Mine

Mine

Chapter 3: White Lies

Sasuke walked past Ichiraku ramen, not surprised to see that Sakura and Naruto were not there. He had a feeling that Sakura would try and persuade Naruto to do something else in the meantime to make sure that she kept the two of them apart for as long as possible. Instead, he decided to continue his leisurely – though unavoidably – slow pace to go to Naruto's. Sasuke's legs were starting to return to their normal feeling as the medical soldier pill began to take full effect.

Sasuke walked slowly up the stairs to their front door, held his hand over the doorknob when he heard muffled noises coming from inside. His insides burned with an indescribable, and almost vengeful jealousy as he heard Sakura cry out Naruto's name in ecstasy, followed by Naruto's muffled cry of Sakura's name. Sasuke withdrew his hand, and turned tail in the other direction, trying to block out the mental images that were coming to his mind as he thought of the two of them having sex.

The worst image of all was Sakura's name escaping from Naruto's lips. Sasuke had always wanted to hear Naruto say his name instead of Sakura's. It was something that Sasuke had longed to hear, desperately wishing for Naruto to say his name just once as Naruto orgasmed, as Naruto orgasmed because Sasuke was bringing him over the edge. But Sasuke couldn't risk that. The images that Sasuke fed Naruto through his sharingan were mere blurs of what Naruto might be doing as Sasuke focused more on pleasuring Naruto’s body. He couldn't risk Naruto suspecting something by trying to coerce him into saying his name. Naruto would probably remember that image of Sasuke having sex with him, and Sasuke couldn’t tell him yet.

"I said I'd join them in an hour," Sasuke muttered under his breath, looking at the sky that informed him that an hour has passed since the time he had said it, and the time he had begun his slow journey back. Sasuke stormed off from their house, not bothering to suppress his rage and possessive jealousy. He hated talking to anyone, but he felt that he needed some advice. So he went to the only person in the entire world that knew of his situation besides himself.

As Sasuke walked off, he didn’t notice Sakura glancing out the window of her bedroom to see Sasuke retreating, smiling to herself in her triumph.

"Mine," she whispered.

"Sakura," Naruto said. "We're going to be late to meet Sasuke," Naruto said, frowning in pleasured exhaustion.

"We'll get cleaned up and then we'll go," Sakura said brightly.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Sasuke waited outside the Hokage's office, waiting for her to stop giving orders to Shizune. As Shizune exited Tsunade’s office, Sasuke slipped in without knocking.

Tsunade frowned upon seeing him. She hated the expressionless mask that he wore, but she could tell by the slightly squared shoulders that he was having problems with Naruto.

"What now?" She asked, sighing. Sasuke closed and locked the door behind them, and Tsunade stood up and locked the windows. These conversations were not for anyone else's ears, and she didn't want a random ninja to try and come through the windows during their talk. She even closed the blinds for good measure.

"Sakura found out," Sasuke muttered. Tsunade turned from her position, and glared at Sasuke.

"What? How could you have been so foolish?" Tsunade bellowed.

"Sakura wasn't supposed to be home for another few hours-"

"Were you in their house?" Tsunade demanded, her rage heightening. She slammed her fist on the wall, a deep mark imprinted there. "What the hell were you thinking? This is not supposed to be personal Sasuke. This is not about you. This was a mission, a mission to keep Naruto alive. You were foolish and selfish to take Naruto in his own home." Tsunade moved around from her desk, and pointed her finger accusatorily at Sasuke. "I think you wanted Sakura to find out. You wanted someone to be the one to tell Naruto, and you couldn't do it yourself." Sasuke looked at her defiantly. Of course hadn’t wanted Sakura to find out! He had hoped Sakura would never know, and how dare Tsunade tell him about it not being personal when she had first given the mission to him, she had practically encouraged it.

"How could you not have expected this to become personal? Even when you told me about this three years ago, it was personal. You encouraged it to be personal then! You know full well I would never have agreed if it were anyone but Naruto," Sasuke spat out bitterly.

"You're enjoying this far too much."

"If I don't enjoy it, then how am I supposed to get off?"

"I gave you those aphrodisiac pills. They should be more than enough for you to get it over and done with quickly." She turned to look at the closed windows. Sasuke glowered. The first aphrodisiac pills she had given him hadn't really been what she had first told him they were, but she had long since replaced those first “sugar” pills with very potent aphrodisiac. He refused to take them now. In the beginning, she had actually encouraged him to chase after Naruto. It wasn't until Naruto had started to date Sakura that she had begun to change her opinion on what was going on.

"You know full well I only agreed to your most recent terms because Naruto's life was in immediate danger at the time, and-"

"-and if I don't continue, his life will be in immediate danger again-"

"-but would you dare, Sasuke?" She paused, glaring at him. "I picked you because I thought you were going to eventually tell Naruto what was going on, and at least be discreet enough to continue your mission without interrupting his daily life if he was uncomfortable with it. In the beginning you know he would have understood. What about now? Why haven’t you told him yet? Nothing good will come of waiting! Three years have passed and you’ve kept your silence. Clearly you haven't felt it necessary to tell him a thing! If I had known that you would be too cowardly to do so, I would have made different arrangements."

"Why haven't you told him yourself then?" Sasuke asked.

"As I've told you several times before, Naruto is studying to become the next Hokage. He knows what is required of me as Hokage. It's you, and the way you have chosen to go about this that needs to be addressed. That is on your conscious, and yours alone." Sasuke processed her words for a moment before speaking.

"I know that I was originally not supposed to tell anyone about the mission except Naruto if I so chose, but considering the new circumstances, do I have permission to tell Sakura about it? If I do, I'm sure she won't get in the way," Sasuke asked.

"‘Get in the way?’ Is that what you think she'll do? Get in the way? Naruto is her husband, and you're treating her like what you're doing has no effect on her. You're a shinobi. Your responsibility is to carry out your missions without getting emotionally involved. Sakura is Naruto's wife, and since this is a mission, you should treat her with as much consideration as you would a civilian in a normal mission as per the Konoha ninja code," Tsunade said with a chill to her words.

"And what about Naruto? Naruto always gets personally involved in all of his missions. Why hasn't he been reprimanded for his behavior?" Sasuke asked bitterly.

"Like you said, Naruto gets personally involved in all of his missions, not just one, like you." Tsunade walked over to Sasuke and painted a polished red fingernail straight at his face. "Myself and others close to him watched Naruto suffer for years after you left Konoha. I'll be damned if I understand the relationship the two of you have, but he cares about you, and I would think that you would care more about him than just sexually in order to tell him what is going on. There have been times when I have come so close to telling him, until the image of how hurt he was at your betrayal, the tears that streamed down his face, the utter guilt that always seem to haunt the depths of his eyes comes to my mind. If anyone but you tells him what is going on, it will break his heart again. Naruto is strong, but that doesn't mean that anyone else, especially you, has any right to hurt him like that."

"I don't want to hurt him. That's why no one should tell him," Sasuke said.

"I thought giving you this chance and this mission would be a way of helping to redeem yourself in his eyes. I thought this would be best for the both of you because I honestly thought in the beginning of all of this that you loved him."

"I do," Sasuke whispered quietly, so quietly that Tsunade almost didn’t hear him "but he's married and-"

"-and it is your own fault for not confessing sooner that you love him, if you call what you feel for him love. Love should be mutual. Tell him," Tsunade urged. Sasuke looked away from her.

"I'm afraid that if he finds out," Sasuke said, finally voicing his greatest fear, "he'd rather die than let me save him."

Sasuke suddenly flew backwards as the polished fingernail Tsunade had been pointing at him flicked out at his forehead. He landed with a resounding crash. Sasuke groaned and quickly got back up, glaring furiously at Tsunade.

"If I had thought that there was a chance that Naruto would rather die, I would have gone to him and given him the option. As it is, you clearly don't know him. His determination to protect those who are dear to him gives him the greatest reason for living. Do you even know Naruto at all?" Tsunade asked Sasuke pitifully.

Sasuke wiped the small trickle of blood that had appeared at the corner of his mouth away. Strangely enough, he could tell that what Tsunade had said and done was not out of anger, but instead she was actually trying to knock some sense into him, but she was doing so not for his sake, but for Naruto’s. He didn’t bother to say anything more as he turned to leave with little comfort from the advice she had given. He should have known better than to actually expect anything helpful from Tsunade. Just as he was about to open the door, Tsunade yelled out parting words to him.

"I forbid you to tell Sakura about the mission before you tell Naruto. I cannot make you tell him, as that was part of the agreement, but I strongly suggest for your sake, stop running from it. The longer you wait to tell him, the harder he'll take it when he finds out," Tsunade said. Sasuke didn't bother to acknowledge that he had heard her before leaving the Hokage's office.

Tsunade watched Sasuke as he left her office. She put her face in her hands and took a deep shuddering breath. When she had first found out about Naruto's bizarre medical condition, she had been mortified. After Naruto had returned Sasuke to Konoha, he had been battle worn to say the least. She had given him a normal checkup, but had been horrified to find the cells in Naruto's body mutating. If the mutation continued at the same level that it was at, he would have less than a year to live. Tsunade hadn’t been able to break the news to Naruto. Instead, all she could do was smile at Naruto, congratulate him for returning Sasuke, and tell him that he would need to stay in Konoha for a while to look over Sasuke.

In truth, the reason that she had made Sasuke stay in Konoha for six months without any missions on his "probation" was to try and get Naruto to want to stay there as well. She hoped that she could explain that she wasn't giving him any missions so that he could be with Sasuke instead of by telling him that he wasn't allowed to go on missions because she was trying to find a cure for him. Naruto was the kind that if she told him that he was not allowed to protect his village that he would be the first to try and disobey her to fight for his loved ones.

Naruto had stayed in the village for the most part trying to get Sasuke to be more sociable after his return. She had tried not to let him go on too many missions, and she had been successful. Since Naruto was a jinchuuriki, she had attributed his mutating genes to a negative side effect of Kyuubi's doing. She had worked endlessly to try and figure out why his cells were mutating so she could then figure out a cure for her precious Naruto. Once she had finally found the cause for Naruto’s mutating cells, the only possible solution she had been able to find had not made her happy. Since Naruto housed the Kyuubi's Yang chakra in him since Yondaime had sealed away the Yin chakra, Naruto's body was off balance due to too much use of solely Yang chakra. She had to help give him a balance of Yin chakra into his system to stop his cells from mutating, but how was that possible? Who would have an imbalance of Yin chakra in their system to be a donor to counterbalance Naruto’s?

What should have been an impossible enigma to solve, the answer came to Tsunade almost immediately. With Sasuke's cursed seal (courteous of Orochimaru), she had done tests on him upon his return to note that his mutational gene had given his entire body an offset of Yin chakra. Since Yin was the darker, impassive element, and Yang the brighter, more dominate element, it seemed ironic that the two boys balanced themselves out. Wind was an element of Yang; Naruto's element, and fire was an element of Yin; Sasuke's clan's element. While Sasuke had a substantial excess of the Yin element to his chakra, it was not nearly as damaging as the Yang element. Yang was more forceful and Yin more passive, so it did not affect Sasuke's body as much.

While it seemed like a lucky deal to Tsunade (something she knew always fell as a bad omen to her), next came the problematic part: how to mix their chakras in order to prevent Naruto's over balance of Yang from killing him? The difficult task would be to actually have to mix the DNA of their chakra together. Pouring straight chakra into someone was risky at best, and doing so on a frequent basis would stop Naruto’s heart. DNA chakra mixing was the only option. She had called Sasuke back to her office in the pretense of checking his mental health and other bodily functions while taking samples of his blood, not just for his own health, but to see how it would react with Naruto’s blood.

She had then called Naruto back to her office for some "check-up" tests which he had said that he didn't need but complied when she had threatened that she would make the owner of Ichiraku ramen forbidden from selling him ramen. Unfortunately, when Tsunade had tried to mix Sasuke's blood sample with Naruto’s blood sample, the samples hadn't mixed. In fact, it had damaged Naruto’s blood cells. Naruto's blood had reacted poorly to Sasuke's blood because Naruto's blood type was B and Sasuke's blood type was AB. B types could not accept AB blood types, so having Sasuke give Naruto a blood transfer with his chakra in it was out of the question. The next choice Tsunade thought of was saliva. Sasuke’s chakra would be embedded in his DNA in his saliva, but that option quickly proved to be impossible. Naruto would have to drink at least twenty pints of Sasuke's saliva on a frequent basis to get enough Yin chakra to offset his chakra imbalance. While she knew the human body produced 2 to 4 pints a day, collecting twenty pints was just ridiculous. Tsunade went through a list of many possible different remedies, but in the end, the only thing that she could think of that would have enough of Sasuke's DNA in it was his sperm.

This discovery had greatly unnerved Tsunade, but she found no other way around it. Initially she had once again called Sasuke back to her office for another examination, only to find that he was looking more and more lifeless. Not that Sasuke had ever been one to particularly look excited about much, but it was clear that his inability to do anything was driving him slowly to madness.

Tsunade had hastily explained a small part of the situation to Sasuke. She remembered their conversation as if it were yesterday.

FLASHBACK

"Naruto is dying," Tsunade had stated bluntly. Sasuke's eyes had widened slightly, and he had looked ever so slightly less apathetic.

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"Naruto is dying. Long story short you might be able to help keep him alive."

"I'll do anything," Sasuke said immediately, and Tsunade raised her eyebrows. She had never understood the relationship between the two boys, but it was clear that they cared about each other. Even Sasuke, the tormented boy that he was seemed to truly care about Naruto over everyone else. He had come back after all. She tilted her head to the side, sizing Sasuke up. Come to think about it, he didn't seem to care much about his fangirls at all, and something seemed to click in the intelligent medical nin's brain. 'He loves Naruto as more than just a friend,' Tsunade concluded. It really shouldn't have shocked her as much as it did, but it made sense. The first question was did Sasuke know about how strong his feelings ran for Naruto? Having been so emotionally stunted for years, she wasn't so sure. The second question was did Naruto have any love-like feelings for Sasuke?

The short answer to that was yes. He had been obsessed with returning Sasuke for over three years; he had left the Village that Tsunade knew he loved like no one else ever had in order to train to get Sasuke back. If Naruto cared about Sasuke even more than the Village Naruto loved and cared about, then Tsunade was sure that Naruto loved Sasuke deeply, deeply enough that it was very possible for that kind of love to blossom into the strong bond of romantic love.

"You need to have sex with Naruto to keep him alive," Tsunade explained simply. Sasuke's mouth opened slightly, and his eyes widened. She was sure she had never seen an Uchiha struck so utterly speechless before. Sasuke's mouth moved slightly, as though wanting to have further explanation, but words seemed impossible for him to form. Tsunade decided to explain further: "Naruto's genes have been mutated. The sperm of another male is required to enter his system to offset the mutation."

Tsunade purposefully left out the part that it was specifically Sasuke that needed to be the one to have sex with Naruto. She wasn't sure if she could handle giving Sasuke that much power over Naruto. She knew what asking Sasuke to do might entail some horrible deception on both of their parts. Tsunade had a very sinking suspicion that even if Sasuke agreed, he wouldn't want Naruto to know. Hell, Tsunade didn't want Naruto to know that he was dying. Still, she had decided to leave it up to Sasuke instead of Naruto because if Naruto knew that the only way for him to live was for Sasuke to shoot his sperm into his body, it might break Naruto. If only Sasuke knew and it broke his heart, well, Tsunade was far more willing to hurt him than Naruto.

She was being selfish and she knew it. She was taking Naruto's fate into her own hands and giving it to Sasuke to decide what to do with it. But she couldn't help it. Tsunade couldn't bear to know that she had the power, well, at least the ability to force Sasuke to save Naruto.

"I'm making this a mission. Your mission is to keep Naruto alive at all costs. He will be the next Hokage, and it is your job to make sure that he lives in order to protect the people of Konoha."

END FLASHBACK

Now, looking back on her decision, she wondered if it had been the right one. She had been so sure that if she had made it sound like she had chosen him because she knew that Naruto would have wanted him to be the one to help him, that Sasuke would use it to his advantage and tell Naruto about his feelings. Naruto and Sasuke seemed to complete each other; Yin and Yang, day and night, fire fueled by wind, and yet Sasuke hadn't acted. He had kept quiet.

And six months after she had told Sasuke to begin giving his sperm to Naruto, Sakura and Naruto had started dating. That worried her above everything else.

With Sakura dating Naruto, Sakura was now put in serious danger. If Sasuke did not continue to put his yin chakra into Naruto, then Naruto's yang chakra would begin to grow to dangerous levels again, and would once again start appearing in his sperm. If Sakura and Naruto had sex when his yang levels were too high, it could severely hurt Sakura. Or worse, kill her.

Tsunade knew she was playing a very dangerous gamble, and she knew it was different than just a game because Naruto and Sakura were very precious to her.

The problem was Sasuke. She had never really liked him. Both Sakura and Naruto had chased after him for so many years, and he had treated them horribly. When he had returned to Konoha, he had been rather pathetic. He had nothing left after his revenge, and Tsunade felt hardly any sorrow for him. If he hadn't been so hell bent on seeking his revenge then he could have stayed in Konoha and become stronger with his friends. She knew what it was like to lose family, and she did not belittle that weight on his shoulders, but how he had handled it had been wrong.

Having to place Naruto's fate in his hands had been difficult, but she had hoped, she had hoped beyond anything else, that Naruto would be able to change Sasuke. Naruto was the light for so many people, she was sure that Sasuke would - if he hadn't in the beginning - fallen for Naruto. Who didn't love him in some way? Yet when Sasuke refused to tell Naruto after Naruto and Sakura started dating, it was only her fear that Sasuke would refuse to continue to balance Naruto's chakra that prevented her from telling Naruto. She feared giving Sasuke the power to know that he was the only one that could keep Naruto alive. Would he use that to his advantage to manipulate Naruto into staying with him? What about Sakura? Why hadn't Sasuke told Naruto and let Naruto choose who he wanted to be with?

Tsunade sighed, grabbing her bottle of sake that she kept hidden from underneath her desk. She could only hope that Sakura and Naruto wouldn't hate her for putting her faith in the same boy that they had both chased after for so many years.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Sasuke rubbed his forehead, cursing Tsunade for her strength and once more for teaching Sakura how to do medical techniques. His legs still ached from earlier, and he wanted to hurt something. He was mad at himself for letting both Sakura AND Tsunade land hits on him in the same day, and he vowed not to let it happen again. Deciding to head over to Ichiraku ramen to see if Naruto and Sakura were there to meet him at last, he formulated his plan.

He had a mission to complete after all; he had to make sure that he balanced whatever it was that Tsunade had refused to tell him needing balancing in Naruto's body to make sure he lived.

And damn it if he wasn't going to enjoy it.

Upon arriving to Ichiraku, he noted that both Naruto and Sakura were there. Sakura looked smug, and he had a sneaking suspicion she knew that he had heard them having sex. Naruto looked rather sated himself, and Sasuke had to take a deep breath to calm himself.

Sasuke ignored Sakura's challenging glare as he saw Naruto turn in his seat to see who had entered the ramen stand. Naruto grinned broadly at seeing him, and waved at him. Ichiraku's owner, Teuchi, and his daughter Ayume both greeted him as well, and Sasuke smiled, activating his sharingan.

"Hello," Sasuke greeted as he caught all four of the people inside the ramen inside his sharingan. Tsunade had once forbidden him from using his sharingan on any Konoha nin save Naruto in order to fulfill his mission, but he considered the weight of what might happen if Naruto did not get his sperm soon outweigh Tsunade limiting his sharingan use. It was also his small way of rebelling since she hadn’t bothered to help him. He took the time to note that even Sakura hadn't been able to protect herself from his sharingan as he led his beloved Naruto away from the other three who wouldn't remember ever seeing him there, and especially from Sakura who wouldn't remember that Naruto ever left her side.

Sasuke took Naruto back to his place and made sure that he fulfilled his mission - several times over.

Next Chapter: The First Time

I hope this chapter wasn’t too boring, but some necessary information came out. Smut next chapter. ~ Jelp

Also, special thanks to ArtDuncan for noting my physiological error in Chapter 1. And thbbb to lL0tus who laughed at me for my error because she knows I know better. Even so, this chapter is dedicated to her because she said this chapter didn’t suck.
FYI for those who are interested: Identity Crisis (the sequel to Restless) is now up. I also have a oneshot that's rather angsty called The Queerwolf.