Conquest

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Chapter 4
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Kakashi arrived at his office; he had been in the park, enjoying the wind in his hair while reading an old favourite book, until he remembered he had an appointment with one of his lovely students, of course that had been quite a few hours ago.


Said student was sitting in front of his door, asleep. How cute. Kakashi peered closer at him; the blond was quite easy on the eyes. Now what was his name? Kakashi nudged him with his foot and the blond’s head lolled to rest on the doorframe. Kakashi shrugged and opened his door, causing the student to fall backwards and be startled awake.


Kakashi went to his desk and seated himself in one swift movement, smiling as he observed the student looking around in confusion.


“Ah, I’m sorry for being late; I was performing the Heimlich on a cat,” Kakashi said in all seriousness, it was after all a very good excuse. The student blinked suspiciously at him. “Well, why don’t we get down to business…?” Kakashi trailed off waiting for the name.


“Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto,” the student answered cheerily.


“Ah yes, Naruto, you wanted to be part of my lab for this upcoming summer, why don’t you tell me your reasons for this,” Kakashi said pleasantly.


Naruto seemed to burst into life; he started explaining how interesting he found working in the labs, how it was such a vital part of the scientific community. Kakashi wasn’t paying too much attention, he had already pulled up Naruto’s grades on the computer while Naruto chattered on, and they seemed to be up to par.


Kakashi was hoping this wouldn’t go on for too long, the new Icha Icha series was calling out to him. Usually Kakashi didn’t listen to the voices of inanimate objects, but the voice belonging to the Icha Icha series seemed to have some sort of hold over him. Naruto was making hand gestures now; he probably wouldn’t notice the appearance of the green book. Besides green was a camouflage colour. With his reasoning sound, Kakashi reached inside his jacket for his precious book and promptly buried his nose in it. Ah my true love, how I missed thee.


Kakashi become aware of the silence about 5 minutes later, when Naruto broke it with, “Professor Hatake…?”

“Hmm? Ah yes, please do contin-” he was cut off as his favourite PhD student knocked curtly on the door and entered without waiting.


There was a little something off about Sasuke today, he seemed a little less put together than usual, and his hair was messy. Kakashi personally thought Sasuke overdid everything, so it was a pleasant surprise to see Sasuke so caught off guard. Naruto’s presence seemed to have quite the effect on him.


Sasuke was busy alternatively staring in shock and glaring at Naruto, while Naruto if possible seemed to become even cheerier and grinned rather hard at everything and nothing in particular.


Although this was all very interesting, Kakashi saw the opportunity to continue reading, after all it would do Sasuke some good to have some social interaction.


Registering that Sasuke seemed to be talking to him in a very tightly controlled manner, Kakashi looked up and smiled agreeably, “Ah Sasuke, have you met Naruto here? He will be working with us in the summer, why don’t you go and show him around the labs?” Kakashi wouldn’t be a genius if he didn’t know how to kill two birds with one stone.


“But Kakashi, I have to talk to you about the chart recordings for-” Sasuke began; he seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack. Odd.


“Ah Sasuke, that can always wait till later, I have some, ah, paperwork to finish now.” Kakashi dismissed them; it was always fun to play with Sasuke’s nerves. His cute student still hadn’t figured out how much more there was to life than chart recordings.


Sasuke didn’t seem to be leaving, he didn’t look too happy and he appeared to have developed a tick in his eye. Naruto was glancing back and forth between them, starting to look a bit uncertain.


“DYNAMIC ENTRY!”


There was a burst of green and Kakashi would have liked to say it all faded to black, however when he opened his eye, Maito Gai was still standing there proudly with his hands on his hips. “KAKASHI, my rival! Your new book is the youthful colour of green, it is beautiful to see someone connecting with the youth of today,” Gai would babble on for a while, so Kakashi went back to reading.


Kakashi looked up when Gai started yelling something about rock, paper, scissors to see Sasuke grab Naruto by the back of his collar pulling him out the door. He entertained the thought of Sasuke learning to make nice-nice and making friends.


“Hmm? What were you saying Gai?” Kakashi asked indifferently.


“My rival! You are so cool, pretending you weren’t listening to me!” Gai proclaimed and lapsed back into a speech about the youthfulness of the day. Kakashi sighed.


...


Sasuke was dragging Naruto by the collar down the corridor. Naruto was getting tired of being dragged around today. He had feet; he knew perfectly well how to walk. Besides Sasuke was walking too fast for Naruto to be able to enjoy the skin to skin contact.


“Sasuke…? Sasuke! SASUKE!” Naruto attempted to get the attention of the TA.


Sasuke turned around, walked right up into Naruto’s personal space and said in a very quiet, clipped tone, “Uzumaki, I do not have time for your idiotic tendencies, I’ve already wasted half of the day looking for Kakashi. We are going to the lab. You are going to look, nod and then leave me the hell alone.” Sasuke was breathing quite heavily and his dark eyes were glaring right into Naruto’s blue ones.


Naruto was a bit too preoccupied with Sasuke’s close proximity to protest and he found himself nodding dumbly. Of course when Sasuke’s mouth was no longer in kissing distance, it didn’t take Naruto too long to come to his senses.


“Well, it looks like someone had a rough night,” Naruto began, easing into the Uzumaki Sex voice.


Sasuke turned around sharply. He gave Naruto a guarded look, then thinking better of it went back to walking ahead. Sasuke spent the rest of the time in silence, despite Naruto dropping hints of the night before, alcohol and hangovers. Oh maybe I’m being too subtle? Naruto grinned to himself at that thought. I can be subtle.


When they arrived at the lab, Sasuke walked in and proceeded to introduce the machines and equipment almost as if they were his only friends.


Naruto was getting irritated with Sasuke’s more than professional manner, he wanted to tell Sasuke about rescuing him, he wanted to tell Sasuke about still having his bag, and he wanted to tell Sasuke to just relax, he’d never seen anyone so high-strung. Naruto zoned out for a bit when he thought about the methods he could use to ‘relax’ Sasuke.


When he came to, Sasuke was coolly looking at him with that stupid eyebrow raised.


“Look Sasuke, about last night, you see, you were at the union bar, and you got drunk and my friend Kiba, you might remember him, he’s about this tall, with spiky brown hair, not spiky like yours though, different, erm yeah, anyway, he called me, and told me you were there, because he’s the bartender and you seemed to have passed out, and I came over and picked you up in Gaara’s car, he lives across the hall from me, he’s really nice, you’d like him, anyway I took you home and you slept on my couch…” Naruto got a bit carried away and started rambling and gesturing when that stupid eyebrow was still raised and Sasuke was looking at him as though he were deranged.


“Where’s my bag, Uzumaki?” Sasuke broke through Naruto’s ramblings in a low tone that held a hint of a murderous quality.


“What? That’s it? No thank you?!” Naruto was fuming. “Where’s my T-shirt?!” Naruto retaliated back.


“Uzumaki…” Sasuke started to respond with a faint sneer across his face.


“Oh that is it.” Naruto, well, sort of snapped. He shoved Sasuke up against the lab. “My name is Naruto. Na-ru-to,” he breathed into Sasuke’s ear, “and you need to learn how to say thank you properly.”


With that he leaned back and covered Sasuke’s mouth with his own.


...


Sasuke didn’t register the kiss in his mind until a little while later, probably because it was more Naruto smashing his mouth against his, rather than an actual kiss. The ‘kiss’ was bruising and dry.


Naruto still had his body pressed intimately against Sasuke’s, pushing Sasuke to lean backwards against the lab bench. Sasuke kept his mouth closed despite Naruto attempting to gain entry with nips to his bottom lip. A knee had been shoved between his legs and it was all Sasuke could do to stop himself from grinding against Naruto’s thigh.


Sasuke however could differentiate between fantasy and reality, which is why he wasn’t responding to Naruto’s rather forceful manner. Naruto leaned back and licked his dry lips, Sasuke followed the pink tongue peeking out, but when Naruto leaned back in for a second attempt Sasuke shoved him, quite hard.


Having created some distance between them, Sasuke straightened, and brushed himself down. He glanced at Naruto who had managed to catch himself from falling and glared.


“Uzumaki,” he stressed the use of Naruto’s last name, “if you ever touch me like that again, I will break-”


Sasuke was cut off as he saw the grin on Naruto’s face. “Sasuke,” Naruto murmured as he once again put himself in Sasuke’s personal space. Naruto’s lips were now millimetres from his own where he could feel the warm breath. “For someone who doesn’t want to be touched, you’re pretty hard from one little kiss,” Naruto’s hand came to rest on his hip, stroking it through the fabric, while moving slowly towards Sasuke’s ass.


Sasuke kept face though; he resisted the urge to move into Naruto’s hard body and continued to express his mind’s displeasure by glaring. His eyes narrowed as he felt the direction in which Naruto’s very forward hand was moving.


“I’ll make you a deal, Sasuke,” Naruto’s lips were moving against his ear, “You go out on one date with me, and I’ll return your bag.” Sasuke’s head snapped up at the mention of his bag, he’d managed to completely forget about it in the past 5 minutes.


Sasuke brought his hands up to Naruto’s chest, placed them square, and once again pushed hard.


“You need to resort to holding someone’s personal belongings hostage in order to get a date?” he said scornfully.


“No, that only applies to getting a date with you,” Naruto smirked. “Well?”


Sasuke hated losing. He could feel bile rising up in his throat at the very thought of it. “Fine,” he snapped, “one date.”


Naruto was grinning at him, it almost made Sasuke soften to see the other so stupidly happy.


“Meet outside the lab, tomorrow at seven. Don’t be late,” Sasuke ground out. With any luck he could just spend the evening doing work and get Naruto to make coffee runs. Before Naruto could reply, Sasuke quickly exited the lab, ignoring Naruto yelling out his name.


...


Naruto was skipping. This was quite the sight to see, Naruto in dressed in a black T-shirt and hideously bright orange cargo pants skipping along the street like a 5 year-old girl. Needless to say his spirits were rather high. Naruto would have liked to start singing: ‘I’m singing in the rain,’ but it wasn’t raining, plus sometimes his voice reached levels that only dogs could hear, the last time that had happened Akamaru had to be taken to the vet.


The Dagger’s gonna get some lurvin’, oh yeah! Oh The Dagger’s gonna get some lurvin’, oh yeah! Yes, The Dagger’s gonna get some lurvin ohhhhhhhh yeah! He sang internally instead.


Naruto continued prancing along as he thought of what had happened only a half hour ago. He had kissed Sasuke, he had managed to stroke that smooth pale skin and hold that body against his. It hadn’t felt as right as he thought it would have, but it was close.


Granted Sasuke hadn’t had a very enthusiastic response to Naruto’s advances, but Naruto knew lust when he saw it, besides Sasuke could have pushed him away a lot sooner, only he didn’t. If that wasn’t a sign for, ‘come ravish me in the stables and make haystack love to me,’ he didn’t know what was. Yes, Naruto had medieval- set fantasies, but who doesn’t? The internal singing stopped when he thought about Sasuke in a pair of breeches.


Naruto arrived back at the apartment and entered with a flourish, “Honey, I’m home!”


“Hello Naruto,” was the shy somewhat strained response from Hinata who was sitting on the couch, attempting to prevent Akamaru from licking her face.


Naruto beamed. He liked Hinata, she was so sweet and innocent, what she was doing with Kiba he had no clue. He looked around and saw no Kiba. “Where’s lover boy?” he asked flopping down on the couch next to her.


There was no response as Akamaru seemed to be winning the battle. Hinata eventually gave in, giggling slightly as Akamaru happily licked to his heart’s content.


Naruto watched her with a contented smile on his face. Hinata was one of nicest people he knew. She had the type of personality that brought out every macho male’s must-protect-damsel-in-distress side. This was no different with Naruto, even if her weird pale grey eyes did freak him at first.


“Kiba’s in his room changing again for our date,” Hinata managed to gasp between giggles at Akamaru’s attentions. Naruto took a proper look at her and wolf whistled. Hinata was dressed in a pale grey knee length satin dress, displaying a modest amount of cleavage. Said dress was being pawed at by Akamaru, Naruto took action immediately. He leapt up and hauled a whining Akamaru off her.


Akamaru gave him a reproachful look, Naruto glared back. “You should know better Akamaru, we all know Hinata would look better without a dress, but you have to learn to control yourself.”


“Naruto!” came the shocked reply from Hinata who had taken blushing to an extreme and had turned a beet red. Naruto smiled sheepishly at her.


“Hey, why are we waiting for Kiba to get dressed? Shouldn’t it be the other way round?”


Kiba saved Hinata from having to answer that as he emerged from his room, not looking as dressed as expected. His white shirt was open, a tie was thrown around his neck, his belt was looped but not buckled and only his left foot was sock clad. He’d also tried to do something to his hair, in that now instead of spikes, it was lying flat against his scalp looking incredibly shiny.


There was a shocked silence all round. Akamaru had hidden behind the couch, paws over his eyes emitting a distressed whining sound.


“I need help…” Kiba broke the silence, his eyes held a panicked quality to them. It was at that moment that Naruto burst into helpless laughter.


“Oh…man…what have you done… to your… hair?” Naruto gasped out between bouts of laughter, eventually doubling over. Even Hinata started giggling a bit.


Kiba scowled. “I did exactly what it said on the label!” he retorted indignantly. He had as well, but he had also followed the instructions of 5 other hair products.


Naruto had managed to stop laughing, though his eyes still sparkled with mirth and his mouth had formed a very infuriating smirk.


“Kiba, we can always cancel, I’m sure Neji and Father won’t mind if I just say I’m not feeling well…” Hinata trailed off, looking uncertain and guilty.


“Really? I mean, no! No, Hinata, baby, I promised didn’t I?” Kiba’s hope was squashed immediately as he saw his soft skinned girlfriend’s face flush with guilt. He rushed over, and enveloped her in a hug.


They were going to a very posh restaurant for dinner with Neji, and Hinata’s father. Hinata’s father who was very similar to Neji and who probably wanted to castrate him as well. Kiba gulped as his thoughts turned to what two Neji clones could do to him. He comforted himself with the thoughts that no, Hinata won’t let that happen, Hinata will protect him. His arms tightened around her.


He was momentarily blinded by the flash of a camera and saw Naruto smiling wickedly. Kiba let go of Hinata and made a mad dash for Naruto and that camera that he was waving around tauntingly.


He chased Naruto around the apartment, yelling obscenities, until he remembered that Hinata was around and switched from saying things such as, “Naruto, if you don’t give me that camera now I’m going to shove it so far up your ass you’ll be shitting film for a week,” to using words such as ‘oh fudge!’ and, ‘sugar!’


Hinata was giggling helplessly in the background with Akamaru barking along. Things settled down when Kiba managed to tackle Naruto to the floor before using his far superior strength to wrench the camera away. It had nothing to do with the fact that Naruto was incapacitated with laughter from seeing Kiba’s hair up close.


Kiba was having a mental breakdown. Neji scared the crap out of him, and what was Naruto doing? Naruto was babbling on about Sasuke and how he had conned him into a date. Kiba glared at Naruto who was now happily filling Hinata in, when she had asked who Sasuke was.


“So, lover boy gives me his stupid advice and tells me that I have to sta-” Kiba registering what Naruto was about to say, covered his mouth and dragged him off the couch whilst whispering in Naruto’s ear, “say another word and die.”


Out loud he said, “Naruto’s gonna help me find something decent to wear,” in what he hoped was a casual tone and with that dragged Naruto off to his room leaving a slightly confused Hinata and an Akamaru who saw the opportunity to continue licking.


...


When they had emerged from the room, Kiba was looking much better. Naruto, after explaining to Kiba that looking like an evil villain wasn’t going to leave a good impression on Hinata’s family, had convinced Kiba to wash out his hair.


Naruto smiled at his handy work. Kiba was dressed in a black suit with a cream shirt and dark red tie. His hair was tidier than usual, the spikes a little tamer. It had been easy to handle Kiba after he had retreated into his own mind due to all the stress and panic. The only words after that from Kiba had been, “castrate,” “Hinata,” and “Neji clones.”


Naruto had given Kiba some leverage; no one knew that Neji was gay, and more than likely his uncle wouldn’t be happy with that knowledge. Kiba had almost kissed Naruto for that information; it had been a strain on their friendship when Naruto had run out screaming.


Naruto watched as Hinata straightened Kiba’s tie, reassuring him that he looked fine, and that he would do fine. Kiba’s hands came to rest on Hinata’s waist and he smiled at her. Naruto suddenly felt like an intruder on this personal moment, and shifted uncomfortably.


Naruto glanced up from his position on the couch when Hinata came to stand in front of him. She seemed to be struggling with herself.


“Na-Naruto, s-sometimes we try to force things because we want them so badly. What you are doing with Sasuke is wrong, he should want to go on a date with you, and you shouldn’t have to force him,” Hinata’s voice became steadier as her conviction strengthened. “You deserve someone who can love you.”


Naruto watched her with wide eyes. “You should return Sasuke’s bag and show him what a wonderful person you really are,” with that she went over to an equally wide-eyed Kiba and took his hand, “And you will be fine. Father may not love you, but I do.”


Naruto didn’t notice when they left as his mind was still trying to understand Hinata’s words. The high he had felt just a few hours ago had left him completely, he felt drained, tired, and he finally admitted to himself; he felt lonely.


...


Sasuke was rubbing at his lips and sulking. Well, he wasn’t sulking or pouting or any other stupid, girly-assed thing, he was just annoyed. His mind flashed back to the incident in the lab. “Na-ru-to,” he shifted awkwardly in this seat remembering that hot breath in his ear, on his neck.


Sasuke was at his computer station on the floor above the lab. He was meant to be typing up his latest publication but all that he had managed to do was rewrite the title a few dozen times.


He sighed. That damn idiot had managed to get under his skin, and his morning activities didn’t help with keeping the moron out of his thoughts. He couldn’t believe Uzumaki’s audacity in coercing him into a date.


“Ah, Sasuke if you keep sighing, tutting, and shifting like that, it makes it difficult for other people to concentrate,” Kakashi’s relaxed voice reached him. Kakashi was lounging on the couch of the common room reading porn.


Sasuke chose not to respond, though his thoughts raged with how much concentration exactly was required to look at porn. Figuring that thoughts of Naruto were at least better than getting worked up over how unprofessional his employer was, Sasuke returned to his inner turmoil.


“So… how did Naruto like the lab?” Kakashi’s seemingly innocent question caused Sasuke to sit up a little straighter.


“Fine.” He couldn’t ignore a direct question.


“He seems nice, don’t you think?” Kakashi ventured once more, not taking his eyes off his novel.


“Yes,” was the curt reply. Sasuke was still looking straight ahead.


“He’ll be working with us for 4 months, I was thinking of assigning him to you.” Sasuke swivelled around in his chair to face him and shot Kakashi a look. Kakashi was still reading, his eye curving downwards in his semblance of a smile, or a leer, one could never really tell.


Kakashi and Sasuke did not have conversations, which is why Sasuke knew that Kakashi suspected something. He directed another look at Kakashi and turned back to his desk.


He was drawn back into the memory of Naruto’s body trapping him against the lab bench. He didn’t want to say that it excited him, but it was hard to deny it when an immediate erection had made itself known. Sasuke pushed the thoughts aside, thinking that it was just his pent up hormones reacting to a warm body.


“Perhaps I should hire him as a part time lab assistant,” Kakashi’s voice floated into his musings.


Sasuke grit his teeth, “How do you know about what happened?” Kakashi, Sasuke had long ago figured out, was omnipotent. He was always there when Sasuke didn’t need him.


“Know about what, Sasuke?” Kakashi turned a page and his cheeks turned a faint pink at its contents.


“If you say anything, I’ll tell Gai that there’s a floor above the lab.” Sasuke wasn’t fooled, he knew Kakashi was hiding something.


“Ah fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be, there really isn’t anyone to say anything to,” Kakashi said, letting the threat slide.


There was an uneasy silence following that statement. Neither made an effort to break it, and it continued for hours until Sasuke noticed that at some point Kakashi had left.