Mixed Communication

Summary: Sometimes it's not a lack of understanding that's the problem - it's when the other person understands far too much.

Disclaimer: I do not own any Naruto character. But I'm totally admitting the defeat in my effort to keep Itachi in Hong Kong, I just have too much love for the bastard ^_^

Warnings: YAOI, boyxboy, language per usual, smutty!Deidara

A/N: Sorry, no major smut. Major smuttyness and sillyness though, so enjoy!

Oh yeah, and reviews make mouths happy ^_^

Review responses at the end.

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Naruto slipped quietly into the hotel suite, planning on tiptoeing back to his room to change. Sakura was not a morning person.

“Naruto!”

As evidenced by the slamming open of a bedroom door by one very unglamorous-looking woman.

“Uh, Sakura-chan, heh,” he said, rubbing the back of his head and grinning nervously.

“Naruto,” she grumbled, “Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“Eh, uh,” the blond checked his watch, “8:30?”

“YES!”

Naruto, faced with an angry screaming hungover Sakura, began to back away carefully.

“And what time is our meeting at Uchiha?!” the pinkette continued, advancing on the terrified blond before her, catching him with his back to his bedroom door.

“11:00?”

“YES!” Sakura shrieked, not giving Naruto enough time to reply before continuing, “And you still have to shower, and shave, and get dressed, and eat breakfast, and then we have to drive to Uchiha corp…”

“Um, I’ve already eaten breakfast and showered,” Naruto said, ticking those two off on his fingers and nibbling his bottom lip as he thought, “and we should have plenty of time to do the others… what’s the problem?”

“When are you going to have time to tell me DETAILS?!”

Naruto blinked. And closed his eyes. And pursed his lips, counting to five, before sticking his tongue out and blowing his boss a big fat raspberry. “Nyah, pervert!” he said, before slamming the door in her face.

He hummed happily to himself as he went through the close he bought, ignoring her yelling and pounding on his door. Thank goodness! He had packed a turtleneck, lightweight cashmere in a royal blue that would be perfect for the evening.

He walked over to the dresser and looked at his neck critically, looking over at the door in suspicion when things went quiet. Shrugging, he looked back. What had Sasuke been thinking? Wincing as he rubbed one of the marks on his neck, he thought back, and grinned. He sure remembered what he had been thinking. And it wasn’t a thing to do with how the marks would look the next morning.

Maybe a scarf? Or maybe Sakura had some makeup? Hmm...

He went over and opened his door, peering down.

Sakura looked up from where she knelt, giggling innocently. She tried unsuccessfully to hide the objects in her hands.

Naruto smirked. “You need those types of tools to pick a lock on a hotel bedroom door?

Gasping indignantly, she stood up. “Well if you hadn’t slammed the door in my face!”

Waving a hand at her, he walked around the pinkette toward her room. “Yeah, yeah,” he said. “You know, just because you feel the need to regale me with all the details of your little perverted excursions doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to do the same for you!”

“But Naru-chan!”

“Hmph.” He walked over to her makeup bag and stared at it curiously. “How the hell do you use all this stuff anyways?”

“Eh?”

She came over and stood beside him. He pointed out the discolorations on his neck, and she snickered. “Oh. That.”

Naruto stuck his tongue out at her again and said, “Yeah, that.”

“Mmm,” she said, glancing at him slyly. “Details?”

He sat down on her bed and sighed dramatically. “Can’t I just say it was good and leave it at that?”

She giggled. “Silly Naru-chan, of course not!”

He rolled his eyes and leaned his head back, letting her get to work. “Why are you always so hyper the morning after we go clubbing anyways.”

“You’re one to talk,” she said, poking his chest. “But maybe you’re just tired this morning because you didn’t get any sleep? I’m surprised you’re walking around so well too.”

“Bite me.”

She snorted. “Looks like someone got there first.”

“Oh, trust me, he did,” the blond purred, and then grinned. “It was amazing.”

She grinned back at him. “Oh really? Was it as long as –“

He swatted at her hand. “Not kissing and telling!” he said, letting the grin soften into a smile. “But I like him.”

“Good,” she said, using a sponge to smooth the makeup over the marks. She looked up at his face to see him nibbling his bottom lip, a faraway look in his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Mmmm, it was amazing, but ya know, it’s kinda shit it had to happen here.”

She was silent for a moment, not quite knowing what to say. She finally settled on a simple, “Yeah.”

Leaning his head back and examining her work in the light, she picked up a spray bottle and misted it over his neck. “But who knows,” she continued. “Make the best of the time you have, right?”

“Yeah,” he said softly. “Oh, by the way, I’m not gonna be able to join you guys tonight.”

“Oh really?” she said, smirking at him. “Should you pack an overnight bag this time?”

She patted him on the back and he went over to the mirror, checking out her work. “Thanks. And no, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Sakura smiled at him in the mirror. “I’m happy you had a good time,” she said, enjoying his good mood for a moment. Then she slaped him on the ass and laughing mischievously when he winced.

He flipped her off and walked out of the room. “You’d better get yourself ready, pinky!” he yelled back at the doorway. “Wouldn’t want to be late to our meeting!”

“Yeah, yeah!” she yelled back, “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Naruto grinned, making his way back into his room to pick out a decent suit for the meeting.

. . .

When Sasuke got into the office, Neji was sitting at his desk, reviewing paperwork. He glanced up at his boss, pale eyes taking in the sight without changing expression. Sasuke figured Neji probably suspected what had happened the night before – he was uncannily perceptive sometimes – but doubted he’d say anything. During work hours, at least.

“Thanks for covering things this morning. Any messages?”

Neji handed him thick packet and a piece of paper. “Two from the Tsubasa corporation regarding the follow-up to their initial request, one from Monara Imports regarding the incident with customs last Thursday, and one from Inuzuka corporation following up on the results from last quarter. Oh, and you have a visitor.”

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, and then smirked, heading inside. There were very few people that Neji would let inside the office when Sasuke wasn’t there. One of them stood looking out the window at the sky, a cigarette in hand.

“Nara, how many times do I have to tell you not to smoke in my office?” the Uchiha complained, walking over to his desk. He sat down and flicked on his computer, putting his messages down on his desk. The other man just waved his fingers absently at the raven, putting his cigarette out in an ashtray provided for his visits. At some point, the brunet had decided there were times when it was too troublesome to even say troublesome.

“You have the details?”

Sasuke nodded, opening up the packet and pulling out the finalized contracts. He reached down into one of his desk drawers and pulled out a file folder, handing both to the man next to his desk. Shikamaru took them and walked over to the small conference table on the far side of the room, sitting down and opening the folder.

Nara Shikamaru was one of his oldest friends, and the only person he could think of that was probably smarter than himself. They’d competed throughout high school and university for the top ranking spot – Sasuke had won, but mainly because Shikamaru found it too troublesome to push for a prize he didn’t care much for anyhow. He was now one of Uchiha corporation’s best project managers. Sasuke had tapped him to handle the launch of Sakura in Japan, at least from Uchiha Corporation’s side.

Sasuke checked his email and worked on taking care of all the pressing matters at hand. One thing he enjoyed about Shikamaru – he understood the raven’s need to just sit quietly and work to get maximum efficiency out of his time, rather than having to waste moments with empty talk.

“Looks good,” Shikamaru said, not glancing up from his perusal of the documents. “They’re meeting here at 11:00?”

“Yes. Harnuo Sakura and her assistant Uzumaki Naruto. They’ll be here to finalize the contract and meet you, so don’t piss them off.”

Shikamaru shrugged dismissively, and said, “Yeah, yeah, no problem.”

Silence reigned supreme in the office for a few minutes, before the brunet again broke the silence.

“By the way, Sasuke when did you get a boyfriend?”

Sasuke whipped his head around to look at his friend, briefly opening his mouth to reply before realizing he didn’t have a snappy comeback. Annoying. Besides, the blond wasn’t his boyfriend!

Not that the idea didn’t have certain attractive characteristics, mind you...

. . .

When they were greeted by Neji at the Uchiha building, the first thing Naruto noticed was that they were taken up to the level with executive offices instead of the conference room they’d gone to before.

As the long-haired man showed them into a large office, Naruto’s eyes found themselves automatically scanning the room for Sasuke. He found him sitting at a desk on the far side of the room, looking at him. He saw the coal-black eyes flick down to his neck and a quick series of expressions barely touch the surface of that calm exterior, making him curious. Then he just spent a moment looking at the raven, still somewhat dumbfounded.

He was distracted when another man stood and walked over. They exchanged business cards. Sasuke came and introduced him – in English.

“This is Nara Shikamaru. We would like to suggest him as project manager for the launch, if it meets your approval.”

Naruto glanced at Sakura. She didn’t seem surprised at the language, though her eyes lingered thoughtfully on the raven.

He saw Sasuke and Sakura exchange an unreadable look before the raven continued, “The contracts are here and ready to review. First though, if I might have a word with you, Sakura?”

Naruto blinked, watching as the two walked off towards the desk on the other end of the office. The Nara cleared his throat, and Naruto looked over at him. He didn’t really look the part of a businessman. He had a suit on, but it seemed somewhat relaxed, not crisp. The man’s hair was done up in a ponytail atop his head that stuck straight up. Naruto noticed nicotine stains on his fingernails.

“Uzumaki-san,” the man said.

Naruto shook his head. “You can call me Naruto.”

The other shrugged. “I’ve been going over the proposal and contract, but have a few questions. Would you mind?”

“Sure, no problem.”

Naruto took one last glance over at the two on the other side of the room before following Shikamaru over to the table and sitting down.

. . .

As Sasuke walked over towards his desk, he had a slight frown on his face. He knew it was petty, but it was still disappointing to not see the evidence of his kisses on the blond’s neck. There was a deep possessive animal instinct in him that made him want to mark his territory – even if the rational part of his brain was insisting that, for one, the blond wasn’t his territory (yet), and for two, it would be potentially awkward for Naruto to shown up with them visible.

He schooled his face before turning to the pinkette. “Sakura-san,” he said, bowing his head slightly.

“Sasuke-san.”

“I would like to deeply apologize for my behavior yesterday.”

The pink-haired woman frowned slightly, but waited for Sasuke to continue.

“I misled you into thinking that I did not understand English. It was inexcusable of me. Please do not let my behavior reflect poorly upon our company.”

“Oh,” Sakura said, visibly relaxing. Sasuke hated apologizing, even if it was just a formality.

“No apology is necessary, Sasuke-san,” she replied. “If anything, I should be the one offering up an apology for my behavior. Please forgive the informality of my comments; it was unprofessional of me and unworthy of my company.”

“Not at all, if I had let you know, no shame would have come to either of us.”

“Hmm,” Sakura replied, looking down for a second with a frown on her face. “Forgive me, but I am merely a foreigner. Do you normally just keep on trying to one up each other’s apologies until someone caves?” she quipped.

Sasuke had to stifle the chuckle that threatened to break free. “I’m pretty sure I can’t top the foreigner bit.” He totally ignored the message one corner of his brain sent him about how he had topped a foreigner, and quite well, thank you.

Sakura looked up at him, smirking. “We cool, then?”

Blinking, Sasuke searched his brain trying to remember the meaning of that particular idiom. “I believe so,” he finally replied, gaze glancing over to the table. The two men were hunched over the paperwork in front of them. Sasuke had to push down the stray thread of jealousy that arose from seeing another man so close to the blond. It looked like they were getting along well, though there were moments Naruto seemed to be concentrating too hard to try and understand what Shikamaru was trying to get across to him.

Sakura glanced behind her, following his gaze. “This Nara fellow, he’s good?” she said.

Sasuke nodded. “The best. He sometimes comes off a bit lazy, but his strategy is near-flawless, and his execution is very effective.”

Nodding, Sakura said, “Sounds good.”

“Do you have anyone picked yet to manage operations once everything is in place?”

“We have a few candidates in mind,” she replied, looking at Sasuke’s face searchingly. “We wanted to finalize things before moving ahead with that decision.”

“Hn.”

“On a more personal note?”

The raven’s gaze left the table and came to rest on the woman in front of him.

“Would it be inappropriate to ask what your intentions are?”

Sasuke blinked, looking over at the blond. “Hn.”

Twitching her lips, Sakura said, “Fine. I’ll just trust you to be honorable, please. He’s important.”

The raven gave a short nod. He wasn’t sure where things were going to go with the blond, but he had every intention of treating the blond with honor – well, as long as that included getting the blond naked as many times as possible while he was in the raven’s immediate vicinity.

. . .

Naruto had to physically stop himself from bouncing up and down with excitement. He was still slightly buzzing from getting to spend more time around the raven, never mind that it had been basically a boring business meeting and that lunch had consisted of – ack! – sandwiches brought up while they went over paperwork.

He and Sakura had escaped after lunch and were now walking down Takeshita-dori in Harajuku. They’d gone back to the hotel and changed first. Naruto was wearing jeans and a simple orange t-shirt with the word “Nani?” in blue on the front. Sakura wore a hot pink t-shirt over black jeans. Her pink hair was pulled up under a black cap, and she was wearing sunglasses. It was doubtful anyone would recognize her, but you never knew – they were trying to keep their move into Japan hush-hush, but rumors were bound to have cropped up.

The pinkette was enjoying her anonymity by acting like a major tourist, snapping pictures every which way. She was probably more excited than the blond next to her. Neither one of them could keep still for long – there were just too many things to see and look for. The street was crowded with people and shops, and advertisements were everywhere – on buildings, hanging like flags above the shops, lit up like signs – everywhere. And the clothes people wore were so diverse, even seemingly normal outfits were often highlighted by one outlandish accessory - and the clothes in the shop windows went way beyond outlandish.

Naruto chuckled to himself at Sakura’s rampant picture taking. He remembered stories about how you would always see Japanese tourists in America shooting pictures everywhere, and how some companies felt like they’d taken the pictures back to Japan and use them to reverse-engineer American products. He supposed that he and Sakura were just as bad. But whatever worked!

They were set to meet Deidara at a McDonalds for a snack before going out shopping. They found him sitting inside in a corner booth. He was wearing sunglasses, his blond hair pulled up in the normal ponytail, wearing a bright yellow “EAT ME” t-shirt and torn up jeans. All in all, Naruto was pretty sure they were the plainest-dressed people around. Deidara jumped up and squealed when he saw them, glomping onto Naruto right away and giving him a huge hug and a not-so-subtle grope to the ass. Naruto lightly punched him in the stomach and sat down. The other blond laughed and hugged Sakura before sitting back down across from his two friends.

“I’m so glad to see you up and about, Naru-chan!” Deidara exclaimed delightedly.

Naruto growled at him. “Bite me.”

The long-haired blond giggled, sharing a look with Sakura. “I would, but unfortunately, my biting privileges have been temporarily suspended. So? How was it? Details, details?”

The shorter blond narrowed his eyes. “What the hell is it with you guys and details, anyhow?”

“Well if you want, I’ll go first. I had this amazing talk with Itachi last night after we left the club, though he was being a total major bastard. Do you want to know what he wanted me to do?!”

“NO!” came the voices of his two friends, surprisingly in unison. They looked at each other and giggled.

Deidara sighed. “Fine, fine, you’re no fun. But that means you have to fess up, Naru!”

“Ack!” Naruto sighed, and glared at his two friends, finally sighing in defeat. “Fine. Ok, iwenthomewithsasukeandwehadsexandwenttosleepthenthismorningigavehimablowjobandtookashowerandwehadbreakfast.”

The two others blinked at him.

“What?” Naruto said, shrugging. “You wanted details!”

Deidara twitched his lips. “Was it good for you?”

The younger blond blushed. “Well duh.”

“Naruto and Sasuke are going on a date tonight,” Sakura said, breaking into the conversation.

“Oh reaaally?”

Naruto nodded, looking down at the table.

“Is it order in, and blondie for desert?”

Opening his mouth to protest, Naruto realized the last part would probably be true. Hopefully. He couldn’t help the smirk that crossed his lips at the thought of being in that deliciously vulnerable position again. Or another position. So many possibilities. Ack! When did he start thinking this way about an almost total stranger!

“Well, Sasuke actually said that he was going to take me out to dinner at some little place he likes,” Naruto said, trying to cover up his reaction to the earlier question.

“Oh!” Sakura said, “That reminds me! Sasuke invited us all out to dinner tomorrow night – us three, Itachi, Sasuke, and the new guy Shikamaru.”

“Itachi?” Naruto said, gulping. Suddenly the idea of meeting the family so quickly made him nervous.

“Yeah,” Deidara said, a faraway look in his eye as he thought of his lover. “He’s coming back right before the dinner. Oh, and I don’t think I’ll be able to see you guys Saturday.”

“Eh? Why?” Naruto asked.

Sakura nudged him in the ribs. “Duh.”

“Oh.” He could feel the heat from another blush dusting his cheeks. “Well, um, have fun?”

“Trust me,” Deidara said, stretching lazily. “It will be way more than fun. It’s going to be absolutely exhaustingly mindblowingly –“

“Ok ok we get the picture!” Sakura said, cheeks just about matching her hidden hair. Then she sighed. “I’m going to be all alone this weekend, aren’t I?” She sniffed piteously, and Deidara patted her hand gently.

“You could always just fly Kakashi over for day or something,” he said.

The pinkette made a face. “Nah, he’s at a photo shoot in Rome or something. Again.”

“Poor lonely baby. It’s too bad that man has absolutely spoiled you for sex, or I’d suggest getting yourself a little piece on the side.”

Sakura stuck her tongue out at him. “It’s not just sex, you idiot.”

“Sure, sure. Naruto, remind me again how those two met?”

“Well, you know, Sakura was skinny dipping in her pool and this paparazzi dropped into the yard because he fell out of the tree he was hiding in when she surfaced from the water. He was carrying about five icha icha books that scattered on the ground when he fell. Jiraiya got to him before pinky did, since she was busy putting her clothes back on. They got into this nice little conversation about jiji’s work before our lovely Sakura came staling over and beat them both up for peeking, before dragging Kakashi back to the house for lots of wild hot monkey sex. That’s about it, right Sakura?”

He glanced over at his friend, ignoring the look of absolute rage in her eyes, the pulse pounding in her forehead, or the way her hair seemed to be crackling with static energy.

“That’s about what I remember,” Deidara said helpfully.

“You… two…” Sakura ground out, clinching her fists.

“Now now, miss cherry lips, we’re in public,” the long-haired blond reminded.

Naruto smirked. “Yeah, and besides, you didn’t think I was gonna let you get away with that shit from yesterday with no consequences, did you?”

“Hmph,” Sakura said, narrowing her eyes. “I hope,” she continued, poking him none-too-gently in the chest, “that Sasuke fucks you so hard that you can’t walk for a week! And you!” she turned, pointing at Deidara, “Same thing with Itachi! But two weeks!”

The two blonds looked at her, thinking about the implications of her words. Then they looked at each other and shrugged.

“Me too?” Deidara said.

Naruto shrugged. “Could live with it, I guess.”

The pinkette looked at her friends in exasperation, and then started to giggle. Pretty soon all three of them were in on it, ignoring the strange looks they received from the people around them.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Review Responses!

Prism0467 - Thanks! I love morning afters, personally :) With the right person, they're all afterglowy and lovely

Nickles - ^_^ Yeah, these two fit together very nicely as adults, I think :)

Midnight Essence - Thanks :) And who knows what the future will bring... though I can't promise it will all be pleasant. I can't wait for Itachi to be back, personally, I love the Darkness so much!

airhead622 - hehe.... Itachi loves to torture his poor little Sasuke. Just coming up with the wicked evil plans... nummy, and so so mean!

gingitsune - awww :( yeah, I've gotten to the point where I c/p all my comments or stories before I hit the update button - just because I've lost them so many times. Notepad is a great insurance policy! I'm glad you like the story so much. They both have a lot to learn about each other, but thats part of the fun, ne? I like the smut, but this is smut with plot... and even if this chapie was nonsmutty, there will be smut to come... and hopefully it'll be worth the wait :)

xkuramaxhieix - hehe.... they might. never know... with Naru's background, and Sasu's sex drive, and of course the ItaDei influence.... I have a feeling they're just starting to dip into their own kinkyness.

ladyshadowdragon - glad you like it!

Ony-chan - thanks :) I enjoy this story, its interesting to think what they would be like if they'd grown up apart from each other and met as adults. either way, they're soulmates through and through! and I love ItaDei especially in some of Itachi's incarnations... theres just this mixing of dark and neverending passion that seems like it would drive things wild.

A/N - oh, by the way, if anyone reads manga, can i just reccomend Heaven's Love? One of the reasons it took me so long to update was that I've fallen for this mangaka's work, and omg, Hard and Dust... squee! Anyways :)