The Sound of Dreams

AN: *peers out cautiously to see if there are any lingering fans with torches and pitchforks*

Wow, the responses from last week were really strong!! Thanks for all of the reviews and I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations!!

BTW, I give up. Going to stop trying to guess when this will end. I should know better by now, lol. I get ideas as I write and the story just happens, no matter what constraints I try to put on it. There will be at least 1-2 chapters more, but I am not going to swear on it at this point!

Kit: I’m going to go with your form of the word father “chichi.” I like the sound better and it is kinda cute!

Chapter 69


Sasuke stared down at Tsunade, his thoughts whirling as fast as the Sharingan in his eyes. While he had shot to his feet in anger, she remained kneeling before them calmly. He could feel the slight burn on his neck where his curse seal ached to be activated, but he refused to give into it. Long past was the time where it controlled him instead of the other way around.

As he stood there, his hand itching for his sword that had not as yet been returned to him, he watched her watch him with a gaze that was weighing, judging…

Testing.

He realized with a sudden clarity that was usually reserved for his vision that she was gauging his reaction, waiting for him to make his move. To attack her would mean a deadly battle and, if he survived, life on the run as a true S-class criminal.

His mind went over the stipulations of his return, holding each sentence up to his mind’s eye and turning it, studying it. And a voice from what seemed to be his far past spoke into his mind.

‘Look underneath the underneath.’

He didn’t care about the psychological evaluation. He was sure that they were well aware of what his goals were and what lengths he would go to fulfill them. That he couldn’t change and they would have to have already taken that into account when they had set up the stipulations for his return to Konoha.

A jounin escort merely meant that either Kakashi or, when he attained higher rank, Naruto would be accompanying him if he left the village. Unless Itachi was located, he had no need to leave that he could fathom at this point in time. Barring of course, their permanent departure from Konoha.

He only used the cursed seal in extreme circumstances against powerful enemies due to its detrimental effect on his body. He could always claimed it had activated on its own in the face of a strong opponent and hope they didn’t use the Time Reversal Jutsu on him, not that he thought he could be hypnotized at this point unwillingly. This point he was hesitant about, but he was fairly confident he could work around it.

Being confined to the village meant time to train with Naruto. Since the blond was going to be confined to the village as well, he wasn’t too worried about going out to try to find Itachi. His brother would come to the village. He just had to make sure he didn’t leave Naruto’s side and his brother would come to him.

As for the rank, he still held to what he had told Sakura at the Chuunin Exam over three years ago. He didn’t care about rank, he cared about pitting himself against strong opponents to test his abilities. As a Chuunin, he would still go on missions and he was sure that Tsunade wasn’t dumb enough to waste his talents.

His fists clenched over the last part of his sentencing however. He didn’t want to be forced into something so very personal just so that the village would have its Sharingan users. Though, again, the terms were vague enough that it provided loopholes. It was never stated whom he would have to marry. At best he would marry Naruto if he had to and if the Hokage would allow it. At worst he might be stuck with some farce of a marriage with some civilian, giving them the honor of the Uchiha name in return for them not interfering into his private life.

‘Although sometimes it feels as if those two should be reversed,’ he mused sardonically.

An heir, while trickier, could again be done without marrying some female and being forced to lie with her. If he had learned one thing from being around Kabuto for the last three years, it was that with a skilled medic-nin at your disposal, many things that seemed improbable were possible.

It would be annoying, it would be inconvenient, it would undoubtedly cause all kinds of headaches at a later date, but he could see a way to work around most of the punishments dealt out to him.

The main question that truly remained to him was whether Naruto would wish to go or to stay.

His body once more relaxed, he was about to ask her what would the consequences be if he refused when something registered upon his awareness.

Naruto was growling.

Honey-colored eyes dismissing him as a threat for the time being, Tsunade’s weighing gaze moved over to the crouched form next to him.

“It’s his choice,” Naruto protested angrily. “They can’t force him to marry!”

“And is this a firm belief of yours or are you merely saying this because you are involved with him?” Tsunade asked, letting no opinions about their relationship through her composed façade.

The question caught Naruto briefly off guard. His growl ended abruptly in his throat. “No one should be forced to marry someone else,” he said firmly.

“So if two nobles had arranged for their children to marry and this arrangement united their families and effectively ended years of strife and conflict, you would be opposed to it? “

Naruto scrunched his nose in slight confusion, not understanding why she was asking him these questions. “The two families should come to an agreement based off of their own willingness to end the conflict, not by forcing their children to marry. If they don’t like each other, it could cause more problems in the future and they might end up fighting again.”

“Sasuke,” she said quietly.

Sasuke looked away slightly. “Sometimes you have to do your duty whether you wish to or not because your clan as a whole is more important than you as an individual.” It was something that had been drilled into him at a very young age. Your clan meant everything and you did what was required of you to serve it.

Naruto’s head whipped around toward his lover. “You would agree to… agree to…” he faltered as his eyes filled with the pain of Sasuke’s words.

“No!” Sasuke denied vehemently. “My clan needs to be restarted, but I will do it my way. I will not agree to anything that forces me to give you up.”

Naruto’s shoulders relaxed slightly as Sasuke’s reassurances sunk in. Not caring if he irritated Sasuke, Naruto stood and wrapped his arms around Sasuke from behind. While the older teen didn’t acknowledge him in any way, he also didn’t move away from him.

“Look at it this way, Sasuke,” Tsunade advised nonchalantly. “This will give you an opportunity to pay penance and restore honor to your clan.”

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow. “My clan’s honor will be restored when I eliminate Itachi.”

“Ah, that will restore the honor lost when your brother massacred everyone, betrayed the village and became a missing-nin. What about when you abandoned the village?”

Naruto felt the tension in the body before him and wisely backed off.

“After all,” Tsunade added sternly. “was your clan not part of our village? Did they not work hard to make Konoha thrive? By leaving the Leaf, you left the place that your clan called home.”

Sasuke felt his blood boil again. “I’m sorry, Hokage-sama, but I must have merely missed your presence in the village for the last twenty years. I am sure you were doing your share of missions and working hard for your village. I’m sure there was a reason that the Sandaime was pulled out of retirement and forced to become Hokage again rather than one of his students when the Yondaime passed away. I can only wonder how effective Orochimaru’s attack would have been had both of the other two members of the Legendary Sannin been in the village at the time.”

Naruto could have sworn that the temperature in the room dropped to the freezing point as the two shinobi glared icily at each other.

“I don’t expect you to appreciate how I busted my ass to keep your miserable carcass out of prison, Uchiha, especially since I did it more for Naruto’s sake than yours. However, I’ll be damned if I am going to sit here and take your disrespect,” she informed him coldly. “Now why don’t you take yourself down to the room of the boy that you claim to want to care for and visit with him while I try to make your boyfriend look more human.”

Sasuke hesitated for a brief moment. He knew that she needed to work on Naruto, but he wanted to stay in the room with them. However, he also knew that Hiroki hadn’t seen either one of them for the few days that they had been here.

He lifted his eyes to Naruto’s blue ones.

Naruto nodded slightly, indicating he would be fine.

Sasuke turned and left the room, holding himself with stiff dignity.

Tsunade waited until the door closed before her shoulders eased. “Out of everyone, Naruto, why him?”

Naruto let out a sound that was between a laugh and a grunt. “He’s always been my most precious person, baa-chan. Now the term just has more meaning.”

Tsunade frowned at the door. “He’s going to hurt you,” she predicted.

“And would you have given up the time you spent with Dan if you had known how much it was going to hurt when he died?” he asked quietly, not meaning to harm.

Tsunade sighed. “No,” she admitted resignedly.

Pulling herself together, she walked over to the door and stuck her head outside. “Neji, Hinata, it’s time.”

******************
Tsunade’s words burned in his ears as Sasuke walked down the hall. She was right from a certain point of view. However, he was in a no-win situation. He still felt as if he’d had to do what he had done to gain the power he now possessed. Itachi was strong, a prodigy among the Uchiha which were known for their genius. Had he not gone to the lengths he had, he would never had been able to stand up against his brother in the recent fight.

If he’d had his Sharingan, he was sure that he could have done a lot more damage to the man than he had. The fight where Orochimaru had taken over Naruto had proven that.

Consumed by his own thoughts, the only warning was the yelled “Nii-san!” before a small body hurled itself at him.

Little hiney hanging out the back of the hospital gown, Hiroki threw his arms around Sasuke’s waist and hung on for dear life.

Promising himself to teach the little boy about dignity very soon, Sasuke reached down and lifted the tyke up to settle him on his hip. Two slender but strong arms wrapped around his neck as Hiroki snuggled his head onto Sasuke’s shoulder.

“I’ve missed you!” the little boy proclaimed almost petulantly.

Sasuke let his cheek rest on the child’s soft hair as he carried him back to the hospital room with the only open door.

“Where’s Chichi?” Hiroki asked with a frown as his nii-san sat down on his bed.

“Well, right now the doctor is looking at him,” Sasuke replied unthinkingly.

Hiroki’s eyes widened right before he wiggled out of Sasuke’s loose grasp. The boy was out of the room instantly before Sasuke could even react.

He cursed as he remembered the boy’s fear of doctors and what they had done to him. He ran out of the room, trying to catch up to the little boy, but the bare feet pattered rapidly down the hall just out of reach.

Luckily Shino was still waiting outside of the room and snagged the boy before he could push the door open.

“Lose something, Uchiha?” he said with a slight smirk.

“Hn.”

Hiroki glared up at Shino before Sasuke deftly plucked him from the bug-user’s grasp.

“It’s okay, Hiroki. Nobody’s going to hurt him,” Sasuke tried to reassure the boy.

“I want to see him,” he replied stubbornly, crossing his arms.

“You can see him when they’re done. He’ll be fine,” Sasuke said firmly.

Hiroki lifted his chin defiantly although the effect was ruined by the few tears that started to gather in his eyes.

Sasuke sighed but refrained from rolling his eyes. “We just can’t go walking in when they are working on him,” he pointed out reasonably.

Hiroki started to get a mutinous glower in his eyes.

Sasuke was about to further reason with and/or threaten the boy when there was a muffled yell from the other side of the door. Not even stopping to ponder his actions, Sasuke threw open the portal.

Tsunade was holding down a writhing Naruto as both Neji and Hinata concentrated on his body with their Byakugan. Sasuke was about to demand what in the hell was going on when he heard a series of cracking sounds, much like bones grinding together.

Not able to spare much comfort for the child, whose skin was starting to ripple as something squirmed beneath the surface, Sasuke watched in horrific fascination as Naruto’s face shifted and rearranged itself.

Another yell made its way out of the contorting features as another loud crack sounded. Sasuke found himself with a handful of a screaming, thrashing child as Hiroki tried to get loose and go protect his precious person. It was only because it was Sasuke holding him did he refrain from slicing his captor to pieces to get to Naruto.

Sasuke immediately noticed the decrease in tension in the trio surrounding the blond. He glanced over and saw that Naruto’s features had settled once again into the familiar countenance of his friend, lover and rival. A vague, perverted voice in the back of his mind morbidly speculated whether the change in facial features affected his tongue as well.

As the figures cautiously drew back slightly from the panting figure, Sasuke allowed Hiroki to wiggle out of his grip and run toward his father figure.

“Mommy!” the boy cried out as he launched himself onto the prone body.

Okay, perhaps “father figure” was the wrong term.

Naruto let out a pained “Oof!” as the child landed on his stomach and wrapped his small arms around his neck to squeeze. Tightly. He patted the boy’s back even as he winced painfully every time the boy bumped his jaw.

Tsunade looked over at Sasuke with an eyebrow raised dangerously. “There had better be a damn good reason why you are here, Uchiha.”

“Is he alright?” he asked instead of answering her implied question.

She glanced down at Naruto who had regained control of his breath, but still held a tight expression on his face, as if still experiencing pain and soreness. He was carefully talking to Hiroki, seeming to be trying to move his jaw as little as possible while reassuring the boy that he was fine and that the doctors were helping him.

“How you feeling, brat?” she asked brusquely, but with an underlying warmth in her tone.

“Like I just got hit in the face with a sledgehammer,” he said with a grimace and then added with a half teasing look at Sasuke, “or maybe the bastard’s fist.”

“Hn,” Sasuke deadpanned. “You should have left him the way he was. Now he’s back to being ugly again.”

“Fuck off, bastard,” Naruto grumbled good-naturedly. “Not all of us can be pretty boys like you.”

“Usuratonkachi,” Sasuke retorted. “Don’t make me come over there and rearrange your face again.”

“You two can flirt later, we have work to do,” Tsunade interrupted. “Take Hiroki back to his room, Uchiha, and stay put with him.”

“Is there some reason why we can’t stay?” he asked, just short of demanding.

“Yes, you’re a nuisance and a distraction,” she replied sharply.

“And did you ever stop and think to ask for my assistance?” he drawled arrogantly. “I can see into his mind and perceive the mental representation of the bindings that you are trying to break. I might be able to help. I think it should be obvious to you by now that I don’t intend to hurt him.”

“Whether you intend to or not, you usually do,” she growled.

Sasuke’s fist tightened before he forced himself to relax. The old hag had it out for him and a part of him couldn’t blame her. However, that didn’t keep him from being pissed off every time she exercised her authority to demonstrate her displeasure in him.

“So are you going to let me help or not?” he asked flatly.

“I don’t see how you could help, Uchiha,” Neji responded calmly. “Even if you are able to see something that we cannot, you will be in no position to alert us.”

Sasuke lifted a condescending eyebrow. “I will be able to find a way,” he said confidently.

“It can’t hurt to let him try, right, baa-chan?” Naruto interrupted.

Tsunade sighed and gently lifted Hiroki off of Naruto. “We will see what he can do,” she allowed. If it helped Naruto, then she would do what needed to be done. Even if she didn’t personally approve of his choices.

Sasuke walked around until he was able to kneel beside Naruto’s head. He gently cupped the whiskered cheek in his hand which Naruto nuzzled before lifting his blue eyes up to Sasuke’s dark orbs. There was a moment of tenderness before his gaze turned blood-red.

Sasuke found himself at the entrance of the demon’s prison once more. His enhanced vision picked up Naruto’s form with his back to him, gazing through the bars. Sasuke’s eyes drifted to the still, furred form that was cloaked in the enveloping shadows. He felt himself scowl at the creature.

“Take back your memories, demon,” he whispered fiercely. “I don’t want them anymore.”

Naruto turned at the murmur of sound to see Sasuke standing on the far side of the room. He was starting to get used to moving around with the numerous chakra threads running off of him. They flowed around him with each shift of his body, undulated smoothly with each gesture almost fluttering in an unfelt breeze.

Sasuke walked to him, his eyes flickering to the beast within the cage.

“He hasn’t moved since the battle,” Naruto said, following his gaze. “He hasn’t spoken, hasn’t even twitched.”

Not stopping until he was well within the blond’s personal space, Sasuke easily slid a hand behind Naruto’s head and pulled the teen in for a long, slow kiss. Lips brushed together softly followed by the languid slide of moist tongues. After a moment that seemed to obliterate all sense of time yet was much too short, they pulled away from each other.

“Now, let’s see which of these are the least tangled,” Sasuke said as he brushed his fingers over the threads.

Naruto gave a shiver as if he could feel the ghostly touch against his flesh. Crimson eyes studied him from every angle, sometimes reaching out to touch the threads and at other times refusing to do so.

“I’m going to try something. Tell me if it hurts,” he said seriously.

Naruto raised a pale eyebrow before nodding.

“Let’s see how smart Hyuuga really is,” Sasuke murmured with a smirk. He lifted a thread up that seemed to be relatively free from the others and started to trickle a bit of his chakra through it.

Naruto shifted uncomfortably as heat seemed to move in a sluggish, viscous manner through his veins. It didn’t hurt, but it seemed the longer the heat was there, the hotter it became. Just when he was about to question what Sasuke was actually doing, the heat was abruptly cut off, leaving only a wispy remnant of sensation behind.

“He does have a brain.” Somehow Naruto gained the impression that Sasuke was both simultaneously pleased and disappointed by the observation.

The dark-haired genius began to pick out different strands, one by one, and feed his own chakra into them. Soon the delay between the infusion of chakra and the cutting of the threads began to shorten as those on the outside began to understand what Sasuke was doing.

After about a dozen strands, Naruto began to look tired. Sasuke opened his mouth to say something when he unexpectedly vanished. Naruto blinked a few times before forcing himself to awareness.

Sasuke came to, blinking his eyes rapidly. He looked down to see Hinata’s hand covering Naruto’s eyes, effectively breaking their contact. He was about to ask why when she moved her hand, revealing a sweaty, panting blond who looked like he had just ran flat out for ten klicks without the benefit of chakra.

“I think that is enough for now,” Tsunade stated firmly. “We’ll come back tomorrow and do some more.”

“Your help was useful, Uchiha,” Neji stated stoically.

“I’m just glad you were able to recognize what I was doing,” Sasuke said with a certain amount of smugness lacing his tone.

“You will have to thank Hinata-sama for recognizing your impromptu display,” Neji said with a slightly warmer look at the blushing heiress.

Sasuke glanced over at Hinata to find her staring down at her hands. A tanned one suddenly covered them, giving them a pat.

“Hinata-chan is stronger than people realize,” Naruto said tiredly but with pride for his friend obvious in his voice.

Tsunade stood, discreetly stretching her muscles. “It’s late. Neji have Kiba and Akamaru set up watch tonight. You two get some rest.” As Neji nodded and headed out the door with Hinata, Tsunade looked over at Sasuke.

“I think it’s about time you got Hiroki to bed and got some rest yourself,” she said, hinting at his need to depart.

Sasuke merely nodded. “I’ll drag in a mattress off one of the hospital beds for Hiroki,” he stated calmly. He heard her drag in a breath as if she was going to argue the issue, her breasts rising impressively with the feat, before they deflated as she sighed.

“Whatever, Uchiha. Just make sure you all three get some rest.”

He nodded his acquiescence graciously, earning him a scowl of irritation. After the Hokage had stalked out through the door, he fetched another futon mattress from a closet in one of the other rooms. If past experience was anything to go by, Hiroki wouldn’t stay in a bed and would end up on the floor with them anyway. Might as well prepare for the inevitable.

Sasuke returned to the room to find Hiroki already snuggled up against Naruto’s side and talking a mile a minute about his time spent away from the dobe. Sasuke listened with half an ear as he expanded the sleeping area to accommodate the three of them comfortably. He shed his shirt before poking Naruto in the side.

“You’re sweaty, go shower so I can flip the futon and get clean sheets,” he told the other boy.

Naruto let out a low whining moan. “I don’t wanna move,” he protested.

“I don’t care. I’m not sleeping next to you when you stink,” Sasuke informed him firmly.

“He’s right, Chichi, you smell bad,” Hiroki added, chipping in his unsolicited opinion.

Naruto sighed as if agreeing to take on the weight of the world on his shoulders. “Fine,” he muttered before pushing himself rather ungracefully to his feet.

“Over there, you,” Sasuke said lightly while shooing Hiroki over to the newly made up futon.

He picked up the sweat soaked sheets just as the water was turned on in the small bathing alcove. He frowned as he noticed the faintest traces of something on the linens. Looking closer he realized it was fine hairs. His eyebrows climbed up his forehead as he stared at them.

Was Naruto shedding?!

He tossed the sheets into the corner of the room as he walked over to the curtained off bathroom. He stepped inside and over to the shower, pausing briefly to admire the form slumped against the wall, warm water running over the tanned skin. He glanced down to confirm that there were more fine hairs on the tiles of the shower floor. Looking closer at Naruto he realized that even though he still retained the four tails, the sparse fur-like body hair had disappeared to be replaced by his usual downy, fine hairs.

“Too tired, Sasuke, ‘sides Hiroki is in the room, you perv,” a voice muttered through a yawn. He winced and rubbed his jaw gently.

“Hn,” Sasuke responded, not finding the admonishment worthy of a real reply. “Just wanted to let you know you’re shedding, dobe.”

Naruto jerked away from the wall, looking down immediately at the juncture of his thighs. Ignoring the eye-roll from beside him, he brushed his hand through the now-coarser hairs between his legs. “Thank the gods,” he muttered.

“I’ll leave you to it then,” Sasuke drawled.

“Wanna wash my back?” he asked with a tired leer.

“You’re tired, remember? Besides, Hiroki is in the room, you pervert.” With that Sasuke walked back into the main room, ignoring the call of “spoilsport” behind him.

He flipped the mattress and threw clean sheets on it before settling down to wait for the blond dobe. Hiroki immediately scooted over to him and snuggled into his side.

“Nii-san, as soon as Chichi gets better, we get to leave here and live like a real family, right?” Hiroki asked hesitantly. He wasn’t sure how a real family lived, but he had hoped it was away from doctors, medical rooms and guards.

Sasuke thought carefully before he answered. There had been nothing in the sentencing to prevent them from moving back into the village and away from this place. Tsunade had even implied that she had argued in their favor away from the possibility of imprisonment.

“After Naruto is better, we will move into my home,” he said, mentally adding, ‘If it’s still there.’

“I’m glad,” Hiroki said with a genuine smile on his small face, making his emerald green eyes shine. “I’d like to live in a real home.”

“Things will be hard for a little bit at first. It’s been a long time since Naruto and I have lived here, but things should work out,” he assured the little boy.

The water cut off in the shower and the sound of someone shuffling around filled the room. The lights were shut off and a soft blue glow filled the room from the active seals. As soon as Naruto trundled into view, Hiroki moved to make room for him in between them. Naruto knelt down to crawl over the sheets.

“Chichi, I can see your butt!” Hiroki announced with a giggle.

Sasuke glanced down to where Naruto had his waist-band down past what would be his tail bone so that the tails could hang down comfortably.

“Oh yeah! And what about this!” Naruto crowed as he flipped the small boy over, baring his bottom to the room through the back of his hospital gown. He then promptly leaned down and blew on the boy’s lower back, making fart noises.

“Oh my gods, Sasuke!! Did you hear that? You stinky boy, Hiroki!” Naruto exclaimed over the hysterical giggling below him. He didn’t dare try to tickle the kid for fear of slicing him open. He leaned down and made another vulgar noise between the child’s shoulder blades, eliciting a new bout of high-pitched laughter.

“Oh, wow, peee-ewwww! What did you have for supper?” Naruto exclaimed, while waving the imaginary smell away from his face.

“I had ramen!” Hiroki exclaimed through his giggles.

“Ramen!!” Naruto exclaimed. “You little booger, where did you get ramen from?”

“From Auntie Sakura! She said she was going to bring you some tomorrow since you were busy tonight,” Hiroki said, finally getting his laughter under control.

“Sasuke,” Naruto whined pathetically. “I missed ramen!”

“You don’t need to be eating that garbage anyway,” Sasuke said repressively.

Hiroki suddenly looked worried. “Is ramen bad?”

“No!” Naruto protested immediately, almost startling the child. “Ramen is the bestest thing in the world. Sasuke is just a fuddy-dud who doesn’t know what tastes good!”

Hiroki looked relieved, but still shot a hesitant glance over at Sasuke.

“It’s okay once in a while,” the dark-eyed ninja finally relented.

The young boy smiled once more before settling down.

With the wet tails, Naruto was forced to lie on his stomach for the night so as not to soak the bedding. Lifting himself onto his elbows, he leaned over and gave Sasuke a chaste kiss on the lips, smiling at the blush that pinked the pale skin. He then turned to the other side and gave the young tyke a kiss on the forehead before settling down. He felt a small body half crawl over his and the sound of lips smacking against Sasuke’s cheek. He tried not to snicker at the wide-eyed look that was shot his way.

Hiroki crawled back over and then snuggled up against his side. He was happy that he was back with his Chichi so that the older boy could once again keep the bad dreams away. It wasn’t long before his breathing evened out and his body relaxed against the larger, warmer one.

Sasuke had been edging closer this whole time and finally rested his head alongside Naruto’s bicep while bringing one leg up to lay across the back of the blond’s, effectively leaning against him.

“Can you live with what they’ve done, Sasuke?” Naruto asked after a long silence. “Because if you can’t-”

“Don’t worry about it, dobe. Everything they have set up has a loophole, a way to circumvent it,” Sasuke reassured him quietly.

“But what about the wife and kids?” Naruto asked with a growing tone of anger in his voice.

“They didn’t say I had to have a wife, Naruto. They just said I had to marry,” Sasuke pointed out, a little anxious to see his lover’s reaction. He felt the other shift to look at him in the faint blue light.

“What...” There was a pause as Naruto swallowed audibly. “What does that mean?”

“It means that we keep the council guessing for three years and then try to find some poor woman that will agree to be a surrogate mother,” Sasuke informed him, keeping his voice level even though his stomach was trembling within his skin.

“Then… you’ll marry her, right?” the question was asked in a small whisper.

“Idiot, I just said I didn’t have to have a wife,” Sasuke snapped. He had hoped the moron would catch on without having to have everything spelled out for him. He should have known better since Naruto seemed to excel at making his life harder than it had to be. He couldn’t work up any real anger over the issue however, not when his insides were quaking and his words wanted to lodge in his throat.

There was a long moment where Naruto’s mind tried to process things that didn’t compute. “Does that mean… I mean, are we gonna…” He slowly grinned as Sasuke remained stubbornly silent. “You’re going to ask me to marry you, aren’t you?”

“Shut up,” Sasuke mumbled in embarrassment.

“Hey!” he suddenly chirped up. “What if I want to ask you to marry me instead? After all, I’m the ma-”

“If you finish that sentence, you won’t be able to make the claim for long,” Sasuke suddenly snarled.

“Okay, bastard! No sense in getting your chicken butt all ruffled,” Naruto grumbled. He suddenly grinned again. “But you’re still going to ask,” he added smugly.

“If I don’t kill you before the three years is up,” Sasuke growled. “The longer we wait the less time they will have to try to find a way to nullify it.”

There was another silence before Naruto’s sleepy voice spoke softly once more. “Do you know how dysfunctional we’re going to be as a family?”

“Moron, do you even know what dysfunctional means?” Sasuke sniped sleepily out of habit.

“Course I do. I looked it up. Found your picture,” Naruto trailed off as his breathing started to even out and deepen.

However it was a long time before Sasuke was able to follow his example. Naruto’s words kept ringing in his ears. A family. He was once again going to be a part of a family. He didn’t know whether to allow himself to feel the small ray of hope and joy that shone through the cracks Naruto put into the ice encasing his heart, or be terrified of the prospect of taking a chance at losing something that he knew, if it happened, would totally break him.


TBC