HOME | DD

Description
Kisame and Itachi arranged themselves as they normally would, they each had their own end of the couch with two liters and bags of food between them. To make it look real, they sped ate like crazy, making half the bags empty. Kisame smiled, "eating, the best cover you could ever ask for."

"I hope they don't mind the smell in there. I hate it." Itachi said and began chugging a bottle of Mountain Dew.

Kisame stopped laughing. Itachi paused to look at him, bottle still pressed to his lips. "I hope Sasuke's lighter's good; the fuse for the lights blew yesterday." Itachi smiled and kept chugging until the car entered the driveway. He put the drink down and screwed on the cap and relaxed back. Kisame put up his footrest and stretched out quickly.

There was a knock on the door. "WHAT?" Kisame yelled like he normally did.

Madara was forced to open the door and walk in himself to see the man-fest on the couch. "Am I interrupting good television?"

"Yep." Itachi said blankly glaring at the screen.

"The best." Kisame added and the voice of the show came back on.

"The Aztecs had their own cruel version of the sword…" Madara's eye twitched in agitation.

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Kisame's back yard was highly neglected unlike the front. It was composed of dead brown grass with a high wooden fence that was falling to pieces. They approached a large white building with rust stains over it that looked like blood. Sasuke fumbled with the key as they heard a car enter the driveway. Shoving the thick silver key into the door and turning it they opening the world to the stench of rotting and decayed bodies. The smell nearly knocked Naruto back.

Sasuke tossed their things on the floor, pushed Naruto inside then ran in himself shutting the door. He could hear his breath in the darkness and his right arm went up and found the cold metal light switch. There was an echo as the switch went up and nothing happened. "Damn, lights out."

"We're in a room… with dead bodies… and no light…" Naruto's voice was quivering at the thought. "Dead bodies…"

"Calm down, they're not going to come back to life. They're too dissected for that." Sasuke began grabbing at the pile and felt a bag. Woven in diamond pattern, that was Naruto's bag. He grabbed his and opened the pocket pulling out a smooth and cool box. He opened it with a click to grab a cylinder object and pulled out his lighter. The flame flickered on and touched the black stem of a short white emergency candle. The light soon spread and they had a little bit of light between the two of them. "I only have one emergency candle on me, so you'll have to bear with the darkness."

A loud bang occurred and Naruto shot over next to Sasuke sitting down. Sasuke laughed at him, "It's just the system kicking it. It has to keep cool in here, bodies and everything. Why are you so jumpy?"

"I don't like dead things." Naruto said and grabbed his coat as the cold air poured in by the barrel. "How cold is it going to get in here?"

"Down to 10 degrees below." Naruto quickly put on his coat and zipped it up. Sasuke sat there staring at the candle. "Now we just have to wait until Itachi annoys Madara enough that he leaves."

"How long will that take?" Naruto asked starting to feel the cold. Sasuke noticed his shivering and got up leaving the light of the candle. Naruto watched as Sasuke disappeared into the darkness. He heard what sounded like cupboards opening and closing.

Sasuke knew every inch of the lab, getting stuck in there often enough. He retrieved a blanket for Naruto, he remembered his first time stuck in here when he was eleven. He nearly froze to death. Sasuke turned and saw Naruto meters away in the candle light. He looked at his hand, he was invisible to him. Sasuke took a moment for himself and stared at the blond, his blue eyes illuminated by the candles, skin shadowed. Sasuke would have to draw this when he got home.

Another emotion arose, one of a more selfish nature. Sasuke tried to rub the notion out but it came back. They were alone, in darkness. If the candle 'blew' out, Naruto would be trapped in the darkness. He didn't know his way around and the lab was sound proof to prevent people freaking from the noise of bones breaking. A smiled came to Sasuke's face and he was seriously thinking about it for a second.

He looked so soft in the candle light; it was like he was supposed to. His hands clenched around the blanket and silently he took a step foreword. He wanted to touch him.

"Did you die or something?" Naruto called out randomly into the darkness. Sasuke's mind jumped the thoughts to reality; they'd only be here a few minutes, Naruto's screaming might be loud enough to break the sound proof walls and he'd have to kill him afterwards.

"No I didn't die." Sasuke said walking over and tossing a heavy red blanket at him trying to distract his own mind. He sat down in the candle light and smiled for them both to see. "If it gets too cold, we can burn our creative writing handbooks." Naruto smirked. "I swear to God, they are the single most useless things I have ever laid my eyes on. I can't believe they paid fifty bucks a book for those pieces of junk."

"I find them useful, it's how I learned to write my stories, though, I guess I'm not writing them well enough." Naruto said and grabbed his bag to pull it out. "I followed the formula and everything." Sasuke looked at the page and gave him a look along the lines of 'why the Hell would you want to do that?' "Hey, it's a good formula."

"Its shit, you need something more random." Sasuke reached in his back pack and pulled out a small block of something covered in velvet with a rubber band over it. He took off the band letting it slide to his wrist and set the velvet down opening it to show large cards with a pentagram on their backs. "I use tarot cards, new plot each time."

"Really?" Naruto asked and Sasuke handed him the deck. Naruto took it and stared at it. "What do you do?"

"You draw however many cards you like, organize them into a plot." Sasuke's phone began going off and he pulled it out of his pocket and tapped the screen answering it. "What?" He waited for a minute, "No, not really, what's up?" There was some yelling over the phone. "Karin, get me picture would ya?"

"SASUKE! YOU'RE NOT HELPING!" Was screamed through the phone in a high screech. "HE STOLE MY LANGIRE AND IS PARADING AROUND IN THEM!"

"As I said before: get me a picture, would you. Anyway, I'm not busy, but I am detained for an unknown amount of time…. Just bash him on the head after you get a picture." Sasuke said as if it was common sense. A loud disgruntled noise came through and the line died.

"I hope she gets that picture. I'm going to submit it to yearbook." An evil smile curled around his lips and he shoved the phone back into his pockets. He turned back to the cards and noticed Naruto watching him. "Just flip the cards over, as many as you like."

"Oh," Naruto said after he re-explained it. Naruto shuffled the cards and then flipped one out, followed by three more. "So what's my plot?" He said staring down at all the bright orange and yellow picture.

"Wow, three wands… Um, you have the page so a person with a mission, and then the three, he's supposed to retrieve or send off something. The five, there's an inner struggle like coming of age, and the magician, he becomes good at something. That easy." Sasuke said sitting back and crossing his arms.

"So, don't follow the book?" Naruto asked and Sasuke grabbed his copy of the book and tore out the formula page and held it above the candle. "Hey!"

Naruto tried to grab it from him, but Sasuke held out a hand keeping him back. "The books value actually increases after you destroy this page." He said slightly amused, the page began to burn and soon caught fire.

Sasuke let it fall to the ground. He watched it as it burned and Naruto growled at him. "You can't go around destroy other people's properties!"

"It's one page of one book. Does something that's been making you fail really mean that much to you?" Sasuke asked him calmly as the page's last corner went up in flames and the extra light diminished. His voice was like the room, composed and cool. "The tarot cards are a better instrument then that book. Don't always trust what they teach, they can be wrong."

"Still," Naruto adjusted himself with his back to the cold door and grabbed the blanket throwing it over himself tightly. "What's taking so long?"

"It's highly possible they'll forget about us until the shows over." Sasuke said collecting his cards and putting them away neatly. Sasuke crossed his legs and set his hands in between them after pulling them back into his sweater. "Luckily it's only an hour special. I've been locked in here for three hours before. I didn't know they were that into Lord of the Rings, but they were."

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"Well, I need you two to do something for me." Madara said crossing his arms and watching the two carefully. They didn't move at all. Both just stared at the show and occasionally chewed the food in their mouths. For the past ten minutes they had been enjoying the show and enjoying pissing off Madara. "It's somewhat important!"

"SHH!" Both went as they watch a tomahawk land in someone's neck; the head tip over showing a huge hole. Kisame dropped a fish stick and applauded it. Itachi reeled back a bit laughing as the CGI blood spilled over the screen. Madara was obviously no match for the TV.

"Well, where is Sasuke at least? I haven't seen him in a week." Itachi shrugged and shoved a piece of cold pizza into his mouth taking as big of a bite as he could. "You have no clue where you're little brother is?"

"I saw him a few days ago." He said with a full mouth. He stopped and swallowed quickly. "Was thinking about getting a new tattoo, very Emo as usual. He was also talking about dropping out of school again, I think it annoys him." Itachi said and waved him off as the show began going through the tomahawk landing in various parts of the body. Fake blood gushed everywhere on the TV and the two were comprehensively entertained.

Madara grunted and turned to leave quite disappointed in his distant relative and one of his top researchers who had been so easily sucked into the reenactments. "Don't forget we're having our monthly dinner tomorrow, it's the only way I can keep up with either of you." They heard the door open.

"Bye Uncle Madara." Itachi said loudly with out turning his head.

"Later Boss!" Kisame called and the door slammed shut. They heard the car door slam as well a few seconds later. "He has a Mercedes, he shouldn't slam the doors."

"He doesn't deserve that car, the only reason he has it is because Senju has one." Itachi set the food off to the side.

"She deserves that car, takes really good care of it, and washes it once a month too." Kisame said picking up the eating slack.

"Should we go let them out?" Itachi asked realizing that they sent the boys into a room that can only be opened from the inside by a code which neither had access to. Kisame turned to him weighing the options and turned back to the screen.

"Commercial break." Kisame said and Itachi nodded in agreement.

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Sasuke stared at the candle blankly waiting for a knock or something; instead his phone went off again. He looked at the screen and grimaced. Sasuke put a finger to his mouth for silence and Naruto nodded. He pressed the screen, "Hey Uncle Madara."

"Where are you, I haven't seen you in a week!" Madara yelled through the phone. "I'm your legal guardian, at least you can do is call and tell me that I'm still guarding something."

"Sorry, I've been busy." Sasuke said quickly knowing it wasn't going to be much of a conversation.

"Your brother said you've been thinking of dropping out again." Sasuke's face twisted. "You know what I think about that."

"I'm sixteen, I can drop out." Sasuke replied quickly.

"Only with my permission! Why don't you just finish school? A diploma's far better then a GED."

"You're breaking up…" Sasuke said and promptly ended the call and shut his phone off. He sighed and shoved the phone back into his pocket. "You have to fight him, I have to live with him during the summer, consider yourself lucky."

Naruto smiled a little and then felt bad for Sasuke. He at least lived with someone he liked. The door quickly began to open, Sasuke grabbed the candle, blew it out and grabbed his bag. Naruto shoved his book in his bag and just got out of the way tangled in the blanket for them to see Kisame grinning down at them. "Must have been some boring conversations, dead people have nothing good to talk about."

Sasuke was going to open his mouth and say something about the fact that Kisame had tried talking to dead people but dropped it. He quickly walked out of the cold followed by Naruto freshly out of the blanket. He seemed more then relieved to get out of the room. They began to walk towards the house where Itachi could be seen waiting just inside. Sasuke opened the door and let Naruto in first and then followed him in to the small kitchen.

"Madara is having Hidian toss a cocktail into Jiraiya's house in hopes that you'll burn too, I wouldn't go home tonight." Itachi said quite distracted by seemingly nothing. "Well, I would and get everything you absolutely need and then quickly get out of there. Maybe you can take him in for the night Sasuke."

"Black Bird is members only." Sasuke said quickly and Naruto stared at him. "I don't need half the world finding out where we live, it's our safe house. No offense." Sasuke said turning to Naruto. "But it's the only place we can go that's ours."

"Mon frère!"

Naruto tried to get in a sentence but wasn't able to seeing as Itachi and Sasuke yelling at each other in French. Naruto didn't know any French, and he surely couldn't read facial expressions. He just hung back as it looked like Itachi had begun to win then abruptly stuck a tongue out giving his little brother a raspberry and they broke out laughing. To Naruto, this was all very, very strange.

Sasuke and Itachi's conversation in French went something like this when translated. "Damn it Itachi, you know why I can have certain people around me, it always gets me in trouble."

"Sasuke just deal with it for a night, it's not like you're planning on raping him!... You had better not be planning on raping him! It's illegal." Itachi said seriously.

"Of course not, but it's better to take away the temptation, isn't it?" Sasuke asked and threw his arms across his chest. "Anyway this one's kind of different and he's actually really popular at school."

"Never stopped you in overseas, you had a different boyfriend in each town."

"Do go around pointing that out and see how fast I get my stomach kicked in again." Sasuke snapped sarcastically. "Anyway I'm sure he has friend he can stay with so I'm not that close to him. I have problems being around him."

"You have a crush on him don't you?" Sasuke turned away to the ground and Itachi smiled in a mocking way. "That's why you injured him; you were trying to keep him farther away from you. Well, why not hang out around him, it's what people normally do when they like someone unless you want to grow up and be like Madara. All alone and surrounded by insignificant pricks and has a house full of cats!" It was at that point Itachi stuck out his tongue and they both started laughing.

They returned to English and Itachi rubbed his little brother's head playfully. "I've decided it then, he can stay at Black Bird house."

"I never agreed to that." Sasuke said and Itachi rolled up his sleeve showing the thin black bird tattoo on the top of his shoulder. "Alright, so you have as much say as I do… Fine. We'll let you pick," Sasuke said and turned to the blond who was finally being let into the conversation. "I'll show you Black Bird house, and if your house gets set on fire you can come stay the night with us if you want."

"Um… alright." Naruto said still somewhat confused. He wasn't sure what either of them had said and didn't know what Black Bird house was or where it was like. He also wasn't too keen about going anywhere with Sasuke right now anyway, especially since his arm was starting to turn a lovely hue of black and purple.

Kisame opened the back door and stepped in making the room far too crowded. Naruto took a few steps back giving them as much space as possible. Kisame worked through them and moved back into the living room to resume his seat on the couch. "Itachi, show's staring back up."

Itachi abandoned them and began stalking towards the living room. He turned his head back quickly, "we have plenty of food if you two are hungry. You should probably take some back to Black Bird. There's lots of ramen in the pantry that we don't eat."

"Can I borrow the car then?" Sasuke asked following him, he looked at his brother as Itachi sat down. Itachi leaned back and pulled out a full key ring tossing it to him. Sasuke tilted his head back towards the kitchen for Naruto to see. Naruto followed him in and was handed a box as Sasuke opened the cupboards quickly and began tossing an assortment of food into it. He then looked up to a high cupboard and smiled. Sasuke silently climbed on the counter and pulled the door out just a smidgeon.

"Keep shoveling food in there." Sasuke whispered and pulled out his knife letting the blunt end of the blade slide in and press a latch back opening the liquor cabinet. Sasuke grabbed a small bottle and softly closed the cabinet using the blade to keep the latch back, completely silent. Sasuke got down as softly as he had gotten up and grabbed Naruto's bag, while it was still attached, shoving the glass bottle in there. He patted it and stole the box from Naruto. "We're good, let's go."

Naruto wanted to say something about the stolen item but didn't. He simply remained quiet, the words lingering on his lips but couldn't let it out. As they were walking out Itachi looked at them and waved. Sasuke nodded and Naruto thanked him for warning him. He walked out behind Sasuke closing the door. "You shouldn't have taken that."

"Shh... It's not for me. It's for Jugo, he doesn't have his ID updated yet so he can't buy drinks." Sasuke explained quietly and walked over to the garage and opened the side door. "A few things about the car," Sasuke said as he set the box down and flipped on the light. Naruto looked in and saw one of the most beaten up things he had ever seen. "It just looks bad, we did that ourselves to protect the car, it's actually a really good car."

"It looks like you drove it off the Grand Canyon." Naruto said loudly. Sasuke opened up the backseat setting the box in and strapping it in. Sasuke took off his bag and placed it in as well.

"Gimmie your bag." Sasuke waited a second for the boy to follow the order and he pushed Naruto's bag in there too taking the bottle out and hiding it in the box under some items. Sasuke stepped back and closed the door, his eyes skimming over to Naruto, "well go get in."

Naruto looked at him as Sasuke got in the driver's seat and pressed a button opening the garage door. He slammed the door and waited until Naruto finally walked around to the other side of the car and got in. Sasuke stopped for a second letting the keys dangle in the ignition. "Do you have a delay setting?"

"What?" Naruto asked looking at him confused as he put on the seat belt.

Sasuke put his seat belt on to and took a second processing his explaination. "You're on delay, every time I tell you something; it takes you a few seconds to do it. Just try to pay more attention; Madara's not going to give you a ten second head start." Sasuke started the car.

"Sorry, I'm just a bit distracted." Naruto said and all the rumors he's heard about in school came swirling into one, large word Naruto never said but heard every time when someone mentions Sasuke: fag. Naruto wasn't sure if he was gay or not, he was always hanging around Karin, he was sure that Sasuke shouldn't be called that word. No one should, it was rude. Naruto got upset when people called him an ignorant jock, he guessed Sasuke was in the same boat. "Will you help me with my story?"

Sasuke turned his head and backed up the car considering it. Before he could answer Naruto continued. "You're like the best writer Kakashi's ever seen."

"I guess. Just don't tell anyone, I like my reputation as a self-righteous bastard." Sasuke smiled and turned the car out onto the road.

Description
Kisame and Itachi arranged themselves as they normally would, they each had their own end of the couch with two liters and bags of food between them. To make it look real, they sped ate like crazy, making half the bags empty. Kisame smiled, "eating, the best cover you could ever ask for."

"I hope they don't mind the smell in there. I hate it." Itachi said and began chugging a bottle of Mountain Dew.

Kisame stopped laughing. Itachi paused to look at him, bottle still pressed to his lips. "I hope Sasuke's lighter's good; the fuse for the lights blew yesterday." Itachi smiled and kept chugging until the car entered the driveway. He put the drink down and screwed on the cap and relaxed back. Kisame put up his footrest and stretched out quickly.

There was a knock on the door. "WHAT?" Kisame yelled like he normally did.

Madara was forced to open the door and walk in himself to see the man-fest on the couch. "Am I interrupting good television?"

"Yep." Itachi said blankly glaring at the screen.

"The best." Kisame added and the voice of the show came back on.

"The Aztecs had their own cruel version of the sword…" Madara's eye twitched in agitation.

---------( ---------- )---------

Kisame's back yard was highly neglected unlike the front. It was composed of dead brown grass with a high wooden fence that was falling to pieces. They approached a large white building with rust stains over it that looked like blood. Sasuke fumbled with the key as they heard a car enter the driveway. Shoving the thick silver key into the door and turning it they opening the world to the stench of rotting and decayed bodies. The smell nearly knocked Naruto back.

Sasuke tossed their things on the floor, pushed Naruto inside then ran in himself shutting the door. He could hear his breath in the darkness and his right arm went up and found the cold metal light switch. There was an echo as the switch went up and nothing happened. "Damn, lights out."

"We're in a room… with dead bodies… and no light…" Naruto's voice was quivering at the thought. "Dead bodies…"

"Calm down, they're not going to come back to life. They're too dissected for that." Sasuke began grabbing at the pile and felt a bag. Woven in diamond pattern, that was Naruto's bag. He grabbed his and opened the pocket pulling out a smooth and cool box. He opened it with a click to grab a cylinder object and pulled out his lighter. The flame flickered on and touched the black stem of a short white emergency candle. The light soon spread and they had a little bit of light between the two of them. "I only have one emergency candle on me, so you'll have to bear with the darkness."

A loud bang occurred and Naruto shot over next to Sasuke sitting down. Sasuke laughed at him, "It's just the system kicking it. It has to keep cool in here, bodies and everything. Why are you so jumpy?"

"I don't like dead things." Naruto said and grabbed his coat as the cold air poured in by the barrel. "How cold is it going to get in here?"

"Down to 10 degrees below." Naruto quickly put on his coat and zipped it up. Sasuke sat there staring at the candle. "Now we just have to wait until Itachi annoys Madara enough that he leaves."

"How long will that take?" Naruto asked starting to feel the cold. Sasuke noticed his shivering and got up leaving the light of the candle. Naruto watched as Sasuke disappeared into the darkness. He heard what sounded like cupboards opening and closing.

Sasuke knew every inch of the lab, getting stuck in there often enough. He retrieved a blanket for Naruto, he remembered his first time stuck in here when he was eleven. He nearly froze to death. Sasuke turned and saw Naruto meters away in the candle light. He looked at his hand, he was invisible to him. Sasuke took a moment for himself and stared at the blond, his blue eyes illuminated by the candles, skin shadowed. Sasuke would have to draw this when he got home.

Another emotion arose, one of a more selfish nature. Sasuke tried to rub the notion out but it came back. They were alone, in darkness. If the candle 'blew' out, Naruto would be trapped in the darkness. He didn't know his way around and the lab was sound proof to prevent people freaking from the noise of bones breaking. A smiled came to Sasuke's face and he was seriously thinking about it for a second.

He looked so soft in the candle light; it was like he was supposed to. His hands clenched around the blanket and silently he took a step foreword. He wanted to touch him.

"Did you die or something?" Naruto called out randomly into the darkness. Sasuke's mind jumped the thoughts to reality; they'd only be here a few minutes, Naruto's screaming might be loud enough to break the sound proof walls and he'd have to kill him afterwards.

"No I didn't die." Sasuke said walking over and tossing a heavy red blanket at him trying to distract his own mind. He sat down in the candle light and smiled for them both to see. "If it gets too cold, we can burn our creative writing handbooks." Naruto smirked. "I swear to God, they are the single most useless things I have ever laid my eyes on. I can't believe they paid fifty bucks a book for those pieces of junk."

"I find them useful, it's how I learned to write my stories, though, I guess I'm not writing them well enough." Naruto said and grabbed his bag to pull it out. "I followed the formula and everything." Sasuke looked at the page and gave him a look along the lines of 'why the Hell would you want to do that?' "Hey, it's a good formula."

"Its shit, you need something more random." Sasuke reached in his back pack and pulled out a small block of something covered in velvet with a rubber band over it. He took off the band letting it slide to his wrist and set the velvet down opening it to show large cards with a pentagram on their backs. "I use tarot cards, new plot each time."

"Really?" Naruto asked and Sasuke handed him the deck. Naruto took it and stared at it. "What do you do?"

"You draw however many cards you like, organize them into a plot." Sasuke's phone began going off and he pulled it out of his pocket and tapped the screen answering it. "What?" He waited for a minute, "No, not really, what's up?" There was some yelling over the phone. "Karin, get me picture would ya?"

"SASUKE! YOU'RE NOT HELPING!" Was screamed through the phone in a high screech. "HE STOLE MY LANGIRE AND IS PARADING AROUND IN THEM!"

"As I said before: get me a picture, would you. Anyway, I'm not busy, but I am detained for an unknown amount of time…. Just bash him on the head after you get a picture." Sasuke said as if it was common sense. A loud disgruntled noise came through and the line died.

"I hope she gets that picture. I'm going to submit it to yearbook." An evil smile curled around his lips and he shoved the phone back into his pockets. He turned back to the cards and noticed Naruto watching him. "Just flip the cards over, as many as you like."

"Oh," Naruto said after he re-explained it. Naruto shuffled the cards and then flipped one out, followed by three more. "So what's my plot?" He said staring down at all the bright orange and yellow picture.

"Wow, three wands… Um, you have the page so a person with a mission, and then the three, he's supposed to retrieve or send off something. The five, there's an inner struggle like coming of age, and the magician, he becomes good at something. That easy." Sasuke said sitting back and crossing his arms.

"So, don't follow the book?" Naruto asked and Sasuke grabbed his copy of the book and tore out the formula page and held it above the candle. "Hey!"

Naruto tried to grab it from him, but Sasuke held out a hand keeping him back. "The books value actually increases after you destroy this page." He said slightly amused, the page began to burn and soon caught fire.

Sasuke let it fall to the ground. He watched it as it burned and Naruto growled at him. "You can't go around destroy other people's properties!"

"It's one page of one book. Does something that's been making you fail really mean that much to you?" Sasuke asked him calmly as the page's last corner went up in flames and the extra light diminished. His voice was like the room, composed and cool. "The tarot cards are a better instrument then that book. Don't always trust what they teach, they can be wrong."

"Still," Naruto adjusted himself with his back to the cold door and grabbed the blanket throwing it over himself tightly. "What's taking so long?"

"It's highly possible they'll forget about us until the shows over." Sasuke said collecting his cards and putting them away neatly. Sasuke crossed his legs and set his hands in between them after pulling them back into his sweater. "Luckily it's only an hour special. I've been locked in here for three hours before. I didn't know they were that into Lord of the Rings, but they were."

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"Well, I need you two to do something for me." Madara said crossing his arms and watching the two carefully. They didn't move at all. Both just stared at the show and occasionally chewed the food in their mouths. For the past ten minutes they had been enjoying the show and enjoying pissing off Madara. "It's somewhat important!"

"SHH!" Both went as they watch a tomahawk land in someone's neck; the head tip over showing a huge hole. Kisame dropped a fish stick and applauded it. Itachi reeled back a bit laughing as the CGI blood spilled over the screen. Madara was obviously no match for the TV.

"Well, where is Sasuke at least? I haven't seen him in a week." Itachi shrugged and shoved a piece of cold pizza into his mouth taking as big of a bite as he could. "You have no clue where you're little brother is?"

"I saw him a few days ago." He said with a full mouth. He stopped and swallowed quickly. "Was thinking about getting a new tattoo, very Emo as usual. He was also talking about dropping out of school again, I think it annoys him." Itachi said and waved him off as the show began going through the tomahawk landing in various parts of the body. Fake blood gushed everywhere on the TV and the two were comprehensively entertained.

Madara grunted and turned to leave quite disappointed in his distant relative and one of his top researchers who had been so easily sucked into the reenactments. "Don't forget we're having our monthly dinner tomorrow, it's the only way I can keep up with either of you." They heard the door open.

"Bye Uncle Madara." Itachi said loudly with out turning his head.

"Later Boss!" Kisame called and the door slammed shut. They heard the car door slam as well a few seconds later. "He has a Mercedes, he shouldn't slam the doors."

"He doesn't deserve that car, the only reason he has it is because Senju has one." Itachi set the food off to the side.

"She deserves that car, takes really good care of it, and washes it once a month too." Kisame said picking up the eating slack.

"Should we go let them out?" Itachi asked realizing that they sent the boys into a room that can only be opened from the inside by a code which neither had access to. Kisame turned to him weighing the options and turned back to the screen.

"Commercial break." Kisame said and Itachi nodded in agreement.

---------( ---------- )---------

Sasuke stared at the candle blankly waiting for a knock or something; instead his phone went off again. He looked at the screen and grimaced. Sasuke put a finger to his mouth for silence and Naruto nodded. He pressed the screen, "Hey Uncle Madara."

"Where are you, I haven't seen you in a week!" Madara yelled through the phone. "I'm your legal guardian, at least you can do is call and tell me that I'm still guarding something."

"Sorry, I've been busy." Sasuke said quickly knowing it wasn't going to be much of a conversation.

"Your brother said you've been thinking of dropping out again." Sasuke's face twisted. "You know what I think about that."

"I'm sixteen, I can drop out." Sasuke replied quickly.

"Only with my permission! Why don't you just finish school? A diploma's far better then a GED."

"You're breaking up…" Sasuke said and promptly ended the call and shut his phone off. He sighed and shoved the phone back into his pocket. "You have to fight him, I have to live with him during the summer, consider yourself lucky."

Naruto smiled a little and then felt bad for Sasuke. He at least lived with someone he liked. The door quickly began to open, Sasuke grabbed the candle, blew it out and grabbed his bag. Naruto shoved his book in his bag and just got out of the way tangled in the blanket for them to see Kisame grinning down at them. "Must have been some boring conversations, dead people have nothing good to talk about."

Sasuke was going to open his mouth and say something about the fact that Kisame had tried talking to dead people but dropped it. He quickly walked out of the cold followed by Naruto freshly out of the blanket. He seemed more then relieved to get out of the room. They began to walk towards the house where Itachi could be seen waiting just inside. Sasuke opened the door and let Naruto in first and then followed him in to the small kitchen.

"Madara is having Hidian toss a cocktail into Jiraiya's house in hopes that you'll burn too, I wouldn't go home tonight." Itachi said quite distracted by seemingly nothing. "Well, I would and get everything you absolutely need and then quickly get out of there. Maybe you can take him in for the night Sasuke."

"Black Bird is members only." Sasuke said quickly and Naruto stared at him. "I don't need half the world finding out where we live, it's our safe house. No offense." Sasuke said turning to Naruto. "But it's the only place we can go that's ours."

"Mon frère!"

Naruto tried to get in a sentence but wasn't able to seeing as Itachi and Sasuke yelling at each other in French. Naruto didn't know any French, and he surely couldn't read facial expressions. He just hung back as it looked like Itachi had begun to win then abruptly stuck a tongue out giving his little brother a raspberry and they broke out laughing. To Naruto, this was all very, very strange.

Sasuke and Itachi's conversation in French went something like this when translated. "Damn it Itachi, you know why I can have certain people around me, it always gets me in trouble."

"Sasuke just deal with it for a night, it's not like you're planning on raping him!... You had better not be planning on raping him! It's illegal." Itachi said seriously.

"Of course not, but it's better to take away the temptation, isn't it?" Sasuke asked and threw his arms across his chest. "Anyway this one's kind of different and he's actually really popular at school."

"Never stopped you in overseas, you had a different boyfriend in each town."

"Do go around pointing that out and see how fast I get my stomach kicked in again." Sasuke snapped sarcastically. "Anyway I'm sure he has friend he can stay with so I'm not that close to him. I have problems being around him."

"You have a crush on him don't you?" Sasuke turned away to the ground and Itachi smiled in a mocking way. "That's why you injured him; you were trying to keep him farther away from you. Well, why not hang out around him, it's what people normally do when they like someone unless you want to grow up and be like Madara. All alone and surrounded by insignificant pricks and has a house full of cats!" It was at that point Itachi stuck out his tongue and they both started laughing.

They returned to English and Itachi rubbed his little brother's head playfully. "I've decided it then, he can stay at Black Bird house."

"I never agreed to that." Sasuke said and Itachi rolled up his sleeve showing the thin black bird tattoo on the top of his shoulder. "Alright, so you have as much say as I do… Fine. We'll let you pick," Sasuke said and turned to the blond who was finally being let into the conversation. "I'll show you Black Bird house, and if your house gets set on fire you can come stay the night with us if you want."

"Um… alright." Naruto said still somewhat confused. He wasn't sure what either of them had said and didn't know what Black Bird house was or where it was like. He also wasn't too keen about going anywhere with Sasuke right now anyway, especially since his arm was starting to turn a lovely hue of black and purple.

Kisame opened the back door and stepped in making the room far too crowded. Naruto took a few steps back giving them as much space as possible. Kisame worked through them and moved back into the living room to resume his seat on the couch. "Itachi, show's staring back up."

Itachi abandoned them and began stalking towards the living room. He turned his head back quickly, "we have plenty of food if you two are hungry. You should probably take some back to Black Bird. There's lots of ramen in the pantry that we don't eat."

"Can I borrow the car then?" Sasuke asked following him, he looked at his brother as Itachi sat down. Itachi leaned back and pulled out a full key ring tossing it to him. Sasuke tilted his head back towards the kitchen for Naruto to see. Naruto followed him in and was handed a box as Sasuke opened the cupboards quickly and began tossing an assortment of food into it. He then looked up to a high cupboard and smiled. Sasuke silently climbed on the counter and pulled the door out just a smidgeon.

"Keep shoveling food in there." Sasuke whispered and pulled out his knife letting the blunt end of the blade slide in and press a latch back opening the liquor cabinet. Sasuke grabbed a small bottle and softly closed the cabinet using the blade to keep the latch back, completely silent. Sasuke got down as softly as he had gotten up and grabbed Naruto's bag, while it was still attached, shoving the glass bottle in there. He patted it and stole the box from Naruto. "We're good, let's go."

Naruto wanted to say something about the stolen item but didn't. He simply remained quiet, the words lingering on his lips but couldn't let it out. As they were walking out Itachi looked at them and waved. Sasuke nodded and Naruto thanked him for warning him. He walked out behind Sasuke closing the door. "You shouldn't have taken that."

"Shh... It's not for me. It's for Jugo, he doesn't have his ID updated yet so he can't buy drinks." Sasuke explained quietly and walked over to the garage and opened the side door. "A few things about the car," Sasuke said as he set the box down and flipped on the light. Naruto looked in and saw one of the most beaten up things he had ever seen. "It just looks bad, we did that ourselves to protect the car, it's actually a really good car."

"It looks like you drove it off the Grand Canyon." Naruto said loudly. Sasuke opened up the backseat setting the box in and strapping it in. Sasuke took off his bag and placed it in as well.

"Gimmie your bag." Sasuke waited a second for the boy to follow the order and he pushed Naruto's bag in there too taking the bottle out and hiding it in the box under some items. Sasuke stepped back and closed the door, his eyes skimming over to Naruto, "well go get in."

Naruto looked at him as Sasuke got in the driver's seat and pressed a button opening the garage door. He slammed the door and waited until Naruto finally walked around to the other side of the car and got in. Sasuke stopped for a second letting the keys dangle in the ignition. "Do you have a delay setting?"

"What?" Naruto asked looking at him confused as he put on the seat belt.

Sasuke put his seat belt on to and took a second processing his explaination. "You're on delay, every time I tell you something; it takes you a few seconds to do it. Just try to pay more attention; Madara's not going to give you a ten second head start." Sasuke started the car.

"Sorry, I'm just a bit distracted." Naruto said and all the rumors he's heard about in school came swirling into one, large word Naruto never said but heard every time when someone mentions Sasuke: fag. Naruto wasn't sure if he was gay or not, he was always hanging around Karin, he was sure that Sasuke shouldn't be called that word. No one should, it was rude. Naruto got upset when people called him an ignorant jock, he guessed Sasuke was in the same boat. "Will you help me with my story?"

Sasuke turned his head and backed up the car considering it. Before he could answer Naruto continued. "You're like the best writer Kakashi's ever seen."

"I guess. Just don't tell anyone, I like my reputation as a self-righteous bastard." Sasuke smiled and turned the car out onto the road.