Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Sector Five	By : FlairForTheVeil Category: Naruto AU/AR > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 2291 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor its characters. Rightful ownership belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I make no profit of this fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 21
- 22
Chapter 21: Short Circuit

“You’re being cold,” Naruto said, sending his friend a bland look. They stepped off of the ledge and he let the other lead the way.
Sasuke glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. “Sorry. I guess I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”
The blond snorted out of his nose and glanced down each wide corridor they passed, the numbers of the dorm wings slowly increasing. “I’m in two, room nine.”
Sasuke hummed. “I’m all the way in nine. Room seventy six.”
A few loud men, presumably a group of buddies, slammed their doors open in wing three. They came out from a room laughing raucously and slapping each other on the back, their muddled conversation echoing down the hall. Naruto pursed his lips and glanced at his friend. Sasuke was probably stuck in a wing where he was surrounded by people he didn’t know, and probably wouldn’t attempt to get to know, either, a small voice in the back of Naruto’s head told him.
“I guess everyone forgot about you, right?” Naruto murmured. He knew that, at first, Sasuke would take his question as a mocking one, but he was smart enough to recognize his empathetic tone.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Well, everyone magically forgot about Itachi, right?”
Sasuke’s head snapped towards him, a hostile sneer on his lips. “I thought I told you-“
“Stupid bastard,” Naruto grabbed him by the shoulder, a rough touch that was supposed to be comforting. He wished he hadn’t took such a brash handle of their conversation, but subtlety had never been his area of expertise. He swallowed and loosened his grip, fumbling to plan out what he was going to say.
“I didn’t forget about you,” Naruto blurted, mentally cursing himself for making Sasuke upset. He awkwardly cast his eyes to the ground once the other dropped the defensive look on his face, instead tilting his head in curiosity. “I just… wanted to know how you were doing.”
“Fine,” Sasuke said softly, also looking everywhere else but at Naruto. There was an overwhelming urge somewhere in him to just stare at the blond, and his eyes kept flickering towards him against his will.
“I thought you already knew you couldn’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.”
“Dammit, Sasuke. If you don’t talk to me, I’m gonna hug you.”
Sasuke shrugged the hand off his shoulder and grabbed the room key out of his pocket, moodily jamming it into the doorknob and roughly jerking it open. His light only brightened to a barely-there glow, the same setting that he’d had it on the night before. It was enough to see Naruto’s face.
He toed off his boots and pushed Naruto in the chest until he did the same. Sasuke ignored the other, padding towards his own unmade bed and throwing back the covers. Kusanagi’s sheath lay horizontally on top of his dresser, as did his rifle, their shoulder straps tangling together. Naruto rolled the chair in front of his desk to his bed as Sasuke nestled inside his sheets and stubbornly turned away from him.
Naruto leaned forward in the chair, resting his elbows on his knees and staring at Sasuke’s shirt folded and wrinkled on his back. Kami… it seemed like he sometimes needed a crowbar, even more than that, to get Sasuke to open up sometimes. It was painful to both of them, but he knew the other was dying for a venting session like this, and he’d gain Sasuke’s trust like no other.
He might have let Sasuke doze off for a few minutes before deciding to harass him again. “Don’t be an asshole.”
His shoulder tensed, but Sasuke still said nothing. “I’m not trying to pick a fight,” Naruto whispered, itching to pet the back of Sasuke’s head. “You don’t need to go on the defense every time someone shows that they care about you.”
The blond could feel the slight irritation radiating from Sasuke. Fuck, he needed to figure out what to say, and fast before he screwed things up even more. He wasn’t as good with words as the other was, and he certainly wasn’t thinking a couple of steps ahead like Sasuke usually did. “I’m just… here. Letting you know that you’re still not alone.”
“And if you want me to leave, then fine. Just don’t get all confused when you push me away and wonder why nobody’s asking how you are.” Naruto awkwardly clenched his fists on the mattress.
Sasuke pursed his lips, playing with the cheap fleece blanket that lay under his comforter. He’d been tearing the stiff and dusty smelling material at its edges, growing increasingly frustrated with himself as Naruto lectured him. Something that had planted itself in him roused during the speech, wanting to yell at Naruto and banish him from his room, push him miles and miles away and simply hurt him. Another bigger part, one that had remained from his childhood, was lulled to comfort by Naruto’s presence; it glowed when he spoke, smiled, walked… lived. It was utterly conflicting having the both of them rouse inside him at the same time. It was confusing and frustrating and restless. But when he had time to think it over, and for all that he had gained and lost, Sasuke knew one thing for sure…
Naruto sighed out of frustration and maybe just a bit of disappointment. If Sasuke wanted to be a piece of shit, then maybe he really should leave him to be a piece of shit by himself, as Kakashi had told him. The man was the only other being with enough patience to drag things out of Sasuke. He bowed his head and the bed dipped when he rested his head in his arms, close to Sasuke’s back.
“I miss him.”
His eyes widened and he perked his ears, slightly rising from his arms. The more territorial side of him woke up from his slumber. Sasuke had said something! Sasuke had said something about his brother to him, Naruto, and not anybody else!
“I would, too,” Naruto said. “He didn’t hate you. I hope you know that it’s not your fault.”
Sasuke said nothing and opted to drag his sheets a bit tighter around himself.
“He didn’t hate you,” the blond repeated, this time with a fierce determination to make Sasuke believe him. “Not even for a split second.”
The other quietly rolled over, his left hand lying palm up and relaxed right next to Naruto’s face. This wasn’t something he was accustomed to - to Sasuke looking vulnerable and his age for once. His hair splayed out on the pillow, the sharp angle of his jaw revealed as well as a good portion of his forehead. A wonderful expanse of pale skin as his shirt collar tucked away from his chest, his collarbone prominent from the space it provided. He planted his face against the sheets right next to Sasuke’s hand so they could look at each other.
“And didn’t you always want a bit of freedom for him?” He tried to send a lighthearted smile to the other. “You’ve told me a thousand times that you can take care of yourself - proved it, by the way, and taking care of my ass in the meanwhile.”
Exhaustion, gratitude, relaxation, a relief shone in his dark eyes. If Sasuke couldn’t say something, Naruto could rely on his eyes to tell the story.
“Will you promise me…” Sasuke’s voice was hoarse and he cleared his throat. “That if I ever stray away from y-all of this, you’ll get me back?”
“I think you already have, just a little,” Naruto frowned. “But I’m working on it. Promise. Just work with me right now. Let’s do some teamwork.”
He grunted, flexing his fingers so that they barely brushed Naruto’s cheek. A fond expression came over Sasuke’s face, one he would never show in full consciousness. He looked so much younger than his words took them, and Naruto wanted nothing more than to earn that look again. It was for him, only him, brought upon by him, and because of him. “‘M tired.”
“I know.” Naruto struggled not to nuzzle into that pale hand. He eyed the network of green veins in his wrist hiding until they were visible in his inner elbow again, where a small bruise had formed.
Sasuke finally shut his eyes, relaxing against the pillow. His lips were parted just slightly, not enough for drool to come out, but enough to make his breathing audible. Naruto dared to scoot closer to that hand, resting his ear on the other’s warm wrist.
He closed his eyes as he listened to the captivating boom as Sasuke’s blood filled his veins. It hadn’t been like this in a while - where Sasuke could finally stop grumbling after a night of worrying and settle down when Naruto assured him that he’d stay alert. Just watching the other boy made him drowsy.
Once he was one hundred and ten percent sure that Sasuke had fallen asleep, he found solace in resting his cheek against his hand. Given, Sasuke would gripe at him for drooling in his hand and his baby fat swelled to obstruct the vision in his left eye, but Naruto wouldn’t let an opportunity like this pass by. He weakly smiled into the other’s dozing face, longing to tuck a piece of dark hair behind a pale ear and see even more of those features.
Naruto smacked his lips together and shut his eyes, contently nuzzling Sasuke’s palm. He leant comfortably on the bed, reveling in how warm his hands were. Of course, years of living in the open and having to fend for himself gave Sasuke those rough calluses just before the juncture of each finger and on the tip of each, as well as the narrow meaty part of his palm before his thumb. Naruto leant out of his hand and brought up his own to trace the lifeline etched into the other’s palm. He ran his middle finger down the dips and curves of the lines, thanking whatever higher force out there that had kept Sasuke’s palm warm and his hair growing and his breaths heavier. Naruto swallowed roughly and slipped his fingers between the other’s, clutching their hands together gently as he rested his cheek against the soft sheets.

He dreamed of running through the woods and tripping, but every time he looked down, he had no legs or arms. Naruto had no body, actually, and it seemed like he was a spirit floating through the forest but having its being tangled with the thick tree roots. Later on, though, his dream shifted to something like sitting across from Sasuke in a wide, white room. They had a plate of food on, in which Naruto insisted that the other eat all of, but Sasuke had a bit more of a logical idea to split it in a perfect half for the both of them.
Sasuke had already woken before he did. He made no move or comment to acknowledge their clutching hands. When Naruto opened his eyes, his friend had already been staring at him. With his cheek slightly smushed into the pillow and a case of bed head that couldn’t be named anything other than wild, he still looked one thousand percent intimidating and stony.
“What time is it?” Sasuke murmured, his fingers jumping around Naruto’s when he rested his chin on the sheets.
The blond was just about to ask where the hell Sasuke had placed his clock, but shut his mouth once he saw it was directly behind him on the bedside table.
“Didn’t want to move,” the other supplied, kicking his legs under the sheets.
Naruto squinted. “Is that a three or an eight?” He felt so refreshed. It was hard to believe that they had only napped a couple of hours.
Sasuke grunted and turned his head, cracking his neck in the process.
“Stop it!” Naruto whined.
“Three?” Sasuke sat up, their hands still intertwined. “It’s three A.M?” He rolled over and scooped the alarm into his hand, holding the clock a few inches away from his face. “Holy shit…”
“What? We missed dinner?”
Sasuke groaned and threw himself back onto the bed, shoving Naruto in the shoulder as he rested on his side. “You’re thinking about food when we slept for… fifteen hours?”
“That’s crazy,” the blond mumbled. “Didn’t realize I was so tired.”
The other sighed, rolling onto his stomach. It seemed like he had a roll for being up at ungodly hours of the night, and without much effort, at that. His pale arm hung off the side of the bed and Naruto played with his hand, swinging it back and forth.
“Did you know,” Naruto mumbled, “That your father was a son?”
Sasuke opened one eye to stare at the blond before raising himself up on one elbow and raising an eyebrow. “Naruto… what kind of things were you dreaming about? And, are you sure that you haven’t been sleepwalking again? Maybe you went outside and leant against a tree that had some sort of strange fungus on it - hell, maybe you ate it, because that’s so norm-“
Naruto ripped his pillow from underneath him and hit Sasuke square in the chest, climbing on the bed and trying his best to smother the other teen. Sasuke grunted and punched at his arms, finally getting the blond to roll off of him by kneeing him in the gut and shoving him away by the shoulders.
Naruto groaned as he clutched his stomach, having fell on his side, facing his friend. “Sasukeeee… you’re so mean…”
The other grunted and stole the pillow back to hog it for himself, coldly leaving Naruto to rest his head on the mattress. They laid in silence for a few minutes, Naruto trying to fight his way into the sheets and Sasuke threatening to completely push him off of the bed.
“Seriously… where did that come from?” Sasuke asked.
“I dunno,” Naruto twitched his shoulder in a shrug. “It just came to me.”
“Right,” Sasuke rested on his elbows again, peering at Naruto with a raised eyebrow.
“Hey, it’s early,” the blond defended himself. “How do you do that?”
“Raise my eyebrow? I just do it.”
“Like…” Naruto flexed his brows, furrowing them together and trying his best to make either one go up. He lifted both of them up and tried to get one of them to go down, but alas, apparently it was something only Sasuke could do.
“Stop that,” the other laughed and reached his hand out, falling back onto the pillow. He pressed his thumb into Naruto’s left eyebrow, holding it in place for him. “Try it.”
Naruto did his best but both of his eyebrows kept going up, even under Sasuke’s finger. He laughed at how red the blond’s face was turning with the effort and the frustrated expression that came on it once he dropped his hand.
“Stop laughing at me!” Naruto scowled. He liked it nonetheless, but his laugh was kind of creepy, especially muffled by the pillow and in near complete darkness.
Sasuke hummed and sat up, knocking the sheets off of himself and running a hand through his hair. They sat in silence for a few moments.
“Gonna shower,” Sasuke grumbled and swung his legs out of the bed, slowly standing up. He rubbed at his eyes before heading to his dresser and grabbing his jumpsuit from it.
Naruto tugged at the sheets, eyeing the other as he went about the room in search of his key. He guessed that, since he had nothing better to do, he’d shower as well. The blond tipped the chair back on its back legs and stretched, grunting deep in his throat as he flexed his numb leg. He stood. It was chilly in the room so he ran his hands over the warm spot Sasuke had left.
Sasuke turned the lights to their full brightness, both of them wincing as he turned it halfway down again. He swung the door open, minding that a few other people in his wing were still awake as Naruto slammed it shut behind them.
“Geez,” Naruto mumbled as he crossed his arms behind his head and walked alongside Sasuke. “Wonder what they’re doing. Will we be up that late once she trains us or something?”
“From what I understand, Suna actually has a provisional military organized here,” Sasuke replied. “And from what she’s told me, only the members of her intelligence platoon are given most of the strategy work.”
“Hope I don’t end up on that. What are they again, intelligence, speed, and power?”
“I think so,” Sasuke said, tugging at the hem of his shirt.
He pushed the door open to the locker room, a weak trail of steam hitting them from a shower that had been taken at least a few hours ago. A man using the urinal ignored them. The dirty pile of towels that had been sitting in the corner were now gone, replaced by double the amount of clean on a shelf. Now that it had hit nighttime, the men that grew facial hair’s razors were haphazardly stored on the long line of sinks parallel to the showers. Sasuke scrunched his nose at the sight of what he hoped was old shaving cream on the ground.
“What d’ya think about that mission she’s sending us off on… today?” Naruto wondered aloud, toeing his boots off.
“We’ll be fine if we don’t fuck up,” he deadpanned.
The blond sighed and stepped into the shower, wrestling to get out of the jumpsuit. It was back to crabby morning Sasuke, and then it would be back to Sasuke around others, but for the look he had given Naruto the night before, he thought it was worth pulling through all of the other’s mood swings.
Sasuke made his shower short, only taking a few moments to relish in the water running over his body. After he dried himself, he eyed the jumpsuit that eerily reminded him of Rock Lee. He’d feel odd wearing it for the first time, but since it seemed like the uniform in this camp… he guessed it would suffice for warmth. Karin had already informed Sasuke that it couldn’t be pierced or scratched, doing her best to shove a knife through the material covering her arm and drag it along the scaled features. No torn hole or scratch formed. It was certainly ideal for the Sectors’ military forces, and now, it was no less to Temari’s militia. The woman was… definitely something else, evidently an efficient leader and master of manipulation. She persevered resources that weren’t even her own and continued to work right under the Sectors’ noses. It was remarkable.
Sasuke tugged the longer pieces of his hair out from the tight collar and combed a hand through it, squeezing out excess water. He absentmindedly wandered if Naruto had fallen asleep standing up (because the blond was certainly no stranger to it) and tossed his towel in a growing pile by the door. Steam filled the room and made Sasuke’s hair stick to his face as well as the jumpsuit to uncomfortable areas on his body. He refused to sweat just moments after he bathed, so he cast Naruto’s shower stall an indifferent glance and made his way to his own room.
Three thirty AM, the clock said in green, sitting so far back in his desk chair that his heels barely touched the ground if he tensed his thighs enough. Sasuke gently turned himself in the chair, glaring at his empty room as it slowly spun in front of him. He was hungry like he hadn’t eaten in a day - and that reminded him, it had almost been a day. He’d see if he could get a bite or two in before Naruto came into the picture and practically inhaled any food in front of him.
He wondered what today’s mission would bring them. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t scouted through thick woods before, and any more than the five mile radius they were assigned. Sasuke was sure that everyone in their group would be fine, save for the recovery time Konohamaru had been given. There was definitely just an ounce of unease in him because of the unknown territories around the building. Questions he had swirled inside of his head: On a ratio of two men to every mile, about how much Katons would be rolling through the woods? Were they close enough to a Sector to actually have scout teams searching through the forest? What were Temari’s combat regulations, anyway?
“Sasukeeeeee,” Naruto drawled from behind his room door, startling him out of his thoughts. The door handle jiggled.
Sasuke sighed, rising out of his seat and placing his hand on the handle. Every time he tried to push it down to open it, Naruto tugged it up and whined again. “Open the door, you asshole!”
“Let me open it, dumbass,” he growled, yanking it open once Naruto stopped with his fussing.
The blond was pouting and leaning against the doorframe, sending Sasuke a miserable gaze. “I’m so hungry it hurts.”
“Hn,” he waited for the other to move out of the way, locking the door behind him. “We’ll eat what we can find in the kitchen.”
“Is it okay to do that?” Naruto wondered aloud, following Sasuke to the floor’s elevator. Once again, not a soul was awake, and it was eerily silent and dark in the halls save for the red safety lights surrounding the elevator.
“Yes.” Sasuke crossed his arms and yawned, pushing the go button on the ledge.
The blond scratched at the nape of his neck as he tried not to stare at Sasuke. The shadows the red light cast on his features reminded him of the times they had sat next to each other in front of campfires. The other’s hair was still drying, but the back of it had already managed to rebel and spike out. Naruto could barely see Sasuke’s lean figure in the dim light, but this was probably the only chance he’d get before Sasuke would catch him staring. The light offered no more to Naruto than the silhouette of his pale neck and strong shoulders.
It jerked to a stop and they stepped off. Naruto followed Sasuke’s footsteps, assuming that he would already know where they were going. The blond could hear Sasuke’s hand skimming the wall. His thoughts returned to their actions some fifteen hours earlier. Naruto hoped that he hadn’t made the other uncomfortable by holding his hand… he truly wanted only comfort and peace to come to Sasuke. If Sasuke was anywhere near him, there would be absolutely no time left for him to brood or mourn over his family and losses. Naruto only wanted his friend to be happy and nothing less than that.
Sasuke pressed a hand into his shoulder and swung a door he couldn’t see open. A bright light snapped on and he squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for his vision to accommodate the bright light. Naruto squinted and took his hand away from his eyes, observing the room in front of him. A kitchen. He hadn’t seen one in so long and only the culinary magazines he’d bared a glance to while looting offered any kind of glimpse. Pots and pans hung off a rack attached to the ceiling and industrial-sized boxes of food were stacked in the corner. The long wooden island in the middle of a series of refrigerators had an onslaught of indents and slices in it.
Sasuke went about doing his own thing, and Naruto rummaged around in the fridge for anything that his stomach would jump at. He pushed aside wrapped meats and fruit. What was hiding behind them made his eyes widen and a sudden flash of memory enter his mind.
Naruto was sitting at a marbled kitchen island, about six years old. One of his ratty sneakers resting on his stool while the other dangled, nowhere close to even touching the ground. When he came home from daycare, he had thrown his superhero backpack halfway across the room, much to his father’s chagrin. Kushina had wrestled him on top of the stool, planting a loud kiss onto his cheek of which he strongly believed to have given him cooties. Naruto happily listened to his parent’s banter as he patiently waited for his afternoon snack, drumming his small hands on the placemat Kushina had smoothed out for him. Minato patted him roughly on the back and told him to settle down, mumbling that he had known nap time for Naruto just meant trouble.
“Alright, Naruto.” Kushina hovered above him, setting a cup on the table. Naruto cheered as she peeled back the cover and poked a spoon inside the chocolate pudding, pushing it into his hands as he grabbed for it. Despite his father’s warnings that he was going to get sick if he kept shoving spoonful after spoonful of pudding into his mouth, he did just so, smearing some on his face in the meantime.
Naruto broke into a huge smile and pressed the pudding cup against his face, leaning against the refrigerator.
“Naruto, eat real food,” Sasuke said over his shoulder, casting the other an unamused glance. He glared at the healthy looking sandwich Sasuke had made on the table.
“’S just a snack,” he pouted, ripping open the cover and licking the chocolate off of it. Sasuke clucked his tongue and returned to spreading something on bread with a knife, shifting his weight.
The blond grinned and shut the fridge door, turning to look for a spoon. He screamed (in which he would argue later that it was manly) at the face of a ghost that appeared behind the door, staring at him with haunting and hollow eyes. Behind him, Sasuke jumped at the screech and dropped his knife, clattering to the floor loudly. Naruto had dropped the pudding by his feet.
“Why the scream?” Sai asked, an odd expression washing over his face.
“What the fuck!” Naruto clasped at his chest and stared at him. “Sai… what the fuck!”
Sasuke glared at the other pale boy, bending over to pick up his spoon. He didn’t even want to bother with Sai at three in the morning.
“I was waiting for you to exit the refrigerator.”
“Do you always stare at the fridge with a weird look on your face?”
Sai hummed, unamused. “Like I said, I was waiting.”
Naruto sighed and turned to his friend. “Sasuke, you didn’t see him come in?”
The other angrily slapped a piece of bread on top of his completed sandwich. “I think I would have said something if I saw him.”
Alright, so it’s about the time that Sasuke gets all crabby, Naruto noted. He glanced at Sai again and moved out of the way for him, stepping over his beloved chocolate pudding. He pouted at the splattered mess on the floor.
“Sai, what are you doing up?” he asked, peeking over the door of the fridge.
“I am supposed to run a few errands for the Sergeant,” he replied, standing and offering Naruto a creepy smile.
The blond sighed. No matter how much Sai pissed him off, creeped him and others out, poked into his business, insulted him and stalked him, he wasn’t a bad guy. Maybe his social skills were a few (or a thousand) notes off tune, but Naruto knew the other couldn’t help it. It was just the way Sai was.
So Naruto returned the smile with a weak grin, trying to keep a wince out of it. “You are? Like what?”
Sai chewed on a strawberry and blankly stared at him. “Sorry, but it’s confidential, dickless.”
The knife clattered again, but this time Sasuke had just tossed it inside of the steel sink. He leant against the counter and bit into his turkey sandwich, intently watching Naruto and Sai’s exchange. He grunted and pushed off of the counter once he saw the puddle of chocolate pudding at their feet, glancing around for a roll of paper towels.
“You know,” Naruto crossed his arms. Was he doing this on purpose? Maybe Sai wasn’t as nice of a guy as he had previously thought. So much for accepting everyone the way they were. “Maybe if you stopped calling me ‘dickless’, I wouldn’t fight with you all the time.”
“Like you fought Neji?” Sai tossed a piece of lettuce off to the side, rubbing his fingers together.
He paused, a lull forming in their, uh, conversation. Naruto wasn’t sure if Sai had just made a joke or insulted him.
Sasuke sighed and stood from his crouch, having found a roll of paper towels in the cabinets that lined the walls. He held it up in his arm, shaking it so that it would catch Naruto’s attention. Once the blond looked up, he tossed it to him, following the path and ambling back to the other two.
Naruto caught the roll of papers and frowned deeply at Sai, unravelling a thick wad to clean the mess at their feet. Only the tearing of the paper interrupted their clean silence and he dropped the pile of towels he had made, pushing it around with his foot.
“That’s awful, Naruto,” Sasuke interrupted, approaching and staring at the bigger mess the other had made. “You’re just…”
“It must be horrible, Sasuke,” Sai said pleasantly.
The Uchiha paused and examined the other cautiously. If this was going to be a penis comment, Sasuke swore to Kami that he would make sure to shoot Sai on their mission later on in the day. “W-“
“I would know,” Sai interrupted again, an odd look washing over his face. It was both knowing and pitiful. “I had a brother, too. He was sick just like yours-“
It all happened to fast for Sasuke to even react. One moment, Naruto had been looking down at the toppled cup of pudding in longing, and the next, his back was turned and his forearm was pressed into Sai’s neck, pinning him into the refrigerator.
“What the fuck makes you think you can say that!” Naruto spat, right in Sai’s face. He could feel the heat radiating from the other’s body and the hard swallow Sai gave under his arm, his Adam’s apple bobbing under his wrist. The other’s chin was tilted slightly back in a position that looked superior but was only the product of his attack.
Sai smiled, a tense smile stretching his lips as he gazed at Naruto. “And what makes you think you’re the little brother’s keeper?”
That was it, he thought. It didn’t take much provocation. He raised his arm back, balling his fist. Sai was lucky that this was Naruto’s weak arm, his dominant one digging into his throat again. Sai made something similar to a choking sound, but he could care less.
He felt a calm, fleeting touch on his back before Sasuke cupped the hand he had raised and grabbed a handful of the suit on his chest. Sasuke shoved him backwards, his hip crashing into the island behind them and making the pots and pans above their heads clash against each other. One of them fell loudly and trembled on the tile floor.
“Stop it,” Sasuke growled, and whether it was directed towards him or Sai, Naruto couldn’t tell. The other had his hand planted in the middle of Sai’s chest, holding him back should he try to swing at the blond.
Naruto swallowed roughly, casting Sai an unsympathetic look and leaning off of the counter. Now, as he looked at the other with red strip in the middle of his neck, he couldn’t help but feel like the biggest dumbass to walk these lands. Just a couple of days after Sasuke had been strangled raw and just within a few seconds of death, Naruto had to go and pull the same thing to the one person that angered him. Never even mind that Sasuke hadn’t noticed; he was smart enough to. It was just too low of a blow…
Sasuke tentatively leaned off of Sai’s chest, carefully studying him for a few moments before turning back to Naruto. “W-“
“What the hell is going on in here?”
Naruto slumped his shoulders, recognizing the voice that bounced off of the walls in the kitchen. Of course. Of course one of his parental figures always had the perfect timing.
“I asked a question,” Tsunade snapped, approaching them and grabbing Sasuke by the collar to pull him away from Sai.
“Nothing much,” Sai replied. The air around them thickened even further and Naruto’s eyes flew to the ground.
He didn’t know what had come over him and he couldn’t bear to look Sasuke in the eyes right now. The other probably thought Naruto thought of him as weak, unable to stand up for himself and take care of his own messes, excusing the splattered chocolate Tsunade was currently standing in. Naruto’s lack of self control added to Sasuke’s arguably low opinion of him now, he thought, biting at the inside of his cheek.
“Shit…” Tsunade clucked her tongue and wiped the bottom of her shoe on the pile of paper towels.
The three of them stood awkwardly now, an odd triangle of stares forming amongst them. Sai stared at Tsunade staring at Sasuke, who stared at Naruto staring at the ground. It made the older woman’s patience thin more than it should have.
“Fine. Sai, go gear up. Mission starts in fifteen minutes and Sergeant wants an evaluation from you. And you…” Tsunade reached over to pinch Naruto’s left ear, dragging him closer to herself. He whimpered. “Come with me. Go back to sleep, Uchiha, and we’ll have a talk at lunch.”
And, once again, before Sasuke could process it, Naruto had been dragged out of the kitchen by the ear and he was left standing alone with a streaky mess of chocolate at his feet.

Hours later, after Sasuke’s appetite hadn’t made itself known enough to attend breakfast with Karin, he sat at their packed lunch table squeezed between two bodies but feeling lonelier than ever.
Naruto hadn’t turned up to a meal yet again, as well as Sai. He hadn’t been at breakfast, either, though Sasuke had assumed the adults had held him back from it. He’d overheard snippets of conversation as he meandered through the halls at odd hours again, a conversation between Jiraiya and Kakashi arousing his interest.
“He’s been acting out lately. Again. He used to do this all the time when he was around twelve, right when he hit puberty.”
“Are you saying he’s hit puberty again?” Sasuke could picture Kakashi’s eyes crinkling in a pleasant and light-hearted smile.
Jiraiya grunted. “I know he did that for attention, though I’m not sure what he’s picking fights for this time. I’ll talk to Sergeant about his placements… and the mission she’s sending them on later today. Maybe she’ll rethink putting him in-“
“Mah, this is like holding him back a grade. The poor kid’s probably, ah, stressed out. What else can I say - new environment, less friends, more technology. Everyone’s a bit moody, Jiraiya. Give the boy a chance.”
But why Jiraiya wouldn’t give Naruto a chance baffled Sasuke. He didn’t see it as that Naruto was acting out and picking fights, but rather that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They had both been in forms of defense for another. Naruto had done nothing to be penalized for, just serving unofficial justice for his friends.
And that was the fault in Naruto, he thought as he pushed a greasy piece of beef around on his plate. Karin elbowed him in the ribs hard enough to make him cough. She didn’t apologize. Naruto was just too… he tensed his lips. There was no word for someone as big-hearted and empathetic as Naruto. He had never seen someone look so crushed like Naruto had the moment after Tsunade had interrupted them. Whatever had been running through Naruto’s head right then and there, to make him look so disappointed in himself… Sasuke would have to crush those thoughts, as well. Though he didn’t think Naruto had the right to be angrier than Sasuke about his own brother, he was thankful the other had even thought to stand up for him.
But his thoughts wandered to Sai. How had he gotten into the militia ranks so early…? The same regards to Tsunade. It was odd, seeing how Sai was apparently just a citizen in Five.
Naruto’s friends had asked him of the blond’s whereabouts. Sakura had insisted that Sasuke knew and was keeping it from them because he was probably already working closely with the Sergeant. He had simply batted down the flames of her accusation and grunted. Shikamaru had asked him with a lazy, questioning gaze, to which Sasuke shrugged and he nodded once in acknowledgment. Once Sakura had voiced her confusion, the table started up again, pestering him with questions he couldn’t possibly know the answer to. Something told him that he shouldn’t say anything about this morning, and he wouldn’t. He’d rather not have Tsunade tugging at his ear, after all.
The rest of lunch and a couple of hours after it remained a blur. Sasuke and Juugo sat in the lounge together in silent and stony companionship, a stark contrast towards the robust group across from them. Kiba wrestled with Konohamaru gently and kindheartedly, pulling him in for a nuzzle and wishing for the other to heal quickly so they could, quote, “kick some Sector ass”. Sasuke wasn’t very amused by the saying, but Suigetsu and Chouji had seemed to find it hilarious. Naruto would have made a better joke, he blandly thought.
It wasn’t too long after that in which they were called by the “rookies” to report to GU (in which Sasuke decided as gear up) over the intercom above their heads. Something like an apprehensive silence filled the room before they all looked to each other and filed out into the lobby, wondering where GU was.
It was evident enough where it was, if Temari and her cronies standing in front of the same steel door with a hand scanner attached to it gave it away. Though only a portion of their group came from the lounge, others slowly descended from the elevator, probably in their rooms or wandering around. He kept his eyes open for Naruto, though trying not to attract too much attention to himself as he glanced back.
A bit of adrenaline surged in Sasuke’s veins as he realized that he’d be able to go outside again. A fluorescent light above their heads flickered once. This, what he had been placed in when he was six… the Academy had prepared him for this, and this is what he was meant to do. No matter where Sasuke went or who he ended up with, he was meant to protect his people from the very beginning. Now, his people weren’t just Kakashi, his brother Karin, Suigetsu, and Juugo. His people were a larger group of foolish and capable teens that he’d work together with to protect this community of survivors.
Bested only by Sai and Shikamaru, he was third to line up as Temari had ordered. Or, rather, Sergeant Suna as he should address her. She pressed her palm against the scanner and the metal door slid open, shifting against the floor.
“You’ll get a custom size if you come back alive,” she bartered, crossing her arms behind her back and leading her new recruits into the weapons room. “This is GU. Short for gear up. And what you do in GU… is gear up.”
Nobody laughed, though someone flinched so hard it nearly startled Sasuke when Temari rolled her eyes. “Rookies. We’ll get you settled in.”
“Mission objective? Scout a five mile radius for Katons or Sector aliens. Your mission advisor will be Kankuro, who will watch over you ugly ducklings if you fuck up.”
Sasuke glanced away, at the hooks lining the studded wall and the olive colored flak jackets hanging off of them. It smelled of gunpowder and wet metal, originating from the sleek black guns hanging on the wall the farthest from them. There were shelves and shelves of various weapons, anything from high class guns to tactical knives and their ranging bullets. A certain collection of katana and chokuto caught his interest, appearing well taken care of and traditional. Next to them lay coin-sized grenades, those of which he’d had the disgrace of setting off a couple of years ago; they were nothing to be messed with, and evidently, Temari was not a woman to be messed with.
“-and they’re never to be turned off. If someone even so little as screams, you tap in to track them and run for help. Remember that I’ll be tracking you as well, and if the wires are cut off by something or someone, do your best to carry them with you. If you lay incapacitated-“
“What does that mean?” Kiba whispered to him.
Sasuke ignored him.
“-the green button is for help. Got it?”
Silence reigned over them again and he sighed. “Yes ma’am.”
Temari tilted her head at him appreciatively. “That’s good to hear. Now, the guns work as any traditional firing guns do, but remember that-“
Sasuke drowned her out yet again. He knew that if Naruto was by his side, he’d have absorbed some of the other’s energy and have hosted a longer attention span. Nothing in here seemed too complicated, anyway. Kiba made a jab at him for being a kiss up and Sasuke ignored him once more.
This time, when Temari asked if they understood, a louder chorus of “Yes ma’am’s” chimed back at her. She snorted and stepped back.
“Alright, runts. Gear up.”
Sasuke was genuinely tired of the panic that set into their group when they didn’t have an adult to take charge over them. He and, aggravatingly, Sai were the first to move towards the flak jackets, shrugging into the open sleeves. Of course, it weighed more than a few pounds, and it was going to slow Sasuke down if he sprinted. The many pockets it had held sterilized weapons and extra bullets. He pressed the earpiece hanging from the collar into his ear, fixing the loop behind the shell of his ear and tapping on it gently. It turned on and he immediately heard the soft conversations the others were holding, regrettably something about Suigetsu’s balls itching.
He filed behind the others to grab a gun and weighed it in his hands. It was no more than three pounds, deadly and new in his palms. It was exciting to hold a stolen Sector weapon.
Tsunade lead them back out of the weapons room and turned the corner to the same hallway that they had first entered the Center from. Orange warning lights were set on the railing of the elevator they had first used to enter the building from.
“Make me proud, my men,” Temari announced, though she looked pointedly at Sasuke. “Come back alive, yeah?”
They sent the girls up first, assuming they weighed barely over a hundred pounds. After that came the lankier guys like Lee and Shino and Sai. He was sent on next with Shikamaru and Kiba, their boots making the metal ledge shutter loudly. Sasuke watched the faces of the rest of his group, save Naruto, become smaller as they went higher and higher. He broke the gaze to look up and plant both of his hands against the ground opening with Shikamaru and Kiba, working together to push it open and agilely (clumsily) pulling themselves outside.
Sasuke breathed in fresh air as he dug his elbows into the soft grass and hoisted himself out after Kiba. They both helped Shikamaru out, more like dragging the lazy boy out and dumping him on the ground.

He quickly turned around and took a deep breath, so thankful to finally have plush grass under his feet again and a pale gray sky above his head. It had fortunately stopped snowing and heated up to a temperature that required a light jacket but didn’t cause uncontrollable shivers. There was a light mist showering over their heads.
Sasuke quickly noticed that the girls had already broken off into groups of two and dove into the woods surrounding the Center exit. He cursed quietly and turned back to Shikamaru and Kiba…
That was as far as he got before deciding that he’d rather work alone. Sasuke quickly jogged away from them and into the woods, observing the scarce foliage and track prints of Katons. So they did this regularly… there must have been a high amount of Katons rolling around. He was fine with that. He hadn’t dealt with one in a long time.
Sasuke tried to drown out the chatter that filled his left ear. Something Tenten had growled when she caught a Katon had slightly disturbed him. Most of their group travelled in pairs, their light conversation barely heard. If he worked best with Naruto and the other wasn’t around, the close runner up was working alone.
Their chatter drowned out and static filled his ear. “You sure you wanna move out alone, Uchiha?”
Sasuke checked behind himself again. “I’m sure.”
Temari chuckled in his ear and the channel was returned to that of his group.
The teen sighed. Great. He was alone and the chatter in his ear kept fooling him into thinking it was someone like Kimimaro right behind him. His own footsteps sounded like a Katon moving through a bush and the clinks of the buckles on his flak jacket imitated the cocking of an official’s gun.
Static broke out over his radio again before evolving into a screech. He winced and loosened the thing from his ear, an argument distantly audible from it. Temari and… someone else. Sasuke wouldn’t get his hopes up, but he thought it was Naruto for a split second.
He grabbed onto a branch and climbed about five feet up a tree, hanging onto it with one arm as he scrutinized the area around him. It seemed pretty clear, though there were a few small tire tracks and pokes in the ground here and there, and the familiar prints of their issued boots in the sand.
Sasuke squinted at a patch of odd, probably poisonous flowers near the base of a tree. They really had travelled a long way - he’d never seen those before.
A soft click came from a blind spot below him. Sasuke’d recognize that sound anywhere. Finally, he thought, dropping from the tree and landing with a soft thud.
Sometimes, he’d like to hear what the Katons had to say. It turned to him, buzzing lightly as it sent a thin ray of blue light over his eyes. Its spidery legs poked holes into the sandy ground when it rotated to him.
“Sasuke Uchiha, Sector One, Code seven evict: reporting loca-“
He shot it before it could finish. The gun was cold and light in his arms, with barely any recoil and an immediate fire time. Best of all, it was quiet, the bullet releasing from the chamber with a sound nothing louder than a clap. It was nothing short of amazing. Sasuke approached the fallen form of the Katon and pulled it up, unscrewing the artificial head off of it and tossing the cap to the side. He pulled a few wires out, effectively disabling it and deleting the information it had sent its home Sector. He stood and wiped his hands together, kicking it back to the side.
“Geez, how come you never taught me how to do that?”
Sasuke jumped, whirling around to find Naruto directly behind him and looking pretty disheveled. He already had a few leaves in that bush of hair and what looked like a bruise on his cheek that was suspiciously shaped like a hand.
“Are you supposed to be here?” He asked before he could stop himself. Sure, he was glad Naruto had finally come out of the shadows, but… something didn’t feel too right.
“Maybe not,” Naruto supplied and tapped at his radio. “But am I allowed? Yeah.”
Sasuke frowned and faced him completely. “Where have you been? You weren’t at-“
“I know, I know, everyone missed me,” Naruto set both of his hands over his heart. “But Tsunade put me in time out.” He grimaced.
“About earlier-“ they both started at the same time, startling each other to a stop.
“You first,” Sasuke said, breathing deeply. It was faintly… awkward, and awkward wasn’t something that worked well between the two of them.
Naruto put one of his hands behind his back, his eyes flickering to the ground for a moment before he looked back at Sasuke. He was really tempted to rub his neck or pull at his ear, the intensity of Sasuke’s gaze on him a little more than unnerving.
“Ah, well…” he trailed off, mentally calling himself a coward for dancing around the subject so much already. “Sorry about earlier. Uh, for going at Sai like that-“
“Why should it matter to me how you attack Sai?” Sasuke raised his eyebrow, half teasing. It only made the blond that much more flustered.
“I guess it just seemed like I thought you couldn’t handle your own business. I know now that it’s not my place to be so angry for you. Sorry for butting in…”
He sighed calmly and let his stare soften by a few degrees. “I know, Naruto. I appreciate that you stood up for me, and you being angry is fine, too.” Earlier, Sasuke had actually been a bit pissed off that Naruto had thought it would be okay to treat Itachi leaving like it had happened to himself. But that was directly after it had gone down and he had just a few ounces of testosterone and adrenaline flooding his veins. Naruto was just too empathetic and caring for his own good. “It’s all fine.”
Naruto glanced up at him, a wary expression on his face. “You’re not mad?”
“Of course I’m not.”
The other mashed his lips together before letting a small grin break onto his face. “Okay!”
That had been a lot easier than Naruto had expected it to go! He’d thought that Sasuke would’ve been angry, upset, grieving… he wished that he had put a bit more passion into his apology, but Sasuke looked like he didn’t really give a shit in the first place. He’d thought Sasuke would call him stupid or curse him out for not letting him handle his own problems, but he’d said it was okay… he wanted to hug Sasuke. But he figured they couldn’t hug after every little tiny thing that happened between them, so he refrained. Kami, he was so relieved that Sasuke wasn’t angry!
Sasuke couldn’t help but let a small smile ease over his lips, too. He stepped over the disabled Katon and headed deeper into the woods, counting on Naruto to follow him.
They worked easily together, covering each other’s blind spots and taking turns to glance behind them for ambushes. Both of their senses in the woods were heightened, especially after being hunted down by military officials. The cool mist felt nice on his cheeks, especially since the flak jacket seemed to hold a lot of body heat inside of it. Sometimes, other pairs would radio in their shot counts or their coordinates, and sometimes Suigetsu would make a fart joke that would get an unfortunately high amount of snickers. It also earned a few insults and scolds from Karin who was most likely miles away, and also a few questions once someone recognized Naruto’s voice.
The radios were both a gift and a curse, Sasuke thought. They weren’t exactly mature enough to handle these. It was distracting, but should any one of them get injured or so, they could easily track each other or call in for help. Conversations still filled his ear and he was far past the point of livid.
It all went silent once Shino told them to be quiet.
“Since when was he here?” Naruto whispered.
Sasuke cast him an irritated glance. “He always has been.”
“Foreign footprints at sixty four W thirty one E fourteen N and hundred-two S. Light steps, most likely male. They look new.” It was Shikamaru.
Sasuke glanced down at the compass dangling from the bottom of the jacket. That was opposite of them.
“We’ll keep an eye out a half mile away from you,” Sai replied.
Naruto calmly shot a gang of three robots. Sasuke showed him which cords to pull out - the one that saved information, the one that sent information, and the transmitter inside that was used to track the Katon. Itachi had left him in good knowledge.
“Oi!” Karin yelled, her voice crackling as she ran and the headset bounced in her ear and against her hair. “We have a scout. He’s fast! Moving west, can’t catch him at-“ she called out her coordinates.
“Fuck yeah!” Sakura bellowed.
“That’s about a mile away,” Naruto noted. “He’s moving towards us!”
Sasuke glanced back down at his compass again, and then around them. “You’re right. We should move to the trees.”

“We shouldn’t have moved to the trees,” Naruto wheezed, bent over a branch and clutching at his crotch.
“I told you to swing your leg up slowly,” Sasuke deadpanned beside him, leaning against the trunk. He was all too sympathetic for the other to even snicker a bit. “If you fall, it’s only a seven foot drop. I think you’ll live.”
“Think?” Naruto screeched, his eyes watery.
“Most likely.”
The other groaned. “Is this guy running through here or not? He’s not worth killing my balls for.”
“You did that on your own,” Sasuke said disapprovingly.
Naruto harrumphed and swung his legs a bit, making a few leaves drop to the ground and their branch sway dramatically.
“Stop.”
Naruto did, sighing and resting his gun in his lap. “How long have we been out here, anyway?”
“I didn’t keep tr-“
“Two hours.”
“Uh… thanks, Shino,” Naruto said, reminded that they weren’t exactly alone. Great! Now the girls heard everything about his balls.
Sasuke snickered and reached his hand over, tapping on the bud in his ear. He used his other hand to turn his own off. “There.”
“Aren’t we supposed to have these on?”
“Yes.”
Naruto cast him a wary look. “Are you sure? What if we-“
“We’ll be fine,” Sasuke’s eyes held a certain degree of playfulness.
The blond scratched the back of his neck. “Well, okay. But if we do get all messed up, it’s your fault. For once.”
“Hn.”
They finally sat in silence, carefully watching the ground below their feet. Sasuke would occasionally tune in for the sights of the scout, but everyone else seemed focused on their own areas. Karin had yet to say anything about seeing him again. Maybe he had run to the outskirts or back to his Sector to report survivors in the woods…?
Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed, as well as his patience. Had the scout escaped? Damn… their whereabouts would be given away… he knew it wasn’t Karin’s fault, but Sasuke still wished she’d used her strong aim to at least slow the man down.
“Should we track him?” Naruto asked, shifting on the branch.
“I don’t see why not,” Sasuke replied, throwing his gun strap over his shoulder. “We’d better hurry. He’s most likely running back to whatever Sector he’s from.”
“Fuck that,” the blond grunted, crouching on the branch. He placed his hands by his feet before pushing off of it, rustling the whole tree and hanging from it by his hands. There was about a two foot drop below Naruto, so according to Sasuke, he’d most likely live. Huh, whatever. He let go of the branch and had kind of a clumsy landing, but at least he didn’t fall on his face.
Sasuke landed lightly and gracefully a few feet away from him, brushing his hands of dirt and tiny pieces of bark. He glanced around them, then back down at the compass on his vest. They really did stand a chance if they pursued the scout…
“Let’s separate,” Naruto suggested. “I’ll take west, you take-“
“No,” the teen interrupted. “You and I both know the horrors of separating. We’ll move a mile out, and if we don’t find him, then we retreat.”
Naruto paused, obviously weighing their luck at the moment. He shrugged with one shoulder. “Fine, I guess. We’ll find him faster if we separate, but okay.”
He sent Naruto a look that was tied between dismissive and upset. Sasuke would have thought the other had learned his lesson about traveling alone… then again, when did Naruto ever learn?
Fifteen minutes later, they had a lead. Sasuke didn’t know whether the footsteps they were chasing after were that of a human or an animal - but judging by the vegetation around this area, it was a slim chance that the footsteps belonged to a deer or moose. He’d known that they had been watched; he’d felt the itch along his spine and the raw knowledge of being stalked, and when he’d voiced it, a bush not even five feet away from them rustled and the goose chase had started.
“Chasing what might be the scout,” Sasuke called into his radio, earning a few cheers from their group.
“Let me ambush him from the left,” Naruto grunted, his gun slapping loudly against his hip.
“How many times do I have to say no!” He shouted back. The scout didn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon, and he seriously considered shedding his flak jacket.
“Damn it!” the other yelled.
He sprinted directly behind Sasuke, struggling to peek over his shoulder at the person they were chasing. Sasuke’s earlier doubts of the figure even being a human were distinguished; he’d recognize a military uniform anywhere. The man tripped on something and turned around to glance at them, his eyes full of fear. His hand clutched and pulled out the revolver at his hip, holding it up-
“Sasuke,” the blond panted. “Wait - let him go-“
The man turned around, jogging to the side and remaining a few feet away from them. What Sasuke’s goal was, Naruto wasn’t sure, whether it be tackling the man and taking him hostage or shooting him from a distance - which he should have already done the moment he saw the man’s face.
He screamed something in a language Naruto had never heard before. It was throaty… he spit heavily as he yelled at them, his hands trembling as he pointed the gun at them.
“Hey-“ Sasuke pushed him to the side, away from the man’s aim. He crouched and aimed his own weapon at the other, cursing Naruto in his mind to just stay out of the damn way.
“Sasuke, stop! He’s-“
The man’s eyes filled with terror again. He was sweating profusely, trembling greatly, panting loudly. He yelled something in that foreign language again. Naruto witnessed with haunted eyes as he glanced between he and Sasuke again and turned his revolver to his own temple, pulling the trigger.
Naruto’s hands flew to his mouth as the man’s body fell to the ground.
Just a fucking kid.
His body moved on its own. He ran to the boy’s body and fell to his knees, skirting on the ground and planting his hands on his chest. Naruto’s whole body trembled as he looked into the face of the boy.
“H-he’s-“ he pressed his hands on top of each other, pushing down rapidly as Sakura had taught him to do so many years ago. Fruitless, he turned back to Sasuke, who hadn’t moved from his spot a few feet away. “Sasuke, he’s our age! He’s-“ he grabbed for the ID card hanging on the shoulder of his uniform. Koaru. “He’s younger than us! He’s Konohamaru’s age!”
Sasuke swallowed roughly, staring with wide eyes as the color drained from Naruto’s face. Nothing like that had ever happened. He’d never seen someone do that… never seen someone’s own gun lie so close to their head and the dark puddle of blood leaking out of it.
“I can’t believe…” Naruto pressed the back of his hand to his mouth, his face screwing up into something that pained Sasuke himself. Devastation.
He stepped closer to them, though he remained standing as opposed to Naruto kneeling over the boy’s corpse. His hand shook on the material of his uniform, wrinkling it over a bulletproof vest inside.
The blond finally lowered his hand from his mouth and placed it over the boy’s chest, hanging his head. A moment of silence reigned over them, though Sasuke didn’t understand the reason why. He waited for Naruto to collect himself.
“I can’t do this anymore,” Naruto said resolutely, in a deeper baritone than Sasuke was used to. Actually, he wasn’t used to Naruto even saying something like that.
He frowned. “What do y-“
“I mean exactly what I said,” the blond didn’t turn to him and brought his hand over his shoulder, tossing his gun to the side and ripping out his earpiece. Naruto punched it off and begun unhooking all of the fastens on his jacket.
“What the hell?” Sasuke ignored the peaking questions coming in from his radio and turned it off as well, pulling it out of his ear so that he could finally hear everything.
“I don’t want to do things like this,” Naruto said thickly, casting the other an empty glance over his shoulder. He shrugged out of his flak jacket. “And I’m obviously not meant to do things like this. So I’m leaving.”
He frowned at the other boy’s dramatics and glared at him. “You can’t leave, dumbass. Just get up and we’ll-“
“Walking away won’t fix this!” Naruto yelled, red in the face. “It won’t bring him back! What kind of place is this, that a kid is so scared of us that he’ll-“
“Running away won’t fix it either!” Sasuke shouted back, balling his fists by his side. He resisted stomping in anger, instead choosing to grunt and long for someone to punch. Namely Naruto. “You can’t l-“
“I will,” the other said. Sasuke opened his mouth. Naruto hadn’t yelled. He’d used a voice that was too small to fit someone with as big of a personality as his. Suddenly…
The glare melted off his face and he simply stared at Naruto’s back. Sasuke was so stupid. He was blind. He was stupid, blind, and selfish. Looking at Naruto now, with his head hanging and his shoulders slumped and his feet tucked underneath him made him look like a small child hiding from a bully. Scared didn’t fit someone like Naruto… but impacted did. Impacted by everyone and everything did fit him.
He always took to violence, didn’t he? Why hadn’t he seen it before? That when it came to Naruto, he was both selfish and selfless. He’d wanted his friendship to him and him alone, but Naruto’s happiness… Sasuke reminded himself to breathe. He’d never known himself as a selfless person. Just sensitive. It was yet another thing on the ongoing list Naruto had managed to change about him without his permission. What are you doing to me?
“What the hell are you saying…” he murmured, catching the subdued attention of Naruto. “Why don’t you listen to yourself for once? You’re the one that’s always telling everyone else to keep on fighting, and that they’re not alone. Is this the true great Naruto?”
It only appeared to anger the other more. “You don’t understand. I can’t… live a life like this. Where we’re suddenly the bad guys. For so long I thought that the Sector military were the bad guys, but really, how different are we-“
Sasuke was reminded of the first kill Naruto had taken, back at Tsunade’s camp. It seemed so long ago. “You still believe that?” He asked, but it was drowned out by the increasing volume of Naruto’s rambling.
“Are we the hunted or the hunting?” He yelled, pulling at the grass beneath their feet. “Tell me! Are we disgusting or more disgusting? What the hell-“
Sasuke fell to his knees beside Naruto, grabbing his shoulder and shaking him roughly. “Naruto, listen to me-“
“-are we going to live? There’s no justice here! This is all murder! Don’t you know how much of a life he had to live? What are his parents going to say? What if he’s an only child, and what if he has a girlfriend or a best friend or-“
“Naruto!” He shouted, grabbing his other shoulder and jolting him roughly. He had finally caught his attention. The blond finally went quiet, mashing his lips together and staring at Sasuke. There was nothing less than raw suffering in his eyes.
“I love you,” Sasuke’s voice trembled slightly and he swallowed roughly. Kneeling there with Naruto in the thick shading of trees and bushes, he felt more vulnerable than ever. It felt as if he had laid his heart bare on a table in front of Naruto and said Here you go, have fun with it! His fingers trembled on Naruto’s shoulders, something that he’d hope the other wouldn’t notice. Kami, he knew that he was reading Sasuke like an open book right now, taking advantage of the unguarded look in his eyes. Sasuke swore that it was Naruto’s own hand that squeezed his heart when the other’s eyes watered.
Now, Sasuke wasn’t exactly the most romantic type of person, but he supposed that he could have done better than laying his feelings bare right next to a stiffening body. But Naruto could have done the same as well - after all, who in the name of hell kissed the person they loved right over a corpse-
Sasuke’s eyes widened, his hands hovering over the place Naruto’s shoulders used to be. Naruto’s eyes were closed just an inch away from his own, his lips slightly chapped against his own. It took him another moment to process what was happening before he realized that the blond was waiting for him. So he slowly closed his eyes, bringing his hands to Naruto’s shoulders again, squeezing them softly. Sasuke tentatively pressed his lips back against Naruto’s warm ones, his nose brushing against the other’s cheek. It was chaste. It was chaste and it was unforgettable, Sasuke thought.
Naruto broke the kiss and set both of his palms on Sasuke’s cheeks, bringing their foreheads together. He felt something wet hit his cheeks, and Naruto had shut his eyes - a few tears had escaped and the other let out a shaky breath.
“Thank you,” he breathed, his lower lip wobbling as he stared into Sasuke’s eyes. “Thank you!”
Naruto gathered him in a bone-crushing hug and debatably tried to squeeze the life out of Sasuke. His shoulders shook and Sasuke winced, awkwardly moving his arms to place them on Naruto’s back. “Why are you crying, idiot?” It had come out warmer than Sasuke had meant it to, but sounded how he truly felt. Now he wondered what he had been so scared of as warmth flooded his chest, whether it be from the kiss or Naruto’s arms.
He didn’t reply, trying to cover up his sobs with grunts and hisses. Sasuke patiently waited for Naruto to calm down, progressively caressing moving over each protruding bone in Naruto’s spine with his thumb. A few more minutes passed, and he had moved on to rubbing semi-circles over his back, comfortably shifting his chin on Naruto’s shoulder.
The blond moved on to hiccuping. He gave Sasuke yet another deathly squeeze and moved his hand to wipe at his face, feeling swollen from all the salty tears and making a disgusted face at his snot. Naruto sighed when the other returned to rubbing each of the bones in his spine, his other hand rubbing slowly up and down his shoulder. He coughed and hiccuped in a painful rhythm.
“Are you okay?” Sasuke asked, his hands pausing in their nonsensical patterns.
Naruto took a few moments to ensure that his voice wouldn’t crack. “Yes,” he said softly, loosening his arms from around Sasuke. He tried pulling away from him, but once their arms brushed against each other and the warmth left his shoulder, he pulled Sasuke in for another (weaker) hug.
Sasuke squeezed him once. “I need to call his death.”
Naruto sighed. “Okay,” he let the other go.
Sasuke gazed at him and tucked his earpiece back in, tapping it on and dragging Naruto’s flak jacket towards him. “We have the scout dead.” He used the compass on the flak jacket to call out their exact coordinates.
“Both of you are okay?” Juugo asked, speaking over a few curious voices as to why they had been gone for long.
He glanced at the blond, who was wiping at his face roughly. “Yes. We’ll head back soon.”
“Uchiha,” Temari buzzed in, her voice louder than the others. “Next time, bring him back alive. My bad for sending you all out there with just guns.”
He answered a few of the questions she had before turning it back off and glancing at Naruto. “Are you ready to head back?”
“Yeah,” he replied, voice a bit rough. Sasuke helped him get back into his flak jacket, allowing the other to peck him loudly on the lips.
Sasuke let a small smile slip on his face, holding the ankle of the boy behind them, Naruto holding the other as they dragged him. “Let’s go back home.”

A/N: >_> So it finaaallllllyyyy happened. Writing this brought back so many memories… heh. Sorry for kind of disappearing, nasty case of writer’s block. And sorry for taking 21 chapters and a prologue? Not sure how long it’ll take me to get the next chapter up. But I absolutely love this chapter, what about you? I hope y’all like how this went down. I wanted to write the same desperation and passion that they have for each other in canon. So much angst.
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Sector Five