Disclaimer: I don't own anyone in the Naruto universe.

I just moved into my new dorm and I am veeeery apprehensive about it. We are tripling in a room smaller than my freshman dorm room. That is manageable, but not the next part TT_TT THERE IS NO AIR CONDITIONIIIIIIING! And I'm on the top floor where stupid science and logic makes hot air rise to us. Legend says that it becomes bearable after the third week. . .but until then it is every man for himself, even though I am a woman. . .

But anyways, this will be the last chapter so enjoy!

Onwards with the story!

If Naruto had to choose two words to describe himself at the moment, it would be successful and safe.

Why successful? It wasn't as if he went out and won some sort of Nobel prize, or had gone out and achieved the American Dream. But he did it.

He won Sasuke's challenge of getting him to work within the week!

Well, technically it was Naruto who had issued the challenge. . .but whatever! He won!

It had been hard, like, really hard, but Naruto pushed himself to improve himself in dealing with people again.

First, he made himself get used to having people in the apartment once more.

On Tuesday, when Hinata had visited them to drop off some boring work stuff, Naruto made the effort to successfully make a conversation with her. He was holding onto Sasuke's arm and almost pulling him down to the floor to his spot. And they talked about the weather.

But dammit, he made that conversation his bitch.

On Wednesday, he—while pulling Sasuke along by the sleeve—had greeted Hinata at the door.

He was very surprised to see that Kiba had opened the door for Hinata and almost ran back to Sasuke's room in fear that there were more people who would stare at his bandages and ask him about them and make him relive what First Master had made him do and then Sasuke would realize that he was actually disgusted with the filthy whore Naruto was and would kick him out and say that he could never love someone so tainted and Naruto would be heartbroken because he would never get the chance to tell Sasuke that he loved him too and First Master would break out of jail and find him and First Master would take him back to the torture room and First Master would chain him to the bed again and First Master would do all those horrible things to him again and Naruto would realize that he really was a filthy whore and he would beg for death and First Master would cruelly keep him on that line between life and death and First Master would only kill him once he was old and not useful anymore.

But he didn't. Instead, he hid halfway behind Sasuke and welcomed them to Sasuke's apartment.

Kiba had kept darting his eyes between Naruto and Sasuke and seemed to be intimidated or something; which struck Naruto as odd because clearly he was the more frightened one of the two. Naruto was the one hiding behind someone!

Kiba had looked ready to leave and stay by the car or whatever, but Naruto was determined to show Sasuke—and himself—that he was ready for human interaction!

He timidly invited Kiba and Hinata to lunch without stuttering too much!

Hinata smiled as her reward for him, but Kiba seemed apprehensive for some reason.

If Naruto was to be perfectly honest, he would have admitted that he was a little relieved; but he needed to push himself! He couldn't stay a weakling who needed to hide! He needed to get Sasuke back to work!

So he asked Kiba why he didn't want to join them for lunch. Oddly enough, Kiba had glanced at Sasuke, looked even more frightened, and agreed.

Confused, Naruto had tugged on the arm he was hiding behind to see if Sasuke had some sort of scary bug or something on his face Kiba saw but didn't mention. But Sasuke had turned his head around and smiled gently at Naruto. There was nothing scary on his face, so Naruto let whatever had scared Kiba slide since it must have disappeared.

Not that he had much time to think about it because then he was distracted with Sasuke suggesting that Naruto take Hinata to the home office room and help her switch the necessary folders for work or whatever. Eager to prove just how much he had improved and recovered, Naruto had agreed.

It wasn't until he was in the hallway did Naruto realize that Sasuke wasn't with him and that Kiba hadn't seen Naruto since that he came back from. . .yeah. . .and had no idea what had happened—thankfully—and also no idea why Naruto still had bandages on his face.

With the sudden realization of both facts, Naruto froze. He was very, very tempted to curl into himself and back up against the wall so there would be no chance of anyone noticing his newly recut scars and make him recount everything and make Sasuke be disgusted with him. He was seriously considering it, when he felt a soft touch on his hand.

Already paranoid, Naruto whipped around to face whatever touched him while he backed against the wall, slid down it, and held the touch against his chest, all with very wide eyes from fear.

He immediately felt guilty and ashamed of his reaction because he saw that the one who had touched his hand was Hinata, who still had her hand slightly extended. She probably made sure to touch his hand to avoid this reaction. Dammit.

Naruto was about to apologize profusely, but Hinata beat him to the punch.

"I apologize, Naruto." Hinata said in a soft, but confident voice without any stuttering.

Naruto's guilt had amplified tenfold. He should have been the one apologizing. He was the weak one who still couldn't even go to other rooms by himself. He was the one who constantly freaked out over little things normal people wouldn't even think twice about. He was the one who flinched away from her, who was only concerned about him. He was the ungrateful one who needed to apologize!

"No! I should apologize! You did nothing wrong! I—" Naruto was cut off by Hinata kneeling down in front of him and smiling kindly at him.

"Yes, I did do something wrong. You are always so strong that sometimes I forget just how hard everything has been." She spoke in a soft, but comforting tone.

But Naruto was not paying attention to her apology or how she had not stuttered even once when speaking to him. All he was focused on was how she had called him 'strong'.

"Str-strong?" Naruto whispered back, looking back at her with wide eyes, hardly believing that such a word could be used to describe someone as weak as him!

Hinata's smile widened as she repeated softly, "Strong."

Naruto huddled into himself further and touched his fingers to his bandages on his cheeks—careful to not aggravate the injuries underneath—and avoided her gentle gaze as he whispered, "Even. . .even though. . .—"

"You are strong." Hinata confirmed with her gentle smile.

Naruto poked his head out from his protective bubble to smile gratefully at her, only to dive right back in in fear of Kiba noticing his bandages like before and questioning them.

Not quite understanding, Hinata asked, "Do you want me to get Sasuke?"

Naruto had shook his head in the negative, intent on showing everyone that he had earned the right to be described as 'strong'. He was determined to be able to make the work thingy exchange without Sasuke's help; he just was not ready for any questions about anything. . .

He had turned his head away from the hallway entrance, just in case Kiba and Sasuke were wondering what was taking so long; he did not want to take any chances.

He was debating about the chances of being asked questions about his bandages while running his fingers over them absent mindedly when Hinata cut across them, assuring, "No one is going to ask about anything, you know."

Naruto had whipped his head around so that he was facing Hinata, stunned. Was she a mind reader like Sasuke was?

She continued, giving more indication towards Naruto's theory that Sasuke and those who worked for his company could read minds, and said, "I'm sure that Mr. Uchiha would start wearing your favorite orange sweatshirt and start jumping around to get to places before he would allow anyone to ask uncomfortable questions."

Naruto had laughed at this, for the first time since. . .yeah. . .because Hinata had given him one of the most hilarious images he had ever had dancing around in his head.

Feeling better knowing that he wouldn't be questioned and that Sasuke would take care of things, Naruto heaved himself up from the floor and led Hinata to Sasuke's office. She had to open the door and enter it first of course, but he had made it in and out of a room without Sasuke's presence!

After they—Hinata—did the work thingy, Hinata had led them to the kitchen where Naruto had promptly attacked himself to Sasuke's sleeve. The Uchiha had made Naruto some instant ramen while the rest had their choice of sandwiches for lunch.

It was a nice, peaceful lunch. With Sasuke sitting next to him, Naruto had the courage to start a conversation with Kiba. Nothing big, just asking how his dog Akamaru was doing, but every so often Kiba would glance at Sasuke as if expecting him to do some sort of laser beam thingy from his eyes.

Naruto would check to see if anything was wrong, but Sasuke would smile at him every time.

Naruto concluded that Kiba must be way too stressed or something since he was hallucinating. He'd have to ask Sakura about it later.

The lunch was quick. Normally, that would have disappointed Naruto, but he had found himself to be utterly relieved when it was just him and Sasuke in the penthouse once more. It felt safer than before and had given Naruto the confidence to enter and leave rooms at his leisure without a Sasuke-escort.

Thursday had pretty much gone the same way, just without the minor freak-out thing about his bandages and adding one Sakura Haruno to the lunch gang.

She, too, had been glancing at Sasuke every so often along with Kiba. They seemed kinda scared, but once again, Sasuke could only be found smiling at Naruto. Maybe they wanted a raise or something but were scared? Naruto didn't bother with it; money wasn't his thing.

Naruto still needed to be next to Sasuke when around all the other people, but he no longer needed to attach himself to an article of Sasuke's clothing, though that didn't stop him from wearing Sasuke's old baggy sweats and sweaters.

Sakura had said that it was cute, but Naruto had shrunk away behind Sasuke. Which somehow made Sakura say that she needed to check her phone outside on the terrace because she had missed a call. Weird. Naruto didn't hear her phone ring. . .

Not that he minded all that much. He just didn't want to admit out loud that he found his body sickening. After all, it was the whole reason he had gotten involved with all that in the first place! And again when. . .yeah. . .

He also didn't want to admit that along with Sasuke's clothes being better adept at hiding his body than his own better fitting clothes, they all smelled like Sasuke and that had brought him an immense amount of comfort.

Sasuke had asked him if he was alright after pulling him into a hug. To which—after squeezing Sasuke—Naruto had said that he was indeed fine.

Lunch lasted about ten to fifteen minutes longer than the precious day, and had a more livelier conversation revolving around Sakura, Kiba, and Naruto insulting each other while Hinata worriedly turned her attention to each insulter like a tennis match and Sasuke had simply observed and occasionally grasped Naruto's hand.

Once again, when everyone had left the penthouse, Naruto had felt relief. It was not as intense as before, but he still felt consciously safer knowing that it was only him and Sasuke alone together and that nothing bad could happen with Sasuke with him.

This gave him the courage to not only walk around the penthouse at his leisure, but also regain a portion of his old energy. That night was the first night since. . . yeah. . .that Naruto had eaten all of his non-ramen dinner, enjoyed a movie night—Mulan—and be able to sleep with Sasuke with the light off.

Friday was the same as Thursday, but with more energy! Naruto had finally asked Sasuke why Sakura and Kiba seemed so stressed, and while Sasuke had said that he had no idea why, Naruto had noticed that the two in question did not glance at Sasuke with fearful expressions as often as the day before.

Saturday and Sunday did not have much for Naruto to report. In his opinion, things were similar to before all. . .yeah. . .and he had tried very hard to maintain such an energy level. He still refused to leave the apartment—not that Sasuke offered, it was just a fun fact that Naruto had kept to himself—but he was no longer fearful of being taken away while in the apartment.

Truth be told, he thought that he could have even handled sleeping in his own room again. But honestly, he did not want to. It may have been a freedom he had enjoyed after not being able to have a room to himself in his memory, but unlike before, he really enjoyed sharing a room with Sasuke.

There certainly was a perk to sharing a bed with the man Naruto loved rather than being chained in a bed with a man intent on hurting him.

Sunday night was the only time when there was somewhat of a problem.

After dinner, Sasuke had told Naruto that he had thought that he had told Naruto to stop pretending to be happy in an attempt to make people—Sasuke—not worry about him.

Naruto had defended that he was not pretending; he really was happy and getting better.

Sasuke had smiled gently and said that he knew, but he also knew that it took a lot of energy to maintain a certain level of 'normalcy' that the blonde insisted on and that level was higher than genuine and that Sasuke was worried about him.

Naruto was expecting more of an argument—Sasuke insisting that Naruto was pushing himself too hard—so he did not know what to say next.

But then Sasuke had offered that they stay home on Monday, just to make sure that Naruto was not pushing himself further than he could manage.

Back in familiar territory, Naruto had insisted that he had spent too much time whimpering like some weak woman and that he would not back down from his challenge; it had been a week and Sasuke would be going back to work.

It took a little bit of debating, but after Naruto had relented to some conditions—letting Sasuke know the moment he felt the least bit overwhelmed and that they would not be staying the whole day—Sasuke had agreed to go into work the next day.

So Naruto could truthfully describe himself as successful.

He did not need any more reasons to know that he could describe himself as safe.

He had Sasuke, and Sasuke meant safety.

Naruto was currently assuring himself of that fact while Kiba was driving both him and Sasuke to work.

While he was perfectly able to walk around the apartment by himself, he knew that he would not be able to handle staying all alone in the penthouse without Sasuke and that he would be reduced to a ball of fear under a whole lot of blankets on Sasuke's bed before lunch. So he had asked Sasuke if he could join him at work, to which Sasuke agreed.

As a precaution, Sasuke had arranged everything so that they would be the first to arrive to work so that they could avoid people staring at the bandages Naruto had kept on his cheeks despite being able to take them off as of yesterday.

As Kiba dropped them off, Naruto thanked him and scurried after Sasuke.

While heading to Sasuke's big work office, Naruto was fighting off the urge to cling to Sasuke's suit jacket. He was strong! He wasn't weak! He could totally go through an empty building, that has been left empty throughout the weekend, with many hiding spaces, without holding onto Sasuke no prob—

He did not get too far in his self-argument when they passed by a particularly shadowy area and found himself latched onto Sasuke's sleeve. There was something there—HE COULD TELL!

Luckily, the pair made it to Sasuke's office without a hitch.

This office was way bigger than the one at Sasuke's home, so Naruto had no problem setting up a temporary base in the corner next to the window.

He felt a bit like he'd imagine a child would; Sasuke had packed him a bag filled with toys—his laptop, headphones, movies—his blanket, his stuffed Kyuubi, and a bag of snacks. Who cared that he was nineteen going on twenty? This was the first time anyone had prepared a bag like this in his life and he loved it!

Sasuke's work was kinda like what he did at home, but more. He took a whole lot more phone, Hinata visited his office more—with ample warning and always had a treat for Naruto, from a smile to food from the vending machine—and there was more seriousness involved here than at home.

Not that Naruto had minded; he had expected more seriousness because there was no way that something as boring as 'work' could be as relaxed as things were at home, he trusted Hinata because of her somewhat knowing his limits, and he was on his computer watching episodes of something called Pokemon that Kiba had told him about during his last visit when Sasuke was on the trusted

Every so often, Sasuke would ask Naruto if he was okay; if he needed anything. Naruto would smile, and would explain his thoughts about how first generation pokemon was the best, despite watching it for the first time. Sasuke looked like he would roll his eyes should he be human.

Instead of going out for lunch, Sasuke had called for Hinata to get the two some fast food; Naruto's request.

Naruto was in the middle of describing how he knew shit was going to go down because the main character had turned his hat backwards when their food had arrived.

Along with it, Sasuke's bodyguards came too. Naruto wasn't going to pay it much mind, besides thanking them sincerely for helping rescue him from. . .yeah. . .since they were talking to Sasuke.

Naruto was eating his calorie filled and oh-so-orgasmically-delicious meal when Sasuke called for his attention.

Slightly confused, Naruto put down his meal and sat next to Sasuke on the desk.

Both Lee and TenTen stood at least an arm's length from Naruto, which he appreciated despite trusting these two who had helped save him immensely; probably the third most after Sasuke and Hinata and Suigetsu who were tied for second.

It was Lee who spoke first, "My dear friend, Naruto! I would very much like to know if you have a desire to hone your strength and youth with TenTen and myself."

Not understanding, Naruto turned a confused face towards the saner of the two, TenTen.

"He is offering you the chance for us to train you." TenTen translated with a slightly exasperated smile at her partner's expense.

"Train?" Naruto asked, still a little confused. Training to save Sasuke? Training for the ballet? Did they want him to tag along and watch or what?

"Training in self-defense." Sasuke clarified from next to him.

TenTen nodded, "Lee will handle teaching you hand-to-hand combat and I will teach you how to properly wield a weapon. Nothing big like a gun or fancy like a sword. Just the standard things like Tasers, mace, the occasional pipe and whatnot."

"Really?!" Naruto asked, very excited over the idea. All his life he had been an embarrassing weakling, unable to fight for himself. Not in the orphanage, not in the group home, and certainly not in the hands of those 'Masters'.

He turned to Sasuke, eyes lit in excitement. He wanted to know Sasuke's opinion; though if asked, he would swear that he did not care.

Sasuke gave him a smirk, for he did not grin in the presence of others, and nodded.

Overjoyed, Naruto smiled widely—his first sincerely wide smile since that—and thanked both of Sasuke's bodyguards repeatedly.

Lee smiled just as widely and posed, "YES! In order to truly hone your youth into strength, your clothing must be an extension of your youth!"

"Oh no. . ." TenTen shook her head and rolled her eyes while Naruto bounced with excitement.

"I want to hone my youth! Tell me how!" Naruto begged, bouncing higher and faster on the desk.

"YOU MUST WEAR ONE OF THESE!" Lee stripped off his clothes with a speedy flourish to reveal a green spandex jumpsuit underneath with orange legwarmers.

TenTen's palm flew to her face.

Sasuke's eyes widened a little at such a display.

Naruto jumped to his feet in awe.

"OHMYGAWSH YES!" Naruto's eyes were practically sparkling as he saw what Lee was wearing.

Lee posed once more, showing off that the jumpsuit was more of a green one-pieced leotard of sorts, "They are aerodynamic and lets your body breath while you push it to the limit! It is the ideal outfit for strength and power!"

"YES!" Naruto shouted, imagining himself in the same green outfit.

"I SHALL PURCHASE ONE FOR YOU!" Lee declared, posing once more to show Naruto how easily he flowed in this ultimate of clothing.

"Absolutely not." Sasuke cut in.

"WHAAAAT?" Naruto shouted. Lee looked like he was going to chime in his two cents, but bit it back because Sasuke was still his boss. "Why not?" Naruto demanded.

Sasuke turned to face him, his expression neutral as he said, "Contrary to apparently. . .'popular' belief: such an. . .'outfit' does not do anything to hone your strength."

Naruto's face fell. So the outfit had no special powers? It wouldn't make him strong enough to face his demons? That was part of the appeal! That and it looked wickedly awesome.

". . .But it would not hurt to have something reserved specifically for training. . ." Sasuke offered a moment later.

Instantly Naruto's face lit up, "REALLY? I can have it?" he asked, making sure he was hearing right.

"Hn." Sasuke confirmed.

"YES!" Naruto cheered, doing an impromptu victory dance.

Sasuke smirked, then resumed his neutral expression as he turned to his two bodyguards and said, "Lunch is over."

Nodding, Lee and TenTen made their way out. But before they left, TenTen exclaimed, "Oh!" and turned back to Naruto.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a bag, "Forgive me for giving this back so late, but this was the earliest time we could see you without disturbing you."

Confused, Naruto accepted the bag she had held out for him, then retracted his hand quickly by reflex. He darted his eyes up to TenTen and Lee, ready to apologize for his rude gesture, but the two were already heading out the door and closing it behind them.

Naruto's curiosity peaked so he wasted no time in opening the bag and gasped.

Inside was the necklace Sasuke had given him!

Naruto gingerly picked it up out of the bag, noting that the string was still broken.

He turned to Sasuke with a watery smile and showed him the bag's content.

Sasuke turned and a slight smile reached across his face, though it was not the kind of smile Naruto was expecting to see. Instead of a happy smile that Naruto had gotten back his precious gift from Sasuke, there was a slightly. . .sympathetic smile on Sasuke's face.

He reached out his hand and said in a gentle tone, "We can replace the string with a chain."

Instantly, Naruto withdrew his hand.

He didn't want to replace the string! While it was true that he would have preferred that the string not be broken—especially because of how it got broken—he couldn't replace it. The broken string was proof of his resolve! It was proof that he was strong enough to rebel against Fir-First Master; proof that he hadn't betrayed Sasuke.

Naruto turned his body around so that the necklace and its broken string was completely blocked—and safe—from Sasuke.

"Naruto?" Sasuke's voice asked, concerned, from behind him.

"No. . ." Naruto said, clutching the precious gift closer to himself.

"No?" Sasuke's voice sounded closer than it was before. And sure enough, soon Sasuke was in front of him.

"No." Naruto repeated, meeting Sasuke's gaze, "I don't want to replace it with a chain. I like it the way it is."

That made Sasuke's sympathetic expression return—without the smile—"The gift won't lose its meaning if we replace the string. You shouldn't have to wear anything that might remind you of him."

Naruto shook his head at Sasuke's misunderstanding, "The only way it reminds me of. . .of. . .of him is how I wouldn't let him. . .t-t-touch-ch me." Naruto looked away. He could admit these things to himself, but saying them aloud was a completely different thing.

Sasuke's arms were around him in an instant, but Naruto refused to simply breathe in Sasuke's comforting scent and ignore his problems. He needed to be stronger and finish his friggin' sentence!

"And it is proof to me that I don't belong to h-h-him anym-more." Naruto may have finished with a stutter, but more importantly; he finished with pride in himself. He explained himself without panicking because of any flashbacks or awful memories!

Sasuke didn't move above him immediately, but soon enough he pressed his lips to the top of Naruto's head and said, "I understand."

Naruto squeezed Sasuke in return because he knew that trying to break free and smile up at him was futile; despite his best efforts.

The rest of the day went by kinda boringly; mostly because they left an hour after everyone else did. Sasuke had tried to remind Naruto around 3:30pm that he had agreed to Sasuke's condition of leaving early, but Naruto had argued that despite taking a large portion of the workload home, there was still a lot to do.

Aided by Hinata, and later the vice-president Shikamaru—who Naruto was certain only came because Hinata had told him about Sasuke's attempt to leave—who had told Sasuke that he had only agreed to help with Sasuke's workload while the Uchiha was working from home; no more freebies or leaving early.

Sasuke looked like he was going to argue, but Naruto had jumped right in and had apologized on Sasuke's behalf and had promised to keep Sasuke at work until closing time.

Unable to resist Naruto's apologizing for him, Sasuke had wordlessly agreed to stay at work; to which Naruto had shared a thumbs-up with Shikamaru in victory—for different reasons—when Sasuke wasn't looking.

As a compromise to avoid the evening rush out of work, the two had stayed an hour after everyone else. Then Naruto's stomach had rumbled so Sasuke had said that they could pick something light to eat on the way back before dinner.

Once again, Naruto disagreed with Sasuke, and instead, asked if they could go out on for dinner.

Sasuke looked like he was going to refuse, but Naruto had a special reason for asking, so he used the term Sasuke had used before and said it could be a 'date'.

Sasuke agreed.

When Naruto had chosen Ichiraku Ramen, Sasuke had paused for a moment, before wearily agreeing, probably wondering why Naruto would want to return to the place where he was taken and then. . .yeah.

On the way to the restaurant, Sasuke had remained tense, but it was only noticeable by how white his knuckles were as they gripped the steering wheel. Otherwise, he was acting like normal, telling Naruto which hood ornaments we would and would not allow as per their agreement the last time they had gone out on a date.

Like last time, they had gone to park Sasuke's car in a nearby parking garage, but this time the guys working there had recognized Sasuke somehow and had eagerly offered to park his car.

Sasuke agreed, but had warned them in a chilling voice that he would not allow for any 'funny' business, like joy rides or power outages.

The poor guys looked like they were going to pee their pants in Sasuke continued glaring at them, so Naruto—slightly angling himself behind Sasuke so the strangers would not point out his bandages—pulled Sasuke away so they could go to the restaurant.

Apparently, Sasuke had made a reservation when Naruto wasn't paying attention, so they did not have to wait in order to get a table, a booth in the back; away from most other people so they wouldn't be able to stare at Naruto's bandages.

It turned out that their waitress was the owner's daughter, Ayame, who had remembered them—Naruto—from the last time they had visited.

Naruto smiled widely when he recognized her and immediately ordered the house special while Sasuke ordered a simple salad, both happy that Ayame had not mentioned Naruto's bandages.

Naruto only needed one word to describe how dinner was: orgasmic.

The food was beyond delicious; it was like the god of ramen was blessing his taste buds with his tears of ramen-y joy!

And the owner, Teuchi, had remembered them and had delivered Naruto's tenth bowl like last time, and had once again put it on the house! Naruto knew for a fact that this was deeeefinitely his favoritest place after home!

After their dinner was all done and paid for, the two left quite satisfied; well, Naruto was anyways.

It was dark by the time they were walking back to the garage, so Sasuke automatically held onto Naruto's hand as a gesture of comfort.

Truth be told, Naruto was very nervous. He was going to take a very large leap of faith; exposing himself in a way. He had never done anything remotely like this in the past so the closer and closer he got to it, the more nervous he got.

Suddenly, Naruto stopped.

Clearly expecting the worst, Sasuke immediately backed up a little—still grasping Naruto's hand—so that he was directly in front of Naruto and had started to look around for whatever he thought had scared Naruto.

Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Sasuke turned around to face the blonde and asked, "Is anything wrong?"

Shaking his head in the negative, asked in return, "Do you recognize this area?"

Not expecting that, Sasuke looked a little confused—for Sasuke anyways—and looked around.

Naruto watched Sasuke's expression as recognition flooded those features.

"This is where you and Suigetsu were abducted." Sasuke answered in a low tone, anger aimed towards First Master laced in every syllable.

Expecting this reaction, Naruto gave a small smile and confirmed, "Yeah, just by that pole." He pointed towards the pole a few feet in front of them.

Sasuke glared at it as if it had insulted his mother. Then he turned back to Naruto and asked, "Does this area bother you?"

Naruto averted his eyes and answered, "Not really," hugging himself slightly.

He heard Sasuke give a small sigh and step towards him, but he stepped back and shook his head; he needed to say what he was going to say by himself, without any comfort or help. Besides, it would be kinda awkward to say the source of his nervousness in Sasuke's arms, not to mention embarrassing.

Sasuke stopped and gave him a—Sasuke version of a—confused expression.

Naruto took in a deep breath before continuing, "It was. . .scary as hell to be taken back. . .there. I. . .I never thought that Fir—he would take me back. It. . .wasn't pleasant being back there. It brought back all the memories of what hedid when he was my M-M. . .Master." Naruto shuddered at the mere word.

Then he redirected his attention towards Sasuke, "But during that time when I was back there, it was slightly okay, because I kept telling myself that you were coming to get me. . .it brought me more comfort than you could imagine to know that for once, things were not hopeless and that death or severe mutilation were not the only options out of that hell."

Naruto took in a deep breath to calm himself, "Th-the best source of-of comfort was knowing th-that-that the one th-that I l-love was coming to save me."

Since Naruto was watching Sasuke's expression, he saw exactly how it had frozen when he said the 'L-word'.

Not one for awkward silences, Naruto hurried to fill the gap, "And I'm not just saying that because of adrenaline or whatever they say in the movies. It's the real deal! Because, you're the nicest person I have ever known! You really care about me, like really care. You have never pushed me further than my limits, even during that weird time after you scared the crap outa me when you beat up Suigetsu, though in hindsight I can say that he kinda sorta deserved a punch to the head, but you took it to the extreme, dude! And you are also sappy as hell. I still have that letter you gave me the first time you had Hinata serve me lunch during that weird period, that was labeled 'Love, Sasuke'. And you are always so sure of yourself, even in weird romance thingies like with me considering you fell hard when you barely even knew me. Not that I'm complainin' or anything, because that helped me fall in love with y—"

Naruto was cut off by a pair of lips gently pressing themselves against his own while his body was pulled into a tight embrace.

After the lips had left him, Naruto was in a daze, "S-Sasuke?" he asked, blinking at him.

What he saw was the most emotion he had ever seen in Sasuke's eyes, but the most overpowering one he saw was happiness; pure happiness.

Sasuke smiled a true smile, pressed his lips against Naruto's forehead and whispered, "And I love you, my angel."

Naruto smiled back up at the person he could officially call the love of his life.

He was finally loved, and he was finally safe in his love's arms.

He couldn't be happier.

The End

And that was the story!

Phew! That took way longer than I expected to write. I was literally stuck on one portion of the chapter for literally a week. Of course, new course loads don't exactly help the process, but whatevs.

Yes, this IS the last chapter of Enslaved Angel. I will probably write an epilogue of sorts, but now that the story is over and there are other stories of mine to be paid attention to, it won't be for awhile.

But for those who enjoy a little background about stories: HERE'S A BONUS NOTE!

The original concept of the story was literally an Okane no Gai knockoff, but how it should have been in my mind. Don't get me wrong, the smex there is kinky and stuff, but for my first published work of mine, I did not want any serious lemon in this story. But as soon as I wrote Suigetsu's part, my concept of the story changed. Back then, I had no outline so it was go with the flow and I decided that it flowed to a more recovery-y direction so I gave Naruto a non-smexual reason to fear Sasuke. And it grew from there to the story you have just finished!

And another side note, the original name I have in my story notes is "The Angel Slave". I was seriously debating between those two names right up until publishing, when I just chose the shorter of the two and voila! "Enslaved Angel"! The same goes with naming the chapters, except without an extra name for debate. Then I couldn't escape naming the chapters! WHICH I HATE!

So anyways, hope you enjoyed the story! Thank you so much for sticking with me for so long! Love ya!