Happy Pride!! Dealers choice ✨️
Sasuke wakes up with his arm around a slim waist and face first in some very nice cleavage. This has happened often enough that he doesn’t so much as pause, nuzzling closer, perhaps licking a little bit, but he keeps his teeth to himself. Mostly.
There’s a hard flick to the top of his head and he looks up enough to see annoyed blue eyes glaring down at him. The hair’s still red, but at least the contacts are gone. “Pervert.”
“You started it,” he murmurs, rolling Naruto onto her back so he can pin her wrists to the bed. She clenches her hands into fists before relaxing, not even offering a token resistance.
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” she grumbles and Sasuke kisses her before she can continue complaining.
Then it’s down her neck, her sternum, and he drags her hands down with him rather than letting her go. He licks across the seal on her stomach, the sensation leaving his tongue feeling scraped raw like sour candy. She makes use of the chakra often enough that it’s almost always lingering and warm to the touch these days. The first time he did this, it tasted the same as all the skin around it.
She huffs, spreading her legs impatiently. “You going to do something useful or should I leave the two of you alone?”
He rolls his eyes and dives in with expert ease. The real reason he keeps her hands pinned is she’ll rip out chunks of his hair if he doesn’t.
After, they’re both sated and really need to brush their teeth, but he can’t really summon the energy to move with Naruto laid out across his chest. He absently runs a hand through her hair, trying not feel too disappointed when she sighs and says, “I should meet back up with the others.”
“They didn’t miss you yesterday?” he asks.
She shakes her head. “Nah, that was strategic. The delegation met with the hokage yesterday. Putting him face to face with me and Mom is pushing it.”
“She’s part of the delegation?” he demands then frowns. “I didn’t see her in the streets yesterday.”
Not every foreign shinobi entering the village is part of their village’s official delegation, which is why he hadn’t thought much of leaving with Naruto, even considering how he was dressed. Brining Kushina here is risky enough. Making her part of the delegation is so ballsy it’s just stupid.
“Oh, you saw her,” she says, amusement crinkling her eyes at the corners. Before he can do more than frown, she pushes herself up to kiss him again. Just when it’s getting interesting, she pulls away and walks to the bathroom.
He watches her go, always a nice view, and then gets up to follow her. If they shower together, it’ll conserve water. Maybe.
Itachi, for the sake of his sanity, does not led credence to any rumors he hears about his little brother.
But this one came straight from Hinata. His fiancé isn’t one to exaggerate or engage in practical jokes. He hadn’t thought his brother liked anyone, so a passing dalliance with a foreign ninja should be more of a relief than anything else, but from the way Hinata had described it, it’s not something so innocent as that. Especially considering Sasuke’s teammates’ comments. He wishes he could gather more information on his own, but it’s unlikely he’d be successful. Sakura fought hard to gain his brother’s trust and is likely to respond to any questions about him by drop kicking him through a wall. Hanabi likes him mostly for marrying her sister and getting her out of the way of the line of succession, but if she scents any weakness then she’ll hold it over his head rather than telling him anything useful.
In this instance, it’s best to go straight to the source.
He swings in through his brother’s bedroom window is greeted by a kunai to the face.
Itachi deflects it easily, launching an attack of his own against this stranger in Sasuke’s home. It’s only after they’ve exchanged a half dozen hits that logic catches up with his surprise and he realizes the red haired, green eyed ninja with half his face covered and in nondescript black clothes is likely the subject of his visit.
He’s never met Uzumaki Naruto before, but of course he’s heard of him. Very few people haven’t. Three times Iwa has attempted to raze Uzu to the ground. The first failed, barely, and Uzu closed its borders. Not even other civilians from Whirlpool are allowed inside without an escort. The second attempt was six years ago and they say the walls of Uzu were painted red with Iwa blood. That’s when people first started whispering about Uzumaki Naruto.
The third attempt was last year and what launched him into an S-class nin in the Bingo Book. Iwa hadn’t even made it into Whirlpool. They’ve apparently learned their lesson, now giving Naruto a flee on sight order, the same as they have for the Yondaime.
“Don’t break anything,” Sasuke says crankily from the doorway. He’s shirtless and holding two cups of coffee.
Naruto breaks away from their stalemate, ducking beneath Itachi’s frozen arm and going over to Sasuke. “Relax, we’re just saying hello. Right, Itachi?” He narrows his eyes and doesn’t answer, finally falling back into a more relaxed position. Naruto is facing Sasuke and so has his back to him when he takes one of the cups and pulls down his mask. He chugs the whole thing quicker than is advisable considering the steam he can see rising from Sasuke’s cup. He hands Sasuke the cup back and curves his hand around the back of his brother’s neck. He pulls him in for a quick kiss before tugging his mask back up. “See you later.”
“Bye,” Sasuke returns. He waits until he hears front door open and close before asking, “Can I help you with something, aniki?”
He glares. “What are you doing?”
Sasuke raises an eyebrow and sips at his coffee. “Care to be a little more specific?”
He doesn’t wait for a reply, instead turning and going back to the kitchen. He puts Naruto’s mug in the sink and then turns to lean against the counter. Itachi wishes Sasuke was still small enough to beat up without causing significant property damage. “Getting involved with someone from Uzu, especially him–”
“We’re allies,” he interrupts, irritated. “What’s the big deal? They stole one scroll twenty years ago, it’s not like anyone died.”
“They closed off their village,” he starts.
He rolls his eyes. “Yeah, because it was nearly destroyed? None of their allies, including us, got there in time to help them.”
“They’re secretive, even for a ninja village,” he insists. “It can’t be for anything good. Who knows what they’re up to, coming here for the chunin exams? They haven’t come for a Konoha chunin exam in over two decades. They’re not here for no reason.”
“You think they’re moving against Konoha?” Sasuke asks, the laughter in his voice absolutely infuriating.
The hokage does, but Itachi isn’t cleared to tell Sasuke that. Especially now. “You don’t? Why? Because Naruto told you they weren’t?”
“Watch it,” he says coldly, all trace of laughter gone.
If the Yondaime could fall for a honeypot then clearly it can happen to anyone, but he’d have sworn his little brother was safe from such tricks. “His name probably isn’t even Uzumaki. Almost all Uzu ninja use it.”
“I know his name,” Sasuke says, sliding back to exasperated.
“You think you do,” he says. “You have no idea what he’s called inside the walls of Uzu.”
Sasuke’s expression doesn’t change at all. There’s not a single tell or twitch.
Itachi feels his stomach drop. “You snuck into Uzu? Do you have any idea what would have happened–”
“I didn’t sneak,” he says, running a hand through his hair. “Will you just drop this?”
If he didn’t sneak, he was escorted in. But that’s not possible. No foreign ninja are allowed in Uzu. No matter how important, no matter their rank, those gates don’t open for anyone but their own.
His brother wouldn’t defect. It’s not even possible to defect to an ally village. But the hokage has been suspicious about Uzu’s true feelings for a long time.
“Don’t,” Sasuke warns, because of course he knows exactly what he’s thinking. “It was extenuating circumstances.”
“What could those possibly be?” he demands. “You’re not making any sense, otouto. Give me something to work with here.”
He shifts his weight and Itachi feels real alarm start to build in his chest. He licks his lips then asks, “You remember that whole Orochimaru thing?”
His whole body goes cold. “Do I remember when Orochimaru snatched you away as a genin on your first mission out of the village and we all thought you were dead and that he’d carved your eyes out of your head? Yes, Sasuke, I haven’t forgotten.”
He still has nightmares about those long weeks when he thought everything was lost.
Sasuke at least winces. “Yeah. Well, he didn’t carve my eyes out, but I didn’t exactly get away unscathed either.” Itachi straightens, because Sasuke had been fine when Hiashi had found him, tired and sunburned but alive and whole with two untouched eyes. “He bit me. He gave me the curse seal.”
He rakes his eyes over his brother, as if a curse seal is something he wouldn’t have noticed in the nearly seven years since, as if he isn’t standing shirtless and with no seal to show for it right now. He barely keeps himself form activating his sharingan. He’d looked over Sasuke himself when they got him back and so had their parents there was no curse seal. “You must be mistaken. Once applied, it can’t be removed, only suppressed.”
“Well, that’s true in Konoha, at least,” he agrees and then shrugs. “Uzu’s earned their reputation with sealing fair and square.” He bites the inside of his cheek. “Don’t spread this around, okay? If people find out Orochimaru put his curse seal on me, they’ll think I still have it, and if they find out Uzu made an exception to save me, it’ll make things harder for them. I kept quiet about it this long for good reasons, aniki.”
It doesn’t seem possible, but Sasuke wouldn’t lie to him. Not about this. He nods, hesitates, then asks, “Who brought you past the gates?”
Sasuke smiles, his eyes going soft. “Who do you think?”
Naruto heads to the inn, following a familiar chakra signature and knocking once before stepping inside. “How’d it go?”
“How’s Sasuke?” Kushina asks absently, not looking up from her scroll.
He grins, going over to her bend and bouncing down on top of it with his hands behind his head. “Great. Awesome. Fantastic.”
That gets him an amused glance. “Should I have even bothered getting you a room?”
“I’ll use it!” he protests. Probably.
She shakes her head, but says, “We’ve confirmed the Suna delegation is approaching.”
He perks up. “Temari or Kankuro?”
Naruto pushes himself upright, incredulous. “You’re joking! That asshole hasn’t answered a single missive for months, but he just rolls up to Konoha like it’s nothing?”
“Something’s wrong,” she continues and he frowns. “According to our scout, his chakra’s all over the place and not in the usual ways.”
Normally he’d dismiss that kind of assessment, but everyone they brought with him is more than familiar with him, and, before that, his mother. If anyone knows, they do.
He’d expected the kazekage to have locked Gaara in the basement or something. This sounds like it might be worse. But this is, among several any other reasons, why both he and his mom are here on this mission. Just in case.
More important than their status as demon container and former demon container is their status as Uzumaki and the clan techniques they’re better at than anyone else.
“I’m going to see for myself,” he announces.
She hums, focusing once more on her scroll. “Don’t get caught.”
He waves a hand in acknowledgement and then jumps out the window.
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