Nameless Desires

Sorry for the loooong delay. Anyway, enjoy!

Nameless Desires

Chapter 4: Life’s Unfair

Naruto stared across at Sasuke, feeling as though somehow, he should have come here sooner. He felt as though a weight was lifting from him, as though he was finally getting closure on something that had haunted him for several years.

Sasuke had always been the one person that had been able to understand Naruto, and he knew that Sasuke had felt the same way about him. Unfortunately, Naruto had had no idea about just how deeply or apparently strongly his best friend had felt towards him.

"Do you want something to eat?" Sasuke asked Naruto, feeling his voice strain. The word 'dobe' had almost slipped from his lips, but he somehow felt that it wouldn't have been the best time for him to try and joke around with Naruto.

"Ramen?" Naruto asked. Sasuke couldn’t resist smiling at Naruto. He should have known. As he pushed a button on his desk phone to buzz Haruka, Sasuke wondered how much Naruto had changed – and how much he had to catch up on.

"Haruka?" Sasuke said, speaking down towards the phone.

"Yes?" Haruka's voice said from over the loud speaker.

"Would you please bring up some ramen, miso preferably," Sasuke said.

"R-ramen, sir? But I thought you were going to go out to dinner with-" Sasuke picked up the phone from off of the hook, making it so that her voice was cut off from the loud speaker, and instead came through the ear piece of the phone.

"Never mind that,” Sasuke almost growled at Haruka. “Please bring up some miso ramen," Sasuke said, his voice demanding but not overly harsh, and he hung-up the phone before Haruka could question him any further.

"Were you supposed to meet someone for dinner?" Naruto asked.

"It's not important," Sasuke said, with a tone of voice that indicated that he didn't want to talk about it. Naruto was slightly pleased. Sasuke usually hated canceling any plans, and the fact that he did so made Naruto feel more at ease.

"As you were saying?" Naruto prompted.

"I explained to you when I started to fantasize you. Naturally I didn't act upon it-"

"For another year and a half, yes, I know that part quite well," Naruto said darkly. All of his anger that had slowly been fading came rushing back full force at the memories began to assault him. Sasuke saw the change in Naruto's face, and sighed, starting again.

"For the next year and a half..."


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


Naruto and Sasuke continued spending as much time as possible together. They practiced both judo and jujutsu, jerked-off to the lame porn movies that Neji supplied them with, watched other movies together, and just basically spent the time enjoying each other's presence.

They were happy together, and they both knew that the reason that they were happy was because they had each other to rely on. They completed each other like yin and yang, connecting a circle.

And yet, at the same time, Sasuke wasn't one hundred percent satisfied. Over time, his crush had developed from a mere crush into something much deeper. He had come to terms that he'd fallen in love with his best friend, and he wanted more, but there were so many reasons why it just wasn't acceptable.

For starters, there was that whole male-male relationship. Just because Japan was more open to homosexuality than other countries, didn't mean that one or the other wouldn't be negatively affected by hatred due to that kind of relationship. The other factor had to do with age. Even though Naruto, in a very strange way, was more "experienced" with sexual acts, Sasuke was the older of the two. He was still years older than his friend, even though his friend was now fifteen, and he was twenty now, and Naruto wouldn’t even be sixteen for another month and a half.

Cognitively, Sasuke realized that Naruto wasn't on the same maturity level as he was. Heck, he doubted Naruto would ever be on the same maturity level as he was, but he was okay with that because that was just Naruto's nature. What he wasn't okay with was that he didn’t think Naruto would be able to handle the depth of a relationship that Sasuke wanted. Sasuke wanted Naruto, and he wanted Naruto badly. What was more, he wanted Naruto to want him back.

Quite frankly, Sasuke’s own emotions scared him at times.

There were times that Sasuke hated watching Naruto sparring with others. He got overly possessive when others touched Naruto, when Naruto was pinned, and someone else was on top of him – even if for the briefest of moments.

Unfortunately, Sasuke had let his temper get the better of him. During one sparring practice, Naruto had been pinned by an opponent named Suigetsu. Of course Naruto had been upset that he had lost the match, but Sasuke had been furious. Sasuke had watched the other male closely, and Suigetsu seemed to be enjoying his position on top of Naruto a bit too much. The next time he was partnered with Suigetsu, Sasuke had been a bit, er, overzealous with him.

Basically Suigetsu had to spend six weeks in the hospital by the time Sasuke was done with him.

Hyuuga Hiashi asked Sasuke to take three weeks off from coming to practices at the gym, and Naruto had been mad at him for “getting too into it” as Naruto had said. Sasuke had hated leaving Naruto there by himself, so in the meantime Sasuke delved himself into reading when he could to try and escape thinking about his blonde haired friend when he wasn't around - which wasn't often, except for the few weeks that Naruto was at the gym and he wasn’t - and every book that he read seemed to be against him. Little things in the books reminded him of Naruto.

Deciding to read some historical books, Sasuke encountered tale after tale about men taking younger brides or concubines to bed with them. In Nectar in a Sieve, the Indian woman was only thirteen and her husband eighteen when she was expected not only to have sex with him, but to also bear him a child. In The Tale of Genji, when Genji is eighteen he falls in love with a ten-year-old, and sleeps with her. He says that he is the only one who can understand her because they both lost their mothers at such a young age, and that he would love her, and it didn't matter that she was only ten and he eighteen. And indeed, in the book, he loved her until their deaths. This reminded him painfully of the strange connection that he felt towards Naruto since they had both been through the same tragedy of losing their parents.

The night after he had finished reading The Tale of Genji, Sasuke had had a vivid dream of him luring a ten-year-old Naruto into his bed with ramen, and then making Naruto slurp the ramen from off of his body. Sasuke had woken up in a feverish sweat, feeling rather like a pedophile as he recalled telling Naruto it didn’t matter if he was ten and he was eighteen because he would give Naruto all the ramen in the world.

Sasuke had gone out and bought tons of ramen for Naruto after that – not that he expected the dream to come true, but still, he could hope.

Nonetheless, Sasuke decided that historical books were against him, luring him into this idea that he and Naruto would be acceptable (while also making him feel rather like a pedophile), and decided to read some fantasy. He read a book called Fire and Hemlock. It was about a young girl who stumbled into a funeral that she was not supposed to be in, and is rescued by a man, who by her initial descriptions sounds quite old. She is only about ten in the beginning of the book. However, by the time she is eighteen, she ends up having a romantic relationship with this man, this man who she had thought to be so much older when she was a child, and who is actually about fourteen years older than her.

The world was against him. He was sure of it. He couldn’t even figure out if Naruto was even straight!

Sasuke waited for Naruto to get a girlfriend; waited for some sort of hint as to determine that there was just no way that Naruto leaned towards guys. But it never happened. Naruto didn't talk about the kids at his school, and never gave any indication as to what he preferred to watch. There had been a few movies that they had borrowed that had orgy sex scenes with multiple men in it, and Sasuke was sure that Naruto had seemed to enjoy that one more, but there had also been multiple girls in it, so Naruto could just have been watching the yuri, girl on girl action. Sasuke needed to watch how Naruto fondled himself with just an isolated scene of guy on guy.

On the other hand, that at least meant that Naruto couldn't be overly adverse to yaoi.

Of course, Sasuke could always just flat out ask him what he preferred, but he wasn't sure how Naruto would handle that. He could just imagine that conversation: “Hey, Naruto, do you like watching guys have sex?” “Why?” “Oh, you know, just curious because I want to fuck you…” Yeah, because that would go over well.

Sasuke often looked over at Naruto while they were watching porn together to try and figure out what he enjoyed best, but they only ever watched heterosexual films. Sasuke was tempted to ask Naruto if he wanted to watch a film that would have both heterosexual and homosexual acts in it, but Neji was the one that always got them their videos, and there was no way in hell Sasuke was going to go into a video store and ask a sales clerk about sex videos, let alone ask if it had any yaoi in it.

Slowly, Sasuke felt himself becoming desperate to know what Naruto was thinking, what he was feeling, meanwhile realizing that his love for his friend was becoming more and more obsessive.

But as Sasuke found out about most things in his life, the world was just against him. Sasuke had come up with a fool proof plan to try and figure out if Naruto liked guys, and then explore the idea of Naruto liking him, or if he wouldn't at least mind the idea of exploring doing things with him. He had finally gotten the nerve to corner Neji into giving them some yaoi videos. Neji had of course smirked the entire time, saying something about “I thought as much after that little incident when you lost it,” before he happily gave Sasuke some yaoi porn. Sasuke watched them first, and decided which he would put on and see how Naruto reacted, and then, perhaps, see if they could experiment. Those plans fell through when something happened to Naruto that was completely out of their hands...

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

"So you had a fool proof plan to figure out my preferences around the time of finding out about my medical condition?" Naruto asked. Sasuke nodded.

"Naruto, I-"

"So you were considerate enough not to distract me, but you felt it necessary to go ahead and-"

"Naruto, please, that's not-"

"Well what the fuck was it, you bastard?!" Naruto asked, standing up, and walking over towards the corner of the room to be as far away from Sasuke as possible. Sasuke stood up and walked over to where Naruto was standing. He put his hand on Naruto's arm gently, but Naruto flung his arm out, causing Sasuke's arm to snap back. "Don't try and comfort me, damnit," Naruto snapped.

The knock at the door made both Sasuke and Naruto jump. Sasuke looked at Naruto before going over to open the door. Haruka stood there with a tray that had two bowls of ramen on it. Sasuke took the tray from her without a word, not even bothering to thank her as he shut the door.

"You're such a cold bastard," Naruto said viciously.

"Sit down and eat," Sasuke said, ignoring Naruto's comment.

"I lost my appetite," Naruto said. Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"That's not possible. You'll make yourself sick if you don't eat something, and you know it," Sasuke murmured.

"I'm already sick," Naruto grumbled, thinking back to when he had found out about his strange medical condition.

Thinking back on his week of hell...


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


"That's the third time today that I've pinned you in five minutes Naruto," Sasuke smirked as he offered a hand to help Naruto up from the training room in Sasuke's house.

"Yeah, well I pinned you seven times in six minutes yesterday," Naruto said, as he took the hand that Sasuke offered him, pulling on Sasuke's arm to try and drag him down to the mat, but Sasuke had been prepared for his maneuver and flipped Naruto back onto his side.

"Four times," Sasuke said.

"That one doesn't co-" Sasuke's doorbell ringing interrupted Naruto's statement.

"I wasn't expecting anyone," Sasuke said off-handedly.

"You never expect anyone but me, and I sure as hell haven't wrong your doorbell since a month from that time I started coming over here everyday," Naruto said.

"That's not true. You've rung me doorbell countless times to wake me up, dobe," Sasuke said darkly.

"Yeah, well, that doesn't count. If I don't give you plenty of time to wake up, you're scary. You look like a zombie or something," Naruto said, shuddering at the thought.

"Stop referring to me as some sort of make-believe creature in a haunted house," Sasuke said angrily.

"I'll stop when I figure out the right one for you," Naruto said, grinning wickedly.

"Well you-" the doorbell rang again, this time interrupting Sasuke. The ring was followed by a loud knock, and then a deep booming voice.

"Uchiha Sasuke, this is the Konoha prefecture Police, we wish to speak with you," the police officer said, his voice muffled through the closed doors, as well as due to the fact that Naruto and Sasuke were on the second floor. Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other. For a moment, Naruto thought that Sasuke was going to run for it, before shrugging his shoulders and heading downstairs.

"Did you kill somebody?" Naruto asked in awe. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"I have no idea why the police are at my house," Sasuke said, his eyes narrowed as he and Naruto walked down the stairs.

Naruto watched as Sasuke walked up to the door, and opened it just enough so that Sasuke could stick his head out.

"Sorry for the disturbance Uchiha-san, but we were told by the Yamanaka's that one Uzumaki Naruto is here at your house," a second police officer said. Naruto went rigid. They wanted him?

"What importance is it to you if he is?" Sasuke asked coldly, moving his body to try and shield the officer's view as he looked in to try and see if Naruto was there.

"Sir, we are here because we feel that there is a threat to Uzumaki-san. It appears that his parent's killer, Kyuubi, has re-surfaced, and is targeting his old victims. Naruto is-"

"But that's not possible!" Naruto said, as he walked forward, shoving Sasuke out of the way as he opened the door in his anger. "Kyuubi was caught and sentenced to serve life in prison! When he found out, he hung himself at-"

"We are aware of what we believed Kyuubi had done. Unfortunately, it appears that not only is he not dead, but he is a very grave threat, and has already killed others since escaping. We need you to go to the hospital for your own safety," the first, taller police officer said. Now that he could see him properly, Naruto saw that he had several scars on his face, probably due to being a police officer. He also looked somewhat familiar, though Naruto was sure he'd never seen him before. The man next to him was heavy set, and looked semi-familiar too.

"Hospital? You mean police station, right?" Sasuke asked as he registered what the man had said. Why would Naruto need to go to a hospital for his own safety? The first police officer sighed, and he looked at his partner, prompting him to explain.

"No, the hospital. The doctors will be able to explain everything better than we will," the second officer spoke again.

"Can...can I get dressed first?" Naruto asked, in a daze. The police officer nodded.

"I'm coming too," Sasuke said, as he and Naruto ran up the stairs to change back from their sparring clothes to their normal street clothes.

Naruto watched through the police car window as Sasuke got into his own car. He nodded sheepishly to Mr. Yamanaka who was in the same police car as well, obviously having to come because he was Naruto's guardian.

"Mr. Yamanaka, I'm sorry for all of this," Naruto said, as the office closed the doors.

"No need to apologize Naruto," Mr. Yamanaka said kindly. Although Naruto had never really gotten along too well with Kenji, Mr. and Mrs. Yamanaka had always been very good to him. He didn't really spend much time at their house, but they had always been very warm and welcoming. There was a strange silence between the two of them as they drove to the hospital, Naruto looking out the window often to make sure that Sasuke was still following them in his car behind them. The ride to the hospital seemed to drag on forever, terrible thoughts whirling in Naruto's mind the entire time. When they finally arrived, Naruto practically jumped out of the police car, eager to find out what the heck was going on.

Naruto was led inside the hospital with both officers on either side of him. Naruto didn't like this at all because people kept on looking at him like he was some wanted criminal because of his police escort. Thankfully, glancing back at Sasuke who looked regal and serene in any setting helped Naruto calm his fears. Sasuke had protected him from Kenji, and had been there from him for nearly two years; he knew he could always count on Sasuke.

Mr. Yamanaka followed behind, nodding to Sasuke. There was a doctor already waiting for them.

"Uzumaki Naruto?" A busty blonde woman asked.

"H-Hai," Naruto affirmed.

"I am Dr. Tsunade. And are you his guardian?" Dr. Tsunade asked to Mr. Yamanaka.

"Yes," he replied.

"And you are...?" Tsunade asked Sasuke.

"Uchiha Sasuke - best friend," Sasuke replied in a voice that clearly challenged her to contradict him.

"Uchiha, eh?" Tsunade murmured before turning her attentions back to Naruto. She nodded for all of them to follow her. Instead of being led into a hospital room, they were taken to a mini conference room further down the hall, away from the patients' wing.

"What's going on?" Naruto began asking, in a rush, "The police officer here," he pointed to the man on his right, "said that Kyuubi is alive. But I was sure that the prison reports had said that he hung himself. Now you're telling me that he is alive and after me? And why am I at a hospital instead of at a police station?"

"It appears, Uzumaki, that this Kyuubi was more than a common drug dealer as had been expected. He had hoped to become a doctor. You see, he was using his drugs to experiment on people. One of the people he was testing on was, apparently, you," Tsunade explained. Naruto's eyes went wide at this new piece of information.

"Experimenting on me...?" Naruto asked, aghast.

"Kyuubi was doing testing on a parasite called blastocystis hominis*. It is normally found in raw sushi, and has some unique characteristics. We have reason to believe that during the time that he was baby-sitting you, he exposed you to a food that carried this parasite during one of your dinner or mealtime snacks. We believe you are carrying a rather unpleasant parasite. For instance, people who have this parasite have a tendency to eat large amounts of food to eat for both the parasite and themselves," Tsunade said.

"That explains a lot," Sasuke murmured in the background. Tsunade shot him a dark look for having interrupted her.

"You see, this parasite, is pretty nasty when it wakes up. For the most part, it will lie dormant, and sometimes it lays dormant permanently. However, when woken up, it extends spikes from its body, and then proceeds to spin rapidly inside of your body, ripping apart your internal organs, and putting you through excruciating pain," Tsunade explained. Naruto paled.

"Is there a cure for it?" Naruto asked shakily.

"Sadly there is no way to remove it until it begins to awaken. Normally there would be something that we could give you that would help flush it out of your system after it awakens, and then some pain medication in addition to it to help you through the pain for the seven to eight days it takes to pass completely. Sadly, like I said, Kyuubi was experimenting on you. He created a mutant form of it. In order to make his way in the medical field early on, he was testing his mutated form of this parasite by lacing it inside the drugs that he used. It appears that those who were given it through drugs showed unexpected and even deadly side effects due to the nature of combining it with drugs. Most of them have since died," Tsunade informed gravely.

"I-I'm going to die," Naruto said, numb, trying to process all of this information. Sasuke came up behind him, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"That's not acceptable," Sasuke said angrily. "There must be-"

"Excuse me, I was not finished. We have found Kyuubi's notes as to who was given what, as well as detailed information of what he observed from his "patients" as he referred to them. He tested on over 100 people, but most have died. Out of everyone, it appears that you were the only person one hundred percent successful. We believe that the reason Kyuubi came back to your house the night he killed your parents, was to finish off some more experiments with you. He went to your house, killed your parents, and was going to kidnap you. Of course, as you know, the police were called by one of your neighbors and stopped him from taking off with you," Tsunade explained, pulling out a notebook that looked like it had pages hanging out of it, sticky-notes dangling on some of the edges of the paper.

"So what does it say about me in there?" Naruto asked hesitantly, wondering if he really wanted to know or not.

"It appears that Kyuubi mutated the virus so that it would have healing properties. Since you were the youngest of his test subjects, he placed a mutated version of this virus that he dubbed 'Kyuubi blastocystis hominis medicor' inside of you because it supposedly increased the healing property. It appears that he figured that a young boy would be more likely to run around and hurt himself playing, which made it easier for him to observe your healing capabilities. He named your particular virus because, well, obviously the blastocystis hominis is the name of the original parasite, the medicor is Latin for healing, and Kyuubi because all of his mutations have nine spikes, or as he calls them, 'tails.'"

"No wonder you healed so fast after Kenji beat you up. You looked a mess, and you had a sprained ankle, concussion, and that chest wall that couldn't make you breathe when you laid down, yet you healed practically over night," Sasuke mused out loud, and then looked over at Mr. Yamanaka who raised his eyebrows as he processed the depths to which Naruto had been hurt by his son.

"Did he now?" Mr. Yamanaka said, remembering the incident from over a year ago.

"Yes, did he indeed?" Tsunade asked, looking at Naruto, but it was Sasuke who answered her.

"Yes. I called a...friend...who is a medical student. She examined him, and may be able to help you out with recalling the extent of his injuries. Her name is Haruno Sakura," Sasuke said.

"I'd like to speak with her right away. Do you have her number?" Tsunade asked. Sasuke shook his head.

"My daughter probably has her phone number. I can give Ino a call and get it for you," Mr. Yamanaka supplied. Tsunade nodded.

"I'm going to do a medical evaluation on you now, Naruto," Tsunade informed him gently.

"But what about Kyuubi being on the loose? Didn't you say that I was in danger or something," Naruto asked, as he looked back at the officer's, finally looking at the name badges of the two men that had been escorting him around, "Mr. Nara and Mr. Akimichi?"

"There is a possibility that Kyuubi might come after you. We will be watching you for a time. We had thought about placing you in a witness protection program, but as you are a minor, and a ward of the prefecture, we are not permitted without first finding a proper guardian to do so. For the time being, we will be keeping a watch on your house," Mr. Nara explained.

"Thanks and all, but, umm, what did he do to the other people that makes you think that he'll be targeting me?" Naruto asked.

"He has kidnapped several of the people that he used to deal drugs to, people that according to this notebook carry a version of the parasite within them. Several of them have been found dead, but also according to these books, those were not 'successful' experiments. Like we said before, you were the one that he appears the most pleased with, hence why he named the parasite within you after himself. Also, it appears that you were one of the few that happened to have been exposed just through food. As Tsunade-sama said, it appears that he exposed you to the parasite through food, rather than through the drugs. We have a feeling this makes a great difference, and thus, much more valuable to him," Mr. Akimichi explained to Naruto.

"Is there anything that can be done in order to better protect Naruto?" Mr. Yamanaka asked, worriedly.

"He should stay with me. He practically does anyway. That way, the Yamanaka's aren't in danger, and social services can pretend to place him elsewhere," Sasuke offered before either of the officers could say anything else.

"Do you two happen to be Shikamaru and Chouji's Dads? We go to judo with them," Naruto asked suddenly. Sasuke, Tsunade, and the two officers sweat-dropped at this abrupt subject change.

"Yes we are," Mr. Akimichi said, looking bemused.

"Naruto, now's not the time," Sasuke hissed, incredulously.

"You really know how to kill the atmosphere, kid," Mr. Nara said dryly. "And as for your offer, Uchiha-san, we'll have to clear it with our supervisor, but it sounds plausible. We normally don't get other civilians involved in something like this, but it may be best to watch the both of you if it is common knowledge that you're his best friend." Tsunade merely nodded, before putting her hand on Naruto's upper arm.

"As important as keeping Naruto's future safe, I need to do a check-up on him to make sure that he is safe now. Yamanaka-san, please see if your daughter can find me the telephone number of the medical student. You can give it to my aid, Shizune," as Tsunade said this, a woman with short black hair appeared out of practically nowhere. "Shizune-"

"Yes, I heard Tsunade-sama. I'll contact her as soon as possible," Shizune said.

"It was over a year ago, so Sakura might not remember much," Sasuke said, off-handedly.

"Any information is better than none," Tsunade said firmly. She nodded to everyone in the room and then beckoned for Naruto to follow her. They left the meeting room, and Tsunade took Naruto to one of the hospital rooms. He was led into a small room that was obviously used for temporary care. Tsunade began asking Naruto questions as she poked and prodded. She ended up having to take five different vials of blood for different tests.

"Tsunade-sama," Shizune said, appearing out of nowhere again, just as Tsunade was finishing up.

"Yes?"

"Haruno Sakura, the girl that examined Uzumaki-san, was actually here at the hospital doing some intern work. She will be up in a few minutes," Shizune said.

"Excellent," Tsunade said.

Naruto and Tsunade waited for Sakura to arrive. Under normal circumstances, Naruto would have loved to have asked the Doctor hundreds of questions, but, as it was, he was in a state of semi-shock as he processed everything that was going on. Everything seemed like such a whirlwind.

His insides were a whirl of too many different emotions for Naruto to pinpoint all of them. Fear was the most prominent of them all. Fear of what had been done to him. Fear of what Kyuubi would try and do to him.

Fear of what Kyuubi could do to Sasuke.

When Sasuke had said that he wanted Naruto to stay with him, Naruto had been overjoyed. The joy, however, was quickly followed by fear. What if Kyuubi came after him? That would just put Sasuke in danger. Sasuke could be killed like his parents.

His parents...

Anger and hatred were the next two prominent emotions. Anger at Kyuubi for making his life so miserable, and hate towards the man who had used him, and had used others, as his personal guinea pigs. Naruto wanted to hurt the man that had screwed up his life - but above all, he wanted to prevent the man that had hurt him from hurting anyone else, especially those close to him. But how could he do that if he were with his friend? With Sasuke? He'd be putting him in danger.

Naruto was still musing over what to do to try and keep his best friend safe when someone knocked on the hospital door, before pushing it open gently and peering in. Tsunade stopped looking over the charts of information she had and gave an analyzing look at the person who entered.

Sakura stared curiously inside the door.

"You wanted to see me Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asked shyly, before her eyes rested on Naruto. "Naruto-kun! Is everything okay?" She asked concernedly. Naruto had the decency to blush. He wasn't sure if he would have recognized her, but then he noticed the strand of light pink hair that stuck out from underneath the hospital cap she wore. If he hadn’t seen her unique hair color, he wouldn’t have recognized her. He was touched that she seemed to remember him though, even after a year.

"I'm alright," Naruto said.

"Actually, he's not..." Tsunade began explaining the situation to Sakura. Naruto zoned out as he did his best to try and block out everything that had happened to him. His emotions were flip-flopping between fear and anger, that he was sure that if he didn't calm down, he would do something rash. Like running out of the hospital and trying to find Kyuubi before Kyuubi could find him, and especially Sasuke.

'And then what?' Naruto mused to himself. 'Kill him? Call the cops? He could kill me!' Naruto said shaking his head. He needed to talk to Sasuke, and soon. He had been content with his life. He had been happy now that he had Sasuke as his best friend. Now, the same person who had screwed up his childhood was screwing him over again. All he wanted was to be normal for once. Okay, well, as normal as he could be.

Then, a strange thought came into his mind. If Kyuubi had never killed his parents, he had a feeling that he and Sasuke would never have been friends had they both not shared the same tragedy, and Naruto was forced to move in with that Yamanaka's who lived close to Sasuke. In a way, it was because of Kyuubi that he had Sasuke - still, that wasn't the point. The point was why did this have to happen now?

Naruto felt slightly nauseous for thinking that it was because of Kyuubi that he had met Sasuke. Naruto's internal thoughts ceased as Tsunade asked him some questions.

"Er, what was that?" Naruto asked sheepishly. He knew that Tsunade was only trying to help him, and he really should try to pay greater attention to what it was she had asked him.

"Sakura said that you healed rather quickly after you were hurt..." Naruto spent the rest of the evening answering questions. He learned that he was an extremely fast healer, he had an abnormally large appetite, and after another medical examination by Tsunade, she declared that he was in no immediate threat from the strange parasite living inside of him. Naruto appreciated their care, but he had assumed that Tsunade's initial examination would have been enough. They had taken five vials of blood from him for crying out loud! With Sakura there, it had seemed to take much longer due to all of the questions.

When Naruto finally exited the examination room, Sasuke was standing there, looking at Naruto with concern. Naruto glanced out of the window, noticing how dark it was getting. It had been just after 5:15 when the police had shown up at his house, and now he realized how hungry he was. His stomach gave a loud rumble, and Sasuke smirked.

"Well, at least we know now why you eat so much," Sasuke said, which made Naruto rub the back of his head sheepishly. He laughed, but only half-heartedly. Sasuke's smirk vanished, and was followed by a small frown. "Naruto-" Sasuke began, clearly unsure of how to comfort his friend.

"Naruto," Officer Nara said. "We have cleared everything with the chief. He says that you can move your things in with Uchiha-san. The Yamanaka's have decided to go on vacation for a few weeks. While they are gone, we will be watching their house, as well as the Uchiha house, naturally with more police officers watching the Uchiha house. Now, you must understand that there is no guarantee that Kyuubi will appear within the few weeks while the Yamanaka's are away. In fact, there is no guarantee that he will attempt anything any time soon - or at all. For the time being, however, we will be keeping a close eye on you," Officer Nara said.

Naruto merely nodded his head, understanding that things like this could even take years. Sasuke reached out, and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"We should get going to the police station to finish the report. You will have to come with us for the time being so we can ask you a few more questions in a more appropriate setting," Officer Akimichi said kindly. The two officers escorted both Sasuke and Naruto from the hospital. Naruto gave a small wave to Tsunade and Sakura as he left. They managed a quick wave back, as they both walked in opposite directions, clearly needing to attend other patients.

At the police station, the officers began asking Naruto several questions as to what they remembered about Kyuubi from his childhood days, as well as asking him about his recent activities, and whether or not he recalled seeing anyone following him.

Naruto answered negative to all of their questions. He had not recently felt like anyone had been watching him or following him around.

"Well, one of the only places that he could have been observing you recently, since you're out of school for the summer, is when you go to judo and jujutsu practice. As you pointed out, since our sons are taking classes there, we can come along for the Saturday practice, and observe anyone who seems suspicious. We can even go in our civilian clothes," Officer Nara said. Naruto merely nodded, his own questions forming.

"You still haven't really said what Kyuubi has done to-" Naruto didn't want to say test subjects because that made himself feel like a lab rat, "those other people. You said he kidnapped some? And you said that he had even killed some. Please, tell me what happened to them," Naruto asked. Sasuke looked sharply between Naruto and the officer. Officer Akimichi sighed.

"For the past two months we have had twenty-three disappearance cases-"

"Twenty-three? You said several at the hospital!" Naruto said incredulously.

"Yes, twenty-three disappearance cases," Officer Akimichi nodded, unabashed that he had not given Naruto the total number before. Naruto chanced a glance at Sasuke to see what he thought about this piece of information. He gripped the table tightly, his already pale hands going even whiter at his death grip on the table. Naruto almost felt sorry for the poor table. Apparently Officer Nara felt sorry for the table too as he continued. "If you're that upset about just the kidnappings, then perhaps you should leave before we explain anymore, else you'll break our table," Officer Nara said, raising his eyebrows at Sasuke.

"Sorry," Sasuke said, unapologetically, but he removed his hand from the table nonetheless. Officer Akimichi continued, looking amused between his fellow police officer and Sasuke.

"As I was saying, there have been twenty-three disappearances. Only eleven of the people that he tested on were those that he kidnapped. Others were friends, family, and significant others of his original victims. That is why we decided that it might not be a bad idea to keep an eye the both of you at once. Two of the victims Kyuubi has lured out by first kidnapping someone close to the person he actually tested on, explaining not to go to the police, etc. As for your question, it appears that seventeen of the twenty-three were killed," Akimichi said gravely.

"We were able to save six of them. Last night we were given a tip-off from a neighbor in the house across from where Kyuubi had his hideout about strange occurrences. Actually, it turns out the guy across the street is a bit of a peeping-tom, which is why he was keeping such a close watch on the house, strange large man with a lot of white hair...anyway - we knocked on the door to question Kyuubi, and the next thing we know, we have a runner on our hands," Officer Akimichi explained.

"Yeah, well, we were expecting something much less mild, weren't we Chouza?" Officer Nara said darkly.

"Yes, and a good lot that did us Shikaku. Shikaku here had the brains enough to ask me to look inside the house, even though the guy was clearly heading out, but, of course, there could have been more people inside that were accomplices. Instead, of course, we found the six remaining people. Two were actually unconscious by the time we got there, and if I hadn't gotten the emergency medical personnel there right away, they both would have died. He'd been giving them different types of poisons, subjected them to different types of electrical shock therapy, and even amputated certain body parts to see how they would react from having the mutated parasites in them. It was horrible..." Officer Akamichi trailed off.

Sasuke actually did break off the part of the table he was gripping, the noise making everyone (including Sasuke) jump.

"That bastard," Sasuke hissed. The two police officers eyed him warily. Naruto gave a grateful smile to his best friend. Having him there somehow made everything just a little less mortifying. Plus, Sasuke seemed so scary that Naruto felt as though he would be able to scare of Kyuubi just by his mere presence.

"Obviously I didn't catch up with Kyuubi. I ran after him on foot, but he ran by this lady who was just getting in her car, through her out of it, and drove off. I couldn't pursue him. The car was also found about an hour later, but there was no sign of Kyuubi. On the other hand, we got him by such a complete surprise that we managed to get a lot of details from the people he was holding. He also happened to leave, as I'm sure you noticed, his notebook behind. We believe he has a copy on a PDA, but getting the notebook shows that there were only two others that he planned on finding. You were one of them," Officer Nara explained.

Naruto could merely nod, not quite sure what to think of everything. His emotions had done such a roller coaster ride the past few hours that he wasn't sure how to react anymore. He just wanted this day to have been a dream, just wanted to go back to the way things were.

Naruto barely registered the rest of the evening, the rest of what happened in the police station passing in a blur of memories and emotions that were so jumbled together it was hard to feel anything. He was just too exhausted for anything to make sense.

Vaguely he heard Sasuke's voice telling him to follow him...

Hands were fumbling with his clothing...

Naruto idly realized that he was upstairs in Sasuke's bedroom, wearing nothing but his boxers as Sasuke helped tuck him into bed. Staring at the ceiling, as Sasuke helped put him into bed...

'I feel like I can't move,' Naruto mused as he woke up groggily the next morning. That sensation might have to do with the fact that his body was completely and utterly exhausted from the night before. Or it could have to do with the fact that Sasuke was practically sprawled out on top of him. Naruto blushed fiercely as he woke up to find himself sporting a nice hard on. Naruto pushed Sasuke off of him onto the floor, resulting in Sasuke waking up rather grumpy.

"What the hell?" Sasuke said, managing to sound wide-awake. Naruto pulled the covers away from Sasuke, feeling oddly cold as Sasuke got back into bed.

"You were lying on top of me and you were practically suffocating me!" Naruto said angrily.

"You should be grateful," Sasuke mumbled, stealing the covers back from Naruto.

"What for? You trying to kill me?" Naruto asked, equally as grumpy.

"If someone had tried to get you in the middle of the night, they would have gotten me first," Sasuke said, and although Naruto knew Sasuke was just making this up as he went, he still felt touched, as though Sasuke were implying he'd sacrifice himself for Naruto's life.

"Yeah, well, I guess you were protecting me - at least from the cold. For crying out loud, why is your house always so freaking cold? Is it because you're a living corpse that needs the cold in order to continue surviving-"

"Dobe! A living corpse is an oxymoron. It's not possible," Sasuke grumped, as he and Naruto began tugging the covers. "And you could be a little more grateful anyway. I AM letting you use my house so that way you can hide."

"Why are you always so grumpy in the morning? It's like you're a different person before 8:00am. Do you have a split personality or something? You're like a complete asshole until after-"

"The covers are mine!" Sasuke interrupted grumpily as he tugged again, this time pulling Naruto on top of him. Naruto and Sasuke both froze as Naruto found his crotch lined up a little too nicely with Sasuke's crotch. Naruto blushed as he realized that not only was he hard, but Sasuke was as well.

"Morning wood," both boys muttered as Naruto quickly got off of Sasuke, the boys turning so that they were back to back, and the covers were pulled over both of them...


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


The room filled with silence after Naruto had relived this part of their history together. Sasuke idly fiddled with his chopsticks, having long since finished his ramen. He remembered the fact that Naruto had woken up in the morning hard. That had been something that he had always wanted to know. Had Naruto also felt some attraction to him? He didn't look at Naruto, but there was a strange look upon his face, as though he wanted to ask this question.

Naruto noticed that Sasuke seemed to want to ask him something, and he had a feeling he knew what it had to do with, but Naruto wasn't going to explain anything to him.

Sasuke seemed to realize that questioning Naruto was a bad idea anyway, and therefore decided to remain silent.

"I never forgot that you put your life on the line for me," Naruto murmured.

"I thought you were trying to forget me though," Sasuke said bitterly. Naruto was silent for a moment.

"It just - it hurts to think about you," Naruto said.

"Perhaps if I finish explaining, things will be less painful," Sasuke suggested.

"Perhaps - or perhaps things will be even worse..."

*Yes, blastocystis homenia is a real parasite that you get from eating raw sushi from either China or Brazil. Details about the parasite are explained to the best of my ability, but it does NOT really have healing capabilities, (though you do eat a lot and it does wake up and spin spikes around in your intestines). I'm also not sure how many spikes it has. Anyway…

Please review and let me know what you thought, or review if you have questions about the story. ^_^ ~ Jelp