.�
�Sakura?�
�The one and the same. Wear�s a lot of pink. Dead and cold and done. Why? You guys didn�t get married without telling me, did you?�
Sasuke didn�t answer, just stared at the offensively blank eyes that didn�t move or breathe. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
No remorse, no emotion at all. Fake amusement. Naruto had loved her like she was�something really special. Super special. The adoration had been obscene, immense. The blonde was crazy, but not that crazy. There would be something left over, even if it was only the thrill of the kill. There�d be something. What he was saying�didn�t seem real.
//There�s no reason for him to lie though. He thinks he has the control. No real reason to lie or persuade� �Is there? Does he still need something? �Possibly. Maybe.//
Sasuke was thinking, but Naruto was having some trouble following it. It was like watching trout in a river; you knew it was there and where it was, but it was still bloody hard to see.
Sasuke made up his mind. He still didn�t believe him, Naruto noted.
The moment wasn�t as explosively angry as Naruto had wanted; Sasuke had probably done that on purpose.
�Yeah. That was you. You did kill them.�
�Didn�t believe me? Not even your own eyes?� Naruto asked coyly, tilting his head to the side, eyes suddenly bright. �Don�t tell me you tried to protect me, did you?�
//Again? After all this time? Everything I�ve done�Would you do that, Sasuke? You�d do that for me? Say you would, please, say you would.//
�From what?� Sasuke asked with a slight frown. �Didn�t give you the credit you could do it. Not on your own.� Sasuke�s eyes narrowed. �You still haven�t.�
//Bastard!//
�Haven�t I? Don�t you think I have?�

Sasuke was such a jerk. Even injured and locked up he was still a jerk and still so damn composed, thinking that the whole world belonged to him but�

God it felt good to be talking to him naturally like this, not all stiff like he was�like they had to be, like they had pretended to be�before, but just natural banter. Fighting naturally, as easily as the air flowing into his lungs. This was his Sasuke. Everyone else would change, go away and be someone else but Sasuke would always be his Sasuke.
�No.�
Naruto waited impatiently for further explanation. Sasuke cracked his neck as he sat up gingerly, and his voice sounded terrible. Still wet and slightly sticky.
Naruto smiled knowingly, but he didn�t really like what he knew. He wasn�t nearly as in control as he liked to be, but that also was expected. �So�are you going to play, or no?�

Sasuke paused long enough to look at him.
//Fuck you.//
�Drop the illusion,� he said out loud. �I know this isn�t real.�
Naruto raised his eyebrow elegantly again.
�I can see through them, remember? And I can smell the blood in the air.�
Naruto absorbed this and rolled his head around on his shoulders for a few seconds, thinking about that idea and enjoying making Sasuke wait and fume silently. Sasuke didn�t like not being in control. He didn�t like being condescended-to, but he was very good at doing it. Naruto laughed softly in his throat, and heard Sasuke�s teeth grind scarcely audible from the strain.
Naruto smiled to himself, before nodding and dropping the illusion, opening his hands to Sasuke�s palms up like a stage magician.
There wasn�t too much of a difference; there was rust on the bars, and the lighting was dimmer, nearly completely dark. The stone showed wear and tear, and there were shackles drilled into the right wall. The door switched sides and style. But Sasuke had been wrong about the blood.
�Blood Sasuke? It�s funny, but we usually don�t take prisoners. Usually don�t have the need for them. You�re one of the few.�
Sasuke was not impressed. And he was too angry to�show his anger, so to speak. And while anger was good and tasty, it wasn�t exactly what Naruto was looking for. He was getting sarcastic. Few things were more irritating than a sarcastic Sasuke.
//Prisoner? Ooh�Big fucking change from before. At least now it�s official.//
Naruto sighed exasperated. This probably called for some explanation. He shrugged, eyes tilted towards the corner before jumping straight in without preamble or provocation.
Sasuke beat him to it. Naruto meant to scream, but bit his tongue instead.
�So you killed them.�
�Yep.�
�Just felt like it?�
�No,� Naruto began and Sasuke cut him off naturally before he could explain further. Naruto bit his tongue again.
�You had a reason?�
�Yeah Sasuke, I kinda did!�
�Wow. I hadn�t expected something like you to bother.�
Naruto made a point of not letting his emotions show at all. He slightly failed, and Sasuke picked it up. That�s what Sasuke was aiming for, trying to turn the tables or at least make himself an equal, and ebony eyes were scraping over his face in not a nice way. Huh. Idiot.
//�Something like you? I�m a something now, am I? Really? Oh you little fucker�I�m going to rip your spine out one day, I really am.//
"I just got tired of living on the edge; not in and not out. Too unnatural to be human and too weak to be a demon. After some thirteen, fourteen years of trying to get in, and they not letting me, I just chose to get out. I chose."
Sasuke seemed to laugh. Or sneer. Or both.
//�Weak?� Nice word choice; couldn�t have chosen better.// Sasuke looked up at him. //You can hear me, can�t you?//
So�Sasuke still didn�t know exactly what he could do yet. He only had an idea, only guesses�pretty damn accurate guesses, but only guesses as they were. Good. Good and bad, but still pretty good.
"Huh. And the fuck with everyone else, right? You always were selfish� The hell with Iruka, the hell with Kakashi. All the others, the ones who tried to help you, they just get swept away like everything else, right?"
"No, you get to live. It�s a pretty small amount of people anyway."
�So some did escape. Fucking hurrah.�
�Awwe, how cute,� Naruto smiled endearingly. �Sasuke can actually care about other people; this is just the time for hellish miracles isn�t it? But you�re right, you�re right. I mean, you�re alive aren�t you? I�m sure other people got out okay if they were smart enough.�
Sasuke seemed to smile acidicly except he didn�t really smile at all as he stretched out a little on his bunk, getting his muscles limber. His lips didn�t move right; barely moved at all. Still thinking very constructively, by the look of things.
"And that makes it better, does it? Since we get to live while our home and everyone we know goes up in smoke, we�re supposed to be happy because we get to live?" Sasuke was actually laughing. Laughing, the little bastard.
"I don�t expect you to do anything. I�m not asking for forgiveness or understanding. It was either this way or kill the lot of you, and I didn�t want to do that."
�Wasn�t planning to,� Sasuke shot in, placing both feet on the ground, leaning forward on his knees.
�I�ll kill you eventually.� That was a voice neither recognized at all. It wasn�t Naruto�s voice; wasn�t Sasuke�s. It was old and flat; had ringing harmonics in it like the primeval shadow growl. It was audible tooth and fang. It wasn�t Naruto�s voice. He knew that. But he had felt his lips move�
Sasuke didn�t look scared.
The hairs on the back of Naruto�s neck rose. He looked him square in the eye. He really wanted to bang him into the ground right now, but he had started it. He�d damn well finish it; Sasuke wasn�t going to keep him from doing that.
�I�m a demon Sasuke; you�ve known that for a while now. Think you can wrap your mind around that!� Naruto screamed, surges of energy snapping along the floor and through Sasuke�s hair in splurges of static light bursting through the darkness. Bits of metal and dust on the floor danced from the sudden magnetic energy, bounced against the soles of Sasuke�s bare feet.
�They made me what I am! The demon, the fox�they stuck it in me! They didn�t know what to do with it�they didn�t know anything! So they stuck it in a kid to see what would happen and what the fuck? Why, it happened to be me!� Naruto shouted excitedly.
Sasuke wasn�t even watching.
�I wasn�t born like this,� Naruto said a tad quieter, with a bit more control he soon lost. �They designed me this way! My destiny, before I got say, �Hey! I don�t want to be hated!� and they chose for me. �They got what they earned, so fuck the hell off with it.�
Sasuke failed to react; that�s what the fox was fishing for anyway, reactions. He flexed his fingers; no broken bones.
�I wanted to kill so I did. Conquest! It�s as simple as that. I know you understand that like the back of your hand, since, hell Sasuke!� Naruto was grinning maniacally bright now. �You�re a traitor too, same as me! Problem is, you didn�t have the guts or the power to go as far as I did or damn�the world would have found its Dark Angel a lot sooner than it found it�s Demon King! Don�t need to be so damn transparent!�
�What the hell are you talking about?�

�If you were me you would have done the same. Don�t lie; you know you would have. You nearly did; that�s why you became Orochirmoro�s bitch right?�
�That was a long time ago. You�d never understand something like that��
�Think so? I think you�re lying, Pretty-Boy, lying pretty damn badly! You�re not as tragic as all your fangirls think you are. You�re actually pretty boring.�
�I think you�re fishing for similarities that aren�t there. That�d never be there. I�m nothing like you, not now. Not ever. �Not even an idiot could mistake that. You don�t know a damn thing about me.�
�You lie! You silly bean! You�re jealous,� Naruto strung the word out softly. �Jealous because I could and you couldn�t! You don�t believe in justice any more than I do you hypocrite!� and Naruto was laughing while he said this. That was the strange thing. He was laughing; but from what?
Sasuke�s life expectancy was shooting down with every laugh Naruto coughed up, but that didn�t stop him from shoving another knife in. They were hurting each other, and Sasuke knew it and he just watched. He wanted to hurt that thing that dared call itself someone he knew. And in his world, it didn�t matter how much how he got hurt; partly because he didn�t care.
�Of you? Don�t be stupid. I value myself more than that.�
�Nyah, you�re just being a bitch again,� Naruto shined his nails against his coat. �Bet this really bites into your pride, doesn�t it? Knowing that once again�� Naruto looked up, and Sasuke physically held himself back, tried to block his ears out. He even looked away.
�You were too slow. Someone beat you to the punch line again, Pretty-Boy--�
Sasuke startled.
//Let it go.//
�--and that someone was me. Ow! Fuck. I bet that hurt real good. Too bad I didn�t see your face when it happened. Would�ve made my day real nice.�
//�Breathe. Just breathe.//
�Che�� was all Sasuke said, lowering his head and rubbing his arm absently, reviewing the number of steps from where he was to where the door was. To where the blonde kid was. Figuring how it it would take him to get there. How hard it would be to knock him down. �I never wanted to kill senselessly. Not innocents.�
�It wasn�t senselessly. And they weren�t innocents.�
Sasuke seemed to laugh again, that bitter cough that was his cheap substitute for a laugh. �What would you know about it? Aren�t you a demon? Don�t all us humans look the same to you? Like you would even care, stupid�� Sasuke just shook his head side to side again, while Naruto watched silently and seethed invisibly.
��Idiot.�
"It really is all about me. About what I want,� Naruto countered too quickly, too softly. �Power doesn�t go to those who deserve it, Sasuke; it goes to those that can stand it but I don�t think you�ll ever understand that... After living in that hell, I can stand anything."
Pause. Naruto tilted his head to the side as he considered further.
"Even your hatred,� he stated coldly. �Even Iruka�s and anybody else�s. Can�t help thinking that you�re a little jealous of me. I did do what you always wanted to.�
"No.� was the curt, definite, finite, reply. Sasuke could be cruel, he knew, but he didn�t enjoy it. Not like these monsters did. �In your dreams."
Naruto smiled grimly, dryly.
"That�s right. My dreams command reality, Sasuke, they command anything."
Sasuke sneered.
"No. It�s just a better lie than most. Gaara told me already. Did you suddenly turn fag when you went insane, or was this a longer affliction?"
Naruto paused, and seemed to really consider Sasuke for once.
"Gaara told you that? My, I�m going to have a talk with him, aren�t I? I don�t know. Just further exploration my freedom of choice�found I liked more things than just ramen. Who knew, right?"
Sasuke was sullenly silent after that as was Naruto, leaning back, with a faint smug expression still on his face. The air was thick with thought.
//He won�t actually try that again, will he?//
A dry, humorless chuckle broke out from Naruto�s throat. Sasuke looked down, massaging one wrist.
::come::
The command was like a silent boom in the middle of his chest, making his vision ripple like waves. Sasuke�s head pounded briefly.
�Oh, yeah Sasuke that happened. That thing you thought you dreamed happened, which kinda makes me wonder what else you dream with me...Hentai. For how long has Sasuke-kun thought about little me that way? I wonder. I can get into your mind, you know.�
Naruto smiled foxily, his eyes narrow slits of black with a tiny hint of summer blue.
�But yeah,� he continued. �You really did orgasm right in my lap and no, you�re not as good a kisser as all the girls said you were. �But then they wouldn�t know, would they?�
Naruto broke out into a sharp smirk without laughing, voice a throaty rasp and his eyes narrowed.
�No need to blush like that. It�s not like I taped it or anything, but I thought about it. Decided not to; don�t say I never did anything for you.�
�Nothing good,� Sasuke whispered, nearly silently. Naruto had to strain to hear him. The angrier Sasuke got, the quieter he got, and then everything suddenly exploded in your face like a laser-edged bomb. They were getting close to that moment.
::come::
Naruto harrumphed dismissively in his throat. Sasuke could feel his blood burn and the silent boom hurt his temples.

�Got your rocks off. Maou bou beg. Made you scream my name over and over and over again while I tasted every bit of you that you shoved in my mouth. I really expected seducing an Ice Angel a lot harder than that but�I guess the Angel�s got secrets he hasn�t told me about.�
::come::
Sasuke pressed himself further into the wall, a muscle twitch developing in the corner of his left eye, and his fingers clenching and unclenching. His mind was twitching. He didn�t like it. He didn�t recognize it.
�It didn�t accomplish anything. You wasted your time,� Sasuke whispered again, clutching his wrists. He wasn�t summoning the chidori. It looked like it, but he wasn�t.
�Did I? Really think so little of yourself? Damn Sasuke,� and the fox said his name on purpose, on purpose the bastard! �You weren�t that bad. Not very focused but that�s excusable. I mean, I had fun, you had fun�hell, even Gaara had fun watching us for God knows how long, and he hardly has any fun at all. Fun! You know?�
::come::
Sasuke swallowed. His fingers moving on his wrists were hypnotic now.
::Come::
He hurt. He hurt all over. His head. His heart. Couldn�t think. Couldn�t feel.
React.

React.

React.
Tilting his head slightly, Naruto leaned in for the kill.
�I�ve had worse, if that makes you feel better. Not many as good-looking, but I�ve had worse.�
::Come!::
Sasuke doubled over and let out a choked gasp, held it, his body one tense taught guitar string, and then just fell forward casually to the floor as Naruto released him.
Naruto raised one eyebrow before rolling his eyes disgustedly. There was a severe streak of insanity or masochism in the Uchiha bloodline, he was sure. Sasuke had resisted to his little probing so damn hard he�d passed out.
Naruto walked over and knelt beside him, turning the body over to look at his face. So damn busy avoiding his�affectionate advances, he probably didn�t realize he had just handed himself over on a silver platter.
//Sasuke, Sasuke�What are we going to do with you?//
Naruto cupped his hand and gobbed some spit into it, which he spread on Sasuke�s cheek, a little memoir and stimulus for when he woke up, trailing his thumb along his jaw line and absently touching his bottom lip. He considered ripping Sasuke�s shirt and taking his pants, but decided against it. He could kiss him too, but�nah, there was time for that. When he was awake.
Sasuke wasn�t that stupid, and provoking him too hard would come out badly.
Standing up, Naruto walked out the door and prepared to slam it, absently wondering why the iron metal had caused such burns on Gaara�s skin when it was just ordinary metal to him. Unless it cut him, it didn�t mean anything to him. Still�very unusual.
Hands thrust out between the bars to grab Naruto�s face and slam his skull backwards with a skin-smashing crack against the metal. The butt of an ankle hammered into the center of his chest, an elbow driving into his chin as he tried to curl up. He was thrown at the ground and kicked in the groin hard. Was that his pelvis crunching or what?
Everything couldn�t have taken more than 6 seconds.
//Shi--//
Nails ripped down his skin, metal notching down his rib bones and there was a shout of pain in his ear, a foot neatly puncturing the soft side of his neck and punting his head like a football, snapping it over the vertebrae brainstem, to smash his face over and over again into the stone wall.
//Where the hell--//
Metal slid into the back of Naruto�s neck, the point sliding out the front, and then was yanked out.
//�Did he get his strength?//
He hurt in various different places. It was the wetness in his throat that got him worried. He dimly registered the cell door slamming
In confused demanding pain and acute humiliation, Naruto closed his eyes and struck out angrily, blindly.
Sasuke screamed out loud---stumbled in hun, un, landing heavily against the wall, still trying to stagger along.
But now Naruto knew where he was. Naruto struck out again, but with purpose.
Sasuke screamed high and bloodcurdling, like the skin was being ripped off his back, like the plasma in his living brain cells was being heated to a slow boil, because it definitely felt that way. He fell hard to his knees, sobbing, and clutched hard at his head and curled up.
Naruto usually attacked by letting the nightmares out, and even though he had a brief idea, he didn�t really know what Sasuke kept in the darkness.
A dark bloody humid mental backwash hit Naruto hard, made his stomach lurch anxiously and with a wrench he cut the connection.
He kept still though, only moving a little so that everything healed in mainly the right way and listened hard to his body. Gradually, the wetness in his neck was no longer quite so wet, and Naruto tried to get up, feeling his throat carefully. The skin was raw, soft, but it was there.
In a gust, Naruto released the breath he had been holding for too long. There was cold sweat on his forehead.
His chest hurt funny like it was too tight--Hah! With the way Sasuke kicked, it was probably two sizes too small. The back of his skull was sharp angry howl he was efficiently blocking out, and his face was bloodied but healed where Sasuke had grabbed his face with his nails. His shirt was in tatters; there was blood on that and his neck. He wiped that off absently. He ached in worrying ways.
//Shit. Someone was angry. Maybe I poked too hard.//
Sounds of choking and crying were coming from the hallway. Naruto snickered despite the pain, despite the danger.
//Yay for me! �geez that sounds good.//
He crumpled back on the floor. His pelvis. Gosh darn it, his pelvis. What the heck had Sasuke done to his pelvis? Geez, that, that, that�Man! Naruto settled back on the floor, closed his eyes, listened, and waited patiently for himself to heal. Never took too long anyway.
There was a faint burning, tingling sensation in his hips.
Wearily, and by degrees, Naruto got to his feet, and reached into his jacket for the key, noticing that there was some blood on his sleeve where Sasuke had grabbed him and inside where the idiot had shoved his hand in. Hah�so even his clothes were cranky with Sasuke. Typical.
//�Go leather accessories! Chew on the asshole�s skin, my L.L. Bean baby.//
Producing the key and opening the door, Naruto sniffed the air before strolling off in the direction Sasuke had run.
At least he had the brains to run; well, actually any idiot would have run after an attack like that, but it was kind of surprising that Sasuke had the strength to run stored up in him, to actually attack him that way, to actually fake a mind lock. Naruto hadn�t been real sure, but that really was pretty impressive in the amount of time Sasuke had taken to perceive his abilities and work out a diversion. If he�d hit anyone else like he�d hit Naruto, he might have killed him, especially when he stabbed the neck.
//What a guy, my old Sasuke-kun. What an absolute idiot.// Against his will and throbbing head, Naruto had to grin.
You really had to give him some credit though. It took guts to try and beat up the boss and run away from the demon dungeons, without even knowing where the backdoor was. He was running blind, and he probably knew it. Sasuke and the others had always called Naruto the reckless one, but Sasuke was just as bad, if not worse.
Naruto shoved his hands in his pockets as he strolled along, searching out Sasuke�s mind and his location, checking to make sure the idiot hadn�t committed suicide out of desperation or something or gotten his hands on some iron.
Had to give him a head start, after all.
***
Sasuke raced onward with abandon, streaking alongside the walls and sometimes the ceiling like a silent shadow with bones and pounding migraine and twisted stomach. He was actually�so sick that he couldn�t hate Naruto properly.
He did hate Naruto, and wanted very much to do something very painful and detailed manner with many slender sharp and pointy slivers of rusty cold iron, and tear his eyes out with barbeque prongs. Once he wasn�t so sick. Once he was positive the shadows weren�t alive, and touching his ankles.
His head was�good god his head. It was terrible. It was worse than a nightmare and a little like Hell. He had no idea what that had been but�damn. Damn it all, but that had hurt.
Sasuke wasn�t trying to run out of the castle; he was pretty sure that�s where he was, and he couldn�t chance it, not while he was so disoriented. Best thing was to find a corner somewhere, get armed quickly //Find the armory// lock it up, wait to see if the trail gets cold and then either get the hell out of there or find the Demon Bastard and kill him, if he wasn�t dead already. Sasuke hoped he was, hoped dearly. But if he wasn�t, that wasn�t problem either. He would. But not now.
He had thrown up some meters back. His stomach had been empty; his throat felt like it had been ripped off and tanned with acid. He was still sick. Something wanted to come out but there was nothing left to come out. But while that was crunchingly painful, the pain in his head splitting, dizzy, and his knees slightly bloody with an overall ache in his whole body, he wasn�t really worried about that. What he was worried about was the cold feeling he was getting in his spine.
He was being followed, he knew that. Normally, this wouldn�t have worried him. But now, for some reason, it worried him, and Sasuke wasn�t stupid enough to dismiss his instincts so quickly. He didn�t really�he didn�t recognize this�fox. Demon. He didn�t know him, not enough to safely predict him. It. It was, as Shikamaru would have put it, a tiresome foolishness and the best strategy would be to run away.
Besides.
Sasuke didn�t want to look at him.
He ran past a corner, a shadow clattering straight ahead in front of him noisily in his own image while the real Sasuke clung to the wall and stopped breathing and waited.
He was being followed, and enthusiastically. Problem was, it didn�t feel familiar. He didn�t know who or what it was, not in a place like thiut hut he wasn�t armed, only with a skinny knife he had swiped off of that stupid jacket and his body still�
Claws swiped at only his stomach cleaving some skin and blood because he had dodged backwards in time, and Sasuke gathered his heart from his throat and chakra to his hands and let the fire fly.
His body throbbed like jackhammer, hot wetness oiling his abdomen but Sasuke had to admit�it felt really good just to beat the crap out of something no matter what it was.
White light blazed in the hallway as the fireball flew with a rattling of wings. Sasuke caught a brief glance of what was following him. His eyebrow quirked.
//Beating the hell out of whatever it is under all that fur.//
***
Panting and slightly bloody, Sasuke barely managed to slide to stop at the end of the corridor with his sandals gritting on the stone, red swirling Sharingan eyes strapping on to the two startled men in front of him.
//Oh fuck.//
They had both seen him. Sasuke held his little bloodied knife tightly.
The near one was pencil thin and fishlike, with sallow skin and spiked green hair and about seven different fingers on either deformed hand, each about nine inches long and spidery looking. The other wasn�t as interesting looking, just a bald human mountain designed for breaking things, most probably bones.
Sasuke snarled silently, teeth flaming white and eyes narrowed feline strips and turned his back to the wall, and hands spread out to either side readily, fingers open.
He didn�t have time for this shit!
His ears strained behind him. He couldn�t hear it. That would be good, but he hadn�t heard it to begin with. Silence didn�t mean anything, not to whatever-the-hell was following him.
The mountain-man turned his body to see him, but the fish man took a quick glance and put a hand to the bigger one�s stomach. Oblong murky yellow eyes met Sasuke�s�lasciviously. There was no other way to describe it. And the fishy-man was grinning too. The mountain-man glanced down at Sasuke�s wrist, and stepped back.
Sasuke glanced down at his wrist and �
--Pain shot through Sasuke�s right arm, claws scratching almost adoringly at his bandages before they�
�Don�t!� the mountain-man roared, the sound shattering like an explosion.
Pressure fled Sasuke�s arm, his back clung to the wall while he staggered and tried to get all three into his vision range while still having space to maneuver. His chakra was low again //FUCK!// and he was bleeding even more. Wow! //Give me a fucking medal, I can bleed! Shit!//
At least he finally got a clear picture now of his attacker. It looked�vaguely catlike, sort of human, with spotted dark brown shorthair on its�ninja instinct noted the chest�on her body, elongated ears and a very slender tail. And claws. Sharp, long claws, tinted pink with Sasuke�s own blood splattered over her face with fangs and cat whiskers and eyes.
Sasuke had gutted her along one shoulder; he was proud of that. He hadn�t had any idea what he was fighting, but he still got a cut in. It had hurt her too from the way she was holding it.
//Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Three of them. Fuck.//
�You�re dog food now,� the mountain-man rumbled.
The fishy man snickered wetly.
�Mine!� the cat-thing actually�hissed, a scratchy hollow shriek, more bizarre than frightening. But then she had very long claws and brilliant fangs, muscles rippling under the fur and scattered denim clothing. She didn�t really need a scary voice, she had very sharp claws.
//Sakura is wandering around with these things�//
//�Where is she? He wouldn�t�he wouldn�t let them�//
//She can fight. But against things like these?//
�Lookit his wrist, stupid. Ain�t gonna be �nough of you to fill a fuckin� spoon,� the mountain man rumbled out again in the same thoughtful monotone.
The men //?// had looked at his wrists too. They had looked and they hadn�t done anything.
//What the hell?//
Sasuke looked at his own wrist; there was his arm, there was his hand at the end, and there in between them was his wrist bandaged up and slightly smoking from the fireball was a braided red leather bracelet tied around it. The bracelet didn�t belong to him.
The cat woman slapped her hands over her mouth, eyes wide. Fishy made a sucking sound; Sasuke realized it was laughing. It�she�the Cat, whatever, snarled at the fishy thing wrinkling her nose, but the wide-eyed fearful look didn�t leave her, and she turned to Sasuke, slightly angry, slightly afraid, and with cold calculating look that he recognized all too easily. He�d seen it in the mirror enough.
�He was loose,� was the funky hollow hiss.
�So?� rumbled Mt. Monosyllabic.
Sasuke felt distinctly sick. And like laughing at the same time and taking a nap; they were arguing over his accessories. Maybe they didn�t like red here. But the jacket that�
More importantly, Sasuke could feel a little sizzle of energy beneath his palms. Feline eyes tried to swallow him, take up all his attention with that cat-like intensity and Sasuke chanced a glimpse off to the side, in time to see the big guy step forward like an earthquake.
�Don� touch him Tina,� Mt. Talkative rumbled out again. She hissed at him�really hissed at him�before turning to look back at Sasuke. He caught a hint of something less lethal in her eyes, something helpless and scared.
It was like bomb falling. Sasuke felt the temperature get cold.
�Why�s everyone standing around for? I miss something?�
Both Fishy and the Mountain straightened visibly, the cat�Tina, looking like she had been shot. She didn�t turn around. Sasuke�s lips curled backwards.
//Shit. Still alive. I�m not surprised. I wish I was.//
�Problems Vincent?�
Naruto stood casually a good distance from all the excitement, blood gone from his neck but shirt still in strips, hands shoved in his pockets with a toothy bright smile on his lips and his eyes�
Sasuke looked away sharply, and felt his cheeks heat up.
�No, milord. We were sssimply relieving the morning ssshhhift of their duty, sir,� the Fishy man�Vincent--whispered in a quiet oily hiss, inclining his neck in greeting. Sasuke thought he heard an eastern accent in the lilt.
//Milord?//
�Then why are you still there.�
It wasn�t a question. Sasuke�s eyes hardened, and tilted his eyes back towards Naruto. His smile wasn�t so blinding, but his eyes hadn�t changed at all. He had heard that voice a few times in his life; not often, and never peacefully.
//�gangster. Nothing more.//
�Nothing, milord. We are departing�asss we ssspeak,� Vincent answered respectfully with a quick, elegant old-fashioned bow and turned on his heel, the Mountain already heading down the corridor, out of sight.
Naruto watched them go, his face still frozen in that kly kly amused expression that didn�t meet his eyes. Sasuke was watching the Cat though. He could hear her heart beating from where she was.
Purposely, perhaps even cruelly, Naruto let the silence stretch out.
�Christina.�
Only through the Sharingan did Sasuke follow her movements as she spun on her heel and fell to one knee and hand, a knight�s kneeling position. But her head was laid out stretched, showing her neck clearly. And it looked like she might have been crying. Sasuke could see her sweat from where he was.
//�?//
�Naruto-sama, lord, I did not know I swear I did not recognize him! �I never would have interfered had I but known, lord I swear! I did not mean offense, at all, lord, please, I did not think and I did not know and I just thought that maybe it was��
�What?� Naruto broke in.
//�Oh the fuck? What?//
The Cat Thing seemed to falter pretty bad after that. Whatever she had been holding on to before she lost now. Christina swallowed hard, and she seemed to slump into the floor. Her voice was still inhumanely scratchy, thin, but there was an imploring note sobbing in there Sasuke couldn�t even imagine, not even after hearing it.
�Milord I did not�I��
Naruto wasn�t looking at Sasuke, but he very much doubted he could run from this cleanly. His eyes turned to look at the end of the hall anyway. How many other things did he have like her in here? Sasuke�s wounds throbbed. Enough to cause a problem for him, likely. But not enough to stop him.
Straight brown tufts of hair fell about her ears like a lion�s man vibrated because she was trembling, while Naruto was decidedly studying her neck in silence, absolutely oblivious to whatever she was going through.
�Christina,� he said gently, �I want to speak to you later. Don�t go too far.�
Naruto spoke quietly, and without inflection. She still winced through, Sasuke noticed, head nearly lifting up to look at Naruto and either fight or�no, probably to beg, Sasuke guessed. And she didn�t do either. Just walked backwards, skulking out towards the opening without ever turning her back to Naruto and as soon as she reached the other corridor she was gone as if she had never been there at all.
Sasuke was clutching his wrist as he watched her go.
//That was�//
//What the hell just happened?//
�Hm? Oh, you were nearly killed Sasuke-kun. Again. But I�m sure you realized that already, you being the genius you are, right?� Naruto said in his normal boyish voice.
�What�s going to happen to her?�
Naruto grinned, and chuckled. �What do you care? You were ready to kill her, weren�t you?�
�You survived. I shoved a knife into your throat.�
�And you upset me very muchly Sasuke-kun. I think you�re not going to play with anymore sharp toys now.�
�You were supposed to die.�
Naruto actually stopped dead in his tracks, the saccharine veil burning away. It was like shooting down the sun, the change in the atmosphere, the sudden darkness. His eyes were bitter and cold, and Sasuke didn�t recognize him at all. Not even a little. He wasn�t smiling.
//This is what you really are. I�ve found your face demon.//
Icy metallic eyes narrowed, the voice a hard tight whisper and with an edge to it that Sasuke hadn�t heard before.
�Don�t dance with the devil, angel. I�ll tear your eyes out.�
Sasuke finally tore his eyes away from the empty corr, si, sifting over to meet Naruto�s eyes. He didn�t raise his voice.
�What do you want? What the hell is this about?�
�Isn�t it obvious? I thought it was obvious! Don�t you know yet, Sasuke-kun?� Naruto snapped back with a maniac grin, voice gratingly high. The sun burned viciously again in the hall.
�Answer the fucking question.�
�Geez, what a temper,� Naruto quipped pleasantly. �It was only a little scratch you know, she wouldn�t have killed you. She�s really nice once you get to know her�though that does look pretty bad��
Naruto had his hand under his chin thoughtfully as he studied Sasuke, an eyebrow raised critically. He made a disapproving sound in his throat and shook his head, striding over to Sasuke while the latter prepared to run.
�I�ll catch you, you know. Anywhere you go, I can follow you anywhere.�
The worst part was that Sasuke �t d�t doubt that was true. Sasuke kept his distance, circling a little. Naruto stopped coming towards him. Naruto sighed.
�I know you don�t like me. You don�t have to lie on my account but really Sasuke� How stupid can you be? You don�t even know where the fuck you�re going. And sweet little Christine already got you a nice one across your face�I can�t believe she really got you across your face, what the hell was she thinking! People! Shit!�
Sasuke darted away from Naruto�s hand, circling back to the empty hallway, putting as much distance between them as he could. Naruto scowled childishly.
�How long do you plan to run away?�

�When the fuck are you gonna answer my question?�

Naruto rolled his eyes and let his shoulders slump.
�Why am I here? Why do you care? When do we get lunch?� he yelled back in a enthusiastically tired voice, waving one hand around.
�Why the fuck doesn�t Sasuke take Prozac and leave the world alone; these are questions that stump the fucking world! Does anyone know! Does anyone care!� Naruto shouted with his hair standing at manic angles. �Probably not!�
�Don�t play games with me Naruto.�
�Oh, you remembered my name,� Naruto brightened up. He still shouted. �Finally! Fuck! How effing magnificently nice of you! Oh, and you�ll damn well,� his voice hardened, lowered, �do what I want you to Sasuke-kun. There are worst things here than Christina for you to worry about. Mostly me, but that�s nothing you can get away from anyway.�
::enough::
There was a small explosion between his ears, like a Molotov Cocktail going off inside his skull. The room was spinning. Sasuke�s stomach jumped, and he eyed the opening of the hall. It seemed very far away. His face was warm, and the sweat and sickness he had ignored since he woke up were coming full force. Naruto seemed to take up all of his vision. //Konoha�what the hell happened?//
�I hate to think what Vinny would have done to you. A real bastard that one, I don�t mind saying.�
�What do you want with me? Why me? Why out of everyone else, me?�
Sasuke�s hand slapped against the stone; he pushed himself back to standing. Pale lakes of Lethe seemed all Sasuke could see, and the stone felt refreshingly cool against his back. His wrists pained him suddenly because tanned fingers were squeezing the life out of them again, and his stomach wished to throw up again.
�Oh you�ll find out Sasuke-kun. You self-centered brat. You�ll find out. Eventually.�
Naruto�s lips crushed hard against his.
There ended Sasuke�s conscious state.
***
That would not be the last time Sasuke awoke to find the blonde kid smirking at him or poking him in his ribs while his hands were chained to the wall, over and over again until his fingers left very distinct bruises.
It would be the last time Sasuke got a clear answer for a long time.
His face hadn�t scarred over from Christina�s claws; his skin was smooth, unbroken, and he felt sick to the marrow of his bones.
A small bomb was regularly exploded in between his temples, so much now that the headache was constant, so much that he began to forgot what it was like when the walls and floor weren�t trading places ever seventh second on the dot. He was adapting to it, and the slightest change in routine had him hitting his head at first lightly then stronger against the walls to make the pounding stop. It hurt badly.
The blonde kid didn�t stop coming.
He just didn�t come all the time.
***
Elegantly long fingers the same color of raw ivory slid like dolphins over Naruto�s tanned arm, making it seem scrawny and too scruffily dark next to it. The Demon King himself watched avidly, smiling a little just at the pleasure of the sensation, of the sight. It was nice, to be here. It felt�well�he didn�t want to say. First there was the nature of the location, and then there was the occupant. The occupant that Naruto did have to admit with a broad smile, he had definitely not figured out.
�How long are you going to have him here?�
�Mmmm�� Naruto purred lazily in his throat, not really caring and cuddling backwards. �I dunno�for a while. For my own entertainment. It�s not really important��
Gaara didn�t say anything, but continued to trace his fingers over his arm. Naruto liked that. He said they looked funny together, and that was certainly true. They were similar because they were of the same species, of the same hybrid, Gaara had always thought. Not because they were alike. They weren�t.
He didn�t really like Sasuke here, but it was�interesting to see how Naruto would react to him. It wasn�t what Gaara had expected. He hadn�t thought Naruto could do things like that. In all his time, Gaara had always figured the blonde boy to be too soft, to kind. But the Leaf shinobi was hardly being pampered, even Gaara had to admit. It really sucked to have the fox fuck up your head. He hadn�t thought Naruto capable of it.
He hadn�t believed it when he had gone to look outside at the damage the single vessel had wrought, but Naruto had simply shrugged and smiled when he turned around to look at him accusingly, and said he gotten carried away, but he really did have fun. Too bad it was over�
And Gaara had left it at that. It was his concern, his life, not Gaara�s.
More importantly, Naruto�s mouth never tasted of anyone but him. Of ramen and sometimes milk and alcohol and maybe chocolate, but Naruto never tasted of Sasuke. Gaara would spot it on the second if he had. He didn�t even taste like the random women he was so addicted to anymore.
He usually smelled a little like Sasuke if the day had been boring and he had nothing else better to do or torment, but he never tasted like him. He was hurting Sasuke. Even if he did spend an obscene amount of time and effort on the human, he was doing it hurting him. Nothing else. And he always found time for Gaara.
He stopped caressing Naruto�s arm and turned his hand over, spooned as he was over Naruto�s back and called the sand down into his palm. The strand twirled around his palm, weaved between his fingers, before settling in a gently oscillating globe of tawny gold and sometimes a glitter of glass or a darker spec of blood. He watched Naruto watching that, saw him pout and brushed the back of his hand against Gaara�s again, bumping into it purposefully.
�Mrrrooww? Mrrrow?�
Tanned skin shivered when a deeper voice spoke softly against his neck, brushing against the hairs and said, �Those are cats.�
�I like cats. Cats go meow. Mew,� he said playfully as he pulled at Gaara�s hand again, trying to disrupt his concentration on the damned sand and bring it back to him, who was a lot more interesting than some stupid dust.
Naruto gave up depressingly quick, watched, and then reached up again to Gaara�s hands and there was stirring of chakra along his arm, and up through his fingers, interweaving gently with the sand. Entranced, and slightly off-balance by this new development, Gaara watched.
Naruto hesitated, paused, then reduced his energy flow and the heat that was pooling over Gaara�s skin up above his palm. After some thought, the sand readjusted itself also.
Naruto cocked his head. �Pretty,� he said childishly, thoughtfully after some time.
It was tiny orb of raw glass about the size of a marble, bits of raw sand still visible around the outer circumference and a lot more gathered around the center, tiny air bubbles dotted throughout. It was getting heavier for Gaara to support midair; there wasn�t enough sand.
Almost as an after thought, Naruto delicately twitched his fingers and stretched one side of it, so that some of the glass peeled off and there was a small gap between the nucleus and the circumference.
�Wow, I didn�t know we could do that�that�s pretty cool.�
Gaara said nothing; didn�t contradict him, and Naruto took that to mean he agreed.
�Kinda looks like a kitty, doesn�t it? �Pretty kitty�� Naruto turned over so that he faced up at Gaara, pale blue eyes wide open and the little orb of glass completely forgotten.
He was thinking only on Gaara right now, tanned fingers brushing along his jaw.
�Mrrroooww?�
This time Gaara kissed him, and Naruto giggled.
***
Sasuke woke up in odd places in odd ways more and more often. It was ticking him off. He was also missing his clothes and sandals; how often had he been wandering around barefoot? And with stone flooring�how inhumane. But his captor wasn�t human anyway, so whatever. He was starving. He was still sick, still sweating and slightly dizzy at times. If he hadn�t been Sasuke Uchiha, he would�be very depressed with how things were going. Really.
He planned to drop dead�quite logically�before he even gave the slightest satisfaction, and that included him suffering. Anything he felt, anything he wanted, he turned to anger. Anger was good. It was what he relied on.
There was only one problem with it really. It was slowly killing him. Visibly.
If you counted the first time, he had escaped three times. The second had gone pretty smoothly, and he hadn�t seen anyone or anything. He wandered slowly, cautiously, because he didn�t think Naruto had thrown him in the same cell as the first he had woken up in, and partly because he was too worn to do anything else.
Despite his status, despite his character, Sasuke Uchiha, Jounin level of Konohakagure, was still human.
He didn�t have Naruto�s powers of regeneration, even with the small bit of healing and help he was unconsciously getting. He had fainted in one of the many corridors; Naruto had helped him with that, and returned him to his cell sleeping, with another little red bracelet tied to his wrist since he had thrown the first one away. It was Naruto�s mark of ownership on him. He had torn up the second one as well.
The third trip had been equally as useless, except he had found food. He was disgusted how quickly he devoured everything before even knowing if it was poisoned or drugged. It hadn�t been, and the pangs in his stomach had faded briefly. He wasn�t being fed. Naruto was counting on him to take care of his self.
He was freezing in the old cotton shirt and short combo he always seemed to wake up with. He had no idea who changed his clothes while he was unconscious, who saw him naked and what they did to him.
He never slept willingly anymore; he just passed out. When he awoke, sometimes he was alone, sometimes he could feel the chilling shiver down his spine that meant he was being watched, and sometimes there was the fox, the blonde kid waiting impatiently for him to wake up so he could rant at him.
Sasuke knew Naruto was close, watching him, even before he opened his eyes, so he didn�t. He waited, thought as quietly as he could, and finally made his move.
The wall hit his back painfully despite his speed, chased the air out of his lungs. But Naruto was on the other side of the bars. So how had he pushed him? What hadown own him?
"You let me touch you in the dark," Naruto spoke quietly, reasonably. "You even welcomed it; I could feel that--here." Naruto tapped the side of his head.
Sasuke didn't reply, nearly crouched and burning and hateful. Naruto sighed heavily, walked towards the bars and--Sasuke's eyes widened in shock--came through the bars. Sasuke's eyes darted to the door, still locked. Naruto ran a hand through his hair.
"I think you just like being a pain."
There was a rushing movement, and Sasuke staggered and struggled clawing as the stonewall dug into the bruised skin of his back, Naruto's fingers crushing his elbows to his sides and his mouth closed over Sasuke's hard.
He peeled back his lips and dug his teeth into whatever part of Naruto was closest and tasted hot coppery milk, kicked and scrabbled over and into Naruto's kneecaps and stomped on his foot. He was dropped abruptly, and came rushing forward the second his toes touched the ground but hit the side wall before he could take a real step.
His lungs seemed to flop inside his ribcage. He could feel his hands shaking.
"I know you still want it," Naruto stated, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "You know you still want it. You liked it, you know. Say what you like, but your body still wants me."
Sasuke spat, still crumpled on the floor, eyes still burning, alert and mobile though he didn't stand up.
//What I want is you dead.//
Naruto paused.
"Well, yeah, that too, but not all the time. You know," Naruto mused, mouth still faintly pink, "You're a pretty messed up guy Sasuke. I mean, you want to fuck me and yet you want to kill me too--Sometimes at the same time."
Naruto's flexible face blanked out, grimaced and seemed uncertain before becoming morbidly interested and polite.
"You never thought of your brother like this, did you? I mean, incest--"
Sasuke shouted and rushed blindly, screaming in rage instantly as his body slowed and began to freeze in mid-gesture not a foot away from Naruto, muscles painfully locked in place and that tawny presence choking his mind with claws, Naruto in front of him sweating with effort and grinning mad. Naruto wasn�t physically touching him. He wasn�t touching him. But he still had the power to move him, to stop him. Even against his will.
Moving like a glacier with will power Naruto didn't suspect, Sasuke's fingers curled up to Naruto's neck while the former smiled a real smile at the new trick. His pet was growing! Pretty soon he�d even train it to drink out of cup without throwing it at him! Yay for him!
He kissed Sasuke brightly on the cheek in congratulations, leaning forward and standing on his toes to reach up.
Dumb Sasuke and his stupid height.
His throat flashed as he breathed. Sasuke's teeth glinted down with a nerve-cracking wrench in his mind and neck. Naruto smiled again with his frigid ironclad control over Sasuke's muscles cracking but holding, and his mind free. Iffy delicate work, but for Sasuke's waking breaths against his neck it was worth it. For his teeth and lips inches away from his skin, his anger so alive and bright, body heat steaming, it was worth it.
Naruto hid a wince. And it did hurt, this control did hurt.
He couldn�t fuck him blind for one.
Not yet anyway.
Naruto laughed softly to himself, watched Sasuke�s skin recoil from the sound but unable to move more than that. Then, very lightly, he touched his lips against the milky white skin that still called to him, skin that still wanted him.
Sure his mind rejected him, but for Pete�s sake this was Sasuke after all.
This was his Sasuke, hardly changed at all over the years. Somewhat more reachable now, and less too. It was his, and Naruto was going to make him realize that whether he wanted to or not.
And, despite himself, despite what he said to Sasuke and what he said to Gaara and what he said to himself and what he wanted and what he thought, Naruto really had to�
He closed his eyes.
It did hurt like hell. He had known it would, but he hadn�t�
He tried to gather himself and failed. Huh. Well now. Well now indeed.
Looked like he hadn�t given Sasuke enough credit again. He hadn�t thought his hatred would hurt this much.
//But it does. It does. Why? It doesn�t have to. I could always�I could always�//
//What? I could always *what*?//
Naruto shook the thought from his mind, breathed in that scent, slightly almondy with a taint of licorice. Sasuke�s personal smell, and against his judgment Naruto but his hands on his tense shoulders, infinitely powerful beneath his fingers and pulled himself up lightly to kiss his cheek, keeping his eyes closed.
Sasuke continued to fight. He didn�t feel the way Naruto remembered.
�Hmm�� was all Naruto said, before driving his knee up into his gut, both fists hammering down on the back of Sasuke�s neck so that he hit the ground with a sickening fleshy sound.
�Nice dreams,� he called out as he left.
This one time, Sasuke could keep whatever bruises or mementos he had left him with. Naruto didn�t feel like bleeding for him anymore than he already had.
***
Naruto sighed softly in his sleep, and a slight wrinkle appeared in his brow; even if sleep, there were still traces of his trademark grin.
As Gaara watched silently, a single small bead of water formed and smooshed beneath Naruto�s eyelashes, but fell no further. The faint grin was still on his lips.
Carefully, Gaara leaned forward and pressed a butterfly kiss to his cheek before pulling back.
As a rule, he and Naruto could not sleep at the same time. He didn�t mind lying there inactive while Naruto slept, though he sometimes found it boring, and entirely too tempting.
Too tempting to join him in dreams, to just forego caution and self-interest and just rest unguarded by Naruto�s side. It was entirely too tempting to ravish him while he slept, to take full savage control and dominance and finally feel and hear Naruto whimper for him, go mad and blind for him, to tear up the courtyard out of frustration for him. Perhaps�even beg him�for relief. For more. For always. For eternity.
Naruto would have�
�Naruto did beg Sasuke.
In his own way, angry and childish, but it was still begging in Gaara�s eyes. Demanding without actually forcing the action, asking over and over again for what could be taken easily for someone of his power. For someone in his position.
If it was Sasuke�s body Naruto wanted, even Gaara was at the point where he wished the fox-boy would just take what he wanted and be done with it. End it. Get it through his system and then kill Sasuke and they could forget he ever existed quite neatly.
It was one of the weird dynamics of the Sasuke-Naruto hate-hate relationship that even though Sasuke could well be dying�weak and helpless�he could still hurt Naruto. He was doing something to Naruto now, something that was keeping him distracted and keeping him away from Gaara.
Gaara was not a fool. He was paranoid and insecure and desperate and sometimes na�ve. He was very, very lonely. But he wasn�t blind to that fact.
He was far too smart, far too practical to try and force Naruto. He had the near impossible already. He had someone who said they liked him and probably meant it, someone who didn�t flinch at his touch and voice, and someone who willingly touched and talked to him, smiled and kissed him.
Someone he could hit and would hit him back, would yell and get angry, but was still tied to him somehow, still came back. Wouldn�t abandon him, for some reason he couldn�t fathom. Naruto wouldn�t leave him alone, even if they weren�t really friends or semi-acquaintances. Someone who could challenge him, control him�and for some reason that angered and excited him. Someone he could always go back to. Someone who would come back to him.
Someone who kept him from being one of a kind.
He wasn�t willing or stupid enough to gamble everything for more. Getting rid of Sasuke was hell before, and it had nearly cost him his life. Naruto showed where his priorities lay, and Sasuke was definitely somewhere at the top. Gaara didn�t stop wanting it, probably never would stop wanting it, but he wouldn�t risk what he already had.
No. It�d be hell again if Gaara tried to kill Sasuke again. And again.
No. Naruto would have to kill Sasuke. He wouldn�t let Gaara do it; he�d have to do it himself, eventually. He wouldn�t let anyone else touch him.
Gaara just wished he�d get it over with already. Sasuke wasn�t that damn special. He didn�t deserve the attention Naruto wasted on him.
Power doesn�t go to those who deserve it; it goes to those that can stand it.
***
Sasuke walked silently down the hall, fearless or not caring.
In Naruto�s room, far away on his bed, Naruto�s eyes fogged momentarily, and his lips turned up in a smile. He leaned down, then placed two fingers on Gaara�s lips and closed his eyes.
Green eyes brightened for a second, before skulking back into the shadows of the insomnia rings, not telling a damned soul about what he was thinking or feeling.
Sasuke padded silently along the stone floor, the bottom of his feet numb from the seeping cold. He felt slightly dizzy and his body went �plib� with that silent boom deep in his chest and he fell forward as his mind went dark.
Naruto opened his eyes and grinned evilly, leaning down to soak himself in Gaara�s mouth again.
***
�I will kill you. I swear it,� hissed Sasuke. He was sporting a rather severe black eye, crumpled on the floor after Naruto had thrown him against his cell wall and slammed the door shut.
Naruto had dragged him to a �courtyard�, a huge stone room illuminated only by some sparse wet torches with a lightly dusted stone floor. It wasn�t enough for Sasuke to see by. The majority of his leftover chakra had been spent in his Sharingan; it was the one thing that was keeping him equal to the blonde�s speed and power. He watched the Stone jutsus and Sand jutsus through the swirling red orbs, and felt his mind spiral.
Naruto�s eyes dilated, widening con contracting for no visible reason save getting a better focus on Sasuke.
�I�d let you, you know,� Naruto murmured quietly, evenly. �Kill me. If you were really going after Naruto Uzumaki with all your heart, I�d probably let you.�
Sasuke snorted derisively. �You said you�d kill me. What�s wrong? Can�t make up your mind?�
Naruto laughed quietly.
�No, not really. But I was telling the truth both times if that helps. I didn�t lie.�
Sasuke shut him out of his attention easily, ignored the last sentence with well-bred indifference, focusing on his hands, massaging his aching wrists and energy that he was severely depleted on. He had torn the red bracelet off from the beginning without a second thought. He didn�t give Naruto a second thought either. And just like that, he shut Naruto out, tried to shut him off.
The demon child stared, his emotions unmentionable, and debated on whether it would better to hit Sasuke to get his attention or do something funky to his mind. That always got people�s attention real quick; it was his best weapon. It�d get Sasuke�s attention, no doubt.
Naruto�s eyes glinted, and narrowed predatorily.
Then he closed them and left silently, without Sasuke even knowing it leaving him free.
In time. In time.
�
�and just like that the bastard shut him off.
Naruto was some yards away before he struck violently with a mental wave.
He heard Sasuke scream. He was not satisfied.
***
"I don�t want to break him! I don�t want to hurt him! I can, I know, easily, but that�s just it, you know? That�s exactly what he wants and I�ll be damned--twice!--before I give him the satisfaction. The hell with being Naruto the bastard, you know?"
"You knock him down and he breaks because he thinks he�s weak and it�s suddenly your fault! Your fault! Not his fault, my fault. It�s easy to blow off Naruto the idiot, the failure, dead last and traitor but it�s never ever goddamn Mr. Fucking Perfect Uchiha�s fault!"
Naruto�s fist dented the solid stone wall. He didn�t even blink.
"And I want it to be his fault, I want him to break and I want him to break himself. I want him to topple, to fall off his bitchingly white ivory pedestal and know that for once he can�t blame this one on me. He can�t!"
"It was him. It was all him."
Naruto sat down quickly and got up without leaving a wrinkle on the bed.
"And you know what? He�s not helping. Final last thing I want and he�s being stubborn. Again." Naruto chewed on one knuckle for about a split second. "Oh, he still looks down at me! Down his pedigree nose. The good kind, genuine, not the basic �I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, get out of my face,� look. A real one. A�bad Naruto one."
Naruto�s leg twitched and he drummed his fingers on one arm.
"Not �Bad Nine Tails� one. A �bad Naruto� one. I could count all those looks on both hands easy. He hates me. He hates me but he�s not playing fair. He�s still not playing fair!"
Naruto spun suddenly, marched, and dropped on Gaara�s bed.
"So I�m not going to be very much fun tonight, I guess. Really. I mean I�m just, I�m just, you know, just a little I guess you could say--"
Naruto covered his face with both hands and cracked his neck.
"Distracted. A little. Kind of. Oh, and really, really pissed. Oooo~h yeah. So� And before you even think about killing him, no!"
Naruto darted to the far wall before his back was off the bed.
"He�s mine, totally! If anyone so much as looks at him wrong, I�ll, I�ll--"
Naruto shut his mouth unexpectedly with a click, pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed loudly, hands raking hard through his hair while his feet paced.
Gaara watched, and said nothing.
"Something ok! I don�t know; how the hell should I know! But I�ll very greatly have much, much time thinking for right? No. He�s mine. Mine! I pissed him off, I bring him down!"
He hammered one fist into his palm with a hard slap. Air and light glimmered and flew and flipped dangerously from his clothing and hair, both flattening slightly. Gaara stared at his teeth and eyes, which were sharp and bright. He wondered if he ever looked like that.
Naruto sat down quickly, placed and cocked his chin on his folded hands and launched a scathing and blinding 100% attention on the oblivious desert shinobi. Naruto was always so completely distracted that the effort it took for him to actually stick his whole mind into one thing was a real deed, and the effect chilling.
The silence and stillness thundered down and circled like wolves on the floor. Leaning against the wall, Gaara kept Naruto�s gaze unflinchingly. His spine tingled. Naruto showed no signs of wavering, not even from boredom. Finally, Gaara deigned to speak at him, blinking his eyes slowly once.
"You can�t hurt him, because he doesn�t respect you. You could hurt him before because he trusted you. He doesn�t anymore."
Naruto studied him hard, turned and crunched and flew the ideas through his head.
"And that�s the barrier," Naruto replied.
It was a flat question, a rhetorical question, the kind you ask when you know the answer to see if the other guy knew the answer too.
Gaara shrugged.
"Maybe. Maybe you just can�t do it."
He stood up suddenly and walked to the door.
"You�re leaving already!"
Naruto�s voice wailed out plaintively, childishly, shifting moods and minds faster than he switched ideas and his socks. Gaara opened the door, and talked over his shoulder without looking back.
"You obviously need some time alone. Don�t get anything dirty."
Gaara walked out. Naruto pouted.
"I bet Sasuke�s still willing to play with me a little--"
The bed rocked and swung as he was yanked down on it, heavy sand pulling and anchoring his hands and feet to the bedposts, pulling his body taut like a rack. He knew Gaara would get new sand; Gaara always found what he needed. Naruto was grinning when the door clicked and shut, Gaara coming into view.
"Or can Gaara stay up and play with me a little longer? I feel better now," Naruto chirped happily with a smile, adding in for good measure, �Gaara-san made me feel a lot better.�
Gaara walked over to him slowly, in the same composed strides. Naruto blinked and smiled endearingly, and said, "Well, this is familiar. D�j� vu."
A blade tip touched the hollow of his throat. Naruto squirmed, not trying to get away but moving to get attention.
"Are we playing that game again?" His voice was irresponsible, initivitive, and perfectly innocent. Gaara dug the point in until a drop of blood welled up.
"Yours?"
Naruto tilted his head back and pressed himself into the mattress, still trying to appear perfectly relaxed. He waited.
"When did Sasuke become yours?"
Naruto�s eyes flicked automatically to Gaara�s who was watching him coolly, with a predatory glint in his eye. Naruto blinked.
"He�s mine. I�ve taken almost everything away from him, so he belongs to me now. Mine to hurt, mine to kill. I haven�t given him a choice."
Gaara took the knife away and rested the point on Naruto�s chest. His eyes glinted.
"Does he know?"
Naruto smiled and raised his eyebrows, the tip of his pink tongue coming out to trace the thinner edge of upper lip, his voice still reasonable.
"He will soon."
Gaara lifted and flipped the knife, his arm swinging it back hard to drive it into the wall as he leaned over Naruto. He offered a condescending look before vanishing from the room.
Naruto flexed and squirmed around, breaking the hold of the sand and sitting up, rubbing his wrists and sighed.
Okie dokie. Time to start playing hard.
***
Sasuke awoke with a start.
A second later registered the clean sheets, blank walls, and stale air to be his room. His room in Konoha. He glanced quickly to his side on the bed. Alone. His body relaxed in relief.
His eyes narrowed, and he reached under his pillow casually, inquisitively.
Life was a random collaboration of events and things, with little order and structure. People couldn�t work very well like that naturally, so anything man-made always had some order or lack of imagination. But then again, dreams were very random things. And illusions were simply waking dreams.
Now armed, he walked through his apartment softly, hunting, checking the bathroom and shower and the closet and kitchen. He checked under the bed, inside the bed again. He had woken up half expecting to find someone else in there with him.
He glanced out the window. From the light he estimated it to be about�9 o�clock, or 9:30. Some time in the morning. There weren�t any bruises on his neck or arms, but there was a scab on the side of his ankle that he didn�t remember getting.
Finally, uneasy, in the echoey empty apartment he picked up the small cellular he kept for emergencies and dialed.
--Hello, Haruno residence.
Sasuke�s heart dropped. His mouth went dry. His expression didn�t change, nor his voice.
--Is Sakura there?
--No, I�m sorry she stepped out for a few minutes, but I could tell her to�It�s Sasuke-kun, isn�t it?
Sasuke paused. //Oh, nice touch. Very nice touch.//
--Yes, I-
--Oh that�s wonderful! It�s such a pleasure to finally talk to you, Sakura-chan has told us so much about you! You know she talks about you all the time, it really is something. It�s always Sasuke this or Sasuke that, or something or other and she�ll be so glad to hear from you. I�ll just let her know that you called so she can call you back and you two can talk and�
Sasuke swore he heard a laugh.
--And I uh�I think it really is quite endearing but we really would like to get to know-
Sasuke clicked the phone off rudely. He was not concerned with etiquette at the time.
It seemed Sakura was alive. It seemed he was back in Konoha. It seemed too convenient to be true. Sasuke didn�t trust it but�
//Pathetic. How gullible does he assume I am?//
Sunlight was coming through the window is streams, little dust motes drifting through it. There was a muffled, soft thumping upstairs as people walked around, his room slightly chilly, and there was a faint tang of leafy chlorophyll in the air.
When was the last time he had seen sunlight? Since this whole ordeal had started? ...Weeks? More?
He couldn�t stop his fingers from grazing the windowpane lightly, the panorama of village life right outside the glass. He tapped the glass with his fingernail for the sound.
//Shit. This can�t be real.//
Normally his cynical and dark nature would step into the gap left in his brain neatly, but then it felt like his cynical side had just about worn itself out lately. Not too much of course, but definitely feeling a little worn.
//Alive. And untouched.//
The early morning light was streaming down over the thatch-roofed buildings like warm milk butter, making it very hard for him�or anyone else in his position�to remember exactly what had gone on in the dark stone place with that monster in it. Everything seemed brighter by daylight, clearer and so much sharper, chasing the nightmare away whether one wanted to forget or not. And in his mind and out loud Sasuke swore.
�Damn it.� He needed the darkness for once to find the monster and kill it, and the damned sunlight just had to chase it away again.
//This isn�t real.//
//I know that.//
//It does look very nice though.//
//Of course it looks nice. It�s supposed to look nice. That�s the point.//
He fingered the latch. Suppose he was being watched right now? Just like a hamster in a cage, or a mouse in a maze? Would it be better to play along and look for an opportune moment or start fighting outright from the very start and not take the chance? Suppose he couldn�t remember? Suppose he got trapped?
//Suppose I just find Naruto and beat the living hell out of him.//
//Yeah, right. Like I did before, right? �Like anyone�s managed to do�//
//I just haven�t found his weak spot yet, that�s all. That�s all.//
Sasuke�s fist shattered the glass as it plowed through it. The bits of glass stuck in his skin, the blood trickling from his had, seemed to fascinate him. Pain was going up his arm. His body said it had just been cut by glass. �Interesting.
//He�s not immortal. Not invincible. He can be broken.//
//And I�ll do it.//
Did he have any iron in the house? Commonly? //In the kitchen�maybe.// Sasuke frowned.
�Hell with it,� he muttered as he opened the window properly; never mind the broken pane or his bleeding hand. Nothing that couldn�t be fixed eventually, nothing important. He breathed in the fresh morning air already beaten into the slightly smelly mold of civilization of fried food and old garbage.
His mask slipped for a calculated second of innocence*, his face softly melting like ice on the counter. His eyes were beautiful, and the stark emptiness of his apartment only added to it, made it even more painfully handsome.
It smelled. And not like soap or terribly fresh, but tainted with many people living together in a relatively small space; of faint grease and sweat, slightly trimmed with the morning cold. Not a bad smell but a�Not a smell you would expect in an illusion. Not one that you would call inviting. But it was one that you would call real.
//What the hell is he playing at?//
Sasuke closed his eyes, collected himself, and then ran for his shoes. He had to find Kakashi.
//Play the damn game. I don�t play games. I just win.//
***
Quick summary: Naruto abandoned the village, became a demonic gangster overlord, came back and he killed you all and burned the village to the ground. I�m being kept prisoner, and he has the ability to create illusions such as the one we are currently in.
�And�when did this start?�
There was a significantly longer pause.
�Before I woke up here.�
Far away, Shikamaru sneezed, shook his head, and then continued.
�I think we should have a talk,� Kakashi-sensei said after a long period of not saying anything aloud that had frayed Sasuke�s bacon-crisped nerves.
�I�m not crazy,� he said a little too heatedly.
He�d spent most of the last half-hour repeating that thought to himself, over and over and over as he walked through the streets and gawked at the people who returned the funny look. He was not crazy. Sasuke had never gotten strange looks in his life; only sickeningly sweet insincere ones; flattery and jealously, condescendence and hate, but never funny looks. It was�disconcerting. He was not crazy.
He could feel the brisk wind whip through his hair. His eyes squinted in direct sunlight. The ground was concrete and dirt and wood beneath his sandals. He had his clothes on; his own clothes. He had his things back. �That simple fact had nearly made him cringe.
Despite appearances, Sasuke was nowhere near being an adult.
�Didn�t say you were,� Kakashi filled in seamlessly. �It�s just that I think its time we had a talk about girls, the benefits of having one, and the dangers of obsession, glue, and other contaminates.�
Kakashi stopped with the look on Sasuke�s eyes. He�d gotten a lot worse, and probably still would, but there had always been more to Sasuke�s eyes besides the Sharingan. He looked very frayed, very strung up. His hand was still bleeding freely, unbound and uncared for. It still hurt. Kakashi hadn�t mentioned it aside from a pointed glance.
�You have realized, right, that I�m either genuine, or a part of the illusion.�
�I�m not crazy. And this isn�t about girls.�
�No, it�s about Naruto,� and this time it was Sasuke who couldn�t meet his eyes, though Kakashi continued on despite the othecolocolor, �and you are under a lot of stress. You shouldn�t be.�
Kakashi sighed heavily as Sasuke�s feet sped away without a polite or even civil word. Young people today. What were you going to do?
Kakashi thought.
//Probably have lunch.//
***
He collapsed to his knees on the grass; only he didn�t because that wouldn�t look right. Uchiha blood stood upright; stood alone. He was going to collapse.
�I can�t see you. I can�t feel you. I know you�re here.�
But Kakashi was right; if this was real or an illusion and where the hell was Naruto? Not in his apartment not in the village and not anywhere. Not jumping him or anything, and it was freaking him out. His dreams were never this elaborate. Never this alive, never with so much sunlight.
Nightmares were dark. Nightmares were bloody. Nightmares didn�t have sunlight.
Never Naruto as evil. As a threat, a laughing demon at Sasuke�s weakness, or some vague ambiguous warmth that he could never trust awake and never resist asleep. if tif this was an illusion�
Still shivering, his nails dug into his arm, teeth biting the edge of his tongue, chakra summoned in an unstable roaring heap. Sasuke yelled, angry, let his emotions rage while his logical side kept careful meticulous watch on reactions.
�Show yourself! Get this over with!�
He collapsed on his knees, and the smelled the grass burning. Freud said you couldn�t smell in dreams. That psychologist. That pervert. There was always that feeling of obscurity, of inconsequence.
The words�what he had said to Kakashi-sensei replayed in his mind, bouncing bluish gray against the cerebral membranes in his head. Naruto was evil, a manic killer. He said he had ed Sed Sakura. Sakura, for fuck�s sake! What kind of idiot would believe that? He had destroyed the village he had sworn to protect, that he had sworn to one-day rule.
The dobe was a lion, a murderous beast.
Sasuke knew this; he had seen it with his own eyes. He knew it was true. But if�
Sasuke opened his eyes, the smoke rising off his gently burning clothes, the air smelling faintly of sandalwood and stinking burnt grass. How often had he smelled burned grass? Enough to know it without seeing it? Enough to reproduce it in his mind?
�if it wasn�t true, then why.
Why was he fighting for it?
Did he want it to be true?
Sasuke ran.
***
Sasuke crashed into him hard, slicing the side of his cheek because the dodge made him miss the neck.
There had been a brief scuffle, a flash of anger inside Sasuke�s chest but�even more dangerous�a flash of confusion. It didn�t look right. He didn�t look right; something was off. But was it something Sasuke had created in his head or something that was really there? He didn�t know. He didn�t know anything.
Sasuke�s hands slammed against the tree, yanking at the tree�s own energy to further dig his knee into the blonde�s backbone and yanked his head up by the aforesaid blonde hair and bit him on the mouth. Teeth had clashed, scratched, and the bitten teenager had a very negative reaction to that, and Sasuke had a gash along his hip.
It hadn�t tasted familiar. He hadn�t had time to taste at all. It was an open invitation�he was giving an invitation�and it wasn�t taken. What the hell was going on??
�Idiot what the hell do you think you�re doing?!!�
�I said stop it.�
�Stop what!!?�
Sasuke coughed slightly from the impact to his stomach and his back hit the granite tree trunk behind him, before allowing his tai-jutsu to take him out of visual sight. He caught on the to doppelganger too late. He wasn�t using his Sharingan.
�You fucking attacked me!!�
The gun barrel dug into his stomach, his kunai hard at Naruto�s neck where he had tackled and straddled him, his other hand yanking Naruto�s head in place by his hair. It was shorter than what Sasuke had last seen. From what he last remembered.
For three days and nights he had looked for him, felt the chill of night and morning and bandaged his itching hand and felt the need to eat and the need to urinate and he�d done all that and he was more than sure, you couldn�t do that in a dream, in an illusion. He could feel his energy, flowing through his body and dancing at his fingertips. A full-day illusion was unheard of, unnecessary, let alone three days. It had never been done.
//But you can compress the days in an illusion; make it look like that. It can be done. I know it can be done. I�m not crazy.//
Sasuke glanced at the gun.
//Do I want to be right?//
�What the hell is that?� he asked mildly.
�It�s a gun, bitch,� Naruto replied dark green cool and angry, but not afraid, never afraid. Not of Sasuke, never afraid. �Get off me.�
Cold obsidian voids swallowed him, dry and hard as the stone they shamed.
�No,� Sasuke spoke softly in command, seductive as a kiss and as relentless as death. �That wasn�t what I meant. What I meant was�What are you doing with it, dobe?�
Naruto yelled back, into Sasuke�s face with that annoying�three inch close-up habit he had always had. Always.
//�Naruto�//
�Who the hell are you��
The insult seemed to click in his brain, clear blue eyes finally taking in Sasuke�s face. Sasuke�s face. Concentrating. They both waited, but the body beneath him seemed to drain.
�You,� the boy, ne a m a man, beneath him breathed softly,ssedssed in beaten gray and faded denim, a hitae headband wrapped around one bicep.
��Sasuke?�
He didn�t deny it, and Naruto�s face broke into a beaming, slow smile, his eyes suddenly warm and soft. Sasuke felt his control loosen, and didn�t fight it. He couldn�t. Never could, really. He could fight a lot things and win, and would fight nearly anything and might lose, but that smile was something else. He couldn�t fight it. He kind of hated it, because of that.
Naruto�s eyes walked over his face.
��It is you.�
The moment passed, gradually, but neither dropped their weapons.
�So�is this some kind of mission, or are you just angry to see me? More than usual, I mean,� Naruto asked with pointed respect to the knife still at his neck.
Sasuke leaned over, blue eyes narrowing at him instantly in veiled surprise and discomfort, and Sasuke touched him gently with his mouth. Naruto went rigid under him, eyes wide open, but he didn�t protest. Cold metal dug harder into Sasuke�s stomach, Naruto�s head digging into the ground and his index finger itching. When Sasuke broke it, Naruto seemed surprised and a little angry.
��What the hell was that?�
�Do you trust me?�
Face first screwing up in sarcasm, Naruto hesitated when he saw the look in Sasuke�s eyes. The fact that there actually was emotion in Sasukeyes yes was enough for pause.
Naruto looked undecidedly cynical.
�You out to kill me? Or just give me a heart attack?�
�No. Neither.�
Naruto blinked skeptically, uneasily.
�Really? �Yeah. I guess�� Naruto scowled, muttering �But not with Sakura. Or any other girl, come to think of it��
�Can I trust you?� Sasuke cut in before Naruto went into another rant about his lack of sexual interest.
�I wasn�t gonna hurt you. You attacked me, stupid.� Funny, angry look at Sasuke.
�Swear it?�
This did earn him a funny look.
��Yeah,� Naruto pulled out slowly.
�On what?�
The familiar look of dense confusion crossed over Naruto�s face as he puzzled out what the hell the lunatic was asking him this time.
��My father�s grave.�
Questioning hurt too much. Thinking hurt too much. Ignorance was bliss; wasn�t that what they said? Sakura was alive. The village�

His home

�was well and Naruto nor normal and stupid and boring and good and not evil or angry or bitter and was right there. He was back. And not gone away or changed very badly. He was Naruto. He was back.
And he was right there.
Sasuke leaned down and kissed Naruto soundly for the third time; the first hard and hurtful, the second gentle and suspicious, and the third exploring and intricate.
Under him, Naruto went stiff again, but relaxed still when he took the kunai from Naruto�s neck, tossing it lightly to the right side with a soft sound on the grass, bouncing slightly. His hand closed over Naruto�s; gently, agreeably, the gun barrel fell from his stomach. His hand continued to travel up Naruto�s arm long after the gun touched the grass, rubbing his thumb against the metal front of the shinobi headband tied around his arm, trailing up to cradle his neck.
Naruto�s hands shyly touched the side of his neck, his back, Sasuke�s fingers raining down on Naruto�s stomach like warm butterflies.
Naruto moaned softly, yielding, and Sasuke�s fingers picked up the gun.
The shot rang out against stone floor. The front of the headband had been blank; no Leaf symbol, no nothing. Kunai didn�t bounce on long grass.
Sasuke broke the kiss brusquely for the hazy blue eyes grinning up at him smugly, the body still dressed as he had last seen ite tue turned hisd and and spit.
�Bet you feel silly now.�
�Not really,� Sasuke shot back evenly. And that was true. Naruto could feel that was true.
�Told you; you wanted me,� pale cherry lips told him, green grass still behind his head, the trees still ringed around them and fresh air filtering delightfully through his hair. �Still do. Never would�ve let me do that if you didn�t.�
Sasuke looked him straight in the eye steadily. He could feel the sunlight on his skin. Naruto was warm beneath him. Oh, it was tempting all right. It was very tempting.
�No. I want things back the way they were. I don�t want you, demon,� Naruto rolled his eyes irritably and sighed exasperated. �You�re not him; you�re just a shadow.�
�Lying to yourself again, Pretty-Boy,� Naruto drawled, annoyed.
�Not my illusions.�
�They are. Your fantasies. I�m just fleshing them out.�
�You�re just playing a game,� Sasuke said quietly while he aimed and pulled the trigger on the demon�s stomach, the shot ringing in his ears. He was momentarily satisfied.
His temple was bleeding badly when he woke up again, and Naruto was gone, only some of his blood dried on the cell floor. It was dark, and Sasuke was freezing cold. The stone was hard beneath him.
He looked around once, before closing his eyes and curling up as tightly as he could manage.
***
Naruto yaks. Much.
Naruto came to rant at him. Sasuke would be trying to sleep, sneaking out and getting familiar with the surroundings and getting something to eat from wherever he could grab and pray he could recognize the food as something humans ate.
Right now Sasuke had been laying uncomfortably on his cell�s stone floor, dressed his scanty clothing and Naruto�s voice had just leaked into his brain, until he couldn�t block it out anymore.
"So, I bet you're asking yourself right now: Is this what he was always going for?�
//Go away�//
�I never meant to betray anyone. The fact was that, I, never..." he paused and trailed off, his mind on something else. "The real problem, I guess, was that I wanted something very much. And what I wanted was recognition of my existence. That�s what anyone wants; that's why people try and strive as hard as they do.
�My...method of recognition was a bit more extrehan han what most people were ready for, yeah, but it makes sense though, if you think about it. I mean, for the longest time I was only the Demon right? Not a really bad thing to be, really. I mean, I could have been a loser and that would have been worse... I was sort of that too. But not as much as I could have. Been.
�I think I came out on top. When all's said and done. I know that whatever faith or trust you had in me has probably just been completely blown away I�m I�m sad about that, really. But I don't see that I did anything really wrong, and I think that�s what we've been having problems with.�
//Shut up.//
�You�re not gonna see that from my point of view, which is somewhat less personal than yours. Not that theirs anything wrong with your point of view, it's just different from mine. That�s kind of why you're here.�
//I�m trying to sleep!//
�As grim and dark as events are�this is really what I wanted. I bet you probably hate my guts, and in fact I know you do, but even though you don't like it and nobody else does who was of interest to me at one point, this is my dream.
��Somehow I didn't expect it to be like this. Yeah, I knew it was going to be violent, and probably bloody, but I wasn't expecting it to be so� quiet. Very quiet. Strange. �
//I don�t care! Shut up!//
�I�m not sad or regretful, but it's so...I don't think I�ve ever felt this alone.�
//Good. Go away.//
�I�ve always been alone, but I�ve never felt this alone. I don�t think. Maybe. It�s possible I�m crazy, that I went insane somewhere or that the events have warped my mind just a little but it�s strange. I�m probably insane�I think, but it�s still funky�that�s why you�re here. Did I say that already?�
Sasuke curled up tighter in the corner, no longer bothering to look at Naruto.
//�Sleep. Concentrate. Sleep.//
�Yanno it makes a lotta sense that I die by your hands. I mean, improbable sure, because let�s face it, with the way you have things going you�re gonna take on the whole world. Do you really have time to fit me into your busy schedule? I mean really?� Naruto scorned.
Sasuke wasn�t listening.

�I think it�s perfectly all right for you to try and kill me. I�m cool with that. I just don�t think you�re going to do it, buthinthink that you should try. I really do. I mean you�re you, you�re Sasuke Uchiha, you can do anything you want and for a long time you really have. That�s really cool. I mean like�WTF cool. That cool.
�Not what you want to do the most, but everything else you can. When you put your mind to you you can do it, and I�ve known you a long time and you still blow me away with that. You do it. You�re amazing, you know? There is not a fucking thing Mr. Perfect cannot accomplish. F-ingly cool.�
Sasuke sighed irritably.
//If you really hate me so much, why are you keeping me alive?//
�Well that�s just it, see. That�s the fuck of it! That�s the thing that keeps us together. Neat!�
//Fuck off.//
�You know, it�s pretty likely I die by your hands but it�s a lot more likely that I kill you. Probably very soon. Not to put any pressure on you, but you�re starting to lose your amusement value, Sasuke, and that�s the only thing that�s been keeping you alive this far. A relationship like ours, as long as we�ve had it, is far too valuable for me, to me, for it just to go up in smoke like everyone else. I mean everyone else, they meant shit to me, they meant nothing. You mean a little bit more�not much more, and probably not in a good way. You detest me I know, but the truth is you do mean more.�
//Why not Iruka then? If you�re looking for a friend�why not Iruka? He�d be a hell of lot more sympathetic to your fucked up whining than I am.//
�Mmm�toughie. Well�why not Iruka? Why you Sasuke? Why would I take a cold bastard over my old sensei? �Believe it or not there is another reason behind this madness. Cool eh?�
Sasuke did not so much as twitch.
�The problem with Iruka, Sasuke, and the difference between him and you, is that, unlike you, Iruka has a heart that actually beats blood. It�s actually warm, e. e. And�I�m not looking for that. I don�t want sympathy, you don�t have any. No duh. And I don�t want his either; I�m not looking for sympathy.�
//So this isn�t about me, this is about vengeance.//
�Well that is you Sasuke, isn�t it? Vengeance? That�s your whole deal. That�s you. Iruka is something completely different; he�s not you.
�And believe it or not�I�m not even still sure if I was looking for vengeance, I was more like�I don�t think I could go fometomething that petty. So trivial as that; I�d like to think that I was going for something a bit more than that but hey you never know right? Maybe I am petty, I�m not sure yet, I haven�t decided. Truthfully Sasuke, not to badmouth him, but I don�t think Iruka has the constitution to withstand everything that I�m going to shove you through and I think you do. I�m not sure if I�m right and I don�t expect you to hold forever, but�I know he wouldn�t, certainly not as long as you have.�
Sasuke curled up tighter.
Eventually, Naruto went away.
//So you can hear me. In my mind. You can hear me. I knew it.//
***
It amazed Sasuke what a little water could do, correctly applied. He no longer had his tools, either kunakunai and he had no idea what had been done with his headband. The one material thing that he had been allowed to keep was his sandals; everything else was gone, exchanged.
It was very hard to pick the locks without tools. And the hinges had been well welded ever since the last two times he had managed to get out of his cage by taking the door off them. The fox-demon�s fingerprints were still visible in the metalworking.
But Sasuke hadn�t been eating; he instinctively didn�t trust the food after he saw what happened to the rats that he made eat it first, and anyway he wasn�t given very much to eat in the first place. What he did eat, he usually stole when he could when he got �loose�, as the fox put it. If the fox-demon had called him anorexic before, he wouldn�t be too off mark anymore. Sasuke was painfully skinny, grayishly pale, and more off-center than he had been in some time.
He always woke up in pain, and there was always fresh skin growing on his hands, and sometimes on his chest as well. He wasn�t sure how�
He always remembered fighting, in some dim corner of his mind. Fighting and anger, the faint smell of burning cinnamon and the sizzle of electricity and ozone dancing over his hands from the chidori. And there was always burning sensation over his fresh skin, a weakness, yet a burning in his stomach. An ugly burning sensation all through him that hurt but healed, and didn�t let him think on his own. It was like being intoxicated, but without the pleasure.
Just a tiny bit of water, a tiny bit of squeaking, and he was through the bars.
Slipped through.
His feet hit the floor, and he began to walk. His back was pretty scraped up after that, and he picked his shirt up off the floor, shoving it on as he walked. His memory led him. The air had nearly smelt fresher last time�somewhere down here he had smelled a way out.
He probably could have melted the bars down with the chidori, or with his own chakra, but that would have been a waste of energy. And most jutsus�did seem to have problems on the iron bars. That was innately strange; in all the texts he had ever read none had ever treated iron as something special.
The red bracelet stayed.
He hated it, but certain vulnerabilities could be very useful. It rubbed his pride the wrong way, but�
It was too easy for those things to find him.
Sasuke hated that.
They could smell him, sense him�most of them weren�t human and half of them walked on four-legs or could fly.
Damn.
It wasn�t fair.
Every time he got out, any time he thought he was alone and lurking in some shadow because Naru�the fox wasn�t paying as much attention to him as he had before�there would always be some leering face glossing over him, yellow eyes leering.
Some of them�the vampires especially�didn�t have life energy, so there was no usual way to sense them. They were dead flesh that still moved, stronger than living flesh. If they were still, Sasuke never knew they were there until they made themselves obvious. Later, he learned they had a distinct kind of�smell, almost. A dead atmosphere, like a walking graveyard.
Mutants like the werewolves, the cat-things, fish-things�those always sent a tingle down his spine. He couldn�t sense their energy easily, but something in his hindbrain knew when they were watching him. The little goblin things he could sense without fail, and there were indeed some normal humans mixed about, even some fugitive ninja.
//Traitors.//
The fox-demon he couldn�t sense at all.
But the other things, whatever they were and in whatever shape they were in, they wouldn�t touch him. Most wouldn�t dare talk to him, and avoided him. Some were stronger than him, all in better health, but because of the little red bracelet only a few would dare even speak in his general direction.
He had tried walking out without it already; pride had demanded it. The fox had to rescue him. Those things would have killed him. He had watched them be murdered in his stead from his spot against the wall, clutching his bleeding abdomen by something he couldn�t follow and would never recognize save for the flash of red leather and blonde hair.
They wouldn�t touch him, not at all. Not even to stop him from wandering about or picking up the odd weapon. They might watch, but none would ever even try to touch him, much less try to stop or for fight. If he attacked, they ran. They wouldn�t touch him.
No.
That privilege went to the fox-demon.
So in the entire castle, there was only one thing that Sasuke really had to avoid, really had to worry about.
Icy fingers touched the slightly warmer stonewall, and Sasuke pressed his ear against it and�listened. Really listened.
He had seen the fox do this; he had watched him with the Sharingan. He�d been tired as hell and he didn�t even remember what had happened or what he had been lectured about, but all the Stone Jutsus the fox had stolen from the shinobi he murdered Sasuke was slowly borrowing from him.
The hand gestures he hadn�t seen, the fox hadn�t shown, and that had slowed him down but the more he thought about it and worked on it the easier it became and the more it made sense.
Then, first by miniscule inches and then faster, the stone bled away from his fingers, flowing outward and around him like a vertical wall of water, and Sasuke stepped into the wall, and walked through it a few feet.
He walked eyes closed and hands held out in front of him, the solid stone rippling over his fingertips fluidly. The air was less, the feeling of space so very, very small, and somewhere inside him there were pangs of claustrophobia that he wasn�t paying attention to. He simply walked. He was pretty sure he knew where he was going.
::come::
Then suddenly, without knowing why, he turned sharply to the left, the stone a little softer to push. He had to be getting closer to the surface. His face scrunched up and�
Sasuke broke out in a run, veering to the right and pouring himself into it.
Dimly, he heard a muffled curse behind him and switched course again wildly, the stone fighting back against him, cutting at his ankles and bare feet and tearing gashes along his arms.
Then he broke into fresh air�fresh!--, and activated his Sharingan nearly a second too late.
His veins throbbed, muscles aching from the strain and the lack of energy. He needed fuel he didn�t have and had no idea what he was running on.
::When you try to strain the activation of a jutsu, not only will the jutsu fail, but you will also lose all remaining chakra.::
//Run!//
::Wasn�t that what Kakashi-sensei said?::
::I really think you should pay attention to that.::
//Run.//
::You�re going to collapse.::
The strange Sharingan vision swallowed the landscape, noting photographically ever little rock and dent, and the angle the cliff face fell at and how far it was to the ground before the landscape began to change before his eyes, morph into whatever it was Naruto wanted it to be and tinutinute Sasuke stepped foot out there he would go crashing on his face and shatter his bones into a gelatinous sack of blood and broken marrow.
He was going to die. He was going to die. They were too high up; he wouldn�t make alive and he was too weak, too weak, didn�t he see he was too weak he was going to die�
So Sasuke closed his eyes, fixed it in his mind and dashed forward, the dirty air pulling at his hair and dragging him back, muscles screaming. It was easier than he expected.
::You�re gonna die stupid!::
Sasuke didn�t listen.
He heard sounds behind him.
He didn�t even open his eyes when he felt himself fall, the ground evaporating under his feet and the air yanking at his hair and clothes. He just extended his right arm and tilted his feet at an angle, falling downward at an accelerating speed that the fox couldn�t catch him at and counting in his head before shoving his feet down to touch down on the cliff face and speeding parallel to the ground, jumping for no particular reason and air borne again, feeling something catch and tear the back of his shirt before he crashed into the tree and risked opening his eyes, dashing on before he even realized his surroundings. He let his body take over; his mind was just there for security reasons.
Eucalyptus trees. Or something that the bark could be pulled off easily from. Tall and slender and scraggly, and not exactly native looking.
Sasuke was a Leaf shinobi, Jounin level, his rank among them unknown.
Trees were his best friends.
The second he touched the bark, felt the wood under his fingers and slight dusty murky organic smell of the fiber, he became invisible. He opened his eyes. The sky was a foreboding dark orange.
Naruto tried to stop before he hit the trees. He had been a Leaf shinobi. Trees were not his best friends. Demons didn�t really have friends, but trees sure didn�t like them much.
They were alive, and while not really intelligent they did remember fire�s touch the same way they remembered the gracing sun and water. Naruto starved them of both on purpose, but he hadn�t yet brought himself to burning the dead grove to the ground. Some of his employees liked the trees; a few of them lived in them.
Still.
�Fucking hamster,� Naruto muttered nonsensically. �Bitchy-, me, medieval goddamned hunters the lot of them�� and gingerly Naruto followed Sasuke into the grove. �Ewwee�damned weeds freaking allergies gonna start right up��
***
Sasuke hid with his back pressed against the tree trunk crouched against the ground and nearly invisible in his nondescript gray clothes, felt the dead and brittle but still reassuring bark under his fingertips, and was very hard pressed not to groan when a juvenile voice made itself known.
�You, angel,� Naruto stated critically. �Look like hell.�
Naruto was standing in a small spot of ground declining from Sasuke, looking up at and and keeping an equal distance away from the trees. His hands were in his pockets. He didn�t look tired.
At one point, Naruto had been weaker than Sasuke. At one point, Naruto had been his stray dog, because he wasn�t cute enough to be a puppy. At one point, Sasuke had worried for Naruto�s safety, had saved his life.
Remarkable how the situation had changed.
Quick as small anole lizards, his eyes darted back to Sasuke�s. �I sense your envy of my teeth. You desire what might yet be not quite beyond your reach�When have you ever turned down a free deal? When it was so good, especially?�
His eyes roamed maniacally, and Sasuke stood up with his eyes unpleasantly cold and shoulders back and turned away, giving Naruto his profile and keeping his blood temperature at a chidegrdegree. He probably couldn�t escape as easily anymore. Still he kept his hand on the tree, and felt the weak-reassuring beat of chakra through the bark.
�What am I asking that you protest so much? I could offer you exactly what you want Sasuke. You could have your life�s dream in some very short sincere seconds��
�I don�t know what it is you want.�
Naruto straightened audibly. Sasuke�had spoken. Hold the press.
�Nothing that would tax your soul overmuch,� he said in that same hurried, conspiratorial undertone. �Are you interested?�
�I didn�t say that,� Sasuke turned around, and with his height and higher vantage point and Naruto�s stance, gave an enviable impression of looking down his nose in disdain while stepping a foot closer to Naruto aggressively. �You�ve been harassing me since I got here. You brought me here.�
Naruto let that dangle in the air. Technically speaking, he wasn�t obliged to answer yet. Sasuke had very nice eyes, he couldn�t help noticing. So very penetrating, piercing. So very dark. Nearly hopeless, one might say.
�Why?�
�I thought we cleared that up.�
�No. You say you hate me, but at the same time you�re threatening to rape me.�
�Well those aren�t exactly contradictory circumstances Se. e. I can do that if I want.�
Sasuke hesitated.
�You haven�t done anything. You want something. Something from me.�
Naruto shrugged.
�Something you can�t take.�
�There isn�t anything out there I can�t take anymore by force, Sasuke. Nothing in the world.�
�Then why haven�t you?�

Honestly, Naruto didn�t have an answer to that one. He shrugged, and rambled on.
�What�s the rush? I like the taste of quality, the taste of surrender. The feel of�an angel falling in my mouth. Very nice. Very, very nice.�
::remember::
�Get out of my head.�
Naruto only grinned obliquely, staring up at Sasuke through his bangs, confident that whatever he looked and however he acted the Ice Angel was a little bit affected. For one he hadn�t broken his gaze. That was nearly a declaration of war unto itself.
Naruto swung his legs into action as he marched�literally�up to where Sasuke stood, stopping a few feet in front of him, smiling that same intrigued smile with his head tilted to sid side.
�Come Sasuke,� he murmured quietly. �You have to admit it was pretty enjoyable.�
To his credit and a small knock to Naruto�s gravitational center, Sasuke didn�t react in the slightest. Not in his face, not in his eyes, not even in his body. His mind did jump a bit, shift and coil in on itself, but that was all.
Unfortunately, Naruto was content to wait all day for an answer.
Sasuke shrugged.
Naruto made a very small face and kept his voice low.
�Or was it truly such a waste of your precious time?�
There was a tense moment.
This was not a situation Sasuke cared to be in.
He was talking about�a midnight rendezvous with a creature that hinted, had practically said he would be interested in more, and if he straight out said yes, it was a waste, then it would probably have very bad, very violently mental retaliation on himself and if he said no then�
Then he didn�t know.
They were alone out here. There was no one around for miles. And while Sasuke could definitely run he would most certainly be caught, and while he could fight he�d be beaten like he had before; if the whole of the village hadn�t proved enough then more couldn�t realistically be expected of him.
Naruto wouldn�t stop looking at him; inquisitively, immensely interested.
He had said that he could help Sasuke; had nearly said that he would help Sasuke if he would just�
What? Just what?
�What is it you want?�
�Right now I want to know how you liked your blow job.�
Sasuke didn�t blush, but he nearly did. His eyes widened for a few seconds.
�Fine.�
�Fine?�
�Yeah.�
�Ah. Just fine? Not bad? Not spectacular?�

�It was fine.�
�Ah. Great. Good. Glad to hear it. So you�ve finally accepted it,� Naruto added on, scuffing the ground with his head down. �But�why did you never question it? I know I left it off as a dream, but didn�t you question it at all? Didn�t you question yourself? Homosexuality is something that when it spontaneously shoots up tends to really unnerve people. I�d�kind of expect the same for you.�
Sasuke didn�t answer. His jaw was beginning to ache. For a minute he had really thought that he was off the hook, but it was only because he was being thrown into the fish barrel to be cooked.
None of the interest had faded, but an undertone of malice was beginning to make itself apparent in Naruto�s stare, in his pale blue eyes and sharp grin.
�You don�t have to answer that right now. We have time,� was Naruto�s small reprieve. Thankfully, he took his eyes briefly from Sasuke, and he finally remembered how to breathe. His jaw and his fingers hurt.
�So are you gay?�
Sasuke didn�t blink.
�No.�
�Like girls?�
�No.�
�How do you plan to live your sex-life then?�

�I don�t.�
�Ah, Sasuke,� Naruto said reproachfully. �What a boring guy you are. And such a waste of good flesh.�
Light blue eyes mixed with something else raked his face. Sasuke hadagueague inkling of what was happening next.
�Don�t you ever wonder if you�ll ever be anything more than a nice piece of meat?�
Sasuke didn�t answer. He didn�t even blink.
�Ever wonder if you�ll have anything more than your name and good looks? That is all people usually see, you know. That and a decent killing machine. Must suck to be you,� Naruto continued with that same relentless malice, that same fluffy atmosphere. �Ever wonder about the day you�ll finally be, shall I say��
�Free?� Sasuke finished flatly. He wasn�t going to be talked at. �Like you are? Hiding in this hole? �I�ve heard enough of your rant. You don�t think very widely.�
Naruto looked mildly, pleasantly surprised. Then he broke into an easy laughing smile.
�Yeah, I guess I do talk a lot, you know me� But really. Think you will? On your own? The way you�re going?�

�What? Do you want me to be like you? Run around in circles laughing like an idiot, because I�m too scared to take the pain?�
Naruto paused for a second, but kept his voice low.
�You�ll never be like me, angel.�
�I�m not your angel.�
�No. No you�re not,� Naruto sighed and shifted stance, shifting his weight and his hips and shoulders. �You haven�t answered my question.�
�You haven�t answered mine.�
�Mm. No. I haven�t.�
And that seemed to be that. With Naruto staring out over the horizon, hands clasped loosely behind his back, light on his feet and itching for Sasuke to make his move that way he could have his daily excuse to touch him, even though he really didn�t need it anymore. It was still nice to have it. There wasn�t too much for Sasuke to do.
�Why me?� demanded Sasuke a little heatedly, but never too loud.
Naruto shrugged. �Even if you�re not in a dress you�re still pretty. I thought that was clear.�
�You could have taken your sex if you wanted it. You did before.�
He hadn�t wanted to say that, but it was something that had to be done. He�d been skirting the subject. But then�so had the fox.
Without turning his head, Naruto�s eyes turned to press his own. He took his time answering, waiting to see if Sasuke would break first.
�Yes. I still can. Are you tempting me, angel?�
�No. It�s something you�ve known.�

�I didn�t bring it up because I thought you wouldn�t be ready, but if you�re��
�What the hell do you care if I�m ready or not!� Sasuke actually shouted in his face, eyes snapping and Naruto was momentarily captivated. �If it�s only looks�if it�s only sex what�s really stopping you? That now I know? What does that matter to you? Why should you even care what I�m thinking, what I�m feeling?�
Sasuke allowed a brief pause to see if Naruto would respond, but only very, very brief.
�You don�t need me to like it. You don�t need anyone�s approval.�
//God I hope I�m not digging my own grave.//
�You don�t even need me willing.�
Sasuke held his gaze. He couldn�t help it. His heart was racing.
�So what do care what I think?�
He waited longer. Naruto didn�t answer, didn�t move a muscle in his face except study Sasuke�s own eyes and drip off his cheekbones, but he didn�t move a muscle more than that. The silence was getting unbearable. He had to say something.
�You want something you can�t take. Something that has to be given.�
�I can make you willing, Sasuke,� Naruto pointed out. �I did it once. I co ito it again, no problem. You�ll just be a bit more aware about the whole thing is all, and that�s definitely some points in my favor. You could use the relaxing, I know that.�
�You can. You�ve been able. But you haven�t,� and Sasuke clutched that fact like the last ace up his sleeve. �That�s not the something you�re looking for.�
Naruto looked undecidedly amused.
�And what is the something I�m looking for, Sasuke? You�ve already thought of something, I can tell. Just end the suspense and get it out.�
Sasuke blinked, finally.
�I think you�re in love with me.�
�
There. It was out in the open now. No pulling back. No second thoughts.
Naruto was leering widely, and looked ready to laugh.
�You�re joking.�
Sasuke didn�t joke.
�You�ve gotta be joking you� You little romantic you! That�s so sweet! And the evil demon lord captures the pretty angel and they make happy, romantic, and redeeming love all their happy days and he stops being the evil demon lord right? Becomes the angel�s little bitch?� Naruto spat. �Very pretty. I�ll go vomit breakfast now.�
Sasuke hadn�t eaten breakfast. He hadn�t thought he could talk this much.
�Sick, isn�t it?� he asked after Naruto had spit a second time. �But logical. What else would you need my cooperation for? Why else would you care?�
�That�s all very true right up to �But�. Everything else is bullshit. As it is you�re the one who had the crush on me��
�What else, then? What else is there? Why me?�

�Because you�re easy like that! Because you actually thought about shoving me into bed before-hand! Because there are worse choices than you!�
Naruto was shouting. Sasuke kept talking evenly, composed.
�Why try to convince me?�
�Why the hell not? It makes you squirm; it makes you wriggle�Sasuke I never picked you specifically to have sex with. That�s an added bonus but your real reason for continued existence is because you�re you. Because you get under my skin. Because you actually can remember how I used to be I find that hilarious!�
Naruto waved his arms at the heavens wildly. �It�s not about sex! It could be! It could be easy, but really, Sasuke�� and Naruto lowered his voice, lowered his arms, �it�s �cause you�re a Konoha shinobBecaBecause you were the best there was,� Naruto smiled kind of wistfully. �Because you�re perfect. You alone are perfection. Sex is nice, really, and I�d really like it if you stripped and we could get it on right here but really��
Sasuke wasn�t using the Sharingan, and that alone should have caught his attention, him him pause and wonder. He didn�t need it. He saw without it; knew without his heritage.
To know Naruto would move, to know where and how he would move and how exactly Sasuke could counter him should have been enough to raise some question marks in his brain but the tanned fingers squeezing the blood from his wrist sizzling with energy and clutching a knife was more than enough to take up his attention.
Naruto was kneeling over him, clutching both his wrists in a killing grip and freezing the rest of his body with his unnatural powers, so Sasuke was sitting down and leaning back on thin air. Naruto had to exercise more effort to keep him still than he had had to before.
He waited until Sasuke stopped struggling. Yet, still�Sasuke didn�t look helpless. Held and bound as he was, with a known demon looming over him and inches from his face, he didn�t look helpless. He didn�t feel helpless or afraid, or even look frustrated.
This patience of his was irritating.
�Why you, Sasuke-kun? Angel, you really wanna know why you?�
�Yes.�

Naruto nearly smiled at the tone of voice.
�Because I burned down the village, darling. Because I killed everyone I ever wanted to, and even some more that didn�t deserve it just because they were there. And even though that makes me�deliriously happy, angel, it isn�t very long-lasting.�
Naruto lifted up the corners of his mouth, and his teeth showed.
�And that�s where you come in.�
He waited for a reaction. There was none visible, but mentally he felt something deflate inside that very black mind.
�For as long as you�re alive, a memory of them still exists. A memory of me, a memory of Kakashi�even Sakura-chan, for whatever that�s worth now. But it�s a reminder I can�t walk away from. And simply killing you won�t end that.�
//Sakura?//
Naruto smiled mirthlessly.
�To be sure�just because you were such a nice little beaver to me today, I�ll let you in on a little secret. And no, I don�t love you. I don�t love you and I never will and I don�t think I�ll ever love anyone so I won�t have to worry about family and all the icky-betrayal issues that come with that but�to be sure�I do find an attraction between us, Sasuke. Not always a very nice one, and usually it just means were trying to kill each other, but I do find an attraction between us. It�s unnatural how we�re always chasing each other�s tails, how we�ve always been chasing each other all this time, even way back when we didn�t hate each other as much as we do now.�
Sasuke didn�t answer. Not even his mind was shifting.
�Weird, right? Really weird. But I wouldn�t go so far as to call it love, angel. Or even affection. I don�t even like you as a person very much. It�s just something that keeps us crashing into each other, like gravity. Something I don�t want to end�like it didn�t matter.�
Naruto seemed to lean back, his voice and eyes hushed.
�Just an attraction. Nothing more.�
Finally, after much time and some thought, Sasuke replied.
�Then why are you blushing?�
Naruto smiled.
�Because you look really hot when your hands are pressed against the ground. When you�re all tied up, no where to go�and you�ve got that look in your eye��
Dark eyes widened, his shoulders scooting back, and Naruto leaned forward predatorily, his eyes already on Sasuke�s pd lid lips and for a single small 1/8 of a second allowemselmself to dream�
--Sasuke took the opportunity to kick him in the groin. Very, very hard. Fast too. Damn his quiet mind, it was too quiet.

//B //Being uncomfortable should be an illegal state of being.//
Added pain connected immediately upwards with Naruto�s nose, and there was sudden feeling of speed. Naruto got himself out of the thick of it quickly. Sasuke followed up�from behind him, surprisingly, and Naruto had the first real fight he had had in a real time without using any of his chakra or supernatural abilities, since Sasuke wouldn�t be able to either. He wasn�t even able to use his Sharingan.
Sasuke was tired, Naruto had to note, but he was in no way sluggish or graceless. He could still jump and flip and make his body snap back on itself, purposely keeping the fighting close-quartered because he didn�t have the stamina orengrength to use the distance. Sasuke�s style was choppy; everything lacked the mandatory strength and power; it was clear he was quickly losing his stamina. Naruto gave him 6, 10 minutes tops before he crashed to the ground, provided Naruto didn�t hit him too hard.
It was Naruto first that smacked face-first into the ground.
Naruto came away grinning gaily, laughing out loud, tasting the blood and dirt in his mouth and still feeling Sasuke�s flesh against his knuckles and rejoicing at it, and looked around wildly, slightly disappointed to find there was no Sasuke to be seen. Never mind. He could still smell him, still sense him. He was close.
�Nonsensical! Yet you envy me! You wish to wipe my ass!! Butter my groin!! Oh, you hermaphroditic monkey you speak with fool�s tongues!! That�s a nice kick!!� Naruto yelled at the sky and cracked his neck, his eyes widening momentarily with pain. �Shit!! Very nice!�
Cold and hard as abstobstone Naruto could feel Sasuke�s thoughts assaulting his mind, slamming into him in his moody, sarcastically dark way.
//I hurt. I feel funny. I want out now! Not later, not tomorrow even, I don�t want to talk to you or anything else I want nothing to do with you I want out now.//
Naruto wanted to laugh, nearly did, and instead threw out his mind searchingly, but Sasuke�s physical voice found him first; the voice that could call even Gaara out. It sent shivers up Naruto�s spine.
�You talk of freedom but I�m locked up. You�re no different from them. Same callous stupidity, same indifferent cruelty. Oh, you were raised all right Naruto,�
//!!!!!!!//
�You were raised just fine. You�re just like them. No better. Much worse. Low level is a natural human trait, a staple. It�s an old fact. You can�t even claim to that; you�re a disease, mooning the world with your ass because you got picked.�
//Hey. Cutting it close there angel.//
�Volunteered,� Naruto said flatly without turning around. Sasuke was behind him. �By my father.�
�Yay! So what the fuck! No one cares; ever! If it hadn�t been you it�d be someone else.� Sasuke let that hang in the air. �Shit happens. Grow up.�
Naruto didn�t turn around, gave no indication of what he was thinking. Sasuke was tired. Emotion was showing through in his voice. Sasuke was very tired.
�Torching the village does not make it better,� Sasuke continued softly, indifferently. �And I�m not your punching bag or your whore. I�m ending it.�
Naruto finally turned around, his face academically quizzical.
�I�ll die here, if I have to,� Sasuke said evenly, still invisible to Naruto�s searching eye, �But not the way you want.�
�What about your clan?�
�What about the village? It was bigger.�
�You really don�t care about anything, do you?�
�No,� Sasuke replied without hesitation. �I don�t.�
�Then why fight if noting matters?�
Sasuke sounded faintly disdainful. �You�re a demon. You wouldn�t understand.�
Naruto nodded understandingly, his bangs hiding most of his face and his hands shoved in his olive-green pants� pockets. Sasuke hadn�t been stupid enough to try and grab his jacket a second time. �I see. Well then�you won�t terribly mind about what I�m about to show you next.�
::Oh, and Sasuke?::
There was a short strangled sound, with a hint of animal-like pain. Something fell out of the trees quietly to Naruto�s left, and he turned around faintly surprised. He had thought he was at his back. Sasuke was getting good at hiding.
He had to assault his mind again, shoving him down because Sasuke still had the audacity to try and stand up a second time. His angel really was growing, that he was.
::You�ll die the way I want. None other::
***
�You know, I probably shouldn�t try to justify my actions but�� Naruto looked off into the horizon, searching, while his voice trailed off. �But that was really fun,� he said hysterically with a luscious grin. �I don�t think I�ve stopped smiling for one minute yet!�
Sasuke said nothing. His mind was trying to push his eyes out of their sockets, trying to clean whatever was wrong with this picture, whatever new illusion Naruto had cooked up, whatever the damned fox had cooked up, and focusing as much power to his Sharingan as he could. It hurt his neck, his eyes, he nhe needed the Sharingan. He needed it now and pushed his limits further.
He had been dragged up here, and thrown at the tip of a not-so-tall dead tree hanging off the lip of a cliff, the panorama opening beneath him like a baseball stadium, the horizon overwhelming. Naruto was jauntily hanging from a tree tip adjacent to his. There was no wind, only the still deathly air and tiny invisible specks of ash clinging to Sasuke�s hair and clothes against the pewter sky and orange sun.
�It was really fun. Sadly it only lasted a few days and nights, but it was still�one wild ride. Too bad it couldn�t last longer, but nothing good ever does right?�
The Sharingan could see through illusions. He coularlyarly sense now when something was forcing his mind.
//�//
�Nothing to say? �No witty comeback, no sharp retort? You always have one Sasuke, don�t let me down now.�
The village�the village Sasuke could understand. He could see that. It hadn�t�the fox had attacked before, and while he was growing up he�d noticed that some of the old trees had scorchings that weren�t quite normal but even that had been�even�
�I thought you didn�t care about anything. Nothing. Why care about that?�
�The village was one thing. There was still�there still something to�
�run to.
�I wish I had a camera,� came dark laughter to his left. �For the look on your face�aren�t you the Avenger? Aren�t you the Angel? Ice-man? You don�t give a fuck about anything! You�re alone! You�re always alone!�
It wasn�t the village burned.
It was the whole forest.
�Don�t tell me I�ve broken you already.�
The sun had been a funky dark-orange color, even though it was days after the attack. Sasuke didn�t know how long and he hadn�t been outside in forever, had nearly forgotten what the real sunlight looked like. The smell of burning�had been everywhere, strongest on the � but everywhere in the castle too. Everything.
�it hadn�t just been Konohakagure. Sasuke could see�everything. Everything at all. For miles. More.
Where there had been trees, green for miles as far as the eye could see and farther, stretching all the way to Wave country and edging the Sand and Stone, huge old trees that were ancient, some centuries old dating all the way back to the feudal times and had sheltered thousands been home to millions and were so old and strong and everything and it was just�
Almost as a sharp relief, Naruto�s pale blue eyes watched him silently. Pale blue eyes�tinted with lavender around the iris. Hemmed slightly with red; bloodshot from lack of sleep.
Those eyes.
Sasuke had never seen eyes like that before.

Those eyes. In that face. With that hair.
Sasuke was si

Naruto caught his wrist inches from his face, coming down at him at an angle, the tip of the knife barely brushing against the vulnerable, inside corner of his eye. He squeezed hard; he could feel the bones begin to give under the strain. Pain pricked; nauseatingly, Naruto could feel blood sliding down his skin, along the angle of his nose. He could smell it.
//Pinpoint accuracy. Even wiped as he is, and he still has that accuracy.//
Naruto didn�t dare close his eyes, didn�t dare look away. He couldn�t. He couldn�t do that anymore than he could let the knife go through his eye into his skull.
�He was drowning in his soul. Dark, bottomless black, without end and without beginning, shot through with burnt arterial blood, the remnants of the ashy Sharingan. Apathy oblivion and violence�
Sasuke wasn�t standing on anything. He was crouched in the air, hovering on nothing, both hands just pushing against that direction, against where those eyes were. Those damned eyes. Straining and pushing, and nothing else mattered. Time seemed to stand still around him, reality holding its breath at his command.
After the first five seconds, after the momentum ended, anyone else would have lost their balance, would have dropped their legs as their body took over and said, �Hey, I�m not standing on anything, and there�s nothing moving on me. I have to fall now. Gravity is screaming my name. I have to fall now.� Sasuke didn�t fall. He didn�t budge, didn�t move, and found purchase against the empty air with all his will and soul to push against Naruto.
On bare nothing, people died.
On bare nothing, Sasuke could still fight.
Damn.
Naruto felt his eyes go wide.
Fuck.
There was a splatter of blood, and then a scream.
***
*A line describing the 12 year old Antichrist from Neil Gaiman�s and Terry Pratchett�s book of Good Omens.
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