Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Everyone Else is Doing IT ❯ The Beasts Within ( Chapter 11 )

Everyone Else is Doing IT

(part 11)

SasuNaru

 

Naruto and Sasuke bond unconventionally over XXX Yaoi fanfiction. Neji turns out to have an interesting talent or two. Gaara is Gaara. Psychotic and unpredictable, with a penchant for black.

 

A/N:

I probably should have warned for the um… Gaara/Naru stuff last chapter…

If that bit horribly disturbed anyone, or made their eyeballs bleed… I apologize.

(Though I don't see why your eyeballs would bleed, unless it was from the unexpected kinky hotness! LOL)

 

So, warning you now, there is a little more of Sand-Luvin'-Gaaraâ„¢ featured in this chapter.

 

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The seal sent a humming through him that was unlike anything he'd felt before. Reacting to Gaara? It was disjointing. His heart was making double beats, as if he were being split into two. One half of him was scared as hell, and the other half wanted to see where this was all leading. He didn't trust the latter half at all. He was suspecting that Gaara might be right about the demon spirits being drawn to each other, but that did NOT make him feel any better. In fact, it made him more determined to get out of this than ever.

 

He thought briefly of Sasuke. For as much as he could be a complete asshole, when Naruto was around him, he felt safe. When things had happened between them, it was exciting, welcome, natural. It was nothing like this. With Gaara, he felt like he was fighting to stay whole, to not lose parts of himself - real or otherwise - while he was dragged into dementia. To say the least, it was not a happy experience.

 

Naruto's body was shaking, torn between the dualities emerging within him.

 

“Why do you fight it?” Murmured words caressed the air, suspended a hair's breadth above his lips. Naruto expected to smell blood or sand, to taste it, but he did not.

 

“I won't give in to it,” he forced out, their lips brushing as he spoke. “Kyuubi does not rule me.”

 

Gaara laughed softly. “I used to have the luxury of thinking that way. I was foolish.”

 

Naruto opened his eyes. There was space between them again. “You can force it back. You don't have to let it have its way.”

 

“No.” Gaara's face was closed. A mask again. “It wants to devour me. Every time I let down my guard, even if just to sleep, it eats at my soul.” Dead eyes looked back at him. “The more I hold back, the more I resist, the worse it gets. I let it have its way, and it is appeased.”

 

Goddamn that would suck. Even Kyuubi wasn't that bad. Naruto didn't know what to say, but he felt a pang of sympathy. “So uh - you wanting to jump me and all… that's just the demon speaking then?”

 

Gaara looked at him but said nothing.

 

Ooookay. Don't answer. “And if it wanted to kill me, would you do it?”

 

“I don't know.”

 

“Do you want me dead?”

 

“No.”

 

“See, this is where the `friends first' scenario can really work out.”

 

Gaara looked confused.

 

“It gives you time to sort things out.” Naruto stared at the ceiling, since it was in his line of vision, being on his back and all. “You say you wouldn't want me dead, yet you aren't certain that you wouldn't kill me.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Why is that?”

 

“I don't know.”

 

“How would anyone be ok with that?”

 

“It hasn't been a problem before.”

 

Naruto sighed in frustration. “That's because you either avoid people or kill them!”

 

“It makes things simple.”

 

“Well, maybe for you.” Naruto felt a buzzing at his hip. His cell phone. “Tell that thing there's stuff you won't do. Verbally bitch-smack it if you have to, and put it in its place!”

 

“Is that what you did?” his voice was skeptical.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“What's that noise?”

 

“My cell.” Naruto sighed heavily. “I'd answer it, but I seem to be having mobility problems,” he said pointedly.

 

“Who is it?” Gaara muttered to himself, ignoring him.

 

“Would you mind letting me up now?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Gaara straddled him and patted him down for the phone.

 

Naruto squirmed as quick hands invaded his pockets, searching.

 

Gaara found it and stared at the blinking screen. “Hyuuga,” he said darkly.

 

“Neji?” Oh, yeah! He was supposed to stay there tonight. Naruto wondered if it was later than he thought. Was it evening? “Let me talk to him.”

 

Gaara turned the power off instead and tossed it aside.

 

Naruto was about to protest when there was a knock at the door. They both turned to look.

 

“Gaara?” The voice was hesitant.

 

Gaara, as usual, did not reply. He seemed a lot more interested in the half-naked blonde he was currently on top of.

 

Naruto writhed as Gaara's mouth descended on his, and hands ran down the length of his body. Gaara was straddling his hips, and Naruto felt his body react, despite himself. Goddammit.

 

“I'm making dinner, would you like some?” It was Temari. She sounded apprehensive.

 

“No.” He replied loud enough for her to hear through the closed door.

 

There was a pause.

 

“How about your little friend?”

 

Naruto was surprised anyone knew he was here. He struggled free enough to answer her, “Yes!”

 

“Naruto?” She sounded flummoxed that he was alive. “Uh - it'll be ready in 5 minutes, ok?”

 

Gaara glared murderously between him and the door.

 

 

---

 

 

Dinner was an awkward affair.

 

Temari was taking small, cautious bites, while staring at the center of the wooden table.

 

Kankuro was stacking peas into the tallest tower he could manage.

 

Gaara refused to eat. He sat in his chair, arms folded over his chest, emanating that evil aura he was so good at.

 

Naruto wondered if this was a typical atmosphere for this family of siblings.

 

Both Temari and Kankuro were glancing at him surreptitiously as he ate ravenously. He hadn't had anything since that rations stick Asuma had given him this morning, so he was starving. Also, constant fear and scary sand bondage could really work up an appetite.

 

Temari especially was staring at the left side of Naruto's neck. The place where Gaara had bitten him. He didn't know what he would even say about that if he was asked, though he doubted it would come up with Gaara there, so he tried not to think about it. Instead, he was thinking about making his escape. He was done for if he got pulled back into that room again. No, he had to bolt after dinner. It was the only way. Maybe the other two would be a sufficient distraction to slow Gaara down if he decided to stop Naruto from leaving.

 

“Temari,” Naruto addressed the sister, startling her, “thanks for the meal, it was really good.” Unspoken, he added, and thanks for liberating me from your brother. She nodded at him like she understood.

 

“If you'll excuse me,” he said politely, “I have to return a phone call.” He left the table. There was some food on his plate, promising that he'd be back.

 

He started punching numbers, stepped outside the front door casually, closing it lightly behind him. Then he ran like hell.

 

---

 

“Can you run that by me one more time?” Neji asked. Naruto was babbling frantically into the phone about demons and stalkers and eminent danger. Naruto took a deep breath and started over but he still wasn't making much sense. “Wait, disregard that. Where are you?”

 

“I was on my way to your house since I said I would and all… but… I think it'll be too dangerous…”

 

“Dangerous?”

 

“I mean if he comes after me that'll be one of the first places he'll look, and OH GOD what am I going to do TOMORROW?!”

 

“NARUTO.”

 

“What?” He sounded harried.

 

“Where are you right now?”

 

Naruto told him in a relatively coherent way.

 

“I'll come get you.”

 

“No. I have to keep on the move.”

 

“Then I'll meet you.”

 

“But what if -”

 

Neji hung up, convinced that Naruto wasn't going to see reason. He didn't like doing it, but the blonde would have just talked himself out of coming, and Neji still wouldn't know what the hell had happened. He tucked his cell phone into his pants pocket, and left his room.

 

Naruto must have been moving really fast as Neji encountered him a mere 5 minutes from home. The blonde's appearance was truly awe-inspiring. Rumpled, shirtless, dazed, winded. Neji had to grab him by the shoulders to keep him from passing right by.

 

“Naruto!”

 

Wide eyes focused on him. “Neji.”

 

Neji looked him over once more, his brows knit. He then noticed a rather prominent bite mark on the left side of the blonde's neck. “What in the hell happened to you?”

 

Naruto latched onto Neji like a burr, burying his face into the folds of his lose, long sleeved shirt. “Gaara's my stalker!” he wailed into Neji's chest.

 

Neji felt a surge of anger, after an intense pang of guilt at the way Naruto still didn't suspect him. “Gaara did this to you?”

 

“He's maladjusted,” Naruto he said as if that explained everything.

 

“That's no excuse.”

 

“No, but it's the truth.”

 

Neji folded an arm around Naruto, ushering him into motion. “Let's go inside.”

 

Naruto complied, hesitantly. “I think he hates you.”

 

“He hates everyone.”

 

“Not me, apparently. But I think he especially hates you, because he thinks we're more than friends, and he's jealous… and what if he decides to kill everyone because I'm there?”

 

“Don't worry about that. ”

 

“Why not? It's a valid concern.”

 

It most certainly was. “If something happens, we'll handle it. You'll be safer at my house than you would be alone, at yours.”

 

“I wasn't going to go home,” Naruto protested.

 

Neji gave him a bland look.

 

“Ok, so maybe I was, but only because I don't want anyone to get hurt on my account.”

 

“ So you figured maybe you'd let him have his way with you, and at least he wouldn't kill anyone?”

 

“Er…” Boy, that did sound like a stupid plan. “Something like that.”

 

“Unacceptable.”

 

 

They reached the gate, and Neji let them in. The compound, it really was large enough to be called such, was empty and quiet in the fading light.

 

Naruto trailed Neji as he led the way to the house.

 

 

---

 

“Hey, Neji?” Naruto was wrapped in a fluffy robe, his hair still damp from washing. He was nodding off a little, his head resting on Neji's shoulder as the other boy read a book.

 

“Hm?”

 

“Why do crazy people have to be so unreasonable?” He knew where Gaara was coming from, oddly enough, but the situation he'd forced them into was untenable. It was a shame, as the redhead would probably have benefited from forming a bond to someone. But Naruto wasn't willing to be that person in the terms that had been presented to him. He didn't want to have to worry about getting jumped or killed at any given moment. His life didn't need that kind of stress.

 

“Perhaps it just comes with the territory.”

 

Silence lapsed between them.

 

Neji continued reading, becoming lulled by the calm atmosphere and the comfortable weight of the blonde resting against his side.

 

“Neji?” Naruto's voice sounded sleepy.

 

“Yes?”

 

Naruto's breathing had gotten rather steady and deep, so Neji was surprised that he was still awake.

 

“I've been wondering… but are you the stalker?”

 

Neji's stomach lurched suddenly, and his blood felt like it froze in his veins. He was now painfully alert.

 

Naruto continued on, obliviously, head still resting on his shoulder, “I mean Gaara is stalking me, I know that NOW, but he didn't seem to have a computer…”

 

“And you've seen a computer here?” Neji kept his voice low and calm and mentally crossed his fingers that he could outmaneuver the blonde on this. He didn't think being honest would win him any points.

 

“Well, no.”

 

“Besides that,” Neji murmured, as if still tranquil, “what is this stalker stuff about? And why does having a computer matter?”

 

Naruto yawned. “Didn't I tell you?”

 

“No.”

 

“Oh.”

 

Naruto paused. Or maybe he was drifting off. Neji couldn't tell.

 

“Someone was stalking me online… wrote fics about us n' stuff and hit on me through aim.” Naruto was mumbling and rambling on a little.

 

“Fics?” Neji prompted quietly, feigning ignorance.

 

“Mm. Stories.” The blonde was very close to sleep if the slur in his voice was any indication. He nestled unconsciously against Neji, tucking his arms into his chest as if he were a little cold. His eyes were closed.

 

Neji realized he could ask or say just about anything right now, and Naruto probably wouldn't remember it later.

 

“What kind of stories about us?”

 

“Smut,” he said in that quiet, matter-of-fact way that sleep talkers have.

 

Neji felt his heart start to beat a bit harder despite himself. He'd told himself that it was very possible Naruto had feelings for Uchiha, in which case he had to take a backseat as a friend. It's just that having Naruto so close, and openly telling him that he'd read those kinds of things between them…

 

“What made you read them?” he asked softly.

 

“Sasuke was fooling `round… reading stuff and I picked you over Gaara when he asked…”

 

Neji wasn't sure what to make of that. “And you read them after that?” he prompted, knowing that Naruto had.

 

“Mmhmm. `Cause they were good… y'know?”

 

Warmth pooled in his stomach at the admission. He tried to push it from his mind, but he was feeling an overwhelming urge to kiss the blonde. He tilted the blonde's head up. “Naruto… I like you,” he confessed, just to see what would happen. At least if he was brushed off here, he could get these crazy ideas out of his head, and Naruto would be none the wiser. He really despised Uchiha for getting to Naruto first.

 

“Like you too,” Naruto mumbled back endearingly, blinking sleepily.

 

Neji couldn't take it anymore. He knew Naruto might still like Uchiha more, but right now he didn't care. He leaned in, capturing Naruto's soft lips in a gentle kiss.

 

His heart beating rapidly, Neji probed the line of Naruto's lips with the tip of his tongue. His breath caught as he gained admittance, and the blonde hesitantly began kissing him back.

 

His head spun, as the effect Naruto had on him washed through his body. He was dimly aware of laying Naruto back down onto the bed, as their kiss deepened, of their legs interlocking, of the small sound Naruto made in the back of his throat.

 

 

*knock knock*

 

“Neji-sama?”

 

Neji jumped as he registered that there was someone at the door, surprise shooting through his veins as he was brought back to his senses.

 

His cheeks felt hot as he disentangled himself from Naruto, wondering what had possessed him to act so unthinkingly.

 

“What is it?” Neji called out.

 

Neji glanced at Naruto, afraid that the blonde would be angry, or upset over what had been happening between them. He appeared nonplussed, though a faint blush stained his cheeks.

 

“There is someone here to see both of you.”

 

Naruto tensed and gave Neji a panicked look. “Gaara?” he whispered.

 

Neji shook his head. “I don't know.” He looked to the door again, speaking loudly, “Who is it, did they say?”

 

“They neglected to provide a name, Neji-sama, but they are waiting for you at the main gate.” The voice paused. “I suggest you hurry. They seem rather… foul tempered.”

 

“We'll be there shortly.”

 

Naruto jumped up. “I can't fight Gaara in a robe! Where are my pants?”

 

“Over there.” Neji pointed to the back of a chair and went to find a shirt Naruto could borrow.

 

He turned his back as Naruto shucked off the robe.

 

Neji did not relish facing the sand demon, but it had to be done and he wasn't letting Naruto do it without him. At least the blonde had gotten his fighting spirit back - It had been disturbing to see him like he was earlier.

 

---

 

The gate opened slowly, seemingly forever, as it moved to reveal the unnamed visitor.

 

The air was thick with tension.

 

Naruto and Neji stood with false calm, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. There would be no second chances.

 

Naruto's heart was pounding in his head. He wasn't certain anymore that he had what it would take to beat the sand-nin. He'd been knocked out during training, and rendered useless when the sand prevented him from using hand seals - as his last encounter could attest to.

 

A hand, and then an arm became visible as the gate scrolled to the left, pale skin reflecting moonlight. The gate rolled past, exposing a shoulder, a side, a down-turned head, the whole of the dark-clad figure. Only when the gate was no longer obscuring him did he look up, his expression dark, his eyes scary.

 

“Naruto.”

 

 

 

____________________________________

TBC

 

A/N: Oooo cliffhanger! Another one!

I suck XD Haha!!

 

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Hey guys, there are only a few chapters left. Would you mind reviewing? Please?

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Feedback has been slim, mostly just in the form of: “i luv it yay UPDATE NOW!!”

 

I really would like to hear *why* you like it, if you do, or at least a comment on something in particular. Hearing back from the readers is really the only way for authors to grow, and improve.

 

Thank you, those of you already do just that. You make writing that much more fulfilling. : )