For Better Or Worse

Disclaimer – I don’t own Naruto nor am I making any money off these writings.


Warning – Boyxboy relationships, foul language, ooc characters and basically anything more you can think of. Be prepared for anything.


Beta’d – by the ginormously gifted Poisoned Phantom.


AN – First of all I’m so, so sorry for the long wait on this chapter! Real life has been a bitch with back surgery, ripped stitches and broken arms. Now I’m back and I will really try to never let it go such a long time between chapters again.


A hundred million thanks to all wonderful reviewers, you all are what keeps me going! Thank you so much to: blackwidow, Na-chan, SangoStar, Nejislady, ItaNarulover, hisoka kurosaki, tolani, Kirai, msuzumaki, Sexy Sesshy, mimi-chan and dark_godess . Again thank you so very much!


This is another angsty chapter but I promise…Things will happen soon.


Please enjoy!


For Better Or Worse


“Blah” =speech


“Blah” =thoughts


Chapter 3.


Sasuke groaned as the sunlight shone in through the light green curtains and chased away the comfort of the night. Blinking one tired, bleary, onyx eye open he knew it must be still early so he snuggled deeper into the soft pillow and reached out the pull his wonderful warm dobe closer.


Slender pale hands felt around for the heat of golden skin and a snoring blond but felt nothing but emptiness and untouched sheets. At first he thought his golden angel had gotten up early and he listened for the sound of the shower running or the rattle of ramen cooking in the kitchen, his ears were only met with a dense eerie silence though.


Then in a flash everything that had happened in the previous couple of days came crashing down on him. Sasuke felt his heart start to pound like crazy while sharp claws were tearing up his insides leaving nothing but emptiness and pain behind. Sasuke could taste the bile rising in his throat and he had to swallow feverishly to keep from vomiting.


His dobe was gone.


How could this have happened? What had made everything turn out so fucking messed up and wrong? Sasuke honestly didn’t know how he had managed to fuck up this bad. He loved Naruto; he really did with every fiber of his being. Life had just gotten so damn complicated. First his father got sick, Sasuke had always thought of Fugaku like an unbreakable rock larger than life that no one could break down. Then in a blink of an eye his father was suddenly human, weak and frail. How could that be? Then he and Itachi was taking over the company while he was still in school, not to mention that damned study group for the gifted that he had worked so hard to get in to. Certainly they could learn a lot about business by attending but professor Orochimaru was just so creepy.


Sasuke thought he was used to perverted teachers after enduring high school with Kakashi Hatake as his teacher but Orochimaru was in a league all of his own. The worst thing was that the perverseness wasn’t directed at him but at Naruto. The snake like professor always asked about his blond and suggested he’d bring him with him the next time the group had a meeting. As if Sasuke would ever subject his precious angel to that slimy man’s stares and touch. No, Sasuke did his best to keep Naruto as far away as possible from said study group.


With all that had happened since Sasuke and Naruto started college and began to live together Sasuke now felt shackled by responsibilities. He was only about to turn twenty but mentally he started to feel as if he were fifty. Get up early go to school, of course get top grades since nothing else was accepted by his family. After school it was work at Uchiha inc. and trying to get all the stuffy old geezers there to accept that he actually knew what he was talking about. Then three nights a week there was the study group. When he came home late in the evening he had a whiny, clingy dobe asking him how his day had been. It was all too much. Wasn’t college supposed to be a fun time filled with parties and sex?


One night on his way home Sasuke had stopped at the local dive to get a drink and that was when he had met Gaara. At first they had talked about high school and what they both had been up to since graduation. Then Sasuke had started to notice the way Gaara’s red hair shone in the soft light and how smooth his peach colored skin seemed to be. One thing led to another and within two hours of meeting they were having wild sex in the alley behind the bar. For the first time in a long time Sasuke felt young and free, he couldn’t give that up and because of that he ended up meeting Gaara again and again. He pushed the guilt of cheating on Naruto way back in his mind; it wasn’t as if the blond would ever find out.


Then at the club Friday night when Sasuke had looked up from Gaara and met those impossibly blue eyes filled with hurt, shock and betrayal everything had crashed around him. He realized what he had done but it was too late and now he’d lost his light for good. Sasuke honestly didn’t think that Naruto would leave him; he had no idea how he was supposed to live without his blond when just breathing without him was agony. How could he fix this?


Sasuke was roused from his musings by a less than gentle pounding on the front door. He slowly got out of the bed, put on a worn pair of jeans and went to open the door. By opening it he was promptly met by a fist to the face that had him stagger backwards and clutch his now bloody nose with his hand.


“FUCK!” Sasuke yelled in pain and looked up to see who his assailant was.


Kiba glared back at him from the other side of the door before stalking into the apartment carrying a load of boxes in his arms, he was followed by Iruka who was also carrying boxes. If looks could kill Sasuke would be stewing in the deepest pits of hell from the death glares that Iruka shot him.


“We’re here to pick up the rest of Naruto’s stuff.” Iruka told him in a short clipped tone as he started to pack Naruto’s shoes and jackets from the shelves in the hallway.


“No way,” Sasuke said and tried to pry the box out of the long haired brunet’s arms. “You’re not touching anything of the dobe’s; he needs it when he comes home.”


“Get a grip shit for brains,” Kiba snarled and shoved Sasuke into the wall. “After the shit you pulled, Blondie isn’t stepping foot inside this building again. You fucked up big and you lost him… Deal with it!” The last words were almost yelled in Sasuke’s ear.


“B-but I need to talk to him…I need t-to explain…” Sasuke said as he slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor with his face buried in his knees.


“Well tough…I thought you would realize that Naruto doesn’t want to speak to you after he pressed the ignore button on his phone like a million times yesterday when you tried to call him. Cheating assholes doesn’t get second chances.” Iruka growled as he continued packing as fast as he could, it was actually not so much packing as it was tossing everything he could find into the boxes. Naruto could sort it out later when he wasn’t in bed crying his heart out.


Sasuke looked up from his knees and suddenly got a hard glint in his onyx eyes. “Well you’re one to talk,” He hissed at Iruka. “You’ve been the other man in a cheating relationship for years.”


“Oh you can’t compare our situations,” Iruka yelled, this little shit pissed him off. “Kurenai knows about me and Asuma, she’s always known. You went behind Naruto’s back for months screwing someone else, it doesn’t compare at all.” Iruka bent down until he could look Sasuke straight in the eyes. “I’m so looking forward until Minato gets back from his trip, I know your father and he are best friends but I also know he warned you when you started dating Naruto. Minato only has one son and he would do anything for him, be prepared to sleep with one eye open… Minato doesn’t take kindly to anyone who makes his boy cry.” Iruka stood up and continued tossing items haphazardly into the boxes; he could hear Kiba doing the same from the other room.


Sasuke leaned back into his knees; he didn’t know what to say. He hated to admit it but he was really afraid of Minato. The elder blond seemed carefree and borderline stupid but there was a reason he’d become the youngest police chief the city had ever had, the man could be absolutely ruthless when he felt the need to be. As Iruka had said, Minato was extremely protective of his family and Sasuke didn’t know how much the blond’s friendship with his father could protect him, blood is thicker than water after all.


Sasuke got up from the floor and started to walk towards the bathroom, he needed a shower to clear his head and think of a way to get his dobe back. “Just close the door when you leave, it will lock behind you.” He called over his shoulder before he entered the bathroom and slammed the door shut. He sighed as he peeled the jeans and boxers off and stepped into the shower. Sasuke didn’t have the energy to deal with Naruto’s idiotic friends anymore, not when his heart was hurting the way it did. He closed his eyes and let the hot water pelt his aching body.


oo—oo—oo


Itachi sat at his home office doing some paperwork, it was Sunday but unfortunately he still had work that needed to be done. He sighed and rubbed his neck that had gotten sore from all the paperwork he had done over the weekend. There didn’t seem to be an end to things from Uchiha inc. that needed to be taken care of. He glanced at the old golden desk clock that stood on the large wooden desk again and almost groaned when he saw that it was still only lunchtime, Itachi felt as if he’d been trudging through the same papers forever.


It was such a nice Sunday and Itachi would much rather spend it with his wife than with quarterly taxations and who need to be laid off. He and Anko were going to be parents soon and Itachi wanted to be a better father than Fugaku, neither he nor Sasuke had ever doubted that their father loved him but he was never there. Any recital or graduation they had had the only one who had been there were Mikoto. On an intellectual level Itachi understood that his father had been busy and that he had an empire to run but in his heart it had always been lonely to see that empty chair. He wanted to be there for his little boy or girl. That’s why he wanted Sasuke at the company too; maybe if they did it together they would have some time with their families too at least Itachi hoped so.


Itachi felt it as if he and Anko were slowly drifting apart; he hated the feeling because he loved his spitfire police-wife. The pregnancy was taking its toll on his wife and he wasn’t around much to support her. He hoped that things would be better when the baby was born. No matter how things were right now at this moment Itachi didn’t want to lose her, not when they were becoming a family. A small smile touched the dark haired man’s lips when he thought about the fact that he was going to be a father; nothing on earth meant more than that. There would be a life on this earth that was part him and part Anko, their love had made that life. Itachi looked at the watch again and allowed his head to fall down on the desk with a thump when he saw that only a few minutes had passed since he looked at it last.


A knock on Itachi’s office door saved him from committing suicide through paper cuts and he almost eagerly called for the person on the other side of the door to enter. To his surprise Itachi saw his younger brother entering the office and closing the door behind him, Sasuke looked like hell even paler than usual and with large dark circles under his eyes.


“Well little brother, what brings you here on a Sunday looking like something the cat dragged in? Shouldn’t you be at home screwing that gorgeous blond of yours into the mattress?” Itachi asked with a raised eyebrow.


“Something has happened,” Sasuke said in a monotone voice as he went over to the desk and sat down on the comfy leather chair across from Itachi. “I’ve really fucked up!” He said and told Itachi the whole story.


After hearing his younger brother’s story Itachi could feel a pounding head ache starting to creep up behind his temples. “I’ve always known you’re stupid little brother but this must be a new record even for you.” Itachi rubbed his temples with long, slender fingers as he fixed Sasuke with a glare. “For as long as I can remember Naruto is the only one you have ever wanted. First you were best friends since you were in diapers then something happens I don’t know what and you spend five years stalking the poor blond without him knowing and trying to come up with a plan to get him back. When that finally happens and you’re supposed to have your happily ever after you go and do this…Why?”


“I never meant for any of this to happen, Naruto is still the only one I want…The only one I’ll ever want. He owns my soul.” Sasuke said broken heartedly as he looked at his older brother. “I didn’t choose for this to happen, it just did…”


“That’s complete bullshit and you know it!” Itachi snapped at the younger raven, he could feel himself getting angry and that was never good. “You always have a choice little brother. In life you will meet people that you’ll feel an attraction to, that’s part of what makes life so great. You choose how to react to that attraction though, is it worth more than the relationship and love you have? Ask yourself that question and then choose. Don’t come here and say that you didn’t have a choice and that it just happened…You ALWAYS have a choice, you made the wrong one and now you live with the consequences.” Itachi looked at Sasuke with knowing dark eyes as he spoke, he knew his little brother was hurting but he also needed Sasuke to understand that he had done a horrible thing to a person that loved him.


“I just want him back ‘Tachi, everything hurts without him.” Sasuke said and his black eyes were filling with tears, he tried to blink them away. The last thing Sasuke wanted was to be weak and cry in front of his older brother, for an Uchiha weakness was not tolerated.


“I know you want him back and I wish I could tell you that everything will be okay but I can’t,” Itachi said softly. “You have to accept that there is a distinct possibility that you have lost Naruto, and what about the redhead…Gaara was it? Where does he stand in all of this?”


“Gaara doesn’t mean anything to me!” Sasuke snapped irritably. “He was just a way to relieve all the stress I’ve been feeling.”


“Does he know that?” Itachi asked as he leaned back in his chair lacing his hands together in his lap.


“Yes…What we had was a mutual understanding regarding sex. Gaara’s still in love with his ex-boyfriend.” Sasuke was growing more and angrier with his brother; he was supposed to help him finding a way to get his dobe back not sitting there like a God and judge him.


The tension between the two Uchiha’s was rising high but before any of them could say anything else there was a loud knock on the large dark brown wooden door and without waiting for an answer Anko waddled in. Her hands were on her stomach and her usually sharp honey brown eyes were wide with wonder.


“‘Tach…my water just broke.” She said calmly as she stood in the middle of the room.


“What?” Itachi looked completely stumped as he rushed up from behind the desk and started to almost drag his less than amused wife out the door and down the stairs. “Call the hospital little brother and tell them we’re coming.” Itachi called to Sasuke with a brilliant smile on his face, Sasuke had never seen that look of pure joy on his elder brother before.


“What are you waiting for Sasuke? Call them,” Itachi said again. “I’m going to be a daddy!”


oo—oo—oo


Ring, ring.


Naruto woke with a start when Iruka’s telephone started ringing through the house. He looked at his watch and saw that it was five thirty pm, great after crying all night and all morning he’d slept the rest of the day away.


Ring. Ring.


Why didn’t Iruka answer? Naruto managed to crawl out from under the blue covers and stand on shaky legs. He went out into the hallway and everything was silent except from the blaring phone. It seemed as if Iruka had stepped out for a while. Naruto made his way to the small end table and answered the phone.


“Umino residence.” He tried to sound upbeat and keep the hoarse and sleepy gravel away from his voice.


“Naruto,” A smooth dark voice said on the other line.


“Sasuke,” Naruto said with a sigh. “I told you not to call; I really don’t want to speak to you.”

“Please Nar don’t hang up! This isn’t about me.” Sasuke hurriedly said and Naruto thought that something sounded strange about the raven’s voice, like he tried to keep all emotion out of it.


“Okay bastard, then what is it? I don’t have all day.” Naruto replied, wanting to end this conversation as fast as possible. His knuckles had gone white around the phone’s receiver just by hearing the velvety voice of his now ex-boyfriend.


“I’m at the hospital…I-it’s Anko…S-she’s…Dead…


AN- And there you have it. Anko didn’t make it, is the baby okay? Is it a boy or a girl? How will Itachi react to all of this? Tell me what you think. Thank you so much for reading and please review!