Chapter 1

"I ought to kill you, you know that? Just outright murder you," Sasuke Uchiha said, looking at his brother.

"What else is new?" Naruto asked, smiling at his older brother, giving that smile of such great charm that people trusted him with their lives. Naruto Uchiha, or Dr. Naruto as he was known to the people of Konohagakure, picked up his glass of beer and drank deeply, while Sasuke sipped at his single malt whiskey.

"So what do you want?" Sasuke asked, arching one brow. It was a look that had made many a businessman's knees quake.

"Now what makes you think I want anything?"

"Years of experience. The rest of this one-horse town may think you're ready for sainthood, but I know you. You're up to something and you want something from me."

"Maybe I just wanted to visit with my illustrious older brother and the only way I could get you to come home for Christmas is to tell you that Dad was about to die."

"Cheap trick," Sasuke said with tight lips. He began to look in his suit pocket for a cigarette, then remembered that he gave them up over two years ago. But there was something about being in a bar in the town where he grew up that brought out the good ol' boy in him.

"It was the only thing I could think of," Naruto said in defense of what he had done. He'd called his rich, overworked brother in Suna that their father had suffered a heart attack and probably had only days to live. Within hours Sasuke's private jet had landed in an airfield fifty miles from Konoha, and an hour later Sasuke was standing in their living room. When Sasuke had seen his father drinking beer and playing poker with his buddies, for a few minutes, Naruto had feared for his life. But, as he well knew, Sasuke's bark was worse than his bite.

"I'm not staying," Sasuke said, "so you can get that idea out of your head."

"And why not?" Naruto asked, trying to sound innocent.

It had always been a family joke that Naruto could get away with anything while Sasuke got blamed for everything. It was their looks. Naruto had blonde hair and blue eyes and a pink-and-white complexion. Even at twenty-seven he looked like an angel. And when he had on his doctor's coat, a stethoscope about his neck, every person who saw him breathed a sigh of relief, for any man who looked as divine as he did had to be able to save lives.

On the other hand, Sasuke was as dark as Naruto was light, and as his father had often said to him, "Even if you didn't do anything, you look like you did," for Sasuke was born with a scowl.

"Let me guess," Naruto said, "you're booked for four weeks in Iwa and you'll be bedding three women at once."

Sasuke just took a sip of his whiskey and looked at his brother archly.

"No, no, don't tell me," Naruto said. "I really can guess this one. Maybe it's Oto and you're having an affair with a runway model. One of those tall, cool creatures with plastic breasts."

Sasuke looked at his watch. "I have to go, Juugo is waiting."

Naruto knew that Juugo was his brother's private pilot and, in cases like this trip, he doubled as his chauffeur. Naruto also knew that Sasuke's staff served as his family, since he never bothered returning home and he'd always been much too busy to create a family of his own.

Sasuke gave his brother a look, then finished his whiskey and rose. "Look, you know how much I'd love to stay here and listen to you make fun of me, but I have—"

"Let me say it," Naruto said heavily. "You have work to do."

"Right, I do, and I would imagine that just because it's Christmas people don't stop getting sick, even in charming little Konoha."

"No, and they don't stop needing help, even in Konoha."

At that Sasuke sat back down. Naruto asked for help only if he really needed it. "What is it? Cash?" Sasuke said. "Whatever you need, if I have it it's yours."

"I only wish that were true," Naruto said, looking down at his beer.

Sasuke signaled the waiter to bring another single malt, and Naruto looked up at him in speculation. Sasuke wasn't much of a drinker. He said it dulled his brain and he needed his wits about him if he was going to work. And, of course, work was Sasuke's be-all, end-all of life.

"I'm in love," Naruto said softly; then when his brother was silent, he looked up and saw one of Sasuke's rare smiles.

"And what else?" Sasuke asked. "She from the wrong side of the tracks? Are the biddies of this town up in arms because their precious Dr. Naruto is no longer available?"

"I wish you didn't hate this town so much. It's a great place, really."

"If you like small-minded bigots," Sasuke said cheerfully.

"Look, what happened to Mother—No, I'm not going to get into that. I like this town and I plan to stay here."

"With your new ladylove. So what's the problem with this girl that you think you need me? What do I know about being in love?"

"You know about dating. I see your name in all the society columns."

"Mmmm. I need to network at those charity functions . . . and it helps to have a woman on my arm," Sasuke said without much feeling.

"It's nice that the women you escort happen to be some of the most beautiful women in the world."

"And the most avaricious," Sasuke said, this time with feeling. "Do you have any idea how much jet fuel costs? If you did, you'd get on with whatever has happened to make you lie and connive your way into getting me here."

"I figure one trip costs less than an EKG machine."

Sasuke didn't miss the hint. "You got it, so stop begging and get on with it. Who are you in love with and what's the problem? You want me to pay for the wedding?"

"Believe it or not," Naruto said angrily, "some people on this earth want something from you other than that money that seems to be your life."

Immediately, Sasuke backed down. "I apologize for the insinuation. Just tell me about this woman and how in the world I can be of help to you."

Naruto took a deep breath. "She's a widow. She's . . ." He looked up at his brother. "She's Kenichi Senjus's widow."

At that Sasuke gave a low whistle.

"She's not like that. I know Kenichi had problems, but—"

"Yeah, the threed's: drugs, drink, and driving."

"You didn't know him in his last years. He settled down at the end. He went away on some job across the river, and he came back two years later with Sakura, and she was four months pregnant. He seemed to have turned over a new leaf. He even bought the old Yakimizu place."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Is that heap still standing?"

"Barely. Anyway, he bought it with his mother's help. She co-signed the mortgage."

"But then who in Konoha would lend Kenichi money?"

"Exactly. But it didn't matter, because he died four months later. Plowed into a tree doing about eighty."

"Drunk?"

"Yeah, drunk, and his wife was left alone except for Tsunade. You remember her? Kenichi's mother?"

"I always liked her," Sasuke said. "She deserved better than Kenichi."

"Well, she got it in Sakura. She's the sweetest person you ever met."

"So what's your problem? I can't imagine that Tsunade is standing in your way. Don't tell me Dad—"

"He loves Sakura almost as much as I do," Naruto said, looking down into his beer, which was already half empty.

"If you don't get on with it, I'm leaving," Sasuke threatened.

"It's her son. I told you that Sakura was pregnant when she came back with Kenichi. Well, it was a boy."

"You delivered it?" Sasuke asked, one eyebrow arched.

"No, and don't start that again. It's different when you're a woman's doctor."

"Mmmmm. What about her son? Is he like his father?"

"Kenichi had a sense of humor. This kid is . . . You'd have to meet him to see what I mean. He's ruthless. Utterly without conscience. He is the most manipulative, conniving little monster I have ever met. Jealous doesn't begin to describe him. He completely controls Sakura."

"And she has no idea what the kid's doing, right?" Sasuke said, his lips tight. He had been in Naruto's position. Years before, he'd met a woman to whom he was more than just physically attracted. After one date he had begun to think that maybe there could be something between them. But then he'd met the woman's thirteen-year-old son. The kid was a criminal-in-the-making. He used to rifle through Sasuke's coat pockets and steal whatever he could find. Once he took Sasuke's car keys, which forced him to leave without his Jaguar that night. A week later the car was found at the bottom of a nearby river. Of course the kid's mother didn't believe that her son could do anything like that, so they had broken up. The last Sasuke had heard, the kid was now working at Kirigakure and was a multimillionaire.

"You've had some experience in this area?" Naruto asked.

"Some. You can't get any time with her unless the kid gives permission, right? And the mother dotes on him." There was bitterness in his voice.

"Like you've never seen in your life. She never goes anywhere without him. I've tried to persuade her to let me hire a baby-sitter, but she's too proud to accept my help, so the kid goes with us or we don't go. And it's impossible to stay at her house." Naruto leaned half-way across the table. "The kid doesn't sleep. I mean it. Never. He's either a freak or a spawn of the devil. And of course Sakura gives him one hundred percent of her attention all the time he's awake."

"Drop her," Sasuke said. "Trust me on this. Get away from her fast. If you did win her, you'd have to live with that kid. You'll wake up one morning with a cobra in your bed."

"He'd have to fight Kenji for space."

"The kid is still sleeping with his mother?" Sasuke said in disgust.

"When he wants to."

"Run."

"It's easy for you to say. You've never been in love. Look, I think I could handle the kid if I could just win over his mother. But the truth is, I have no time alone with her." At that, Naruto looked up at Sasuke in a way he'd seen a thousand times before.

"Oh, no, you don't. You're not getting me into this. I have engagements."

"No, you don't. How many times have I heard you complain because your employees want to take time off at Christmas? So this year you can stay here and help me out and give that secretary of yours some time off. How is that gorgeous creature, by the way?"

"Fine," Sasuke said tightly. "So what is it you want? You want me to kidnap the kid? Or maybe we should be done with it and have him murdered."

"The kid needs a father," Naruto said, his mouth in a grimace.

"You do have it bad, don't you?"

"Real bad. I've never felt this way about a woman, and I have competition. Every man in town is after her."

"What's that, a whopping ten men or so?"

"Kiba Inuzaka is after her."

"Oh?" Sasuke said, giving his brother a one-sided grin. "Is that the boy who was the captain of the football team and the swimming team and also single-handedly won the state debating championships? The boy the girls used to throw themselves at? Didn't he marry Amy, the captain of the cheerleader squad, the one with more hair than brains?"

"Divorced. And he's back in town and he took over the Cadillac dealership."

"Must be making a lot of money there," Sasuke said sarcastically. There wasn't much call for Cadillacs in Konoha.

"As a sideline, he sells Mercedes in the Oto."

"Ahhhh," Sasuke said. "You do have problems."

"All I need is some time alone with Sakura. If I could get her alone, I know I could—"

"Make her love you? That's not the way it works."

"Okay," Naruto said, "but at least I'd like to get a chance."

"All Inuzaka has to do is send her over a red Mercedes convertible and she's his. Maybe you could give her free—"

"She's not like that!" Naruto almost shouted; then when half the people in the bar looked at him, he lowered his voice. "I wish you'd stop joking. I'm not sure I want to live without her," Naruto said softly.

For a moment Sasuke studied the top of his brother's head. Naruto didn't ask for help often, and he never asked for help for himself. He had put himself through med school, refusing his brother's offer of a free education. "I won't appreciate it if it's handed to me on a platter," Naruto had said. So now Sasuke was sure that Naruto was still up to his neck in debt for that education, but he still wouldn't accept financial help.

But now Naruto was asking his brother for something personal, something that didn't involve Sasuke's copious wealth. It had been a long, long time since anyone had asked Sasuke for anything that didn't have to do with money.

"I'll do what I can," Sasuke said softly.

Naruto's head came up. "You mean it? No, no, what am I saying? You won't do what I have in mind."

Sasuke was by nature cautious, so now he said, "What exactly did you have in mind?"

"To live with her."

"What!?" Sasuke sputtered, again causing the patrons to look their way. He leaned toward his brother. "You want me to live with your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend. At least not yet, anyway. But I have to get someone in that house who can keep that kid away from her. And she has to trust him or she won't allow him to baby-sit."

"And then there's Inuzaka you have to deal with."

"Yeah, and all the other men who are after her."

"All right. I'll call Hyuga and she can—"

"No! It has to be you! Not your secretary. Not your chef or your pilot or your cleaning lady. You." When Sasuke looked at his brother in consternation at his vehemence, Naruto calmed. "This kid needs a man's touch. You're good with brats. Look what you did with me."

Sasuke couldn't help being flattered, and it was true that he had been as much a father to his much younger sibling as he had been a brother. Their mother was gone and their father worked sixty hours a week, so they just had each other.

"Please," Naruto said.

"All right," Sasuke answered reluctantly.

In Suna he was known to never give in on any deal, but then only Naruto had the power to persuade him. And, besides, there was part of Sasuke that wanted to replay one of the few battles in his life that he'd lost. A spoiled monster of a kid had kept him away from one of the few women Sasuke had ever thought he could love, and in the many years since then, he'd regretted not staying and fighting for her. Just last year he'd seen the woman again. She was happily married to a man Sasuke was doing business with and she looked great. They had a big house, and they'd even had a couple of kids of their own. Now, at thirty-two years old, Sasuke wondered what his life would have been like if he'd stayed and fought for the woman, if he hadn't let a thirteen-year-old con artist beat him.

"I'll do it," he said quietly. "I'll stay and see that the kid is occupied while you go out with your Sakura."

"It won't be easy."

"I guess you think the rest of my life is easy."

"You haven't met this kid, and you haven't seen how attached Sakura is to him."

"Don't worry about a thing. I can handle anything you throw at me. I'll take care of the brat for one week, and if you don't win this woman in that time, then you don't deserve her."

Instead of gushing with gratitude, as Sasuke thought he would, Naruto looked down at his beer again.

"Now what is it?" Sasuke snapped. "A week isn't enough time?" His mind was racing. How many Little League games could a man attend without going insane? Thank God for cell phones so he could work while sitting on the bleachers. And if he got into a jam, he could always call Hyuga. She was capable of handling anything at anytime, anywhere.

"I want your sacred promise."

At that, Sasuke's face grew red. "Do you think I go back on my word?"

"You'll turn the job over to someone else."

"Like hell I will!" Sasuke sputtered, but had to look down so his brother couldn't see his eyes. If the men he dealt with in Suna knew him as well as his brother did, he'd never close a deal."I'll take care of the kid for one week," he said more calmly. "I'll do all the things that kids like. I'll even give him the keys to my car."

"You flew; you don't have a car, remember?"

"Then I'll buy a car and give him the damn thing, all right?" Naruto was making him feel decidedly incompetent. "Look, let's get this show on the road. The sooner I get this done with, the sooner I can get out of here. When do I meet this paragon of loveliness?"

"Sacred promise," Naruto said, his eyes serious but his voice sounding as if he were once again four years old and demanding that his big brother promise that he wouldn't leave him.

Sasuke gave a great sigh. "Sacred promise," he murmured, then couldn't help looking around to see if anyone in the bar had heard him. In a mere thirty minutes he had gone from being a business tycoon to a dirty-faced little boy declaring blood oaths. "Did I ever tell you that I hate Christmas?"

"How can you hate something that you have never participated in?" Naruto asked with a cocky grin. "Come on, let's go. Maybe we'll be lucky and the kid will be asleep."

"Might I point out to you that it is two o'clock in the morning? I don't think your little angel will appreciate our dropping in."

"Tell you what, we'll go by her house and if all the lights are out, we'll go past. But if the lights are on, then we'll know she's up and we'll stop in for a visit. Agreed?"

Sasuke nodded as he drained the last of his whiskey, but he didn't like what he was thinking. What kind of woman would marry a man like Kenichi Senju? And what kind of woman stayed up all night? A fellow drunk seemed to be the only answer.

As they left the bar and headed toward the sedan where Sasuke's driver waited, Sasuke began to make up his own mind about this woman who had enticed his brother into wanting to marry her. The facts against her were accumulating fast: a drunken husband, an incorrigible child, a nocturnal lifestyle.

Inside the car, Sasuke looked across at his younger brother and vowed to protect him from this hussy, and as they rode toward the outskirts of town, he began to form a picture of her. He could see her bleached hair, a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. Was she older than Naruto? He was so young, so innocent. He'd rarely left Konoha in his life and knew nothing of the world. It would be easy for some sharp-witted huckster to take advantage of him.

Turning, he looked at his brother solemnly. "Sacred promise," he said softly, and Naruto grinned at him. Sasuke turned away. For all that his brother was often a pain in the neck, he had the power to make Sasuke feel as if he was worth what his accountant said he was.