The Shackled Stallion

After a nice sleep, I feel ready to tackle…fifth installment! Deep apologies for those who loved Draco and Harry, but if I did it to Ginji-kun and Kabaji-kun, then I had to do it to them too. Besides, what better way to make up for it than actually ending this story and giving you all what you want *hinthint*?

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-*The Shackled Stallion*-

<>bIt's that damn fox, that's what it is. It's in heat.

*Yeah. Sure. And you're not horny at all.*

/You know, I think it's because he's been celibate for…forever./

Shut. Up.

He glared fiercely at nothing as the blond led him to the dance floor. This was the fault of the entire world. It was Tsunade-sama's fault because she assigned them the mission. That shadowy gentleman who'd enlisted their village was at fault too. It was their permanently blushing waiter's fault for being so gullible. It was the damn Mountain Man's fault for letting them dance. It was the entire club's fault for being so overwhelmed by blond animal sexiness. It was Neji and Gaara's fault for utterly warping Naruto's small amount of common sense. And it was Naruto's fault because he was wearing a sexy please-punish-me-Master outfit in such a place where he could take complete advantage of the fact.

/And you're complaining because…?/

Their mission was going down the drain, taking his sanity with it.

Must…salvage…

"Oi, Naruto," he hissed nervously as he was dragged into the middle of a quickly widening circle. "Do you even know how to dance?"

The blond happily nodded an affirmative, apparently not realizing that he was in the midst of salivating sex-hungry perverts and he was holding on to one of them. "Of course I do. I went to a dance instructor."

"A dance instructor?" A mental fist came up to bonk against the golden hair-framed forehead. "You idiot. Dance instructors teach you normal dancing like…like waltzing and stuff like that."

Add to his increasing images one of Naruto in a suit and mask, with the ever-present whip.

*My, my…*

Goddammit, get your mind out of the gutter for ONE second!

"How would you know? You ever been to a dance instructor?" he said, blue eyes shining with the light of potential blackmail.

"Yes." Sasuke answered, daring him to even think about it.

"Well, mine was different." The blond said, grinning, his fingers tapping on his hip while he waited for the music.

"Different how? She teach you the foxtrot?" High up on the dj's platform, he could dimly see two silhouettes on the verge of strangling each other. They were most likely arguing about which slutty strip music they'd like the sex kitten to dance to.

"Neji recommended her."

"So?"

Naruto flashed him a wicked grin that had the fight on the platform doubling in intensity. "I've seen Neji lap-dance. On Gaara."

His chin would have bruises on its bruises by the time this night was over. He managed a weak, "You spend way too much time at their place." and to his great surprise, did not faint. He contemplated chaining the blond to the bed to prevent the redhead and his wanton lover from contaminating him further, and the resulting image had him feeling for his handkerchief yet again.

And then the music started.

Slender arms slid around his neck and a warm body pressed against his. He could feel the heavy beat through the soles of his feet, working its way up his entire body, but it couldn't be louder than the beat of his heart.

"Try to keep up…" a soft voice whispered in his ear before biting down. "Sensei."

This was completely unfair.

/You know you like it./

Aren't you guys dead yet?

*You know demons. Can't live with them, can't live without them…but damn, are they a good fuck.*

Shut up.

"Sasuke, dancing entails moving your body." The blond whispered. "Unless you want to be stiff. That's okay too. I got a quick lesson in pole-dancing."

How many times his eyes bugged from his blood-drained face he had no idea, but he was sure this wouldn't be the last time tonight. Oh my gods.

He hadn't realized that Naruto was already moving, probably because he was still in shock. As he slowly returned to the world where a chained and helpless blond was not a possibility (or was it?) he realized, that no one could actually call it 'moving' with a straight face, unless they had perfected the poker face and didn't mind being struck by lightning for being the biggest liar in the world.
His hands were crossed at the wrists behind Sasuke's neck, and somehow he had managed to straddle one of the brunette's thighs without him noticing, and that meant that one of his half-naked thighs was between his legs, and that wasn't good because it rubbed up against him and it made his sense go haywire. Sky-blue eyes were closed and he was biting his lip in concentration as he undulated like a sensuous, sinuous and extremely horny snake against his partner's shock-still body.

Oh my gods.

"Relax, Sasuke." came the almost inaudible whisper. "Just concentrate on the music."

Easy for you to say. Your motor-movement isn't curtailed by the stunning revelation that your partner has been taking pole-dancing lessons.

One small hand slid down his neck and the length of his body, wrapping around the fist at his hip, the brunette's only concession to the fact that he was dancing and when dancing, it's usually acceptable to have some physical contact with your partner. Gentle fingers pried his free and laid them flat against a leather-clad hip.

"Come on, Sasuke-sensei." The blond moved closer and a pointed tongue flicked out to tease his earlobe. "Play with your kitten."

The brunette and his demons let out the same breathy phrase at the exact same time.

Oh.

My.

Gods.

His body, realizing that his mind was still in a state of shock, and was most likely going to stay there, decided to take action. He let his hand rest on Naruto's hip while the other pressed against the small of the blond's back, letting their bodies fuse together, in an unconscious and futile attempt to make him stop moving.

It failed completely. If anything, it made the blond move harder against him, and he cursed the rapidly rising beat of the music.

"Dance, Uchiha." The sultry voice murmured in his ear, and he felt a hand press against his backside, making him move to the rhythm of the blond's hips. "Or don't you know how?"

Damn phermones.

His eyes gleamed.

"Say that again when we're done."

-And Then…-

A dance was a dance. It couldn't be anything else.

Naruto took it to a whole new level.

Sasuke had to endure -endure- a whole fifteen minutes with Naruto practically glued to his body. Then again, 'glued' would have been preferable, because 'glued' did not entail hot hands clinging to your body, slender legs snaking in between your thighs, damp skin rubbing against your own as you gyrated to a beat that had nothing to do with music at all, except in a completely primal way, and had everything to do with making people dance in the most suggestive ways imaginable. 'Thrust' wasn't the least of it.

And most people didn't have to worry about some crazy little leather-bound, thong-wearing, blond horror who took his acting far too seriously and had actually licked his cheek before showing him that, yes, he knew how to pole-dance, and he did it admirably. Sasuke had had to stop the real Naruto from crowing gleefully when they found a foreign note in the waistband of his shorts. It had three zeros.

Just can't get it out of your sight,
Been wishin' for it all night.
You just want that ass, ass, ass
Sasuke wants that ass.

That one of your Billboard hits, Sasuke growled lamely, for lack of anything better to say. He couldn't be expected to concentrate on his demons and Naruto at the same time, could he?

But he'd gone right along with it, because of those thrice-accursed pheromones -

/You have a bad habit of lying to yourself, you know?/

Die.

- he had been dancing because of the pheromones, not because he'd had any inclination to dance with Naruto at all, and he could remember everything quite clearly, like a man who has woken up from a hangover and has five seconds of blank bliss before he remembers what he did at that party last night right in front of the boss. He could remember skimming his fingers over leather straps and sweaty skin. He could remember the smell of apples and ice cream as he pulled the blond back against his front, one hand pressed just below the navel, thumb hooked into the waistband, feathering over the smooth skin. He could remember the feel of a small hand cupping the back of his neck and grasping at the short dark hair as they ground into each other to that damnably primordial beat that bypassed their brain in favor of a small switch at the back of their heads that said Carnal Desire. Whoever invented that music was a right bastard and no mistake.

He could hear his brother now. "Don't be such a chicken, Sasuke, it's a just a little sexual intercourse with your best and only friend." It sounded exactly like every other piece of advice that Itachi had ever given him. Don't be a chicken, it's just a tiny scratch. Don't whine so much, it's just a little kunai practice. Don't be so uptight, Sasuke thought bitterly, it's just a little killing spree.

They were swaying slightly in a sea of bodies, the residue music hanging in the air as they waited for the DJs, who had erupted into a spontaneous cat fight yet again, to either put on a new song or to throttle each other. Either way, it would be entertaining.

Sasuke shifted from one foot to the other, keeping up a simple two-beat rhythm. Naruto followed, still wrapped up in his arms, humming to himself as he looked up at the furiously gesticulating shadows. The brunette absently noted that he was still a few inches taller than his partner, and though this gave him the advantage of resting his cheek on top of silky golden strands, it also had the disturbing effect of getting Naruto's ass right up against his groin.

"Hey Sasuke, you ok?"

"I'm fine." he answered, trying to ignore how snugly the blond fit against him.

"They're going to choose the cage dancers after this." Naruto whispered, gently caressing the arm over his stomach. "So let's make it look good, 'kay?"

"Hn." If he filled his mind with thought of Itachi and torture, it was quite possible he would forget all about Naruto and his seemingly flourishing bondage fetish, so he would just concentrate on dark walls and shadows and heavy chains and candles and handcuffs – damn it.

"I just hope they don't play anything romantic. I don't think I'm any good at close contact dancing."

Could've fooled me.

Sasuke's pride just kept him from sighing at his fate. How miserable was this, the Uchiha heir, the one not insane, reduced to doing a mock-slow dance in the middle of a gay bar during the weekend. And with Naruto no less. If it was Shika or Kiba, or even Chouji, he wouldn't have minded as much. With them, a job was nothing more than a job; no frills, no costumes, no 'seme' and 'uke' games, no acting. He wouldn't have minded if even it had been Neji, though Gaara would have, very much. It was probably why he wasn't chosen for the job, even though he'd done as many stealth missions as Naruto had. Even with her backward gambling instincts and even though Gaara had sworn never to lose his self-control in Konoha, Tsunade still had a sense of self-preservation.

Naruto was different. Naruto was a Rival, and their level of animosity was such that it merited the capital letter.

Some people would say "What animosity?" Konoha had not seen so much in the way of large-scale property destruction, landmark explosions, building implosions, intolerable amounts of flying, crackling energy balls and giant summoned creatures sitting in suspicious debris these past few years and had instead seen a marked increase in energetic recreation and ramen consumption. Their rivalry had inexplicably evolved into something that could be called friendship by someone who didn't know the difference. It wasn't exactly rivalry either; it didn't have that blood-boiling, gut-wrenching, disgust-laden horror and loathing to it. Instead, it approached the whole Eternal Enemies from a different perspective, for example, Naruto being aggresively nice and helpful, and Sasuke not taking him to the cleaners for it.

Or maybe Naruto was a friend. It certainly felt that way sometimes, when he came home to his empty estate and found a happy ramen-cooking blond there. That was when he had started thinking that Naruto made his house feel even more like a home than it had been when his family was still alive. But possibly no other friendship in the world could have the smug No-one-else-is-going-to-kill-you-before-I-do mentality that they tended so carefully, and the queer twist of tension in the pits of their stomach whenever anyone else got too close.

Through the fog of recollection, he could feel the iceberg of music rumbling through his consciousness. It was a strange rhythm though, quite unlike the last song, which clung to your senses like a sexually-starved lover. This beat was sort of bouncy but gracefully, tastefully slinky at the same time. It was discreetly electric, and affected you in a way that made it seem like your shoulders and your hips had been hot-wired and jump-started by a rogue lightning bolt. Fun bubbled out of the drums and the guitar riffs and from between Naruto's lips as, with a pleased chuckle, he began moving.

"I know this song."

He would. It practically screamed Naruto: wild, reckless, up-beat and cute at the same time. Bastard.

At least it wasn't a love song.

Naruto was already dancing without him, smiling his wholehearted, unabashed, guileless smile, looking just like a playful kitten with his bell and his collar, while being unbearably drop-dead gorgeous at the same time. And somehow, after fifteen minutes of spirited porn-like dancing, this dance made Naruto look so much sexier, probably because this was Naruto and not the strangely adorable walking invitation to bed. This was Naruto, respected jounin, long-time patron of Ichiraku, his partner, his friend, and, as a rush of possessiveness overwhelmed him, completely and totally His. Okay, so maybe not his in all senses of the word, because Naruto didn't belong to anyone, but in all the ways the mattered, he was.

Naruto looked like he was having fun. His head was bobbing to the beat, eyes closed and biting his lower lip, loosely clenched fists above his head, emphasizing the tautness of his stomach and the sleek muscles of his chest and back as he swayed, his hips moving as if they were a separate entity. It wasn't the most amorous display of sex on legs that he'd ever seen, but it was pretty damn close, and he suddenly couldn't bear the thought of anyone else touching him.

Stupid damn pheromones.

Sliding one arm just above the untamed hips, he slowly closed the distance between them and pressed his lips to the fragrant nook between jaw and neck. Naruto immediately curved against him, his bare back pressed intimately against his shirt front, hands going down to their familiar position just under the base of his skull. He put one hand flat against the plains of a tanned stomach and pushed inward until Naruto was purring softly against his ear and his hips weren't such a danger to his self-control.

They moved like syrup in water, torturously slow, two strands melded together, tempered by a music that only existed as a throb in their ears. Sasuke’s lips brushed against the tanned skin. That was okay, and not just here. They'd kissed before, and that's all they were, kisses. But something had changed between them, had been waiting to change for a long time, and now Naruto turned in his arms and offered him a small smile as they got even closer to each other. Once again, he was floating in that strange place which existed when Naruto came to close, looked too perfect, felt too good to be true.

Could he sully this purity that had remained for years despite living in a place that hated him? Could he risk darkening those bright eyes that had followed him into the worst years of his life and dragged him back? Could he burden his best friend with his love and all that meant, all the emotional baggage he hauled around with him, the nightmares and the times he lost his temper and – come to think of it, Naruto dealt with all of that already.

"What is it?" came the husky whisper, the shinobi in Naruto noticing the slight change in his partner's body.

Sasuke gestured to Mori, who was running a practiced, if bloodshot, eye over the crowd. "He's choosing, and if I'm not mistaken, you're already one of them."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I'm psychic that way." He held back a chuckle at the flat, disbelieving look that was leveled at him. "Why wouldn't he pick you, Leopard-chan? You know you're hot."

"Damn right, I am." Naruto had no such reservations and smiled up at him.

All the games were stripped away now. This was what they came here for.

Sasuke ran his hand through his hair, then twined his fingers with the blond's. They continued their dance as the tiny camera exchanged hands. "Put it as near the window as you can get. Is your ear piece working?"

The blond tapped his ear, where the earring-slash-ear piece was and Sasuke heard the familiar ding when his own ear piece was activated. "All set."

Dark eyes scanned the crowd, noting the ripples and the changing movements as the chosen few started moving towards the looming bulk that was Mori.

"You'd better go. I'll scout out the back alley."

"Okay. Order me some ice cream when you get back."

Sasuke had a scathing retort all lined up when he realized that the blond had already slipped away. With a scowl, he followed the bright yellow head until the small group that had congregated in front of the hulking mountain man had been ushered into a small room that presumably lead to the disc jockeys' platform, which in turn gave way to the row of cages that ran along the wall near the ceiling.

He was so caught up in what Naruto would say so he could get into the center cage ("Don't you think I'm good enough to be in the center, Mori-san?") that he did something that normally would have never happened unless it was in an alternate universe and he had been deprived of every sense that the gods had ever given him. He bumped into someone.

"I'm sorry." He said automatically, though Naruto would have said the end of the world had come. Contrary to popular opinion, he did know how to apologize, and besides, you couldn't rip someone's head off for not staying out of your personal space. He’d blow his cover.

"It's fine."

The voice stopped Sasuke in his tracks.

Naruto might have looked like sex, but this man's voice radiated it. It was seductive, suggestive and made you wonder what it would sound like in the middle of a moan. It encouraged the image and added silk and satin and sheets and candlelight. And that wasn't all. It was flawless and cultured English.

Fathomless silver eyes looked at him from a pale, narrow aristocratic face. "Is there any particular reason why you're staring at me?"

"No." He said, slipping into the strange dialect with ease. "You're English."

"Wonderful deduction." A smile skittered across lips tinted the palest shade of pink. "I'll save you some time. I'm already taken."

Sasuke allowed himself to smile. He recognized a kindred soul. The smirk wasn't half of it. "So am I. Sasuke Uchiha."

A slim hand extended perfunctorily. "Albert von Ludwig."

-And Then…-

"And there he is, right there, the brunette third cage from the right."

Sasuke followed the silver gaze to a brunette that was in roughly the same outfit as Naruto who, yes, had gotten his place in the center. It shouldn't have been any surprise, since Albert had had the same concept of clothing as he did, i.e. they should cover up some parts of your body, and the refined blond had reported that his lover, James, was as much for the nonsense dress-up as Naruto.

Sasuke noted the extra dimension in Albert's gaze. "You're in love with him." he stated flatly. Truly a kindred spirit. "And he doesn't know."

Amazing how molten silver quickly shifted to sharp steel. It was almost as beautiful as clear cerulean darkening into storm-tossed seas. "What would you know, Uchiha?"

Apparently, the English also used last names as a formal gesture for people they didn't know very well, and the first name if they were close friends, or...intimate (Naruto). "You tend to recognize those with the same plight."

Understanding dawned, and those eyes flickered to one blond animatedly talking to someone in the next cage. "You and him...?"

Yes. "Yes."

Lips that probably had James panting with need quirked up in half a smile. "Good luck."

"And you."

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-*End of Chapter*-