The Right Way Around: Book One

Chapter Eleven

A/N: WHAT UP EVERYBODY! Trigger warning for this chapter, the beginning anyway. Emotional breakdowns and such. No mentions of rape. It's more just trauma-related depression, self-loathing, and such. There is some mild self-harm that happens. Well, as mild as any form of self-harm can be.

Mmm beyond that, I got nothing else to say this time. OH! Anytime I've decided when Madara and Sasuke are working together, not one or the other in the forefront, I'm going to call them MadaSasuke! Got the idea from one of you guys saying it and I loved it. So it's now a thing in my story. LOL (I don't own the artwork. Don't know who did it. I have a folder of Naruto art that I have no idea where any of it came from at this point.)

ON WITH THE SHOW!

------

The next morning Genma could be found snoring splayed over the loveseat on his stomach in a position that looked incredibly uncomfortable. His senbon still in his mouth amazingly enough. Raidō was laying in his back on the couch, snoring louder than Genma, one arm over his eyes, the other flipped over the edge of the couch cushions. And where was Tenzō? In bed, alone.

Kurama has pretended to drink with everyone else. But he hadn't had more than two, maybe three beers. Which only made him happily buzzed. But nowhere near drunk. So when everyone had passed out the sly fox scooped Tenzō up bridal style without issue and put him in bed. He tucked the Anbu in, kissed his forehead because he was feeling like the house mother at that point. Then he went back out to the living room and tucked blankets around both tokubetsu jōnin, kissing their foreheads as well.

He had started picking up the empty bottles, cleaning the apartment as quietly as he could. Everyone was dead to the world from alcohol consumption though, so he probably could have vacuumed and not woken a single one of them. Kurama finally got into Tenzō's room and he paused, just watching the mokuton user sleep.

He frowned, slipping to his knees next to the Anbu's bed. His fingers gently brushing through his hair. "I'm sorry I'm messing up your life. I don't know what I did to cause this reaction in you. But, I promise, for Naruto and your sakes...I'll fix it." He looked down, feeling his eyes line with tears as his eyesight blurred. He touched his cheek, pulling his now wet fingers away. He was crying?

"...not a kid..." Kurama looked up when he heard Tenzō speak. Had the other woken up? No, he was still asleep. He was...talking in his sleep? "...not...a little... kid...anymore..." Tenzō huffed in his sleep. "...stupid Kakashi..." "...stupid civilians..." He turned his head with an upset huff. "...make my own choices..." "...don't need to be coddled..." "...grown man... Anbu..." He rolled onto his side, his back to Kurama. "...not dangerous..." "...won't hurt...lover..."

Kurama sat back on his heels. It hadn't been Kurama's fault at all. Tenzō's problem was he felt like Kakashi was trying to prevent him from growing up and being the responsible adult that he was. Like a little brother trying to force his big brother to see him as an adult when the older brother just keeps treating him like a teenager who needed firm parenting. Sounded like Tenzō also struggled to find someone who wasn't afraid to have sex with him or be alone with him because he was Anbu and a Shinobi. Which was absurd, Tenzō was adorably sweet. Well, not in bed. In bed, he was a dominating force and Kurama supposed that could be extremely intimidating to a civilian or chūnin. But a jōnin should be knowledgeable enough to not fear the Anbu. Then again, Anbu had a lot of stigma around it, being black ops and assassins.

No wonder Tenzō freaked out as he had. His big brother stormed into his apartment, scolded him, lectured him, told him he had done wrong and was wrong, then left with the person he had been assigned to watch and guard. Forcefully terminating a mission given to him by the Hokage. Fuck, Kurama would have been furious too. It was like saying Tenzō was too young, not mature enough, too deadly, and had no self-control. It was insulting.