Disguised Curses

I'm back!!!! Sorry for the delay, real life grabbed me by the ankle and completely shook me to pieces. Real life updates!! I'm pregnant, kid number 2, about 8 weeks along. We got the job we were looking for and will be moving most likely by the end of October (at the projected latest) So even though I'll be writing when I can, please forgive some extended delay in updates. Gotta move the family from Alaska back to Colorado and there's a fuck-ton of packing and sorting and cleaning to do, not to mention the moving in and finding the right place and all sorts of related things. SO. To make it simple, please enjoy this update to the fullest and I will get back to you all as soon as I can.

DJargo, Darling. Thank you for your input every time. Glad the last set of updates pleased you. And if you go back (around chapter 25, for Naruto's birthday) there was a scene that he was still looking for signs of who his parents were and trying to put those pieces together and failing. So that news was definitely going to rock his world.

 

NOTE: This 3K + word chapter is a reward to my readers/ reviewers, and myself, for reaching nearly 110 K wordvcount for the story and 100 reviews. I thank every reader and reviewer profusely for the support you're giving this story.

Warnings for this chapter? Hard R. Maybe a little OOC- ness, but not really, if you think about it. Have fun!!

 

 

 

Chapter 48

 

 

“Did you mean it?” Sasuke looked up, seeing Hinata at the doorway into the little kitchen they’d managed to claim for late evening tea.  They’d fallen into a rhythm since practically moving in while keeping up the security for the last week and half, (eleven days, not that Naruto had pointed it out that morning) while everyone waited for Tsunade to declare a stand-down. Sasuke disappeared in the evenings after his shifts, for hot tea with a touch of cream and no sugar, whenever he had to pull perimeter duty. He placed the spoon on the little saucer Hanabi had demanded they all use, instead of on the counter, and turned to face Hinata. “Mean what?”

“What you told Tsunade- sama the other morning. About giving up your last name.” She slid into the kitchenette with all the trained grace of a kunoichi. She was wearing a casual, loose shirt with just a hint of a dip at the neckline, still entirely modest, and soft grey pants. His fingers clenched around the cup a little harder as he nodded.

“I would not have said it otherwise.”  He moved over and allowed Hinata the space to steep her own cup. “I promised Naruto I would do anything I could to help this family. My last name is nothing.”

Hinata made a soft sound of disagreement. “You are Uchiha. Your last name is everything, even if it does not have the same influence it held when you were young.” She took Sasuke’s used spoon and stirred her steaming tea, offering him a small smile. “Your name is as deadly as my own.”

Sasuke sipped at his own still- scalding tea, barely feeling the burn. “Once, maybe,” he finally conceded. “But if you can sacrifice your last name for marriage, why can’t I? Apparently most of the village knows or suspects he and I are together anyway.”

She stared at his arm until he glanced down, red daisy-chain designs showing where his sleeve rode up. “You two aren’t exactly subtle, and this is a village full of ninja.”

“Who are idiotically blind when they wish to be. Namikaze’s son. Someone should have noticed long ago.” Had no one bothered to look past the whisker- scars on his face?

“Sasuke Uchiha.” He stiffened at the steel in Hinata’s voice. “You are not responsible for this one. It is our parent’s generation for allowing this to be ignored. He was seen as the demon, and nothing else, and no one was permitted to talk about it. Would anyone have been any nicer if they had to admit he was the Fourth’s son as well?” 

“I probably would have been killed off much sooner.” Naruto appeared in the doorway, as if summoned. Speak of the devil and it appears. Sasuke grimaced at the thought. Naruto was not a devil. “At least I have proved myself without bearing the weight of his name. The Fourth Hokage left quite a record.”

A moment’s peace ruled, tempered by the history they’d all grown up learning about the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, the Yellow Flash himself. The one who saved Konoha from Kyuubi and bound the demon within his own son. The young man now standing in the room with these two, an Uchiha and a Hyuga.

“Will you take his name?” Hinata asked, settling into a chair. Her hand hovered over the little bowl of honey before finally taking the lid off and drizzling a serving into her tea. And then reached for another. By the time she stirred in her third spoonful, both men were looking at her. “Long day,” she sighed, but waved off further questions. “C’mon, answer. Do you think you’ll really take his last name?”

“I want to. It would be a smack in the face of those who mocked me, anyone that said I could never achieve anything. And, if he’s really my father… who wouldn’t want to?” He tried to smile but his lips lifted at just one corner, and his eyes weren’t happy. “Kyuubi had some choice things to say. He had no love for my parents. He sealed Kyuubi away in me… but Kushina was Kyuubi’s previous host. She kept him bound without any freedoms, by sheer willpower. At least in me, he’s trapped by the seals, and both of us spent years without either of us knowing. And I’ve given him some freedoms since.” Naruto leaned against Sasuke’s shoulder and sighed. “I’m not sure if I want to change my name, but I will claim the family relationship if Tsunade can prove I am his son.”

“Think of it this way: Hinata Uzumaki, or Hinata Namikaze?” Sasuke intoned, hiding his smirk against the rim of his cup. Hinata gave him a weak glare in return, but she was thinking about it. Then she smiled pleasantly, spoon stirring idly in her cup.

“It’s not my name that I have to get used to hearing changed. I’ve expected it all my life.” She licked the spoon, delicate tongue flicking at the edge. “I will admit to calling myself Hinata Uzumaki a time or two, if only in my head.” Naruto rumbled, happy- sounds in the depths of a growl, and Sasuke snorted to himself. Leave it to Hinata’s confession to buff up Naruto’s pride.

“Hinata Namikaze. A deadly name,” he quipped. He could play this game just as well as she could.

“But Sasuke Uchiha Namikaze drips with power.” Hot breath at his ear, and Sasuke shuddered against Naruto. Cheating bastard. “No matter what name I choose, you will take it, won’t you?” Sasuke gasped, arching against Naruto’s grinding hips, words twisting in his mind. Sasuke grunted and tried to push away the rising physical interest. Naruto had trained his body well these last few months, to be receptive to his attentions. “Did you lie when you told Tsunade that you’d give up the Uchiha name?”

“No.” The word rushed out on a breath. “I did not lie.” Sasuke’s gaze fixed on Hinata, and even though he couldn’t smell her like he knew Naruto could, he could still read arousal. The flush crawling up her throat and the way her fingers danced along her cup… she was enjoying this. Enjoyed watching. Naruto’s teeth latched onto his shoulder and Sasuke nearly dropped his cup, eyes fluttering to half mast. His free arm swept around to put his cup onto the counter before it risked shattering on the floor. “Naruto,” he moaned, and watched Hinata’s next inhale go ragged.

He didn’t have to remotely pretend the shudder a moment later, when Naruto ground the heel of his hand against his erection. It was just this side of pain, but it was more contact than he’d had seconds before. It was all the more worth the edge of Naruto’s aggression when Hinata’s voice quivered over her next words.

“You might want to take this somewhere else. Someone could-”

Naruto’s head lifted from Sasuke’s shoulder, and her words cut short with a noise Sasuke could only describe as a whimper. He’d give a lot to see Naruto’s face at the moment, see what was there that made Hinata go silent like that.

“Join us, Hinata?” The deep, scratchy voice, just short of the low rolling growl Sasuke had become very familiar with, made him shiver in anticipation. He was intimately familiar with that tone. Oh so intimately. It made him want to know her answer, want to know if he could watch her fall apart under Naruto’s hands, the way he now willingly crumbled for Naruto. And when she bit her lip and started looking more panicked-scared-uncertain over her previous nervous arousal, he couldn’t help but try and soothe her.

“Only what you want. You could only watch, and it’d be okay.” Sharp teeth scraped his shoulder for that, but the crooning sound pitched low in his ears was Naruto’s approval. “He needs you- we need you,” he amended, aware of the blood pooling just under his skin. A wrong angle, a slight more pressure, and his blood would fill Naruto’s mouth. He’d squirm in frustration at Naruto’s not-so-subtle coercion, but he knew, now, how to walk the line. He didn’t have to provoke Naruto for pain tonight, of all nights; not with Hinata there with them.

And then Naruto released him completely, and Sasuke dropped to the floor, hitting his knees much harder than he should have. He was a ninja, he knew how to fall to minimize the damage to his body. But he stayed there, not shifting to soothe the ache, and leaned back to rest his head against Naruto’s hip. It drew Hinata to them, her slow walk projecting a lessening amount of tension the closer she got, until she was there, the soft cloth of her pants brushing against Sasuke’s shoulder. She kissed Naruto first, a lingering kiss that he could hear from here, at both their knees. The position should have been humbling, humiliating, subservient.

He shifted his weight enough to casually lean his head against Hinata’s hip instead, and the moan half-swallowed by Naruto was empowering. Clawed fingers reached down and tangled into Sasuke’s hair, and he groaned again, arching back at Naruto’s tug. A moment later her gentler fingers joined Naruto’s, combing through loose strands, offering a token of attention. Sasuke arched between them, flutters of hopeful arousal twisting in his gut, chasing the desperate longing he’d denied about belonging somewhere. He’d been Naruto’s for months. Now, there was a real glimmer of being theirs, that the odd triangle of the three of them would work as a whole thing, not some broken level of possessive and attraction and commitment. He was more than just resigned to it; he had accepted the way this relationship would need all three of them, but the fragile need for love he’d twisted and tried to avoid for so long had latched to this hope of more.

Hinata took a step back, breaking her kiss with Naruto and sliding her hand to Sasuke’s shoulder. He took a moment to peer up at her, to look his fill of her reddened lips, at the blush of arousal dancing along her skin, and the way her chest shook a little with every ragged breath. She looked down after a moment, locking their gazes. There was a hunger in those pale violet eyes, and acceptance, and things Sasuke wasn’t ready to name. Not for himself, at least.

“Our room. So Hinata can return to hers whenever she wishes.” He was proud his voice didn’t crack, throat strained at the angle as he looked up, thick with everything hanging between them, but not cracked or broken.

Hinata seemed to soften a little; gratitude, he thought, and he took her hand when she offered to help him up. He wanted to reach out, stroke fingertips over her flushed skin and kiss those lips. Instead he managed to only tuck an errant lock of hair behind an ear and pulled away before he could unsettle her. He turned before he could let the question forming in her eyes be asked, leading the way for the three of them. If they stayed any longer, he would never be able to get Naruto out of there before things progressed further.

Sasuke kept walking through their allotted rooms, leaving the hall door in Naruto’s capable hands. He heard the lock click into place right before a hand encircled his wrist, and Sasuke froze mid-step. The fingers there were gentler than any hold Naruto had used on him, familiar kunai calluses on the fingertips, no claws dragging against his skin. He pulled his foot back and placed it firmly on the floor and turned to look at Hinata, who was looking at their hands, and past her to Naruto, staring at them both. There was something unreadable about his alpha, something hidden under the mask of his humanity.

“May I?” He realized Hinata’s other hand was lingering near the neckline of his shirt, hovering over the buttons. An inch more and she’d be touching his chest. He nodded, eyes flicking back to Naruto, still trying to judge the mood. It was unnerving to not read Naruto, to not be able to predict the reactions he had learned to judge and respond to recently. But Naruto was a mask, only a raw hunger projecting from him, something dark lurking in his eyes. It wasn’t the dark depths of lust- but something deeper, more primal.

The first touch of Hinata’s cool fingers against his heating skin was a tender shock, her fingers pulling his shirt wide and then tracing over the myriad of crimson decorations, of scars half- hidden in his flesh. He saw the hunger grow more intense in Naruto’s face, but there was no threat, no looming feeling of doom. Sasuke took the risk and focused back on the woman touching him. He could come to crave her gentle touches, he knew, just from the way she handled him; not like he was fragile, or delicate, but firmly, without nearly the kind of force Naruto often wielded. Both hands traced along his ribs, until her arms were loosely wrapped around him, not quite hugging Sasuke, and then she leaned forward to whisper against his ear.

“I want to watch him fuck you.”

He felt the whine choke in his throat and his erection twitch in swift, renewed interest. Sasuke pulled away, trying not to jerk and give the wrong signal, but needing to look into her face. He didn’t get far, a hard, hot line of muscle pressed against his back, and he stilled. Anyone, anywhere else, and he could have panicked, would likely have tried to flee the instant he was pinned in such a way. There was no control here, in this moment, no control in his hands except resistance or submission.

He didn’t want to resist where this was going.

Clawed fingers ran along his hips, tracing the hem of his pants, and Sasuke leaned into the strength of the man behind him. Leaned back and let cool, soft fingers dance down his chest, until two sets of hands worked to strip his lower half. Hands he could trust his life in, bodies that he had defended and fought beside, words and teeth and teasing lips that went beyond the lines of teamwork and fighting and well toward intimate friendship.

He melted between them, held upright by Naruto’s unforgiving claws, balanced and grounded by Hinata’s softer touch. He hung between them, attention split and shattered; heavily aroused by her words and lingering looks, by the situation, by the casual near- roughness Naruto used.

He felt it when Naruto stopped, thick within him and hot breath over the cursed seal, made more aware of everything with a sharp, sudden clarity. Hinata had stepped back, moved away, and her soothing touch was gone with it, leaving only her heated gaze. Sasuke stared after her, arching in a way that soothed his body, calmed the burn in a way that couldn’t calm his nerves. Had she had enough? Was she leaving? Had either of them done something wrong, gone too far, too much too soon?

“I said,” she spoke calmly, but clearly, no trace of hesitation or embarrassment on her face. “I want to watch him fuck you.”

The punch-in-the-gut rush of arousal was as intense as the first time she’d said that, but this time, Naruto complied. Sasuke dug his fingers into the back of the couch- when had they reached it?- and braced his body to take the first vicious thrust of a hard ride. He was familiar with this, finally used to the sheer intensity involved in this part of their relationship. He wasn’t as familiar with the perceptive scrutiny of pale eyes, or the way Hinata flushed amazingly as she watched them; or of trying to keep his eyes open to watch her reactions between them flickering shut as Naruto manipulated his body.

“I told her what you like. That making you think of the three of us drives you wild.” Naruto hissed against Sasuke’s ear, and he bucked against the next thrust. Naruto had learned well how to get Sasuke to respond to word and touch.  “That promises of pounding you into the bed will make you arch for me, and when I whisper what I plan on doing to your body, you whine and beg.”

Sasuke shuddered, a sharp cry in his throat as his nerves sang, his mind as willing and pliant as his body. He knew he was letting Naruto lay him bare and open before Hinata, stripped of far more than his clothes. He wanted this, needed it; he trusted them to put him back together into one whole piece when he fell apart. And he was going to fall apart, he could feel it coming. He wanted an anchor, needed more than just the touch of Naruto’s body in his.

“Please. Hina-” He broke on her name, voice failing him for a moment as he breathed harshly, but she came to him. She came to him, straddled the couch cushions and brushed her gentle fingers over his face. He keened at her scent, warm and welcoming, and her lips were on his, kissing and licking against his skin, flicking against the tip of his tongue while he panted.

“Yours?” He managed to force out.

“Mine.”

“Ours,” She corrected, and the possessive tone rivaled Naruto’s. Her fingers wove into his hair and she pulled his head back to stare directly into his face. “Only ours.”

Sasuke fell headlong into static-white bliss, taking the promises in their voices down with him.

 

 

 

 

He’s warm and safe as he woke, blanket draped over him and a warm body pressed close. The chakra and feel was all Naruto,  but the fingers brushing over his head weren’t. He cracked open his eyes. Hinata gave him a smile and another caress before folding her hands in her lap. “Welcome back.”

“Thank you,” he managed. Being between them was still so novel, new, but it felt right to be here, in this moment. He acknowledged the flighty hope to be able to do the same for each of them in time, as they had just done for him. Bring them down to this level of secure trust and calm. It had been far too long since he’s felt anything like peace.

The smile reached her eyes, filled them with little bits of light. It was love-sick of a feeling to realize he liked that look on her, but he won’t say it aloud. Instead he settled deeper against the couch cushion that’s under his head. “Sasuke Uzumaki doesn’t sound too horrible,” he conceded, finishing the conversation that now felt like forever ago. The name change would be worth more of this in the future.

Definitely worth it.

________