A/N: Damasu bijin means literally 'deceiving babe,' or tease. Please excuse my ending-sentence-with-a-preposition-ness and my lie-versus-lay dilemma. Now that I point it out it may become all the more obvious. I'm good at that.

Training?" Sasuke asked, only looking slightly ruffled. "You, Uzamaki Naruto, think I need training?"

"Yeah," Naruto replied. "See, you're good at the basics. Genjustsu, taijutsu, ninjustu." He continued, tacking them off on his fingers. "But I have to say, you're just pits at this relationship thing."

"Subtle." Sasuke said, raising his eyebrows in sarcasm, and only feeling a tad hurt.

"I never said subtlety was my specialty," Naruto said back, matter-of-fact-like.

"I'm not 'pits' at relationships…" Sasuke mumbled nevertheless, thinking back to all that they'd done.

He remembered their first kiss, shared in equal passion and hate. Their angry feuds and words that hadn't made any dents, as Sasuke leaned in and took Naruto's lips, all of it melting away to nothing. He could distinctly recall Naruto's very words, the way the air settled in that stuffy room, their deep ragged breathing. That morning he'd woken up knowing something good would happen, but up until then he hadn't known what. It was another one of those pointless fights between them, which wasn't doing any harm or good. "Why Sasuke? Why do you always have to-" Which was when Sasuke had cut him off, taken him by the shoulders and strengthened their kiss, pulling Naruto closer so that he had no chance of getting away. It had been a furious battle, one which neither had given up as their tongues tied and danced, and Sasuke explored Naruto's mouth with curiosity and vigor. When they'd pulled apart, breathing just as heavily, Naruto had just sort of said, "oh." And that had been that.

Then there was the time they had had the day off, and Kakashi had told them to rather sod off. Sasuke thought he was being clever when he suggest that he and Naruto go down to the lake to swim, which the other boy had immediately agreed to. Not only did they have some more of the 'bonding' time that Naruto was so fond of, but he also had a chance to see his semi-boyfriend nude. After their kiss it had seemed evident which way they'd be headed, and that had been into the land of things like CLOSENESS and being a COUPLE (of all the horrible things).

They had taken the short trip there, running their hearts out and laughing as they collapsed together in the cool, damp grass. Their proximity had been comfortable, and Naruto had been the first to press their bodies closer, trying to diminish any separating lines between them, any light that could squeeze out where they weren't connected. It was quite alien to Sasuke, truth be told, but it was nice and set about butterflies thrumming in his stomach, and a warmth spreading like the sun over his face.

Naruto shed his shirt, then his pants, shucking his underwear and sprinting towards the water like Sasuke assumed he would. Sasuke followed at a more casual pace, having all the time in the world, and it had turned out to be quite a good day. They romped and played as boys would, but it hadn't gone further than a look, a kiss. Yet somehow nothing was amiss.

And, oh, Naruto was practically a water angel, the way it glistened of his back as it rolled down in streams, the droplets sticking to his chest. His hair, mussed and wet, held up by that stupid headband that seemed to mean the world to him. If Sasuke had had a lot more courage he probably would've wrapped his arms around the smaller boy and hugged him close, maybe whispered something sexy in his ear- who knows. Save that for another day.

It was Sasuke's job, as he had deemed it, to keep them far away from the dangerously cliché things. The FLOWERS, and the CHOCOLATES, and the 'I LOVE YOU's. As a result, not much kind words had come from Sasuke- which he could recognize yet not be ashamed of. Besides, he couldn't figure out the way which he should spill the words. His head hurt just trying to reel in the span of his emotions. Because if he really wanted to be truthful (and Naruto couldn't help but pointing out that couples needed to be TRUSTING), he would've told Naruto: "I love that I hate you, but I hate you because of that. Only you, only you get under my skin. You make me want to twist and turn and scratch and I can't stand that I feel this way, I can't stand that someone has that pull over me. I love you because I have to, because without you I wouldn't have sufficient comparison, and I wouldn't be half the (whatever it is I am) today. I hate myself for betraying me in my time of need, for forcing me to be what I cannot, and I hate how true to myself you make me be, with all your WAYS, and DETERMINATION, and all the other stuff I can't hardly fathom. I love that I have to love you because I have to keep my enemies closest, so I keep you, especially, next to my heart.

"And you have become my shinobi way.

"For that I thank you."

But he'd never said that. Never would. It wasn't Sasuke's place to say that anyhow, so he steered clear- mostly because that was something Naruto would want to hear.

Naruto could be such a GIRL.

Since it was Sasuke's job to keep them from getting too drab, it became Naruto's to take them to the extremes. Funny the places you'd never think to have a date, because they must've been to them all. The more dangerous, the better. The perks of dating a fellow shinobi.

Sasuke's favorite was an obvious choice of course- the night they had gone all the way.

"Meet me in the kitchen at midnight," Naruto said to him nonchalantly, and immediately a red flag went up somewhere in Sasuke's brain.

"Uh-uh Naruto, midnight… that's much too 'ROMEO AND JULIET' for me. Call it one o'clock and we make it a deal, hm?"

But Naruto could be persuasive sometimes. When he REALLY wanted to, and he must've. Midnight rolled around and found Sasuke washed out by the moonlight outside the room divider that Naruto had set up between the outside world and the dark, desolate kitchen.

"Hurry UP, damasu bijin." Sasuke grumbled, and just then Naruto calmly said, "Come in," as if it was taking some sort of effort.

When Sasuke finally pushed back the opaque screen, it took all the shinobi force inside him (and then some) not to gasp. But oh how he wanted to. His heart jumped to the hollow of his throat and his eyes, he could bet, considerably widened. The blood rushed away from his head and left him feeling very dizzy standing up, very dizzy indeed.

"Happy birthday," Naruto said.

The picture before him was something that had come from a deep forgotten fantasy of some sort, one that was too good to be true- and usually it wasn't. Sasuke resisted the urge to childishly ask, "For me?" or to pinch himself, or any of the other techniques that could prove what he desperately wanted to know. Thinking was becoming a much more troublesome task, though he might've managed, but his pants were becoming tighter by the minute- he couldn't help it much.

Naruto lay on one of the low seated tables, straight as a board and just as unmoving. For all over his body, balanced to a tee, were variations of different sushi's, vegetables (including tomatoes), and rice balls. Naruto was clad in nothing but the banquet. Something about that was very funny. But Sasuke couldn't do much but delve in.

He started with Naruto's face, even though there was no food. Sasuke had half a mind to ask how he'd managed to 'clothe' himself, but thought better of it as the two kissed hard. It felt urgent, and rushed, but they needn't be. They had forever.

Sasuke trailed his lips down Naruto's neck, to his collar bone. Granted, he wasn't a professional at the whole LOVE thing, and he wasn't good at 'thank you's, and though he was no shrinking violet, he hadn't much experience with another boy. Particularly this boy. He was trembling with the need of it by the time he reached Naruto's navel, with he dipped a tongue into just to make the other boy shiver as well. This he could handle, he thought, and he had loved the control.

He followed the trail of silky blonde curls, glistening against Naruto's abdomen, practically asking to be ravished. He tongued them experimentally and the response was a good one, so he did it again.

Shakily he acknowledged Naruto's now-hard member, and without hesitation (though there was certainly some) he engulfed it down as far as he could go without gagging- mind, not that far, but it provided some excellent noises out of Naruto. Sasuke kept at it, swirling his tongue around the head, remembering his hand and putting them to use. By the time Naruto had finished, he was well and truly spent. Breath hard on the table, Naruto looked over at Sasuke, who was licking his swollen lips, and said, "Oh no… that was supposed to be YOUR birthday present."

Sasuke crawled up his body languidly and leaned down to kiss his lover, whispering, "consider it my thank you."

After a few seconds pause, Naruto smiled and said, "then let me show you how I say, 'you're welcome.'"

And into the throes of passion they went.

"Sasuke?" Naruto asked, sounding worried as he waved a hand in front of the offenders face. "Are you alright? You look all dazed and flushed."

"What? Oh- fine!" Sasuke hollered, jerking himself back into the present.

Eyeing his partner suspiciously, Naruto decided to ignore it. "And where were we?" Sasuke asked.

"Your first lesson." Naruto replied at once, keeping the sternness out of his voice. "Here."

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked at first, but then it became evident. Naruto's (warm) hand had encompassed Sasuke's, their fingers intertwined and clasped together, which Naruto promptly exaggerated by kissing each of Sasuke's fingers.

"Holding hands."

It wasn't bad, though it was a whole new prospect. Sasuke decided that he'd have to get used to that if he was 'dating' Naruto. And if he was going to be having any more of these lessons (and maybe some of the more erotic ones too), then he might as well give it a good start.

A thousand things passed through Sasuke's mind then. Some of them bad, but most of them good, most of them worried and troubled and torn between who he was and what he wanted. It was so weird to want someone so much, something he hadn't ANY experience in, yet it seemed Naruto was willing to be patient with him. Maybe Naruto wanted this as much. Only maybe… maybe he was trapped by the exceptional want. Maybe it strengthened him to levels prior unknown. With a nod, Sasuke though, perhaps.

Sasuke unwrapped his arms and threw them around Naruto's shoulders, hugging the boy to him and nestling his head in the crook between his neck. Inhaling all that was Naruto- the air in him, and the earth upon which he dwelled. The natural water that existed in every human skin, and the burn of fire that kept hold in the troubled soul, marking him as different, making him unique.

Sasuke mumbled quiet but clear, only once, "you're my shinobi way."

And it turned out being a pretty good day.