Disclaimer: I asked him, pretending to be a beggar, “Would you like to give me Naruto?” and he kicked me in the face. Then I cried my little heart out, and went into the shadows, waiting for the time to strike once again! *insert evil laugh here*
Chapter Two
It was ten in the morning when the blond woke up again. Though he was still an emotional wreak, he put on his sunny smile as he exited his room to greet the others. He walked down the hall until he hit the kitchen full of busy bodies either sitting at the table or helping out in the kitchen.
He watched his friends fondly as they joked with each other.
There was Gaara -who had been found raped and unconscious on the street close to the door-, Sakura -who had been ready to commit suicide when she learned that her baby was a miscarriage-, Kiba -a runaway from home because of mistreatment and who carried around a small puppy named Akumaru he found on the streets, Tenmari -Gaara’s sister who had a job and helped them pay the bills-, and Iruka -the landlord who came to visit practically every morning before going about with his chores.
Iruka had been nice enough to give them a place to stay, not to mention that it was big enough for at least a few more people. He couldn’t have been more grateful to the father-like figure had he tried. Iruka had found him malnourished on the streets with Sakura and had taken them in, and had given them a place to live. He gave them the biggest place so they could pick more strays up off of the streets. A few months later Kiba had joined them in the ranks.
Naruto watched absentmindedly as Iruka waved to all of them before exiting the small flat.
“Oi~! Naruto!”
Naruto was snapped back to reality as he realized that Kiba was invading his personal space. He slapped Kiba hard in the face with a playful, “Yaaaa! Kiba-kunnn, I didn’t know you liked me that way!”
“You are such an ass, Uzumaki.” Kiba grumbled as he rubbed the red hand print on his face. Naruto smirked.
“Anyway… What did you want to talk about?”
“You know that guy that you talked about a while ago? Sastoo, or something like that, was on the TV yesterday.” Naruto blinked.
“What are you talking about? There’s no way he was on TV.” Kiba nodded sagely.
“Yeah. Apparently he’s one of the youngest corporation owners. He took over the Uchiha Co. after the death of his parents and the mysterious disappearance of his brother a few years ago.” Naruto’s brow furrowed.
“I don’t remember that…” he murmured to himself, blue eyes thoughtful and trained on the TV, visible from his chair.
He snapped from his trance when he realized that his friends were staring at him. He eye twitched with annoyance.
“Does anyone wanna tell me what’s so interesting on my face?!” The averted eyes from his friends were the only reactions he got and he narrowed his eyes. The tension in the room was broken when Akumaru, Kiba’s dog, barked at Gaara.
Gaara twitched his eyebrows into a frown before smoothing his face over once more. Naruto smiled slyly.
“Oh? Gaara, do you have something to tell us?” There was an affirmative bark from Akumaru, and Gaara sent a scowl and a blush at the dog for ratting him out. He never was one to like those stupid pests. Man’s best friend… pfft. Man’s best vermin was more like it.
Everyone watched as Gaara looked at them with apprehension.
“I…I met someone yesterday.”
The comment made others blink but Naruto looked at his friend, at his teal eyes, and knew instantly what had happened.
“Your customer?” The question was asked softly. Naruto’s eyes were dead serious. Gaara knew that there were unwritten rules, including to never fall in love with a customer. The rule helped keep the…sellers…less hurt than they already were.
Gaara immediately threw his stoic counterpart to the wind and hastily explained to his blond friend what had happened.
“No! I mean, yes but… We didn’t…” He took a breath to calm himself before explaining. “I was waiting by the post like I usually did, and this nice car comes by before stopping in front of me. I did what I usually did. I walked over to the car and waited until his window was down. This gorgeous guy was inside, looking like he was confused as to why he was there. I asked him if he knew what I was and he replied with a yes, and requested me to get in the car. Then he took me to his house.”
Kiba looked at Gaara with disbelief coloring his eyes. Customers NEVER brought them to their houses. Even the sadistic ones rented hotels and other places where they could torture them. A quick look at Sakura showed the same thing. Naruto’s face wasn’t readable, looking at Gaara with sharp eyes and a blank face. Waiting, Kiba thought. He was waiting for the full story.
“I know that customers never take us to their houses but this one did. And we talked…”
“Only talk?” Naruto questioned, his gaze narrowing on his friend. Gaara continued as if he hadn’t heard his blonde friend.
“He didn’t know what was happening, asked me personal question like how I knew I was gay and what my first time was like. I asked him if he was going to be a waste of time and he told me he would pay in full if I stayed there and talked to him.”
Naruto’s mind was working fast to keep up with what Gaara was saying. A gorgeous guy who wanted to talk for the night with the intention of fully paying for nothing BUT talk? What the hell? Were there even guys like that anymore?
Tenmari finally said something from her silent corner of the table.
“Don’t you think that’s a little weird?” Gaara’s eye twitched at the question.
“Of course I freaking think it’s weird! No one goes to a prostitute to ask questions about first times and feelings. I was wondering the whole time but he never made a move or anything! He just stayed on his side of the room until it was time to go.”
“So?” Naruto raised an eyebrow, smile firmly back in place to show his acceptance of the matter. Kiba and Sakura frowned at him but sighed with acceptance also.
“Is this all you want to tell us, Gaara?” Naruto asked, amusement tinting his tone. “I don’t think it is. Me thinks you have a juicy secret to tell us-” The sugary tone turned to demanding during the pause “-so spill already!”
Gaara’s lips twitched, first from held back laughter, then from a held back frown.
“I think that… I’m-”
“In love with him?” Naruto finished for him, questioningly. “Aa, I can see it in your eyes already. Though you’ve only talked to him for one night, I guess it depends on what else you talked about.”
The blue eyed youth watched with a gentle smile as his red haired friend looked at him with slightly disbelieving eyes. He saw the looks that came from Kiba, Sakura and Tenmari. Really, was it so hard to think that he could read people easily? He shrugged it off. The sharpness didn’t come with the mask that he had picked, after all.
“I’m happy for you.” The words were said genuinely as Naruto’s earnest blue eyes met the teal ones of Gaara. Then the blue eyes narrowed dangerously and the smile turned evil. “But if he hurts you there will be hell to pay.”
There were loud agreements from Kiba and Sakura had that deadly gleam in her eyes as she nodded. Gaara’s stoic face tinged with pink as he looked at all of his friends as they offered him encouragement and warnings.
“Thanks,” he muttered, and Naruto stood up with his empty plate and held out a hand, a silent offering to take their plates.
They all gave them to him without any protest and Tenmari left to get to her job, which started at
Naruto went into the kitchen to do the dishes. His body was set into autopilot as he thought of the newly revealed truth. He was happy for Gaara now that he found love. Happiness didn’t come easy with their kind of job. He hoped that everything went well for his friend.
He wondered what it would feel like to fall in love. He hadn’t felt it for so long, ever since Sasuke left both him and Konoha as he strived for the better things in life. He snapped out of his musings as the door to the kitchen opened to show Kiba.
“Hey man. I’m gonna go downtown to see if I could get extra money.” Naruto gave him a worried glance.
“Are you sure?” he asked, glancing down at his clothes and the unwashed dishes in the sink. Kiba gave Naruto a look.
“Yeah dude. It’s totally fine.” Naruto gave him a dubious look before sighing.
“Okay…”
After warning Kiba to be safe, Naruto turned back to the dished with another sigh. It was always more dangerous to go out during the day, because cops could see faces so much more easier. Not only that, but getting caught by civilians could also alert security that there was some whoring activity where they were spotted. Once that happened, it would be so much more harder to get out safely. Security would be brought up once more and money would be hard to get because their customers would be scared off by officers patrolling.
Soon he got finished with the dishes. Naruto looked around the kitchen for a minute before spotting the check list by the refrigerator and decided to go to the grocery. He needed to make dinner soon anyways.
--
Black hair gleamed blue in the filtered sun as a sigh drifted into the air. Dark black eyes watched the buildings go by, recalling past memories spent at his old home. That had been when his parents were still alive and when Itachi hadn’t been kidnapped to God knew where. It was also when he had had a best friend.
He still remembered the first day they met each other. He had been walking and Naruto had literally come crashing down from the tree tops. Sasuke had back pains for that whole month, but Naruto had made it up to him the whole time. They figured out that they went to the same junior high school, and so Naruto carried his stuff while Sasuke got royal treatment. When the month was over Naruto turned into his original self and they fought, and yet their bond grew.
For one year it strengthened. Sasuke had Naruto switch homerooms so that they were together almost all the time. The next year was weird though. Sasuke had fallen in love with his best friend, but Naruto had seemed oblivious to it all. He was the only one to be oblivious, actually. All of Sasuke’s other guy friends knew from how he was acting that he had fallen for the blond idiot.
That was when bad things happened. It was during the end of their strong three year friendship and in the middle of the school year. He had been walking home when he heard the sirens. Back then, he had shrugged it off because officers with their sirens on was a natural occurrence. Thing was, it hadn’t been. The police had been outside of his house, with the yellow tape and black suits and everything.
That had been one of the most terrifying scenes of his life.
Sasuke scowled as he looked out the window. He hadn’t come here to fucking reminisce about the old days. That was the past, and would stay the freaking past. What he had come for was his old house. It was time he did something about it.
A flash of gold caught his attention from the street. He scanned the sidewalks automatically as he asked for the driver to slow down. One perfect back brow lifted as obsidian black eyes spotted a familiar looking blond. Damn, but the dobe had grown up, and into such a beautiful man!
Sasuke watched as Naruto waved cheerily to some others. They waved back and went back to their work. Others glared at him, but Naruto seemed to not see those as he turned a corner.
Sasuke asked the driver to stop before getting out of the car, putting on sunglasses and a hood over his trademark black hair. He was extremely glad for the non-Uchiha mark article of clothing he had worn today, not to mention that it was a simple white hoodie with jeans.
He stalked after the blond youth, studying the way Naruto walked and how he interacted with others.
Suddenly Naruto stopped, horror flashing on his face before running into an alley. Sasuke followed him, though he stopped close by a restaurant where people could assume him to be looking at the menu instead of looking into the alley. The black haired man frowned behind his protective layers.
There was a shadowed person leaning heavily against the bricks at the end of the darkened path. Naruto raced to the person, abandoning his groceries he had been carrying. The blond leaned down to help the wounded person sit down before sliding his hands over skin to check for injures. Possessiveness raced through Sasuke and he scowled as he kept his emotions in check.
Soon Naruto went back for the groceries and helped the man up, limping with the extra weight, disappearing into the darkness of the alleyway.
What the hell? Sasuke wondered as he walked back to his car. He knew that something bigger was going on other than a usual beating. There had been fear in those pretty blue eyes, not to mention the shadow of mystery. Shit, this was exactly what Sasuke didn’t want when he came back. More fucking trouble.
--
Naruto knocked on the door harshly, glancing worriedly at Kiba who was panting in pain from the excursion of walking one mile to the flat. They needed to get those injuries treated right away, and that wouldn’t happen if everyone left the freaking place. He hoped that at least Iruka was still around to open their door.
The entrance was opened by his pink hair friend, and Naruto dropped the groceries in her hands without preamble before reaching down to grab Kiba. He ignored her as the tone of her voice turned from irritated to worried.
He carried his brown-haired friend into their home, setting him down gently as he ordered Gaara –who had been sitting lazily on the couch before the interruption- to get the first aid kit. While Gaara ran off to find it Naruto asked Sakura to get some wet towels to get the blood off before putting the antiseptic and bandages.
He grabbed the small knife they had on the table and tore Kiba’s green shirt apart as he looked at the blood soaking it. He requested his friend to keep awake no matter what. He grabbed put a thick blanket onto the couch before getting Kiba to lay on the couch.
Naruto frowned as he looked over his friend. Damn, but it would hurt to put that antiseptic onto the brunet with a wound like that. The wound was large, not deep though, and Naruto was grateful for that. It ran horizontally on the brunet’s stomach, practically going from side to side. It was just a huge fucking little bugger.
Gaara returned with the first aid kit and Sakura returned with a whole lot of wet towels right after Naruto washed his hands. As he snapped the gloves onto his hands, he looked as his still awake friend with sympathy, trying to lighten up the mood.
“Sorry, buddy. This is gonna hurt me more than you, but I have to do this, otherwise you’ll have an infected wound.”
Naruto took out the brown bottle labeled Hydrogen Peroxide with a grimace and determined eyes.
--
The night found Naruto back outside with a pair of skimpy clothing even worse than last night. Now that one of them was down and injured, the blond would have to try his best and get at least three to five customers tonight, or their living expenses plus injury expenses would be the death of them.
His calculations were interrupted when a rich looking black car rolled up. He sauntered over to the back of the car as a window lowered down. Naruto stopped in shock as he looked at familiar obsidian eyes.
“Hello, dobe.”
--
