Archive of Our Own ^beta

“What’s that?” Sasuke asks, uncharacteristically impulsive. He is staring at Naruto’s chest as they undress to go into a hot spring.  

Naruto covers his chest as though he is a girl and sticks out his tongue. “What?” 

“That scar,” Sasuke taps the long one that runs through the middle of his pecs and reaches his collarbones. “And this one,” he taps one below it, a round one that looks to be the size of a fist. “They look really bad.”

“I have more,” Naruto shrugs, and turns around. His back is ninety percent scar tissue, Sasuke realises with a start. There are criss-crossing lines, holes, a burn mark, and several other lacerations from various fights. “The long scar on my chest? You gave me that,” and he laughs awkwardly. “A side glance of chidori got me good.”

Sasuke feels his world slow down until it’s just his slow heart thumping and Naruto, a sheepish smile on his face. “I did that to you?”

“Most of them are,” Naruto shrugs. “‘Specially the ones on my thighs. It’s okay, you know I don’t blame you.”

“But-”

“What would you have done?” Naruto gives him a small, sad smile. “You were consumed by grief and anger and power. I doubt even knowing this you would’ve stopped, or lessened at all, particularly when I fought back with the same attitude.” 

“No,” Sasuke wants to- he wants to fix it, he wants to paint over the marred skin and make it soft again. “You never fought to kill.” 

“Like I said, all over and done with,” Naruto brushes his shoulder as he walks by to grab a towel and slings it over his shoulder. “I’m happy you’re back, Sasuke. Let’s not- let’s not bother about things we cannot change.”

Sasuke cannot get the image out of his head. The layers and layers of scar tissue that cover Naruto’s back whole taunts him with utter disgust and with as much shame as they can muster. He knows he did not cause them all and in the shinobi’s line of work this is far too common but he cannot seem to shake the feeling that each line, each hole, each splash of pale pink tells him that each one is his fault.

He wonders then, as he lies in bed and thinks of the fights he and Naruto have, of the fight at the Valley of the End, if he deserved the kind of love Naruto held for him, that kind of unconditional forgiveness that overflowed from him whether you wanted it or not. No matter how far away you held Naruto from you, an arm’s length, a village, a country- his forgiveness reached you no matter how much bad you’ve done.

Sasuke’s done a lot of bad.  

He didn’t sleep much that night, but it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. At seven in the morning, when the sun peeked through the gaps in the curtains, he gets out of bed, changes, and goes to the school as he always does now.

His after-war, after-vengeance routine is quiet, safe and repetitive, and is as much peace as one can hope for in such a world. A far cry from what it used to be, this world that Sasuke has hesitantly stepped in beckons him with a kind finger and a warm voice.

“Sasuke!” Naruto waves at him, and smiles brilliantly. “You’re just in time. We’re practising shurikenjutsu today, so I’m sure you can help us out. Everyone, greet Sasuke-sensei, he’s going to be teaching you all today.” 

The honorific of sensei always made him feel a twinge in his heart. Young hopefuls stare at him with light in their eyes, awaiting his direction, regarding him as wise and all-knowing and of course, a drag. The last is inescapable. Tell this to Sasuke three years ago. Tell him he would be standing in a field with shuriken in his hand and children to teach it to. Tell him he would feel revered. He would’ve killed you for the lies.

“We’re going to be bending shuriken today,” Sasuke hands out the shuriken to the children and watches them meddle about with it. There are few good ones, of course. Some hold the shuriken like they can already command it, but most dick around with it and end up nicking themselves. He points to the trees, where he has targets lined up that each creep away from each other until the last target is behind the last tree. “Try to hit all the targets. You can use as many shuriken as you want.”

They all fail, of course, even the good ones.  

Naruto watches them go, and at the request of some of the children, particularly the troublemakers who bet that he can’t do it, hits the last target and grins at them goofily.

“Isn’t shurikenjutsu one of Sasuke-sensei’s talents? If you were in a team together, why would you learn the same skill?” One of the boys asks, a small one with inquisitive eyes and a sharp nose.

Naruto looks at him in surprise. “Well, if Sasuke-sensei couldn’t react in time, or was otherwise occupied, don’t you think it’s a little stupid to die because you couldn’t perform the same skill as your teammate? Being in a team means sharing different skills, but it doesn’t mean forgoing learning them on laziness.”

He’s grown up, hasn’t he? Naruto no longer speaks in the moronic way he used to. He remembers Naruto trying to teach him a skill once and going, “you’re doing it wrong, you’ve got to EHHHH an OOOH and then it will work!” Maybe it’s the fact that he’s in charge of this generation, but Naruto’s changed a lot, especially in the way he holds himself.

“If that was the logic we went with,” Sasuke walks up to Naruto and bumps his shoulder. “Then I wouldn’t be able to do this,” his hands form a simple seal, and then the child is surrounded by five of Sasuke’s clones, who wave at him and go, “yo.”.

“Mah, I had to teach you that,” Naruto laughs and throws a shuriken through one of the shadow clones. “Back to the class! Who wants to learn how to hit the last target?”

Sasuke stands to the side as Naruto demonstrates hitting the shuriken with another to bend it. The children nod and aah, and Sasuke feels a sense of- of peace. It unnerves him.  

He looks up at Naruto and sees the scars on his back and feels his face colour.

“Neh, we still haven’t seen what’s under Kakashi-sensei’s mask,” Naruto says one night in passing. Sakura and Sasuke both look at him in surprise- with the war, restoration efforts and teaching, they’d had no time to worry about such trivial matters. “You saw how it was in the war right? Untouched. I think the mask is superglued to his face.”

Sasuke tilts his head, and his hair falls to the side, brushing his neck. It’s longer now than it ever was, he’s trying to hide his Rinnegan on his left eye that incriminates him with every exposure. It’s still taking some getting used to, though. “Do you have a plan?” 

“Kakashi-sensei should be walking by Ichiraku anytime now,” Naruto slurps up some of his noodles and grins at Sasuke. “I noticed his schedule. I’m going to invite him here, and I’m going to expose him.”

“Oh yeah?” Sakura and Sasuke exchange looks and sigh. “That’s ambitious.” 

“I have the perfect plan,” he says with utter conviction. “Hah! See, there he is now! Kakashi-sensei! Oi!”

Kakashi turns to look at them with confusion. “Naruto?”

“Can you come here for a second?”

 “Why?” 

“Please sensei!”  

Kakashi walks over to the booth with an air of nonchalance and indifference. “Yo, guys. What’s up?” 

“Neh, Kakashi-sensei,” Naruto pats the seat next to him and after a moment’s hesitation Kakashi slides into it. “What do you look like under your mask?” 

Sasuke and Sakura feel their mouths drop open with surprise.

“I thought he was going to push Kakashi-sensei’s face into the ramen,” Sakura whispers.

“I thought he was going to use rasengan on his face,” Sasuke whispers back.

“What do I look like under my mask?” Kakashi asks with barely concealed astonishment. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, I’m curious,” Naruto rubs the back of his head sheepishly. “I know so much about you from Obito’s memories and others, but I find it weird that in all my flashbacks you’re...always wearing the mask, you know?”

“I see,” Kakashi frowns at him. “Wait, what do you know about me?”

“Obito told me a lot of things I don’t think he planned on me seeing haha,” Naruto’s voice grows serious. “Most of it is really sad.”

“Tell me.”

So Naruto tells him about his life, his father, his playground adventures with the can. He tells him about missions Kakashi has never told a soul, about Obito breaking his arm after falling off a swing and Kakashi helping him to set it, how it felt to see his hand through Rin’s heart, what a sharingan felt like when you couldn’t control it. He tells Kakashi of a world in which Naruto existed side-by-side Obito in every moment, he could tell him the amount of breaths Obito took when he was crushed by a boulder, the way his voice cracked when Obito gave him his sharingan, how it felt to have one removed. He spoke of the way Rin’s hair glowed in the sunset, the way Obito loved her, with every fibre of his being and every tap of his fingers, and the way he desired to be loved, wholesome and soft, as all-encompassing as a hug.

Sasuke and Sakura listen with deadening hearts. The problem with Naruto’s big heart is that it allowed for so much pain to creep in, and here he was, harbouring every pained existence of the man who killed his parents and doomed him to a childhood of loneliness while having no qualms about it. Naruto was a vessel, a conductor of suffering, he let others come to him and relieve themselves of their burden and he carried it all on his shoulders, the Atlas of emotions, the weight of tears balanced precariously on scales on his heart- but no one ever took his burden from him. No one gave him respite or shelter. Naruto protected everyone, but who will protect him? 

“I see,” Kakashi says softly. “Obito left a mark on you, didn’t he?” 

“He couldn’t help it,” Naruto swirls his spoon around in his ramen soup. “I understood why, though. He was a young boy trying to be loved, like me.” 

It happens so fast that they don’t realise it’s occurred until a few seconds after.

Naruto upsets his bowl all over the counter. Sasuke starts desperately trying to memorise every single detail, down to the pores, and Sakura is just staring open-mouthed.

“That’s not fair, sensei,” Naruto stammers after a while, his hands going up involuntarily to poke at Kakashi’s mole just below his mouth. “You’re so- you know, good looking, and yet you keep it covered by that mask. Why?” 

Kakashi laughs, and oh, so his voice is a little higher than it sounds through the mask. They can actually see his mouth move this time. “Well, I don’t know. I like the mask. It makes me mysterious. I’ve worn one since- since forever.” 

“Guess you don’t have tentacles under there,” Sakura mutters and laughs when Kakashi gives her a death stare. “What? You didn’t tell us anything about how you looked! We all assumed you had some debilitating disease or incurable syndrome.”

“So you didn’t think I was cool?”

“We thought you were hiding something awful about your appearance,” Sasuke smiles in spite of himself. “Some rumours said you had no lips.”

Kakashi looks stricken. “Ah, that’s-" 

Sasuke thinks privately that Kakashi-sensei hasn’t always worn a mask but acquired one. From reports and testimonies from other senseis such as Gai, Kakashi was always a recluse, a hermit, but a good hermit. The kind of hermit who would help you out in a tight spot but wouldn’t say a word to you while doing it. But Sasuke thinks he wasn’t always guarded and withdrawn until his father died. Sasuke thinks that it is when his father died that he put on the mask for the first time- to hide himself from the villagers staring, judging eyes, and to hide himself from the mirror. Kakashi-sensei was always said to be the splitting image of his father, after all- and Sasuke can understand the sentiment. Sometimes, if he wasn’t paying attention, he could walk past a mirror and think Itachi has found him again.

“Ah, don’t worry sensei! Your face looks fine,” Naruto gives him a thumbs up. “Although I didn’t actually expect you to agree.”

“I didn’t always wear the mask,” Kakashi admits as he pulls his mask back over his nose. “But I guess I grew to like it. Makes it easier to keep enemies. Well, you all know my biggest secret now. Don’t bother telling anyone, they won’t believe you.”

“I told you I could do it!” Naruto leans over to jab Sasuke painfully in the ribs once Kakashi has waved goodbye, but Sasuke can’t complain. “I am the plan master, master of the plan! Bow before me!”

“Oh, shut up, usuratonkachi ,” Sasuke rolls his eyes and watches with some delight as Naruto get flustered.

“Sasukeeee! Wake up!” There’s a loud rapping at his window, and Sasuke wakes up even before the sun is gently peeking through the curtains. Blearily he stands and opens the door, and Naruto, dressed in a loose black shirt and sweatpants is smiling goofily at him. “Get changed! I need to show you something.”

 “It’s the middle of the night,” Sasuke deadpans.

“Trust me! Please?”

 Sasuke looks at his honest expression and laidback smile. His hair is messy, he probably just rolled out of bed and came straight here. “What could be so important?”

“Quickly,” Naruto steps past him and into the apartment uninvited. “You’ll miss it. Actually, no time to change,” Naruto turns around, eyes crinkling at the corner, and grabs his hands. “No time!" 

He rushes out of the door, dragging Sasuke behind him, ever the unwilling participant in Naruto’s antics and escapades. He shrugs off his hand and runs behind him on his own, following him as he leaps from rooftop to rooftop until he finds one that is entirely flat.

Naruto laughs to himself when he finds this, and falls flat on his back to stare at the sky. His mouth curves upwards, but Sasuke is too busy watching the rise and fall of his chest and his- his scars that he can see as his shirt rides up.

“Lie here, Sasuke,” Naruto points at the sky. “There’s a meteor shower.” 

Sasuke drops down next to the boy made of sunshine and looks at the sky- and his eyes widen. There’s myriads of colour that stream down from the sky at random intervals, spilling and breaking their way across the cosmos. The sky is alive, it is a vibrant, dark, swirling purple-blue that encompasses his entire field of vision, and bringing it to life are hundreds and thousands of stars. Sasuke rarely looks at the sky.  

“I- since when is the sky ever so clear?” Is all he can think to ask, his hand reaching up as if he could, by straining, somehow reach the sky.

“Never,” Naruto laughs. “I was told about this by Tsunade, but I didn’t think we’d get to see it.”

“And you came to get me?” Sasuke asks in disbelief. He can feel Naruto’s arm brushing his as they lie on the roof in this domestic fantasy.  

“Of course! I knew you’d like it,” Naruto moves his arm such that it’s almost lying on top of Sasuke’s. Their fingers brush. “You need more beautiful things in your life after all.” 

“I do not,” Sasuke replies, miffed.  

“You so do!”

“Once,” Sasuke begins, because he might as well take the chance of this forbidden, bittersweet moment of theirs. “I saw an ocean covered in flowers. It- do you know how beautiful that was? A container ship carrying petals had overturned and the sea was flooded with pink, white, and purple flower petals that floated gently on the waves. I went swimming in it, and it smelt like heaven. I’ve seen many beautiful things.” 

“Ah, but you seeing other beautiful things does not make this one any less beautiful.” 

“No, I suppose it doesn’t.”

Sasuke wakes up to the glare of the morning sun and is instantly annoyed- until he feels his back and he sits up to find that he and Naruto are still on the same roof, and are awoken only by the light. Naruto's face is a lot softer in sleep, he loses all the hard edges the day brings and smoothens out his face, such that even sides of his eyes aren’t crinkled. He looks very vulnerable and soft.

 “Oi, wake up!” Sasuke shoves him roughly to make up for his sappy feelings. “Don’t we have a mission today?”

“A mission?” Naruto rubs his eyes and yawns sleepily. “What mis- shit! The mission!”

“You moron!” Sasuke snarls without anger and takes off at once to his house to hastily change into his shinobi attire. “You can change at mine, it’s nearer. I think you still have a change of clothes you left there.”

“Why did I-”

“You were very drunk. We do not speak of it, remember?”

 “To be honest, no,” Naruto still manages to look sheepish while frantically running. “Ah, at least you were there to take care of me!”

“Idiot, I’m not always there,” Sasuke says, and he nearly stops dead when he realises what he’s said. Of course he’s not always there- he wasn’t there for years. He hurts on the inside with the revelation.  

“Ah, but now you are, and I can afford to let myself go,” Naruto gives him a thumbs up as they arrive at their destination.  

“Idiot.”

“Only two minutes late,” Kakashi-sensei shakes his head and looks disappointed. “I’m disappointed in you two. And you show up together? What were you doing?”

 Sakura joins Kakashi in looking at them suspiciously, with a lot of eyebrow raising and subtle winks.

 “Hey, you were never on time!” Naruto crosses his arms and look petulant. “And it’s only two minutes.”

“You’re wearing Sasuke’s forehead protector,” Kakashi now looks bemused. “I wasn’t aware you’d switched back to blue, Naruto.”

“Eh?” Naruto exclaims, and hastily unties the forehead protector to reveal that yes, yes he is wearing Sasuke’s one. Sasuke rips his own off his head to find he is wearing Naruto’s and feels his eye twitch. They exchange the bands without a word but the tips of Naruto’s ears are turning red and his whiskers are becoming more prominent. 

“We fell asleep on a roof,” Sasuke volunteers. “There was a meteor shower last night.” 

“Is that what you’re calling it nowadays?” Kakashi still has that bemused expression on his face that just begs to be punched. “Ah, well, just don’t make it a habit you two. Anyway, the mission is to deliver this package safely to the Hidden Waterfall, got it? Seeing as you all know the entrance, you were specifically requested by Shibuki-san. This is an S-rank mission, you understand? You have to get the package to Shibuki.” 

“What’s in it?” Naruto pokes the brown paper package and makes a confused expression.

“Doesn’t matter. Get it to Shibuki, or I will end your potential career as Hokage, Naruto,” Kakashi fixes him with a stern glare and watches the blood drain out of his face. “You should be warned, though. The package contains information about a training program with Hidden Waterfall and Konoha. This could upset some other countries particularly in the peace we are trying to create, you understand? No one can have this information but Shibuki.” 

“Hai,” Naruto waves a lazy hand. “We heard you the first time.” 

“Go then,” Kakashi dismisses them with a nod. “Be safe, you three.”

“Ahh, we had the best sensei, don’t worry!” Naruto gives him a double thumbs up and bounds out of the room with Sasuke and Sakura hot at his heels. Kakashi gives him a fatherly smile, but then Naruto sticks out his tongue. “And it was Jiraiya and Tsunade-sensei!” 

“Naruto!” Kakashi barks, but there is no heat to his words. Instead, he watches them with worry as they race each other out of the building.

The first day is spent running from tree to tree, the three of them taking the time to catch up and talk about extremely trivial matters that have nothing to do with the mission at hand. Sasuke sometimes feels pressured to tell them to stop, but he cannot bring himself to end it. Instead he keeps an eye out for anyone following them and nods along to Naruto’s words.

They stop for a break by a streak to refill their water bottles, and it is only when everyone is quiet that he senses the presence of three other people’s chakra. Naruto side-eyes Sasuke over the rim of his bottle as he senses it too, but they do not comment on it.

“We should get going,” Naruto says loudly, but not loud enough to be suspicious. He slings his arm over Sasuke and grins at him. “We’ve got to get the letter to Hidden Grass.”

Sasuke does not bat an eye. “Yeah, where again?”

“That old house in the plaza I think,” Sakura weighs in, her instincts always on point. She was always on the same page as them. “You know? The Hokage said the brown one.”

“Ehh, I hope no one is waiting for us there,” Naruto puts his bottle back into his bag. “You know how bad we are at ambushes.” 

“Shut up, don’t remind me,” Sasuke elbows him in the ribs and rolls his eyes. The three chakra presences slide away softly.

“Let’s go guys,” Sakura takes off into the trees, and the two of them follow suit.  

“Hidden Grass?” Sasuke demands under his breath once they’ve put enough distance between them and the three people.  

“We’ve got an alliance, remember?” Naruto whispers back. Sasuke actually does not remember. He has missed so much. “They should let us pass safely if we say we’re being pursued. Plus, Kurama and I don’t like those people. They’re bad news.”

“I think they went ahead to Hidden Grass before us,” Sakura looks over his shoulder. “I can’t believe I heard Sasuke agree to being bad at ambushes.”

“Ah, shut up,” Sasuke rolls his eyes and ignores their cackles.

They do not go to Hidden Grass, they make straight for Hidden Waterfall with all the strength they can gather. Sasuke knows there’s one person following them and from the looks Naruto casts him, so does he.

It makes him wonder how he and Naruto can communicate this way even after years of separation. The way that they interact is almost like Sasuke never left. He decides, with some resolve, to talk about it with Naruto after they come back. While pretending that Sasuke never left and never hurt him is all fine and dandy, eventually, something is going to force those feelings out and Sasuke would rather have a mature if awkward conversation instead of another screaming, fighting one.

“Sasuke,” Naruto stops dead on a tree branch and looks over his shoulder. “Sakura. We’ve passed this area before.”

Sasuke looks wildly amongst the trees, but cannot see why Naruto would be saying they’ve been here before.  

“I learnt from what Tenten said she, Neji and Lee experienced in the chunin exams. It’s taking us too long to get to the next checkpoint,” Naruto runs his finger along a large gash in a tree trunk. “I made this line when I felt that one person following us. Somehow, we’ve doubled back on ourselves.” 

“It’s not genjutsu,” Sasuke volunteers when the two look at him expectantly. “I would’ve seen through it a mile away. No one can catch me in a genjutsu other than another Uchiha at this point."

“Then he’s used his chakra to manipulate us to turn back at every corner subtly,” Sakura’s hands flick to equip her shuriken. “We’ve got to take him down.”

Naruto stands slowly. “To me, he’s at six-o'clock,” Naruto readies his kunai. “But he’ll know we’re gearing for a fight.”

“We can take him.”

Naruto makes a noise in the back of his throat that sounds like a cross between mhmm and uh, sure. When did Naruto stop being so impulsive? When did he start thinking? Sasuke resolves to ask Sakura about this.

“Let’s go,” Sakura whirls around and hurls a shuriken at Naruto’s six-o’clock. There’s a small snap as their pursuer moves to avoid it, and that’s when Sasuke and Naruto leap into action. Naruto already has three clones up and they leap surround the tree. They tussle for a while, fighting back and forth and when the time was right Sasuke arrived to deliver the knockout blow- it’s a shinobi from the Hidden Sound, it seems. Whatever it is, Sasuke knocks him out, and the three of them tie him to the tree and carry on their way.

“That went easier than expected,” Sasuke mentions as they near the entrance to Hidden Waterfall.  

“I guess,” Naruto does not look convinced. “I still feel like something’s wrong.”

“Good, you got this to us,” Shibuki holds the package carefully in hand. “Any trouble?”

“A few jonin from Hidden Sound,” Naruto looks at Shibuki suspiciously. “But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

“You are right, I wouldn’t,” Shibuki slides the package up his sleeve and looks solemnly at them. “Thanks. You may go now.”

They return to Konoha undisturbed, but Naruto’s unconvinced face speaks volumes about their mission when Kakashi interviews them later.  

“Those aren’t directions for a training program,” he tells Sasuke later over ramen. “It’s something bigger.” 

“Mah, we gotta let the politics settle themselves out,” Sasuke deadpans. “What can we do about it?” 

“I hate being left out in the dark,” Naruto leans back and sighs. “I’m tired of it.” 

“Until you become the Hokage, this is how it’s going to be,” Sasuke refills his green tea. “Deal with it. But I expect you to fill me in when you do.”

 Naruto makes a pouty face. 

Sasuke takes a bite of his fish and frowns. “That mission was a waste of time. Kakashi was lying to us. We were a distraction. The real message made its way to Shibuki either a while ago or simultaneously.”

“But we’re the best jonin- oh,” Naruto rubs the back of his head. “We’re the best jonin, hmm?”

“Exactly,” Sasuke points his fork at him. “We’re the best, so anyone who sees two groups departing from Konoha would think to follow us instead of the other team. Come to think of it, you haven’t seen Lee and Tenten around have you? Also, they believed you when you said you were headed to Hidden Grass, which means Shibuki wasn’t the intended recipient.”

Naruto sags onto the table. “What? That’s so lame.”

They pass the rest of the meal in silence until the words bubble out of Sasuke unintentionally.

“You know,” he says, his voice growing serious. “We can’t keep pretending like I didn’t hurt you and do all those things to you. We need to talk about it.”

Naruto pauses with a chopstick full of ramen halfway to his face. “What do you mean, pretend?”

“You- you keep saying you forgive and forget,” Sasuke thinks of the scars on his back. “But I hurt you. You can’t keep forgiving and forgetting.”

“Sasuke,” Naruto places his hand on his thigh and looks at him intently. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It was the path you chose for yourself, and I had to go meddle in it because I cared about you. I practically asked for you to beat me up.” 

“But-”

 “I know you feel guilty,” Naruto grins at him. “Is that why you’ve been treating me to ramen ever since we came back? Mah mah, Sasuke, you know I don’t hold anything against you. I chose this life. It’s been a good one.”

Sasuke looks up at the bright light of the ramen shop. “Why?”

“Because you’re my friend,” Naruto says with some surprise. “Or do you still not get that part?”

“No, no I get it,” he thinks of Naruto’s soft face and his smile and his scars. “Do you want to stay the night?”

“Why?”

“Why not?” 

Their words are a challenge to each other.

Sasuke watches him emerge from the shower, his hair flat on his face. It brings to mind his father, Minato, and quietly he compares the similarities between them now. They have the same eyes, kind and hard at the same time.

“Sasuke, why did you ask me here?” he asks, pulling on one of Sasuke’s shirts. His heart twists. “What are you doing?”

 “I don’t know,” Sasuke turns away and opens up his notebook to record today’s mission. “I thought-” 

“What?"

 “I don’t know!” His pen makes a harsh line on the paper and he stares at the outcome of his uncertainty. “I said I don’t know why.”

 Naruto comes over to him and sits down by his side, head tilted, eyebrows furrowed. “What’s up with you? You’ve been so quiet and thinking lately.”

 “Isn’t that how I usually am?” Sasuke’s face twists into a cruel snarl as he jerks his body away from him.

“No, no, you’ve been more quiet and thinking,” Naruto shifts closer to him. “And angry.”

“Angry?”

“How many trees have you destroyed today, Sasuke?”

“What?”

“I see you at night,” his voice is soft. “You just go out and…use your jutsu to start beating things up and destroying them. And you’re training harder than ever too. Are you preparing for something?”

“I’m not leaving again.”

“I never thought you were,” he rocks back and forth slowly. “But at the same time, you don’t know what there is for you in Konoha. Missions, teaching, training. Is it all a bit mundane?”

“I don’t mind mundane,” Sasuke mutters. “After what I’ve been through, mundane is peaceful.” 

“Then, is it a girl?” Naruto’s voice is sad yet playful. “Did a girl turn down Sasuke Uchiha for the first time?” 

“As if I would let a girl impact my day,” Sasuke rolls his eyes. “No, usuratonkachi, it’s not a girl.” 

“A boy?”

“I- a boy ?” Sasuke’s eyes nearly bug out of his head. He thought he’d been so careful. “Why would- no,” he hastily regains his composure. “No.”

“Eh, you never were affected by my random sexy jutsus,” Naruto rubs the back of his head. “If it makes you feel better, I don’t care if it’s a girl or a boy, you’re still Sasuke anyway.”

 “What about you?” Sasuke counters, sick of talking about his issues.

“What about me?”

“You’ve been more angry and quiet and less impulsive,” Sasuke crosses his arms. “You’re more serious. What’s up with that?”

“I’m preparing to be the Hokage,” Naruto falls flat on his back and stares at the ceiling. “Tsunade’s been giving me extra diplomacy lessons. She says people still think I’m too twelve to be the Hokage, and that someone else would be Hokage after Kakashi and after that person it’d be me. I think they’re thinking of someone like Shikamaru. But I don’t want Shikamaru or anyone else to be the Hokage after Kakashi. I want it to be me.” 

“As if Shikamaru would take the position,” he rolls his eyes. “Of course-”

“You know that they do say I’m too immature. I’ve been trying real hard lately but it’s so tiring,” Naruto groans and rubs his face. “I wanna do fun stuff again!”

“You don’t have to pretend around me,” Sasuke offers. “As if I could see you as being anything but an immature brat.” 

“An immature brat you love!” 

Sasuke does not deny it, and perhaps Naruto notices the absence of a retort, because the air in the room shifts once more.  

“So, why did you ask me here?”

“I was impulsive,” Sasuke stands and brushes off his pants. “I won’t-”

Naruto catches his leg and yanks him back down. Caught off guard, Sasuke flops back onto the floor with a soft exclamation.

“Once,” Naruto holds fast onto his leg in such a tight grip that Sasuke realises to break free he’d have to break his wrist. “I overheard you and Sakura talking when you came back. It was with one of my kage bunshin,” his hand shakes ever so slightly. “You apologised for not loving her.”

“I remember,” Sasuke murmurs. He wonders where he is going.

“She asked if you loved someone else. You said that loving someone else does not mean you couldn’t love her, just that you didn’t love her in the way she wanted you to. But you didn’t deny it. Why?”

“Are you that stupid not to know?” Sasuke keeps up the low voice, looking at Naruto with half-lidded eyes that scrutinize his every move. “Why do I follow you on every mission? Why do I let you drag me around? Why do I humour your weird requests?”

“Why do I put up with your moodiness? Why did I ask for you to teach with me? Why do I want you to be there with me?” Naruto counters. “Why did I want you to come home so much that I’d cross oceans and mountains and forests to find you?”

“Because I was your friend, right?”

“Because I loved you, idiot,” Naruto huffs and shakes his head slowly. “I loved you.”

The world narrows until it is just the two of them staring at each other in Sasuke’s rapidly darkening living room. The confession hits Sasuke like an arrow to the heart, a blow to the knee, if he isn’t already sitting, he would’ve fallen. His dark heart twists and turns as it rejects the sentiment.

“I never-" 

“I know you did,” Naruto’s grip tightens until it becomes painful. “Your sharingan always told the truth, Sasuke, even if your face did not. You were my first friend, my first enemy. You understood the loneliness within me. How do you forget the first person who accepted you?”

“I thought you were a good-for-nothing,” Sasuke snarls. “You were weak and pathetic. You picked fights for no reason and said things without thinking. Why did you think I accepted you?”

“Because you saved me. Over, and over again, you saved me. It didn’t have to be life-threatening. You stopped me from tripping, you grabbed my feet before I went over a ledge, you stood in front of me,” Naruto smiles at him. “You loved me, idiot. It’s just that the concept was so foreign to you you reacted in stupid ways.”

A lesser known ability of the sharingan is the ability of it to give the user photographic memories. Sasuke remembers everything that happens when his sharingan is activated, down to the number of flowers in the field or the clouds in the sky. Sasuke can remember the exact instant, therefore, when his fist first connected with Naruto’s stomach during the first fight at the Valley of the End. He can remember every detail about that moment, from the way the cloth scratched at his knuckles, to the feeling of Naruto’s blood hitting his face. The smell of the iron disgusted him.

“You’ve always taken what you wanted,” Naruto continues, and as though he realises that he’s bruising Sasuke’s leg, he lets go abruptly and snatches his fist back. “Why did you never come for me?”

“You were the one thing I did not and will not deserve,” he chooses, for once in his life, to tell the truth. It is almost liberating. “I will never come after you. You know why I fought you at the Valley of the End?”

“What?” Naruto’s eyebrows furrow at the slight deviation in topic.

“I wanted the mangekyo sharingan,” Sasuke leans back slightly. “The mangekyo sharingan is acquired by witnessing the death of the one closest to you. Most Uchiha interpret it as having to be responsible for the death too,” his hands curl into fists as his sharingan activates. “I wanted the power that came with the sharingan, so I went after the one closest to me. You.”

Naruto remains silent.

“It didn’t work. I couldn’t kill you,” Sasuke closes his eyes. “I couldn’t kill you two years ago either. Do I view those incidents as weaknesses? Yes, yes I do.”

There is silence once more. It falls heavy on Sasuke’s shoulders.

“If you won’t come after me,” Naruto shoves him harshly and swings his leg over his side. “I’ll come to you again." 

Naruto’s weight presses Sasuke into the floor. He stares up, slightly open-mouthed at the blue eyes. “Why?" 

“Because I love you,” Naruto swears as anger twists his face and turns it sour. “I’ll keep loving you whether you like it or not. You broke me, all those years ago, all those years spent chasing you. I won’t let you do that to me again.”

Sasuke surges upwards until he’s sitting, his arms around Naruto’s waist to keep him from falling. They stare at each other.

Naruto leans forward until their lips are almost touching, just gently brushing each other as the anticipation seeks to kill Sasuke. “What are you waiting for?” Sasuke demands softly.

“You,” is what he gets back.

Sasuke’s eyes flash, and then he’s leaning forward and closing the gap between them.

Oh no, he thinks, as Naruto presses harder into him, winding his finger in his hair and tugging softly. Oh no, he thinks again, as he finds himself nipping at Naruto’s bottom lip. Oh no, he feels, as he slides his hands under his shirt and feels the bump of every scar. 

Sasuke pulls away from Naruto with intent and yanks the shirt over his head. “Sasuke?” Naruto questions, but the answer he gets is Sasuke bending down to kiss a small scar just below his collarbones.

Sasuke picks him up easily and deposits him onto his bed, where he proceeds to sling a leg over Naruto’s waist and straddle him. 

“Sasuke,” Naruto breathes. The room is so dark, he is framed only by the silvery tendrils and yellow street lighting from the open window. He looks ethereal and imagined, a dream in which Sasuke is trapped in.

Sasuke licks his way up the long scar he gave Naruto from the chidori. He kisses the fist shaped one, and pauses to brush his teeth none too gently over a nipple, which has the boy beneath him crying out in surprise. He can feel his erection against his thigh and grinds down hard on it, which has both of them making stuttered noises.  

Naruto sits back up and deftly removes Sasuke’s shirt, nipping at the exposed skin at his neck and biting down hard enough at the space where his neck and his shoulders met to leave a bruise on his pale skin.

Sasuke feels unbearably warm as goosebumps break out over his skin as Naruto continues to suck and nip at his neck and earlobe.

Sasuke pushes Naruto back down with a small grunt and slides down his body, kissing the tent in his shorts with a small smirk. Naruto stares at him, flushed and open-mouthed, daring him to do something. Sasuke can never resist those eyes.

He yanks his underwear down with barely a sound and smiles up at Naruto. “What do you want me to do?” He asks, his breath ghosting over Naruto’s cock. 

“You know what I want you to do,” Naruto actually rolls his eyes and fists his hands in Sasuke’s hair, dragging his head towards his cock. It in this moment that Sasuke realises he has a hair pulling kink and has to fight the urge to ask him to tug on it harder. Instead, he compensates for it by giving his cock a cursory lick from base to head and swirling his tongue around the tip. Naruto makes a strangled sort of noise in the back of his throat and it goes straight to Sasuke’s cock. Perhaps, then, he would be as loud in bed as he is in real life.  

He warms up by bobbing up and down on his cock before going all the way down to its base, hearing Naruto moan and tighten his grip on his hair. Naruto tastes slightly salty, but more like Sasuke’s soap. He keeps this rhythm up for a while before he grows bored of it and releases Naruto’s cock with a small pop as it falls back onto his stomach.  

Naruto’s panting and flushed, his freckles on his collarbones more prominent than ever. “Get up here,” he demands, and Sasuke complies, crawling upwards to meet Naruto in a searing kiss that ends with Naruto making a face and saying, “this is what I taste like?”

Sasuke shrugs and grinds against his leg. “It’s not bad." 

Naruto’s eyes darken as he feels Sasuke’s erection against his leg and flips them over in an instant such that Naruto was now leaning possessively over Sasuke, one hand on his throat.  

Sasuke has never been this hard in his life.

Naruto removes his underwear slowly, teasingly, until Sasuke actually growls at him to hurry up. In response, Naruto slips two fingers into Sasuke’s mouth.  

“Nice and wet,” he reminds him, grinning predatorily. “You wouldn’t want it to hurt, would you?”

Sasuke wants to object on behalf of his pride for being on the bottom, but there was something about Naruto’s smile that has his heart rate rapidly increasing. Instead he hollows out his cheeks and swirls his tongue around his fingers, watching Naruto’s breathing get heavier and heavier.

“This is not how I thought the day was gonna go,” Naruto mutters as he places his fingers at Sasuke’s entrance and slowly pushes one inside. He drops a flirtatious wink at Sasuke as he pushes the second one, causing a hitch of his breath. Sasuke thanks every deity he knows that he went to the toilet before he showered. He feels like he should get on his knees- he loses track of his thoughts as Naruto crooks his fingers and brushes his prostrate and holy shit.  

“Fuck!” the moan is almost punched out of him. “Naruto-”  

“Say my name louder,” Naruto leans into him further and weighs him down. One hand is still on his neck and it starts to squeeze gently. “C’mon, Sa-su-ke.” He pronounces every syllable of his name in a sing-song voice and grins widely.  

“You got to do it, or I won’t get to the main event,” Naruto pulls his fingers out and sits back on his haunches. “Ne, Sasuke? How ‘bout it?” 

Since when was Naruto so- so dominating? Sasuke thinks blearily as he decides whether the shame of begging outweighs the benefits of being fucked. It is a whole new side to Naruto that Sasuke had never experienced before and it is absolutely thrilling. 

“Naruto,” he says slightly louder, trying desperately to sound authoritative. “I want you to fuck me.” 

“Wah, how cute,” Naruto taps his finger against his chest. “Do you deserve it?” 

Sasuke glares at him.

“Hai hai,” Naruto presses the head of his cock to Sasuke’s entrance. “Don’t go all sharingan-y on me. It’s fucking hot,” and he smiles as he bottoms out in Sasuke in one swift movement.

“Shit,” Sasuke swears, and grabs onto Naruto’s shoulders. There’s pain, yes, it kind of hurts as he gets the breath knocked out of him once more, but Sasuke’s been through a hell of a lot worse, and so tells Naruto in a decisive albeit strained voice, “move, usuratonkachi.” 

Naruto pulls out till the rim and then slams back into Sasuke and Sasuke can barely form words, just muttered, gasping breaths and “Ah! Ah! Fuck!” It sort of feels like he gets the breath punched out of him at every thrust, and he doesn’t know exactly why this feels good, but it feels full and overwhelming.  

“Faster,” he grinds out between gritted teeth, and Naruto laughs into his ear.

“On all fours then,” Naruto pulls out of him and eyes him hungrily. “We haven’t got all night.” 

Sasuke glares at him for good measure before flipping over, his cock dragging painfully on the rough sheets.

“Ass up,” Naruto smacks his ass and Sasuke lets loose a cracked whimper that he can feel hitting Naruto like a bag of bricks. “You’re kinky, you know that? Would you like me to tie you up, ne, Sa-su-ke? Make it so that you can’t touch yourself? You’d have to get off from my cock alone, would you like that? We all know you could break free from it, though. You’d have to want to be tied up. But you do, don’t you?” 

Sasuke makes no attempt to answer, but from the way his cock drips onto the sheets, he’s very into it. Instead he gets presents Naruto with his ass and mutters a low, “you going to fuck me or what?” 

“No patience,” Naruto presses back inside Sasuke and grins at his wanton moan. “You want me to fuck you?”

Naruto’s pace picks up until he’s slamming hard into him, at every thrust hitting Sasuke’s prostate and having him churn out garbled, almost incoherent moans of “fuck, Naruto!”

Bracing himself on his elbows, Sasuke has no ability to reach under him and touch his aching cock. “Oh?” Naruto asks, his voice sounding ragged. “Do you want me to touch you?”

“Please,” Sasuke gives up instantly.

“That’s a nice sound from you,” Naruto bites down on his shoulder and relishes in his moan. “You should say that more often.” 

There is the sound of a seal being made, and Sasuke cranes his neck to look behind- there are now two Narutos grinning at him. The second one comes over to his side and takes his cock in one hand, jerking it hard and fast and Sasuke cries out and bucks hard into his hand.

“Kage bunshin are really useful,” Naruto’s voice is definitely strained. “Maybe in the next round, I’ll have them fuck you at the same time. A cock in your mouth and one in your ass, wouldn’t that be fun?”

Sasuke’s mind whites out from the mental image of two Narutos spit-roasting him. “Ah fuck!” He shouts as he comes all over the second Naruto’s hand and onto the sheets, his mind blanking and his heart pounding in his chest.

“Ngh, Sasuke,” Naruto grinds out and fucks him with reckless abandon, pounding into him over, and over again, until he pulls out, flips Sasuke around easily, and comes all over his chest. The second Naruto pauses at this pretty picture, but then disappears into a small cloud of smoke.  

Naruto collapses next to Sasuke, grinning up at him through satisfied eyes. “Well that was fun,” he says cheerfully. “Look at you. You’ve got bruises everywhere.”

“Shut up!” Sasuke would shove him, but he’s too boneless to do anything. “You should clean me up.”

“Hai,” Naruto grabs a tissue and wipes off the come from Sasuke’s chest. “Is this going to be a one-time thing?”

Sasuke feels insulted. “A one time thing? Fuck you man,” he rolls over to glare at Naruto. “I love you too, usuratonkachi .”

Naruto’s eyes widen and a smile bursts its way across his face. “I should get that on recording.”

“No need to,” Sasuke yawns and leans on his shoulder. “I’ll say it as many times as you want me to.” 

“Say it again.”

“I love you.”

“Again!”

“I love you.”

“Ag-”

“Shut up and go to sleep!”