Never Leave Me - Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Sasuke was pissed. They’d finally reached the Akatsuki lair the animals had indicated to Juugo only to find it empty. The four had spilt upon entering to try and find some clue as to where to head next. Suigetsu had taken the lower level of the hideout, while Sasuke and the others searched the higher levels.
Sasuke wandered into one room that looked like a bedroom, two single beds on either side of the room. “Itachi…” There, in the closet to his left hung an old Uchiha shirt. The symbol swung to face him as he took a step towards it. He checked the tag in the collar just to confirm his suspicions; their mother had taken to sewing their names into the tag at young ages, supposedly his father kept getting Itachi’s shirts after the wash.
There it was, a bit of the stitching was missing after years of use, and it now said ‘Ita ni’ but it was there.
“Sasuke!” Karin’s voice called. She popped her head in the room just as he released the shirt and turned toward the door. She smiled at him, pushing her glasses up her nose. “Suigetsu found something in the basement.” She scowled. “I don’t know what it is, he won’t say.”
Sasuke nodded and followed her down to the lower most level. Juugo stood with Suigetsu beside a heavily locked door, a dead guard pinned to the wall beside it.
The door was made of thick steel and it was locked much like the door holding Juugo had been; there were several locks and even chains crossing over the door.
“Whatever is in here must be important.” Suigetsu murmured. “I figure, if we take it with us we could use it as bait to lure Itachi to us.” He grinned viciously at the dead guard. “He didn’t know where the other members went but he said they’d be back for whatever’s behind this door.”
“That’s actually a good plan.” Karin grumbled unhappily.
Sasuke nodded in agreement. “Let’s get the door open then.”
Juugo and Suigetsu did so, ripping down the chains and pounding on the locks until they broke. Juugo easily swung the heavy door open to reveal a very dark room. Suigetsu ventured inside, eyes zeroing in on a lump in one corner of the room. “I think it’s a girl!” He called back to his companions in the hall. He couldn’t see many details within the darkness but he knew the figure was slender and its arms were chained to the wall above its head. He broke the chains and lifted the figure bridal style.
Once in the hall he noticed the flat chest and the lithe muscles over the body. “Hm, guess it’s a guy. He’s kinda light.”
“He’s cute.” Karin chirped, peering at his face. She used one of her fingers to trace over the whisker marks on his cheeks. “I wonder what color his eyes are…?”
“Blue.”
All three companions jerked at the sound of Sasuke’s voice.
“You know this guy?” Suigetsu asked as he shifted the unconscious blonde’s weight.
“He’s from Konoha, his name is Uzumaki Naruto.”
“Like the bridge in Wave? Is he named after it?”
Sasuke studied Naruto’s relaxed face almost critically for a moment. “Actually it’s named after him. Let’s go.”
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Naruto twitched and groaned awake but didn’t open his eyes. The first thing he noticed was that his arms were no longer suspended above his head, and it felt like he was wrapped in a sleeping bag. He made the mistake of opening his eyes. “God!” He screamed hoarsely and covered his eyes, nearly digging the palms of his hands into the sockets. He rolled onto his side and groaned. After so long adjusting his eyes to the darkness it stung painfully to see the natural light.
“That had to hurt.” A snarky male voice chuckled. He didn’t recognize it as any of the Akatsuki voices he’d come to know.
“Where have you assholes taken me now?” He rasped. “How many damn hideouts do you have? Do you even know the meaning of the word ‘paranoid’?”
“He’s got a mouth on him, I like him.” The same voice chuckled again.
“Drink this.” A female voice demanded lightly. A water canteen bumped his hand.
Not caring if it was possibly poisoned he reached out and swallowed a few large gulps of water. Naruto slowly eased his eyes open, sat up, and glanced around. It was a small campsite surrounded by trees and he could see three other people.
There was a girl with shaggy red hair and black rimmed glasses sitting beside him. A few feet away near the fire-pit was a pale male with white hair, grinning pointed teeth at him. The last was a very tall male with reddish-brown hair that seemed to be talking to a bird.
“What the hell?” Naruto murmured, his voice clearer now.
Feet scuffed in the dirt about a foot from his feet announcing another person. “Dobe.”
Naruto glanced up, bewildered at the pale man standing over him. “Teme.”
The other three looked at the blond startled, the boy was daring.
The two boys stared at each other evenly until Naruto finally glanced down at own his legs with a scowl. “It hasn’t worn off.”
“What are you talking about?” Sasuke muttered as he stepped forward and crouched beside his ex-teammate.
“They gave me a shot in each leg to basically paralyze them so I couldn’t run away or kick them. I was hoping it had worn off so I could get up and kick your ass.” He ripped open the sleeping bag to reveal his legs, his only covering now being his boxers, and rubbed them absently. “I can’t feel anything from about mid-thigh down.”
He couldn’t feel it but he could certainly see the pale hand that reached out and touched his leg just below the knee. It didn’t really bother him until that hand slowly inched up his leg; a shiver went up his spine and he flushed slightly.
He reacted without thinking and slapped the hand just as cold fingers touched a part of his tan skin that could feel it. The hand snapped back and Sasuke glared at him.
“What do you think you’re doing, TEME?” Naruto growled angrily, pulling the sleeping bag back over his legs.
“Don’t be such a girl, usuratonkachi.”
“I’m not being a girl, you ass!” He retorted incredulously. “Jeez, I knew Kakashi-sensei’s perverted-ness would eventually rub off on one of us but I honestly never thought it would be you, Sasuke.” He tucked the sleeping bag in around himself carefully. “I certainly didn’t want it to be me but I thought with the combination of Kakashi-sensei and Jiraiya-Ero-Sennin it might be inevitable, plus there’s Ebisu the closet pervert…” He puckered his lips in thought for a moment. “Sakura-chan used to think I was a pervert but I’m really not.”
“Sexy No Jutsu.” Sasuke murmured blandly.
“That’s not perverted!” Naruto argued. “Sexy No Jutsu is a legitimate distraction technique. I beat Sandaime with it.”
“Hn. Congratulations on giving an old man a nosebleed, dobe.” He sighed and shifted to sit beside the blonde.
“I meant to say this last time but I never got a chance; nice giant purple ass-bow, teme. Keeping it wrapped for someone?” He grinned cheekily.
Sasuke sent him a death-glare and the other camp inhabitants shivered, except Naruto who only smiled at him.
“You know the patented Uchiha Death-glare doesn’t work on me, Sasuke.”
“How about I shove a snake down your throat?” Sasuke hissed back.
“Only if you want frogs in your underwear.”
Sasuke watched as Karin stood and moved away from them. “I’m not wearing any.” He murmured quietly to the blond.
Naruto wrinkled his nose. “I really didn’t need to know you go commando, Sasuke.” He paused before chuckling lightly. “I hope you didn’t do that when we were Genin, those white shorts of yours were really baggy.”
“Hn.”
The two were quiet a moment. They both glanced over at the sound of yelling to see Karin and Suigetsu fighting, Juugo was still talking to his animal friends.
“Hey, Sasuke,” Naruto murmured quietly.
“Hn?”
“You kidnapped me from my kidnappers.” He stated. “Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me, dobe.” Sasuke shook his head. “I’m using you as bait to lure Itachi to me.”
“My ‘thank you’ still stands.” Naruto shifted to lie back and closed his eyes. “Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a difference between passing out and getting sleep.”
“Hn, you don’t want to eat something?”
“Later.” The blond yawn tiredly.
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Naruto woke the next morning to a lurch in his stomach. “No…” He hissed to himself before rolling on his side and emptying his stomach.
There was a squeak beside him; he must have startled the red haired girl with his sudden movements.
“Dobe, what did they feed you?” Sasuke’s voice murmured behind him.
“I’m not sick.”
“So you just emptied your stomach because you felt like it?” The girl’s voice asked sarcastically. Her hand reached up and pressed against his forehead. “You’re not warm…”
He swatted her hand away angrily. “I’m not sick! I know what it is; it’s nothing to worry about.”
“Leave him alone Karin. Go get him some water.” Sasuke ordered, waving his hand lightly at her in a shooing motion.
She adjusted her glasses before leaving to do just that.
“Can you move your legs yet?”
The blond paused a moment to cough. “No.”
“Then I’m going to take you down to the river myself.”
“River?”
“You reek.”
“Well excuse me, but I’ve been locked in a room and chained to a wall for I think a week. I haven’t exactly been given the chance to bath regularly.” Naruto snapped back. “You’re not too flowery smelling yourself, teme.”
Naruto was sure if Uchihas’ rolled their eyes that Sasuke would have done so at that moment.
“I’ve been training, usuratonkachi.”
Naruto was quiet while he waited to make sure his stomach was done being upset. His mind flashed to the triplets and he frowned in worry. He sat up and fiddled with his own fingers. “Sasuke, can I ask you a hypothetical question about your brother?”
He could see Sasuke’s eyes narrow out of the corner of his eye. “What?”
“If you had kids right now and Itachi found out about them, what do you think he’d do to them?” He muttered quietly.
“He’d kill them.” The dark haired boy answered without hesitation.
Karin held a canteen under Naruto’s nose, smiling sweetly at him as he looked up at her. He used the first gulp to swish around in his mouth, spitting it out in the same spot where he’d thrown up. He swallowed the rest of the water and gave the girl a quiet ‘thank you’ as he finished. He yelped in surprise as Sasuke threw off his sleeping bag and lifted the blond bridal style.
“T-Teme! What are you doing?” His arms automatically looped around the raven’s neck and he glared into the other’s face.
“I told you, dobe, you reek.”
Knowing he couldn’t demand the other male let him walk, he let himself be carried.
The river was a ways off from the camp, secluded, so there was plenty of privacy. Sasuke set him on the bank before moving away a bit to undress. While waiting, Naruto slipped off the tattered black t-shirt covering his torso and tossed it aside.
He watched the fish swimming back and forth in the river, captivated momentarily by a particularly colorful fish. It shimmered red, green, and gold just below the surface of the water where the sun bounced off its scales. It wriggled this way and that as if unsure which way to go before it darted downstream to join a school of fish similar in color.
He was pulled back into reality at a hand on his hip. Looking up, Sasuke was kneeling down next to him, slowly leaning over him to place his free hand on his other hip. “W-What are you doing?”
“Boxers.”
It figures Sasuke would only give him a one worded answer. Wait. He was taking off his boxers? Why? He yelped and swatted at the pale hands tugging on the waistband of his boxers. “S-Stop! I can go in the water without taking them off.” Of course, that’s when he noticed exactly how many clothes Sasuke was wearing. None. He blushed brightly; luckily he couldn’t see anything…private, per say.
“Usuratonkachi,” Sasuke scowled. “It’s not like we haven’t seen each other naked before.”
Naruto could have sworn there was a glint in those onyx eyes after that sentence was said, but he shook it off. “First of all, it’s been three years. Second, that’s not a good enough reason to see me naked, teme.”
“Your argument is weak.” Before Naruto could retort or protest his boxers were off and Sasuke had picked him up again.
“Damn it, Teme!” Naruto squawked and covered himself.
Sasuke climbed into the water quickly and settled Naruto on a rock near the small waterfall. “Were you always this body-shy?”
Naruto grumbled, still shielding himself even under the water; it was crystal clear water. “I guess it comes with the territory. Having Sai as a teammate would make any guy nervous.”
Sasuke’s eyes narrowed without Naruto noticing. He stood under the spray of the waterfall, wetting his hair until it matted itself to his skull, a few stubborn spikes still sticking up in back as he stepped toward the blond again. “Tell me about this replacement of mine.”
“Well he’s weird.” Naruto shrugged. “All he does is smile and he’s not exactly an expert on human interactions or emotions. He’s obsessed with other people’s junk, mostly mine though. I hate it when he says stuff in front of Sakura-chan, it’s embarrassing.”
“Other people’s ‘junk’?”
“Penises.” Naruto unwillingly blushed at the word.
“Hn. You still like Sakura?”
The blue-eyed male shifted uncomfortably. “As a friend, Sakura-chan’s almost like my little sister. Actually my big sister, a little sister wouldn’t hit like she does.” He unconsciously rubbed his head in the last place she’d hit him. “Anyway, Sai makes me nervous sometimes. I swear he’s tried to kiss me on more than one occasion. And he wasn’t fazed at all when Konohamaru did that Jutsu...”
“Hm?”
“N-Nothing!” Naruto waved his arms wildly as if that would dispel the conversation. He paid it no mind when Sasuke circled around behind him, assuming he was going to get something, that is until two pale arms slipped under his own tan ones and hugged his chest. “W-What are you doing?”
“Taking you to the waterfall to wet your hair, stop squirming.”
The blue-eyed blond flushed deeply as his back pressed against hard muscles. A shiver ran up his spine as he distinctly felt something very specific pressed against his right butt cheek.
Sasuke dipped Naruto’s head under the spray of water, gently combing his fingers through the sunshine locks to make sure they were thoroughly soaked, watching them darken slightly.
Once his hair was thoroughly soaked he was pulled back against Sasuke’s chest again, but they didn’t move away from the waterfall like he expected. They stayed there, pressed against each other with Sasuke’s strong arms wrapped around Naruto’s middle. Dark hair fell over Naruto’s tanned shoulder in clumps as the onyx-eyed male rested his forehead against it; his breath ghosted down Naruto’s back as he sighed.
“Sasuke-teme?”
The other was quiet for several long moments. “Do you remember my last night in Konoha?”
Naruto sighed. Should he play dumb? “We trained together, sparred for most of the day and then moved to your house to relax. We had to move to my house due to the noise from the fangirls camped out on your front lawn. You cooked dinner and we watched TV on my couch.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about, usuratonkachi.”
“You mean when we slept together and you left without a word while I was sleeping.” He hadn’t meant to let it sound so bitter.
“I’d already decided I was leaving, there’s a reason I spent my entire last day with you.”
“Sasuke, I don’t want to talk about this.”
“I do.” Sasuke’s deep voice was stern, leaving no room for argument.
“I’m not in the mood to talk about things like that right now, please.” He nearly hissed out the plea as he struggled in the other’s grip despite the fact that he knew he couldn’t support himself on his own.
“Why not?” Naruto knew without looking that Sasuke was scowling at him, it was childish in a way.
“Just because.” Naruto argued again.
“Give me a legitimate reason and we’ll stop talking about it.”
“Because I just spent the last week of my life being raped by Akatsuki members, excuse me if I don’t want to talk about sex!”
There was an awkward silence between the two for several moments. Naruto’s chest ached slightly when Sasuke laid a kiss on the back of his shoulder before continuing to wash both of them in silence.
Naruto sat on the bank, drying off and replacing his clothing. Sasuke had provided him with fresh clothes; black boxers, a blue t-shirt, and a pair of grey sweatpants. Sasuke had mumbled something about sending Suigetsu into a nearby town for the pants as he handed them to the blond.
“Naruto?”
“Yea?” Naruto looked up to see Sasuke fully dressed and standing a few feet from him.
“What about Kyuubi?”
The blond absently touched the seal on his stomach. “Yondaime made the seal too strong; they can’t break it without killing both of us.”
“Hn.” Sasuke picked him up carefully and they headed back to camp.
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Because I know someone is going to point it out, yes, I realize morning sickness would not show up that quickly but well... this is the way I want to work things out so please don't flame me about it.
...Sasuke is OOC... :::shrugs:::