Author's Note: This plunny has been nagging at the back of my brain for possibly two years. :laugh: It finally decided to come out and play.
Thank you Courtney for fixing my small abuse of the english language ;)
Disclaimer: I very much do not own naruto.
Sasuke cautiously moved through the trees. Everything was calm around him but his gut told him to be careful anyway, and Sasuke re-learned to trust his gut a long time ago.
He didn't feel the presence of any other chakra-signatures but he still knew that his friend wasn't too far off, moving in the same direction as him. They had been such close partners for what felt like ages that they instinctively knew what the other one was up to by now.
Sasuke stopped for a second to listen. Something was definitely off.
That's when the forest exploded with chakra.
Sasuke's brain didn't even get the chance to form the word "trap" because suddenly there were enemies everywhere and only his honed reflexes made him move in time to dodge the first blow.
Dodge. Kick. Turn.
His body moved on its own in a dance so familiar that muscle-memory was enough for now. A kunai was drawn and he blocked several shuriken without even looking at them.
Block. Spin. Throw.
There were too many of them. Now when whatever technique that had blocked their presence was gone he felt like he was flooded with chakra-signatures from literally every direction. Too many.
Sharingan.
Kunai clashed against each other and his opponent's eyes widened when noticing the black swirling tomoe-marks on red iris. Sasuke offered him a cold smirk before disposing of the guy with a swift movement.
Hit. Flip. Run.
Uchiha Sasuke was good. Anyone who knew him, or knew of him knew this fact. If he weren't good he wouldn't be on this kind of mission. If he weren't good he probably wouldn't have been there in the first place. But it was annoying with no matter how many enemies he seemed to take down there was always another to take their place.
Clash. Slash. Kill.
They seemed to understand now that taking him on one on one wasn't the way to go. He couldn't help but feel slightly impressed by how quickly they formed their group into an almost perfect attack.
Chidori Nagashi.
With the enemy backing off for a couple of seconds after his most recent attack, his thoughts had the time to quickly flutter over the question of how his partner was doing. Then he got assaulted again.
About eight minutes later Sasuke already felt his chakra and stamina started to diminish a little, and there were still plenty of enemies of various skill-levels surrounding him. This made him feel a bit frustrated. The constant attacks made it hard to be able to think of a good plan as well.
He hissed when he received his first hit, a kunai that made a slash on his upper arm. Not something that would hinder him but it certainly made his annoyance reach higher levels and he made sure that the ninja who had managed the hit was dead within half a minute.
Another three minutes after that he was even more drained and when his focus began to fail he realized that the kunai had been poisoned and he now was in deep shit.
Just a few seconds later he surprised both his attackers and himself by losing his footing and falling down from the branch he had been standing on. A flash of orange immediately shot past in the corner of his eye and two blond kage bunshin caught him before fleeing deeper into the forest, carrying him together.
An unwelcome and familiar feeling overwhelmed Sasuke and his eyes widened while only one thought managed to cross his mind.
No!
That's when the forest exploded with chakra.
Both the kage bunshin immediately poofed out of existence when wave after wave of sinister red chakra rolled through the woods. Sasuke managed to land on his feet but instantly fell down on one knee due to his head spinning. He felt frozen, knowing what was happening but so utterly powerless when it came to do anything about it. His head was still dizzy and only one word managed to whirl over and over in there, like a mantra of the defeated.
No! No! No!
Half an hour later there was complete silence between the two of them.
Absolute silence.
Finally his blond companion sighed and decided it was a good idea to break it.
"Sasuke I..."
"Damnit, Naruto!" Sasuke interrupted and punched the tree he has been leaning against so hard that the trunk actually got a pretty bad dent in it. "You know better! You fucking know better!"
Naruto shut his mouth again. He had been the one setting up their camp since Sasuke still suffered slightly from the after-effects of the poison.
Sasuke had gotten an antidote soon after the release of Kyuubi's chakra. With shaking hands he had prepared it and taken it, luckily for him it had been a simple poison and he carried all the ingredients for the antidote in his kit but it had still taken longer than he liked.
As soon as he had been able to move again he had done the only thing he could – stop Naruto before he did more damage than he had planned. With his sharingan spinning like crazy he had gone into battle against his own partner to stop him from destroying everything, the both of them included.
He hated that. Sasuke hated that. Hated it with a passion.
It was his job though. His number one priority. Keeping Naruto in line; just like how Naruto's first job was to keep him, Sasuke, in line. The two most dangerous shinobi in the world, and the only one able to stop one of them was the other one.
Uzumaki Naruto, former Monster of Konoha. Container of Kyuubi. When he let the nine-tailed fox take over, he completely lost control, destroying everything in his path. The only one able to bring him back and force the fox to submit once again was Sasuke.
Sasuke, former missing-nin of Konoha. The traitor that nobody trusted anymore, and with everything he had gone through, they were right to feel that way. When Sasuke lost control he went completely insane, dark chakra swallowing him whole. The only one who could drag him out of it, the only one who still trusted him with everything, was Naruto.
So they were partners. Paired up to keep each other in check. Too dangerous to keep in the village and too dangerous to not control. So they were a simple two-man team doing the most dangerous missions that no one else was able to handle.
Sasuke didn't mind that part. After everything that he'd been through he didn't think he would have fit into Konoha very well anymore anyway. He knew that Naruto missed it sometimes though, but he tried to be enough.
What he hated was these kinds of missions. The ones that forced Naruto to use Kyuubi's power despite the fact that he really shouldn't. It made Sasuke angry and frustrated. It made him feel powerless, and that was a feeling Sasuke loathed with all of his damaged soul.
And so there was silence. Naruto knew that Sasuke needed a chance to calm down, just as he needed the chance to let the last effects of the poison and antidote leave his body. He needed his overflowing adrenaline to stop running through his blood. He needed to realize that things were okay, at least for the moment.
So Naruto made camp and Sasuke calmed down. They were far from the fighting scene now, far from the stench of blood and broken trees. Far from forest turned upside down and body parts shattered everywhere. Naruto could never stand the sight or smell of those places as soon as Sasuke snapped him out of Kyuubi's grip. Naruto tended to completely block those things out of his mind afterwards. That was his way to cope. Sasuke on the other hand had the tendency to run everything over and over in his head, everything imprinted on his brain in detail because of his activated sharingan. So he'd run it over and over in his mind until he was so used to it that it didn't bother him anymore.
"Sasuke, you're still bleeding." Naruto noted quietly with a worried frown.
Sasuke looked at the small wrinkle that formed between Naruto's eyebrows.
"Hn. Moron." He walked towards the other ninja.
The frown smoothed out, replaced by a small smile.
"Bastard." Naruto muttered, his voice coloured by affection. "Let's wash off."
They still reeked of death. Naruto found that smell revolting, Sasuke found it calming. After all; if their enemies were dead they were safer themselves, right?
But he agreed with his companion to rinse it off. Clean themselves from blood, sweat and dirt.
Ten minutes later Naruto took out their medical kit.
"Sit here." He ordered and gestured for Sasuke to sit on a fallen log, close to where they had a small fire.
Sasuke obliged, sitting down with his back to the fire. The wound was on the backside of his right upper arm, and so it was better if Naruto could get the better light the fire provided. The sun was no longer filtering through the trees enough to provide proper lightning. Of course Sasuke knew that Naruto's night-vision was much better than a normal person's but he still wanted to make things as easy as possible. Just in case the idiot would mess up.
Of course, Naruto hadn't messed up in forever. He had gotten good at patching up Sasuke long before now.
Naruto kneeled behind him and started picking things up from the kit.
"We're running out of medical supplies." He said while starting to clean up Sasuke's wound properly.
"I know." Sasuke answered. "I'll send a hawk later with the mission report and a request for more supplies."
He didn't have to look at him to know that it made Naruto smile. The one that met them up most often to supply them with information and equipment was Sakura. They both enjoyed meeting their former team-member like that now and then, one of the few that weren't scared of them at all. One of the few that actually trusted the two of them. One of the few that still cared.
It even happened that sometimes in between their missions, if Sakura had extra time as well, that she would stay with them for a few days so they got the chance to properly catch up. And Naruto could ask questions about every single person he knew about in Konoha.
Sasuke hissed slightly when Naruto started stitching his arm up. He hadn't really realized that it was that deep. His pain tolerance was almost dangerously high, something Naruto had became aware of long ago and then started to look out for him – sometimes noticing small wounds Sasuke hadn't even felt himself. Just like he was looking out for Naruto. Naruto's wounds healed quickly but every time that happened a tiny bit of his lifespan were erased. That was part of the blessing and the curse of having the nine-tailed fox trapped in his body.
So after quite some time as constant partners they had started some hard training together. A training to be able to evade any hit that could damage them. It was difficult and they still hadn't gotten the complete hang of it yet – which was partly why Sasuke had managed to get that damn kunai slicing his arm, but they were slowly getting there.
Both of them had always loved to work hard after all, and training was one of those things that managed to keep them busy.
"You weren't careful enough." Naruto said while applying small even stitches to the wound.
"You're one to talk, idiot." Sasuke said, anger in his voice.
"It was the only way." Naruto answered calmly.
"You total moron!" Sasuke hissed. "We said that you weren't going to use that power anymore! What if something went wrong? What if you aren't able to get out of it? It's getting harder every time! You know that!"
Lips were pressed against his shoulder in a quick kiss.
"I'll always come back as long as you're here, Sasuke." Naruto breathed against his shoulder and smiled. "As long as you don't give up on me."
Sasuke calmed himself. It was over and they were safe now. Right now, in this moment they were safe. Together.
And Naruto was right. The most important rule in their somewhat dangerous lives was not to give up on each other. Because that was all they had really. Luckily it was impossible to give up on Naruto, no matter how hard you tried. That was something Sasuke had learned the hard way during his years as a missing-nin. And for Naruto it was also pretty much impossible to give up. The blond ninja was what kept them safe and Sasuke had slowly learnt to rely on him more and more, until he knew that it would be impossible to live without him.
Naruto's fingers travelled along the scars on Sasuke's back as if following the route on a treasure map. Sasuke briefly closed his eyes at the contact. Touching was something that came easily to Naruto. He was often casually touching Sasuke. Casual touching wasn't something that came naturally to Sasuke, but he had grown used to Naruto's contact to the point of being addicted.
Slowly Naruto's fingers followed patterns over his back to his shoulder and over it. Unhurriedly he stepped around until he was standing in front of Sasuke, touching a scar crossing his collarbone.
Sasuke opened his eyes to look at him. Sasuke had a pretty impressive amount of scars. Naruto sometimes called them his "map of life". A scar tells a story. Sasuke had forgotten most of those tales but Naruto had made it one of his duties to imprint every location and look of Sasuke's scars into his own memory. Sometimes Sasuke suspected that the blond knew them better than he himself did.
Naruto didn't have scars. Kyuubi's healing powers made his skin flawless and Sasuke loved touching it, even if he hated the reason for it to be like that.
The fire crackled and lit up Naruto, making his light hair glow but his face fall into a bit of darkness due to being shadowed by Sasuke's head. His blue eyes were sparkling with warmth though. He gently nudged Sasuke's legs and kneeled between them with his back straight, keeping them at the same face-level even though Sasuke was sitting on the log.
Sasuke was reminded of how good-looking Naruto's shoulders were, and he reached out to put his hand lightly on the left one.
Naruto opened his mouth all of a sudden and pressed the tip of his tongue against the tip of Sasuke's nose. Then he drew it right back and closed his mouth before dropping a peck on the now wet spot. Slowly he kept fluttering light kisses up along the bridge of Sasuke's nose – continuing over the arch of a dark eyebrow until he pressed a long lingering kiss on Sasuke's temple.
And Sasuke finally smiled.
Thanks for reading.