A-broad and lovin' it

The Tape (Part 1)

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 22:51:07 GMT

T h e T a p e

by akaitsume

Genre: Humor/Romance
Pairing: NaruSasu
Rating: NC-17, PWP
Warnings: Graphic sexual content, severe abuse of a children's show plot, drug-induced OOC'ness

Disclaimer: Characters copyrighted to Kishimoto. No profit is made yadda yadda blah blah blah.

Summary: Inspired by Hey Arnold! When a drugged confession is caught on tape, Sasuke finds himself trapped between a rock and a hard place. ~6,700 words.

~---------------------------------------~

Perfection. Noun. Somebody or something that reaches the highest attainable standard, or an instance of this. Until now, Uchiha Sasuke had always fit this definition, and no one, not even that great blond idiot who continued to plague his life, could deter him.

Perfect people did not get cavities.

So it was understandable that when Sasuke sat in the dentist’s chair, lightning bolts and death rays were shooting from his eyes.

“Now, now, Uchiha-san, there’s no need to glare at me like that,” the dentist reassured him. “Very few people get through their entire lives without cavities, including ninjas.”

Sasuke was surprised that the dentist’s mask didn’t melt off with the force of his murderous glare. At twenty-five years old, he’d assumed that his teeth, like the rest of him, would stay, well, perfect. Glowering, he watched as the dentist placed some tools on a nearby tray. Dammit all to hell.

Smiling jovially, the dentist glanced at his assistant, then turned back to him. “Now then, would you like Novocain or the gas?”

Sasuke grumpily considered it. “How long will the gas last?”

“Only a few minutes after we finish up.”

He frowned. If I get the injection, my mouth will be numb for a good ten to fifteen minutes afterwards. I’ll look like an idiot. “I’ll take the gas.”

Nodding to his assistant, the dentist retrieved a mask and placed it over Sasuke’s mouth. He chuckled lightly.

“I hope you don’t have any deep, dark secrets you’ve been hiding. This stuff has a habit of loosening tongues.”

What?? Before Sasuke could protest, the gas was turned on, and the world became fuzzy. He began to relax in his seat, a silly smile oddly working its way onto his face.

...Aw, fuck it.

* * *

“So you know, doc, it’s not that I don’t like sweets. They’re just too damn...sweet!”

“Is that so, Uchiha-san?”

“Yeah...yeah....” He stared at the ceiling as the dentist continued to poke around in his mouth, then chuckled. “You know, it’s fun to just say whatever’s on the top of my mind. I never doooo that.”

“I see. We’re almost done, Uchiha-san.”

“Taaaake your time, doc.” Lifting a hand, Sasuke stared at his palm like it was a new life form he’d just discovered. “Hey, doc, do you know Naruto?”

“Naruto?” The dentist glanced up at that, lifting an eyebrow.

“Yeah, Naruto. Blond, hyperactive, used to be the shortest guy in Konoha...Naruto!”

The dentist chuckled, returning to his task. “Oh yes, I know him very well. That boy never did take very good care of his teeth. I’m surprised that he got away with as few cavities as he did.”

“...I like him.” Sasuke grinned, ignoring the suction tube the dentist had stuck in his mouth. “I like him a lot. He’s just...the cutest, silliest, most energetic guy I’ve ever met! And he’s gotten damn sexy over the years, if I say so myself.”

Happily tripping on the nitrous oxide, Sasuke ignored the shared look and chuckle between the dentist and his assistant. “You know,” he continued, “I’ve had a maaaaajor crush on him for the looooongest time. Not that I’d ever tell him so.”

At that, Sasuke frowned. “I wonder why I didn’t tell him.” He brightened. “I know! I’ll give him a call!”

Laughing lightly, the dentist removed the suction tube from Sasuke’s mouth. “We’re all done, Uchiha-san. The gas should wear off in a few min—”

“No time, doc!” Sasuke jumped to his feet, making a shaky beeline for the reception desk. “I gotta call him!”

Sudden determination swept through the Uchiha's mind as he stumbled up to the front desk, snagged the receptionist’s phone, and dialed Naruto’s number. He drummed his fingers impatiently on the counter as it rang...and rang...

Perking up, Sasuke straightened when Naruto’s answering machine came on. He sighed as Naruto’s voice came over the phone line, telling him that he probably wouldn’t remember to call him back, but he might as well leave a message anyway.

“Naruto!” He began, smiling sappily. “Naruto, I’ve waited so long to tell you this, but I can’t keep it to myself anymore. I love you, you idiot! I love everything about you, your smile, your laugh, that stupid hair of yours... You have noooo idea how many times I’ve asked to spar with you just to get my hands on that sexy body of yours.” He sighed again, a note of longing in the exhalation. “I think I’ve wanted to make love with you for...what, three years now? Four? Ten? Can’t remember. It doesn’t matter to me, just so long as I get a chance to finally, FINALLY be...with...you...”

What...the FUCK...am I DOING???

Slowly, Sasuke pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it, his brain finally returning from whatever planet that gas had put him on. Swallowing with difficulty, he placed the phone back on its hook. The receptionist gave him an odd look, reaching up to return the phone to its original place on her desk.

“Is there something I can help you with, Uchiha-san?” she asked tentatively. Sasuke ignored her.

I...am royally fucked. Abruptly, his eyes took on a sharp glint. Unless I get to that goddamn message!!

Without a word for the rather perplexed receptionist or the still chuckling dentist in the next room, Sasuke strode out of the office as quickly as he could.

* * *

Goddamn laughing gas...that stuff should come with a WARNING. He scowled as he crouched atop the building across from Naruto’s apartment, scanning the area for any sign of the blond. When his Sharingan came up empty, he silently leapt onto the outside of the other man’s apartment. He cautiously peered into the blond’s bedroom, just in case his eyes had missed something.

Finding no one, he slid the window open and dropped inside.

Figures that the idiot would leave a window unlocked. Sasuke ignored the fact that most people wouldn’t attempt breaking and entering in broad daylight. Now, where’s the answering machine?

He started to make his way around the still-mussed bed in the center of the room...but he found himself pausing to look at it. This was the first time Sasuke had ever been in Naruto’s bedroom. The living room and kitchen, yes, but this was Naruto’s haven.

Somehow, the act of violating that haven was...thrilling.

Shaking his head slightly, Sasuke forced himself to look away from the bed. The way it was mussed gave the impression that the blond had just rolled out of bed, and god only knows what he could have been doing in said bed beforehand—

Sleeping! He was fucking sleeping, so get your mind OUT of the gutter, Uchiha. He scowled again, irritated when he found himself wanting to snag one of those pillows and inhale the blond’s scent. Maybe that damn gas is still affecting my judgment.

Listening carefully for any noise that would betray him, Sasuke carefully padded out of the bedroom and stepped into the short hallway. He started making his way down the hall, keeping his eyes peeled for the phone. It has to be around here somewhere...

“Aaaaah, it’s good to finally be home!” Sasuke froze when the blond’s voice sounded from outside his front door, and keys were clumsily forced into the lock. “Stupid baa-chan and her lame-ass missions...”

The Uchiha thought quickly. Knowing Naruto, he’ll probably head for the kitchen first. Gritting his teeth, he ducked back into the blond’s bedroom. A second later, the front door audibly swung open, then slammed shut.

“God, I’m tired.” Sasuke moved away from the bedroom door as Naruto made his way down the hall. Shit. “I can probably squeeze in a twenty-minute nap before I have to go anywhere...”

Feeling cornered, the Uchiha considered throwing himself out the window...but at this rate, the blond would spot him before he made it out. If that’s the case, where do I hide? He’s an idiot, but he’ll pick up on a genjutsu if I use it, and if I activate Sharingan in here, he’ll know something’s up.

With a loud groan, Naruto shoved his door open. “I’ve never been so happy in my life to see that bed,” he lamented. Stretching his arms up over his head, he cast longing eyes upon his bed. After the morning I’ve had, I think I’ve earned a little R and R. Whose brilliant idea was it to let all the damn bulls in Konoha loose, anyway? He sighed heavily. And not one wanted to go where I told it to without trying to stick a horn up my ass.

He tugged his shirt off and tossed it on the floor. Ah, well, at least I don’t have any more commitments until... Wait a second. Frowning, he froze and sniffed at the air. Training in how to use Kyuubi’s power over the years had given him a more advanced sense of smell, and something in this room was definitely off. What was it? He looked around warily. Is someone in here?

Mentally cringing at the indignity, the brunet clenched his fists as he watched the blond from under the bed. He held his breath when the blond abruptly stilled, glancing slowly around the room. He could hear the blond sniff lightly at the air, and though he couldn’t see it, he could picture the frown on Naruto’s tanned face.

He won’t figure out that I’m here. He won’t. Keeping absolutely still, Sasuke let his eyes follow the blond’s feet as Naruto silently walked over to his window and slid it shut. The blond then paused. A single bead of sweat ran down the side of Sasuke’s face.

“Gaaaah!” With a sudden exclamation, Naruto dove on top of the bed, nearly startling the Uchiha out of his wits. Naruto rustled the sheets a bit more and stilled, his feet dangling off one side of the bed and his fingers peeking down on the other. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

It figures. He can’t even get into BED like a normal human being. Hesitating, Sasuke wondered if he could still climb out from underneath the bed without waking the blond. If this had occurred when they were still teenagers, he would have climbed out the moment Naruto’s head had hit the bed, but the idiot blond had managed to grasp the concept of “catnaps” when they turned twenty. Now, it was anyone’s guess as to how alert the man was when “asleep.”

After a few minutes of lying face down on his bed, Naruto felt his breathing even out and his limbs grow heavy. He smirked gently, allowing his brain to become fuzzy. Ah, well. If anyone’s in here, he’ll wake me up. He stifled a yawn, burrowing his face in his rumpled covers. ‘N’ besides, I’m too tired to bother flushing him out.

Holding his breath, Sasuke finally tried to slip out from underneath the blond’s bed after about ten minutes of hiding. The light snores above him encouraged him, masking the slight sounds the carpet made as he moved. The Uchiha climbed to his feet, watching the limp form on the bed.

Good, I think he’s actually asleep. He let his eyes roam over the blond’s long body for a moment, silently appreciating the long, toned legs and arms and the muscles clearly shown in his sleeping back. For a moment, he considered leaving and letting the blond find the message. After all, the confession, even though it was only done when drugged out of his mind...was still more or less how Sasuke felt about the man. Could it really be that bad if he let the blond find out?

Frowning, he tore his eyes off the blond and quietly made for the door. Stop being ridiculous. If he found out, you’d never live it down. He scowled. Now to find that damn tape...

Once he made it down the hall, the brunet let some of the tension out of his shoulders. Keeping one eye on the blond’s bedroom door, he scanned the area for the phone. Not in the hall, not in the kitchen... He scowled, heading for the living room. In here?

On a small table by the front door, a small machine with a blinking red light drew his attention. Sasuke smirked. Bingo. He took a few hurried steps towards it, lifting an eyebrow as he realized that there was no tape to eject. So it’s automated. If I can just delete that damn message, I can forget any of this ever hap—

“Sasuke?? What the hell are you doing here?” Startled, Naruto rubbed his eyes. He’d waited a few seconds after hearing someone depart his room—Sasuke hid under his bed?? Naruto wasn’t quite sure he’d be able to cope with that one for a while—before following. What on earth would Sasuke be after in his apartment??

The Uchiha in question froze, staring at the blond with his equivalent of a deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression. His jaw tensed.

“How did you get out here without my noticing?” he chose to ask, avoiding the blond’s question. Naruto’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“You know I can sneak around if I really want to. How else would I get away with all those pranks?” He stared at the man in front of him, lifting a hand to scratch the back of his head. “Why are you creeping around in my apartment?”

Damn. How am I supposed to explain this? Glowering, Sasuke folded his arms over his chest.

“What kind of idiot lets someone just break into his apartment in broad daylight?” he demanded. “I knew you were careless, Naruto, but this?”

The blond arched an eyebrow, an incredulous expression on his face. “You mean to tell me that you broke in here...to test me??” He chuckled lightly. “And you expect me to buy that?”

When Sasuke simply gave him a dark look, Naruto shook his head. “Whatever, man. I’m beginning to think I don’t want to know, anyway.” Abruptly, he spied the blinking light on his answering machine. “Huh. I got a message?” He walked towards the small table, perplexed. “I wonder who could’ve left it...”

Sasuke’s eyes went wide. Shit, shit, SHIT! Unable to think of anything else to do, he reached out, snagged the blond’s arm, and threw him to the ground. Grunting as he hit the ground, Naruto scowled up at him.

“What the fuck, Sasuke?!” Immediately angry, he kicked his legs out and knocked the Uchiha to the ground. Sitting up in time with the other man, he fisted his hand in Sasuke’s shirt. “What the hell was that for??”

Instead of replying, Sasuke planted a fist in Naruto’s face. If I knock him out, I can erase the damn message before he wakes up. He followed the fist with his right elbow, knocking the blond back to the floor. Damn him for making me even think that I had feelings for him. Damn him! I’m an Uchiha! These things aren’t supposed to HAPPEN to me!

Scowling, he launched a furious attack on the blond. Damn him to hell!!

What the fuck is his problem?? Pissed off and confused, Naruto gave back as good as he got. The two men rolled on his floor, some punches and kicks awkwardly blocked while others connected with muffled cracks and thuds. Feeling his pupils slit, Naruto gave in to the temptation to bite the other man on the shoulder. Hard.

Sasuke froze, his brain derailing at the feel of the blond’s teeth sinking into his shoulder. At least half a dozen inspired images floated past his eyes, and even shaking his head violently failed to remove some of them. Fighting with embarrassment at his own lack of control, Sasuke flung the blond off him.

“What the hell!” he exploded. “What kind of Jounin BITES his fucking opponent??”

“Got your attention, didn’t it??” Scowling, Naruto got to his feet and glared down at the Uchiha. “What the hell is your problem??”

Sasuke leapt to his feet, intent on making a comeback, but before he could, Naruto spun on his heel and slammed the playback button on his answering machine. Something akin to panic shot through him.

“What are you doing?” he demanded, rushing forward to hit the “delete message” button as the calm automated voice announced that there was one new message. Naruto caught his hand en route and turned to him, scowling at the Uchiha.

“Why are you after my fucking answering machine, Sasuke?” Naruto growled back. The two engaged in a minor wrestling match as Sasuke fought to get past him and shut the damn thing off. “Will you tell me, already? What body snatcher got ahold of you today?”

Sasuke opened his mouth to reply, but both men froze as the Uchiha’s voice suddenly filtered into the room.

“Naruto! Naruto, I’ve waited so long to tell you—”

THIS ISN’T HAPPENING! Desperate, Sasuke tried to fling Naruto away, but the blond remained uncooperative. Using the momentum Sasuke gave him, Naruto tugged them both to the ground and pinned Sasuke to the floor. The blond opened his mouth to say something, but he clicked it shut at the message’s next words.

“I love you, you idiot!”

...And with those few words, Sasuke’s life was over.

Silence reigned in the apartment as the message continued. “I love everything about you, your smile, your laugh, that stupid hair of yours... You have noooo idea how many times I’ve asked to spar with you just to get my hands on that sexy body of yours.”

At that, Naruto’s eyes widened. He glanced down at his hold on the Uchiha, then back at the other man’s face, his own unreadable. A faint blush was crossing his cheeks.

“I think I’ve wanted to make love with you for...what, three years now?” Sasuke’s own face was turning red. “Four?” Redder. “Ten?” Beet red. “Can’t remember. It doesn’t matter to me, just so long as I get a chance to finally, FINALLY be...with...you...”

The two men stared at each other as silence came across the line.

“End of message.”

Part 2

The Tape (Part 2)

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 22:46:55 GMT

In all of his life, never had Sasuke prayed harder for the world to swallow him up. When it failed to humor him, he forced a scowl onto his face.

“Get. Off. Me.”

Blue eyes blinked slowly down at him, obviously trying to process what had just happened. Sasuke nearly growled at him.

“What part of ‘get off’ don’t you grasp??” When Naruto still refused to release him, he tugged at his wrists. The blond’s grip was slack, so the movement actually allowed him to pull his wrist free. He immediately used it to shove the blond off him, rising to his feet.

Naruto simply watched him from his spot on the floor as the Uchiha stormed forward. The moment the other man put his hand on the doorknob, Naruto flinched.

WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE!!!

Sasuke had just managed to pull the door open when it was abruptly slammed shut. Scowling, he started to glare over his shoulder at the uncooperative blond. Just let me OUT of here, you fucking imbecile!!

His thoughts cut off as Naruto placed a hand on his shoulder, spun him around, and slammed him back against the door. Blinking, he took in the vicious scowl on Naruto’s face. Oh...fuck. His heart squeezing, he gave an identical scowl back to him. So this is his response. Well...screw him!!

“Sasuke, you bastard! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Fury leapt in the blond’s eyes as he fisted his hands in Sasuke’s shirt and pressed him harder against the door. “You leave a message like that on my answering machine—”

“I was drugged, alright?!” Sasuke finally shouted, his face red from embarrassment, anger, or shame...he wasn’t quite sure which. “I didn’t know what that hell I was saying!”

“—And expect to just walk out of here without saying anything??” Bringing his face close to the Uchiha’s, he nearly snarled at the other man. “You insensitive asshole!”

...Wait. So he’s upset about my leaving, not my confession? Sasuke frowned. “Since when am I required to speak about anything?” He pushed at the other man’s chest, trying unsuccessfully to make him back away. Abruptly, anger flared within him and he fisted his own hands in Naruto’s shirt.

“Damn you, Uzumaki! Just get off me and leave me alone for once in your fucking life!” His expression darkened when Naruto simply scowled at him. “Did it ever occur to you that I might not want to be here right now?? You fucking mor—”

His words were cut off by a pair of insistent lips closing over his own. Inhaling sharply, Sasuke’s eyes flew wide as he stared at the blond in front of him. He’s kissing me? Naruto is kissing me??

...Maybe that gas did more damage than I thought...

Feeling slightly dizzy, the Uchiha watched as Naruto pulled back, an annoyed frown on his tanned face.

“Just shut up already, Sasuke.”

With those words, Naruto leaned forward and claimed Sasuke’s mouth again.

Sasuke stood stock still against the cool wood of the door, not quite able to process what was happening. After a moment, he returned the pressure on his lips, parting his own to nip lightly at the blond’s. Naruto tilted his head to the side, tracing the line of Sasuke’s mouth with his tongue so lightly that Sasuke couldn’t be positive that he’d done it at all. Sliding one hand into the blond’s hair, he closed his eyes and tugged on the blond’s bottom lip.

He felt a brief smile flash against his lips before Naruto’s tongue slipped into his mouth. Groaning, Sasuke tangled his tongue with the blond’s, his mind reeling at the explosion of taste and texture. He tightened his grip on the blond’s hair, sliding his other arm about Naruto’s waist to pull him closer.

Exploring the Uchiha’s mouth with long, sweeping motions, Naruto released Sasuke’s shirt from his fisted grip and ran his hands curiously down the dark-haired man’s chest. He pulled back for a moment, caught the Uchiha’s bottom lip between his teeth and sucked it into his mouth, drawing a low moan from the other man before returning to the kiss. His tongue set up a slow, pumping rhythm within the Uchiha’s mouth as his hands slowly, slowly caressed Sasuke’s ribcage and lower torso.

Oh god... Sasuke fought the urge to squirm as Naruto continued his tortuously slow caresses. Gasping for air, he tightened his grip on the blond’s waist and dragged them flush against each other. He smirked when Naruto let out a low groan against his lips. That’ll teach him for being so fucking gentle.

Despite Sasuke’s encouragement, Naruto continued his slow thrusting rhythm with his tongue. After a moment, he lowered one of the hands trailing Sasuke’s chest to the other man’s waist, pulling him forward as he rocked his hips against him. Both men moaned.

Somewhere deep in Sasuke’s pleasure-filled mind, something was dying for attention. Eventually, he managed to tear his mouth away from the blond’s. He took a few settling breaths, then swallowed as Naruto bent his head and began attacking the Uchiha’s throat.

“Why...are you doing this?” He looked down at the blond with heavy-lidded eyes.

Naruto hesitated, then lifted his head and stared into Sasuke’s eyes. “I’ve never heard those words before, Sasuke.”

The Uchiha’s eyebrows furrowed. “What words?”

Snorting, Naruto leaned his forehead against the other man’s. “And you call me an idiot.” A slight, crooked smile settled on his lips. “No one has ever said that they loved me. Ever.”

Placing his hands on either side of Sasuke’s face, Naruto placed a gentle kiss on the tip of the other man’s nose. “Is that how you really feel, Sasuke?”

Sasuke’s heart started pounding in his chest. He wasn’t sure how to answer. His pride demanded that he deny everything, but if he did that...he had a feeling that he would lose this chance with Naruto, possibly for good. Frowning, he turned his face away.

“I...” He couldn’t look the blond in the eye, choosing instead to glare at the far wall. “I was drugged when I said that, Naruto.”

The blond was silent for a long moment. “...That doesn’t answer my question, Sasuke.”

Eyes narrowing, Sasuke finally locked gazes with Naruto. “What the fuck do you want me to say, dobe? Do you want me to spout romantic crap about having had secret feelings for you? I don’t do things like that!”

Slowly, Naruto grinned in response. Sasuke shifted uncomfortably. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I consider that a challenge, Uchiha.”

The Uchiha’s eyed widened slightly, but before he could protest, Naruto planted a smacking kiss on him. The fox container gave him a feral grin.

“I’ll make you admit it, Sasuke.”

The brunet blinked, then smirked. “Just try it, dobe.”

The two smirked at each other, trading competitive spirits. As one, they both moved back into the kiss...

...And this time, it was anything but gentle.

Teeth clacked as two pairs of lips attacked each other. Their tongues battling for dominance, they stumbled away from Naruto’s front door. Grunting as hands roamed furiously over and underneath clothing, the two began staggering clumsily down the hall. Sasuke growled his approval at Naruto’s lack of shirt and let his hands roam freely over the blond’s muscled torso. Smirking, he reached up and sharply tweaked an erect nipple.

Hissing, Naruto turned and slammed the Uchiha up against the wall, only about seven steps away from his bedroom door. Gripping the Uchiha’s hips, he moved forward and ground against him. He briefly won the battle for dominance as Sasuke groaned, plundering the pale man’s mouth with barely contained fury. Their temperatures spiked as Naruto rammed his hips forward, driving the Uchiha into the wall. A picture frame tilted as the force of the blond’s thrusts reverberated through the cool plaster and wood.

Mind reeling with the feel of Naruto’s erection madly scraping against his own, Sasuke found himself lifting a leg and hooking it around Naruto’s waist, pulling the blond harder against himself with each thrust. Both gasped into the other’s mouth as the friction between them skyrocketed.

Growling, Naruto abruptly pulled out of the kiss and snagged the hem of Sasuke’s shirt, roughly yanking over the other man’s head.

“Why the fuck are you still wearing this??” His eyes burning, he returned to the kiss with a vengeance, driving Sasuke’s head back against the wall. Sasuke’s eyes slid shut, and he lowered his hands, slipping them beneath Naruto’s pants to clasp his firm ass and drag it viciously against him.

“Why the fuck do you keep talking, Uzumaki?” he eventually replied, his voice rough. Another growl from the blond rumbled in his ears as Sasuke’s neck was savagely attacked, teeth and lips bruising the pale skin. Tipping his head back, Sasuke allowed the punishing attention to continue for a few moments before shoving the blond away.

Taking advantage of Naruto’s surprise, Sasuke grabbed the blond’s arm, dragged him into the bedroom, and began to kiss him furiously. One hand fisted in the blond hair, yanking hard to force Naruto’s head back as they kissed. The other slipped back under Naruto’s pants, kneading the other man’s butt. He smirked when Naruto let out a heartfelt moan.

Ignoring the tug on his hair, Naruto pulled his mouth away from Sasuke’s and began to kiss his way down the Uchiha’s chest, pausing to bite and lick as he went. The moment he reached Sasuke’s waistband, he hooked his thumbs under it and grinned, dipping his tongue beneath the fabric. Both of Sasuke’s hands found their way into his hair.

Chuckling lightly, Naruto tugged the pants down slightly and ran his tongue over the newly exposed flesh. Sasuke shuddered.

“Naruto...”

“What is it, Sasuke-kun?” the blond teased, tugging the fabric another increment further down and running his tongue over it. “What do you want?”

“You know what I fucking want, dobe.” He gripped Naruto’s hair almost painfully hard, taking dark pleasure in the wince that accompanied his action.

Unwilling to back down, Naruto locked eyes with him. “So you’re telling me to give it to you?”

Sasuke scowled. “Dammit, Naruto—”

“Is that what you’re saying, Sasuke?” Naruto pressed, removing his thumbs from Sasuke’s pants. The man above him practically growled.

“Yes, dammit!” Sasuke closed his eyes as Naruto immediately undid his zipper, pushing his pants and boxers to the floor. As warm breath ghosted over his erection, he found himself unable to suppress a shudder. Below him, Naruto chuckled.

“I still want to hear it, Sasuke-kun.” He trailed his fingers teasingly along the other man’s erection, delighted when the Uchiha’s entire body twitched. “Do you want me to give it to you?”

After a moment of intense inner struggle, Sasuke tugged violently on Naruto’s hair.

“Yes, alright! Will you fucking give it me to already, Naruto?!”

Chuckling, Naruto complied. “Yes sir.”

Sasuke’s knees nearly gave out as Naruto’s mouth finally closed about him, drawing his arousal deep into his warmth. He bit his lip to keep from groaning as the blond began to suck viciously, a tongue dragging up and down his sensitive skin. Hands shaking slightly, he released Naruto’s hair, ran his fingers along the other man’s scalp, and fisted them again.

God...Naruto... He swallowed hard. I never thought I’d see the day. I assumed that I’d have to keep these annoying feelings, this lust bottled up for the rest of my life...

Groaning, he bucked his hips and drove himself into the blond’s mouth. Naruto choked for a moment, then smiled, humming lightly as Sasuke thrust again and again. The vibration shot through him, and Sasuke became only vaguely aware that he was letting out a low, continuous moan. He gasped as Naruto reached up with one hand and began fondling his balls, humming louder as he swept his tongue over Sasuke’s cock.

“Oh god...Naruto...” Panting, he began slamming himself into the blond’s mouth. Delicious tension coiled in his groin as he moved, and he began to lose his rhythm. “Naru...to...”

Stilling, Sasuke managed to choke out Naruto’s name as he came violently in the blond’s mouth. Euphoria shot through him, powerful enough to make his knees buckle. Slumping to the floor beside the blond, he found himself resting his head on the other man’s shoulder as he gasped for breath.

God... Tremors rumbled through him, aftershocks of his orgasm. I’ve never...

After a moment, Naruto wiped his mouth and chuckled. “I hope you’re not thinking that we’re done here, Sasuke-kun.” The Uchiha barely managed a grunt in return. “Tsk. Silly boy.”

With that, Naruto slipped his arms around Sasuke and hoisted the man up, turning and throwing him onto the bed before he could even think of protesting. Sasuke tried to sit up, but the sound of whispering cloth drew his attention. He froze.

Naruto stood before him in all his glory, proud as the day he was born. Swallowing hard, Sasuke let his eyes greedily soak up the sight of him. Dear god, he’s gorgeous. He swallowed again. And the girls were always chasing after me.

Stepping forward, Naruto placed one knee on the bed beside Sasuke and leaned down, giving the other man a surprisingly tender kiss. Sasuke inhaled sharply at the taste of himself in Naruto’s mouth, then sank into it, reaching up to lazily tangle his fingers in Naruto’s hair. He massaged the scalp with his fingertips, as if apologizing for all the abuse it had taken before.

Smiling gently, Naruto pulled away. “Don’t go anywhere.”

Dazed, Sasuke watched as the blond left to go rummage in his dresser. A second later, Naruto produced a bottle of lotion and returned, a quirked smile on his face.

“Sorry, but this is the best I can do on such short notice.” He chuckled, planting another kiss on Sasuke’s unresisting lips. “I didn’t exactly plan for you to break into my apartment and confess your undying love for me today.”

Sasuke scowled at that even as he responded to the kisses Naruto began showering on him. “I didn’t...say anything...about ‘undying love’...usuratonkachi.”

Naruto chuckled again. “We’ll see.”

Sasuke thought about protesting further, but just then Naruto applied the lotion to his fingers and ran them down Sasuke’s chest, and the Uchiha stopped thinking altogether. Slumping backwards onto the bed, he moaned as Naruto’s cool fingers drifted over his feverish skin. Two mischievous fingers circled his nipples teasingly, then ran down his torso to wrap one hand about his softened dick while the other trailed lower...

Gasping, he arched off the bed as Naruto slipped one coated finger inside him. The blond began whispering random reassurances, planting kisses all over Sasuke’s face and neck as he moved that finger within him. Shoulders shaking, Sasuke reached up to grasp the blond’s shoulders.

“Na...ruto...” He gasped as a second finger joined the first. “Jesus...”

The blond in question dipped his head and began attacking the crook of Sasuke’s neck, a mind-searing combination of teeth, tongue and lips laving his skin. Sasuke groaned.

“How...do you feel about me?” the blond gasped, his voice raw with need. The Uchiha didn’t reply, his mind preoccupied with the attention to his neck and those two fingers moving in and out of his entrance. Biting the pale man’s neck, Naruto inserted a third finger. “How do you feel about me??”

Arching his back, Sasuke refused to answer. Sweat broke out all over his body, and heat began pooling in his groin again. Another groan joined the last as Naruto’s fingers sped up.

“How do you feel about me?” This time the words were nearly hissed, and Naruto pulled his head away to pin Sasuke with violently darkened blue eyes. “Tell me!”

Panting, Sasuke simply glared defiantly at the blond. “No.”

Naruto’s eyes narrowed, and he abruptly removed his fingers. Sasuke gasped at the loss. Leaning over him, Naruto fisted both hands in Sasuke’s raven hair and ghosted his lips over the other man’s.

“Tell me, Sasuke.” His eyes were smoldering. “Tell me how you feel about me.”

The proud Uchiha shook his head. With a scowl, Naruto abruptly sat up. “Fine.”

Blinking in astonishment, Sasuke stared at the blond. He can’t seriously be thinking of leaving me like this! His arousal had already returned full force, and his body cried out at the loss of all contact from the blond. Scowling, he reached out and snagged Naruto’s arm.

“Don’t go, dobe.”

Naruto simply looked at him, his eyes more intense than Sasuke had ever witnessed them. “Then tell me the truth, Sasuke. Tell me how you feel!”

After a long moment, the Uchiha took a shuddering breath. “I...like you, Naruto.”

At that admission, Naruto leaned over him again, reaching down to clasp Sasuke’s erection in his lotion-slicked hand. “You like me?”

Sasuke bit back a moan. “I...like you...a lot.”

Naruto planted a kiss on his jaw, nibbling his way around to his ear. He whispered into it, his tongue darting out to trace the folds of the Uchiha’s ear. “You like me a lot?”

Swallowing hard, Sasuke nodded, then gasped as he felt a slight pressure at his entrance. He stared almost blindly up into Naruto’s incomprehensibly blue eyes, his legs falling apart.

“Naruto...”

“Yeah, Sasuke?”

Breathing heavily, Sasuke clenched his fingers on the blond’s shoulders. “I...I l...l...”

Smiling tenderly down at him, Naruto captured Sasuke’s lips in the most endearing kiss the Uchiha had ever received. Sasuke took a shaky breath, then closed his eyes.

“I...I love you, Naruto.”

His confession was immediately followed by Naruto’s rather impressive erection slamming into him. Nearly bucking off the bed, Sasuke cried out in a mixture of pain and pleasure. He could barely hear Naruto murmuring words of affection into his ear as he gasped for air. The hand about his erection began to move, guiding him from pain to pleasure. Taking another shaky breath, he lifted his hips in silent encouragement for the blond to move.

Pressing a loving kiss to Sasuke’s neck, Naruto slowly began to thrust his hips. He moaned aloud at the feel of Sasuke’s heat tugging tightly at him. Picking up his pace, he mumbled nonsensical words of adoration into Sasuke’s ear, then moved to claim his lips in a passionate kiss.

Tightening his grip on the blond, Sasuke let his head fall back as his back arched in pleasure. His mind was growing cloudy, and some part of his brain was aware that he, for the first time in his life, was babbling.

“Naruto...uhn...I...I love you. Uhn! I love you...so much...” He gasped as Naruto increased his pace again, digging his nails into the other man’s flesh as he felt that hand on his arousal increase its rhythm. Intense pleasure was screaming through him, and he hooked his legs behind Naruto’s to drive the blond’s hips deeper...deeper...

“God! I’ve loved you...for so long! Uhn! I never thought...I never thought I’d...actually get to...” Gasping, Sasuke lost the ability to speak coherently as Naruto violently rammed into him, the bed slamming against the wall in time with the blond’s thrusts. Their bodies actually came up off the bed with each thrust, and Naruto’s arms wrapped almost painfully tight about the Uchiha. Both men began moaning, their voices escalating as they both approached that searing point...

His hips moving almost frighteningly fast, Naruto locked Sasuke’s lips in a vicious kiss and reached around to frantically pump Sasuke’s erection. White lights burst across Sasuke’s vision and he arched off the bed, screaming as he came. Naruto was only a second behind, slamming viciously into the Uchiha three times and freezing, all of his muscles locked as he emptied himself.

Both remained frozen like that for an impossibly long time, beginning to fear that the impossibly strong wave of pleasure would never fade...

And then, abruptly, they both collapsed, gasping as they slumped onto the bed in a tangled disarray of limbs. Both fighting to catch their breath, neither budged an inch.

Sasuke closed his eyes, his mind reeling. Not only was that the best sex he’d ever had in his life, but to think he’d actually had it with Naruto, the one person he had convinced himself that he could never be with... It was enough to keep his mind spinning long after the effects of orgasm passed.

As they began to calm down, Naruto spoke, his voice muffled by the bed. “‘M I too heavy?”

It took Sasuke a few shallow breaths before he was able to reply. “No...”

“’Kay...”

It seemed to take forever for them to come back to earth, but the more he returned to himself, the more Sasuke realized that Naruto was, in fact, rather heavy. The blond seemed to realize it at the same time, grunting as he pulled out of Sasuke and flopped onto the other man’s side. Hooking one arm about the Uchiha’s waist, Naruto tugged him close and buried his face in the crook of Sasuke’s neck.

“If you think you’re going anywhere,” the blond murmured, “you’re completely out of your mind.”

Against his will, Sasuke found himself chuckling. “And you’re going to keep me here, are you?”

“Damn right. You’re mine, Sasuke, whether you like it or not.”

“Is that so?” His heart pounding, Sasuke wearily lifted a hand and ran it through Naruto’s blond hair. “You just never know when to quit, do you, usuratonkachi?”

Naruto grinned against Sasuke’s neck. “Nope. One of my best traits.”

“Mm. I’ll bet.”

After a long moment, Naruto shifted against him. “...Hey...Sasuke.”

“What?”

“Want to know what another of my best traits is?”

“...You’re kidding me.”

Grinning unabashedly, Naruto rose up onto his elbows and placed a smacking kiss on Sasuke’s lips. “I hope you didn’t have any more plans for the day, Sasuke...or tomorrow, for that matter.”

Despite himself, Sasuke tangled his fingers in the blond’s hair and leaned up to plant a long kiss on the man’s lips. “Why tomorrow?”

“Because I’m going to make sure that you can’t walk.”

“Moron.”

“Bastard.” Chuckling, Naruto shifted so that he lay on top of the Uchiha again.

“Naruto...”

“Don’t worry, you don’t have to do anything.” He placed another smacking kiss on the brunet’s lips. “You can just...lay there.”

“....If I didn’t love you, I would hate you so much.”

“Don’t I know it, Sasuke. Don’t I know it.”

-Owari-

Fox Magic 13: Identity (Part 1)

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 04:37:20 GMT

F o x M a g i c

by akaitsume

~---------------------------~

Genre: AU(ish)/Drama/Action/Adventure/Romance/Mystery
Pairings: NaruSasuNaru
Rating: R (for the moment)
Warnings: Fantasy-esque, Zoomorphism, AU, a liberal dose of Japanese mythology, violence, strong language, references to abuse/torture in later chapters, and (eventually) limes and lemons.

Disclaimer: Kishimoto owns with the characters, but I think I'm having more fun with them at this point than he is. No profit is made from tinkering with them.

Summary: A decision made in the heat of the moment leaves Sasuke questioning his past, his future, and his convictions, all while dealing with an ancient, all-powerful fox demon whose grudge transcends both time and space. NaruSasuNaru, canonish AU

~--------------------------------------~

Previous Chapter (the beginning of the Leaving Konoha arc)

“Naruto. Get into the tent,” Sasuke ordered grouchily. The storm above was rumbling threateningly, obscuring the moon and shrouding the entire forest in darkness. Sasuke kneeled upon his black sleeping bag, fingers tightening on the tent flap in his hands as he glared at the demon loitering in the clearing. His heat-relaxed muscles were tingling from all of the exertion he’d forced them through, and all he wanted was to rest.

The demon, however, seemed to have other plans. Sniffing at the air, Naruto threw his hands up over his head and flopped backwards onto the grass beside the extinguished fire. He sighed loudly.

“Sasuke, do we really have to sleep inside the tent?” the fox demon whined. “I’d rather be outside. It smells great out here.”

“And it’s going to rain on us in about thirty seconds,” Sasuke snapped. “Get in here.”

“But…!” Naruto rolled back and forth over the grass. “It feels so good!”

“Naruto…” Brows furrowed in frustration, Sasuke hesitated. The demon had been stuck indoors for centuries, hidden away from the world that he loved. Even the crystal was sending spikes of echoed relief and pleasure into Sasuke as the demon rolled around, teasing him to the point where he almost agreed. If watching him felt this good to Sasuke, the blond man was probably in heaven. Sasuke rubbed a weary hand over his eyes. “Don’t you still need to have contact with me overnight? I’d leave you out there if I could, but we both need the rest.”

“I don’t.” Grinning, Naruto stopped rolling and propped himself up onto his elbows. “I’m not the wuss in this travelling party. And besides, after jumping into that hot spring, I’ve got energy to spare!”

To prove his point, the campfire spontaneously sprung to life again, roaring as the flames leapt meters into the air. At Sasuke’s warning growl, the flames banked, simmered, and disappeared. Naruto pouted.

“And why can’t we keep the fire going, anyway? It’s not like I’ll let us catch on fire or anything,” he grumbled.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “I’m not explaining it again. Maybe you would like to be set upon by bandits and rogue ninjas, but I don’t. Now, for the last time, get inside this tent before the skies open up!”

As if in reply, the storm clouds groaned.

Naruto tipped his head back to sniff forlornly at the air. “It’s not supposed to rain…”

An instant later, thick sheets of water rushed down upon them. Cursing, Sasuke ducked his head further under cover and instinctively dropped the tent flap. The rain thundered against the thick, tough material above him, and the water threatened to seep through the unsealed side opening. Scowling, he quickly pulled the flap aside and prepared to shout angrily at the blond.

Instead, he found himself pausing at the sight before him. Naruto’s blond hair and clothing was plastered against himself, fabric already sagging in the torrential downpour. Water ran off his lowered chin in thick streams, splattering against his soaked chest.

And on his face rested the single most insulted, disappointed, petulant frown Sasuke had ever seen. Naruto looked like a child who’d been taken to a giant toy store, promised everything inside, and then presented nothing but empty shelves. And then some cute puppies were slaughtered just for fun.

Sasuke couldn’t help it; he snickered. “I told you it would rain. Will you come inside now?”

Silently, Naruto turned that miserable frown on Sasuke, then grudgingly rose to his bare feet. Sasuke backed away from the opening as the blond approached, sitting smugly on his sleeping bag with his arms and legs folded. Naruto lifted the flap, glared at him, and gingerly stepped inside the tent, crawling over onto the opposite sleeping bag. As Sasuke watched curiously, the blond began to steam vigorously, his hair and clothing fluffing up as they dried. With a huff, the blond sat down on his bag and glowered at the ground.

“Don’t. Say. Anything,” Naruto growled. Sasuke smirked, but he obligingly kept his comments to himself. With a satisfied air, the Uchiha leaned forward and zipped up the tent, effectively sealing out the elements. Naruto’s expression grew even more profoundly grumpy.

Lips pressed together to keep from smiling, Sasuke unzipped his sleeping bag and began to settle down. As a thought occurred to him, he glanced up at the glowering demon.

“Naruto. Will you magic a tarp over our packs?”

“Do it yourself.” The blond lay down irritably, turning his back on his master.

Sasuke rolled his eyes again. “Naruto. I wish the packs were dry and covered with tarps.”

He was met with a growl, a zap, and the muffled sound of canvas rearranging itself near Naruto’s side of the tent. Sasuke smirked, lying down completely. Silence filled the tent for several long, blissful minutes.

Then, Naruto began shifting restlessly. “The modern world sucks,” he grouched.

Pressing his lips together, Sasuke refrained from replying.

“I mean it. It does. No magic, no life, no excitement…”

After a moment, Naruto sighed heavily and rolled towards Sasuke, staring at him pensively.

“You know…” Naruto trailed off, eyes roaming Sasuke’s face. “I still wish I could show you what this world used to look like. It was so much more before… Well, before I left.”

Frowning, Sasuke rolled onto his back and stared at the shuddering tent roof. “More what, exactly?”

Naruto sighed again. “More everything. Livelier, for one. There used to be spirits and demons roaming everywhere. Hell, you couldn’t even lie in the grass without something trying to talk to you.” His voice grew soft, and his blue eyes became distant. “Everything just felt more…magical.”

Sasuke hummed in reply, glancing at the blond man. “So when you were trapped, the world emptied itself out.”

The blue eyes closed. “…Yeah.”

In the silence that followed, the blue crystal on Sasuke’s chest gave a soft, mournful pulse of heat. The Uchiha heir shifted uncomfortably, wrestling with the awkward desire to comfort the blond man. In the end, he grunted and rolled onto his side, facing the tent wall.

“Well,” he replied gruffly, “maybe it’ll come back now that you’re back.”

An echo of surprise filtered through him, followed by a soft laugh. “Maybe you’re right.”

Neither man spoke for several minutes, the silence filled by the thundering rain. The cool temperature within the tent rose quickly, then hovered at a perfectly soothing level of warmth that forced Sasuke’s eyelids to droop. Aware that the change was deliberate, Sasuke scowled on principle.

“You don’t have to do that, Naruto,” he stated in a low tone. Naruto grunted in reply.

“I’m not doing it for you.” With a sigh, the demon shuffled around behind Sasuke, hesitated, and then reluctantly threw an arm over Sasuke’s side. When both men tensed, Naruto hurriedly continued, “I’d go into my fox form, but…”

“But?” Sasuke’s teeth ground audibly, despite the roar of the storm above.

“I…um. Can’t.”

Incredulous, Sasuke twisted his head to look into red eyes. “What do you mean, you can’t?”

“I… I wouldn’t be…small.” Naruto’s eyes shifted. “At all.”

Sasuke stared at him.

“I’ve just got a little extra energy from the hot spring, okay? And if I shifted back into my fox form right now, I probably wouldn’t…fit.” Visibly embarrassed, Naruto moved to press himself gingerly along Sasuke’s stiffened back. “So just put up with this, alright?”

“Naruto.”

The blond man winced. “I know.”

“You’re spooning with me.”

“I know.”

Silence. “One day, I’ll kill you for this.”

Exhaling wearily, Naruto settled in and relaxed.

“I know.”

* * *

The smell of sun-baked earth leisurely wafted into Sasuke’s nose, causing him to stretch luxuriously as he awoke. Soft blades of field grass whispered against his arms, bared from his bunched kimono sleeves as he moved. He sighed contently, relaxing against the gentle slope of the ground.

A quiet laugh sounded from his side, and a hand ran teasingly down his chest. “Have you finally awoken, then?”

Kyuubi’s voice. Sasuke felt his lips curl upwards into a smile, though he didn’t open his eyes. A voice he didn’t recognize floated from his lips.

“Hard to say, my lord. Can one truly be awake if one is living in a dream world?”

“And what dream world is this?” Kyuubi teased in reply. The hand upon his chest trailed over towards the side of his ribcage, and a pair of warm, dry lips brushed against his bare collarbone. Tendrils of demonic chakra spread from the point of contact, causing Sasuke to gasp. The lips smiled against his skin. “Is it one in which I am present?”

“Hmm.” As the lips continued to swipe across his skin, more wisps of chakra were released to swirl beneath his skin, teasing his nerves. Sasuke found himself shifting in the grass as arousal began to course through him, his heartbeat increasing in time with the swirling chakra. “An impossibly handsome demon, well-equipped with chakra and the knowledge of how best to use it to his advantage.” He paused. “I suppose you can be here, as well, my lord.”

“Minx!” Kyuubi laughed, rolling on top of his companion. Sasuke finally opened his eyes, gazing playfully up at the fox demon. His blond hair was long and wild with red streaks, tumbling freely over his ornate kimono. With a supplicating smile, Sasuke lifted an unfamiliar hand, marked with blue streaks on his wrists, and dragged an elongated nail down the muscular chest revealed by the sagging cloth. Kyuubi shivered, his pupils narrowing. “You shouldn’t tease me like this, Hirai-kun.”

“It is only teasing if I do not follow through, Kyuubi-sama,” Sasuke replied throatily. The demon above him narrowed his eyes, one clawed hand reaching forward to card through Sasuke’s long, brown hair.

Kyuubi leaned forward, his lips only a breath away from Sasuke’s. “And do you intend to follow through?” he questioned, his voice deep with desire.

A thrill raced up Sasuke’s spine, and he deliberately wrapped his arms around Kyuubi’s shoulders. “As always,” he replied breathily.

In a heartbeat, Kyuubi’s lips descended upon his, flooding him with fire chakra so intense that his senses began screaming. Moaning desperately, Sasuke moved to pull Kyuubi’s kimono off his shoulders, hands scrabbling at the hard, hot flesh beneath. One of the fox demon’s hands slid inside Sasuke’s clothing as well, claws scraping his skin as yet more demonic chakra was sent violently through him. Sasuke ripped his lips away with a gasp, arching his back in pleasure.

Growling, Kyuubi roughly bit him under his jaw, then worked his way down the younger man’s throat. Sasuke choked out a groan, his body hardening all over. As Kyuubi shifted more weight upon him, Sasuke parted his legs and bent his knees, framing the other man’s hips and digging his toes into the soft earth beneath him. Both men groaned.

“Hirai…” Kyuubi whispered raggedly in his ear, tearing at the other demon’s clothing. With each brush of his hands upon Sasuke’s skin, the fire chakra shot through him. Sasuke jerked his hips upwards, eagerly assisting as much as his foreign-chakra-muddled mind would allow. Before he knew it, his bare back was laid against the soft grass, with his equally naked lover pressing against him. Sasuke threw his head back and moaned at the contact, his erection nearly crying out under the sensory assault.

“K-Kyuubi-sama!!” Nearly mindless with pleasure, Sasuke scrabbled at his lover’s back, claws digging into the fox demon’s skin. He received another possessive bite for his trouble, sharp teeth sinking into the tender skin between his neck and shoulder. Sasuke cried out.

Kyuubi murmured his name repeatedly, sliding one hand down the younger demon’s side, ghosting it over his thigh, and then reaching beneath his balls. One finger, abruptly declawed, circled his entrance. The fire chakra caused the puckered muscles to tremble and relax, ripping another cry from Sasuke’s lips, followed shortly by babbling pleas.

“Kyuubi-sama…Kyuubi-sama, please…oh, please, oh…PLEASE!”

With a muffled groan, Kyuubi lined himself up and pressed inside his lover, his demonic chakra easing the way. Sasuke let out a low whine that rose steadily in pitch, body arching as he clung to the man atop him. His body was so overwhelmed by sensation that he couldn’t even be sure that he was breathing anymore, and as the other demon began to move, he was certain that he wouldn’t live through the encounter, but oh it was worth it and—

Gasping heavily, Sasuke’s eyes abruptly shot open, staring unseeingly at the sunlit roof of the tent. His whole body was aching with desire, and for a minute he didn’t understand where he was or what he was doing. Eyes wild, he turned his head towards the demon next to him, whose red eyes had just snapped open as well. They stared at each other for a heartbeat.

In the next, Naruto was on top of Sasuke, lips pressing furiously against his as his claws made short work of the sleeping bag. Teflon and cotton went flying in the small space, soon to be followed by the front of Sasuke’s shredded shirt. The Uchiha heir moaned desperately around the lips against his, head swimming with the feeling of demonic chakra swirling through him. He pawed frantically at Naruto’s clothing, sliding a hand up the other man’s shirt and gripping the skin beneath. Both men were breathing heavily, hands sliding everywhere as they rubbed together. They were both so close…

At the same moment, both men froze. Sasuke stared into huge, disbelieving blue eyes, horror working its way into his brain. He was… he was…with Naruto??

Sasuke let out a horrified cry, shoving upwards with abruptly chakra-laden hands. The blast enveloped the man above him, rocketing him up through the tent roof and ripping the entire tent out of the ground. Sasuke fell heavily on the still-sealed tent flaps as the contraption flipped on its side, slowly collapsing. Struggling for breath, he stared out the new hole in the roof.

Naruto landed only inches from the hot spring with a sickening thud. The fox demon groaned loudly, though he didn’t sit up. As Sasuke jerkily freed himself from the deformed tent, they each pointed a finger at the other.

“I/YOU KISSED YOU/ME!!!” they screamed together in absolute horror.

Sasuke stormed forward, grabbing the silver chain of the pendant necklace and holding the crystal as far away from his chest as it would go.

“Naruto, what the fuck was that about?? It’s one thing for me to get trapped in one of your dreams about being tortured, but to stick me in the body of your fucktoy—”

“Hirai was NOT a fucktoy!!” At that, Naruto finally sat up, his face red. “He was important to me, thank you very much, and if you think I’m happy that I was apparently doing all of that stuff to you, you’re insane!!”

“I didn’t sign up to be a part of your gay fantasies!” Sasuke screamed. “I’ve had enough of this bullshit! I don’t want any of this!”

Disgusted and fighting off waves of panic, Sasuke tore at the necklace and forced it over his head. He gripped the crystal in his hand and pulled his fist back, prepared to throw it at the demon.

Naruto’s expression changed.

Sasuke hesitated.

Naruto stared at Sasuke’s fist, a frown of deep consternation on his face. His earlier anger seemed forgotten. “You’re going to throw it away?”

Sasuke’s hand quivered, and he unconsciously tightened his grip on the cool stone. “I…”

“…Are you?” Naruto insisted, his voice dropping to a ragged whisper. Sasuke dropped his gaze guiltily and stiffly shook his head, lowering his hand.

“No, I… No, I’m not. I just…” Frustrated, the Uchiha heir ran a hand through his mussed hair. “This whole nonsense is killing me, Naruto! I don’t know what your crazy powers are doing to me!”

When the demon sighed loudly, Sasuke lifted his eyes. Naruto had propped his elbows on his knees and was digging his palms into his eyes.

“I don’t understand it either, Sasuke,” he replied wearily. “I really don’t. This sort of thing hasn’t happened once in the thousand years I’ve been enslaved.”

Sasuke gritted his teeth and clenched his fingers, pressing the sharp edges of the crystal into his palm. “Sometimes, that answer isn’t really good enough, Naruto.”

The blond man shook his head, face still buried in his hands. “I don’t have another one for you.”

Humiliation and residual arousal still seething within him, Sasuke stalked over to his pack and threw off the tarp. He dug within the contents his pack, angrily pulling out his weapon pouches. Behind him, the demon exhaled noisily.

“Sasuke, it’s not like I meant to include you in my…reminiscing. Try to imagine how I feel. There I was, back with someone I cherished right before I lost everything…” He made a loud, disgruntled noise, waving a hand at Sasuke just as the younger man glanced over his shoulder. “And then the next thing I know, I’m on top of you!”

Sasuke turned away, his cheeks stained red. “I guess it was thoroughly unpleasant for both of us, then.”

Naruto grunted, but he didn’t reply. Battling down his turbulent emotions, Sasuke scowled at his ruined shirt front and strapped several weapon sheaths to his chest and legs. The chain from the necklace clinked softly as he maneuvered, the pendant still clutched tightly in his fist. The crystal grew faintly warm, bringing with it a hint of Naruto’s internal pain. Unbidden, Sasuke felt a miniscule wave a guilt slither through him.

Naruto had been in a war. His lover, as disturbing as the thought was, had probably been lost. His anger fading away, Sasuke ran his free hand over his brow and straightened.

“We should probably get going,” he stated gruffly. When the demon lowered his hands and stared at him, Sasuke awkwardly shrugged his shoulders. “We’ll just forget this whole morning happened, and move on. Deal?”

Shaking his head and placing a clawed hand against the nearby hot springs rocks, Naruto rose to his feet and moved towards Sasuke. His eyes were averted. “Sure. Whatever.”

Sasuke rubbed his face. “Alright. Fine.” The Uchiha steadfastly ignored the fact that he could feel the heat pouring off the demon beside him, invisible chakra teasing at his side. He schooled his expression. “I wish the tent…and my shirt, and our sleeping bags were fixed and packed away.”

Naruto snorted. “Lazy.” With a zap, Sasuke’s shirt was repaired, the hole in the tent was gone, and the material folded itself over in the air, sleeping bags trapped inside, and strapped itself to Sasuke’s backpack. The demon paused, staring up the mountain with a strange look on his face. The crystal gave an odd twinge in Sasuke’s hand. “Say, before we go, do you mind if we check out that shrine? I didn’t really get a good look at it.”

The brunet eyed him suspiciously, but he shrugged anyway. If the blond was looking for a distraction, he could oblige. “Alright. It can’t hurt, I’m sure. But only for a second.” Sasuke hesitated, then awkwardly unfurled his hand and pulled the necklace back over his head. Shoulders tense, he hefted his pack. “Let’s go.”

“Mm.” Smirking faintly, Naruto picked up his own pack and turned towards the trail to the abandoned shrine he’d spotted the night before. For some reason, this morning he felt a draw to it that hadn’t been there when he’d gone hunting. It was like the ancient wood was resonating with him.

When Sasuke began glaring at him, Naruto shrugged and started walking up the trail. Their campsite lay forgotten behind them as they disappeared into the forest.

Neither noticed that the hot spring’s waters were still, cool as a glacial stream.

Part 2

Fox Magic 13: Identity (Part 2)

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 04:28:41 GMT

~--------------------------------------~

Tsunade frowned at her thankfully clear desk, fingernails tapping against the dark wood. Ever since the boys had left on their trip, something had been niggling at the back of her mind. She just couldn’t place it.

Whatever it was, it was driving her nuts. At this rate, Tsunade wouldn’t be able to concentrate on her Hokage-related duties even if Shizune threatened to destroy her liquor supply!

Tsking her tongue in annoyance, Tsunade rose from her chair and strode over to the open window, where an unseasonably cold wind was blowing in. In less than two days, the temperature in Konoha had dropped significantly. Granted, the weather was always unpredictable, but it still gave her the feeling that she was missing something. Scowling, she shut the window.

A short rap on the door was all the warning she had before it burst open. A towering stack of paperwork staggered in through the doorway. The horrible creature spoke in her protégé’s voice as it lurched towards her desk.

“Tsunade-sama, Shizune-san asked me to bring you these,” Sakura grunted. She set the paperwork down on the Hokage’s desk and without looking up, continued, “And she said that if you try to run away, she’ll chain you to the desk.”

That halted the buxom blonde’s sneaking progress towards the door. Tsunade tipped her head back and groaned.

“Why can’t the interns do it? I don’t have time to wade through all that!” she exclaimed, waving a hand at the now teetering pile of papers.

Sakura smiled sympathetically. “Most of them are from the Sand, and some are from the Council on that attack from Sound. Interns aren’t equipped to go through this mess.”

“And it’d all come back to me anyway,” Tsunade agreed in resignation, returning to her chair. She took a sheet off the top, glowering at it. “It figures that ever since that blond nuisance showed up, everything went to hell in a handbasket.”

Sakura blinked in surprise, snapping her fingers. “That’s right, I meant to ask you about that. Have you seen little Kyuubi-chan around anywhere? I was hoping to take care of him while Sasuke-kun was on his mission, but I can’t find him. None of the patrolling ninjas have seen him, either.”

That little something in the back of Tsunade’s head grew more and more persistent. Closing her eyes, she raised a hand to her temple.

“No, I haven’t seen him. As a matter of fact, I only saw the fox once in the entire time Sasuke’s had him.”

“Hmm. I still think it’s odd. I mean, I’ve never heard of a fox being born with nine tails, and it’d be incredibly unusual for that kind of genetic mutation to take place, wouldn’t it?” Sakura fingered a lock of her long, pink hair, eyebrows furrowed in thought.

“A kind of polydactyl genetic abnormality…” Tsunade murmured, a headache blooming behind her shut eyes. “It’s not…impossible.”

“And it isn’t really in Sasuke-kun’s character to bond with an animal, is it? Even though Kyuubi-chan was sweet, Sasuke-kun didn’t really seem to like him. Though I suppose he might have been a little unsettled after his brother showed up and attacked him—”

God, her head hurt. “Didn’t someone report damage to the Uchiha main house that night?” she forced out between gritted teeth.

Sakura hesitated. “Yes, they did, Hokage-sama, but they must have been mistaken. There wasn’t any damage the next morning when they did rounds. At least, not until some roof-hopping Genin threw a couple dozen shinai through Sasuke-kun’s window.” She sighed. “Maybe all the excitement led to Sasuke-kun bonding to Kyuubi-chan… Maybe the fox was hiding out in his backyard somewhere.”

“Or in his house—” With those words, Tsunade felt like her skull had cracked open. She clutched at her aching head, fingers digging in as she moaned in pain. Dimly, she felt Sakura’s hands clutching at her shoulders.

“Hokage-sama! Are you alright??”

It was in his house. It showed up right after Uchiha Itachi allegedly destroyed the place. The building was fixed by the following morning. Oh, dear god. Uchiha Sasuke, who has never bonded to anything or anyone, agreed to keep the thing, and even took it into battle. Then his so-called “cousin” showed up, who shared an odd link with Sasuke. It wasn’t possible. They both went on a mission that I shouldn’t have sent the cousin on, and yet I gave him permission. Now the fox is gone.

Face gone white, Tsunade slowly lifted her head and stared at her concerned protégé. “It’s not possible…” she muttered unthinkingly.

Sakura’s brow furrowed. “What’s not possible?”

The Hokage shook her head, rising unsteadily to her feet. “Tell Shizune that something important has come up. I’ll get to the paperwork later.” She moved to the still-open door to her office, deftly avoiding the hand that grasped at her arm.

“But, Hokage-sama, where are you going?”

Tsunade paused at the door, staring grimly into the empty hallway.

“To the archives.”

* * *

Naruto gracelessly shrugged off his pack when they reached the clearing in front of the dilapidated shrine, leaving it outside the stone torii. Two indistinguishably worn statues framed either side of the entrance to the shrine’s grounds. Curious, Naruto placed a hand upon one, feeling the rough, cool stone beneath his fingertips. As he’d felt earlier, something within the stone gave a faint pulse towards him, but he couldn’t place the feeling. Naruto frowned.

Sasuke stopped beside him, fingering the straps of his own pack impatiently. “What was it that you wanted to see? We don’t exactly have a lot of time to waste.”

“I know, I know,” Naruto murmured. He turned towards the few remaining pieces of the wood building that once stood at the center of the grounds, hesitant to cross the line represented by the stone torii. This place, overlooking the volcanic mountains and valleys of the Fire Country, seemed so oddly familiar to him. It was as if he’d misplaced something important…

“Naruto…”

The clear irritation in the Uchiha’s voice snapped Naruto out of his contemplation. He grinned over his shoulder at the other man, waving a hand dismissively.

“Alright, alright. I’ll just take a closer look, and then we can go.”

He stepped through the high stone gate, crossing into the shrine’s ancient grounds.

And dropped to his knees.

“Kyuubi-kami-sama…”

“Oh Great Kyuubi-kami-sama, that you might grace us with your presence—”

“Please bring us a bountiful harvest, Kyuubi-kami-sama!”

“I wish for warmth for my family throughout the terrible winter, and food for our tables.”

“The Great—”

“—the Powerful—”

“—the Magnificent Kyuubi-kami-sama!”

With a mighty roar, Kyuubi clenched his fists, bowed his back, and exploded with red chakra. A giant, swirling tornado of chakra swirled around him, painting him with the red demonic streaks in his hair and on his skin that had been present in the hot springs. The ground began to shake, small rocks lifting into the air as power began to accumulate around the roaring demon.

Startled, Sasuke stumbled backwards, but an invisible barrier stopped him before he’d moved more than a few steps away. The crystal on his chest began trembling violently, spewing red light like a volcano. As Sasuke watched in shock, the crystal rose up into the air as well, pointing straight at the fox demon.

Kyuubi slowly rose to his feet within the tornado, head bowed. “It’s all gone.”

Words caught in Sasuke’s throat, leaving him mute.

“Everything I had. The kingdom, the people, the respect. I was worshipped here. Worshipped as a GOD!”

Several boulders broke free from the ground and shattered, flinging shrapnel into the air. Sasuke brought an arm up to shield his face, his heart thundering in his chest. The power leaking from the demon was pounding at him, at the earth, at everything.

“And because I went missing for so long, because my magic was contained, it faded from the shrine. It faded from the land. I faded from EXISTENCE!” In his rage, Kyuubi stormed into the center of the shrine’s grounds and lifted his head. “I will be forgotten no longer! This is MY land! MINE AND MINE ALONE!!”

Kyuubi slowly lifted his hands. As his hands rose, the entire mountain began to tremble, as did the next, and the next. A thunderous gurgling noise sounded from all of the hot springs in the area, deafening until several stone faces on the nearby mountains cracked open. Heat and steam rushed towards the chakra tornado from all sides, and the ground beneath the fox demon’s feet ruptured. Lava came spitting fitfully out of the crack beneath Kyuubi’s feet, its red energy immediately absorbed by the powerful demon. As the lava’s heat was absorbed, it formed a smooth black surface that rose steadily, creating a large black pedestal beneath Kyuubi’s feet and lifting him into the air. The wind howled as it was forced to bend around the monstrous red chakra.

As he rose, Kyuubi finally, slowly, lowered his hands. The tower of chakra began to dip inwards, funneling into the demon from the top down. As Kyuubi stood, all of the power held by the surrounding mountains streamed into him as if the demon were a vacuum. The trees surrounding the shrine bent inwards from the force of the winds. Gradually, the tower diminished until it was a thick red mass swirling around his feet, and then it, too, was absorbed.

For a tense moment, everything was still.

Kyuubi stiffened his shoulders.

And a shock wave exploded from him, knocking down the nearby trees and nearly throwing Sasuke off the flattened area atop the mountain. The shock wave echoed throughout the mountains, startling thousands of birds into the air, and continued in a visible ripple out into the horizon. There was a pause, in which Sasuke dazedly contemplated getting up.

A second shock wave followed, this one full of an unfathomable amount of power and magic. The trees stood back up, the worn statues reshaped themselves, and the ancient wood of the shrine reassembled itself, quickly and noisily growing into a tremendous building, complete with ornate carvings of Kyuubi in both his humanoid and fox forms. The shattered boulders became thousands of tiny fox statues that littered the ground in front of the newly rebuilt shrine. Sasuke watched from his position on the ground, unable to breathe or speak. The demon before him was even more powerful than he could have ever imagined, more than he could have dreamed possible.

As the shrine finished rebuilding itself, Kyuubi finally turned towards his companion. Violet eyes locked onto midnight black.

And for a moment, Sasuke was lost.

* * *

Beyond the shrine, the pulse of magic crashed into the dormant trees, rocks, streams, and air, startling awake the ancient spirits that lived there. The pulse carried on, through the mountains, over hills and deep into valleys, dipping into every nook and cranny in the Fire Country. As it reached the edges of the Fire Country on all sides, it began to taper out, spreading like a thin liquid over water, over plains, and through the surrounding countries.

Far, far in the distance, Shukaku had stepped outside for a brief respite from his deathly irritating masters. The pulse of familiar chakra washed over him, energizing him, and brought an unprecedented hint of a smile to his face. He lifted his own hands, and wind rushed into him from across the sands.

“It’s good to have you back, Kyuubi-sama,” he murmured. Gathering his energy, he sent his own pulse back to the Fire Country, rocking the Kazekage’s palace on its foundations. He smirked as screams began to issue from within. “Our time will come again.”

* * *

In his dimly lit study, Orochimaru shifted eagerly through a series of attack plans for Konoha. Although the village had grown stronger, his minions were more than capable of sneaking in and tearing the Leaf down from the inside out. All he needed was to choose a select few to begin planting the seeds.

That fool, Temae, had already been disposed of, but at least the young man had imparted some curious information before he passed. This blond ninja that he spoke of… Orochimaru restrained a malicious grin. They had been terrified throughout the entire report, visibly shaking whenever the young man was mentioned. This “Naruto,” for whatever reason, was responsible for the first break in torment that Orochimaru had experienced in decades.

He had to have him. Whatever it took, the boy would be his.

As he moved to set down the documents, a wave of chakra slammed into him, forcing him to cry out. The chakra raced along his skin like a series of knives, scraping against him painfully. Orochimaru lurched to his feet, hands scrabbling at his clothes in a desperate attempt to relieve the sensation.

Known, yet unknown. Familiar, yet unfamiliar. A voice was whispering soundlessly, thunderously, in the back of his head. We know this.

Orochimaru screamed, digging his fingers into his temples. The voices in his head grew louder, speaking in words he both understood and couldn’t comprehend, battling each other for dominance as that strange chakra continued to crawl unpleasantly over his skin. He twisted violently back and forth, fighting the pain that pounded between his temples.

A new sound broke him momentarily out of his anguish, and he forced his eyes open. The dark creatures in his study had all frozen, staring at him with fathomless eyes. As one, they opened their mouths.

And shrieked.

The high-pitched noise drove the tall man to his knees, fingers drawing blood as they dug reflexively into his skin. In a flash, the creatures were upon him, tearing violently at his clothes, at his flesh. Crying out in pain, he struggled to pull away from their sharp claws and ended up curling into a tight ball. The creatures tore at his arms and hair, shouting at him in a horrific tongue that made his ears ring. All the while, the voices in his head were shouting senselessly, nearly blocking out his thoughts.

There was no one to help him. No one to stand beside him to battle these things away from him. There never was, not even when he had those so-called “friends.” He was going to be torn apart, forgotten, and no one would even mourn his passing!

When Orochimaru forced a damaged eye open, he saw that the blood he was shedding had formed a large, perfect circle around him. The creatures began laughing, fisting their small hands in his torn flesh and pulling down. His eye opened even wider as he felt his hand press hard against the blood-stained floor…and pass through it.

Suddenly, as if he’d always held the knowledge somewhere within him, Orochimaru understood perfectly. He knew what they were.

They were demons from the underworld.

And they were dragging him back to hell.

The voices in his head went quiet at the realization, and Orochimaru watched in numb shock as his wrist disappeared. The demons were laughing gaily, tightening their grip upon him. They were laughing.

Unbidden, something surged within Orochimaru’s center, a pulse of dark power that snapped out of him like a whip. Stung, the demons relinquished their hold upon him. Breathing heavily, Orochimaru dragged himself unsteadily to his feet. The demons hissed at him and moved to take hold of him again.

Orochimaru’s mouth opened, and several unfamiliar voices stated, “No.”

The demons froze.

“We’re not going back there. Not now.” Orochimaru’s wounded body began trembling violently as his mind spun in fear. Who the hell are these voices?? Where are they coming from? he questioned desperately. “We have work to do.”

The demons made some sort of angry protest, tugging at his shredded clothing. Orochimaru’s lips turned down into a fierce scowl, and he flung a hand at the dark creatures. Black chakra raced from his fingertips, scorching them. Screaming, they pulled away from him and backed away, fathomless eyes wide with surprise and hate. Orochimaru kept his hand towards them.

“Be gone!!”

Hissing and scowling, the underworld’s demons sank into the ground and vanished. A tacit promise to return hung threateningly in the air. After a moment, the dark energy fled Orochimaru’s body, leaving him hurt, shaking, and empty. He dropped immediately to his knees and wrapped his arms around his chest, then bowed his head forward.

Alone in his study, with no more strange voices or chakra within him, Orochimaru resorted to an emotional display he hadn’t succumbed to since he was an infant.

He trembled, and shook, and even allowed a single sob of fear to escape.

Part 3

Fox Magic 13: Identity (Part 3)

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 04:18:06 GMT

F o x M a g i c

by akaitsume

~---------------------------~

Genre: AU(ish)/Drama/Action/Adventure/Romance/Mystery
Pairings: NaruSasuNaru
Rating: Ma (Heavy fanservice ahead!)
Warnings: Fantasy-esque, Zoomorphism, AU, a liberal dose of Japanese mythology, violence, strong language, references to abuse/torture in later chapters, and (eventually) limes and lemons.

~--------------------------------------~

Sasuke stared at Kyuubi from his kneeling position on the ground, his mind racing. The level of power he’d just witnessed was beyond anything he could fathom. Kyuubi shouldn’t even exist, his power was so incredible. Even knowing what he did about the demon, he was still underestimating him. Sasuke noted idly that his hands were shaking, and he placed them gingerly upon the ground.

Wordlessly, Kyuubi stepped off the volcanic pedestal he’d created, chakra buffering his feet as he landed. He walked cautiously over to Sasuke, violet eyes filled with an indiscernible emotion. After a few minutes of gazing at each other, Kyuubi lifted a hand. Sasuke flinched involuntarily.

“Don’t worry,” Kyuubi remarked dryly. His violet eyes dropped ruefully to the gold ring on his left hand. The metal was glowing fiercely, stripping off red chakra in waves. “My little power boost won’t last for much longer. I should be back to normal in a few minutes.”

“…Normal,” Sasuke managed. His mind was still reeling. “How the hell did you ever manage to get enslaved?” he blurted.

Kyuubi blinked at him, then laughed. “A good question. Still, this is what happens when you go against someone more powerful than yourself.”

“More powerful than you.”

“Indeed.”

The Uchiha heir stared at him. “How on earth did you manage to find someone more powerful than you are?? How powerful are you?”

“Mm. Once upon a time, I could’ve brought this whole mountain to the ground.” Wincing, Kyuubi began to shake his hand lightly. His eyes faded to red. “I certainly thought I was unbeatable.”

Carefully, Sasuke rose to his feet. “I can imagine why,” he replied, a note of dumbstruck awe lurking within his tone. “I’m having trouble fathoming whom you must have gone up against.”

“Well, the rambunctious can always find trouble, wherever it may be.” Kyuubi sighed, folding his arms over his chest. He paused as a faint pulse of chakra hit him in reply, and he closed his eyes in regret. “I just wish that I alone had been punished.”

To stop the faint trembling of his hands, Sasuke brushed himself off and mulled that comment over. “Are you saying that there are other genies?”

Kyuubi nodded. “Seven of them.”

“Eight of you total, then.” Sasuke shook his head. “Were the others as powerful as you are?”

The fox demon chuckled. “Not as strong as me, no, but very powerful in their own right.” He tipped his head back, mostly blond hair waving in the breeze. “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other, obviously. I wonder if they had any better luck with their masters than I’ve had with mine.”

Sasuke frowned as he tucked the cooling crystal necklace under his shirt. “At least I haven’t been that bad.”

Naruto grinned. “No, no, you haven’t. You’ve been surprisingly good to me, actually. It makes me glad that I’ve stopped trying to put you out of commission.”

“Put me out of commission?” the brunet repeated, eyes narrowing.

“Well, yeah.” Naruto waved a hand dismissively. “With the whole tree toppling thing at first, and that episode where you were dumb enough to wander into my mind—”

“The tree.” Sasuke glared at his companion, suspicion and anger building. “Are you referring to the giant tree that nearly crushed me when we first met?”

“Yup. I figured if I put you into a coma, I’d be free to do whatever I wanted until you…” Naruto’s cheerful voice trailed off at the venomous look in Sasuke’s eyes. He smiled weakly, rubbing a hand behind his head. “Hey, at least I wasn’t trying to kill you, right? And you escaped without a scratch.”

“Naruto…” Sasuke growled.

The blond demon coughed. “Anyway, I like you now, so…you know. No harm done, and all that.” Flashing Sasuke an overly bright smile, he snatched up his pack and swung it onto his back. “Shall we go?”

When the blond passed him and started descending the stone stairs leading to the shrine, Sasuke fell into step behind him. Now that the shock over the demon’s stunning display of power was fading, awkwardness from the morning’s catastrophe began settling in. Frowning disconcertedly, Sasuke ran his fingers over the straps of his pack.

“…You like me,” he repeated dubiously. Before him, Naruto shrugged his broad shoulders.

“Well, yeah. You’re tolerable, at least.”

Sasuke shifted his gaze to the side. “Then you really do like…men.”

At that, Naruto glanced over his shoulder. “What do you mean?”

God, are we really having this conversation? “You’re actually…gay.” When Sasuke received a blank stare, he cleared his throat and tried again. “You enjoy sleeping with men.”

“Oh. That.” Naruto shrugged dismissively. “Who doesn’t? I like a good, soft and curvy lady as much as the next guy, but it doesn’t compare when you’re in the mood for—why are you looking at me like that?”

Sasuke was staring incredulously at the blond demon. “You admit it?? You actually like doing that sort of thing with other men??”

Obviously confused, Naruto laughed. “What, like that isn’t done anymore?”

“No! It’s not!”

The demon stopped dead in his tracks. Eyes wide, he gaped at the younger man in something akin to horror. “Are you telling me that men don’t sleep with other men anymore??”

To his dismay, a faint flush crept up Sasuke’s cheeks. He gritted his teeth and stomped ahead. “No, they don’t!”

“But… But this is Japan! Men have always… I mean, it wasn’t like it got in the way of procreation or anything! Why…” He spluttered noisily, then shook his head. “I can’t believe it. The modern era sucks!”

Sasuke steadfastly refrained from replying, his cheeks still red. Then all of that flirting before… Good god, he may have been serious.

As if he’d read his mind, Naruto quickened his step so that he could look Sasuke in the eye. “That explains why you got so freaked out whenever I made those comments! Look, Sasuke, I can tell you with complete honesty that I never had my eye on you, alright?”

The Uchiha heir glared at the trail ahead of them. “And I’m supposed to believe you? You kissed me!”

“Hey, that was an accident, and you know it!” Naruto scowled. “And just because I enjoyed it doesn’t mean I’m going to jump you or anything!”

Sasuke nearly tripped down the stairs, his head snapping to the side. “You enjoyed it??”

The blond huffed in annoyance. “Yes, I did. You happen to taste very good. And besides, you liked it, too!”

“I DID NOT!”

“Oh come on, Sasuke, I was there. Not only did you enjoy yourself,” he began, leaning forward to sniff pointedly at the brunet, “but I can smell your attraction to me right this very minute. You’re pumping out pheromones like you think you’re going to die if you don’t get lai—”

“Shut UP!” Embarrassed, Sasuke threw a punch at Naruto’s face, then scowled when the blond managed to dodge. “I am not attracted to you!”

“Oh, no?” Quick as lightning, Naruto’s hand darted out and gripped Sasuke’s bare forearm. Red chakra raced into him from the point of contact, bringing Sasuke’s recently tortured body right back to the edge. With a gasp, he wrenched himself away and instinctively cradled his arm against his chest.

“Naruto, what the fuck?”

The blond demon smirked triumphantly. “My chakra wouldn’t be spilling into you like that if you weren’t interested. You used to block me, you know.” Grinning with too many teeth, he stepped closer. “Now that you know what it’s like, you want more.”

Sasuke clenched his jaw tightly. Although it was faintly, faintly possible that power had always been a bit of a turn-on for him, it didn’t mean that he actually wanted to sleep with Naruto! The very thought made him ill!

Eyes narrowed, Sasuke hissed, “Just because my body responds to your ludicrous amounts of chakra, it doesn’t mean that my standards have dropped any. I have more sense than to be attracted to an idiotic, crude, happy-go-lucky faerie wanna-be who, despite his insane amounts of power, managed to get turned into a human’s plaything!”

Silence greeted Sasuke’s declaration. Naruto’s normally open expression hardened, his eyes gone cold and flinty.

“That’s good to know,” he replied icily. “Because fucking a cold-blooded Uchiha bastard is very far down on my to-do list.”

With that, he leapt into the woods beside the trail and vanished, leaving a seething Sasuke behind.

* * *

After two hours of leaping fruitlessly through the trees, Sasuke was ready to kill Naruto. The blond hadn’t even left a chakra trail behind him this time because all of the trees in the area now had the faint imprint of his energy from that shock wave. The demon could be anywhere, and Sasuke had no way of knowing. His hands methodically clenched and unclenched in a fruitless attempt to release his rapidly mounting frustration.

When an arrow shot by, narrowing missing his head, Sasuke decided that he might as well write the whole damn day off.

The Uchiha heir slid his hand stealthily into a pouch on his leg, hooking his fingers into several kunai. He landed quietly, peering through the trees.

“Oi! Ninja-person! We know you’re in there!” a rough, deep voice yelled into the forest. Several men in ratty clothing advanced into the forest, some with drawn arrows and others plainly fingering their knives. Bandits. Behind them, on an overgrown dirt road, several more bandits on bounty-laden horses held guns openly. Sasuke mentally groaned.

Bandits weren’t just annoying, they were a political nightmare. Killing men from another country, regardless of the reason, was often all the excuse said countries needed to go to war. If Sasuke were to fight, he would win, but he would most likely sustain some injuries, and he’d have to find a way of disposing of their bodies. He tucked a shinai into his shirt, closed the pouch, and quickly cast an illusion over himself to look, he hoped, like an average traveler.

Of course, that would probably lead them to try and rob him, but it was better than being attacked outright.

Warily, Sasuke made his way out of the forest and onto the road, his hands up. “Were you speaking to me?”

Immediately, all of the guns and arrows were pointed at him. The bandit who’d spoken before, a large, hulking man with the distinctive red hair of the River Country, stepped towards him. He brandished a sword at Sasuke.

“You might not look it, but you’re a ninja-man, aren’t you!” he growled out. “I can smell your type a mile away. Thinking of stealing our goods, I’ll bet!”

Sasuke did his best to look puzzled, though he doubted he looked anything but faintly murderous. “Sir, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he answered truthfully. “I’m a simple traveler, that’s all.”

One of the arrow-wielding bandits spat on the ground. “Sure. And that’s why you were avoiding the road like all decent folk do!”

“Just trying to avoid trouble,” Sasuke replied. It was true enough, even if it hadn’t worked. He certainly couldn’t say that he was trying to avoid bandits while attempting to catch up with his runaway genie.

The large, red-haired bandit snorted. “Sure. And you just so happened to find it anyway.” His blue eyes narrowed. “We don’t much like you ninja-folk. I think we’ll all feel a mite safer if we just put you out of our misery.”

Gun barrels were cocked, bows whined as they were drawn, and knives flashed in the morning sun. Sasuke’s fingers twitched.

“I’m not a ninja.” He fought desperately to keep from scowling, though he knew that his expression was hardening rapidly. “I don’t want to fight.”

“This sure ain’t your day, then.”

As they slowly advanced, Sasuke began to inch his hands closer together, readying his chakra for a quick teleportation jutsu.

“Sasuke-kun! Saaasukeee-kuuuuuun!”

A sudden, bubbly voice distracted the entire group, heads turning seconds before a blonde girl came crashing through the forest. She ran unsteadily on a pair of heeled sandals to Sasuke’s side, her light blue sundress flaring up around her thin, shapely legs. Winding her slender arms around one of Sasuke’s, she pressed her disproportionately large bosom against him and peered up at Sasuke with pouting lips.

“Sasuke-kun, you meanie! How could you leave me back there all alone!” She cried, blue eyes filled with distress. Her twin ponytails bobbed as she buried her face in a frozen Sasuke’s chest. “I was so scared!”

Sasuke stared down at the girl, words failing him. In his peripheral vision, he saw the arrows and guns pointed at him hesitantly lower themselves. The girl lifted her face again, her whiskered cheeks flushed prettily.

“I know I’m just a silly girl,” she sniffled daintily, “and I know that I can’t keep up with you, but couldn’t you have slowed down just a little?”

When Sasuke failed to reply, the redheaded bandit awkwardly cleared his throat. “Ah, Miss? Do you know this man?”

The girl turned, noticing the crowd of avidly staring men with clear apprehension. She tightened her grip on Sasuke’s arm and moved to stand slightly behind him. With a short nod, she shyly ducked her head.

“Yes,” the girl replied quietly. “He’s my cousin. He’s taking me to our relative’s house.”

The redheaded man shared a look with the other bandits, then cleared his throat again. “He’s, ah. Isn’t he a ninja?”

“A ninja?” Her head tilted to the side, ponytails tilting as her cherubic face took on an adorably puzzled expression. “Are they really real?”

The bandits nodded slowly. Lips pursing attractively, the girl looked up at Sasuke’s face. Deep within her eyes, a spark of mischief lingered.

“Sasuke-kun, you’re not a ninja, are you?” she asked innocently.

The stoic brunet forced himself to shake his head. Naruto. Was female. A very cute, very well-shaped female. His mental processes ground to a halt.

Naruto was currently female.

The world as Sasuke knew it had finally come to an end.

Giggling, Naruto clutched at him and pressed the length of his—her—body against Sasuke’s, lifting one sandaled foot off the ground.

“Silly me, I know you’re not a ninja. You’d have told me by now!” Smiling brightly, she turned towards the bandits. “See?”

With a flurry of guiltily shifting eyes, the bandits put their weapons away. A blue-haired bandit, as he quickly sheathed his knife, blurted, “But then why was he traveling in the woods instead of on the trail?”

Sasuke’s tongue finally came unglued and he glowered, gesturing vaguely at the demon at his side.

“With her along? Do you see why I didn’t want any trouble?” After a moment, he forced himself to extract his arm and place it protectively around her shoulders. “And I still don’t.”

Naruto blinked innocently, bringing a manicured hand to her lips with a quiet gasp. “Oh, these nice men wouldn’t try to hurt us. Right?”

All of the men visibly melted. Sasuke’s eyes burned from the need for him to roll them. Well, now they sure as hell won’t.

“No, no, of course not,” the redheaded bandit assured them. “We’re just, uh, making sure the roads are safe for pretty young ladies like you.”

Naruto blushed becomingly and ducked her head. “Oh no, I’m not pretty at all. All of my sisters are beautiful. I’m just…me.”

All of the bandits vehemently shook their heads. A chorus of “No, you’re very pretty!” filled the air. Naruto’s blush deepened, and she gingerly bit her lip.

“You’re all so kind…” she murmured sweetly.

Sasuke wanted to gag.

“As a matter of fact,” the redheaded bandit—the leader, Sasuke presumed—continued, “maybe we should escort you to your relative’s house. You know, just in case you run into some unsavory types in the forest.”

The other bandits eagerly voiced their assent. Naruto brought her hands together and stared at her twiddling thumbs.

“Oh, but I’m sure it’d be so far out of your way…” The blonde shook her head sadly. “That’s far too kind. We couldn’t possibly…”

Sasuke couldn’t credit the degree of hopefulness in the blue-eyed gaze that was turned upon him. He grimaced.

“No. I’m sorry.”

The bandits were glaring at him now.

“Surely there’s something we can do for you,” the leader insisted.

Naruto’s twiddling thumbs increased their pace. “Well…”

“Yes?” Several bandits leaned forward eagerly.

Angelic blue eyes glanced up at them through thick, blonde lashes. “I don’t suppose…you can share any food? We’re really low on rations because…I’m afraid I eat too much…” Naruto requested in a tiny voice.

The bandits began to smile. One of them replied, “A tiny thing like you? I doubt it.”

Another waved his arm in the air. “I have chocolate!”

Naruto hesitated, eyebrows furrowing cutely. “…Chocolate?”

Sasuke stiffened beside the demon. Chocolate hadn’t been introduced to Japan until World War II, and with Naruto being trapped away in his mini-shrine in the Uchiha household…

Naruto looked around in confusion. “What’s chocolate?”

One or two bandits laughed. “You don’t know what chocolate is?” one asked disbelievingly.

Naruto pouted. “I’ve never had it. Please don’t make fun of me.”

The bandits stopped laughing. Even the leader cleared his throat. “Miss, you really haven’t ever had chocolate before?”

When Naruto shook her head, the leader immediately gestured for the chocolate-bearing bandit to come forward. He swiped the proffered candy bar out of the younger man’s hand and held it out with an obsequious smile.

“Go ahead, young miss. Try it!”

Naruto hesitated, glancing at Sasuke, whose face was set in stone. Gingerly, she took the candy bar, sniffed it delicately, and carefully unwrapped it. After a second hesitation, she took a tiny bite.

A pause.

Moments later, a sinful moan worked its way out of her throat, blue eyes closing rapturously. The blonde tipped her head back.

“It’s…it’s…” she stated huskily. The men leaned forward, gazing intently at her.

“It’s what?” one of them choked out.

“…Amazing…” Naruto moaned. She took another bite, and another, making blissful noises and enraptured faces. “Oh my god…”

Sasuke briefly closed his eyes.

Now the bandits would never leave.

* * *

Naruto fought to keep from laughing, delight shining in his eyes as he gratefully accepted food and sweets from the eager bandits. The men practically fell all over themselves to help the disguised demon. In return, he flashed a sweet, girlish smile at them. They melted.

Stars, I’d forgotten how much fun it was to enchant human men. With a small giggle, he clutched the food packets to his exaggeratedly ample chest. His breasts, predictably, were pushed up against the neckline of his sundress. Every male eye—except Sasuke’s, the cold-blooded bastard—was riveted.

“Boys, boys!” he exclaimed, laughing. His breasts bounced. “I can’t carry any more!”

When the bandits all began protesting, Naruto fluttered his eyelashes. They quieted.

“Really, boys, you’ve all been so kind, but we have to go,” he murmured. He glanced over at Sasuke, whose arms were also reluctantly laden with foodstuffs. The brunet glared at him. “Sasuke-kun, why didn’t you tell me there would be so many wonderful people on the road?”

Sasuke simply scowled in reply. The bandit leader chuckled, moving closer to Naruto’s side and bending in conspiratorially.

“That’s because some of the men out here aren’t as nice as we are,” he whispered. Naruto let out a naïve-sounding gasp. The leader laughed again and straightened. “And we’re sorry about being suspicious of your cousin, here. Ain’t our fault, though.”

One of the other bandits piped up. “We wouldn’t’a been so certain if we hadn’t met a feller just like ‘im only yesterday!”

Shifting the food in his arms, Sasuke narrowed his eyes. “A man just like me?”

“Yeah! Looked like you and ever’thing!”

Naruto’s blood ran cold, and he shot a glance at his companion. Sasuke’s face had gone white. The demon cleared his throat.

“Ah… A man who looked like Sasuke-kun?”

The bandit nodded. “Bit older than ‘im, but the spittin’ image!”

Naruto’s fingers clenched involuntarily on his hard-won food. A low growl emanated from the man at his side.

“Itachi.”

To be continued...

Fox Magic 12: Legends (Part 1)

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:20:59 GMT

~--------------------------------------~

Naruto’s skin was practically vibrating as he stared at the giant doors blocking his exit from Konoha. The red hiragana “a” and “un” on each door stared at him, taunting him, even as patrol ninjas moved to open the heavy panels of wood. Naruto’s heart pounded sharply with excitement, and he jiggled anxiously on his toes to shed some excess energy.

He was going to leave Konoha’s boundaries. He was going to leave Konoha, without his ring or his guilt or his chakra telling him to return to his master’s side. He was going to walk out those doors, and not return until he was damn well ready.

Like a free man.

Naruto’s breath shortened at the thought, pupils slitting involuntarily as he physically restrained himself from leaping over the city wall and racing out into the surrounding forests. He wanted to feel the wind in his hair again; smell the dirt and the grass beneath his feet, warmed by the sun; leap over ravines and crawl up cliffs and howl to the world at large that he was here, even though it had forgotten him. He wanted the freedom he’d once had so badly that he could taste the air, a sharp, leafy mint that rolled on his tongue. His teeth elongated within his mouth, and his scalp tingled as his hair ruffled with the wild chakra surging through him, demanding to be released. Inhaling sharply, he shut his eyes and tilted his head back against the morning sun.

The giant doors began to creak.

Naruto’s right hand clenched involuntarily on the rough strap of the travelling pack slung over his shoulders, chakra-sharpened nails biting into the fabric. It had been so fucking long. Ever since his enslavement, he’d been trapped within Konoha’s great walls. In the later years, he’d been trapped within the Uchiha complex, cocooned by so many man-made barriers that he could hardly sense the outside world anymore. Occasionally, he’d gotten a brief taste of the outside, like when he’d raced to protect Sasuke from those Sound ninjas, but he’d always been hounded by his ring and chakra, with voices in his head screaming at him to return.

But now, there was nothing. Nothing but the sound of the wind, the smell of the new clothes on his back, and the fierce pounding of his heart in his chest. His ring lay cold and heavy on his finger.

And it was all because of Sasuke. The gloomy, pissy, short-tempered bastard who happened to be the most gloriously wonderful person on the planet. Possibly the most fantastic person ever born. People should compose ballads in his honor.

Peeling his eyes open, Naruto snuck a glance at the stoic young man standing next to him. Sasuke’s eyes flitted towards him, curiosity flickering within them. Naruto bit his lip and turned away, eyes glued to the slowly parting doors before him. As they were going on an official mission, they had to formally leave through these doors and return through them when finished. Thus, Naruto had to go through the torture of watching them open, granting him his freedom inch by painful, heart-stopping inch. His stomach churned, bile biting the back of his throat as he stared.

He couldn’t stand it. His leg muscles jumped, ready to fling himself at the doors and claw at them until they broke down. He was so close, so fucking close to escape, and gods, he wasn’t entirely sure that he’d be able to control himself once those doors opened fully.

The doors had opened enough to reveal the road before them. The road that would take him away from this godforsaken place.

A strange keening noise welled up in his throat before he could stop it, but Naruto managed to swallow it down, ducking his head to avoid the strange look Sasuke shot him. He bounced on the balls of his feet again, staring through the fringe of his blond locks as his passageway grew wider and wider. His blood was on fire, his senses had sharpened to an almost painful degree, and he could hear birds nearly two miles away already. He wanted to leave.

The patrol ninjas grunted and settled back against the doors, smiling grimly at the two waiting ninjas. They opened their mouths, which Naruto took to mean they were speaking, but it was too late. His mind had already cleared. He was beyond comprehension of these tiny little humans, and far beyond caring.

The doors were open.

The world was his.

* * *

Sasuke eyed Naruto uneasily as the two patrol ninjas secured the doors. The blond had been acting strangely ever since they’d left Tsunade’s office, first peppering Sasuke’s abused ears with chatter, and finally falling into a strange, tense silence. Sasuke had been forced to drag Naruto into a clothing shop, something he’d been certain that the blond would enjoy, and instead of reveling in the experience, Naruto had simply given him a wild-eyed look and grabbed the first things he saw.

Which, unfortunately for Naruto, had included orange pants and a horrifying orange jacket with a thick, white trim that Sasuke would rather burn than see worn on any humanoid. Sasuke had wrestled the clothing out of his grip and thrown them back into the bargain bin they came from, ignoring Naruto’s shrill protests. The blond had then quickly bought a deep red shirt and black pants, and hustled Sasuke out of the store before the brunet could complain. The fox demon’s eyes had still held a wild, nearly feral gleam within them, and he’d been practically vibrating with unshed energy until they finally reached Konoha’s main gates, packed and ready to go.

Frankly, Sasuke was surprised that Naruto hadn’t simply jumped out of his skin, slung it over his shoulder like an empty jumpsuit, and run for the hills.

While the two doors opened, Sasuke wasn’t entirely convinced that Naruto wouldn’t do exactly that. The crystal Sasuke wore had warmed upon his chest, nearly burning his skin through his black shirt. At the same time, chakra had swirled tightly around the blond demon, a tiny, invisible web of power that teased the hair on Sasuke’s neck and arms into standing on end. The demon had only glanced at him once while they waited.

And now that the doors were open, Naruto had abruptly stopped his fidgeting and had gone perfectly still.

After latching a hidden bolt at the bottom of the door, the patrol guards straightened and gave Sasuke and his companion a dry grin.

“Well, you’re all free to go,” one commented, leaning back against the heavy wooden door. “Good luck in Sand. I heard they’re not very…accommodating these days.”

Sasuke acknowledged them with a short nod, shifting the pack on his back and stepping forward. The wide dirt road before them stretched on into the rolling hills in the distance, lush forests encroaching upon its edges. Fingers lifting to the necklace at his throat, he glanced over his shoulder at Naruto. The blond’s red eyes were staring blankly into the distance.

Frowning, Sasuke stopped walking and angled his body back towards the other man. The two patrol guards curiously looked back and forth between them.

“Oi, Naruto,” Sasuke called irritably. “Come on. We don’t have all day.”

Naruto blinked slowly, swinging his eyes over to the waiting brunet. The intensity of his crimson gaze slammed into Sasuke, causing the younger man to freeze instinctively. Chakra crackled hypnotically over the demon’s skin, drawing Sasuke’s abruptly Sharingan-lit eyes like a dancing flame. He could feel that power reaching out to him, curling around his arms and legs. Unconsciously, Sasuke’s breath caught in his throat.

“Uchiha.” The single word had been ground out of Naruto’s throat, roughly piercing the sudden, thick silence. “Tell me that I can leave Konoha.”

Forcing himself to take a shallow breath, Sasuke gathered himself and nodded curtly. “Naruto, I—” His voice cut off at a sharp glance from the blond, a warning clear in the demon’s eyes. Sasuke reconsidered his words, glancing warily at the eavesdropping guards. To his surprise, the two men appeared frozen in place, unblinking and unseeing. Sasuke swallowed with difficulty and returned his gaze to the tense demon before him. He took another breath.

“Kyuubi no Kitsune, I grant you permission to leave Konoha’s boundaries,” he stated with as much authority as he could muster. As soon as the last word left his mouth, the necklace around his neck flushed with warmth that echoed in his chest, ripping a gasp from his lips. Instinctively, he clutched at the crystal.

Naruto exhaled loudly, ducking his head as his shoulders slumped in relief. He stood like that for a moment, just long enough for the two guards to resume movement. Concerned despite himself, Sasuke took a step forward.

“WOOHOO!!”

The loud whoop from the blond startled Sasuke into an undignified jump as the blond’s head snapped up, both tanned fists pumping at the air. In seconds, the blond had raced over to where Sasuke stood, snagged his hand, and begun dragging him down the winding road, laughing as he went. Behind them, the bewildered guards dutifully shut Konoha’s doors.

Just as the running pair hit the first line of trees, Sasuke’s brain caught up to him. Scowling, he dug in his heels and tore his hand free.

“Naruto, what the fuck is the matter with you?” he demanded. Without warning, Naruto spun about and grabbed Sasuke by the shoulders, grinning at him with a nearly maniacal light glinting in his eyes.

“The matter? You want to know what’s the matter with me??” Naruto tossed his head back and laughed, speckled sunlight from the canopy above dancing over his features. Sasuke stared at him. “Nothing! Nothing’s the matter with me, you fantastic, wonderful creature!”

And then, an unspeakable horror occurred.

Naruto threw his arms around Sasuke and lifted him, spinning about in circles.

Sasuke was being violated.

After making an embarrassing squeaking sound that he’d deny to his dying day, Sasuke violently squirmed free of the demon’s overly exuberant grip. Hitting the ground heavily, he swung his right fist into Naruto’s left cheek.

CRACK.

“Don’t you EVER touch me like that again!!” Sasuke yelled, chest heaving. Mortified, he felt his cheeks heating with an unstoppable blush. No one, no one in all his years had dared to touch him that way. Just the memory of the embrace made his skin crawl unpleasantly.

Unfazed, Naruto rubbed his cheek and grinned. “Sorry,” he replied in an utterly insincere manner. “But do you have any idea how long it’s been since I’ve been outside Konoha’s boundaries? Do you have any idea…any concept of…”

Excitement visibly bubbling over, Naruto began pacing from tree to tree, placing a hand reverently on each as he passed it. Breathing sharply and rapidly, Naruto glanced at Sasuke through drastically dilated pupils.

“I…you…” Faster than even Sasuke’s eyes could follow, Naruto appeared in front of him, face millimeters away from Sasuke’s own. Sasuke reared back reflexively, only to have Naruto grab him by the upper arms and stare into the brunet’s distinctly unsettled gaze. “Thank you.”

Sasuke leaned as far back as the demon’s grip would allow, then issued an uncomfortable, “You’re welcome.”

Naruto shook his head. “No, I mean…I can’t express how…”

Abruptly, the demon dissolved into Old Japanese, babbling in words and phrases that hadn’t been used since 794 AD. Sasuke stared incredulously at the man in front of him, standing stock still as unfamiliar words washed over him.

…A “few hundred” years old my ASS. Naruto was speaking in a language so archaic that Sasuke couldn’t understand a word of it, just so the demon could express himself properly. Mentally shaking himself, Sasuke scowled.

“Naruto!” The babbling stopped. “Japanese. Look into it.” When the blond stared blankly at him, Sasuke sighed. “I don’t understand a word you’re saying. If you’re going to express your undying gratitude, at least do it in a language I can understand!”

Naruto paused, then grinned unrepentantly. “If modern Japanese weren’t so self-limiting, maybe I could.” His grin took on a bit of a feral quality at the edges. “Do you want me to translate what I said?”

“Definitely not.”

A wicked light gleaming in his red eyes, Naruto stepped closer to Sasuke, nearly pressing himself against the Uchiha heir’s body. A quick tightening of the hands on his biceps halted Sasuke’s attempt to step back, and the Uchiha found himself forced to look up into the face of the demon who was suddenly, inexplicably taller than him. Swallowing uncomfortably, Sasuke scowled up at him.

“Naruto…” he ground out as a warning.

Unnaturally sharp teeth glinted in the dappled sunlight as the demon’s grin grew. “All I was saying, Sasuke-kun,” he began, voice lowered to a deep rumble, “is that I’m so happy I could kiss you.”

Poof.

Without warning, a confused Naruto found himself holding a log in his hands. He blinked in surprise, then glanced up at the Uchiha, who was now standing several meters away with a murderous expression on his face. He glanced back down at the log.

“Aw.”

“Don’t. Even. Think about it.” Irritated at having to fight down another blush, Sasuke strode past the demon, heading deeper into the woods. “We don’t have time to play your little games.”

Naruto tossed the log aside and trotted up to the irate Uchiha’s side. “Lighten up, Sasuke,” he replied cheerily. “It’s not like I was actually going to plant one on you. I’m just trying to convey my gratitude.”

“Do me a favor. Don’t.” Sasuke glared at him. “And, for the last time, stop flirting with me. It’s disturbing.”

Naruto shrugged carelessly, linking his hands behind his head and staring up at the thick, high canopy above their heads.

“I can’t help it. I’m stuck with you, you’re pretty, and you keep proving that you’re not the heartless dick I thought you were. Flirting is the natural consequence.” The blond tilted his head to the side, slanting a glance at his fuming master. “At least you know I’m not serious. I told you, I’m not into Uchihas.”

Sasuke grunted in reply, glowering at being called “pretty.” Grumpily, he increased his stride.

“I don’t care. We have enough on our hands with this mission. I don’t want to have to deal with—”

“Worrying about your virtue?”

“…Your insinu—what?” Sasuke took a deep breath, gathering the shreds of his patience and temper. He ground his teeth together. If I keep rising to the bait, Naruto’s jokes will never stop. With great difficulty, he forced himself to adopt a cool, professional tone. “Sand is a good five days away from Konoha, and that’s assuming we spend most of our time running. The Kazekage won’t be inclined to be gracious, and probably stands to benefit if something happens to us or to the team he assigns us. I’ll need you on your guard.”

Naruto sighed and waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah. I’m sure I can handle him and his goons. You forget, you’re traveling with the number one demon in the land.” He winked. “We’ll be fine.”

“I’m sure your capable hands have it covered,” Sasuke replied dryly, “but try to keep an eye out anyway.”

The demon grunted. “Whatever.” Without warning, Naruto leapt up into the thick branches above them, racing ahead with powerful strides. He glanced back over his shoulder, calling out, “If it takes us a full five days to get there, Sasuke, it’ll be because your pansy ass slowed me down! Get a move on!”

Snarling, Sasuke followed suit, but the demon’s silhouette disappeared within moments. His temples began to throb.

I’m going to kill him before this mission is over.

* * *

Wind howled in Naruto’s ears as he delightedly sprang from tree to tree, flexing muscles that had gone mostly unused for centuries. Adrenaline surged through him and he took a giant leap, launching himself briefly out over the canopy before crashing through it again. He laughed heartily.

This was his land. The Fire Country had belonged to him long before it had been named. Every tree, every mountain, every spirit and animal was under his dominion, and no one else’s. None could challenge him, and few were foolish enough to even try. He owned it, breathing life into the world just as it breathed life into him. Gods, he’d missed it. He’d missed feeling the forest wrap itself around him like a comforting blanket, missed tapping into the threads of power that wove themselves throughout the world he’d known.

He missed it with an ache that squeezed at his ribcage, crushing under the weight of his regret.

Abruptly, regret shifted to rage, a tree creaking ominously beneath him in harmony with the demonic chakra suddenly spilling forth. Naruto’s teeth bared unconsciously.

How DARE he take this from me. Denying me what is mine by BIRTH.

He growled furiously, fists clenched as wave after wave of potent rage crashed through him, clawing at his throat and nerves like a wild beast. The trees around him groaned in sympathy.

He’ll pay. I swear on my life that bastard will PAY.

A sweet-scented wind cut past his nose, startling him out of his dark thoughts. Slowing his strides, Naruto briefly closed his eyes and inhaled. The reminder of his newfound freedom caused the rage to ebb, smoldering at the base of his heart. As if it recognized its usefulness, the gentle breeze curled about him, whispering in his ears and teasing his wild hair. Naruto sighed, opening his eyes. A few more strides brought him to the edge of a sharp slope, and he paused on a thick branch.

The world seemed to expand before him, deep valleys and green mountains greeting him with a faint, warm hum. The mountaintops were dotted with the steam from natural hot springs, wisps that languidly curled upwards to mix with low-lying clouds. Patches of earth and forest soaked in the warm morning sunlight that peeked between the clouds. With a faint chuckle, the breeze that had swirled around Naruto’s head flew off, joining the wind that streamed down the mountainside and into the valley.

Pensively, Naruto raised a clawed hand to his cheek, touching the weak residue of chakra that had been left by the breeze. A bit more of his rage burned away as he took in the living remains of his past realm. The sky did not cry out his name, and the trees did not cheer in his presence like they once did. The spirits that he had relied upon, the demons and elementals that had made the world thrive… He couldn’t feel their presence. At that realization, his heart gave a sick thump, and he sank down into a crouch onto the thick, worn limb, brushing his fingertips against the gnarled, cracked bark. The world suddenly felt hollow, like he’d stepped into a great void. Breathing sharply through his nose, Naruto clenched his teeth and stared mindlessly at the landscape before him. Unbidden, a growl rose to his lips, and he dug his fingers into the branch with a sharp crack.

Where the hell had all the magic gone from the world?

Naruto’s growl deepened, red eyes sweeping anxiously back and forth. Who was responsible? They couldn’t have all died while he was gone, could they? The cool chakra on his cheek faded away, and he lifted a hand to rub at it irritably. The moment he shifted, however, an epiphany struck him. His hand froze.

Are they all hiding?

Naruto’s hands began to tremble. Swallowing with anticipation, he leaned down and pressed his cheek against the branch of the tree. Gently, he pushed a wave of chakra through the bark, calling voicelessly. Nothing responded, except for the faint hum of living matter. Unconvinced, he pushed again. And again.

<……………>

Naruto’s breath caught.

<………u……>

A sleepy voice, quiet from centuries of silence, finally responded. With a flash of heat, joy lanced through Naruto and danced up his throat, escaping in a light, happy cry. Grinning wildly, he pushed again.

<Who are you?> he asked insistently. The presence in the tree shifted, giving his chakra an image of a wizened tree spirit, gnarled and brown with age. Its petulant green eyes peered at him through tiny slits. After a long moment, the eyes opened an increment.

<……Kyuu……?>

Naruto’s grin widened. <Yes, old one, it’s me. I’m back!>

The tree spirit seemed to wince at his enthusiasm, the bark-like skin crinkling unpleasantly. <Not……so old……comparatively.>

<Yes, well, I’m more energetic. Why do you hide, old one?>

The leaves of the tree rustled in a weary sigh. <No magic……to sustain…us.> Within the tree, still visible only to Naruto’s chakra, the spirit straightened its twisted back and stared at him through hairs made of stringy vines. As it stared, its face seemed to grow a little less gnarled, a little less wizened. Though its expression didn’t change, a bit of warmth touched that earthy face. <We have all…missed you, my lord.>

A lump appeared in Naruto’s throat, and he had to swallow with difficulty to remove it. He nodded sharply, withdrawing his chakra without a word of goodbye. Wearily, he sat upon the branch of the tree, one leg swinging gently and one leg propped up. He gazed out over the mountains, one hand bouncing gently at the wrist where it rested upon his upraised leg. A maelstrom of indefinable emotions swirled through him, tinged heavily with joy and profound sadness. Joy at the discovery that he was not, as he’d feared, alone.

Sadness that in his absence, the vitality of the land had withered away to nothing. Nothing. If he hadn’t lost his war, if he’d focused on his duties instead of his birthright…

Naruto clenched his teeth furiously, and slammed his fist upon the bark of the tree. The leaves rustled irritably.

I can fix this, he swore to himself, growling under his breath. It doesn’t have to stay this way. I have a chance now.

Eyebrows furrowed thoughtfully, he raised his eyes to the sky. His chest tightened.

And it’s all…because of Sasuke.

Part 2
Back to the beginning

Fox Magic Chapter 12: Legends (Part 2)

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:08:56 GMT

~--------------------------------------~

Sasuke’s lungs felt raw as he raced through the canopy, desperately following the dissipating red chakra before him. His Sharingan was beginning to sting his eyes with the level of focus he’d forced it into, but with only one in fifteen trees that actually had a trace of that damn demon’s chakra on it, he had to squint to find anything at all. The demon had covered so much ground so quickly that even a well-trained Jounin couldn’t keep up with the bastard! Cursing mentally, Sasuke slowed his leaps a fraction to catch his breath.

Pride or no, I can’t keep pushing myself at this rate, he admitted grudgingly, scowling furiously as he raced through the trees. Five days of this will shred my legs.

His injured ego nearly caused him to throw a kunai at a hapless tree, just to vent his frustration. Intellectually, he knew that he shouldn’t be able to keep up with a demon, especially if it was a demon as old as Sasuke was beginning to suspect he was, but…

…Dammit! This was Naruto he was talking about! The obnoxious, moronic, stubborn, flakey blond pixie! It was humiliating to be unable to keep up with anyone that…that…

…Perky!

At the height of his internal fuming, the crystal that bounced against his chest abruptly flared red. A pulse of heat shot through him, coursing down his torso and settling into his legs. Unbidden, he slowed to a stop, standing upon a thin branch that trembled under his weight. Incredulous, he scowled down at his legs.

“Naruto…” he ground out. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

The heat in his legs grew stronger, and a new pulse of chakra from the crystal spilled into his chest.

Sasuke.

The Uchiha stiffened, eyes narrowing at the soundless voice. Light began to shine from the once-blue crystal, casting hued rays in the dusty air. Demonic chakra pooled in his chest, wrapping comfortingly around his heart and lungs.

Sasuke. What do you want from me? Naruto—Kyuubi—the demon’s voice questioned confidently in his head, ageless in a way that his “human” companion was not, but with the same playful tone he’d come to recognize. Do you want power? Strength? Knowledge?

Before he could formulate a reply, Sasuke found his legs springing into action. With a startled gasp, he watched himself bound effortlessly through the trees, the green leaves a blur as he passed them at an inhuman speed. One leg flexed deeply, and he was suddenly launched high above the canopy, arms and legs windmilling as he stared wildly down at the forest below him.

“N-Naruto!!” he spluttered, watching fearfully as he plummeted back down towards the trees. Warmth spread throughout his entire body, forcing him to land with impossible grace before launching him into the air again. Wind screamed past his ears. Fighting for breath—and control of his body!—Sasuke forced out a reply as he plummeted once again, his stomach clenching queasily. “Stop controlling my body, you fucking bastard!!! LET ME DOWN!”

Why? On Sasuke’s next landing, he fell into an animalistic crouch, and his travelling pack smacked him sharply on his back. His limbs slid fluidly into a loping run through the trees, carrying him towards the infuriating demon. I can give you this power, Sasuke. I can make you unstoppable. Without prompting, Sasuke’s left arm exploded into a red Chidori so large that it detonated a tree as he passed by. The thunder of the tree falling resonated deep into Sasuke’s bones. I can make it so that no mortal you come across even has a DREAM of a chance against you.

Sasuke started gasping for breath, fighting a strange sense of panic at the demon’s words. “Naruto! Stop! Get out of my body!!” When his body continued to move without his consent, a spike of fury overrode his fear. “Naruto, I ORDER you to STOP!”

His body came to a halt. Limbs freed, Sasuke leaned over and rested his hands on his knees, head bent as he tried to catch his breath. Naruto’s chakra swirled through him.

I’m serious, Sasuke. All you have to do is ask. What do you want to wish for? What do you desire? I’ll give it to you, whatever it is.

Sasuke wearily pressed a hand to his temple, still doubled over. “And what’s the catch this time?” he demanded angrily. “Am I going to end up in a coma if I agree?”

The demon hesitated. …No catch. I…

Sasuke waited impatiently, his breath finally slowing.

…I…want to. I want to do this for you.

Frowning, the Uchiha heir managed to straighten up. “Why? Why now?”

Because…no one, since I was first enslaved…has done as much for me as you have. You’re different. A stray tendril of chakra reached out of the crystal to brush hesitantly against his cheek. So, if you have a wish, any wish that’s within my power…I will grant it. Just ask.

And suddenly, Sasuke couldn’t breathe. Anything he wanted? The power to defeat his brother, once and for all? The ability to restart his family line, despite the fact that his blood was all that remained? Anything? He could sense the demon waiting for his response, and all of his selfish hopes clamored to the surface. He opened his mouth—

…And sighed heavily. “No, Naruto. I’m not going to make a wish.”

…What??

Sasuke resisted the urge to sit down, rubbing a hand against his forehead as he suppressed the sick feeling in his stomach. “I’m not going to use you that way,” he stated resignedly. “If I’m going to achieve the things I want…I’m going to do them under my own power. I need to know that I’m capable of it.” At least for now, he added ruefully.

Silence reigned through the strange link between them. Sasuke was practically bludgeoned with the demon’s shock as it pulsed through the crystal. After a long moment, Naruto finally blurted a reply.

I… You… I finally cave in and hand you anything you want on a silver platter, and you TURNED ME DOWN??

Sasuke grimaced. “Yes.”

Silence. The foreign chakra within him had stilled, giving him a clear impression of being stared at.

Sasuke…

He braced himself. “What?”

…I really think I’m starting to like you.

* * *

Bathed in the flickering light of dozens of candles, Orochimaru scowled at the series of scrolls before him. Their faded, messy calligraphy had taken him days to sort through, and they had turned out to contain little more than a few useless water jutsu. Frustrated, he swiped the scrolls off his low table and hurled them at the wall, where they made a series of dry thuds. He closed his eyes tightly, clamping down on his anger.

Their claws scraped gleefully upon the floor around him, tapping on his table and some growing so bold as to tug imperceptibly at his hair. A bead of sweat appeared at his temple as he fought to keep from flinching. They had grown more and more daring of late, materializing in his wake with more and more solid forms. The stench of death rose from their putrid, black bodies, and he gagged at their rotting breath when they laughed in his face. It wouldn’t be long before they began to tear at him with their claws.

Taking a deep, calming breath, Orochimaru composed himself. He was running out of time, yes, but nothing that a body-transfer wouldn’t temporarily cure him of. They had been tormenting him for decades, and though they had never actually laid hands on him before, there was no reason to assume that he couldn’t rely on his old tactics of avoiding them.

Another rancid demon tugged more sharply on his hair, and the others laughed maniacally. More sweat appeared on the man’s face, and his stomach churned. Obviously, he would no longer be able to hunt for jutsu based on eyes alone to avoid them. His eyes twitched with worry. If not that, what could he do? How could he save himself from whatever horrible fate awaited him at their hands?

One began to tug at his sleeve. The fabric seemed to soak in some noxious fluid, sagging heavily from his arm. Unnerved, he rose gracefully to his feet and strode towards the door, desperate to distance himself from those inescapable creatures.

As he reached out to open the sliding door, it shifted open of its own accord. They laughed at him. Grinding his teeth undetectably, he stepped back and glared at the young minion before him.

“What?” he demanded. The youth flinched.

“Temae has returned from the raid upon Konoha, Orochimaru-sama. He has urgent news.”

One corner of the man’s lips turned upward in a cruel smile. “I see. And you have deemed this important enough to interrupt me with?”

Before the young ninja could reply, the white-haired Sound ninja in question appeared before him, bowing low to the ground. His eyes shone golden with his eagerness.

“My lord,” he gushed, “please permit me my report. I bring you news of great urgency!”

Orochimaru scowled, turning his back on the ninja. “Perhaps you can inform me, then,” he began in icy tones, “of why you went on an unauthorized…”

The man froze, staring into the room in shock. They had backed away from the door, conversing silently amongst themselves in apparent unease. They had never reacted this way in front of any of his minions before. A vicious streak of curiosity and malicious hope struck him at his core, and he turned around with a pleasant smile.

“Tell me, Temae-kun. What exactly is this…news of yours?”

They trembled.

* * *

Sasuke powered his way through the forest canopy, his legs still shaky after being commandeered by the fox demon. Scowling, he slowed as he finally spotted Naruto’s form ahead of him. The demon was curled up against the trunk of a giant tree, travelling pack wedged against the wood behind him and one leg propped up on the thick branch. As Sasuke approached, Naruto tore his gaze off the scenery before him and turned towards the brunet, an unreadable expression on his face.

Fury snapped and hissed within Sasuke’s chest, cresting as he unsteadily landed upon the branch. He scowled viciously as he stalked forward. Naruto’s eyebrows knitted together, and the broad demon instinctively leaned backwards.

“Sasuke, what—”

CRACK!

Naruto’s head snapped to the side, and he scrabbled desperately at the branch to keep from falling off. Wincing, he stretched his jaw.

“Sasuke, you know, that’s really starting to get old,” he whined.

Sasuke took an enraged step forward, grabbing a fistful of Naruto’s shirt and hoisting him up. Sharingan-lit eyes narrowed, he hissed at the blond demon.

“Don’t you ever steal my body like that again!”

Naruto blinked. “Huh?”

Frustrated, Sasuke shook him violently, taking dark pleasure in the way Naruto’s eyes began to roll. “Don’t. You. EVER. Take control of my body!” His free hand curled into a tight fist and trembled from the Uchiha heir’s restraint. “If you ever do that again—”

“Woah, woah, wait! Don’t finish that sentence!” Naruto blurted, clasping Sasuke’s wrists like a lifeline. He darted to his feet. “If you finish what you’re saying, the ring will…”

When he trailed off, both men glanced down at the offending piece of metal. It had begun to glow faintly. Scowling, Sasuke shoved Naruto backwards and was unimpressed when the man slammed up against the tree trunk.

“Fine. But I don’t ever want you to steal my body again!” He pointed a finger at Naruto’s chest. “No one controls me, understood?”

“Right, right. I got it.” Naruto frowned uncomfortably, running a hand over his rumpled shirt. “I have no idea why you’re so mad, though. I was just trying to show you what I can do for you. I can make you ridiculously powerful, Sasuke. I’m even offering.” He spread his hands wide, shrugging helplessly. “I don’t know what to do with you!”

Sasuke turned his face away, staring disconsolately at the sloping mountains before them. “Is it so unreasonable that I want to do things under my power, rather than borrowing it from someone else?” He rubbed at the scar on his neck, feeling the faint tinge of residual chakra from Orochimaru. Sasuke continued, muttering, “I’ve already learned that lesson.”

Naruto was quiet for so long that Sasuke turned back towards him. The blond’s expression had gone soft, a strangely commiserating glint in his blue eyes.

“No, it’s not unreasonable,” the blond replied quietly. “Not at all.”

The two stood silently, averting their eyes awkwardly. Naruto cleared his throat noisily, tossing his hands up over his head.

“Well! If you want to do it on your own, that just makes you cooler in my book. I might actually move beyond just tolerating you!” Grinning, he moved forward and slapped Sasuke’s shoulder. “Go get ‘em, champ!”

Sasuke stared at the fox demon. “You’re disturbing me.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you always say that. Now, then, we should get moving, right?” Sliding his pack off one shoulder and hanging it at his side, Naruto turned his back on Sasuke and crouched down. “Hop on!”

Sasuke’s eyes began to twitch. “Excuse me?”

Naruto glanced over his shoulder. “I said, hop on! I can get us through these mountains far faster than your pansy-ass can. Let’s go!”

The Uchiha heir nearly growled at him, determinedly turning away and jumping down from the branch. As soon as he landed, the loose earth on the steep slope gave way, sending him on a controlled slide down the mountain. Naruto yelped, then audibly landed behind him and stumbled to catch up.

“Sasuke, what the hell??”

The Uchiha heir glanced over his shoulder at the irate demon and smirked. “I’ve had enough of your pace for the day. Just see if you can keep up.”

Naruto was visibly having issues with the unstable ground, growling as he fought to keep his feet consistently under himself. After centuries of being cooped up, his coordination seemed to have taken a hit. His arms occasionally windmilled. “I can ‘keep up’ just fine, Sasuke, but it’d be a lot easier if you just let me jump down this!”

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. “No jumping. We’re doing things my way today.” Facing forward, he allowed himself a tiny, competitive smile. “Try not to roll down the mountain, usuratonkachi.”

Naruto cursed.

* * *

Sakura balanced her medical tray on one hand while she tried to shuffle her notes around with the other. Her lips turned down into a moue of disgruntlement as she ineffectually shifted her papers around. She couldn’t get the damn door without the use of at least one of her hands, and with her sheets so messy, she couldn’t risk laying them on top of her heaping medical tray without spilling them all over the floor. Growling audibly, she glared at her papers, then at the door, and back at her work with mounting fury.

A throat clearing behind her made her head snap around. Hyuuga Neji stood about a meter away, looking like if he were anyone else, he’d appear uncomfortable. As it was, he merely tilted his head towards the Door of Doom, as Sakura’s overly dramatic imagination was beginning to call it.

“May I?”

Sakura nodded sharply, unconcerned about being caught in yet another display of temper—after all, anyone who visited Hokage Tower on a regular basis had seen it before. Neji dutifully opened the heavy steel door for her, allowing her to stomp past him before following her through. He gave her a short nod and began to head unconcernedly down the hall, but after a moment’s hesitation, she elected to follow him.

“Hyuuga-san. Do you have a moment?”

Neji paused, glancing back at her with a cool expression. Biting her lip, Sakura stepped closer to him.

“What do you think of Sasuke-kun’s new companion?”

The pale-eyed Jounin stared at her impassively. “Which one?”

“Well…both of them. Either of them. I mean…” She glanced away uncertainly. “I went to check up on Kyuubi-chan around noon to make sure that he’s being fed, but he was nowhere to be found.”

Neji’s expression, if possible, became even more unreadable. “And?”

“Well, don’t you think it’s odd? Both Naruto and Kyuubi-chan appeared at almost the same exact time, and when Naruto goes off on a mission with Sasuke, Kyuubi-chan disappears, too. It’s just…weird.” She frowned up at the taller Jounin. “I know you saw them both at the same time, but…”

Neji pressed his lips together before responding. “They were in the same place at the same time. They were both obnoxious. And they both seem to unsettle Uchiha. If the fox followed the two of them on their mission, it’s his prerogative as a familiar.”

“But—”

“Good day, Haruno-san.” With that, Neji continued on his way, leaving the frustrated pink-haired woman behind. Once out of her sight, his eyebrows furrowed. He, too, had noticed something odd about the pair, but for the life of him, he hadn’t been able to figure out what. His Byakugan had turned up nothing out of the ordinary about either of them, and so his mind should have been set at ease.

But he wasn’t. All of his instincts were screaming whenever he thought of the fox or the blond man, and he’d learned long ago to trust them. Was Naruto lying? Where had the familiar come from in the first place? The questions gnawed at him. Pausing by a window, he allowed himself to frown.

Despite the warm late-spring day, an unseasonably cool wind had begun to blow.

* * *

Naruto inhaled deeply, soaking in the scent of warmed earth as he and Sasuke navigated through a particularly dense bamboo forest. Above them, the bamboo trees waved gently in the light early-evening breeze, clacking together irregularly. The sun was just beginning to dip past the horizon, casting up orange and red rays into the clouds like eyelashes that yearned to stay open. Naruto tugged thoughtfully at his red shirt and frowned, glancing warily at the waning moon that was beginning to peek through the bamboo. In response, his ring gave a faint twinge.

Sighing, Naruto lowered his gaze to the young man in front of him and folded his arms behind his head. “You know, I could’ve gotten us up the next mountain by now,” he griped.

Sasuke made a strange, strangled noise, then glared at Naruto over his shoulder. “If you make one more complaint, usuratonkachi, I’m going to kill you.”

The demon pouted. “What? You’re the one forcing a demon who hasn’t been outside in ages to travel at a snail’s pace. My legs are aching!”

Surprisingly enough, his legs actually were burning. Every step and light run—for him—over the course of the day had his legs twitching for release. He wanted to run all over the mountains like a madman, shift into his fox form and leap over rivers and gullies, do anything to bleed off the excess energy he’d pent up inside the Uchiha complex. Being outside, smelling the forest around him and still being unable to cut loose…

“You know what?” he remarked abruptly. “I take it all back.”

Sasuke’s glare had intensified. “Take what back?” he ground out.

“All the nice things I said about you. You really are a bastard.”

Fists clenched, Sasuke viciously tore through the last of the bamboo and stepped out into a narrow, grass covered plateau. A mountain covered with trees rose sharply on their right, flattening out onto the plateau before dropping off into a steep cliff a few meters to their left. The cliff spread out beside them, a broken channel between the darkening mountains. A river flowed quietly at the bottom, winding lazily ahead into the folded landscape. On the dark sides of the mountains ahead, pockets of mist were already beginning to rise from thermal vents.

While Naruto was distracted by the once-familiar landscape, Sasuke turned to face him and scowled. “I’m the bastard? I’m not the one who’s spent all damn day complaining about our pace! Between your stunt this morning and my speed since then, we’ve covered over twice the ground we should have today!” He turned away, adding under his breath, “My legs are killing me thanks to you.”

The demon shrugged, eyeing the dark caves on the distant side of the valley. “If you’d just ridden on my back in the first place—”

“Naruto. Shut. Up.”

Behind Sasuke’s back, Naruto made a face he’d learned from the anime he’d watched on the terribision, pulling down one eyelid and sticking his tongue out. The Uchiha heir twitched ahead of him, giving the demon just enough time to drop the pose and start whistling before the brunet spun around. Naruto smiled at the frustrated growl the younger man released.

“You know, you probably would have fit right in back in the old days,” he stated cheerfully, trotting forward to walk at the grumpy Uchiha’s side. “You snarl beautifully.”

A pale hand reached up to pinch at the bridge of his aristocratic nose. “Naruto…”

Naruto began to reply, but a cool wind abruptly rushed up from the valley and cut him off. The demon stopped walking, inhaling sharply. After a moment, Sasuke paused as well, looking at him strangely.

“Naruto?”

The sea?

The smell of salt and rain flooded the fox’s senses, forcing him to close his eyes. He could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears, loud as a drumbeat upon an overturned tree. Ancient voices rose up around him, laughter and anger and a mischievous smile—

“Naruto!”

With a gasp, the blond opened his eyes and shook his head, clearing the strange thoughts from his head. He glanced down, startled to find Sasuke’s hand clenching his shoulder. The brunet stared at him with narrowed eyes.

“What just happened to you, usuratonkachi?” he demanded. Naruto stared at him, surprised by the faint echo of concern he could feel through the crystal on the young man’s chest. He smiled weakly.

“Nothing. Just…got a little caught up in some…memories.”

The Uchiha heir frowned at him, lifting a hand to clasp at the crystal necklace. Immediately, Naruto felt a sympathetic pulse of warmth in his chest. He shivered.

Sasuke’s eyes trailed over to the cave-speckled cliffs, his thumb rubbing the blue crystal absentmindedly.

“…Your own?”

Naruto blinked at him. “What?”

“Those memories. Were they your own?”

How the hell did he know? Unsettled, Naruto slowly shook his head. “…No. I don’t think so.”

Sasuke nodded slowly, finally pulling his hand away from the crystal. The strange feeling in Naruto’s chest dissipated, but the fox demon found himself more disturbed than before. The two locked eyes, and Sasuke inclined his head in confirmation.

“I had a feeling,” the Uchiha stated. After a quiet moment, he glanced once more at the cliffs and turned away. “Let’s keep moving. We’ll probably have to find a place to camp pretty soon.”

Naruto stared after him, frowning. Just how much insight did that crystal grant Sasuke, anyway? It let him into his dreams, it told him how he felt… He shrugged uncomfortably.

Maybe I was a bit rash in handing that necklace over.

Before he moved to follow Sasuke, he glanced back over at the darkened caves. Storm clouds seemed to be gathering in the rolling mountains beyond them, faintly encouraging an odd pull on his chakra. He wanted… Strangely enough, Naruto felt like he needed to investigate those caves.

At the same time, he felt certain that going there would be a spectacularly bad idea.

Rolling his shoulders, the fox demon determinedly turned his back on the cliffs and followed his master along the plateau. Up ahead, the sun finally lost her grip on the sky and dropped below the horizon, allowing the sky to darken and the moon to brighten.

Though he tried to ignore it, Naruto could swear he heard laughter echoing in the distant storm.

Part 3

Fox Magic 12: Legends (Part 3)

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:21:31 GMT

~--------------------------------------~

Sasuke’s legs tingled as he began to climb the next steep mountain slope, wearily reminding him that he’d more than pushed his limits today. Despite the fox demon’s rants, they’d been travelling for hours at a full sprint for Sasuke, stopping only to choke down some rations for lunch. Though he hated to admit it, he’d probably have to take it easier the next day, or else his body would be useless by the time they reached Sand. Eyebrows furrowed, he rubbed at one aching shoulder. If it weren’t for the fact that the obnoxious demon would rub it in his face, Sasuke would probably ask him to heal his sore muscles, but he was already having trouble trying not to kill him as it was.

“I’m hungry!”

…Really having trouble.

Sasuke closed his eyes. “Naruto, we need to find a campsite. Then we can eat.”

“But, Saaaasukeeeeeee…” the demon whined, crashing noisily through the underbrush. “We’ve had nothing to eat since we left but those awful protein bars. If we don’t get something real to eat soon, I’m going to eat you!”

When the demon moved next to him on their impromptu path, Sasuke leveled him with a glare. “You know that real food is too bulky to take with us, Naruto. You’ll survive.”

Naruto lifted a branch over his blond head, glancing at Sasuke with red eyes. “Uchiha. I’m serious.”

Sasuke paused before replying, stepping over a fallen log. The demon’s teeth were noticeably longer, his canines even beginning to peek out from under his lips. The brunet sighed heavily.

“Fine. If you think you can find us something, you can go hunt, but don’t forget we need to—”

Before he could finish, Naruto melted into a giant, wolf-sized fox and darted past him into the woods, brushing a tail or two against Sasuke’s leg as he passed. In his wake, his pack lay innocent and forgotten on the ground. The Uchiha heir rolled his eyes heavenward, asking for strength. “…Find somewhere to sleep.”

Moments after the fox departed, the woods around him began to hum quietly with noise, crickets and owls tentatively filling the silence. After grudgingly shouldering the second pack, Sasuke trudged forward, deep in thought. He hadn’t even noticed the unnatural stillness of the forest until Kyuubi had run off. Obviously, animals could tell that the demon was a force to be reckoned with even in his human form.

And yet, human eyes, even ninja eyes, couldn’t gauge what he was. Despite fighting against him and getting inadvertently trapped in Kyuubi’s mind, Sasuke had no doubts that he was desperately underestimating his companion’s power. Out here, in his element, Kyuubi almost seemed a part of the nature surrounding him, like he was feeding off it and feeding it at the same time. Once or twice during the day, Sasuke had glanced at the demon with his Sharingan, but the red chakra was fluxing too strangely and quickly for him to figure out what Kyuubi was actually doing with it.

If, of course, the demon was even aware of it. For him, it could simply be excess chakra spilling over.

These contemplations were what led him to his conclusion, with the help of the crystal, that the memories Naruto had felt by the cliffs were not his own. For that moment, he’d felt it as surely as the demon himself probably had. Naruto was so in tune with the land that the memories were actually those from the landscape itself.

And for that second, Sasuke had felt it resonate within himself, too. The sheer power of the natural world… It was incredible. Exhilarating.

If he’d been abruptly cut off from that kind of force, Sasuke was sure he’d be more than a little edgy himself. As it was, he couldn’t fathom how Naruto had kept his sanity, losing nature AND his freedom to a bunch of sadistic megalomaniacs.

“Sasuke, no! Don’t turn off the terribision! No! I neeeeeeeeed iiiiiiit!”

“What do you MEAN we can’t have ramen for dinner, too? Are you nuts?!”

“Nothing’s wrong with me, you fantastic, wonderful creature!”

“I take it all back. You really are a bastard.”

Then again, perhaps he hadn’t.

With a sigh, Sasuke broke through the forest and found himself staring at a worn stone stairway that led up the mountainside, a wooden torii with long-since faded red paint teetering at the base. He squinted up into the dark recesses of the forest, but he couldn’t make out the outline of the shrine that was at the other end of the stairs. Since he couldn’t detect any chakra, it’d probably been abandoned ages ago.

“Shashuke!!”

Without warning, Kyuubi burst into sight, several dead…things in his mouth. He grinned around his prizes, bloody teeth glinting in the moonlight.

“You’g neber guegg whad I foud!”

Sasuke stared at the dead animals flopping about in the fox demon’s mouth, his stomach churning. “Kyuubi. Spit those out, then talk.”

The fox demon rolled his eyes, but he obediently dropped the carcasses and straightened, resuming his human form. He pointed up the slope excitedly.

“Sasuke, there’s a clearing right up there, and guess what’s next to it??” Naruto bounced twice on his heels before blurting, “A hot spring! A natural hot spring, and no monkeys in it or anything!”

Sasuke’s aching muscles made the decision for him. “Then that’s where we’ll camp tonight. I think the shrine up here is abandoned anyway, so we shouldn’t have to worry about being spotted.”

Naruto nodded happily, bending down to gather up his prey. “Yeah, I saw it. The building’s pretty run down, and whoever they housed there is long gone.” When he straightened, he tossed something dead and spit-soaked at him. “Here! That one’s for you.”

The Uchiha heir caught it by instinct, wrinkling his nose in distaste. He turned it over gingerly. A rabbit.

“…Thank you,” he intoned dryly. “And what about you?”

A horrific crunching sound answered him. Slowly, Sasuke lifted his gaze. Half a…bird?...was sticking out of Naruto’s mouth, shifting jerkily as he chewed on it with sharpened teeth. As he watched, the bird disappeared down the blond’s throat. Grinning, Naruto smacked his lips.

“I’m good. I had a couple on my way back down.” Stepping forward, he took his pack back from Sasuke and slung it haphazardly over his shoulders. “Let’s go!”

“…You do realize how disgusting you are.”

“Huh?”

“…Never mind.”

Within a few minutes of silent walking, the pair crossed into the clearing Naruto had spoken of. A fire was already blazing in the center of it, light dancing upon the glistening rocks of the hot spring beside the grassy spot. Up above, dark clouds were slowly approaching the moon. Sasuke nodded in satisfaction, gratefully shrugging off his pack.

“Nice work,” he admitted. “Now we just have to—”

As he spoke, his tent and sleeping bags flew off the top of his pack and began setting themselves up beside the fire. Sasuke watched, his lips pursed.

“I didn’t ask you to do that, Naruto,” he stated irritably.

“Ask me to do what?” a muffled voice replied. Sasuke looked over to see the blond tangled up in his shirt, his pants already halfway down his legs. Naruto finally freed his head, balling up the red shirt and tossing it on the ground. He glanced over his shoulder, blue eyes taking in the campsite. “Oh. Huh. Fancy that.”

Sasuke sighed. “How often are you going to do things like this?”

“Whenever you feel lazy enough to want me to, I guess,” the demon replied, bending over after he apparently realized that the shoes had to go before the pants could come off. “Did you want me to cook that rabbit for you?”

The Uchiha heir stared at the dead animal in his hands, then at the fire, and then at the steaming hot spring.

“…It can cook while we soak.”

Naruto grinned at him in reply. Less than two seconds later, the blond was naked and easing himself into the water. He let out a long, overly enthusiastic moan.

Shaking his head, Sasuke headed over towards the brightly burning fire and glanced dubiously at the assorted sticks nearby. “Say, Naruto, would you mind?”

The blond didn’t bother to turn around, simply waving a hand in the air. The rabbit subsequently skinned and spit itself, rotating slowly over the fire on a newly constructed stand. Intrigued despite himself, Sasuke wandered towards the edge of the hot spring and began pulling off his clothes.

“I’m still wondering how you did that,” he murmured, slipping carefully into the hot, volcanic water a few moments later. The heat from the water sank perfectly into his starving muscles, causing him to let out a low moan as he settled down upon the smooth rocks at the bottom of the shallow pool. He stretched his legs out gratefully and let his head fall back against the rim.

“Mm. Guess I’m just more in tune with you than before,” Naruto replied drunkenly. His hands drifted lightly across the surface of the water, trailing ripples through it. Sasuke rolled his head to the side, watching him.

“Shouldn’t you be uncomfortable in here? I thought water was your contrasting element.”

Naruto continued to stare at his sweeping hands, a slow grin steadily crossing his face. “Nope. This water’s been heated by magma.” He looked up, baring his teeth at Sasuke. “This is my element, now.”

Something in Naruto’s eyes caused Sasuke to straighten, gazing intently at the blond. He could feel his demon companion’s chakra levels rising. “Naruto…?”

The blond continued to stare back at him, his grin fading to a quieter, enigmatic smile. His features began to blur in the rising steam, his whisker marks fading and his hair tinting red in spots at the roots. Swallowing hard, Sasuke shifted.

“Kyuubi...?” he restated hesitantly. The demon simply smiled, eyes turning red, then violet. The rising chakra in the pool began to swirl around him, leaving red marks upon his collarbone and forearms. In the dancing firelight, it looked like the air above Kyuubi’s shoulders had begun to spark, tiny flames jumping over his skin. His heart hammering in his chest, Sasuke found himself entranced.

His cheekbones were high and refined, framed on either side by his pointed, elven ears. Kyuubi’s wild hair, now completely shot through with red strands, ruffled in a faint breeze and glinted in the firelight. Now, bathed in his element, Kyuubi had returned to his otherworldly form.

The demon was beautiful.

The volcanic energy from the water skirted around and through Kyuubi’s body, glancing off his ethereal face like it had kissed him as it passed. Kyuubi’s long nails continued trailing through the water, causing tiny flames to dance over the surface. Sasuke was completely unable to break their gaze, and he found himself breathing shallowly in an instinctive attempt to keep from shattering the sudden, heady mood. The Kyuubi who sat beside him was not the bumbling idiot he saw every day. This was the warrior, the king.

Unbidden, Sasuke’s lips moved. “How old are you?”

Kyuubi’s violet eyes blinked in surprise, and the demon let out a low, rich laugh. “Actually, I’m not sure,” he replied in a strangely modulated voice. “Obviously, I lied about being a few centuries old.”

“Obviously.” Sasuke continued to stare at his companion. “So?”

“Well…I was imprisoned about a thousand years ago. Before that…” The demon tilted his head back, staring up at the moon, the encroaching clouds, and the remaining stars. “I’m really not sure. We don’t really keep time the same way you do. I remember being a tiny little fox when you humans first started figuring out how to set up rice paddies.”

If his mind weren’t already boggled, the incredible sense of time that washed over Sasuke would have done it. “So…two thousand years or so.”

“I suppose.”

Dazedly, the Uchiha heir slowly shook his head. “That…is very old.” His eyebrows furrowed. “Why did you lie to me?”

The demon chuckled again, tilting his head to gaze at Sasuke. “Honestly? I thought you would make fun of me. In light of that, I…bent the truth.”

“No, you flat-out lied.” Sasuke raised his hand to his forehead, rubbing it wearily. “I…Two thousand years. I can’t even fathom that.”

Kyuubi smirked at him. “You’ll get over it.”

Sasuke lowered his hand, frowning at the immortal being next to him. He couldn’t process it. This…person next to him was millennia old. Ancient. Out of the water, out of his head, the demon acted anything but. In this form, however…

Sasuke believed him.

Hesitantly, Sasuke stretched one arm out across the slick rocks. “Then how… How did you get enslaved?”

In a flash, the demon’s face hardened. “…I lost a war.” He scowled down at the water. “I lost a war, and a lot of good people. And I’ve been paying for it ever since.”

“Who did you fight?” As soon as the question left his lips, the crystal upon his chest sent a spike of pain through him. Kyuubi hissed quietly, dipping his ringed hand beneath the water. The pain eased.

The two sat in silence for a long moment, Kyuubi frowning at the steaming water. Slowly, he lifted a cupped hand. Water spilled over the sides of his palm and fingers, but within moments chakra bubbled within the liquid and burst forth, igniting an apple-sized flame over the demon’s hand. Both of the stared at the fire.

“Did you know,” Kyuubi began quietly, “that without fire, we wouldn’t have the sun, or the moon, or the storms?”

Sasuke slowly shook his head.

The flame danced above Kyuubi’s palm. “Back before any of this existed, there were two gods. A man, Izanagi, and his sister-wife, Izanami. The two of them grew lonely, and they begat children. The isles of Japan.”

Chakra rose and fell like a tide within the spring. Kyuubi continued.

“After they created Japan, they decided to have another child. His name was Kagutsuchi, the god of fire. He was so powerful that he burned his mother from the inside out and killed her.” Kyuubi shifted the flame in his hand. “Izanagi, struck with grief, slaughtered Kagutsuchi, and his remains became all the fires of Japan. Izanagi couldn’t go on without his wife, and he went to the underworld to see her, but it was too late. She couldn’t come back with him.

“When Izanagi broke his promise to refrain from looking at her, Izanami chased him out of the underworld. She became the goddess of death.”

A cold wind blew across the clearing.

“After he left the underworld, Izanagi decided to cleanse himself. As he washed his left eye, he created Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun. From his right eye, he created the mood god, Tsukuyomi. And from his nose, he created the god of the storms, the seas, and chaos, Susanoo.”

The flame went out. The demon dropped his hand, looking over at Sasuke and pinning him with an intense gaze. “If Kagutsuchi hadn’t killed his mother with his birth, Izanagi never would have created the sun, the moon, or the seas.”

Sasuke was silent for a long moment, then roughly cleared his throat. “You make it sound like this is a true story.”

Kyuubi smiled wryly. “Sasuke. You’re sitting in a hot spring with a two-thousand-year-old demon. Is it really that hard to believe?”

The Uchiha heir snorted. “I suppose not. I’m also assuming there’s a reason you told me that story.”

The fox demon shook his head, red and gold hairs tossing. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Your rabbit is done.”

“My what?” Startled, Sasuke glanced back at the clearing. His rabbit had turned a beautiful golden brown, and the scent was just starting to make its way over to him. His stomach growled. “I… Alright.”

Glancing warily at the pensive demon beside him, Sasuke lifted himself out of the water. His muscles felt completely loose and relaxed, making him slightly lightheaded as he sat on the side of the pool. Cautiously, he reached out and rested a hand on Kyuubi’s shoulder, ready to continue questioning him. Instead, a shocking jolt of heat and chakra rushed through him at the contact, ripping a quiet gasp from his lips. Kyuubi turned to look at him, his eyes returning to red and his whiskers slowly reappearing on his face. Naruto gave him a cheeky grin.

“You’d better eat that before I get over there. It smells pretty damn good.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes, removing his hand from the blond man’s shoulder. His palm tingled from the energy exchange, and he flexed his fingers uncomfortably. The contact had felt oddly good. Really good. Unsettled, he stood and moved towards his clothing, pulling it on.

“Just get out of the water, Naruto. We’re going to bed after I finish eating.”

“Yes, mother,” Naruto replied in a smarmy voice, reluctantly rising from the steaming water.

Sasuke shot a glare at him, then slowly smirked. “Strange for a geezer like you to be calling me his mother. Two thousand years, and you still can’t change your nappies?”

“HEY! That is NOT FUNNY!” Spluttering and his cheeks red, Naruto hurriedly climbed out of the spring. “See? This is why I didn’t want to tell you!”

The Uchiha heir snorted, heading over to the rabbit and removing it from the fire. He blew on it gently. “Don’t worry about it, old man. I still respect my elders.”

“Saaaasukeeeeeee!” Naruto whined, pulling on his clothing. “Cut it out!”

“After all the torment you put me through today?” Vicious pleasure swept through him as he gave the blond fox demon a smug grin. “What do you think?”

Naruto’s resulting groan startled the birds out of the nearby trees. Unnoticed by either man, the dark clouds above finally overtook the moon, obscuring it from view. Despite the darkening sky, the banter around the fire continued well into the night.

Up above, a silent watcher was growing distinctly aggravated.

* * *

A tall man frowned in elegant disapproval as his view was obscured, folding his bejeweled arms within his long, ornately decorated kimono sleeves. The silver fabric glimmered in the cool light of his white palace, colors dancing within the expert weave like the facets of a diamond. The ground outside beamed with a powerful white light, diminished only by the dark storm clouds below. Unaware of his displeased regard, several gray rabbits skittered across the silvery surface, each nibbling on stolen mochi.

“What’s the matter, brother? Did I come at a bad time?”

The man turned gracefully, leveling his sibling with a narrowed gaze. “You seem to make a habit of it, Susanoo. Why should now be any different?”

“Oh, brother, as stuffy as always. Even our darling sister is more fun to visit, and she’s hated me for most of the last ten thousand years.” Susanoo leapt off a tiny floating storm cloud, alighting upon the palace’s impeccable marble floor without a sound. A hand went instantly to his long, thin beard, and he smiled impishly. “Upset that your entertainment for the evening has been cancelled?”

“Because of you.” The moon god’s handsome face turned away, staring at the obscured Earth as though his very gaze could drive the clouds away. “Remove yourself at once. Your interference is not appreciated.”

The chilling tone of his older brother’s voice would have sent anyone else running. Susanoo merely waved his hand in dismissal.

“My interference is never appreciated. Though honestly, brother, I’ve gone along with this scheme of yours for over a thousand years. The world is boring without him, and you know it.”

Tsukuyomi did not turn, but his icy regard was palpable. “Boring? Since he and his friends have been enslaved, the human world has stabilized. There is order now, and you call it boring?”

“Yes. I do.” Susanoo sighed, lifting a hand and twirling it in a circle. Some of the more distant storm clouds obediently churned, forming a funnel down to the Earth. “Kyuubi was a messenger of chaos as much as anything else. I like him.”

“You would.” Tsukuyomi began to walk along the sacred hallways of his moon palace, his kimono swishing quietly as he moved. Susanoo trailed along behind him, glancing curiously at the rabbits outside. “The world has no place for that demon, nor for what he planned to become. He will learn his place.”

“It’s been a thousand years,” Susanoo quipped, navigating around a tiny maiden in a twelve-layered kimono who was daintily shuffling down the hallway, quoting poetry to her equally tiny attendants. “I’m guessing by your attitude that his lack of education is frustrating you.”

Tsukuyomi’s frown grew more pronounced. “I do not require your input, little brother. You may go visit our sister if you so feel the need to needle.”

“No thanks. She’s still a mite touchy after that whole horse thing, and I’d rather not spend more time with our step-mother, if it’s all the same to you. Besides, you’re the one deliberately mucking up my fun.”

“Because all that I do, naturally, is centered upon you,” the moon god replied dryly.

“Isn’t it?”

Tsukuyomi came to a stop, finally able to see the Earth beyond the clouds his brother had created. Susanoo glowered, noticing, but he made no move to obscure his elder sibling’s view. It made no difference—the fox demon was no longer in sight. Instead, a bleak land of wind and sand filled their view.

They watched as the tanuki demon wandered out onto a balcony, staring up at the moon with hateful eyes. Lips curled up, Tsukuyomi removed his hands from his sleeves, revealing eight rings. Only his pinkies went unadorned. With some small amount of pleasure, he tapped the silver ring on his right middle finger. Far below him, the tanuki demon crumpled to the ground in pain.

Susanoo watched quietly, an indeterminate emotion in his eyes. Pity, perhaps? Tsukuyomi wondered idly. The moon god ceased the spell’s activation, fingering the gold band on his left ring finger briefly before slipping his hands back into his sleeves. He watched contentedly as the demon slowly rose to his feet, clenched his fists, and returned to his master’s side.

The storm god refrained from speaking for several minutes, a feat that surprised his older sibling.

“How long, older brother?” Susanoo finally asked quietly. “How long must you make them suffer?”

Tsukuyomi stared at the strange, uncouth, unfathomable world below him.

“However long it takes."

Chapter 13: Identity

(I suppose) I'm not dead! -post

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:54:25 GMT

I figured I would post a notice here, in case anyone checks it wondering why I haven't updated in ages (with the exception of a few people who I know luvvels me and would get this update anyway, and you know who you are). I haven't updated for a series of reasons-- first, I had extreme problems getting back home from Japan, and nearly had to go to the Embassy to beg them to send me home. Once that bit of stress was over, I was honestly too lazy to get back in the seat again.

Recently, I had finally geared up enough to write again, thanks to some friendly (and ever-so-slightly threatening) nudging by arcane and phoenixdown, and was finally going to start typing.

But right now, I'm truthfully not much in the mood at the moment, as I have a serious problem that won't go away any time soon, barring a miracle.

My parents might lose their house--my house--within a month, and end up on the streets. I'll be back at school, living off my scholarship (thank god, or I'd have been forced to drop out ages ago, with this crap economy), and living in a house with my friends until I graduate in May, but I'll have no home to come back to, and I have no idea where my parents will go. We've been running on fumes for a long time, and the fumes themselves have run out. We might get a turnaround in fortune (mom's a broker who works on commission, so you never know), but with the way things are going, I'm going to lose my family and my home, and have to try and start a life with bad credit, no savings, and no legs to stand on.

So, writing is a little far from my mind at the moment.

Something may work out, and I'll be spitting sunshine and shitting roses, but until then, frankly, I'm too damn stressed. No one's been bugging me about it and everyone's been giving me space, but I figured that anyone who was wondering and waiting had a right to know, if they wanted to.

I also get the therapeutic benefit of venting.

Hopefully I'll have better news for you in the near future, and I'll relax enough to continue writing. I have not and will not abandon(/ed) Fox Magic, as I have many, many fun things to spring on everyone, but it is on a short hiatus until things change enough for me to relax.

Thanks,
Akai

Twilight Zone

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:53:25 GMT

Ok, my first post after the withdrawl was going to be about sakura and hanami (flower viewing), during which I ate great food, watched cherry blossoms fall to the ground, and saw a very drunk man take off all his clothes in full view of the entire park. Japan's sakura are definitely famous for a reason, and I was lucky enough to walk down streets positively lined with them on my way to and from school.

As soon as they fell, the bushes below them began to bloom, so you definitely can't say the city landscapers didn't plan this one out. Nagoya is gorgeous.

But, sadly, that's not why I'm posting.

I'm posting because I've discovered the japanese version of The Twilight Zone (or Outer Limits, since the show is recent and in color, I suppose), and it has FREAKED ME OUT.

If I had a good program for it, I'd sub the episodes I could find and post them.

The one I just saw was completely messed up. Aw MAN. It was called "Kage ga omonaru: The shadow's important." Basically, people began running into frozen ghosts of themselves, looking up at the sky and smiling. More and more people ran into their "shadows" and were freaking out. They could touch them, but no one else could see or feel them. One old guy had figured out why: the shadows were an afterimage of the future. The shadows were them, which was why they couldn't walk into the same space. It was already occupied. Then they realized that everyone's shadow (if they were wearing a watch) had frozen at the same time. One little girl, who always kept track of the date, even knew what day they would freeze.

Then they realized that a missile launch had gone haywire, and it was about to hit them.

So right before it hit, there was a bright rainbow, and everyone looked at it and smiled.

AND THEN THEY ALL DIED.

In. fricking. sane.

If you want to look up the show, it's called "Yo nimo kimyou na monogatari," or Strage Stories in the World (roughly, hard to exactly translate that). I found it on youtube. 世にも奇妙な物語 Many of the episodes don't really require any japanese language ability...the overly large gestures should tell you what's going on. Lol.

Find it. Watch it. Freak yourself out.

^_^

Fox Magic: Chapter 4 (What's in a Name?) Part I

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 14:08:53 GMT

F o x M a g i c

by akaitsume

~---------------------------~

Genre: AU(ish)/Drama/Action/Adventure/Romance/Mystery

Pairings: NaruSasuNaru
Rating: R (for the moment)
Warnings: Fantasy-esque, Zoomorphism, AU, a liberal dose of Japanese mythology, violence, strong language, references to abuse/torture in later chapters, and (eventually) limes and lemons.
Disclaimer: Kishimoto owns with the characters, but I think I'm having more fun with them at this point than he is. No profit is made from tinkering with them.

Summary: A decision made in the heat of the moment leaves Sasuke questioning his past, his future, and his convictions, all while dealing with an ancient, all-powerful fox demon whose grudge transcends both time and space. NaruSasuNaru, canonish AU

~--------------------------------------~

Stealing silently along the darkened streets, Sasuke raced towards his team’s meeting point. Several other Jounin rested against the outer wall of the city, looking solemn as they watched the tremendous gate. The Uchiha nodded shortly as he came to a stop beside them.

“What is there to report?” he asked gruffly. Rock Lee straightened from the wall, visibly restraining himself from launching into a set of nervous pacing.

“The first patrol managed to catch one of the intruders, but...” The man lowered his great eyebrows, frowning. “Not only have they been unable to catch the others, but the first also managed to give himself cardiac arrest before they could get any information out of him.”

Eyes narrowing, Sasuke glanced up at the shadowed heights of the wall. “Why haven’t they attacked the city outright? What are they waiting for?”

“Nightfall?” Kiba suggested in a flat tone, running a hand along the tremendous dog head at his side. Akamaru growled lightly. “Sound always was best at night stealth. Since they almost got caught in broad daylight, they might be taking their time.”

“Hmm.” Shifting his weight, Sasuke glanced at the darkened sky as the last vestiges of twilight disappeared. Marvelous. Unbidden, a hand rose to the old scar on his neck. He would never forget that encounter with Orochimaru so many years ago, nor would he ever fully forgive himself for his mistake. With a slight shudder, he fought down the remembered sensation of fangs ripping into his shoulder, bleeding his chakra from him with the intent to kill...

“Let’s go.” Neji’s calm voice startled Sasuke out of his thoughts, and the pale Uchiha lowered his arm. With a wordless agreement from their four-man-one-dog group, they disappeared into the night air.

Silence was his element. Golden eyes gleaming in the moonlight, the Sound ninja shifted atop a thick branch. His mouth gaped and puffed like a fish, swallowing the slight noises that his comrades made as they halted beside him. When one idiot actually slipped, a second mouth appeared on his left arm and gnawed at the air. The Sound ninja glared at his comrade.

“Could you be any more careless?” he mouthed irritably. His comrade simply rolled his fluorescent pink eyes, shrugging his long violet hair to the side. When the first Sound ninja scowled, a high-pitched voice sighed in his head.

“Relax, Kuchi. No harm done.” The young, lavender-haired ninja grinned, revealing a series of abnormally sharp teeth. “These Konoha ninjas wouldn’t sense us if we bit them in the ass.”

Kuchi scowled. “Thinking that way will get us killed, Koe.”

Sobering, Koe gave him a sharp nod at the reminder of their fallen comrade. Satisfied that the idiotic youngster would behave, Kuchi sealed the mouth on his arm. Both ninjas stared into the waving trees. After a moment, another member of their party with white hair twitched.

“They approach,” he stated softly, allowing his words to be swallowed by the ever-vigilant Kuchi. Nodding, the others shifted into position. Kuchi gave a short smile, unnaturally golden eyes glinting.

Attack Konoha... His lips moved silently, delivering the message internally. Attack. Attack at all costs.

Opening three new mouths upon his mostly bared torso, he sucked in a large breath.

Attack...

Sasuke’s breath felt abnormally loud in the night air as their group traveled through the trees on the outskirts of the village. He paused briefly upon one branch, absorbing the impact of his jump with one leg as he quickly swept the area with his Sharingan. Seeing nothing, he pushed off the branch and continued making his way through the forest.

When Kiba briefly caught his eye with a questioning gaze, Sasuke shook his head. The dog-lover’s lips tightened. Beckoning to Akamaru, Kiba pulled a little ahead of the group. Sasuke fell to the right, Lee to the left, and Neji dropped back to form a diamond. Aside from the light shifting of branches in the wind, nothing in the forest stood—

A wave of scorching heat shot through Sasuke’s body. Before the Uchiha knew what he was doing, he sent a kunai sailing into the trees ahead. As he watched his kunai disappear, Sasuke’s eyebrows furrowed. What the hell just happened here? I never meant to throw that...

His thoughts trailed to a stop as a dull, wet thud shot through the forest. Gasping, Kiba drew to a stop.

“Blood!”

The other three men barely had a chance to stop before three Sound ninjas burst out of the darkness. With a strange howl, a ninja with violet hair launched himself at Kiba. The spiky-haired ninja lifted an arm to protect himself, calling Akamaru to him with his free hand. The large white dog leapt upon Kiba’s shoulder and sprang towards the Sound ninja, growling as he snapped at the man’s shoulder. Twisting away, the ninja landed upon a nearby tree, opened his mouth...and let out an ear-piercing wail.

Ignoring the pain to his own ears, Sasuke attempted to rush to Kiba’s side as the man crumpled, hands over his ears. Blood began to seep through his fingers.

Just before Sasuke reached the man’s side, a flash of chakra behind him caused him to spin about. A hand cloaked in black chakra shot past him, missing his side by inches. Grunting, Sasuke freed a blade along his sleeve and slashed at his attacker. The man fell back, golden eyes glinting in the moonlight. The Uchiha’s lips thinned.

Kiba! Glancing through the corner of his eyes, Sasuke saw Lee stand guard over the fallen man, launching attacks at the intermittently shrieking and giggling Sound ninja. Checking his left, Neji seemed preoccupied with a white-haired ninja. Sasuke frowned, returning his gaze to the man in front of him. The ninja smiled.

“Looking for your kunai?” the man whispered. The Uchiha’s eyes narrowed briefly, but they snapped open when his Sharingan flashed the ninja’s forward movement seconds before the man attacked. Flipping backwards out of the way, Sasuke landed one hand on a branch, reached the other into his pack, and threw an explosive at the man before pushing backwards onto another branch. Strangely, the Sound ninja didn’t dodge the explosive. Instead, the man raced towards it, placing his chest directly into the explosive’s path.

Eyebrows furrowing, Sasuke scanned the area for a possible clone. If he’s willing to sacrifice himself, then there must be—

His thoughts trailed off as the skin on the man’s chest parted before the explosive. False teeth glinting, the pseudo-mouth snapped shut around the bomb. The ninja smiled.

...This just got a lot harder... Scowling, Sasuke fell back to give himself more reaction time should the man attack. Ok, so projectiles are out.

As the ninja raced towards him, Sasuke focused his chakra. He felt a familiar heat froth upon his tongue, puffing his cheeks out. Narrowing his eyes, he waited until the ninja was directly in front of him.

Fwooom!

Sasuke shot a fireball point-blank at the ninja, allowing a brief surge of triumph to shoot through him as the ninja cried out.

A second wave of that bizarre heat shot through him, forcing him to leap to his right. As he did, he caught the glint of a kunai—his kunai—racing past his left cheek. What the hell? Regaining his balance, Sasuke focused on the man’s chakra. His eyes widened slightly as it shifted, parting at the ninja’s collar to regurgitate Sasuke’s explosive. With a crazed glint in his eye, the Sound ninja “spat” the bomb at the Uchiha.

Sasuke began to dodge when his feet abruptly burned as though lit on fire. With his upper body moving backwards, Sasuke felt his feet shift...

...And a kunai sailed harmlessly between his spread legs from behind as the bomb flew past him overhead.

Glaring, Sasuke glanced back to see Neji strike at the white-haired ninja as a hand slid back into the man’s shoulder. Dammit. Using his odd position, Sasuke placed his hands over his head upon the branch and flipped backwards. Briefly, Sasuke wondered at the bursts of heat that seemed to be controlling him, but seeing as the phenomenon wasn’t actively trying to kill him—yet—he decided to deal with that in its own time. He sank into a crouch, attempting to lock eyes with the ninja in front of him. Sasuke wasn’t a master of Mangekyou yet, but the level he could manage should be enough to take this ninja out of commission.

As the other ninja approached, Sasuke locked eyes and smirked, throwing his energy across the small gap between them. The ninja’s pupils widened, allowing Sasuke to draw the man into an illusion. He cast them into a barren desert, chaining the man to a pillar and lifting a sword to plunge into the man’s heart.

Sasuke!

Gasping, Sasuke found himself wrenched out of the illusion as his body was shoved forward. An arm came up around his waist, pulling him back against a solid body. Reflexively, Sasuke slashed backwards with the short blade from his sleeve. The man behind him grunted as it sank into his side.

“Fine thanks I get for saving your life,” the man growled into his ear. Sasuke stiffened.

Kyuubi? Scowling, the Uchiha glanced at the man behind him. What the hell is HE doing he—

Sasuke’s thoughts paused as the blond grunted several more times, shifting as he took impacts upon his back. Eyebrows furrowing, Sasuke pushed away from him, intent on returning to the battle before him. The Sound ninja grinned at him...and grinned again, and again, and again. Mouths appeared all over the man’s bared torso, baring their teeth at him. A swell of chakra pressed at Sasuke’s senses.

Shit.

Before the Uchiha could shift out of the way, the Sound ninja appeared to “inhale.” Wind soundlessly raced towards the slim man, pulling Sasuke with it. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke placed both hands in front of him, channeled his chakra, and waited as he was drawn towards the ninja. As he approached, the mouths depths darkened, and shadows spilled out of the numerous lips to wrap about Sasuke’s limbs. The spots where the shadows touched grew cold, then numb.

Sucking in a deep breath, Sasuke fought off the paralyzing numbness. He scowled, pressed forward with his senseless hands, and locked eyes with his opponent as his fingers flattened upon the man’s chest. The ninja smiled at him as darkness began to swallow the Uchiha’s vision.

In return, Sasuke smirked. Moron.

“CHIDORI!”

The darkness flew from Sasuke’s vision as his opponent screamed, blue chakra tearing through him and flinging him backwards against a tree. Smirking, Sasuke dropped into a crouch on the branch the Sound ninja had previously occupied. After a moment, a warm presence landed behind him.

“Huh. That wasn’t half bad, Uchiha.”

Sasuke immediately scowled, spinning about to glare at the blond man behind him. Kyuubi gazed at him with humorless red eyes.

“I gave you a direct order to stay home,” the brunet hissed angrily. “Why are you here?”

“Because you’re no good to me if you’re dead,” Kyuubi replied shortly. “I came to watch your back.”

“I don’t need you to watch my back!” Scowl deepening, Sasuke glared over his shoulder at the twitching Sound ninja he’d attacked. Turning back, he jabbed a finger into Kyuubi’s chest. “Don’t move.”

As he turned to face the Sound ninja, Kyuubi spoke. “Don’t you want me to help your friends?”

Pausing, Sasuke glanced back at him. Kyuubi’s eyes—now blue—were resting upon the fallen Kiba. Lee was managing to subdue the violet-haired ninja, but the dog-lover was growing pale. Frowning, Sasuke returned his gaze to the fox.

“Fine. Go help Ki—” Kyuubi was by the other man’s side before Sasuke could finish his statement. “...ba.”

Eyebrows furrowed, Sasuke reluctantly refocused his attention upon his opponent. The Jounin leapt to the ninja’s side, kunai at the ready. Schooling his face into an impassive expression, he leaned down over the twitching man.

“Why are you attacking us?” he demanded. Coughing up blood, the ninja’s wild golden eyes locked upon him.

“We had to,” he whispered. A maniacal grin lit his face. “Attack Konoha. Attack...attack Konoha!”

Sasuke frowned, watching as the life began to fade from the man’s eyes. “Why did you have to attack us?” he pressed. “Why?”

Choking, the man paused. His eyes grew confused as they shifted to stare up at the night sky.

“You know...I don’t know.” The Sound ninja gently shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Head tipping to the side, the ninja stopped breathing. Sasuke’s frown deepened as he stared at the lifeless body before him. With a sigh, he straightened and turned away, ready to help his comrades.

As the Uchiha moved away, two wisps of golden chakra lifted from the dead man’s unseeing eyes, returning them to their natural brown color.

Link to Part II

Resident Evil: Go Extinct

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:40:26 GMT

I just finished watching Resident Evil: Extinction. Now, I'm not particularly hard to please when it come to these sorts of movies, because I'm not expecting much. I greatly enjoyed Resident Evil 1 and 2 mostly due to their cheesiness (and the fact that the slow, inevitable zombie is by far my favorite, since it's less of an "oh well, I tried to outrun the tiger but it ate me anyway," and more of a "no matter where the FUCK I run, THEY'LL GET ME ANYWAY!!!!"), so it really wouldn't have taken much to leave me giving a grin and a thumbs up.

That said, the movie SUCKED.

I was still hanging on until I realized that over half the movie had passed, and nothing had happened. By the time Alice battled the final villain, I was throwing my hands in the air and yelling "enough already!!" to no one. Alice's battles were lackluster and ridiculous, with flashes of the Charlie's Angels remake in terms of random air battle hokiness (I'm sure if I look hard in this movie, just like in CA, I'll be able to see the strings). She failed to save pretty much anyone, and didn't seem to care when anyone other than her buddy died. Why, exactly, there was a large crate filled with an unending number of zombies who were just...waiting there... I'll never know. How a virus could supposedly dry up lakes and rivers, I'll never know. Characters were offed without the viewers feeling anything. Even the clones, which were so "essential" to research, were ridiculous--what the hell would life-or-death problem solving have to do with anything? It's her dna nonetheless.

And the ending... All those people flew off towards Alaska in a chopper that definitely wasn't big enough for all those passengers, would be seriously overweight even if it were, and was definitely not running on a full tank of gas. They wouldn't have to find a gas station to refuel, they'd need a goddamn AIRPORT, and then find the right gas on top of it. And they get sent off without even a nod or a care as to whether or not they made it, making it seem like the whole bunch was just a group of Scooby Doo background characters, there to fill space and disappear when not needed anymore. Just terrible.

And I'm sorry, but the knives just weren't that cool. Give me a gun battle over stupid knives any day, especially when dealing with biting critters that are supposedly super strong and need their brains destroyed. Bad, bad, bad.

Oh my good god

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:47:20 GMT

Oh my god. Whoever paid for my account... I have no words. Thank you! Oh my god. I completely didn't notice until arcanetheorem started helping me revamp my lj. Thank you so much!!! *bows and worships at your feet, whoever you glorious, wonderful, sweet person are*

*Plays with features*

Seriously. This was so nice of you. Thank you!!!

the penis video

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:46:01 GMT

I uploaded a short video on youtube of the penis festival. Hopefully they won't take it down too quickly!! Hahaha. I'm actually going to try and toss a bunch of my little videos up there to share. ^_^

Fox Magic : Chapter 11 (Heat) Part II

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:27:43 GMT

F o x M a g i c

By akaitsume
~~~------------------------------------------~~~

Genre: AU-ish/Drama/Romance/Mystery
Pairings: NaruSasuNaru
Rating: R (for now)
Summary: A decision made in the heat of the moment leaves Sasuke questioning his past, his future, and his convictions, all while dealing with an ancient, all-powerful fox demon whose grudge transcends both time and space. NaruSasuNaru, canonish AU
Warnings: Fantasy-esque, Zoomorphism, a liberal dose of Japanese Mythology, violence, mentions of abuse/torture in later chapters, strong language, and---in later chapters---limes and lemons.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Naruto, but I make them do things they'd never do in the manga.
Archived: Fanfiction.net; Livejournal; Crimson Claws
A/N: Sorry about the wait. I had a few difficulties, and wasn't much in the mood for writing for a while, but they seem to be working themselves out. Besides, I got to go to a penis festival earlier this week, and who can be in a bad mood after that? If you want more on that, though, you'll have to go to my livejournal. ;)

Much thanks, again, to arcanetheorem for beta-reading (and Jay for alpha reading, hahaha). I feel like this chapter is the end of an arc, somehow. At any rate, I'm looking forward to writing the next chap, hahaha.

Enjoy!

Covering his movements with a convenient rumble of thunder, the man alit upon the tiled roof of the remodeled Uchiha main house. Wind carrying the scent of the sea swirled around him, nuzzling him like a dog begging for play. He lifted a hand, batting the winds away, and grinned.

So, the Uchiha boy has really taken to Kyuubi no Kitsune, has he? Remarkable! Rubbing his hands with glee, he resisted the urge to peek into the boys’ window. Just think about how much mischief those two can cause if they’re working together!

The man laughed delightedly, reaching up to tug on his thin beard. The Uchiha family had always been something of a bore, with the possible exception of that madman, Madara, but this latest generation was intriguing beyond belief. A younger brother and an older brother, both driven mad with grief and despair, and yet both—both!—capable of surviving the release of the most powerful creature to walk the Earth! That boy, Uchiha Itachi, had been close enough at the time of release to have been killed by the backlash of Kyuubi’s power. When Uchiha Sasuke was Chosen, Uchiha Itachi should have died. Either that, or if neither had been Chosen, both should have perished. And yet, both lived! Remarkable!

The bearded man had done his part, convincing that ridiculous group of cloak-wearing assassins to release the Kyuubi. Life had been too boring without that demon walking around—rather, life had become spectacularly dull the moment the poor creature had lost his war and gotten enslaved. He’d expected something…more.

But now, with four of the nine great demons released (under his less than subtle pressuring), and with such interesting masters controlling them, he suspected great and entertaining times ahead of them all. Of course, the man who enslaved them would be upset, but then, he tended to be upset most of the time. Everyone had simply learned to live with it.

If the demons were freed…

The man grinned at the thought, twirling his fingers in the wiry hairs at his chin. He already had Uchiha Itachi running his personal errands, keeping him close to the Kyuubi. As a man of Chaos, he desperately wanted to see what would happen when the brothers, and their seemingly equal claims to the fox demon, clashed. He could hardly wait! Soon, the fun times of old would be upon them, just as they were before humans had to grow so stuffy and stolid.

And if he happened to nudge things along a bit, no one would be the wiser.

Laughing heartily, the man leapt from the roof and rose into the swirling clouds.

And with a clap of thunder, the god of the storms and seas was gone.

* * *

A single lamp burned beside him as the Kazekage sat at his desk, deeply contemplative. A frown marred his ill-controlled expression, and his bejeweled fingers tapped his desk impatiently.

Several days had passed, and Sound had yet to make a move on Konoha. If he declared war without some sort of catalyst, he’d be breaking several treaties at once, and he’d make his true allies extremely nervous. He didn’t want to seem like a hothead, but Konoha had resources that Sand desperately needed, and if he could conquer Konoha, he could take what he needed without resorting to trade agreements. And with the one-tailed monster Shukaku on his side, how could he pass up the chance to take what he desired?

Scowling, the Kazekage thumped his fist on his desk. There had to be some way to invade Konoha without taking the blame for it. The demon wouldn’t help him willingly, but perhaps…

An idea rushed into the Kazekage’s head so quickly that he could practically see the dust it kicked up. Enlightened, he picked up a blank scroll and began writing hastily. When he finished, he took out two pieces of parchment and wrote short notes on them, as well. He stood, carrying the latter to a black messenger bird that sat on a small perch by the window. With a few quick ties, curt instructions, and an opened window, the bird was off to inform the right people. The Kazekage smiled briefly, then turned, striding back to his desk.

He snatched up the scroll, held it close to his chest, and bellowed, “Gaara!!”

There was a moment of silence, followed by the sound of sand trickling under his shut door. Within moments, the sand formed a shape and hardened. The demon glared at him, folding his arms over his chest. The Kazekage ignored the brief spike of fear that always hit him when the psychotic creature was around and stepped forward, brandishing the scroll triumphantly.

“I want you to send this to the Hokage in Konoha. It needs to get there by tomorrow morning. Can you do it?” he asked in as authoritative a tone as he could manage. The demon looked at the scroll disdainfully, causing the Kazekage to shake it with impatience. “Well?”

Without a word being spoken, sand poured out of the strange gourd on the creature’s back, pooling at the Kazekage’s feet. Within moments, it had hardened into what looked like an eagle. The bird glanced at the Kazekage with chilling golden eyes, screamed, and flew up in front of him, snatching the scroll out of his hands as he hurriedly stepped back. Before the Kazekage could bark out an order, the eagle had swept out of the still open window and disappeared into the night.

Disquieted, the Kazekage eyed the dispassionate demon before him. Gaara stared back, his murderous gaze chilling the Kazekage’s heart. The man stepped back, waving a hand imperiously.

“You’ve done your duty, Gaara. You may go.”

Before he’d finished speaking, the demon dissolved into sand once more and retreated out the door. The Kazekage released a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. A smug smile settled upon his cheeks.

By morning, he’d have everything he wanted.

Konoha would be his.

* * *

The next day

* * *

The early morning light burned Tsunade’s honey-colored eyes, mercilessly hunting down the remnants of the sake she’d drunk the night before and torturing them. Groaning, she pulled her covers up over her head.

“No more. I swear. No more…” she moaned pathetically. The light that had already snuck in did a victory dance in her head, tossing her remaining brain cells into a bonfire and stomping to the beat of very, very loud drums. Some might call it a headache. Tsunade knew better.

No headache was ever that sadistic.

While Tsunade wallowed in misery, the fates decided to piss on her head again. Something evil, sadistic, and about to die was tapping—LOUDLY—on her window. The blonde woman snarled, throwing off her covers and staggering to her feet. She stormed over to the window, where a golden eagle was resting, a scroll clutched in its talons. When she glared at it through the window and a pair of bloodshot eyes, the bird glared right back. Grudgingly, she opened the window.

The eagle let out an ear-piercing scream and swooped into the room, depositing the scroll on the small, ill-used desk in the corner. Before Tsunade could respond—catch it, pluck it, and roast it while cackling evilly—the bird collapsed into a pool of sand and blew out of the window with a dramatic flair. Tsunade paused.

Well. That was unusual. Lips pursed, she crossed to her desk and picked up the scroll. The Kazekage’s seal gleamed in the wretched morning light. Frowning, Tsunade broke the seal and unrolled the scroll, perusing it quickly.

Her headache doubled in intensity.

~Dear Tsunade-Hokage-sama. I do hope my missive finds you well. ~

“Yeah, if ‘well’ means me at the bottom of a ditch somewhere, you lying bastard,” she murmured.

~I find myself in need of enlisting one of your ninjas for a minor artifact-retrieval mission. My ninjas have tried to retrieve the artifact to no avail. In the spirit of faith and goodwill, I solicit Konoha’s assistance. The ninja in question would, of course, be compensated adequately. This mission is, of course, of some urgency. Surely Konoha, despite the rumors of growing tensions abroad, would be able to spare someone to help in this matter. Sand would be very grateful.

Unfortunately, I fear that I must make a specific request. Uchiha Sasuke, Jounin Class, has the particular talents that my team is lacking, and I am afraid that no one else will do. I am sure that Uchiha Sasuke, despite his many trials and tribulations, will be more than capable of assisting us.

I await your response.

Tanaka Masahiko, 4^th Kazekage of Sunagakure ~

“Well, damn. That bastard.” Tsunade rolled the scroll again, frowning contemplatively. As with all of the Kazekage’s recent letters, this one held several veiled threats and accusations. Basically, if Tsunade didn’t hand over Sasuke on a platter, Sand would take that as an affirmation of Sasuke’s mental imbalance (and would spread the news everywhere, making it impossible to get the boy hired), Konoha’s willingness to let the fragile peace between the villages disintegrate, and Konoha’s precarious position with Sound.

In other words, it was Uchiha Sasuke, or war.

One hand lifted to rub wearily at her forehead. Sand these days was full of backstabbers. Whatever they really wanted Sasuke for, it wouldn’t be pretty. She sighed. For the sake of diplomacy, she had to send Sasuke on the mission. There was no other choice.

Dammit. Why did I ever listen to Jiraiya and become the Hokage? I hate politics. Just because the old fart didn’t want to do it himself… Eyes still stinging, Tsunade pulled out a fresh piece of parchment and wrote a short note to the Uchiha boy. A messenger bird already sat stoically in the window, probably having seen the eagle before. She folded the note and handed it over.

“Take this to Uchiha Sasuke. Quickly.”

The bird bobbed its head once and flew off. Wearily, she crawled back into bed and tossed the covers back over her head. Blanketed in darkness, she grudgingly contemplated the odd Uchiha brat. She’d never fully trusted him once he’d decided to join Orochimaru after he was kidnapped, even though she’d reluctantly decided to give him a second chance. The council had been more eager than she was, since even a traitorous, possibly psychotic Uchiha was one hell of a commodity, and they didn’t want to risk too much downtime by not peddling his wares to nearby villages. A paltry year of house-arrest, a slap on the wrist, and Sasuke was back to work. The whole business made Tsunade very uncomfortable, but true to his word, the boy hadn’t tried to run off again.

And now Naruto…

Beneath the covers, Tsunade frowned. There was something…off about that boy. Something in the way he spoke, the way he moved. It was like he was constantly adjusting to the things he saw, like a foreigner in a strange new land. Granted, he came from another village, but… he was still odd. And it was an awfully strange coincidence that he happened to show up at the same time Sasuke’s pet fox did. There was some connection between the two, she could feel it.

She just didn’t know what it was.

Still, ever since that pair showed up, there’d been a remarkable change in Sasuke’s attitude. The boy was still a prick, that was certain, and no one could get him to say hello without several kunai, quick jutsu, and a crowbar, but whenever he was around Naruto (pretty much constantly, from what she’d seen of the two) he seemed to lose a few of those hard edges. It was as though Sasuke had finally found someone he could relax around. For the sake of the boy’s sanity, Tsunade approved whole-heartedly.

The Hokage caught herself smiling a little at the thought of the obnoxious blond boy. Despite his quirks, there was something about him that you had to like. Some sweet quality in his words and actions, no matter how imbecilic he was acting. Hell, if he’d managed to win over Sasuke, the boy was practically a god of social interactions. Even Tsunade had found herself melting around the idiot.

She couldn’t help it any more than anyone else in the village. She liked him.

With that kind of charisma, Naruto could work wonders. He could make a real home for himself in Konoha.

And since she’d put money down that the brat was going to follow Sasuke wherever he went, Tsunade was about to have another problem on her hands.

Perfect.

Lips pursed, Tsunade snaked a hand out from under her covers and blindly set her alarm. She could afford another hour or so before she had to meet with the boys. And maybe if she prayed really hard, the meeting would go smoothly, Naruto would behave (and not poke his nose in where it didn’t belong, for once), and her headache wouldn’t get worse.

Right. Even Tsunade wouldn’t bet on that.

* * *

A light tapping sound drew Sasuke reluctantly out of his slumber. He burrowed deeper into his warm, soft pillow, inhaling its strange but soothing spicy, woodsy scent. Something warm and heavy was draped over his waist, sending waves of heat through him. Sasuke smiled sleepily.

And froze.

The Uchiha heir slowly peeled his eyes open, staring at the red mass in front of his eyes. He had his face buried in the back of Kyuubi’s head, the two oversized ears brushing against his temples as they twitched. None of that was particularly unusual.

Kyuubi’s size, however, was.

The fox he was spooning with was not his normal size of a tomcat, nor the size of a Doberman. He was the size of a wolf. A very large wolf. The waist that Sasuke’s arm was flung over was larger than his own, the head he was nuzzling was larger than his own, and the tail that was curled about his waist practically swallowed it. Sasuke stared at him. Waking up with a small puppy substitute was one thing, but waking up curled around a demon whose jaws could bite his face off was quite another.

Sasuke tried to edge backwards, but the tail around his waist tightened immediately. The Uchiha heir swallowed, growing more uncomfortable by the moment. Kyuubi had been rather upset the previous night after his nightmare. In light of that, he had to wonder exactly what kind of Kyuubi would wake up this morning: the kind who wanted to tease him, or the one who wanted to attack him last night.

Before Sasuke could figure out a way to slip out from under the restricting tail, Kyuubi began to stir. The fox yawned heavily, rolling partially onto his back and releasing the tail locked about the Uchiha heir’s waist. Sasuke moved backwards quickly to avoid getting squashed, and he sat up, glowering down at the ridiculously large demon in his bed. When Kyuubi was small, he looked more or less like a strange fox, but when he was this size, the black lines around his eyes, the dark lips, his pointed muzzle and oversized claws combined to make him look…evil. The thought disturbed Sasuke, and the Uchiha heir reluctantly shook it off. Moments later, Kyuubi blinked his blue eyes open and gazed up at him, one paw scratching idly at his chest.

“Sasuke?” He yawned again, baring two rows of impressively large, sharp teeth. “What time is it?”

Sasuke didn’t bother to glance at his clock. “Early. Why the hell are you so big?”

“Huh?” Kyuubi’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion he had no right to feel. “What are you talking about?”

Scowling, Sasuke shoved his hand in front of Kyuubi’s face. The demon’s eyes crossed as he looked at it down his muzzle. The hand and muzzle were about the same size.

“That is what I’m talking about.” He pulled his hand away, folding his arms over his chest. “Are you trying to make a point of some sort?”

To his credit, the fox actually looked confused. “Uh, no. I hadn’t realized I’d, um, grown so much.” His large red head tossed from side to side as he took in the now greatly diminished bed. “Huh. That’s weird.”

Sasuke’s eyebrows furrowed. “You didn’t do it on purpose?”

Kyuubi gave him a sardonic look. “I was asleep, dipshit. Of course I didn’t do it on purpose.” He rolled to his feet with a grunt, dropping down to the floor and stretching. One of his tails nearly knocked Sasuke’s bedside lamp off its table. “I’m just surprised. I don’t usually grow during the night, as you know. If anything, I usually shrink.”

“Why?” Curious despite himself, Sasuke also crawled out of bed.

The fox watched him as Sasuke made his way to the bedroom door, following close on his heels. His nose nearly came up to Sasuke’s navel.

“Well…” He hesitated, tails swishing behind him. “The chakra exchange during the night usually boosts the part of my magic that I use to grant wishes, which is why my ring stops hurting. But your chakra isn’t entering me willingly, so I spend chakra to keep the exchange going, and I shrink.” When they reached the kitchen, Kyuubi shrugged his broad shoulders. “If you happen to be pissed at me, I don’t get very much, and shrink more than normal.”

Sasuke frowned, heading to the fridge and jerking the door open. “But you’re a demon. Your chakra levels are infinitely higher than mine. Why should my chakra matter?”

“Blame the boss, not the messenger. It’s one of the rules he came up with.” Kyuubi sighed. “I can’t even access most of my chakra without your say-so. Trust me, it sucks.”

The brunet pulled out a carton of milk and a banana, shutting the door with his shoulder. He looked down at the fox, lips tightening.

“So, that means that if you’re this big, it’s because I…what? Let you? I gave you enough chakra to swell you up to this size?”

Kyuubi snorted. “Honey, it would take more than you’ve got to do this. It’s all about intent. You must have wanted me to get stronger. So I grew.” He grinned, wiggling his eyebrows. “You really do care about little ol’ me!”

Sasuke glared at the demon, ignoring the small flash of embarrassment that rose in him. “Shut up.” He set the milk on the table, already peeling the banana. “And figure out what you want for breakfast, because I’m not making it.”

Moments later, a human Naruto, clad in an obnoxious orange and black jacket and black pants, was walking past him and opening cabinets. Without a word, he grabbed a box of cereal and passed it blindly to Sasuke, who took it bemusedly. Naruto continued to peruse the shelves, finally settling on a Styrofoam cup of instant ramen. The idiot grinned like he’d found stolen treasure.

Sasuke settled himself at the table, fixing his cereal while surreptitiously watching the blond man. Naruto hummed happily while he boiled water, clearly unaffected by the previous night’s dream. Considering the day they’d had yesterday, Naruto’s turnaround time was remarkable. Didn’t anything faze him? He must have been terrified yesterday, wondering if Sasuke was finally going to turn on him, and meeting one of his most hated masters again on top of that… Sasuke shook his head. He didn’t understand at all.

After several minutes of silence, he heard, “Say, Sasuke?”

The Uchiha heir grunted in reply.

“Are you going to let in that messenger bird, or should I?”

Sasuke froze for a moment, then glanced up. Naruto was looking at him, a suppressed grin ticking the corners of his mouth. He pointed towards the far window, where a harassed-looking bird was waiting with a note in its claws. Berating himself internally, Sasuke rose to his feet and moved to let the bird in. It flew up, practically threw the note in his face, and departed. Behind him, Naruto snickered.

“Didn’t you hear the poor thing tapping all morning? It woke me up, I dunno about you.”

Sasuke shot a glare at him. It was the demon’s fault that he’d been so distracted. Instead of replying, Sasuke tore open the note and scanned its contents. His lips thinned, and he glanced at Naruto with a serious glint in his eyes.

“Tsunade wants to see me. Hurry up and eat, so we can leave.” He used a bit of chakra to send the small note up in flames.

Naruto watched him curiously, stirring his noodles with a pair of chopsticks. “What does she want to see you for?”

Sasuke walked back to the table and leaned against it, folding his arms over his chest.

“I’m going on a mission.”

Naruto’s blond eyebrows furrowed immediately, and he paused in the act of lifting a clump of noodles to his mouth. “You’re going on a mission?” He frowned worriedly, setting his ramen down on the table. “Will I be able to come?”

Sasuke hesitated. “I doubt it. You’re not a Konoha ninja, and if you tagged along as Kyuubi, someone would notice that you aren’t here.”

“Sasuke, it’s a mission. You could be gone for days. I have to go with you.” Unthinkingly, Naruto began to fiddle with his enslavement ring. “The longer you’re gone, the more my ring will strip chakra from me. By the time you get back…” He twisted the ring sharply. “There might not be anything left.”

The thought made something indefinable tighten in Sasuke’s chest. The brunet lifted a hand to his lips, frowning thoughtfully. After a moment, he lifted his head.

“Here’s what we’ll do…”

* * *

Tsunade watched the two men enter her office, already wishing she had a cup of sake in her hand. Sighing, she leaned forward, bracing her elbows on her desk.

“Naruto, I’m sorry,” she began, “but you can’t sit in on this meeting.”

The blond brat looked surprised. “I can’t? Why not?”

Tsunade opened her mouth to reply, but a sudden flash of warmth distracted her. She frowned in confusion. The brat was right. Why wouldn’t he be able to sit in on the meeting? The two were cousins, after all. A faint voice in the back of her mind whispered something about codes and protocols, but she shrugged it off. She looked down at the sheets on her desk, shook her head, and glanced up again, spearing Sasuke with a sharp gaze.

“Alright, Sasuke, this is the deal. Sand wants you for a class B mission. They claim that they want you to help them retrieve some artifact they’ve been having trouble with.”

The Uchiha heir’s face was stoic, the quintessential cool professional. Naruto, however, leaned forward with obvious interest.

“But? There’s a catch, right?” the blond asked eagerly. Tsunade sighed.

“I have reason to believe that Sand will try something while Sasuke’s there. They’re looking for any excuse to wear down diplomatic relations, and they might try to pin something on Sasuke.” She blew out a frustrated breath, running a hand through her hair. “But if we don’t accept the mission, they’ll use that as an excuse, instead. As a show of good faith, Sasuke needs to go.”

“Why me?” Sasuke suddenly questioned, his onyx eyes narrowing. “Was I specifically requested?”

Tsunade nodded slowly. “Yes, you were. They seem to think they need the Sharingan to get the artifact. They didn’t say why.”

Naruto suddenly clapped his hands together, making Tsunade wince. Her headache grew.

“So this means we get to leave Konoha? We’re going to Sand? Right now?”

Sasuke seemed to physically restrain himself from rolling his eyes at the blond’s enthusiasm. “Did they say whether or not I could bring a teammate?”

Tsunade looked back and forth between Naruto, who looked like he’d jump out of his skin in a moment, and Sasuke, who looked faintly resigned. She started to shake her head.

“Unless Naruto is a Konoha ninja, he can’t accompany you. He’ll have to stay here.”

Tsunade could have sworn she heard a muted zap seconds before Naruto produced a manila folder. The blond brat waved it in her face, to her extreme annoyance.

“But I am a ninja. Can’t you just give me honorary status or something?” he whined.

Scowling, she swiped the folder out of his hands and opened it. A picture of a younger Naruto glared up at her, along with several registration documents. She stared at the picture, then at the young man in front of her.

“Why the hell did you cover yourself in red paint?”

A muscle in the Uchiha heir’s jaw jumped. Naruto beamed at her, oblivious. “Isn’t it cool? It’s like something out of Kabuki!”

Tsunade sighed. “While this is all very well and good, I still can’t—” Another flash of warmth cut her off. She scowled, tugging surreptitiously at her collar. What’s with these hot flashes, lately? First I had one outside the O.R. when I let the brat go home, and now all this! It’d better not be menopause, or Jiraiya will never let me live it down. “I, um.”

A quiet voice whispered in her head. If Sasuke has someone with him, maybe he’ll keep his head about him when Sand pulls whatever stunt they’re planning. The brat can be trusted. He couldn’t lie his way out of a paper bag, much less deceive the Hokage. Let him go with Sasuke.

She struggled with herself for another moment, but she gave in with a sigh. Her forehead began to pound. “Since this is a B-level mission, and Naruto seems to have been at Jounin rank in his own little village, I suppose I can give Naruto clearance. It’ll be trial basis only, with the possibility that he’ll officially join Konoha’s ranks upon review of your mission.”

Despite her obviously pointed remarks, Naruto leapt out of his chair with a whoop and threw a fist into the air. “Yes! We are so outta here! We’ll take the mission!”

“Don’t make decisions for me, usuratonkachi,” Sasuke snapped. He was ignored.

Despite her headache, Tsunade smiled. “I’ll expect you two to pack up and head out as soon as possible. It should take you a few days to get to Sand, and the bas—the Kazekage was very insistent.”

Sasuke briefly closed his eyes in reluctance and stood, nodding sharply. “We’ll leave today.”

“We’re going on a miiiiission! We’re going on a miiiision!” Naruto sang, literally bouncing from foot to foot. “Woohoo!”

Tsunade closed her eyes. This was a bad decision. “Report directly to the Kazekage’s office when you arrive, he’ll have more information for you—Naruto, SHUT UP!”

She flung an empty bottle at the blond boy’s head. Naruto dodged, stuck his tongue out, and continued to dance, rolling his fists and stomping his feet.

“Goin’ on a mission, yeah. We’re going on a mi—ow!” Naruto swatted ineffectually at the hand Sasuke was now using to twist his ear. He started to whine, stumbling closer to the irritated Uchiha heir. “Sasuke! Let go!”

Sasuke ignored him, watching Tsunade as though Naruto weren’t even in the room. “I’ll make sure we go straight there.”

Tsunade nodded sharply. “Watch your back.” Her lips trembled as she glanced at Naruto, who was still struggling. “And try to watch his.”

Sasuke gave her a small bow of the head in acknowledgement, then headed for the door, dragging a protesting Naruto behind him.

“But Sasuke! I haven’t gone on a trip in so long, so yeah I’m excited, now will you let go of my damn ear?! Ow! Sasuke!”

Tsunade shook her head as the door shut. Something niggled at the back of her mind, but with another supremely irritating hot flash, it vanished. She sighed, opening the bottom drawer of her desk and pulling out a sake bottle stored for emergencies. She took a swig, forsaking the cup for the moment.

Gods help them both.

Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1: In The Beginning
Chapter 2: Useless
Chapter 3: Adjustments
Chapter 4: What's In A Name
Chapter 5: Pain
Chapter 6: Idiocy
Chapter 7: The Spotless Mind
Chapter 8: Interference
Chapter 9: History
Chapter 10: In The Beginning

Fox Magic : Chapter 11 (Heat) Part I

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:20:42 GMT

F o x M a g i c

By akaitsume
~~~------------------------------------------~~~

Genre: AU-ish/Drama/Romance/Mystery
Pairings: NaruSasuNaru
Rating: R (for now)
Summary: A decision made in the heat of the moment leaves Sasuke questioning his past, his future, and his convictions, all while dealing with an ancient, all-powerful fox demon whose grudge transcends both time and space. NaruSasuNaru, canonish AU
Warnings: Fantasy-esque, Zoomorphism, a liberal dose of Japanese Mythology, violence, mentions of abuse/torture in later chapters, strong language, and---in later chapters---limes and lemons.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Naruto, but I make them do things they'd never do in the manga.
Archived: Fanfiction.net; Livejournal; Crimson Claws
A/N: Sorry about the wait. I had a few difficulties, and wasn't much in the mood for writing for a while, but they seem to be working themselves out. Besides, I got to go to a penis festival earlier this week, and who can be in a bad mood after that? If you want more on that, though, you'll have to go to my livejournal. ;)

Enjoy!

Voices swept through the room, jarring the relative silence with unnaturally loud exclamations and music. With a jolt, Sasuke peeled open his surprisingly heavy eyelids and glared at the source of the noise. The TV was still playing, quiet aside from the occasionally blaring commercial. Eyeing the black box distastefully, Sasuke fumbled for the remote at his side, found it, and shut the TV off. The resulting silence soothed his battered ears, and the Uchiha heir relaxed subconsciously.

Sasuke stifled a yawn with the back of his left hand, shifting on the couch uncomfortably. His head felt like it’d been stuffed full of cotton, and he shook his head lightly in an attempt to clear it. His eyes felt gummy, his back was protesting mildly, and overall he felt like he’d been hit by a train.

Or rather, he felt like a train had just barely missed him.

Truth be told, Sasuke couldn’t even remember falling asleep. He’d been ignoring the TV, idly petting Kyuubi, and then…nothing. The brunet frowned grumpily, scratching his chest. He hated falling asleep when he hadn’t planned on it—it always left him confused when he woke up, like he’d had several hours stolen from him without his consent. Yawning again, he started to straighten up.

The warm weight on his lap muttered quietly, shifted, and resettled on top of him. Sasuke froze, glancing down.

Kyuubi lay curled up, half on his lap and half off it, hind legs splayed behind him and his tails spilling off the couch. The fox’s head was tucked into the furrow between Sasuke’s waist and his right leg, his long ears tickling the brunet’s hip. One front paw was tucked up underneath Kyuubi’s chest, but the other gripped Sasuke’s right thigh with surprising strength. In fact, Kyuubi looked remarkably like a small child cuddling his favorite teddy. All he lacked was a finger in his mouth.

Despite himself, Sasuke smiled wearily down at the fox demon in his lap. Kyuubi put up a big fuss, as he did with everything, but between the demon cuddling up to Sasuke every night and the way he’d more or less demanded to be pet when they first settled on the couch, it was obvious that the fox adored the attention. Adored it, and maybe even needed it in some way. Everything about him, from his yellow hair to his abrasive attitude, screamed, “Look at me!” It was amazing that such an attention hound had managed to survive this long in captivity, much less the complete isolation he’d suffered through over the last century and a half. Sasuke found himself imagining Kyuubi curled up in a corner of that mini shrine, lost in darkness for decade after decade. In some small, unacknowledged part of his heart, the image caused a brief, sharp pain, like he’d been pricked with a needle. Uncomfortably, Sasuke tried to shrug the feeling off.

“You’re the first one who hasn’t tried to lock me up like an animal…”

The crystal on his chest warmed at the memory, casting a faint glow over Sasuke’s chest. Eyebrows furrowed contemplatively, he reached up and closed his fingers over the pendant. According to Naruto, the deceptively simple necklace held the power to override his enslavement ring, bringing relief or pain as Sasuke saw fit. After all the demon had been through, how could he give his trust so easily?

And what would happen if Sasuke, for some reason, broke that trust?

Pressure accumulated on his temples, forcing Sasuke to close his eyes and rub his forehead tiredly. He’d never been given trust of this magnitude, nor had the weight of someone’s entire life in his hands before. What if he failed, just as he had with everything else in his life? According to his father, Itachi, and anyone else Sasuke had ever looked up to, Sasuke had never been good enough, never strong enough, smart enough, or fast enough to do what needed to be done. And now he had a demon’s life (a demon who’d already had the chance to kill him and implausibly decided to pass on it) literally hanging about his neck.

Taking a deep breath, Sasuke fought the swarm of doubts with a spark of grim determination. Someone, somewhere, had decided that he was good enough to handle the most powerful demon on Earth. All he had to do was grow stronger.

The light from the crystal pulsed and faded, leaving only the still lit lamps to chase away the shadows in the room. Suddenly hit with a fresh wave of exhaustion, Sasuke lifted his left hand and nudged the fox on his lap.

“Oi, Kyuubi,” he murmured softly. The fox failed to respond, breathing slowly and deeply. Sasuke nudged him again, with a bit more force. “Kyuubi. Wake up.”

No response, aside from a quiet snore.

Frowning, Sasuke shifted his legs, jostling the demon. “Kyuubi!”

Slowly, the eye nearest him began to peel open, revealing a slice of pale blue. Kyuubi blinked once, exhaustedly, and then let the eye slide shut again. Rolling his eyes, Sasuke placed a hand on the fox’s back and shook him.

“Kyuubi, I’m not sleeping out here all night. Come on. We need to go to bed.”

Kyuubi grumbled under his breath, lifting his head as though it weighed a hundred kilos. He hunched his shoulders, stretching his paws out in front of him and nearly gouging Sasuke’s leg as he curled them. Sasuke scowled and batted him on the head.

“Hey! Watch those claws, moron,” he chastised half-heartedly. The fox ignored him in favor of nearly cracking his face in two with a mighty yawn.

Waking routine finally done, Kyuubi looked up at him with his eyes narrowed to tiny slits. Sasuke hit him softly on the flank, jostling his legs deliberately. Kyuubi’s eyes opened a bit more to fire a deadly glare at him, but with his rumpled fur, the glare lost all effect. Amused, the Uchiha heir smirked.

“Come on, get up. You’re heavier than you look,” Sasuke teased. He could feel Kyuubi’s growl reverberating through his legs, and he found his smirk widening to a small smile. “Up, fox legs. Let’s go.”

With a world-weary sigh that would have made the Oscar committee proud, Kyuubi finally rose to his feet and dropped to the floor with a semi-graceless thud. Sasuke snorted, leaning forward to look down at the fox. Kyuubi glared up at him in return.

“Bast’rd Uch’ha,” Kyuubi muttered, rubbing a paw over his eyes. “‘Was havin’ a good dream, too.”

Sasuke desperately smothered a smile, rising to his feet. “I’m sure you were. Now come on.”

When Sasuke made his way towards the bedroom, Kyuubi obediently followed, though he dragged his feet and muttered to himself the entire time. Sasuke ignored him, heading straight to his dresser and tugging tiredly at his shirt. Feeling the irregularly soft material, he glanced down at himself and blinked in mild surprise. Sasuke was actually still in his sleepwear from the previous night. Despite his best efforts, a pale flush lit his cheeks. Even if no one had seen him all day except Naruto, running around for a day in his pajamas, dignified as they were in black cotton, was more than a little humiliating. Clearing his throat, he pulled out his sleepwear drawer and began to change.

A low whine from the foot of his bed caught Sasuke’s attention just as he was settling a clean shirt over his head. He turned, absently tugging on the necklace’s chain to pull it out from under his shirt. Red ears drooped pathetically, Kyuubi was gazing forlornly at the bed from his position on the floor. One paw lifted to weakly grip the comforter, but it soon fell away, followed by a low sigh. Sasuke frowned at him.

“What’s the matter with you?” he questioned roughly. One ear twitched in his direction, and Kyuubi lowered his head.

Eventually, Sasuke heard a muttered, “…I can’t get up.”

The brunet blinked. “You can’t get onto the bed?”

Kyuubi’s shoulders hunched defensively, and the fox grudgingly shook his head. Sasuke’s lips twitched, a smile threatening. Coughing, Sasuke walked over to the demon.

“Do you need help?” His voice wavered slightly on the last word, amusement coloring his tone. Kyuubi grumbled, ears pressing back against his head. Sasuke lost the battle with his lips, allowing a small grin to cross his face. “What was that?”

Kyuubi glared at him balefully, his eyes still pale blue with exhaustion. “‘Said ‘m too tired. I ca—” A yawn interrupted him. “Can’t jumpup.”

Ruthlessly squashing the part of him that found Kyuubi absolutely adorable—which was probably the same part that had always wanted a dog—Sasuke quickly moved forward, scooped the fox up, and deposited him on the bed. He folded his arms and gazed down at him, lifting an eyebrow. “Happy now?”

“Mm.” Kyuubi curled up immediately, burrowing his face in his tails. Within seconds, a soft snore emanated from the giant clump of fur. Sasuke shook his head.

“If the trip took that much out of you, you should have said something,” the brunet admonished quietly. When no reply came, he returned to the dresser, pulled out a fresh pair of pants, and changed quickly. A sharp flick of the nearby switch plunged the room into darkness. Sighing, Sasuke rounded the bed and climbed in, careful not to jostle the sleeping demon. To his surprise, Kyuubi didn’t even twitch at the bed’s movement, and his ever-moving tails were still. Eyes drooping, Sasuke found himself watching the demon for a moment. From the very first night, Kyuubi had been burrowed against Sasuke whenever they slept, and for a brief second, Sasuke wondered if he’d be able to sleep without the fox next to him.

In the next instant, exhaustion answered his question for him, and his consciousness spiraled away into obscurity.

* * *

Unnoticed in the darkness, the blue crystal slid off the Uchiha heir’s chest as the man shifted onto his side. The crystal hit the soft mattress, inches away from the young man’s arm. Seconds later, it began to glow a deep, violent red, chakra spilling off it in tiny, unnoticeable waves.

At the foot of the bed, Kyuubi twitched, his breathing growing shallow and rapid. The golden band about the base of his center tail tightened painfully. He whimpered.

In the window, the moon hung low and full, bathing the bedroom in light and shadow.

* * *

Long, dark hallways taunted him, leading him everywhere but where he wanted to be. Leading anywhere but to freedom. His breath rasped in the unnaturally silent halls, and he was running, running desperately. He needed to escape. It had all been a lie. Orochimaru didn’t want to make him stronger, of course he didn’t. He wanted his eyes. The snake bastard wanted his eyes, and he was going to take them from him, and Sasuke couldn’t allow that, so he was running, running…

And with a gasp, Sasuke woke. He stared blindly out the window, resting on his left side on an arm that was starting to go numb. Letting out a low breath, he lifted his right arm and ran a hand through his hair, shifting onto his back. The glowing necklace he had yet to notice landed on his chest.

Chakra screamed through him, digging into his mind with stunning force. Sasuke opened his mouth to cry out, but before he could make a sound, his mind clouded over and he felt himself being whisked away. A spinning world of red surrounded him, voices and ghostly hands reaching out to touch him as he passed. Naruto’s blue crystal hovered in front of him, burning its way through the strange world.

Sasuke came to a hasty stop, dropping heavily onto a tatami floor. He scrambled to his feet and looked around, one hand rising instinctively to clasp the crystal hanging from his neck. Sasuke was standing in a small enclosed room, one with only a tiny window towards the ceiling to let in the least possible air and light. Instead of the normal paper sliding doors, this room was guarded by a heavy wooden door and a thick metal lock.

And in the center, his arms tied behind him with a length of rope, sat Naruto with a vicious scowl on his face. His eyes burned red and his cheeks were flushed with anger, shoulders hunched within a plain white yukata as he growled at the door. He hadn’t seemed to notice Sasuke yet, caught up in his barely contained rage. Sasuke’s grip on the crystal tightened involuntarily.

Where are we? Are we back at the main house from the past? Sasuke cautiously moved towards the blond man, eyes flipping automatically into Sharingan. How could we get back here? Naruto was too tired to jump onto my bed, let alone time travel!

Sasuke had barely completed that thought when he noticed something wrong with his eyes. The Sharingan wasn’t activating. A bead of sweat slid down his temple as he tried again, but his vision remained unchanged.

What the hell is going on? Attempting to calm himself, Sasuke reached out with his free hand to touch Naruto’s shoulder. Before he could make contact, Sasuke’s hand turned translucent.

His hand passed right through Naruto’s shoulder.

The blond didn’t seem to notice.

Thoroughly disturbed, Sasuke pulled away and stared incredulously at his hand. After a moment, it regained its normal color. Sasuke’s breath sped up, and he clenched his jaw firmly. In his fist, the crystal burned so brightly that red light spilled out between his fingers.

Alright. Calm the fuck down, Sasuke told himself, taking a few deep breaths. Naruto’s crystal is doing something weird, but chances are good that whatever this is, it isn’t real. His breathing slowed, courtesy of having been in several strange positions before in his work as a ninja, but his heart continued to race in alarm. His entire body was screaming at him, telling him that nothing was as it should be and that he should get the fuck out of there.

He couldn’t calm down.

Palms damp, the Uchiha heir tried his normal tricks for maintaining control over his emotions: gritting his teeth for five seconds, releasing them, and gritting for another five seconds; pressing his fingers rhythmically into his sweating palms; and stretching out his toes so that they tapped, one by one, on the floor. Any one of those methods, in the past, would allow him to focus on something other than his emotions for a moment and regain his equilibrium.

None of them worked.

It was as though Sasuke was present without his body being fully attached to his mind. Like he was—

Sasuke inhaled sharply through his nose, eyes widening.

Like I’m dreaming. It’s like I’m dreaming, but it’s not my dream. The scent of the tatami mats, the sounds outside the room, all of the sensory output he should be receiving aside from sight…were missing. That was why his body was panicking. He couldn’t tell where he was, because he wasn’t really there. Swallowing with difficulty, Sasuke reached up with his free hand and swiped sweat from his brow. His fingers trembled.

If he were right, then after all of his fussing about the fox demon peeking into his own head, he was about to find out what it was like inside Naruto’s when the demon was unaware.

Fire everywhere, a deep, menacing voice that shook him to his core, and blood red eyes waiting to consume him. Pain. So much pain.

Sasuke shuddered, trying to shake away the memory of his last, unfortunate foray into the demon’s head. A wave of nausea rose within him, but he fought it back determinedly, moving to crouch beside the blond man. Naruto, of course, ignored him. Taking a deep breath, Sasuke leaned close to the oblivious demon’s ear.

“Naruto. Can you hear me?” he whispered. The blond’s ear twitched imperceptibly. Encouraged, Sasuke moved closer and began to try again.

Unexpectedly, the iron lock turned with a loud clang, and the heavy door swung open. Madara Uchiha, several years older than the version Sasuke had “met,” stepped into the room, eyeing Naruto with a mix of distaste and smug, dark pleasure. Deliberately silent, Madara closed the door behind him and fixed Naruto with an unflinching stare. The lock turned audibly again, ostensibly operated from someone outside. They had been sealed in.

“Creature,” Madara acknowledged in a low, mocking tone. Lips twisting upward, the man drew closer to Naruto. “Have you learned your lesson?”

Naruto spat on the floor, arms tensing as they strained at the rope bindings. “Fuck you.”

“I see you haven’t,” Madara replied conversationally. His Sharingan-lit eyes swept appraisingly over Naruto’s body, and he shook his head in a parody of wistfulness. “Still so defiant.”

Naruto’s legs rasped over the dry tatami mats as the demon pulled them in towards himself. He snarled at his master, ducking his head and hunching his shoulders. “Better defiant than sick, you bastard,” he shot back.

Madara’s eyes narrowed sharply, false amusement fleeing in the face of his ire. Within moments, the dark expression was gone, replaced by cool consideration. He moved closer, crouching down before Naruto and gazing at him intensely. Naruto gave a low growl, leaning backwards.

“Such a pretty face,” Madara commented idly, his voice bland. A small, disturbing smile grew on his pale cheeks, and he reached out to stroke a hand leisurely across the blond’s cheek. With a disgusted noise, Naruto swung his head away.

“Keep your hands to yourself,” Naruto spat, eyes shielded by his unruly blond hair. “Or I’ll make sure you lose them.”

Madara chuckled softly, the dark sound echoing in an unnaturally quiet room. “Petty threats from a petty creature. You never cease to entertain me.” Without warning, Madara’s eyes darkened, and the man reached out to fist his hand in Naruto’s hair. He leaned forward until their noses were centimeters apart, fingers tightening until Naruto’s head was forced back. A pink tongue darted out to wet cruelly smirking lips. “Though you know that your defiance, as pathetic as it is, only makes me want to crush your spirit. It makes me wonder what it will take…”

Madara lifted his free hand, trailing a finger down Naruto’s throat. The demon’s growl grew louder, but he didn’t fight back. Madara smiled.

“What will it take to break you, oh mighty demon?” he continued, his low voice slithering across Sasuke’s ears like crushed velvet. “You were so…obedient towards the end of Grandfather’s life. I wonder, what did he do to make you submit to him? What will I have to do? What will I have to take from you, to make you follow me as blindly as you did him?”

Sasuke stared at his ancestor in horror, watching as the man leaned forward to swipe his tongue across Naruto’s cheek. The demon shuddered in revulsion, twisting sharply in Madara’s grasp. Chuckling, Madara moved to lick him again.

In a burst of red chakra, Madara was flung across the room, hitting the door with a painful thud. Naruto hissed in pain, doubling over as his enslavement ring visibly burned against his skin. Through the curtain of his blond hair, he hissed, “If you think I’ll let you try out your twisted perversions on me, Madara, you’re mad. Consequences or no, I will kill you if you lay a hand on me.”

Venom dripped from every harsh word, filling the room with remembered hatred. The barely contained fury—along with a healthy dose of fear and helplessness—rose up, pounding the walls in wave after crashing wave and warping the very air. Gasping, Sasuke found himself on his knees behind the demon, fighting the sensation of drowning in Naruto’s emotions. His throat closed involuntarily, tightening as though surrounded by a merciless, bloodthirsty grip. He clawed desperately at his neck with trembling fingers.

Can’t breathe, I can’t…

Vision blurring, Sasuke watched in pain as Madara carefully picked himself up, baring his teeth at Naruto in a mockery of a smile. “Will you? Don’t pretend to courage you don’t have, monster.” He laughed harshly. “You will bow before my will, and do as you are told. Just as you always do.”

Naruto’s lips turned up in a wry smirk. “Everyone has a breaking point. You don’t even realize what you’re dealing with, Madara.” He lifted his head, red eyes burning into Madara’s. “Eventually, I’ll get the better of you. If, of course, your family doesn’t beat me to it.”

Madara’s eyes flashed, and his lips twisted down into a scowl. “Watch your tongue, creature,” he hissed. “The family already knows not to cross me, and for reasons you would do well to remember.”

Naruto laughed in reply, a short bark of air that held no humor. “You’re a fool. Do you really think they’ll just keep following you like mindless sheep?” Naruto smiled grimly. “You think you’re the first master of mine to try and beat the Uchiha family into submission? Don’t make me laugh. They’ll most likely kill you, and I’ll have one less problem to deal with.”

In a flash, Madara was in front of Naruto again, eyes glowing with rage.

“Don’t speak such filth to me!” He backhanded Naruto, forcing the demon’s head to snap to the side. “They will give me the respect I deserve, and you—” He slapped him again, then hit him with a closed fist. “You will worship the ground I walk on, you pathetic, filthy vermin!”

Both men were breathing hard, filling the thick air with murderous tension. The invisible hand about Sasuke’s throat tightened further, and he found himself bracing his hands on the tatami floor as he struggled to breathe. The men’s hatred coursed through his body, amplified by the swinging necklace that dangled in front of him. Its red light shone like a beacon.

“If they respect you so much…” Naruto replied quietly. With a low chuckle, He lifted his head defiantly and smirked with bloodied lips.

“Then why are you locked in here with me, Madara-sama?”

The man in question froze, Sharingan spinning crazily in his eyes. Hissing in a sharp breath, he flung his right hand towards Naruto and spoke several words in quick succession. Naruto’s smirk dropped off his lips, replaced by a howl of pain. The skin on his neck and face began to shudder and stretch, tearing in bloody gashes. Madara watched for a moment, then gave a sinister laugh.

“You’ll pay for your disrespect, demon,” he stated in a smug, hate-filled voice. “You’ll learn. By the time I’m done with you, you’ll learn.” He folded his arms over his chest, and his eyes grew distant. “You all will.”

Naruto was writhing on the ground in pain, smearing blood all over the tatami mats. Through gritted, bloody teeth, he managed to grind out, “F-Fuck you! F-fuck you, y-your anc-cestors, and all your d-descendants, too!”

Smirking, Madara bent down and ran a finger along Naruto’s cheek. The flesh parted as he touched it, eliciting further screams from the fox demon. Madara smiled, lifted his bloodied finger, and licked it clean. His eyes glinted.

“Yes, you will, creature. You will.”

As Naruto’s screams tore through the air, the senseless pressure around Sasuke’s throat abruptly eased, and the young man gulped in air. Without thought, he clambered to Naruto’s side and bent down to scream into his ear.

“Naruto!! Naruto, wake up! It’s a dream!” Another hand motion from Madara had Naruto arching his back, a scream catching in his throat. Panicking, Sasuke tried vainly to grab Naruto’s shoulders and shake the demon, but his hands continued to pass through him. “Wake up!!”

In a strange sort of sixth-sense, Sasuke could feel the covers of his bed sliding against his skin as his body struggled, and a warm spot at his feet—most likely Kyuubi—twisted violently. The real world overlapped the dream world he was trapped in, resonating with a faint hum from the vibrating crystal on his chest. Sweat streaming down his face, he screamed at the senseless blond.

“NARUTO!! Can you hear me?? Naruto, you idiot, WAKE UP!”

The blond’s eyes snapped open.

The crystal faded to blue.

The world went black.

* * *

Kyuubi startled awake, fur standing on end. His breathing came fast and harsh in the darkened room, and for one terrifying moment, he had no idea where he was. He leapt to his feet with difficulty, tails swirling and teeth bared, ready to fight.

Madara, he…he…!

“Naruto!!”

A burst of sound and movement above him scared the crap out of Kyuubi, making him leap into the air and spin about, lashing out with his claws. He heard a sharp ripping sound and froze, heart speeding wildly in his chest. A crazed growl poured from his throat.

Sasuke stared at him, eyes wide and hair wild, his chest heaving as he sat up and clutched the comforter in his fists. The scents of fear and anxiety poured off him in waves, taunting Kyuubi’s frazzled nerves. He could practically smell the blood coursing furiously through the Uchiha heir’s veins, and if he tried anything, Kyuubi could spill it all over the fucking sheets, and…

And…

Blinking, Kyuubi felt his panic and rage abruptly subside, and he found himself staring dumbly at his master. Sasuke. Not Madara. Sasuke. The one who’d sworn he wasn’t going to hurt Naruto, that he wanted the fox demon as a partner instead of a slave. Sasuke.

The one he’d nearly torn the throat out of a second ago.

Legs trembling violently, Kyuubi lay down on the slashed comforter and placed his head upon his front paws. He closed his eyes.

God. Seeing that bastard again today… I’d hoped to never lay eyes on him again. The things he made me do… His stomach churned unpleasantly, bombarded with memories of people screaming as his magic choked the life out of them. He could still see their faces, each and every one. Madara had been so fucking bloodthirsty, and he hadn’t cared who got in his way. Even his own family…

Sasuke made a sudden movement, startling Kyuubi back into alarm mode. The fur on his tails puffed up instinctively. Sasuke glared down at him furiously.

“Naruto, what the fuck was that just now??” he snarled. The scent of fear spiked, mingling with anger. Kyuubi’s breath grew ragged, his nose telling him to either lash out or back away, anything to ease this tension. Sasuke continued, “Do you realize I was there? In your fucking dream just now? What the hell is going on?”

“I…” Kyuubi had to clear his throat before he could continue. “What are you talking about?”

Sasuke slammed a fist into the bed. “I was there! Your damn necklace pulled me headfirst into your dream, and I had to watch what Madara did to you. Why didn’t you tell me that would happen?? Fuck!”

Oh. Well now, isn’t that thoroughly humiliating. Kyuubi shut his eyes in shame and anger. Now he’s seen how weak I am, the so-called “greatest demon alive.” Fuck.

It was bad enough to have lived through it once, and to have relived it a million times since, but having Sasuke see it made Kyuubi want to curl in on himself. Now Sasuke had seen him helpless, at the mercy of a sadistic fucktard who’d managed to ruin so many lives, and Kyuubi hadn’t been able to do anything to stop him.

Kyuubi ground his teeth, fighting his instinctive reactions to Sasuke’s distress. Smelling that much fear around the scent of an Uchiha, especially on the heels of the memory he’d just relived, was enough to make his blood boil.

“Sasuke, I’ve never had anyone wear my necklace before,” he stated in as patient a tone as he could manage. “I don’t know how it pulled you into my dream, but I’m fairly sure I didn’t give it to you with the intention of making my head a fun house.” He took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to reign in the sudden spike of temper. “So I’d really appreciate it if you, you know, stopped trying to make EVERYTHING my fucking fault!”

Sasuke exhaled sharply, closing his eyes and running a hand through his hair. “So are you telling me that you don’t even know what this thing can do?” he questioned incredulously. “How do you know it will even work against that ring of yours? Dammit, Naruto, what the hell did you get us into?”

Kyuubi couldn’t help it, he growled. He was tired, so sick and tired of taking the blame for things he couldn’t control. “First off, I didn’t get us into anything. If you weren’t so damn different from everyone and everything I’ve dealt with before, maybe this wouldn’t be happening!” His legs practically vibrated with energy, so he began to pace along the foot of the bed. “You want to know how I granted that wish of yours when you didn’t even say it aloud? Well, so do I! You want to know how my necklace dragged you into my head while I was dreaming? SO DO I! I don’t fucking know, Sasuke! Every day with you is new fucking ground for me, and I’ve been doing this job a real long fucking time.”

Kyuubi’s trembling knees suddenly buckled, weighed down with anxiety, an adrenaline crash, and magical exhaustion. He sat down heavily, tails swirling behind him. Shoulders shaking, he took a deep breath.

“That necklace…” The fox trailed off, unsure of how to explain himself. How could he put into words the soul-deep connection he’d felt when he first laid eyes on the small blue crystal? How could he explain the rush he’d felt when he first slipped the chain over his head, like he’d gained a piece of himself that had been lost? He and the crystal resonated with each other; they were parts of the same whole. He couldn’t possibly expect Sasuke to understand that.

After a long, tense pause, he continued, “I’m…connected to it. I can feel it even when I’m not wearing it, and I know it can…feel me, in return. When you asked to feel my pain, I knew that the crystal could make that possible.”

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed. “Just like that? You just ‘knew’?”

The fox shrugged awkwardly. “It sounds strange, but it’s true. I just…knew it could do it.”

“Hn.” The Uchiha heir fell silent, pale fingers sliding up to warily toy with the silver chain. He frowned at the pale crystal, and slowly began to lean back against the pillows. Kyuubi watched him, a strange feeling growing with his chest. The fox demon had always been reluctant to even show the crystal to anyone, feeling it too personal to share, and yet with barely a second thought, he’d given it away to Sasuke. Eyes narrowed, he stared at the puzzling young man.

What IS it about him that makes him so damn different from everyone else?

With a sigh, Kyuubi settled himself on the torn comforter. Occasionally, a small tremor shot through him. His ring still twinged painfully. He’d feel better if he could lie next to Sasuke and transfer chakra like he’d been doing every night, but with the two of them being so emotionally stressed, he didn’t think it wise. Kyuubi would rather wait out the night awake, glaring at the moon, than risk having Sasuke backhand him right off the bed.

“The ring is hurting you, isn’t it?” Sasuke suddenly asked, his voice hushed. His onyx eyes remained on the crystal, which had begun to glow a faint pink. When Kyuubi looked at him questioningly, the boy seemed to sense it, and Sasuke glanced up with an unreadable expression. “You were right. I can feel it.”

In a strange way, Kyuubi could tell. There was a tiny, phantom pain in his chest that had nothing to do with anything else that was happening. Uncomfortable, Kyuubi shrugged and turned away.

“…What do I have to do?”

The quietly voiced question startled the fox demon. His ears twitched as he turned back to face the brunet, but Sasuke wasn’t looking at him anymore. The boy seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, a faint frown pulling at his pretty lips. Kyuubi tilted his head to the side.

“Well,” he replied reluctantly, “a chakra exchange usually soothes it, but…”

Sasuke’s eyes swung to meet his. “Is that why you cuddle with me every night?”

When he put it that way, it was a little embarrassing. Kyuubi’s ears turned back, and the fox glowered. “…Maybe.”

The Uchiha heir sighed listlessly. “Then come here. I don’t think either of us can handle another trip down memory lane from you.” He tugged the covers down and patted the mattress beside him. “Come on.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Kyuubi complied, rising to his feet. His legs shook uncontrollably. With some difficulty, he forced them to work, climbing carefully over Sasuke’s legs until he stood beside the young man’s chest. Sasuke silently shifted to the side, and Kyuubi obligingly curled up beside him. The brunet awkwardly tucked the sheets around him, causing the fox to smirk weakly.

“What’s with this? You’re going to mother me now?” he teased feebly. Sasuke glared at him, but his heart clearly wasn’t in it. Ill-hidden storm clouds of worry filled his dark eyes, a fact that, frankly, amazed the fox demon. Words were one thing, but actually seeing a hardass like Sasuke worry over him…

It felt surprisingly…good.

Sasuke carefully settled down next to him, watching him with a curious expression on his face. One hand lifted to scratch gently behind Kyuubi’s ear, and as always, the fox melted. It felt so heavenly, like someone was massaging his chakra and feeding him ambrosia—or better yet, ramen—on top of it. Sighing, he leaned against Sasuke’s side. Their chakra began to transfer between them, soothing Kyuubi’s still throbbing ring. Kyuubi felt his tightly wound muscles begin to relax.

“Naruto, are you…” He hesitated, running his fingers over the base of Kyuubi’s skull and pulling them away. “Are you alright?”

The stiffly asked question made Kyuubi’s lips twitch up into a tiny smile. Without replying, he pressed closer to Sasuke’s side. One tail flipped up to curl loosely—and maybe a little possessively—around Sasuke’s waist. The young man relaxed, settling a hand upon Kyuubi’s middle and stroking it idly with his thumb. His breath tickled the tips of Kyuubi’s ears. Their chakra continued to flow back and forth, replenishing Kyuubi’s depleted strength.

In the wake of Sasuke’s awkward (but appreciated) comforting, the pair fell asleep. Neither noticed the heavy moon being quickly obscured by thick, dark storm clouds.

Shielded from the pale light, their room plunged into darkness.

* * *

Continue to Part II

Penis!!

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:57:27 GMT

I went to the nearby Hounen Matsuri last weekend, better known as the Penis Festival. Yes, there is a festival of the wang, and it occurs in three different places at three different times of the year in Japan. It oh-so-coincidentally happened to be at a shrine within a quick subway/train ride of Nagoya. And oh, was there penis to be had. Penis cookies, penis suckers (I bought one in pink), frosted bananas shaped like penises...the list goes on. The actual parade (called the climax) featured a lot of sake and a giant, 880 lbs wooden penis (carved in anatomically correct perfection), followed by men and women carrying smaller penises. The men tended to shove their penises into people's unsuspecting faces, just so they could rub them for good luck.

And there was a man in a demon costume, but he was overshadowed by the penis banner right behind him.

I haven't had such a good time in ages. XD

japan

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:36:01 GMT

Yeah, so, coming to this country wasn't such a hot idea. My Japanese has gotten a lot better (not particularly through any efforts by Nanzan University), but living here is about to become hell. Energy costs a good 2.5x what it does back home, and there's no central heating. Dealing with 50 or 40 degree weather outside is one thing, but living at 40-30 degrees (at night) when INSIDE YOUR OWN ROOM is a touch intolerable. I bought a heater.

Bad. Move.

While it kept me pleasantly warm, despite not using it all that much, my energy bill (plus internet fees, flat rate every month) this month came to $160. I have $260 in that account. I now have $100 to feed myself and otherwise live in Japan for the next 31+ days. And food here happens to be very, very expensive.

So now I'm faced with a particularly interesting dilemma: how little can I eat, on top of being forced to now walk to school (my commuter subway pass just expired), and stay alive?

I wish I were exaggerating, but my main concern today really was whether or not I could survive on snitched rice for the next month. Money goes FAST here, and food spoils ridiculously quickly. It's also impossible to buy food in one go that'll last you more than 4 days at best. Thank you, country of housewives that have nothing better to do than go shopping every damn day.

Day One hasn't been so bad. The roomies happened to be making food (btw, our relationship has sorted itself out), and fed me some of it, so I didn't have to use my limited supplies tonight. So my game plan from here on out is: Eat little, eat as cheap as humanly possible, and sleep a LOT because it's less time that I'll be hungry.

On the other hand, it's one hell of a way to kick-off a diet. A diet of solid carbs will put a little padding on you. A diet of nothing will probably take it off. T_T

Fox Magic : Chapter 10 (Beneath the Underneath) Part I

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:20:14 GMT

F o x M a g i c

By akaitsume

~~~------------------------------------------~~~

Genre: AU-ish/Drama/Romance/Mystery
Pairings: NaruSasuNaru
Rating: R (for now)
Summary: A decision made in the heat of the moment leaves Sasuke questioning his past, his future, and his convictions, all while dealing with an ancient, all-powerful fox demon whose grudge transcends both time and space. NaruSasuNaru, canonish AU
Warnings: Fantasy-esque, Zoomorphism, a liberal dose of Japanese Mythology, violence, mentions of abuse/torture in later chapters, strong language, and---in later chapters---limes and lemons.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Naruto, but I make them do things they'd never do in the manga.
Archived: Fanfiction.net; Livejournal; Crimson Claws
A/N: This is the first time I've used livejournal to post my stories, but I decided (after much, much, much prodding by arcanetheorem ) to go ahead and try it. I find my will is lacking when she gets enthusiastic about something...>_> Let me know what you guys think! ^_^

This chapter is the first of Fox Magic's that's been beta'd. Much loves for the fantastic arcanetheorem , and thanks, luv, for putting up with my mood swings! XDD

Enjoy.

An odd, heavy silence settled upon the room as Sasuke hesitated, his fingers over a dark red scroll. With the strange feeling that the room itself was waiting to see what he would do, he picked up the scroll.

Immediately, a thick, terrible noise resounded in his brain, dark words that he couldn’t understand pounding at his skull like a tempest. Beneath the words, someone was screaming, an ear-piercing wail that threatened to burst his eardrums, even though he knew it couldn’t possibly be a real sound. Gasping, he dropped the scroll on the table. The voices receded, lowering to unintelligible whispers before disappearing entirely. Head throbbing in pain, Sasuke clasped his hands to his temples and squeezed his eyes shut.

Holy hell. What the fuck was that?? His headache gradually began to pass, and Sasuke gingerly peeled his eyes open again. The red scroll sat on the table, innocently and silently mocking him. Sasuke scowled at it, forehead throbbing just from looking at the damned thing. How the hell was he supposed to read these things if that terrible voice was going to drown him every time he touched a scroll?

A wet sensation began to tickle the skin beneath his nose, causing Sasuke to swipe at it irritably with his right hand. It came away bloody. Midnight eyes narrowed as he contemplated his red fingers. Obviously, my family wouldn’t want anyone to be able to waltz in and take a peek at these scrolls. They must be sealed somehow. His scowl deepened. How could he unlock the scrolls? Glancing up, he noticed Naruto’s shadow shifting its weight through the paper-lined door, but after watching the other man for a moment, he shook his head.

Even if Naruto knew how to open the scrolls without having the reader’s head explode, this was something Sasuke needed to do himself.

Rubbing his soiled fingers together, he stared at the table. If he were going to lock the scrolls to protect it from spies, how best to prove that he was of Uchiha descent? The only way to do that was through his…

He glanced at his fingers.

Bracing his shoulders, Sasuke reached down with his right hand and deliberately smeared a line of blood on the red scroll. Snatching his hand away, Sasuke stared intently at the red paper. Light whispers began to fill the air, and Sasuke could almost swear he heard a flute playing as the scroll stirred minutely. Slowly, Sasuke’s blood sank into the paper, spreading out like an infection until the entire scroll had turned black. Somewhat hesitantly, Sasuke placed his hand upon the scroll. When no words suddenly thundered through his brain, he picked it up and unrolled it. At first glance, the same unreadable characters he’d seen when looking over Madara’s shoulder graced the page, but when he looked at them again, the ink strokes shuddered, twisted, and began to form words:

~Greetings, Uchiha Sasuke.~

Sasuke stared at the words, eyes wide.

~Interesting. You have already bonded with Kyuubi no Kitsune, and yet this is the first time you have encountered these scrolls? You are a reckless boy.~

Sasuke’s jaw worked, but no noises emerged.

~Stars above, boy, you aren’t dumb, are you?~

“I… What? No!”

~Thank goodness. We would have to kill you, otherwise, and that requires more energy than we feel willing to spare.~

Shaking his head violently, Sasuke took another look at the scroll, but the words were still there. Even as he watched, more words began to form.

~A bit of luck, we should think, that of all the scrolls here, you managed to grab the only one capable of guiding you. And guidance, it would seem, is something that you need desperately.~

Sasuke scowled, bridling instinctively at the insult. “Who the hell are you?”

A long pause followed his question, during which Sasuke could hear the echoes of a man’s laughter. His fingers clenched the paper scroll automatically.

~We are unimportant, boy. The question is, what is it that you wish to know? Do you wish to bend the Kyuubi to your will? He is a headstrong creature, it is true, but he can be broken.~

The Uchiha heir’s stomach clenched involuntarily. Broken? he couldn’t help but think. To his surprise, the scroll responded.

~Indeed. All of his previous masters managed to control him with the judicious application of corporal punishment. You cannot be soft on him, boy, or he will take advantage of you.~

The paper crinkled slightly under the force of his grip. I have no intention of “breaking” him, thank you very much. And considering how headstrong he still is, I challenge your claim that he has ever been “broken” at all.

No response for a long moment.

~Oh? Did you not come here with the intention of finding out more about his punishments? The laws to which he must adhere? The extent of his full power? You fool no one, boy. You are as power-hungry as the rest. We can guide you to this power.~

Sasuke’s heart was pounding. The scroll was lying. He hadn’t come here with the intention of deliberately subduing Naruto. He just wanted to knowmore, to understand why the things that happened to Naruto occurred in the first place.

~Foolish boy. Do you realize what power you have in your possession? The nine-tailed beast can level cities in a heartbeat, slaughter thousands upon a whim. It can, and it has.~

No. That wasn’t like Naruto. He wouldn’t—

~Wouldn’t he? Do you honestly believe that his kind and playful exterior is his true self? The creature is playing a game with you, fool. Before his enslavement, he slaughtered humans for fun. He reveled in his power. Why should you not do the same? Turn the beast’s power against him, use him to grow stronger. Draw upon the ring to feed yourself.~

Unbidden, images of Naruto, eyes red and hair wild flashed through his mind. Visions of Sasuke sitting upon a throne of skulls, the ground beneath him soaked red with blood, while Naruto kneeled at his side. A small girl was dragged in front of him, screaming and crying, and with a nod of Sasuke’s head, Naruto smiled. And killed her.

“NO!” Gasping, Sasuke shook away the images. They weren’t real. Sasuke wasn’t a tyrant, and Naruto wasn’t the bloodthirsty animal the scroll was painting him as. It isn’t true. Hands shaking, he scowled down at the paper. “Now listen, you. I’m tired of your fucking mind games. I want to know the laws that Naruto has to adhere to, and that’s it. Now either tell them to me or show me where I can find them!”

The scroll paused before replying, filling Sasuke with an uneasy sense of dread. A twirl of someone else’s dark amusement flittered through him, making him shiver.

~Very well, Uchiha Sasuke. If that is what you want.~ Several nearby scrolls began to glow softly. ~These are the scrolls that illustrate the laws of his enslavement, and the accompanying punishments should they be broken. Read them well.~

The words faded from the scroll, returning to the mangled characters they were before. Trembling, Sasuke set the scroll down gingerly, rolling it with care. In all his life, he’d never heard of scrolls that could talk to someone and read their minds. It was unsettling in the extreme. Just what kind of power could create something like this, much less sustain it over centuries? Swallowing hard, he glanced up at Naruto’s shape in front of the door.

If the scrolls could read his mind, it was entirely possible that Naruto would have no choice but to read Sasuke’s. It might very well be a stipulation he had to follow, one that he had no control over. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke reached for one of the glowing scrolls nearby, tearing it open. As with the previous scroll, words appeared as he began to read, though these didn’t seem to have a direct connection to his thoughts.

~The Kyuubi no Kitsune must adhere to his master’s wishes above all else. No personal desires may be placed before those of his master’s. In the event of the Kyuubi no Kitsune growing selfish, the following may be used as a means of punishment:…~

His eyes skimmed the list of punishments, but instead of seeing the words, images of Naruto being put through the punishments raced across his mind’s eye.

Naruto kneeled on a dirty floor, arms crossed and tied with thick rope to a post in front of him. His head hung, blond hair obscuring his face from view. As Sasuke watched, blood appeared in violent strips across Naruto’s back, like he was being struck with an invisible whip. The blond’s broad torso flinched with each invisible strike, but he made no noise aside from the odd grunt.

“Hold.”

The whipping stopped at a short command from the unseen man behind Naruto. Slowly, the wounds seemed to half-heal, gumming up on his back to stop the bleeding.

“Proceed.”

At the next strike, Naruto finally cried out. He tossed his head back, lips bleeding from being bitten to stifle the noises he’d made, face contorted in pain. Tugging uselessly at his bound hands, Naruto sagged forward again, flinching with each new inflicted wound.

The images stopped abruptly, replaced with darkness. Breathing heavily, Sasuke waited for an agonized moment before he realized that his eyes were shut. Slowly, he peeled them open, glancing once more at the words on the page.

Naruto sat in front of him, apologizing profusely with his forehead against the ground, fingers splayed and digging into the dirt on either side of his head. His apologies went unheard.

With a sickening crack, Naruto’s arm broke and twisted, pointing the wrong way. Naruto started screaming. More bones cracked themselves, traveling up and down his arms, his fingers, his legs. One by one, they broke. Then they broke again. And again.

With a shout, Sasuke flung the parchment away from him, not caring where it landed. His stomach was churning, sweat was beading on his brow, and his panting breaths were harsh in the preternaturally quiet room. Swallowing back his nausea, Sasuke hung his head.

What kind of monsters could do that to another living being? More to the point, what kind of monster could read about such a thing, see it, and then decide that it was a good idea??

These were the kind of people that Naruto had been forced to spend generation after generation serving. God. No wonder Naruto had been distant ever since bringing him here. Had any of his masters even been sane after going through these scrolls? After studying them, possibly for years?

Sasuke lifted his head, glaring belligerently at the multitude of “educational” scrolls about him. There had to be a way to get through them without losing his mind. At this rate, he was either going to have to give up entirely, or resign himself to becoming the same kind of sadistic creep who liked this sort of thing, because he honestly couldn’t see any other way to handle it.

Unsatisfied with either option, Sasuke folded his arms over his chest and sat back. There had to be a way. But what?

Scowling, he reached for the blood-stained scroll again and tore it open. With a slightly mocking air, the words began to form.

~What is the matter, Uchiha Sasuke? Did you not find what you were looking for?~

“Alright, you sadistic bastard, whoever you are,” Sasuke snarled. “Forget this ‘punishment’ bullshit. I want a list of the rules that Naruto has to follow. No images, no hints, no commentary, just give me a goddamn list, or I’m going to set this whole room on fire. Can you manage that?”

Sasuke got the impression that he’d somehow startled whoever was controlling the scrolls, judging by the lack of amused undertones in his head. After a few minutes, the scroll cleared of all writing.

~Rule #1…~

Several hours later, the sound of the paper door sliding open startled Sasuke into looking up. His eyes stung from reading for too long, and he could feel a migraine threatening to shake his head apart, so it was with some measure of relief that he took in the unusually stoic blond who entered. Naruto paused, confusion flickering briefly across his face before it settled into that impassive mask from before.

“We’ve spent too long here,” the fox demon stated gruffly. “Someone’s going to come into this room soon, so we need to head back.”

Sighing wearily, Sasuke lowered the black scroll. “Is there any chance that you can bring me back here later?”

Naruto blinked at him. “Yes.”

“Alright then.” Rolling the scroll with a mildly vindictive air, Sasuke set the scroll aside and stood up. He nearly ended up right back on the floor again as his legs abruptly gave out, but Naruto appeared beside him in a flash, holding onto one of Sasuke’s arms. The Uchiha heir held onto the blond’s broad shoulders, waiting for his tingling legs to stop protesting. Naruto’s breath ghosted across Sasuke’s cheek, and in a startled movement, Sasuke looked into the blond’s deep blue eyes.

Despair.

Naruto’s expression may have been walled off, but up close, his eyes clearly held a wealth of disappointment. Sasuke blinked. No doubt, Naruto expected Sasuke to start being horrible at any moment, mimicking all the countless masters he’d had before. Unconsciously, Sasuke scowled. He couldn’t really blame Naruto for thinking that way, but dammit, couldn’t anyone have a little fucking faith in him?

Unfortunately, Naruto apparently read something else into Sasuke’s scowl, because after a quick, warm pat on each of Sasuke’s legs, the demon hurriedly stepped away. The tingling stopped immediately, allowing Sasuke to stand on his own, but before he could open his mouth to protest, Naruto clutched his arm.

The world went black.

Several long, literally heart-stopping moments later, the pair landed in Sasuke’s kitchen. Having appeared at the same time, Sasuke found himself clutching the fox demon’s torso in an effort to keep from falling to the ground. Growling, he snarled into Naruto’s ear.

“Dammit, do you think you could have given me some warning?”

A pair of strong arms pushed him away, holding tightly until Sasuke balanced himself. Naruto frowned at him, then released him and stepped away.

“I’m sorry.” The blond glanced away, sticking his hands in his pockets. “We didn’t have any time left.”

Disturbed by how quick Naruto had been to distance himself from Sasuke, the Uchiha heir frowned. “Alright.”

The two stood in awkward silence, Naruto gazing at anything in the room that wasn’t Sasuke.

“…Did you find what you were looking for?” the blond eventually asked, his voice subdued. Sasuke’s hackles went up instinctively at the fox demon’s tone.

“To some degree, yes,” Sasuke snapped. “It took me a while to get those damn scrolls to cooperate, but I found out some of what I wanted to know.” Sasuke’s mood soured further when Naruto visibly tensed. Grinding his teeth, he glanced at the nearest window—

—And started in surprise. The moon hung low in the glass, framed by a velvet black sky.

“It’s night already?” Sasuke turned to Naruto, incredulous. “It was barely morning when we left!”

Naruto sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yes, it was morning when we left, but you spent several hours studying. I can’t give you those hours back, because it’d be extending your life, in a way.”

“And aside from keeping me alive in life-threatening situations, you can’t do that,” Sasuke murmured in agreement. Hundreds of arbitrary rules pounded through his mind, echoed faintly by a deep, dark voice. He shook his head to clear it. “You’d think that was geared towards keeping your masters from wishing immortality upon themselves and leaving it at that, wouldn’t you?”

The blond stilled, lowering his hand slowly as he finally looked Sasuke in the eye. “What?”

Irritated despite himself, Sasuke folded his arms over his chest and glared at the fox demon. “I noticed something about those rules you have to follow. All of them look like they’re tied to the master, to making your master happy and whatnot. They may have that effect, but that’s not why they’re there, is it?”

Now looking distinctly uncomfortable, Naruto began shifting his feet. “What do you mean?”

“Those rules aren’t geared towards keeping your master happy. They’re meant to punishyou.”

Blood drained from Naruto’s face, leaving a pair of wide blue eyes in its wake. “W-what…”

Making a low, discontent noise in his throat, Sasuke began to pace. “Whoever set those rules didn’t give a damn what your masters thought. He, it,they cared only about making you suffer. The whole time I was reading those scrolls, they kept trying to convince me that punishing you was simply an eye for an eye, that it was all justified. They fucking wanted me to abuse you. Why the hell is that?”

Even as he spoke, he could hear dark laughter echoing in his mind, accusingly. He could hear whispers of the true power Sasuke could command if he put all of those rules and punishments to use. He shook it off again, agitatedly. His head was beginning to pound, and the nausea he’d felt in that cursed room came back. Sasuke wasn’t like that. He was guilty of many things, and he was reminded of his guilt every time he saw a villager turn their face from him in disgust, distrust, and disappointment.

But he was no torturer.

In his agitation, Sasuke began making wider circuits before the kitchen table. Long minutes later, Naruto still hadn’t answered his question, blue eyes tracking the Uchiha’s erratic movements in shock. When Sasuke finally stopped pacing and planted his hands on the table to glare at Naruto, the blond stirred.

“I…” The fox demon swallowed, then tried again. “No one’s ever noticed that before. Those rules are supposed to keep me in line—”

“Whose line?”

Naruto blinked again. “What?”

Another dark laugh in his mind caused sharp spikes of pain in his temples. Lifting a hand to his forehead, Sasuke pulled out a chair and sat heavily in it, glowering at the table. “If those rules really cared about what the master wanted, I wouldn’t be able to hurt you inadvertently. I’d have to want you to be in pain.” Shocked silence met his statement. “Those rules don’t give a damn about me. They’re all about you.”

When Naruto didn’t reply, Sasuke looked up at him. The blond had turned his face away, jaw tense with some emotion that Sasuke couldn’t decipher. Fists clenched, Naruto ground out, “Would it bother you if they were?”

Sighing with frustration, Sasuke ran a hand through his raven hair. “It bothers me, Naruto, but not because I want the focus on me. It just doesn’t make sense, unless…” He trailed off, staring at the blond man in front of him.

Naruto still wouldn’t look at him, posture stiff as a board. “Unless what?”

Unless the whole point of the enslavement is to punish you. “…Never mind,” Sasuke finished quietly. What could Naruto have possibly done to deserve this level of cruelty? He shuddered slightly. Was it possible that those scrolls were right?

Sasuke shook his head vehemently. Impossible. Nothing that could be done by someone as eternally friendly as Naruto could possibly justify retaliation to this degree. Nothing.

What about a vendetta? Maybe not something Naruto did, but something about Naruto himself that the people who enslaved him took offense to?

That, the Uchiha could see happening.

When Sasuke didn’t continue the tense conversation, Naruto slowly began to relax. Blond eyes flitted uneasily about the room, glancing at Sasuke, then the table, then the floor, the window, and back to Sasuke. The silence quickly grew uncomfortable.

Someone wanted Naruto to hurt, he mused silently, carefully watching the blond man before him. They wanted to hurt him in the most cruel, continuous, and demeaning way possible. Sasuke’s nausea grew stronger. And they wanted me to do it.

The very thought made him want to hurt something. He’d spent his entire life surrounded by expectations: his father’s expectations that Sasuke would become a child prodigy like Itachi, his own expectations of making his older brother respect him, Itachi’s expectations of Sasuke becoming stronger than him, and the village…

Until Sasuke had defected, Konoha had practically smothered him with affection. As the second son of such a prominent clan and as a boy following in Itachi’s shoes, he’d been considered the darling of his ninja class. He had to be the best, no matter what he was doing. At school, he had to be at the top of his class. At home, he had to be a serious student who, if he didn’t have the natural gifts of his older brother, was at least striving to accomplish the same merits or more than the other Uchiha. He was never allowed to relax amongst all of those hopes and aspirations, and could feel the weight of them wherever he went.

And then Itachi had slaughtered their family. Now, in addition to the horrifying loss, he was expected to destroy his brother, his idol, to avenge his clan. He’d never even been given time to grieve, bombarded as he was afterward by well-wishers and sympathizers. Half of those very people had expected Sasuke to turn out the same way, assuming that Sasuke would turn against the village. When he first ran off with Orochimaru, it hadn’t bothered him that he was proving those old bastards right. Later, however, he’d had his epiphany. He didn’t have to take the short route to defeat his brother. He didn’t have to turn his back on everyone who’d supported him, the people who, even if he couldn’t express his gratitude, had eased his burdens for a short while. He didn’t have to plot and murder to become strong.

And when he’d returned, he’d found those burdens doubled. Now everyone knew him to be a traitor, a man supposedly without allegiances. For the first time, he gained openly antagonistic looks and chilling glances from people he didn’t even know. The people who had adored him without question now hated him without question. Sasuke had thrown it off, telling himself that if he could defy his brother’s wishes, the opinions of a few ignorant villagers couldn’t matter much, either. His friends, such as they were, welcomed him, but it was clear in their eyes that they still expected him to run off again.

And through it all, he’d been so alone. Surrounded by his family, smothered by strangers, or distrusted by all, he was alone. Sasuke had been trained early on to hide his emotions away, because they would be viewed as a weakness. The villagers, all of them, had never learned that a lack of expression didn’t necessitate a lack of feeling.

As had been his lot in life, Sasuke had simply coped with his social solitude and vowed to himself never to live by anyone’s rules but his own. But then Naruto had come barreling into his life, sticking his claws in and dragging every hidden emotion, every smothered longing for closeness, every desperate desire of Sasuke’s to the surface. Despite his discomfiture, the experience was unexpectedly refreshing, even freeing.

And now Sasuke was expected to turn on him. Granted, he hadn’t liked the demon much when they’d met, but that didn’t mean that he was willing to torture him for the sake of power. That was why he’d left Orochimaru’s service—a lack of desire to destroy people for his own benefit. Sasuke may be a cold, detached bastard at times, but he wasn’t a monster.

No matter what the villagers thought, no matter what his brother thought, no matter what Naruto or those thrice-damned scrolls thought—

Sasuke was not. A. Monster.

A sudden movement from the wary fox demon drew Sasuke abruptly out of his ruminations. Their eyes met briefly, but that short-lived contact only upset Sasuke further. Naruto was hiding it fairly well, but the distrust lurking in his eyes was poignant. Countless generations had mistreated this man. He was to be the next to do it.

FUCK that.

In the thick silence that had settled upon the room, Naruto fidgeted, opening and closing his fists. With a barely audible sigh, the blond turned and strode to the stove, squatting down to pull out pots and pans from the cabinet beneath it. Sasuke frowned at the familiar sight. Over the last several days, Naruto had cooked all of Sasuke’s meals without complaint (or being asked, for that matter), waiting until the Uchiha had finished eating before making anything for himself. He never even sat at the table, just leaned against the sink and watched Sasuke eat.

Before Sasuke was even aware that he’d moved, he found himself yanking a pan out of Naruto’s hands and glaring at the startled blond. Mounting fury at all of the unfair assumptions about him coursed through his veins as he looked at the fox demon. The images from the scrolls bombarded him once again, layering Naruto’s startled face with visions of it twisted in agony. Sasuke tried to shake the images off, but found to his dismay that they wouldn’t leave him. Headache growing, he pointed the pan at Naruto.

“It’s my turn to cook. Go sit down.” The terse statement seemed to freeze Naruto to the spot.

“…But I always cook,” Naruto replied, confusion thick in his low voice. Sasuke shooed him away with the pan he’d stolen, pointing irritably at the nearest chair.

“Sit!”

Naruto hesitantly moved to stand beside the chair and pulled it out, but he remained standing. “Seriously, Sasuke, I don’t mind cooking. I’m used to it.”

Movements sharp with the images and frustrated anger running through him, Sasuke slammed the pan down on the stove and stormed over to the fridge, pulling out meat and vegetables and slapping them on the counter. Naruto fell quiet behind him as the Uchiha heir savagely washed the vegetables, placed them on his cutting board, and picked up the biggest knife in his arsenal.

Whack!

“You’ve cooked for me every damn day since you got here. That’s going to change.”

Whack!

“But I’m used to cooking! And I saw all of those cooking programs on the terribision, so I know I can do it the way you guys like to eat these days—”

WHACK!

“And you’re not going to do it anymore! Not every damn day, like you’re my fucking maid.”

WHACK!

Naruto exhaled heavily, obviously frustrated. “Sasuke, look, if I’ve done something to piss you off, I’m sorry, but you know that I can’t poison you or anything. Just let me—”

Because I’d HURT you for it, right?? Unable to contain himself any longer, Sasuke felt his anger finally bubble over and explode out of him.

“I don’t need a fucking slave!!”

THUNK.

The knife went clear through the carrot he was haphazardly chopping, sticking out of the wood cutting board at an awkward angle. Placing his hands on the counter, Sasuke leaned forward and hung his head. His stomach was veritably churning, and the bitter taste of bile stung his throat. Naruto was silent behind him. Taking a slow, steadying breath, Sasuke continued.

“I don’t need a slave. I don’t want a slave. A slave is someone who will always resent me, always have their own vendetta, always be looking for a way to get back at me for the rest of my god damn life. Fuck that.” Straightening, he gripped the knife and freed it with a grunt. “What I need is a partner. Someone who isn’t being degraded to have anything to do with me. Someone who’ll watch my back, period, instead of just making sure I don’t get myself killed.”

When Naruto still didn’t reply, Sasuke resumed chopping his sadly mangled carrot with a bit more calm than before. He didn’t have to be like his ancestors, and he didn’t have to live up to the horrific ideal of his brother or the villagers. Now he just had to prove it. “So what we’re going to do is trade off. If you make breakfast, I’ll make dinner. I’ll do my own damn laundry, and if we have time, we’ll go out and get you some clothes of your own. I’m neat, so if you mess something up, clean up after yourself. But you’re not my maid, you’re not my chef, and you’re not my bodyguard. And you’re NOT my slave.”

Sasuke heard the heavy thud of a body hitting a chair, hard. When he turned, he found Naruto staring at him in blank shock. He looked like his legs had given out from under him.

“…You’re serious.” The incredulity in his voice set Sasuke’s teeth on edge. “You honestly want me to be a…partner?”

“I said I did, didn’t I?” Sasuke snapped. Naruto continued to stare.

“Then why are you so upset?” the blond asked quietly. He still looked like his world had tilted on its axis. Anger built up again, mixed with the severe frustration Sasuke’d been fighting his entire life. Words burst out of him.

“Because I can’t change what those bastards did to you!” Throwing the knife on the counter, he spun to face Naruto fully. “I saw what those sick fucks put you through. I’m not like them! I’m nothing like them, dammit to motherfucking hell! I don’t even want to be!”

Breathing heavily, Sasuke spun back around and glared down at the counter. “I’m not going to treat you like some…deranged, rabid animal just because my ancestors did. It’s sick! Maybe I’m the weak one in the family for thinking this way, but I’ll be damned if you get treated that way ever again! I won’t—”

A pair of warm arms stole around him, pulling him back into a tight hug. A face buried itself in his shoulder as those arms squeezed. Sasuke’s eyes closed of their own volition at the unfamiliar sensation of being embraced, and his angry words fled from him. Emotionally wrung out from his outburst, Sasuke felt his body tense instinctively, but he didn’t pull away. The two stood silently for a long moment, Sasuke’s midnight eyes staring blindly at the countertop. Naruto just breathed into his shoulder.

Slowly, the unnatural warmth of the blond began chasing away the frightening chill that had rooted itself in Sasuke’s spine from the first moment he’d heard Naruto’s past master refer to him as “the creature.” Gingerly, Sasuke placed a hand upon Naruto’s left hand, feeling the cold enslavement band chill his skin. Sasuke’s eyelids lowered, feeling his stomach churn again.

“I’m not one of them,” he stated in a hoarse voice. “God, Naruto, I swear I’m not. I’m nothing like those sick bastards.”

After a long moment, Naruto slowly nodded against his shoulder. “…I know.”

As the embrace continued, Sasuke found himself growing more uncomfortable. Even as a child, he’d been rarely embraced, and as an adult, he never allowed it. Naruto as a fox was one thing, but as a man…the physical contact was more than a little unsettling. It was as if all of Sasuke’s senses had been put on high alert. Even as he stood there, tolerating the touch, the broad planes of Naruto’s chest suddenly felt well-defined, as if Sasuke could sketch it from memory just from the memory of its scorching heat upon his back. Discomfort growing, Sasuke swallowed hard and pulled out of the embrace, gently tugging at Naruto’s arms until they released him.

Ignoring the strange, faint blush that wanted to rise to his cheeks, Sasuke pulled at Naruto’s left hand and gazed at it intently. He could feel Naruto’s eyes burning into his face, but the ring served as some manner of distraction. He frowned.

This one malicious piece of metal is what keeps Naruto in a constant state of doubt and fear. I wonder…

Lifting the demon’s hand before his midnight eyes, Sasuke placed his free fingers lightly upon the ring. It turned warm at his touch, glowing a faint, warning red. Sasuke’s eyes narrowed.

Whoever you are, Sasuke thought savagely, I’m not playing by your rules any longer. We do this my way from now on. Tearing his eyes, which had subconsciously switched into the Sharingan, away from the ring, Sasuke stared determinedly into Naruto’s gaze. The blond’s eyes had never remained blue for an entire confrontation before now, and the lack of the belligerent red gaze struck Sasuke to the core. Maybe the Uchiha heir was an idiot, and maybe most of the villagers and his brother would agree with that assessment, but he was going to get the snippy, snarky, irritating-as-hell fox demon back if it killed him. He wanted to erase the doubt and unease in that cerulean gaze.

While they stared at each other, Sasuke caught a slight flicker of hope in the depths of Naruto’s eyes, darting about like a flame that was seconds from being extinguished. Just the sight of that faltering hope made the ever-present warmth in his chest burn hotter, and Sasuke grit his teeth decisively.

There was only one way to keep that hope alive.

“Naruto,” he began. The blond didn’t reply, but Sasuke could almost physically feel Naruto’s gaze sharpening upon him. The Uchiha heir closed his eyes.

“I wish that I could feel the same pain from your ring that you do.”

Continue to Part II

Fox Magic : Chapter 10 (Beneath the Underneath) Part II

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:19:40 GMT

F o x M a g i c

By akaitsume

~~~------------------------------------------~~~

Genre: AU-ish/Drama/Romance/Mystery
Pairings: NaruSasuNaru
Rating: R (for now)
Summary: A decision made in the heat of the moment leaves Sasuke questioning his past, his future, and his convictions, all while dealing with an ancient, all-powerful fox demon whose grudge transcends both time and space. NaruSasuNaru, canonish AU
Warnings: Fantasy-esque, Zoomorphism, a liberal dose of Japanese Mythology, violence, mentions of abuse/torture in later chapters, strong language, and---in later chapters---limes and lemons.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Naruto, but I make them do things they'd never do in the manga.
Archived: Fanfiction.net; Livejournal; Crimson Claws
A/N: This is the first time I've used livejournal to post my stories, but I decided (after much, much, much prodding by arcanetheorem ) to go ahead and try it. I find my will is lacking when she gets enthusiastic about something...>_> Let me know what you guys think! ^_^

This chapter is the first of Fox Magic's that's been beta'd. Much loves for the fantastic arcanetheorem , and thanks, luv, for putting up with my mood swings! XDD

Enjoy.

Naruto’s heart stopped.

When several seconds passed, Sasuke opened his Sharingan-lit eyes again, complete seriousness contained within them. Naruto couldn’t help it. He stared.

“You…what?” he managed to reply, voice hoarse with shock. As though dazed, but aware that it was running late, Naruto’s heart resumed beating. Blood began roaring through his ears.

“If that damn piece of metal hurts you, I want to know it. I want to feel the same pain.” Sasuke’s grip tightened upon Naruto’s left hand. “I didn’t have time to study all of the rules you have to obey, and I’m not sure I could avoid them all even if I had. It’s the quickest way to ensure that I don’t hurt you.”

Naruto needed to sit down again. “Sasuke, I…you…” Shaking his head violently, he pulled away from the brunet and tugged his hand free. “I…I appreciate the thought, I really do, but I can’t grant something like that. Any pain you felt would double back upon me.”

The other man scowled. “It isn’t a thought, Naruto, it’s a wish. I don’t have the time I need to study, so consider this my crash course in dealing with that damn ring.” Lifting a hand to his chin, Sasuke began pacing again, agitatedly. “Isn’t there any way that you can grant it?”

It was too much to hope for. Sasuke couldn’t be serious. In more than fourteen generations of human masters, not one, ONE, had ever wished to be placed on the same level as him, much less demanded that they become equal partners. It wasn’t possible. He couldn’t believe humans, even one as odd as Sasuke, would willingly give up that much control over him. They didn’t think that way. They couldn’t.

Abruptly angry, Naruto grabbed Sasuke’s wrist and squeezed, hard. He could feel fire flickering underneath his skin, ready to lash out at the Uchiha, consequences be damned. Sasuke started, looking up at him with a furrowed brow as Naruto loomed over him.

“Sasuke, I swear,” he rasped. “If you’re playing with me, setting me up for a fall, I’ll…”

A flash of memory darted past Naruto’s reddened eyes, hearing screams and watching blood splatter walls that had long since been torn down. He shook it off.

Sasuke took the increased pressure upon his wrist without flinching, meeting Naruto’s eyes with fire burning in his own. “I’m not. I want us on an even playing field, Naruto.” His gaze sharpened, piercing Naruto through all the barriers it’d taken him centuries to build up. The fox demon flinched. “I don’t associate with those who are beneath me. We’ll go on as equals, or not at all.”

Naruto’s heart was pounding furiously. Was it really possible? If he were to find a way to grant Sasuke’s wish, would he really continue to treat Naruto as a person? Could he really trust Sasuke that much?

Abruptly, his ring began to burn like the fires of hell itself, causing Naruto to hiss and pull away, clutching his hand to his chest. He caught a flash of an enraged, ethereal face in his mind, and then had to clamp his eyes shut to ride out the pain. Despite himself, he pulled a strained smirk.

If the bastard’s pissed, I must be on the right track. Eventually, the pain receded, allowing Naruto to take note of the concerned hands on his shoulders and the irate master yelling into his ear.

“You see?? This is the kind of shit I want to prevent! What the hell did I do?” Sasuke’s hands flitted over his back, patting him awkwardly. In a flash of intuition, it suddenly occurred to Naruto that Sasuke was attempting to heal him and failing miserably. Chuckling lightly, Naruto straightened and clasped Sasuke’s increasingly wandering hands in his own. The blond smiled.

“Believe it or not, I don’t think that one had anything to do with you.” He paused, staring down at his apparently well-intentioned master. “You tried to heal me just now, didn’t you?”

Amazingly, Sasuke flushed. “I told you that I’m trying to find a way to avoid punishing you. And what the hell do you mean, it had nothing to do with me? Are you telling me that the person who did this to you is still alive?”

Naruto snorted, still holding Sasuke’s wrists aloft. “Oh, he’s definitely still alive. I think everyone would have noticed if he died.”

At the mention of his enslaver, Naruto’s ring gave another painful twinge. He ignored it in favor of thinking, an idea beginning to form in the recesses of his mind. Technically, it would grant Sasuke’s wish. But did he trust the Uchiha enough?

To his surprise, Sasuke’s expression darkened.

“Fuck him. If he’s still controlling you through that ring on top of all these damn rules, I’m going to find a way to stop it. You may be forced to answer to me, but I want you only answering to me.” Looking away, Sasuke added darkly, “At least I won’t treat you like shit.”

Naruto blinked.

He was going to do it.

The fox demon didn’t reply to Sasuke’s bloodthirsty comment, choosing instead to stare at him with a bemused smile on his face. Sasuke scowled.

“What?”

Naruto shook his head, his smile becoming somewhat self-deprecating. “It’s nothing.” He took a deep breath. “Do you really want to feel the pain my ring generates?”

Frustration rose up in him. “I already wished for it, didn’t I? Yes!”

“…All right, then. Come with me.” With that, Naruto released Sasuke’s hands and turned to walk into the hallway, turning left before Sasuke’s bedroom to head towards the back of the house. After a moment’s hesitation, Sasuke followed. The pair passed his washroom on their right, soon followed by the door to his father’s study. Just the sight of it sent a strange, anticipatory shiver down Sasuke’s spine.

What was Naruto planning?

When they entered the study, the blond went straight for the now-visible door between his father’s desk and the bookshelf. Naruto pushed it open, glanced back at Sasuke, and gestured with his head to follow him as he proceeded down the steps. Seconds after Sasuke crossed the doorway, the door swung shut.

Their quiet footsteps echoed in the stone hall as they walked, though this time, Sasuke found that the impenetrable darkness wasn’t so…impenetrable. As he scanned the dark walls, the stone jumped into his sight without the need for his Sharingan. Narrowing his eyes, he glanced at his companion to ask him about the difference.

And, with a start, realized that Naruto was glowing.

The man’s red chakra swirled around him, skittering out to touch the walls briefly before pulling in again, bathing the pair in a soft, warm glow. Sasuke stared at him.

It’s like he’s my own personal lantern. Despite the turmoil of the last few hours, Sasuke found a smirk threatening.

“Naruto?”

The man didn’t turn, but he tilted his head in response. “Hmm?”

“You do realize that you’re glowing.”

The blond glanced down at himself, eyebrows lifting in surprise. “Huh. Would you look at that?”

Sasuke shook his head. Clearly dismissing the phenomenon, Naruto shrugged and continued walking. After a few more steps, his chakra flung itself out sideways, lighting the pair of torches in a burst of flame. The blond stopped glowing.

Before them, the ornate wooden cabinet gleamed in the torchlight, almost as though it had been polished recently. The ruby spirals seemed even brighter than they were the last time Sasuke had seen them, practically dancing across the wood. With only a moment’s hesitation, Naruto reached forward and tugged on two small, brass rings. The doors swung open.

Sasuke couldn’t help it—he flinched. The last time those doors opened, he’d found himself surrounded by Kyuubi’s notably powerful chakra, and he still wasn’t entirely sure he understood how he’d survived it. Goosebumps rose on his arms at the memory, and Sasuke took a moment to rub them. Quelling an instinctive shudder, he stepped up beside Naruto and cautiously glanced inside.

Several ornate pillows and boxes lined the interior of the cabinet, gold and silver glinting in the firelight. The boxes all stood at differing heights—three resting upon a single pillow each towards the front, four resting upon two pillows each behind them, two large, gold-plated containers behind those on three pillows each, and one small structure that looked like a miniature shrine in the back center, standing upon a black wooden pillar. Several small cups with incense ashes were interspersed with the obviously cherished containers. Chains of gold leaf hung from the roof of the cabinet, each strand dangling lower as they reached the front.

Sasuke gawked. If he didn’t know better, he’d say that he’d just been shown a personal shrine to Kyuubi. But that was impossible, wasn’t it? His mouth worked, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask.

Naruto stared into the cabinet for a long moment, sighing lightly. Shaking his head, he reached for a small, red wooden box in the front row, lifting it carefully off the center pillow. Clutching it tightly in both hands, he turned to face the bewildered Uchiha. His knuckles turned white.

“Sasuke…” Naruto took a steadying breath. “I’ve never shown any of my masters what I’m about to show you. None of them even knew that it existed.” He stared down at the box in his hands, running his fingers over the unmarked wood. “The fact is, if anyone else had made the wish that you had, I would have claimed that I couldn’t grant it and left it at that.”

Sasuke’s shoulders tensed involuntarily. “‘Claimed’?”

Red eyes rose to meet his. “Yes. Technically, this is outside of the terms of my enslavement. I don’t have to give this to you, but…” Naruto took another deep breath, his hands beginning to tremble. “I’m choosing to trust you, Sasuke.”

Swallowing hard at the weight with which those words were delivered, Sasuke nodded. Naruto gave him an analyzing look, red eyes flickering back and forth between Sasuke’s, and then lowered his own back to the box in his hands. Lifting his right thumb, Naruto transformed his human fingernail back into a fox-like claw. He drew the claw down the unbroken top of the box in a zigzagging pattern—down, left, down, right, down, left—until he reached the bottom of the lid. Both heard a soft “click” as he lifted the claw, the appendage melting back into a human fingernail. Naruto placed both thumbs atop the box, then looked up at Sasuke.

“Keep in mind, Sasuke, that this is a loan, not a gift. I expect it back from you.” When the Uchiha nodded, Naruto pushed with his thumbs. The lid slid off. With one hand, Naruto placed the lid underneath the box and held it up, presenting the contents to the Uchiha heir.

A necklace lay inside the box on a red silk pillow. It held one small, light blue crystal, framed on either side by a small glass bead. A thin silver chain pooled upon the pillow, lying passively above the crystal.

Sasuke’s mouth went dry. He lifted a hand hesitantly, but he didn’t reach into the small box. “What is it?”

“A gift,” Naruto replied in a low voice. “A woman gave it to me a long, long time ago, saying that it was mine by right, anyway.” He paused. “She called it my ‘heart’.”

At those words, Sasuke’s palms began to sweat. He stared at Naruto incredulously.

“You’re giving me your heart?”

Naruto’s cheeks flushed. “Only on a loaning basis, I told you. I’ll want it back eventually.” His cheeks grew redder. “And she was speaking metaphorically, I’m sure.”

Sasuke slowly reached a hand into the box, running a finger against the cool crystal. It grew warmer with his touch. Clearing his throat, Naruto shifted his stance.

“If you wear this necklace, it’ll basically override the ring I’m wearing. If it causes me pain, you’ll feel it, too. If you decide that you really don’t want me to feel any pain, I won’t.” His grip shifted upon the box, all of his nails growing to sharp points. “Don’t take this lightly, Sasuke. If you turn on me, this necklace will make sure that I hurt far more than the damned ring could ever hope for.”

Sasuke’s hand froze, mid-touch. Slowly, he lifted his eyes to meet the angry, wary red orbs before him. Naruto was clinging to the box like it was his last chance at salvation, but determination burned in his eyes. Overwhelmed, Sasuke pulled his hand away.

“Why would you trust me with this?” he found himself whispering. Despite all of Sasuke’s personal convictions, Naruto had no way of knowing how sincere he was. “How do you know I won’t use it to hurt you?”

“I don’t.” Naruto closed his eyes briefly, then opened them to spear Sasuke with his normal, sky blue gaze. “I wasn’t given a chance when I needed it the most. I won’t make the same mistake with you.”

After a poignant pause, Naruto held the box away from him, pushing it towards Sasuke’s chest.

“Please. Take it.”

Hands shaking, Sasuke reached into the box and cautiously removed the necklace. The crystal warmed instantly to his touch, flushing a light pink within the milky depths. Swallowing hard, Sasuke moved to place the chain over his head, then paused and stared into Naruto’s eyes.

“I swear to you, Kyuubi no Kitsune,” he stated quietly. Naruto straightened, eyes flashing red. “I swear on my family’s grave that you won’t regret giving me this.”

Missing the slight furrowing of Naruto's brow, Sasuke closed his eyes and settled the chain over his head, starting when the burning crystal landed upon his chest. The glow he’d had under his breast ever since he’d released Kyuubi grew wildly, swelling in his chest and spreading down his arms. Gasping, Sasuke opened his eyes.

A woman, breathtakingly beautiful, sat before him at a loom, expertly weaving a tapestry. Light poured from her in blinding waves, choking Sasuke with her brilliance. As if startled by his appearance, the woman turned slowly to face him. Her clear blue eyes appraised him, ruby lips parting in a gesture of elegant surprise. One shining hand parted from her loom to point in his direction.

“He gave it to you?”

Tears streaming down his face, Sasuke closed his eyes. Even when he didn’t look at her, her light poured through him, unbearable in its beauty. In a jerky movement, he nodded.

Despite his shut eyes, Sasuke felt her smile as clearly as if he’d seen it. A warm hand caressed his cheek.

“Take care of him.”

“Sasuke??”

The Uchiha heir’s midnight eyes snapped open and he doubled over, wheezing heavily. Tears were pouring from his stinging eyes as he fought for breath, sobbing. That woman…

A pair of gentle hands wrapped around him, supporting his weight. Trembling, Sasuke swiped at his tears and glanced up. Naruto was gazing down at him, concern written on his whiskered face. Unthinkingly, Sasuke reached up and pressed the back of his hand upon Naruto's cheek in a light caress. Blond eyebrows flew up in shock.

“Sasuke, are you alright? You looked a little spacey for a minute there.”

Blinking, Sasuke abruptly came back to himself. He dropped his hand as if burned. “I’m fine.” He winced internally at the tear-roughened huskiness of his voice. “I just…saw something I didn’t expect to.”

“Oh? What was that?” Naruto wrapped one arm more firmly about Sasuke’s waist, tugging the smaller man against him. One hand now freed, he reached over to place the opened box back upon its pillow and closed the cabinet doors. Sasuke shook his head.

“With all the weird things I’ve seen today, I doubt you’d believe me even if I told you.”

Unsteadily, Sasuke began walking back towards the chamber’s entrance, still locked against the blond’s side by an immovable arm. Naruto followed without complaint, gazing at him curiously. After a long moment, the blond gave Sasuke a small smile.

“You might be surprised.”

As the pair climbed the darkened stairs, Naruto’s hold on Sasuke tightened. Frowning, the brunet glanced over at him.

“You know, Naruto, I can climb these stairs without you helping me,” Sasuke stated irritably. Naruto flashed him a weak smile, his glow—which had returned as soon as the torches had gone out behind them with their departure—fainter than it had been on the way down.

“I know that, Sasuke. Who says I’m hanging on for your benefit?” He sighed wearily, relief and exhaustion weighing down his shoulders. As soon as the necklace had touched Sasuke’s skin, a shock of warmth and contentment had shot through the fox demon, enough that he had physically shaken for an instant. Sasuke hadn’t noticed, busy as he’d been crying and looking like he was being possessed, but in that moment, Naruto knew that he’d made the right choice.

Even though he hadn’t worn the necklace for several hundred years, he’d always felt a slight ache in his breast at the loss of it.

When the crystal had touched Sasuke’s skin, that ache had disappeared.

That was good enough for him.

Of course, now that he, amazingly enough, didn’t have to worry about Sasuke stripping his flesh off at any given moment, Naruto felt ready to just drop where he stood. Only the chakra exchange going on between their connected sides allowed him to keep moving.

Traveling two hundred years round trip would do that to a man.

At his comment, Sasuke stopped, turned, and gazed at him suspiciously, eyes roving over the fox demon’s face. Too worn out to try and hide anything, Naruto simply watched his master—partner—whatever he’d made himself—in return. Sasuke’s eyebrows furrowed.

“You’re exhausted, aren’t you,” Sasuke accused, a scowl forming on his aristocratic face.

Naruto shrugged, eyes flickering down to the Uchiha’s twisted lips. “I’m a little tired, yeah. But you know, now that we’re equal and all…” Reaching out with his free hand, he touched his index finger to Sasuke’s downturned mouth. The other man jerked his head away, startled. Weakly, Naruto smiled. “You really shouldn’t scowl so much. It’ll put lines on your pretty face.”

Sasuke stared at him, face bathed in Naruto’s red glow. The brunet’s eyes narrowed before swinging away, and Sasuke resumed trudging up the stairs.

“What the hell did I say about flirting with me?” he muttered.

The blond’s weak smile grew. “Aw, you’re all bark, Sasuke. You like it, admit it. Even if you don’t lean towards men, I’m still a pretty man.” He batted his eyes. “I’ll bet I secretly set your heart aflutter.”

Scowling, Sasuke tried to pull away, but Naruto reeled him back in, drawing on a little of Sasuke’s chakra to do so. The exchange, vital as it was, was still minimal enough on the human side that few of his masters had ever been consciously aware that he was doing it. The Uchiha gave in with a growl.

“You do not. And besides, aren’t you the one who just gave me your ‘heart’?” Sasuke smirked. “Maybe you’re the one who’s falling for me.”

Naruto rolled his eyes. “You’re going to get mileage out of this one forever, aren’t you?” he grumbled. “I said that was metaphorical, and I want that necklace back eventually anyway!”

Snorting, Sasuke gave him a slanted look. “You keep telling yourself that, Naruto.”

Naruto groaned, but he lodged no further complaints. Bastard will just keep snarking at me if I do. They finally, finally reached the entrance door—and whose bright idea was it to make his chamber a closet anyway?? Isolation or no, that’s just insulting—and Naruto felt his glow shut off with a sigh of relief. Sasuke shot another narrow-eyed look at him.

“You’re not just ‘tired,’ Naruto, you look ready to collapse.” The Uchiha heir moved to put his arms about the fox demon’s waist, causing Naruto to jump in surprise. Sasuke glared at him. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Well, two hundred years both ways is a bit of a long trip.” Naruto shrugged, glancing away. “I wasn’t sure how you’d react when we got back, having read those scrolls and all, so…”

To his surprise, Sasuke didn’t respond, neither with the anger before nor his typical indignation. Glancing back at him, Naruto found those midnight eyes contemplating the floor of the study. Shifting with discomfort, Naruto awkwardly patted the Uchiha on the back.

“Of course, now I know that you’re just going to pitch a hissy fit and cling to me. I won’t make that mistake twice,” he announced cheerily. Sasuke glared at him.

“Oh, shut up.” Grabbing the arm about his waist and tossing it over his shoulder instead, Sasuke shifted to support more of Naruto’s weight. Naruto somewhat doubted that the slender frame pressed against him could take all of his weight, but when he felt his ribcage hefted slightly without even a grunt, he changed his mind.

Ninja. Right. Shaking his head softly, Naruto allowed himself to be led out of the study, walking back along the hallway, past the kitchen, and straight into the living room, where Naruto could already see his beloved couch swinging into view. Separating himself from Sasuke, Naruto stumbled over to the couch and sank down upon it gratefully. Sighing, he tipped his head back against the lovely, soft piece of furniture, nearly groaning at the feel of the cushions. Almost immediately, the edges of his vision went black.

Sasuke stepped quickly into view, looking down at him with a mixture of exasperation and concern. Naruto weakly smiled up at him.

“Just gimme a minute, and I’ll get up and—”

Sasuke stalled his comment by lifting a hand. “You’re not going anywhere. Just relax for a bit and watch some damn TV. I’ll make dinner.”

Naruto wanted to sit up in protest, he really did, but his fatigued body would no longer cooperate. “But—”

“We’re not having this discussion again, Naruto.” Grumpily, the Uchiha swiped the terribision’s remote off the coffee table and turned the magic machine on. He handed the remote over, placing it gently in Naruto’s slack grip. Nodding, he patted the blond briefly on the shoulder and made his way towards the kitchen. “Just stay there. If you move and fall down, I’m not going to pick you up.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Naruto muttered at Sasuke’s retreating back. He stared after the boy thoughtfully, touched by his obvious concern. Naruto honestly couldn’t remember the last time someone was genuinely concerned about him, before Sasuke. His comrades in the wars of old were fiercely loyal, but that same unwavering belief in him kind of shot down any potential “concern” for his welfare. No one else really knew what he was, so he didn’t really count their feelings. Sasuke, on the other hand, knew exactly what Naruto was and how powerful the demon could become.

And he was still mothering him, in his own pissy way, just because Naruto was tired.

Something in Naruto’s chest loosened the tiniest bit. With a sigh, he ignored the terribision in favor of closing his eyes, listening to the unprecedented sounds of someone actually making a meal for him.

It was nice, being cared for.

Sasuke gazed solemnly at the perfectly cooked dish in front of him. The scent of sautéed beef and vegetables tickled his nose, proof that he didn’t need to be a centuries-old demon to cook well. Without a word, he picked up the two plates and returned to the living room, where the TV was quietly playing. He placed his own dish on the table and turned to Naruto, ready to hand over the probably much-needed meal—

—And paused.

The blond was sound asleep, face tilted to the side with his lips slightly parted. His broad chest slowly rose and fell, deep breaths faintly audible even with the television going in the background. Despite himself, Sasuke found his expression softening as he watched the other man sleep. It was the first time he’d seen the blond unconscious, since he tended to switch to his fox form when he was tired. To fall asleep in human form, Sasuke couldn’t imagine how tired he must have been.

The strange necklace he’d been given gave a light throb, sending a pulse of heat into Sasuke’s chest. Unthinkingly, he reached up to clasp it for a moment. The warmth relaxed him automatically, much the way Kyuubi’s heat tended to when the fox snuggled up to him in bed. Questions frothed on his tongue, but one look at the other man’s exhausted face convinced him to let them wait for the moment. Releasing the crystal, Sasuke reluctantly reached forward with his free hand and gripped a strong shoulder, shaking it lightly.

“Oi, Naruto. Naruto!”

“Nmmh?” Sleepy blue eyes peeled open, looking up at him in confusion. “D’d I fall asleep?”

Sasuke found himself fighting a smile. “Apparently. I made dinner, and before you ask, no, it’s not ramen.”

Grunting, Naruto fought to sit up in what even Sasuke had to admit was an adorable fashion, arms and legs flailing. Smothering a chuckle, Sasuke set the plate down on the table and helped the blond sit upright. He was graced with a beatific smile for his efforts, simply proving that the fox demon was still out of it. Shaking his head, Sasuke handed Naruto a plate and a pair of chopsticks.

“Eat,” he ordered quietly. Naruto’s brow furrowed in concentration as he took the proffered items.

“I thought we were ‘equals’ now. Why are you still bossing me around?” the demon murmured in reply, taking a quick bite of the food. His golden eyebrows lifted at the taste, and he visibly grew more awake. Sending a smirk towards Sasuke, he took another bite. “Don’t tell me that’s how you actually talk to normal people.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “Just shut up and eat. You need the energy.”

Picking up his own plate, Sasuke sat beside the blond and began to eat quietly. Warmth slowly began to radiate from the blond as they ate, almost like the blond was a heater that Sasuke had poured propane into. Bemused, Sasuke shook his head and focused on the TV.

Naruto finished long before Sasuke did, setting the plate and chopsticks down with a happy sigh. “You may be a prickly bastard, Sasuke, but you’re a good cook. I think I can live with that ‘deal’ of yours.”

Rolling his eyes again, Sasuke slipped the last few pieces of beef into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “I’m glad you enjoyed,” he stated dryly after swallowing.

Naruto shot him a cheeky grin. “I did. Maybe it was because you made it with loooove.”

Sasuke glared at him.

“Intense like?” More glaring. “Somewhat like? Reluctant like with a hint of irritation and denial?”

“Naruto, shut up. Please.”

Chuckling, the blond folded his arms behind his head and turned to face the television. Sasuke managed to finish his meal in peace, setting the plate next to Naruto’s and leaning back. He honestly didn’t know—or care—what nonsense was playing on the screen in front of him, but he knew that Naruto was probably enjoying it, so he left it on and refrained from commenting. Over the last few days, the blond had shown an appalling taste for soap operas, but it seemed that anything that flashed and made noise was suitable entertainment. Sasuke instead used the time to mull over the information he’d found in the scrolls.

Aside from the astonishingly long list of rules, the black scroll had made several references to the strength of their bond and unleashing Naruto’s full power. Sasuke certainly had no intention of trying to wring power out of his reluctant “partner,” but maybe if he asked, Naruto would tell him about it of his own free will. Sasuke could always hope, and they were going to be stuck together for an outrageously long time.

While Sasuke was lost in thought, Naruto began to fidget next to him. He brought his arms down from behind his head to rest them on his lap, then began tapping his knee, then began tapping both knees, and finally began bouncing his legs up and down. Throughout it all, he kept glancing at Sasuke.

Sasuke finally noticed the blond’s increasingly erratic movements and looked over at him, lifting an eyebrow in question. Naruto’s cheeks flushed, and the blond’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Sasuke, I…” Looking frustrated with himself, Naruto trailed off and turned to glare at the TV. The Uchiha heir lifted both eyebrows in expectation, but when the blond simply stared straight forward, he eventually faced forward again. They sat in relative silence for several minutes.

Poof.

Starting in surprise, Sasuke looked down to find an irritated Kyuubi sitting on the couch next to him, tails swirling. Without a word, the fox clambered onto his lap and sat down decisively, glaring up at him with his ears flat against his head. Sasuke frowned down at him.

“Naruto, what…?”

The fox’s eyes narrowed, ears pressing tighter against his head. With a low noise, Kyuubi placed both front paws against Sasuke’s chest, leaned up, and looked Sasuke in the eye. The fox growled.

Scowling now, Sasuke lifted his hands to the fox’s sides. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

Kyuubi shifted his paws, glaring at him menacingly. “I don’t want to hear any grief for this.”

Before Sasuke could ask what he was talking about, Kyuubi darted forward—

—And licked him on the cheek.

Blinking in shock, Sasuke stared down at the fox on his lap. Nodding sharply to himself, Kyuubi settled down and turned around, pressing his back against Sasuke’s chest and determinedly staring at the TV. His ears were still pressed back.

After a long moment, Sasuke felt a smile steal across his face. Lifting a hand, he began to stroke Kyuubi’s back. The fox relaxed immediately, leaning back against him and lifting his ears. Sasuke’s smile grew.

You’re welcome, Kyuubi.

The pair sat in comfortable silence, watching the blinking television while Sasuke continued to pet the fox on his lap.

Neither paid it any attention.

Chapter 11

hiroshima and nekkid men

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:39:38 GMT

So I've avoided Hiroshima for a long time because of its history, but this past break I caved in and visited. God, am I glad I did. The city was magnificent. Huge, gorgeous, and very green, with trees and parks everywhere. People are really nice, same as everywhere else in Japan.

I stayed in a hostel for the first time while I was there, a backpacker's hostel called J-Hoppers. Oh man. If you want cheap, fun, clean, authentic (traditional japanese rooms and the comfiest futons ever), and friendly, this is the place!! It was awesome. I made tons of friends the first night with people from all over the world, and even played a round of Jenga with some Swedes. ^_^ As a group, more or less, we all decided to go to a nearby island called Miyajima, where there's a famous floating shrine.

It was breathtaking.

The shrine was built in a tidal zone, so at high tide it looks like it's floating. We took the ferry out there early, so we got tons of pictures of the floating shrine. Miyajima has a lot of tame deer running around that consent not-so-eagerly to petting. A note: they think paper is food, so do not squat with a pamphlet in your hands. They will eat you.

I have the bite marks to prove it. XD

We also hit a temple on the island, which was gorgeous, and then climbed up the mountains. You could see all of Hiroshima, cradled by its mountain range, stretching out against the sunset. Gorgeous.

And then there were the monkeys who chased some poor kid around at feeding time, but we won't go there.

I eventually did go to the Peace Memorial Museum, which had a surprising lack of anti-american sentiment. I cried. I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to go to Hiroshima...It'll make you think.

So, the nekkid men. I went to a festival in a nearby town yesterday that was called, honest to god, the Half-Naked Man Festival. Japanese men by the dozens stood in little loincloths (or manthongs, as I call them), getting holy water splashed on them as they competed to touch a fully naked man for good luck.

As soon as I heard about that, I had to go. I have pictures. And videos.

And next month, we're going practically as a school to the Penis Festival. Fun times. XD

wow, this is scarily accurate

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:58:34 GMT

At least I'm closer to wealthville than hobotown.

roommates

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:55:15 GMT

Ah, the liberating effects of alcohol. I live in a dorm (which is actually just a house) with 5 other girls. Tonight, 3 of the 5, who had been giving me the cold shoulder for months, decided to have a party without either a.) telling me about it or b.)asking if it would be ok. Normally, as it's a Saturday night, it would have been fine, but since I made plans to meet someone who works for a school tomorrow morning, I have to get up early. They made an outrageous amount of noise despite my telling them this, and I finally grew angry enough to confront them.

Hoo boy.

Suddenly, i find out that the three of them have, in fact, been upset with me because I've been lax in my share of the chores. They finally decided to confront me on that and any other things I've been doing to upset them.

No one ever told me any of it.

No one ever said, "hey, could you clean the shower soon? it's your turn." or anything else. And since no one ever said anything to me, I assumed there was no problem. I told them all to TELL me if I was doing something to annoy them upfront when we first met. one of my roommates, outside of these three, is very vocal when something bothers her, which I actually appreciate in a roommate. These three never said anything.

This is why I hate those kinds of roommates. I can't read minds, and I can't figure out what they want if they never say anything. I'm by nature a very relaxed, somewhat messy person. I keep my involvement in common areas clean, and that's about it. Messes around the house tend to bother other people before me, and by the time I decide to do something about it, someone else takes care of it.

If they had a problem, they should have told me.

All I wanted was some consideration regarding having crazy, loud parties in the same house that I live in from midnight to 3 am.

I don't think that's too much to ask, personally.

*Sigh* This looks like just another reason on a rather looong list of why I probably wasn't meant to come to Japan this year.

hah!

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:53:03 GMT

But...but...I no elitist!

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:46:09 GMT

I sure am everything else, though. *snickers*