drought

Title: Drought.
Author: myself. Bjorkfan.
Summary: Naruto's end of the angsty love triangle.
Rating: short R, nothing too dramatic. Not as steamy as Fog.
Pairing(s): Naru/Saku. Sasu/Saku.
Feedback: Prease.
Characters: Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto.
Betas: none.
Author’s notes: Companion to Fog. I suggest you read that one first.. it'll make a -little- more sense, actually, maybe a lot more sense, because it gives you more of a background to work with, though it doesn't really answer the questions that will undoubtedly go through your head.

There really is a point to all this. Trust me.

*Disclaimer: i'm doing this for big amounts of No Money. i don't own naruto or anything related to naruto. if i make any future chapters [i'm fiddling with some ideas], this disclaimer applies to them.


Drought.
--_________________--

“We glance only out of morbid curiosity at what she's wearing as she walks home. What kind of expensive silks and sashes cling desperately to her shoulders as she makes her way back to Uzumaki's.

No one really mentions it. No one gossips.
We all sort of understand. Not the actual plot or even the reasoning behind their efforts. But we are all lonely.

We do what we can. To be happy, to make others happy.
To get some small comfort during the many hours of bloodshed we've willingly walked into.”
-------


It's like Sasuke tries to get her home on time. Right around now, she'll come in, as I'm sitting in the window seat, praying that she comes home tonight.

But I can never be one-hundred percent positive that she'll return. All the previous nights mean nothing. It's a new draw every time. It's always fifty-fifty. I can't let myself believe.

I'm used to it, I guess. The apprehension. The fear of losing her. Even though we smell her from a mile away, that mixture of scents carried to the window on the late night breeze. I still fear. She could still stop right outside the door, turn around, and go back. You never know.

I'm particularly on edge tonight. If I'm gone, will she still be here? I'll have to tell her eventually.

I'm afraid I'll see half-hidden glee in her face, when I do.

The scent leaks powerfully under the door just before she walks in. That smell of just her body, and also her sex, that deep heady scent of female arousal. With it comes the thick sensation that makes us shiver in excitement. We flinch at that last, lingering scent-

“Tadaima.”

-of him. And his essence. It makes our internal hackles rise.

It is dark in the apartment. The only light is from the stars outside coming in through this window. It contrasts greatly with the bright florescent hallway lights from outside. Her eyes don't adjust as well as ours.

Sakura grasps the walls and finds the doorway to my bedroom. She reaches for me. Wondering where I am. Why I haven't bounced up to her, hugging her gently as every night she comes home from him.

I'm worried to see the glee on her face when I tell her. The Kyuubi is fighting for control. Here she is. Is she ready enough? She smells ready enough. Fuck her already.
I wonder off-handedly if she realizes how thin she's getting, how her pale pink hair is so limp that it amplifies the fact, how that draped Uchiha kimono seems to make her wilt.

“I can feel you but not see you.”

Her fingers home in on our chakra, and she looks blindly at where she thinks my eyes should be. I quietly stand, stretching my stiff legs as I walk to her, and take her hand.

She's comforted in the habitualness of this. Of my leading her to my bathroom.

If his scent is washed away then he was never there.

But she is still confused about my behavior, I'm sure. I'll have to tell her sometime.

Tonight.

I draw the water. She gingerly steps in. she cups water in her hands, brings it, steaming, to her face. It slowly erases the last of the geisha get-up. I can see the ribs just barely too much through her back. I lightly shampoo her hair, careful not to get any in her eyes, or shove the lather in her ears. I'm almost afraid that if I scrub too hard, her hair will just fall out.

Those three dark marks peer at me through the veil of suds. I can imagine him so clearly, sitting behind me on the edge of the tub, smirking over my shoulder at his property. But he fades, as his scent cycles down the drain, and the smell of soap and artificial vanilla replaces it.


She knows something is wrong. But she won't pry. She'll let me tell her myself.


Will this kill her more or make her better?

Kyuubi comments on how she needs more sun. We can see the veins running through her abdomen, curling viciously up to her breasts, feeding the nipples. She is limp as I towel her off. I mumble something about my buying more groceries earlier today, how she's welcome to house-watch for me, if she wants.

“The Sannin?”

I nod. I stand behind her, and we both face the mirror. Her face is unreadable.

Sasuke is rubbing off on her.

“How long?”
“Forty days. Ish.”

She looks away. “A little over a month. Could be worse.”

She has goosebumps. I am nauseated. Was that hopefulness in her face? I leave the bathroom to dig for something suitable for her to wear.

Even the smallest shirt will be a dress on her. I hear her pad up behind me as I search through another drawer. She hugs me from behind, her bony hands like ice. Her breath is warm against a shoulder blade.

“I will count the days.”

Is that a good thing? Or a bad thing?

I am torn. I don't want her to be happy that I'm leaving; all the more time for Sasuke to fuck her with. But.. I don't want her to keep on doing this..

She's shriveling away to nothing.
She hugs me so tightly.

Kyuubi is practically running laps in my mind. She is submissive. She will be a good fuck. He relays images that excite me. Her clinging body beneath ours, my chest in her desperate grip.

But I'm afraid to even hold her. She might crumble in our hands. Sakura is all dried up.

All three of us are killing her.
Me- I tax her emotionally.
Kyuubi, physically.
Sasuke..

taxes everything.


“When do you leave?”
“Morning.”

She hugs me harder. A firm but weakening reminder that she is still kunoichi. Sakura kisses my spine. I fight off the idea of collapsing. She stands on tiptoe to kiss just below my ear. I exhale shakily. The sweatshirt I have picked for her drips out of my hand.

“This needs to last for a month then, ne?” she says, facing me now. Her voice, her smile, and her eyes show nothing of the fatigue and undernourishment that the rest of her body screams to me. Despite the juxtaposition, she's still beautiful. That smell of arousal now returns, peeking through clouds of soap and vanilla.

I am a different Naruto with her. If she were anyone else, I'd be Naruto the Showoff. Naruto the Proud.

With her...
I am the Desperate... the Meek, even.

Is this Sakura?

Is she like this with Sasuke? Does she take his shirt off like this, grazing lightly with short little nails? I can't picture her cradling his face in her tiny kunoichi hands, ruffling little tufts of black hair.

Maybe, that makes me a little more comforted.

But maybe, this is Sakura the Pitying.

I can never let myself believe. Though her eyes are so convincing. Kyuubi believes it. She leads us backwards to the bed, letting us fall on top of her, though I take every measure not to crush her.

He tells me to get her, to take her. Take her hard. Make her scream.

I hardly hear him. Is this what Sasuke sees? This kind smile? The aroused eyes? Is he always breathless like I am? I can't. I won't. Not tonight Fox, not tonight. She is doing this for me, but now I will do this for her.

She simply breathes, ruffling my hair as I kiss down her neck. Between her breasts I feel the life pouring from her- the warmth, the energy, that chakra reaching out to mine. There's always that recurring thought, is she like this with Him? Does she have the same reactions? Does she lace her touches with chakra like this, making everything warmer, pleasure-filled, nearly electric?

I kiss her hips and she flinches, ticklish. I nearly cry at how much I love her. How much we're killing her. She watches me patiently as I take of my pants and boxers in one motion. She doesn't look at my erection, she just smiles at me. It says “I know what's there, and I'm looking forward to it.”

It makes my toes a little numb. Though any look she could give me right now would make me that much more aroused.

Does she have to look at his and pretend she's surprised every time?

Damn. Always there, lurking in my mind. I press our bodies together, though not entering. Just skin on skin. Sweet kisses. Light nibbles. Working my way down. Why can I picture him so easily doing this with her? Why can I imagine him so vividly sitting outside my window in the tree, watching?

She gasps when I lick her there, that little nub. I glance at her. She's astonished, really. Her eyes give her away. Confusion. Somehow we've never done this before. We've always skipped the whole foreplay bit. Maybe too much desperation, who knows. She's trembling. In fear or excitement, though probably both.

I lick and suck, and continue to watch her face. Her eyes are wide and glassy. It's almost like she wants to tell me to stop. But she won't, because she's enjoying it. She's gasping, moaning, clenching her hands in the sheets, her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

Maybe this is something that Sasuke does. Something that she identifies with him, rather than me. Having me do it has wrenched her perception of us into little pieces.

Maybe I'm looking into this too much.

This is a taste I could get used to. It's not sugary liquid candy or anything, but I can live with it. She's groaning for me. Please Naruto, please. I press myself into the sheets for any sort of relief. Her thighs quiver when I insert a finger, then two.

It's kind of crazy, how such a relatively small area of the human body can receive so much stimulation, can produce so much pleasure- so much that our very minds can hardly process it all. And here, this ridiculously sensitive spot, is so swollen that my very breath makes her frantic.

She's coming. We're extremely aroused at the feeling of her insides milking my fingers. She calls my name. I wonder absently if she ever calls him Naruto by mistake. How can she keep us straight?

Now I'm certain. Sasuke is definitely in the boundaries of my perception. I'm not imagining it. Maybe he wasn't in the bathroom with us, but he is certainly nearby now. Watching. Does he get off on this? Seeing us together?

Kyuubi is furious. He is torn between his two favorite pastimes: mauling and coupulating.

Surely he's not here to write down techniques.

Sakura is totally out of it. Glowing and panting happily, but exhausted. She may be aware of Sasuke's presence outside the bedroom window, but isn't making much of it. Perhaps subconsciously chalking it up to his signature being around after an orgasm.

I'm almost amazed at my own calm, in spite of the Fox's emotional seizure.

What do I expect to see? A smirk? A challenge on his face? I glance to the window, and damn my curiosity. He's shrouded in darkness, but I can still make out the sharp, porcelain features.

He's not even looking at me.
He's staring at Sakura. Pain lightly etched on his face. Cheekbones brought into sharp relief.

Then, a hold of himself, he stares at me.
I think we both realize at the same moment that yet again we share the same face. We share the same emotion. A sort of mutual bitterness, mutual jealousy.

This feeling of unity, which initially brought us together. The same anguish echoing in our hearts.

Except this time, his is laced more with guilt. Not only did he take her from me, not only is he helping us kill her, but he knows..

He did this to himself.

I don't think he knew he loved her until it was extremely too late.
Possibly even this very moment.

“Naruto-kun...”

Sakura is shivering, half-asleep. I don't have the heart, aroused as I was moments ago, to take her this one last time before my assignment. She could really use comfort instead of a longer night of sex. Sakura is worn out. Frail.

And so is Sasuke.

Kyuubi is furious. No mauling. No fucking. I cover her in the blankets. I dress and walk to the living room to begin packing. I hear him sneak in through the window.

He knows I hear him. A sort of 'pardon my intrusion.' It's almost apologetic, his “sneaking” in. In comparison to bursting in and stealing my lover.

I walk back to my bedroom doorway. I see him, a shadow with ivory hands and face, looking down at her. Pale hand at her cheek. Like me, like her, he has the dark circles under his eyes.

He glances at me. I almost want the asshole smirk. So I can go up to him and Rasengan a hole in his chest. But this is Sasuke the Human.

He can't apologize. It wouldn't change anything.
He doesn't know how to, anyway.

I turn away from them and continue packing, stuffing in food rations and medical kits.

Strange, how less preoccupied I am, when he really is in my house as opposed to me imagining him here, haunting me.

I walk back into the bedroom to grab my hitai-ate, and Sakura is asleep, and alone. Sasuke is back in the tree, quietly shutting my window. He glances at me without fear, but without arrogance. He glances at her, human. And then he jumps down.

For a second I am one-hundred percent positive she will be here when I return from my mission. I kiss her lightly on the forehead she used to strive to hide. Her thin hair is tangled and mussed on the pillows. The blankets look too heavy for her.

The next second I am back to fifty-fifty. It is she who might not come back from the mission.


~~~

crazy-long author's ramble.

The little tidbit in the beginning with the quotes, I just stuck there. A little part in someone else's point of view, though the idea is that it's from another shinobi, and not some common villager. I imagine it's from Ten Ten, though I don't know why, or possibly Shikamaru. Maybe Ino, if you squint really hard.

Not as much smut this time. But enough to get my point across. I hope.

This is just a segment in the Fog universe, and really, it does nothing for you. Just glimpses in to, this time, Naruto's proccupied point of view. Though you don't really get cold hard facts of what he's feeling [except maybe through the Kyuubi], you get several glances at Sakura and particularly Sasuke's behavior.

Also, as for the “we” mentioned several times in this story, it refers to Naruto/Kyuubi as a unit. They have shared emotions, though Naruto does his best to confine the unit to his mind, and refers to most of his own actions and his body as “I, me, my, mine.”

I got several comments about Naruto's wussiness in Fog, and I can't really reply to them. It is, I guess, rather unspeakable. Inner torment does things to people that I can't explain. The only thing I can compare it to is somewhat like being pinched on the ear and dragged somewhere.


Now that I've bored you,

I'd like to do at least one more segment in this little thing I've created, though I myself am torn as to how far Naruto's and Sasuke's relationship should go in view to the love triangle of doom. I can't see any sort of resolution with them both loving Sakura as they are now. Unless she kicks the bucket or something.

I dunno. Questions I can't really answer. Comments I'd appreciate. Suggestions to the story would be loved. Thank you everyone for your support.

-bjorkfan