I'm so happy with the response to Ashes but now I feel like no one cares about this… (pout) Except for Crimson-chan, of course. 'Coz I love you!!!! Sorry for the long post. Happy belated SasuNaru Day!

And I'm going to be re-writing, as in full story makeover, the beginning of this story for now. I will be sure to let all of you know when that is going on, in the event that I find something that has to be drastically changed. So far, chapters 1-6 have been re-uploaded. I would suggest that those of you still here reread them because I have changed quite a few changes and I truly hope that it makes more sense.

"Blah"-talking
'Blah-thinking
Blah-flashbacks
Blah-dream

--U R Darkest's Pawn--

Harvested peaches in a small border town
saved all our wages, put ten percent down
I never thought I'd see the world
through a child's eyes
until early December

Then one Calgary morning, still as glass
while my baby lay sleeping
an angel slipped past
and with one breath said
I'm taking him back
to his Father in Heaven

"My Wild Frontier"-Faith Hill

Chapter 25: My Wild Frontier

"—won't wake up. I've already tried a couple of times to yell at him, and he's still sleeping." he heard a familiar voice say. The person's frustration seemed to resonate off him and the fist on his collar, suggesting that shaking had accompanied the loud shouts, was growing steadily tighter. "What do you think I should do, bastard? God, I swear if he died with my son in the room I'm going to kill him!"

"Dobe, just let him go. If that's what you're worried about, then you should just make plans for his funeral."

"How could you say that?! Oh no, Sai! Wake up! You can't be—!"

He coughed, gasping, as he was finally able to breathe again.

"Naruto-kun… can't… breathe…"

"Ah!" the blonde shrieked. "W-wait! Don't die!"

"I-I'm not going to die…" he struggled for another breath, looking pointedly at the fist on his shirt. With another yelp, the kit's hand left and the dark-haired man greedily swallowed the air. "Thank you…"

The predicted relief that Sai thought he would see spontaneously shifted to a much darker mood on the blonde's face. Azure eyes seemed to promise a short, but painful death as they refocused on him.

"Why the hell did you stumble into the hotel this morning drunk?! Akito was here by himself all night! Where were you?!" Naruto had jumped onto the bed, which he'd apparently fallen onto in his inebriated state, to grasp the front of his shirt once more.

"I…I don't know…" Sai groaned. No one in the room spoke a word as they all watched him readjust his position on the bed. "I remember coming in last night, but nothing before that…"

He groaned and bent over, head suddenly throbbing from his hangover. Blurry images of a man in a designer suit. He had seemed respectable… how many glasses of sake had he downed in front of that man? Shit…

Eyes widened, an arrow of guilt struck him bull's-eye. He'd…said…so many things that he hadn't intended to. He had revealed so many things that he wished he never had. But, it was too late. Especially considering the fact that he knew how eager that man had been to get his hands on any dirt.

"Sai? You okay?" Blue interrupted his sight, as Naruto's tanned face peered into his.

"Y-Yeah." He replied, leaning back a little. "I-I'm probably going to just stay here for the rest of the day."

A fake smile crossed his face, one that evaded the blonde's perceptive abilities, and he curled back underneath the heavy comforter.

"Well, get better. You need to watch Akito for the rest of the day. He's your responsibility since you dragged him out here!" Naruto yelled over his shoulder as his family paraded out the door.

"Chichiue! I thought you wanted me here!" the crow squawked before the closing door closed on his voice, leaving the bartender alone in the silence of his room.

Cloned cobalt eyes met each other as the kit faced his son. "Yeah, but he doesn't need to know that." With a giggle-like noise, he grabbed the boy's hand and forced him to skip to the elevators.

"Hurry up, Otousan!" the little child cried to his other father, who had firmly refused to skip with them. Uchihas did not skip. Ever.

"Alright, alright. I'm right here." The raven sighed as he stepped into the elevator shaft with the two of his favorite spazzes. If he had to admit it, with some incessantly annoying prodding, that he favored the two Uzumakis over everyone else in the world he most definitely would.

"So, what do you think we should do today? I kind of want to go see a movie. Hmm... well, I'm pretty sure that there are some good ones coming out, like Red Dirt and Pale. What do you say?"

He flashed a painfully wide smile to his son, trying to encourage him to agree with him.

"But those are scary movies! I want to go get some more manga books!" the small dark-haired child protested, training his mastered puppy eyes on his blonde-haired father.

"Ha! That's not going to work on me! I created that, so I'm immune!" While the kit was busy laughing to himself about his wondrous powers of resistance, Akito knew for a fact that his other was most definitely not immune to it.

"Otousan, can we please go get some new books?"

Mirrored eyes of his lover stared up at him from his son's face, and despite his want to say no, he knew that he had absolutely no chance to. As they remained locked on him, he could feel his resolve crumbling by the millisecond.

He sighed, keeping his expression straight, hoping to cling to the remainder of his dignity of being controlled by a seven-year-old. "Fine."

"Yay!" the young boy cheered, jumping up and down with help from his otousan's shirt sleeve. Of his own accord this time, he skipped out of the elevator, as it 'ding'ed to alert them to the arrival on their floor, and down the hallway. Dancing impatiently outside the door for his fathers to hurry up, he began chanting of his plans, as if that would force them to walk faster. "Books, books, books, books..."

The blonde's rich laugh echoed in the empty hallway as he reached into his back pocket for the room key.

Once he'd managed to open the door, the crow sprinted into their room and began to dance in circles, still chanting his little jingle.

Following his family, the raven collapsed on the bed. Eyes closed, his breathing began to even out just slightly as his tired body insisted on resting more than he had last night. "Why don't we just stay here? We'll be able to get books tomorrow."

"No! You said!" The crow protested, bouncing on the bed next to his tired raven father.

"What, exactly, did I say? I think age is catching up with me." he teased, eyes half-mast.

A polyphonic ring tone from Naruto's cell phone on the table beside their bed broke through the banter between the other two occupants.

"Hello?" the blonde answered, chuckling lightly as he watched his lover and son arguing half-heartedly over how to spend their afternoon. When no one answered, he repeated himself.

"Otousan, you said we'd go to buy some new manga books today!" the crow whined, yanking on the sleeve of his adoptive father's jacket.

"Did I say that?" the raven said in a seemingly innocent tone. Onyx eyes twinkled as he sat up abruptly, got his feet, and threw the boy over his shoulder, like a sack of potatoes. Then he turned back to his lover. "Naruto? Do you think this little boy has earned his books?"

Raucous laughter erupted from the seven-year-old as he struggled on his otousan's shoulders in an attempt to return to his upright position.

"Hmm…" A bright smile lit up the kit's face, forgetting of the phone against his shoulder, as he stalked forward to kiss his boyfriend's tempting lips. "I'd say that he has deserved it for being such a responsible young man and not killing Sai himself."

All three of them laughed heartily, portraying the atmosphere of a television family whose happiness was planned. And it should have seemed that way, because disaster was about to strike.

"I'll take him out to the car." Sasuke said, kissing the kitsune once more before turning around and marching out, giggling child and all.

The blonde bent down to pick up his son's sweater, assuming that he'd need it sooner or later, when the electronic fell to his feet. "Oh!"

He picked it up, eyes widening when he realized that it was still counting the minutes since he'd answered. "Oh gosh! I'm so sorry! Is someone there?"

Flustered by his lack of attention, he leant against the wall next to his and Sasuke's bed as he waited for the answer.

"He—"

"Naruto-kun?"

No.

"Y-Yes…?"

He squeezed his eyes closed, hoping, praying, that it was who he thought it was. No… his time couldn't be up yet. It couldn't! It was too soon! He didn't want this to end…not when he'd finally been able to remember his life. Not when life had finally been put back together after being broken for such a long time.

"Ah, so it is you. How have you been?"

"Fine." He said, swallowing that air pocket that seemed determined to choke him to death. It was too late now to pray. He had to face this headfirst.

"Concise, aren't we?" the voice chuckled.

"Just tell me what you want." He was trembling. Worse, he was literally having convulsions produced the by the fear he felt in heart. His son. His boyfriend. Were they safe? Did they know that he was stuck between a rock and a hard spot?

"What plans do you have? I'm not too picky." The person on the other end chuckled pleasantly, playing the part of an acquaintance making friendly plans to pick up his dog.

"We were going to the mall to buy Akito some manga books." Why was he answering him?! Wouldn't it make more sense for him to hide their location and just run? Would it be better to hang up and take his family to somewhere unreachable?

"Ah, well, I'm sure that you'd rather keep your son out of this, so you can just leave him in children's section and lead your lover to the closed down store next door. It will be unlocked so that you can get in. No one will see you. The security cameras and alarms will be disarmed as well. I'm sure you can manage to make sure that it's all clear, right?"

His mind reeled. No. This was too simple. There had to be some sort of catch.

"If you're thinking of trying to run, just for your information, I've got a car sitting outside of the hotel with a perfect view of your suite as well as the front door. Sasuke-kun and your son just entered the car he had pulled up. I'm sure you'd feel fine if I had my man take a few shots at the back tail, right?"

"No! Please, just…!" he panted, suddenly breathless. Why? What had he done in his past life to merit this? On the verge of hysteria, his words came out in a tight, rushed clump. "Please don't take him from me! I-I don't know what I'd do—"

There was the sound of the person scoffing in disbelief that shook him up further. "Did you fall in love with him? Well, this isinteresting. Regardless…"

"I… I'll take him there." Shadows were cast by his bangs over his eyes, hiding the tears of frustration that threatened to spill over.

"I'm glad that we could avoid any other conflicts that may have happened." The voice responded, a sincere tone resonating and impossible to doubt. "I'll have one of my men see you and Uchiha Sasuke in a little while, Naruto-kun. Goodbye."

Frozen, Naruto let the cell slip from his fingers.

His time was up.

Blindly, he walked out of the room. The button to the elevator depressed under his finger's forced, but that didn't mean he felt it. His legs moved to get into the elevator, but that didn't mean that he knew he was in one. When it finally arrived at the lobby, he walked out and found his boyfriend's black car and slid into the passenger's side. But that didn't mean he acknowledged anyone. That didn't mean that he struck up a conversation. That didn't mean that his blue eyes weren't dulled by unmasked panic.

"Naruto?"

Shook-up by his usually hyper boyfriend's silence, Sasuke's voice wavered. He knew. He knew that something wasn't right.

"Hmm?" the blonde drawled, as if being jerked out of thought.

Though his eyes were supposed to remain on the road, they drifted in the direction of his passenger. The way the kit's pallor was pale made him uneasy. The way he could no longer see into those blue eyes, as though the light behind them had been shut off.

"Are you okay?"

Naruto couldn't brush the seriousness off in Sasuke's voice. As much as he longed to just let it pass over him, it didn't. A single, rusted knife stabbed him in the heart, tearing downwards and making sure to sever his arteries and veins.

"Yeah. Sorry, just thinking about this one book I wanted to get." He faked a smile in his boyfriend's direction before turning back to face the front.

A single month together and he already knew how to fly under his lover's radar. He would have congratulated himself, if not for the fact that he was slowly poisoning both of their consciousness with these lies.

Reassured, the Uchiha smiled in response. "Since when do you read, dobe?"

"Since always!" he pouted, putting on an act. As long as he could wear this mask, he would. "That's mean, bastard. I happen to enjoy reading when it strikes my fancy."

"Says the man who constantly tells his son that he should pick manga books instead of novels."

"Well, he should wait until high school where he'll actually be forced to read that crap. Right, Akito?" He turned around in his seat, cerulean eyes glittering like Christmas lights in a magazine; too perfect to be real.

"Uh-huh!" the boy nodded vigorously.

When they parked in front of the bookstore, the crow wasted no time unbuckling himself and running, with little attention to the potential traffic, into the store with a ridiculously huge grin on his face.

His parents, however, preferred to walk slowly with their hands linked. The crisp smell of books greeted their senses as the doors opened for the two of them.

Bibliophiles alike were either crowded in the aisles or seated amongst the stylish, but inexpensive-looking, furniture. Sasuke continued to walk, until his boyfriend's sudden stop halted him.

"Dobe." he glared, not entirely comfortable for feeling like his arm might have been yanked out of the socket.

As a retort, the blonde stuck his tongue out. "I want to look at magazines, bastard. Go play with your son."

The raven signed in resignation, not bothering to inquire, and walked until he met his son in the GRAPHIC NOVELS section of the store.

The kit wasn't normally one to look at tabloids; they just didn't interest him and he hated thinking about how these bastards exploited actors and actresses alike for the amusement of gullible people. But a pathetic interest arose in his mind as he glanced over the cover of one particularly well-known distributor; one that was quickly swallowed up by fear and disgust as he read the headliner. Uchiha Sasuke and his lover – The side no one knows.

He knew; he just knew, that the moment he got mixed up in the spotlight, shit was going to hit the fan. But he cared little for himself at the moment. Only his boyfriend's reputation was on his mind. It was unfortunate that Naruto was the selfless kind who put others before himself. If not, then he might have survived.

Scared out of his wits, for fear that something may have torn his lover's image apart in this fake shit booklet, he practically tore through it until he found the page the supposed "article" was on.

Well-known and beloved actor Uchiha Sasuke announce merely last night that his lover and partner, Uzumaki Naruto, had become an ongoing part in his life. As seen by the delay of his upcoming movie "Six Second Distance", this blonde-haired wonder is slowly taking up the actor's entire being. Though there are fans, and other adoring patrons, who find their relationship to be the work of destiny or perhaps an example to all homosexuals in the world, it is anything but that. Whether it is known to Uchiha-san or not, his partner has many skeletons that surely not known by the man. The actor had said, "We've known each other for a long time." Be that true or not, new information on this blonde leaves room for doubt as to how well the two actually know one another.

According to Uzumaki-san's close friend, whose name will not be revealed, this man contains much more of a history than he is willing to say. It should be said that this innocent-looking man has indeed been with others as well as the Uchiha. A gold-digger, perhaps? Or maybe just another man with an insatiable libido and the needs to satisfy himself.

The source said that Uzumaki-san was actually at a party only a few days before, where he proceeded to get himself drunk. The source also stated that Uzumaki-san was found straddling the waist of another man, during which time he stripped the man of his clothes and performed fellatio.

'That's a lie! I never—!'

Despite the fact that Uzumaki-san refused to return any calls sent by the interviewer, it is known by this trusted source that, indeed, intercourse did occur, in front of a wide crowd. Does Uchiha-san know that his wonderful angel is actually a lusting devil in disguise? After breaking up with his longtime girlfriend, fellow actor Karin, merely a month ago, does this spell trouble for the handsome man? Is his love life doomed? While none of those answers can be verified, it's easy to see what sort of lies their relationship is build on. And, in the opinion of this magazine, it is only a short while before they both call it quits.

The unnamable source has also put in his opinion stating, "It would be better for everyone if that fucking Uchiha would just kill himself. Naruto-kun deserves so much more than a whoring asshole like him."

'Never! NO!'

Does this mean the source also has feelings for this blonde-haired traitor? Admittedly, the man states that he is in love with Uzumaki-san. No word on how Uzumaki-san, himself, is taking the news of his past revealed.

Naruto decided, once and for all, that he couldn't take this. He couldn't hand his boyfriend over to these people. No, because Sasuke had so much more faith in him. He would never suspect anything like this could happen. He felt sick to his stomach, and the churning in the pit of it was surely in agreement.

His eyes flashed in the direction of Sasuke, the love of his life, and Akito, the one angel who had brought him through all the turmoil of living without said love of his life, before he set the magazine cover-down on the table. Calmly, he began moving towards the doors of the bookstore, seeing no one and nothing in his way.

Once he was outside, he took one look around to see if that person who had called was truly there, he took off running. Down the street and away from Sasuke and his son. Away from his life.

--U R Darkest's Pawn--

Okay, so Ashes will have its next update sometime by the end of the month.

I know I don't generally do this, but SPOILERS!!!

OMFG!! Danzo has the Sharingan! WTF?!?! This was actually thought up by someone, whose name I unfortunately cannot remember (and then later had ideas tacked on by me), but I think that Danzo is actually Madara. Maybe Tobi might actually be some sort of clone, in a form that not even Itachi could pull off.

REVIEW OR I'LL EAT YOUR SPLEEN!!!

Next Chapter: "How could you do this to me?! I thought you forgave me for that!"