The Challenge

Chapter Eleven: “Invitation”

At the first check point he presented his proper identification and filled out the correct paperwork. The guards begrudgingly processed his request for a meeting with his client. They glared at him while they pawed through his paperwork and pocket contents. When they seemed satisfied that he wasn’t caring any weapons he was given his guest pass and allowed to proceed.

When he reached the second check point the security measures tightened further. All his possessions were placed in a plastic container and his papers were searched again for paperclips or staples. One guard shoved him up against the wall and frisked him thoroughly including running fingers through his hair messing up the once neat ponytail. Finally after being manhandled and everything short of strip searched he was given his papers and shoes back. With an evil glare and a hard shove a guard forced him into the same room with his client.

He sat down at the table across from his chained client and waited a moment after the door was shut and locked before starting to talk. Their conversations were private and couldn’t be monitored by the prison but they weren’t taking any chances. Nobody would know they were recorded until information discussed in private was revealed so technically they could listen in.

“My parole hearing is approaching, do you have any news?” His client ran his long fingers along the cuffs around his wrists.

“It seems that the victim that testified at trial has met an unfortunate demise.”

“That’s too bad.” They smiled at each other breaking the air of false concern. “How does that help me and my situation.”

“Well,” the grey haired young man looked over his notes. “When you sit before the parole board it will be just you and written testimony. The words of a victim on paper are not nearly as sympathetic as from the horse’s mouth.

His client slumped in the hard uncomfortable chair. He jerked his head to the side trying to move his shortened hair over his shoulder. The attorney wanted to offer his hair tie but knew he wasn’t allowed. Those once silky long strands now barely reached his shoulders and were dirty from limited access to a shower. “So I don’t really have anything to worry about.”

“Not quite. If the prosecutor finds a certain someone to make a statement it could be damning.” He closed up his file and looked up as his client clanked his chains.

“You think you could find this someone?”

He adjusted his large glasses and smirked. “Well you see that is the flaw with the legal system. A relative filed a very specific restraining order. The problem is that the person who has a restraining order filed against them has to be provided with the locations of where they can’t be.”

“Oh, is that so?” His client smiled a serpentine smile.

XX***XX

Naruto shifted, fitting his thigh between Sasuke’s legs as he pushed the shorter boy up against the wall. They were in the back of the library near the encyclopedias where nobody would venture this early in the morning. Luckily for them because Naruto didn’t want anyone else to hear the breathy moans coming from the brunet as he slid his teeth along the pulse point. He controlled his impulse to bit down or suck at the throbbing just below the skin.

It frustrated him to no end that he couldn’t mark the other boy as his own. He understood and respected that Itachi couldn’t know. Sasuke’s older brother would freak out over any wounds on his body.

He trailed kisses from the fluttering throat up to the pale jaw before connecting their lips again. His tongue traced the other boy’s teeth before delving in to prod at Sasuke’s tongue. Sasuke responded by pushing back making the two wet muscles slide together.

Sasuke’s hands came up to push at his shoulders; their mouths untangled to let them both breath. Naruto instantly leaned back in but his lips met a warm cheek instead of wet lips like he hoped. His didn’t deter him from closing in on a small ear and sucking at the lobe.

“Naruto, we have to go to class soon.” The words didn’t penetrate his brain especially with Sasuke’s cool flesh between his teeth.

“Don’t worry I wont let you be late.” Reluctantly he pulled away but stayed close enough to feel the thumping of Sasuke’s heart. He watched with a smile as Sasuke panted to catch his breath.

“Being late is not what I worry about.” Sasuke let his fingers run over the buttons of Naruto’s uniform jacket. “It’s not that I don’t enjoy this but I haven’t brought you lunch in a while. Maybe you should concentrate more on your assignment instead of licking my tonsils.”

“I glad you enjoy this, I enjoy it too.” He tried to get another kiss but Sasuke’s stiff arms kept him at bay.

“That’s some really nice selective hearing you have there.” Sasuke laughed and smacked his shoulder.

“How am I suppose to concentrate on homework when you’re sitting right next to me. Beside’s as good as the food tastes you taste ten times better.” He grabbed Sasuke’s hand bringing it to his mouth and licked the back of it.

“That’s gross, you dork.” Sasuke shoved at him and stepped to the side to get out of being pinned to the wall.

Naruto turned to let him pass then leaned against the wall watching the other boy gather his stuff. As he bent over for his bag Naruto let his eyes roam over a tight backside. Even the bagginess of the too big uniform couldn’t hide the small shapely ass. “You didn’t think my tongue was so gross when it was in you mouth.”

A wad of paper came out of nowhere and smacked him in the face. “Shut up.” He looked up to see Sasuke standing in front of him again blushing.

“What is it?”

“In a week is the science fair. Hinata and I will be showing our maze and trained mouse.” Sasuke dropped his eyes to look at his hands. “If its boring or something that you’re not interested in I would understand but I was wondering if you’d like to go?”

Personally he thought it would be completely boring but the look of Sasuke’s face told him this meant a lot to him. “How would Itachi like that?”

“He’ll get over it.”

“Then how could I say no.”

“Great.” Sasuke wrote some information on a piece of paper and handed it over. “This is the place and the time. If you get too bored Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei will be there too.”

“Oh I think watching you will keep me occupied.” He reached out and grabbed Sasuke’s wrist instead of the paper and pulled the other boy to him. The raved haired boy allowed himself to be enveloped in a tight embrace and kissed again. Naruto ran one hand up and under Sasuke’s uniform jacket but his shirt was tucked in so he didn’t find any skin like he hoped. That was okay because the way Sasuke tilted his head and moaned into his mouth made up for it.

Unfortunately the bell rang jolting Sasuke out of his arms. “Time to go so get your grabby hands off me.”

“Fine but only because I wouldn’t want you to ruin your attendance record.” Never mind that his record was already ruined because of the day he ran in to Gaara.

“Whatever, meet me here after you eat lunch and we’ll go over your assignment.” Sasuke had his stuff packed and bag shouldered.

“That’s boring, I’d much rather lick your tongue.” He winked and waggled his eyebrows lewdly a the now blushing Sasuke.

Sasuke turned while snorting. “You’re hopeless, I’m going.”

Naruto grabbed his own things watching Sasuke walk away. They had been spending the mornings on anything but looking over his homework, not that either of them minded. Somewhere in the last couple weeks Sasuke opened up more. He let Naruto kiss and touch him and even push him up against a wall. It did make him happy that whatever Gaara did was completely washed away.

XX***XX

Iruka slapped a piece of paper down on Naruto’s desk and scowled. “See me after class.”

Naruto groaned and shrunk in his seat. There was no doubt what Iruka was pissed about. His assignments started slipping again because Sasuke and he spent their mornings tangling tongues.

He took good notes during class hopefully to deter Iruka’s temper. When the bell rang he stayed in his seat awaiting Iruka’s wrath.

“You were doing so well for a while, what happened?” Iruka sat on the edge of his desk glaring at him. “Last time I checked you had two very smart tutors.”

The blond took a deep breath and figured out what to tell the usually easy going but temperamental teacher. Of course he couldn’t tell Iruka that Sasuke and him have been swapping spit but he could give him a different excuse. “Hinata and Sasuke have been working hard to finish up their project.”

The seemed to give Iruka pause. Naruto‘s lips curved into a small smile as Iruka sighed slightly in defeat. “Okay. Just remember there’s a test coming up and you need to pass with at least a B or you could fail this class.”

“Don’t worry I have a very good reason to pass.” He smiled remembering Sasuke’s proposal. For a passed test he would get a dessert. “Besides Jiraiya would cut me off if he found out I failed a class especially a class you taught.”

“Have you heard from him lately?”

“Yeah, a couple days ago. He’s shacked up with a set of twins or something. The newest book is almost done and he’ll be sending me a blurb before sending it to his editor.” His guardian called from time to time to make sure he was eating right and passing all his classes. When there were huge lulls in-between calls he knew Jiraiya was deep into finishing a book. Once it was off to the editors he would come home for a while before leaving to promote the book.

Iruka smiled and clasped a hand on his shoulder. “When it comes in you have to let Kakashi read it or he’ll never forgive either of us. He’s been waiting for the new book for sometime now.”

“Of course, wouldn’t want Kakashi to go through withdrawal.”

“Yeah, come over for dinner tonight okay.” The science teacher waved him good-bye as he started arranging his next class’ work

“Sure.” He agreed on his way to his next class.

XX***XX

When they got home Itachi handed off his laptop to his brother to let him use it for his project. Sasuke used the webcam to film his untrained mouse and was creating a slideshow with the progress of the project to play in a lope. There were some things he was doing with the video streamed from Hinata’s webcam that he didn’t quite understand. The only important thing was that Sasuke looked happier than he’d ever seen him.

In the beginning he felt that adding more work to his already heavy workload would cause problems but it had turned out better than he thought. Sasuke moved about the house with a since of purpose and confidence that he never possessed before. Every time he spoke it involved Hinata with the project or Naruto telling him jokes. Before he rarely said anything about other students and they did homework or read in silence.

Itachi moved to the kitchen to see about dinner but ended up sitting at the kitchen table. Change happened naturally and at his age he should be able to accept that easily. With every day that passed Sasuke moved a step away from him and grew more independent. Saying that he wasn’t proud would be a lie.

“Itachi.” A voice from the doorway drew his attention.

“What is it Sasuke?” He waved his hand to draw him near.

Sasuke came over and sat at the table with the computer. “I invited Naruto to come to the science fair to see Hinata and I present our project.”

“Okay.” Itachi suppressed a flinch at the name. From the limited contact he had with the blond he didn’t like his rough exterior and flippant attitude towards Sasuke’s limitations. Other that the one time he brought Sasuke home he hadn’t had any prolonged contact with the blond. However, every day when he came to pick Sasuke up Naruto was hanging around to see him off. Since the lunch cooking agreement he knew the two of them were spending time together during school.

For the most part he tried to ignore it but he couldn’t help but notice subtle changes. Naruto’s eyes watched his brother like a predator. He knew the look and it made him nervous. Sasuke stayed happily oblivious, waving good-bye to his new friend. Although friend wouldn’t be the proper term to describe the blond for too much longer. From the way they hugged in parting and Sasuke blushed and stuttered in the car on the way home the last time he picked his brother up he knew something was changing. This revelation bothered him but he would always accepted his brother even though he would have much preferred Hinata.

Itachi took a deep breath to clear his mind. Over the last couple weeks Sasuke’s happiness increased steadily and he hated seeing the nervous look on his brother’s face. He decided now was a good time to build a bridge. “Find out where he lives and we can give him a ride. Afterwards we’ll go out for dinner.”

“Really?” Sasuke asked amazed. That didn’t surprise him since he knew what Sasuke thought his feelings about Naruto were.

“Well,” he began. “I think it’s about time I got to know Naruto since you like him so much.” The rapid flush that stained Sasuke’s face red made him laugh. Yes there was defiantly something between them.

“I’ll get direction to his place tomorrow. He’ll be excited fro a free meal.” Sasuke’s blush faded as he smiled and went back to work on the computer.

Itachi highly suspected that the blond wanted more from his brother than just the occasional free meal. He tried to keep thoughts like that out of his head. The last thing he needed were cracks to form in the foundation of the bridge he was trying to construct.

XX***XX

Notes:

-I know I said this chapter had the science fair but I forgot I wrote this chapter in-between. I like this chapter because it brings in the bad guys but also shows Naruto and Sasuke getting closer before all the drama comes raining down. Also Itachi is starting to accept Naruto as a fixture in Sasuke’s life.

-I have no idea about how the Japanese legal system works so this is a mixture of the American legal system and artistic license.

-One of the problem with restraining orders that I can think of is that you have to give the person you don’t want around you a lot of information. They have to know your address so they don’t come by and your phone number so they know what number they can’t call. Personal I have never had a restraining order against anyone so I really don’t know if they have a way of getting around that.

-I now only post to this site but maybe in the future I will put everything up on my live journal. As of now I do not post anymore on fanfiction.net because every once and a while my computer gets hit with a virus from that site. My program stops is easily but it is still scary as hell. Also I never seem to get any reviews. The biggest reason is because this is an adult site. Supposedly everyone here is over 18 and that makes the reviews a lot more intelligent. It seems to me that the people who run the site are a lot more skilled at fixing problems then whoever runs FF.net.

XX***XX

I bought high speed internet and the rest of the chapters will becoming a lot faster now that I have access to the internet 24/7. Except when I’m at work.

Thanks for all the reviews and yes having a story end is sad but I have others coming.