Beni-Chuu's Note(s): -shifty eyes- I'm late. I'm always late. Fuck, dammit, shit, I'm late and I like to rub it in my face. This is only a "spur of the moment". Don't expect anything fantastic from me.
Disclaimer: I don't own the series Naruto. If I did, well, let's just leave that to your imagination. Or mine, whichever is more preferable. I don't own the lyrics to The Fray's song "Hundred" either. Simple: I don't own, you don't sue, the end.
Warning(s): This may contain strong language and highly suggestive themes such as sexual relationships between two males and attempted rape—may I add that the rapist is a very attractive thirteen year old? Didn't think so, but if you don't like it because it's Sasuke/Naruto or any other kind of slash pairing from Naruto then get the –bleep- out.
And I'm putting that in the nicest way as possible. –smiles-
Addendum: This is my first attempt to an AU Naruto story, so review nicely, though a flame or two adds to the review count so they are acceptable. I love critiques, suggestions, anything that can be considered an opinion basically.
Thanks: To any source of reference I received and used, reviewers, readers, and beta readers. I thank you all. It makes me feel loved that someone actually finds my writing to be interesting.
End.
-o-
You and I
--------The how I can't recall--------
-o-
Uzumaki Naruto mustered all the strength from his body to his arms, heaving the ball between his hands and to his fingers, and into the basket that hovered over him like a tower. The ball went into the air, floating, defying all such matters called gravity, and the blond watched with anticipation through his crystal blue eyes.
The orange ball made its way into the hoop, circling around the ring, as if being repelled away from it by some force, until it plummeted back to the hard granite black court. Naruto's eyes went downcast, his face crestfallen, as he stared at the dribbling ball. It stopped, and rolled to his feet, stilling dejectedly in front of his navy Chucks.
A pout made an appearance upon his lips. "Damn…" he grimly breathed. He bent down to pick up the ball, only it to have it fall back to the ground because a hand slammed it out of the shaggy blonde's hands.
"Having fun, are we?" asked a monotonous voice.
The aforementioned blond glared at the newcomer. The newcomer, a boy slightly taller than Naruto, with ivory skin on rippled muscles that came with puberty, wearing only a dark wife-beater and white Nike shorts. He smirked at the smaller child, tossing the basketball in one hand. It was a hot summer afternoon, so it was appropriate to wear such attire, but that wasn't what bothered Naruto. At times, he would simply spin the ball poised by one finger, shifting the ball between both hands.
A slight breeze ruffled the strands of ebony that belonged to the other boy's, and simultaneously, as the same wind picked up, the small locks of gold that were not sealed by Naruto's blue bandana swayed as well.
"Sasuke," Naruto whispered with a scowl. He indignantly glowered at the pale boy for stealing his own source of entertainment.
"Dobe," Sasuke retorted, dark eyes narrowing slightly. Uchiha Sasuke began dribbling the ball against the blacktop, circling around the blonde until he flailed his arms in the air in impatience.
"Stop that, you ass!" fumed the tanned teenager, reaching for the ball, only catching air because Sasuke dodged out of arm's length, and swerved to the right. Naruto followed in hot pursuit, attempting to block the taller boy, but to no avail. Sasuke gracefully tossed the ball for a shot, successfully earning a point.
Naruto opened his mouth to call it a foul, that Sasuke obviously cheated, but thought otherwise and shut his mouth. He decided against it, since he knew the older boy wanted to aggravate him, to get a reaction, to get under the blonde's skin. He wouldn't let the black-haired boy have the opportunity; instead, he retrieved the ball and tucked it under his arm.
"Want another go, baka?" Sasuke taunted.
He emphasized his question by hurtling towards the unguarded boy and stealing the ball from the crook of his elbow, jamming his own elbow against Naruto's side. Naruto immediately folded over, wincing at the sudden pain shooting up. He whirled around, tried getting Sasuke back, not caring if they both got harmed in the process. They continued their brawl of who would get the ball, each boy exceeding one another at times, one dominating the other.
During their game, they acquired a couple of scratches, some bruises, multiple blacktop burns and scrapes.
Naruto slammed his whole body toward Sasuke's jump, moving the pale hand from the ball and recovering it. He ran the opposite direction the moment he landed on his feet back to the blacktop, dribbling the ball in unison to the stomping of his moving Chuck-clad feet.
Immediately, Sasuke was in front of him, giving the blond a feral glare with obsidian eyes, as if he were the predator ready to feast upon his prey. He edged closer to Naruto to the point their faces were inches apart, their breaths mingling.
A small pink tinted blush scribbled across Naruto's cheeks, and he involuntarily shuddered under Sasuke's permanent gaze. What the hell was the older boy doing?
"Got it."
Sasuke seized a hold of the ball, did a 180 around the smaller boy, and took aim. The ball smoothly went through the hoop, and bounced off the court.
Naruto, face matted with sweat, gasped. He pointed an accusing finger at the older male who didn't even look like he broke a sweat. "You…you caught me off guard!"
Sasuke's lips turned upward in a confident smirk. "Of course, that's the whole deal with playing basketball—catching the opponent off guard." He cocked his head to the side, his ridiculing eyes practically dancing. "You should know that, basketball otaku."
The blond was about to explode in the pale boy's face when shrill screaming erupted in the air.
The two boys blinked, and turned around to see where the screaming was coming from. They ran down the blacktop, towards the chained-linked fence that bordered the blacktop residing on the roof of the orphanage building. The two boys hopped upon the stone platform that kept anyone from falling if the wobbly fence ever gave way. Peeking their faces and looking and curling their fingers between the fence holes, the orphaned thirteen year olds found out the source of the sounds.
Across the building stood a small daycare with a playground in the back. A net hung on two metal poles, with several kids surrounding it. A white ball was being bounced and passed between the net, the kids shrieking in excitement whenever the ball hit whoever's opposite side.
One particular child, a girl who appeared to be around Sasuke and Naruto's age, like most of the daycare kids were, with slightly long pink hair, kept on with her incessant screams, frankly cheering every time she gained a point for her team.
Naruto grinned from ear to ear.
Sasuke looked up and stared at his companion, quite alarmed. Why in the world would that dobe smile for no reason? There wasn't anything all too exciting about some runts from across the street playing volleyball.
The said dobe pointed towards the elated pink-haired girl. "That's Sakura. Isn't she pretty?" he asked dreamily at no one in particular.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed in annoyance.
He didn't find the girl very special actually. She looked like any other of the girls in the daycare's backyard. Maybe she had a strange color for hair and she might have been the only one so happy there, but she wasn't any different from the girls; like the one with the short black hair sitting shyly by the messy, makeshift scoreboard, blushing and eeping whenever the ball bounced her way; or the one girl with the long blond ponytail on the opposite side of the Sakura girl's court, apparently yelling at the girl to shut up; or any one in fact, so what was the big fuss for?
Sasuke rolled his eyes towards the sky. He jumped off the platform and turned, leaned against the fence. The soft breeze of the late afternoon swept past the two, making the pale boy cross his arms from the abrupt chilliness.
"Hey, dobe, get off that before you fall over."
Naruto shot a glare at his rival. "Shut up, dumbass! Don't tell me what I can and cannot do." He returned his attention back to the volleyball game.
Sasuke ignored the insult as he quietly sighed, glimpsed the sky again. A cloud slowly made its way through the sky, floating majestically away to somewhere he could never reach. He closed his eyes and exhaled meticulously.
The thirteen year old didn't quite understand. What was he getting so upset over? Naruto liked the girl, that was a given, but Sasuke, the passive, uncaring Uchiha Sasuke, was actually feeling the grips of jealousy grabbing at him in a tight hold. The black-haired scrunched his nostrils in disdain. He glanced at his blond companion, who was indulged with clapping every time Sakura earned another point for the team.
"Go, Sakura!"
The dark, thin eyebrows bunched up in frustration.
"Naruto."
Naruto blinked at the sound of his name, but more importantly, at the smallness of Sasuke's voice when he called out for the teen's attention. Naruto leaned backwards, holding onto the fence, to have a better look at the sulking boy. Black bangs obscured the pale face.
Naruto pursed his lips. "What do you want, asshole?" Not receiving an immediate answer, he complied with the previous request and leaped off the platform, facing the other boy from an angle. "I said, what d'you want?"
Sasuke took the moment to stare at his shoes, hair being blown by the wind that picked up. In an instant, he raised his face up. He looked deep into those azure eyes that one could not simply look away so quickly. He stared intently at the features of Naruto's face; the details of his baby fat around his cheeks, the pale pinkness of his lips that looked slightly chapped, the dimple indent that wouldn't simply disappear but deepened whenever the boy let out a smile, the scars that marred his face, three on each side.
Naruto never talked about how he received the scars, didn't even let someone utter another word about them whenever the subject was pressed, so no one in the orphanage knew the secrets to them. Sasuke had simply ignored those features, as he ignored Naruto's entire existence, when the blue-eyed child first appeared on the threshold in a ridiculous orange tracksuit of the shabby building Sasuke politely, though reluctantly, called "home."
"Hey!" Naruto stuck his bottom lip out in a pout, eyebrows scrunching in annoyance. "It's rude to stare. I won't say it again, jackass, but what do you want?!"
"You."
Silence. It was a substance that passed over the two like an unforgiving presence, leaving a tense awkwardness in its wake.
Naruto gawked, opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, yet he stopped short. It was futile. However, that wasn't the problem.
Did that pale teen named Sasuke, who usually either irritates Naruto to death or belittles him to the point the blond wanted to connect his fist right into his sassy mouth, just say he liked him?
"W-what…?" Naruto stammered. His face was becoming hot. The beating of his heart skipped a few measures, maybe miles. Breathing became abnormally difficult as well. His fingers started to fidget with the hem of his orange t-shirt.
Sasuke, stoic as ever, did not unlatch his eyes away from the smaller boy. He dully rolled his eyes, seeming to be bored. "I said—"
"I know what you said!" Naruto interrupted angrily. "I mean, what, who gave you the idea that you could say that?" He didn't know what he was so worked up for, but he suddenly felt like he was going to snap if he didn't get any proper answers. "And so simply?!"
A simple shrug was all he got as a response.
"Don't give me that bullshit!" The agitated boy took a hold of Sasuke's beater, and slammed the other male against the fence forcibly. Sasuke didn't even flinch at the contact.
Naruto, mind reeling on the many ways he could mutilate that immaculate façade with his fists, roughly released his grip, hands clenched to his sides. Nothing of this situation was understandable. What Sasuke had confessed wasn't, couldn't, be understood. He was a boy, right? And Naruto was a boy, right? So how, in all the earth, could the ebony-haired utter a sentiment as bold as that?
"How…" A short pause of breath. "How can you say that, you ass?" Naruto spoke so softly that he wondered if the other boy had heard.
Sasuke slowly blinked, still unfazed by Naruto's sudden boldness. Finally, he opened his mouth. "I don't know."
The shaggy blond slumped forward, jaw unhinged slightly. Where was the oh-so confident answer Sasuke always seemed to retrieve off the whim? He bit his bottom lip in thought.
Sasuke's eyes shifted downwards, not able to stomach the look Naruto was giving him. What the hell was he thinking? He had only recently harbored such infatuations with the blue-eyed boy, and there he went, proclaiming his undeniable secret.
They were only thirteen.
He glanced up. "Naruto, I can explain." He approached the said boy cautiously, afraid that if he took more audacious attempts to reach him, the blond boy would abruptly scream out of his orange shorts and skitter off. Some part of his chest nagged for him to continue to reach out to the boy, who seemed to so far away from the older boy. It felt as though that if he didn't do so, the boy would disappear and never come back, just like Sasuke's family did.
Finally, when Sasuke was able to extend a hand to grab hold of Naruto's own, which went rigid under the contact, without much effort, he stopped his movements.
Because of their differing heights, Sasuke was a mere few inches taller than Naruto, making the first boy look down while the latter of the two had to look up.
Again, Sasuke stared into the deep pools of azure that one could call eyes. Obsidian eyes took a downward direction, scanning carefully at the face before him. He tentatively placed a cold finger against one of the six scars adorned on the tanned cheek. The younger boy flinched, but relaxed when the finger gingerly stroked and traced the fine lines. No one in the longest time had graciously touched the scars like this; he wouldn't have allowed it, but now, this was an exception somehow. He closed his eyes in a calm way, nudging his cheek against the finger, which was then added to an entire hand that cupped his chin.
Naruto's eyes shot up, realizing what would come next, maybe looking unconsciously and relatively frightful, for Sasuke's face commenced to fall in disapproval. Hurt washed over his features, and Naruto bit down the inside of his cheek. He felt slightly guilty for hurting Sasuke—which the blond didn't know if he did—but the feeling was there nonetheless.
Momentarily, Sasuke dropped both his hands, appearing rather abandoned and ashamed. Naruto almost felt the urge to hold onto Sasuke in a searing embrace, but what if that could break the pale boy more than needed?
That was the cost of being an orphan, something Naruto had to learn the hard way. So he hardly tried to make friends, fully aware of the hurt once those petty friendships ended. His only close friends, Shikamaru—the lazy ass with an IQ of over 200, Choji—the insanely big eater who hated to be called fat, Shino—the aloof bastard with a few words and always wearing his ridiculous shades, and Kiba—fun-loving boy with the crazy dark red-brown hair that always had a dog trailing after him, weren't even his close friends. Close friends didn't exist; they either backstab you or some useless argument breaks you guys apart. And in the end, you would always get hurt.
Naruto knew. They were all only thirteen.
However, couldn't there be an exception, a loop through that principle? The blond watched his rival in defeat, racking his brain for some plausible apology he could produce to makeup for whatever wrong he did.
Sighing, he said, "I'm sorry."
Sasuke still looked the same, defeated and rejected. He rotated around, his back now facing Naruto, and made his way towards the neglected ball. Once it was in his hands, he began to dribble the object against the hardness of the blacktop. He swiftly positioned himself into shooting a hoop, but only to stop when his hands were tucked under the ready ball. Naruto watched Sasuke glance at the ball silently then swiftly, ruthlessly throwing the ball straight into the backboard of the basketball hoop.
The ball connected with the rusty thing, creating it to wobble a couple of times before becoming settled again.
Naruto winced at the loud noise that emanated, alarmed by the other boy's sudden aggressive behavior.
"Sasuke!" he called frantically at the departing back.
The taller male stopped at the voice, his body becoming rigid immensely. Naruto noticed, though, how those pale hands of Sasuke's were practically trembling away.
Azure eyes looked pleadingly, apologetic.
Sasuke turned, and his small eyes were in dangerous slits, the gaze rooting Naruto on the spot. His mouth twitched, a coming grimace tugging at the corners of it.
His voice was cold and hard like steel, yet when it reached to Naruto's ears, it burned and scorched him like a flame ready to burst into a blaze.
"How the hell do you expect me to act, dobe?" He made one step forward. "How can you simply say 'sorry' when I ever so nicely laid my true feelings right in the opening for the fear of you to stab at them repeatedly?" With each word, the once calm and patient Sasuke was morphing into a person Naruto had never met, a foreign stranger that was hazardous and highly unwelcoming. A sudden shiver made its way up his spine as he backed away until his back was against the fence.
It was a terrible feeling.
Strong, pale hands made their way to the sides of Naruto's cheeks, squeezing the fleshy muscles, as hot lips pressed firmly upon the smaller one's in a searing kiss. Sasuke's mouth moved quickly in motion, beckoning for some reaction from the stilled lips of the other teen. Both their eyes were shut tight, maybe afraid to see the scene before them.
This was wrong.
Sasuke's tongue licked the brim of Naruto's lips, requesting for entrance, as one of his hands flew to remove the useless blue bandana around his head to release those beautiful tresses of gold and spinning his fingers through them, stroking them in a rather abrasive, possessive manner. He felt the pressure, the heat emitting from the other boy, as he continued to suckle and devour the boy's lips.
What were they doing? This is wrong.
Due to the lack of response from Naruto, Sasuke decided to raise a daring knee and place it between Naruto's thighs, hesitantly inching it higher and higher, until he could gingerly press the body part against the rather bulging arousal above it. In shock, the blond boy opened his mouth, permitting the Uchiha's tongue to enter. Naruto fisted a handful of Sasuke's wife-beater, as if in reflex to signal the older one to let go, or to pull him nearer, he didn't know. And that scared him. The small, wet muscle began to search and move around, tickling the roof of his mouth. A sudden, unwilling shiver coursed through the blonde's entire body, the blood from his hot head rushing downwards, towards his groin.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Sasuke slipped a hand inside Naruto's shirt.
The cool touch startled Naruto senseless, his face becoming ferociously hot in contrast to the hand that skimmed up and down his torso. The moment a finger brushed over a perked nipple, Naruto let out a strangled gasp, something between a choke and moan, which no longer was trapped by Sasuke's caging lips.
The pale boy had a while ago released those luscious lips of the blonde's, now busily ravishing the tanned neck. Every time his lips were pressed upon the hot flesh, he provocatively nipped at it, leaving a mark. He commenced to raise his leg up and down against Naruto's evident clothed hard-on, setting a pace and rhythm in motion.
"S-sas—" The pant was interrupted with another crash of a full-blown kiss, Naruto's pleas drowning into moans and his rival's hands unrelenting to caress his body. In a delayed reflex, his own hands faltered its hold and found that broad chest of the Uchiha's, and he nudged the boy over him to get off.
Yet, Sasuke stopped. He pulled away reluctantly, and his hands dropped slowly back to his side. Naruto was shaking in fear, knees buckled, and he was in near tears. The blonde's hands that were once on the black-haired boy's chest had dropped back to his own sides. His small, moderately bruised lips were shaped into composing whimpering noises from it. The lithe body of his was being hugged by small arms, as if it would gain warmth from the presentable chill in the air, or lack thereof. He shook and crumbled to the ground, the tears falling freely down his cheeks.
A jolt of pain shot through the raven-haired like an arrow. His tensed muscles relaxed, and his hitched breathing turned normal again. The throbbing in his temple slowed down, and the once crescendo-ed anger that was building in the pit of his stomach retreated.
Lust no longer clouded his vision or his thoughts.
Why hadn't he stopped before? Why had he stopped now?
He turned sad eyes at the fearful thirteen year old before him. He bit his tongue, contemplated the way he could apologize for his…whatever he just did to the poor child. Naruto hiccupped between sobs, clutching his body to protect from anything Sasuke would try to do next.
"I-I'm…s-so-o sorry…S-S-Sa…s-su…ke." Naruto stumbled on his words through his tears, shuddering in mortification as he realized that he still felt avidly tired, hot, and very, very uncomfortable around the sullen boy in front of him. He didn't know what he was sorry for, but from the look on Sasuke's face, it seemed as if he himself did the wrong.
Sasuke bent down to Naruto's level, wrapping his knees that were prompted against his chest, balancing on the balls of his feet. His glossy black eyes looked much softer than before. But Naruto knew. If that look were on another person, it would have been a soft expression, however, not on the Uchiha's face. Impulsively, Naruto edged away from the older boy, and Sasuke did nothing about it.
However, it didn't mean he wasn't hurt by it.
He let out a long sigh. "Don't be sorry, dobe," Sasuke said softly, almost in a low whisper. "You shouldn't apologize for doing nothing." He paused, licked his lips, averting his eyes to stare at his kneecaps rather than Naruto's tear-streaked face. "I should be the one apologizing."
With that solemn statement, Sasuke pulled his self up from the ground, and walked away, picking up the basketball on his way and dribbling it monotonously, left a quite perplexed boy in heat in his wake.
Uzumaki Naruto silently watched the fleeting back, sadly thinking to himself that the once strong back of Uchiha Sasuke, the strongest boy when it came to sparring—as every kid in the orphanage proclaimed—the sullen boy who rarely smiled and let people brush his ego aside, looked so small, so weak. A sinking feeling wrenched at his stomach, tugging slowly and agonizingly painful.
The thirteen year old tore his gaze away, as Sasuke disappeared behind the door that led him back inside the building.
The unbearable silence after the Uchiha left was just that: unbearable.
The sun was sinking, almost melding itself to the horizon, the sky turning into the multiple shades of orange, red, and yellow hues. Naruto watched the colors mingle together with the once blueness of the sky, and his vision started to blur as his eyes began to water.
His head slumped down with a sniffle. Curling himself into a tight ball, he cried.
They were only thirteen.
-o-
--------But I'm staring at what once was the wall--------
-o-
After the incident that occurred on the blacktop on the roof of Konoha Orphanage, Uchiha Sasuke, the last survivor of the Uchiha clan, the raven-haired child with the ivory skin and black eyes, was adopted.
The lucky adoptee parent—a man with a sallow face and long black hair, eyes a tinted golden color, anxiously signed the papers while the sullen boy happened to be rather unfazed—typical—by the proposition of him leaving the resident he had been accustomed to for the past five years to the doors.
The leaving day would ensue in about a week, after the now adopted child got packed and had some more visits with the new parent named Orochimaru.
The black-haired jerk had ignored the blond child's existence for the past three days, since subsequent to the day on the blacktop. While Naruto played with Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba, Sasuke would isolate himself into the farthest corner away from the bustling children, reading a book with a bored expression, or either lifelessly playing chess with Shino, who didn't mind that the Uchiha beat him or never really paid attention to him. Shino was just like that, aloof and overly flaccid.
Sometimes he would even go off somewhere in extended periods, coming back with a new gift—the latest toys, new clothes, better looking shoes—and never truly telling the details to where he actually acquired such items to the other kids.
Naruto scoffed behind the boy's back at all times, sometimes right in his face—yet his hand always immediately flew to the side of his neck, where a still prominent bruise of Sasuke's doing remained.
A dark red blush always made its way across his cheeks, and he stopped whatever he did at the moment. Kiba had joked about it a couple times to his face, but once an indignant glare came at his direction, the dog-lover quickly shut his mouth. The child knew to never mess with an angry Naruto; he had learned that the hard way when he had kept on pestering the blond kid about the cheek scars.
It was a Wednesday, or a Thursday. Naruto shook his head. He didn't really know what day it was; it's summer, who cares what day it is? Besides, if it did matter to the blond, he could just easily look at the calendar in Umino Iruka-sensei's office.
Iruka-sensei was the one who decided to own the once abandoned building that stood in the streets of Konohagakure Village, refurnishing it to be suitable a place for orphans to stay. Because of the rise in the population of children wandering in the streets without families, the old geezer-of-a-mayor accepted Iruka's kind gesture and helped with the funding, providing free plumbing, water and electricity. The local bakeries and grocery stores were permitted to also help, lending their share of food for the poor dears.
Iruka-sensei, a relatively sensible man, with black hair always tied into a ponytail and a scar across his nose, is loved by all the residents of the orphanage, practically favored by Naruto the most.
Though he doesn't prefer to show favoritism, the older man of twenty-three has treated the blond in the past with the boy's favorite food—ramen.
And to always please his sensei, Naruto tended to help Iruka in any way possible. Like today, he set out the plants, which were variously decorated, around the building. They were to brighten the place, and to receive sunlight and water. Meanwhile, the other children, with Iruka-sensei's permission, played with the daycare kids across the street.
Whistling, Naruto took the stairs leading to the door to the roof, a stack of potted plants in his arms, dangerously leaning against each other as if to fall and crack, but the blond somehow prevented that. On his way up the thirteen year old noticed a suitcase propped on the top step, right next to the door. He ignored it, turning around to open the door with his back. However, once he opened the door, he had a hard time keeping the pots from plummeting, breaking, and leaving a mess of dirt and plant all over his sandaled feet.
Sasuke stood near the basketball hoop, practicing his already perfected shooting skills, but it never hurt to keep getting better. Naruto, still shy around the boy, and still reasonably upset with him, tried desperately to hurry and set the plants by the door and run back inside the orphanage to lock himself inside his room, when Sasuke finally noticed him.
"Dobe?"
Damn.
Naruto warily turned around at the voice, preventing himself from stealing the ball in Sasuke's hands and hurling it into the boy's face. But a plant pot would be ample enough to do the job for him.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Sasuke asked, his voice not coming out, and rather sounding like a scared girl who would rather run away in her underwear than be in the other boy's presence. He was sporting zip-up navy short-sleeve and white cargo pants. His feet were adorned with black sandals. The black-haired boy began dribbling the ball against the ground, shifting between his hands. "What are you doing here, baka?" he asked again, passing the ball between his legs.
The tanned boy stuck his nose in the air in annoyance. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm putting the dying plants in their respectable places." The statement was given emphasis by Naruto situating the plants around the corners of the roof. "At least I'm productive, unlike you."
"Oh," droned Sasuke haughtily. "I'm productive, all right. Just in more…I don't know…adult things."
Naruto went frozen at the suggestive tone of Sasuke's voice at the last part of his sentence. He turned around from his crouching position after placing the last plant down, mouth agape.
Despite Naruto's abstinence to never recall that previous day, the memories of Sasuke's hot, fast mouth on Naruto, the cold hands that wanted to feel every inch of his skin, flooded into his brain like a broken dam releases the once captive water. His cheeks became warm, and he knew he was blushing into every shade of red imaginable.
Sasuke was as composed as ever, still bouncing the ball in various styles and methods to test out his agility. He appeared to not be bothered with what he said—it was Sasuke, after all—but why did Naruto see a tint of a blush around the pale boy's cheeks?
He turned away when something in the back of his mind clicked like a light bulb.
"Hey, Sasuke?"
"What, dobe?"
"Is that your suitcase on the stairs?"
Consequently, the bouncing of the ball came to a halt. Naruto got up to his feet and turned around, facing the stagnant boy. Something in the deep pit of his stomach, he knew he was right.
Silence.
Sasuke was leaving. For good.
"Why?" That was the first thing that popped into Naruto's brain, and right out of his mouth. Unconsciously and unwillingly, he approached the black-haired boy, hands becoming sweaty and unable to control the incessant clenching-unclenching of them.
"Why?" His shaky voice developed into a more steadily stronger, louder, crescendo-ing into anger. Bile rose up inside his throat, burning it. When he was in arm's length, he thrust a fist into Sasuke's shoulder, blindly aiming. "Why!?"
It was the most terrible act of betrayal.
Earlier in the past, when the orphanage was first established, Iruka, after the many requests of the orphans, started to teach the children methods of martial arts. Being a retired martial art teacher himself, Iruka happily, though reluctantly, taught many techniques. The lessons were going successfully, until Naruto and Sasuke sparred together. This was during a demonstration of blocking a kakato geri, "axe kick"—a popular martial art kick known as also a downward kick, which requires considerable flexibility to be employed proficiently—when the disaster began.
Since the axe kick usually targets the opponent's head or shoulders, Sasuke, one of the few orphans who could actually read his sparring partners' moves in an instant, blocked Naruto's kick with his forearm, and took a grab at it. Putting forth all the rest of his weight on that arm, he rammed Naruto to the ground, the lithe boy's body rotating backwards before actually making contact with the carpeted floor. As they proceeded with their ruthless sparring, they broke a picture frame, made a dent on one of the walls, cracked the wood of the stairwell, had given a bloody nose to Iruka when he tried to separate the boys on one attempt, and finally crashing the old coffee table in the parlor to fall off its legs. As punishment, their butts were beaten in submission, and they had to sit on their knees with their arms in the air for thirty minutes. Oh, it was a grueling moment in their childhood, but regardless that they almost virtually wanted to break each other's necks, Sasuke and Naruto remained sparring partners, though they weren't as rough as before. They knew each other's limits, so it was beneficial on both their parts.
Until Iruka decided to ban his teachings from the children, yet it didn't matter to the two boys; they continued their active fights, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, and sometimes Shino being their only witnesses.
Naruto threw another fist towards Sasuke's direction, barely missing and instead of hitting the face he skimmed his fist across the skin by a hair's length. Sasuke did not attempt to block, only dodged when needed. And this angered the blond, because he believed that Sasuke was being indifferent, that he thought Naruto was inferior to him so he didn't need to even lift a finger to beat him. It was as if he wasn't even worth the effort. He even still had the ball tucked in the crook of his arm.
Naruto performed an ushiro geri, "back kick", striking Sasuke's chest.
The wind was knocked out of him, and the black-haired boy momentarily stumbled, dropping the ball, when another punch landed his way, followed by two kicks to his stomach. He was thrown back, landing on his feet. He raised a defensive stance, only to have it broken through with a relentless kick. Again he brought his arms up in a block, but didn't see the powerful knee that went straight for his chin. The bottom of his teeth clicked against his top row. This time he was thrown onto his back to the blacktop.
A heaving Naruto stood over his limp body. Sasuke, out of breath, whole mouth sore, averted his eyes from looking at the anger in the blue eyes. He knew, hidden under the glowering scowl and bared teeth, there lingered a deep hurt mingling with the strong emotions washing over the round face.
He didn't dare face him, and what scared him the most was that he was the cause of it.
Fueled by the undeterred anger, hurt, and the most predominant, betrayal, the younger of the two grasped a fistful of the Uchiha's shirt, his other hand in a fist that was ready to clobber the bastard's face until it was flattened beyond recognition.
"Look at me!" He bellowed, spit spewing from his mouth. "Look at me, dammit!" His fist shook the boy underneath, getting more furious by the minute at the lack of obedience.
He brought his fist down, again and again, in successions, until Sasuke's nose started bleeding, bruises started to welt out, and his own knuckles were getting raw from the battering.
"If you're not going to look at me, I'm really going to beat you until you can't move, and drag your fucking corpse to your new family!" The last part of his sentence made his eyes brim with tears without reason, and they started to plop upon Sasuke's face.
He flinched at the wetness, the tear rolling into his partly opened mouth (from the abuse of Naruto's punches, his lip was ripped open), and he tasted a bitter saltiness.
"Shut up."
An upcoming punch stopped in mid-air at the sound of the voice. Naruto's face relented and softened a bit. The chokehold around the fabric of Sasuke's shirt slackened, but did not disappear all the way.
"What do you know about me, with no siblings or parents?!" Sasuke hoarsely said, a low anger increasing in his voice. "You were alone from the start! What the hell do you know?!"
Sasuke's face contorted in rage, frustration, and his eyes possessed an emotion that had never made an appearance until now. He shouted, his canines exposed, as his voice held such antagonism that it hurt Naruto's ears. Sasuke's hands started to flinch, trembling, charging and discharging into fists.
"We suffer because of our bonds…" Sasuke said softly, nevertheless the tone in his voice continued to hold the same madness that was scaring the hell out of Naruto. The blond child's grip around the black-haired one's shirt loosened some more, simultaneously his once angry face flittering away into a pained façade. "You don't know how it feels to lose them!"
Sasuke pounced on Naruto, throwing their positions into reverse, the older boy straddling the younger being's hips and grasping his captive's arms over his head. Subsequently, Naruto coughed under the impact, flushing at the proximity.
The taller of the two brushed his lips over slightly chapped ones, pressing his body further onto the lithe one underneath him. Their hips aligned, and, meticulously, Sasuke began to slowly parallel their obviously growing erections.
Naruto gasped at the sudden warmth around his nether regions, the arousal growing, and all the blood once again rushing past his stomach, and further down. His arms were trapped by the strong hold of one certain pale hand, not able to surpass it. He wanted to punch the boy hovering over him, who seemed to rather enjoy torturing him with butterfly kisses across his whole face, pressing and rotating his body against his own, and sliding a free hand under the bottom hem of the top part of his orange tracksuit.
The blond involuntarily moaned as the clothed erections pressed against each other, hips bucking in either protest or request.
The sinking feeling returned, yet it didn't overcome the overly powerful rush of pleasure. Sasuke's lips continued its ministrations, returning its rightful (or so he thought) place back onto Naruto's soft, luscious mouth. He sunk his teeth against the bottom lip, ensuing a soft whimper of pain-mixed-with-desire, a closer version of a moan. The teen relished in the sound, smiling in the kiss.
The taste of Naruto's lips was savoring, delicious, and was highly addictive. The pale hand skimmed over the developing tanned muscles under the shirt—the article of clothing was useless, why was it even invented?
With every kiss, Sasuke wanted more of the boy underneath him. With every touch, the blood rushed more quickly towards his arousal that was constrained by his pants. With every fleetingly breathing second with Naruto, Sasuke wanted to stop time, to last this moment.
This was the last time they would see each other, after all.
Naruto's mind was reeling backwards and forwards, not quite creating anything coherent for something to process, but one thing remained.
Sasuke was hurting him…
Tears, though unwillingly, began to spill from his eyes, flourishing into salty pools, leaving their streaks of salt upon his already flushed, sweaty face. However, the black-haired teen didn't notice, and even if he did, he didn't seem to care. He continued to touch every inch of Naruto's skin, relishing in the multiple reactions because of the ministrations. His hand stroked down, ghosting over the blonde's chest, pulling at a nipple, over his torso, over his abdomen, and stopped shortly on the bulge. He smirked, bringing his face up to meet with blue eyes.
They were misty with lust, no mistake of that. And tears were brimming around them, but he didn't care.
Sasuke didn't want to care.
"It's obvious, dobe…" he whispered huskily, leaning in to lick on said dobe's earlobe. "I know you want me." He put pressure on the bulge; Naruto's hips bucked, thrusting into the palm of Sasuke's hand. "See? There's your evidence."
"Sasuke…"
"Shut up." Again, he kissed the boy's face, the cheeks, inching away to the nose, going down to his chin, then returning back to those full lips, probing his tongue roughly for entrance. Naruto tried desperately to shoo the intruding muscles away, only to deepen the kiss. Still restrained by the grip of his rival's other hand, he could only let Sasuke do this to him.
It would be over, right? This is wrong.
Sasuke's lips moved in a rhythm all on its own, sucking and occasionally nipping away at the already abused lips of Naruto's. The foreign feel of his hand was still upon his trembling, and starting to boil, body.
So wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
But why does it feel so good?
His crying and sobbing were muffled because of the other boy's mouth, but after a fleeting second they were freed when there was an absence of the warmth over him. Naruto opened his eyes—he didn't know when he had closed them—and looked up.
Sasuke, who was busily straightening his disheveled appearance, quickly glanced at Naruto, but looked away in an abrupt fashion, a faint blush scribbling across his pale cheeks. The raven-haired boy made his way to the door, his feet shuffling in swift movements, as if he was truly running away.
And Naruto wouldn't allow it.
"Sasuke! You can't just walk away!" The younger of the two was up, hands balled in fists by his side, his face contorted in a defiance manner. Lips pulled, eyebrows burrowed almost together, nose flared, ears turning red by anger.
Sasuke bit his lip halfheartedly at the sight.
He turned the knob of the door leading back to the building, not even turning to look at Naruto as he spoke.
"Goodbye."
No insult, no name, not even an ounce of compassion was laced into that last farewell. Why did this feel so familiar? Nostalgic, it was, but how?
Naruto contemplated as he knelt back to the ground, crying on his dirtied tracksuit-clad knee-tops, simultaneously a certain Uchiha walked back inside, retrieving his only suitcase on the way, never fearing life like ever before.
"Naruto… Gomen."
-o-
------Separating east and west------
-o-
Without a backing glance, Uchiha Sasuke walked out the double doors, suitcase holding a few of his belongings in hand, and was escorted into the waiting BMU. Umino Iruka, the orphanage caretaker, nodded Sasuke off, smiling compassionately as he waved with his free hand—his other hand held tightly to the umbrella that was blocking the heavy raindrops—at the moving car.
Uzumaki Naruto watched from outside his window, nose pressed against the glass. Raindrops slid down and mingled against each other, creating bigger drops to slide against the windowpane.
He felt not even the slightest bit remorse when Sasuke left. He turned his nose when Sasuke was quietly, and not to happily, saying goodbye to the rest of the children. When Sasuke's eyes met with Naruto's own, he narrowed those obsidian orbs and walked passed him, simply neglecting to say a farewell to the smaller boy.
The thirteen year old had to restrain again from throwing a fist into that pale, perfect face of the Uchiha's.
However, despite actually admitting it aloud, he would miss their fits of rivalry—it was the only thing that allowed Naruto to be around the annoying Sasuke. It may have been the only thing they had in common: their same determination to beat the other. That was why they had that little bout of basketball, before Sasuke…
Naruto shook his head vigorously, hoping the memory would vanish, but it was only provoked more by the boy's denial. Soon enough he was reliving the moment Sasuke's lips were brushed upon his own, the direct heat that coursed through his body, the quickening of the heartbeat, and the constriction of his pants.
One could say such that familiar feeling of said constriction was occurring at the moment. Naruto's eyes went wide, and flew downwards, confirming that indeed he was turning hard.
Cursing the memories to endless oblivion, the boy quickly walked away from the window and into his room, shutting the door more audibly than he intended to. He winced as the impact shook the whole place around, along with the shouting from annoyed residents that followed after.
Naruto sighed, plopping his tired self onto his bed. His back, as if a strong force pulled him in, landed on his sheets, which were relatively cold. The boy shivered.
Iruka-sensei needed a damned heater, thank you very much.
Whatever reason it was, by the slight mention of the orphanage owner, the blond began thinking about various things that soon led to the thought of Uchiha Sasuke.
The obsidian eyes that pierced through the soul, the pale, ivory skin, the toned muscles rippling under any kind of article of clothing, the beautiful locks of ebony silk hair, the full lips always in a thin line…
Curious hands roaming all around him, kneading the flesh, biting, nibbling, tongue licking away, sucking until a prominent bruise appeared…
A blush crept upon his cheeks, wrapping them with an involuntarily and uncomfortable warmth. Naruto fisted a handful of the sheets. His pants felt quite tight, and it was bothersome.
Hesitatingly, a hand made an approach to the growing erection under the clothed cage it was contained in. His breath hitched as soon as contact struck upon the sensitive part of his anatomy, heartbeat suddenly accelerating and occasionally flipping. The inside of his stomach did similar acrobatics, as he continued to picture the one person he would hate for the rest of his life.
Uzumaki Naruto pulled the elastic waistband of his tracksuit pants down, closed his eyes shut, and braced himself.
"Sasuke…"
-o-
To be continued…-o-
Beni-Chuu's Farewell(s):
This was like a prologue. I believe so. Hmm. Anyways, leaving a review would be nice. I don't know, maybe with an added cookie it might encourage the updating process faster. Who knows?
I'm sorry if you all got too excited for the smut and then it all ended. I'm sorry. It had to happen. Wait, maybe not the ending scene of Naruto masturbating…but… Oh, I have nothing really witty to say about that. –shifty eyes-
Oh, I apologize if this chapter was a bit, well, how should I put this—a little too random for your liking? I didn't think it was randomly written, but then again, practically all the things I do are random to other people, so input an opinion of what you thought. Remember, this is my first Naruto story. –smiles-
End.