The Art of Patience

Chapter 24
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Kiba twitched in the last precious moments of sleep before he started to wake up and the gauzy fingers of wonderful dream started to slip away. It was really a shame no one remembered dreams like these. It had started with putting Sai to bed like the tall dog lover had in real life and had turned considerably less innocent from there.

The dream faded completely and the dark haired man groggily opened his eyes to a feeling that something, while not wrong, was different today. It was still dim outside and the scruffy looking Kiba could feel Akamaru curled up at his feet in a little ball like normal, except that something else equally warm and soft was on his chest and it sure as hell wasn’t a puppy.

The brown haired man opened his eyes fully and looked down to see what was on him before he did anything stupid like say… hit someone who was pulling a very lame joke. Short dark hair was just under his chin and one arm had been captured by the little minx from his dreams. But wasn’t he supposed to be in Naruto's room?

Sai was in the place between asleep and awake and he hated that place with a passion... it was a time when he felt most vulnerable and to be honest, the time where he'd most likely be dragged off somewhere for some kind of torture by his Master. This time felt different though. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he felt... safer today. However, that feeling of safe went away quickly once the raven realized that he was clutching someone's arm and he could feel the unmistakable glance of eyes on him. Shit, what did he do?

Opening his eyes slowly, he met the gentle brown orbs of none other than his rescuer from the night before... How did he get into Kiba's bed? He usually wasn't one to sleep walk or anything. Realizing that he was clinging to Kiba, he pulled away a bit harshly and almost face-planted off the bed. "I'm so sorry... I-I didn't know I was... I mean...."

Kiba turned on his side carefully to not disturb the slumbering mutt and propped his head up on his hand to get a good long look at his little charge. The poor little slave looked like he was afraid of being hit or something. "Sorry for what? I liked having your head on my chest; who wouldn’t like it?" Kiba smiled winningly at the tormented slave and reached out to gather that lithe little body in his arms. He could see why Naruto had worried about this one once he lost him to Madara. Not only was Sai easy on the eyes but he was a really great person to wake up next to.

Sai let his head rest against Kiba's chest again. He had to admit that the other man did give off a sense of comfort, even when he wasn't trying. "Thank you for taking care of me last night. I should probably get back to my Master. I’m probably in enough trouble as it is..."

Kiba held onto Sai firmly and bit back his personal opinion of the man who dared to call himself Sai's master. That sorry excuse of a human being shouldn't have had Sai from the beginning if what he'd heard from Naruto was true. "Not going to happen. I called Naruto last night and he wants to make sure you're safe. You won’t be safe with that asshole you ran away from. I promise he'll never touch you again."

Sai looked up incredulously at his would be savior. "It's not that easy... My Master would do anything to get me back if he finds out I'm gone; which he probably already has. And the first person he's going to go after is Naruto..."

Sai knew that Madara would suspect Naruto if he had ever disappeared from his Master's captivity. But he didn't want to involve Kiba; the man had been so good to him since last night.

"Don’t worry about Naruto. After the beating that dumb blond gave that old man he won't come within a mile of him! And even if Madara somehow managed to get close enough to do Naruto some harm you can bet that Itachi and Sasuke would be there to hall his tanned ass out of the way before he got so much as a scratch." Kiba smiled at the mental image he'd given himself of Itachi and Sasuke dragging Naruto by his feet out of the way of a speeding car being driven by Madara. Madara had just missed his target and the ungrateful blond was just bitching out his subs without knowing why they'd bounced his head off the pavement to save his life. "Now come on and let’s get breakfast. I'm starved and I bet you and Akamaru are too."

Sai had nothing to say to that little speech. He just decided to go along with it for now. So he nodded and got out of bed to follow Kiba into the kitchen.

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Madara Uchiha was not a happy man. He was currently uprooting everything in his mansion looking for his missing sub. But this wasn't just any sub... this was Sai! Sai was the one thing that linked him to his goal of Naruto and not to mention he looked a hell of a lot like Sasuke. Damn it... where was he?!

The cruel master ripped open a door that led to a hallway and spotted one of his lesser subs doing their job of cleaning the windows. He grabbed the poor man by the back of his leather collar and pulled him none too gently into the closest room. "Where is he?" he demanded the terrified sub.

"W- Where is who Master?" The sub trembled at his master’s anger and locked his eyes on the floor to keep from seeing any more of that poisonous focus than he already had. It didn’t take much to set his master off when the old Dom was like this.

Madara growled low in his throat and threw the poor man across the room. "You know very well who I mean! Where is Sai you pathetic waste of flesh!?" He was at the end of his rope. None of his subs seem to know where his most prized slave had run off too. He had a pretty good idea, but he didn't want to go blazing in head on without knowing any information first. "Now tell me where he is and I might spare you severe punishment."

"I d-don’t know, Master. He never returned to the slave quarters to sleep." The man trembled visibly and curled up in the fetal position to protect him at least a little bit from what would most likely be a brutal beating. The unfortunate slave would be lucky not to get sent to a hospital with the acid dripping from his abusive master’s words.

The older man heaved the sub off the floor once more and started to drag him out of the room. "Fine then, if you won't cooperate, we'll just have to put you in 'The Room' for a little while." he said. A bit too calmly to be comforting.

The sub struggled after his master and whimpered pathetically. 'The Room' was nothing short of hell for the unfortunate sub that drew out Madara's fury. Everything in there was meant to maximize Madara's pleasure while he tormented his slaves. Though some of the things in there were automated so the cruel master needed only come in and check every half hour or so if he felt like it.

After taking care of that little problem, Madara proceeded to his office to make a call to Kisame. He needed information and he needed it now!

Sitting at his desk, he picked up his phone and pressed the speed dial for Kisame's number. A few rings were his greeting before the tired voice of his hired P.I. drifted over the sound waves.

"Hello?" the black man rubbed his eyes and squinted at the alarm clock on the nightstand, he usually didn't get out of bed until after ten so this was considered early for him.

Madara's eyebrow twitched at the fact that HIS reliable source for information was still asleep. "I need information on something. One of my slaves has gone missing and I think he ran away... to Naruto. But, my other subs won't tell me anything. Think you're up to it?" He had a feeling that Kisame had no problem interrogating others... In fact, he felt that Kisame would downright enjoy it.

Kisame sat up on the edge of the bed and dragged the sheet off his companion just enough to draw out a complaint from the partially clothed figure. His paycheck chimed in his head. Madara was anxious and jumpy, that didn’t bode well for his pay so it was probably best to humor the man. "Sure thing, just give me forty-five minutes to get ready and get over there and the job’s as good as done.”

Madara smiled evilly. "Wonderful. Oh and I need one more favor from you. If you could call Orochimaru and let him know. I'll need him as well and I don't particularly want to speak with him at the moment."

"Sure thing boss; he’ll love this..." Kisame smiled dryly and hoped that that was all Madara wanted because even the investigator didn’t really want to call that bastard of a doctor.

Madara nodded, more to himself since Kisame obviously couldn't see him. "Alright then, I'll see you shortly." and with that, he hung up the phone. Now he just had to wait for his two guests to arrive and he could get what he needed to know.

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Sasuke mewed happily in his sleep before opening his eyes. His beloved master was right next to him and just beyond the blond was his brother. The bed was pleasantly warm and comforting and the little raven was sure that it was cold beyond the warmth of the sheets. But like it or not, the little sub was going to have to get up sooner or later to make breakfast for the three of them, it was his job after all.

Itachi woke up not long after Sasuke had and noticed his brother reveling in the comfort of the bed. He smiled at the thought of how cute Sasuke was as he reached over his Master to stroke the younger raven's hair gently. "Did you sleep ok?" Itachi asked in a whisper so as not to wake Naruto.

"Yeah, a lot better than normal; how about you?” Sasuke closed his eyes and leaned into his brother’s caresses. It felt so good to have people do that to him even though he'd never admit it out loud.

Itachi extracted his hand reluctantly and curled into the blankets a bit more. "I slept alright. My stomach is a bit sore though. But I have to get up soon." he said with a sigh. He usually wasn't one to want to skip work, but for some reason, he felt the dire need to spend all day with his Master and brother.

"Me too; I’ll get breakfast ready, you can stay here with Naruto a bit longer if you want.” Sasuke reluctantly got out from under the covers and was greeted by cold air just like he feared. Thankfully the floor in here was carpeted so the little raven’s feet weren’t complaining yet but they surely would start once he entered the Kitchen with its merciless linoleum tiles that held no heat what so ever. Luckily they had central air and heating so once he turned that on, the house would get nice and warm very quickly.

Itachi decided he wouldn't stay in bed too long, feeling a bit bad for Sasuke and how cold the little Uchiha must be. But he wanted Naruto to wake up first so he could greet him like he usually did in the morning.

At that moment, Naruto smiled in his sleep and put an arm over his older sub’s lithe body. It always felt so good to sleep next to his two subs, waking up alone felt so strange now.

Itachi noticed Naruto's movements and looked over to see his Master's bright blue eyes staring lovingly at him. "Good morning Master." he whispered as he leaned in to press a soft kiss to the blonde's lips. "Did you sleep well?"

The blond kissed Itachi back and snuggled with the long haired man under the covers. He felt happy and refreshed after last night. "Morning to you too Princess. I slept like a baby after the fun we had. How’s your stomach, need anything for the pain?"

"No, it's just a little sore, but I can handle it." He clung to Naruto as the dreadful thought of getting out of bed finally caught up to him. "It's so nice here with you that I almost don't want to go to work today. But Sasuke went through the trouble of making breakfast..." he said as he trailed off.

"Yeah he really does a lot to make sure I don’t cook for us. You remember that one time I tried to make that meat dish when we first met? I think I set of the smoke alarms.” The blond smiled and rolled on his side to get a better look at Itachi's face, he just loved him to bits and pieces. But like Itachi, the blond had a job to do so the welcoming bed would have to be abandoned and made for the day until that night when it would be loved again by its three companions.

Itachi smiled faintly at the memory and was glad that Sasuke was appointed the job of cook. He was an excellent one after all.

The blond stretched under the covers and wondered where his clothes had gone so he wouldn't have to be cold for long. He really hated the morning shrinkage of his pride and joy. It meant he'd have to take a hot shower to get it back to a respectable length. "So how long has it been since your brother left? I don’t want to have to get out from the covers any sooner than I have to."

"About a half an hour ago. I'm sure breakfast is ready by now." Itachi made his way over to his Master and held out a fluffy blue robe for the blond. He knew that Naruto hated cold mornings.

Naruto nodded his thanks and slithered into the robe his marked slave offered him, Itachi always thought about what would make his master happiest. Not that Sasuke was far behind but he'd spent more time on his Princess’s training than he had on his Kitty. "Thanks; get something on so we can have some of Kitty's cooking. I think I'm starting to smell it.”

Itachi gave his Master a confused look, but dressed nonetheless. His blond Master usually requested they be naked during the times when they were inside.

He followed Naruto into the kitchen where he could see Sasuke just finishing setting the table and stood back just a bit to wait for his Master to sit down.

Sasuke kneeled next to the table and waited for his Master's approach. He loved doing things for the blond and wouldn’t give it up for anything. "Good morning Master." he said as he bowed his head in Naruto’s direction. "Breakfast is ready if you’re hungry." There were some days when Sasuke had made breakfast like he was supposed to for Naruto and his brother and it had turned out that either the blond Dom hadn't been hungry due to stress, or he had been late in getting ready for work. He really hoped Naruto had time to sit down and eat because frankly, and he would never admit this to anyone, it gave him a sharp pang to his heart every time Naruto had not eaten. He knew it wasn't a rebuke on him, but it still hurt.

Naruto smiled at his naked Kitty and ruffled the little Uchiha’s hair. He really loved both of his subs. "Let's eat I'm fucking starved today! I want today to be nothing but good times for the three of us."

Naruto motioned for Itachi to take his usual position when they ate and gave his tattooed sub a passionate kiss on the lips before he'd allow his clothed sub to prepare himself for the meal Sasuke had made.

Sasuke saw the kiss and his previous good feeling that Naruto was going to eat with them had burst like a balloon. He didn't get a kiss like that... he only got a pat on the head. Slowly he got up and sat in his seat with his head bowed just a little. He spotted the milk he had set out for Naruto and knew that he'd have to mention something or else the blond wouldn't drink any. "Master, you should drink some milk this morning... it's been a while since you've had any." his voice was quiet and a little defeated.

Naruto made a face and looked at the glass of white liquid like it was cough syrup. "Do I really have to? That stuff tastes nasty."

Sasuke huffed and looked up at his Master. "It's good for you. It has calcium and vitamin D... and it's the best source for both. Do you really want your bones to be breaking left and right when you get older?" This was a constant worry for Sasuke; he wanted his Master to be in the best of health as he could. He would hate to think of anything health wise going wrong later on in Naruto's life.

"You sound like an old woman." The blond flopped into his chair and glared at the milk. Sasuke usually did this every now and then and when it did it got on the blonds nerves just a bit. He was young and strong! He could afford not to binge on milk for a while longer.

Sasuke sighed once more and grabbed the milk jug and poured some into a glass and set it in front of the blond. "Please Master? Just a little..." he indicated the glass which was at least three fourths of the way full.

Itachi watched the exchange and didn't interfere. He never did when this issue came up. He agreed with Sasuke that milk was necessary for strong bones and all of that, but he didn't really agree in trying to force their Master to drink it. But he stayed out of it and let the two work it out themselves.

Naruto scowled at Sasuke and pointedly pushed the glass away from his plate. Couldn't he just have his breakfast and go to work without anything like this happening? Not only that but he wanted to see Sai as soon as possible! "Quit being such an old maid! If I wanted milk I’d get some!"

Sasuke stalled for a moment, thinking that maybe he should lay off... but it was the principle of the matter now. "Master, you're being unreasonable..."

"Who's in control here??! You or me? If I wanted to be bugged at the worst possible time I'd call Madara up for all the pain and eye-gouging I could ever want!" Naruto stood up so quickly that his chair clattered to the floor and he was in Sasuke's face before he knew it. That unholy fury that took over form time to time had come back in full over the rather innocent insistence of milk and mingled with the stress of the previous night like an amoeba. He couldn’t pull the two events apart in his frustration and frankly the anger felt too good to even try to calm down. This felt good and he wanted more.

Sasuke instinctively coward back, afraid that he would be struck and cast a look fearfully up at his Master. "I'm sorry Master, I didn't mean to.... You don't have to do anything."

Itachi stood up to protect his brother if the need arose. As sad as it was, his Master was in a very fragile mental state, and had been for a while and he wouldn't put it past the man to forget himself and accidently hurt Sasuke.

It was the fear that broke through the red haze. Sasuke was looking up at the man he had trusted for just under a year in untainted fear. The blond blinked and felt the corrupting emotions almost literally drain away from his body leaving him nearly too weak to stand.

The blue eyed Dom leaned heavily against the table and covered his face with a hand he could have sworn was covered in blood, and took a deep, shaky breath. There must be something wrong with him, he was almost ready to do some damage a moment ago. "I don’t know what came over me. Sasuke, it's alright, I’m not going to hurt you." The blond shifted his weight and prayed that he wouldn’t fall flat on his face going to hug his smallest sub and to reassure him that everything was alright. He sure hoped that Sasuke could find it in his heart to forgive his master for this unwanted outburst.

Sasuke instinctively, but didn't mean to, flinched harshly as Naruto wrapped his arms around him. He had a moment of panic and tried to struggle out of Naruto's grip, a lone tear running down his cheek.

Itachi stepped forward and tried to pull his Master gently away from Sasuke. "He just needs a minute... “He said as he looked down at his frightened brother and his devastated looking Master.

Naruto looked confused and hurt but nodded all the same. He was starting to feel like shit for what he'd almost done and he just wanted to make it up to Sasuke as soon as possible. He’d been doing a lot of making up lately and he vaguely wondered when a day would come that he would be guilt free. But if the boy was too scared to accept his master’s heartfelt regrets and apologies, then the blond had really fucked up this time and that hurt Naruto in the worst way. "Alright. I just wish I could keep things like this from happening around him. Ever since last night, I can’t help thinking that Sasuke's a lot more fragile than I thought.”

Itachi found himself with his arms full of his brother and realized that Sasuke had climbed into his lap. When had he sat on the floor?

He felt so horrible for his master, mostly because he knew it wasn’t the blonde's fault. "Master, have you ever considered therapy? It might help you to talk to someone about what you’re feeling..." He held Sasuke close to him and stroked his little brother's hair in a comforting gesture.

Sasuke breathed in the scent of Itachi and tried not to let what just happened influence his feelings toward his Master. He just needed a moment to calm down. Naruto loved him; he told Sasuke so everyday... he would never hurt him. At the same time, he had a hard time believing it, what with the blond doing things like this all the time.

Naruto scrubbed his face with his hands and realized that he wasn't so hungry anymore. But that wouldn't keep the blond form trying to make Sasuke happy by seeing his master enjoy the meal he'd prepared. That was if Sasuke could forgive him. It would just be too painful to eat if Sasuke was afraid of him and wanting to get his master away from him as soon as he could. "I thought about therapy before but I just let myself forget about it before I met you two. You’re both worth more than that though. If you've got a phone book I could start looking for doctors while Sasuke calms down? I really don’t want to leave you two on a bad note like this."

Sasuke, hearing his Master speaking so calmly looked over at him out of the corner of his eye. He looked awful and Sasuke instantly felt the need to reassure Naruto that he was alright and not afraid anymore. His mind made up, he gently dislodged himself from Itachi's arms and crawled over to Naruto and straddled the man's hips before resting his head on Naruto's shoulder. "I'm sorry I reacted to you like that Master." he said quietly. "I love you."

The blond looked down at his slave with a sad smile on his face and couldn’t even fight the hot tears that were threatening to trickle down his cheeks. It almost broke his hear t to hear his little sub forgive and say that he loved his master after the tense situation earlier. And it made him feel lucky to have these two remarkable men as his closest friends and lovers. This time he would call a doctor and get his problems fixed, Sasuke deserved that much and more. "Thank you. I love you too… I’ll have to make this up to you sometime today Sasuke. I would have understood if you hadn't wanted to be around me."

Sasuke looked into his Master’s eyes. “I would never want to leave you Master. But please, try to get help?” he asked with pleading eyes.

Naruto nodded before he wrapped his arms around his smallest sub. “Now, why don’t we eat before your wonderful cooking gets cold alright?”

Sasuke nodded slowly and got off his Master before glancing at his brother and sitting down at the table once more. Who knew milk would have set this whole thing off?

Itachi gave a sigh of fatigue of the whole thing and sat down as well. He wasn’t sure that his brother was telling the whole truth about being alright and decided to keep an eye on him throughout the day at work. So much for a good day.

TBC
Tensions are high… DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN!!! Hope you enjoyed… please comment!