HAI GAIZS. Unexpected, amirite? Well, Akiru and I have finally gotten off our asses, yay. Seriously, when did we update last? AGES AGO.
For all you guys who waited patiently, we're mad sorry it took so long. D:
[LOLWITTYDISCLAIMERHERE
We'll try to be more regular with the fic from now on, but enjoy what we have! Also, I myself am writing an original story called Chasing Rainbows, which can be found on my deviantART account. There's a link in my profile if you're interested in seeing more of my writing. Yes, shameless plug, but if you enjoy SI, you'll probably enjoy this. Again, it's not fanfiction; it's an original story featuring my own characters in all their homosexual glory.
ANOTHER REASON TO CHECK OUT MY DA. I promised last chapter that I'd do a sketch, and it features something from this chapter. I'll have it up on DA within the next few days. Happy reading, I'll leave you guys alone with the fic now. girlish titter
Naruto tapped his pen absentmindedly, staring down at the piece of paper before him. He sighed; it was a basic plot outline for the new chapter of his edgy porn, covered with doodles and scribbles.
No, he thought, it isn't porn, per se. Well. It's tasteful relations. Or something. I need food if I am going to make this all noble.
As if agreeing with the thought, Naruto's stomach growled in earnest. Feeling a bit foolish, Naruto growled back at it and returned to his work.
When the nagging ache of hunger could no longer be ignored, Naruto ventured into his small kitchen in search of sustenance. He wolfed down a stale energy bar, barely tasting it. The fact that it was stale disturbed him; how long did those things last before going bad?
He took a swig of orange juice straight from the carton, something his mother and possibly Sasuke would have hit him for, and gagged as the tang mingled with the aftertaste of the chocolate-something-or-other energy bar. Fighting the impulse to scrape his tongue or perhaps rip it out, Naruto decided that it was time to go shopping. The last time he had checked, his only gallon of milk was currently inhabited by a colony of floating blue bacteria.
Just to be safe, he tied a cloth about his nose and mouth before dumping the milk and its inhabitants out the window of his apartment. As an afterthought, he prayed no one was outside, as he had not looked first.
Well… those things are probably harmless anyways. I mean, think of all the microscopic crawly things in water, and that doesn't hurt anyone. Naruto's thoughts paused. Most of the time. Taaaapeworm. Wait, is that from water or some kind of... Never mind.
Naruto spent several minutes looking for his shoes, triumphantly finding one and failing to uncover the other. (Which, for the record, was jammed halfway under his sofa)
Giving up on that pair of sneakers, he traipsed into his bedroom and went closet diving for another pair. When he found a matching set, he tripped his way back into the small living area, rolling his eyes as he spotted the missing shoe under his couch. Deciding it didn't matter, he shuffled his way to the door of the apartment, tugging his shoes and jacket on. He crept down the stairs, pointedly ignoring Jiraiya, and leapt triumphantly out of the door of the apartment complex, ready to drive off. Then he remembered that he didn't have a car. And, he decided, he couldn't take a bus to the local Giant Eagle either, as it was a Sunday afternoon.
Naruto disliked taking buses on Sundays in general, but especially during the afternoon. Because in the afternoon, there were many Christians on the buses. Christians leaving church.
Naruto disliked the idea of a bus-full of Christians.
Now, understand, Naruto was not anti-Christian. He just did not like to deal with them, because some of the more fanatical ones tended to be anti-him. Naruto had a theory that, at baptism, Christian children, or possibly, to be more specific, Catholic children were implanted with some controversial form of gaydar. He only thought this because they always seemed to realize he was a homosexual. He never could figure out another explanation, as he refused to see himself as flamingly gay.
Either way, Naruto preferred to avoid them and their patronizing stares. So instead, he walked the short distance, taking much longer than he needed to. However, this allowed him to waltz through the sliding doors with some form of pride. He grabbed a basket, then thought of his food-starved home and swapped it for a cart. He took a deep breath, did a mental checklist…
Then proceeded to go flying through the aisles, throwing things into his cart at random. It was his own patented form of grocery shopping, and he was rather fond of it.
He continued this way until he nearly knocked over a display of some overpriced potato chips. Then Naruto decided to chill out, cruising the nearly empty supermarket at a leisurely pace. He stopped to stare at ramen, shrugging and tossing it in his cart with the brand name cereals and microwaveable meals.
A pale hand snuck past him, snatching up a six-pack of ramen.
"Your cart screams 'bachelor,' you know." Neji retorted as a greeting. "Hello."
Naruto stared up at the tall brunette. "Okay. I never, ever expected to see you stooping so low as to shop in a supermarket. Especially buying ramen noodles."
Neji shrugged noncommittally, scooping up a package of rice crackers with obvious dislike. "I will never understand Hinata's infatuation with these… disgusting substances." He eyed Naruto's cart warily. "Stocking up, I see."
"Yeah, well, I've had company." Naruto growled defensively.
"I heard." Neji said coolly. "So, how is Sasuke?"
Naruto's face brightened, then fell. "Well. Apparently the gossip hasn't been keeping up. Or have you been skipping your knitting circle?"
The brunette drew himself up, Thai noodles clutched in one hand. "Excuse me?"
"Sasuke's older brother is… he passed away recently."
"What?" Neji's hand spasmed and he nearly dropped the package.
"There- There was a fire, about three weeks-"
Neji cut him off. "The office fire. I didn't know it was an Uchiha office. And to think, all of those chemicals- Horrible. I heard about it on the news, but… I was late for work."
Naruto looked away; Neji frowned.
"You are no longer an item."
"No shit. He's being… stupid."
The older man glanced at his watch. "He's not being 'stupid,' but he is going through an increasingly difficult point in his life. You should try your utmost to sympathize with him, however different your circumstances may be. And Naruto, despite the absolutely wonderful time we're having here, in a few moments I will have deviated too far from my schedule."
Naruto shrugged. "I guess you're right, but Neji? Next time, try English. What're you late for, hm? Got a daaaate?"
"Hardly," Neji retorted. Naruto followed him to the checkout counter. "I merely serve as Hinata's transport system while her car is in the shop." Neji broke his chain of intelligent conversation by adding "It's a total piece of shit."
Something clicked in Naruto's head. "Say, Hinata works for Sasuke, right? Secretary?"
Neji nodded, stacking his purchases on the conveyer belt.
"Hey Neji. You know, you owe me money from that bet."
The brunette spun around and glared at him. "We were drunk and you know it-" he began angrily.
"No, no, I'm willing to forget it on one condition: You let me come with you." Neji considered this for a moment. "Deal."
"But…" Naruto added, "I'm taking my groceries with me."
Neji sighed and rubbed his temples. "If you must."
"Oh I must." He gave him one of his trademark smiles. Taking the Hyuuga by the wrist, Naruto dragged him up to the check out line.
He contemplated making Neji pay; after all he was losing out on a lot of money forgetting about that bet and all. Sadly, Naruto's conscious got the better of him and he ended up pay with the money he had gotten from one of his newest books.
He thanked the cashier when he was done, and left Neji to get his bags. Yeah, he was going to get him to do as much as he could.
They made it out to the brunette's car and packed the bags in the trunk. Naruto would have to remember that they were back there. The last thing he needed to do was forget about them and go hungry tonight. His precious life support was back there.
"You ready?" Neji was standing by the driver's side door getting ready to get in. "Hinata gets off in twenty minutes. I really would like to get her on time."
Naruto nodded and ran over to the passenger's side door and got in. The moment he sat down he felt his stomach twist and a flock of angry butterflies began to makes themselves known there.
He was going to see Sasuke, again. It was as if he had not known the Uchiha as well as he had. He was acting as if he was about to meet the love of his life for the first time. Well half of that was right.
Neji had been right when he had said that Sasuke was not being stupid. Naruto had been wrong about that, and he hated himself for even thinking about it like that.
Sasuke was still suffering and he was more concerned over their relationship and having Sasuke back in his arms instead of Sasuke's feelings. Could it get anymore selfish?
He knew what he had to do when he got to the Uchiha corp. building. Naruto would have to do something to appease both of them, and he knew just the thing to do.
"We're here." Neji's voice broke through Naruto's inner conversation and brought him back to the real world.
This was it. He would march in there and confront Sasuke.
Taking a deep breath, Naruto got out of the car. "I will be right back... I'll send Hinata down too."
Neji nodded. "I'll wait here."
"Thanks" Naruto walked into the ominous building. It looked like it was glaring at him, as weird as it sounded. Uchiha's knew how to make everything look sinister.
The girl at the receptionist desk in the front greeted him with a smile. He returned it before hurrying up to the sixth floor where he knew Sasuke's office to be.
'Ok I can do this. Breath Naruto, breath.' he really didn't know what he was getting so worked up about. It wasn't like he was going to per pose to the guy or anything.
"Na--Naruto?" Hinata was sitting at her desk next to the giant double doors of Uchiha Sasuke's office.
"Hey Hinata. Neji is down in the parking lot waiting for you. I am going to have a quick word with Sasuke and then I will be joining you.
She nodded blushing and not meeting his eye. She had always been a weird one in Naruto's opinion.
Turning back around he faced the large doors which had intricate carvings all over their surface. It was very gothic looking and Naruto knew that Sasuke liked the style.
Taking a deep breath Naruto pushed open the doors without knocking and walking in.
The office was empty. Put-off, Naruto stared at the empty desk, wondering where the hell Sasuke could be. There were... Naruto counted silently, seven sticky notes of various rainbow colors adorning said desk, one of them scratched out heavily.
Despite his best intentions, Naruto crept over to the desk and stared down at the notes. There was a memo for a meeting the next day, a note informing Sasuke of a missed call- this one was in Hinata's neat print- a scrawled note stained with water droplets asking when Sasuke was going to visit the 'Super Awesome Office of Much Fun-ness' again that was signed 'Sui,' and four more. One was blank.
Naruto sighed as he read the bright pink note. 'Hey, Sasuke- Just wondering when you're going to patch things up with Naruto, he really seems down. Much luff, Sakura-chan.' Just like her, she'd dotted the note with random doodles and squiggles. Another note put him off- it was a standard yellow Post-it that said 'See me, now' and somehow invoked terror.
He stared at it for a moment, recognizing Sasuke's scrawl. The message itself was nondescript, but relayed a world of annoyance; he imagined Sasuke saying those words, and chills ran down his spine. The man was scary. Very scary.
Naruto realized suddenly that pissed-off Sasuke mildly turned him on. This in itself was startling enough, but more startling was when he heard shouting voices nearing him.
Confused, he made the snap decision of leaving the office instead of the possibly brighter choice of hiding under the desk. Of course, if he hid under the desk, he could give Sasuke the pleasant surprise of a hand in his pants as soon as he sat. That was very tempting, but Sasuke would probably be angry to find Naruto in his otherwise empty office without permission.
"I told you again and again- This isn't the sort of thing you can just slack off on over and over! It needs to be done, and it needs to be done soon!"
Sasuke sounded very pissed; Naruto could just make out his figure from through the lowered shades of a closed door.
"Sir, with all due respect, come on. You know me better than that! You know it'll get done, no matter what! I'll make the deadline, I promise!"
"I don't care what you promise, I need progress. And I mean tangible progress. Those drafts have to be in soon so we can get them to the editor for the final check. The deadline's in four days, normally I wouldn't even have let you go this long without warning you." Naruto fancied that there would be a vein pulsing on Sasuke's temple, based on the controlled anger in his voice. "I'm warning you now. If it's not done by Wednesday, I'm reassigning the project, and you'll be the one who breaks it to the author. And you'll be saying exactly whose fault it all is if it's still late."
Naruto winced. Sasuke could be mean. Really mean. But he sounded like he wasn't just being mean, he was pushed-to-the-limits mean. Pissed off to an extreme and trying not to vent horribly.
The door opened, and Naruto sat quickly on Hinata's neat-but-cluttered desk, trying not to disturb anything. Sasuke backed out of the room, no doubt leaving a thoroughly cowed employee, and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Fucking idiots," he muttered quietly, black bangs falling into his face. "God. I'm gonna have to do it myself. I hate dealing with the editors, they're soooo..." He glanced up sharply, registering the blonde's presence. "Naruto? What the hell!"
"Um. Just... dropped by to say hi?" Naruto attempted feebly. "Okay, so I ran into Neji and bribed-"
Sasuke coughed. "Blackmailed."
"Same thing. I bribed him to take me along for the ride when he came to pick up Hinata. By the way, did she seem paler than normal to you?"
"It's just you." Sasuke rolled his eyes, wondering exactly how oblivious the other man was. "I was just..."
"Telling someone off. You're a bit loud when you get angry."
"Great. Tell me how to do my job, why don't you."
Naruto frowned. "I'm not trying to pry. You're putting words in my mouth. But you sound like you could use a break from all this."
"I do." Sasuke said flatly, locking his office door from the outside. Naruto slid off the desk ungracefully, nearly scattering a pile of papers. "I really do. But I used up all my sick days."
Sasuke didn't explain, but Naruto knew what he was getting at; Sasuke had skipped work somewhat religiously for several weeks after Itachi's death. Now, he was probably swamped with work that he had failed to complete before his leave of absence.
"So." Naruto said quietly. "How are you? Besides stressed- if you need help, I can do grunt work."
"No, no, we've got all the grunt we need-" Sasuke blanched. "-Maybe we have a little too much grunt, I still need to replace that table in the break room."
"Ooh, do tell." Naruto said, interested immediately. "What happened in there?"
"And I have to smooth over the sexual harassment shit that Karin's trying to pull over on us... and then there's the condolences I have to give. I'm so sick of this."
"Seriously, what happened?"
"Oh, Suigetsu and Karin had a tiff in the break room. He... well, he's saying that he just nudged her, she's screaming that he copped a feel- eventually, she threw him into a table and killed it dead. She's threatening to file for sexual harassment, I'm going to have to practically sleep with her to get her to drop it."
"But you won't." Naruto said quickly. "Sleep with her. I mean, you said she's a horrid bitch who takes everything out of proportion but manages to be a good worker when she's not trying to get in your... yes. You're not going to actually do anything with her because you don't like her. At all. I mean."
"Cut it out." Sasuke said tiredly. "I'm not interested. She is a horrid bitch. I would like to strangle her some day. But she does want in my pants; too bad Suigetsu's up her skirt. Figuratively. They totally hate each other, but in that 'I would like to ravish you just to piss you off and possibly get some sexual gratification' way. Like, angry violent sex types. A lot. The tension in there is very thick."
"And sexual." Naruto said with an intelligent tip of his head. He took a few steps. "Although I'm not sure how long Neji will wait for me; I'll have to tamper with his car next time. He'll try to ditch me."
"There's too much tension in my life." Sasuke muttered. "Somebody shoot me now."
Naruto raised his eyebrows. "Wouldn't you prefer a good lay to being dead?"
"Possibly." Sasuke said distractedly. "Don't push me on that one though."
"Oh, come on, what's better than angry make-up sex?"
"I don't know. I've never had it."
Naruto's eyebrows disappeared into the stratosphere. "Are you freaking serious? Actually, neither have I now that I think about it, I wonder if it's all it's cracked up to be."
"Probably not, but you would like to test that theory by screwing me on my desk."
"Absolutely."
"No."
"Aw."
"No."
"Please?" Naruto widened his eyes and attempted to make them tear up.
"Um. I'm considering it quite seriously... no."
"But Sasuke," Naruto groaned, "I've been abstinent for over a month now."
"I'll get you a cookie for the accomplishment."
"I would prefer sex."
"I'm sure you would." Sasuke said dully. He stared out the second story window in front of him. "I think Neji just started up his car. His is the silver one right there? I think the licence plate says Hyuuga, so I'll say it's him."
"Shit, serious? I gotta dash then." Thinking quickly and weighing the pros and cons, Naruto snatched Sasuke's hand and dragged him down the stairs as well.
"Naruto! Stop it! Stop pulling me!" Sasuke yelled, nearly turning his ankle on a step. He decided that running as well was a good idea. "What the hell are you planning here?"
"Dragging you is loads of fun. You make a great face, perfect for a gag Christmas card. It's great; seriously, your eyes go really wide and stuff." Naruto hit the ground floor hard, and Sasuke nearly tripped. "Watch your step. Jeez, it's your building, why would you trip?"
"Oh, I dunno," Sasuke said sarcastically. "Might be the lunatic yanking me around."
Naruto practically kicked the front door open, signalling to Neji. The brunette frowned behind the wheel, about to pull out of his parking spot. Naruto gave him a 'Be right there' gesture, and turned back to Sasuke.
"Hullo." He said calmly. Sasuke stared at him, hair and clothes in disarray.
"'Hullo.' What the hell is wrong with you." But it was said without venom. "With the way I look, Neji probably thinks we've been making out- I'm a total mess. You mussed my hair. I hate you."
"Hey, you're in casual dress, it's all good." Naruto said calmly. "Wrinkly clothes suit you, they make you look adorable."
"That's not good thing," Sasuke said distractedly, smoothing down his double layer of shirts. "At least you can't mess up jeans. I swear, you're a walking tornado."
"Yes." "I'm not sure if you understood, but that was actually an insult."
Naruto grinned happily. "Which means things are back to normal- you're insulting me, I'm acting like an idiot, and we're making Neji waste gas. All good."
"Sure." Sasuke said sarcastically.
"Hey, you've got your snark back. Yaaaay." Naruto's grin widened, and he pursed his lips. "Chu?"
"If it will shut you up." Sasuke said in mock-exasperation. "Fine." He tilted his face slightly, bringing their lips into contact. Neji honked desperately, attempting to bring an end to the romantic moment. But he didn't have to; Sasuke started as if burned. "Hey, Sasuke, are you okay?"
Sasuke had gone pale, paler than normal. "I- I have to go. S-sorry."
And he turned tail and ran, leaving Naruto to stand in shock for at least the third time since they'd met. "What? Sasuke! Sasuke, wait!"
Sasuke kept running, without looking back until he'd burst into his office - pausing to unlock it again- and closed the door. He sat down, hard, on the floor, and stared at his hands.
It couldn't be normal to, when kissing your yet-again-boyfriend, have the image of your deceased brother flash before your eyes.
OMG NU.
Sasuke wrrrrrrry? Ormorelike ITACHI WRRRRRRRRRRY?!?!? Why must you haunt your brother so?
D:
I can just imagine it. You can too; especially if you guys have read chapter 386 of Naruto. Take the cracked out Itachi face, and edit it to say "im in ur hed, messin' wit ur love life." Seriously, he's all :DDDDDDDD
Lololol. I'm overusing chatspeak in this. I suck so much.
SUBLIMINALMESSAGINGMYDAISAWESOME.