Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Happiness, by Accident ❯ Happiness, Defined ( Chapter 2 )

Heads up: NaruSasuNaru, AU, Sasuke POV, some language, eventual romance, drama and action.

 

Happiness, by Accident

By: Lotus-chan

Ch02: Happiness, Defined

 

Naruto followed me into my room still rubbing the back of his head and I couldn't ignore it anymore. “What's wrong?” I asked, trying not to sound too concerned.

 

He leaned against my dresser and brought the hand forward to cover and press against his left eye as if he had a migraine. “It's just a lot of information… Everything's changed since I went into that tablet. Computers, cell phones, airplanes, western clothing, cities made of metal and concrete…” he brought his other hand up to rub against his other eye.

 

“Wait,” I said surprised. “How do you know about all those things?”

 

He dropped a hand to glare at me with one eye, “I drank your blood, moron. I know a lot of what you know, including some stuff about you but… you did a crappy job with the spell and it's all a mess in my head right now.”

 

“Really? You mean `thoroughly confused' isn't your natural state?” He growled at me but even as I said it my mind was racing. Exactly what was it that he knew or didn't know about me?

 

He blinked a few times as he drew his other hand away and looked at me. “Damn, what happened to you? You get hit by a car or something?” he said, his gaze lingering on my chest. I looked down to see that my robe had opened up again to reveal part of my chest and the bruises that colored it. What had me staring however, was the fact that the bruises were already yellowed and fading.

 

I quickly opened up the robe a bit more to see that the bruises on my stomach were in the same condition. Ignoring the weird look on Naruto's face I walked up next to him to look at my face in the mirror above my dresser. The swelling around my eye was gone and most of the bruises were either completely gone or nearly there. “That's impossible.” I said touching a particularly nasty bruise on my chest that had made getting off the floor this morning especially painful. It had been tender and dark purple a few hours ago, now it was the yellow/green of an old bruise well on it's way to completely healed. “I got these only last night.”

 

“…What?” I barely had a moment to register the fear in Naruto's voice before he pulled me toward him and started running his hands over the bruises on my skin.

 

I pulled away quickly and drew my robe closed, “What the hell..?!”

 

“That's my chakra…” Naruto started as if it was normal for perfect strangers feel each other up like that and there were more important things to talk about. “Why the hell is my chakra inside you??”

 

I suppressed the heat that threatened to fill my cheeks from the way he'd said that. “I dunno, dumbass! You're my demon now, maybe that's got something to do with it.” I replied sarcastically.

 

But he was shaking his head even before I finished speaking. “No, no, I know that spell. It's not supposed to do that. I may be tied to you now but my chakra should still be my own. I have to protect you but I do it physically, from the outside not from… argh!” Naruto shoved his hands back into his hair in frustration and suddenly a red whirlwind of pure chakra surrounded him and he abruptly disappeared.

 

I stood there for a moment in my empty room trying to understand what the hell just happened. “Naruto?” There was no answer except silence. My heart sped up. I was alone again. I hadn't realized how comfortable his presence had made me until that moment. Where… where the hell had he gone?? “Naruto get back here now!”

 

Another whirlwind of red chakra and the blonde materialized out of thin air right where he'd been before. He was holding a book through the sleeves of his kimono with both hands. “Geez, Sasuke. I was only gone for a sec.” He grumbled placing the book on my bed. I felt myself breathe easier and was embarrassed to admit that being separated from him even for a moment had made me nervous. Gods, was I that desperate for someone's company?

 

I walked closer as he flipped the pages through his sleeves I noticed it was the spell book I'd used to summon him. “Why are you touching it like that?” I asked, mildly curious.

 

“It's because I can't touch it. The book is warded but the spell's kinda old. If it had been new I wouldn't have been able to get near it… Aha! Here it is.” He said as he found the right page and pointed to a portion of the spell I'd used to summon him. “It's right here.” He said looking back at me. “Your clan had always been freaked by the idea that after tying us together, we demons might try to take you over or something so they made sure that we were tied to you and vulnerable to you but not vice versa.” I looked at the part of the spell he was pointing to and felt my stomach bottom out.

 

“I can't read that…”

 

Naruto frowned at me, “What do you mean you can't read it? You had to have been able to read it in order to finish the spell. What did you do then, make shit up?” I covered my face with my hand, unable to stop the deep red blush of embarrassment, and nodded. There was a short pause. “Oh shit.” I silently agreed. “So… what did you say..?”

 

I dropped my hand slightly and looked at the shimmering red of his wide eyes. It seemed he was a bit too distracted by the gravity of the implications to insult me over it. It made it easier for me to sit down on the other side of the book and try to remember the words I'd used as I inspected the passage. “I'm sure what I said was: `make me one with your life force and take what I have offered to seal this spell and oath from now until forever'.”

 

Naruto sat down heavily and glared daggers at me. “If I could shove you through a window right now, I would.”

 

“They were just words!” I said desperately. “I couldn't read it and I had to finish the spell somehow!”

 

“It's never `just words' when you're reciting a spell! Words have power and you just did exactly what your ancestors had been trying to do when they first made that spell, only you did it by accident!”

 

I frowned incredulously, “Now you're not making any sense! All this spell is for is to keep the curse from killing us!”

 

“Gah!” Naruto threw his hands up and left the bed. “That's what you people are using it for now, but your stupid ancestors were developing this thing way before they got cursed.” He said, pacing. “The original idea was immortality! That's the real reason that room underground is full of sealing tablets. Your ancestors were tying demons to them so they could leech off our life forces because they knew that unless we get exorcised or kill each other, we live forever!” He said looking at me accusingly.

 

A chill went through me and I had a few false starts before I finally managed to speak. “They were making themselves immortal..?” Please no. Oh gods, please let it not be true.

 

“No!” Naruto shouted. “They were trying to, and as soon as the corrupt Shinto priest who was helping them figured out how to do it, he cursed your clan and hauled ass outta there. Your ancestors had to use the spell as he'd left it in order to survive. All it had the power to do up `till then was tie a demon to you for protection, that's it!” Naruto finally stopped shouting but he was breathing hard and the look of devastation on his face probably mirrored my own.

 

“So… you mean to say that I… that we…?” I couldn't say it, I could barely think it. It was the exact opposite of what I'd snuck down there to accomplish. Worse than a nightmare it was…

 

Naruto collapsed onto the floor at the foot of my dresser and held his head in his hands. “Sure, it's better than living a human life span and dying with you but now I'm a slave forever... My chakra's going to keep you alive for as long as I live instead of the other way around…” `…It was true.' I made a small horrified sound and was suddenly glad I was sitting down.

 

I couldn't let myself believe it, “There's still a chance you could be wrong. How do you even know any of this?” I ignored the treacherous little thought that screamed `denial' in the back of my head and looked at Naruto hopefully.

 

But he was shaking his head. “I was there watching it happen, trying to find out what was going on; why so many demons in the area were disappearing. I snooped around and managed to find out a few things before I got caught.” He finally raised his head and there was a lot of resentment in his face. “I can't believe I'm stuck with you forever.”

 

I frowned and leaned away, “Back off. I'm not exactly thrilled about it either.” I was still reeling from the idea that I was going to live forever. In fact, I was more than devastated. I turned back to the book. “Maybe there's something more in here… some way to reverse it…” I reached out to turn the page.

 

“NO!”

 

There was a spark of what looked like electricity and I pulled my hand back but not fast enough. “Ow!” I waved my fingers in the air and felt the tingle from where they'd been burned. “What the…”

 

“Idiot!” I looked up startled to see Naruto right next to me. “You've got my chakra inside you, genius! You can't touch anything that's warded anymore.”

 

I blinked and frowned at him, “I thought you were supposed to protect me.” I wasn't exactly taking a stab at him, I was genuinely curious. I had assumed I couldn't be hurt anymore.

 

Naruto stood up straight and crossed his arms, looking off to the side. “Not by choice. Anyway I'm not prefect. I'm not going to be able to anticipate every stupid mistake you make.”

 

I glared, “Listen, dumbass. I don't need you babysitting me or holding my hand. If it's an order you need then here it is: shove off and leave me alone, I don't want or need you to protect me.”

 

Naruto actually growled at me. “If it were that easy, I'd be ok with it but I can't leave your side for more than a few minutes and not protecting you is the one order the stupid spell won't let me obey. Besides,” he said grabbing my wrist, “I'm not going to let you do this again. If you try to kill yourself what you're really doing is killing me and I don't feel like dying, asshole.”

 

I yanked my wrist away and stood up, “Mind your own business, idiot!”

 

“Well seeing as how your business is my business that's exactly what I'm doing, bastard!” He yelled back.

 

There was a knock on the door and it felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over my head. Could my father have heard..?! “Young Master?” It was the voice of our butler from the other side of the door. “The lady of the house requests that you and your guest keep your voices down. She also says she will be up to see you shortly.”

 

When I didn't respond right away, Naruto shoved my shoulder slightly and I came back to myself with a start. “Y-yes, thank you. We will.”

 

“Very good, sir.” I heard his footsteps fade down the hall and sat down heavily on the bed.

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow, “You're really afraid of that guy aren't you?” We both knew he wasn't talking about the butler and I looked away from him, angry at myself for letting Naruto see that.

 

I pulled my hand back into the sleeve of my robe and started flipping pages in the spell book through the fabric. “There's gotta be something in here that can help us.”

 

“There isn't.” Naruto said shortly. It was the confidence in his voice that made me stop and I realized that he would probably know better than I did.

 

I looked at the now useless book and closed it, the sound of which echoed through the room making everything right down to our last conversation feel sort of… final. Then another thought occurred to me, “Naruto, why was I able to summon you when no one else could…?”

 

Naruto sat back down on my bed and kicked the spell book onto the floor with his sandals. “It's because you wanted to die.”

 

I blinked incredulously, “What does that have to do with it?”

 

Naruto reached into his kimono and pulled out a necklace with a green stone at the end of it. “I knew enough about what was going on by the time they captured me to know that I could expect to be one of the first summoned after having been sealed inside that tablet.” He said as played with the stone between his fingers. “The last thing I wanted was to be spellbound to some human in lifelong servitude.” Naruto gave me a sidelong glance as if to judge my reaction but I shrugged. It's not as though I'd wanted this either and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be in his position.

 

“They had already used Shinto wards to capture me and seal my powers but I still had this.” He said indicating the stone in his hand. “It'd been given to me by this old priestess lady I'd looked after years ago so I used its power to cast a spell on myself while your ancestors were busy sealing me away.” He looked at me again and then his gaze drifted to the wrist of my left hand where the scars were more prominent. “They were using the spell for protection because they wanted to live. So I added a condition to summoning me: you had to want to die. I thought that nobody who wanted to die was gonna summon a demon protector.”

 

I inspected my burned fingertips distractedly, suddenly self-conscious. The burn was already half-healed. “But how does that help you? You'd be stuck in that tablet forever if no one could release you.”

 

Naruto sighed, “I didn't need anyone to release me. The spell was powerful, it had be in order to keep demons like me asleep for so long, but I was powerful too and unlike a spell my power doesn't fade over time. Even if it took hundreds of years, once the power of the spell weakened enough, I would be able to break free.” He said it while resting his elbows on his bent knees and leaning forward to lay his chin on his arms. There wasn't any arrogance in his previous statement, just fact. He was that powerful and made no bones about it.

 

A timid knock at the door drew my attention away from Naruto for the moment, “Come in.” I said, knowing who it would be. Naruto's gaze shifted to the door as it opened and my mother stepped inside. She paused a moment when she saw him, probably shocked by his appearance. Three of his nine tails were shifting behind him curiously as he looked at her. That's when I noticed he had his sandals on the bed and I kicked him. “Hey, take those off, idiot.” I hissed.

 

He glared at me resentfully but reached down to untie the sandals and kick them off. His ears twitched in irritation while he did and he grumbled something under his breath that I didn't hear and choose to ignore. “Amazing…” I heard my mother say and I noticed that she was still looking at Naruto's tails with a bit of awe. She turned back to me and gave me a brilliant smile that had an instant calming affect on me. I rarely got to spend a moment alone with her without my father around.

 

She walked to the bed and hugged me the way she used to when I was younger and I'd done something she could be proud of. It caused a war of conflicting emotions inside me - I both wanted and needed this as much as I wanted to reject it. Part of me resented the fact that she'd never been able to protect me from my father's wrath but I also couldn't blame her for it or stop loving her in spite of it. “I can't believe it's true, that you really did it and by yourself!” She said the pride evident in her voice as she pulled back.

 

She took my face in her hands, inspecting what was left of the bruising. “Thank heavens it doesn't seem to have been as bad as I thought.” I quickly pulled the robe even tighter around myself. I couldn't let her see the other bruises and ask me questions I wasn't prepared to answer yet. Thankfully, she didn't notice because her gaze had wandered back to Naruto and she looked at him a bit apprehensively at first before she smiled timidly. “It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Sasuke's mother.”

 

Naruto instantly went from silent curiosity, to surprised, to a grin that threatened to split his face in two. I blinked, a bit stunned at the way it drastically transformed his face. “The name's Naruto.” He said reaching out a hand.

 

Mother glanced at his claws but politely, if not hesitatingly, took his hand and shook it. “It's a pleasure, Naruto. I'm relieved to know that it's you who will be protecting my son from now on. Please take good care of him.” She said proving his smile was contagious.

 

I smirked, `not that he has a choice'. Naruto glanced at me for a split second and then his attention was all on my mom again. “It's what I'm here for. No worries, I'll be around to make sure he doesn't trip and fall down the stairs or something.” My mother chuckled and I curled my fist barely restraining the urge to punch his daylights out.

 

“Has Sasuke decided to keep you physically near or will you be his invisible protector?” She asked him. Naruto looked at me confused.

 

“My dad keeps Tobi invisible and insubstantial because he's constantly out in public or at work. Even though Tobi can make himself look human, father would rather not have to explain him to anyone.”

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow, “and that's what you're going to do to me?”

 

I sighed quietly. I had the vindictive urge to say yes just to get back at him for earlier but… it was a difficult truth to admit to myself that I was tired of being alone all the time and I couldn't willingly inflict that on myself now that he was here. “No.” I said simply. Hey, it's not like I was going to admit any of that aloud. Over my dead body.

 

Naruto seemed to relax at that and I realized I hadn't considered how he'd feel about it. I rubbed at my temple distractedly where the bruising around a split in the skin was almost completely healed. Living with someone else was going to take some getting used to. “Well, then. Perhaps you should ask him to make himself look… a little more human.” Mother started saying again. “Since he'll be your constant companion from now on, he'll be attending lessons with you and there's no need for your tutors to suspect anything.” She smiled at the demon next to me. “We'll say you're a cousin come to stay with us from abroad, alright Naruto?”

 

“Sure.” He said smiling back at her.

 

She nodded to him and turned back to me, her smile slipping right off her face. “Sasuke, I convinced Fugaku to leave for his trip a little earlier so that he could cool his head a bit. I'll be joining him in a few hours but I want you to know that I'll be staying for a couple months after he leaves to help arrange a few things for this business deal in Boston. He'll be back in one week and… I wouldn't be here if I were you.”

 

I nodded solemnly, understanding. Father was pissed and I needed to remain outside of his notice for as long as possible. “I've arranged for your things to be moved into your brother's penthouse tomorrow. Feel free to make what ever arrangements you think you'll need for the two of you while we're gone.” She kissed me on the forehead and smiled sadly at me, “I love you sweetheart. Take care.” She said and walked out of the room.

 

“Awww!”

 

I glared at Naruto through my embarrassed blush. “Shut the hell up.”

 

“But that was so cute!” he said with a grin that stretched from ear to ear. I felt the beginnings of my own sinister grin and picked the spell book up off the floor through my sleeve. His red eyes widened, “You wouldn't…” I chucked the useless thing at him before he could finish and he ducked, rolling off the bed at the same time. “You jerk!”

 

I smirked, “Shut up and fix your stupid appearance. I can't take you into the city with you looking like that.”

 

Naruto huffed and stood up, glancing at himself in the mirror as he did so. “There's nothing wrong with the way I look. You humans are the weird looking ones.” But even as he said it he was closing his eyes and I watched as he began to change. The claws on his feet and hands retracted slightly and smoothed out, morphing into human nails. He raised those clawless hands up to the ears at the top of his head and covered them for a few minutes before finally ruffling the hair there and pulling his hands away. The fox ears had vanished. He tucked some of his blonde hair behind his new human ears on either side of his face and stuck a finger in one moving it around and yawning as if to pop them. “I can't hear shit with these Sasuke. I don't know how you humans do it.” He complained, petulantly.

 

“Deal with it.” I replied shortly, still watching with reluctant awe as one by one all his tails disappeared. Naruto then rubbed furiously at his closed eyes and opened them slowly and I felt my own eyes widen. Those were the bluest eyes I'd ever seen on another human being. `Then again,' I thought as I walked up to him and stared into those unfocused eyes, `he's not human, is he?'

 

Naruto rubbed his eyes again and when he opened them a second time he was able to focus and look at me. “How's this?” he asked.

 

I gave myself a mental slap before he caught me starring and pointed at his cheeks, “Missed a spot.”

 

He looked in the mirror and concentrated on the image but nothing happened and he shook his head. “No can do. I can make myself look almost human but not completely human, something's gotta stay.”

 

I looked at his cheeks and shrugged, “Better than a bunch of tails sticking out of your pants I guess. I don't think anyone will be rude enough to ask about them.” I said gesturing to the marks that looked like whiskers.

 

Naruto however was still looking at himself in the mirror. “I look so… weird.”

 

I snorted, “That is the only thing that didn't change.” I said welcoming the indignation and the insults to come. I needed the distraction, but more importantly I wanted a reason to keep looking at him because far from looking `weird', Naruto was…

 

“At least I don't look like a porcelain doll, jackass!” he yelled, throwing a pillow from the bed at me. I caught it and used it to hide the first real smile I'd felt come on in a long time. Naruto was breathtaking.

 

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That night I was sitting in the same place as the night before; on the floor, my back against the bed, looking out my window and bidding a silent farewell to the quiet of the country side before I left for Tokyo in the morning. So much had happened in the last twenty four hours that my head was still spinning. I knew I hadn't yet come to terms with the whole immortality thing. In spite of knowing the seriousness of the matter it probably hadn't really hit me yet. Well, that and the knowledge that I wasn't going to be alone anymore. I was actually surprised at how much comfort came with that realization. Sure Naruto was annoying, and loud, and irritating… but he was going to be my constant companion for the foreseeable future and rather than be put out by the thought, it somehow felt right.

 

“Hey Sasuke,” Naruto said from the mattress above me.

 

“Hn?” I responded surprised. He'd been so quiet I thought he was asleep.

 

“I like your mom… I know she was sorta uneasy around me at first but she treated me like a normal person. The old lady priestess is the only other person who did that.”

 

I huffed in response, a little irritated. “I guess I don't count.”

 

There was a pause. “Heh, I guess being an asshole counts too.”

 

I grabbed the pillow I was sitting on and smacked him in the head with it without looking. “Hey!” Smothering the smirk I felt creeping up again, I sat back down and looked out the window again while Naruto confiscated my pillow and moved away from me to keep me from taking it back.

 

There were still bloodstains on the window from the other night and I realized with a bit of a rush that thanks to Naruto, that sort of abuse was going to be a thing of the past. I hugged my knees to myself as the wash of relief threatened to overwhelm me again. Thanks to Naruto tomorrow I'd be leaving this house and its painful memories. I was moving back to the city penthouse, far from my father and this house with its demons both real and metaphorical. It was all thanks to Naruto. “I promise I'll treat you like a human being, Naruto.” I said softly.

 

“Huh? What did you say?” Naruto asked above me and I could just see him in my minds eye sticking a finger in his ears again and hear him complaining in a low voice under his breath about their uselessness.

 

I shook my head and allowed myself to smile only because I knew he couldn't see it. “Never mind.”

 

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AN: My thanks to KaitouRyuki for the kind review! I appreciate everything my readers have to say. It reassures me that I actually have readers and that they like where I'm going with this. (^^;) I also wanted to let anyone reading this fic know that the next chapter might take me a bit longer to post because I have some school related stuff to take care of but I'm already working on it - and I can promise you it'll be much longer than this one.

 

In the next chapter, Naruto and Sasuke will have to deal with a surprise attack from an unexpected source as well as the feelings they begin to develop for each other. It's shaping up to be my favorite chapter yet. ^_^

 

~ Lotus-chan