Double Edged
By: Junsui Kegasu
A/N: Random, six-in-the-morning inspiration for a request… Much love, Stakeh!
Disclaimer: I own not SasuNaru.
The line between love and hatred, they say, is a razorblade-thin one. Naruto disagrees. Sometimes, the line between love and hatred was so wide he could run up and down the side he chose with such ease that he could barely see the other end, a faint glow in the darkness. Sometimes, the line between love and hatred really was razorblade-thin, but then, even as he and Sasuke bumped and tried to push each other off of it, they were still ninja and kept their balance well.
Even if their feet (their minds, their souls, their consciences) were torn to ribbons, they always walked that line. They walked that line when they trained, when they argued, when they just were. In his own head, Naruto often walked that line starting as a broad path of hatred from a smug comment. Eventually, the line narrowed until the blonde thought his head might explode and he had to bang his head against the wall to clear his mind.
Sasuke had similar dilemmas, but he chose to be in denial. As he walked that path in his head, it was contempt for the fact that he could not find a way to kill Naruto to obtain the Mangekyou that consumed him. Slowly, for he was confused as to why he could not carry out such a seemingly simple task, the line narrowed with neglected possibilities until his palms were sore and bleeding from crescent-shaped nicks.
Oh, they walked the same line. They knew they walked the same line, but never did the other say anything. They did not say a thing when they were alone during training, when they were traveling to distant countries for missions, or when they had a chance at all. But that just made everything worse, made that line narrower until suddenly it did not exist any longer and Naruto felt the urge to press his lips against Sasuke's pale ones and eat him whole.
Sasuke had much more control than that, though he felt the line give with a little pop! He simply denied everything, wiping his mind clean and pretending those eyes that matched the sky were not staring at him so hungrily. Those eyes were always so tempting, so animalistic, so pure that it was everything he had to not take him right there in the dirt. So he just never looked at them. Not looking; not seeing.
It was the hormones, they both claimed. They were going through that time in their lives where everything looked rather tempting to release pent up stress against, but even Naruto confined his need to the privacy of his home. He often doubted if Sasuke confronted his need at all and thought it in the boy's behavior to merely run the cold water on the shower. He was always so cold. It made sense.
But even so, perhaps the line was thinnest on those rare, few nights that both Sasuke and Naruto pretended did not exist. Those nights did not count, because there was no line between love and hatred. The only things between the two were the hungry mouths, the pleasure-pained whimpers, and the muttered "I hate you." Hate is a word with two definitions, after all.
In Naruto's case, hate meant love, passion, and desire.
In Sasuke's, hate meant denial.
…Wooow… really, I have no idea where this came from. Um, happy request, Stakeh?