The Art of Patience

The Art of Patience Ch. 26
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Naruto looked at the phone curiously. "Hey Kitty... This IS your brother's phone isn't it?" He had sworn he called Itachi's number.

"Yes Master it is. He left to do something important outside the office. Is something wrong?" The short haired raven couldn’t keep a note of concern from his voice. Of all the days for Itachi to leave it had to be the day their blond Master called. Well you couldn’t change the past so it was best to take things head on when they came at you like this.

"Not necessarily. I just wanted to tell your brother that Sai will be at your condo for a few hours..." The blond didn't get another word in for his sweet little kitten decided it was time to speak out of turn.

"S-Sai? What the hell are you-! I mean, why’s he going to stay with us? Don't you have other people who could take him? You and I both know my uncle hates losing his favorite things." Sasuke quickly checked his anger and hoped that his little outburst would either go unpunished or be forgiven. He didn't like the idea of being pushed aside in favor of a more senior sub.

"You are not in a position to negotiate with me kitty. And as for that little outburst; we'll deal with that later. Stop being selfish for one minute and think about someone else for once, someone who's life could be in danger; do you understand?" Naruto made his tone firm and clear. He wasn't angry at Sasuke he was just extremely disappointed that the young man couldn't get over his jealousy long enough to try and help someone who needed it.

The youngest Uchiha felt the reprimand like a physical blow, Naruto was right though. When Madara found out where that scantily clad slave of his was, anyone who stood in the way of reclaiming the missing property would be dead, or wishing they were dead. But that still didn’t make him feel any better about having the person in question at his place. "I understand. This whole thing about Sai being one of my uncle’s toys is making me nervous. It was scary enough almost losing Itachi to him at that party. I don’t want to feel like that again if I can help it. I'm sorry for not being a good sub for you."

Naruto smiled to himself. At least Sasuke knew when to apologize. "That's my good boy. He'll only be there for a couple hours; one of my friends is going to take care of him until we can do something about the situation."

Naruto looked at his watch and realized his break was almost over. "I have to go kitty. Tell your brother about Sai and that I'll see you both after I get off work."

"Yes Master." Sasuke looked dejectedly at a point just beyond his nose and sighed. Just when he'd hoped he and his brother might get some quality time after his little relapse the other night, someone else came to take the blonds attention. Naruto was right though, he should think of others besides himself and his brother a little more often. It was those others that could do the most damage to the good things he had going.

Naruto said his goodbyes to Sasuke and hung up. He knew that his youngest sub would take the news badly and frankly he expected the outburst he received from the young man. However, those outbursts were not tolerated and would definitely be dealt with later in the evening.

He pocketed his cell phone and made his way back into the crowded building among the many New York shoppers trying to buy their gifts for Christmas on time to send to friends and family.

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Sasuke closed the phone and put it back where Itachi kept it. He was going to get it tonight when he got home, that was for sure. He just couldn’t keep his mouth shut when he felt strongly about something. How the fuck does Itachi do it?

Itachi walked back into the office with a fresh cup of coffee in hand and a few more stacks of paperwork. He noticed Sasuke standing at his desk and his younger brother looked anything but relaxed. "What happened?" he asked as he set down his things on the desk and made his way over to Sasuke.

Sasuke silently fumed at himself and didn’t make eye contact until he could trust himself to speak with his brother respectfully "Naruto called. He said Sai was going to be at our place for a few hours until one of his friends picks him up. I said something stupid too. I'm pretty sure I pissed him off; I’m sorry."

Itachi wrapped his arms around Sasuke and placed a gentle kiss to his baby brother's forehead. "Don't worry, you should be starting your real training soon, then you'll be able to hold yourself back once Naruto teaches you the right way." He didn’t mind really that Sai would be staying with them for a short period of time. He, unlike Sasuke, didn't really mind Sai; he seemed like a very nice young man. Plus, Itachi fully trusted Naruto and that included with other people. "We should get back to work. I need to go to a meeting in an hour and I want to get at least half of this crap done. Oh and by the way, you have a client coming in tomorrow about some new supplies."

Sasuke nodded and looked at the pile of work his Aniki had on his plate before the meeting. He was glad that it was his brother that got the PR portions of the company work and that he dealt with the suppliers and whatnot. He couldn’t do people work all the time. Sooner or later he'd snap at one of them. "Thanks for the heads up. That gives me plenty of time to put a good presentation ready for them.”

Itachi got to work and pored over the financial papers once more. He really needed to get an accountant or something. He usually just did it himself or had Sasuke do it, but with the number of orders coming in it was hard to keep up lately. He couldn’t wait to get home and see his Master; he really hoped Naruto would be there when they got home; it would be a nice welcome from the stress of the day.

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Kiba smiled with a cook’s focus as he rinsed off the onion he'd skinned under warm water to keep the pungent root vegetable form making his eyes sting before returning to the cutting board to cut the plump ingredient into pieces for cooking. With a new guest in the house he'd pulled out all the lead for this meal. "You’re not allergic to any kind of food are you? I'd hate to make you sick without knowing."

Sai sat a bit uncomfortably at the kitchen table and fidgeted a bit. He was not used to sitting in chairs. Usually when he ate he was to sit on the floor. "No, I'm not... but I could do that for you if you'd like." He was still a bit cautious with this man. He didn't really know him that well and even though Naruto said he was nice, the fear of other’s was still ingrained into him.

Kiba shook his head slightly and smiled at the small man in the room to let him know that he wasn’t mad at all before going back to cutting the onion. Sai sure was antsy in a chair but it didn’t feel right to let the escapee sit on his kitchen floor. "No, you’re my guest and what kind of host would I be if I made my gues-" The shaggy haired man's words were interrupted by the loud ring of the wall mounted phone behind his little guest. The corded phone rattled on its nail and from the couch Akamaru was torn from his twentieth snooze that day and barked madly at the offending racket.

Kiba's concentration slipped and he nicked a finger with his knife before he got his ass in gear to answer the phone before the third ring. The juices from the onion were seeping into the cut and making Kiba want to swear with the sharp pains it caused. "Hey, if this isn’t an insanely beautiful man or woman I’m hanging up."

Naruto rolled his eyes. Trust his roommate to be stressed enough to start slinging insults. "It's me, dickwad. I need to take Sai to Itachi and Sasuke's place so someone can take him to keep him safe. I don't trust him being at our place for too long. Madara's bound to show up sooner or later." He made a smooth right turn at the signal and thanked whoever was up there in "heaven" or wherever that he got let off work early.

Kiba hopped over to the stove and picked up an egg shaped bit of stainless steel to get the onion smell of his fingers with the phone squished between his cheek and shoulder. Damn it this was starting to burn now! Bleh, that's just what he got for being careless with a Cutco knife. "You're gonna pick him up or what? I just started making dinner for three; or maybe two if you're starved. When should I expect to see you here?" After getting the stink off his hands the scruffy haired man tossed the steel egg back into its place and stuck his now bleeding finger in his mouth to suck off the blood before he started bleeding on the counters.

"I'll be there in about ten minutes. I'm not going to stay very long though, it's about six and Kakashi's picking him up around eight." He felt a bit bad for Kiba. He knew the man liked Sai, he could tell instantly. Hopefully they'll see one another again soon.

Kiba felt himself deflate a little ad his dog, happy with having dealt with the phones ring form the couch pranced into the room to see what was going on since he'd taken his nap. "Ten minutes, right. I can’t wait for this to blow over. That faggot is scary when he gets bent out of shape. That and he has some odd notions about how to train people.” Kiba took the phone in his hand and looked at Sai. Man he was the proverbial hot potato today with Madara out for blood.

Naruto sighed... “Tell me about it. Well, I'll see you in a bit." He hung up and threw his phone onto the empty passenger's seat. This whole thing was just fucked up as all hell.

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Naruto entered his apartment with a headache blooming and he headed into the kitchen where he saw Sai sitting at the table with Kiba busy at the stove. "Thank God you can cook. Saved my life more than once." he said as he ran a hand through Sai's hair as he passed.

Sai looked over at his former master and his heart skipped a beat, he'd always loved Naruto best of all the masters he'd met. Something about him just felt right. Now he was just a problem since Madara was coming to get him.

Kiba waved a spoon over his shoulder at Naruto and smiled as a few globs of stuff flew form the end and landed on the floor where Akamaru greedily licked it up. "Hell yeah; not that you attempt in the least."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Which I've already stated Mr. Genius." He squatted down to ruffle Akamaru's ears and then straightened once more. "Are you ready to go Sai? We should probably head over sooner rather than later."

Sai nodded and didn’t look Naruto in the face as he was trained to do as he stood up. He looked at the off white dog licked his chops and looked up hopefully for another scratch or a bit of food to come his way. But no matter how inviting this place was it was just as Naruto said, unsafe. Madara might show up at any moment to reclaim him. "I'm ready. And I’m sorry for being such a problem."

Kiba stepped away from the stove and brought Sai in for a quick hug before his blond roommate could whisk the escapee away to a safe haven somewhere with Kakashi. "Don’t mention it! Anything that gets under that old man’s skin is a good thing in my book! Maybe he'll get a heart attack and save us the trouble of having to kill him ourselves! "

Naruto thanked Kiba for looking after Sai once more as they made their way out the door. He led the quiet man to his car and opened the passenger's side for him. He started the car and drove out of the complex not noticing the car making its way into it.

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Kiba closed the door and stepped over his dog who looked dejectedly at the door after Sai’s departure. It had only been a day and the both of them had fallen for the slight sub that Naruto had released just over a year ago. "Yeah, I’m going to miss him too Akamaru but don’t worry, he’ll be back. We just have to be patient."

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Kisame glanced briefly at the car that drove passed him in the driveway. Damn, that was a nice ride... Concentrating on his job again he parked in a stray spot for visitors and exited his own car. The tall man glanced down at his piece of paper noting the number of the apartment this Naruto lived in. Damn, Madara was too much sometimes to be worth the paycheck he was receiving... but he did need the money. He made his way up the stairs and adjusted his glasses before knocking on the door, flinching out of instinct as the mad barking of a dog could be heard from inside.

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Kiba swore as he finished stirring to answer the door. Whoever was out there sure had a sense of time to pick now to interrupt him! Just five minutes earlier or later and he would have not been at a critical part of his recipe. The brown haired man wiped his hands off on a towel and quickly walked to the front hall to see Akamaru with his snout shoved against the crack where the door met the frame to get the scent of the unwanted visitor.

“What is with you, you fuzzbucket? Sit where I’ve been training you to sit so I can answer the door." Kiba smiled at his words and coaxed his still growling puppy to obey him. It was like the mutt hadn’t been trained at all.

Kiba checked to see that the chain lock was firmly in place and looked out the door hole to see if this was Madara making his appearance before he opened the door as far as the chain would go. He didn't know this guy and he wasn’t about to let anyone see the inside of his house any more than they needed to see. "Yeah?"

Kisame pasted on a wonderfully accurate and believable smile before speaking. "Hi there, I just moved into the apartment complex next door and I was just wanted to introduce myself; the names Xander." He said brightly. He would have offered his hand to the man but the door was chained... pretty suspicious already.

Akamaru growled and shot toward the open door to get his two cents into the conversation. He knew he could fit; he'd gotten out this way before! This was his territory; HIS! No one was going to take it from him!

Kiba's eyes widened and he pulled the door closed just in time to keep his furry charge from getting out. Instead Akamaru only got his head out of the door and was scrambling on the tiles in the entryway to get his shoulders out the rest of the way. The freaking dog seemed hell bent on either scaring this guy off or biting him. "Hey get back here you little…! Um, Excuse me let me just grab..."

Kisame hated dogs... they were the epitome of nasty. He didn't flinch though, he was used to this kind of thing having a sister who had five would do that to you. "It's alright, I'm used to them." He said with the smile back on.

Kiba grabbed his dog by the tail, the only part of him that wasn’t moving too fast to grab, and pulled Akamaru back into the apartment before letting go of the door to put the squirming little brute up. Just what had gotten into him? "Sorry Xander, just give me a moment to put him in his kennel. Hey, no biting!"

Kiba turned and pushed the front door mostly closed with a foot before running to the living room where he kept Akamaru’s kennel. The furry psycho was squirming like a greased pig and was growling the whole time to get back to whatever it was he was trying to do.

The scruffy man unceremoniously tossed his dog into the balled up blanket he kept in there and closed the door before the dog could turn around to get free. This was a bad first impression to make on a neighbor!

Kisame leaned forward and made sure the other man was out of sight before he pushed the door slightly open once more and peered in. He didn't see anything unusual. No one else seemed to be there. Of course they could possibly be in another room, but he doubted it. The house seemed empty besides the brown haired man and his dog. He vaguely wondered if Madara had been wrong with the apartment number… Yeah right, like he’d really question that psycho.

Maybe... Nah, that was way too farfetched. That car he saw couldn’t possibly... that was just too ironic. But he knew that anything was possible. Fuck his life, he should have gone with his gut instinct and wrote down the license plate number just in case. Oh well, Madara didn't need to know about his little fuck up. He was good at getting back on track.

Kisame stepped back again when he heard the other man entering the living room once more.

Kiba wiped his hands on the back of his pants and shot a glance back at his dog just to make sure the little Houdini hadn't managed to escape before he got himself back into the frame of mind to talk with the person at his door. "Sorry about that, he's not like this usually. I don’t know what's gotten into him."

Kiba took his post with one hand on the door knob and tried to look apologetic instead of puzzled. He was really high strung with the thought of Madara maybe showing up, losing Sai, granted temporarily, and Akamaru's sudden violent behavior.

"No worries. My sister has five dogs so I'm sure yours is just getting a nose full of their smell on me." He stepped forward just a tad in hopes that Kiba would let him in. He didn't do it too much to seem noticeable, just to give the other man the hint. "I don't think I caught your name. You probably told me already but I'm horrible with remembering things like that. Just got out of one of my college courses actually, my brain's pretty shot."

Kiba looked the man over and gauged what he'd seen as harmless enough to unlock the door completely. There wasn’t much in the way of crime in the complex and Xander was too well dressed to be your average thief. “The name’s Kiba. Why don't you come in? I was just putting some tea on the stove or maybe you'd prefer coffee?"

In the background Akamaru was still yapping his head off and scratching at the kennel door much to the chagrin of his owner.

Kisame smiled once more and headed inside; jackpot. "Tea would be great; thank you Kiba." This was just too easy. Who knew Naruto’s friends would be so dumb.

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Naruto headed down the street, glancing at Sai every once in a while. He was a few minutes away from Itachi and Sasuke's condo and he really wanted to warn Sai beforehand. "Sorry you didn't get a chance to eat. Would you like me to get you something before we get to Itachi and Sasuke's?"

Sai looked out the window at the world with his hands folded in his lap. The lights out there and the happy people on the sidewalks didn’t really help him not to dwell on what Madara would do if he managed to catch him but he was still trying not to think. Thinking only made certain things worse, well that and he tended to think about Kiba a bit more than he thought proper since he'd only just met the man. "Yes please. I'm sorry you couldn't enjoy the meal your friend was making." The little slave tore his gaze from the outside world and looked down at his knees. He hated knowing that he'd brought trouble to his first master.

Naruto just smiled. "Don't even worry about it. But I do want to warn you, Sasuke's in a shitty mood today and probably won't be a very good host, so I apologize in advance for him. Of course I'll have him apologize to you if he does end up being rude." The blond was also planning on giving his youngest sub his well deserved punishment when they arrived.

Sai nodded but didn’t say anything since he hadn't really been prompted to speak this time. He really didn’t want Naruto to make him any kind of threat to his current subs which is what Sasuke believed him to be. Not that he blamed the youngest Uchiha. There’d been no reason trust one another at the party they’d both attended not too long ago.

Twenty minutes and a drive through restaurant later, Naruto pulled into the driveway of his subs' condo. He opened his door and waited for Sai to follow before heading up the familiar steps and unlocking the front door.

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Itachi made his way over to the refrigerator and pulled out some iced tea for himself. He was in the preparations of making dinner and if he wasn't mistaken, he had heard the front door open; sounded like his Master was finally home. He glanced over at Sasuke and eyed him with a firm look. "You better get out there; you have a lot of kissing up to do."

Sasuke scowled in the back of his mind and walked into the living room to greet Naruto like any good sub would, naked and awaiting his masters every command. “Welcome home, Master. I'm really sorry for my outburst earlier today."

Naruto looked down and saw his cute Kitty kneeling before him and gloriously naked... maybe this boy could learn after all. "Hello Kitty. Thank you for the apology but that won't get you out of your punishment." He patted Sasuke's cute little head as he walked by and into the kitchen. His Princess was found there making dinner and he felt a bit stupid now for getting Sai something else. How could he forget about Itachi making dinner? "Go on and sit wherever you want Sai." he said as he walked over to Itachi and wrapped his arms around the older man's waist. "And how is my gorgeous Princess?"

Itachi leaned back into Naruto's embrace. "Stressful." was all he said. He moaned slightly as Naruto began to kiss a path up his neck; it made it very hard to concentrate. "I love it when you kiss me Master, but I can't cook when you do that."

Naruto chuckled and let go of his slave. "Alright, alright." he said as he made his way back into the living room where Sai had taken a seat on the couch and Sasuke was still where Naruto had left him.

Sai looked around the room and tried not to let his gaze linger on the naked man that had greeted Naruto and himself at the door. The man had short hair that flipped up at the back and a fierce pride that shone through his face after the blond had left him behind to go see about the sub in the kitchen. It made him a bit nostalgic and slightly uncomfortable at the same time to be around Naruto’s new subs.

Sasuke could feel Naruto’s blue eyes on him and firmly sat on a shudder that wanted to travel the length of his spine. He really was in for it now. He deserved whatever punishment Naruto wanted to put him through.

The blond made his way in front of Sasuke and looked down on his defiant sub. "Now, I've thought about your punishment and I've decided to do it a bit differently this time." Naruto grabbed a fistful of Sasuke's hair and lifted the smaller Uchiha's head up, not enough to hurt, just to get his point across. "Look at me when I'm talking to you." he said firmly.

“Yes Master.” Sasuke said as he looked at his Master’s handsome yet firm expression. “Oh yeah, he was in deep shit.”

TBC
Poor Sasuke, he’s always stepping in it. But I think you guys will like his punishment XD until next time!

~Sasu