Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Duality ❯ Bad Friends ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter Nine: Bad Friends

Naruto woke up the next morning and the first thing he saw was his big brother sleeping beside him, clutching a small brown bear to his chest, arm lax in sleep. Sekai had told him where the gift had come from and Naruto was glad to know that he and Sai were getting along so well.

The second thing he noticed was that it was raining, hard and fast, droplets pattering against the roof above them, currents of water streaming down the windowpane without any sign of stopping.

It looked like they weren’t going to train today.

Sekai stirred and saw the grey skies and pouring rain before pouting sleepily. “Mou! I like rain, but I wanted to see S—everyone,” he corrected quickly, blushing. Their parting last night had been incredibly awkward, but Sekai had been hoping to smooth things over today. Now he would have to wait until the rain stopped, and it looked as though that would take a while.

Naruto caught his correction and smiled. “Let’s go over to Sasuke’s place,” he suggested, because he wanted to see his dark-haired friend as well.

“Kitty-chan would sooner kill me than let me cross his doorstep,” Sekai complained.

“Well, if you keep calling him weird names like ‘Kitty-chan’ then he probably will,” Naruto pointed out with a laugh. No one else but his brother would dare insult Sasuke like that—besides himself of course.

Sekai clutched his bear to his chest. “I wouldn’t if he didn’t get so angry,” he said with a wink.

Naruto giggled. “Sasuke’s right; you do have a death wish.”

Sekai stuck his tongue out. “Sasu-chan needs to relax more.” He stopped himself from suggesting ways that Naruto could help the Uchiha heir relax.

The younger blond climbed out of bed and headed for the bathroom. He took quicker showers than Sekai so he got to go first. “We’ll get dressed, have breakfast and go over, okay?”

Sekai smiled. “Yes, yes.” He glanced at his wardrobe and wondered if this was a special enough occasion to wear something a little different…

-

Sasuke glared out the window darkly but it continued raining, undaunted by his substantial ire.

Sai watched him out of the corner of his eye as he washed up the dishes from that morning’s breakfast. They never spoke to each other beyond greetings unless the circumstance was dire. Considering, this might be one of those times. “I wonder what the others are doing,” he murmured contemplatively.

Sasuke’s eyes hardened but he said nothing. Sai wondered if he was thinking of Naruto as much as he was thinking of Sekai.

He wiped the soup suds off his hands. “Sasuke-san, may I ask you a personal question?” he inquired politely.

The other boy spared him a glance. “That depends entirely on what it is.”

“How did you know you loved Naruto?” The rain had interrupted his plans to talk to Sakura about it. Under the circumstances talking to Sasuke might be more fruitful however.

Sasuke spun around to face him, eyes widening before a fierce scowl came to his face, an expression he usually reserved for Sekai these days. “How did you know?!”

Sai blinked, not understanding the sudden anger. “I’ve always known. I thought we discussed this months ago, when you were still with Orochimaru.”

“I want to protect that ‘bond’ with you that he is trying so hard to mend,” he’d said. Sasuke remembered.

“But… you couldn’t have known just from what Naruto told you,” Sasuke argued, sure that he had been able to keep his feelings masked back then.

“It was something I felt,” Sai explained carefully. “If Naruto felt that strongly about someone, then that someone must feel the same, no matter what evil had embraced them.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “That’s stupid. Life doesn’t work that way.”

“The two of you are different. You can’t see that by now?”

Sasuke looked away, back out at the drenched village. He left Sai’s question unanswered. “You and that deviant. It’s like I have it tattooed to my forehead.”

Sai smiled slightly at that. No. It’s because the thing between you and Naruto is so strong, everyone can see it.

The other boy let out a soft exhalation, his breath fogging against the glass. He cleared it away with the long sleeve of his black shirt. “I just knew,” he answered Sai’s first question quietly. “It wouldn’t go away and I tried for so long just to stop feeling, but I couldn’t. The feeling’s as stubborn as he is.”

Sasuke was about to ask why Sai wanted to know when there was a knock at the door. He sighed and went to answer it, only to find two smiling blonds standing on his doorstep. They were also a little damp, though they at least had the foresight to bring umbrellas.

“Yo!” they greeted.

Scary, Sasuke thought. “What are you doing here?”

Sekai put an innocent expression on his face. “Naruto-nii missed you terribly.”

Naruto blushed brightly. “Aniki!” he complained, throwing an embarrassed smile Sasuke’s way.

“As for me, I’m not here for you, Sasu-chan,” Sekai continued airily, breezing through the threshold before Sasuke had a chance to slam the door in his face (which he had been tempted to do, if only Naruto hadn’t been standing there as well).

He spotted the other dark haired boy in the large apartment and his face brightened immediately. “Sai!”

Sai smiled, the sight of his friend bringing back the whirlwind of feelings he’d felt last night. Then he noticed something else. “You’re wearing a different dress,” he noted unnecessarily, studying the blue dress that ended just below Sekai’s knees. This one was definitely not for training in. It had a bow along the collar and the skirt was pleated finely.

Sasuke sneered as he closed the door behind Naruto. “It makes you look even more like a girl.”

Sekai smiled sharply. “Don’t do that with your lip, Kitty, it makes you look unattractive.”

“Can you two cut it out?” Naruto complained before Sasuke’s anger could fully build. “I just wanted us to spend time together. You know, like normal people.”

“We’re normal?” Sekai asked Sai, mock seriously.

“I think he means people that don’t try to kill each other,” Sai told him, smiling at his tone.

“Hmm, well, I suppose I can do that for my darling little brother.” Sekai held up his hands in surrender.

Naruto smiled at him, relieved to have that crises averted (hopefully). “Good.”

“Your shoes are lovely too,” Sai said, drawing a blush from his dress-wearing friend. “They go with the outfit so well.”

Sekai glanced self-consciously down at his sandaled feet and matching nail polish on his toes. (1) “Thank you.”

“You’re both bizarre and disturbed,” Sasuke interjected.

“And your point is?” Sekai shot back cheerfully.

Sasuke’s eye twitched. “I think they’re ugly.”

Sai frowned slightly at that. “No, they aren’t. He has very nice feet.”

“Sasuke, don’t be mean,” Naruto interjected, feeling as though he was quickly losing control of this situation. “His feet are… umm… nice, I guess?” he added awkwardly, not really knowing or caring, but not wanting to insult his brother regardless.

Sekai giggled lightly. “Thank you too, Naruto-nii.”

Sasuke glared, irritated that Naruto had taken Sekai’s side once again.

Naruto blushed and looked around the room for some distraction. “Wow, you have a big TV…”

Sasuke shrugged, calming down at Naruto’s observation. “I don’t use it much.”

The blond picked up the remote and turned it on. He was surprised when the channels just kept coming and coming. “Hey, this is a lot.” He sat down on the sofa to watch and was surprised by how comfortable it was. “Aniki, come feel how nice this is!”

The blonds are invading, Sasuke thought with dread.

Sekai hurried over to sit beside his brother and sank into the plush couch. “Ohh. Sasuke, I wanna have your couch’s babies,” he quipped, rubbing his cheek against the cushions.

Sasuke suddenly drew out a kunai and Naruto instinctively tackled him to the carpeted floor. The knife slipped out of Sasuke’s hand in the fall.

Sasuke stared up at Naruto. He couldn’t bring himself to struggle—it was exactly where he wanted the idiot. “I wasn’t going to kill him.”

Naruto raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”

“Pet the kitty, Naruto-nii; they like to be pet,” Sekai chortled unhelpfully from the sidelines.

Deciding to play along, since Sasuke didn’t seem to be in a hurry to push him off, Naruto gently touched his pale face. Sasuke gasped quietly but didn’t object. Naruto rubbed his thumb against the skin and Sasuke closed his eyes against the intrusion.

He looks so peaceful, Naruto thought, grinning. Almost like he’s happy.

Sasuke was happy, until he fully realized what was happening and panicked. I’ve got to stop him before I do something we both regret… “Stop that,” he commanded quietly.

Naruto blushed. “Er, sorry,” he said, finally setting him loose and standing up.

Sasuke rose slowly, waiting for his body’s reaction to Naruto’s actions to go away. He kept his face carefully devoid of the hurricane of emotions inside his chest.

Damn it, so close! Sekai thought unhappily before turning to Sai, who had been watching the two boys with interest as well. He shrugged at him helplessly.

Sai smiled slightly, knowing how he felt, and went to sit down beside him on the sofa. When Naruto took up his former spot on the other side of his brother, Sasuke sighed softly and sat next to Naruto.

“Oh look, a horror movie,” Sekai noted blandly as he stopped channel surfing.

Naruto shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t like horror movies.”

“Oh?”

“They’re always about someone being attacked by some sort of monster,” Naruto said, feeling lame.

Sekai frowned guiltily. Of course Naruto was likely to see similarities between movie monsters and the Kyuubi. “We don’t have to watch it. There’s tons of other stuff on…”

“It’s okay,” Naruto said quickly, not wanting to appear weak, especially with Sasuke there—and he could feel him watching.

Sasuke, though, had seen the connection as well, so he couldn’t help himself from pointing out, “Well, vampires aren’t necessarily monsters. They typically signify repressed, dark sexual urges.”

Naruto couldn’t help but giggle at that—he was still an immature sixteen year old after all. “Really?”

“Hmm,” Sekai gave Sasuke a keen look, “someone speaks like an expert.”

Sasuke shrugged. “Just an observation.”

Sekai repressed the urge to ask if he was speaking from personal experience. But just barely. It was almost painful. “Okay, Count Sasuke. What do you think about a male vamp biting down on another guy?”

“Latent homosexual urges hidden behind the smokescreen of heterosexual affairs,” Sasuke answered immediately. “Men, women—it doesn’t matter. The action of biting is symbolic for sex regardless.”

“So what does that say about Orochimaru’s curse?” Sai asked, motioning to the burn mark on his neck.

Sasuke glowered at the screen. “That he was a pervert.”

Naruto made a face. “You mean he…”

“Yeah. I was constantly beating him off. Especially after he gave me Kusanagi—apparently he found it even more phallic.”

“Ew…” Naruto felt bile rising in his throat, and anger that the bastard had dared try to touch his Sasuke.

That was when Naruto finally came to the conclusion that he was definitely interested in Sasuke as more than a friend. The revelation left him quiet for a few moments.

“Kabuto hated it,” Sasuke went on, still speaking frankly about his experience. “Orochimaru apparently stopped sleeping with him as often after I came.”

“I knew it!” Sekai cried.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “Well, they never went out of their way to hide it. Kabuto tried to get back at me with stupid things—reminding Orochimaru when it was my birthday, getting the other Sound ninjas to try to kill me; stupid things.”

“Well, people do crazy things when they’re in love,” Sekai remarked idly. “Some go for flowers and candy—others for attempted murder.” He sent a wink Sasuke’s way.

Sasuke glared murderously. “One day I’m going to kill you, you know that, right?” (2)

Sekai beamed blissfully. “Really?” he said, leaning conveniently against Naruto, putting his chin on the younger boy’s shoulder.

Sasuke caught his point and growled.

Sai laughed softly. “You know, you’re the one that seems like a cat now, Sekai.”

The blond beamed at him and shifted to lean against his shoulder playfully. “You think so?”

“I… I want to pet you now for some reason,” Sai said bluntly, gazing back into mischievous blue eyes.

“Really?” Sekai responded breathily, his heart skipping a beat and ignoring the part of his brain which told him flirting was unwise. “Well, I’m not stopping you…”

Naruto watched them with wide eyes, blushing. “The mood’s become very adult,” he murmured to Sasuke.

Sekai and Sai both blushed, remembering that they weren’t exactly alone.

Sasuke surprised them by laughing as the mood was broken. Finally, the deviant’s embarrassed…

Naruto grinned widely—because he’d never heard Sasuke laugh like that before and he quite liked the sound of it. Not to mention how much more beautiful Sasuke looked smiling…

Sasuke caught his grin and looked away, biting his lip until his smile faded.

“Don’t,” Naruto objected without thinking. “You have a great smile. You should do it more often.”

Sasuke flushed lightly and stared at him in wonder, not knowing what Naruto meant by that.

“… and smirks don’t count!” Naruto added, feeling nervous since Sasuke wasn’t saying anything, so he just kept talking. “I mean real smiles! I… I hate it when your face is all blank. I feel like… you don’t want to be here… and I… I want you to be here, with me…”

“Naruto…” Sasuke couldn’t believe he was hearing this. He tried to remind himself that it was all perfectly innocent. “If I didn’t want to be here, I would leave.”

“I know that! But… But… I just… I don’t want to lose you again… I just want you to be happy…”

Sasuke sighed quietly, remembering that Sakura had once said something along those words to him as well. It left him feeling as empty as it did back then. “You can’t make me happy, Naruto. It’s not something that’s forced.”

Naruto looked down at his lap sourly. “I know that too. I just…”

Deciding to take pity on him, Sasuke said, “I appreciate you feeling that way. I told you before not to worry about it. I only left so I could get stronger. Now I just need to kill Itachi then it’ll be over.”

“Then what will you do?” Naruto asked sharply.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you plan to do anything after that?”

Sasuke sighed again. The thing he wanted after that he couldn’t have. “I’ll come back here of course. Don’t worry so much, total idiot.”

“So you’re planning to live afterwards?” Naruto prodded desperately.

“If I can.”

“No! No, you have to promise me.” Naruto grabbed Sasuke’s hands tightly. “You have to promise you’ll come back!”

Sasuke looked into those earnest blue eyes that were his greatest, most terrible weakness and knew that if Naruto were to become his lover, he would never be able to deny the blond anything. This was one thing he would give him though. Slowly, he nodded. “I promise.”

Excited, Naruto cheered and hugged him tightly. “It’s the promise of a lifetime!” he announced.

Sasuke had heard the story of that line from Sakura. He nodded again and relaxed against Naruto’s warmth. “Yeah.”

Over Naruto’s shoulder he noticed Sekai smiling and looking as though he wanted to cry. The older boy mouthed words of encouragement which Sasuke ignored.

Why did Sekai want them to get together? Sasuke didn’t understand.

Sekai seemed to understand his confusion though. He read his lips saying silently, ‘I want you two to be happy. I know you’ll be happiest together.’

Sasuke rolled his eyes. It figured that Sekai had a sappy reasoning for it. He and Naruto were too alike sometimes.

Still smiling, Sekai leaned back against Sai and watched the two embracing. The atmosphere in the room was so peaceful. It was interrupted when a scream emitted from the television.

Naruto jumped at the sound, looking at the screen. “That’s gross,” he noted, not pulling away from Sasuke completely.

“I’ve seen worse,” Sasuke and Sekai both said. Sekai grinned and Sasuke glared.

Naruto frowned, knowing that they meant in real life. He grabbed one of Sekai’s hands and put his arm around Sasuke’s waist as if to protect them both.

Sekai giggled and kissed his brother’s cheek, because he was being cute again. The four of them stayed like that for a while watching the movie. The rain outside continued to pour down relentlessly.

“Too bad we have these restrictions,” Sekai said, pouting lightly. “When it rains I like to get naked and run around outside.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “You’re really random.”

Sekai winked. “One does one’s best.”

“Be my guest. I hope you get pneumonia.”

“Sasu-kitty’s so mean…”

Sai glanced outside thoughtfully. “If it was a summer rain it might be better. It’s too cold to do that now however. Otherwise, I would go out with you.”

“Would you get naked too?” Sekai asked flirtatiously.

Sai found himself blushing. “If… you wanted me to,” he answered honestly.

Sekai twined the fingers of his free hand with one of Sai’s. “Hmm. Well, it’d be embarrassing to do that alone here; and you have a nice body too, so it’s a bonus!”

“Yeah, and both of you can get arrested for streaking,” Sasuke said.

“I’ve gone skinny dipping,” Naruto announced unhelpfully.

“Oh my god, we should so do that!” Sekai cried eagerly.

“No,” Sasuke snapped.

“Why not? You’ll be coming too, so it’s not like you’d miss anything…”

“That’s what I’m worried about.”

“Sasuke-kun never lets us have any fun! Mou!”

“Are you really sure you’re eighteen?”

“Are you really sure you have hormones?”

“Of course I do. I just don’t need to wave it around in people’s faces constantly.”

Sekai pouted. “You have your way of catching fish and I have mine.”

Sasuke smirked, knowing he’d gotten him with that one. “Whatever.”

Naruto rolled his eyes. “Sai, did Aniki tell you about the sleepover idea I had?”

Sai wondered why this question made Sasuke blush. “No, he hasn’t.”

“Oh!” Sekai smiled at him cheerfully. “See, Naruto and Sasuke wanna have a sleepover, so that means you and I would have to room together. Is that okay?”

Sai nodded readily. “It is. I haven’t been to my apartment in a few days.” He had laundry to do and an unfinished painting on his easel. Also, he wouldn’t mind spending time alone with Sekai. It would give them a chance to talk about things, hopefully.

“Great! How’s today for everyone?”

“Good,” Naruto said.

“It’s fine with me,” Sai said.

They looked at Sasuke, who had been abnormally quiet through the exchange.

There were many reasons why Sasuke didn’t want to spend the night with Naruto. There were even more reasons why he did want to.

He’d already promised Naruto though, and he couldn’t go back on his word now, even if it was something silly and unnecessary.

Nothing would happen anyway.

TBC. Feed the author!

1. What? The Akatsuki do it.

2. Poor Sasuke. He’s Sanzo, Sekai is Gojyo, Sai is Hakkai, and Naruto is Goku. XD He needs a paper fan and a gun!