Murder in the Dark
Sasuke hated sleepovers. Sasuke hated camping. And above everything else, Sasuke hated the dark.
There was something so reassuring about being able to see what was going on. Sasuke didn't like not being able to see things. He didn't like being out in the cold, shadowy blackness, desperately trying to play murder in the dark.
When Kiba had first announced the game and everyone had grinned and agreed, and said things like 'woah, I haven't played that in years…' Sasuke had remained silent in realisation that he'd never played that game before. He hadn't really played many games as a child; he remembered when Lee thought he was crazy for not knowing what 'hide and seek' was. The raven was quietly pleased when Naruto said that he'd never heard of 'murder in the dark' either.
"It's simple enough," Shikamaru had mumbled. "We write out enough slips of paper for each of us, and one says 'detective', one 'murderer', and the rest are all 'suspects'. Then we pick them out of a hat, not knowing who everyone else is, and go out into the dark. The murderer has to go round tapping people on the shoulder, and if you get tapped and you're a suspect you have to die."
"Loudly," Kiba intervened.
"Then if you're tapped and you're the detective, you yell 'detective is dead', we all come back to the tent, and the detective has to guess who the murderer is."
It sounded simple enough. It actually sounded quite fun; Sasuke had been worried they'd want to play a really weird game, or do crazy dares, or something unpleasant like that. He hadn't expected a straightforward kid's game.
"Sounds good," Naruto said, clearly thrilled to be playing. He'd always been a kid at heart.
So they wrote out the slips, and everyone picked one out from Akamaru's dog bowl, quickly glancing at their slips before stuffing them into their pockets.
It was just Sasuke's luck to be the detective.
So now they were all scattered amongst the woods, and it was near pitch black, except for the vague reflection of the moon on the ground, and Sasuke was not enjoying himself.
For one, it was cold. It was really cold. He didn't like the cold, he'd never especially liked the cold, and he'd left his jumper in the tent.
Two, he wasn't exactly sure where camp was. He'd just kind of started to wander, and now he was sure he was lost. If he looked at a certain angle, he thought he could see a light across the way, which he could only assume was from their tent, though he wasn't sure.
Three, it was starting to rain. Only drizzling, at the moment, but Sasuke knew that by the time the game ended, it would be pissing down. And he was not looking forward to it.
And four, possibly the most important reason, Sasuke couldn't see two feet ahead of him, and he'd never really liked the dark, and he was sure he'd heard there were bears in these woods. Or wolves, or maybe vampires, or something dark and not-very-nice like that.
A scream erupted through the silence, and Sasuke very nearly fell over. If he'd been in public, he knew he would have been completely embarrassed; but right now he was too scared for that. It was a shrill scream, sounded like it was Lee.
Just the game, Sasuke reminded himself. There aren't actually bears here. Or worse. There's definitely not anything worse.
Deciding he didn't really like the game anymore, he began to head back towards the light, and hopefully the camp, and figured he'd hang out there until everyone else was 'dead'. They'll come crawling back, he thought, trying desperately not to trip over as he went towards the light.
Another scream came, this time from Kiba (though Sasuke couldn't be sure), and it was much closer than the first one. Swearing to himself, Sasuke picked up his pace, and headed slightly faster towards the camp.
He was sure he could hear footsteps behind him. But no, he had to be imagining it. Why would someone be following him?
But the footsteps were getting faster. They'd just stepped on a twig. They were definitely real, so somebody was following him. Somebody was right behind him.
Sasuke started running, and heard the person behind him running too. Sasuke was pretty fast, but whoever it was seemed to be catching up. The light ahead wasn't getting any closer, and Sasuke reckoned he'd reached some warped, twilight zone, where he was most definitely going to die.
"Damnit," a voice behind him said, a voice that he most definitely recognised, but before he could have time to place its face, the person that belonged to the voice tripped, caught onto the back of Sasuke's shirt, and the two ended up in a heap on the floor.
"Shit."
"Ahh, sorry."
Sasuke glared at Naruto, who was lying on top of him, encircled by moonlight. Sasuke could just about make out his sheepish grin in the midnight glow.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Killing you," Naruto grinned. He tapped Sasuke on the shoulder. "See? Dead."
"I'm the detective," Sasuke said.
"Oh." Naruto looked completely defeated. "Guess I kinda lost then?"
"Guess you kind of did."
"Oh."
"So are you gonna get off me any time soon?"
"Oh," Naruto said, for the third time since they'd collided. "Sorry."
He shuffled off of Sasuke, and stood up, offering a hand to help the brunette up after him.
"I can stand, you know," Sasuke mumbled, though it took him longer to get up than his pride would have wanted. "So what do we do now?"
"I guess you should yell out that you're dead. Oh, then you can pretend you didn't realise it was me! Do that! Say it was Neji! I nearly got him, but he was being all stealthy and crap and just like disappeared. It was totally uncool."
"I'm sure." Sasuke dusted himself off. His backside was damp from the ground. He was not happy. "And why would I say it's not you?"
"Oh, come on Sasuke, I don't want to lose."
"And I do?"
"You can have the moral victory."
Sasuke just glared at him. He wasn't entirely sure if Naruto had noticed though, it was still so dark. Now they were closer to the camp though, Sasuke could make out the outline of the tent.
"Come on, it's my birthday," Naruto said, his voice getting increasingly whiney.
"No it's not," Sasuke told him, and it was true, they were camping for Shikamaru's birthday, not Naruto's.
"Well it is in a couple of weeks."
That, also, was true. But it wasn't close enough to give Naruto allowances.
"I don't care."
"Oh come on, call it an early present."
"Why does it mean so much to you?"
"Why does it mean so much to you?"
Sasuke was just about to answer, when he heard a sound behind him, and violently spun round. He couldn't see anyone, but he couldn't really see much at all. He listened out, but it was silent again. Suddenly another thing passed his vision, and looking down Sasuke saw that it was a squirrel, scurrying across the floor.
He could officially be deemed pathetic.
"Teme? You alright?"
"Yeah," Sasuke said, sighing to himself.
Naruto snorted, amused. "Don't tell me you're scared of the big, bad woods?"
"I am not scared of the big bad woods," Sasuke snapped. "I just heard a noise, is all."
"Sure." Naruto paused. "So why is it that you're not letting me win?"
"Why aren't you letting me win?"
"Because I've never won a game like this before."
"I've never even played a game like this before."
Naruto froze. "What, never?"
Sasuke looked up at him. Closer to camp, he could make out his friend a lot better now. "You said you'd never played it either."
"Well yeah, but I've played games like it. So you never used to play these kind of things as a kid?"
Sasuke shook his head. "No."
"No 'one, two, three, block home'? No bulldog? No dodge ball?"
"No," Sasuke said, a little sharper this time. "My dad didn't really believe in games."
"Your dad… didn't believe in games?" Naruto sounded horrified. "Iruka practically had a hissy fit whenever I wasn't out playing."
"I didn't think you used to hang out with that many people."
Naruto shrugged. "I played with Shikamaru and Chouji a lot. And Kiba. I can't believe you never played games."
"It's nothing strange. I just didn't."
They kept walking towards the camp, and were only a metre or so away now. Sasuke realised he probably should've called out for people to come back whilst further out in the forest, though a large part of him was happy to just be back.
"So you never played kiss chase?"
Sasuke levelled his glare. "I thought we'd established this."
"I was just checking, that used to be like our favourite game. I think we should play it."
"What, now?"
Naruto shrugged. "Why not? Still scared of the woods?"
Sasuke growled, not about to let himself be outdone. "Let's play."
Naruto laughed. "Alright, try and run away, and I've got to catch you."
"And then what?"
"Ahh," Naruto winked. "Wait and see."
The name gave the game away, to be fair. Sasuke wasn't sure if Naruto was kidding, or actually being serious. Was he actually going to kiss him when he caught him? Was Sasuke going to let him kiss him?
Would he really have a choice? Naruto was bigger than him, whether he liked to admit it or not. If Naruto was going to kiss him, he wasn't sure whether he'd have much to say in the matter. And he wasn't about to let that happen. Naruto couldn't just kiss him, that wasn't right, that way he'd win. And Sasuke didn't like to lose anything.
"No, I don't think I will," Sasuke snapped, stepping forward and pressing his lips against Naruto's. There was an awkward moment when their lips were pressed still against each other's, and Sasuke thought he'd made the most stupid mistake of his life; when Naruto began to kiss him back.
They were kissing. Sasuke was kissing Naruto. And Naruto was kissing him back. Properly. Like tongues and all. And Sasuke was enjoying it. So much that he didn't want to pull away. That he didn't care that it was cold, and wet, and dark, because he was kissing Naruto: and Naruto was warm, and sweet, and light.
The steady drizzle that had been building up suddenly burst into an out-and-out downpour, and Sasuke and Naruto pulled apart quickly, looking up at the black sky.
"Reckon we should call the people over?"
"They'll probably be coming back to the tent now anyway," Sasuke replied. He tried to hide the despondency in his tone.
"Good point." There was silence for a moment, as Sasuke and Naruto stayed motionless. "Want to go into the woods and just pretend we got lost?"
"What, to make out?"
"Well… yeah."
Sasuke paused. "Sounds like a plan." He got up and began to head away from the tent, Naruto close behind him. "I always hated sleepovers anyway."
Pour Siobhan. Bon anniversaire, ma chere! (en francais )