Can't Live Without Love

To my reviewers: Thank you. You may pet my kitty now.

I've always wondered how some authors could get 51 *cough*WhyOrange?by TrulyWicked*cough* or even 89 *cough*D/sNarutobyHestia*cough* chapters, but here I am, on Ch. 7, and Sasuke and Naruto still haven't made up.

From here on out, the Uchiha's will be getting more OOC by the chapter. Just a warning.

Starry: The characters did take the news better than I planned them to, so I tried to make up for it in this chapter.

Ch. 7: A Self-Induced Sickness


It's dark. Dark is good; dark can be filled. Maybe not as much as you, but something has to come close, right? I hope so, I don't want to live with a hole.

But why would you be in the darkness? With your golden hair, sun-kissed skin, and eyes so blue that they rival the sky? There is nothing dark about you, how did you ever put up with me?

Please don't go to the light. Nothing good will come from it - well, nothing for me, anyways. If you are in the light, then I can see you. If I can see you, then I can see that you are not with me. You will always be just out of reach - there is nothing I can do. There won't even be a hole for me to fill: you will always be there, reminding me of what I had lost.

*****

Sakura sighed. Sasuke had been sick in bed for a three days, and she still couldn't figure out what was wrong. She finally gave in and asked Tsunade.

"Hmm."

"So? What's wrong with him?" Sakura asked frantically.

"Nothing."

"What do you mean 'nothing'? Look at him! It's like he hasn't eaten for weeks!"

"Does he have a fever?"

"No."

"Is there any internal or external bruising?"

"No."

"Poison?"

"No."

"Anything broken?"

"No."

"Then there's physically nothing wrong with him, right?"

"Right. But...look at him! He's sick."

"It's a self-induced sickness."

"Huh?"

"The guilt of being the cause of Naruto's disapperance has caught up to him full-force." Tsunade looked at Sasuke. As far as she can tell, there isn't anything wrong with him except that he isn't properally taking care of himself, mostly because he's unconsious more often than not.

Not that Sasuke would ever admitt that he was so sick that his duck-butt hair style has disappeared. Or that his already pale skin was worse than Orochimaru's. Or that he looked like an aneraxic girl.

Tsunade wasn't sure what would happen if she removed the Uchiha from a familiar location to the hospital, so she settled for telling Kakashi to look after him. (She knew that Sakura still liked him, and didn't want to risk her giving him a bath.)

*****

Kyuubi stopped right before going into a town and smirked. "Can you feel him, Tachi-koi?"

"I'm not your koi," he said quietly.

"But I told you many times that you were my mate. And being my mate makes you my love."

"Just because you... assisted (because Uchiha's don't need help) me in locating Madara doesn't mean that I'll be your mate."

"But Tachi-koi," Kyuubi whined. No answer. "Help me out here, Kit. You're used to dealing with Uchiha's."

"Only Teme. Besides, I still don't trust him," Naruto said. Naruto had yet to call Itachi by his name. It's always 'him', 'he', 'Uchiha', or 'you'. It did annoy Itachi, but he never said anything about it. Hell, he hardly ever talked to the blonde.

Not that Itachi blamed the him. None of their previous meetings had been pleasent. Expecially the ones that included Kisame threatning to chop his legs off.

"It's been two days and he hasn't even touched you."

"Hn. When have Uchiha's ever listened to me?"

Itachi looked at Naruto. 'He's been spending too much time with Sasuke.'

Kyuubi dropped the subject and walked into the village, the other two members of the body on either side of him. The plan was to stay in a hotel, plan their attack, then carry it out the next day.

But Itachi had to put that plan on hold when he found the perfect place to get a new cloak. He did agree with Kyuubi when he said that the Akatsuki cloak was a fashion disaster, but he had gotten so used to wearing it that he felt naked, never mind that he had a perfect body that he never got to show off while in the organization. No, he wanted a cloak and he wanted it now, damnit! Uchiha's are so spoiled.

Not saying anything, Itachi walked into the shop, with Kyuubi right behind him. Naruto was content to find a hotel, but Kyuubi forceably dragged the blond inside.

It looked like Itachi was calmly walking around, searching for the one cloak that would make him happy. But he was mentally acting like Sakura shopping for clothes for a date.

'So many colors! Hmm...pink is too girly. There is no way in hell I'm wearing orange. Black is too emo. Dark blue? No, that's my little brother's favorite color. A yellow cloak? Gross. White will get dirty to easily. Green...no, not my color. How about this red?' Itachi looked at a red cloak. 'Okay, so bright red is bad. Do they have blood red?'

"How about this, Tachi-koi?"

Not wanting to answer to 'koi', but unable to resist looking, Itachi turned to look at Kyuubi. 'Hn. Stupid demon even has fasion sense. But I'll never get him to leave me alone if I pick that.'

Taking the silence as a 'yes', Kyuubi took the cloak and held it in front of Itachi. It was blood red. Looking from the cloak to Itachi and back again, the demon shook his head. "You look good in red, but not that much red."

Naruto handed his brother a black cloak in the same style as the one Kyuubi was holding. 'Didn't I just tell myself that black was too emo? Besides, this reminds me a lot like the Akatsuki cloak.'

As if reading his mind, Naruto spoke. "It's fine. You don't look any more emo than Teme does. You like? Good. I'll go pay for it."

Neither Itachi nor Kyuubi knew what to say. The Uchiha had all intentions of paying for it, and the Kitsune wanted to know what Naruto was going to do to it.

The demon took it from Naruto when he came back 30 minutes later (he had distracted Itachi by telling him the perks of being the mate of a kitsune) and smirked. Itachi looked at it and...his eyebrow twitched as he glared at Naruto.

The blonde gave an innocent smile. "What? I'm just helping Nii-chan mark you as his mate." The innocent smile turned into a sly fox-grin. Taking up the entire back side of the cloak was a blood-red, nine-tailed kitsune. "And don't you dare give that back to me, I paid for it and you're going to wear it."

Not wanting to make a scene (or risk haveing the wrath of Kyuubi brought down upon him), Itachi put it on. Potential mate or not, Itachi couldn't help but notice how protective Kyuubi was of Naruto .

*****

Two rooms. That meant Itachi got one while Naruto and Kyuubi shared the other, right? That's just wishfull thinking, Itachi. According to Narto and Kyuubi, Naruto got one while they forced Itachi to share with Kyuubi.

Which is why Itachi was sitting on a bed, glaring at Kyuubi - who was sitting on the same bed- trying to figure out how to make him sleep in the other one.

"Come on, Tachi-koi. Mates sleep together."

"I don't care. I'm not your mate."

Kyuubi mentally smirked. Itachi couldn't have wanted him out that bad - otherwise he would have used the Mangekyou Sharingan. The fox demon purred. "But Tachi-koi. We make such a perfect couple. They say opposites attract, you know. That's what drew our little brothers together."

"What did Sasuke do to Naruto?"

"Huh?"

"Naruto gets depressed every time he hears Sasuke's name, and won't say it out loud. What happened?"

"I'll answer if you let me sleep with you."

Uchiha That's-the-stupidest-thing-I've-ever-heard Glare.

"Same bed?"

"...all of my questions?"

"Yes."

Itachi thought for a moment. He really wanted to know what his foolish otouto did, among other things, but was it worth sharing a bed with Kyuubi? Evidently, because Itachi nodded.

"Then start talking."

"Well, first they hated each other. Then they became rivals. Then they were put on the same team. Then they respected each other. Then they were friends. Then they were best friends, though Sasuke didn't admit it until the first time he tried to kill Kit. Then Kit fell in love with Sasuke. Then Sasuke fell in love with Kit, but didn't admit even to himself. Then Sasuke decided to have a sexual relationship with Kit. Kit accepted because he would take what he could get from Sasuke. Then Sasuke decided to be a bastard and tell Kit that he wanted kids. Then Kit had an emotional breakdown. Then I convinced him to let me out of the seal. Then we found you."

Okay, so 'emotional breakdown' was little overboard. But Kyuubi wanted to see if Itachi felt anything about Naruto. If he got mad at Sasuke, then that would mean Itachi likes Naruto. If he blew it off and/or blamed Naruto, then Kyuubi would beat the shit out of him.

"Foolish otouto," Itachi muttered. Then, "how do you think Sasuke would take it if I went back?"

"He'd be excited. He may not show it in the right way, but he still admires you. He's done everything you told him to - except kill his best friend. And he began to refer to you as 'my brother' more often than 'that homicidal psycotic bastard'. He doesn't even call Kit that many names in one sentance."

'Homicidal psycotic bastard? I have a lot to make up for. Is it too much to ask that he'll forgot he was ever told that I killed that clan? Probably.' He was out of important questions, but wanted to get as much information out of Kyuubi as possible while the payment was still low. "Why do you call him 'Kit'?"

"I've been there for him when no one else was. I raised him, I healed him, I kept him sane, I kept him alive, I helped him in ways no one else could. I was torn between calling him 'son' and 'little brother', so I settled for 'kit'."

"Why Nii-chan? Why not Nii-san?"

"No matter how old Kit gets, he will always be immature. It's in his nature. All kitsune's are like that. Nii-san is too formal for him."

"Now that you're not in him anymore, shouldn't he have a little more self-control?"

"One, some of my chakra is still in him, which is why he still has those whisker marks. Two, he will always be a Kitsune at heart, with or without me. If you're around someone 23/7 for over 17 years, some of their quirks are going to rub off on you."

Itachi couldn't think of any more questions, so he mentally sighed and resigned himself to his fate. "Turn off the light."

Kyuubi happily did as he was told, then snuggled up next to Itachi in bed. Uchiha had to force himself to relax.

*****
---------
Naruto wished he could see Sasuke's face, but he wasn't going to argue with him about which position they had sex in. If only--- "Ah!" 'Sasuke!' "Right there."

"Mmmm." Sasuke started going harder and faster, snaking a hand around to Naruto's dick.

"Al...Almost....of fuck!...Almost there...." Naruto breathed out.

"Hn."

Naruto wanted to roll his eyes, but his orgasm was quickly approching. His mouth opened in a voiceless scream, but his mind knew excatly what he wanted. 'SASUKE!'
---------

Naruto woke up with wet boxers and cum on his hand. 'I blam Itachi for this. I haven't even thought of Sasuke like this since the day I left. Then Itachi shows up and BAM! it all comes back to me. It must be because they're so much alike. Same smooth, pale skin, feminine figure, light pink lips, dark hair, endless pools of black eyes, same... damn! Now I'm hard again.'

It was the memory of what happened that same night that prevented him from taking a cold shower.

--
"Remember, dobe. Just sex."

"Right teme. No strings attatched." A sad excuse for a smile covered Naruto's face, and he was glad Sasuke wasn't looking at him.

Said Uchiha finished putting his clothes on and jumped back out the window, to type of good bye given.

TBC

~~~~~~~~~~

I have a question. During the final Chunin exam, Naruto vs. Neji, Naruto said that he failed the graduation exam three times. But he's still 12, like the rest of the rookie 9. Why?