Black as Blood

IV.

Naruto waited outside the hospital for his charge, glaring at the darker as Sasuke finally made his way out of the building. Sasuke inclined his head a little bit upon seeing the blonde, and Naruto slipped around to his blind side, lashing out to smack Sasuke’s face. Sasuke’s reaction time was delayed, but he still managed to block the smack, just barely before Naruto’s fingertips touched his skin. Naruto glared at his charge, and narrowed his eyes at Sasuke even as the other boy stared back.

“Come on.”

“What, no hello? No, ‘Sasuke, it’s nice to see you’?”

“I could care less about you.” Naruto bit out, glaring at the elder boy as they walked away from the hospital toward the jounin bachelor apartment complex.

“You wound me,” Sasuke whispered, watching the orange back of the blonde. Naruto made a noise that Sasuke took to mean he didn’t care either way.

“Whatever. Tsunade-baa-chan’s said you’re gonna live with me. As much as I hate it, she really only trusts Kakashi and Sakura. But Sakura’s a girl and Kakashi’s too busy.”

“You talk as though providing me shelter is a curse.”

“I don’t like you.” Naruto paused outside his door, turning to face the shorter boy, rather enjoying the few inches of height he had on his former rival. “I’m doing this just to make people happy.”

“Very willing of you.” Sasuke replied, keeping his eye centered on those blue orbs, carefully keeping his own face stoic, keeping the hunter from sensing his weakness.

“Yeah, yeah. Just get in.”

Naruto opened the door for the brunette, letting Sasuke get used to the new surroundings, standing in the front foyer until Sasuke was used to the place, moving up on his blind side and pushing past him, feeling that pang of regret again as Sasuke jumped when he felt Naruto brush by. He quickly buried that feeling under his stronger feelings of resentment and hate, moving to set up a nest of blankets on the couch for the darker.

“You’re gonna stay in here the most of the time. You can’t go anywhere without an escort. You can’t touch anything here. You don’t ever go into my room.” Naruto disappeared to get a pillow from his bed, dropping it into the brunette’s hands as he passed by, heading back out toward the foyer. “If you’re hungry, you’ll starve until I come home.”

“How… kind.”

Naruto snorted and left Sasuke alone, slamming the door as he left, locking it as an afterthought. Sasuke stared at the closed portal as if it would attack him if he turned his back to it, before finally moving to curl up on the couch. He pressed his face into the pillow that smelled like the obnoxious blonde and screamed into the cushion. Frustration built up inside of him, partly his own, mostly Shiro’s. The ookami was pacing in his head, wanting to be free, wanting to be with Kyuubi. As much as Sasuke wanted to let the ookami have his way, freeing the demon inside of him was most likely going to be frowned upon in the village. And considering only his family seemed to know of the creature, panic would ensue and he’d lose his head for sure. His stomach tightened as he pushed himself up, and he moved to the bathroom, expecting to throw up. The nausea faded about halfway to the bathroom, and he leaned against the wall, hands covering his face as he groaned.

Living with Naruto was going to kill him, if the Council didn’t decide to off him first. He trusted no one but himself and Shiro at this point, and he’d made a habit of not trusting anything except what his senses and Shiro told him. Weapons could always turn against you, even a trusted shuriken or kunai. Friends could turn against you, and Sasuke was breathing proof of that. He’d given up everything for power, power he could no longer obtain, no longer needed. Sasuke moved back to the couch and curled up, pulling the blanket over his head to hide in the darkness. He closed his eye and tried to nap.

He kept his body relaxed beneath the blankets, even though he was wide-awake. Someone was in this room with him, someone besides Shiro. Naruto had locked the door, and probably the windows as well, but in a village full of ninja, what was the point of that? If someone wanted in, they were going to get in. Sasuke had no weapons with which to defend himself, but that would prove no problem. In his time with Orochimaru, and on his own, he had learned how to kill without weapons. He felt the presence come closer, felt Shiro reach out to try and determine what it was, to relay the information back to his vessel. There was nothing but blankness, and Sasuke understood.

This was an ANBU.

The ANBU ninja reached for the blanket, but Sasuke proved faster. He threw the blanket onto the masked ninja’s head and slipped off the couch, moving like a shadow behind it. He felt rather than heard the blanket being thrown down, torn away from that covered face. He felt the ANBU’s confusion. Plans began to formulate in his head. He had no way of knowing if this ninja was ally or foe, or had a hankering for revenge. Escape routes made themselves clear to him, and he heard the ANBU circling the couch. If this was a test, Sasuke was going to kill the test-maker. He felt the ANBU on his left and bolted right, down the hallway to Naruto’s bedroom. He cut left into an unoccupied room and raced for the window. The ANBU chased him, right up until Sasuke flung himself through the glass, shards of it embedding in his skin. He felt himself falling and rolled accordingly, landing on his feet on the street below. He didn’t bother to look back.

“Find Naruto.” Sasuke whispered to Shiro, the ookami lending the boy his heightened sense of smell. Sasuke moved like a shadow, keeping to the crowded streets rather than the rooftops, trying to blend in without being seen. He caught Naruto’s scent by the academy, but a quick check proved Naruto was no longer there. Sasuke kept moving, kept following that scent, and paused at Ichiraku. There. That stupid orange tracksuit beside two pairs of black-clad legs. Sasuke figured those legs were probably Kakashi or Iruka, but took the chance anyway. He went in, looking a lot more confident than he felt.

“Hello there, Sasuke.” Kakashi said, turning around to smile at the dark-haired youth, but paused when he saw the shining shards of glass and trickles of blood on that pale skin. “What the hell happened to you?”

“ANBU.” Sasuke said simply and moved to sit beside his supposed-caretaker, pulling shards of glass from his skin with little ceremony. Kakashi seemed to watch in numbness, while Iruka looked on in abject horror. Naruto didn’t look at Sasuke.

“Sasuke, don’t do that!” Iruka moved to get a towel and a bowl of hot water from Ayame and moved to help Sasuke remove the glass shards from his flesh. Naruto finally looked up at Sasuke, and felt that pity growing in his stomach again. Sasuke’s eye was blank as he watched Iruka pull shards gingerly from that pale flesh, dropping the glass pieces on a plate poor Ayame put on the counter.

“An ANBU attacked you?” Kakashi finally asked, looking at Naruto as he said it, head tilting. Sasuke nodded wearily.

“…He certainly wasn’t checking up on me.” Sasuke winced as a shard was withdrawn from his forearm, and Iruka finally turned away to pick up the bandages and salve that had been placed on the counter. The elder chuunin slanted a glance at Naruto, and the boy reddened a bit.

“Why would anyone want to break into my apartment just to get at you?” Naruto groused, and Iruka smiled a little bit.

“It is a nuclear waste factory.” The chuunin sensei said. Naruto made a choking sound and glared.

“Revenge, hatred. I could think of several reasons.” Sasuke stuck out his tongue and drew it back in, repeating the movement a few times more before finally settling back, wounds disinfected and wrapped. He noted the other three ninja had grown somber.

“At least you sought out Naruto.” Kakashi said finally, standing up and shoving his hands into his pockets, glancing at Iruka, silver head tilting. Iruka looked up and nodded, drawing away from Sasuke.

“If you two need a place to stay,” Iruka offered, but Naruto shook his head.

“We’ll be okay. I don’t think anyone, ANBU or otherwise, would break in with me actually there.”

“Opportunity,” Sasuke whispered, eye closed, palm pressed to his forehead. He ached, and not just physically; mentally, and in his soul too. No one seemed to have heard him. Nothing had changed. Not really, anyway.

“We’re going to head on home.” Iruka started. “If you need anything, Naruto,”

“Yeah, I know.” Naruto grinned, giving a mock salute to his old sensei. He grinned at Kakashi and the jounin shook his head. With a wave, Kakashi and Iruka were gone, leaving Sasuke and Naruto by themselves. Naruto looked over at Sasuke, expression softening the longer he stared. Sasuke was pale, his already white skin almost translucent. There were dark circles beneath his eyes, and he looked too thin to be healthy. He was barely breathing, his eye closed, as if he were already asleep. Naruto wanted to leave him here, but he remembered the ANBU that had attacked Sasuke, and in Naruto’s own home.

And if he wanted his money, Sasuke needed protection.

“Oi, Sasuke-teme. Wake up, or I’m leaving without you.” Naruto griped, hands on his hips, glaring at the brunette. Sasuke’s eye opened, and Naruto had to fight to keep his annoyed expression. The gaze in that black eye was one of a man who had given up, who knew when the end was nigh and was prepared to meet his fate. After a moment of staring, Sasuke finally rose, and walked with Naruto back to the apartment he’d abandoned earlier. They said nothing, and Sasuke did not need the words. He knew what Naruto thought about him, and he shattered a little more.

Naruto unlocked the front door and set about looking for traps, just in case, as Sasuke moved back to the couch. He stared for a long while at the blanket on the floor, before picking it up and wrapping it around his shoulders as he settled back onto the couch, head on the pillow, eye halfway closed. When Naruto returned to the living room after taping up his broken window, he stared at Sasuke for a long while. He finally shook his head and went to his bedroom, trying to get the image of Sasuke broken and bloody out of his mind.