Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Embracing Dreams ❯ Chapter 19
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Arigatomina 
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Comedy / Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 09.30.2007 | Pages: 4 | Words: 8.0K | Visits: 333 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Comedy / Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 09.30.2007 | Pages: 4 | Words: 8.0K | Visits: 333 | Status: Work In Progress
Notes: Sorry for the wait. I went on a translating binge and then got distracted searching for new djs. I just ordered some more NaruSasu djs so here's another reminder - I have NaruSasu raws and scanlations on my site (that's NarutoxSasuke). You can download them or read them online the next time I hit a dry spell and don't update right away. Oh, and there's KakaIru scanlations, too, but those aren't as hard to find as the NaruSasu stuff. My site: www . arigatomina . com
As for the fic, there are girls in this chapter. They're a little out of character at the moment. Okay, make that a lot OOC at the moment. It's only temporary due to stressful circumstances. I hope. Meh, I never could write females. I swear they're OOC for a good reason, and other than leaving the first scene out, I couldn't see any way around it. I apologize in advance. o.o;
Warnings: smut, shounen ai, violence, NarutoxSasuke, KyuubixSasuke
Part 19
Iruka took mincing steps along the strewn floor. Years of decay had turned the occasional white puffs of cotton on the factory floor into brown clumps like soggy tumbleweed. Most of whatever mess had been left when the factory closed was hidden by dark and dust. A few scratchy skittering sounds behind the abandoned machines explained where the rest of the refuge had gone. Nests. Rats the size of dogs and spiders the size of rats. Mold and damp and dust all rotting in the stagnant air until he didn't even want to think what his hair smelled like. This was no place for people, let alone injured children. He suddenly appreciated how much work Tenka must have done to make the upstairs so inhabitable if it had started out as bad as this.
The toe of his shoe nudged something that promptly nudged back before casually waddling over his foot and under a hulking machine with a dust coated conveyor belt. Iruka almost swallowed his tongue. Not the size of dogs, he decided, doing his best not to gag. That...thing...had more in common with a pig. What could they have been eating over the years to get so fat? And what the hell was he doing stumbling around down here with nothing but a half dead flashlight and a puppy?
Iruka turned his flashlight in a low sweep, doing his best not to shiver when the shadows squirmed just outside the beam. A large fluffy white dog came panting around the side of the conveyor. Iruka greeted it with a weak smile. He'd never been good with dogs. Particularly large dogs. He suspected he'd been bitten as a child. Any dog taller than his knee made him uncomfortable. Akamaru, despite his owner's claim that he was still a puppy, reached midthigh. The dog didn't share any of his hesitation. It trotted over and sat at his feet, a lolling grin of triumph on its furry face. Iruka forced himself not to focus on the gleaming teeth too much.
"Did you find them?" Iruka whispered. The dog grinned up at him, wagging its tail. He winced and waved a hand, gesturing for his 'guide' to lead the way. For a moment there, he'd half expected the dog to answer him. He blamed that on Pakkun. Just when he thought he knew everything he needed to know about mutants, in came a talking dog.
Akamaru turned and trotted off, his fluffy tail still wagging happily behind him. Iruka followed until the dog darted under a work table. There was another scuffling sound, bigger this time, and a sharp cry of alarm. Iruka crouched down just in time to get knocked over as the big puppy yiped and took off. His hand came down in the middle of something damp and squishy, and his flashlight clattered and rolled to a stop. The beam caught the side of a small dirt smudged ankle that was promptly pulled out of the light.
"Go away!"
Iruka firmly ignored the mess on his hand. He picked up the flashlight and aimed it off to the side so it illuminated the girl without blinding her. She was a mess. He'd expected as much from what Bunchu had told him, but the cobwebs and dirt she'd collected from sneaking around down here made it look even worse. He sat down on the floor, folding his legs comfortably as if he were just as calm in her chosen hiding spot as she obviously was. She'd been gone for over a day, after all. It would take a little talking to convince her out.
"Your friends were worried about you, Sakura," he said quietly. "Kiba's had Akamaru looking all over for you."
The girl recoiled, her smudged face twisting. "Don't call me that! And they're not my friends, they're freaks! Every one of them! That three-eyed one's the worst. Telling me to do it myself - if I could do that, don't you think I'd have done it instead of asking for help? And don't even get me started on Dog-Boy. I swear, if that mutt comes near me one more time, I'll shove her fingers right up its nose! They're not mine, so what do I care?" And she grimaced suddenly, a hand clenching in her hair. "Shut up! I'll rip it out, I swear I will! Every last strand! See if I don't! Just stop it, already, I don't care if-"
Iruka reached out and placed a light hand on the girl's wrist, just as she started pulling the fistful of pink hair, "Ino?"
That distracted her quite nicely. She flinched and looked at him in surprise.
Iruka took his hand back and gave her a softly disapproving look, "I'm sure Sakura isn't any happier with this than you are. Fighting each other won't help."
"She never shuts up!" Ino blurted, her face twisting in frustration. "Never! And she blames me - as if I asked for this to happen! Like I'd choose to be stuck in this big foreheaded small breasted body of hers in the first place. Cotton candy haired bitch!"
"Ino," Iruka said sharply. "I'd like to help you. Both of you. I can't do that if you're attacking each other."
She gave him a sullen look. "How can you help? I've seen you around, healing people. I'm not injured - I'm stuck in the wrong body. With a shrieking freak attacking me every time I open my mouth." She waved a sarcastic hand at her temple, "She's doing it right now."
"She can hear me," said Iruka. It wasn't a question. He pursed his lips, taking on a curiously polite expression. "Sakura, would you like to have Ino sharing your body for the rest of your life?"
A dumbfounded look passed over the girl's face. It held for a long moment before melting into a cringing wince. "Now she's crying..." She shot a reproachful glare at Iruka. "That's even worse than having her yell at me!"
"Well," Iruka smiled gently, "I'm sure it won't come to that. Sakura, I'd like you to pay close attention to what I'm saying. If you have something to say in response, tell Ino and she can tell me. I take it you've been trying to force her out of your mind. That won't help either of you concentrate. Ino, the reason Bunchu couldn't help you is because you are not in your own body at the moment. His talent uses the talents of others. You, while inside Sakura, don't have access to your talents, because you don't have access to your own body. If he could have helped you, he would have. It just doesn't work that way. I know how frustrating it can be having another personality in your mind. I know someone with a similar...problem. The most important thing is to remain calm and work together. First, Ino, I need you to come back upstairs so we can do this near your body. If you were to separate from Sakura now, you might never find your way back. I'm sure Sakura doesn't want that any more than you do."
"Yeah, she does," Ino sniffed. "She just said so. Loudly." She glowered for a moment, then made a face. "She says she'll cooperate as long as there's a chance of it working. I can tell you right now it won't last long - she said that when I first got stuck in here, too. Two days later she was a raving lunatic. Oh, shut up, you were, too."
Iruka backed up, lighting the way as the girl crawled out from under the table. "How did it happen that you got stuck in her mind?"
"Oh, that," Ino sniffed. She raised a hand to brush the hair over her shoulder and stopped half way through the gesture, as if she'd just remembered it wasn't her own hair. Her nose wrinkled and she dropped the hand. "I figured out I was a mutant a year ago. Started with dreams, one of those 'out of body' things you read about in the tabloids. Then one day I was spacing out, looking at this guy and the next thing I knew I was in his head and my body was slumped right where I'd been sitting. That was different from this, though. I didn't actually hear him at all while I was in there. And when I wanted to get back all I had to do was think about how much I needed to get back to my body quick before someone noticed what I'd done."
"And eventually you got caught," Iruka finished, with a sigh. "That happens a lot."
"Does it?" Ino frowned. "I never heard about it. My dad was the one who caught me doing it. He thought it was something I could make money off of. I'm still not sure how. Anyway, a few weeks later this woman showed up at the house. She said I was going to some institute to learn how to control my talent better, because it was 'potentially dangerous' if I just did it on my own." She shot Iruka a dark look, more exasperated than upset. "I think my dad sold me out. That's the sort of thing he'd do in a drunken stupor and not think about till he had the cash in hand."
"I'm sorry," said Iruka.
Ino shrugged and made another aborted gesture toward her hair. This time her hand curled when it stopped halfway. She huffed and dropped her arm. "Anyway, they had me experimenting with people they brought in. Mutants, because I'd never tried it on them before. It wasn't actually that bad until Sakura. There's something really wrong with her head, among other things." She grimaced suddenly, as if a very loud noise had erupted right beside her ear. When it passed, her expression was tired and annoyed. "She doesn't want me to tell you anything about her. Says you can wait and ask her yourself. Do you think you'll actually get a chance to do that?"
"I'm certain of it," smiled Iruka. "In the meantime, would you mind telling me why you dislike Kiba so much? He's been especially helpful in finding you."
"Him," Ino bristled. "It's because he talks to his dog - what kind of guy treats his dog better than people? They tried to get me to try it on a dog once. Can you believe that? Bad enough I had to go into the heads of the freaks they picked up, at least they were people. Who would even want to know what goes on in a dog's head? They're dogs! Animals! And Dog-Boy has the nerve to tell me to respect his mutt - when I don't even respect him. There's no way."
Iruka forced back a smile, "I take it you haven't met Pakkun, yet..."
"Who?"
"A talking mutant dog."
Ino froze midstep. "You're not serious."
"I'm afraid so," Iruka smiled. "From what I understand, he was a normal dog who was turned into a mutant dog as intelligent and capable of speech as a human. He's...very interesting."
Ino shook her head in disgust. "I had no idea mutants were such freaks."
Iruka winced and reminded her, as gently as possible, "You're a mutant as well."
"What?" Ino blinked, pulling an exasperated face. "Don't I look like a freak to you? I've got pink hair. And it isn't even mine!" She shook her head, gave another tired sigh, and marched off ahead of him. "I know I'm as much a freak as the rest of them. That doesn't mean I have to like it."
.-.
Sasuke sent a sharp look over his shoulder when Naruto joined him on the roof. It was the way Naruto did it that caught his eye. One claw-tipped hand catching the edge, that roiling red energy thickening as if it were sticking to the surface, and then a boost the rest of the way up so he landed in a light crouch. Sasuke took one long look with the sharingan, certain he'd be able to mimic and perfect that ungainly use of energy. Then he turned away. He'd been expecting Naruto to follow him, or fall out the window in the attempt. The blonde hadn't said anything for the last six minutes. He'd cut himself off midrant and lapsed into suspicious silence. Sasuke had immediately decided Naruto had finally figured out a way to follow him. He'd gone on for too long to have given up that suddenly. Sasuke wasn't surprised to see him. And he had nothing more to say now that they were both on the roof than he had when the idiot had been yelling up at him from Kakashi's open window.
His stance was simple. Hospitals made him sick. Unless he was unconscious, no one would get him into one. He'd never considered hospitalization when he'd agreed to 'get help'. Naruto had specifically named Iruka as the potential 'helper'. That was the agreement. Besides that, he'd already explained that the injury wasn't complicated. Kakashi kept plenty of supplies, which he'd immediately used when he got upstairs. He'd bound his arm and would keep it braced as long as necessary. It wasn't a problem. His fingers weren't discolored, he had no pinching pain so the nerves hadn't been damaged, there was no looseness or dislocation in the bone itself, little swelling at his elbow - which was the one thing he'd worried about with the blow having landed so close to the joint - and honestly, it didn't hurt that much. He didn't even have to use the sharingan to ignore the pain. It was uncomfortable, slightly nauseating, but entirely ignorable. Naruto was making a fuss over nothing.
The continued silence made him send another look at Naruto. He was still right where he'd landed, looking oddly comfortable in a squatting position, one palm flat on the roof between his feet, the other arm bent over one knee so the fingers could drum his other knee. He was staring at him. No, not just staring, squinting and scowling so that his eyes were narrow glints in his whiskered face. Sasuke blinked. The pose, the squint, the drumming fingers, and mostly the pouting frown combined to make an interesting picture. It was almost...cute. A slow smirk pulled at his mouth. It was cute. Amusing. He liked knowing that he was the one who'd annoyed the idiot so much.
"Hey," Sasuke called. "Come here."
He waved a hand at the spot beside him. Naruto's expression cleared for a brief moment of surprise. Then that scowling pout was back twice as strong. Sasuke barely kept the amusement off his face. He waited till Naruto joined him, flopping to the roof and stretching his legs out comfortably before resuming his pouting scowl. Sasuke handed him the roll of cloth he'd used on his arm.
"Wrap a layer of that around your wrist," said Sasuke. "As tight as you can without cutting off circulation."
If possible, Naruto's eyes got narrower. "Why?"
"Because," Sasuke said calmly, as if he weren't sneering inside at Naruto's denseness, "you obviously don't know the first thing about self defense. You seem to be under the impression you could disable me with a single blow." Naruto's mouth shot open and Sasuke cut him off by shoving the roll into his hands. His tone was scathing. "You couldn't. You didn't this time and now that I've seen some of your potential, you'll never manage even that much in the future. Shut up and learn something."
Naruto scowled and grudgingly wrapped the bandage over his wrist. His movements were clumsy from inexperience and distraction. "You're just being an asshole so I'll stop feeling guilty," he muttered. His tone implied it was working.
"No," Sasuke sniffed, "I'm being honest so you'll stop insulting me like the moron you are." If it also happened to alleviate the guilt that was making Naruto so annoying, well, all the better.
He reached over and took the roll, leaving nearly a foot of cloth between them. Naruto flicked a look at him when he activated the sharingan. "Now," Sasuke frowned, "try to tear that off your arm."
"What?"
"You have claws, don't you?" Sasuke's frown deepened. He'd expected Naruto to use them during the fight earlier, instead of coming at him bare handed. He couldn't lend his knife for this. Naruto wouldn't know how to protect it from being chipped or shattered. "Use them to cut the cloth. You can use them any time you want, can't you?"
Naruto squirmed, hesitated, and looked everywhere but at Sasuke. "Of course I can," he mumbled, "I just don't see the point." His energy flared for a second, roiling and waning, and then condensing until it was barely visible. Naruto shot a stubborn glare at the bandages, "I don't need to do that to tear them." He curled his right hand into a claw and scratched carelessly at the cloth. Then he froze with a ridiculously dumbfounded look on his face.
Sasuke made it a point not to smirk when the blonde abruptly started tearing and pushing and picking at the little strips of bandage wrapped over his arm. He didn't know why Naruto was so reluctant to use his talents. Watching him learn the hard way was entertaining. And he had no intention of analyzing exactly why he found Naruto's stubborn childishness entertaining. He just did.
"What did you do?" Naruto blurted. He was huffing in frustration, looking from the bandages to Sasuke and back again. "It's like they're solid or something."
"I reinforced it," Sasuke explained. This time some condescension made it into his voice. "Like I did with the thread last night. If you could see my energy, you'd understand. I can use it to coat whatever I touch. It's not permanent. It doesn't change the bandages themselves. It's not flawless," Kakashi had proved that more than once, "but it's useful in a fight. When you hit me earlier, I wasn't focusing on defense. I use enough on a regular basis that your attack was dampened to the point where the break was minor. In the future, I doubt you'd be able to do more than bruise me with that amount of strength. I can do this," and he loosened his hold on the roll of bandages so the cloth was fluid once more, "so long as I have the energy."
Naruto was nodding, staring vacantly at his wrapped arm. Once more, Sasuke had the impression that Naruto was hearing something he couldn't. Having a silent conversation with himself. And there was that disturbing sensation of being watched, even though he could clearly see that Naruto wasn't looking at him. He tossed the roll into Naruto's lap and eased further away from him. Naruto unwrapped his arm and set the roll off to the side, never losing that distracted expression of his.
"It's not a specific talent," Sasuke said quietly. He was half surprised that Naruto didn't hesitate before looking up. He'd wondered if the boy would hear him over whatever he was already hearing in his head. And wasn't that a disturbing thought. "It's more a matter of manipulating your energy. Mine isn't as versatile as Kakashi's, but I have less of it, so I can concentrate it on simple things better than he can. You've too much. I can see it," and he glanced over, his eyes narrowing on the restrained way Naruto's energy was hugging his body, "you're holding it back. Earlier, when you healed yourself, you concentrated it at the point of injury. It was too thick, sluggish. You don't have any control. If you're capable of healing yourself, it should be instantaneous. And the rest of the time it was just there. You weren't even using it..."
Was he jealous? Sasuke's frowned at the field visible over the trees. He didn't think he was. From that one glimpse in the kitchen, Naruto might have more energy that anyone he'd seen since that blonde man in Russia. But it was useless if he couldn't control it. In his situation, having too much energy would be even worse than having too little. He had too many talents that relied on having complete control over his energy. Just a tiny bit too much and it could explode in his face. And that was literally, in the case of his more incendiary talents. No, not jealous, then. Resentful, maybe. Naruto had a talent that was possibly enviable, and instead of using and mastering it, he was suppressing it and hiding it away like a dirty secret. Sasuke had met a few mutants like that during his travels with Kakashi. He couldn't understand that mindset. He'd rather not have been a mutant himself, but once he'd become one, he'd accepted that. Like the past, it couldn't be changed, so he might as well make the most of it. But then, he didn't care what other people thought of him.
"You were excited," Sasuke murmured, staring vaguely at the distant fields and remembering that wince-worthy roll in the mud, "about experimenting. All sorts of ideas and tricks that you thought you could do but hadn't figured out yet. You'll never figure them out if you hold back right when you should be going all out."
"Yeah..."
Sasuke snapped a quick look at him. Naruto's tone had been strange. His expression was even stranger. He was wide-eyed, chewing on his lip, leaning forward a little, and staring at him in a way that made Sasuke distinctly nervous. He looked excited, nervous, breathless with anticipation, terrified, eager and reluctant, all rolled into one. And his eyes were muddying blue and red, until they were almost purple. Sasuke stared, tensing and preparing himself to ward and counter any attack that might follow.
"Sasuke," Naruto mumbled, blinking those odd colored eyes.
"...what?"
"I want to introduce you to someone," Naruto said, in a rush, as if he were hurrying before he could second guess himself, and swallow the words for good. "But before that...can I kiss you?"
"Now?" Sasuke blurted.
He immediately wished he hadn't, watching the way Naruto's face pulled into a fleeting grin. It was a stupid question. He shouldn't have been caught off guard by it. And, honestly, it wasn't as if he were adverse to the idea. He'd planned his conditions out with the assumption that Naruto would ask. His own reaction last time had been mortifying and entirely unexpected. He didn't even know if he'd reacted because of the situation, the kiss, the physical contact, or Naruto himself. Like school, this was another aspect of 'normal life' that he'd missed over the years. The point of staying here was to get some of that back. And Naruto was convenient. That should have bothered him more. It didn't because Naruto was clearly interested in him for the same reason. Because he was there. They didn't know each other well enough for it to be anything else. So it was safe. Nothing would change between them because there was nothing to change. It was just a kiss. People did that on the streets all the time. Some people, like Kakashi, did a whole lot more than that on a daily basis. It wasn't a big deal and he'd already considered all of this last night, so he all he was doing now was stalling. Stupid.
Sasuke snorted softly, more at himself than Naruto, who was still waiting with that eager and hesitant expression on his face. "Fine."
Naruto beamed and scooted closer, putting a hand on his shoulder and then frowning at it as if he were afraid even that light touch might bother his arm. Sasuke rolled his eyes in exasperation. How could anyone like that make him nervous? He considered reminding Naruto that he was not made of glass, no matter what the idiot seemed to think. He didn't get a chance to. As soon as Naruto was satisfied with his grip, he leaned forward. Only he didn't aim for his mouth. Their cheeks brushed lightly, then Naruto nuzzled the side of his neck. Sasuke tensed.
"What are you doing?" he asked, and if his voice wavered a little, he didn't care.
"Kissing you," Naruto mumbled, as if it should have been obvious. "Obviously."
Sasuke's eyebrow twitched. Redundant little shit. The fact that Naruto was at least the same size as him didn't factor into it. He was five seconds away from punching him off the roof. His left hand rose to catch the moron's shoulder, fully intending to shove him back and then pummel him thoroughly. This wasn't the kind of kiss he'd given permission for. Obviously. This was disturbing. Who would want someone breathing right on his skin, especially his neck? He could practically feel goosebumps breaking out on his arms. A moist heat joined the breaths and lips and any thought of pushing, punching, and pummeling went right out of his head. It was all he could do to suppress a shiver. Still disturbing, but...maybe that was the point. And maybe it really was Naruto that made him react, because he was positive he'd never have stood anyone so much as touching his neck, let alone doing...this. Regardless, this wasn't what he'd had in mind at all. It wasn't even-
A hint of teeth ghosted over his skin and Sasuke reacted so fast that if he'd been using his right hand, he would have broken Naruto's clavicle. As it was, his grip tightened and he shoved, holding him at an arm's length away, his expression livid behind a startled blush. Naruto let out surprised cry and blinked dazedly at him. The fact that he was also sporting a blush did nothing to soothe Sasuke's temper.
"What?" Naruto blurted. "What did I do?"
Sasuke stared at him, searching for even the tiniest hint of guilt on his seemingly confused face. "Were you trying to bite me?"
Naruto fidgeted and suddenly became very interested in the part in Sasuke's hair. He fairly radiated innocence. "No."
"Are you lying?" Sasuke asked quietly. The 'fess up or I'll kill you' didn't even need to be said out loud. They were three feet from the edge of the roof. If he aimed his kick accurately, the moron would land right on one those convenient rocks of his. And Sasuke's aim was always accurate.
Naruto huffed and glowered, that narrow eyed pout taking over his face once more. "Come on," he sighed. "I wasn't gonna bite you. I was just...nibbling a little. You said I could kiss you. I asked and everything, and you didn't even let me finish..."
Sasuke's response was scathing, "I said you could kiss me, not...chew on me." And Naruto called Kakashi a pervert.
"Okay, okay," Naruto grimaced, "I'm sorry. I didn't know it would bother you that much."
Another involuntary eye twitch met this statement. Sasuke wondered fleetingly if he'd actually overreacted. Then he dismissed the notion. He wasn't the epitome of normal, clearly, but neither was Naruto if he honestly thought kissing could be equated to chewing on a person's neck.
"I promise not to nibble anymore," Naruto sighed, wistfully. Then he flashed a hopeful smile, "So, can I still finish?"
Sasuke blinked. "What?" He couldn't be serious.
"Kissing you," Naruto explained. "I was working my way up to your mouth, but you stopped me before I got there."
He was serious. Sasuke stared at the unfazed blonde, too bemused to so much as raise an eyebrow. "Were you dropped on your head as an infant?" Because that might explain a few things...
"Maybe," Naruto shrugged. "I wouldn't know. Anyway, you probably won't let me kiss you again, even if I ask, so can I at least finish this time?"
"On the mouth?" Sasuke asked, because the moron was right. He had no intention of ever saying yes again no matter how nicely the perverted nibbler asked permission.
"Yeah."
Sasuke gave him a suspicious look, "If you try anything else, I'm throwing you off the roof."
"Deal!" Naruto grinned.
The second Sasuke loosened his grip, Naruto darted forward, not giving him a chance to change his mind. Sasuke made a muffled sound before forcing himself to be still. This was what he'd had in mind earlier. Naruto wasn't nearly as hesitant as he'd been last night, but maybe almost getting to chew on his neck had made the idiot more bold. Or maybe it was the fact that he knew he wouldn't get another chance unless he pinned him in a fight. Whatever the reason, while this kiss was quite different from the last one, his own reaction wasn't. Either it was Naruto or he had an oral fetish. There was another disturbing thought.
Sasuke caught a hand in Naruto's thick hair, closed his eyes, and kissed back. Tentatively at first, because he had no idea what he was doing. Then Naruto moaned into his mouth, a needy melting sound that did wonders for his confidence. Not to mention his arousal. All thoughts, disturbing or otherwise, were shoved unceremoniously to the back of his mind.
.-.
"There's no other way." Iruka knew he sounded fatalistic. That was the way he felt, after all. But it was the truth. He'd done everything he could to help the girls. They were entirely willing to be helped, and Sakura in particular was quite helpful when she set her mind to it. The closest he'd come to 'exorcizing' Ino was to get her free enough to lose contact for a few seconds. She'd immediately come back terrified, claiming that she'd been nowhere for hours. He'd been forced to lull them into sleeping it off. He couldn't risk having Ino try again, even if she'd been willing, because he knew exactly where she'd ended up.
"She was lucky she found her way back," he said, in a quietly sober voice. "Her talent was never meant to be sustained for this long."
"Her vitals are stable," Bunchu stated. "The immediate danger isn't worth the risk."
Always the voice of reason. Iruka pressed his lips tightly together and waited for his immediate rebuttal to die down. Vehemence didn't work with Bunchu. He'd see through it. He wouldn't even bother to argue with someone who wasn't thinking rationally. Once again, Iruka looked at him with admiration and distaste.
Bunchu was too big. Iruka had always thought so. He was too tall, his shoulders too broad, his build far too muscular to be as graceful as he was. He'd been an intimidation when Iruka was younger. The fact that he'd never raised a hand against either him or Tenka didn't matter. It was the sheer potential that had scared him as a teenager. Then there was the vertical slit in the center of his forehead. He never bothered to cover it, even in public. When the eye opened it was like being cornered, stripped naked, and held immobile while every single dirty secret was ripped out and beared for the entire world to see. Horrifying. It still amazed him that Tenka had the guts to go against his father, when that meant going against Bunchu as well. Just the idea of trying to manipulate the man made Iruka's stomach tie itself into knots. And with all that instinctive dislike, he couldn't help but be impressed by him.
Bunchu was a good person. Not in a vague way, like others said Iruka was a 'good person', but in a undeniable way. For all Bunchu's potential to pry, control, and hurt anyone who stood up to him, he'd never do it. Ever. It simply wasn't in him. The secrets he gleaned with his talents were never disclosed without permission. His loyalties never wavered. He was completely selfless when it mattered most. The only weakness Iruka had ever found in him, if it could even be considered a weakness, was Hiko. Hiko made him human, in spite of his disturbing aspects and moral absolutes. And for all Bunchu's ability to see through people, even he couldn't explain what it was about his lover that affected him so much. He just did. And Iruka couldn't help but admire that.
"It's worth the risk," Iruka said, his tone as calm as before, but not quite as fatalistic this time. "She won't try again willingly, and you can't force her to. They've both been holding up well under the stress. They're young and resilient. But they're breaking."
"You can't be sure of that," said Bunchu. "You don't know how they were before, so you can't judge the changes now."
Iruka didn't falter this time. "I'm sure. You know I wouldn't attempt this if I wasn't." And Bunchu was fully capable of checking for himself if he honestly thought Iruka was lying. They both knew that.
"Hiko won't like it."
A wan smile broke on Iruka's face at that. Bunchu was honest to a fault, and always subject to that one weakness. Funny that the scariest person he knew could be so endearing at the same time. "No," Iruka smiled, "he won't like it at all. But it's my choice. I promise I'll take full responsibility. He'll bitch and moan for a few hours, and then he'll realize that if you hadn't helped me, I would have attempted it on my own and quite likely have gotten lost myself. By the time you come back with Tenka, he'll have finished taking his frustration out on me and won't have any left to bother you with."
Bunchu raised an eyebrow at that, "Tenka won't like it, either."
Iruka's smile widened peacefully, "Tenka's had you searching for him for the last seven months. I'm sure he'll survive being denied my company for a few days. Any other protests?"
"One," Bunchu said, not rising to the bait. "When was the last time you did this willingly?"
The smile slipped off his face like it had never been. Iruka wondered briefly if this were Bunchu's way of scaring him into having second thoughts. Possible, but unlikely. Bunchu hadn't asked after him since he'd come here, and he'd had little contact with Hiko since Iruka had moved Naruto to Lyberday. This wasn't a question with an ulterior motive. Bunchu honestly didn't know.
"The drug works perfectly," said Iruka. "I've been on it since I left, straight up until I came here. You've suppressed it for me since then. The last I time I did this was six years ago, to wake Tenka from his coma. You were there that time, too."
"I see." Bunchu pushed away from the wall so he fairly towered over him. "Here or there?"
"There," Iruka said quickly. He'd already relocated the boys bunking closest to Ino and Sakura, on the pretense of giving them more privacy. And Tenka had snuck out to check on the boy they'd had taken to the hospital, since they still hadn't received any word on him. No one would notice if he used one of the unoccupied cots. "This is necessary," he said, "but I'd still rather not go any farther than I absolutely have to."
"I see you're still as cautious as ever," Bunchu remarked, leading the way.
"Too cautious?" asked Iruka.
"As ever."
And Iruka found his wan smile coming back. "I'm more comfortable with myself now. Otherwise, I haven't changed much over the years." He flashed a curious look up at Bunchu. "Did you think I would?"
"No."
"I'm glad to hear that."
.-.
Naruto wasn't aware of Kyuubi taking over. He was floating. This wasn't like the dream he'd shared with the fox last night, where he'd been kissing Sasuke, touching Sasuke, doing things to Sasuke. None of that one-sided fantasy compared to having Sasuke kiss him back. Sasuke's hand clenching tight in his hair, his body pressing into him of his own accord, and the way he used his tongue, so deliberate and confident, as if he knew exactly how to make him melt, all of it was a thousand times better than anything Naruto could have imagined on his own. So he let himself melt, and Kyuubi, who'd been quite busy the last two days, quietly pushed him back into a warm cloudy corner where he could participate vicariously until he came to his senses. Naruto didn't even notice at first. Sasuke, on the other hand, noticed the second it happened. For all that Naruto and Kyuubi shared a body, and had a similar libido, the fox wouldn't have recognized subtlety if it lurched up and bit of four of his tails.
Sasuke hadn't floated off like Naruto, but he was feeling a bit heady. They'd been kissing so long that he kept having to remind himself to breathe through his nose so he didn't asphyxiate. His first thought when Naruto suddenly took over the kiss was that the oxygen deprivation had left him more dazed than he'd thought, that he'd messed up whatever he'd been doing to make Naruto hum and melt into him. So he didn't protest or even hesitate at first. He was convinced Naruto was a far better kisser than him, anyway, no matter what gratifying sounds the blonde had made when he'd taken over earlier. That was why he noticed the difference immediately. When Naruto had kissed him it was challenging and soft, taunting but not pressuring. This was fast and rough, hurting his lips and pushing in as if he wanted to rape his mouth. Sasuke's eyes snapped open, wild and startled, fully expecting to see someone else kissing him like that. He was as shocked to see that it was still Naruto as he'd been by the abrupt change in the way he was being kissed.
He hesitated. The kiss was still arousing, he couldn't deny that. But he didn't like it. It was too forceful, selfish even, too similar to the handful of stolen kisses he'd experienced over the years, and he'd never expected that from Naruto. There was no reason for that, taking when he'd already given permission. He'd even participated. So why was Naruto acting like he had to get as much as he could before Sasuke pushed him away? This made him want to push away a lot faster than what they'd been doing before. It bothered him. Not just because the contrast was so sharp it was disturbing, but because it felt as if Naruto were intentionally trying to make him regret having enjoyed himself a moment ago. And because it reminded him that he didn't know anything about Naruto. He'd walked right into this.
He pushed, being careful not to hurt Naruto in the process. Even if he didn't like the sudden change, he couldn't really complain about it. He had given him permission to kiss him. He'd never specified what kind of kiss. It was disappointing, but he was at least partially to blame. He didn't get angry until a clawed hand closed over the back of his neck to keep him in place. Kissing him forcefully was one thing. Actually trying to force him was suicidal. Sasuke bit down deep enough to get a mouthful of blood, and to be sure the idiot would feel the pain before he could activate that not-quite-immediate healing of his. Then he jerked Naruto's head back and spat the blood in his face. As queasy as Naruto had been during their fight earlier, he fully expected him to scramble away.
Instead, a familiar grin crossed Naruto's face and vivid red eyes opened to glitter at him. Sasuke recognized it immediately. The couch, the kitchen, and that time he'd watched Naruto slink down the hill as if he were a predator and Sasuke his prey. The connection came fast - his instinctive reaction to this side of Naruto the few times he'd seen it, Naruto's disturbing 'listening' pose as if he were hearing something only audible to him, the sensation of being watched when Naruto wasn't looking at him, and Naruto's rushed statement about 'introducing' him to someone.
"Who are you?" Sasuke growled, activating the sharingan and debating at lightning speed exactly how to disable this person without killing Naruto. Not that he wouldn't be paying the moron back later for such a clumsy introduction.
"Kyuubi," and he lifted his free hand to wipe the blood off his face, lapping it off his fingers so slowly Sasuke couldn't help but notice that his tongue was now completely uninjured. He grinned and leaned closer, ignoring the grip Sasuke had in his hair. Naruto was starting to wake up and it wouldn't take him long to find the trap door of that cozy little cage he'd pushed him into. He dropped his damp hand, slipping it into Sasuke shorts in a firm grip that was much more honest and blunt than any handshake. Sasuke froze in blatant shock. Kyuubi grinned wider, "Naruto was planning to introduce us, but you distracted him. It was so considerate of you to let him finish. You were enjoying yourself so much," and he twisted his hand, wringing a squeak from the otherwise frozen boy, "you should have let me finish as well."
Sasuke suffered one long moment of frantic amazement that Naruto had remained so seemingly innocent with this pervert in his head. Then he snapped. His right hand closed over the groping wrist and crushed it mercilessly, not giving a damn at the sharp twinges that rippled over the break in his arm. Naruto, or rather, Kyuubi, hissed in pain and pulled free. Sasuke gave him a deadly jolt of electricity, courtesy of the hand that was still clenched in that blonde hair. That was enough to make the pervert reel back, claws scratching the back of his neck as that hand jerked away. Sasuke immediately kicked him off, with enough energy reinforcing the bottom of his sandals that it must have felt like being hit in the gut by an anvil. Then he had the momentary pleasure of watching the pervert fly off the roof and dig a groove in the yard below. He'd decided against throwing him on one of the rocks. This Kyuubi obviously had faster healing than Naruto'd had when they'd fought earlier. Instant death would probably still kill them both. Sasuke wasn't quite that angry. Not yet, anyway.
Sure enough, the blonde was moving mere seconds after he landed. Slowly at first, with that red energy flaring thick and higher than Sasuke had ever seen it, even in the kitchen that time. Then he was on his feet and, the cheeky bastard, grinning up at him with what appeared to be approval. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him, his own expression cold and not the least bit impressed.
"I'll fight you next time," Kyuubi called up at him. "You should have let the brat chew on you. When I win, I'll enjoy sinking my teeth into you. Look forward to it. I know I will." Then he turned to the house, licking the hand that had curled around Sasuke with satisfaction. Deep inside a certain upstairs office, a telephone was ringing. He might as well answer it while Naruto was having a panic attack instead of trying to find that trap door in his freshly finished cage. Silly brat. The deadly kid on the roof wasn't panicking, traumatized, or broken. Naruto really did worry way too much.
.-.
TBC
As for the fic, there are girls in this chapter. They're a little out of character at the moment. Okay, make that a lot OOC at the moment. It's only temporary due to stressful circumstances. I hope. Meh, I never could write females. I swear they're OOC for a good reason, and other than leaving the first scene out, I couldn't see any way around it. I apologize in advance. o.o;
Warnings: smut, shounen ai, violence, NarutoxSasuke, KyuubixSasuke
Part 19
Iruka took mincing steps along the strewn floor. Years of decay had turned the occasional white puffs of cotton on the factory floor into brown clumps like soggy tumbleweed. Most of whatever mess had been left when the factory closed was hidden by dark and dust. A few scratchy skittering sounds behind the abandoned machines explained where the rest of the refuge had gone. Nests. Rats the size of dogs and spiders the size of rats. Mold and damp and dust all rotting in the stagnant air until he didn't even want to think what his hair smelled like. This was no place for people, let alone injured children. He suddenly appreciated how much work Tenka must have done to make the upstairs so inhabitable if it had started out as bad as this.
The toe of his shoe nudged something that promptly nudged back before casually waddling over his foot and under a hulking machine with a dust coated conveyor belt. Iruka almost swallowed his tongue. Not the size of dogs, he decided, doing his best not to gag. That...thing...had more in common with a pig. What could they have been eating over the years to get so fat? And what the hell was he doing stumbling around down here with nothing but a half dead flashlight and a puppy?
Iruka turned his flashlight in a low sweep, doing his best not to shiver when the shadows squirmed just outside the beam. A large fluffy white dog came panting around the side of the conveyor. Iruka greeted it with a weak smile. He'd never been good with dogs. Particularly large dogs. He suspected he'd been bitten as a child. Any dog taller than his knee made him uncomfortable. Akamaru, despite his owner's claim that he was still a puppy, reached midthigh. The dog didn't share any of his hesitation. It trotted over and sat at his feet, a lolling grin of triumph on its furry face. Iruka forced himself not to focus on the gleaming teeth too much.
"Did you find them?" Iruka whispered. The dog grinned up at him, wagging its tail. He winced and waved a hand, gesturing for his 'guide' to lead the way. For a moment there, he'd half expected the dog to answer him. He blamed that on Pakkun. Just when he thought he knew everything he needed to know about mutants, in came a talking dog.
Akamaru turned and trotted off, his fluffy tail still wagging happily behind him. Iruka followed until the dog darted under a work table. There was another scuffling sound, bigger this time, and a sharp cry of alarm. Iruka crouched down just in time to get knocked over as the big puppy yiped and took off. His hand came down in the middle of something damp and squishy, and his flashlight clattered and rolled to a stop. The beam caught the side of a small dirt smudged ankle that was promptly pulled out of the light.
"Go away!"
Iruka firmly ignored the mess on his hand. He picked up the flashlight and aimed it off to the side so it illuminated the girl without blinding her. She was a mess. He'd expected as much from what Bunchu had told him, but the cobwebs and dirt she'd collected from sneaking around down here made it look even worse. He sat down on the floor, folding his legs comfortably as if he were just as calm in her chosen hiding spot as she obviously was. She'd been gone for over a day, after all. It would take a little talking to convince her out.
"Your friends were worried about you, Sakura," he said quietly. "Kiba's had Akamaru looking all over for you."
The girl recoiled, her smudged face twisting. "Don't call me that! And they're not my friends, they're freaks! Every one of them! That three-eyed one's the worst. Telling me to do it myself - if I could do that, don't you think I'd have done it instead of asking for help? And don't even get me started on Dog-Boy. I swear, if that mutt comes near me one more time, I'll shove her fingers right up its nose! They're not mine, so what do I care?" And she grimaced suddenly, a hand clenching in her hair. "Shut up! I'll rip it out, I swear I will! Every last strand! See if I don't! Just stop it, already, I don't care if-"
Iruka reached out and placed a light hand on the girl's wrist, just as she started pulling the fistful of pink hair, "Ino?"
That distracted her quite nicely. She flinched and looked at him in surprise.
Iruka took his hand back and gave her a softly disapproving look, "I'm sure Sakura isn't any happier with this than you are. Fighting each other won't help."
"She never shuts up!" Ino blurted, her face twisting in frustration. "Never! And she blames me - as if I asked for this to happen! Like I'd choose to be stuck in this big foreheaded small breasted body of hers in the first place. Cotton candy haired bitch!"
"Ino," Iruka said sharply. "I'd like to help you. Both of you. I can't do that if you're attacking each other."
She gave him a sullen look. "How can you help? I've seen you around, healing people. I'm not injured - I'm stuck in the wrong body. With a shrieking freak attacking me every time I open my mouth." She waved a sarcastic hand at her temple, "She's doing it right now."
"She can hear me," said Iruka. It wasn't a question. He pursed his lips, taking on a curiously polite expression. "Sakura, would you like to have Ino sharing your body for the rest of your life?"
A dumbfounded look passed over the girl's face. It held for a long moment before melting into a cringing wince. "Now she's crying..." She shot a reproachful glare at Iruka. "That's even worse than having her yell at me!"
"Well," Iruka smiled gently, "I'm sure it won't come to that. Sakura, I'd like you to pay close attention to what I'm saying. If you have something to say in response, tell Ino and she can tell me. I take it you've been trying to force her out of your mind. That won't help either of you concentrate. Ino, the reason Bunchu couldn't help you is because you are not in your own body at the moment. His talent uses the talents of others. You, while inside Sakura, don't have access to your talents, because you don't have access to your own body. If he could have helped you, he would have. It just doesn't work that way. I know how frustrating it can be having another personality in your mind. I know someone with a similar...problem. The most important thing is to remain calm and work together. First, Ino, I need you to come back upstairs so we can do this near your body. If you were to separate from Sakura now, you might never find your way back. I'm sure Sakura doesn't want that any more than you do."
"Yeah, she does," Ino sniffed. "She just said so. Loudly." She glowered for a moment, then made a face. "She says she'll cooperate as long as there's a chance of it working. I can tell you right now it won't last long - she said that when I first got stuck in here, too. Two days later she was a raving lunatic. Oh, shut up, you were, too."
Iruka backed up, lighting the way as the girl crawled out from under the table. "How did it happen that you got stuck in her mind?"
"Oh, that," Ino sniffed. She raised a hand to brush the hair over her shoulder and stopped half way through the gesture, as if she'd just remembered it wasn't her own hair. Her nose wrinkled and she dropped the hand. "I figured out I was a mutant a year ago. Started with dreams, one of those 'out of body' things you read about in the tabloids. Then one day I was spacing out, looking at this guy and the next thing I knew I was in his head and my body was slumped right where I'd been sitting. That was different from this, though. I didn't actually hear him at all while I was in there. And when I wanted to get back all I had to do was think about how much I needed to get back to my body quick before someone noticed what I'd done."
"And eventually you got caught," Iruka finished, with a sigh. "That happens a lot."
"Does it?" Ino frowned. "I never heard about it. My dad was the one who caught me doing it. He thought it was something I could make money off of. I'm still not sure how. Anyway, a few weeks later this woman showed up at the house. She said I was going to some institute to learn how to control my talent better, because it was 'potentially dangerous' if I just did it on my own." She shot Iruka a dark look, more exasperated than upset. "I think my dad sold me out. That's the sort of thing he'd do in a drunken stupor and not think about till he had the cash in hand."
"I'm sorry," said Iruka.
Ino shrugged and made another aborted gesture toward her hair. This time her hand curled when it stopped halfway. She huffed and dropped her arm. "Anyway, they had me experimenting with people they brought in. Mutants, because I'd never tried it on them before. It wasn't actually that bad until Sakura. There's something really wrong with her head, among other things." She grimaced suddenly, as if a very loud noise had erupted right beside her ear. When it passed, her expression was tired and annoyed. "She doesn't want me to tell you anything about her. Says you can wait and ask her yourself. Do you think you'll actually get a chance to do that?"
"I'm certain of it," smiled Iruka. "In the meantime, would you mind telling me why you dislike Kiba so much? He's been especially helpful in finding you."
"Him," Ino bristled. "It's because he talks to his dog - what kind of guy treats his dog better than people? They tried to get me to try it on a dog once. Can you believe that? Bad enough I had to go into the heads of the freaks they picked up, at least they were people. Who would even want to know what goes on in a dog's head? They're dogs! Animals! And Dog-Boy has the nerve to tell me to respect his mutt - when I don't even respect him. There's no way."
Iruka forced back a smile, "I take it you haven't met Pakkun, yet..."
"Who?"
"A talking mutant dog."
Ino froze midstep. "You're not serious."
"I'm afraid so," Iruka smiled. "From what I understand, he was a normal dog who was turned into a mutant dog as intelligent and capable of speech as a human. He's...very interesting."
Ino shook her head in disgust. "I had no idea mutants were such freaks."
Iruka winced and reminded her, as gently as possible, "You're a mutant as well."
"What?" Ino blinked, pulling an exasperated face. "Don't I look like a freak to you? I've got pink hair. And it isn't even mine!" She shook her head, gave another tired sigh, and marched off ahead of him. "I know I'm as much a freak as the rest of them. That doesn't mean I have to like it."
.-.
Sasuke sent a sharp look over his shoulder when Naruto joined him on the roof. It was the way Naruto did it that caught his eye. One claw-tipped hand catching the edge, that roiling red energy thickening as if it were sticking to the surface, and then a boost the rest of the way up so he landed in a light crouch. Sasuke took one long look with the sharingan, certain he'd be able to mimic and perfect that ungainly use of energy. Then he turned away. He'd been expecting Naruto to follow him, or fall out the window in the attempt. The blonde hadn't said anything for the last six minutes. He'd cut himself off midrant and lapsed into suspicious silence. Sasuke had immediately decided Naruto had finally figured out a way to follow him. He'd gone on for too long to have given up that suddenly. Sasuke wasn't surprised to see him. And he had nothing more to say now that they were both on the roof than he had when the idiot had been yelling up at him from Kakashi's open window.
His stance was simple. Hospitals made him sick. Unless he was unconscious, no one would get him into one. He'd never considered hospitalization when he'd agreed to 'get help'. Naruto had specifically named Iruka as the potential 'helper'. That was the agreement. Besides that, he'd already explained that the injury wasn't complicated. Kakashi kept plenty of supplies, which he'd immediately used when he got upstairs. He'd bound his arm and would keep it braced as long as necessary. It wasn't a problem. His fingers weren't discolored, he had no pinching pain so the nerves hadn't been damaged, there was no looseness or dislocation in the bone itself, little swelling at his elbow - which was the one thing he'd worried about with the blow having landed so close to the joint - and honestly, it didn't hurt that much. He didn't even have to use the sharingan to ignore the pain. It was uncomfortable, slightly nauseating, but entirely ignorable. Naruto was making a fuss over nothing.
The continued silence made him send another look at Naruto. He was still right where he'd landed, looking oddly comfortable in a squatting position, one palm flat on the roof between his feet, the other arm bent over one knee so the fingers could drum his other knee. He was staring at him. No, not just staring, squinting and scowling so that his eyes were narrow glints in his whiskered face. Sasuke blinked. The pose, the squint, the drumming fingers, and mostly the pouting frown combined to make an interesting picture. It was almost...cute. A slow smirk pulled at his mouth. It was cute. Amusing. He liked knowing that he was the one who'd annoyed the idiot so much.
"Hey," Sasuke called. "Come here."
He waved a hand at the spot beside him. Naruto's expression cleared for a brief moment of surprise. Then that scowling pout was back twice as strong. Sasuke barely kept the amusement off his face. He waited till Naruto joined him, flopping to the roof and stretching his legs out comfortably before resuming his pouting scowl. Sasuke handed him the roll of cloth he'd used on his arm.
"Wrap a layer of that around your wrist," said Sasuke. "As tight as you can without cutting off circulation."
If possible, Naruto's eyes got narrower. "Why?"
"Because," Sasuke said calmly, as if he weren't sneering inside at Naruto's denseness, "you obviously don't know the first thing about self defense. You seem to be under the impression you could disable me with a single blow." Naruto's mouth shot open and Sasuke cut him off by shoving the roll into his hands. His tone was scathing. "You couldn't. You didn't this time and now that I've seen some of your potential, you'll never manage even that much in the future. Shut up and learn something."
Naruto scowled and grudgingly wrapped the bandage over his wrist. His movements were clumsy from inexperience and distraction. "You're just being an asshole so I'll stop feeling guilty," he muttered. His tone implied it was working.
"No," Sasuke sniffed, "I'm being honest so you'll stop insulting me like the moron you are." If it also happened to alleviate the guilt that was making Naruto so annoying, well, all the better.
He reached over and took the roll, leaving nearly a foot of cloth between them. Naruto flicked a look at him when he activated the sharingan. "Now," Sasuke frowned, "try to tear that off your arm."
"What?"
"You have claws, don't you?" Sasuke's frown deepened. He'd expected Naruto to use them during the fight earlier, instead of coming at him bare handed. He couldn't lend his knife for this. Naruto wouldn't know how to protect it from being chipped or shattered. "Use them to cut the cloth. You can use them any time you want, can't you?"
Naruto squirmed, hesitated, and looked everywhere but at Sasuke. "Of course I can," he mumbled, "I just don't see the point." His energy flared for a second, roiling and waning, and then condensing until it was barely visible. Naruto shot a stubborn glare at the bandages, "I don't need to do that to tear them." He curled his right hand into a claw and scratched carelessly at the cloth. Then he froze with a ridiculously dumbfounded look on his face.
Sasuke made it a point not to smirk when the blonde abruptly started tearing and pushing and picking at the little strips of bandage wrapped over his arm. He didn't know why Naruto was so reluctant to use his talents. Watching him learn the hard way was entertaining. And he had no intention of analyzing exactly why he found Naruto's stubborn childishness entertaining. He just did.
"What did you do?" Naruto blurted. He was huffing in frustration, looking from the bandages to Sasuke and back again. "It's like they're solid or something."
"I reinforced it," Sasuke explained. This time some condescension made it into his voice. "Like I did with the thread last night. If you could see my energy, you'd understand. I can use it to coat whatever I touch. It's not permanent. It doesn't change the bandages themselves. It's not flawless," Kakashi had proved that more than once, "but it's useful in a fight. When you hit me earlier, I wasn't focusing on defense. I use enough on a regular basis that your attack was dampened to the point where the break was minor. In the future, I doubt you'd be able to do more than bruise me with that amount of strength. I can do this," and he loosened his hold on the roll of bandages so the cloth was fluid once more, "so long as I have the energy."
Naruto was nodding, staring vacantly at his wrapped arm. Once more, Sasuke had the impression that Naruto was hearing something he couldn't. Having a silent conversation with himself. And there was that disturbing sensation of being watched, even though he could clearly see that Naruto wasn't looking at him. He tossed the roll into Naruto's lap and eased further away from him. Naruto unwrapped his arm and set the roll off to the side, never losing that distracted expression of his.
"It's not a specific talent," Sasuke said quietly. He was half surprised that Naruto didn't hesitate before looking up. He'd wondered if the boy would hear him over whatever he was already hearing in his head. And wasn't that a disturbing thought. "It's more a matter of manipulating your energy. Mine isn't as versatile as Kakashi's, but I have less of it, so I can concentrate it on simple things better than he can. You've too much. I can see it," and he glanced over, his eyes narrowing on the restrained way Naruto's energy was hugging his body, "you're holding it back. Earlier, when you healed yourself, you concentrated it at the point of injury. It was too thick, sluggish. You don't have any control. If you're capable of healing yourself, it should be instantaneous. And the rest of the time it was just there. You weren't even using it..."
Was he jealous? Sasuke's frowned at the field visible over the trees. He didn't think he was. From that one glimpse in the kitchen, Naruto might have more energy that anyone he'd seen since that blonde man in Russia. But it was useless if he couldn't control it. In his situation, having too much energy would be even worse than having too little. He had too many talents that relied on having complete control over his energy. Just a tiny bit too much and it could explode in his face. And that was literally, in the case of his more incendiary talents. No, not jealous, then. Resentful, maybe. Naruto had a talent that was possibly enviable, and instead of using and mastering it, he was suppressing it and hiding it away like a dirty secret. Sasuke had met a few mutants like that during his travels with Kakashi. He couldn't understand that mindset. He'd rather not have been a mutant himself, but once he'd become one, he'd accepted that. Like the past, it couldn't be changed, so he might as well make the most of it. But then, he didn't care what other people thought of him.
"You were excited," Sasuke murmured, staring vaguely at the distant fields and remembering that wince-worthy roll in the mud, "about experimenting. All sorts of ideas and tricks that you thought you could do but hadn't figured out yet. You'll never figure them out if you hold back right when you should be going all out."
"Yeah..."
Sasuke snapped a quick look at him. Naruto's tone had been strange. His expression was even stranger. He was wide-eyed, chewing on his lip, leaning forward a little, and staring at him in a way that made Sasuke distinctly nervous. He looked excited, nervous, breathless with anticipation, terrified, eager and reluctant, all rolled into one. And his eyes were muddying blue and red, until they were almost purple. Sasuke stared, tensing and preparing himself to ward and counter any attack that might follow.
"Sasuke," Naruto mumbled, blinking those odd colored eyes.
"...what?"
"I want to introduce you to someone," Naruto said, in a rush, as if he were hurrying before he could second guess himself, and swallow the words for good. "But before that...can I kiss you?"
"Now?" Sasuke blurted.
He immediately wished he hadn't, watching the way Naruto's face pulled into a fleeting grin. It was a stupid question. He shouldn't have been caught off guard by it. And, honestly, it wasn't as if he were adverse to the idea. He'd planned his conditions out with the assumption that Naruto would ask. His own reaction last time had been mortifying and entirely unexpected. He didn't even know if he'd reacted because of the situation, the kiss, the physical contact, or Naruto himself. Like school, this was another aspect of 'normal life' that he'd missed over the years. The point of staying here was to get some of that back. And Naruto was convenient. That should have bothered him more. It didn't because Naruto was clearly interested in him for the same reason. Because he was there. They didn't know each other well enough for it to be anything else. So it was safe. Nothing would change between them because there was nothing to change. It was just a kiss. People did that on the streets all the time. Some people, like Kakashi, did a whole lot more than that on a daily basis. It wasn't a big deal and he'd already considered all of this last night, so he all he was doing now was stalling. Stupid.
Sasuke snorted softly, more at himself than Naruto, who was still waiting with that eager and hesitant expression on his face. "Fine."
Naruto beamed and scooted closer, putting a hand on his shoulder and then frowning at it as if he were afraid even that light touch might bother his arm. Sasuke rolled his eyes in exasperation. How could anyone like that make him nervous? He considered reminding Naruto that he was not made of glass, no matter what the idiot seemed to think. He didn't get a chance to. As soon as Naruto was satisfied with his grip, he leaned forward. Only he didn't aim for his mouth. Their cheeks brushed lightly, then Naruto nuzzled the side of his neck. Sasuke tensed.
"What are you doing?" he asked, and if his voice wavered a little, he didn't care.
"Kissing you," Naruto mumbled, as if it should have been obvious. "Obviously."
Sasuke's eyebrow twitched. Redundant little shit. The fact that Naruto was at least the same size as him didn't factor into it. He was five seconds away from punching him off the roof. His left hand rose to catch the moron's shoulder, fully intending to shove him back and then pummel him thoroughly. This wasn't the kind of kiss he'd given permission for. Obviously. This was disturbing. Who would want someone breathing right on his skin, especially his neck? He could practically feel goosebumps breaking out on his arms. A moist heat joined the breaths and lips and any thought of pushing, punching, and pummeling went right out of his head. It was all he could do to suppress a shiver. Still disturbing, but...maybe that was the point. And maybe it really was Naruto that made him react, because he was positive he'd never have stood anyone so much as touching his neck, let alone doing...this. Regardless, this wasn't what he'd had in mind at all. It wasn't even-
A hint of teeth ghosted over his skin and Sasuke reacted so fast that if he'd been using his right hand, he would have broken Naruto's clavicle. As it was, his grip tightened and he shoved, holding him at an arm's length away, his expression livid behind a startled blush. Naruto let out surprised cry and blinked dazedly at him. The fact that he was also sporting a blush did nothing to soothe Sasuke's temper.
"What?" Naruto blurted. "What did I do?"
Sasuke stared at him, searching for even the tiniest hint of guilt on his seemingly confused face. "Were you trying to bite me?"
Naruto fidgeted and suddenly became very interested in the part in Sasuke's hair. He fairly radiated innocence. "No."
"Are you lying?" Sasuke asked quietly. The 'fess up or I'll kill you' didn't even need to be said out loud. They were three feet from the edge of the roof. If he aimed his kick accurately, the moron would land right on one those convenient rocks of his. And Sasuke's aim was always accurate.
Naruto huffed and glowered, that narrow eyed pout taking over his face once more. "Come on," he sighed. "I wasn't gonna bite you. I was just...nibbling a little. You said I could kiss you. I asked and everything, and you didn't even let me finish..."
Sasuke's response was scathing, "I said you could kiss me, not...chew on me." And Naruto called Kakashi a pervert.
"Okay, okay," Naruto grimaced, "I'm sorry. I didn't know it would bother you that much."
Another involuntary eye twitch met this statement. Sasuke wondered fleetingly if he'd actually overreacted. Then he dismissed the notion. He wasn't the epitome of normal, clearly, but neither was Naruto if he honestly thought kissing could be equated to chewing on a person's neck.
"I promise not to nibble anymore," Naruto sighed, wistfully. Then he flashed a hopeful smile, "So, can I still finish?"
Sasuke blinked. "What?" He couldn't be serious.
"Kissing you," Naruto explained. "I was working my way up to your mouth, but you stopped me before I got there."
He was serious. Sasuke stared at the unfazed blonde, too bemused to so much as raise an eyebrow. "Were you dropped on your head as an infant?" Because that might explain a few things...
"Maybe," Naruto shrugged. "I wouldn't know. Anyway, you probably won't let me kiss you again, even if I ask, so can I at least finish this time?"
"On the mouth?" Sasuke asked, because the moron was right. He had no intention of ever saying yes again no matter how nicely the perverted nibbler asked permission.
"Yeah."
Sasuke gave him a suspicious look, "If you try anything else, I'm throwing you off the roof."
"Deal!" Naruto grinned.
The second Sasuke loosened his grip, Naruto darted forward, not giving him a chance to change his mind. Sasuke made a muffled sound before forcing himself to be still. This was what he'd had in mind earlier. Naruto wasn't nearly as hesitant as he'd been last night, but maybe almost getting to chew on his neck had made the idiot more bold. Or maybe it was the fact that he knew he wouldn't get another chance unless he pinned him in a fight. Whatever the reason, while this kiss was quite different from the last one, his own reaction wasn't. Either it was Naruto or he had an oral fetish. There was another disturbing thought.
Sasuke caught a hand in Naruto's thick hair, closed his eyes, and kissed back. Tentatively at first, because he had no idea what he was doing. Then Naruto moaned into his mouth, a needy melting sound that did wonders for his confidence. Not to mention his arousal. All thoughts, disturbing or otherwise, were shoved unceremoniously to the back of his mind.
.-.
"There's no other way." Iruka knew he sounded fatalistic. That was the way he felt, after all. But it was the truth. He'd done everything he could to help the girls. They were entirely willing to be helped, and Sakura in particular was quite helpful when she set her mind to it. The closest he'd come to 'exorcizing' Ino was to get her free enough to lose contact for a few seconds. She'd immediately come back terrified, claiming that she'd been nowhere for hours. He'd been forced to lull them into sleeping it off. He couldn't risk having Ino try again, even if she'd been willing, because he knew exactly where she'd ended up.
"She was lucky she found her way back," he said, in a quietly sober voice. "Her talent was never meant to be sustained for this long."
"Her vitals are stable," Bunchu stated. "The immediate danger isn't worth the risk."
Always the voice of reason. Iruka pressed his lips tightly together and waited for his immediate rebuttal to die down. Vehemence didn't work with Bunchu. He'd see through it. He wouldn't even bother to argue with someone who wasn't thinking rationally. Once again, Iruka looked at him with admiration and distaste.
Bunchu was too big. Iruka had always thought so. He was too tall, his shoulders too broad, his build far too muscular to be as graceful as he was. He'd been an intimidation when Iruka was younger. The fact that he'd never raised a hand against either him or Tenka didn't matter. It was the sheer potential that had scared him as a teenager. Then there was the vertical slit in the center of his forehead. He never bothered to cover it, even in public. When the eye opened it was like being cornered, stripped naked, and held immobile while every single dirty secret was ripped out and beared for the entire world to see. Horrifying. It still amazed him that Tenka had the guts to go against his father, when that meant going against Bunchu as well. Just the idea of trying to manipulate the man made Iruka's stomach tie itself into knots. And with all that instinctive dislike, he couldn't help but be impressed by him.
Bunchu was a good person. Not in a vague way, like others said Iruka was a 'good person', but in a undeniable way. For all Bunchu's potential to pry, control, and hurt anyone who stood up to him, he'd never do it. Ever. It simply wasn't in him. The secrets he gleaned with his talents were never disclosed without permission. His loyalties never wavered. He was completely selfless when it mattered most. The only weakness Iruka had ever found in him, if it could even be considered a weakness, was Hiko. Hiko made him human, in spite of his disturbing aspects and moral absolutes. And for all Bunchu's ability to see through people, even he couldn't explain what it was about his lover that affected him so much. He just did. And Iruka couldn't help but admire that.
"It's worth the risk," Iruka said, his tone as calm as before, but not quite as fatalistic this time. "She won't try again willingly, and you can't force her to. They've both been holding up well under the stress. They're young and resilient. But they're breaking."
"You can't be sure of that," said Bunchu. "You don't know how they were before, so you can't judge the changes now."
Iruka didn't falter this time. "I'm sure. You know I wouldn't attempt this if I wasn't." And Bunchu was fully capable of checking for himself if he honestly thought Iruka was lying. They both knew that.
"Hiko won't like it."
A wan smile broke on Iruka's face at that. Bunchu was honest to a fault, and always subject to that one weakness. Funny that the scariest person he knew could be so endearing at the same time. "No," Iruka smiled, "he won't like it at all. But it's my choice. I promise I'll take full responsibility. He'll bitch and moan for a few hours, and then he'll realize that if you hadn't helped me, I would have attempted it on my own and quite likely have gotten lost myself. By the time you come back with Tenka, he'll have finished taking his frustration out on me and won't have any left to bother you with."
Bunchu raised an eyebrow at that, "Tenka won't like it, either."
Iruka's smile widened peacefully, "Tenka's had you searching for him for the last seven months. I'm sure he'll survive being denied my company for a few days. Any other protests?"
"One," Bunchu said, not rising to the bait. "When was the last time you did this willingly?"
The smile slipped off his face like it had never been. Iruka wondered briefly if this were Bunchu's way of scaring him into having second thoughts. Possible, but unlikely. Bunchu hadn't asked after him since he'd come here, and he'd had little contact with Hiko since Iruka had moved Naruto to Lyberday. This wasn't a question with an ulterior motive. Bunchu honestly didn't know.
"The drug works perfectly," said Iruka. "I've been on it since I left, straight up until I came here. You've suppressed it for me since then. The last I time I did this was six years ago, to wake Tenka from his coma. You were there that time, too."
"I see." Bunchu pushed away from the wall so he fairly towered over him. "Here or there?"
"There," Iruka said quickly. He'd already relocated the boys bunking closest to Ino and Sakura, on the pretense of giving them more privacy. And Tenka had snuck out to check on the boy they'd had taken to the hospital, since they still hadn't received any word on him. No one would notice if he used one of the unoccupied cots. "This is necessary," he said, "but I'd still rather not go any farther than I absolutely have to."
"I see you're still as cautious as ever," Bunchu remarked, leading the way.
"Too cautious?" asked Iruka.
"As ever."
And Iruka found his wan smile coming back. "I'm more comfortable with myself now. Otherwise, I haven't changed much over the years." He flashed a curious look up at Bunchu. "Did you think I would?"
"No."
"I'm glad to hear that."
.-.
Naruto wasn't aware of Kyuubi taking over. He was floating. This wasn't like the dream he'd shared with the fox last night, where he'd been kissing Sasuke, touching Sasuke, doing things to Sasuke. None of that one-sided fantasy compared to having Sasuke kiss him back. Sasuke's hand clenching tight in his hair, his body pressing into him of his own accord, and the way he used his tongue, so deliberate and confident, as if he knew exactly how to make him melt, all of it was a thousand times better than anything Naruto could have imagined on his own. So he let himself melt, and Kyuubi, who'd been quite busy the last two days, quietly pushed him back into a warm cloudy corner where he could participate vicariously until he came to his senses. Naruto didn't even notice at first. Sasuke, on the other hand, noticed the second it happened. For all that Naruto and Kyuubi shared a body, and had a similar libido, the fox wouldn't have recognized subtlety if it lurched up and bit of four of his tails.
Sasuke hadn't floated off like Naruto, but he was feeling a bit heady. They'd been kissing so long that he kept having to remind himself to breathe through his nose so he didn't asphyxiate. His first thought when Naruto suddenly took over the kiss was that the oxygen deprivation had left him more dazed than he'd thought, that he'd messed up whatever he'd been doing to make Naruto hum and melt into him. So he didn't protest or even hesitate at first. He was convinced Naruto was a far better kisser than him, anyway, no matter what gratifying sounds the blonde had made when he'd taken over earlier. That was why he noticed the difference immediately. When Naruto had kissed him it was challenging and soft, taunting but not pressuring. This was fast and rough, hurting his lips and pushing in as if he wanted to rape his mouth. Sasuke's eyes snapped open, wild and startled, fully expecting to see someone else kissing him like that. He was as shocked to see that it was still Naruto as he'd been by the abrupt change in the way he was being kissed.
He hesitated. The kiss was still arousing, he couldn't deny that. But he didn't like it. It was too forceful, selfish even, too similar to the handful of stolen kisses he'd experienced over the years, and he'd never expected that from Naruto. There was no reason for that, taking when he'd already given permission. He'd even participated. So why was Naruto acting like he had to get as much as he could before Sasuke pushed him away? This made him want to push away a lot faster than what they'd been doing before. It bothered him. Not just because the contrast was so sharp it was disturbing, but because it felt as if Naruto were intentionally trying to make him regret having enjoyed himself a moment ago. And because it reminded him that he didn't know anything about Naruto. He'd walked right into this.
He pushed, being careful not to hurt Naruto in the process. Even if he didn't like the sudden change, he couldn't really complain about it. He had given him permission to kiss him. He'd never specified what kind of kiss. It was disappointing, but he was at least partially to blame. He didn't get angry until a clawed hand closed over the back of his neck to keep him in place. Kissing him forcefully was one thing. Actually trying to force him was suicidal. Sasuke bit down deep enough to get a mouthful of blood, and to be sure the idiot would feel the pain before he could activate that not-quite-immediate healing of his. Then he jerked Naruto's head back and spat the blood in his face. As queasy as Naruto had been during their fight earlier, he fully expected him to scramble away.
Instead, a familiar grin crossed Naruto's face and vivid red eyes opened to glitter at him. Sasuke recognized it immediately. The couch, the kitchen, and that time he'd watched Naruto slink down the hill as if he were a predator and Sasuke his prey. The connection came fast - his instinctive reaction to this side of Naruto the few times he'd seen it, Naruto's disturbing 'listening' pose as if he were hearing something only audible to him, the sensation of being watched when Naruto wasn't looking at him, and Naruto's rushed statement about 'introducing' him to someone.
"Who are you?" Sasuke growled, activating the sharingan and debating at lightning speed exactly how to disable this person without killing Naruto. Not that he wouldn't be paying the moron back later for such a clumsy introduction.
"Kyuubi," and he lifted his free hand to wipe the blood off his face, lapping it off his fingers so slowly Sasuke couldn't help but notice that his tongue was now completely uninjured. He grinned and leaned closer, ignoring the grip Sasuke had in his hair. Naruto was starting to wake up and it wouldn't take him long to find the trap door of that cozy little cage he'd pushed him into. He dropped his damp hand, slipping it into Sasuke shorts in a firm grip that was much more honest and blunt than any handshake. Sasuke froze in blatant shock. Kyuubi grinned wider, "Naruto was planning to introduce us, but you distracted him. It was so considerate of you to let him finish. You were enjoying yourself so much," and he twisted his hand, wringing a squeak from the otherwise frozen boy, "you should have let me finish as well."
Sasuke suffered one long moment of frantic amazement that Naruto had remained so seemingly innocent with this pervert in his head. Then he snapped. His right hand closed over the groping wrist and crushed it mercilessly, not giving a damn at the sharp twinges that rippled over the break in his arm. Naruto, or rather, Kyuubi, hissed in pain and pulled free. Sasuke gave him a deadly jolt of electricity, courtesy of the hand that was still clenched in that blonde hair. That was enough to make the pervert reel back, claws scratching the back of his neck as that hand jerked away. Sasuke immediately kicked him off, with enough energy reinforcing the bottom of his sandals that it must have felt like being hit in the gut by an anvil. Then he had the momentary pleasure of watching the pervert fly off the roof and dig a groove in the yard below. He'd decided against throwing him on one of the rocks. This Kyuubi obviously had faster healing than Naruto'd had when they'd fought earlier. Instant death would probably still kill them both. Sasuke wasn't quite that angry. Not yet, anyway.
Sure enough, the blonde was moving mere seconds after he landed. Slowly at first, with that red energy flaring thick and higher than Sasuke had ever seen it, even in the kitchen that time. Then he was on his feet and, the cheeky bastard, grinning up at him with what appeared to be approval. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him, his own expression cold and not the least bit impressed.
"I'll fight you next time," Kyuubi called up at him. "You should have let the brat chew on you. When I win, I'll enjoy sinking my teeth into you. Look forward to it. I know I will." Then he turned to the house, licking the hand that had curled around Sasuke with satisfaction. Deep inside a certain upstairs office, a telephone was ringing. He might as well answer it while Naruto was having a panic attack instead of trying to find that trap door in his freshly finished cage. Silly brat. The deadly kid on the roof wasn't panicking, traumatized, or broken. Naruto really did worry way too much.
.-.
TBC