A bond thicker than blood

as promised here is the second chapter

enjoy =)

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Chapter 28

“Good morning Kumicho”

Naruto and Gaara turned around staring straight at Itachi, who as usual stood smirking.

“Itachi!?!” the blond boy said, what was he doing here? Is he here to talk to Sasuke? He felt a small fear beginning to form in his stomach for leaving Sasuke alone in the flat.

Gaara drew his sword and swiftly moved towards Itachi, stopping when he was behind the man’s back pointing the sword at it. Naruto was shocked how fast Gaara had moved, he had not even seen Gaara move before he stood behind Itachi. The red haired boy’s eyes had changed the moment he saw Itachi, they were always so kind towards Naruto but now they had narrowed and only hate could be seen.

“Now now that’s not very nice Gaara” the man said still smirking as if he was not affected by the sword pointing at his back. Itachi’s eyes did not move from the blond, he knew the importance of the blond boy but he still could not see why he was Orochimaru’s type. He had always thought he liked the helpless type, the ones that did not fight back.

“What do you want Itachi” Naruto finally asked, hoping they could get this over and done with as fast as possible. It would not look good if someone were to come down the street seeing Gaara pointing the sword at an unarmed man.

“Not so much what I want, Kumicho but what Orochimaru wants” he said, Naruto was confused now.

“Orochimaru?”

Itachi knew he had gotten the blond’s attention and attempted to move closer, but as he did so he could feel the sword Gaara was holding moving closer.

“Don’t even think about it!” Gaara spat at him from behind.

“Okay, I wont move” Itachi knew he could never beat the red haired boy and seeing as he valued his life he did not make any attempt to piss the red-head more, but he did not feel comfortable with the sword pointing at his back. “But I have noticed one thing Gaara, you left the blond boy exposed” Itachi smirked when he felt the grip on his shoulder loosen. “Isn’t that rule number one? Never leave your Kumicho side, who knows I might not be here alone.”

Gaara began to panic, cursing himself for being too hot-headed; wanting to look around but afraid if he did so Itachi would make a move.

“Well lucky for you I am alone.” He laughed a little knowing he had put fear in the red-head, if he could not beat him at least he could mentally screw with him.

“What do you mean what Orochimaru wants?” the blond was back in the conversation.

“Ah glad you asked, well you see Orochimaru is planning something.”

“Planning what?” Naruto asked

“Well Sumiyoshi-kai group is the first one to actually join the drug market and it is Orochimaru’s ambition is to rule the whole drug market.”

Naruto just stared at the man, how can one man possibly manage to rule the whole drug market?

“But the problem is that not many people in the group share the same ambition as him, which is a shame really considering how much money it would create.”

“Well no wonder” Naruto said “it’s not possible to rule the whole drug market unless he controls the other grou …” Naruto stopped himself and panic struck him, he was not really planning to challenge the other groups for leadership.

“Oh yes” Itachi said as he saw the panic in Naruto’s eyes.

Naruto had learned a lot of how things worked between the groups and he knew that crossing the borders was a dangerous thing, but of course it was not an unusual thing to happen. The groups were always at each others throats, they were rivals.

“Unfortunately the Matsuba-kai has picked up on our little plan, how they did it I dunno but my guess is that we have a snitch in the group and quite high up in the ranks too. Anyways they have begun to move as well going for the same goal, much to Orochimaru’s annoyance, ‘Leader’ thinks he has a fair chance seeing as Orochimaru does not have the support from his group as he does. Well long story short, the people believe in you” Itachi pointed at the blond who looked a bit shocked by the statement.

“So what Orochimaru wants is you standing next to him, so that the doubters will follow.”

Naruto was in shock, the agreement was that he was in charge of the antique shop and nothing more, and there was no way in hell he would stand next to Orochimaru.

“Our agreement was for the Antique shop and that’s all, but more importantly has Orochimaru lost his freaking mind?” the blond boys mind was back on the drug market.

“Well the agreement has expanded a little” Itachi said.

“No fucking way, if he doesn’t have the support from the rest of the group he should know not to pursue such a stupid goal. We’re talking about fucking WAR, he can’t be fucking serious.” Naruto almost screamed the word war, thinking it would have some effect on the man.

“Yes indeed it would mean war between Matsuba-kai and Sumiyoshi-kai but we would win as long as you’re standing next to Orochimaru. Haven’t Haku, Momochi and Gaara actually told you why Gaara is your body guard?” Itachi could see the confusion in the blonds’ eyes and the grip hardening around the sword as Gaara pressed the sword closer again.

“Oh so they haven’t. Well then let me enlighten you.” The man smirked “as the plan has been put into action the ‘Leader’ has found out Orochimaru’s lack of support and knows that if you were to join his side they would win.”

Naruto interrupted the man “Well so? I am not going to take anyone’s side, certainly not change groups.”

Itachi only laughed, what a naïve kid he thought. “Oh they’re not going to persuade you Naruto” Itachi used his name for the first time since they had met “they are going to kill you.”

The words sent chills down the blond’s back, what did he just say, there was a price on his head? Why hadn’t Momochi and Haku said anything?

Gaara was watching as the situation enfolded in a direction he did not like much, “Naruto” he said

“Shut up Gaara” Naruto snapped “why didn’t you tell me there is a fucking price on my head?” he was angry, something Itachi was hoping for. Now it would be easier for him to lure him to Orochimaru, now that his closest had lied to him.

“You can’t seem to trust anyone these days now can you Kumicho?” the man smiled “Orochimaru will be expecting you at noon.”

“Well you can tell Orochimaru to fuck off, no way in hell am I going back” Naruto knew if he went there he would be in hell again, the image of a naked Orochimaru came to his head and he could feel his hands all over again, making his body shake with disgust.

“Well Kumicho you don’t have much choice” Itachi said getting a bit annoyed now, he had been standing there for about an hour now with a sword pointing at his back. “My informant tells me Sasuke doesn’t know who you really are, if you don’t come with me I will tell your lover” he put more weight on the word lover to show he knew they were screwing around “everything, what will he say when he finds out you are the one thing he hates most in the world”

Naruto froze; he could not allow Itachi to tell Sasuke. Not at least before he had a chance to, if he ever did. But he could not go back to Orochimaru, or could he for the sake of Sasuke not knowing, no he could not.

“He is not safe anymore” Itachi said pulling Naruto back into the present

“Fuck you Itachi” Naruto snapped but he knew the man was right, Sasuke was no longer safe.

The three of them were too wrapped up in the conversation between them to notice a certain raven haired boy walking up to them.

“Naruto?”

The blond boy froze as he heard the familiar voice; Gaara turned his head to see the raven haired boy stare at him. Itachi could do nothing else but smile, it was perfect timing.

“Sasuke?!?” the blond panicked, hoping, no praying he had not heard any of the conversation. “What are you doing here?”

“Was getting some small things for the flat …” Sasuke stopped talking when he saw his brother turn around facing him. “Itachi” he sneered. Sasuke tried hard to hide his fear, was he here to take Naruto away? More importantly was Naruto okay; he noticed that the usually tanned boy was as white as a sheet. Gaara was not sure what to do, but he decided to take the sword away from Itachi and move to Naruto’s side still pointing the sword towards the man. Sasuke stood watching, confused. He had always noticed Gaara had a sword with him, he had asked once and the red-headed guy had said he was part of the martial arts club at uni and he usually had morning practice before he came to visit Naruto. But he had drawn it now, as he was protecting Naruto something he was a little grateful for not knowing what Itachi was planning.

“You have perfect timing little brother; I have some news for you.”

“Shut up Itachi, no way in hell I’ll listen to anything you have to say” Sasuke snapped.

“Oh but you’ll like this” the man said and smirked. Naruto was panicking shaking his head at Itachi, begging anyone to stop the man from saying another single word.

“ITACHI!!!” a familiar male voice said closely followed by a boy’s voice “NARUTO!”

Naruto felt a slight relief when he saw Momochi and Haku run across the road towards them, Itachi on the other hand was not too pleased. He had finally managed to get under Naruto’s skin, making him doubt.

“Well it looks like this is my cue to leave” Itachi said and turned from Sasuke towards the blond. “Just keep that in mind Naruto, choose wrong and you will be killed by either side.”

Itachi walked past Naruto who did not look at him, he did not show any emotions he only stared straight a head. The truth was he was too scared to move but he hid any sign of it, not wanting to give the man walking passed him the pleasure of seeing how he had managed to break him.

Itachi only smiled as Haku ran past him giving him a deadly look, Sasuke was not sure what had just happened. Had Itachi just said something about killing Naruto? Why? So many questions were forming in his head.

Momochi stepped in front of Itachi blocking his path; he knew the look Momochi was giving him. “Relax I didn’t do anything … physically at least” he added. Upon hearing that Momochi grabbed the front of Itachi’s shirt.

“What did you say to him, bastard” Itachi only smirked, he was not about to tell. Momochi knew he was up to something but he didn’t have time to deal with Itachi.

“Tell Orochimaru if he wants Naruto he has to go through me first, I know without Naruto he has no chance to win this war” Itachi was surprised at what Momochi had just said but then again it wasn’t so surprising when he thought about it. Momochi had been the man Yondaime had said to inherit the Kumicho if his eldest son would choose another path and Naruto would also decide that Yakuza life was not for him, something Orochimaru had not been too happy about it. Momochi let go of Itachi and followed him with his eyes.

“Oh yeah just incase the Kumicho doesn’t tell you. Orochimaru will have him killed if he doesn’t choose to stand with him on this one”