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(teamwork) ZOMG THE DINNER IS DONE
It's like. DONE.
DOOOOOONE.
and. and.
there are only two connecting bits to weld together, and then gotta add maybe four lines to the end scene.
AND THE CHAPTER WILL BE COMPLETE.
WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO.
"You love him," she replied softly, peering at him, visibly confused.
Startled, he could only shrug, and only force of habit kept him from spluttering angrily; even under torture, he wouldn't answer that.
"... Like -- like you love Sakura?"
"No," he replied with a snort, "not at all."
She stared at him a while longer, then relaxed. Sasuke hid away all traces of emotion; if she wanted to be relieved by her assumption that his feelings for Naruto were born out of pure, platonic gratitude, he wasn't going to say anything.
He stood in silence for a few seconds longer, then, nodding a salute, he returned to the dining room. Three pairs of eyes stared up at him. Uncomfortable, he rolled his eyes briefly, and -- of course -- targeted Naruto. He was the most blatant anyway. "Do I have something on my face?"
Naruto glared at him, but before he could retort something loud and probably unfit for polite company -- not a wise move on Sasuke's part, to provoke him -- Sakura intervened. "Um, Sasuke-kun... did..."
"Everything's alright," he replied with a sigh, and sat down again, trying to ignore his teammates' curious looks.
Yukihiro chuckled. "So you are secretly a diplomat, I see."
Sasuke couldn't help it; he stared at the man incredulously. Half a second later, Sakura and Naruto choked on a burst of laughter. Sakura politely pretended to have been coughing, but Naruto had to press both hands to his mouth to stifle his laugher. Yukihiro had adopted a ponderous, benevolent expression that didn't entirely hide the mirth in his eyes.
"Oh yeah," Naruto snickered. "He's like... a special diplomat. An Interrogation Squad diplomat."
"Naruto, shut it before I make you."
Naruto rolled his eyes, but sobered up, lowering his voice as he glanced toward the door worriedly. "No, seriously, are you sure --"
"Yes. But maybe you'd like to go and make sure?" Sasuke growled, challenging the blond with a harsh glare.
"Does either of you young men drink tea?" Hana inquired briskly from the door. "Coffee?"
Naruto grinned guiltily. "Ah -- either is fine... Though--"
"Tea," Sakura intervened, giving Naruto a quick glare before he could ask for coffee, and then glanced quickly at Sasuke. "They'll both have tea."
Sasuke frowned -- he didn't want to drink anything -- but let it slide. He had a feeling anything he said at the moment would be too aggressive, and it wasn't the time or place to rip into either of his teammates. Crossing his arms, he attempted to smooth his expression. They wouldn't be expecting to stay long after dinner; it was late after all. Then he'd go and lock himself in his bedroom, and if Naruto made noise he would kick him out and beat him up in the building's courtyard. They were about due for another row.
"Sakura, why don't you go and help your mother with tea?" Yukihiro suggested softly.
Sasuke tensed, looking up sharply.
"Dad--"
"Sakura, please."
Naruto glanced at Sasuke quickly. Sasuke shrugged minutely; nothing they could do. The blond grinned at Sakura in reassurance that they would survive. She sighed, giving them a quick, worried look before departing. She probably had the same thought as them; "divide and conquer." It would be easier to sound them for cracks if they weren't covering for each other... argh. It wasn't a mission, and Sakura's father wasn't Intelligence, damn it, he was barely a genin.
"Sir?" Sasuke asked, going on the offensive.
Yukihiro huffed and leaned back in his chair. "I have no real say; Sakura is of legal age to make her own decisions. Ultimately, my opinion on your arrangement isn't all that important either. But..." He placed his elbows on the table, lacing his fingers together. "There are still worries I would like to lay to rest, if you don't mind."
Sasuke considered him for a few seconds in silence, wondering why the man hadn't become a negotiator.
"Uh, sure, shoot. Wait, no! Don't shoot."
Yukihiro chuckled softly. "Don't worry. I wouldn't want to splash blood on the carpet."
Naruto gulped. Somehow that had failed to reassure him; not that it reassured Sasuke. Well, damn, the old washout wouldn't have been half-bad at Interrogation himself.
The man turned to face Naruto, expression suddenly turning grimmer. "You do realize the stress and danger Sakura, and presumably the child, will face by being with you, don't you?"
Sasuke's hand clenched spasmodically on his thigh; but he didn't have any kunai with him. At his side, Naruto had gone frozen, staring at Sakura's father in shocked betrayal. Slowly, Naruto's hand rose, hovering over his stomach.
"Because of the Kyuubi?"
"Yes."
"You think he's gonna burst out and eat them," Naruto replied, quietly. "I thought... No, nothing."
Sasuke suddenly wanted to kill the man a lot more than he'd ever wished to kill his wife.
"I find myself liking you, Naruto-san... And the Yondaime was a great man, a genius. Both Sandaime and Godaime trusted his handiwork. Who am I to doubt them?"
Naruto's head jerked up; Yukihiro looked pained.
"Fair or not, though, you are still an outcast in most circles. And if you live with Sakura, you will drag her down with you. How do you plan on taking care of that?"
Sasuke bristled. How dare he put it all on Naruto's shoulders -- Naruto goddamnit don't look like that -- don't...
"...They don't have to know," the blond finally replied with a smile that Sasuke wanted to punch off his face, never to see again. "I'd be all right with just passing as a roommate."
"You would hide it, then?"
Sasuke's blunt nails were leaving gouges into his palms. But he wasn't welcome to take part in the discussion.
Naruto scowled briefly, hands clenched in his lap. "No! I just... wouldn't mention it. Unless people ask for it and I think they have a right to know."
"People will gossip."
"The gossips can go hang for all I care."
Sasuke wondered when exactly his hand had landed on Naruto's wrist. He was probably leaving bruises by now. But the blond wasn't protesting.
"I'm not gonna be ashamed," Naruto added, glowering fiercely. "If it was just me I wouldn't care who knew. But... it's not just me, so I'll keep it quiet. People are always watching what Sasuke's doing, and Sakura-chan isn't used to being stared at like that -- like they watch him, and like they watch me... And then there's the baby... But I'm not gonna sneak in and out in the night either. I'm not."
"You better," Sasuke managed to growl past the lump in his throat.
Yukihiro watched them in silence, then sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Well, at least you are a lot more aware of the issue than I thought you would be. And no doubt Sakura will grow more resilient with time. This does mean no public displays of affection, though..."
"Oh, come on," Sasuke snapped, at the end of his rope, "we're ninjas. If people want to spy on us looking for little signs, they'll find them. They'll probably find them more between them than with me."
"... and why is that? I thought you three were equally..."
"Because I hate being pawed at." He tossed his head impatiently, pushed back a lock of hair that had been tickling his cheek for the past half-hour, damn Sakura's hair gel. "So they'll gossip. So what? I agree with Naruto; they can go hang, I don't give a damn. And if the baby has blond hair, it will be more than a few speculative whispers behind our backs. So? We'll deal."
"You two might be used to it," the man replied somberly, making Naruto wince guiltily.
Sasuke scoffed at them both. "You all treat Sakura as if she was made of China. She's sturdier than that; and if she was less sheltered she might even notice. She'll mope a bit, and then she'll decide that the gossip-mongers are a bunch of brainless twits and get over it."
Yukihiro frowned faintly. "...Is that really what you think?"
Sasuke's eye twitched, but he worked on getting it under control. He shrugged, pushing the lock of hair away again. He didn't want to snap at him; he'd already been too blunt.
"She doesn't trust in herself; so long as we're taking front, she stands back, she lets us deal with the heavy violence. But when push comes to shove, I've never seen her run away. She won't run from that either."
Naruto stared at him, then grinned widely. "Hee. I'm so telling her that you said that."
Sasuke didn't have the time to threaten him with violence to make sure he kept quiet.
"Well, if you are sure that you can deal with this little matter appropriately, there are a few others, Uchiha-san. None of the other clans will object, or feel slighted?"
Sasuke was thrown off-track by the realization that the man was actually aware of clan politics. "...It's not like any of them can push for an alliance via arranged marriage. I can't marry anyone from a clan without endangering my bloodline."
"Mmh. I also assume that you do not wish to leave the village any longer."
That, Sasuke noted distractedly through the faint buzzing in his ears, was probably revenge for the accusation of coddling Sakura earlier. He swiftly dodged the hand that Naruto was lifting to rest on his shoulder, and realized belatedly that things were too clear and flowed together too neatly; he had slipped into the Sharingan.
"Sasuke--"
He closed his eyes briefly, shoving his feelings down, deep down below where they couldn't touch him, and reopened his eyes. Black. Better.
"I am not," he hissed, "going to abandon my family. Ever."
Naruto looked like he was about to try a desperate tackle to save Yukihiro's life. Sasuke had better control than that.
"Not even if the child is blond?"
... Sasuke had better control than that. He did. He really did. He closed his eyes again, though; just in case.
"No."
Naruto snickered weakly. "Hey, you never know, he or she could be a nine-headed redhead with the hand-wings things you got from the cursed seal."
Sasuke glared at him, and had the satisfaction of seeing him wilt. "This isn't funny."
"Ah, lighten up, okay?"
If they had been alone, it would have been his cue for a "no, not okay" and a punch in the face. Sasuke glared at Naruto, silently promising to save it for later.
"You have no sense of humor."
"Not about my family, no," he growled back.
Sasuke stared hard at Naruto for a moment longer, until the idiot stopped muttering, then turned to face Yukihiro. "Do you have any more... concerns?" If he had any, he could stuff them up his ass.
Yukihiro was still cutting him open with his eyes, still calm and poised and neutral enough to make Sasuke snarl. "Mmh. You seem to have decided to do your best as a husband and father. I wish you and your clan the best, Uchiha-sama."
The man even added a deliberate respectful nod.
Sasuke was suddenly past caring, though.
He was going to have a clan again.
He was going to have a clan again, and he had nowhere to house it, nothing to feed it with, and was still too weak to protect it.
And Itachi was still out here.
Itachi was still out here, and if he didn't know yet about the child, he probably would soon.
... and then what? What would happen? What could he do? He'd grown stronger, yes; but so had his brother, more than probably. And Sasuke was still locked inside Konoha until further notice -- until they trusted him again.
He needed more fights, more experience -- badly. He needed more money -- the pay scale of a genin wouldn't work anymore. He needed to corner Kakashi and force more techniques out of him. Kakashi and -- who else would teach him? Orochimaru was dead, and most other jounin...
"Sasuke? Here's your tea," Sakura offered quietly. She didn't meet his eyes; he wondered what his expression looked like -- how long she and her mother had been listening in. The woman was serving Naruto, neutral -- but when Naruto offered a little smile and his thanks, Sasuke caught her lips quirking up weakly in response.
He hadn't even heard them come back.
But Itachi...
No. Not now. Now was the time to listen to more small talk, and even -- sort of, cautiously -- to participate. A little. Now was the time to hum and nod, leaning over pictures of another family.
Now was not the time to think about his brother, leaning over a crib.
DOOOOOONE.
and. and.
there are only two connecting bits to weld together, and then gotta add maybe four lines to the end scene.
AND THE CHAPTER WILL BE COMPLETE.
WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO.
"You love him," she replied softly, peering at him, visibly confused.
Startled, he could only shrug, and only force of habit kept him from spluttering angrily; even under torture, he wouldn't answer that.
"... Like -- like you love Sakura?"
"No," he replied with a snort, "not at all."
She stared at him a while longer, then relaxed. Sasuke hid away all traces of emotion; if she wanted to be relieved by her assumption that his feelings for Naruto were born out of pure, platonic gratitude, he wasn't going to say anything.
He stood in silence for a few seconds longer, then, nodding a salute, he returned to the dining room. Three pairs of eyes stared up at him. Uncomfortable, he rolled his eyes briefly, and -- of course -- targeted Naruto. He was the most blatant anyway. "Do I have something on my face?"
Naruto glared at him, but before he could retort something loud and probably unfit for polite company -- not a wise move on Sasuke's part, to provoke him -- Sakura intervened. "Um, Sasuke-kun... did..."
"Everything's alright," he replied with a sigh, and sat down again, trying to ignore his teammates' curious looks.
Yukihiro chuckled. "So you are secretly a diplomat, I see."
Sasuke couldn't help it; he stared at the man incredulously. Half a second later, Sakura and Naruto choked on a burst of laughter. Sakura politely pretended to have been coughing, but Naruto had to press both hands to his mouth to stifle his laugher. Yukihiro had adopted a ponderous, benevolent expression that didn't entirely hide the mirth in his eyes.
"Oh yeah," Naruto snickered. "He's like... a special diplomat. An Interrogation Squad diplomat."
"Naruto, shut it before I make you."
Naruto rolled his eyes, but sobered up, lowering his voice as he glanced toward the door worriedly. "No, seriously, are you sure --"
"Yes. But maybe you'd like to go and make sure?" Sasuke growled, challenging the blond with a harsh glare.
"Does either of you young men drink tea?" Hana inquired briskly from the door. "Coffee?"
Naruto grinned guiltily. "Ah -- either is fine... Though--"
"Tea," Sakura intervened, giving Naruto a quick glare before he could ask for coffee, and then glanced quickly at Sasuke. "They'll both have tea."
Sasuke frowned -- he didn't want to drink anything -- but let it slide. He had a feeling anything he said at the moment would be too aggressive, and it wasn't the time or place to rip into either of his teammates. Crossing his arms, he attempted to smooth his expression. They wouldn't be expecting to stay long after dinner; it was late after all. Then he'd go and lock himself in his bedroom, and if Naruto made noise he would kick him out and beat him up in the building's courtyard. They were about due for another row.
"Sakura, why don't you go and help your mother with tea?" Yukihiro suggested softly.
Sasuke tensed, looking up sharply.
"Dad--"
"Sakura, please."
Naruto glanced at Sasuke quickly. Sasuke shrugged minutely; nothing they could do. The blond grinned at Sakura in reassurance that they would survive. She sighed, giving them a quick, worried look before departing. She probably had the same thought as them; "divide and conquer." It would be easier to sound them for cracks if they weren't covering for each other... argh. It wasn't a mission, and Sakura's father wasn't Intelligence, damn it, he was barely a genin.
"Sir?" Sasuke asked, going on the offensive.
Yukihiro huffed and leaned back in his chair. "I have no real say; Sakura is of legal age to make her own decisions. Ultimately, my opinion on your arrangement isn't all that important either. But..." He placed his elbows on the table, lacing his fingers together. "There are still worries I would like to lay to rest, if you don't mind."
Sasuke considered him for a few seconds in silence, wondering why the man hadn't become a negotiator.
"Uh, sure, shoot. Wait, no! Don't shoot."
Yukihiro chuckled softly. "Don't worry. I wouldn't want to splash blood on the carpet."
Naruto gulped. Somehow that had failed to reassure him; not that it reassured Sasuke. Well, damn, the old washout wouldn't have been half-bad at Interrogation himself.
The man turned to face Naruto, expression suddenly turning grimmer. "You do realize the stress and danger Sakura, and presumably the child, will face by being with you, don't you?"
Sasuke's hand clenched spasmodically on his thigh; but he didn't have any kunai with him. At his side, Naruto had gone frozen, staring at Sakura's father in shocked betrayal. Slowly, Naruto's hand rose, hovering over his stomach.
"Because of the Kyuubi?"
"Yes."
"You think he's gonna burst out and eat them," Naruto replied, quietly. "I thought... No, nothing."
Sasuke suddenly wanted to kill the man a lot more than he'd ever wished to kill his wife.
"I find myself liking you, Naruto-san... And the Yondaime was a great man, a genius. Both Sandaime and Godaime trusted his handiwork. Who am I to doubt them?"
Naruto's head jerked up; Yukihiro looked pained.
"Fair or not, though, you are still an outcast in most circles. And if you live with Sakura, you will drag her down with you. How do you plan on taking care of that?"
Sasuke bristled. How dare he put it all on Naruto's shoulders -- Naruto goddamnit don't look like that -- don't...
"...They don't have to know," the blond finally replied with a smile that Sasuke wanted to punch off his face, never to see again. "I'd be all right with just passing as a roommate."
"You would hide it, then?"
Sasuke's blunt nails were leaving gouges into his palms. But he wasn't welcome to take part in the discussion.
Naruto scowled briefly, hands clenched in his lap. "No! I just... wouldn't mention it. Unless people ask for it and I think they have a right to know."
"People will gossip."
"The gossips can go hang for all I care."
Sasuke wondered when exactly his hand had landed on Naruto's wrist. He was probably leaving bruises by now. But the blond wasn't protesting.
"I'm not gonna be ashamed," Naruto added, glowering fiercely. "If it was just me I wouldn't care who knew. But... it's not just me, so I'll keep it quiet. People are always watching what Sasuke's doing, and Sakura-chan isn't used to being stared at like that -- like they watch him, and like they watch me... And then there's the baby... But I'm not gonna sneak in and out in the night either. I'm not."
"You better," Sasuke managed to growl past the lump in his throat.
Yukihiro watched them in silence, then sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Well, at least you are a lot more aware of the issue than I thought you would be. And no doubt Sakura will grow more resilient with time. This does mean no public displays of affection, though..."
"Oh, come on," Sasuke snapped, at the end of his rope, "we're ninjas. If people want to spy on us looking for little signs, they'll find them. They'll probably find them more between them than with me."
"... and why is that? I thought you three were equally..."
"Because I hate being pawed at." He tossed his head impatiently, pushed back a lock of hair that had been tickling his cheek for the past half-hour, damn Sakura's hair gel. "So they'll gossip. So what? I agree with Naruto; they can go hang, I don't give a damn. And if the baby has blond hair, it will be more than a few speculative whispers behind our backs. So? We'll deal."
"You two might be used to it," the man replied somberly, making Naruto wince guiltily.
Sasuke scoffed at them both. "You all treat Sakura as if she was made of China. She's sturdier than that; and if she was less sheltered she might even notice. She'll mope a bit, and then she'll decide that the gossip-mongers are a bunch of brainless twits and get over it."
Yukihiro frowned faintly. "...Is that really what you think?"
Sasuke's eye twitched, but he worked on getting it under control. He shrugged, pushing the lock of hair away again. He didn't want to snap at him; he'd already been too blunt.
"She doesn't trust in herself; so long as we're taking front, she stands back, she lets us deal with the heavy violence. But when push comes to shove, I've never seen her run away. She won't run from that either."
Naruto stared at him, then grinned widely. "Hee. I'm so telling her that you said that."
Sasuke didn't have the time to threaten him with violence to make sure he kept quiet.
"Well, if you are sure that you can deal with this little matter appropriately, there are a few others, Uchiha-san. None of the other clans will object, or feel slighted?"
Sasuke was thrown off-track by the realization that the man was actually aware of clan politics. "...It's not like any of them can push for an alliance via arranged marriage. I can't marry anyone from a clan without endangering my bloodline."
"Mmh. I also assume that you do not wish to leave the village any longer."
That, Sasuke noted distractedly through the faint buzzing in his ears, was probably revenge for the accusation of coddling Sakura earlier. He swiftly dodged the hand that Naruto was lifting to rest on his shoulder, and realized belatedly that things were too clear and flowed together too neatly; he had slipped into the Sharingan.
"Sasuke--"
He closed his eyes briefly, shoving his feelings down, deep down below where they couldn't touch him, and reopened his eyes. Black. Better.
"I am not," he hissed, "going to abandon my family. Ever."
Naruto looked like he was about to try a desperate tackle to save Yukihiro's life. Sasuke had better control than that.
"Not even if the child is blond?"
... Sasuke had better control than that. He did. He really did. He closed his eyes again, though; just in case.
"No."
Naruto snickered weakly. "Hey, you never know, he or she could be a nine-headed redhead with the hand-wings things you got from the cursed seal."
Sasuke glared at him, and had the satisfaction of seeing him wilt. "This isn't funny."
"Ah, lighten up, okay?"
If they had been alone, it would have been his cue for a "no, not okay" and a punch in the face. Sasuke glared at Naruto, silently promising to save it for later.
"You have no sense of humor."
"Not about my family, no," he growled back.
Sasuke stared hard at Naruto for a moment longer, until the idiot stopped muttering, then turned to face Yukihiro. "Do you have any more... concerns?" If he had any, he could stuff them up his ass.
Yukihiro was still cutting him open with his eyes, still calm and poised and neutral enough to make Sasuke snarl. "Mmh. You seem to have decided to do your best as a husband and father. I wish you and your clan the best, Uchiha-sama."
The man even added a deliberate respectful nod.
Sasuke was suddenly past caring, though.
He was going to have a clan again.
He was going to have a clan again, and he had nowhere to house it, nothing to feed it with, and was still too weak to protect it.
And Itachi was still out here.
Itachi was still out here, and if he didn't know yet about the child, he probably would soon.
... and then what? What would happen? What could he do? He'd grown stronger, yes; but so had his brother, more than probably. And Sasuke was still locked inside Konoha until further notice -- until they trusted him again.
He needed more fights, more experience -- badly. He needed more money -- the pay scale of a genin wouldn't work anymore. He needed to corner Kakashi and force more techniques out of him. Kakashi and -- who else would teach him? Orochimaru was dead, and most other jounin...
"Sasuke? Here's your tea," Sakura offered quietly. She didn't meet his eyes; he wondered what his expression looked like -- how long she and her mother had been listening in. The woman was serving Naruto, neutral -- but when Naruto offered a little smile and his thanks, Sasuke caught her lips quirking up weakly in response.
He hadn't even heard them come back.
But Itachi...
No. Not now. Now was the time to listen to more small talk, and even -- sort of, cautiously -- to participate. A little. Now was the time to hum and nod, leaning over pictures of another family.
Now was not the time to think about his brother, leaning over a crib.
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Also, that "Uchiha-sama" seems like too little too late for Sasuke. But oh well. He has his clan now. So yay!
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