Satiate

“Would you like to have some fun tonight, Mister?”

I still can’t believe that I managed to produce that sentence, let alone said it with a relatively straight face.

I glued my eyes to the passing scenery in the car, thankful that the driver had decided to remain quiet during the trip. I let out a puff of air as I recalled how I had actually ended up like this.

His bright tuft of blond hair was what initially caught my attention as he pushed out of those double doors. His face looked young, seemingly only a couple of years older than me at most, but his attire said differently. A guy barely past his teens would not be in a power suit, and he would be carrying a backpack instead of the briefcase that this man had. I briefly wondered if he had any money, but that train of thought was short-lived, as he stopped in front of a silver convertible. I remember purposefully making my way towards the man, worried that a single breath of hesitation would make me back out of this mess.

Now that I was thinking sanely in a heated compartment, I was beginning to think that I probably should have breathed that puff of hesitation I was so determined to block off earlier.

“----name?”

I suddenly heard him say. Was he talking to me? “Huh?” I muttered unintelligently before I thought to stop my mouth.

The man beside me chuckled a little before repeating himself (I assumed). “I asked you your name. What’s your name?”

I stared at my hands for a while, debating whether I should give a fake name or not. Seeing that there was no harm in being honest I answered, “Sasuke.”

“How old are you?” he continued to ask.

“I’m nineteen, but I’m turning twenty in a couple of months,” I continued to answer truthfully. I guess he needed to know if I was underage or something. Who knows? Maybe I should ask his name as well. “Hey, what about ---”

“Nice to meet you, Sasuke-kun. The house is just around the corner.”

I frowned at the rude interruption as I continually observed the passing houses. We were in one of those neighborhoods where the idea of one of its residents participating in compensated dating, or whatever it was we were doing, would be simply unheard of.

The next thing I knew, we were pulling up onto the driveway of a good sized house.


Satiate
a Naruto alternative universe fanfiction by Macy
beta read by Keaira

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Warnings: This story contains a boy/boy relationship. If this bothers you then please don’t read it. Past NaruHina will be mentioned in this chapter.


Chapter 2
(3rd person POV starts now)

The quiet drive home should have given the young salary man enough time to examine the situation at hand. However, twenty minutes had passed, and he still hadn’t figured out why he picked up the guy sitting on his passenger side. It wasn’t like he had an inclination to bring home abandoned pets, or in this case, a seemingly abandoned human. Deciding to just go with the flow, he shut off his engine and dashed for the front door, eager to enter his warm house.

“Come in and lock the door behind you,” the blond man said to his companion as he walked across the living room, loosening his necktie in the process.

Sasuke did as he was told, and then chose to silently stand beside the door and glare.

“Well?” the owner of the house tilted his head to one side as he spoke, “Are you just going to stand there all night? If you’re glued at the entrance, how are we supposed to have ‘some fun tonight’?” he added with raised eyebrows and a pair of air quotations, courtesy of his fingers, to emphasize the quoted phrase.

Sasuke flushed at the man’s response and started, “Look, mister---”

“Uzumaki Naruto! Twenty-six years old!” the blond man supplied a little too chirpily for the other man’s comfort.

Sasuke wondered if Naruto was being truthful about his age but realized that it was not the right time to get side tracked. “Look, Uzumaki-san, I---”

A loud, undeniable sound of hunger that was not just a onetime growl, but a series of consecutive moans of hunger emerged from Sasuke’s stomach. It effectively cut off whatever he was supposed to say.

Instantly, a loud bout of laughter amazingly overpowered Sasuke’s stomach’s impromptu performance.

“I didn’t know the idea of one being hungry was such a hilarious matter,” Sasuke muttered with a controlled blush before glaring Naruto full on. He continuously whispered low curses both to Naruto and his stomach, which had yet to stop rumbling.

“Hahaha! I couldn’t help it! I’m sorry!” Naruto cheekily supplied Sasuke, a hand holding his now aching midsection. He headed towards the kitchen still laughing before proceeding to stick his head in the fridge to rummage for something edible. A few beeping noises were heard in the kitchen before Naruto returned to the living room a few minutes later.

“It’s leftover spaghetti, but it’s good, I promise,” the blond offered Sasuke, who was still standing by the door. “I would suggest that you actually sit down before eating, though.”

Sasuke looked at the food hungrily, its aroma intensifying his hunger more. Sasuke threw a cautious glance at Naruto, internally debating whether it was really safe to accept the food offering. Naruto was, after all, a complete stranger, and no one brings home random hungry people without an ulterior motive, right?

“Don’t worry, I won’t try anything. I swear!” The blond assured happily before literally shoving the plate towards Sasuke’s face.

Sasuke stared at the meal, as if doing such a thing would confirm the presence of drugs or lack thereof. Unable to hold out against the lack of food in his system, Sasuke threw whatever little caution he’d had left out the window and reached for the plate. He greedily took large, quick mouthfuls as he settled himself on one of the couches. “Thank you,” he finally said between bites.

“You’re welcome,” Naruto replied as he sat down on the chair right across from Sasuke. He watched Sasuke with fascination as the plateful of pasta disappeared in record speed. The two men opted to stay silent for a while; Sasuke’s fork clinking against the plate was the only sound that echoed in the room.

“How long have you been doing this Sasuke-kun?” Naruto asked as he handed Sasuke a glass full of water.

Sasuke downed the whole glass before replying, slightly uncertain if he was giving the correct response. “This would be my first time.”

Naruto lifted an eyebrow. “I see. And you are doing this because?” he followed up, curiosity punctuating every syllable.

Sasuke remained silent. He was not a talkative person to begin with and he was not about to start now.

Sensing that he was not going to get an answer for that one, Naruto tried a different route. “Let’s stick with yes and no questions I guess. Are you from Tokyo?”

Sasuke looked at him suspiciously for a while before shaking his head.

Naruto released a sigh of both relief and exasperation at his guest’s silent response. At least they were moving on to something. “Ok, that’s a good start. Are you alone?” Naruto asked again.

A nod.

“Do you have a place to stay?”

Sasuke shot him a look that clearly said, ‘That should have been obvious, right?’ but shook his head at his interrogator nonetheless.

“A job?”

A shake and a very long pause.

“Would you like one?” Naruto asked Sasuke after what seemed like eons of awkward silence.

Naruto saw a brief flash of shock in Sasuke’s eyes before he received a clear look of disgust. He didn’t understand what could have caused such a reaction. Surely, it was not because of something he said!

“Yes, but I would rather like a decent job. Don’t mistake tonight as a permanent thing or anything of that sort. It was a cold night and I didn’t want to die. I cannot afford to die,” the offended man explained as curtly as possible. Sasuke noiselessly placed his empty plate on the coffee table and was about to stand up when a loud exclamation made him pause in his actions.

“Hey--- did you just imply that I’m a pervert?” A dumbfounded Naruto stared at Sasuke.

Sasuke gave back a stare that screamed ‘duh’ before crossing his arms across his chest. “I am here now, aren’t I?”

Naruto’s eyes popped out of his head and he immediately stood in defense at the accusation. He shook a hand wildly in front of him and moved his head quickly from side to side like a crazed lunatic. “Don’t misunderstand what I just said and don’t make up your own warped assumptions as to why I brought you home! I have no intention of having sex with you, molesting you, or whatever it is you think I’m going to make you do or do to you tonight!” Naruto finished with a slight flush and rasped breathing.

“Oh yeah? Then why did you pick me up, moron?” Sasuke challenged, unfazed by the blond looming above him.

Naruto gritted his teeth at the offhanded name calling. “Because, you bastard, you--- ” he paused in mid-speech, his fists clenched tightly at his sides to regain control over his emotions. He was about to say ‘You looked so pitiful out there’ but decided that it probably was not the best thing to say. No matter how much Sasuke was being a pain in the ass right now, it was unnecessary to trample his already battered, (probably) once inflated ego.

“Look, boy,” Naruto tried to say passively, though his eyes failed to cover the look of superiority he possessed as he relished the idea that he could still call the bastard a boy. Sasuke still had a couple months to go before he became an adult, after all. “I don’t know why I brought you here. If I had known that you were such a bastard, believe me when I say that I wouldn’t have even let you lean against my car.”

Sasuke and Naruto decided to have a death glare contest for a while, giving them both time to think the situation over.

“Fine. Let’s assume that you’re not a pervert,” Sasuke finally conceded with a frown, a part of his brain still looking for a way to get back at the blond for calling him a boy. “What’s this job you’re talking about?”

Naruto continued to glare some more before instantly changing his expression into pure confusion. “Job?”

“You asked me if I wanted a job just moments ago, dobe!” Sasuke replied with annoyance, eyes rolling in frustration.

“Hey! Stop giving me stupid nicknames, bastard!” Naruto answered back, unconsciously getting side tracked again.

Sasuke released an irritated ‘Hn’ but opted to remain silent lest Naruto forget what the main topic was.

A dawn of realization hit Naruto shortly. As if completely forgetting the hostile interaction mere seconds ago, he merrily asked, “Sooooo…Sasuke-kun! Would you like to be my housekeeper?”

To say the least, Sasuke was shocked at the sudden change in the blond’s mood and at the offer itself. “You’re asking me to be a maid?” Sasuke asked bluntly, after recovering from the unexpected proposal.

“Well, yeah. Basically you clean, do laundry, iron, cook, do the dishes, water plants, and wash the car,” Naruto enumerated, ticking things off on his fingers one by one with strategically placed pauses to give him time to think if he missed anything else. “You also get free room and board ---” Naruto paused with wide eyes and placed two defensive hands in front of him. “Your own solo bedroom with your own separate bathroom of course! Plus, a weekly allowance for you to buy whatever you want. How’s that sound?” he ended with a proud smile, mentally patting himself on the back for remembering to blatantly point out that his offer was pervert-proof.

Sasuke just stared at Naruto for a while before he broke into a rant, “Are you out of your mind? You just met me a couple of hours ago --- in a street! The circumstances that led to our meeting wouldn’t exactly be what I would call ideal. How could you trust me with your house? You really are an idiot, idiot.”

A vein visibly throbbed on Naruto’s forehead. For someone who nearly died out of hunger a few minutes ago, this guy surely had his ways to thank his generous benefactor. “Is that any way to talk to your future employer, Sasuke-kun?” Naruto tried to say sweetly with a twitchy, forced smile. He was definitely running on a short fuse now.

Sasuke ignored the obviously pissed off house owner, and went on to reply with a challenging look instead, “Hn. I don’t know how to cook. I don’t know how to iron. I’ve never operated a washing machine or a dishwasher.” He had lifted his chin with superiority just to piss off the blond more.

“Done making sure that you’ve told me all of your awe-inspiring qualifications, you rich, snobby bastard?”

Sasuke merely rolled his eyes at the sarcasm. “Like you’re one to talk. I wouldn’t exactly call you a struggling member of the working class, Uzumaki-san,” Sasuke shot back and pointedly looked around the house and the cars parked outside for emphasis.

Naruto literally heard something break in him after hearing Sasuke’s smart ass comeback. He gritted his teeth in annoyance, debating whether or not he should just kick the bastard’s ass out of his house. That would have been the easy choice, really, and would have ended this argument fast (making him the winner by default, of course), but Naruto was never one for the easy way out. “Unlike you, I’ve never had the leisure to have servants do the work for me. I’m just an ordinary salary man, working under a perverted old boss, in a company owned by an even bigger, more perverted older man.” Naruto paused with raised eyebrows, daring Sasuke to say something. When the other man said nothing and Naruto received nothing but an unreadable stare, he continued, “I got the house and the cars as part of the divorce settlement.” Naruto slouched back on his seat and stared at the ceiling as silence coursed through the room.

Sasuke remained quiet, unsure of what to say. He didn’t expect that the dobe was married, much less divorced. It was already difficult to believe that he was six years older than him when he could pass as one of his dorm mates. Yes, he was a little interested in the blond, but he would never admit that.

“Have kids?” Sasuke asked quietly, trying to sound indifferent.

The verbal break had relaxed the blond and by the time Sasuke asked the question, he was smiling again.

Naruto scratched his left cheek uneasily before replying, “Actually, that was part of the reason why we divorced. Like a very huge part of it.” He glanced at Sasuke to check if he was actually listening. Seeing that he held some sort of attention, Naruto continued, “We tried to have a child. Believe me when I say we tried.” Naruto paused to look at his listener in emphasis, much to Sasuke’s dismay. Ignoring Sasuke’s comment about ‘Too much information,’ Naruto continued, “But apparently, I have a low sperm count or something like that so I can’t give her a baby.”

A long pause consumed the room once more.

“If you guys wanted a kid so bad, why not adopt?” Sasuke inquired, squashing the voice in the back of his head that was telling him that all this was none of his business. Besides, it wasn’t like Naruto’s life interested him that much. Did it?

“My ex-wife comes from a very wealthy family. In fact she’s the heir to everything they own. So it was imperative that she produce an heir of her own, you know? Those Hyuuga old farts are all like, ‘The heir to Hyuuga Enterprises must have Hyuuga blood coursing through their veins!’” Naruto explained with an impersonation of a spastic old man as he spoke the last part. “So anyway, after two years of marriage and no baby, Hinata --- that’s my ex-wife’s name, by the way --- felt the pressure from the other clan members. She had taken to heart her responsibility as the Hyuuga heiress, you see, even before we got married,” Naruto said with a soft smile. “Her family arranged a marriage for her half a year after the divorce. Fortunately, the guy wasn’t a scumbag. Last time I heard from her, she had given birth to a healthy boy.”

Midway through Naruto’s narration, Sasuke had shifted to lean his elbows on his knees, and had rested his chin on top of his interlaced fingers. “I don’t understand how both of you can just give up like that,” reacted Sasuke with a perplexed frown.

“Hinata did what she had to do, and I respect and understand her decision. Once she’s put her heart to something, she goes through with it even if it means sacrificing her own happiness.” Sasuke saw Naruto shrug nonchalantly before he continued, “Her family never liked me in the first place. They always thought that I wasn’t worthy enough to be married into their family, but Hinata fought for us. She made the marriage possible. It just wasn’t meant to last,” Naruto ended with a sense of nostalgia.

Sasuke stared at a spot on the ground, unsure of what else to say. Was he even supposed to say something? No one had ever considered him to be the best person to have around when some form of comforting was necessary, after all. His musings were interrupted when Naruto suddenly jerked his head up, his eyes shining with mischief this time. Sasuke quirked a curious eyebrow at Naruto’s sudden movement. “I forgot to tell you how the divorce got settled!”

Sasuke merely raised his other eyebrow at Naruto’s outburst.

“You see, Hinata may have resigned herself to fulfill her duty as the heiress, but she wasn’t going down without a fight,” Naruto paused to beam at Sasuke, “Hinata refused to sign any prenuptial agreement, you see. So, she told the Hyuugas that unless I got to keep everything we bought during the time we were married, she would give me half of everything she owned as the Hyuuga heiress.”

At that statement, Sasuke’s lips curved into an amused smirk. His view of Naruto’s wife as a frail helpless heiress was changed quite a bit, but he should have assumed that the lady was no ordinary woman, since she did marry Naruto once.

“I really didn’t want any charity from the Hyuuga, but I knew that Hinata wouldn’t like it if I refused her offer. Besides, it was fun to see the looks on their faces when they handed me the titles.” Naruto waited for any kind of response or insight from Sasuke. Seeing that he was going to get nothing from his audience, he spoke again, this time with an awkward grin on his face. “Hahaha, I didn’t mean to spill all that to you,” he started sheepishly. “I didn’t bring you here to listen to my sob story,” he added as he rubbed the back of his head in discomfort.

Sasuke looked at him, his usual unreadable expression back on his face, before replying, “I didn’t mind it. It’s the least I can do for the free dinner you gave me.”

“Maybe you should change that to --- ‘It’s the least I can do for my future employer’ ---don’t you think?” Naruto corrected teasingly with a wink.

Sasuke frowned at the man’s persistence. “I told you, I don’t---”

Naruto interrupted him quickly before he could continue with his anti-character building resume, “There are cookbooks on the counter which will tell you how to cook and the dry cleaner can take care of ironing my clothes. We’ve established that you’re a bastard but that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, so if I demonstrate how to operate the dishwasher and the washing machine I’m sure you’ll have no problems with it.”

Sasuke pondered on the situation at hand. It seemed too good to be true. There had to be some catch to it, right?

“Look. Accept the job,” Naruto released a long sigh before he continued, “There’s no strings attached. You can quit whenever you want.”

Sasuke thought it over once more, his arms across his chest in concentration. He examined the weird man in front of him one more time. He couldn’t sense a single waft of malice from the guy, which was rather unsettling. He released a heavy sigh before finally complying. “Fine, but let me ask one question.”

“Shoot,” Naruto replied, excitedly rocking back and forth in his seat.

“Why are you doing this? Why are you providing me shelter, food and a job? I’m a stranger. I could be a psychotic, homicidal runaway for all you know,” Sasuke said in all seriousness.

Naruto stared at him with lightly scrunched up eyebrows. He replayed the words ‘psychotic homicidal runaway’ in his brain a few times. Sure Sasuke was a stranger but he couldn’t be a psychotic, homicidal runaway, right? He just pulled that out of nowhere just then to prove his point…right?

“I don’t have a good concrete reason to give you. It has something to do with my values, I suppose. I don’t really have the heart to throw you out in the cold, so…” Naruto stopped and shrugged, unsure of what else to say.

It wasn’t like Sasuke wasn’t thankful for the hospitality. The idea that there was someone who could completely trust a stranger was just hard for him to grasp. Eyeing Naruto one last time, Sasuke inhaled a deep breath before standing up. “Show me to my room, then.”

Naruto raised his head to look at the boy, and saw that Sasuke had consciously looked away to hide his face from him, but Naruto was still able to see the grin on Sasuke’s lips anyway. Naruto chuckled at the childish action before perkily leading the way to the staircase. “Alrighty, follow me, Sasuke-kun!”

Sasuke obligingly followed the bouncy blond up the stairs all the while muttering about how it should be illegal to be so hyper at almost one in the morning.

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By the time Sasuke woke up, the room he was staying in was already filled with sunlight. He squinted to look at the window. The curtains were closed, but apparently they were sheer enough to let light through. Reaching for his wristwatch, which he had placed on the side table the night before, he groggily read the hands that told him it was five minutes past ten. Sasuke groaned at the time, unable to believe that he had actually slept in during his first night’s stay at this Naruto’s house. Disentangling himself from the bed sheets, he marched towards the bathroom adjacent to his room, undeniably noticing how refreshed and comfortable he felt.

Completely awake, thanks to the cold water he had splashed on his face, Sasuke padded down the stairs. He had no doubt that Naruto had already gone to work. The time and the quietness of the whole house gave that away. He found a note on the kitchen fridge, printed in huge, scribbled letters using a thick black marker. Unsurprisingly, the note was written on a bright orange post-it, and read --- ‘I didn’t see the need to wake you up, especially since I know how much you needed your beauty sleep.’

Sasuke snorted before he read the rest of the letter.

‘Feel free to raid the fridge and the cupboards for stuff to eat (It’s not much but you’ll live). I’ll be home by 5:30. Till then, feel free to clean whatever you want (the bathrooms are craving to be bathed, just so you know). Don’t have too much fun with the scrubbing pads.’

Sasuke scoffed at the eye-blinding note once more before roughly grabbing it and tossing it in the trashcan.

“Dobe,” he spoke out loud before deciding to find milk to eat with the cereal he spotted on the table.


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By the time Naruto got home, Sasuke had finished cleaning almost every single room in the house. He may have been inexperienced with household work, but he had always been a hard worker. He decided to clean Naruto’s bathroom another time claiming that he was too tired to scrub another tile, but to be totally honest, he just wanted to spite the man (a.k.a. be an ass).

“I’m home!” Naruto yelled from the door as he leaned down to remove his shoes.

Sasuke mumbled an obligatory, “Welcome home” at his employer, not caring if he was heard or not.

“Did you cook dinner yet?” Naruto asked Sasuke brightly as he joined him in the living room. Naruto promptly landed himself on the couch, and threw his briefcase on the chair across the room.

“No. Your freezer was empty,” Sasuke replied flatly, his eyes glued to the television.

“Oh yeah. I forgot about that, hahahaha,” Naruto agreed sheepishly before continuing, “Doesn’t matter! I wanted to eat out tonight anyway. You in the mood for anything specific?” prodded Naruto, who had angled his body to face Sasuke. He would have to be blind to miss Naruto.

Sasuke wondered if Naruto had really been at work the whole time. Wasn’t he supposed to be dead tired after eight hours of work? He definitely felt tired after cleaning the whole day. How could he still have enough energy to be annoyingly hyper? “Are you really twenty-six? You sound and act like an elementary kid who just got dropped off by his school bus,” he asked in a slightly annoyed tone.

“Well, excuse me for bring a little energetic, you broody bastard. At least I’m not like this poker faced young man I know who acts like an unexcitable ninety year old with a stick up his ass,” rebuked Naruto with a pout on his lips.

“Oh, the subtlety is killing me,” Sasuke retorted sarcastically in a deadpan voice.

“Whatever! You had your chance to pick out where we’re eating, and now it’s gone! I decide what we eat, and it’s going to be ramen, so hurry up and let’s go. I’m starving,” Naruto shot back before grabbing his keys. He didn’t even wait for Sasuke to finish putting on his shoes before he headed outside the house.


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“What’s your last name anyway?” Naruto asked between slurps of his ramen. They had gone to Naruto’s usual restaurant – Ichiraku – a family owned ramen shop a few blocks from Naruto’s neighborhood. Since it was a Thursday night, there weren’t a lot of customers, and they were able to grab a table and get their meals in a relatively short amount of time.

Sasuke ignored the question and devoted his attention in grinding the mouthful of noodles into pieces.

“You know mine, so it’s only fair if you tell me yours,” insisted Naruto before stuffing his mouth with another large clump of the synthetic food.

Sasuke contemplated before replying, “Uchiha Sasuke.”

“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Naruto beamed, somewhat proud of himself for getting Sasuke to tell him his name. The name sounded familiar though. Naruto paused mid-chew to glance thoughtfully to his left. He tapped his chopsticks on his lips in concentration, mouthing the name ‘Uchiha’ silently as he racked his memory. “The same Uchiha that owns the huge record company?” Naruto asked in disbelief a few moments later.

Sasuke remained quiet, neither denying nor acknowledging anything.

TBC

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Crack Omake: Rejected Twist #1
Naruto: So anyway, after two years of marriage and no baby, Neji --- that’s my ex’s name by the way --- felt the pressure from the other clan members.
Sasuke: I don’t think your problem had anything to do with low sperm count, idiot.


Crack Omake: Rejected Twist #2
Naruto: Uchiha? I think I’ve heard of that name before…
Sasuke: Hn.
Naruto: AH! Uchiha, as in the same Uchiha that owns the huge contraceptive company?! The same people who sell the #1 selling condom in the land?!!! *stares at Sasuke in disbelief*
Sasuke: Hn.
*Naruto looks at Sasuke with puppy-dog eyes*
Sasuke: W-what?? *asks in apprehension*
Naruto: Do you think you can get me some prototypes? I’ve always wanted to experiment on---”
Sasuke: NOOO!!!
Naruto: Kill joy *blows Sasuke a raspberry*

Reviews, feedbacks and constructive criticisms are greatly appreciated! Thank you for reading this!