Summary: Everyone else seemed to know what was between Sasuke and Naruto before Naruto did, but it's just because he'd never heard the right word.
Category
'I heard about Sasuke joining Akatsuki'
'He betrayed Konoha."
'How's Naruto doing?'
'Naruto…I'm sorry.'
'Is Naruto alright?'
Naruto hadn't known it then, but they had. His friends, the villagers, villagers of other villages, they knew years before he did just how important Sasuke was to him. The most observant of his friends had known why, even back then.
Naruto had never put any real name on what he felt for Sasuke even in his own mind. He said the words: Friend, brother, but they never quite seemed adequate. No word he had even heard blushing girls whisper amongst themselves sounded right either. 'Lover', 'Boyfriend', the words didn't scare or disgust him, they just…weren't quite right. What was between him and Sasuke, it was just…more? Maybe? Naruto didn't know and didn't waste much thought on it. That inexplicable bond was just there.
He knew his friends: Shikamaru, Hinata, Kiba, Gaara… He knew his family: Kushina, Minato, Jiraiya. He knew the overlap between the titles, the blurred line of Sakura, Sai, Kakashi, Tsunade. But Sasuke…he stood apart. No category or even a line.
Just Sasuke.
And Naruto just continued on not thinking much on the matter. Friends. Family. Sasuke. That's just how it was.
Until one day, later in his adolescence than it should have been, he overheard a bit of an old story a newly-reinstated shinobi Sasuke had been weedled into telling some Academy cadets. An old legend about red threads and destiny and, when Naruto heard Sasuke say the word, the one he'd never been able to find, in that aloof, feigned-uncaring, but soft voice of his, Naruto knew.
"Soulmates."
Naruto mimicked Sasuke's small smile and that was that.