In the cold of space you find the heat of suns
folder
Naruto › Yaoi - Male/Male › Naruto/Sasuke
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
91
Views:
3,797
Reviews:
636
Recommended:
1
Currently Reading:
3
Category:
Naruto › Yaoi - Male/Male › Naruto/Sasuke
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
91
Views:
3,797
Reviews:
636
Recommended:
1
Currently Reading:
3
Disclaimer:
This story has some of Masashi Kishimoto's characters from Naruto in a universe of my own devising. I do not own Naruto. I do not make any money from these writings.
Pasts and presents
Thank you for the reviews and emails (my email is on my profile page). They inspire me to continue this story. Special mention of cynaga who left the 600th review (and the 1st).
Apologies if the characters have grown differently in their new environment.
Spacer crews travel the Far Borders and the Fringe of occupied space, trading. Spacing is an ancient and honourable profession carved out by millenniums. Most spacers start out as fourteen-year-old boys seeking a future. Few survive a decade spacing.
88. Pasts and presents
Sasuke sat in the small meeting room in the public side of the household. Naruto stood behind him as bodyguard, resplendent in his tags. Kakashi stood at one side of the room. To Sasuke’s left sat Neji and Haku. To his right sat Shikamaru and Jiraiya.
He disliked the Centralite Therapist intensely. Citizen Scientist Oyone displayed a deep-seated arrogance that spoke of absolute belief in his own superiority and, unlike in an Uchiha, it was not balanced by flair or ferocity.
“It is all in my report, Uchiha-san,” he said, looking down his nose.
“I am paying you to answer my questions,” Sasuke reminded him. “If you were in Centre, would you be declaring him insane and a danger to others?”
Citizen Scientist Oyone sniffed. “No, there is no sign of homicidal intent and his homicidal tendencies are well within the normal range. However...”
Sasuke moved as if to stand. “That is all I require. I am sure the rest is in your report.”
“Sasuke-sama,” Haku interjected. “I have a question for Oyone-san.”
Sasuke settled back into his seat. “Please feel free, Haku-san. I am sure Oyone-san will answer your question to the best of his ability.
“In your opinion, will his memory return?” Haku asked.
“In my opinion? No,” he answered. “Too many cells were lost; the connections that made the memories have gone. He is very lucky that the memories he has retained are about his childhood and his life as an adolescent. This had allowed him to preserve most of his identity. It also helps that he has people who knew him at those times around him, strengthening those memories.” He looked as if he had been on the point of saying something else but glanced at Sasuke and desisted.
“Please finish what you were about to say, Citizen Scientist,” Sasuke requested.
The Therapist bowed slightly. “I was going to say that it is also helpful that other memories he retains are not being reinforced and strengthened.”
Jiraiya offered to walk the Centralite out. Haku, Neji and Shikamaru left. Kakaski went as if to follow but turned on the threshold.
“Get rid of the desk, Sasuke,” he said. “You heard what he said. Unless you can promise me that Itachi will never go into your office, get rid of the desk.”
Then he was gone. Sasuke glanced up at Naruto, who had said nothing. He sighed.
“I’ll ask Shino and Shikamaru to download all the data for transfer to another shell,” he conceded.
“Then we can chop it up?” Naruto asked.
Sasuke scowled at him. “I was going to put it into storage. For prosperity. Naruto, it was Izuna Uchiha’s desk.”
Naruto yielded. “Make sure it is boxed and put warnings on it so that no one can come on it unawares,” he insisted.
Sasuke stood up, reached up and kissed him. “It is a desk, dobe, not some evil demon.”
“Tell Itachi and Kakashi that,” Naruto replied.
Sasuke had not expected the Hyuga to contact him so soon. Neither did he expect to be offered a pre-paid, life-long contract for the service of the Hyuga known as Neji.
Shikamaru finished reading the contract and set the tablet aside. “Please do not take it,” he said.
Sasuke frowned at him. “Why not? Because Klennethon Darrent must be paying for it?”
“No, because it is recognising that Neji is a Hyuga. It means that, if you die, he has to go back to them.” He began searching through the sub-clauses and proffered the tablet to Sasuke. “And here is a list of all the circumstances in which they could replace Neji with another Hyuga.”
Sasuke read it. His frown deepened to a scowl. “He’s already broken four or five of these rules. Is it a trick? And if it is, is it Klennethon Darrent or the Hyuga playing it?”
Shikamaru shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll check but I think this is a standard Hyuga contract.”
“Klennethon Darrent then,” Sasuke decided.
“Are you going to tell Neji?” Shikamaru asked.
“No,” Sasuke replied. “Why upset him? I will return the contract unratified with a message that the person called Neji sworn to Uchiha is not a Hyuga. I shall be very polite.”
Naruto wished he and Sasuke could go to the market as Sasuke had suggested but Shi-chan had shown them the amount of credit it would cost to arrange the necessary security. On reflection, he realised that he had most of what he wanted for the nursery. The exception was fabric and there were swatches for him to look through. He smiled; he could always contact the nice man at the Hunundau store.
He and Kiba had reviewed all the records from when the babies and the kits were in their shells. They decided that, provided they were played Naruto’s heartbeat, there was no evidence that being in the shells distressed them.
Deciding the babies and the kits could be shelled liberated them to convert the two nurseries into one. They sat in the large kitchen and created their plan while Choza plied them with tea and snacks. Many of the previous discussions about the bigger nursery proved relevant and much equipment they had ordered could be used.
The new plans were displayed in the kitchen for checking. Orders were placed and deliveries received. Once they had everything they needed for the structural work, they put the babies and kits in their shells and began.
Sasuke read the communication and frowned. He had already refused to see the Hyuga’s agent and even a Hyuga representative. Turning away Neji’s cousin was another matter.
Shino was busy wiring the nursery. They would be alone in the laboratory. It would be better for him to go to them.
“You have returned a contract and refused to see their agent,” Neji echoed faintly.
“And a Hyuga representative,” Sasuke confirmed.
Neji turned to Shikamaru. “You knew?” he asked.
Shikamaru shrugged. “I was ordered not to tell you.”
“This is different,” Sasuke admitted. “I thought you might want to see her. She signed the request in her own name. I recognised it,” he added.
“Hinata,” Neji whispered.
“Sasuke could turn down the official request but you could invite her to an informal meeting,” Shikamaru suggested. “If she really wants to see you she will accept.”
Naruto and Kiba had been working on the structure of the nursery while Shino and Konohamaru did the wiring. By the time they broke for the midday meal they had made excellent progress.
“In my family,” Shino told everyone around the table, “we have many traditions that have grown up around a baby’s birth. For example, there is always a tree planted in the garden. And the father gives the mother a piece of jewellery.”
“We haven’t got a garden and there isn’t a mother,” Anko reminded him.
Shino shrugged. “This is a different family. We will have different traditions. Like the birth anniversary parties in the boss’s office. Are you really going to decant them all on the same day?”
Naruto nodded. “No way are we going to make a choice.”
“Imagine always having to share your birth anniversary day with eight others,” Konohamaru commented.
Sasuke was quick to see Naruto’s anxious reaction. “Each of them can have another date as well,” he insisted. “We’ll spread them out. One a div except for the div they were born.”
“My mother sent a gift for you and Naruto, another for Kotetsu and Izumo and a small thing for each of the children,” Shino told them. “Will there be a gift-giving occasion?”
“We are not expecting gifts,” Sasuke replied.
“We were planning it for the day before the decanting,” Iruka told him.
Sasuke was about to tell them that there was no need for such an occasion when he saw Naruto’s delight and stayed silent.
“Is everything well, Sasuke-sama?” Neji’s voice asked.
Sasuke startled. He was in a meeting with Neji, Shikamaru and Kakashi discussing the priorities for the next div; the matters that they would have to manage while he concentrated on Naruto and the children.
“I shall have to think of a gift for Naruto,” he admitted.
“I am sure that is not necessary,” Neji assured him. “The gift-giving is traditionally to the parents and their children.”
Sasuke thought about it. “I want to. Only I want it to be something he will really like, not merely a token.”
“I am working on music that he and the kits will like,” Shikamaru told them. “Without all the nasty high notes and harmonics that they can hear and we can’t. Then they can have toys that play tunes and things that go squeak.”
It was a wonderful idea. Sasuke wished it had been his.
Kakashi shrugged. “Iruka will think of something,” he said carelessly.
“Is there a problem that is bothering him about caring for the babies and the kits?” Neji asked.
Sasuke considered. Naruto was in an almost constant state of agitation. The only time he was not bothered was when Sasuke fucked him and he was fluffy-soft-Naruto. Then he remembered a discussion he had heard between Naruto and Kiba.
“Feeding them. Kiba says we will have to feed the kits using an automated feeder because it’ll take too long to bottle feed each one separately. The only alternative is to have nine people there, which is far too many. He says the kits will manage to find the teats and suckle without help but Kurenai says the babes will need to be held and encouraged to feed. Naruto imagines us spending all our time feeding the babies while the kits are left feeding themselves in some contraption in the corner.”
Shikamaru nodded. “He’d hate that,” he confirmed. “You had any ideas, Sasuke?”
Sasuke felt himself flushing. “I wondered about making the feeder less impersonal.” He took the plunge. If it was ever to be more than an idea he would require help. “Maybe something Naruto could wear.”
Shikamaru grinned. “Make Naruto into a mama fox.”
Kakashi choked on his tea and Neji’s eyes widened.
“Or you,” Shikamaru added.
Sasuke refused to rise. It was true, if they created such a gadget, he would doubtlessly end up wearing it.
“We’ll need Kiba’s help,” Shikamaru continued. “Have you got the specs for the milk synthesiser and the automated feeder?” He thought for a moment. “You can do the sewing.”
Sasuke had not thought about it as a garment. The idea of sewing it himself pleased him.
Neji was not convinced about any of it. He was not sure about seeing Hinata. He was anxious about Shikamaru being there but could not contemplate excluding him. He did not know why he had agreed to Shikamaru’s suggestion that they ask Haku to host tea.
They were using one of the guest apartments in the public section of the household. He and Shikamaru were wearing their outfits from the Hunundau store. Haku was wearing his third best kimono.
Hinata was neatly dressed in beautifully cut but plain and conservative clothes; exactly what one would expect from a Hyuga who was off planet.
She looked nothing like the child he remembered.
They exchanged the most formal of greetings. Then Neji moved onto the more delicate subject of introductions.
“Hinata-san, these are two members of my family. This is Shikamaru-san, my lover, and Haku-san, who is a dear friend. Shika, Haku-san, this is Hinata who was my cousin when I was a child.”
Hinata blinked but otherwise gave nothing away. She bowed to each of them in turn. “Shikamaru-san, Haku-san,” she acknowledged and took the zabuton Haku indicated.
“Haku-san has offered to serve tea,” Neji told her.
“I am honoured,” she replied. “I am not certain I would have recognised you, Neji-san,” she admitted.
It was a better start than he had feared. “Nor me you, Hinata-san. It had been so many standards. May I ask why you have sought me out?” he asked.
“Because the elders told me to,” Hinata admitted. “But also because I wanted to see you. You say this is your family?”
Neji decided to get it out the way. “They are all dead, Hinata. Even the child. The last of them died almost ten standards ago.”
Hinata flinched but rallied. “You could have come home, Neji. It was never your choice to leave. You had done nothing wrong.”
“I do not want to return to Hyuga,” Neji replied. “This is my home. I have a family. I am sworn to Uchiha, not Hyuga. This is what I want.”
“It would be easier if you served someone less prominent,” Hinata admitted. “Or even if you looked less like a Hyuga.”
Neji shrugged. “This is how it is. Tea?”
Shikamaru watched her; this woman who looked so like Neji that it was scary. He guessed that, for a Hyuga, she was letting her guard down and behaving with outrageous familiarity. By spacer standards it was stiff and formal and so controlled that it was almost rude.
It put Neji’s behaviour in perspective.
“...Shikamaru-san?” Hinata was asking.
Shikamaru looked to Neji for help.
“Please excuse Shikamaru-san, Hinata, he is irredeemably dreamy. Hinata-san was asking when you joined Uchiha,” Neji informed him.
“Kakashi-san picked me out when I was applying for a position as cat,” Shikamaru told her. “Formally, I joined Uchiha as soon as Sasuke started taking new recruits. That was not long before Neji joined us.”
“And you, Haku-san?” she asked.
“It is complicated,” Haku replied.
She let it rest at that.
When she left she asked, with surprising directness, for Shikamaru to walk her out.
“I can see how damaged he is,” she said, bluntly, once they were out of earshot.
“It is much better now than it was when we met him,” Shikamaru admitted. “He will never go back to Hyuga,” he told her. “He blames Hyuga for what happened to his grandmother, mother and sister and, indirectly, for what happened to him once there was no one left to protect him.”
She stopped, waited for him to turn towards her and fixed him with Neji’s eyes. “He must never admit to being a Hyuga. At best, the elders would have him back on Hyuga in a trice, pronounce him flawed and bury him in some institution where none of you would ever find him. It is even more likely that they would kill him. I will tell them that he shows signs of little training beyond that he received as a child.” She held up a hand. “Do not tell me otherwise. Our laws are unconscionable. What they would have done to his mother was monstrous. I will do what I can to protect him. I leave him in your hands, Shikamaru-san.”
“What did she say to you, Shika?” Neji asked as they undressed for bed.
Shikamaru told him. He wanted to ask what the elders had threatened to do but he did not want to raise any more unpleasant memories than had already been stirred by Hinata’s visit.
“I know you want to ask,” Neji admitted. “My mother was working off planet. She was raped by a non-Hyuga.” He sighed. “Sharing sex with a non-Hyuga is a capital offense. Rape is considered mitigating circumstances only if the Hyuga reports immediately for decontamination, which includes aborting any resulting foetus. After decontamination, the raped Hyuga is allowed to live. He or she must remain on planet and can only fulfil a menial role. She did not report it. Once she realised she was pregnant we ran.”
Shikamaru found himself looking at the ring on his heart finger. “Your father?” he asked.
“Already dead,” Neji replied. “I like to think he would have come with us if he had been alive. I have fond memories of him.”
Shikamaru found himself, not for the first time, appreciating the boringly civilised planet on which he had been raised.
Itachi told himself that it did not matter that Haku had told him what the Therapist had said. He knew that Sasuke was busy.
It was a relief that the memories were not returning.
Then, casually at breakfast, on the morning of the gift-giving day, Sasuke asked him to come to his office.
It was a relief that it was not his father’s office but there was no escaping the fact that the desk would be there. Kisame had warned him. Kakashi had mentioned it. Even Asuma had found a clever way of working the information into a conversation. Until that morning, Sasuke had scrupulously avoided asking Itachi to come there.
It was not his father’s desk. It was Izuna Uchiha’s desk. It was now Sasuke’s desk.
It was not there. Instead there was the most ordinary of desks, such that would have been found in any of the Uchiha offices. There were thick rugs on the floor, the sinfully erotic image of Naruto on the wall, Keitaro’s painting and the complete absence of Fugaku’s desk.
Sasuke gestured that he should take one of the comfortable chairs and vanished into an alcove at the side of the room. When he emerged he was carrying a tea tray. He placed it on the low table and settled into the chair opposite.
Itachi sipped his tea. “You have stopped using it,” he observed. “Thank you.”
Sasuke flushed slightly. “I confess I still wanted to use it. It is Izuna Uchiha’s desk. I wanted to rehabilitate it. Kakashi told me to get rid of it. Rehabilitating you is more important. Rehabilitating the desk can wait a couple of generations.”
Itachi knew Kakashi would not be sorry to see the desk go. Until Obito had claimed him, Kakashi had been Fugaku’s favourite victim.
“Twin male Uchihas,” Itachi noted. “I wonder who will lead Uchiha after you.”
“There will not be an heir,” Sasuke told him. “And I have eight sons, not two, as well as a daughter. The next leader of Uchiha will be any of them or their children or their children’s children. Whoever is best suited when the time comes.”
“The idea of an heir was introduced to stop candidates fighting over the succession,” Itachi reminded him.
Sasuke shrugged. “They can reintroduce the concept once I am dead,” he stated.
Itachi liked that. He liked many aspects of Sasuke’s brand of Uchiha, particularly his implacable determination to make the unlikely real.
It was comforting to be one of his projects.
“Now that the Centralite has done his job and gone, I would like you to do more,” Sasuke told him. “I am going to be very busy with Naruto and the children. Kakashi will be asking you to take a lead in some projects. He speaks with my voice.”
Itachi bowed. “I am honoured, Sasuke-sama.”
“Good,” Sasuke acknowledged. “And how are you feeling?”
Itachi considered. “Much better,” he admitted. “It is a relief that the Centralite did not think the memories would return.” He hesitated but pushed on. “Haku is a very remarkable person. He makes Kisame happy and I am blessed that he has chosen to give me another chance.”
“Haku is Haku,” Sasuke agreed. “Being with you also makes Kisame happy.”
Itachi considered. “I know.” He lifted his chin. “Kisame is the most important person in my life.”
Sasuke stopped himself smiling. Of course Kisame was Itachi’s most important person. He could remember how Itachi had changed when the two of them had met. The difference was that Itachi could admit it. How ironic that it was only when Kisame could no longer wear the plaque that the Companion should be openly Beloved.
“I have always been very fond of Kisame,” Sasuke reminded him. “I am expecting him to sit on the floor and allow my children to climb all over him as I did.”
“I cannot see him having a problem with that,” Itachi admitted. “At least once they are a bit older. He is a bit wary of babies.” He shook his head. “Nine, Sasuke. Six like Naruto and three like you. Imagine.”
Sasuke did and smiled.
Apologies if the characters have grown differently in their new environment.
Spacer crews travel the Far Borders and the Fringe of occupied space, trading. Spacing is an ancient and honourable profession carved out by millenniums. Most spacers start out as fourteen-year-old boys seeking a future. Few survive a decade spacing.
88. Pasts and presents
Sasuke sat in the small meeting room in the public side of the household. Naruto stood behind him as bodyguard, resplendent in his tags. Kakashi stood at one side of the room. To Sasuke’s left sat Neji and Haku. To his right sat Shikamaru and Jiraiya.
He disliked the Centralite Therapist intensely. Citizen Scientist Oyone displayed a deep-seated arrogance that spoke of absolute belief in his own superiority and, unlike in an Uchiha, it was not balanced by flair or ferocity.
“It is all in my report, Uchiha-san,” he said, looking down his nose.
“I am paying you to answer my questions,” Sasuke reminded him. “If you were in Centre, would you be declaring him insane and a danger to others?”
Citizen Scientist Oyone sniffed. “No, there is no sign of homicidal intent and his homicidal tendencies are well within the normal range. However...”
Sasuke moved as if to stand. “That is all I require. I am sure the rest is in your report.”
“Sasuke-sama,” Haku interjected. “I have a question for Oyone-san.”
Sasuke settled back into his seat. “Please feel free, Haku-san. I am sure Oyone-san will answer your question to the best of his ability.
“In your opinion, will his memory return?” Haku asked.
“In my opinion? No,” he answered. “Too many cells were lost; the connections that made the memories have gone. He is very lucky that the memories he has retained are about his childhood and his life as an adolescent. This had allowed him to preserve most of his identity. It also helps that he has people who knew him at those times around him, strengthening those memories.” He looked as if he had been on the point of saying something else but glanced at Sasuke and desisted.
“Please finish what you were about to say, Citizen Scientist,” Sasuke requested.
The Therapist bowed slightly. “I was going to say that it is also helpful that other memories he retains are not being reinforced and strengthened.”
Jiraiya offered to walk the Centralite out. Haku, Neji and Shikamaru left. Kakaski went as if to follow but turned on the threshold.
“Get rid of the desk, Sasuke,” he said. “You heard what he said. Unless you can promise me that Itachi will never go into your office, get rid of the desk.”
Then he was gone. Sasuke glanced up at Naruto, who had said nothing. He sighed.
“I’ll ask Shino and Shikamaru to download all the data for transfer to another shell,” he conceded.
“Then we can chop it up?” Naruto asked.
Sasuke scowled at him. “I was going to put it into storage. For prosperity. Naruto, it was Izuna Uchiha’s desk.”
Naruto yielded. “Make sure it is boxed and put warnings on it so that no one can come on it unawares,” he insisted.
Sasuke stood up, reached up and kissed him. “It is a desk, dobe, not some evil demon.”
“Tell Itachi and Kakashi that,” Naruto replied.
Sasuke had not expected the Hyuga to contact him so soon. Neither did he expect to be offered a pre-paid, life-long contract for the service of the Hyuga known as Neji.
Shikamaru finished reading the contract and set the tablet aside. “Please do not take it,” he said.
Sasuke frowned at him. “Why not? Because Klennethon Darrent must be paying for it?”
“No, because it is recognising that Neji is a Hyuga. It means that, if you die, he has to go back to them.” He began searching through the sub-clauses and proffered the tablet to Sasuke. “And here is a list of all the circumstances in which they could replace Neji with another Hyuga.”
Sasuke read it. His frown deepened to a scowl. “He’s already broken four or five of these rules. Is it a trick? And if it is, is it Klennethon Darrent or the Hyuga playing it?”
Shikamaru shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll check but I think this is a standard Hyuga contract.”
“Klennethon Darrent then,” Sasuke decided.
“Are you going to tell Neji?” Shikamaru asked.
“No,” Sasuke replied. “Why upset him? I will return the contract unratified with a message that the person called Neji sworn to Uchiha is not a Hyuga. I shall be very polite.”
Naruto wished he and Sasuke could go to the market as Sasuke had suggested but Shi-chan had shown them the amount of credit it would cost to arrange the necessary security. On reflection, he realised that he had most of what he wanted for the nursery. The exception was fabric and there were swatches for him to look through. He smiled; he could always contact the nice man at the Hunundau store.
He and Kiba had reviewed all the records from when the babies and the kits were in their shells. They decided that, provided they were played Naruto’s heartbeat, there was no evidence that being in the shells distressed them.
Deciding the babies and the kits could be shelled liberated them to convert the two nurseries into one. They sat in the large kitchen and created their plan while Choza plied them with tea and snacks. Many of the previous discussions about the bigger nursery proved relevant and much equipment they had ordered could be used.
The new plans were displayed in the kitchen for checking. Orders were placed and deliveries received. Once they had everything they needed for the structural work, they put the babies and kits in their shells and began.
Sasuke read the communication and frowned. He had already refused to see the Hyuga’s agent and even a Hyuga representative. Turning away Neji’s cousin was another matter.
Shino was busy wiring the nursery. They would be alone in the laboratory. It would be better for him to go to them.
“You have returned a contract and refused to see their agent,” Neji echoed faintly.
“And a Hyuga representative,” Sasuke confirmed.
Neji turned to Shikamaru. “You knew?” he asked.
Shikamaru shrugged. “I was ordered not to tell you.”
“This is different,” Sasuke admitted. “I thought you might want to see her. She signed the request in her own name. I recognised it,” he added.
“Hinata,” Neji whispered.
“Sasuke could turn down the official request but you could invite her to an informal meeting,” Shikamaru suggested. “If she really wants to see you she will accept.”
Naruto and Kiba had been working on the structure of the nursery while Shino and Konohamaru did the wiring. By the time they broke for the midday meal they had made excellent progress.
“In my family,” Shino told everyone around the table, “we have many traditions that have grown up around a baby’s birth. For example, there is always a tree planted in the garden. And the father gives the mother a piece of jewellery.”
“We haven’t got a garden and there isn’t a mother,” Anko reminded him.
Shino shrugged. “This is a different family. We will have different traditions. Like the birth anniversary parties in the boss’s office. Are you really going to decant them all on the same day?”
Naruto nodded. “No way are we going to make a choice.”
“Imagine always having to share your birth anniversary day with eight others,” Konohamaru commented.
Sasuke was quick to see Naruto’s anxious reaction. “Each of them can have another date as well,” he insisted. “We’ll spread them out. One a div except for the div they were born.”
“My mother sent a gift for you and Naruto, another for Kotetsu and Izumo and a small thing for each of the children,” Shino told them. “Will there be a gift-giving occasion?”
“We are not expecting gifts,” Sasuke replied.
“We were planning it for the day before the decanting,” Iruka told him.
Sasuke was about to tell them that there was no need for such an occasion when he saw Naruto’s delight and stayed silent.
“Is everything well, Sasuke-sama?” Neji’s voice asked.
Sasuke startled. He was in a meeting with Neji, Shikamaru and Kakashi discussing the priorities for the next div; the matters that they would have to manage while he concentrated on Naruto and the children.
“I shall have to think of a gift for Naruto,” he admitted.
“I am sure that is not necessary,” Neji assured him. “The gift-giving is traditionally to the parents and their children.”
Sasuke thought about it. “I want to. Only I want it to be something he will really like, not merely a token.”
“I am working on music that he and the kits will like,” Shikamaru told them. “Without all the nasty high notes and harmonics that they can hear and we can’t. Then they can have toys that play tunes and things that go squeak.”
It was a wonderful idea. Sasuke wished it had been his.
Kakashi shrugged. “Iruka will think of something,” he said carelessly.
“Is there a problem that is bothering him about caring for the babies and the kits?” Neji asked.
Sasuke considered. Naruto was in an almost constant state of agitation. The only time he was not bothered was when Sasuke fucked him and he was fluffy-soft-Naruto. Then he remembered a discussion he had heard between Naruto and Kiba.
“Feeding them. Kiba says we will have to feed the kits using an automated feeder because it’ll take too long to bottle feed each one separately. The only alternative is to have nine people there, which is far too many. He says the kits will manage to find the teats and suckle without help but Kurenai says the babes will need to be held and encouraged to feed. Naruto imagines us spending all our time feeding the babies while the kits are left feeding themselves in some contraption in the corner.”
Shikamaru nodded. “He’d hate that,” he confirmed. “You had any ideas, Sasuke?”
Sasuke felt himself flushing. “I wondered about making the feeder less impersonal.” He took the plunge. If it was ever to be more than an idea he would require help. “Maybe something Naruto could wear.”
Shikamaru grinned. “Make Naruto into a mama fox.”
Kakashi choked on his tea and Neji’s eyes widened.
“Or you,” Shikamaru added.
Sasuke refused to rise. It was true, if they created such a gadget, he would doubtlessly end up wearing it.
“We’ll need Kiba’s help,” Shikamaru continued. “Have you got the specs for the milk synthesiser and the automated feeder?” He thought for a moment. “You can do the sewing.”
Sasuke had not thought about it as a garment. The idea of sewing it himself pleased him.
Neji was not convinced about any of it. He was not sure about seeing Hinata. He was anxious about Shikamaru being there but could not contemplate excluding him. He did not know why he had agreed to Shikamaru’s suggestion that they ask Haku to host tea.
They were using one of the guest apartments in the public section of the household. He and Shikamaru were wearing their outfits from the Hunundau store. Haku was wearing his third best kimono.
Hinata was neatly dressed in beautifully cut but plain and conservative clothes; exactly what one would expect from a Hyuga who was off planet.
She looked nothing like the child he remembered.
They exchanged the most formal of greetings. Then Neji moved onto the more delicate subject of introductions.
“Hinata-san, these are two members of my family. This is Shikamaru-san, my lover, and Haku-san, who is a dear friend. Shika, Haku-san, this is Hinata who was my cousin when I was a child.”
Hinata blinked but otherwise gave nothing away. She bowed to each of them in turn. “Shikamaru-san, Haku-san,” she acknowledged and took the zabuton Haku indicated.
“Haku-san has offered to serve tea,” Neji told her.
“I am honoured,” she replied. “I am not certain I would have recognised you, Neji-san,” she admitted.
It was a better start than he had feared. “Nor me you, Hinata-san. It had been so many standards. May I ask why you have sought me out?” he asked.
“Because the elders told me to,” Hinata admitted. “But also because I wanted to see you. You say this is your family?”
Neji decided to get it out the way. “They are all dead, Hinata. Even the child. The last of them died almost ten standards ago.”
Hinata flinched but rallied. “You could have come home, Neji. It was never your choice to leave. You had done nothing wrong.”
“I do not want to return to Hyuga,” Neji replied. “This is my home. I have a family. I am sworn to Uchiha, not Hyuga. This is what I want.”
“It would be easier if you served someone less prominent,” Hinata admitted. “Or even if you looked less like a Hyuga.”
Neji shrugged. “This is how it is. Tea?”
Shikamaru watched her; this woman who looked so like Neji that it was scary. He guessed that, for a Hyuga, she was letting her guard down and behaving with outrageous familiarity. By spacer standards it was stiff and formal and so controlled that it was almost rude.
It put Neji’s behaviour in perspective.
“...Shikamaru-san?” Hinata was asking.
Shikamaru looked to Neji for help.
“Please excuse Shikamaru-san, Hinata, he is irredeemably dreamy. Hinata-san was asking when you joined Uchiha,” Neji informed him.
“Kakashi-san picked me out when I was applying for a position as cat,” Shikamaru told her. “Formally, I joined Uchiha as soon as Sasuke started taking new recruits. That was not long before Neji joined us.”
“And you, Haku-san?” she asked.
“It is complicated,” Haku replied.
She let it rest at that.
When she left she asked, with surprising directness, for Shikamaru to walk her out.
“I can see how damaged he is,” she said, bluntly, once they were out of earshot.
“It is much better now than it was when we met him,” Shikamaru admitted. “He will never go back to Hyuga,” he told her. “He blames Hyuga for what happened to his grandmother, mother and sister and, indirectly, for what happened to him once there was no one left to protect him.”
She stopped, waited for him to turn towards her and fixed him with Neji’s eyes. “He must never admit to being a Hyuga. At best, the elders would have him back on Hyuga in a trice, pronounce him flawed and bury him in some institution where none of you would ever find him. It is even more likely that they would kill him. I will tell them that he shows signs of little training beyond that he received as a child.” She held up a hand. “Do not tell me otherwise. Our laws are unconscionable. What they would have done to his mother was monstrous. I will do what I can to protect him. I leave him in your hands, Shikamaru-san.”
“What did she say to you, Shika?” Neji asked as they undressed for bed.
Shikamaru told him. He wanted to ask what the elders had threatened to do but he did not want to raise any more unpleasant memories than had already been stirred by Hinata’s visit.
“I know you want to ask,” Neji admitted. “My mother was working off planet. She was raped by a non-Hyuga.” He sighed. “Sharing sex with a non-Hyuga is a capital offense. Rape is considered mitigating circumstances only if the Hyuga reports immediately for decontamination, which includes aborting any resulting foetus. After decontamination, the raped Hyuga is allowed to live. He or she must remain on planet and can only fulfil a menial role. She did not report it. Once she realised she was pregnant we ran.”
Shikamaru found himself looking at the ring on his heart finger. “Your father?” he asked.
“Already dead,” Neji replied. “I like to think he would have come with us if he had been alive. I have fond memories of him.”
Shikamaru found himself, not for the first time, appreciating the boringly civilised planet on which he had been raised.
Itachi told himself that it did not matter that Haku had told him what the Therapist had said. He knew that Sasuke was busy.
It was a relief that the memories were not returning.
Then, casually at breakfast, on the morning of the gift-giving day, Sasuke asked him to come to his office.
It was a relief that it was not his father’s office but there was no escaping the fact that the desk would be there. Kisame had warned him. Kakashi had mentioned it. Even Asuma had found a clever way of working the information into a conversation. Until that morning, Sasuke had scrupulously avoided asking Itachi to come there.
It was not his father’s desk. It was Izuna Uchiha’s desk. It was now Sasuke’s desk.
It was not there. Instead there was the most ordinary of desks, such that would have been found in any of the Uchiha offices. There were thick rugs on the floor, the sinfully erotic image of Naruto on the wall, Keitaro’s painting and the complete absence of Fugaku’s desk.
Sasuke gestured that he should take one of the comfortable chairs and vanished into an alcove at the side of the room. When he emerged he was carrying a tea tray. He placed it on the low table and settled into the chair opposite.
Itachi sipped his tea. “You have stopped using it,” he observed. “Thank you.”
Sasuke flushed slightly. “I confess I still wanted to use it. It is Izuna Uchiha’s desk. I wanted to rehabilitate it. Kakashi told me to get rid of it. Rehabilitating you is more important. Rehabilitating the desk can wait a couple of generations.”
Itachi knew Kakashi would not be sorry to see the desk go. Until Obito had claimed him, Kakashi had been Fugaku’s favourite victim.
“Twin male Uchihas,” Itachi noted. “I wonder who will lead Uchiha after you.”
“There will not be an heir,” Sasuke told him. “And I have eight sons, not two, as well as a daughter. The next leader of Uchiha will be any of them or their children or their children’s children. Whoever is best suited when the time comes.”
“The idea of an heir was introduced to stop candidates fighting over the succession,” Itachi reminded him.
Sasuke shrugged. “They can reintroduce the concept once I am dead,” he stated.
Itachi liked that. He liked many aspects of Sasuke’s brand of Uchiha, particularly his implacable determination to make the unlikely real.
It was comforting to be one of his projects.
“Now that the Centralite has done his job and gone, I would like you to do more,” Sasuke told him. “I am going to be very busy with Naruto and the children. Kakashi will be asking you to take a lead in some projects. He speaks with my voice.”
Itachi bowed. “I am honoured, Sasuke-sama.”
“Good,” Sasuke acknowledged. “And how are you feeling?”
Itachi considered. “Much better,” he admitted. “It is a relief that the Centralite did not think the memories would return.” He hesitated but pushed on. “Haku is a very remarkable person. He makes Kisame happy and I am blessed that he has chosen to give me another chance.”
“Haku is Haku,” Sasuke agreed. “Being with you also makes Kisame happy.”
Itachi considered. “I know.” He lifted his chin. “Kisame is the most important person in my life.”
Sasuke stopped himself smiling. Of course Kisame was Itachi’s most important person. He could remember how Itachi had changed when the two of them had met. The difference was that Itachi could admit it. How ironic that it was only when Kisame could no longer wear the plaque that the Companion should be openly Beloved.
“I have always been very fond of Kisame,” Sasuke reminded him. “I am expecting him to sit on the floor and allow my children to climb all over him as I did.”
“I cannot see him having a problem with that,” Itachi admitted. “At least once they are a bit older. He is a bit wary of babies.” He shook his head. “Nine, Sasuke. Six like Naruto and three like you. Imagine.”
Sasuke did and smiled.