An Indecent Affair

This chapter is un-beta'd. I hope it's readable. :x


Chapter 12
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Neji expected that today would be the most awkward day of his entire life. He expected coy glances cast in each other’s direction when each thought the other wasn’t looking. He expected muttered apologies whenever hands accidentally touched or elbows brushed against each other. He expected ordinary, every-day words, phrases and sentences that had no hidden meanings to suddenly be taken in a sexual nature. In all, he expected an uncomfortable working environment not at all conducive to working, but what he didn’t expect was for Sasuke to bound up the stairs with a cordial smile on his face and greet him warmly with a slight wave before he went about his business as if last night never happened.

Neji had spent the entire bus ride to work racking his brain and trying to come up with excuses for why he allowed what happened last night to happen and finding a way to debunk the Uchiha’s argument while arrantly explaining why it should never happen again. But Sasuke’s seeming incognizance threw the Hyuuga for a loop and he was suddenly very hesitant to confront him about it and now he wasn’t even sure if he’d dreamed the whole thing.

As much as he wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him until his brain dislodged and rattled within that hard head of his, Neji found that he actually preferred it this way. Sure, the awkwardness remained, (at least on his end) and there was no closure but at least there was to be no confrontation, something he always dreaded.

His boss was his usually professional self, professional in the Uchiha’s definition of the word. He was sarcastic and very crass with his other employees but with Neji he was very patient and still just as playful because he would keep taking his things without asking, or returning, and kept trying to talk him into removing his shoes and socks. Neji felt as if he were receiving preferential treatment but he would be lying to himself if he said he would rather have the fear the other man instilled in his workers over the exasperation he was forced to endure on a daily basis.

While Sasuke had his unique quirks, Neji found he much liked working with him and as the day progressed, he soon forgot all about last night, and by the time midday rolled around and Sasuke had tossed out his tuna sandwiches and bullied him into buying a heavier lunch they were back to their old selves again.

Neji grumbled as he weighed the paper and coins in his hand. Not only had the irritating lout had the gall to waste good food but now he had put him in a position where he had no choice but to accept a hand out. He had always been the type of person that liked to support himself and never wanted to have to ‘owe’ anyone, anything, especially when, later in life, those people came to ‘collect’ even though they had extended their hand to offer a donation and not a loan.

It wasn’t that Neji didn’t have money. Well, he didn’t. That bill that Ten-Ten walked out on had to be paid from the majority of his rent money, the rent money that would have to be covered from his next pay-check, the next pay-check that he was tempted to ask for in advance because his Landlord was pretty anal about late payments. He had mentally prepared himself for the coming financial dry spell and he had become so used to his lower class lifestyle that he had adapted very well to it. This was why he didn’t want to accept the Uchiha’s money.

But it wasn’t his fault that Sasuke threw his lunch into the garbage and he knew very well that even if Green Guardian came pounding on his door to lecture him on his wastefulness, that it wouldn’t stop him from doing it again so Neji saved his breath. He’d spend Sasuke’s money this once and make preparations in the future to prevent this from happening. He was trying to decide which diner he should offer his patronage and almost collided with Itachi as he made his way out.

Neji apologized and the eldest Uchiha sibling assured him it was alright, then he just stood there, staring down at him and the tiny hairs at the back of his head stood on end. He wasn’t afraid of Sasuke’s brother, well, not as much as he was at first but that still didn’t make Neji think he was any less creepy.

Even now, his genetically dark eyes were masked behind a pair of ‘white-out’ contact lenses that made him appear like the walking dead, and the thick outline of mascara and dark, cosmetic circles around his eyelids only complimented the look. Neji wondered why he chose to wear leather even when it was over forty degrees outside but he could tell from the pallidity of his skin that this man hardly ever went out into the sunlight and, like Sasuke, was only here because he had to.

He let Itachi know where he could find his brother before he stepped out quickly and forfeited the precious minutes in his lunch hour, but when he returned to find him and his ‘boy toys’ loitering around in the waiting-area, he realized that Itachi had not come to see his brother, he had come to see him and although he’d been kind to him thus far it didn’t stop Neji from being suspicious of his intentions. He summoned Sasuke from his office by alerting him he’d returned with his lunch but he also wanted him nearby because, as much as he didn’t want to admit it to himself, he felt safer whenever he was around.

Sasuke lingered with his elder sibling and had one of those ‘you’d have to have been there’ conversations with Naruto. Neji didn’t mean to eavesdrop, it was very hard not to since the spiky-haired, blonde spoke so loudly, but from what he heard, he gathered that they were close friends even though Naruto spent most of his time by Itachi’s side. The two boys broke into a little scuffle when the tanned youth begged for a taste of Sasuke’s sandwich. The Uchiha refused and managed to keep him at a distance with a firm hand against Naruto’s muscular chest while he brought the sandwich to his lips with his other hand and moaned loudly as he enjoyed every bite of it.

Neji had to put a hand over his mouth to stifle his chuckles at their childish behaviour but he almost chocked on a gasp when a deep voice, devoid of all amusement, came from behind him. It was only then that Neji realized that Itachi was no longer seated on the couch with the others and had, somehow, made his way over to the desk without him noticing.

“He likes to think that we’re on the same level, but he still has so much developing to do. I’m afraid I can’t fault him though. He was forced to grow up too quickly.”

Neji wasn’t sure he completely understood what Itachi meant by that but he had an idea based on what Sasuke had told him about his past. Neji turned in his swivel chair to respectfully give to other man his full attention and their eyes met for the briefest of seconds before he had to tear them away. Itachi’s eyes were much too intimidating and that formidable and somber gaze of his made him breathless. Neji cleared his throat and subconsciously inched his chair back a bit.

“That…err is never a good thing to put a child through,” he stammered, suddenly very inarticulate even though he’d received distinctions in English and Psychology.

The conversation seemed to end there, or rather, Itachi found something else that piqued his interests and he reached out a perfectly manicured hand and threaded lean fingers through long, glossy hair. Neji’s body tensed and he slammed his eyes shut as he held his breath. He wasn’t sure what to expect from this man, but he also hadn’t expected him to touch him just out of the blue.

Itachi took him by the hands and pulled him to his feet so he could examine him more closely. A light blush rose on his cheeks and he became uncomfortable as he was looked upon with such admiration and for the life of him he didn’t know what the other man found so fascinating.

Neji was cautious with him. He still didn’t fully trust anyone with the Uchiha name and even though there were witnesses in this room, who was to say anyone would come to his aid if Itachi tried something funny.

Even Sasuke…

He didn’t want to think along those lines but as much as he tolerated, and was even starting to like the irritable man, he still believed he needed to keep his guard up around him because his warning signals, as faint as they were now, still told him that he had an ulterior motive and was only playing the sympathetic friend to fulfill his objective.

Itachi disappeared from view when he stepped behind him and just as he was about to turn to see where he went, two, large hands cupped the sides of his head and pulled it back along with his hair. Neji gasped loudly in surprise and he shivered at the feel of those icy fingers against his flushed skin. Naruto and Sasuke had reached a resolution, after Sasuke finished the entire sandwich and shoved the waxed-paper wrapping down Naruto’s T-shirt, just in time to watch his brother tilt Neji’s head backwards and to one side so that he was over his shoulder and up at him.

Even from such a distance, one could clearly see how attractive the Hyuuga was, especially with his hair pulled back and away from his face and time seemed to stop for Sasuke as he gaped with slightly parted lips at the bewitching man before him.

“Holy shit!” Naruto exclaimed when he was presented with a likeness so eerie he thought he was looking at a ghost. “You guys weren’t kidding. He really does look like Haku.”

“Mmm…who’s Haku?” Neji asked curiously, hoping to engage himself in a conversation so Itachi would leave him alone. It worked. Almost immediately those hands dropped from his head, and for the first time since he’d known him, Neji saw emotion in those eyes, but the anger masked between thin slits and coloured glass frightened him more than the blank stare he was used to.

Sasuke shared the same look as his brother and Naruto winced when both men turned to glare at him.

Shit! They hadn’t told Neji yet, and he had opened his big mouth and gone and complicated matters. “I- I’m sorry. I thought he knew,” the young man mumbled a sincere apology and combed one hand awkwardly through his already uncombed hair.

Sasuke wasn’t sure what to do with the card Naruto had dealt him. He could bluff his way out of it but Neji was very intelligent and would see right through him and he didn’t want to make the other man feel as if he was hiding something from him. Not when they had progressed this far and Sasuke groaned inwardly at his remaining option: He’d have to fold and lay everything on the table now rather than later. It was still too soon, he wasn’t prepared to tell him this early, but he no longer had a choice.

“Haku used to work here,” Itachi started, as if he’d heard his brother’s inner musings through some psychic link-up and he fished into his pants pocket to remove his wallet. Even before he started to sift through the many flaps Sasuke knew what Itachi was looking for because he still had his.

They both kept one as an incentive to keep coming back to this building they hated and as a reminder of the responsibilities they shared to keep what was rightfully theirs and to thwart the demon that threatened to take everything from them…the demon that had destroyed one of the most precious things they shared.

His friendship.

“He was an old friend of ours. We went way back to high-school. Itachi, Haku and I, were like the three musketeers,” and Sasuke chuckled when he recalled the clichéd moniker affectionately given to them by their classmates.

“Needless to say, we were inseparable,” added his brother as he gently removed the tiny ping-pong to prevent the edges from being creased. Itachi gazed longingly upon the image and slipped into a trance-like state as he allowed himself to reminisce on both pleasant and painful memories. He blinked, bringing himself back to the present, before handing the picture to Neji and the shorter man swallowed as he reached out to take it, but he couldn’t bring himself to look at it, no matter how great his curiosity was because he knew he wasn’t going to like what he saw.

“But our own greed eventually tore us apart,” Sasuke moved from one group to the other and made himself comfortable by sitting atop the desk and he crossed his arms over his chest, waiting to gauge Neji’s reaction when he finally looked at the picture.

“Haku never preferred one of us over the other. He cared about us equally, but when we both began to develop feelings for him…we forced him to choose.”

“Itachi and I never shared anything, it must have been a mindset instilled by our parents since they always got us each, one of everything.” It was an expensive lifestyle but their parents had no problem maintaining it, in fact, they pretty much encouraged it when they gave the boys their separate bedrooms at early ages with their own computers, phone lines and internet connections. Whatever Itachi had, Sasuke had to get. He never wore hand-me downs because he didn’t want his brother’s ‘left-overs’ and Itachi would claim his parents gave favoritism if they let Sasuke play with any of his toys while he was unable to play with Sasuke’s.

“It was our selfishness and pride that caused Haku to reach the breaking point and he said that if he had to choose one or the either then he would choose neither.”

Sasuke laughed then. He could easily do that now because it was not at all funny when Haku ‘dumped’ them both. They’d made him cry and hurt him terribly with their childish bickering. “Haku stopped speaking to us after that but instead of learning from our mistake it only made us more resentful towards one another. We played the blame game for years even though we both shared that guilt-“

“The only thing we did share at that point in out lives,” Itachi scoffed.

“Hn,” his younger sibling agreed with a wry nod of his head. “It became too unbearable to even look at each other and Itachi moved away while I lived on campus at a local college. When our father died, we were still too bull-headed to go back home even though it broke our mother’s heart that neither of us attended. I believe that was the worst decision we’d ever made.”

Itachi concurred with a slight nod. “Even if one of us had gone back, if we had been there to support her in her grief then she never would have been so alone and felt the need to remarry,” and she wouldn’t have married him.

“Mailing us the invitations to her wedding was also a waste of time because we each thought we’d see the other there so…neither of us went,” Sasuke admitted sheepishly. He’d felt bad about it before but now hearing it like this, and from his own lips no less, made him feel like the worst son any woman would be shamed to have given birth to. But he wasn’t alone in those thoughts; Itachi felt the same way but much worse because he was the eldest and should have set an example.

“When we finally lost her…our mother, we did go to her funeral and that was where we met Orochimaru for the first time, and that was when we saw Haku again.”

The room was deadly silent and the brothers seemed to have a moment of silence for the deceased. Neji shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other and would have used the opportunity to look at the photograph then but still couldn’t bring himself to do it and looked at the floor instead. His eyes snapped back up when Sasuke continued speaking.

“Seeing him like that, after all those years rekindled that old feud of ours, along with the torch we both carried for him.”

“But when Haku approached Sasuke at the funeral I became slighted and, thinking that he’d finally chosen my brother over me, I left.”

“Which was ironic because Haku only wanted to tell us how disappointed he was in us both for not showing up at my father’s funeral and my mother’s wedding. Both events of which he attended, by the way, and had hoped to use the opportunity to apologize. If Itachi had stayed behind then maybe we’d have been able to talk it over like adults and put it all behind us…I don’t know,” and he shrugged because somehow, that seemed highly unlikely given their dispositions back then. “I was too guilt-ridden to say anything to Haku then. I was also very happy to see him and would have tried to start over but there were still too many things hanging over our heads that I decided to just let him go.”

“Sasuke went back to college but I put a halt on my travels until the legal matters with the will were sorted out. Apparently, our mother left her remaining share of our father’s estate with Orochimaru. I tried to contest it but there was nothing I could do to prevent it from falling into his hands…nothing short of killing him, that is,” he sighed dejectedly, hating himself for not obeying the voices that had screamed the command. “Our shares were still our own but because of our dissension, we still possessed the minority and had no say over the decisions Orochimaru made with regards to the company.”

Neji knew this much already. It was what Sasuke had disclosed to him the day they had that discussion in the kitchen, but there had been more.

“We didn’t care then,” Sasuke admitted honestly with a callous wave of his hand. “We had our money, we had our space and we didn’t give a rat’s ass what happened to the company that our father loved more than his own family,” he spat with great disdain.

They were young, but they were not stupid. They could tell when their parents were just going through the motions in an attempt to protect their children from an ugly divorce, but the arguments they had, whenever they thought the boys were asleep, revealed the truth about their sham of a marriage. The late-night office hours that would sometimes continue into the next day led to accusations of adultery. She would claim that there was a lack of physical support on his part even though he argued that the financial support was what kept a roof over their heads, food in their stomachs and clothes on their backs. But they had more than enough, they could afford to live in the richest neighbourhood and go to the best private schools. Itachi calculated his father’s yearly income once and estimated that the man could die and come back three times and never have to work a single day while maintaining his lavish lifestyle for all four of them, and more. So would it have killed him to play rugby in the backyard with his boys? Would it have taken so much out of him to attend their baseball games and piano recitals? Would he have lost so much if he took them camping or fishing like the other fathers did? Would his company have folded if he took a few days off to spend a summer vacation together?

The answer was easily ‘No’, and while Fugaku would have lost just a few thousand dollars if he called in sick for just one day he lost something far more valuable. The admiration and respect of his sons.

Itachi sat upon the desk and stretched his legs far out in front of him to let them rest after standing for so long, but Neji was unable to do the same. He couldn’t move, he didn’t even want to breathe. He had no emotional ties to this family, none whatsoever, but he couldn’t help but feel he was somehow involved. It may have been because he was far too sensitive to the suffering and injustices of others.

“Unfortunately, turning a blind eye to Orochimaru and the company cost us Haku,” Itachi muttered, his voice a little difficult to hear.

“Orochimaru probably saw him at one of the gatherings and must have taken a liking to him as well,” Sasuke presumed and tapped a forefinger against his chin. “It’s possible since Haku had a magnetic personality; he drew people to him without even trying.”

“Hn,” the other Uchiha smirked.

Neji suddenly became aware of the picture he still clutched in his hand and was suddenly compelled to look at it but his heart skipped a beat and his body became cold when he stared, with wide eyes, at the mirror-like image. They were right when they said he shared a remarkable resemblance with this ‘Haku’. A round head poised delicately upon a dainty neck with plump lips carved near a curved chin with a cute, little nose molded just above them. Large, expressive eyes framed with thick, black lashes and accentuated with thin, perfectly trimmed, eyebrows that matched the dark, hair that fell around his head and over his shoulders in a long curtain.

The colour of their eyes was probably the only noticeable difference between them but they still contained a certain innocence of the world and a naivete that advertised them as targets, ready to be taken advantage of. Which was exactly what Orochimaru had done to them both.

“He looks like me,” Neji gasped, unable to say anything else but the glaringly obvious.

“I know,” Sasuke admitted sadly because the very instant he’d laid eyes on him there was an ache in his heart, similar to the one he’d felt when he first received word of Haku’s passing. On his original suspicions that Neji was looking for an easy raise, he had come to believe that Orochimaru had somehow talked him into adopting the boy’s look so the sick pervert could relive his twisted fantasies but he knew now that that was not the case and it all just happened to be one big, unfortunate coincidence.

“Orochimaru sees Haku in you, just like we do,” Itachi said. “That is why he approached you the way he did.”

So, that was it. He was just a replacement for the boy Orochimaru had lost and nothing more, but he didn’t know if he should be relieved or distraught by this knowledge. And what about Sasuke and even Itachi? Did they only see this as a means to repay their debt to the friend they’d abandoned? Had he looked nothing like Haku would they have gone out of their way to ensure his safety?

Neji handed the picture back to Itachi and clapped a hand over his mouth. He suddenly didn’t feel very well and didn’t want to think about it, especially after what transpired last night. What if Sasuke was just using him to substitute what he could have had with Haku?

“Neji?” Sasuke placed a hand on his shoulder and felt the muscles beneath his cotton shirt bunch in rejection before he slapped his arm away. He could tell the other man hadn’t taken it very well and he knew something like this would have happened. It was much too soon.

“Please excuse me,” he whispered politely and made a hasty retreat to the washroom.

“Shit!” Sasuke roared and flung the paperweight and pen-holder to the floor in his anger. He’d made one step forward only now to come two steps back. He wanted to wring Naruto’s shitty, little neck for all of this but knew Itachi wouldn’t let him lay one finger on him. He took deep breaths and raked agitated hands through his hair but had to stop in fear of pulling the strands right out of his scalp.

Itachi turned to Naruto and Gaara who seemed rather uncomfortable by the whole ordeal and he dismissed them because he didn’t want to leave them in here alone with Sasuke and his temper tantrum.

Naruto knew better than to protest, or even try to apologize because Sasuke wouldn’t want to hear it so he quietly followed Gaara out of the room and closed the large door behind him. Itachi gave them a two minute head start and Sasuke time to cool down, just in case he went to chase after them, before he got up and went to look for Neji. He found him in the bathroom, sitting on the cold times with his head buried in his upraised knees and his arms wrapped around his legs to offer comfort. Itachi occupied the available space next to him and reached out to stroke his shuddering back but the other man shied away as if he found his touch repulsive.

“Who am I…who am I to you?” he asked, his voice muffled by his lap.

“You are Neji Hyuuga, my brother’s secretary. I have no problem making the distinction between you and Haku,” Itachi said sincerely.

He lifted his head slightly so he could turn to look at him. His pale eyes were slightly red from withholding his tears. He thought it was Sasuke that had come to him and did not know that is was Itachi he had addressed that question to. “Does Sasuke feel the same way?”

“I cannot answer for Sasuke, because most of the time I am left to wonder what goes on within that foolish mind of his,” he said with a shake of his head. He hadn’t intended it as a joke but Neji made an amused sound none-the-less. It was funny because he too had been awed, time and again, by the inner workings of the mind that was Sasuke Uchiha’s. “What I can tell you is that he does feel a cognizance with you because you remind him so much of our childhood friend, and I say this on good authority because I feel the same way.”

For some reason, he felt honored by that admission even though this was akin to being accepted to an exclusive club because he just so happened to resemble someone popular.

“I’d be lying if I said Sasuke didn’t see Haku when sees you but whether he compensates for that loss by using you is something you’ll have to ask him yourself. You studied Psychology did you not? You’d be the best person to talk to him.”

Itachi had a point and he found that he really did want to give Sasuke the benefit of the doubt even though this was the perfect excuse to sever all ties with him once and for all, but Neji found that he didn’t really want that. He couldn’t talk himself into believing he needed Sasuke but there was a part of him that had already become dependant on him. He didn’t know when that took root, he’d only realized it for himself this very minute but he knew he’d allowed it to blossom because he was in denial of its existence.

Neji groaned loudly and turned his head to bury his face in his lap again and Itachi reached out once more to gently stroke his back, but this time, Neji didn’t pull away.

“Would it be hard for you to forgive Sasuke if he told you he was only using you as Haku’s replacement or would you forgive him no matter what?”

“I don’t know,” Neji whispered and dug his fingers into his arms. That truth scared him more than it should because that same part of him was willing to be anything Sasuke wanted him to be just as long as he didn’t have to lose him because he had lost so much already. “I don’t want anything to change. I like the way things are between us right now but I don’t want it to be based on a lie or a misconception. I don’t want to be confused for someone else. I want Sasuke to see me for who I am.”

Although Itachi couldn’t see them, he could hear the tears in his strained voice and he soothed him by rubbing large circles on his back but that only encouraged him to sob louder.

Like Itachi said, there was no way he could tell how his brother felt about Neji. He knew he cared about his well-being or he wouldn’t have gone out of his way to pluck him from Orochimaru’s licentious grasp, but whether Sasuke did it for Neji or for Haku, he couldn’t say. He did know that whenever Neji confronted him about it, his brother was going to tell him the truth, he just hoped his response was what Hyuuga needed to hear.

He stayed with him until he composed himself and washed his puffy face at the sink. Itachi gave him the rest of the day off but Neji declined. He wasn’t as obdurate as his younger brother so he allowed the boy to stay. He was prepared to leave so he Neji could talk to Sasuke in private but when they came out of the bathroom, the office was empty and Sasuke was nowhere to be found.

“Well hell,” Itachi muttered and pulled his cellphone from his pocket so he could call Naruto and make sure he and Gaara were safe. Neji listened to Itachi’s side of the conversation and was actually able to hear the relief in his voice when Naruto assured him that he and Gaara were fine and Sasuke was nowhere around. They weren’t even in the building anymore and had gone joyriding until it was time to pick him up at closing time. Itachi agreed to meet them later but when he hung up he frowned and deep creases appeared between his eyebrows.

“Is something wrong?” Neji asked.

“Yes,” he said dead-pan, his face melting back into its flat expression. “I need to find Sasuke quickly, before he does something stupid,” but there was no sense of urgency in his tone or his movements as he made his way to the door.

“Itachi!” the other man called out and when he turned to face him Neji suddenly felt embarrassed for what he was about to say. “Can I…is it okay if I go with you? I don’t want to be here by myself.”

Itachi didn’t ridicule him although he did pity him because Orochimaru had reduced, what was once an independent man, into a frightened, little child. He escorted the shorter brunette down to the lower floor and together they went to Sakura to find out if a furious Sasuke had marched past her recently.

***
Orochimaru’s head snapped up when his door was flung wildly on its hinges and slammed against the wall. The sound echoed within the quiet room like a thunderclap but it was nothing in comparison to the storm that raged within those dark eyes and the tumultuous look on Sasuke’s face.

“Is there something I can help you with?” he asked with a mocking smirk and tucked the pen he was writing with into a silver cup before clasping his hands and resting them before him on the table. He treated him no differently than a customer that was not satisfied with their service because Orochimaru was not the least bit intimated by this brat.

Sasuke’s nostrils flared. “Stay away from him,” he ground out between clenched teeth.

Orochimaru chuckled loud enough for the other man to hear him from across the large room. “Be reasonable, Sasuke,” he drawled, hating the taste of the little punk’s name on his tongue. “In all fairness, I saw him first.”

He closed the distance between them in no more than four, long strides and slammed both hands on the sturdy, mahogany desk. The sound was just as loud as the door slamming and his palms now hurt like hell but the pain was inconsequential. “I’m not here to entertain you by playing along with your fucking games, Orochimaru,” and hateful, opal eyes locked with spiteful amber. He’d promised Neji he wasn’t going to do this and he was never a man to go back on his word. Even now his guilt prompted him to turn around and walk out of this man’s room with a white flag over his head but his stubborn belligerence would not allow that. “If you value that contemptible life of yours then you’ll stay as far away from Neji as you possibly can, because if I catch you so much as breathing the same air he does, not even Itachi will be able to do anything to save your sorry ass.”

His pasty face turned red with rage and he slowly rose from his seat so he could stand at his full height and look down his condescending nose at the shorter man. “Is that a threat?” came his provocation.

“No,” Sasuke sneered. “It’s a promise,” and he spun on his heel immediately before he followed through on his words and made sure his exit was just a noisy as his entrance.

Orochimaru burned holes through his door with his murderous gaze, and if looks could kill then Sasuke would have spontaneously combusted. Orochimaru’s rage erupted and he screamed as he picked up anything on his desk he could get his hands on and flung them haphazardly around his office.

How dare that little prick tell him what to do? How dare that bastard, that waste of human skin, take his precious Neji away from him?

Orochimaru took deep, breaths in an attempt to quell his anger but he couldn’t stop seeing red. He always prided himself on maintaining his composure, no matter the circumstances but it was always Sasuke, only Sasuke, that besieged the restraint he kept on his temper.

After doing a few anger management exercises he smoothed the wrinkles out of his clothes, fixed his hair and called one of the grunts from downstairs to clean up the mess he’d made while he packed up to leave for the remainder of the day. It was no matter, this was only a minor set-back. The Hyuuga was his and his alone. He wouldn’t let anyone else have him. And if he couldn’t have him…then no one could.

***