Disclaimer: not mine
Chapter 4: New Beginnings
Sakura found Sasuke drowning himself in sake. She was walking home from a bad date when she saw him in the run down bar in a seedier part of town. She almost missed him in her rush to get out of the area and her efforts to restrain her anger towards the shinobi she had been out with earlier. What kind of man let a girl walk home alone, even if she was a fearsome kunoichi?
The commotion of a fight breaking out had drawn her eyes to the bar. She was just about to pass it off as a couple of drunkards and leave the situation to sort itself out when she spotted her teammate sitting at the bar. He was fairly obvious, being the only one still seated. The rest of the patrons had gathered around to cheer for the brawl. Something about the hunched over posture that Sasuke had adopted drew her inside to check on him. On her way to the open barstool next to him she paused only long enough to knock the fighters on the backs of their heads just hard enough for them to pass out. The crowd gave her disgruntled looks for interrupting their fun before returning to their drinks.
Sasuke did not even look at her when she sat down. He just continued to sip at his drink as she gave him a once over. He looked as if he had been there awhile. She turned to order herself a glass of white wine when he chose to speak.
"It's hopeless, he already has a lover. I saw them together earlier." His head seemed to droop even more with each bitter word.
Confusion raced through Sakura. She knew he could not be talking about Naruto because she happened to know that the blond was head-over-heals for Sasuke. But if it was not their teammate, who could make possibly Sasuke so miserable? The answer was no one, only Naruto had ever been able to break through Sasuke's stoic demeanor to make any sort of impression. Except for Itachi that is, but if he had seen his older brother Sakura was sure he would be in a vastly different mood. "That can't be right. Sasuke I assure you that there is no possible chance that Naruto has a lover."
"It's the Red Fox." The utter defeat Sakura heard in his voice made her want to cry. "What reason would a top ranked ANBU be in Naruto's apartment? There is none, Naruto is no where near strong enough to merit a visit from the Fox, not anymore. Not after…"
Sasuke gave up on the small cup of sake in front of him and reached for the bottle instead. After taking a long swallow he turned his tired eyes towards Sakura for the first time. What she saw in the black depths made her heart break for him. There was utter despair hidden beneath a veil of pain. He looked like a little boy, lost and alone in a cruel world. Tentatively she reached towards him, "Sasuke…"
"'I'm back, didya miss me?'" His cheerful tone caused Sakura to pull her hand away from his arm, afraid of his sudden change. Just as quickly he went back to his remorseful tone. "How am I supposed to interpret those words, that degree of familiarity? I can prove it to you Sakura, follow me."
He did not even give her a chance to respond. He just stood up and walked out the door. Before she could follow the bartender grabbed her arm. "You might want to be paying 'fore you go."
Great, not only did her date leave her to walk home alone, now Sasuke stuck her with the tab. When she heard the total she could not stop herself from cursing. Sasuke was a dead man for cleaning out her wallet like this. But even in her anger she begrudgingly gave the Uchiha some respect, how he could even walk after drinking so much was amazing. She handed the money over with a cringe and then hurried to catch up to her teammate before he had the chance to do anything stupid.
Sasuke was no longer sure how to tell the difference between reality and his imagination, the two had become intertwined sometime after his third bottle of sake. He started drinking in an attempt to forget what he had seen in Naruto's apartment, but it seemed that the more he drank the more he thought about it. Then the more he thought about it the more he drank. It was a vicious cycle, really. It seemed that the more alcohol that he consumed the more erotic the scenes that his mind was conjuring up became. The anger and jealousy caused a burning pain in his chest that he could not seem to escape.
He was vaguely aware of Sakura chasing after him. He knew he should really wait for her to catch up, but he was too desperate to reach Naruto's apartment. Not only did he want to prove to Sakura that the blond had found himself a lover, but he wanted to prove it himself. A large part inside of him wanted it all to be a big misunderstanding, one that they could all laugh about later.
Sasuke was just feet from the door to Naruto's building when he saw them approaching from the opposite direction. He stopped walking, unable to take his eyes off of the pair. Time seemed to stop and prevented the pain that he knew would soon be exploding inside of his chest. Sakura bumped into his shoulder unintentionally and time righted itself. Sasuke was vaguely aware of her staring at him strangely before she followed his gaze. She issued a small gasp of surprise when she saw the Red Fox watching them with his arms full of Naruto.
Their teammate had one arm wrapped around the ANBU's shoulders while the Fox seemed to be supporting most of his weight. He had one arm snaked around Naruto's waist, his hand resting on the blonde's hip. His other hand was placed firmly on Naruto's chest. Their sides were pressed together.
Naruto swayed even closer to the Fox and laid his head against the masked man's shoulder. In response to this movement the ANBU reached up with his free arm and grabbed Naruto's shoulder. The two looked ready to kiss. Sasuke had to fight the whimper that was trying to escape from his lips.
The Red Fox began moving again, but Sasuke was too numb to notice. It was Sakura that watched with narrowed eyes the way the famed ANBU moved, the way he walked sent off an alarm in her mind. When she saw a stray tuff of blonde hair that had escaped from the mask and hood she knew that her guess was not far off. It was not until he was walking past her that she spoke. The tone she used made it sound like she was talking to herself, but she was sure that the man had heard. "Naruto just what are you up to?"
The way the Red Fox's eyes sought hers out confirmed her suspicious and in that moment they both understood. Naruto was the Red Fox and all was not what it seemed. Sakura could not even fathom how her teammate had made it into ANBU, let alone become one of the most fearsome fighters in the squad, or why he had to carry a clone of himself through town. What she did know was that Sasuke had been mistaken in his hasty conclusions and it was going to cause her one heck of a headache to sort everything out.
……………….
Naruto banged into his apartment dragging the barely conscious Itachi with him. He sat the older man on the lone bed and dispelled the jutsu that was placed on Itachi for the third time that night. The Uchiha felt the chakra mask dispel and fell heavily against the pillows. Without a word he drifted off to sleep.
For Naruto things were not that simple. Why had Sasuke and Sakura been outside of his apartment like that? Of all the inopportune timing! That was twice in one day that Sasuke had stumbled in on things that he was never supposed to see. He could only imagine what the raven must think was going on. Why could things never be easy when it came to Sasuke? Or any of the Uchihas for that matter? With a frustrated groan Naruto ran his fingers angrily through his hair.
Itachi was even more of a problem then his brother, at least now that Tsunade had made a decision about what to do with him. In fact that meeting was what they were returning from when they had run into Sasuke and Sakura.
Tsunade had decided that it was too dangerous for Itachi to continue his work in the Akatsuki, a proclamation that had been met with great protest from the man in question. No matter what Itachi said could not seem to change the Hokage's mind though and Naruto could not help but notice that Itachi actually seemed relieved by her decision. There was one major issue with Itachi being brought back to Konoha, he was too recognizable. It was Tsunade's solution to this that had the Uchiha passed out on Naruto's bed.
The famed medic ninja had used chakra to reshape Itachi's face. She had remolded his cheekbones and created a new nose. His jaw was now a bit longer and his lips fuller. Naruto had to admit that while Itachi had been beautiful before, he was even more gorgeous now.
The biggest change had to be the eyes though. Itachi had released the sharingan for the first time in years. Onyx replaced the angry red. They were eyes that Naruto recognized instantly, they were Sasuke's eyes. The change in his vision was the reason why Itachi had needed so much help to make it back to Naruto's apartment. To him everything was a blur of movement. He had become so accustomed to superhuman vision that normal sight was sensory overload. Plus the sharingan kept trying to bleed back into life, so instead of keeping Itachi at the hospital overnight as Tsunade had planned, he had been forced to return to Naruto's apartment.
With another groan Naruto finally cleaned up the mess of glass by his door. Gingerly he picked up the picture that had fallen. It was of Team Kakashi taken just after Sasuke had returned. Sasuke wore a secretive smirk as he stared at Naruto in it. Sakura was beaming at the camera and Kakashi was, well, Kakashi hidden beneath his mask. With a sigh Naruto set the picture down on the kitchen counter and went to heat up some food.
In the front of his cupboards were the expected cups of instant ramen, but buried behind them was a bevy of other foods. Pulling out ingredients Naruto began to prepare chicken in a teriyaki sauce with a side of roasted bell peppers and pineapple. His true eating habits would shock his friends, but the truth of the matter was that he hated ramen. It had been cheep and easy when he was younger, a way to keep his tummy full on long nights. Being without parents and the outcast of the village meant that he had struggled to find food for most of his life; ramen was just a sad reminder of those times.
After eating he sat down in the chair that would be his bed for the night and contemplated the future. His first task was going to have to be finding a bigger place. Itachi had been placed in his care, meaning the older man would be staying with him for a while. He had to come up with a new identity for the man and a viable excuse for his presence in Naruto's life. Tsunade had told him to pass Itachi off as his lover. Naruto could not bring himself to contemplate the idea, not when he had designs on Sasuke. When he felt a headache coming on he turned off the light and decided to leave his problems for tomorrow. It had been a long day and it was time to sleep.
A/N: Wow! I can't believe that I actually managed to update twice in less than a week. I had actually planned to finish and post this chapter last night, but I saw Sweeny Todd instead. There was something very disturbing about watching Snape, Bellatrix, and Peter Pettigrew sing along with Captain Jack! My friend and I laughed through just about the whole thing!
Anywho, won't you leave me a review? I'd appreciate any feedback you have for me!
Wind to thy wings!
Kayume