Part - XII

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5rd Nov, 2023
22:55

Itachi had been at Sasuke's penthouse for two days before he decided it was time to address the large technicolored elephant sitting in the room. They were sitting down at dinner. "So when are you going to tell me why you are living separately from Naruto, aren't wearing your wedding band, and your kitchen and office are stocked with more booze than a Las Vegas bar?" Sasuke froze with a bite of food halfway to his mouth.

"I filed for divorce a year ago Naruto doesn't live in the area anymore" Sasuke stated this casually, as though he were talking about the weather. But Itachi wasn't fooled.

"What happened?"

Sasuke put his fork down. There was no pretending that he was going to eat anymore. For all the people that had asked him, he had never answered this question. But refusing to answer Itachi was an entirely different matter. He knew this conversation was not likely to go they way he wanted it to. But that didn't mean that he wouldn't try. He fixed Itachi with his most formidable Uchiha 'back-the-fuck-off' glare. "We grew apart. It was time to end it, so I did."

Itachi looked at him for a moment in almost disbelief. "Of course. So that is why you are drinking yourself into a stupor almost every night, and spent the first two months after the breakup fucking anyone who was willing. Which, for you, is a considerably long list. And all this because you had 'grown apart'?" Itachi even used the finger quotations. Not a good sign.

"You've been catching up on old news, I see," Sasuke said, refusing to look away. He would not be apologetic for what he had done. It was no ones business but his. And Naruto's.

And evidently his big brother's. "That's what Google was invented for, little brother. So are you going to tell me what happened, or would you rather I looked into it myself?"

Sasuke forced himself not to rub his temples in frustration. Part of him really wanted someone to talk to. He had prayed those first few months after the breakup that his brother would wake up so he would not have to face this alone. But time had passed, and the wound had started to close over. The memories of Naruto had faded a little, and he didn't wake up every night sweating and shaking, dreaming of him anymore. Now it was only once a week, sometimes less. He could go to work, and no longer expect to see Naruto walking out of a room, or coming into his office, or slammed up against his door...

Did he really want to re-open all those feelings and memories again? But looking at the black and foreboding eyes of his older brother, he realized that he wasn't going to have much say in the matter. It was just as Itachi had said. Either Sasuke could tell Itachi now and get it over with relatively quickly, or Itachi would dig it up on his own. And the digging would be painful, and protracted.

"Naruto slept with at least two other people while we were married. I found out, and I ended it. Abruptly."

Itachi blinked in abject disbelief. He had known Naruto almost as long as Sasuke. He found the notion of Naruto cheating on Sasuke almost inconceivable.

"And you found this out how?"

Sasuke kept his expression carefully blank. "I received photos of Naruto in bed - in our bed - with two women. At the same time. Additionally, there were hotel records showing he had met these women separately on multiple occasions while he was on 'business trips'."

"There can be misunderstandings... photos taken out of context can appear to indicate something that isn't really happening."

"Maybe. But it's pretty hard to misinterpret Naruto naked in bed, with two women also without their clothes on, and one of the women's face in his crotch."

Ouch. Itachi took a breath. But it just couldn't be what it seemed. There had to be some explanation for this, and he was going to fucking find it. "Where did you get these photos and hotel records?

"They were sent to me," Sasuke shifted uncomfortably. A dead giveaway. Clearly this was the weak link in the chain. It was the only evidence that Itachi had that Sasuke had some doubts about the information.

"Sent to you... anonymously? You ended a marriage with a man you had known and loved for more than a decade for a pack of anonymous information? Did you even verify it? Have you heard of Photoshop?" Itachi's disbelief at his brother's stupidity was almost overwhelming. How could Sasuke have been so easily manipulated? It had always been a weakness that Sasuke had when he was younger, especially after their parents' deaths. But he had really not thought that anything could turn him from Naruto. Naruto was his anchor. How had this all happened?

"Do you think I am an idiot? Of course I verified it. I had the photos professionally analyzed. They were stills from a video, and they could tell by the patterns in the background static that there was no pixel manipulation, no alteration of any kind. They were real. And I went to the hotels myself. They remembered Naruto... it's pretty hard to forget someone who looks like him. And they remembered the women he was with at the bar or at dinner. He was there. With them. Without me. And he never mentioned those meetings to me at the time. Naruto - who talks about everything."

The bitterness of betrayal was dripping from his words. His hands were shaking, so he clenched him into fists to make it stop. This was exactly why he had never told anyone about this. He didn't want to remember the way he felt when he found out. He didn't want to think about this anymore. The two days Naruto claimed to be in the hospital, Sasuke had been visiting the hotels and having the photos examined, praying that it would turn out to be some trick, something that could be explained away. He didn't want to remember the sinking feeling in his stomach when everything turned out to be real. He stalked over to the kitchen and poured himself a large glass of vodka from the freezer. Itachi had already noticed the alcohol. There was really no point in hiding it. Itachi's eyes narrowed as he watched his brother, but he didn't comment.

"Did you talk to him about it?" But of course Itachi already knew the answer to this. He knew his brother well enough to know he would have gone into self-protection mode, just as he had done when he had found out about their parents' deaths. He would have shut down and withdrawn to try to minimize the emotional damage. Fuck. Sasuke laughed. It was a horrible, hollow sound.

"I told him I had caught him, and he didn't deny it, or even question what I was talking about." Sasuke thought of that night at their house, their last night together. He had hoped that Naruto would somehow deny it when he had accused him of wanting to have sex with other people in their bed, that he had been caught. But Naruto had just ignored the accusation and thrown it back at him. "But I didn't bother showing him the photos as well. I mean, really, what was he going to say? 'Oops, we all tripped and somehow our clothes all fell off when we landed on the bed and then her mouth accidentally connected with my dick?' I saw the photos. There's really not much room for interpretation there. I didn't need the blow-by-blow of how long it had been going on or how many others there were. It was over. There was nothing to discuss,"

Sasuke's voice was sneering and bitter, but he could see the underlying pain and loneliness. It made Itachi bleed for him. He felt a cold anger and sense of purpose wash over him. Well, he needed motivation to get through the next months of physical therapy to get his strength back. And he had fucking found it. No one messed with his brother.

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TBC..

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Cr: NaruLove11
Dt - 05/11/2023 - 22:55
1430 words

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