Shadow Lover

Part 8

Naruto made a flabbergasted sound at the accusatory revelation. And he wasn't the only one.

"You're straight?" Gaara was surprisingly the first one to chime up.

Naruto was even more taken off balance by it being Gaara that asked the question even as dead silence settled over the tent in anticipation of his response.

"Well, I don't know. I've just never felt any true attraction to a guy, or a girl." Thinking he had to further explain so they not thunk him impotent, Naruto quickly added, "I mean, I see the attraction! Just never felt any kind of feeling or sensation one would qualify as love."

Starting to feel angry about being put on the spot, particularly under the quizzical eyes of the clairvoyant, Naruto then directed his anger at everyone in general, "It shouldn't matter anyways! My life, my choice! And that could change at any time! I mean, it might have changed already... No! Um! What I mean is that it is none of everyone's business!"

"Enough of this," Master Uchiha said, now openly bored with the proceedings, "Get rid of them all, with the exception of him."

Master Uchida's onyx eyes fell like electricity on Naruto, gluing him to the spot and unable to move as the chaos of shouting, refusing, and threatening erupted all around him until all that was left was the muted sounds of the fair outside and those measuring, powerful eyes. Naruto should have been afraid. However, under the fixated stare of the other, he could do nothing more than stand in anticipation of what he planned to do with him, maybe even to him.

"Have a seat," the clairvoyant requested in a tone that demanded obedience as he motioned to a seat across from him on the table.

Naruto, still entranced by the beautiful creature that was before him and unable to say no to those bewitching eyes, moved quietly to sit as instructed.

"Against popular opinion, I believe there is true magic within the realm of tarot, " the raven haired clairvoyant told the muted blonde as he looked down and reached for a much loved deck of tarot cards and begun shuffling them as if the movement was an extension of his very being. "They uncover truths about ourselves that are hidden within our very unconscious. Our past... our present, and even the future that will be willed by the very nature of our unconscious. Those truly skilled can even uncover past and future selves within these cards."

Naruto only looked on, absolutely transfixed by the other man's graceful movements and almost sensuous handling of the deck in his gloved hands. Having broken the deck into three parts before shuffling the cards back together into one, Master Uchiha contemplated the blonde with such intensity that Naruto could feel sweat breakout on his forehead and start talking down the side of his face, left untouched in its path by the blonde whose will was not his own. The clairvoyant placed three cards before the blonde, leaving each with a loving caress with each lift of his hand.

"I wonder whether you know the very secrets you hide, " Master Uchiha told the blonde with a voice full of anticipation.

Naruto's impulse was to retort. Anyone who has ever known him would say he was nothing but transparent through and through. He could even say he was the very epitome of honestly and integrity, if a little brash sometimes. However, again, he found his voice failed him as the spell lingered over him.

The raven haired clairvoyant looked on amused, jewels on his veil casting multicolored spectrums on his pale white skin, adding to the supernatural feel of his beauty. "Here lies your past... your present... and future," he told the blonde as he pointed to the cards before him from left to right, before proceeding to uncovered the one further to his left.

"The Tower," the clairvoyant said with a sneer as he looked down at the uncovered card of a tall stone tower erupting in flames and a man and a women falling from the sky wo an uncertain end, "You served as a catalyst for change. In your past, you created divine chaos and misfortune wherever you tread, and caused loved ones to fall for your sake. You changed the lives of those clothes in darkness, and created obsession where there was none. Your name was hailed in both good and evil, but you knew no love outside of your insistence on the glorified concept of virtue."

Naruto looked horrified at the card and shook his head at the accusations as the clairvoyant looked at him expectantly. His knuckles white from clasping the chair on its sides. Whether to regain his senses to ran out of there or to punch the other man he did not know.

It were not true and he knew that. It had not been his fault! That man was insane! And his parents... his parents...

Naruto could feel the tears building in his eyes, ready to drop any moment, and still he could not leave. Seeing his reaction, Master Uchiha graceful rose and sauntered towards the blonde to sit on the table before him, legs relaxed in the space created by Naruto's own, second cards securely locked in between his fingers.

"It is no surprise that your present, like this card, is locked in a constant cycle," he intoned matter of factly revealing the beautiful rendering of a clock in whirling motion.

He dropped the card at the comunal feet following his statement. Then, proceeded to meticulously and procedurally rid  himself of the various fluttering fabrics wrapped around his person.

"Reincarnation after reincarnation..." the clairvoyant said as he took of the intricate veil wrapped around his head, revealing a boy not much older than Naruto himself with hair down to his shoulders, "you seek to hide from me."

He took off right glove, "You seek to dissuade me," he continued revealing a prosthetic left arm eliciting a small gasp of surprise from the blonde, "by changing your sex and your look, thinking my soul so vain as to not know you at a glance."

"And yet here I am, cycle after cycle, longing and seeking after you. And imagine my surprise to find you to tender in your years, sporting the very imagine that made me fall for you," the clairvoyant continued, while starting to untie his robe, "Two dumbstruck lovers by your side with silly notions of protecting you from me."

"But they don't know," he finished by revealing a chest full of black fire markings that ran up his chest as if they were consuming his body, "they cannot save you, because I own you! Bought and paid with this body!"