Hehehe I had a quick update... let's see if I can get this one up as fast, huh?

Randomness: Korpiklaani, 'Tuli Kokko'.

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Suit Square

His T-shirt scraped irritatingly at the scabbed-over symbols on his lower back, and he cursed the fact that he'd worn the one he'd gotten from Sasuke—his old one was much softer and washed-out, and wouldn't have snagged as much on the scabs.

But hey, he had to look at least halfway presentable, so he'd worn his cleaner and less ripped jeans, the new T-shirt, and a thick blue sweater under his leather coat. The bus was stuffy and lurched from side to side like a roller coaster, going way too fast to avoid getting caught in the traffic jam that steadily building up in front of them.

A lot of housewives back from their morning shopping and a few kids skipping school filled the bus, chattering away. The teenagers were showing off the modtechno ring tones on their cellphones, and the tinny noise was creating a dull ache behind Naruto's left ear.

It had been two weeks since the party. Gaara had gotten another new job—he'd been fired for some reason, and Naruto wasn't sure whether he even wanted to know..., construction again. It was a nice rhythm, Naruto going out to shop and to look for work and Gaara leaving for whatever site he was on at the moment, afternoons sometimes at the Konoha and evenings in comfortable silence or one-sided conversations.

It was raining outside.

Naruto reached into his pocket and fumbled out the piece of paper he's scribbled the address on. Two more stops.

He'd been having a lot of trouble finding work, just because he was too young. Technically anyone under sixteen wasn't even allowed to earn money, and after sixteen it was at most one hundred chips a month. Naruto knew that lying about his age could get him into big trouble, and so he'd decided to be honest about it with each prospective boss.

That had gotten him mostly disappointments, and the only people who still accepted him were the ones whose businesses turned out to be something very different from what they'd advertised. Naruto hadn't left Whore to end up chained to a bed in some back room. Even Slum had had more class than that, and besides, if Gaara ever found out Naruto was doing something like that, the blonde would be very dead.

This person had accepted him—she sounded nice enough over the phone, if a bit weird,and it seemed to be a serious cleaning job, not one of those where they dressed you up in little maid outfits and got a kick out of watching you water their plants.

He got off at the right stop—it was in the vague area of Slum Street, a wide street lined with businesses and warehouses. The wind was icy, and the rain whipped at him.

He counted down the houses till he found the warehouse, and rang the right bell.

A cool, professional voice crackled through the system. "Hello?"

"Um—hi, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, I'm here for that cleaning thing?"

There was a pause, and Naruto heard the person yell, "Oy! There's someone here who's talking about clean—oh okay. Okay, I'll buzz you up, it's the third floor. Just knock again."

Naruto pressed the door open and his eyes widened slightly. It wasn't a real warehouse, obviously.

There was a rickety makeshift ladder leading up right in front of him, and two massive red-painted doors on the opposite wall. The windows that lined the warehouse's tall wall let in enough cold light for him to see that it had all been sectioned off with makeshift walls—there were three ladders placed along the length of the high narrow corridor between the entrance wall and the wall with the doors.

Above the first doors was a rickety metal railing and a narrow walkway, and two more doors. Above that another a pair, and above that another. The plain metal pipes and rust of the original warehouse walls contrasted sharply with the off-white texture of the makeshift ones, and colorful pictures of people and words were painted everywhere.

It was one of those weird artist communities, Naruto guessed, and reached for the first rung on the ladder. It creaked ominously, and he gingerly climbed up to the third level. He could look down onto the street through the high windows, and it felt kind of exhilarating.

He got off the ladder—it shook worryingly—at the third floor, and stepped carefully onto the walkway. Thankfully it didn't creak or shudder or anything.

He checked the closest door for a sign or anything, and didn't get it until he finally looked at the door... In big fat red letters on a black background, the four-letter name was spelled out very obviously. Naruto sighed at himself and knocked twice.

After a few moments, the heavy metal door slid to one side with a screech of rusty rollers and a dark-haired woman smiled at him coolly. "Hey. Come in."

He followed her in, surreptitiously assessing her. She was tallish, rather curvy and was wearing only a short, black-and-white patterned dress. Her hair was thick and wavy, a dark glossy brown. Her face was distant and rather stern, and she had amazing, blood-red eyes. The things genetic engineering could do...

She led him through an entrance area where he hurriedly slipped off his sneakers, and then into a massive, sprawling room that was illuminated only by rows of tall windows on two sides. Paintings and wall pictures and clothes and books lay scattered around everywhere.

There was a small niche screened off in one corner of the huge room, but otherwise it was all one—Naruto saw a big messy bed over by one of the window-lined walls, and one corner had an oven and a sink and a few tall shelves in it—the kitchen. The only other furniture were a soft-looking couch and two overstuffed sofa chairs.

A massive canvas almost twice as tall as Naruto was fastened to a stand in front of the couch, and another person was lying sprawled on the blankets and cushions of the seat, glaring hotly at the painting on it.

She looked fearsome, small and petite but with sharp and angry dark eyes. Her hair was cut short and spiky and stuck up a little at the back, as if she hadn't brushed it or something. She was wearing only a long creamy tan sweater and in one hand she held a cigarette, in the other a golden brown bottle, and a half-eaten stick of dango dangled from one corner of her very red-painted mouth.

She looked up as the woman who'd led Naruto in sat down next to her, and then her glare struck the blonde. She put down the bottle on an amazingly uncluttered section of the floor, and said sharply, "So, you're the kid? The one who wanted to clean?"

Naruto nodded, grinning. "Yeah, that's me." He liked this place; it was so fucking weird.

She gestured around lazily. "Well, get started then. There should be brooms and stuff and rags and maybe even detergent up front in the entrance area. You get three chips an hour, but if I see you dawdling you're as fired as fired can be."

Naruto laughed. "Sure."

So he went and found her meager supply of cleaning things, and started in the farthest corner, glancing up every now and then from clearing away all the debris to watch as the first woman modeled naked on the other end of the couch from the painter. His employer ate a lot of dango and she painted the other woman with thick heavy strokes on the massive canvas, the lines curving beautifully but harshly.

°

"Oh, hey!"

Naruto nodded around the Konoha, "Hey."

Shino and Kiba were gone, presumably begging, but otherwise everyone was there, except for Gai and Iruka. Sasuke was smoking and listening to music over Ino's cellphone, Ino and Tenten were gossiping, Shikamaru was in his usual coma thing, Lee and Neji were talking quietly, and Kakashi was reading his perverted books.

Sasuke slid off the headphones as Naruto sat down on his mattress, and nodded in greeting. "Moron."

Naruo laughed and punched him. "Hey, bastard. What's up?"

Sasuke shrugged gracefully and said, "Not much."

Ino called, "Yeah, but like, how's it going with Kabuto?"

Kakashi cracked up. "Oh my God, I still can't believe you slept on the kitchen floor."

Sasuke flipped him off and muttered, "I was tired. And besides, I could have done worse," he gestured dryly towards Ino and Tenten, "Right, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru grunted in annoyance. "Tch. Shut up."

Ino and Tenten laughed, and Neji muttered in amusement, "I never though Hinata had such hidden depths."

There was a silence, and then everyone except Neji laughed.

Neji looked around. "It wasn't that funny," he said slowly.

Kakashi snorted helplessly. "Don't you get it? 'Hidden depths'? AHAHAHA!"

"Oh, ugh!" The tall kid exclaimed, and he shook his head frantically. "No. Stop that!"

Naruto calmed down, grinning. "Heh. Welcome to the land of gutter-mind, Neji."

Sasuke chuckled. "Too true."

"Hey, has Haku been here again?"

Sasuke nodded. Tenten said, "He visited yesterday in the afternoon, and we had some vodka. We went down to Suit Square and played at the video game place. It was really fun, next time you're here we'll repeat it, okay?"

Naruto nodded, smiling. "Sure. I'll bet Haku totally owned all of you."

Ino groaned. "Don't remind me... damn but he's good."

Naruto laughed. "I know. Back when I was on Slum we used to go down to the slot-machines at the bars, and he'd win every time. No joke. It was almost scary."

"What was scary?"

Everyone looked up. "Speak of the devil!" Ino exclaimed.

Haku grinned down at them and sunk gracefully down onto the mattress next to Naruto. "Hey, sweetheart."

Naruto hit him. "Don't call me that!"

Haku exhaled a plume of smoke and feigned shock. "Why not?"

Naruto stuck out his tongue.

It was around three in the afternoon, and it had taken him three whole hours to do all of Ms. Anko's apartment—he had no idea how anyone could have so much stuff to sort and put away. She'd made him cook lunch, but he'd gotten some of it, so it was okay. He was supposed to come back in two days... three times a week, no four, she wanted him to come on weekends too...err...four times nine... thirty-six cel a week! That was okay. That made one hundred and forty-four a month. Pretty good.

Tenten said, "Hey, Haku, Temari told me to tell you that Ukon says hi."

Haku laughed. "Oh man... that was fun. Tell her to say hi back?"

"Sure."

"Thanks."

Sasuke suddenly stood up, and everyone looked at him. Tenten smiled knowingly. "Kabuto?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and nodded. He hit Naruto on the shoulder, nodded around at everyone else, then left.

Naruto grinned. "He's in looooooooooooooooove!"

Everyone cracked up, and Haku said, "Yeah, and you aren't?"

"Of course I am! But I'm not in denial."

"Well Sasuke is the definition of denial," Kakashi said. "Can't really expect anything else now can you?"

There were nods of agreement, and chuckles.

°

Naruto sighed and stretched without thinking. He bit back a yelp as some of the scabs on his back opened. Because it was such a sensitive area, and because whenever he bent down to get something he stretched it, the cuts were healing slowly. Besides, Gaara had taken a lot more care to make sure that this one would be a permanently visible scar, and so he'd re-sliced it at least three times. As a result, the skin was taking even more time to recuperate.

Naruto had finished dinner, and he'd bought yakon for Gaara, just because he'd seen it on sale and because it had red wrapping.

Hell, he was becoming a real housewife.

He winced at the memories that that thought triggered, and concentrated on his magazine again. The window was open a little to clear out the cooking fumes, and the tiles were cold on his bare feet. The sun was going down outside, and the rain had started up again.

He stared unseeingly at a picture of one of the current modtechno stars, then gave up on the sordid details of star lifestyle and leaned back, wincing a little as the scabs stung.

He smiled to himself.

Damn.

He was so fucking happy.

Even though every word he said to Gaara was his potential death sentence and every day he wondered how long this could last, he loved it. And he loved Gaara.

He loved Gaara.

Naruto grinned, shook his head incredulously as his sappiness, and got up to look, again, for probably the hundredth time, at his new cuts.

"GAH!" he exclaimed, backpedaling.

Gaara huffed a little amused chuckle and kissed him roughly. He smelled of work and dust and his hair was messier than usual. Naruto leaned into the kiss, and felt Gaara's hand slide up beneath his T-shirt, fingers tracing the bleeding scabs roughly.

It was all in old Eastern, but not kanji—just linked old Eastern symbols, spelling out 'Sabaku Gaara'.

Naruto shivered in delicious pain and kissed Gaara back deeply.

Now he really was branded as his.

Forever.

°

Aki held up his plate for more, and Tsume stabbed moodily at the last of her pickled ginger. Sasuke watched them with a slightly amused smile. Kabuto was fascinated, as usual, by the kid's appearance, the way the stormy light reflected in his hair and the stark red gleamed in his eyes.

Sasuke gave Aki more food and then settled back into his chair.

He reached out to tap the ash off his cigarette, and his eyes met Kabuto's They both smiled.

Kabuto didn't even want to fuck him just now. He just wanted... "Come here," he murmured.

Sasuke looked a little confused, but got up and moved towards him. The light shifted in his hair and his skin glowed. The children looked up from their plates, and Kabuto pulled the boy into his lap, curling an am around his hips and pressing his face into one pale cool shoulder.

Sasuke didn't say anything, just relaxed into him. The only sounds and movements were those of the children's chopsticks and Sasuke's smoking.

After a few moments, Sasuke murmured, "What's going on?"

Kabuto laughed softly. "Nothing," he said. "Nothing at all."

Sasuke twisted his head around and his black lashes shadowed sharply against his high pale cheekbones. "Really?"

Kabuto tightened his grip around slim hips and whispered, "The divorce went through."

Black widened, red flashed and disappeared, and then reappeared stronger than ever, spinning fast. Sasuke started to smile fully, caught himself. He leaned back into Kabuto, and silence reigned for another while, until his cigarette was finished.

Lighting a new one, he let out a plume of smoke and said softly, his icy voice warmer than usual, "That's..."

He took a deep drag, exhaled, then-- "...Really, really great."

Kabuto laughed and pressed his slim warmth even closer.

He hoped this would continue for a long, long time.

No.

It would continue.

The End

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And?!

And?!

AND?!

Before you get all pissed that there are still loose ends(I'm sure I forgot something), there will be a sequel. It will be Mpreg. There will be devious schemes by Tayuya. Itachi and the few Akatsuki I know will make an appearance.

...so...yeah...

REVIEW!!!

Much love to EVERYONE who's helped me with this fic, most prominently Tsukie and Arie Date, the person I know as lonelycandyangel as well as BAMBI., and last but not least—ALL of you BEYOND AWESOME REVIEWERS.

You rock MY WORLD.

...now, how about... you rock it some more, and ALL review, and we make it to 500?

How's that sound?

Asterixa thanks you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!