The Slave of Sound

The Slave of Sound
Chapter 15

In the aftermath of such pleasure, Sasuke slowly lifted his head and stared down in astonishment at what he held. He hadn’t known, had no idea as to the magnitude of passion that could have been between them all along. And seeing Naruto’s moist flushed face, blue eyes half closed in exhaustion, pliant and pleased, body warm and limp and tucked securely against the raven’s, Sasuke felt the overpowering urge to weep anew.

It could have been like this all along, if Sasuke hadn’t acted like a spoiled child, petulant at a believed rejection. Willful and arrogant, he’d never bothered to try and find the source of unease in his partner, and so had begun the long and terrible descent of Naruto’s destruction.

He watched Naruto slowly succumb to sleep, a languid and drowsy process, and wistfully wondered how things could have been between them, if only he’d stopped and reflected that terrible day seven years ago. Instead, he’d shattered and reformed the blonde to fit his own selfish agenda, without regard to what he was doing. And now everything was terribly, horribly, wrong.

He tenderly stroked the damp tendrils of his sleeping blonde’s hair, and blinked the tears away. Now his will and arrogance must stand him in good stead. He was Uchiha Sasuke, and he could achieve anything if he put his mind to it. And now his mind was bent on the healing and succor of said blonde. He would show him all the love and tenderness and kindness Naruto had always been due, but had never received. Especially from the one that had loved him the most.

“I’m so sorry, Naruto,” he whispered hoarsely, realizing that it was much too little too late. Words were cheap, and Sasuke’s had been worthless for so long now. He would have to let actions speak louder. He would show Naruto, prove to him, how wrong he’d been. He would atone for this terrible crime.

He gently slipped from the sleeping man, and moved silently into the bathroom, dampening a cloth quietly. He paused and looked into the mirror, and damned his reflection for a long and weary time. So lost was he in his ruminations, that it jarred him to realize that Naruto was no longer alone.

Suddenly assailed by possessive rage, he turned to the bathroom door, and then stopped.

His girls, his confidants in remorse, were slipping anxiously into the bedroom. They went straight to Naruto’s side, and laid down a basket. Numbly he watched what was obviously a long standing habit.

Doa, the elder girl, was busily laying out cloth and bandages and salve while Kia knelt at the head of the bed and compassionately combed her fingers through the blonde’s still slightly damp hair.

Sasuke’s breath hitched in his throat, his heart pounded, and tears filled his eyes. He leaned back, hands covering his mouth in anguish. He felt so ill he thought he might vomit. Weakly he slid down the wall to sit with his legs splayed out before him, watching with terrible clarity at what this all meant.

They had come to heal Naruto!

They had known, with a good servant’s sixth sense, that he’d lain with Naruto. And had come expecting the unfortunate slave to be in need of all the things that now lined the bed beside his blonde. They had known, and had come, expecting to find Naruto wounded, bleeding, and in need of comfort and aid. And they had expected that… because that was the way things had always been.

And this was the last straw of Sasuke’s pride. It crumbled, completely and utterly into ruin. Consumed by nausea and silent tears, he was helpless to do anything but listen to surprised whispers as the girls realized that for the very first time since the blonde had come to Sound seven years ago, Sasuke hadn’t injured him, hadn’t damaged him with his cruel passion. He listened and watched as the girls gently kissed Naruto’s forehead, one at a time, and repacked the damning basket and crept away without waking the sleeping man.

He sat on the floor in the bathroom for a very long time, consumed with his agonized thoughts and realizations. Sat there lost within his own damnation. Sat there and cried silently until the soft rustling of the bedsheets finally brought him back to the world of the living.

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Naruto woke slowly, drawing in a deep breath, and suddenly realized he was smiling. Dazedly, he looked around, and saw the bedroom he’d woken in almost every day since he arrived here seven years ago. Hands rose and lightly touched his curved lips, amazed to discover that for the first time that he could remember, he felt really good. Almost happy.

He glanced at the clock on the bedside, and was shocked to see it was mid afternoon. His good mood vanished, and he leapt out of the bed lest his master return and find him lazing about, and take advantage of the bed in the most miserable of ways once more.

He stumbled slightly, feeling a comfortable soreness in his rear. Obviously he’d had sex with his master but he sported no new injuries and…

His master had found him crying from his little talk with Konohamaru; had found him crying and weak and vulnerable.

And his master had… his master had…

Been so very gentle, and pleasingly passionate.

His master had touched him, kissed him, pleasured him. His master had taken him and given him the greatest pleasure he’d ever known. His master had opened the floodgates of his body and had devoured the passion Naruto hadn’t even known he’d possessed. His master… Sasuke… Sasuke had been tender and pleasurable, and had wooed an almost holy sexuality from the depths of his heart. And Naruto had loved it. Had loved it and wanted more. Had wanted more and demanded it. And had received it. He’d cried and screamed in his pleasure. Sasuke had… made love to him.

A soft noise caught his suddenly panicked attention. Blue eyes huge and dilated, he turned his head slowly and beheld Sasuke standing naked at the door of the bathroom. Naked from worming his way into the last sanctuary Naruto had from his master, his tormenter. Had wedged his way into the last place that Naruto could call his own. His heart. His tender, vulnerable heart. What sort of mischief and suffering would his cruel master visit upon him now that he’d somehow found the key to the last spot of warmth and solitude left to him?

A cold chill crawled over him.

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Sasuke heard the rustling and slowly got up from the floor. Timid like he hadn’t been since a very small child, he peeked around the door jamb and watched Naruto slowly stir to life.

Naruto had slowly opened his eyes, and had been smiling gently. Those soft smiles were as rare as fleas on a frog. The only time he saw Naruto smile now was when the blonde didn’t realize he was nearby, and had just saved another child, or eased the suffering of another slave.

Naruto had blinked drowsily, one hand lifting to press a finger to his lips. The smile had broadened, and the blonde had stretched luxuriously, sinuous as a fox sleeping in a sun beam. His lover had the look of a well loved paramour; sleepy, sensual, and contentedly sated. Sasuke’s heart warmed to know that he was the one that had made his beautiful dobe feel that way.

Then the blonde had given a sharp gasp and leapt up from the bed as if scalded. Naruto winced slightly, eyes widening with surprise, and his feet shifted almost clumsily. Sasuke watched the memory of a few hours ago come rushing over his whiskered face.

Naruto eyes became even bigger and vague, and once more his fingers touched his lips. Then they moved to his neck, skittered across his nipples, glanced over his belly, and then hovered over his quiescent manhood. The path Sasuke’s mouth had taken.

Smiling softly himself, Sasuke stepped into the doorway to let Naruto know he was there. He was hopeful and eager to see how his blonde would react now that he remembered the kind of pleasure Sasuke could give him. He had so much he wanted to say, to do with him now. He had so much to atone for, and with this new and gentle sleepy reminiscence in Naruto, it was the perfect time to begin anew.

But even before the blonde noticed him, he’d begun to shiver almost uncontrollably. And when his eyes turned to Sasuke now, they were no longer sated and pleased and happy, but wide with shock and horror. And as they beheld him standing there, both of them bare from their shared pleasure before, Sasuke was stunned to see the greatest fear Naruto had ever evidenced flood those large and expressive eyes.

Fear. No, not just fear, but absolute terror, commingled with an even greater look of heartbreak then had filled them the first day when Sasuke had stupidly forced himself violently and brutally on the blonde.

“Naruto…” the Uchiha began in dismay, moving quickly forward to ease the fright and hopelessness that Sasuke’d hoped would never fill those eyes again.

Shocked, Sasuke watched Naruto stumble back a step, then turn and run around the delicate fluted posts of the great bed, gasping and panting. His eyes were huge and he darted away in such shivering fright. Naruto hadn’t tried to flee him in years. Not when such flights always ended in such pain and suffering.

“Naruto,” Sasuke begged, advancing slowly on the terrified blonde, “wait, please…”

But the wall was at the blonde’s back now, and he had no where to run to. He’d literally backed himself into a corner. Sasuke drew up to him, and reached out.

And Naruto flinched.

Sasuke’s hand glanced over flesh as chilly as a corpse, dotted and ruched with goosebumps, every delicate hair on the blonde’s body, those that were left, were standing on end in fright. Naruto gasped again, and flung himself across the bed on his hands and knees and fell hard to the floor on the other side with a cry of pain.

Sasuke leapt after him in concern and dismay. He’d knew it wouldn’t be easy; wooing the blonde passionately back into his arms, but he’d never, ever expected this as the outcome for an hour of pleasure.

“M…m…master…” Naruto began to babble as tears bubbled up in his shocked and traumatized eyes, rising up on one hand and both knees, holding the other to his brow where he’d struck it against the hard wooden floor. “P..please… master… I’m sorry… I’m sorry… Please… m… m…aster… pl…ease…”

Sasuke froze, still with one knee on the bed and watched Naruto shiver uncontrollably. He sat down heavily, bewildered and stricken with the fear and begging in his blonde’s voice. It made his heart ache and throb and he didn’t understand why Naruto was suddenly terrified of him.

“I’ll do whatever you want… whatever you want. I’ll be good, I promise. Haven’t I been good, Master?” Naruto wept softly. “Please, I’ll be good. Don’t… don’t…d…d…don’t… hurt me anymore. Please?” Entreatingly, Naruto lifted a badly shaking hand and hesitantly reached up to almost touch his master’s knee.

Sasuke lowered his head, swallowing thickly, unable to figure out how to get past this new and unexpected reaction. Naruto was so frightened of him! Obviously, the blonde had feared him and his violent temper probably as long as he’d been in Sound, but to date, he’d only shown him defiance, at first, followed by despair, and then finally by weary acceptance and submission. Never before had Naruto begged him to do anything, not even when in the throes of sexual torture.

Obviously, Naruto was expecting yet another round of pain and humiliation, despite what had occurred between them so recently. Oh, he’d truly broken the beautiful blonde before him now. Broken him completely, utterly, and finally. Sasuke didn’t know exactly what it was that finally snapped inside Naruto, or why, but obviously, the gracile blonde had finally reached his limit.

They sat there, the master on the bed, the slave quaking at his feet, until Naruto swallowed rather loudly himself, and began to draw back his quivering hand.

Then Sasuke moved. He grabbed that slender hand and held it tightly, painfully ignoring the choked gasp his quick action brought. He slid to the ground next to the blonde, and likewise disregarded the nervous twitch. Trembling, Sasuke slowly lifted Naruto’s hand and kissed it so very tenderly.

“I will never hurt you again, Naruto,” Sasuke said thickly, now holding that hand to his cheek. “Never again. Nor will I allow anyone else to hurt you. Never again.”

“N…nani?” Naruto breathed softly, confused and still very frightened. His master was confusing him, obviously, trying to get him to let his guard down so that he could inflict even greater harm on him. He’d lived with Sasuke and the man’s volatile temper and penchant for violence too long to think anything else.

“Naruto…I…” And to the blonde’s fearful surprise, his master’s voice was filled with tears. “I… I love you…”