Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

The Long Run	By : Sasunarufan13 Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 1939 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor make profit of it. Kishimoto owns it.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
Author's note: Sorry for the late update, guys. I've been working until midnight again on my thesis, so I still had to finish this chapter today. Still working on the other ones, hopefully I have more ready soon!
Warnings: Description of injury; some angst; and something you've been waiting for, for a little while now. I hope this won't disappoint!
I hope you'll like this chapter! Also got a question for you all at the end!
Chapter 9
"The water pressure isn't all that great," Sasuke said, snatching one of the longer towels out of the cabinet. "But well, it'll get you clean."
"Mah, at this point I'd wash myself in a puddle," Naruto said dryly. "I'd almost forgotten just how rank they smell if you have to kill a bunch of them."
"What, don't like eau de zombie anymore?" Sasuke snorted, placing the towel on the edge of the sink.
"In spite of what you may think, I'm actually not that fond of rolling into zombie guts," Naruto smiled wryly.
"There's soap in that lower cabinet," Sasuke pointed at the cabinet in question underneath the sink, "and you can leave your clothes in the hamper. You can borrow some of my clothes in the meantime."
"Thanks, much appreciated," Naruto said and this time his smile was genuine.
"I'll leave you to it." Sasuke walked out of the bathroom, aware of father's footsteps coming up the stairs.
Itachi had left not long after Sasuke had rushed out of the house, needing to teach the younger kids how to defend themselves from the undead. His absence had been a small mercy, because Sasuke could already imagine the faces Itachi would have pulled if he'd seen Naruto following him into their house.
Father paused at the second last step on the staircase, flicking his eyes to the bathroom where some stumbling could be heard, followed by muted swearing. Surprisingly he didn't say anything about it.
"I have to attend a Board meeting," he informed Sasuke. "I don't know yet how long that one will take."
"Anything to worry about?" Sasuke asked, frowning slightly.
"I don't think so." Father shook his head. "We will most likely be discussing the medical supplies they brought in. Perhaps even discuss expanding the compound after all."
"I thought that idea had been nixed a few weeks ago," Sasuke said puzzled.
Father rubbed his forehead and sighed, sounding enervated. "Yes, I thought so too, but apparently it's back on the table. Some of the members are insistent on expanding after all, even though that would come with a slew of complications."
"Well, good luck with that meeting," Sasuke said sympathetically.
Personally he thought expanding the compound would be way too dangerous. The noise would definitely attract more of the dead and if they were to be particularly unlucky, then a massive group might even gather. There was no way they could fight off entire herds without losing anyone all while making the compound bigger.
"Yes, thanks," Father muttered, scowling before walking back downstairs. A couple of seconds later the front door closed quietly.
Left alone – except for the blond man scrubbing off the gore and blood in the shower – Sasuke went to his room, where he riffled through his wardrobe, trying to figure out which clothes would fit Naruto. He wasn't that much shorter than Sasuke and his shoulders and arms were rather muscled – probably from handling that crossbow so often; Sasuke's own shoulders and arms definitely ached after a full day of practicing – but he was rather lithe, even more than Sasuke. He settled on a white shirt and some dark sweatpants, which looked like they might fit Naruto. They were some of his oldest clothes and he couldn't really remember the last time he'd worn them, but at least now they would serve a purpose again.
He dropped the clothes on his bed and finally remembered to take off the crossbow, placing it on the nightstand. Even in just a couple of days, the weight of the crossbow had become so familiar to him – even somewhat soothing – that he had almost forgotten that he'd been wearing it when he'd run out to greet Naruto. Now it was time the weapon went back to its original owner. At least he'd got better at hitting the target and he hadn't lost a single bolt.
"Okay, so I tried to keep the whole murder scene vibe to a minimum in your shower, but I don't think I succeeded completely." Naruto's sheepish voice floated over to him from behind.
"What's one murder scene more or less?" Sasuke said dryly and turned around. He had two seconds to notice that Naruto was only wearing a towel around his waist before his eyes zeroed in on the bleeding gash in Naruto's left side and he inhaled sharply. "You're hurt!"
"Huh?" As if surprised, Naruto looked down; his mouth parting in an 'o' as if he only just remembered that he was hurt. "Oh yeah, this one. It's not as bad as it looks, though. I've had worse."
That really wasn't as reassuring as Naruto thought it was. "Sit down," Sasuke demanded tersely, pointing towards his bed. "I'm going to take a look at it and bandage it up. We should still have enough supplies here."
"Nah, man, don't worry about it," Naruto tried to dismiss him, but Sasuke wasn't having it.
He crossed the room, snatched Naruto's arm and dragged him towards the bed, pushing him down on it. It was probably only Naruto being bemused that allowed Sasuke to actually manhandle him. Well, he hoped Naruto was just bemused and not going in shock from blood loss.
"Either I take care of it or I'm calling Tsunade," Sasuke threatened, narrowing his eyes. "Which one do you prefer?"
Naruto scowled up at him, pressing his lips together before he blew out a huge sigh. "Man, you want to fill up your quota for the next year too? Fine, be my guest and waste your supplies, dude, if that makes you feel happy."
"Yes, it does make me happy not having you bleed out, imagine that," Sasuke said sarcastically and left the room to retrieve their first aid box.
"I'm not going to bleed out from a simple gash, holy shit!" Naruto protested.
Sasuke ignored him, because it had become clear to him a while ago that Naruto couldn't be trusted with taking care of himself. His twisted ankle had shown a glimpse of that and now this gash just proved it: Naruto was a hazard to himself and it was up to Sasuke to take care of his dumb arse. How the hell he had managed to survive so long on the road on his own was a damn mystery.
"Perhaps not bleed out," he allowed, walking back into his room with the first aid box. It was a bit banged up, but it still held all the necessary supplies. "But it can become infected and in the world we live in today, that can mean your death."
"You're just an absolute ray of sunshine, aren't you?" Naruto squinted at him, surprisingly enough still seated on the bed. He kept one hand clenched around the knot in the towel and with his other hand he cupped the gash, apparently in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding.
"I call that being realistic," Sasuke said absently and sat down next to him, popping open the lid of the box.
He rummaged through the contents, hoping they still had some disinfectant left. He put the big bandage next to him, together with some tissues. He had to shift some tweezers and a bunch of smaller bandages out of the way before he found a small bottle with around a quarter of disinfectant left. He uncorked it and took a careful sniff from it. The sharp scent was starting to fade away, but hopefully it would still work for the most part. Sasori had made it a while ago from some vodka Kiba and his group had unearthed from a half burnt down liquor store.
"How did it happen?" he asked, upending some of the liquid on a tissue.
"Stupidity mostly," Naruto sighed.
Sasuke flicked up his eyes at him before he bent closer to the gash, studying it with a frown. It looked rather jagged, running diagonally from Naruto's navel to his side. At least it didn't look horribly deep, but it was still a nasty looking cut that could get infected if not treated correctly. Especially when Naruto had been nearly drenched in zombie blood and gore, which could have easily got into the cut and from there in his bloodstream. That thought sent icy fingers dragging down his spine.
"I call stupidity walking into a wall and getting bruised," he said, forcing himself to sound nonchalant. "I don't call it bleeding from your side and risking infection from zombie blood."
"I didn't get any of the zombie blood on the cut, I'm not that stupid," Naruto snorted, eyeing the wet tissue with some trepidation for some reason. "I kept it covered with some makeshift bandage I made from a pillowcase and a sponge."
"So what happened? This might sting," Sasuke warned and started cautiously swiping at the edges of the gash, wiping at the blood while trying to keep the pressure as light as possible.
Naruto grimaced and he looked away, sounding just the slightest bit strained when he answered, "We were in the hospital and I was getting rid of some zombies while she collected the stuff from some room. I got into a bit of a scuffle, you could say, with two of those fuckers and they were driving me further back into the corridor. Ow, fuck!"
"Sorry," Sasuke apologised quickly, softening his touch again. The thought that Naruto had been cornered by the undead, though … This was the reason why he hadn't wanted him to go on that run with Sakura. Just as he thought, it had been way too risky and it was a miracle neither of them had got hurt worse.
He discarded the tissue, now red, on the carpet for the time being and wettened a second tissue, rubbing it carefully but thoroughly over the gash once more.
Naruto clenched his jaw and then breathed out slowly, stretching out his bare legs. There was a thin, whitish line running down his right calf; a scar probably.
"Just as I got rid of them, a third one tried to grab me through a busted window," he continued, a small furrow between his eyebrows. "I hadn't even seen him, he must have woken up when I was fighting off the others. Anyways, he tried to drag me through the window. There were still some shards sticking to the frame and well," he waved half-heartedly down at the cut in his side, "one of the shards managed to nick me in the side. Ripped myself off it before it could go deeper, but man, that shit did hurt. Killed that zombie, killed some more and then once we had the supplies, we got the hell out of there."
He shrugged, careful not to dislodge Sasuke's touch. "Like I said, simple stupidity, man. Should have been paying a bit more attention."
"Told you it'd be dangerous," Sasuke couldn't help but pointing out. He didn't feel smug about it, however; in fact, he'd very much have preferred if he'd been wrong this time.
"You're annoying when you think you're right," Naruto huffed, but he was smiling when Sasuke glanced at him.
"Only 'think'?" Sasuke repeated sceptically. "When you know I'm right?"
"So the run was a shitshow." Naruto rolled his eyes and huffed. "Why is that a surprise still? Not like our run went off without a single hitch."
"No, but I at least had your back," Sasuke said mildly. "Sakura was never good in battle situations. It's one of the reasons why she started working with Tsunade."
The second soiled tissue joined the first and he peeled open the bandage, eyeing the gash before comparing it to the bandage. It should be big enough, hopefully. He still had a linen bandage he could wrap around Naruto's waist just to be on the safe side.
"Well, whatever, it worked out in the end," Naruto sighed. "We're still alive and we got the supplies, so all's well that ends well, I suppose."
"You'll be the hero of the compound for sure after this," Sasuke muttered. He hesitated, swiping another tissue from the box just to be sure. The gash had finally stopped bleeding for the most part and he had managed to wipe off most of the blood stains.
Naruto's harsh snort nearly made the dark haired man jump. "Yeah, right, didn't do it for that. I don't care about that."
"Why did you do it?" Sasuke asked, keeping his gaze firmly on the gash still requiring care. "I thought you weren't interested in making friends here?"
"I'm not," Naruto replied calmly; the answer coming as easily as it had done from the start. "I'm not interested in making friends here, but I'm not a complete arsehole. The compound needed supplies and I was the only one who could drive in those conditions. Was an easy choice to make in that case."
Carefully Sasuke covered the gash with the bandage, taking care not to put any of the sticky parts on top of the gash itself. He started unwrapping a linen bandage next. "I know this is going to sound very hypocritical coming from me," he started, "but what would be wrong with making friends? I think a lot of people here wouldn't mind becoming friends with you."
Kiba at the very least seemed particularly in awe of Naruto's abilities with foraging and hunting. Ino was interested mainly because of Naruto's standoffish nature and Sasuke had spotted some other inhabitants of the compound eying the blond with quite some interest. In a non-apocalyptic world, Sasuke imagined Naruto was one of those people who easily made friends wherever they went.
"Because all the people I care about end up dead," was Naruto's flat answer.
Sasuke looked at him sharply, opened his mouth, but the other man shook his head. "Don't even, I don't care that you think it's ridiculous, it's what happens. Kankuro was the first one to go, then Temari-nee-san, old Honda-san, Jiraiya, my parents, Gaara … And I'm the one constantly surviving," he said bitterly; his eyes unseeingly aimed at the opposite wall. "Everybody around me goes down, but not me. Whoever is keeping me alive up there, they've got a shit sense of humour. No point in caring about someone when they'll wind up dead eventually anyways."
"I'm not dead," Sasuke said and started wrapping the bandage around Naruto's waist, feeling the knobs of his spine brush against his hand every time he reached around him.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto asked suspiciously.
"That you're wrong. I'm not dead," Sasuke repeated and pressed a bandage clip onto the end of the cloth. Normally he would have knotted the ends, but the bandage hadn't been that long and he didn't want to add too much unnecessary pressure.
"Who says I care about you?"
The callous words were meant to hurt, were meant to hit and sting and drive Sasuke away, and at one point they might have succeeded in that. At one point they would have pissed off Sasuke badly, would have him storming away, cursing out the other one and telling him to go fuck himself then if he thought like that. He knew better now. Because that look in those blue eyes wasn't venom, wasn't sadistic glee, but pure exhaustion; the look of someone who'd lost too much and had become weary of trying to hold on.
Nobody was meant to be alone – not even if they convinced themselves it was for the best.
"Because if you didn't, you wouldn't have lent your crossbow to me," Sasuke said quietly.
Naruto stiffened, his lips thinning. The knuckles on the hand holding the knot were turning white; his other hand resting limply on his thigh.
"I didn't give it much thought at first, because well, this was just your inane way of telling me not to worry," Sasuke said and on automatic pilot he collected the used tissues, shoving them in the empty package of the bandage. He closed the first aid box. "But Ino got me thinking; there's no way you would just give away your best friend's crossbow just like that, especially not when you wouldn't even let Suigetsu look at your dagger."
"He's still on about that?" Naruto muttered, shaking his head. "Dude was a bit too excited about wanting to see it, thought he would make a run with it or so. I'm not exactly in the habit of putting up a show with my weapons."
"But you did give your crossbow to me," Sasuke said.
This time Naruto looked away, hunching his shoulders somewhat. He had to be uncomfortably chilly by now, because the air in the bedroom was by no means comfortably warm, but he didn't make any move to pull on the clothes waiting for him.
"You trusted me with your crossbow, even though you had no idea that I wouldn't end up breaking it," Sasuke continued and bent down to put the box on the floor for now.
Naruto snorted quietly. "Yeah, right, like you're the type to break stuff. I've seen you handle your katana, I knew you wouldn't fuck up my crossbow."
"You've always been this stubborn?" Sasuke asked mildly.
"You've always been this annoying?" Naruto shot back, whipping his head around to glower at him. "I don't know what the hell you want from me, Sasuke!"
The sudden outburst was loud, unexpected, bouncing back and forth between the walls like a never-ending echo. Blue eyes sparked, cheeks flushed rose, and the free hand clenched into a fist, ready to lash out.
What did he want? Sasuke stared at Naruto, whose chest was heaving, whose jaw was clenched with anger he was trying to suppress. Offhandedly it occurred to Sasuke that he hadn't seen Naruto angry before. Not at him at least. Was he even actually angry at Sasuke? Or just at the situation as a whole?
What did he want? It was a question Sasuke thought about carefully, because whatever the answer was that would leave his lips, it would irrevocably change what he had with Naruto. It would change a lot of things and he wondered whether he was ready for that, ready for whatever the change would bring with it.
What did he want? For Naruto to not die. For him to not bring himself into unnecessary dangerous situations. He wanted to keep him from being hurt. He wanted to see what Naruto looked like when he was really smiling, an actual, genuine smile; not one marred with cynicism or just the barest hint of amusement. He wanted to know how he sounded when he laughed freely, wanted to know what made him thick, what made him get up every day in spite of all the terrible losses he had suffered. He wanted to know his favourite food, his favourite drink, what his hobbies had been before the world had gone to shit. He wanted to hear more about his parents, more about the tough godfather who'd raided a goddamn military facility as if it had been a piece of cake. He wanted to know more about the best friend who had kept Naruto going, who had been his anchor for so long that Naruto was still here, still living, still surviving despite all the pain.
He wanted more time with Naruto, time not spent on dangerous runs or gunning down dead people. He wanted to be around Naruto, be with him, let himself be absorbed by that warm aura still surrounding the younger man even with all the shit and horror that had overtaken their lives.
He wanted what he had never thought he wanted to have, what he had never even considered for one single second, not even when girl after girl kept asking him out, when green and blue and brown eyes would track him around the compound, building up hope and courage.
He wanted.
And a part of him, the part that had reduced Sasuke's 'Care for and absolutely protect at all costs' list to the bare minimum of two, was scared shitless of wanting all that. It was the part reminding him that he hadn't known Naruto for that long, not really, not when compared to how long he'd known the others. It was the part that remained awake at night, shooting up every time he heard a suspicious noise, a noise that might mean someone was going to hurt his family. The part that poisonously told him that Naruto was right, that caring in this kind of world led to nothing but death and heartache and agony. The part that said that caring for more people than just father and his brother was stupid, senseless, a fast ticket to death.
But the other part, the bigger part, the part that had him sitting on the bed, brushing knees with Naruto, told him about how time didn't really matter anymore. What did it matter if he hadn't known Naruto for years yet? If luck was willing, he would have many more years to get to know him better. It reminded him that he and Naruto clicked, as cheesy as that sounded. He'd never had that kind of connection with anyone before, the kind that had him gravitating towards someone naturally, that had him reading the other one so easily as if they had grown up together. A connection that made his blood sing with life, with joy that he had feared he'd lost when mother had been murdered. That made him look forward to each new day, when before the routine had almost become as deadly as the roaming zombies outside.
That had had him trusting Naruto with his life even when the blond man hadn't entirely proven himself yet.
The type of connection his parents might have shared, that had had mother looking at father with soft eyes even after an argument, had them finding peace in each other even as hell had raged outside.
He could say nothing, he supposed. Keep the revelation to himself, urge Naruto to put on the clothes, and then leave the house with him, find out if they needed his help with something. It would be easy to keep quiet, because there was no reason to rock the status quo, to potentially shatter the growing trust between the two of them. No reason to do anything about it, especially when he had never thought about it before. An apocalypse didn't seem like a good time to start figuring himself out anew.
When would be a good time, though? In a year? In five years? Ten? When zombies would finally stop roaming the earth and leave them alone? That might not even happen in his lifetime, however long or short that might end up being. All they had was time nowadays, anyway. Time didn't mean anything anymore, had ceased to mean something the very second the first dead person had attacked the living.
Not saying anything wouldn't make it go away either. It would still be there, lingering in the back of his mind whenever he would look at Naruto or talk to him or even be near him. Perhaps if he ignored it long enough, it might disappear. Die out, fade away just as slowly as it had started. If he didn't feed it, eventually it would waste away, right? Wasn't that how it worked?
Did he want it to waste away, however? Did he want to stop feeling like this, just on the off chance he might get hurt? Wouldn't he eventually come to regret it if he never said something? He probably would, knowing himself. One day he would look back to today and curse himself for having been such a coward, when he could have had everything.
Or nothing.
The unknowing, the uncertainty was worse, though. Better to know for sure, whether good or bad, than constantly wonder what could have been.
The zombies had shown that getting second chances was a luxury nobody could expect to have anymore. He could keep quiet today and perhaps never get a chance again or he could lay it all out on the table.
He might have been a lot in his life – callous, cruel, a lone wolf – but he'd never been a coward.
He wasn't going to start being one today.
So he met Naruto's gaze, locked their eyes together and said, "I want you."
AN2: Hope this wasn't too rushed, guys! This is what you get when Sasuke actually does think about his feelings, go figure.
Question time! I have an idea in mind - read: I actually already made a start on it - which would show Naruto's and Gaara's bond in this universe. It'd be in Gaara's pov, so obviously Sasuke won't appear in it, but it'll show a bit of the time during which Naruto was lost in his grief and how Gaara coped with that. Would anyone be interested in reading it? (I know they say you should write for yourself, but if that was the case, I wouldn't post anything and just keep this shit to myself.) Let me know whether there's interest!
Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.
I hope to see you all back in the next chapter! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!
Cuddles
Melissa
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The Long Run