The Theory of Happiness (1b/1)
So I lied about the word count last time. I didn't realise it'd grow another 2k during the attempt-at-cleanup process and would almost be as long as Apartment 402 (shorter by 10 words, gdi), but finally, this eyesore can die in a volcano. I've been so anxious about the whole thing, which is why I almost chickened out on posting the rest, because I really don't like it, yet after spending so much time wrestling with this, it is what it is.
As long as it is, though, I'm surprised that I still managed to cut out so darn much. Boy, Naruto can sure talk someone's ear off.
***
Characters: Naruto/Sasuke, Sai, Tamaki, Obito, Itachi, Mei
Rating: PG-13
Words: 14,749
Summary: “It’s still a wedding, isn’t it?”
Although the ballroom’s a little less crowded than it was before, it’s still filled with a considerable number of Sasuke’s family members Naruto doesn’t know. A lot of older people mostly, which probably explains why he’s been on the receiving end of so much formality.
Probably explains the enka music, too. Not that it’s bad. That style of traditional sounding music, he just doesn’t have a preference for it. Sasuke did say his Aunt Kayou used to perform enka when she was younger, though, making small tours around the Chuugoku region with her parents sometime during the late forties and early fifties, when that kind of music started to become popular after the war.
There’s even a rumour still floating around that when she was sixteen, after a concert in Hiroshima, she turned down an offer to sing with Koga Masao, who Sasuke said was a notable guy in the genre, but then Sasuke also said the majority of his family’s no more than a bunch of old-fashioned gossipmongers too caught up in the history of their lineage and far too entertained by even the slightest hint of a scandal.
When Naruto pointed out how that pretty much described Sasuke around anything that had to do with the name Uchiha, Sasuke pinched him.
But with each step further into the spacious ballroom, it’s easy to see how much respect Sasuke has for his family. Heading for their assigned seats all the way on the other side, Sasuke steers them through the gaps between moderately sized round tables and scattered groups of people, pausing to acknowledge the older family members he didn’t get a chance to greet during the wedding. He takes his time, more polite than he usually is every once in a while, using the really formal kind of language Naruto wouldn’t have even known Sasuke knew before the wedding.
Honestly, Naruto’s not that familiar with such a humble form of honorific speech, never having a need to learn more than the standard etiquette everybody already knows in order to get by. He’s quick on his feet, though, following Sasuke’s lead with a polite bow of his head each time Sasuke excuses them to leave, and if he gets this really light feeling in his chest at the fact Sasuke keeps referring to the two of them as us, well, Naruto won’t fault himself for that.
They’re almost halfway there when Sasuke just freezes, almost making Naruto bump into him.
“What?”
Trying too hard not to seem obvious, little by little, Sasuke starts to backtrack, heading towards the corner at the end of the long buffet style table placed against the wall. “Nothing.”
“Uh, tell me if I’m wrong, but isn’t our table the other way?”
“Never mind that. Just keep moving.”
“Why?” Naruto looks around the room, trying to find out what caused Sasuke to turn around. “What’d you see back there?”
Impatient, Sasuke gives him a light nudge, finger pressing into Naruto’s side. “You’re being too conspicuous. Hurry up before he sees me.”
“Before who sees you?”
“Little cousin,” drones a voice from behind him, and Naruto starts at the sudden appearance of some guy practically breathing down the back of his neck, muttering a curse under the cover of an exhale.
“I’m too old for you to still be calling me that, Sai,” Sasuke says, dropping the formality, resigned with the restrained kind of annoyed sigh Naruto’s heard more than once or twice.
The guy who obviously doesn’t understand what personal space is-Sai, whose name sounds an awful lot like the guy Sasuke was warning him about earlier-steps from around Naruto to stand right beside Sasuke, creating a small circle between the three of them. “I’m almost under the impression you were trying to avoid me.”
He looks at Sasuke with a strange sort of smile. Beneath the questionable gleam in his eyes, it spreads slow across his face, giving off this almost artificial effect that makes the smile appear lopsided.
It’s a little off-putting actually.
Apparently, Sai’s smile doesn’t bother Sasuke, though. He returns the look with one of his more bored expressions, but it’s with an underlying ease Naruto immediately picks up on, because it’s the same kind of familiarity Sasuke has with him.
“Deliberately walking in the opposite direction after seeing you,” he says, “I didn’t think I could be any more subtle.”
Sai just continues to smile.
Naruto looks between the two of them. There’s a passing resemblance, he’ll admit, but nothing he would’ve caught if he didn’t know they were cousins. Sai’s eyes aren’t as dark. His hair’s cropped short and more of a brown than Sasuke’s nearly jet black. He’s a lot paler, too, like he hasn’t seen the light of day in years.
Give or take, he’s got a few good centimetres on Sasuke. He looks a little older, maybe closer to Itachi’s age, but still probably one of the younger members of Sasuke’s family Naruto’s seen so far. There aren’t too many of them. When Naruto asked about it earlier, after the ceremony, Sasuke admitted to being the youngest, only a couple months behind Tamaki, the bride’s granddaughter.
“Kagami mentioned you bringing a guest.” For the tiniest second, Sai studies Sasuke, but then just as quickly sets his gaze on Naruto.
“Who are you?” he says, tone a little too curt, almost like he already knows the answer to his own question.
Apparently Sasuke isn’t the only exception in his family.
Before Naruto can introduce himself, though, the Uzu from Uzumaki right on the tip of his tongue, Sasuke cuts him off.
“Leaving-he’s leaving.” Sasuke gives Naruto a pointed look he then turns on Sai. “We’re both leaving.”
Not leaving, Naruto frowns at the sudden change in behaviour. “Sasuke, what’re you-”
“You’re Naruto then. Uzumaki Naruto.”
Sasuke groans, mumbling something about his family being too nosy for their own good.
“How’d you-”
“You’re difficult to miss,” Sai says, glancing at Naruto’s hair. He stares at him with a disturbing kind of intensity, like he’s somehow trying to commit Naruto’s face to memory. “How long have you been having sex with Sasuke?”
Naruto balks.
“The next time I say we’re leaving,” Sasuke says, clipped, “we’re actually leaving.”
“Considering your propensity to shy away from most people outside of our family, Sasuke, the mere fact you invited Naruto here,” Sai says, “to this kind of family oriented occasion, not too dissimilar from Itachi’s situation regarding Mei, I feel it’s safe to conclude the two of you must be in a relationship that involves sex.”
Of all people, Naruto knows he’s not someone known for his tact, but really, this guy’s painfully blunt.
Which, of course, doesn’t mean Naruto can’t be just as straightforward.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he hisses. “Making that of kind assumption, being so open about other people’s personal lives and trying to violate their priva-”
“So you are having sex.”
Again, Naruto balks.
“I’m only making an observation.”
“Well, it wouldn’t hurt you to keep those kinds of inappropriate observations to yourself. You shouldn’t be so interested in that sort of thing anyway.”
“Sai’s just trying to get under your skin,” Sasuke says, reaching up to give Sai’s off-white bowtie a sharp tug that makes it lie crooked below Sai’s chin. “A guy who makes a hobby out of provoking people, don’t listen to-what are you doing?”
Two fingers pulling back the collars of Sasuke’s jacket and shirt, Sai peers down at Sasuke’s neck, near his collarbone, inspecting the smallest little blemish on pale skin. “I was curious to see if there was anything on your neck.”
Batting away Sai’s hand, Sasuke hurries to adjust his clothes.
“And there is,” Sai says, seemingly unaffected by Sasuke’s glare that’s then directed to the last person of their three-man circle.
Recognising the exposed blemish as the hickey he left this morning, Naruto chuckles a little, feeling a guilty flush burning his cheeks that’s really close to taking over his entire face.
As bad as Sasuke might want to make it out to be, they actually weren’t doing anything more than kissing, the real heated sort of dazed kissing Sasuke likes to do whenever he’s really anxious about something but refuses to admit it. Staying in a really nice Western hotel or not, being in Yamaguchi for his aunt’s wedding, it wasn’t the right kind of atmosphere to do anything heavy. So they didn’t.
Yet while Naruto can’t say he didn’t notice the blemish, it was still low enough on Sasuke’s neck that no one else should have noticed. Which is why he didn’t exactly tell Sasuke about it. Besides, it’s not like Sasuke hasn’t left some incriminating marks on his skin, either, like the ones all over his thighs that one time, but the hickey was covered well enough by Sasuke’s shirt, even with the first couple of buttons undone.
Unless someone knew where to look for it, they wouldn’t have been able to find it. And because he left it there this morning, he should have been the only someone able to find it.
Definitely not a certain perverted someone who shouldn’t have even been looking for something like that in the first place. And definitely not the same certain perverted someone who’s being a little too attentive staring at Naruto’s neck.
“Personal space-personal space,” he almost squeaks, backing away from Sai taking a step towards him.
Thankfully, Sai’s able to get the hint this time, but it only seems to divert his attention somewhere it sure as hell has no place being.
“For someone already so lacking in more obvious areas, shrinking when it comes to the mention of your sexual relationship with Sasuke,” he says, with a glance at Naruto’s crotch that settles there a few seconds too long, “does that mean you suffer from performance issues, as well?”
Again, for the third time, Naruto balks.
There’s a slight twitch to Sasuke’s left eye, the telltale twitch of irritation. “You’re being this annoying on purpose. I know you are.”
“Look, not everybody appreciates when people talk so freely about that kind of thing, all right.” Naruto steps in front of Sasuke, lowering his voice he keeps a harsh whisper. “What are you even looking down there for, huh?”
“You’re right,” Sai says. “There’s nothing to see.”
“Just what are you trying to-”
“Bye, Sai.” Grabbing Naruto’s elbow, Sasuke gives it a light pull.
Naruto doesn’t budge, though. He shakes his head, brushing off the fingers trying to cut off the circulation to his arm. “No, tell him, Sasuke. Tell him how big I really am down-”
Hand tightening around Naruto’s elbow, in one controlled motion so quick Naruto even doesn’t realise what happened until after the fact, Sasuke all but yanks him to his side. “As soon as we get back to our room,” he says, voice low the dangerous kind of calm that probably shouldn’t excite Naruto as much as it actually does, “I will kill you.”
“Is that a euphemism for sex?”
“Hey, you,” Naruto says, almost jabbing Sai’s chest with his finger, “you dirty pervert-you don’t get to be so concerned about that kind of thing.”
With a long-suffering sigh, Sasuke drops Naruto’s elbow and moves to push down Naruto’s hand, stepping in between him and Sai. “I should have left you in Narita.”
Naruto just gives Sai this look, this completely disbelieving sort of gobsmacked look because he swears the guy is silently laughing at him from behind Sasuke’s back, swears he sees a hint of a tiny smile sneaking onto Sai’s face, which isn’t fair at all, since the fact the conversation somehow managed to snowball into the quality of his and Sasuke’s sex life, it’s really not his fault. “But Sasuke, Sai’s the one who-”
“Leave Naruto alone, Sai.” Sasuke turns narrowed eyes on Sai. “Stop trying to antagonise him.”
“I wasn’t aware I was being antagonistic.”
“Of course you weren’t,” Naruto mutters.
“Does it upset you, discussing the matter of sex as inconsequential as the size of your-”
“I dare you to-”
“Both of you,” Sasuke says, raising two fingers that massage his temple, “shut up before you cause some kind of scene.”
From their place in the corner, Naruto takes a quick glimpse around the room. Miraculously, somehow, they actually hadn’t attracted any onlookers. It almost makes him wonder if this kind of thing with Sai is normal enough to be expected.
“Sai.”
Sai blinks at Sasuke, wearing the confused kind of innocent expression that doesn’t fool Naruto for a second.
It doesn’t fool Sasuke, either.
“Don’t pretend to be stupid for the sake of being stupid. That’s his job,” he says, making a small gesture with his head towards Naruto.
“What the-”
Sasuke gives Naruto’s grey tie a light pull, reaching up with both hands to straighten Naruto’s collar. “Naruto, you idiot,” he murmurs, “you dumb idiot,” he breathes, soft and close against Naruto’s mouth still too far away growing even farther as he steps back, “I told you not to listen to Sai.”
At the loss of contact, Naruto only feels a little petulant, but he’s sorely tempted to accidentally mess up his tie on purpose just to have an excuse to bring Sasuke back to him.
“Sasuke?”
Naruto turns at the soft gasp of surprise that came from behind him, completely ignored and almost bowled over by a blur of red that all but runs into Sasuke’s arms.
Keeping his balance, Sasuke catches the blur with a grunt, returning the arms held around his waist with a careful embrace. “Tamaki, what are you-”
“It really has been too long, hasn’t it?” Tamaki says, releasing Sasuke with a warm smile. The two wide bracelets white and gold on her wrist make a series of light clinking noises as she pulls at the ruffled v-shaped collar of her sleeveless burgundy dress. They fall over her hand when she reaches down to pull at the hem stopping right above her knees. “I know we didn’t get a chance to speak during the ceremony, but Aunt Mikoto said you were still here.”
“...Tamaki, I wasn’t-I wouldn’t have left without saying anything.”
“Oh, I know,” Tamaki says, absent with a soft hum as she glances around the room. “So this is where you’ve been hiding all this time...” Standing on the toes of her brownish bronze flats, she peeks at Sai from around Sasuke’s shoulder. “Keeping Sasuke to yourself like this, Sai, how horrible of you.”
“Keeping Sasuke to myself?” Nonchalant, Sai brushes the back of his hand against the buttoned cuff of a black sleeve, shifting the majority of his weight on one foot. “No, I believe his date is the horrible one,” he says, giving a slight tilt of his head in the direction behind her.
“Your date, Sasuke? Where...” Brows knitted, Tamaki turns around before giving Sasuke a chance to speak, finally taking notice of Naruto standing behind her.
“Hi.” Naruto chuckles, raising a hand to rub the back of his neck. “I’m Naruto. Sasuke’s date, I guess.”
“I-I am so sorry. Please forgive me. It wasn’t my intention to ignore you.” Back almost ramrod straight, she gives a short bow, head lowered and hands folded in front of her. “I’m Sasuke’s cousin. Tamaki.”
“Really, being the same age, you don’t have to be so formal around me. I’m just-”
“But you’re that Uzumaki Naruto, aren’t you?” Arms falling to her sides, Tamaki raises her head. She shares a brief look with Sai, who gives a slight nod. Her mouth forms into a small oh of understanding when she faces Naruto again. “The one everyone’s been talking about, yes?”
“How’d you-”
“Your hair,” Sai says, laying a hand on top of Sasuke’s head. He manages to slip in a few stiff pats over dark hair before a clearly annoyed Sasuke pushes the hand away.
Naruto blinks at the sudden uncanny feeling he’s getting. The whole gossiping too much thing, maybe Sasuke was right after all.
Tamaki watches him for a moment that doesn’t last long, but then she gives him this pretty smile, pushing behind her ear long strands of light brown hair that frames her face. She leans closer to Sasuke to whisper in his ear, except not really, because what she says is still loud enough for Naruto to hear. “And he’s so handsome, too, Sasuke.”
“T-tamaki,” Sasuke chokes out.
Laughing a little, Naruto blushes under her gaze. Not to say he thinks he’s some sort of idol or anything, but he knows he’s not the ugliest guy around, either, if people’s reactions to his dad’s looks are anything to go by, so being admired like that, it’s still nice to be told that kind of thing from time to time.
“For someone in Naruto’s condition,” Sai says, “unfortunate as it is to suffer from that kind of deficiency, alongside the already inevitable sexual frustration, I suppose he has to be able to compensate for his inability to-”
Fingers tight around Sai’s wrist, Sasuke hisses something to him Naruto doesn’t catch. Whatever he said, though, it just ends up curving Sai’s lips into this unsettling kind of knowing smile that doesn’t do a lot to inspire any confidence.
Sasuke’s cousin or not, he’s really, really starting to not like that guy.
Tamaki spares a quick look to Sai, mirroring Sasuke’s glare that’s more exasperated than anything close to being intimidating. It seems this kind of thing with Sai actually is normal enough to be expected.
“Please excuse our cousin,” Tamaki says, cheeks tinted a light pink as she gives Naruto another one of those pretty and polite smiles, “sometimes he can be a little...”
“I always thought-” Sai starts to say, but Sasuke doesn’t let him finish.
“Don’t, Sai.”
“Although he really does mean well,” Tamaki says, “really,” she says again, almost like she’s trying to convince herself. “He just-well, anyway, Naruto,” she says brightly, “I apologise for making such a hasty request, but please allow me to borrow Sasuke for a little while, to take him upstairs. I promise to return him to you quickly.”
“You can’t just make these kinds of decisions on your own,” Sasuke says, not bothering to hide the slight tug of his lips turning into a frown.
“I’m not.” Tamaki looks up at him, linking her arm around Sasuke’s elbow and holding him close. “I’m asking Naruto.”
“That’s not what I-”
“Of course, you’re welcome to come, too, Naruto.”
“I, um...” Not knowing what he should say, Naruto looks to an unhelpful looking Sasuke for help. “I don’t think that’s really my decision to make...”
“Being someone so close to Sasuke,” Tamaki says, “I’m sure Uncle Teyaki and Aunt Uruchi would like to meet you.” She squeezes Sasuke’s arm held against her side. “They’ve been asking about you all night, Sasuke.”
Sasuke stills for a moment, a movement so slight and nearly imperceptible it almost doesn’t happen, but it’s still something Naruto knows Sasuke well enough by now not to miss. “I...”
“You should go, you know,” Naruto says, wearing the wide kind of reassuring grin that usually gets Sasuke to go along with him, because Sasuke’s been using him as a crutch ever since they got here, and really, despite all his joking earlier, he’ll be okay without Sasuke for a few minutes.
Sasuke hesitates. “What about you?”
“Ah, that, well, actually, I feel like taking a break anyway, so I’ll just wait at our table. Plus, I want to get some more mushroom rice. And pork miso. And some more of those tiny little salt-grilled chicken skewers. Probably another piece of braised pork. Maybe some of the shrimp tempura udon, too, since I haven’t had a chance to try that yet. Oh, and another piece of that really pretty looking mousse cake, before it’s all gone. Raspberry and white chocolate together, I didn’t think I’d like it so much, but it really is that good.”
Sai and Tamaki just stare at him, but Sasuke lets out a small sigh.
“What? It is.”
“If you’d rather stay here, Naruto, I’ll be more than happy to keep you company,” Sai chimes in unnecessarily. Very unnecessarily.
Although if it makes Sasuke feel more comfortable about leaving him, Naruto won’t mind putting up with Sai a little while longer, even when Sai starts giving him that lopsided smile he gave Sasuke earlier, the one where-okay, maybe he really does mind, but that doesn’t mean he’s actually going to change his mind.
“Hey,” he says, gives this small little smile that’s just for Sasuke, “I’m me, remember.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“Sure, sure, that’s what you always say.” Naruto laughs with another wide grin. “I’ll be right here, though, okay.”
“Like you have anywhere else to go.”
“Not without you.”
Sasuke snorts. “You’re such an idiot.”
“I know.”
“Thank you, Naruto. It was a pleasure to meet you,” Tamaki says, soft with the gentle kind of smile that almost makes Naruto wonder if there’s something she’s not saying, but she turns away from him before he can ask. “We should hurry, Sasuke. I don’t want to be stuck playing flower cards with Aunt Uruchi’s group again this year.”
“W-wait, Tamaki,” Sasuke says, trying to not stumble as Tamaki pulls him away, “who said anything about playing flower cards?”
His voice starts to fade in the distance, disappearing as they reach the double doors, and Naruto blinks when he notices Sai watching him, reminding him he’s not alone.
“...what?”
Sai keeps staring, but unlike before, this time the look seems more assessing. Less...whatever the hell it was he was trying to do earlier. “You’re very...strange.”
Really? Of all the things this perverted guy has the nerve to come up with, he’s the strange one?
“Yet with the way you behave around Sasuke, assuming you’ve known him long enough,” Sai says, “would you say you’re able to satisfy his needs?”
“Tch. A guy like you asking that kind of thing.”
“Do you feel you’re able to fulfil his emotional needs, I should say, given how adamant you feel about your lack of sexual-”
“Not trying to be rude or anything,” Naruto says, casual, a finger and thumb pulling on the lobe of his ear, “since you’re Sasuke’s cousin and all, but I don’t think any of that’s your business to know.”
“So you don’t?”
There’s a sharp edge to the corner of Naruto’s mouth. “What I don’t like is what you’re implying.”
“Nothing,” Sai says, expression a little too bland, “I’m simply asking a question.”
“Look, Sasuke’s an adult. He can take care of himself. It’s not up to you to decide what he does with his life.”
“Yes, all of those things are true.” Sai closes his eyes, head slightly cocked to the side. A small quirk to his lips almost looks like a smile. “Although I still wonder what my little cousin sees in you. It’s rare that Sasuke allows himself to become this emotionally attached to anyone outside of our family. That Sasuke even brought you here, you must be a very special person, Uzumaki Naruto.”
Honestly, Naruto’s not sure if he should take that as a compliment or not. He really can’t tell with someone like Sai. Can’t really say he wants to, either, after this sudden personality change, but at least the tension on his part’s a little less awkward with Sai not talking about sex. “Uh, thanks? I guess...”
Sai opens his eyes. He still has that smile on his face, that uneven smile that’s probably what Sai thinks is supposed to be inviting or something, except it kind of makes Naruto want to take a few steps back instead.
Just as he’s about to head for the dessert table, however, a familiar voice calling for Sai has them both turning to see Obito making his way over, and Naruto grins as Obito claps a hand on Sai’s shoulder.
He met Sasuke’s uncle right before the wedding, while the guests were being ushered in. Almost late, Obito was the last person to arrive, having stopped to help a couple of tourists who barely knew Japanese find their way around the city, because that’s just the kind of guy he is, the genuinely nice kind of relatable guy Naruto felt an instant attraction to despite the nearly thirty-year age gap between him.
“My nephew’s not giving you a hard time, is he?” Adjusting large black rimmed glasses, Obito returns Naruto’s grin with a friendly one of his own. It takes away from the streaks of grey in chin length dark hair held back with a tie, makes him look a lot younger than he actually is.
“I only asked a few questions,” Sai says. “I don’t see the harm in being curious.”
Removing his hand from Sai’s shoulder, Obito laughs. “Maybe so, but knowing your conflicting nature, knowing your tendency to rile people, someone who doesn’t know you isn’t used to that sort of thing.”
“Naruto’s an exception.”
Obito nods, making a low noise in agreement. “Even so, you’re too old to be teasing Sasuke so much. You’re almost twenty-six, aren’t you? You guys aren’t kids anymore.”
“Does it make a difference that I tease Tamaki, as well?”
“Really, Naruto, don’t let this guy get to you. Teasing you is just his way of showing how much he missed Sasuke,” Obito says, chuckling. “Speaking of which, where’s your other half anyway? I thought you’d be with Sasuke, but...”
“Tamaki’s having a turn with him,” Sai says.
“You really shouldn’t twist your words to sound that way,” Naruto mutters, “like Sasuke’s something you can just toss around.”
Both Sai and Obito raise an eyebrow, something everybody in this family seems able to do, if only because Naruto can’t raise one eyebrow without the other.
Under their stares, Naruto can’t stop the heat he feels colouring his cheeks. He tries to laugh it off, embarrassed that he was caught being so defensive of Sasuke in front of Sasuke’s family.
“Of course he isn’t,” Sai says, but Obito just smiles, an amused glint to his eyes that makes Naruto’s face turn even redder.
“What a funny guy.”
“A funny guy indeed.”
“Oh, before I forget why I came looking for you,” Obito says, eyes slightly wide fixed on Naruto,” Itachi was asking around for you earlier.”
Naruto points to his nose. “Me?”
“Mm...” Obito gives the room a quick glance. “He’s here somewhere. Knowing him, he’ll probably find you first, but-oh, and I have a message for you, too, Sai. The guys in the Peacock room, they’re complaining Emi’s winning too much at nine-cards.”
“Emi?”
“This one’s high school sweetheart.”
Naruto turns incredulous eyes on Sai. “You have a girlfriend?” Not that he thinks Sai shouldn’t have a girlfriend, yet somehow, the idea that Sai could have that kind of relationship with anyone, much less a high school sweetheart, it’s a little hard to grasp.
“That’s what I said, too.” Obito grins. “But they grew up together, drifted apart after high school, and then they found each other again in Gifu last year-like something straight out of a girl’s man-”
“This is where I’ll be taking my leave,” Sai says, one hand smoothing down the right lapel of his black jacket. “Meeting you has been a very interesting experience, Naruto.” His mouth curves into this barely there little smile before he offers Naruto a slight bow of his head, doing the same for Obito. “Until later, Uncle.”
“Everyone sending me to deliver messages like this tonight, maa, I feel like the errand boy I’m too old to be.” Closing his eyes, Obito lets out an indulgent sigh. He peeks at Naruto with one eye opened. “You don’t have a message for me, too, do you?”
“Actually, um,” Naruto begins, “considering we just met today, I know this sounds kind of sudden, so it’s fine if you don’t want to answer, but can I ask you something?”
Obito watches him with both eyes. “Shoot.”
“...do you know who Shisui is?”
“Let’s see. Shisui, huh?” Obito pauses with a thoughtful look on his face. “Shisui, Shisui, Shisui...I do. Why do you ask?”
“Itachi said something to me this morning, when we were on the phone.” Naruto's brows furrow. “I didn’t think much of it then, but being here and not running into him yet, I started wondering, because Itachi told me I reminded him of Shisui.”
Quickly, Obito sobers. “He did, did he?”
Naruto nods. “It was kind of an offhand comment, though, since he didn’t say how or why. When I asked Sasuke, he said the name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he heard it from.”
“No, Sasuke probably wouldn’t. He was too young to remember who his cousin Shisui was.”
“Was?”
“Was. He passed away a long time ago.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” Naruto lowers his head for a moment. He raises it again to look at Obito with an almost frown. “But being compared to Shisui then, that’s not a bad thing, right?”
“Ah, but then that would be telling, wouldn’t it?” Obito smiles, broad and a little silly, bringing to the surface the kinds of wrinkles around his eyes that can only come from smiling a lot. He tilts his head a bit, a finger resting on the side of his face. Then he winks. “And an old man like me can only hope to keep the secrets he doesn’t tell.”
The smile’s contagious enough that Naruto can’t help himself when he gives one back that’s just as wide. “You really don’t look that old, you know.”
“Trying to get me to spill my secrets, are you?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Are you hiding from your debt, old man?” comes a low voice from behind him, and for the second time Naruto nearly starts.
Hikaku, he remembers, recognising the voice that belongs to the man Sasuke introduced him to earlier, although he’d appreciate the recognition more if he made it without Hikaku sneaking up on him, because that’s something people should really take the time not to do.
Somewhere around Obito’s age, or even a little older, maybe a little more serious, too, Hikaku’s another one of Sasuke’s uncles, a tall guy with long dark hair in a style that almost reminds Naruto of Itachi’s.
He steps closer to Obito, acknowledging Naruto with a small, polite nod.
“Sage advice for your generation,” Obito says, directing a finger at Naruto, “the best time to gamble is when you’re old. That’s why you catch so many old people in those pachinko parlours. But the real reason old people like to gamble, at this age, you have nothing left to lose. So even if you’re old enough now, it’s always best to wait to incur any debt.”
“If your gambling was as habitual as your drinking,” Hikaku says, “this family would make a collective decision to disown you.”
“As an old man clinging to my youth, at this stage in life, drinking is my right.”
“Yet you’ve managed to spend nearly half your life in bars.”
“Only in the ones I own,” Obito counters, draping an arm around Hikaku’s shoulders, “but with no children to carry my name, take pity on this poor old widowed Obito, Hikaku.”
“That ploy stopped working years ago. I have no sympathy for your kind of act.”
“Be my partner for another round of nine-cards upstairs then. We can bet with your money this time.”
“I already used your money to hold our place for the next hand.”
Letting his arm fall from Hikaku’s shoulders, Obito lets out a muted noise extremely close to sounding like a whine. “How cruel of you, Hikaku, someone with your kind of bad luck making use of my good money...”
“Money you can be conveniently meagre with around me.”
Obito grins wide, not disagreeing. “Well, is there any more of the black sesame dango left? And the good kind of beer Aunt Kayou didn’t want to bring out? I need something to distract me from the future losses that will further incur my debt.”
“The restaurant’s still open.”
“Right.” Adjusting his round glasses, Obito gives a firm nod. “Let’s go then.” Before following Hikaku, he looks back to Naruto. “You’re old enough to drink and gamble, aren’t you? You should come.”
“Hehe, as fun as that sounds, I think I’m just going to grab something to eat and wait for Sasuke.”
“If you change your mind...”
Naruto shakes his head. “Nah, I’ll be fine. Thanks, though.”
“You know where to find me. But if I see Sasuke, I’ll make sure to send him your way, all right,” Obito says, throwing from over his shoulder another one of those really friendly smiles Naruto can’t help but return.
He gives a quick wave of his hand, watching Obito turn around to walk away.
There’s still no sign of Sasuke yet, but the ballroom’s quieted down some, with more people sitting than standing, and Naruto makes his way to the food tables. He fills two small plates and takes them to his assigned seat next to Sasuke’s, on the really nice comfortable chair where his dark grey jacket hangs off the back.
On the table he sits a small plate of finger-sized portions of meat. He’ll have to go back for the pork miso and the shrimp tempura udon, but this is good for now. The second plate he places down holds two thin slices of the white chocolate raspberry mousse cake, one for him and the other for Sasuke that he puts on a separate plate and covers with a cloth napkin.
It’s not the wedding cake, but he already got a chance to try that earlier, when the reception first started and people around the room were standing to give toasts to the bride and groom. The real wedding cake was a four-tiered almond cake, filled with layers of lemon curd and topped with a Swiss Buttercream frosting decorated with tiny intricate red and white flowers scattered along a gold beaded trim.
Although Sasuke doesn’t really eat too many sweets, Naruto shared a piece of the cake with him. Actually, he suggested they feed each other their first bites of cake, because he heard that’s a tradition in Western weddings for newly married couples, but when he told Sasuke, trying to bring a forkful of cake to Sasuke’s mouth, he almost got a fork in his eye for his all his troubles, and then Sasuke said he’d throw the cake in Naruto’s face, which, of course, he knew Sasuke wouldn’t, but after scraping off most of the frosting, eventually, he did manage to get Sasuke to take a few bites on his own.
As good as that cake was, though, this braised pork is even better, and he just about moans as the tender pieces melt in his mouth, juicy and moist, maybe even good enough and worth risking his life to ask Sasuke to try a recipe for this kind of braised pork.
Ever since Naruto told his mom that Sasuke started to cook, when she gave Sasuke a copy of that one Tiradito recipe she hunted down some poor chef in a Peruvian restaurant for, Sasuke’s been trying his hand at cooking more often. He’s not always the best at it, or at least he’s not always the best at experimenting with the non-traditional stuff, because he’s really, really good with Japanese food, but whatever Sasuke makes, unwillingly or not, Naruto will end up being the guinea pig anyway, secretly thinking of the charm Kiba slipped him to protect him from food poisoning that he has hidden away in a place where Sasuke will never find it.
So far, it seems to be working.
“Naruto.”
Dropping his chopsticks, Naruto almost jumps out of his skin at the deep voice, a hand flying to his chest and placed over his heart beating way too fast for his health. He turns to see Itachi taking a seat in the empty chair across from him. Taking a couple good seconds, he breathes in and breathes out, just to remind himself that he’s still able to.
That’s the third time today. What is it with these people and trying to scare the shit out of him?
“Somehow, I can’t help but feeling this is all part of some scheme to scare me to death by the end of the night.”
“Far from it.” There’s a faint smile on Itachi’s lips as he places a wide-bowled glass of red wine in front of Naruto.
“Thanks.”
“I’m sorry for startling you, though. It wasn’t my intention.”
Picking up the offered glass, Naruto lets out a small laugh. “I guess I’ll just have to take your word for it,” he says, taking a tentative sip of the wine. Beer’s more his thing, but this isn’t so bad.
He licks his lips, swallowing the slightly sweet flavour that leaves a pleasant taste in his mouth. After taking another, more generous swig, he sets the glass back on the table. “Oh-Obito said you were looking for me?”
Itachi gives a low hum, carefully twirling the flute glass in his hand. “I didn’t know if you and Sasuke had already left.”
“Oh. That. Really, I don’t think he’d leave without telling you, but we were just outside talking for a while. I didn’t know we took that long.”
“Ah.” Itachi gives a slight nod, bringing to his lips the glass of champagne with a relatively thick layer of carbonation nearly touching the brim. “Are you enjoying yourself?”
“Yeah, yeah, this place is great. Big, too. I’ve never been to a wedding before, so the whole thing’s a little overwhelming, to be honest.” Naruto brightens with a grin. “But it’s exciting, too, though.
“Getting a chance to spend time with your family, meeting so many new people that are important to Sasuke, actually, I’m starting to wish I brought my baby.”
“Your baby?”
Hand reaching for the back of his neck, Naruto gives a sheepish laugh at Itachi’s raised eyebrow, “Not a real baby of course. Unless me and Sasuke, but that’s not what I-my Nikon F6, is what I’m trying to say. My camera, I mean. Being an ‘04 SLR model, I know it’s a little outdated, but it’s the first professional camera I ever bought. Got it for a really good price used, too. I’ve had it since high school, so baby’s just something I like to call it, I guess.”
Naruto sits up a little straighter in his chair. “I have a DSLR, too, a Nikon D3X. I’m lucky enough to work at a used camera store, so I got the ’10 model for a really good deal, because my boss is really nice. It’s just that I still have a soft spot for my first one, you know.”
“What people tend to cherish often bears the weight of a significant experience. Holding close what’s precious to you, it’s not unreasonable.”
Naruto agrees with an absent murmur, trailing off at the familiar glimpse of dark hair he sees on the other side of the ballroom. “...it’s not.”
He starts to smile a little, small but gradually growing when Sasuke immediately looks in his direction, warm and assuring when he catches Sasuke’s gaze he holds forever in that one moment until Itachi’s voice brings the world dissolved around them back to life.
“Hmm?” Arm propped on the table, Naruto rests his head against his palm. His eyes travel to the tall woman by Sasuke’s side. Mei, his mind easily reminds him, Itachi’s really pretty not quite sort of on-and-off girlfriend who almost caught the bouquet thrown by Sasuke’s aunt.
With a hand on Sasuke’s arm, she stops him in the middle of the floor. Waist-length red hair no longer contained in a messy low side bun falls down her back and sways with her hips, covering an expensive looking blue dress that fits almost close to snug around her body.
She’s attractive, he’ll admit. Attractive in a subtle kind of provocative way that’s so different from the persona women are typically expected to present, and maybe even alluring in the same way that initially drew him to Sasuke, because sometimes Sasuke gets this little glint in his eyes, this really sultry look promising all kinds of good things to come, and Naruto honestly can’t say he doesn’t endorse leaving himself at the mercy of Sasuke’s more than capable hands.
Although instead of being aggressive and violently demanding (never mind how much Naruto actually likes Sasuke being rough with him), how Mei carries herself, assertive and silently commanding, with that kind of obvious confidence, she just stands out.
It’s like when people first meet Tsunade and unintentionally stare at her chest. Of course, it doesn’t happen all the time, but a rack that big is really hard not to notice, because it’s not something people see every day. Even Sasuke admitted he almost caught himself staring at her chest when he met her, and he’s the last person to do that kind of thing.
“The quiet appeal Mei has, I truly do sympathise with you, Naruto.”
Blinking, Naruto turns to Itachi, lifting his head from his hand. “Huh?”
“However, as encouraging as it is not to have any reservations concerning your commitment to Sasuke,” Itachi says, “I would appreciate it if you refrained from staring at Mei so intently.”
“I-Itachi, I didn’t-I wasn’t-” Naruto struggles to piece together some sort of sentence from the words that don’t just want to come. Okay, so yeah, maybe he was kind of staring at Mei, but only because he was thinking of Sasuke, so that definitely has to count for something. “It wasn't that I was trying to stare at Mei, but it’s not like you come across people like her every day.”
Gently setting down his glass of champagne half empty, Itachi simply looks at him.
“N-not that I was checking out your girlfriend, because I have Sasuke-we already established that, right, what you just said about me and my commitment to Sasuke-not to mention, Mei’s your girlfriend, so...”
Itachi doesn’t even blink.
“I did already mention how much I like Sasuke, didn’t I? Because I really do. A lot. A whole lot. I even told him right before we came here, after I told you about wanting to be your brother-in-law, remember, so it’s not that I meant to look like I was checking out your girlfriend in front of you. Which isn’t to say she’s not pretty or anything, because she really is, but I wasn’t trying to give you the impression I was checking her out in front of you like someone who didn’t already have Sasuke and didn’t already know she was your girlfriend.
“Because I wasn’t. Checking her out, that is. Really.”
Itachi blinks.
“...you know,” Naruto says, following a considerably substantial pause, “usually, Sasuke would have found some way to shut me up before I had a chance to get to this point.”
Itachi lets out a soft laugh, light and almost familiar but nothing like Sasuke’s. “You don’t have to censor yourself for my sake.”
“Oh. Okay.” Naruto heaves a sigh in relief, letting his body sag a little, but the tension quickly returning to his shoulders snaps them right back up. “Wait-wait, this isn’t some kind of trick to get me to let my guard down, is it?”
“Not unless you want to believe it is.”
“I’m really trying not to,” Naruto says, wry, giving Itachi a somewhat wary glance from the corner of his eye.
Although he knows Itachi likes him, Itachi still has this deceptively nice personality that’s a real testament to his outwardly calm nature. He can be a pretty intimidating guy at times, if only because Naruto also knows how much Itachi means to Sasuke, who, compared to his brother, is an open book Naruto’s read over and over again.
With the barest hint of a smile, Itachi picks up his glass and takes a small sip of champagne. “You’re fine, Naruto.”
“Now I just feel like you’re making fun of me.” Naruto grins at Itachi’s tiny little smile, glancing at Sasuke and Mei near the stage.
“Maybe a little,” Itachi admits, setting his glass on the table again.
“Heh, as long as you aren’t...”
“As long as I'm not what?”
Eyes growing wide, Naruto squawks, gaping at Sasuke and Mei. “Did she just-”
...
“-kiss me like that?” Sasuke says, rubbing the heel of his palm against his cheek and gifting Mei with a half-hearted glare. “I’m not some little kid.”
“And yet I couldn’t help myself. You’re adorable.”
“I’ve been an adult since you’ve known me. I’m not adorable.”
“Unfortunately for you, those cheeks say otherwise.”
“Mei...”
“Come on. Dance with me, Sasuke.”
“Why?”
“I want to be able to fully appreciate your aunt’s taste in music.” Pale lipstick is stained on full lips drawn into a secretive smile, and Mei reaches with her right hand to hold Sasuke’s left, easily resting her free arm around Sasuke’s shoulders. She’s already considerably taller than average, but dark sharp heels give her a few centimetres over Sasuke, putting her somewhere closer to Itachi’s height. “Appease me.”
“Make Itachi appease you.”
“Your brother refuses to dance with me.” Mei leans a little closer to leave a conspiratorial whisper in his ear. “Let’s make him jealous.”
As she pulls back, Sasuke snorts, but an obliging hand finds its way at her waist, leaving a comfortable distance between the two of them. “You know he won’t fall for that.”
“Of course. He’s too sensible for that kind of thing. I wouldn’t tolerate him if he wasn’t.” Thin metallic jewellery dangles and swings from her ears as Mei follows Sasuke’s movements. “Although it’s still fun to tease you, no?”
Sasuke sighs. “And this is why you were in such a hurry to bring me here, to dance in front of Itachi?”
“To some extent, I suppose, but I’m more interested in listening to your aunt sing.” Mei glances towards the stage, where a woman from the small band begins to play a soft melody on the white grand piano. “I heard she has an amazing voice for enka.”
Without bias, Sasuke can say his aunt sings well. He doesn’t particularly care for her preferred genre of music, aside from that Otowa Shinobu album he received for his tenth birthday, but he doesn’t dislike it, either. Enka’s the kind of music he grew up listening to whenever his dad took him to visit his grandmother during the winter, the kind of music he’d hum all the words to while lying beside his grandmother on the tatami floor, the kind of music an echo scratchy from her old record player nearly as quiet as the sounds of wide brushstrokes guided by a small hand trying to emulate the vast mountains high above the shrine near his grandmother’s house.
“Do you know if she’ll sing tonight?” Mei says. “Itachi told me she didn’t sing at her last wedding. Which one was that-her fifth one?”
“Maybe,” Sasuke says. “I think she sang at the wedding before that, but this is her eighth one.”
Mei releases a soft hum. “There’s a rumour circulating that her talking cats are ultimately what drove off her last three husbands.”
“Her cats don’t talk.” Sasuke almost frowns but then thinks better of entertaining that rumour surprisingly still going around.
He believed it once, when he was five and he and Tamaki would take turns trying to get Aunt Kayou’s old cats to tell them all the secrets of the world, including why Tamaki's grandfather always seemed to smell like fermented cabbage. Of course, they were at that gullible age Sai was more than happy to take advantage of, although after a while of waiting for the cats to respond, they eventually did grow bored and realise the cats weren’t able to talk, no matter how much Aunt Kayou liked to talk to them.
“Cats don’t talk.”
“Not according to what I heard,” Mei says. “How many does she actually have?”
Truthfully, Sasuke’s lost count over the years, yet his aunt’s house is large enough to accommodate more than she probably needs. “Too many. She’s almost seventy. I don’t know how she keeps up with them all.”
“That’s what a husband is for.”
“If that’s what you want to believe.”
“Wanting to make someone you love happy, no matter how uncertain the task, I’d still like to believe in it.” After a pregnant pause, with poorly concealed enthusiasm bright in her eyes, Mei says, “Now tell me about Naruto.”
Sasuke almost makes a face. “That’s why you wanted me to dance with you.”
“After you introduced him as a very close friend, you two left before I had an opportunity to speak to him. Itachi claimed it wasn’t his place to say anything, but it wasn’t too difficult to figure out. Everyone I ran into couldn’t stop talking about the elusive blond man you brought home. Especially the ladies. As of now, we’re all in agreement that Naruto’s best feature is his very handsome smile. He’s quite the catch.”
“Putting so much emphasis into that kind of thing,” Sasuke says, glad Naruto’s not here to hear this, because for all the damage it could inflict, someone with Naruto’s inflated ego really doesn’t need to hear this, “tch, no one’s able to keep their mouth shut in this family.”
“Oh?” Mei eyes flutter in surprise. “And I’m family now?”
“You may as well be. You’re just as bad as everyone else.”
“Well, in that case,” Mei says, “I think I’d like to propose to your brother sometime soon.”
Eyes large, Sasuke coughs, nearly chokes when the air in his throat goes down the wrong way. “Y-you’re really going to...”
“Yes.”
“...this isn’t you asking me for approval, is it?”
“No,” she says, the word pleasant and airy accompanied by a gentle squeeze of Sasuke’s shoulder she removes her arm from as they come to a stop. “I simply felt this was something I wanted you to know."
“I don’t...”
Mei gives a small shake of her head. “Because you’re important to Itachi, that means you’re important to me, too.”
Slow, Sasuke nods when she releases his left hand, letting his right hand fall away from her hip.
“Let’s keep it a secret between us, though, shall we?” Smiling, Mei gives him a light tap on the tip of his nose. “If he accepts, I need you to pretend to be surprised when we make the announcement.”
Sasuke gives her another half-hearted glare. “Making that kind of serious confession to me and then treating me like some kid, what’s the point in that?”
“You’re adorable when you sulk.”
“Mei...”
“You still haven’t told me about Naruto.”
“He’s Naruto.” Lower lip tucked beneath his teeth, Sasuke glances at the stage behind them. “What more is there to say?”
“Rumour has it there’s much more than you’re willing to tell.”
Sasuke groans.
Continued
As long as it is, though, I'm surprised that I still managed to cut out so darn much. Boy, Naruto can sure talk someone's ear off.
***
Characters: Naruto/Sasuke, Sai, Tamaki, Obito, Itachi, Mei
Rating: PG-13
Words: 14,749
Summary: “It’s still a wedding, isn’t it?”
Although the ballroom’s a little less crowded than it was before, it’s still filled with a considerable number of Sasuke’s family members Naruto doesn’t know. A lot of older people mostly, which probably explains why he’s been on the receiving end of so much formality.
Probably explains the enka music, too. Not that it’s bad. That style of traditional sounding music, he just doesn’t have a preference for it. Sasuke did say his Aunt Kayou used to perform enka when she was younger, though, making small tours around the Chuugoku region with her parents sometime during the late forties and early fifties, when that kind of music started to become popular after the war.
There’s even a rumour still floating around that when she was sixteen, after a concert in Hiroshima, she turned down an offer to sing with Koga Masao, who Sasuke said was a notable guy in the genre, but then Sasuke also said the majority of his family’s no more than a bunch of old-fashioned gossipmongers too caught up in the history of their lineage and far too entertained by even the slightest hint of a scandal.
When Naruto pointed out how that pretty much described Sasuke around anything that had to do with the name Uchiha, Sasuke pinched him.
But with each step further into the spacious ballroom, it’s easy to see how much respect Sasuke has for his family. Heading for their assigned seats all the way on the other side, Sasuke steers them through the gaps between moderately sized round tables and scattered groups of people, pausing to acknowledge the older family members he didn’t get a chance to greet during the wedding. He takes his time, more polite than he usually is every once in a while, using the really formal kind of language Naruto wouldn’t have even known Sasuke knew before the wedding.
Honestly, Naruto’s not that familiar with such a humble form of honorific speech, never having a need to learn more than the standard etiquette everybody already knows in order to get by. He’s quick on his feet, though, following Sasuke’s lead with a polite bow of his head each time Sasuke excuses them to leave, and if he gets this really light feeling in his chest at the fact Sasuke keeps referring to the two of them as us, well, Naruto won’t fault himself for that.
They’re almost halfway there when Sasuke just freezes, almost making Naruto bump into him.
“What?”
Trying too hard not to seem obvious, little by little, Sasuke starts to backtrack, heading towards the corner at the end of the long buffet style table placed against the wall. “Nothing.”
“Uh, tell me if I’m wrong, but isn’t our table the other way?”
“Never mind that. Just keep moving.”
“Why?” Naruto looks around the room, trying to find out what caused Sasuke to turn around. “What’d you see back there?”
Impatient, Sasuke gives him a light nudge, finger pressing into Naruto’s side. “You’re being too conspicuous. Hurry up before he sees me.”
“Before who sees you?”
“Little cousin,” drones a voice from behind him, and Naruto starts at the sudden appearance of some guy practically breathing down the back of his neck, muttering a curse under the cover of an exhale.
“I’m too old for you to still be calling me that, Sai,” Sasuke says, dropping the formality, resigned with the restrained kind of annoyed sigh Naruto’s heard more than once or twice.
The guy who obviously doesn’t understand what personal space is-Sai, whose name sounds an awful lot like the guy Sasuke was warning him about earlier-steps from around Naruto to stand right beside Sasuke, creating a small circle between the three of them. “I’m almost under the impression you were trying to avoid me.”
He looks at Sasuke with a strange sort of smile. Beneath the questionable gleam in his eyes, it spreads slow across his face, giving off this almost artificial effect that makes the smile appear lopsided.
It’s a little off-putting actually.
Apparently, Sai’s smile doesn’t bother Sasuke, though. He returns the look with one of his more bored expressions, but it’s with an underlying ease Naruto immediately picks up on, because it’s the same kind of familiarity Sasuke has with him.
“Deliberately walking in the opposite direction after seeing you,” he says, “I didn’t think I could be any more subtle.”
Sai just continues to smile.
Naruto looks between the two of them. There’s a passing resemblance, he’ll admit, but nothing he would’ve caught if he didn’t know they were cousins. Sai’s eyes aren’t as dark. His hair’s cropped short and more of a brown than Sasuke’s nearly jet black. He’s a lot paler, too, like he hasn’t seen the light of day in years.
Give or take, he’s got a few good centimetres on Sasuke. He looks a little older, maybe closer to Itachi’s age, but still probably one of the younger members of Sasuke’s family Naruto’s seen so far. There aren’t too many of them. When Naruto asked about it earlier, after the ceremony, Sasuke admitted to being the youngest, only a couple months behind Tamaki, the bride’s granddaughter.
“Kagami mentioned you bringing a guest.” For the tiniest second, Sai studies Sasuke, but then just as quickly sets his gaze on Naruto.
“Who are you?” he says, tone a little too curt, almost like he already knows the answer to his own question.
Apparently Sasuke isn’t the only exception in his family.
Before Naruto can introduce himself, though, the Uzu from Uzumaki right on the tip of his tongue, Sasuke cuts him off.
“Leaving-he’s leaving.” Sasuke gives Naruto a pointed look he then turns on Sai. “We’re both leaving.”
Not leaving, Naruto frowns at the sudden change in behaviour. “Sasuke, what’re you-”
“You’re Naruto then. Uzumaki Naruto.”
Sasuke groans, mumbling something about his family being too nosy for their own good.
“How’d you-”
“You’re difficult to miss,” Sai says, glancing at Naruto’s hair. He stares at him with a disturbing kind of intensity, like he’s somehow trying to commit Naruto’s face to memory. “How long have you been having sex with Sasuke?”
Naruto balks.
“The next time I say we’re leaving,” Sasuke says, clipped, “we’re actually leaving.”
“Considering your propensity to shy away from most people outside of our family, Sasuke, the mere fact you invited Naruto here,” Sai says, “to this kind of family oriented occasion, not too dissimilar from Itachi’s situation regarding Mei, I feel it’s safe to conclude the two of you must be in a relationship that involves sex.”
Of all people, Naruto knows he’s not someone known for his tact, but really, this guy’s painfully blunt.
Which, of course, doesn’t mean Naruto can’t be just as straightforward.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he hisses. “Making that of kind assumption, being so open about other people’s personal lives and trying to violate their priva-”
“So you are having sex.”
Again, Naruto balks.
“I’m only making an observation.”
“Well, it wouldn’t hurt you to keep those kinds of inappropriate observations to yourself. You shouldn’t be so interested in that sort of thing anyway.”
“Sai’s just trying to get under your skin,” Sasuke says, reaching up to give Sai’s off-white bowtie a sharp tug that makes it lie crooked below Sai’s chin. “A guy who makes a hobby out of provoking people, don’t listen to-what are you doing?”
Two fingers pulling back the collars of Sasuke’s jacket and shirt, Sai peers down at Sasuke’s neck, near his collarbone, inspecting the smallest little blemish on pale skin. “I was curious to see if there was anything on your neck.”
Batting away Sai’s hand, Sasuke hurries to adjust his clothes.
“And there is,” Sai says, seemingly unaffected by Sasuke’s glare that’s then directed to the last person of their three-man circle.
Recognising the exposed blemish as the hickey he left this morning, Naruto chuckles a little, feeling a guilty flush burning his cheeks that’s really close to taking over his entire face.
As bad as Sasuke might want to make it out to be, they actually weren’t doing anything more than kissing, the real heated sort of dazed kissing Sasuke likes to do whenever he’s really anxious about something but refuses to admit it. Staying in a really nice Western hotel or not, being in Yamaguchi for his aunt’s wedding, it wasn’t the right kind of atmosphere to do anything heavy. So they didn’t.
Yet while Naruto can’t say he didn’t notice the blemish, it was still low enough on Sasuke’s neck that no one else should have noticed. Which is why he didn’t exactly tell Sasuke about it. Besides, it’s not like Sasuke hasn’t left some incriminating marks on his skin, either, like the ones all over his thighs that one time, but the hickey was covered well enough by Sasuke’s shirt, even with the first couple of buttons undone.
Unless someone knew where to look for it, they wouldn’t have been able to find it. And because he left it there this morning, he should have been the only someone able to find it.
Definitely not a certain perverted someone who shouldn’t have even been looking for something like that in the first place. And definitely not the same certain perverted someone who’s being a little too attentive staring at Naruto’s neck.
“Personal space-personal space,” he almost squeaks, backing away from Sai taking a step towards him.
Thankfully, Sai’s able to get the hint this time, but it only seems to divert his attention somewhere it sure as hell has no place being.
“For someone already so lacking in more obvious areas, shrinking when it comes to the mention of your sexual relationship with Sasuke,” he says, with a glance at Naruto’s crotch that settles there a few seconds too long, “does that mean you suffer from performance issues, as well?”
Again, for the third time, Naruto balks.
There’s a slight twitch to Sasuke’s left eye, the telltale twitch of irritation. “You’re being this annoying on purpose. I know you are.”
“Look, not everybody appreciates when people talk so freely about that kind of thing, all right.” Naruto steps in front of Sasuke, lowering his voice he keeps a harsh whisper. “What are you even looking down there for, huh?”
“You’re right,” Sai says. “There’s nothing to see.”
“Just what are you trying to-”
“Bye, Sai.” Grabbing Naruto’s elbow, Sasuke gives it a light pull.
Naruto doesn’t budge, though. He shakes his head, brushing off the fingers trying to cut off the circulation to his arm. “No, tell him, Sasuke. Tell him how big I really am down-”
Hand tightening around Naruto’s elbow, in one controlled motion so quick Naruto even doesn’t realise what happened until after the fact, Sasuke all but yanks him to his side. “As soon as we get back to our room,” he says, voice low the dangerous kind of calm that probably shouldn’t excite Naruto as much as it actually does, “I will kill you.”
“Is that a euphemism for sex?”
“Hey, you,” Naruto says, almost jabbing Sai’s chest with his finger, “you dirty pervert-you don’t get to be so concerned about that kind of thing.”
With a long-suffering sigh, Sasuke drops Naruto’s elbow and moves to push down Naruto’s hand, stepping in between him and Sai. “I should have left you in Narita.”
Naruto just gives Sai this look, this completely disbelieving sort of gobsmacked look because he swears the guy is silently laughing at him from behind Sasuke’s back, swears he sees a hint of a tiny smile sneaking onto Sai’s face, which isn’t fair at all, since the fact the conversation somehow managed to snowball into the quality of his and Sasuke’s sex life, it’s really not his fault. “But Sasuke, Sai’s the one who-”
“Leave Naruto alone, Sai.” Sasuke turns narrowed eyes on Sai. “Stop trying to antagonise him.”
“I wasn’t aware I was being antagonistic.”
“Of course you weren’t,” Naruto mutters.
“Does it upset you, discussing the matter of sex as inconsequential as the size of your-”
“I dare you to-”
“Both of you,” Sasuke says, raising two fingers that massage his temple, “shut up before you cause some kind of scene.”
From their place in the corner, Naruto takes a quick glimpse around the room. Miraculously, somehow, they actually hadn’t attracted any onlookers. It almost makes him wonder if this kind of thing with Sai is normal enough to be expected.
“Sai.”
Sai blinks at Sasuke, wearing the confused kind of innocent expression that doesn’t fool Naruto for a second.
It doesn’t fool Sasuke, either.
“Don’t pretend to be stupid for the sake of being stupid. That’s his job,” he says, making a small gesture with his head towards Naruto.
“What the-”
Sasuke gives Naruto’s grey tie a light pull, reaching up with both hands to straighten Naruto’s collar. “Naruto, you idiot,” he murmurs, “you dumb idiot,” he breathes, soft and close against Naruto’s mouth still too far away growing even farther as he steps back, “I told you not to listen to Sai.”
At the loss of contact, Naruto only feels a little petulant, but he’s sorely tempted to accidentally mess up his tie on purpose just to have an excuse to bring Sasuke back to him.
“Sasuke?”
Naruto turns at the soft gasp of surprise that came from behind him, completely ignored and almost bowled over by a blur of red that all but runs into Sasuke’s arms.
Keeping his balance, Sasuke catches the blur with a grunt, returning the arms held around his waist with a careful embrace. “Tamaki, what are you-”
“It really has been too long, hasn’t it?” Tamaki says, releasing Sasuke with a warm smile. The two wide bracelets white and gold on her wrist make a series of light clinking noises as she pulls at the ruffled v-shaped collar of her sleeveless burgundy dress. They fall over her hand when she reaches down to pull at the hem stopping right above her knees. “I know we didn’t get a chance to speak during the ceremony, but Aunt Mikoto said you were still here.”
“...Tamaki, I wasn’t-I wouldn’t have left without saying anything.”
“Oh, I know,” Tamaki says, absent with a soft hum as she glances around the room. “So this is where you’ve been hiding all this time...” Standing on the toes of her brownish bronze flats, she peeks at Sai from around Sasuke’s shoulder. “Keeping Sasuke to yourself like this, Sai, how horrible of you.”
“Keeping Sasuke to myself?” Nonchalant, Sai brushes the back of his hand against the buttoned cuff of a black sleeve, shifting the majority of his weight on one foot. “No, I believe his date is the horrible one,” he says, giving a slight tilt of his head in the direction behind her.
“Your date, Sasuke? Where...” Brows knitted, Tamaki turns around before giving Sasuke a chance to speak, finally taking notice of Naruto standing behind her.
“Hi.” Naruto chuckles, raising a hand to rub the back of his neck. “I’m Naruto. Sasuke’s date, I guess.”
“I-I am so sorry. Please forgive me. It wasn’t my intention to ignore you.” Back almost ramrod straight, she gives a short bow, head lowered and hands folded in front of her. “I’m Sasuke’s cousin. Tamaki.”
“Really, being the same age, you don’t have to be so formal around me. I’m just-”
“But you’re that Uzumaki Naruto, aren’t you?” Arms falling to her sides, Tamaki raises her head. She shares a brief look with Sai, who gives a slight nod. Her mouth forms into a small oh of understanding when she faces Naruto again. “The one everyone’s been talking about, yes?”
“How’d you-”
“Your hair,” Sai says, laying a hand on top of Sasuke’s head. He manages to slip in a few stiff pats over dark hair before a clearly annoyed Sasuke pushes the hand away.
Naruto blinks at the sudden uncanny feeling he’s getting. The whole gossiping too much thing, maybe Sasuke was right after all.
Tamaki watches him for a moment that doesn’t last long, but then she gives him this pretty smile, pushing behind her ear long strands of light brown hair that frames her face. She leans closer to Sasuke to whisper in his ear, except not really, because what she says is still loud enough for Naruto to hear. “And he’s so handsome, too, Sasuke.”
“T-tamaki,” Sasuke chokes out.
Laughing a little, Naruto blushes under her gaze. Not to say he thinks he’s some sort of idol or anything, but he knows he’s not the ugliest guy around, either, if people’s reactions to his dad’s looks are anything to go by, so being admired like that, it’s still nice to be told that kind of thing from time to time.
“For someone in Naruto’s condition,” Sai says, “unfortunate as it is to suffer from that kind of deficiency, alongside the already inevitable sexual frustration, I suppose he has to be able to compensate for his inability to-”
Fingers tight around Sai’s wrist, Sasuke hisses something to him Naruto doesn’t catch. Whatever he said, though, it just ends up curving Sai’s lips into this unsettling kind of knowing smile that doesn’t do a lot to inspire any confidence.
Sasuke’s cousin or not, he’s really, really starting to not like that guy.
Tamaki spares a quick look to Sai, mirroring Sasuke’s glare that’s more exasperated than anything close to being intimidating. It seems this kind of thing with Sai actually is normal enough to be expected.
“Please excuse our cousin,” Tamaki says, cheeks tinted a light pink as she gives Naruto another one of those pretty and polite smiles, “sometimes he can be a little...”
“I always thought-” Sai starts to say, but Sasuke doesn’t let him finish.
“Don’t, Sai.”
“Although he really does mean well,” Tamaki says, “really,” she says again, almost like she’s trying to convince herself. “He just-well, anyway, Naruto,” she says brightly, “I apologise for making such a hasty request, but please allow me to borrow Sasuke for a little while, to take him upstairs. I promise to return him to you quickly.”
“You can’t just make these kinds of decisions on your own,” Sasuke says, not bothering to hide the slight tug of his lips turning into a frown.
“I’m not.” Tamaki looks up at him, linking her arm around Sasuke’s elbow and holding him close. “I’m asking Naruto.”
“That’s not what I-”
“Of course, you’re welcome to come, too, Naruto.”
“I, um...” Not knowing what he should say, Naruto looks to an unhelpful looking Sasuke for help. “I don’t think that’s really my decision to make...”
“Being someone so close to Sasuke,” Tamaki says, “I’m sure Uncle Teyaki and Aunt Uruchi would like to meet you.” She squeezes Sasuke’s arm held against her side. “They’ve been asking about you all night, Sasuke.”
Sasuke stills for a moment, a movement so slight and nearly imperceptible it almost doesn’t happen, but it’s still something Naruto knows Sasuke well enough by now not to miss. “I...”
“You should go, you know,” Naruto says, wearing the wide kind of reassuring grin that usually gets Sasuke to go along with him, because Sasuke’s been using him as a crutch ever since they got here, and really, despite all his joking earlier, he’ll be okay without Sasuke for a few minutes.
Sasuke hesitates. “What about you?”
“Ah, that, well, actually, I feel like taking a break anyway, so I’ll just wait at our table. Plus, I want to get some more mushroom rice. And pork miso. And some more of those tiny little salt-grilled chicken skewers. Probably another piece of braised pork. Maybe some of the shrimp tempura udon, too, since I haven’t had a chance to try that yet. Oh, and another piece of that really pretty looking mousse cake, before it’s all gone. Raspberry and white chocolate together, I didn’t think I’d like it so much, but it really is that good.”
Sai and Tamaki just stare at him, but Sasuke lets out a small sigh.
“What? It is.”
“If you’d rather stay here, Naruto, I’ll be more than happy to keep you company,” Sai chimes in unnecessarily. Very unnecessarily.
Although if it makes Sasuke feel more comfortable about leaving him, Naruto won’t mind putting up with Sai a little while longer, even when Sai starts giving him that lopsided smile he gave Sasuke earlier, the one where-okay, maybe he really does mind, but that doesn’t mean he’s actually going to change his mind.
“Hey,” he says, gives this small little smile that’s just for Sasuke, “I’m me, remember.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“Sure, sure, that’s what you always say.” Naruto laughs with another wide grin. “I’ll be right here, though, okay.”
“Like you have anywhere else to go.”
“Not without you.”
Sasuke snorts. “You’re such an idiot.”
“I know.”
“Thank you, Naruto. It was a pleasure to meet you,” Tamaki says, soft with the gentle kind of smile that almost makes Naruto wonder if there’s something she’s not saying, but she turns away from him before he can ask. “We should hurry, Sasuke. I don’t want to be stuck playing flower cards with Aunt Uruchi’s group again this year.”
“W-wait, Tamaki,” Sasuke says, trying to not stumble as Tamaki pulls him away, “who said anything about playing flower cards?”
His voice starts to fade in the distance, disappearing as they reach the double doors, and Naruto blinks when he notices Sai watching him, reminding him he’s not alone.
“...what?”
Sai keeps staring, but unlike before, this time the look seems more assessing. Less...whatever the hell it was he was trying to do earlier. “You’re very...strange.”
Really? Of all the things this perverted guy has the nerve to come up with, he’s the strange one?
“Yet with the way you behave around Sasuke, assuming you’ve known him long enough,” Sai says, “would you say you’re able to satisfy his needs?”
“Tch. A guy like you asking that kind of thing.”
“Do you feel you’re able to fulfil his emotional needs, I should say, given how adamant you feel about your lack of sexual-”
“Not trying to be rude or anything,” Naruto says, casual, a finger and thumb pulling on the lobe of his ear, “since you’re Sasuke’s cousin and all, but I don’t think any of that’s your business to know.”
“So you don’t?”
There’s a sharp edge to the corner of Naruto’s mouth. “What I don’t like is what you’re implying.”
“Nothing,” Sai says, expression a little too bland, “I’m simply asking a question.”
“Look, Sasuke’s an adult. He can take care of himself. It’s not up to you to decide what he does with his life.”
“Yes, all of those things are true.” Sai closes his eyes, head slightly cocked to the side. A small quirk to his lips almost looks like a smile. “Although I still wonder what my little cousin sees in you. It’s rare that Sasuke allows himself to become this emotionally attached to anyone outside of our family. That Sasuke even brought you here, you must be a very special person, Uzumaki Naruto.”
Honestly, Naruto’s not sure if he should take that as a compliment or not. He really can’t tell with someone like Sai. Can’t really say he wants to, either, after this sudden personality change, but at least the tension on his part’s a little less awkward with Sai not talking about sex. “Uh, thanks? I guess...”
Sai opens his eyes. He still has that smile on his face, that uneven smile that’s probably what Sai thinks is supposed to be inviting or something, except it kind of makes Naruto want to take a few steps back instead.
Just as he’s about to head for the dessert table, however, a familiar voice calling for Sai has them both turning to see Obito making his way over, and Naruto grins as Obito claps a hand on Sai’s shoulder.
He met Sasuke’s uncle right before the wedding, while the guests were being ushered in. Almost late, Obito was the last person to arrive, having stopped to help a couple of tourists who barely knew Japanese find their way around the city, because that’s just the kind of guy he is, the genuinely nice kind of relatable guy Naruto felt an instant attraction to despite the nearly thirty-year age gap between him.
“My nephew’s not giving you a hard time, is he?” Adjusting large black rimmed glasses, Obito returns Naruto’s grin with a friendly one of his own. It takes away from the streaks of grey in chin length dark hair held back with a tie, makes him look a lot younger than he actually is.
“I only asked a few questions,” Sai says. “I don’t see the harm in being curious.”
Removing his hand from Sai’s shoulder, Obito laughs. “Maybe so, but knowing your conflicting nature, knowing your tendency to rile people, someone who doesn’t know you isn’t used to that sort of thing.”
“Naruto’s an exception.”
Obito nods, making a low noise in agreement. “Even so, you’re too old to be teasing Sasuke so much. You’re almost twenty-six, aren’t you? You guys aren’t kids anymore.”
“Does it make a difference that I tease Tamaki, as well?”
“Really, Naruto, don’t let this guy get to you. Teasing you is just his way of showing how much he missed Sasuke,” Obito says, chuckling. “Speaking of which, where’s your other half anyway? I thought you’d be with Sasuke, but...”
“Tamaki’s having a turn with him,” Sai says.
“You really shouldn’t twist your words to sound that way,” Naruto mutters, “like Sasuke’s something you can just toss around.”
Both Sai and Obito raise an eyebrow, something everybody in this family seems able to do, if only because Naruto can’t raise one eyebrow without the other.
Under their stares, Naruto can’t stop the heat he feels colouring his cheeks. He tries to laugh it off, embarrassed that he was caught being so defensive of Sasuke in front of Sasuke’s family.
“Of course he isn’t,” Sai says, but Obito just smiles, an amused glint to his eyes that makes Naruto’s face turn even redder.
“What a funny guy.”
“A funny guy indeed.”
“Oh, before I forget why I came looking for you,” Obito says, eyes slightly wide fixed on Naruto,” Itachi was asking around for you earlier.”
Naruto points to his nose. “Me?”
“Mm...” Obito gives the room a quick glance. “He’s here somewhere. Knowing him, he’ll probably find you first, but-oh, and I have a message for you, too, Sai. The guys in the Peacock room, they’re complaining Emi’s winning too much at nine-cards.”
“Emi?”
“This one’s high school sweetheart.”
Naruto turns incredulous eyes on Sai. “You have a girlfriend?” Not that he thinks Sai shouldn’t have a girlfriend, yet somehow, the idea that Sai could have that kind of relationship with anyone, much less a high school sweetheart, it’s a little hard to grasp.
“That’s what I said, too.” Obito grins. “But they grew up together, drifted apart after high school, and then they found each other again in Gifu last year-like something straight out of a girl’s man-”
“This is where I’ll be taking my leave,” Sai says, one hand smoothing down the right lapel of his black jacket. “Meeting you has been a very interesting experience, Naruto.” His mouth curves into this barely there little smile before he offers Naruto a slight bow of his head, doing the same for Obito. “Until later, Uncle.”
“Everyone sending me to deliver messages like this tonight, maa, I feel like the errand boy I’m too old to be.” Closing his eyes, Obito lets out an indulgent sigh. He peeks at Naruto with one eye opened. “You don’t have a message for me, too, do you?”
“Actually, um,” Naruto begins, “considering we just met today, I know this sounds kind of sudden, so it’s fine if you don’t want to answer, but can I ask you something?”
Obito watches him with both eyes. “Shoot.”
“...do you know who Shisui is?”
“Let’s see. Shisui, huh?” Obito pauses with a thoughtful look on his face. “Shisui, Shisui, Shisui...I do. Why do you ask?”
“Itachi said something to me this morning, when we were on the phone.” Naruto's brows furrow. “I didn’t think much of it then, but being here and not running into him yet, I started wondering, because Itachi told me I reminded him of Shisui.”
Quickly, Obito sobers. “He did, did he?”
Naruto nods. “It was kind of an offhand comment, though, since he didn’t say how or why. When I asked Sasuke, he said the name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he heard it from.”
“No, Sasuke probably wouldn’t. He was too young to remember who his cousin Shisui was.”
“Was?”
“Was. He passed away a long time ago.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” Naruto lowers his head for a moment. He raises it again to look at Obito with an almost frown. “But being compared to Shisui then, that’s not a bad thing, right?”
“Ah, but then that would be telling, wouldn’t it?” Obito smiles, broad and a little silly, bringing to the surface the kinds of wrinkles around his eyes that can only come from smiling a lot. He tilts his head a bit, a finger resting on the side of his face. Then he winks. “And an old man like me can only hope to keep the secrets he doesn’t tell.”
The smile’s contagious enough that Naruto can’t help himself when he gives one back that’s just as wide. “You really don’t look that old, you know.”
“Trying to get me to spill my secrets, are you?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Are you hiding from your debt, old man?” comes a low voice from behind him, and for the second time Naruto nearly starts.
Hikaku, he remembers, recognising the voice that belongs to the man Sasuke introduced him to earlier, although he’d appreciate the recognition more if he made it without Hikaku sneaking up on him, because that’s something people should really take the time not to do.
Somewhere around Obito’s age, or even a little older, maybe a little more serious, too, Hikaku’s another one of Sasuke’s uncles, a tall guy with long dark hair in a style that almost reminds Naruto of Itachi’s.
He steps closer to Obito, acknowledging Naruto with a small, polite nod.
“Sage advice for your generation,” Obito says, directing a finger at Naruto, “the best time to gamble is when you’re old. That’s why you catch so many old people in those pachinko parlours. But the real reason old people like to gamble, at this age, you have nothing left to lose. So even if you’re old enough now, it’s always best to wait to incur any debt.”
“If your gambling was as habitual as your drinking,” Hikaku says, “this family would make a collective decision to disown you.”
“As an old man clinging to my youth, at this stage in life, drinking is my right.”
“Yet you’ve managed to spend nearly half your life in bars.”
“Only in the ones I own,” Obito counters, draping an arm around Hikaku’s shoulders, “but with no children to carry my name, take pity on this poor old widowed Obito, Hikaku.”
“That ploy stopped working years ago. I have no sympathy for your kind of act.”
“Be my partner for another round of nine-cards upstairs then. We can bet with your money this time.”
“I already used your money to hold our place for the next hand.”
Letting his arm fall from Hikaku’s shoulders, Obito lets out a muted noise extremely close to sounding like a whine. “How cruel of you, Hikaku, someone with your kind of bad luck making use of my good money...”
“Money you can be conveniently meagre with around me.”
Obito grins wide, not disagreeing. “Well, is there any more of the black sesame dango left? And the good kind of beer Aunt Kayou didn’t want to bring out? I need something to distract me from the future losses that will further incur my debt.”
“The restaurant’s still open.”
“Right.” Adjusting his round glasses, Obito gives a firm nod. “Let’s go then.” Before following Hikaku, he looks back to Naruto. “You’re old enough to drink and gamble, aren’t you? You should come.”
“Hehe, as fun as that sounds, I think I’m just going to grab something to eat and wait for Sasuke.”
“If you change your mind...”
Naruto shakes his head. “Nah, I’ll be fine. Thanks, though.”
“You know where to find me. But if I see Sasuke, I’ll make sure to send him your way, all right,” Obito says, throwing from over his shoulder another one of those really friendly smiles Naruto can’t help but return.
He gives a quick wave of his hand, watching Obito turn around to walk away.
There’s still no sign of Sasuke yet, but the ballroom’s quieted down some, with more people sitting than standing, and Naruto makes his way to the food tables. He fills two small plates and takes them to his assigned seat next to Sasuke’s, on the really nice comfortable chair where his dark grey jacket hangs off the back.
On the table he sits a small plate of finger-sized portions of meat. He’ll have to go back for the pork miso and the shrimp tempura udon, but this is good for now. The second plate he places down holds two thin slices of the white chocolate raspberry mousse cake, one for him and the other for Sasuke that he puts on a separate plate and covers with a cloth napkin.
It’s not the wedding cake, but he already got a chance to try that earlier, when the reception first started and people around the room were standing to give toasts to the bride and groom. The real wedding cake was a four-tiered almond cake, filled with layers of lemon curd and topped with a Swiss Buttercream frosting decorated with tiny intricate red and white flowers scattered along a gold beaded trim.
Although Sasuke doesn’t really eat too many sweets, Naruto shared a piece of the cake with him. Actually, he suggested they feed each other their first bites of cake, because he heard that’s a tradition in Western weddings for newly married couples, but when he told Sasuke, trying to bring a forkful of cake to Sasuke’s mouth, he almost got a fork in his eye for his all his troubles, and then Sasuke said he’d throw the cake in Naruto’s face, which, of course, he knew Sasuke wouldn’t, but after scraping off most of the frosting, eventually, he did manage to get Sasuke to take a few bites on his own.
As good as that cake was, though, this braised pork is even better, and he just about moans as the tender pieces melt in his mouth, juicy and moist, maybe even good enough and worth risking his life to ask Sasuke to try a recipe for this kind of braised pork.
Ever since Naruto told his mom that Sasuke started to cook, when she gave Sasuke a copy of that one Tiradito recipe she hunted down some poor chef in a Peruvian restaurant for, Sasuke’s been trying his hand at cooking more often. He’s not always the best at it, or at least he’s not always the best at experimenting with the non-traditional stuff, because he’s really, really good with Japanese food, but whatever Sasuke makes, unwillingly or not, Naruto will end up being the guinea pig anyway, secretly thinking of the charm Kiba slipped him to protect him from food poisoning that he has hidden away in a place where Sasuke will never find it.
So far, it seems to be working.
“Naruto.”
Dropping his chopsticks, Naruto almost jumps out of his skin at the deep voice, a hand flying to his chest and placed over his heart beating way too fast for his health. He turns to see Itachi taking a seat in the empty chair across from him. Taking a couple good seconds, he breathes in and breathes out, just to remind himself that he’s still able to.
That’s the third time today. What is it with these people and trying to scare the shit out of him?
“Somehow, I can’t help but feeling this is all part of some scheme to scare me to death by the end of the night.”
“Far from it.” There’s a faint smile on Itachi’s lips as he places a wide-bowled glass of red wine in front of Naruto.
“Thanks.”
“I’m sorry for startling you, though. It wasn’t my intention.”
Picking up the offered glass, Naruto lets out a small laugh. “I guess I’ll just have to take your word for it,” he says, taking a tentative sip of the wine. Beer’s more his thing, but this isn’t so bad.
He licks his lips, swallowing the slightly sweet flavour that leaves a pleasant taste in his mouth. After taking another, more generous swig, he sets the glass back on the table. “Oh-Obito said you were looking for me?”
Itachi gives a low hum, carefully twirling the flute glass in his hand. “I didn’t know if you and Sasuke had already left.”
“Oh. That. Really, I don’t think he’d leave without telling you, but we were just outside talking for a while. I didn’t know we took that long.”
“Ah.” Itachi gives a slight nod, bringing to his lips the glass of champagne with a relatively thick layer of carbonation nearly touching the brim. “Are you enjoying yourself?”
“Yeah, yeah, this place is great. Big, too. I’ve never been to a wedding before, so the whole thing’s a little overwhelming, to be honest.” Naruto brightens with a grin. “But it’s exciting, too, though.
“Getting a chance to spend time with your family, meeting so many new people that are important to Sasuke, actually, I’m starting to wish I brought my baby.”
“Your baby?”
Hand reaching for the back of his neck, Naruto gives a sheepish laugh at Itachi’s raised eyebrow, “Not a real baby of course. Unless me and Sasuke, but that’s not what I-my Nikon F6, is what I’m trying to say. My camera, I mean. Being an ‘04 SLR model, I know it’s a little outdated, but it’s the first professional camera I ever bought. Got it for a really good price used, too. I’ve had it since high school, so baby’s just something I like to call it, I guess.”
Naruto sits up a little straighter in his chair. “I have a DSLR, too, a Nikon D3X. I’m lucky enough to work at a used camera store, so I got the ’10 model for a really good deal, because my boss is really nice. It’s just that I still have a soft spot for my first one, you know.”
“What people tend to cherish often bears the weight of a significant experience. Holding close what’s precious to you, it’s not unreasonable.”
Naruto agrees with an absent murmur, trailing off at the familiar glimpse of dark hair he sees on the other side of the ballroom. “...it’s not.”
He starts to smile a little, small but gradually growing when Sasuke immediately looks in his direction, warm and assuring when he catches Sasuke’s gaze he holds forever in that one moment until Itachi’s voice brings the world dissolved around them back to life.
“Hmm?” Arm propped on the table, Naruto rests his head against his palm. His eyes travel to the tall woman by Sasuke’s side. Mei, his mind easily reminds him, Itachi’s really pretty not quite sort of on-and-off girlfriend who almost caught the bouquet thrown by Sasuke’s aunt.
With a hand on Sasuke’s arm, she stops him in the middle of the floor. Waist-length red hair no longer contained in a messy low side bun falls down her back and sways with her hips, covering an expensive looking blue dress that fits almost close to snug around her body.
She’s attractive, he’ll admit. Attractive in a subtle kind of provocative way that’s so different from the persona women are typically expected to present, and maybe even alluring in the same way that initially drew him to Sasuke, because sometimes Sasuke gets this little glint in his eyes, this really sultry look promising all kinds of good things to come, and Naruto honestly can’t say he doesn’t endorse leaving himself at the mercy of Sasuke’s more than capable hands.
Although instead of being aggressive and violently demanding (never mind how much Naruto actually likes Sasuke being rough with him), how Mei carries herself, assertive and silently commanding, with that kind of obvious confidence, she just stands out.
It’s like when people first meet Tsunade and unintentionally stare at her chest. Of course, it doesn’t happen all the time, but a rack that big is really hard not to notice, because it’s not something people see every day. Even Sasuke admitted he almost caught himself staring at her chest when he met her, and he’s the last person to do that kind of thing.
“The quiet appeal Mei has, I truly do sympathise with you, Naruto.”
Blinking, Naruto turns to Itachi, lifting his head from his hand. “Huh?”
“However, as encouraging as it is not to have any reservations concerning your commitment to Sasuke,” Itachi says, “I would appreciate it if you refrained from staring at Mei so intently.”
“I-Itachi, I didn’t-I wasn’t-” Naruto struggles to piece together some sort of sentence from the words that don’t just want to come. Okay, so yeah, maybe he was kind of staring at Mei, but only because he was thinking of Sasuke, so that definitely has to count for something. “It wasn't that I was trying to stare at Mei, but it’s not like you come across people like her every day.”
Gently setting down his glass of champagne half empty, Itachi simply looks at him.
“N-not that I was checking out your girlfriend, because I have Sasuke-we already established that, right, what you just said about me and my commitment to Sasuke-not to mention, Mei’s your girlfriend, so...”
Itachi doesn’t even blink.
“I did already mention how much I like Sasuke, didn’t I? Because I really do. A lot. A whole lot. I even told him right before we came here, after I told you about wanting to be your brother-in-law, remember, so it’s not that I meant to look like I was checking out your girlfriend in front of you. Which isn’t to say she’s not pretty or anything, because she really is, but I wasn’t trying to give you the impression I was checking her out in front of you like someone who didn’t already have Sasuke and didn’t already know she was your girlfriend.
“Because I wasn’t. Checking her out, that is. Really.”
Itachi blinks.
“...you know,” Naruto says, following a considerably substantial pause, “usually, Sasuke would have found some way to shut me up before I had a chance to get to this point.”
Itachi lets out a soft laugh, light and almost familiar but nothing like Sasuke’s. “You don’t have to censor yourself for my sake.”
“Oh. Okay.” Naruto heaves a sigh in relief, letting his body sag a little, but the tension quickly returning to his shoulders snaps them right back up. “Wait-wait, this isn’t some kind of trick to get me to let my guard down, is it?”
“Not unless you want to believe it is.”
“I’m really trying not to,” Naruto says, wry, giving Itachi a somewhat wary glance from the corner of his eye.
Although he knows Itachi likes him, Itachi still has this deceptively nice personality that’s a real testament to his outwardly calm nature. He can be a pretty intimidating guy at times, if only because Naruto also knows how much Itachi means to Sasuke, who, compared to his brother, is an open book Naruto’s read over and over again.
With the barest hint of a smile, Itachi picks up his glass and takes a small sip of champagne. “You’re fine, Naruto.”
“Now I just feel like you’re making fun of me.” Naruto grins at Itachi’s tiny little smile, glancing at Sasuke and Mei near the stage.
“Maybe a little,” Itachi admits, setting his glass on the table again.
“Heh, as long as you aren’t...”
“As long as I'm not what?”
Eyes growing wide, Naruto squawks, gaping at Sasuke and Mei. “Did she just-”
...
“-kiss me like that?” Sasuke says, rubbing the heel of his palm against his cheek and gifting Mei with a half-hearted glare. “I’m not some little kid.”
“And yet I couldn’t help myself. You’re adorable.”
“I’ve been an adult since you’ve known me. I’m not adorable.”
“Unfortunately for you, those cheeks say otherwise.”
“Mei...”
“Come on. Dance with me, Sasuke.”
“Why?”
“I want to be able to fully appreciate your aunt’s taste in music.” Pale lipstick is stained on full lips drawn into a secretive smile, and Mei reaches with her right hand to hold Sasuke’s left, easily resting her free arm around Sasuke’s shoulders. She’s already considerably taller than average, but dark sharp heels give her a few centimetres over Sasuke, putting her somewhere closer to Itachi’s height. “Appease me.”
“Make Itachi appease you.”
“Your brother refuses to dance with me.” Mei leans a little closer to leave a conspiratorial whisper in his ear. “Let’s make him jealous.”
As she pulls back, Sasuke snorts, but an obliging hand finds its way at her waist, leaving a comfortable distance between the two of them. “You know he won’t fall for that.”
“Of course. He’s too sensible for that kind of thing. I wouldn’t tolerate him if he wasn’t.” Thin metallic jewellery dangles and swings from her ears as Mei follows Sasuke’s movements. “Although it’s still fun to tease you, no?”
Sasuke sighs. “And this is why you were in such a hurry to bring me here, to dance in front of Itachi?”
“To some extent, I suppose, but I’m more interested in listening to your aunt sing.” Mei glances towards the stage, where a woman from the small band begins to play a soft melody on the white grand piano. “I heard she has an amazing voice for enka.”
Without bias, Sasuke can say his aunt sings well. He doesn’t particularly care for her preferred genre of music, aside from that Otowa Shinobu album he received for his tenth birthday, but he doesn’t dislike it, either. Enka’s the kind of music he grew up listening to whenever his dad took him to visit his grandmother during the winter, the kind of music he’d hum all the words to while lying beside his grandmother on the tatami floor, the kind of music an echo scratchy from her old record player nearly as quiet as the sounds of wide brushstrokes guided by a small hand trying to emulate the vast mountains high above the shrine near his grandmother’s house.
“Do you know if she’ll sing tonight?” Mei says. “Itachi told me she didn’t sing at her last wedding. Which one was that-her fifth one?”
“Maybe,” Sasuke says. “I think she sang at the wedding before that, but this is her eighth one.”
Mei releases a soft hum. “There’s a rumour circulating that her talking cats are ultimately what drove off her last three husbands.”
“Her cats don’t talk.” Sasuke almost frowns but then thinks better of entertaining that rumour surprisingly still going around.
He believed it once, when he was five and he and Tamaki would take turns trying to get Aunt Kayou’s old cats to tell them all the secrets of the world, including why Tamaki's grandfather always seemed to smell like fermented cabbage. Of course, they were at that gullible age Sai was more than happy to take advantage of, although after a while of waiting for the cats to respond, they eventually did grow bored and realise the cats weren’t able to talk, no matter how much Aunt Kayou liked to talk to them.
“Cats don’t talk.”
“Not according to what I heard,” Mei says. “How many does she actually have?”
Truthfully, Sasuke’s lost count over the years, yet his aunt’s house is large enough to accommodate more than she probably needs. “Too many. She’s almost seventy. I don’t know how she keeps up with them all.”
“That’s what a husband is for.”
“If that’s what you want to believe.”
“Wanting to make someone you love happy, no matter how uncertain the task, I’d still like to believe in it.” After a pregnant pause, with poorly concealed enthusiasm bright in her eyes, Mei says, “Now tell me about Naruto.”
Sasuke almost makes a face. “That’s why you wanted me to dance with you.”
“After you introduced him as a very close friend, you two left before I had an opportunity to speak to him. Itachi claimed it wasn’t his place to say anything, but it wasn’t too difficult to figure out. Everyone I ran into couldn’t stop talking about the elusive blond man you brought home. Especially the ladies. As of now, we’re all in agreement that Naruto’s best feature is his very handsome smile. He’s quite the catch.”
“Putting so much emphasis into that kind of thing,” Sasuke says, glad Naruto’s not here to hear this, because for all the damage it could inflict, someone with Naruto’s inflated ego really doesn’t need to hear this, “tch, no one’s able to keep their mouth shut in this family.”
“Oh?” Mei eyes flutter in surprise. “And I’m family now?”
“You may as well be. You’re just as bad as everyone else.”
“Well, in that case,” Mei says, “I think I’d like to propose to your brother sometime soon.”
Eyes large, Sasuke coughs, nearly chokes when the air in his throat goes down the wrong way. “Y-you’re really going to...”
“Yes.”
“...this isn’t you asking me for approval, is it?”
“No,” she says, the word pleasant and airy accompanied by a gentle squeeze of Sasuke’s shoulder she removes her arm from as they come to a stop. “I simply felt this was something I wanted you to know."
“I don’t...”
Mei gives a small shake of her head. “Because you’re important to Itachi, that means you’re important to me, too.”
Slow, Sasuke nods when she releases his left hand, letting his right hand fall away from her hip.
“Let’s keep it a secret between us, though, shall we?” Smiling, Mei gives him a light tap on the tip of his nose. “If he accepts, I need you to pretend to be surprised when we make the announcement.”
Sasuke gives her another half-hearted glare. “Making that kind of serious confession to me and then treating me like some kid, what’s the point in that?”
“You’re adorable when you sulk.”
“Mei...”
“You still haven’t told me about Naruto.”
“He’s Naruto.” Lower lip tucked beneath his teeth, Sasuke glances at the stage behind them. “What more is there to say?”
“Rumour has it there’s much more than you’re willing to tell.”
Sasuke groans.
Continued