I decided to start re-editing this fic after it was stolen and posted on another site. Thankfully my reposted fic was deleted. Stealing fics is wrong and really stupid. People knew it was my fic, and the person got a lot of hate mail from friends and reviewers. Thanks to everyone who helped me when dealing with the thief! This chapter has been edited and reposted. With that said, that doesn't mean that a few errors didn't escape my notice. Let me know if you find anything.
Nameless Desires
Chapter 1: Why?
There was something about looking at the man who had once been such a positive part of his childhood, the same man who had violated his heart, sitting there, so unconcernedly that made Uzumaki Naruto's body go numb with hatred. Naruto stared, still holding the doorknob he had just pushed open. As his anger rose, Naruto squeezed the doorknob so tight that the cold metal was pinching his hand. He stared at the older man, as the man known as Uchiha Sasuke sat in his desk chair unconcerned. There was paperwork spread over the mahogany desk, and the study he was in was littered in drab browns, the only coloring coming from the different shades of book covers upon the shelves, though all of them seemed to be faded and looked dreary.
The little bit of white in the room came from the papers that Sasuke was working on, his head bent low, looking at the words intently, silky black bangs falling into eyes of the same color. He continued to work, but he must have heard the door open because Naruto had made sure to let Sasuke know that he was there by opening the door violently. Still, Sasuke sat ignoring him, not bothering to look up.
Naruto must have stood staring at Sasuke for a full minute, his fists clenched, one around the doorknob, the other close to his side, trying hard to suppress the swelling of emotions that seemed to rise from his stomach and had begun to boil inside his chest.
"Do you have an appointment, or are you just going to stand there all day staring at me?" Sasuke's cold drawl finally broke Naruto out of his rigid stance even though Sasuke hadn't even bothered to look up at him. Naruto moved swiftly across the study, reached across Sasuke's desk, grabbed the front of Sasuke's shirt, and vehemently pulled the older man out of his seat. The large desk chair Sasuke had been sitting in toppled behind him with a loud crashing noise.
"You're a fucked up bastard, you know that?" Naruto gritted out his voice low and barely recognizable as his own, and Sasuke finally bothered to look at the man that had forcibly stood him up. His facial expression showed no change with being violently lifted out of his seat, and he casually grabbed a pressure point on Naruto's arm, making Naruto release him. Sasuke's cold eyes settled on Naruto as Naruto rubbed his sore arm.
"Sir, I don't know what your problem is, but I suggest you leave now before I have security throw you out," Sasuke's voice was calm, but his eyes stared at Naruto, glaring at him, his nonverbal threat more dangerous than a jagged knife.
"You always said I was welcome here, or don't you remember me, Sasuke-teme?" Naruto asked, saying Sasuke's name in a mock cheerful voice. Sasuke's entire demeanor changed as he heard Naruto's voice come out more "normally," finally recognizing the other man than had come into his study.
"Naruto?" Sasuke whispered as his eyes went wide while looking at the man before him. Sasuke could merely stare at Naruto as Naruto glared back at him.
"Uchiha-sama! Are you okay? I heard a crashing noise," a servant said, running into the room, looking back and forth between the two men, clearly seeing the tension between the two, and noticing the knocked over chair. "I'm sorry sir! I let him in without clarifying it with you. He said he was an old neighbor, and he made it sound like you two were close. I will have security come up from the grounds and escort him immediately if-"
"No need, Haruka," Sasuke said softly, his eyes never leaving Naruto's as the woman looked anxiously between the two men. "Leave, and make sure no one disturbs us. I'll buzz you if I need anything," Sasuke added, noticing the ever-increasing anxiety on the woman's face. She nodded hesitantly before turning to leave.
"I see you finally decided to get some housekeepers, and I guess a little extra security never hurt," Naruto said, somewhat bemusedly as the woman shut the door behind her.
"Yes. I was told my house was too big and empty for just me..." Sasuke said, trailing off as both he and Naruto were thrown mentally back in time, both reminiscing to over seven years before...
"You go get it!" Kenji hollered, the blond haired boy seemingly annoyed with the nervous looking Naruto. Naruto stood next to Kenji, and showed his frustration by running his hands through his blond hair that was just a few shades darker than Kenji's.
"No, you get it! You're the one who kicked it over there!" Naruto complained, trying to suppress the fear in his voice.
"But you're the foster kid, so you have to do what I say," Kenji, the fifteen year old told the younger thirteen year old. Naruto sighed, hating this. He had been in foster care for over five years now, and he had always hated it when he got stuck with families who already had kids. The kids usually felt like their parents were going to replace them or something and usually ended up treating Naruto like crap.
For example, the newest foster family, the Yamanaka family, had a son named Kenji who loved bossing Naruto around and scaring the crap out of him by showing him horror films or telling him ghost stories.
Unfortunately for Naruto, one of the scarier stories that Kenji had told him happened to entail the Uchiha house, the house that the two boys currently stood before: the same house that Kenji had just kicked their soccer ball over its hedge. According to one of Kenji's tales, this was a vacant (and haunted) house that had once belonged to a rich family, the Uchihas. The Uchihas used to have nine different families of their "clan" living within the same house, and the owner of the house had had two children: Itachi and Sasuke.
However, tragedy had struck the entire family nearly ten years ago. Apparently the oldest son Itachi had gone quite insane and killed all of his other family members, even his mother, father, and younger brother Sasuke.
Kenji said that no one lived there now, but had ended his story with, "You can still see the haunted ghost of the younger brother roaming through the house since the murder of his family ten years prior. You can even see lights on every now and then in the second to last window on the fifth floor, which of course had been the youngest son's room."
Now, as Naruto stood before the house, recalling that scary story, he looked at the setting sun that illuminated the mansion hauntingly. He didn't know why he had bothered to agree to play ball so far away from the house in the first place. He supposed it had been because he had been so excited that Kenji had finally asked him to go play with him that he didn't even think anything of it when the boy had led him to the top of the hill, walking over fifteen minutes towards the eerily empty area by the house at the edge of the woods.
This exact setting was like in one of those horror movies that Kenji loved to show him, and it was too liken to those movies for him to want to go inside the gate to get the ball. If zombies or vampires were there, he'd be done for.
Of course, Naruto now knew Kenji wanting to play with him had been a set-up for him to scare him. Kenji and he had kicked the soccer ball around the street a few times before Kenji had redirected his kick so that it flew over the overgrown hedges that surrounded the mansion. Naruto and Kenji had run to the front gate to see if they could see the soccer ball, but no such luck. And of course, there was only one gate that stood eerily right at the front of the house, the only visible way in and out of the yard. And it was early October to boot. All creepy things happened in October, everyone knew that.
Naruto looked around him, as a gust of wind seemed to blow out of nowhere, the wind chilling him to the bone. He looked above him waiting for crows to start attacking him or something because this was definitely like one of those horror flicks that Kenji had tricked him into watching. For some reason, he was forcibly reminded of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, which was definitely not one of his favorite movies.
"You're not scared are you, baby?" Kenji taunted. Naruto looked at the older boy, knowing full well that Kenji knew he was terrified, and he also knew full well that he couldn't say that he was.
"Of course not! But I bet you are!" Naruto said, trying to use reverse psychology against Kenji to make him go get the ball instead.
"You ARE scared. I can tell because you always bawl at those horror movies," Kenji smirked.
"I-I do not!" Naruto said, his voice higher than normal due to a mixture of indignation as well as a hint of fear. "F-fine. I'll go get it!" Naruto said, sounding a lot more courageous than he knew he was at the time (which was saying something since he didn't sound courageous at all). Naruto marched up to the gate and gently pushed at it, hoping desperately that it would be locked. Instead, it swung forward easily. Naruto had been expecting it to creak like in the movies, but instead the hinges were soundless as they swung forward. Maybe it was because Naruto had been expecting it to make a creaking noise, but the silence of the gates somehow made everything seem even more ominous than before. Naruto glanced over his shoulder, watching as Kenji smirked at him. Naruto took a deep breath and entered the grounds. Another strong gust of wind blew past him.
Naruto jumped in fear as he heard a clank, the gate shutting with the force of the gust of wind. Even though the gate was not completely solid, it seemed to create a creepy silence between the large grounds and the mansion. In fact, he hadn't even been able to see the mansion properly, even through the gate. He turned around to scan the grounds for the missing ball, trying to rid himself of scary imagery.
"Where's the ball, where's the ball, where's the ball?" Naruto repeated his mantra as he walked through the grounds, wrenching his gaze from the scary looking house. Even though the hedges themselves looked overgrown on the outside, Naruto had time to notice that the rest of the yard looked immaculately kept, at least to an insider's perspective. The lawn had recently been cut, and the bushes were also trimmed. Yet there was supposed to be no one living here. He pushed the mundane thought from his mind as he looked wildly on the ground around him, cursing both the impressive size of the land, (which happened to be a lot bigger even than what it appeared to be from outside the house) as well as cursing Kenji who had clearly done this on purpose. Now where the hell was that ball?
"Are you looking for this?" A deep voice asked from behind him. Naruto, who had been facing towards the mansion, looked behind him. Back near the hedge line stood a man who was holding his soccer ball.
Naruto froze in place, taking in the pale skinned man in front of him dressed entirely in black. His eyes were even darker if possible than his pitch-black hair, and Naruto felt entranced as he looked into the man's eyes. Then reality seemed to hit Naruto as he realized he was standing in the haunted Uchiha grounds, and that there was a person before him, not unlike the description he heard about the ghost Sasuke. So, Naruto did something very unmanly and pointed his finger at Sasuke and screamed like a little girl.
"GHOST!!" Naruto squealed in terror. Sasuke (for of course, it was Uchiha Sasuke) almost lost his cool and chucked the soccer ball back in Naruto's face. But, being Uchiha Sasuke, he did not lose his cool, and instead Sasuke's eye merely twitched in annoyance.
"If I were a ghost I wouldn't be able to hold your soccer ball, dobe," Sasuke said, trying to be logical to a person who clearly had illogical beliefs.
"Oh," Naruto said, sounding sheepish as Sasuke handed him the soccer ball. "Er, hehehehe. I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you," Naruto laughed, scratching the back of his head in nervous laughter, all fears forgotten at being scolded.
"Shouldn't you be going now, Naruto? And would you mind not kicking balls over my hedge next time?" Sasuke said coldly. Immediately Naruto went on the defensive.
"I didn't kick it! Kenji did! He did it on purpose because he knows I hate scary things, and he is always going on and on about how this place is haunted. He taunted me into coming here, and you know, I couldn't just let him taunt me and get away with it," Naruto said in a rush.
"Well you can let Kenji know that he failed. This place is not haunted, nor is it vacant, as many people believe. Just because I don't happen to socialize doesn't mean I was killed along with my family," Sasuke said irritably.
"Wait, wait. So, does that mean that you are Uchiha Sasuke? But I thought everyone was murdered by Itachi! Does that mean you weren't shot or something?" Naruto asked, curiously since Sasuke hadn't bothered to introduce himself when he had. Sasuke's body went rigid at the mention of his brother's name.
"Yes. Although my brother may have been a psychopath, he seemed not have realized that I was at school and not yet at home when he decided to butcher my family. He shot and killed not only the rest of my family, but himself too before I even had returned home. Thank you so much for bringing up my horrific childhood," Sasuke said icily, his words pained in remembrance. "Now go!" Sasuke bellowed, using his most intimidating voice that he used at his corporation to get the older, more weathered businessmen to quake in fear. He was sure he would have scared away this kid who had been petrified of him, thinking he was a ghost moments before. Instead, the kid just stood there looking forlorn.
"My parents were killed while I was still at school too. I came home and found them dead," Naruto said, his voice a low whisper, looking at the ground in sadness. Sasuke just looked at Naruto stunned. Whatever reaction he had expected from Naruto, a confession of a similar past was not one of them.
For some unexplainable reason, Sasuke felt light-headed at the thought. Never before had he met anyone who could possibly understand what he had gone through. No one else had ever confessed to coming home and finding their family dead. No one else had before been able to possibly understand what it was like to feel guilty for surviving something so tragic; no one could understand the guilt of just living when your family head died. Yet looking into this boy's eyes, eyes that had just been quaking in fear, and seeing that they were now filled with loneliness and sadness, Sasuke could see that this boy had eyes just like his.
It was one of those rare instances that such a simple statement held the power to connect two complete strangers. Loneliness has a funny way of making a person feel so isolated that finding another person, even a complete stranger, who finally understands how hellish that loneliness is that transfers the two people into immediate and irrevocable kindred spirits.
"We're the same," Sasuke whispered, his eyes going wide, feeling a strange, but sudden liking for this boy.
"Every time Kenji told me the story of what happened to the people in this house, to your family, it always reminded me of what happened to my parents. Sometimes – sometimes I wonder if they are haunting our old house. Sometimes, I wish they were, just that I could go back and see them one last time," Naruto said sadly, but then shook his head as if realizing the impossibility of his hope. Naruto continued, though he was not sure why, he felt as though he needed to get this off his chest. "My baby-sitter was this kid from down the street that everyone called Kyuubi. He used to love coming over to the house because he mooched off the food and the TV. He wasn't really that bad of a baby-sitter by baby-sitter terms; I mean, he at least remembered to feed me dinner and stuff. Sill, my parents got pretty pissed when they came home and found him getting high on cocaine on the couch one of the nights they were out late. They called the cops on him," Naruto said, knowing he shouldn't be telling this to a complete stranger, but not finding the ability to stop the words from coming out of his mouth. The story had been bottled up inside of him too long, and the idea that there was someone else who could relate to his tragedy made the story somehow easier to tell.
"He was released on bail the next day, but apparently he was really pissed at my parents. He was planning on becoming a doctor, but with the drug bust on his record his life was pretty much screwed. So, a few days later, when he was high on whatever it was he was high on, he came to my house and shot my parents while I was doing after school stuff. So, my parents were killed because the guy messed up his own life by getting high in the first place, and then taking it out on my parents. If I hadn't stayed after school late that day, I probably would be dead now too," Naruto said, trailing off. There was a moment of silence before it was Sasuke's turn to be unable to hold his words back.
"My brother thought that our parents were holding him back. He was a genius, and everyone knew it. My parents always did what they thought was best for him in order to propel him forward, and they helped get him involved in everything that he wanted. He was never really disciplined, and he got away with a lot. I never knew that he was so upset by anything my parents did until I read his suicide note." Sasuke's eyes darkened as he remembered his past. He paused for a moment before continuing.
"I have never been able to figure out exactly what he meant in it, but the note that he left before killing everyone said that he was never given any limits from our parents, that they always just gave in. He wanted to be challenged, and he blamed my parents for handing him everything on a silver platter. His letter said he never felt like he earned anything himself. So, he went and killed our parents and my father's siblings and their families that were living here. I stayed late at school that day, just as you had on the day your parents had been killed. If I hadn't, I would probably have been killed as well. I guess he blamed my parents for not being able to allow him to test his true abilities," Sasuke said bitterly, looking at the sky as darkness began to take over, finding a strange sort of peace as he was able to connect to this boy through their shared tragedies.
"Kenji said that was ten years ago. How old were you?" Naruto asked.
"I was eight," Sasuke said.
"I was eight too," Naruto said thoughtfully, but suddenly his entire demeanor changed. "But man, you look older than eighteen. I would have pegged you for twenty-five, mister," he said, Naruto's voice turning from sad to happy in two seconds flat, giving Sasuke a mischievous grin. Sasuke was amazed to feel the transition from going to being sad one second to being teased the next somehow natural in the presence of this boy.
"Yeah, well you look like you're still eight, midget," Sasuke shot back, grinning as well, thinking about how infectious this kid's smile was. Naruto just stuck his tongue out at him.
"Not my fault!"
"Probably because you don't eat enough," Sasuke said, pinching Naruto's scrawny arm. "Want something to eat?" Sasuke asked. Naruto's face lit up.
"Can we have ramen?" Naruto asked excitedly.
"I doubt I have it, kid."
"Kid? I'm not a kid! And besides, you're only five years older than I am!" Naruto replied indignantly, dropping the soccer ball in the yard as he followed Sasuke up the front walk and up to the house, completely forgetting about Kenji waiting on the other side of the gate waiting for him.
Naruto peered in the house as Sasuke opened the front door, impressed by the sheer size of the magnificent living room. He was sure that Kenji's entire house could fit in this one room.
"Kitchen's towards the back and to the right," Sasuke said. Naruto looked around him, passing the stairs on the right before heading towards the back of the house where Sasuke said the kitchen was located
"Man, this place is huge. And you live here by yourself? You should really get some staff or something to live with you. It must get lonely here. This place is way too big and empty just for you."
"I like my privacy," Sasuke said, shrugging. "Actually, when I can, I prefer to work at home instead of at the office."
Sasuke felt a strange sort of connection to the boy that had stumbled into his yard. They were both orphans due to tragic murders; both occurring at the age of eight, and both had managed to survive because they happened to stay after school. Though Sasuke knew many other people that had similar interests as himself, none were usually anywhere close to his age. It was hard to find anyone he could relate to, and he had made sure to avoid most people anyway. He had thrown himself into his studies when his family had been murdered as sort of a means to forget the horrible tragedy that had befallen his childhood. Since he had already been two grades ahead for his age level at the time of his family's massacre, he had been pushed even further along in school with his ever-increasing vigor and hard work. He had no friends that he played with, and his weekends were devoted to self-discipline or schoolwork. By the time he was seventeen, not only had he finished high-school, but he had gone through an accelerated collegiate program and had graduated as valedictorian of Tokyo University, an impressive feat indeed.
He had gotten a job at the company that had once belonged to his father, trying to possibly overtake the head position in several years. He was very ambitious, and as in school, he had no friends to take his time away from achieving what he wanted. Even though some tried to befriend him, Sasuke had never paid them any mind.
There were many that held the same business interests that he did, but very few of them could possibly relate to the tragedy that he had faced as a child. Now here in his very home there was another boy who had gone through the same tragedy. He felt a deeper connection with this stranger than he had with anyone else since his family had been killed. Heck, he never let business associates enter his house, let alone a random kid he met skulking around his front lawn looking for a soccer ball.
Sasuke looked over at the blond-haired boy who was looking his house up and down. Sasuke mused about how quickly he had allowed himself to open up to him. It was unheard of for him, but it felt good. Sasuke quickly looked away from Naruto as Naruto stopped gaping at his house and glanced over at Sasuke. Sasuke managed to tear his gaze away so as not to be caught gaping at Naruto and went about preparing something to eat.
"I hate vegetables," Naruto muttered watching as Sasuke threw in some vegetables into a frying pan, adding some oil and spices to the mix. Naruto sat down at one of the twenty chairs that surrounded an enormous table that was impractical for the sole resident of the house. Like the rest of the house, the kitchen was gigantic as well.
"No wonder you're so short. Vegetables are good for you," Sasuke smirked, remembering how he had despised vegetables before his mother had figured out a special recipe that had made Sasuke learn to love veggies. It was one of the few dishes he knew that did not require a microwave or instructions off of a cardboard box, and he was glad that he could share it with someone.
"Stop insulting my height," Naruto grumbled.
"Hn," Sasuke grunted.
"So do you always invite random people into your house?" Naruto asked as way of trying to figure out why Sasuke had invited him. Sasuke gave Naruto a sidelong glance, finding it odd that Naruto had been thinking about the same thing he had.
"You're actually the first person to enter the house besides the police, the social worker, and my guardian since the massacre," Sasuke said off-handedly. Naruto stared at him.
"Are you serious?" Naruto asked, incredulous. Sasuke shrugged.
"I told you I like my privacy. You're also the first person to come wandering into my yard to my knowledge. From what you said, it seems most people think I was murdered and keep away from here. So who was it that you said had coerced you into coming in here? A relative?" Sasuke asked, wanting to change the subject away from his family.
"Yamanaka Kenji, and no, he's not a relative. Kid from the foster family I'm staying with at the moment."
"Yamanaka? As in Yamanaka Ino's family?" Sasuke asked, shuddering slightly.
"Yeah, I think so. I've only been living with them since the end of August, and I think she had just left for her first year of university or something before I got there. Kenji's her younger brother," Naruto explained. "Know her?"
"Unfortunately. She had a crush on me when I was younger. Rather lecherous if I recall," Sasuke said, trying to forget the way that she and that pink haired girl used to try and cling to him during elementary school. "She and another girl thought I was so cool for being a few years ahead of everyone, though still the same age as they were. Both of them were annoying. I didn't like hanging around them at all."
"So, if I'm the first to be here in ten years, do you just go over to your friends' houses to hang out?" Naruto asked, curious.
"I don't really have any close friends," Sasuke admitted, feeling kind of awkward about voicing this reality.
"Same here. I've jumped around from foster home to foster home too many times. In fact, I don't even know if the Yamanaka's even know that my birthday is next week," Naruto sighed, kind of disappointed. "No one ever recognizes my birthday, not really. I mean, it's not a big deal, and why would anyone want to spend money on a kid that probably won't be with you for very long, right?" Naruto said, sounding as though he were trying to convince himself with this theory rather than Sasuke. Sasuke didn't answer as he tended to the vegetables. He pulled two plates out of the cabinet and pushed half of the sizzling dish onto a plate for himself and the other half onto the second plate for Naruto. He set the food down in front of Naruto.
"I told you, I don't like vegetables," Naruto whined.
"I didn't used to either. Eat them. Besides, if your birthday is next week, and you said you were thirteen that means you'll be turning fourteen. Every seven years your taste buds change. It's about time you tried them again and see if the changes in your taste buds have changed to like vegetables," Sasuke explained in between bites of his own food.
"Really?" Naruto asked curiously, picking up his chopsticks and poking them into a vegetable with an apprehensive look on his face before plopping the offending vegetable in his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully. "It's not as good as ramen, but it's not bad either," Naruto said, grabbing another vegetable before popping it in his mouth. Sasuke chuckled.
"Is that a way of saying my cooking isn't so bad?" Sasuke asked.
"Sure," Naruto said, enjoying the banter. They fell into a comfortable silence as they both ate together, both finally having found someone they could relate to on a level no one else had been able to get close to.
"You said your birthday is next week?" Sasuke asked after he finished eating.
"Yeah," Naruto nodded, also finishing his dinner, laying his chopsticks sideways across his plate.
"What day?"
"October 10th. When's yours?"
"July 23rd."
"Ha! So you're only four years and two and a half months older than I am!" Naruto said triumphantly.
"I'm still older," Sasuke said smirking.
"Yeah, but not that much older. Hey, how long have you lived on your own for anyway? I can't wait until I can stop being in foster care. How old before I can do that?" Naruto asked curiously. Sasuke stacked his and Naruto's plates together as he took them over to place them in the dishwasher.
"I don't know what the official age of living on one's own is, but I've been doing it since I was eleven," Sasuke said quietly. Naruto turned around in his seat to look at him.
"That young?" Naruto asked incredulous.
"I was in foster homes for three years, and I couldn't stand it. I figured out a way to make it seem like I had a guardian living here. I paid a man named Kakashi to act as my guardian for when the social worker came to check on my well-being. He used to come by and drop some necessary materials off, but he disliked coming here and only did so when he had to act like my guardian. He hated this place. He used to work with my Dad, and I think this place creeped him out. It was vacant for the entire time I was away since it was left in my parent's Will to Itachi and I. Naturally, with Itachi killing everyone and then himself, everything went to me. It took me a while to clean the place back up, but it was, and will always be, my home," Sasuke said forcefully.
"I have 7.4 million dollars from my parents' inheritance," Naruto blurted out suddenly. Sasuke looked at Naruto.
"What?"
"I said I have 7.4 million dollars from my parents," Naruto mumbled, looking down at the table. "I dunno why, but I've always wanted to be able to tell someone that I'm rich. Well, I will be. I can't get to it until I turn 17. I suppose they never thought that they would die so soon which is why I can't touch it till then. And I guess, I felt I could tell you because, I dunno, I just didn't think you would laugh for some reason," Naruto said quietly. Sasuke smiled at him gently. He walked over to where Naruto was sitting, and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, relating to the need to share information – any information.
"No, I won't laugh. I know what it's like to feel the need to confide in someone and not be able to for so long. For instance, I've never been able to tell anyone about what happened the day my family was killed without clamming up until tonight with you," Sasuke said gently. Naruto looked at him and smiled.
"Do you feel like we've met somewhere before? Like in a dream? Or another life?" Naruto asked. "I feel like I've known you for ages," Naruto confessed.
"I know what you mean," Sasuke said, nodding. "Like we were friends or rivals or something close."
"Yeah," Naruto said, nodding his head in agreement. "So," Naruto said, grinning slowly. "You're it!" Naruto yelled as he ducked under Sasuke's comforting hand, and tagged him on the arm before dashing off. Sasuke blinked. Wasn't tag too old for thirteen soon to be fourteen year olds? And especially for eighteen year old businessmen?
"What, feeling your age, chicken butt?" Naruto yelled from the doorway.
"Chicken butt?" Sasuke asked, incredulously.
"Yeah, your hair looks like a chicken's ass!" Naruto laughed. Sasuke's eye twitched. No one insulted his hair. This meant war. With that thought, all thoughts of how tag was really beneath him were banished from his mind as he chased after Naruto.
Three hours later...
The game of tag had lasted a good forty-five minutes, Sasuke laughing so hard that his stomach actually hurt. He hadn't laughed that hard since...well, he had never laughed that hard. He and Naruto had run all about his house, Naruto giving himself a self guided tour when their game of tag turned into hide-and-seek. After Naruto couldn't find Sasuke for over twenty minutes, Naruto finally admitted defeat. (After all, it was a large house, and Sasuke lived there, so he naturally knew the best hiding spots.) Naruto had trouble remembering which rooms he had already checked in, let alone having any idea of where Sasuke might be hiding.
Sasuke had had the time of his life. He had rarely played tag as a child, and it felt as though he were trying to catch up on some of his missed childhood. After Sasuke gave Naruto a proper tour of his house, with Naruto declaring it to look like an old fart's home, Sasuke had tried to show him that he wasn't boring by showing him the things he did for fun – like painting and sculpturing, which of course, Naruto thought were boring as well.
"Don't you have any video games or cards or movies or something?" Naruto asked.
"I've got a deck of cards," Sasuke said.
"Let's play poker!" It had taken Sasuke ten minutes to remember where the heck he had put his deck of cards, with Naruto laughing at him the entire time, but he had finally found them.
So now, the two sat sprawled out in the middle of Sasuke's usually immaculately clean living room floor, munching on pretzels as they played poker, using the pretzels as poker chips as well as for food.
"Hey, I saw that!" Naruto said, pointing at Sasuke as he placed a pretzel from the bag into his "money pile." Sasuke grumbled and ate the pretzel he had tried to add to his pile of pretzels that they had designated as their "money pile" at the beginning of the game. They had each counted out 30 pretzels from the bag of bite size pretzels to use as their "money" to gamble with. Sasuke only had four left now. Naruto was apparently a good gambler.
"I fold," Sasuke grumbled, putting his cards down as Naruto collected the pretzel money pile and then reached into the bag of pretzels for some to eat, pulling out a handful then suddenly stopping mid motion. "What's that?" Naruto asked, pointing as a little robot like thing swept across the floor. Sasuke didn't bother to turn to look at it.
"It's a vacuum robot. Just set it loose, and it glides across the floor. Once it bumps into something, it turns around and goes in another direction. I have one for each floor. Saves me lots of time on cleaning," Sasuke said offhandedly. Naruto put his hand up to his mouth as he began to chuckle mischievously.
"I just had the best idea. If I-" Naruto's good idea was stopped mid thought as there was a loud knock on the door.
"Who could that be?" Sasuke muttered, standing up, until realization dawned on him. He looked over at Naruto as the same thought clearly crossed Naruto's mind.
"Crap. I forgot to tell Kenji or the Yamanakas what I was doing," Naruto muttered. Sure enough, as Sasuke opened up the door while Naruto hid off to the side. Sasuke only opened the door wide enough so that he could poke his head through to see that Mr. Yamanaka and Kenji were standing on his front step. He recognized Mr. Yamanaka as indeed being Ino's father.
"Sorry to bother you, but did you happen to see a blond-haired boy in your yard earlier?" Mr. Yamanaka asked. Kenji, for his part, stood staring open mouthed at Sasuke as though he were a ghost. 'Which he probably thinks I am,' Sasuke mused to himself, remembering what Naruto had told him about Kenji thinking that Sasuke was a ghost. Sasuke was half tempted to say that yes, he had seen Naruto, and that he had eaten him for dinner just to see what kind of reaction Kenji would have, but he had a feeling it would just end up getting Naruto into more trouble than he was already in.
"Yes. He came over for dinner," Sasuke said. "I apologize for not having him call you. He and I were talking about our...similar...experiences," Sasuke explained, feeling as though he should try and get Naruto out of some trouble. He was the older of the two, and he should have thought about Naruto being out by himself so late. It was close to 10:00pm after all. Mr. Yamanaka merely nodded, seeming to understand what Sasuke was talking about with "similar" experiences.
"Well, if he already ate dinner, then no harm done, but Naruto needs to come back home now so that he can finish his homework for school tomorrow," Mr. Yamanaka said kindly. Sasuke opened the door a little wider to allow for Naruto to come into view.
"Sorry," Naruto said, grinning sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Not a problem. Thanks for giving him dinner," Mr. Yamanaka directed to Sasuke. Sasuke merely nodded, thinking that Mr. Yamanaka didn't seem that bad. Kenji still remained opened mouth staring at Sasuke, and now at Naruto, as though surprised that Naruto was still alive.
"Thanks. Bye," Naruto said to Sasuke as he left. Sasuke watched the three of them cross the expansion that was his lawn before remembering something.
"Oi, Naruto!" Sasuke said, leaning down to pick up the forgotten soccer ball that was by his front steps and then tossed it to Naruto. "Feel free to come by any time. You're always welcome back," Sasuke hollered.
"Thanks!" Naruto said, grinning as he clutched the ball, turning back around to head back to the Yamanaka's…
The clock in Sasuke's study chimed 5:00, bringing the two men out of their thoughts. The now twenty-one year old Naruto looked at the twenty-five year old Sasuke.
"You've grown," Sasuke murmured absent mindedly, looking Naruto up and down. Naruto merely snorted.
"You did always hype on me about my height," Naruto gritted out. Sasuke made no reply as he bent over to pick up his fallen chair.
"What are you doing here Naruto?" Sasuke asked quietly, not meeting Naruto's eyes as he sat back down in the chair. "We were close once, but you made sure to let me know loud and clear you didn't want me to contact you after you left this area. So why are you back here now?" Sasuke finally chanced glancing at Naruto, wishing he hadn't as soon as he his eyes locked with the endless sea of blue that were Naruto's eyes.
"I want answers. I want to know why," Naruto said, his voice filled with pain.
"Naruto, how many times do I have to tell you before you believe me? I'm sorry," Sasuke gritted out, painful regret, such pain that hurt even more than the memory of his massacred family rising in his chest.
"Damnit Sasuke! I don't want to hear another fucking apology! I want to know why!" Naruto demanded, grabbing Sasuke's shirt, and pulling the older man closer to him again. Their eyes locked onto each other's, their bodies painfully close, yet somehow painfully too far away from each other. Naruto's chest was heaving, and Sasuke had to close his eyes to rid himself of more thoughts that would not help his current situation.
"You've changed," Sasuke murmured. "Did I put this anger into you?" Sasuke asked, leaning in so that his ear was practically pressed against Naruto's ear, his lips ghosting over Naruto's cheek. "I never meant to hurt you like this Naruto."
Naruto's grip on Sasuke's shirt loosened, his hands shaking, but in rage or some other emotion, even Naruto wasn't sure.
"I missed talking to you," Naruto finally confessed, his voice cracking.
"Hn," Sasuke agreed, nodding.
"You've changed too," Naruto noted, removing his hand completely from Sasuke's shirt.
"Naruto, what is it exactly that you want to know from me?"
"I want to know why," Naruto's voice lowered to barely a whisper, "why on that night, why the hell did you tie me up and fuck me so relentlessly, eh Sasuke?"
Please review and let me know what you think. :) - Jelp (Original post of chapter 1 was on May 30, 2007. Re-posted March 2, 2008)