Full Circle

Full Circle

chapter 2

Everyone in the room stared at Sasuke in silent shock even as he blinked in surprise at himself.

"Did I just tell her I was gay?!" he questioned internally. "Wait... That's perfect! I'm a genius! Obviously, being married to a woman really would make me miserable then. There's no way Mother can force me to go through with it now.

I won't have to worry about them finding someone to replace her either. They'll be forced to resign themselves to my lifelong bachelorhood."

His thoughts were interrupted at this point by the uncomfortable clearing of his father's throat.

"I'm sorry Darling," his mother began. "Did you just say you were... gay?" Her voice sounded a little faint but despite the slight twinge of guilt he felt, Sasuke nodded firmly.

"That's right. I have absolutely no attraction to the fairer sex. I am one hundred percent homosexual."

"NOOO!" Sakura shrieked from the doorway, where she had frozen momentarily at Sasuke's announcement. "It's not true! He's Lying!"

All her pretty dreams of the perfect wedding to the perfect man, complete with a huge shiny diamond ring and a brand new checkbook to go along with it, were crumbling before her eyes. This couldn't be happening! She absolutely could not let this happen. She would marry the coveted Uchiha Sasuke and be the envy of her peers if it was the last thing she did damnit!

"Sakura, calm yourself." Her mother hurried to try and smooth things over.

"No! I will not calm down!" She stomped her little patent leather clad foot and turned to her father, fully prepared to turn on the waterworks. "Daddy, he's trying to make a fool of me!"

Mr. Haruno looked torn for a moment. Clearly he was not used to refusing his daughter anything, but one simply did not insult the Uchiha family.

"I believe the Uchihas need some time alone to talk things over," he reasoned. "We should take our leave for now."

"But Daddy!"

"Come along, Sakura." With a last nod to Fugaku, he quickly ushered his wife and daughter out of the room.

Sasuke didn't envy him the tantrum he was likely going to have to deal with on the way home. Knowing Sakura, it could continue on for weeks... Dear God, if he'd had to marry her he would have had to commit either murder or suicide.

"Son, I think we need an explanation," his father began carefully. "Is she right? Were you lying?"

"Of course not." Sasuke somehow managed to look blandly affronted. "I just couldn't go through with it. I would be living a lie."

The boy's poker face was 'fabulous'. Fugaku had to give him that. Sasuke turned back to his mother ('cause let's face it, he knew which side his bread was buttered on.)

"I'm sorry Mother. There's just no way I could ever be happy in a relationship with a woman. Pretending otherwise won't do anybody any good. We would both have been miserable."

The shock was slowly passing and he could see her expression beginning to soften. "Now that's the ticket," he thought to himself, keeping his face carefully blank. "Play the 'I'm worried about everyone else involved' card. Aren't I selfless mother?"

"Ooh Sasuke," she cooed "Darling, that's why you've always avoided dating isn't it?"

"Say what..? Oh! oh yeah," Sasuke thought reflexively before quickly nodding in agreement.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Darling! I can't believe I never realized it sooner. I should have been more attentive." Sasuke lifted a brow as he was engulfed in a motherly embrace. "You didn't have to keep this from us Sasuke. You know that we'll always love you no matter what." Tentatively he lifted a hand to pat his mother's back reassuringly.

"Uh...thank you Mother." Wow this was actually going better than one might have hoped! Even if it was... really weird.

He knew he wouldn't have to worry about his father now. His mother had obviously gone into full on protective mode and when it came right down to it, Uchiha Mikoto was a formidable opponent. Fugaku would never go up against her when it came to the issue of her son's happiness. He wouldn't have stood a chance.

Mikoto pulled back from the hug and gripped both of her son's hands, smiling tearily at him and making him feel terribly uncomfortable.

"It's a necessary lie damn it!" Shoving aside that little prickling of guilt, he cleared his throat quietly and shot a pointed look at the papers still sitting on the desk beside them. His mother followed his gaze.

"Oh! Don't you worry Darling, we'll simply have to cancel the engagement. I'm sure the Harunos will understand, given the circumstances. You just forget all about that. We'll take care of everything."

"Thank you Mother. I'm glad you don't think less of me." Swish! Nothin' but net!

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Later that night as he was getting ready for bed, he went over the situation in his head and he couldn't help mentally congratulating himself on a job well done. It really was the perfect excuse. Had he said anything else then even if he had managed to get rid of Sakura, his mother would have continued meddling in his non-existent love life and god knows who else she might have found. (Something told him that if there was a worse candidate than Sakura out there his mother would have found it.)

Oh he supposed that he could have told her that he'd been abducted by aliens and chemically castrated, but even if she had actually somehow believed it, she very well might have dug up some girl desperate (and/or disfigured) enough to marry him anyway. No this was the only way he could rest easy, assured of his future safety.

The Uchiha family was part of the cream of the upper class, one of the most respected and influential families around and his parents very much wanted to keep it that way. They would not allow any kind of scandal to be connected to them. Obviously they were traditionalists as was exhibited by their continued use of the archaic arranged marriage system.

They would want to be discreet about his supposed sexual proclivities, which meant that they'd be happy to let him keep to himself. Mikoto would be disappointed of course, that she couldn't do any more matchmaking or throw a lovely wedding and his father would be disappointed that there would be no grandchildren from him.

That was likely his entire motivation for marrying him off in the first place. Itachi was probably never going to have another child and Fugaku would say that the family could use a backup heir or two. That would be a lie of course. The truth, as they all knew, was that he adored his grandson and just wanted have more of them running around. Both of his parents wanted that.

That little twinge of guilt was acting up again at this thought.

A mental image of Sakura mid-tantrum made him push it back down determinedly. There was just no way in hell! He couldn't bring himself to even contemplate impregnating her anyway. They still would never have gotten their grandchildren. Plus it had hardly even been a lie.

He really didn't ever want a relationship with a woman. That was close enough right? It's just that they never would have understood and accepted that as the simple truth all by itself . They would see it as him being stubborn and nothing more.

With that in mind, Sasuke crawled into bed and quickly fell into a peaceful easy sleep.

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The next day, Sasuke was as usual, sitting in what he considered to be his own personal library, surrounded with a pile of books. Most of them were historical tomes of some sort or another, detailing the lives and customs of different, long dead civilizations.

While the whole thing looked like a huge mess, the information was actually organized roughly by the periods and areas of the world. Sasuke had a deep interest in history and archeology. (He often wished that all societies could be as quiet as the dead ones) What he really wanted was to be able to actually travel the world making his own discoveries and experiencing everything first hand.

Perhaps now that Itachi was poised to carry on in the family business and he could be sure that he wouldn't have a wife to hold him down, he could consider taking up his hands on study in the future.

"Hi Uncle Sasu!" Sasuke jolted up, sending papers fluttering as a small, dark haired child came running in around the desk and ducked behind his chair.

"What are you up to chibi?" he asked with mock severity. The little boy just giggled at his intimidating expression and shushed him.

"I'm hiding from Father," he stage whispered. Sasuke shook his head with a small smile and turned back around in his seat, pretending that he didn't notice the boy who was now crawling under the chair.

Uchiha Takara was the splitting image of his father but he was more loud and outgoing than either Itachi or Sasuke had ever been. All of the Uchihas had a bit of a tendency to indulge him.

"Sasuke?" came Itachi's voice from the doorway only a moment later. "I don't suppose you might have seen Takara around here anywhere, have you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Sasuke without looking up from his current book. "I've never heard of this 'Takara', that you speak of."

A muffled giggle came from underneath him and Itachi gave a little smirk, walking slowly into the room.

"Really? Hmm, you should do something about that squeaky chair of yours Sasuke. One might almost think there was a small child hiding under it."

Another giggle was cut off by a squawk as Itachi swooped down to grab two small ankles and tugged. The little boy came sliding out from under the chair on his stomach.

"Well would you look at that. Looks like we need to fumigate," said Sasuke looking down wide-eyed at his nephew. Takara giggled and tried to escape his father again.

"Takara, Grandmother and Grandfather are waiting for you in the dining room." The boy stopped his struggling at that.

"Okay!" He ran off out of the room without so much as a backward glance at either of them. Itachi turned to his younger brother.

"I understand congratulations are in order." He smirked at the wary look that crossed Sasuke's face. "You actually managed to get out of your engagement to Miss Haruno. Bravo little brother."

Sasuke's tensed muscles relaxed.

"Ah, yes. I don't think I'll need to worry about anymore prospective wives now." Itachi just chuckled.

"Well it was a good idea certainly, but if I were you I wouldn't go and let my guard down just yet," he cautioned.

"Why? What do you know Itachi?" Sasuke asked with a suspicious frown. Itachi waved him off lazily.

"Lunch is about to be served... You know Sasuke, Mother can be quite resourceful when she's determined, and life often has a way of turning things around on you."

With these ominous words, Itachi walked out of the room, leaving Sasuke to trail behind in contemplative silence.

(A/N; There now, hopefully I can keep up this pace. Wooooh! What does Itachi know that Sasuke doesn't? XP)