Sex: M/F/Other?

Sex: M/F/Other?

By: ladygizarme

Beta: Jpop (again!)

Spoiler Warning: slight spoiler of characters in existence in manga chapter 354. Nothing major. No references to manga plot.

Thanks!! To Rasengan22, for helping me find kitties! And to chelzi and sasukeskyuubi for the awesome reviews of ch. 2!

Also, Pic Links! No, I don’t have any fanart (not that I would mind any, cuz I totally would love some if someone were so inclined). But I meant to give the links for the shoes last chapter and forgot, so here they are:

Sasuke’s shoes in Ch. 2: http://www.buyskateshoes.com/catalog/detail/UJo88

Kimimaro’s shoes in Ch. 2:
http://www.shopadidas.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2560294&shopGroup=R&cp=
2019627.2039609.2039613.2012797&view=all&parentPage=family&colorId=

Tayuya’s shoes in Ch. 2:
http://www.shoes.com/stores/skate/product.asp?p=5021043%7ETripleElements%7CWo
mens%7EDC&sc=SKATE%5FWOMENS&variant_id=EC1044881

(Kimi’s and Tayuya’s have obnoxiously long addresses. I spaced them in the middle so it wouldn’t stretch the chapter page.)

This chapter:

Floor plan of Naruto’s apartment:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/ladygizarme/Random/SMFOnarusapt.jpg
(This floor plan was altered by me, using a floor plan from http://www.sturbridgevillageapartments.com/index.php for reference)


Now on with the 24-pg. show, dattebayo!


Chapter Three: Prevention Intention

The sun was nearly set when Naruto and Haku got off the bus in front of their apartment complex, which sat on a highway road, just this side of city limits on the east end of Konoha. Their building was one of the ones towards the front of the complex, and in no time Haku had keyed in the security code to the main entrance door and they were climbing the three flights of stairs that led to their floor—the elevator was always a bit sketchy in their building. Walking down the sconce-lit, plush-carpeted hallway, they passed two doors—one on either side of the hall—before stopping at a third. Pulling his “Gama-chan” keyring from his backpack, Naruto found the apartment key on the ring and opened the door to their dark apartment.

The two boys stepped inside and Naruto immediately reached for the light switch on the wall. As soon as he flipped the entry lights on, the phone started ringing, shrilly and incessantly. The answering machine came on, and Haku looked at Naruto worriedly as he heard the voice coming from the speaker on the small machine.

“Oi, brat! What the hell did you do this time? I know you’re there, so you better pick up this phone!”

Haku heard Naruto gasp, “How does she do that?!”

Haku didn’t reply, still listening to the woman ranting on the phone.

“Oi, Naruto! I know you took the 5:35 bus from Ichiraku’s, so you should be home by now. You better pick up this damn phone and tell me why I’m being called at work by Suzume-sensei to be informed of your meds increasing!!”

The blonde scrambled quickly around the corner, picking the white cordless receiver up from the base hanging on the living room side of the kitchen wall.

“Tsu-Tsunade-baa-chan!” He greeted nervously, pushing a button on the base to stop the answering machine from echoing their conversation into the house.

“Brat! How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?! If you’re uncomfortable calling me ‘kaa-san’, just call me ‘Tsunade’, dammit!”

“Heheh, sorry, Tsunade,” Naruto said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. “It’s just that you’re so o—”

Tsunade quickly cut him off, “If you know what’s good for you, don’t you dare finish that sentence, Naruto.”

He chuckled quietly, but obeyed.

“Well, now that I have you on the phone finally, tell me what happened. Why is Suzume-sensei suddenly increasing your meds? It’s not just the Prozac dosage she’s increased, she’s added three more psychotropic drugs to your regimen, another anti-depressant, a mood stabilizer, and an anti-psychotic!! You know how expensive these things are?! What in the world did you do?!”

Naruto shrugged, forgetting she couldn’t see it through the phone. “So don’t buy them. It’s not like I’m going to take them, anyway.”

He heard Tsunade sigh heavily. “You know it’s not that easy, Naruto. Look, we’re going to talk more about this when I get home, so don’t think avoiding my questions now will get you out of answering. I’ll let you off the hook for now, just because I don’t have time to keep interrogating you. Is Shizune home yet?”

“No.”

“Let me talk to Haku, then. I’ll see you when I get home, Naruto.” After a pause, Tsunade added a quick, “Do your homework!”

Sighing in defeat, Naruto handed the phone over to Haku before trudging down the short hallway to his room and closing the door.

“Haku, do you know what happened in Naruto’s session today?” Was the first sentence the boy heard after answering the phone.

“No, I don’t,” the boy admitted regretfully.

“Alright, well I’ll get it out of him one way or another. Shizune should be home soon and I can bring my paperwork home with me after I finish up with my last patient. Can you make dinner?”

“Sure, Tsunade,” Haku replied, nodding his head to the phone.

They said goodbye, and Haku hung up the phone. He took his schoolbag off, setting it on the seat of a nearby barstool, leaning it against the light-colored Windsor back of the swiveling wooden seat. Then he returned to the front entry way, placing his abandoned shoes in the closet before going to check on Naruto.

The blonde’s door was shut, so Haku knocked on it twice to announce his presence before calling through the door.

“Are you okay, Naruto?”

He could hear sounds of shuffling and the rustle of fabric coming from the other side, but there was no answer. Haku frowned. Naruto wasn’t usually pouty and antisocial like this.

Opening the door, he found the younger boy curled up on his bed facing the window away from Haku, apparently asleep, though Haku could tell otherwise from his tenseness and calculated breathing. Naruto’s shoes and school uniform had already been discarded and strewn about the floor in favor of his favorite sweats—a dark orange set of matching pants and hoodie, comfortably worn-in, with “K.J.S.H.S.” embroidered in large white letters across the chest.

The letters stood for “Konoha Junior-Senior High School”, though the main reason Naruto had gotten it had nothing to do with school spirit. Really, he just liked the color, and had begged Tsunade to get it from the school store when he’d seen it there the day they’d come to enroll at the school back in October. Personally, Haku found orange to be a rather hideous, obnoxiously loud color usually; however, on Naruto, it just seemed to fit. Amazingly, the blonde wore it well, even if he did have a tendency to get carried away with the sheer amount of orange he was fond of wearing or owning.

Haku walked to the bed, avoiding the clothes, books, and random clutter on the floor, and sat on the bed behind Naruto.

“I know you’re awake,” he informed the blonde.

“No I’m not,” Naruto grumbled, squeezing his eyes tighter shut.

Haku smiled at his contradiction, grabbing his friend’s shoulder and turning Naruto towards him. Reluctantly, the younger boy opened his eyes to look at Haku.

“Come on, Naruto, it’s too early for sleep. We still have dinner with Tsunade and Shizune-san, and I’m sure you have homework to do. Unless you did it already in Shizune’s office?”

Haku doubted the possibility, and was proven right as Naruto scowled, turning his head away and remaining silent. Haku smirked slightly.

“So what do you have?” he asked, grabbing Naruto’s backpack from beside the bed to look for himself.

“Just English worksheets. I didn’t get my assignments for the rest of my classes.”

“You better make sure to ask the teachers for them tomorrow. You don’t want to get behind so close to graduation,” Haku advised.

“I know,” Naruto replied, now staring at the ceiling. “Final exams start soon.”

Haku nodded. “Well, bring your stuff out to the kitchen and I’ll help you while I make dinner.”

With that, Haku left for the kitchen, and Naruto soon followed behind him.

*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*

Tsunade hung up from talking to Haku and immediately dialed Shizune’s number.

“Hello, Tsunade.”

Tsunade could hear the smile in her partner’s voice. It relaxed her tension a little as she couldn’t help but smile as well at hearing it. “Hi, Shizune, are you still at school?”

“No, I’m in the car. I’m only a couple miles from the hospital, if this traffic ever clears up. Are you off already?”

“Almost,” the blonde woman answered. “I have one more patient to finish up with, and then I should be able to leave. I need to wait on some test results, though, so it still might be a bit. I’ll be glad when this day is done,” she groaned.

“Tough day?” Shizune asked concernedly.

“Just a bit,” Tsunade sighed, sitting in her office chair and swiveling around to look out the window she was previously standing by. The bus that had passed by not ten minutes ago had already come to the end of its route and turned around, now passing the hospital again as it backtracked its trail into town. The thought of who had been on that bus made her groan again.

“Actually, things weren’t too bad here for most of the day. The clinic was hectic, but that’s to be expected. Since I started my ER rounds after lunch, things have been pretty smooth. About an hour and a half ago, I got a call from Suzume-sensei, though…”

Taking advantage of Tsunade’s pause, Shizune asked, “Oh, no, what did she want? Shouldn’t she have been in session with Naruto?”

“Yes, she should have, but apparently she wasn’t. Of course, she wouldn’t tell me what happened, citing all that confidentiality bull. She had no problems telling me about the additions to Naruto’s med load, though!”

“Well, it is true, Tsunade. She really can’t talk about what goes on in their sessions, you know that. But what’s this about Naruto’s meds?”

“It’s still bullshit, and you know it,” she heard the other woman gasp at her cursing. “I’m sorry, Shizune, but it is. She still has a level of discretion to determine if something is covered by patient confidentiality or if it should be shared with the parents, and I think if it’s bad enough that she has to put him on three more psychotropics, we should have a right to know why!”

“Three?!” Shizune gasped in shock.

“Yes, and that’s not the only thing,” the blonde said ominously. “She threatened to put him on hormones.”

“Hormones?!”

“Estrogen, to be precise,” Tsunade confirmed. “I haven’t told Naruto that part yet, though I did tell him about the others when I spoke to him a few minutes ago. I thought this part was best broken to him in person.” She didn’t mention the mild chewing out she’d given him. She knew Shizune would scold her for it, especially considering the circumstances. Hell, she already felt a bit of guilt about it, but she had a tendency to act first and think second, especially when her emotions were running high.

“Yes, I expect he’ll have a rather bad reaction to the news, especially after today,” Shizune remarked sympathetically.

This caught Tsunade’s attention. “Why, what happened today?”

“Naruto got his period today,” the other woman answered. “I let him stay in the infirmary most of the day to rest. He’s still so unused to it.”

And like that, the pieces fell into place for Tsunade. She hadn’t been Naruto’s guardian for long, but just in the several months she’d known him, she’d gotten a pretty good grasp on his attitude and the way he reacted to things.

She had, however, known Suzume for awhile. They’d been colleagues for a few years while Suzume was still interning at the hospital, and the woman had always had a grudge against Tsunade. Why, Tsunade still wasn’t sure. It certainly wasn’t due to any professional rivalry, as they weren’t even in the same fields of medicine. She had a sneaking suspicion, though, that it had to do with her sexuality and relationship with Shizune.

Tsunade had noticed, especially during the times Suzume would be sent for a psych consult, the woman’s distaste for homosexual people—even her own patients. Unfortunately, she’d never been outrightly discriminative in her diagnoses, so Tsunade had never been able to gather enough hard evidence to report her to the board.

This had been a big reason she’d initially tried to protest the assignment of Suzume as Naruto’s psychiatrist, though. Knowing Suzume’s predisposition to discrimination of those different than her, Tsunade could only imagine what her reaction to Naruto would be. Nevertheless, she’d had to comply with the terms of Naruto and Haku’s release—one point of which was that Mist County would assign their psychiatrists and conduct regular evaluations of their situations and progress. Tsunade didn’t like it, but she figured living with people that actually cared about him and seeing one questionable therapist once a week was better for Naruto than living in an institution, surrounded by troubled teens and jaded doctors, while being pumped full of meds everyday. Surely the good would outweigh the bad, and until today, Tsunade hadn’t had much reason to worry. Naruto and Haku had never mentioned any problems.

Now, however, as Tsunade’s quick mind pieced together what must’ve happened, she wondered how much those two boys were hiding from her and Shizune; and why.

Tsunade could just imagine: Naruto mentions he has his period; Suzume is delighted at the obviously feminine bodily function and congratulates Naruto; Naruto gets pissed and storms off—most likely only after giving her a piece of his mind. Oh yes, she could just imagine the set, thin red lips and bright red cheeks that usually accompanied Suzume’s angered look, right before she spitefully wrote out new prescriptions and called Tsunade in absolute glee over issuing the news to Naruto’s guardian.

She was beginning to think she didn’t feel so guilty for chewing Naruto out after all.

Not that he should have to put up with someone’s discrimination, especially his own therapist’s, but Naruto had a tendency to let his mouth get away with him regardless of the audience. He’d probably said something to spark Suzume’s extreme ire, hence earning himself three new drugs without a second thought.

“Oh, Suzume, you spiteful woman…” Tsunade muttered after her realization.

“What’s that, Tsunade?”

“Oh, nothing, love. Only, I think I’ve just figured out what happened. At least a possible scenario. I still need to confirm it with Naruto, of course, but I have a feeling all this nonsense is because of his period and how he feels about that. Don’t worry, Shizune, we’re going to fight this,” she assured her partner.

“Good,” Tsunade could hear Shizune’s relief. “I don’t think I could stand Naruto being forced to take estrogen!”

The blonde glanced at the clock, seeing it was about time for her patient’s tests to be done. “I have to go now, Shizune. I’ll see you at home, okay?”

“Okay, Tsunade. I love you,” Shizune said, the endearment lilting pleasantly into Tsunade’s ear, even through the slight static of the phone.

Tsunade smiled again. “I love you, too, Shizune. Bye.”

With that, their call ended, and Tsunade stood to finish up with her last patient. After that, she would stop upstairs in legal for a moment before going home.

*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*

Sasuke sat at his desk in his room, absently doodling on the homework he was supposed to be doing. A champagne Burmese cat sat in his lap, tall ears alert, its front paws perched on the black lacquered desktop, one well-groomed paw batting at the moving writing utensil, assisting the boy in his efforts, idle as they were. On top of the desk, a blue-lynx point Javanese mewed in gentle yips as he contemplated the closed book the boy had yet to touch beyond setting it on the desk. Reaching a paw forward, he extended his clipped claws to grab the edge of the cover, then pulled it back toward him, flipping it open. Then, claws retracted, he used his pads to shuffle through the pages, chastising the boy’s inattention to his studies in a stern “voice”.

Hearing the reprimand, Sasuke lifted his left hand from where he’d been stroking the Burmese in his lap, and ran it along the length of the Javanese’s body, from ears to tail, in one smooth motion. The cat arched its back into the coaxing hand, flicking its fluffy tail a little so it wrapped slightly around the boy’s wrist. Then Sasuke plucked a jingling, fuzzy, blue glitter ball from his top desk drawer and threw it across the room. The cat shot off the desk after it, knocking the book off in his wake and leaving Sasuke to his former musing. Staring blankly across his room from behind his L-shaped desk, his hand returned to stroking the cat in his lap as the other hand continued drawing nonsensically on his paper.

The dinner table had long been left behind, having excused himself rather quickly after answering all his father’s questions. He barely knew what answers he’d given and, at the moment, he couldn’t be bothered to care. All his thoughts were directed toward his newly-discovered problem.

As if to reiterate the threat, he sneezed harshly again.

“Maybe you’ve become allergic to Hina and Denka?” Itachi suggested as he stepped into his brother’s room uninvited, having opened the door without knocking.

Sasuke scowled, showing his disdain for the sneeze, his brother, and his brother’s suggestion. “Not possible.”

“Hmm,” Itachi intoned, making a show of brushing a bit of light-colored fur off Sasuke’s black, Egyptian cotton comforter before sitting on his bed.

“Did you want something?” Sasuke asked his brother irritatedly.

Itachi merely shrugged, watching the Javanese cat bat its glittery jingle ball around his younger brother’s floor.

The younger Uchiha grit his teeth in aggravation before returning to his homework, attempting to actually pay attention to it this time in an effort to ignore his brother.

After several minutes of reading the same problem over and over while listening to the jingle ball fly this way and that, Sasuke heard Itachi speak.

“You seemed troubled during dinner tonight.”

The younger boy gave no reply, still staring intently at his homework.

“Trouble at school?” Itachi suggested as if he already knew the answer.

Sasuke lifted a brow at the tone. “What makes you say that?”

Itachi lifted a hand and twisted it in a vague manner, “You got all weird when father asked you about your week. Well… weirder than usual.” He smirked.

Sasuke’s face twisted in distaste. “Whatever.”

Giving up on pretense, he went back to his doodling.

“Or, perhaps, it’s your extracurricular activities which are causing you distress,” his older brother offered patronizingly. When Sasuke said nothing, Itachi rose from his seat and walked toward the desk. “Sasuke…”

Itachi’s tone was suddenly solemn, causing Sasuke to look up at him in curiosity.

“Just remember I’m always here if you need to talk. I do have some idea of the things you’re going through, you know. I’ve been through it all myself already.”

“As if I could ever forget,” Sasuke grumbled. Like he needed reminded that he was merely following in Itachi’s footsteps, in all aspects, whether he wanted to or not.

His older brother gave a long-suffering sigh before turning and walking back to the door.

Before leaving, he said, “I’ll just tell mother you’re fine and working on homework, then, shall I?”

“Whatever,” Sasuke said again, monotonously. He should have known Itachi was only checking on him because their mother asked him to. But what was with the ‘I’m here for you’ speech? Itachi seemed so serious…

The older Uchiha left the room, closing the door behind him.

Still frowning, Sasuke turned to the other part of his L-shaped desk and stared longingly at his mobile phone, which was sitting next to his computer monitor, charging. He wished Kimimaro had a cell phone. He’d tried calling his house earlier, just after dinner, but Kimimaro wasn’t home. Of course, Sasuke knew he wouldn’t be, since he always stayed out with the guys (plus Tayuya) as late as possible to avoid seeing his dad, who worked third shift. It was worth a shot, though, even if he’d had to talk to the perpetually (drunken) angry man that called himself Kimimaro’s father.

Sasuke wanted—no, needed—to talk to that Yukimura girl before she went gossiping to the whole school (as girls were prone to do). The raven hoped that, even if Kimimaro didn’t know the girl’s phone number (the possessive boyfriend side of him foamed at the mouth at the idea of Kimimaro having some girl’s phone number, despite his rational side’s admonitions), that his boyfriend might at least know what class she was in at school. Sasuke needed to take care of this problem as soon as possible.

No one could know what that girl had found out; what, until today, only four other people in the world knew. At least two of which, if not three, Sasuke already wished didn’t know. Hell, if Sasuke could figure out a way for Kimimaro not to know, and still be with him, he’d wish his boyfriend didn’t know either! And now this girl had found out… Sasuke had to stop her from telling! No one else could find out that Sasuke was gay.

*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*

The streets of Oto were growing dark under the dusky sky. A smattering of street lights lit the downtown Main Street and the main highway that ran north and south, connecting the small, slightly rundown, working-class town to the metropolis that was Konoha. This was Hokage Highway, and it put Oto a mere twenty minutes away from Konoha city limits.

In Oto, land on one side of the highway was zoned commercially, while the other side was mainly residential, resulting in a paradoxal experience for all who traveled the northern end of this road. Where the east side of the highway was lined with houses, churches, temples, a small police station, and the elementary and junior high schools, the west side was lined with motels, gas stations, strip clubs, gun stores, and alcohol and tobacco stores; and they faced each other continuously in a seemingly never-ending showdown of the modern representations of “good” vs. “evil”.

Down side streets and back streets on the west side, one could find factories and warehouses behind high chain link fences, the hub of the commercial railway (what was left of it), and the unofficial red light district. In mirrored directions on the east side, one would find mom and pop stores, clusters of several small neighborhoods, interconnected by a few common parks, two groceries, the butcher, the bakery, the diner, the community garden, or the local bars. On either side, one could find potholed streets, cracked sidewalks and crumbling curbs, with weeds growing through the cracks, graffiti, and a general state of disrepute and disrepair. Not to mention the abandoned houses, boarded up buildings, hidden rooms, dank basements, and back alleyways where any number of vulgar or illegal activities took place on a regular basis.

This isn’t to say such conditions or activities were exclusive to Oto, or that there were none to be found in the beautiful, respected, reputable city of Konoha—for, surely, every city had its faults and its own dirty little secrets. The difference was: in Oto, it was no secret. Not discussed? Sure. Hushed up? Definitely. That didn’t change the fact that everyone knew what went on in their town behind closed doors and in the dead of night, not to mention the light of day.

Whereas, in Konoha, pretty much only the underbelly of society, their clients and/or prey, and maybe the detectives investigating such things knew what really went on while the rest of the city went about their daily lives or rested peacefully—content in the knowledge of and utmost faith in: their money, their safety, their system. Few probably even took notice of the numerous bums and homeless people all over Konoha. Of course, a good number of those were from Oto, having made their way to Konoha in search of better jobs or help of some kind, knowing staying in Oto was a dead end. Still, there were hundreds not from Oto without work or shelter, unable to find their place in society or help in the system. So, they did what they could; camping out in parks and alleys and panhandling on the streets with everyone else for food or money, until they were shuffled off by law enforcement with threats of ticketing or arrest for loitering and soliciting, and recitations of the codes for beautification of the city; brushed aside like trash and hidden away for the sake of the peace of mind of the average citizen.

But getting back to Oto…

Of course, despite its darker edge, Oto was a city with its own communities, schools, and businesses, which at one time had been thought of as quaint, neighborly, and tightly-knit.

Main Street and the elementary and junior high were the center to it all in downtown Oto. The senior high school building was on the west side of Hokage Highway, and had been gutted out and torn down years ago, to make way for the strip clubs that now lurked there. Long before that happened, the building had been in a perpetual state of disuse, as limited city funds, low senior high school attendance statistics, and less and less families staying in the city due to the low economy and little to no job opportunities, all worked together to make keeping the senior high open pointless. They’d barely been able to pay the few teachers they’d managed to procure, and as attendance after junior high dwindled to less than 8%, with many kids taking on full time jobs to help out their parents instead of going to school, Oto had finally decided to close the school.

Striking up an agreement with Konoha, those few students that chose to attend senior high could commute the forty-five minutes to Konoha Senior High. Thus Oto Junior High became one of KSHS’s feeder schools. Now, with the prospects of better education and job opportunities, some parents were again encouraging their children to attend senior high school, and student numbers from Oto had begun slowly increasing in recent years. With this small but steady increase in incoming students, KSHS began insisting Oto students take the standard entrance exams like all the other students, to make sure only those that were serious about their schooling would be taking up precious classroom space. This forced the Oto schools to increase the standards of their curriculum, in order to ensure their students’ success on the exams.

Luckily, with funding freed from the black hole that was Oto Senior High, revamping the lower grades’ curriculum was easily accomplished after some key changes in the city budget. Revisions were also made to allow upgrades to equipment, and even some minute but much needed building renovations on the old schools that stood on the east side of Hokage Highway, near downtown and Main Street.

Main Street was home to the combined courthouse, city hall, and Sheriff’s office—which was a separate building from the police station that sat on the highway. The local diner, aptly named “The Downtown Diner”, called the building directly across from the courthouse home—and had done so for at least twenty-five years now. Few other businesses could say the same, and the many empty, ‘For Lease’ buildings—even along Main Street—could attest to that. The courthouse faced south; the diner faced north.

To the left of The Downtown Diner was the town drugstore, which was a combination convenience store and pharmacy. A few buildings to the right of the diner stood a tall, old brick building that housed a small insurance company and an even smaller law firm. Next to that was the city bank, and next to that was a building that formerly boasted a fine jewelry store; its large, picture windows once proud to show off its wares, now showing the dank, dirty, debris-littered, cobwebbed innards of the deserted shop.

The first block ended there, and the second block began with an antique store on one side and a used car lot on the other. The car lot took up the entirety of its side, whereas the antique store had several abandoned buildings as neighbors, a bar with no name but a neon ‘Open’ sign breaking up the monotony in the middle, and a grey and white house capping off the end of the block. Thus ended the main downtown area, and began the main residential area.

Gone were the city department store, the sporting goods store, the music stores. Everything could be bought bigger, better, and sometimes cheaper in Konoha.

The modest Oto branch library was on a path that connected the junior high to the courthouse side of Main Street, and the community garden was on a path that connected the elementary to the diner side of Main Street. From either school, a curving path led to the largest park in Oto, High Street Park.

The park was part of a city beautification project a few years back. Partway through, the city had run out of funds due to poor budgeting and corrupt contractors, and the project had been abandoned. Few reminders of the project were left, though if one knew what to look for they would notice a few buildings whose bricks weren’t as weathered, or whose paint was more recent and not peeling as badly. They might notice the landscaping in front of the courthouse and city hall, or sprinklings of trees, benches, or public trash bins down Main Street and a few other main thoroughfares. The most noticeable of these reminders, however, was surely the city’s central park.

The park was the only project in the city that had been completed. Unfortunately, it was the only project Oto had signed that particular contractor—Yamato Building Co., from Konoha—on for, since the company was top of the line and expensive. Of course, the subsequent contractors they’d hired ended up extorting even more money from the city than would’ve been paid to the honest contractor, but no one knew that at the time.

High Street Park was a sprawling piece of land a block west of Main Street. Marked by a combination of beautiful landscaping and architecture, there were open areas of grass, with flowers lining the perimeter, roses and vines climbing fences and arches and other small structures or statues put there for aesthetic effect; trees, benches, picnic tables, and tastefully designed rubbish bins were strategically placed throughout the parkway; concrete sidewalks cut paths through the greenery and led to the children’s playground.

The playground had every outdoor toy standard to many playgrounds—swings, slides, see-saws, a merry-go-round, a jungle gym, monkey bars, painted animals on heavy springs to “ride”, and couple tire swings, just to name a few. The main play area was built in a treehouse style, with swinging wooden bridges and sturdy wooden walkways interconnecting everything. There was also a sandboxed area with smaller versions of swings and slides for the younger children, plus a small, wooden playhouse. From the “big kids” side of the park, a set of large, wide steps with three metal handrails led down to the caged tennis courts and a basketball court, with bench-lined sidewalks running between them. On this side of the park there was also a small parking lot.

Of course, over time, the park had also succumbed to the effects of time and ill-use. The concrete sidewalks and steps were still holding steadfast, and the flowers and trees were still thriving, however most everything else began to blend in with the rest of Oto. Wood and metal materials had weathered due to improper care and much of the playground was splintery or rusty now. Some equipment had been vandalized or stolen, causing several swings to be removed, the nets to be taken down from the tennis courts and off the basketball rims, and some trash cans to be replaced by metal bins not so aesthetically pleasing, which were now rusting. There was also graffiti over practically every visible surface conducive to applying spray paint. Even some trees hadn’t survived the onslaught.

Yes, despite its former beauty, High Street Park was now fully a part of Oto. Few children that played there nowadays could probably remember its heyday. And, just as with most any place in Oto, once the sun went down, the mothers called their children in and locked their doors against the dark and dealings of the night.

So now as dusk fell and evening settled upon the east side of the highway that ran through the little rundown town, parents called their children in for dinner, soon to tuck them away to bed; bars filled with men and women looking to relax in a comfortable setting of their peers and drink the evening away before going home to their families and empty houses; streets were quietly patrolled by creeping police cars, and store owners had long ago locked up for the night. The night was dark and silent but for the swoosh of occasional traffic on the highway, the cop cars’ engine rumbles as they passed through the little streets, the hoot of owls, and the chirp of crickets and other night insects.

However, in High Street Park, under the dull orange glow of fading park lights, other sounds filled the night air; sounds quite familiar to this park at this time of night.

The springy sound of rubber bouncing on blacktop; the spring-clang-bounce of that rubber ball hitting the backboard before going through the net-less hoop and hitting the blacktop again; the heavy gliding sound of polyurethane wheels skating over the same blacktop and the concrete of the surrounding sidewalks; the patterned thunk of those same twelve wheels—four for each board—every time they crossed a new section of sidewalk or a particularly bad crack; the scrape of painted wood grinding hard and quick over old, rusting, metal handrails or well-waxed curbs, steps, and weathered, wooden benches; the grind-snap-pop-thunk-glide that came from the combination of shoes sliding up the rough grip of a skateboard, the nose or heel of the board momentarily meeting the ground before jumping into the air, flying for precious fractions of seconds, and landing heavily back on the ground to skate away and repeat the action.

These were the sounds that accompanied the nightly haunting of the High Street Park by Kimimaro and his friends.

Of course, the sound of Tayuya cursing about something or other was also part of the usual. Only the subject had changed slightly in the past few weeks.

“Ah, so nice not to have the little tagalong around, don’t you think?” she announced to the world in general as she pushed her board with one foot around the outside edge of the basketball court. “Honestly, I don’t even know why he comes around here. It wasn’t enough to follow Kimimaro around school? Such a little poser. He never does anything, just sits and watches. Oh, wait, nevermind, I know why. Little fag’s got such a hard on for Kimimaro, he might as well wear a flashing neon sign that says, “I’m queer!” around his neck,” the girl laughed derisively.

“Shut the fuck up, Tayuya, you don’t know a goddamn thing,” Kimimaro scolded, sick of her mouth, particularly when it came to Sasuke.

He was used to her inflammatory comments, which had escalated in quantity and level of scorn since she’d found out he was gay, but Sasuke was another matter. The other boy was just coming to terms with his sexuality and wasn’t ready for anyone to know, especially not someone like Tayuya. This left Kimimaro in the tough position of defending his boyfriend, while simultaneously trying not to inadvertently “out” Sasuke, and her comments were already too close for comfort.

“Oh, what’s the matter, Kimimaro? Hit a nerve, did I?” she sneered at him.

“I told you, he and I had business to take care of.” There was no need for her to know this “business” involved the removal of clothes and touching of bodies once the others had gone home and his father had left the house.

“Right.” She snickered, skating off the lit court and into the shadows of the tree-lined sidewalk.

Thankful for her momentary silence, Kimimaro returned to his basketball game against Jiroubou, listening to the sounds of Tayuya and the twins skating.

Since Sasuke’s parents had been out of town the past week, therefore giving Sasuke a higher level of freedom for where he went, who he was with, and what he did; Kimimaro had skipped practice all week to spend time with him after school, before Kimimaro went to his part-time job. It didn’t matter too much, since the regular season was over and wouldn’t start again until the new school year in April, but Kimimaro couldn’t afford to let himself get out of practice. So, to make up for missing club time at school, he’d been practicing on the court of High Street Park well into the night, every night after work.

Today was one of his days off, so he’d planned to take Sasuke back to Oto with him and make an evening of it. However, since Sasuke had been stolen away by Itachi, Kimimaro had started his practice earlier than usual, appointing Jiroubou to defend the hoop against him. His sheer size made him a formidable opponent, and the fact he could play the game decently helped, too.

Suddenly, one of the three skateboards stopped at the edge of the court.

“Come on, Kimimaro,” the voice of Tayuya called out, again breaking up the monotony of sound. “You never skate with us anymore. Remember when this was supposed to be our time? Now all you ever do is practice basketball and cater to the Uchiha.”

“Quiet, Tayuya,” Jiroubou called from his position on the court, attempting to block Kimimaro’s shot.

“No, she’s right,” Sakon piped up.

“He doesn’t even bring his board anymore,” Ukon agreed with his twin gruffly.

Sakon nodded, proceeding to skate atop a picnic table, following the sidewalk path around the court after dropping off.

“What’s the fuckin’ point of us even being here?” Tayuya continued. “What, are we supposed to be your fucking cheering section, Kimimaro?”

“I never hear you complain when you go to his games and you are part of his cheering section,” Jiroubou pointed out.

Ignoring her cousin, Tayuya exclaimed, “You don’t even like basketball!”

“Shut up, Tayuya,” Kimimaro grunted, evading Jiroubou’s block. “I like it enough. Besides, that doesn’t matter. I’m good, and...” He shot the ball, pausing in place to watch it arc through the air and fall through the hoop without backboard assistance. He smiled to himself at the predicted action before turning to his other three friends, slightly hidden in shadow beyond the edge of the court.

“This is my ticket out of here.”

*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*

When Tsunade finally got home, it was already completely dark. Her last patient had taken a lot longer than she’d expected, due to some tests needing to be redone. She hadn’t wanted to leave it for someone else to finish up, wanting to be on top of her own cases and set an example for the other doctors, since she’d just recently been made Chief of the ER.

Shizune and Haku had already finished eating dinner and cleaning up the kitchen, and were now sitting at the table together. Shizune had the same book she’d been reading at school earlier, and was reading it as Haku finished up his homework, the two of them providing quiet company for each other. Tsunade’s dinner was being kept warm in the oven.

“Tadaima!” Tsunade announced her arrival from the entryway, setting down her work bag full of paperwork and putting her jacket and work shoes in the closet.

Looking over at her from the table, Haku and Shizune called out, “Okaeri nasai!”

Her glossy, pink lips spread in a smile at the greeting, but faltered as she walked into the kitchen and noticed someone missing.

“Where is Naruto?”

“In bed already,” Shizune answered. “He’d already finished his homework and said he didn’t feel well, so I told him to take another dose of pain pills and go to bed. He’s been asleep for about an hour now.”

Tsunade frowned. “He must feel out of sorts if he went without a fight. Naruto hates taking pills for anything.”

Her dark haired lover nodded solemnly. “He wasn’t looking too good. He didn’t even want dinner.”

“Well, he did overdo it a bit on the ramen earlier,” Haku supplied.

“Hmm,” was Tsunade’s reply as she turned toward the doorway again. “I think I’ll just go check on him.”

When she got to the end of the short hall, Tsunade knocked on Naruto’s door. There was no answer, but she was not to be deterred. Knocking again, she announced, “Naruto, I’m coming in!” Then she opened the door to the dark room.

She approached the bed quietly, taking the time to notice how a sliver of moonlight peeked through a space between the closed window curtains, illuminating his golden locks with silvery light. His eyes were closed and his face was relaxed. Unable to resist the opportunity, she reached a hand out and brushed it through his blonde hair. Her honey eyes softened as she did so. When he was asleep, you could really see that Naruto was just a child, despite everything he’d already had to deal with in his short life.

“Oh, brat, what am I going to do with you?” she wondered softly.

“Are you mad at me?” Came his equally soft reply, his voice groggy with sleep. Blue eyes slowly blinked up at her, sparkling as they caught the moonlight.

She smiled at the childlike question, running her hand over the top of his head once more. “No,” she answered before grabbing the wooden chair from the corner at the end of his bed, pulling it over to sit beside his bed.

“Though I am a bit peeved at the situation,” she added as she sat. “Will you tell me what happened?” She didn’t want to offer him her theory before hearing it in his own words, just in case she’d jumped to the wrong conclusions.

“I got my period today,” Naruto answered, and was suddenly struck by a bout of déjà vu as he remembered those were the words that had started the whole ordeal today. Grimacing, he continued, “Suzume-sensei said I should be happy and embrace my femininity.”

“And…” Tsunade prompted. “What did you do?”

“I got pissed and told her ‘fuck you and your gender Nazism’,” Naruto answered, his sleepy mind offering little, if any, resistance.

Tsunade couldn’t help her snort of amusement at that, but quickly covered it with a cough and tried to school her features to a stern look of reprimand. Mouth and eyebrow twitching slightly, she scolded, “Watch your language, young man.”

He smiled cheekily up at her, “I won’t tell Shizune-nee-chan if you don’t.”

A blonde brow rose at this.

“You cursed me out on the phone, remember?” He answered the unspoken question.

“Hmph,” she huffed, both irritated and amused at his cheek. “Deal.”

He nodded at her answer, closing his eyes again and wiggling under his covers to adjust his position.

“So how bad is it?” Naruto asked once he was comfortable. “Are you going to make me take the pills she prescribed?” He tried to sound nonchalant, but she could tell he was worried.

“I’m not sure yet,” she said honestly. His worry became visible as his eyes flashed open and his face contorted in protest. “I don’t want to, Naruto,” she insisted. “But we may not have a choice, you know that. We’ll fight this decision before we give in, though. I already talked to the lawyer at the hospital and he’s helping me figure out our options.”

Naruto’s sigh of relief was audible, though the frown on his forehead didn’t completely relax. She wished she could take all his worries away, but at the moment it just wasn’t possible.

“Try not to think about it for now. I’ll tell you when I know more, okay?”

He nodded and she stood, putting the chair back in the corner.

“Go to sleep now, you have school in the morning.”

“Aw, Tsunade, do I have to? You know how difficult it is for me with my period. Can’t I just stay here until it’s over?” She could clearly hear the pout in his whine.

“Nope, sorry, Naruto. You can’t hide yourself away for a week every month just because you have your period. You’re going to have to learn how to deal with it. Goodnight, Naruto.” With that, she closed his door, and returned to the kitchen.

She could sympathize, of course, and she understood his reasoning included not wanting to expose his gender secret, but she just couldn’t allow him to take the easy way out. It wouldn’t help him in the long run, as a menstrual cycle was a natural part of a bio-female’s life. Besides, normally Naruto wouldn’t just back down and hide away from a life challenge like this; he’d face it head on. She didn’t want him getting in the habit of using his period as an excuse to act like a spoiled brat.

With this in mind, she brought her dinner to the table and sat with the rest of her family. Looking at Shizune, she sternly said, “Naruto has to go to school tomorrow. We can’t let him use his period as an excuse to get out of it. He has to learn how to deal.”

Shizune nodded, though a bit hesitantly, and Tsunade accepted her assent with a sharp nod of her own before digging her chopsticks into the meal Haku had prepared.

*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*

Sasuke was really irritated. He hadn’t been able to get ahold of Kimimaro at all the night before, before he’d given up and gone to sleep. Then this morning, he’d had student council duties to attend to, plus he’d had to evade a few of his fangirls, and hadn’t been able to go over to the Senior High at all to find either Kimimaro or that Yukimura girl. His last hope had been Uzumaki, as he clearly knew the girl, but Uzumaki didn’t even show up for class!

Someone really had it out for Sasuke. It was already lunch and that dobe still hadn’t shown up. Feeling frustrated, the raven decided to take a walk outside. He really wasn’t hungry, and he needed some fresh air.

Sasuke usually tried to steer clear of the Senior building during lunch time, as it was one of the most likely times he would run into either his brother or his brother’s friends—neither of which prospects was very appealing to him. However, today there were more important things to worry about, like finding a certain long, black haired girl who apparently felt perfectly comfortable walking into boys’ locker rooms and finding two boys making out. Therefore he headed in the direction of the dreaded building, hoping to find either the girl or someone that could direct him to her.

He hadn’t been paying much attention to her grade insignia the last time he saw her, but Sasuke figured she was most likely a first year senior. He didn’t remember ever seeing her around any of the kids in either Itachi’s or Kimimaro’s grade year, so first year seemed most logical.

Sasuke found his way to the first year hallways and slid open the first classroom door he came to. As soon as it opened, he jumped back slightly. No, he hadn’t opened the door to some lunchtime meeting of his rabid fangirls, likely as that was, but he wondered if this was any better.

There, standing in the doorway, was a red, human-sized fox; nine furry tails arcing up from its lower back before fanning out and down; its demonically toothy grin and large red eyes mere centimeters from Sasuke’s face. Long, curved claws—fashioned from felt and stuffing—tipped the fingers of its “paws”.

“Oh! Hi, Sasuke-chan!” The thing exclaimed, slightly muffled.

Sasuke’s grip on the door tightened. “Don’t call me that!” He demanded through gritted teeth.

“Oh, that’s right, Sasuke-chan doesn’t like to be called Sasuke-chan! Tobi will remember! Tobi is a good boy!”

Sasuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the other boy. Yes, he’d come face to snout with Tobi, a first year that seemed to follow his brother’s friend Deidara around like a puppy. Or, perhaps he was better described as “the cat who came back,” considering Deidara’s treatment of him, and Tobi’s continuous return despite it all. At the moment, “Kyuubi, the school mascot” seemed most appropriate, though.

“Right, Tobi,” Sasuke replied. It was easier to agree with the boy’s self-accolades than to argue or try to figure out the reason behind them. Maybe he could use it to his advantage this time.

“Tobi, you’re a good boy, right?”

The older, costumed boy nodded his large fox head fervently.

“So you know everyone in your grade, right? And what class they’re in?”

Tobi nodded again. “Is Sasuke looking for someone?”

“Yes, actually, do you know what class Yukimura-senpai is in?”

“Yeah, yeah, Tobi knows!”

Sasuke almost smiled in relief. “Will you tell me?”

“Yukimura-san is in Tobi’s class!” The school mascot exclaimed, gesturing his thumb claw behind himself.

As Sasuke tried to see around him to confirm this statement, Tobi continued, “But Yukimura-san isn’t in there right now.”

Sasuke frowned, growing impatient. “Well, do you know where she went?”

“Shizune-sensei asked Tobi to tell Yukimura-san that Uzumaki-san was in the infirmary, and when lunch started, Yukimura-san left. Maybe Yukimura-san took lunch there?”

Sasuke thought Tobi’s theory had merit, and left immediately to check it out for himself.

*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*

Haku had known, as soon as Naruto started complaining to Shizune about his cramps and bleeding that morning on the way to school, that the nurse would end up allowing the boy to spend the day in the infirmary again, despite Tsunade’s instructions the night prior. She had refused at first, of course, but Haku knew Naruto was relentless and few people had the will to withstand his incessant stubbornness. Still, he was glad she had thought to let Haku know this time, even if the message came in the form of a Kyuubi-outfitted Tobi, whom Shizune had snagged as he passed through the gym building that morning.

Deciding Naruto might like some company for lunch, other than a doting mother-figure, Haku had taken extra helpings down to the nurse’s station. However, Naruto hadn’t been in the mood for lunch, complaining of cramps and feeling “out of it” due to painkillers. Haku had ended up spending the time rubbing the boy’s lower back as he lay on the infirmary cot, until Naruto had drifted off to sleep. Still having some time left during lunch, Haku decided he should probably use it to find Naruto’s friends and tell them why the blonde was missing. Shizune had probably forgotten to do that, and was currently on the phone with Tsunade in the filing office. Haku waved goodbye to her through the slightly cracked door, and she nodded and waved, still listening to Tsunade through the phone.

Haku left the building through the main entrance and began walking in the general direction he thought the midday clouds would best be viewed. The weather was nice, and the sky was blue with fluffy, white clouds. Wherever these clouds were most easily viewed without obstruction, that was surely where Haku would find Shikamaru, and with him were sure to be Ino, Chouji, and Hinata as well—Naruto’s school friends.

Before he could get very far, though, Haku heard someone call out to him.

“Oi, Yukimura-senpai!”

Finding the voice familiar, Haku turned and his eyebrows shot up, seeing the younger Uchiha walking towards him.

“I need to talk to you.” The younger boy looked around at their surroundings, and added, “Privately.”

The courtyard wasn’t too crowded, but there were a few students here and there that could potentially overhear sensitive information. Wondering what the young Uchiha could possibly have to talk to him about, Haku agreed, and followed Sasuke quickly around the back of the gym, which seemed to be deserted at the moment.

“What is it that you wanted?” Haku inquired once they’d stopped.

Sasuke looked around them once more, just to be safe, then closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and let it out. Opening his eyes, he looked straight into Haku’s wide brown ones and said, “I need you to forget what you saw yesterday.”

Haku’s brows drew down in thought. “What I saw yesterday?”

Sasuke nodded firmly.

“You mean… you and Kaguya-senpai?”

Sasuke started nodding ‘yes’, then stopped abruptly and shook his head ‘no’. “That didn’t happen,” he insisted.

“Why? Are you embarrassed? You know, if you didn’t want to be caught, you should’ve chosen a more private location,” Haku smirked.

“Thanks for the advice,” Sasuke replied dryly. “But it isn’t needed, seeing as what you’re implying happened, didn’t happen. And I’ll thank you to not tell anyone else it did, either.”

Haku frowned at this, “You’re ashamed, aren’t you? Ashamed you’re gay.”

“That’s not true,” Sasuke insisted.

“Then why are you so concerned with denying the facts? Why are you making sure I don’t tell anyone?”

“I just can’t have it spread around that I’m gay, okay? What would my parents say? Especially after Itachi—” Catching himself before he gave away too much personal information, Sasuke’s face twisted in a scowl. “Look, you wouldn’t understand anyway, you don’t know what this is like.”

Haku’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at that. Before he could retort the statement, though, Sasuke was walking away.

“Look, we’re done here,” he called over his shoulder. “Just forget what happened and don’t tell anyone!”

And then he was gone. Haku briefly wondered if he should’ve told the boy he’d already told Naruto, but shrugged it off, figuring it was the Uchiha’s own fault he hadn’t asked if Haku had told anyone already.

*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*

Itachi, Sasori, and Kisame were sitting in an otherwise empty classroom, a set of four desks pushed together to make a table, lunch waiting on three of the desks while Kisame shoveled food into his mouth at the fourth. Suddenly the door to their classroom burst open and a grinning blonde walked in, followed by a giant fox.

“You’ll never guess what I just saw, yeah!” The ponytailed blonde exclaimed, seemingly oblivious of the follower he’d gained on his trip through the building, whose tails got caught in the door as Deidara slammed it closed behind him. Deidara paid him no mind as he surged forward, teeth flashing mischievously.

“Deidara, you kept us waiting nearly half the lunch period already,” Sasori admonished.

“I didn’t wait,” Kisame commented, his mouth full of food.

Deidara looked at him, unsure whether to grin or grimace. He sweatdropped. “Clearly, mmm.”

“You’d better have a good reason.” Sasori lifted his red eyes to enquire of the blue eyed blonde.

“I know, I know, you hate to wait,” Deidara waved off the redhead’s irritation, plopping in his seat and grabbing up his chopsticks. “This was worth it though, believe me, yeah,” he declared, pointing his chopsticks at Sasori.

Itachi caught the bamboo utensils between his own, stopping their movement. “Don’t point,” he ordered in monotone.

Deidara glared at him as he pulled his chopsticks from Itachi’s hold.

“So, tell us already, what did you see that was so amazing?” Kisame demanded.

Distracted back to the main topic, Deidara said, “Oh yeah! So I was in the gym, right? And I walked out, and from the corner of my eye I saw Mini Itachi dragging some chick behind the building. So then I turned to catch a better look, yeah, and I saw it wasn’t a chick, it was that Haku kid from Tobi’s class that likes to wear girls’ clothes! Well, of course I followed them, but I had to go slow so they wouldn’t know, yeah. Anyway, by the time I caught up to them, Sasuke was already leaving. I had to duck behind some stairs so he didn’t see me, but I heard him tell Haku they were “done” and to “forget what happened and don’t tell anyone”,” Deidara finished meaningfully, using air quotes.

Kisame’s eyebrows shot up, Itachi frowned grimly, Sasori looked bored, and Tobi greeted everyone a cheerful hello, having finally maneuvered himself and his tails out of the doorway.

“So, it looks like I was right and Mini Itachi’s gay just like the original, mmm!” Deidara concluded triumphantly.

“What makes you say that, Deidara-senpai?” Tobi wondered aloud whilst attempting to sit behind a desk, which is a rather difficult—if not impossible—feat to accomplish when one is wearing a Konoha Kyuubi costume, complete with tails.

“Tobiii! I just finished telling everyone,” Deidara complained loudly.

“Sorry, senpai, I missed it.”

Suddenly in the mood to make his kouhai shadow suffer—not that that was anything new—Deidara refused to answer. His stubbornness didn’t have much impact, though, since Kisame answered in the next instant.

“Deidara saw Sasuke drag that crossdresser from your class behind the gym, and then heard Sasuke say not to tell anyone what happened.”

“So, obviously, they’d just made out or something, and Sasuke’s worried about his Asexual Ice Prince rep so he told Haku not to tell, mmm!”

The frown on Itachi’s face grew even darker at this. He knew to only take Deidara’s speculations with a grain of salt, but just the fact that Sasuke was having any association with the crossdresser did not bode well in Itachi’s mind.

It wasn’t that he disapproved of Haku’s choice of dress. Quite the contrary, in fact, Itachi respected the boy’s boldness. However, Sasuke had not yet accepted himself, let alone learned to accept others that were different from the “norm”. And now that Sasuke was seemingly acquainted with Haku, a gay boy who dressed—and was often mistaken—as a girl, Itachi dearly hoped Sasuke wasn’t planning on doing something stupid. Like having Haku pose as his girlfriend in front of their parents at their upcoming graduation party. An idea like that could take so many wrong turns, and end in so many ways, all of which were bound to be bad, Itachi didn’t even want to think about the possibilities.

The insinuations Deidara made brought a few more points to Itachi’s attention as well, though.

One, what was really going on between his brother and Haku today? Two, how is Sasuke associated with Haku in the first place? Three, Sasuke should really be more careful about where he’s having private conversations if he doesn’t want to be overheard. And four, what about Kimimaro, who, last Itachi knew, was Sasuke’s official-but-secret boyfriend?

“I don’t think anything like that happened, senpai,” Tobi’s insistent voice broke into Itachi’s troubling line of thought.

“What are you talking about, Tobi?” Deidara questioned the younger boy angrily. He did not like being challenged, especially not by Tobi.

Tobi held his hands up in front of him, both as a ward to Deidara’s temper and to show he meant no malice. “Tobi doesn’t mean they didn’t make out. That could’ve happened, like senpai says,” he said placatingly. “It’s just that, when Sasuke asked Tobi where Yukimura-san was earlier, he didn’t seem to know Yukimura-san was a boy. He called Yukimura-san ‘she’.”

Silence met this statement. It was broken in the next instant, though, as Kisame began laughing uproariously in uncontained mirth.

“That’s great. Leave it to Sasuke to be so oblivious to those around him that he can’t even tell when someone’s a guy in drag!” The blue haired teen exclaimed, chugging a soda once he’d gotten control of his laughter.

“Wasn’t it you who tried to pick Deidara up when you first saw him?” Sasori questioned wryly, raising a defined red brow.

Kisame spluttered at that, choking on his drink and grimacing, “Yeah, well, the illusion was broken the minute he opened his infernal mouth, wasn’t it?”

“Hey! I’ll have you know my mouth is quite nice, yeah. Awesome, even, mmm!” Deidara defended himself suggestively.

“Like I’d let your mouth anywhere near me, even if I swung that way,” Kisame countered jovially, loving a good banter.

“You wish it’d come near you,” Deidara replied instantly.

Ignoring both of them, Sasori broke open his chopsticks. They could continue if they wished, but there were only ten minutes left of lunch, and now that everyone was here Sasori was done waiting. Catching his boyfriend’s attention with his eyes, Sasori opened and closed his chopsticks, indicating his intentions. Itachi nodded, lifting the chopsticks already in his hand in reply.

“Itadakimasu,” they said in unison, and began eating.

Noticing he’d lost most of his audience, Deidara joined them, and Kisame finished off what was left of his meal. Tobi didn’t eat, whether because he already had, or because he didn’t want to bother taking off his “head”, they neither knew nor cared. Deidara was just glad the younger boy had finally stopped fidgeting with the desk and decided to sit on top of it instead.

When Kisame was finished, he turned to Itachi. “So what are you going to do, Itachi? Will you tell Sasuke Haku’s really a boy, or let him figure it out for himself?”

Itachi didn’t even blink. “Tell no one of this incident. I will investigate further, but none of you are to discuss this with Sasuke or anyone else, and no one is to tell him of Haku’s true gender.” So ordered, the long haired raven returned his attention to his meal.

TBC

*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*
A/N: Whew! Another chapter within a week! I don’t know if I can keep up this pace, but I’m trying… I haven’t been able to catch up on any of my reading because of it, but I am all about this story at the moment, so it’s okay. I remember back in the day when my nights were completely free for writing and reading, and I practically kept myself on a chapter-a-week writing schedule… now my nights are spent one-handed typing while caring for an infant. Good times…

Am I getting bogged down in the details? I seem to put more detail into this than most of my other stories I’ve written, down to the specific settings and shoes and whatnot… I am liking it at the moment, and find it necessary (especially since every time I try to put less detail, it somehow ends up becoming MORE), but I still wonder what the readers feel about it. Obviously I’m not getting much feedback, so it’s hard to tell. Amazingly, I’m still all about writing this, despite that.

Anyway, more links! As you’ve seen Sasuke’s kitties now, here are the links to the cats I’m modeling them after, thanks to Rasengan22’s research help.

Sasuke’s kitties:

Burmese (2nd picture on page): http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/burmese.html
Javanese (1st picture on page): http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/javanese.html

Question for readers: Does anyone know which cat is which in the manga? It looks to me like it might say on their foreheads in ch. 354, but I can’t read Japanese, and my firefox suddenly stopped showing kanji images awhile back so I can’t even use my translator for reference. :( If anyone knows/could find out and tell me, it’d be much appreciated! Otherwise, I will just go with my best guess (fat cat: Hina, foxy kitty: Denka). Also, I’ll probably keep them as male cats, because that’s what I tend to prefer and the male personality described for the Burmese also seems more preferable to me. Nevertheless, if anyone knows their intended genders in the manga, I’d love to know!

Review Replies:

To chelzi: Thank you for continuing to review! As you can see, KakaIru are not their guardians. :p Everyone does that, and I wanted to do something different. Actually, I’m not much of a fan of that pairing. *runs from fangirls* No offense to anyone that likes it, and I don’t mind it as a side pairing, but I tend to skip over scenes of them being lovey dovey together (pretty much nixing any sex scenes). So I probably won’t ever write it, unless it’s crack. Glad you like the story so far, and the KimiSasu scene, and Naru-chan’s girl name! Sorry if the purge part made ya sick, but I did warn ya! :p Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.

To sasukeskyuubi: You know I love you dude, your reviews are awesome. I’m glad you’re enjoying it, and thanks for remembering to review. LOL It tickles me so much when you and Jpop agree on something, especially when it contradicts me. XD Oh well, I was happy for the criticism, since I like the shoes I chose now better than what I initially thought of. LOL at your favorite part, Itachi’s entrance line! Glad you liked. And as for Sasuke’s mouthwash scene, I’m glad you enjoyed that as well, I enjoyed writing it. Was it suggestive? While writing the first lines of it, I thought it was… hoped it was… *shrug* Jpop laughed at it. :p Anyway, Sasuke has a few of my more neurotic quirks in this, and mouth and body cleanliness on the verge of OCD is one of them >.> His primping was fun to write also, though pretty much only the fiddling with his sneaker tongue came from me. Anyway, hope you liked this one, too!


Guess that’s all from me now!

Don’t Forget: “Peaches are fuzzy, nectarines are bald!” ~ CC1

Please review!

♥

~ lg