Bloodlines

Chapter 10
The Past Still Haunts

Naruto was starting to think Sai was getting some sort of sick amusement at Naruto’s situation... When Sai had whipped out a book on Hyuga sex practices at camp one night, Naruto had nearly broken his neck in trying to hide it before Neji saw it.

Sakura had defended their team mate, saying he was just fascinated with a new kind of relationship and didn’t really understand discretion yet. Naruto just wished he would find something better to be fascinated with. It was making an already awkward situation all the more uncomfortable.

Not to say that he and Neji had been the best of friends before by any means, but they worked together well enough and usually stayed out of each other’s way. Certainly they hadn’t seen each other as potential spouses. He had always had the feeling that Neji looked at him more as the irritating loud peasant than a romantic interest.

Perhaps it would have helped if all of Naruto’s romantic encounters added up to more than two, though one time he was too drugged up to really remember. Haku was really the only evidence that Naruto was not in fact a virgin.

Neji certainly wasn’t ugly Naruto would say that, however Naruto couldn’t exactly remember himself being portrayed in any sort of poetic sense by anyone.

Words like Loud, Annoying, Hyper,” overly excitable”, those were branded about a lot though, usually coupled with “Idiot”, “Moron”, and “Shut up!”

Neji got words like Beautiful, Handsome, Strong, Talented, and “ A Catch!” Sasuke had also earned similar praise when he had still been in the village. Even to this day girls still sighed over him.

“Wonder what they had to pay Neji to agree with this marriage idea?” Naruto wondered, cheeks flushing with shame as he stared into the dark waters of a nearby river. His usual scarred features stared back, blond hair, blue eyes, average body. . . nothing really out of the ordinary visually.

Naruto certainly wasn’t “A Catch”. No one was really interested in an orphan with no clan name, no money to speak of, and a monster camping out in his stomach.

It seemed that Neji was really getting the raw end of the deal, and Naruto felt bad for that.


That night, as the fire died out and blankets and sleeping bags were arranged around the tent of their current client, Naruto was more than a little surprised when Neji put his bag and blankets down next to Naruto.

Clutching his blankets under his nose like a virgin bride, Naruto stared at the Hyuga as he arranged his sleeping things as if he slept next to Naruto every night. Up close, clothes loosened for sleep, the broad shoulders and well muscled chest were obvious in the dying light from the camp fire, defying the jounin’s usual impression of being slender or feminine. Neji obviously was anything but. He smelled good too, like musk and incense. Naruto instantly blamed the hidden girl parts that had been put in him for the sudden thrill of arousal. His mind then strangely began comparing the Hyuga to Sasuke the last time Naruto had seen him. Also fine featured and with a new set of broad shoulders and chest he wasn’t afraid to show off, Sasuke hadn’t slacked in the looks department either.

“And all I got were stretch marks and a uterus. Yay me.”

He turned his back to Neji, determined to sleep and pretend that Neji was just another ninja and not his fiancé, feeling rather miffed that he was surrounded by so many gifted handsome, girl-mobbed bishonens, when all he got was a stupid bat crazy fox and people out to kill him .

Next to him, unknowing of Naruto’s thoughts, Neji was thinking of his future. It had seemed right, to put his bed roll next to Naruto’s. He had been watching Naruto, truly looking at him all day, and found himself admiring the bright gold of his hair, growing just a little longer than it had in the past. The shape of his ocean blue eyes held a strange beauty and the color had always been startling blue, like a mountain lake.

The body was still lithe, despite once having born a child, and showed smooth well honed muscles under bronzed skin when the rather ugly outfit Naruto favored was removed. When Naruto was still, and not being a clown or whining, was just there, he had a strange elegance to him. He was beautiful, when one stopped and really looked. Touching him would be no hardship.

He knew that the Hyuga preferred chastity before marriage. . . but like any good ninja, Neji had learned the art of seduction and was no virgin.

Shadows filled the campsite, Sakura was in the tent with their client, a young princess traveling back to her homeland. Sai had first watch, and had disappeared into the canopy of the trees some time ago.

Neji’s uncle very much wanted this marriage to be cemented and permanent. A child to be conceived as soon as possible. He had hinted that it would be no bad thing if it was a bit before vows were taken. It was no hardship then, for Neji to pull back Naruto’s blankets, and fold himself around the warm body. Naruto stiffened and then turned, putting himself nose to nose with Neji, eyes wide and dark in the gloom.

“What are you DOING!?” The blue eyed ninja hissed, blue eyes wide, the whisker marks on his cheeks almost seemed to flare like an anxious cats. Neji had a dozen things he could have said, all of them probably pointless when it came to Naruto, so he slid his hands into the soft golden locks, and kissed him.

He had actually expected Naruto to punch him, and he caught the fist easily, before trapping the curled hands and sealing his mouth back to Naruto’s until the other boy’s body softened, allowing Neji to deepen the kiss, and pull him closer. So lost in the heat of Naruto’s body, the pleasant heated scent of earth and cinnamon that Naruto seemed to exude, Neji was as startled as everyone else when a small dog bound into the camp, barking like a mad thing.

Naruto and Neji sprang to their feet, and Sai appeared out of nowhere, crouched with Kunai in hand.

The dog was Kakashi’s pug Pakkun.

“Naruto, you have to come now. . . .Haku’s been taken.”


Sasuke dreamed of candlelight on golden hair and smooth amber skin. It softened the features of the boy laying on his cot. His eyes were open, but were unusually dark, smoldering and hungry in the flickering light.

Sasuke knew that this dream was only part memory. In real life he had been surprised at the unexpected body in his room, Orochimaru standing in the doorway with a smirking Kabuto, an empty syringe in his hand. Here however, in this dream version, they were alone. Here, he didn’t hesitate, didn’t need the injection of inhibition negating drugs to join the pliant body laid out before him. Naruto had welcomed him with open arms then, and now.

Orochimaru had told him once, that hate and anger were similar to lust and passion. Hinted that the overwhelming need to fight Naruto to prove himself better may have easily translated into more pleasurable ways. He had blamed the drugs at the time. The dreams were harder to process. Having had Naruto in such a way was burned into his memory.

He hated that he still craved the other boy, that there were times when a blond of similar appearance would walk by him and he would burn with the memory of Naruto. It was a weakness. Proof he wasn’t yet strong enough, not good enough to beat his brother.

He was reaching out to touch the smooth slope of Naruto’s bare shoulder, to press his lips against the moist skin when a strangely familiar feeling vibrated through his skull. He woke, sitting up to find his companions still sleeping. He narrowed his eyes into the shadows, feeling the oddly familiar Chakra wash over him again. Eyes narrowed, he took his sword and leapt into the treetops.

Haku was lost. It was dark in the forest. Weird sounds came from every direction, hooting and growling and the beating of wings. He had never been in a scarier place in his life. He had lost Ramen in the shadows. This had made him cry for several minutes, before he worried about the bad man finding him there, and had moved on. Every tree looked alike. Every bush was similar to the last. And every moving shadow put his heart into his throat that it would be the man in the red cloud robes. Finally, fear, hunger and thirst had broken him down, and he lay in the leaf litter, crying softly to himself, calling out for his father, but knowing he was too far away to hear him. What was left of Mr. Stripes held against his chest, he slept fitfully, dreaming of being chased by some unknown figure. It was the dark figure of a man standing over him that startled him from his half dreams.

At first he thought it was the man who had taken him before, and he screamed hoarsely, holding up the stolen kunai he had taken as he ran into the woods. It was swiftly taken from him, and an unfamiliar voice shushed him.

Too exhausted to run, he just trembled as large hands touched him gently on the head.

“Haku. . .” The voice said, as if in wonder, hands brushing against his face. The man murmured his name again, and there seemed no malice or anger. Only surprise. He was then lifted into strong arms, and exhaustion caught him, tossing him back into dark dreams.


When Sasuke had followed the chakra to its source, he had been more than a little surprised to find a little boy, no older than five, curled up near a tree. At first he wondered if he were still dreaming, as the little boy was the spitting image of himself, dark hair that refused to decide if it would stick up or flow down, pale skin, even the outfit was similar. But the orange spiral on the boy’s back was even more familiar. If ever Naruto had a symbol of his own this was it. His mind stumbled then, in realization. This was not just some random child asleep or abandoned in the forest. This was his child. His son. The chakra was familiar because he had felt it years ago, during a stolen moment when he had touched his infant son and unknowingly imprinted his chakra signature into his mind.

He brushed a small lizard perched on the child’s shoulder, and lifted him carefully. Taking him back to camp would invite questions. He would have to take the child home. Alone.