For: stacylilly
For: stacylilly
Title: Arrangement
Rating: R
Summary: “It feels good,” Sasuke sighed, as if they both hadn’t been trying to tear each other’s heads off moments before. “I understand now why you liked it so much.” SasuNaru
Warnings: Foul language, sexual implications
A/N: I hope it turned out all right. It was nice writing something other than AU. I researched and everything, haha.
Mod note: Reminder for the author/artist of this submission, please do not reply to comments signed in, if you want to reply anon commenting is enabled.
The grass still clinging to the last remnants of the fortnights’ spring shower, sky so blue it was dizzying, the day bright but the air cool enough to make one long for a jacket, two feet hung off the decrepit roof of a slanted building, swinging freely into empty space. Like a freshly cracked egg, the sun leaked over the horizon, a bright orange yolk unfolding over streets that were already beginning to rustle with movement. From his perch, the people were small, their faces hard to make out, movements seeming so slow from way up high. He’d opened all the doors and windows to his apartment, letting the fresh air circulate to sweep out the stale air left there from weeks of winter hibernation. The seeds of the small vegetable patch he kept in a series of pots were watered, a few brave enough to pop bright green heads above the rich brown soil.
Since it was so early in the morning, Naruto hadn’t bothered to dress into his usual chunnin vest and trousers, choosing instead loose orange pants and a black wife-beater. When he breathed in, he could taste the salt on his breath from the cup ramen he’d eaten two hours ago. Naruto found it sickeningly ironic that on days like these that he had off, his mind would kick his body out of bed at the crack of dawn, but during days when he had missions, his teammates would have to literally drag him out of bed.
Sipping orange juice from the icy glass in his hand, Naruto was just considering getting his equipment and find a free training ground when an unexpected visitor landed five feet from him, normally tamed hair askew on her head, with a harsh cry of “Naruto!”
There were very few things that could have Sakura worked up in such a frenzy. Everything else she dealt with her fists or her sharp tongue. But her eyes, as bright a color as the budding sprouts in his vegetable pots, her cheeks and forehead flushed as bright a pink as her hair. Naruto’s mind jumped to the only viable option.
“Sasuke’s gone!”
…that idiot.
--
One year, two months, and eleven days ago, one dragging the other, shattered bones laying heavily in their bruised and battered bodies, they left a trail of blood behind them at the heaved their way back to Konoha. One with a ridiculous grin on a face you could hardly recognize through the bruising. One with a deep scratch across his forehead that bled into his eyes, turning them red--”You do need it, I knew you did, I fucking knew I could, fight me, fight me”--both were thoughts and intentions so different, yet so tightly interlocked, that after the month and two days it took for both of them to be allowed out of the hospital, neither could stand very much to talk to each other, or to even look one another in the eye.
A year and a week ago, Sasuke was placed under arrest, and sentenced to a public hanging. A year and six days ago, the sentence was quickly overturned by a sharp-witted woman with a soft heart for a boy she considered as close as a son. On that day, Sasuke Uchiha, betrayer of Konoha, self-acclaimed avenger, was placed under house arrest, ridden of all ninja duties pending a trial a year from that day.
Nine months ago, Naruto woke up with a deep emptiness in his stomach that he took for hunger. He ate five complete meals that day and went to bed feeling like he’d been fasting for a month.
A month and a day of this finally opened his eyes to the fact that it was loneliness chewing down on him like a three-course meal, starting with his stomach and working its way to his heart.
Seven months and twenty-nine days later, Sasuke conveniently recognized the strange way his body felt like a bottomless pit. They made an unspoken agreement that it only made sense that a man with a monster caged inside of him, and a man made a monster through vengeance and betrayal, should be brought together by such a monstrous creature as loneliness. Nearly every night after that, without speaking, without punching or kicking or scratching, without insults, they satiated the monster with greed. Twice as ugly, but it was better than emptiness. Anything, even torture, was better than that.
Twenty-four hours ago, Sasuke had been taken off of house arrest and was allowed access to the West side of the village.
And now--
“Freakin’ moron.”
--he was missing.
“He wasn’t at home when I checked in this morning,” Sakura’s choked words from earlier rang back at him. “I’ve check the entire village twice. He isn’t anywhere. Please--”
Idiot idiot idiot
Naruto had no idea how often Anbu checked in on Sasuke, but the probability was enough to make him vomit whatever was left in his stomach from that morning’s breakfast. With the coming of the new year came promises of meetings with higher-ups to settle out diplomatic relations. While wars between countries had settled down to a few menial disputes, pressures to deepen communications and alliances grew. More communications meant more higher-ups traveling from nation to nation, all needing protection. Sasuke had been surprisingly obedient, so Naruto hoped, pleaded in his head, for the Anbu to chalk off baby-sitting duties as shotgun to the more pressing matters of defending budding alliances between counties.
But even so…. The sun was too high in the sky for Naruto’s liking. He had to get Sasuke home now.
Surprisingly enough, it didn’t take Naruto long to find Sasuke at all. As soon as he’d set foot out of the gates, he was able to pick up Sasuke’s unique energy trail. Like a crackle of electricity, it made the hair at the nape of his neck stand at attention, and he ran towards it. He could pick up the smell of him. The faint footprints on the ground that implied a leisurely pace as opposed to the fast run Naruto was using now. Sasuke couldn’t be more than a mile in, which confused Naruto. Had he gotten drunk and just meandered off? Did he just want to dangle this brief escape in the Hokage’s and Naruto’s faces? Or was he just stupid?
Naruto found Sasuke after a short two-minute run, slumped against a large boulder that jutted proudly from the ground. Naruto recognized it as one of the many training ground that lay outside of Konoha‘s walls, as opposed to the arenas the village held. Like Naruto, Sasuke hadn’t bothered dressing for any active ninja duties--like he has any, and like he’ll get any if he keeps this shit up, fuck--instead choosing to wear baggy black pants and a high-collared navy blue shirt, like he used to wear as a teenager.
Naruto knew, and knew that Sasuke knew that he knew, that Sasuke was not sleeping, even though his shut eyes and even breathing pattern said differently. He let the anger bubble in him, his body tensing for a fight, before he spoke.
“Do you know what probation even means?”
Sasuke snorted softly. His eyes fluttered open, but only to stare at the sky, not Naruto. “Do you even know how to spell it?”
Naruto bristled, but for once, ignored the insult. This was the way that Sasuke worked. Ignore the words meant to get a rise out of him. Ignore the criticisms. Defend himself with sarcasm. But it was too early, and far too soon, to have to deal with this.
“Probation means you aren’t off the hook yet, moron,” Naruto snapped, stepping closer to his best friend, eyes narrowing in anger at the calm look on Sasuke’s face. “One step out of line and they’ll throw your ass back in prison.”
“Tch,” Sasuke snorted softly. “I’d like to see them try.”
“They could!” Naruto insisted frantically, taking a few steps closer. The day was getting hotter, and with the rising temperature Naruto’s nerves skyrocketed. He was never one to worry endlessly, but in this instance, like Sakura, only one person put him so close to the edge that-- “They have! Is that what you want? To get locked up? You shouldn’t mess around with--”
“I don’t care what they think or say,” Sasuke cut him off abruptly. And then, as if to further piss Naruto off, he toed off his scandals, letting bare feet rest against the hard dirt. “They can put me under house arrest all they want, but I refuse to go to prison for such a ridiculous charge.”
Naruto sputtered indignantly, floored how anyone could make such a stupid assertion. Not even he could top that, and he’d come up with some fairly tall accusations. “You abandoned the village!” Naruto reminded him, not caring if saying it crossed one too many lies. Rather he was nervous that it wouldn’t cross any lines at all, and that Sasuke would just continue to not give a flying fuck. And from the look on Sasuke’s face, Naruto harbored a guess that his greatest fear was dead-on. “How is that ridiculous?”
Sasuke sighed. “You really are naïve,” he muttered. “For someone who can’t shut up about his damn ninja way, you’re being hypocritical.”
“What?“ Naruto asked absent-mindedly. He had a feeling that Sasuke was trying to be deep again. He could be deep al he wanted, as long as it was within village walls. This was most definitely not meeting those requirements. “Whatever, you can confuse me later. We need to go back to the village. Now. Before someone notices you’re gone.”
“If someone like you has noticed, I’m surprised that Anbu isn’t raining down on my head right now.”
Sasuke’s head was a blur of black as he swiftly moved to the side, deftly dodging the punch that left a small crater and a series of cracks in the rock he’d been leaning against. Almost my instinct, his leg shot out and swept under Naruto’s feet, only to connect with nothing but air. This time, Sasuke had to move completely away from his spot in order to avoid several crushed ribs as Naruto’s foot keep flying at him in a well-placed kick.
“I wonder if this is how you used to feel,” Sasuke said nonchalantly, his tone the complete opposite of the angry way he moved, upper body dipping down as Naruto swung at him, his fist slamming up to punch Naruto below the rib cage, knocking the wind from him. “When we were gennin,” Sasuke continued as he jumped several feet back, the hit aimed for his head landing in the ground instead, “I was always angry about you breaking rules like they held no power over you.” Sasuke darted forward, only to grunt as Naruto’s elbow grazed along his neck to slam into his clavicle. With little breath in his lungs, he hissed, “Like they didn’t apply to you.”
“I don’t know what the fuck it is you’re saying you crazy asshole!” Naruto snarled, grabbing as Sasuke side and forearm in an attempt to lift him and throw him over his shoulder, only for Sasuke to take the same stance. They remained locked in that position, gazes fierce, hot breaths mingling. Their eyes not half a foot from each other, Sasuke said, “I couldn’t understand how it made sense in your head that you were excused from the rules that everyone else has to follow. But now I get it.” Sasuke unlocked his fingers and gave Naruto a light shove, causing the shorter man to stumble back a few steps. “It doesn’t make sense to toss out all the rules, all the laws, but it’s… refreshing.” Naruto watched in dumb amazement as Sasuke, for the first time, walked away and…
…went to the same damn spot he’d been sitting in earlier.
Son of a bitch.
“It feels good,” Sasuke sighed, as if they both hadn’t been trying to tear each other’s heads off moments before. “I understand now why you liked it so much.”
Naruto stood there as still as a deer. Varying degrees of shock escalating in his body. That was the shortest--dumbest--most pointless--and the fact that Sasuke had just ended it like that--
“Okay, what’s wrong?” Mentally, physically, something had to be wrong in Sasuke. Whether it was a life-threatening disease or a brain tumor affecting his mood, this was far too out-of-character.
“’Wrong’?” Sasuke repeated in a tone that was purposefully ignorant. He had reclined back against the rock, arms behind his head, and didn’t even bother to look at Naruto as he spoke. “What is it you think could be ‘wrong’?”
Naruto sighed, and when Sasuke finally granted him a glance, Naruto looked pointedly in the direction of the village, then Sasuke’s rock, the village, the rock…
“I get it,” Sasuke snapped softly. “I’m coming back.” A brief flicker of hope lapped at Naruto’s insides. “In a while.” And was immediately extinguished.
“You’ve got some serious issues to think you can get away with this shit,” Naruto snapped. “They’re already letting you off easy, what more do you want?”
“I fail to see how keeping me under lock and key is ‘easy’.”
“What is it you expected!?” Naruto cries. “That they’d welcome you back with open arms?”
Sasuke scoffed, once again folding his arms behind his head like he had no where in the world better to be than there. “Dobe. It isn’t my expectations that aren’t being met.” He paused, as if unsure of what to say. “I expected far worse than something as juvenile as house arrest.”
“ Well you’re gonna get your wish if you don’t go back.” An unexpected epiphany struck Naruto. This had to be something other than the simple whim of taking a stroll. Maybe Sasuke was looking to piss them off, looking for a reason to fight, and worst of all, looking for a reason to leave. “We are going back,” Naruto asserted, putting as much force as possible into his words. “Whether you want to walk or be dragged with a pair of broken legs is up to you. ‘Cause I will!” he added.
“I’m not afraid of what they’ll do to me,” Sasuke said. “And I’m even less afraid of what you can do.”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re scared or not! If you don’t build up any fucking trust you won’t ever be able to get anywhere again!” It was astounding to Naruto that anyone could be so dense, so ignorant. Sasuke was getting cocky, confident, just like he always was. Like he always used to be. But this was the unacceptable kind of cocky, the sort of confidence that would lead him to consequences he had no way of dealing with. So if that made it Naruto’s job to beat some sense into his thick head, then so be it.
Sasuke was speaking again. He was unusually talkative for someone who’s barely traded a decent conversation with anyone for a year. “I didn’t come back here to kiss this village’s ass, idiot.”
“Then what did you come back for in the first place?” Naruto asked, exasperated.
Sasuke was quiet for a long time, giving no sign that he would answer Naruto’s questions. Seconds ticked by. Naruto had left his apartment at 7:30. It had to be close to nine by now. The dragging-Sasuke-back-with-broken-legs option was looking more appealing by the moment.
Then, “You don’t feel weird at all?”
Naruto scowled at Sasuke’s refusal to answer his question, but the oddity of Sasuke’s compelled him to pursue it. “Weird? Weird about what?”
“Our…” Sasuke began slowly, cleared his throat slightly, and finished with, “arrangement.”
“What arrangement?” Naruto said blankly, confused once again.
Shaking his head slightly, Sasuke said, “Come sit over here.”
Naruto shook his head as he said, “No. I want to go back.”
“Stop being so damned scared and sit the fuck down,” Sasuke snapped. “I’m sick of looking up at you.”
“Aren’t you always?“ Naruto teased, but Sasuke refused to take the bait. Sighing at his friend’s uncharacteristic display of unfounded obstinacy, Naruto decided to humor him for a while. Instead of feeling sore from the brief scuffle, Naruto felt energized, like he’d drank a whole pot of coffee in one short hour. His muscles felt like live wire, and although his limbs were ready for movement, it seemed Sasuke just wanted a nap. So Naruto sat down next to him, also toeing off his shoes to show that he would go along with this for a short while.
“So what arrangement are you talking about?” Naruto asked, curling up his legs and letting his crossed arms sit on his knees.
“Moron,” Sasuke muttered. “You know what I’m talking about.”
“No I--oh… oh, that?”
“Yes. That.”
Unlike the dark blush spreading like wildfire across Naruto’s face, Sasuke retained his pale complexion. Naruto wondered if it was even possible for Sasuke to blush. However, the older man still had the decency to look slightly embarrassed, shown in the way he averted his eyes away from Naruto’s.
“Dunno what there is to feel weird about,” Naruto muttered. Sasuke snorted. “What!? Was that the wrong answer!?”
“It was a stupid one,” Sasuke corrected him. “There’s plenty to feel ‘weird’ about.”
“Not really. I mean people have--” He stopped. Sasuke was looking at him again, one eyebrow raised. “They have, y’know…. Needs?”
“’Needs’,” Sasuke repeated blandly. “People with those needs can take care of it themselves.”
His blush darkening at Sasuke’s blunt comment, Naruto stuttered, “Is that what you came out here for? To drag me over here to talk about sex?”
“No. Forget about why I came out here, and answer my question. Truthfully this time.”
“Yeah, like you’ve been answering all of mine, right?”
“That’s because you ask questions you already know the answers to.”
“Like your questions needs one! You should already know, you fucking retard.”
Sasuke frowned. “How should I know why you let me--”
“Nu uh hold on,” Naruto cut him off, reluctant to let him finish that sentence. “Why is it you think that one person… does that stuff with another? You’re the genius, you figure it out.” Done talking, Naruto turned his head away, studying the blades of grass that outlined the training area.
Just when Naruto thought that Sasuke wouldn’t say anything more, he felt a slight pressure on his knee, pushing it down, causing his legs to unfold and lay out flat before him. “Sasuke, what--” The same hand cupped the back of his knee, squeezed, and circled around to slide up along the inside of his thigh.
“This is what you want!?” Naruto yelped, slapping Sasuke’s hand away and glaring as the other snaked around his waist, turning him to face the black-haired man. “Christ, you could have asked at home.”
“I just decided now,” Sasuke murmured against his neck. He didn’t lick or bite or kiss, just nuzzled the skin there with his nose, breathing in the smell of sweat. “Do you mind it?”
They were both quiet for a while, Sasuke stroking his hip, gently mouthing the nape of his neck, Naruto stayed immobile, torn between the desire to head back to the village and a completely different desire.
Eventually, his own unruly nature won over, and he looped an arm over Sasuke’s shoulder to bury his hand into Sasuke’s hair. “No,” he muttered. When Sasuke lifted his face from his neck to pin him with a dark look, Naruto skimmed his mouth over his cheekbone to his ear, nipping at his earlobe, one hand reaching out to stroke Sasuke’s abdomen through his shirt and the hem of his pants. Sasuke groaned, shifting closer.
But before Sasuke could do anything else, Naruto shoved at his shoulder to get his attention.
“What?” Sasuke snapped, and Naruto was pleased to see that he’d finally broken through the other’s calm façade. Sasuke looked pissed.
“If we do this, out here,” he gestured around them, “then afterwards, we go in there.” He pointed through the trees towards the village.
Sasuke frowned softly for a few minutes before sighing and slowly diving back to Naruto’s neck. When he received another shove on the shoulder, Sasuke snarled, “I got it. Fine. We’ll go back.”
“Good.” Naruto couldn’t tell who’d won this argument, but as Sasuke slipped the wife-beater off one shoulder to place open-mouthed kisses on it, a warm tongue laving at even hotter skin, he stopped caring, one hand tangling further into Sasuke’s hand as the other hand traveled down to--
--
An hour later they were over Konoha’s gates, deciding it was too risky to simply head through the front gate, hopping over a series of black alley ways and crumbling roofs until they’d reached the middle of the village, at which point they landed back down, a few blocks away from the Uchiha district.
“It’s late,” Naruto muttered, eyeing the position of the sun. “I really can’t believe you.”
Sasuke shrugged at that, eyeing Naruto expectantly, obviously waiting for Naruto to say something. “You’re quiet,” Sasuke said when Naruto refused to say anything. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall.
“Just thinking.”
“Don’t hurt yourself.”
Naruto snorted. “Get some new material.” He leaned against the wall with Sasuke, keeping a few feet’s distance between them, as if that could make up for the lack of space between them not half an hour ago.
They stood there for a while, a few passerby giving them curious looks, sharing a tense silence. After a while, Naruto asked, “You think things will ever be normal again?”
Sasuke frowned. “Normal?” he repeated.
“Yeah. Normal.” Naruto’s eyebrows furrowed over his nose, lips pulled down into a frown. “When I was a kid, I would’ve given anything to have people like you less.” To be more like me. “So that you could get knocked down a few pegs.” So the clueless idiots could move away so you could find some real friends. “To have people stop harping on about you.” So that you could talk to me. “But now… I wouldn’t give up everything exactly, but… I want people to like you again.” Naruto sighed, uncharacteristic depression making his heart feel heavier when t had been racing so shortly before. “I want things normal.”
When Sasuke laughed, it took Naruto for surprise. It was a very amused laugh, more of a harsh, dry chuckle, like Sasuke had forgotten how to laugh properly.
“What?” Naruto snapped, flushed at the possibility that Sasuke was making fun of him. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, really,“ Sasuke said sardonically, a smirk on his face, but his eyes remained dark, sad almost. “I suppose I’ve never taken you for the type who accepted ‘normal’ as a way of life.” Sasuke shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Whatever. I’m heading to the training arena.” Then he left, leaving Naruto dumbfounded for the second time that day.
Naruto thought it over quickly in his head, and decided that yes, as casual as that statement was, it was indeed an insult. He glared daggers into the Uchiha’s retreating back, but for some reason, his feet remained firmly planted to the ground. They wouldn’t let him move.
“The fuck crawled up his ass and rotted,” Naruto muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, wincing at the jolt of pain that shot up from the action. Sasuke always seemed to forget his uncontrollable self-healing powers, and not to go so damn fast, even though the pain of it sometimes felt rather--
Naruto shook his head, face aflame as his thoughts took a sharp turn towards the gutter. It hurt now, but in a few hours time, he’d feel fine. It was best to stretch it out, work out the kinks, before getting back into the action.
Sasuke had access to the West side of the village, didn’t he? There was only one dojo there, seldom used save for gennin.
Finding a sudden surge of happiness, Naruto grinned and took the street to his apartment, ready to change his clothes, grab a quick shower to rinse himself off, and go beat the bastard until he forgot all about this confusion. Because in a way, that too fed the monster that chained them together. Punching, hitting, scratching, breathing the same air--
Naruto headed off to his apartment.
Title: Arrangement
Rating: R
Summary: “It feels good,” Sasuke sighed, as if they both hadn’t been trying to tear each other’s heads off moments before. “I understand now why you liked it so much.” SasuNaru
Warnings: Foul language, sexual implications
A/N: I hope it turned out all right. It was nice writing something other than AU. I researched and everything, haha.
Mod note: Reminder for the author/artist of this submission, please do not reply to comments signed in, if you want to reply anon commenting is enabled.
The grass still clinging to the last remnants of the fortnights’ spring shower, sky so blue it was dizzying, the day bright but the air cool enough to make one long for a jacket, two feet hung off the decrepit roof of a slanted building, swinging freely into empty space. Like a freshly cracked egg, the sun leaked over the horizon, a bright orange yolk unfolding over streets that were already beginning to rustle with movement. From his perch, the people were small, their faces hard to make out, movements seeming so slow from way up high. He’d opened all the doors and windows to his apartment, letting the fresh air circulate to sweep out the stale air left there from weeks of winter hibernation. The seeds of the small vegetable patch he kept in a series of pots were watered, a few brave enough to pop bright green heads above the rich brown soil.
Since it was so early in the morning, Naruto hadn’t bothered to dress into his usual chunnin vest and trousers, choosing instead loose orange pants and a black wife-beater. When he breathed in, he could taste the salt on his breath from the cup ramen he’d eaten two hours ago. Naruto found it sickeningly ironic that on days like these that he had off, his mind would kick his body out of bed at the crack of dawn, but during days when he had missions, his teammates would have to literally drag him out of bed.
Sipping orange juice from the icy glass in his hand, Naruto was just considering getting his equipment and find a free training ground when an unexpected visitor landed five feet from him, normally tamed hair askew on her head, with a harsh cry of “Naruto!”
There were very few things that could have Sakura worked up in such a frenzy. Everything else she dealt with her fists or her sharp tongue. But her eyes, as bright a color as the budding sprouts in his vegetable pots, her cheeks and forehead flushed as bright a pink as her hair. Naruto’s mind jumped to the only viable option.
“Sasuke’s gone!”
…that idiot.
--
One year, two months, and eleven days ago, one dragging the other, shattered bones laying heavily in their bruised and battered bodies, they left a trail of blood behind them at the heaved their way back to Konoha. One with a ridiculous grin on a face you could hardly recognize through the bruising. One with a deep scratch across his forehead that bled into his eyes, turning them red--”You do need it, I knew you did, I fucking knew I could, fight me, fight me”--both were thoughts and intentions so different, yet so tightly interlocked, that after the month and two days it took for both of them to be allowed out of the hospital, neither could stand very much to talk to each other, or to even look one another in the eye.
A year and a week ago, Sasuke was placed under arrest, and sentenced to a public hanging. A year and six days ago, the sentence was quickly overturned by a sharp-witted woman with a soft heart for a boy she considered as close as a son. On that day, Sasuke Uchiha, betrayer of Konoha, self-acclaimed avenger, was placed under house arrest, ridden of all ninja duties pending a trial a year from that day.
Nine months ago, Naruto woke up with a deep emptiness in his stomach that he took for hunger. He ate five complete meals that day and went to bed feeling like he’d been fasting for a month.
A month and a day of this finally opened his eyes to the fact that it was loneliness chewing down on him like a three-course meal, starting with his stomach and working its way to his heart.
Seven months and twenty-nine days later, Sasuke conveniently recognized the strange way his body felt like a bottomless pit. They made an unspoken agreement that it only made sense that a man with a monster caged inside of him, and a man made a monster through vengeance and betrayal, should be brought together by such a monstrous creature as loneliness. Nearly every night after that, without speaking, without punching or kicking or scratching, without insults, they satiated the monster with greed. Twice as ugly, but it was better than emptiness. Anything, even torture, was better than that.
Twenty-four hours ago, Sasuke had been taken off of house arrest and was allowed access to the West side of the village.
And now--
“Freakin’ moron.”
--he was missing.
“He wasn’t at home when I checked in this morning,” Sakura’s choked words from earlier rang back at him. “I’ve check the entire village twice. He isn’t anywhere. Please--”
Idiot idiot idiot
Naruto had no idea how often Anbu checked in on Sasuke, but the probability was enough to make him vomit whatever was left in his stomach from that morning’s breakfast. With the coming of the new year came promises of meetings with higher-ups to settle out diplomatic relations. While wars between countries had settled down to a few menial disputes, pressures to deepen communications and alliances grew. More communications meant more higher-ups traveling from nation to nation, all needing protection. Sasuke had been surprisingly obedient, so Naruto hoped, pleaded in his head, for the Anbu to chalk off baby-sitting duties as shotgun to the more pressing matters of defending budding alliances between counties.
But even so…. The sun was too high in the sky for Naruto’s liking. He had to get Sasuke home now.
Surprisingly enough, it didn’t take Naruto long to find Sasuke at all. As soon as he’d set foot out of the gates, he was able to pick up Sasuke’s unique energy trail. Like a crackle of electricity, it made the hair at the nape of his neck stand at attention, and he ran towards it. He could pick up the smell of him. The faint footprints on the ground that implied a leisurely pace as opposed to the fast run Naruto was using now. Sasuke couldn’t be more than a mile in, which confused Naruto. Had he gotten drunk and just meandered off? Did he just want to dangle this brief escape in the Hokage’s and Naruto’s faces? Or was he just stupid?
Naruto found Sasuke after a short two-minute run, slumped against a large boulder that jutted proudly from the ground. Naruto recognized it as one of the many training ground that lay outside of Konoha‘s walls, as opposed to the arenas the village held. Like Naruto, Sasuke hadn’t bothered dressing for any active ninja duties--like he has any, and like he’ll get any if he keeps this shit up, fuck--instead choosing to wear baggy black pants and a high-collared navy blue shirt, like he used to wear as a teenager.
Naruto knew, and knew that Sasuke knew that he knew, that Sasuke was not sleeping, even though his shut eyes and even breathing pattern said differently. He let the anger bubble in him, his body tensing for a fight, before he spoke.
“Do you know what probation even means?”
Sasuke snorted softly. His eyes fluttered open, but only to stare at the sky, not Naruto. “Do you even know how to spell it?”
Naruto bristled, but for once, ignored the insult. This was the way that Sasuke worked. Ignore the words meant to get a rise out of him. Ignore the criticisms. Defend himself with sarcasm. But it was too early, and far too soon, to have to deal with this.
“Probation means you aren’t off the hook yet, moron,” Naruto snapped, stepping closer to his best friend, eyes narrowing in anger at the calm look on Sasuke’s face. “One step out of line and they’ll throw your ass back in prison.”
“Tch,” Sasuke snorted softly. “I’d like to see them try.”
“They could!” Naruto insisted frantically, taking a few steps closer. The day was getting hotter, and with the rising temperature Naruto’s nerves skyrocketed. He was never one to worry endlessly, but in this instance, like Sakura, only one person put him so close to the edge that-- “They have! Is that what you want? To get locked up? You shouldn’t mess around with--”
“I don’t care what they think or say,” Sasuke cut him off abruptly. And then, as if to further piss Naruto off, he toed off his scandals, letting bare feet rest against the hard dirt. “They can put me under house arrest all they want, but I refuse to go to prison for such a ridiculous charge.”
Naruto sputtered indignantly, floored how anyone could make such a stupid assertion. Not even he could top that, and he’d come up with some fairly tall accusations. “You abandoned the village!” Naruto reminded him, not caring if saying it crossed one too many lies. Rather he was nervous that it wouldn’t cross any lines at all, and that Sasuke would just continue to not give a flying fuck. And from the look on Sasuke’s face, Naruto harbored a guess that his greatest fear was dead-on. “How is that ridiculous?”
Sasuke sighed. “You really are naïve,” he muttered. “For someone who can’t shut up about his damn ninja way, you’re being hypocritical.”
“What?“ Naruto asked absent-mindedly. He had a feeling that Sasuke was trying to be deep again. He could be deep al he wanted, as long as it was within village walls. This was most definitely not meeting those requirements. “Whatever, you can confuse me later. We need to go back to the village. Now. Before someone notices you’re gone.”
“If someone like you has noticed, I’m surprised that Anbu isn’t raining down on my head right now.”
Sasuke’s head was a blur of black as he swiftly moved to the side, deftly dodging the punch that left a small crater and a series of cracks in the rock he’d been leaning against. Almost my instinct, his leg shot out and swept under Naruto’s feet, only to connect with nothing but air. This time, Sasuke had to move completely away from his spot in order to avoid several crushed ribs as Naruto’s foot keep flying at him in a well-placed kick.
“I wonder if this is how you used to feel,” Sasuke said nonchalantly, his tone the complete opposite of the angry way he moved, upper body dipping down as Naruto swung at him, his fist slamming up to punch Naruto below the rib cage, knocking the wind from him. “When we were gennin,” Sasuke continued as he jumped several feet back, the hit aimed for his head landing in the ground instead, “I was always angry about you breaking rules like they held no power over you.” Sasuke darted forward, only to grunt as Naruto’s elbow grazed along his neck to slam into his clavicle. With little breath in his lungs, he hissed, “Like they didn’t apply to you.”
“I don’t know what the fuck it is you’re saying you crazy asshole!” Naruto snarled, grabbing as Sasuke side and forearm in an attempt to lift him and throw him over his shoulder, only for Sasuke to take the same stance. They remained locked in that position, gazes fierce, hot breaths mingling. Their eyes not half a foot from each other, Sasuke said, “I couldn’t understand how it made sense in your head that you were excused from the rules that everyone else has to follow. But now I get it.” Sasuke unlocked his fingers and gave Naruto a light shove, causing the shorter man to stumble back a few steps. “It doesn’t make sense to toss out all the rules, all the laws, but it’s… refreshing.” Naruto watched in dumb amazement as Sasuke, for the first time, walked away and…
…went to the same damn spot he’d been sitting in earlier.
Son of a bitch.
“It feels good,” Sasuke sighed, as if they both hadn’t been trying to tear each other’s heads off moments before. “I understand now why you liked it so much.”
Naruto stood there as still as a deer. Varying degrees of shock escalating in his body. That was the shortest--dumbest--most pointless--and the fact that Sasuke had just ended it like that--
“Okay, what’s wrong?” Mentally, physically, something had to be wrong in Sasuke. Whether it was a life-threatening disease or a brain tumor affecting his mood, this was far too out-of-character.
“’Wrong’?” Sasuke repeated in a tone that was purposefully ignorant. He had reclined back against the rock, arms behind his head, and didn’t even bother to look at Naruto as he spoke. “What is it you think could be ‘wrong’?”
Naruto sighed, and when Sasuke finally granted him a glance, Naruto looked pointedly in the direction of the village, then Sasuke’s rock, the village, the rock…
“I get it,” Sasuke snapped softly. “I’m coming back.” A brief flicker of hope lapped at Naruto’s insides. “In a while.” And was immediately extinguished.
“You’ve got some serious issues to think you can get away with this shit,” Naruto snapped. “They’re already letting you off easy, what more do you want?”
“I fail to see how keeping me under lock and key is ‘easy’.”
“What is it you expected!?” Naruto cries. “That they’d welcome you back with open arms?”
Sasuke scoffed, once again folding his arms behind his head like he had no where in the world better to be than there. “Dobe. It isn’t my expectations that aren’t being met.” He paused, as if unsure of what to say. “I expected far worse than something as juvenile as house arrest.”
“ Well you’re gonna get your wish if you don’t go back.” An unexpected epiphany struck Naruto. This had to be something other than the simple whim of taking a stroll. Maybe Sasuke was looking to piss them off, looking for a reason to fight, and worst of all, looking for a reason to leave. “We are going back,” Naruto asserted, putting as much force as possible into his words. “Whether you want to walk or be dragged with a pair of broken legs is up to you. ‘Cause I will!” he added.
“I’m not afraid of what they’ll do to me,” Sasuke said. “And I’m even less afraid of what you can do.”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re scared or not! If you don’t build up any fucking trust you won’t ever be able to get anywhere again!” It was astounding to Naruto that anyone could be so dense, so ignorant. Sasuke was getting cocky, confident, just like he always was. Like he always used to be. But this was the unacceptable kind of cocky, the sort of confidence that would lead him to consequences he had no way of dealing with. So if that made it Naruto’s job to beat some sense into his thick head, then so be it.
Sasuke was speaking again. He was unusually talkative for someone who’s barely traded a decent conversation with anyone for a year. “I didn’t come back here to kiss this village’s ass, idiot.”
“Then what did you come back for in the first place?” Naruto asked, exasperated.
Sasuke was quiet for a long time, giving no sign that he would answer Naruto’s questions. Seconds ticked by. Naruto had left his apartment at 7:30. It had to be close to nine by now. The dragging-Sasuke-back-with-broken-legs option was looking more appealing by the moment.
Then, “You don’t feel weird at all?”
Naruto scowled at Sasuke’s refusal to answer his question, but the oddity of Sasuke’s compelled him to pursue it. “Weird? Weird about what?”
“Our…” Sasuke began slowly, cleared his throat slightly, and finished with, “arrangement.”
“What arrangement?” Naruto said blankly, confused once again.
Shaking his head slightly, Sasuke said, “Come sit over here.”
Naruto shook his head as he said, “No. I want to go back.”
“Stop being so damned scared and sit the fuck down,” Sasuke snapped. “I’m sick of looking up at you.”
“Aren’t you always?“ Naruto teased, but Sasuke refused to take the bait. Sighing at his friend’s uncharacteristic display of unfounded obstinacy, Naruto decided to humor him for a while. Instead of feeling sore from the brief scuffle, Naruto felt energized, like he’d drank a whole pot of coffee in one short hour. His muscles felt like live wire, and although his limbs were ready for movement, it seemed Sasuke just wanted a nap. So Naruto sat down next to him, also toeing off his shoes to show that he would go along with this for a short while.
“So what arrangement are you talking about?” Naruto asked, curling up his legs and letting his crossed arms sit on his knees.
“Moron,” Sasuke muttered. “You know what I’m talking about.”
“No I--oh… oh, that?”
“Yes. That.”
Unlike the dark blush spreading like wildfire across Naruto’s face, Sasuke retained his pale complexion. Naruto wondered if it was even possible for Sasuke to blush. However, the older man still had the decency to look slightly embarrassed, shown in the way he averted his eyes away from Naruto’s.
“Dunno what there is to feel weird about,” Naruto muttered. Sasuke snorted. “What!? Was that the wrong answer!?”
“It was a stupid one,” Sasuke corrected him. “There’s plenty to feel ‘weird’ about.”
“Not really. I mean people have--” He stopped. Sasuke was looking at him again, one eyebrow raised. “They have, y’know…. Needs?”
“’Needs’,” Sasuke repeated blandly. “People with those needs can take care of it themselves.”
His blush darkening at Sasuke’s blunt comment, Naruto stuttered, “Is that what you came out here for? To drag me over here to talk about sex?”
“No. Forget about why I came out here, and answer my question. Truthfully this time.”
“Yeah, like you’ve been answering all of mine, right?”
“That’s because you ask questions you already know the answers to.”
“Like your questions needs one! You should already know, you fucking retard.”
Sasuke frowned. “How should I know why you let me--”
“Nu uh hold on,” Naruto cut him off, reluctant to let him finish that sentence. “Why is it you think that one person… does that stuff with another? You’re the genius, you figure it out.” Done talking, Naruto turned his head away, studying the blades of grass that outlined the training area.
Just when Naruto thought that Sasuke wouldn’t say anything more, he felt a slight pressure on his knee, pushing it down, causing his legs to unfold and lay out flat before him. “Sasuke, what--” The same hand cupped the back of his knee, squeezed, and circled around to slide up along the inside of his thigh.
“This is what you want!?” Naruto yelped, slapping Sasuke’s hand away and glaring as the other snaked around his waist, turning him to face the black-haired man. “Christ, you could have asked at home.”
“I just decided now,” Sasuke murmured against his neck. He didn’t lick or bite or kiss, just nuzzled the skin there with his nose, breathing in the smell of sweat. “Do you mind it?”
They were both quiet for a while, Sasuke stroking his hip, gently mouthing the nape of his neck, Naruto stayed immobile, torn between the desire to head back to the village and a completely different desire.
Eventually, his own unruly nature won over, and he looped an arm over Sasuke’s shoulder to bury his hand into Sasuke’s hair. “No,” he muttered. When Sasuke lifted his face from his neck to pin him with a dark look, Naruto skimmed his mouth over his cheekbone to his ear, nipping at his earlobe, one hand reaching out to stroke Sasuke’s abdomen through his shirt and the hem of his pants. Sasuke groaned, shifting closer.
But before Sasuke could do anything else, Naruto shoved at his shoulder to get his attention.
“What?” Sasuke snapped, and Naruto was pleased to see that he’d finally broken through the other’s calm façade. Sasuke looked pissed.
“If we do this, out here,” he gestured around them, “then afterwards, we go in there.” He pointed through the trees towards the village.
Sasuke frowned softly for a few minutes before sighing and slowly diving back to Naruto’s neck. When he received another shove on the shoulder, Sasuke snarled, “I got it. Fine. We’ll go back.”
“Good.” Naruto couldn’t tell who’d won this argument, but as Sasuke slipped the wife-beater off one shoulder to place open-mouthed kisses on it, a warm tongue laving at even hotter skin, he stopped caring, one hand tangling further into Sasuke’s hand as the other hand traveled down to--
--
An hour later they were over Konoha’s gates, deciding it was too risky to simply head through the front gate, hopping over a series of black alley ways and crumbling roofs until they’d reached the middle of the village, at which point they landed back down, a few blocks away from the Uchiha district.
“It’s late,” Naruto muttered, eyeing the position of the sun. “I really can’t believe you.”
Sasuke shrugged at that, eyeing Naruto expectantly, obviously waiting for Naruto to say something. “You’re quiet,” Sasuke said when Naruto refused to say anything. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall.
“Just thinking.”
“Don’t hurt yourself.”
Naruto snorted. “Get some new material.” He leaned against the wall with Sasuke, keeping a few feet’s distance between them, as if that could make up for the lack of space between them not half an hour ago.
They stood there for a while, a few passerby giving them curious looks, sharing a tense silence. After a while, Naruto asked, “You think things will ever be normal again?”
Sasuke frowned. “Normal?” he repeated.
“Yeah. Normal.” Naruto’s eyebrows furrowed over his nose, lips pulled down into a frown. “When I was a kid, I would’ve given anything to have people like you less.” To be more like me. “So that you could get knocked down a few pegs.” So the clueless idiots could move away so you could find some real friends. “To have people stop harping on about you.” So that you could talk to me. “But now… I wouldn’t give up everything exactly, but… I want people to like you again.” Naruto sighed, uncharacteristic depression making his heart feel heavier when t had been racing so shortly before. “I want things normal.”
When Sasuke laughed, it took Naruto for surprise. It was a very amused laugh, more of a harsh, dry chuckle, like Sasuke had forgotten how to laugh properly.
“What?” Naruto snapped, flushed at the possibility that Sasuke was making fun of him. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, really,“ Sasuke said sardonically, a smirk on his face, but his eyes remained dark, sad almost. “I suppose I’ve never taken you for the type who accepted ‘normal’ as a way of life.” Sasuke shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Whatever. I’m heading to the training arena.” Then he left, leaving Naruto dumbfounded for the second time that day.
Naruto thought it over quickly in his head, and decided that yes, as casual as that statement was, it was indeed an insult. He glared daggers into the Uchiha’s retreating back, but for some reason, his feet remained firmly planted to the ground. They wouldn’t let him move.
“The fuck crawled up his ass and rotted,” Naruto muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, wincing at the jolt of pain that shot up from the action. Sasuke always seemed to forget his uncontrollable self-healing powers, and not to go so damn fast, even though the pain of it sometimes felt rather--
Naruto shook his head, face aflame as his thoughts took a sharp turn towards the gutter. It hurt now, but in a few hours time, he’d feel fine. It was best to stretch it out, work out the kinks, before getting back into the action.
Sasuke had access to the West side of the village, didn’t he? There was only one dojo there, seldom used save for gennin.
Finding a sudden surge of happiness, Naruto grinned and took the street to his apartment, ready to change his clothes, grab a quick shower to rinse himself off, and go beat the bastard until he forgot all about this confusion. Because in a way, that too fed the monster that chained them together. Punching, hitting, scratching, breathing the same air--
Naruto headed off to his apartment.