A bond thicker than blood

another update for you today =)

knowing what i will receive from LadyRonin i will work extra hard on chapter 26 =)

LadyRonin: i thank you for you very nice compliment, you are now officially best reiewer
and i'll give you a gold star to put on ur webpage or anywhere you like *hands a gold star to LadyRonin*
i'll let you in on a little secret, there is another story forming in my head for when this one is finished, but dunno when it will be up cous leaving for Hong Kong on 4 weeks so the main priority is to finish this one first.

yeah i forgot about that scene, that probably gives it more away that they knew each other. yeah i will most definitely keep the way Itachi is acting in front of Sasuke and Naruto, a relationship between Orochimaru and Itach is not a bad idea, Orochimaru must have something to entertain himself while he is waiting for Naruto to be caught. hehe i will keep it in mind for later chapters ;) when it comes to Kabuto, he just looks like my friends film and media professor so i just had to make him a professor, the glasses kinda gives of that wibe. oh yeas i just finished the scene in my head and it is going to be good, or at least i hope, just some more chapters to go before. hehe for now he is focused on Itachi and Naruto, but he will question Gaara as well, who wouldnt when a boy is hanging around your boyfriend constantly ;)

i thank you for the prayers, and i hope it will spark some more action into the next chapter.

oh i would also like to thank my awesome beta reader for helping me correct all my spelling errors, god knows there is a lot of them. the title of the story is proof of that hehe sorry guys i did corrected after being reminded twice so should be okey now.

well on with the chapter

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Chapter 25

Weeks had passed since the incident with Itachi, and Naruto had so many questions he wanted to ask. He knew now that Sasuke had lost his parents and his brother was the killer and that Orochimaru had been the trigger of some sort. He hated his uncle even more and if he had the courage he would kill him, but much like Sasuke he was afraid. Not for the same reason, but the words his father had once said to him when he asked about death.

:::::::::::Flashback:::::::::

‘Well son there is two types of deaths; the one were people die of natural causes like disease or of old age, just like your grandparents.’ Naruto nodded watching his father speak with fascination.

‘Then there is the death of when your life is taken away from you forcefully’ Yondaime looked down at his son who had curiosity written all over his face.

‘People shouldn’t take something that doesn’t belong to them’ the blond young boy said firmly. Yondaime could not help but laugh, knowing his son had just taking the first step into adulthood.

‘You are perfectly correct Naruto’ He put his hand on the blond’s head ‘therefore son you should never take another life, because it’s not your right to do so only God has that right.’ Yondaime was not really religious but he did believe that there was something watching over them, so why not believe it could be a God.

‘Ano dad?’ Naruto paused before continuing ‘what happens to the person taking another’s life?’ the blond stared at him with his blue puppy eyes.

‘They become cursed’ Naruto’s father face turned serious ‘cursed to carry a burden of another life and he must be prepared to be haunted for the rest of their life’

‘Haunted?’ the young blond boy did not completely understand, mainly because he was only 6 years old.

‘If you take another persons life … you must be prepared that your life is no longer yours …’ Yondaime did not look at his son, he only stared up towards the blue sky with a stern facial expression. Naruto looked at his father, he was mesmerised by his father sitting in the sunlight.

Back then Naruto had not understood the weight of those last words, not until the day he had been forcefully dragged out of his bed and lined up alongside his older brother, who had held onto him for dear life in order to protect him. The man in the black pulled out a gun, a weapon his father had refused to use. The man had laughed before he pulled the trigger killing his father, before he moved on to Narutos mother doing the same thing and then his brother who had pushed Naruto away, away from the path of the bullet.

Naruto remember seeing all the blood spill out on to the floor, staining it with the red colour, before he felt the gaze of the man upon him. He had turned around and found himself staring straight in the barrel of the gun, surprisingly he had realised it was his time to die and had come to terms with it. Had it not been for Momochi and a couple of others Naruto did not know the names of who had saved him, he would’ve been dead and lying next to his family in a pool of blood.

As he had stared down the barrel of the gun the words his father had spoke once during Momochi’s training was constantly playing through his mind.

‘Dying is not hard, accepting death is’

:::::::::::::::End Flashback::::::::::::::

“Naruto!?!”

“NARUTO!!” a familiar female voice screamed in his ear forcefully pulling him back from his thoughts. He placed a hand over his ear and glared at Sakura.

“What the hell Sa-chan” he could still hear the ringing in his ear.

“Well it’s your own fault for spacing out” she sat down next to Lee, who was smiling; there was nothing that could be compared to Sakura when she was angry. Naruto Looked over at Lee and gave him a smile telling him he was thinking the exact same thing.

Sakura and Lee waved towards Neji and Kiba who came through the doors to the cafeteria closely followed by Hinata, Choji and Shikamaru. Naruto looked towards them and waved too, making Neji smile. Neji began speeding up his pace in order to secure the empty chair next to the blond.

“hey” they all said almost simultaneously and began taking up the empty seats around the table. Naruto watched their friends with curiosity, they all looked so carefree. After Sasuke’s and Narutos encounter with Itachi they had been drifting apart, not that people standing on the outside realised that maybe not even themselves. But they had, Naruto realised that yesterday when they had finally sat down and talked about something different than classes, Haku and Momochi, homework.

Sasuke had asked if they should take a step further in their relationship, Naruto had been a bit surprised hearing Sasuke say those words. But in reality he knew they needed to do something to keep the relationship going. Ever since they had admitted their feelings for each other and began dating around a year ago they had done nothing more than kiss and some touching. Mainly because Naruto was too scared to take his cloths of knowing it would expose the scars on his chest and back, he had been able to dodge the question about why but at a high price.
Sasuke was beginning to lose patient with him, and soon Naruto had run out of excuses to tell him. Remembering how Momochi and Haku had come running to their flat on the day just to make sure they were alright, it had caused Sasuke to ask some question Naruto really did not want to answer. It had also triggered some anger in Momochi and Haku; they had both given him a fair bit of shouting for not telling Sasuke. And he knew perfectly well it was only a matter of time before Sasuke was going to find out from someone else, especially now that more and more people in the group looked upon Naruto as the Kumicho. But Naruto knew he did not have the strength to tell his boyfriend just yet, he feared how Sasuke would react seeing how much he hated what he was.

“hey Naruto!” Sakura looked at him with an angry face; he only smiled back saying he was sorry and that he wouldn’t space out anymore. They all began to laugh as Naruto apologized with his smile.

Neji was stealing glimpses at the blond boys; he had decided that he was going to tell him his feelings today. “Ne Naruto!” he pulled on the blond’s jumper.

“What is it?” Naruto turned to Neji and smiled

“Do you have some time later? There is something I want to tell you” Neji said trying to hide his blushing face.

“Sure” Naruto said oblivious to Neji’s feelings, which were slowly escaping to the surface. However Sasuke was not oblivious.

“Naruto!” he said firmly, giving Naruto a little fright. He had not noticed the dark haired boy’s presence or entering the cafeteria for that matter. But he smiled towards the boy feeling happy; their compromise for taking a step further in the relationship had been telling everyone they knew who did not know already that they were dating.

“Sasuke ..” Naruto was interrupted by Ino screaming his name from the other side of the cafeteria.

“Sasuke-kuuuuuunn!” she ran towards the boy and tossed herself around his neck, their faces was so close he could feel Ino’s warm breath on him. He tried to get her off him but she proved to be holding on tight.

“INO” Sakura grabbed her jumper and helped Sasuke pull her off him, “Stop that will you, can’t you see he doesn’t like it” Ino just gave Sakura a glare, “why, you jealous?” she smirked at Sakura, who was already seeing red. Lee put a reassuring hand on her shoulder; he knew Ino only did it to piss her off but he did send a glare at Ino telling her to cut it out. Which Ino ignored and turned to Sasuke and flaunted her cleavage to Sasuke as well as giving her ‘sexy’ look. Sasuke only shivered at the sight.

“Well so what’s so important that you called us here guys? Shikamaru was beginning to become impatient, Hinata and Kiba nodded. Choji was as usual in his own little world of food and really had not paid much attention to what was going around the table, but the question Shikamaru had asked triggered part of his curiosity.

Naruto stood up and moved to stand next to Sasuke, looking at him with his big blue eyes expressing some concern afraid of how people would react. Sasuke smiled at him which was an attempt to reassure his blond boyfriend that it was alright, although he too was a bit concerned about how people would take it.

“Well …” Sasuke began “we called you here because Naruto and I have something to share with you” Sasuke grabbed Naruto’s hand “Naruto and I are dating.” The group turned silent; they only stared at Naruto and Sasuke who were holding hands.

Sakura decided to break the silence; she and Lee were not in shock like the rest as they already knew about the two boys. “Congratulation both of you, really happy for you” she smiled leaning towards Lee who nodded “yeah congrats guys”

Kiba got out of his chair and walked up to Sasuke “I only have one thing to say, hurt him and I will hurt you” Sasuke smiled at the boy “I promise I won’t.” Kiba gave Sasuke a pat on the back and smiled, he was not the person who could stay serious for long “congrats” he said putting his hand on Narutos blond head and ruffled his hair. Then Hinata, Shikamaru and Choji got up and congratulated them, giving them pats on the back and asking all sorts of questions. It was only Neji and Ino who did not make any movement, still frozen by the shock they only stared at the two boys who were being congratulated.

Ino stood up making it clear she did not like what she had just heard; she glared at Sakura “you knew didn’t you.” Sakura smiled knowing she had manage to piss of Ino, although they acted good friends there were times they were each others worst enemies, this being one of those times. Ino was angry now; she turned around looking straight at Naruto. They had been friends for so long and yet he had stole the one person she wanted the most, Naruto knew she liked Sasuke. Hell everybody knew, she had made it painfully clear even to Sasuke.

Naruto could see the anger in Ino’s face, he tried to send her an apologising look but she only brushed it away before walking out the door. By this time Neji had managed to get over the shock, he stood up and congratulated Naruto determined not to act like Ino. This was Naruto’s choice and he had to respect it, but he was not giving up on Naruto.

“Congratulation Sasuke” he put his hand out to Sasuke “thanks” Sasuke said smiling triumphantly. Neji did not let go of Sasuke’s hand when he was about to pull away “I’ll only tell you this once, the moment you hurt Naruto I’ll be the one picking up the pieces.”
He gave Sasuke a smile showing him that the battle between the two had only just begun; Sasuke gave the black longhaired boy a glare but knew perfectly well that he could lose Naruto to the boy standing in front of him if he was not careful. “Don’t waist your time, that will never happen” he responded to Neji with confidence.

“Neji you had something to tell me” Naruto interrupted the two boys.

“That’s alright Naruto; I’ve forgotten what it was. But I’ll tell you when I remember though” Neji laid some extra weight on the last sentence so that Sasuke would understand what he was referring to. Naruto only smiled oblivious to what was going on.


In the mean time in the main house of Sumiyoshi-kai group Itachi was sitting on the floor waiting for Orochimaru to return from his trip from the country side. He honestly did not know why he ventured out to that dirty place; it was nothing to be gained either. The door opened and a longhaired man entered the room closely followed by Jugo and another bodyguard.

“Itachi!” Orochimaru smiled as he sat down, the younger boy bowed in front of him.

“Welcome back Orochimaru-sama” Itachi said when he finished greeting him with an official bow.

“So I hear you have some information for me” Orochimaru said still smiling with his smile that sent chills down so many people’s backs.

“I do indeed” Itachi smiled before continuing “I found your little blond boy, even better he is friends with my little brother. In fact they were actually together when I met with my little brother a couple of weeks ago, and it turns out that they are sharing a flat together”

Orochimaru was pleased with the information so far “But doesn’t your little brother despise you Itachi”

“Yeah but that’s just a small obstacle” Itachi grinned “but allow me to ask a question Orochimaru” Orochimaru signalled with his hand that it was okay for him to ask a question.

“Why is this blond boy so important to you, I know he is Yondaime son but that still does not explain why?” Orochimaru grinned at the question he had just been asked.

“Why indeed, Yondaime founded the group and surprisingly people still value the Uzumaki name more than anything. Meaning they believe Naruto is the only person fit to be its Kumicho, I am sure you have noticed that people don’t call me Kumicho” Orochimaru paused a little cursing all the people that did not acknowledge him as the group’s leader. “Well long story short, I would have a lot more influence if he were to join me by my side.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Itachi asked

“Ah yes, that would prove to be a slight problem. Can’t have him ruin my chances of ruling the whole drug market in Japan now can I, so if he doesn’t want to join me he needs to disappear. Which is a shame really, seeing as he is exactly my type and I have already gotten his body used to mine” Orochimaru grinned at the though of a naked Naruto.

“So it is your job as my right hand man to persuade Naruto to join me, or kill him if he refuses”

Itachi grinned “well then I have some news that will please you extremely.”

Orochimaru looked at Itachi surprised “oh?”

“Seems to me my little brother and Naruto are more than just friends and he doesn’t seem to know exactly who the blond really is, making my little brother leverage for us to barging with Naruto.” Itachi could see the news brought a big smile on Orochimaru’s face

“Indeed it does”

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well thats another one down and god knows how many to go =) keep the comments coming and hopy you all will stick around for at least a few more chapters if not the rest =)