Conquest

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Chapter 5
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Naruto was pacing. It was the middle of the night and Naruto was pacing. He walked from the kitchen to the couch and back with Akamaru, who was trailing behind. Kiba had come back hours ago, in a traumatised, zombie like state and had refused to say anything; he was now snoring in his room. The snoring was interrupting Naruto and Akamaru’s pacing, so every now and again Naruto would glower at Kiba’s door.


Naruto was pacing because he’d seen other people do it when they had problems, they’d become restless, itchy and made hand gestures. He had tried to explain to Akamaru that this pacing thing needed to be done alone, but apparently Akamaru had problems of his own, so Naruto let it slide.


It was safe to say that Naruto couldn’t sleep; he had been going over Hinata’s words, over and over until he felt dizzy. He had a dilemma. If he gave Sasuke’s bag back, he could kiss the date goodbye. If he didn’t give the bag back, he’d get the date, but it wouldn’t be like a proper date, Sasuke wouldn’t give in so easily. To give back the bag or not to give back the bag, that is the question. Naruto put on his thinking face, tapped a finger against his chin and glanced at the ceiling in a thoughtful manner. There was no answer; neither God nor Shakespeare could help him.


“What you are doing with Sasuke is wrong.” Naruto scowled at Hinata’s words. It’s not that wrong, how else am I supposed to get a date with the ice prick?! Naruto had also decided that all this ‘issue’ crap was Sasuke’s fault, it didn’t matter how much The Dagger wanted him, Sasuke was taking over Naruto’s brain, and Naruto didn’t like it.


“You deserve someone who can love you.” Well, if they were getting into the idea of love, then he could count Sasuke out. Sasuke probably knew less about love than Naruto did. Naruto sighed wistfully at his idea of love. Naruto had decided long ago that he would know that he had fallen in love when he was willing to share his ramen with the person. Naruto could not see a greater love than that. So far no one had met that criterion.


But Sasuke had let Naruto kiss him. That had to count for something. Sasuke had got a hard on, no one gets a hard on that quickly without some force of attraction. Naruto looked down, great; just thinking about the bastard gives me a hard on. He glared down at The Dagger. I am problem solving here! Most of this is your fault, GO AWAY! The Dagger held its own end of the argument, staying hard and proud. Don’t make me take a cold shower, because I will! Naruto threatened. No change. Naruto pulled out the big guns and called up the image of Kiba’s butt.


The Dagger had met its match, and retreated.


...


Gaara opened the apartment door. It was 3am. That didn’t matter to him because he didn’t sleep, but still no one expects visitors at 3am. Naruto stood there grinning at him with that dog of theirs behind him. Gaara’s arms were crossed over his chest as he took in Naruto’s orange and black striped pyjamas and his weird looking nightcap. Gaara would have liked to sigh and simply close the door in Naruto’s face. He couldn’t, however. Temari would find out.


Gaara continued to look impassively at Naruto, silently hoping that he would just disappear. Naruto took that as a sign that Gaara had spaced out and waved his hand in front of his face. “Hellooooooooo, anybody hooooooooome?” Naruto sing-songed.


Gaara stepped aside, there was no avoiding this. Gaara was under explicit orders from his therapist to participate in human social interaction. This could all be very well ignored, except that the therapist had passed on the orders to Temari, who, psychotic sibling that she was, thought the best way to carry out these instructions was to tell Naruto. Naruto, who made daily visits. Gaara had made several mental notes to kill his therapist, but so far had only managed to paint his death. He was getting close though.


Naruto was lounging on the couch, arms supporting his head, legs crossed and talking about something. Gaara wasn’t listening because he was watching ‘The Dog’. He was engaged in a staring contest with it. The Dog cocked its head to the side as if sizing Gaara up. I will get you. Gaara thought at it. He knew that The Dog knew what he was thinking.


Gaara had it in for Akamaru, because Akamaru was prone to barking just when Gaara was about to fall asleep. Sleep came rarely to Gaara because he was all troubled and stuff, so he valued and treasured it.


The Dog came closer. Gaara narrowed his eyes. Naruto was still talking, but Gaara had completely zoned him out, it seemed to get easier to do every time. The Dog cocked its head to the other side, and moved past Gaara to bound onto Naruto.


“Hey, Gaara, what do you think I should do?” Naruto asked, turning pleading eyes on him while scratching The Dog’s ears.


Silence. Gaara directed an impassive stare at Naruto.


“Gaara?” Naruto sat up, “Were you listening?”


“No.” He looked at The Dog. “I will now.” Gaara sat down on the couch, keeping a good distance from Akamaru.


Naruto beamed. He spoke at break neck speed and great length, Gaara managed to get the gist of his problem with this ‘Sasuke’.


“So?” The pleading eyes were back, Naruto seemed to be under the impression that Gaara had all the answers. He wasn’t wrong.


“Kill him,” was Gaara’s firm response. If this Sasuke couldn’t love Naruto, then there was something wrong with him, and he did not deserve to live.


Naruto looked a bit shocked. “Eh heh heh, Gaara, he’s not that bad, he’s just…” Naruto trailed off looking confused.


“Return the bag then.” Gaara hoped this would wrap up soon.


“But...” Naruto began.


“Keep the bag then.” Gaara really hoped this would wrap up soon.


“But…” Naruto was silenced with a look from Gaara.


“You know what the right thing is, Naruto.” Gaara could not believe he was saying this. “Listen to what your heart says.” Gaara was irritated now; he was being forced to talk, was quoting Temari’s favourite soap opera, and had Naruto looking at him like he was crazy. Not to mention that dog was only a few feet away - perfect killing distance.


“Wow…”


Before Gaara registered what was happening, he had been hit with the ‘Uzumaki Surprise Attack’.


“Where’s Gaara?! What have you done to him?!” Naruto was sitting on him, shaking his shoulders. Gaara was not amused; Naruto was heavy.


Gaara didn’t want to talk anymore, so he simply stared at Naruto until he got uncomfortable enough and extracted himself.


Naruto grinned at him, “Sorry Gaara, had to check, thanks for listening, I’ll let you get back to…” Naruto looked around. “What do you do in the middle of the night?” he asked a little nervously.


Gaara continued with his staring, no more words were going to be forced out of him.


“Erm, I guess I’ll leave you alone now, come on Akamaru, thanks again Gaara!”


Gaara’s eyes travelled to the dog. I will get you he reiterated in his mind.


...


Sasuke had had trouble sleeping that night too, for different reasons. When he had arrived home after his passive-aggressive conversation with Kakashi, he had had a very uncomfortable dinner with Itachi. Itachi’s comments about his appearance in that arrogant tone, had led to some more fist clenching and repressed anger. Itachi’s complete disregard for Sasuke’s presence at the dinner table served to only frustrate Sasuke more.


He had eventually fallen asleep after jerking off, perfectly aware he was thinking of the bane of his existence this time. Sasuke would have felt more shame/confusion/annoyance at his body’s betrayal except, it had felt so good, and there hadn’t been much time to contemplate his problem before sleep arrived.


The day hadn’t started off much better either. He had skipped breakfast to get out of the kitchen occupied by an Itachi who was calmly watching him. Sasuke had had a million and one things to do and Kakashi hadn’t helped.


Kakashi, because he was such a wonderful, caring person had told Gai that Sasuke was, ‘not his usual youthful self’ today. This meant that Sasuke had missed out on lunch as well because he’d spent his time hiding in various places. Gai was very persistent, determined to make sure he cheered Sasuke up, returning him to his youthful glowing self. Gai had enlisted the help of one of his students; Rock Lee. Sasuke’s unemotional face had cracked when he had found out that there were two of them.


Sasuke hadn’t managed to give Naruto more than a second thought all day and he was grateful to how busy he had been. However currently, Sasuke was watching the clock, with a mixture of anticipation and dread, an uncommon, conflicting combination of feelings. It was ten to seven. He had ten minutes. Ten minutes to do what exactly, he didn’t know.


That one student, the one that always manages to cock up the entire experiment half way through was having a breakdown as their third piece of guinea-pig gut tissue seemed to give up and die on them. Sasuke tore his eyes away from the clock. He had volunteered to stay behind and help the hopeless case because he was going to have to wait for Naruto anyway. Sasuke exhaled and went over.


“It’s fine… Oh, for heaven’s sake don’t cry. Borrow one of the other student’s results; I’ll let the professor know. I’ll clean up, just… just leave,” Sasuke snapped at the watery eyed first year.


By the time he had managed to get her to leave, and cleared up the ridiculous amount of spills she had created he was ten minutes late. He was hungry, his clothes were a mess after a day of hiding in random closets, and more importantly he was late. He hated being late, for anything.


Sasuke left his belongings back in his locker in the lab and made his way outside still dressed in his lab coat, glasses perched on his nose. He nodded to the security guard as he exited the building and looked around for Naruto.


Sasuke saw Naruto with his back to him sitting on the steps. Long legs stretched out in front of him, wearing dark blue jeans and a black shirt. The clasp of a necklace glinted up at Sasuke in the moonlight as he drank in the sight of Naruto’s smooth tanned neck.


As though sensing he was being watched Naruto turned his head, and seeing Sasuke, jumped up, breaking the spell and smiled nervously at him.


“Look Sasuke, here’s your bag,” Naruto thrust it into his arms and Sasuke stared at it in confusion. “I don’t want to force you into doing anything you don’t wa-”


“Uzumaki, I have had a very long and stressful day. I am tired, and I am very, very hungry. You are going to buy me dinner, and I am going to eat it,” Sasuke interrupted quickly, he didn’t know why, he chalked it up to his low glucose levels.


Naruto stared open mouthed and then suddenly smirked when he understood what Sasuke was saying. He wrapped his arm around Sasuke. “I knew you couldn’t resist me,” Naruto waggled his eyebrows for an added effect.


Sasuke gritted his teeth and removed the offending arm. “This isn’t a date.” He needed to make sure Naruto understood this. “I’m just hungry, let’s go,” he said shortly, walking on ahead.


...


Naruto was trying to keep up with the fast pace that Sasuke was setting. Trying to think, well mentally pat himself on the back, and keep up was proving to be difficult. He reasoned that he had the longer legs and therefore it shouldn’t be physically possible.


He had no idea where Sasuke was taking them, they had gone through so many twists and turns into random alleys, that he’d given up trying to keep track after 23 lefts, and 25 rights. Naruto had been quite tempted to just grab Sasuke, push him up against the dirty brick wall of one of the random alleys regardless of the homeless man watching, but Sasuke was a slippery one. So far no physical contact had been made, Sasuke seemed to have a sixth sense about when Naruto was going to reach out for him, and would quicken his pace leaving Naruto grasping at air. It was frustrating for Naruto to say the least.


Walking at this pace seemed to also mean that Naruto’s smooth conversational skills had been put on hold and so far the only sounds had been Naruto cursing when he tripped, and Sasuke’s alternate use of the words ‘idiot’ and ‘moron’ every time that happened.


Naruto had thought it odd that Sasuke was still dressed in his lab coat but didn’t comment; he had developed quite kinky fantasies of Sasuke wearing only that lab coat and those dark rimmed glasses. Scientific education had taken on a whole new meaning for him and he wasn’t one to question a good thing. When Naruto snapped out of his ‘Scientific education’ fantasy Sasuke had walked off and was about ten yards away, glaring and tapping his foot to a regular rhythm, not even noticing that his trouser leg was becoming soaked in rain water. Oddly enough, it was still an attractive sight. Naruto jogged up to join him.


“Can’t you slow down a little bit?” Naruto complained, stalling.


“No,” was the stern simple reply, as Sasuke turned on his heel and went back to walking.


Naruto was prepared this time and managed to snag Sasuke’s sleeve. Sasuke was caught unaware and the momentum drove him straight into Naruto’s happily awaiting arms. Naruto could scheme just as well as the next person. Sasuke’s face was squashed into Naruto’s chest and his arms were being supported by Naruto’s, flailing in the air helplessly. It wasn’t exactly the romantic swooning into strong muscular arms Naruto had envisioned, but it would do.


Sasuke attempted to correct himself, with a great amount of hindrance from Naruto. They ended up with Naruto’s arms trapping Sasuke, holding him in place with Sasuke glaring and Naruto grinning.


“You’re quite clumsy, Sasuke,” Naruto leaned down breathing in his ear, “that icicle up your butt must make it difficult to steer,” Naruto felt Sasuke stiffen and struggle to get loose.


“How many times do I have to tell you Uzu-” Sasuke was cut off when Naruto’s lips descended on his also effectively cutting off his air supply.


The kiss was less forceful than last time. Naruto moved his lips against Sasuke’s going from harsh to soft, ending with a lick to Sasuke’s top lip.


“How many times do I have to tell you Sasuke? My name is Naruto.”


Naruto ended the kiss when he felt Sasuke stiffen further and there was no responding movement from Sasuke’s mouth. Naruto sighed internally, all he wanted was a little bit of reciprocation; he just knew that pursuing this wasn’t a lost cause.


Sasuke was giving that glare again. Naruto loosened his hold and allowed him to slip free, he watched Sasuke turn his back on him again and Naruto felt a little pain in his chest, it couldn’t have been the ramen this time.


...


Sasuke, for his part felt as though an internal war was being waged in his mind. There was one part sneering at him, asking if he was such a little whore with no self control whatsoever. The other part, which he assumed to be the whore part, was asking him why they weren’t fucking in the water puddle in the dingy alley; did he need to remind Sasuke that the last time they had been laid was when they were 16? Sasuke settled for the part that was adamantly telling him that they were lost and to just stop walking for a second and get their fucking bearings.


Sasuke turned to see Naruto still standing where he had left him, looking a little lost. His stomach chose to make itself known at that point and he felt the overproduction of acid rise.


“Let’s go Naruto, I don’t have all day,” Sasuke gave in, he just needed to eat, he could think clearly then. There’s a big hunk of man meat right over there, why don’t we eat that? Sasuke-whore whined at him. Semen is meant to be nutritious. Sasuke-ice prince mused. Sasuke growled at the two idiots he seemed to share his brain with and gave control to Sasuke-navigator.


Naruto hearing the use of his first name, seemed to take that as a sign from the heavens, went over to him and succeeded in putting his arm around Sasuke again. Sasuke-whore delighted in the physical contact and Sasuke-ice prince tsk-ed at him.


Sasuke closed his eyes, took a deep breath, visualised the restaurant he wanted, saw it in his mind’s eye, viewed the path to food and certainly did not concentrate all his energy on the warm weight of that arm, or the length of the body pressed up against it. He definitely did not wish that the body was naked and that his greedy fingers could run all over that tanned skin that was begging to be touched, stroked, pinched and twisted.


“So, where are we going?” Naruto asked cheerfully.


Sasuke calmly removed the arm, shoved his hands, which were starting to itch with need, into his lab coat pockets and replied simply with, “Food.” He had finally recalled the directions to the only Chinese restaurant that he trusted not to give him salmonella poisoning.


They walked again in silence, at a slower pace this time, Sasuke-navigator didn’t want to get lost again, and he’d massacre the other two if he did. Sasuke watched Naruto out of the corner of this eye, who seemed to be caught up in his own thoughts and was nervously fidgeting.


...


Naruto gawked at the restaurant that Sasuke had had his heart set on. It was a small place and it seemed to be stuffed with loner, angsty students, most of who were eating on their own with laptops and other work materials out. It screamed dark troubled Emo. Naruto and his blond hair were not welcome here.


Naruto was rooted to the spot as Sasuke requested a table for two from the very tattooed waiter and was handed menus. He watched Sasuke follow the waiter and only snapped out of it when Sasuke turned and gave him a questioning look.


They were seated out of the way, near the back. The walls were painted a deep blood red with a few Chinese style paintings hanging from them. The tables and chairs were made of some deep dark red wood, generally the whole place seemed to have a blood theme and it gave Naruto the creeps. He sat down as directed, managing to tip over and catch the vase of orchids, the centre piece of the table. Sasuke just gave him a look that let him know just how moronic he thought Naruto was.


Naruto peered at Sasuke over his menu; his glasses were now pushed up into his hair, holding his long bangs back giving Naruto a clear view of those dark, ebony eyes fringed with long equally dark eyelashes. He wondered if Sasuke employed the use of mascara; that dark smouldering look couldn’t be natural.Naruto voiced that thought from behind the protection of his menu and only received another, what he now termed ‘are you a complete moron?’, look from Sasuke.


Sasuke returned to his menu and when the waiter arrived ordered some complicated dish pronounced perfectly. Then the waiter and Sasuke turned to Naruto for his order.


Naruto gave his biggest grin. “Do you have any ramen?” he asked hopefully.


The waiter looked a little patronizingly at Naruto (who was convinced he was being discriminated against because of his luscious blond locks) “Only what there is on the menu.”


“Oh.” Naruto went back to the menu sticking the tip of his tongue out as he looked at the dishes which all had silly sounding names. Where was the simple ‘chow mein’? The waiter started to tap his pen against his pad of paper.


Naruto ended up ordering by closing his eyes and picking whatever dish his finger landed on. He had heard that penises of various animals were a Chinese delicacy. Naruto really hoped whatever he got was nice, normal and not penisy. He stuck his tongue out at the waiter when he left.


During the time it took for the food to arrive Naruto busied himself prying information out of Sasuke. All subjects seemed to be touchy; Sasuke’s family was apparently a no-go area, as were his likes and dislikes. Sasuke just seemed to enjoy doing the opposite of what Naruto wanted. So now they were sitting there in an awkward silence when their food arrived.


Sasuke appeared to be a man on a mission to get as much food into him as possible. Naruto, feeling the weight of the silence had proceeded to shove food (he avoided the meaty looking bits and ate the rice) into his mouth also, barely tasting it, after all it wasn’t as if it was ramen. Eventually, a competition had developed and both were eating as fast as humanly possible, glancing up now and again to glare at the other. Naruto glared because his attempts at footsie were being thwarted and Sasuke glared because that’s what Sasuke does.


The meal had finished and Sasuke had signalled for the bill, whilst scrunching up his nose in disgust at Naruto’s less than pleasant burp. When the waiter arrived Naruto produced his frog wallet, waiting for Sasuke to protest about paying, or at least offer to go halves. Sasuke merely gave him a cool look and Naruto handed over the cash, internally moaning at how anorexic his frog friend’s appearance had become.


They made their way outside the restaurant into the cool night air, with Sasuke leading. Naruto in his rare moments of non-pervy reflection saw how Sasuke’s pale skin seemed to almost glow, his movements elegant and that Sasuke was a walking, breathing, piece of art.


“Hey, hey! So, what do you wanna do now?” Naruto’s musings didn’t last long and he was eager to spend more time with Sasuke, even if it was awkward silence, it was comfortable awkward silence in Naruto’s mind.


“We do nothing, I’m going back to the lab; I have work to finish,” Sasuke barely turned to reply.


“Okay, erm I’ll come with you.” Naruto matched Sasuke’s pace, smiling at him.


Sasuke stopped abruptly, and turned to face him. “Look Naruto, this, us, I am not interested,” Sasuke said in a calm careful monotone.


“Bu-” Naruto was confused now, he knew that Sasuke had been playing hard to get, but this was going a little overboard.


“Even if I were interested, TA’s are not meant to date their students, I am not willing to jeopardise my career over something this trivial,” Sasuke’s tone hadn’t changed.


Naruto was silent as the words sunk in. Sasuke turned to go, leaving Naruto behind again, presenting his back again and still all Naruto wanted to do was to reach out to him.