So, I didn't really like the first version of this story because it seemed to only make sense in my head while I was writing it, so I decided to re-write it. The plot is the same, but I changed some stuff and hopefully it makes more sense now. The original version is in the second chapter, in case you want to check it out, but unless your mind works in a rather complicated fashion or and you are really bored, you probably don't need to look at the second one- the lemon is the same.
DIS-claimer: Naruto does not belong to me.
It was the beginning of a new year, and Sasuke was tired of waiting. He'd been in love with Naruto for as long as he could remember, and after many failed attempts to get Naruto to pay attention to him and not the pink haired wonder, he growing impatient.
This year, Sasuke decided, he was going to make some love magic.
First, Sasuke decided to go to a shrine to pray to the gods for help. He made his way up the long steps to the shrine, and knelt in front of one of the statues lined up in front of the temple.
"Yo Sasuke, what are you up to?" Tenten asked, coming up from behind him. Sasuke turned to see her and Neji looking at him curiously.
"I'm…"
"He's obviously praying that Naruto will recognize his love." Neji said flatly. Tenten and Sasuke looked at him curiously.
"What? It's written on his prayer card." Sasuke blushed. He'd forgotten to hang it on the rack with the other wishes. (1)
"If you're going to make it work, you should do it right. Do you have something from Naruto with you?" Tenten asked, "After going out with a person like Neji, I've developed some methods interacting with the Spirit World. Which, of course, is the only way you can be sure that they've heard your prayers."
"I have this." Sasuke said, holding up a the small tiger figurine.
"Perfect! Place it on the altar…"
"Tenten, please tell me this isn't going to be some sort of figurine voodoo." Neji said.
"No, stupid. Go away, you haven't the slightest clue about romance. Just- go stand over there and wait for Sasuke and me to finish." Her boyfriend rolled his eyes and went to go read some of the prayer cards on the rack.
"Here's a red candle stub. I always carry one around in case I get in a pinch. Red is the Chinese happy color- it's good luck, and it will serve as a virtual connection to the spirit world. Light the candle and then light the figurine on fire. Close your eyes, and if all goes right, you'll be surrounded by all the Zodiac animals." (2)
"And if all doesn't go right?"
"Well, then you can just ask Naruto for a new tiger figurine." Tenten said.
Sasuke bit his lip. On one hand, he really didn't want to burn up the figurine from Naruto for nothing, but on the other hand, he didn't want to miss a chance like this. He decided it was worth it.
He took the match Tenten offered him and lit the candle. He then used the candle to set the figurine on fire and closed his eyes and waited.
Nothing happened. Disappointed, Sasuke opened his eyes and reeled back to see himself surrounded by huge, colorful beasts. The tiger figurine he'd gotten from Naruto had grown to be larger than he was, and seemed to be alive, his coat crackling with flames.
"You called?"
"I wanted to pray that Naruto would recognize me as his love this new year. But I want to know if he has any feelings for me. I don't want to make him fall in love with me if it isn't his choice." Sasuke said, lowering his head to bow to the tiger.
"Naruto does love you, idiot, you just suck at confessions. If you were smarter, you wouldn't have to come to us with such a trivial request." The Rooster said.
The tiger slapped a paw over the Rooster's beak, "Your love will be recognized when you make your move on the first day of the Chinese New Year. However, if you make a move before then, you will not like the results. Patience, Sasuke, is a virtue. You must learn to appreciate deferred gratification."
"I'm used to being patient." Sasuke said, "I've been patient for almost eighteen years."
"Then you can wait a few months longer."
The animals slowly disappeared, and Sasuke watched the tiger figurine shrink until it was a regular size, and then the flame around it poofed out.
Like when waking up from a dream where you were dreaming, Sasuke opened his eyes again and found himself back in the temple. The tiger figurine was unharmed.
"I guess it worked." Sasuke grinned at Tenten. "You rock!"
"Haha, I'm actually really surprised that it worked because I totally just made all that candle crap up." Tenten said.
Sasuke stared at her, and Tenten smirked. "Just kidding. Let's go, today is the American New Year, and we get to watch the ball drop at my house!"
Sasuke convinced Naruto to sit on the roof of Tenten's apartment. The sounds of the party drifted up, and Naruto leaned against Sasuke's side. Sasuke fiddled with the small carved tiger he had received from Naruto as a New Year's gift and then slipped it into his pocket.
"Wow, I'm glad we aren't still in there," Naruto sighed, "It was too noisy, even for me."
"I would never have guessed you'd say that." Sasuke replied, smirking. Naruto nudged him.
"Oh yeah, well, I'm full of surprises bastard!" Sasuke bit his lip and turned his head away from Naruto.
"Sometimes I wonder why we're best friends."
"Well I don't. It's because you love me." Naruto said jokingly. In the darkness, Naruto didn't notice Sasuke's eyes darken, and Sasuke was glad that Naruto couldn't see the slight flush that appeared on his cheekbones.
"Naruto?" Sasuke said softly. Naruto sat up and looked at him. For once, both teens were both looking serious at the same time. The lights of Tokyo blinked softly in the distance, and neither moved. Finally, Sasuke leaned forward the last few centimeters, and his lips lightly brushed Naruto's. Just then, screams of excitement erupted from the room below, signifying the drop of the ball in New York.
Fireworks danced through the air, and Sasuke jumped in surprises, his lips smashing down on Naruto's. Naruto pulled away, laughing.
"That's the second time we've accidentally kissed Sasuke! Right on New Year's, too." Sasuke stared at him. Naruto stood up and held out a hand to Sasuke. "Come on, they're probably missing us. Maybe it isn't too late to snag a kiss from Sakura? My first kiss of the New Year since ours didn't count."
Naruto wrote it off as an accident, and Sasuke was too surprised to correct him. By the time he'd come to his senses, it was too late to tell Naruto the truth; the moment had passed.
Oh well. He still had the Chinese New Year. And Sasuke had a plan for Naruto to truly recognize his love.
Up in the place where the spiritual creatures live, the Tiger looked down sadly.
"He failed." She said. The Rooster ruffled his feathers.
"Ha! He jumped the gun! What punishment should we give?" he asked, "Something terrible!"
"We need to give him a second chance." The Rabbit said, "Everyone deserves a second chance."
"Let's make him responsible for a disaster involving something that is important to Naruto, and see if he loves Naruto enough to own up to his mistake. That way we can see that Sasuke isn't just a horny little teenager who gave into his hormones." The Dragon suggested.
"What event can we cater to that kind of circumstance? I say we cut his..." The Rooster asked.
"I have just the thing." The Tiger interrupted, reaching out a paw and pulling on the threads of Fate. "We'll give him till midnight of the first day of the Chinese New Year to rectify his mistake."
Sasuke watched as Naruto and Sakura cooed over the small Asian children that infested the room. It was extremely noisy; If Sasuke closed his eyes, he might as well be in the jungle where wild animals roam free and poisonous beasts stalk innocent people. He let his head drop, hitting his forehead with his palm.
The reason Sasuke was there was Naruto. Last summer, Naruto had started his community project; the mission was to help those in need. And naturally, Naruto decided to help fund an orphanage. With Sasuke's money. At first, Sasuke had been uncooperative about the whole thing: it was his money after all- however, Sasuke had fallen so hard for Naruto that he would have done almost anything Naruto asked.
Sasuke glowered at Naruto as he whirled a little girl around through the air, and glanced down at the red flyer he held in his hands. The flyer advertised an event for the Chinese New Year that was being held on the 6th of February. Sasuke snorted. Stupid Americans. Didn't they know that this year, the New Year was on the 14th?
"Sasuke, if you don't come over here, I'm going to drag you." Naruto called. Sasuke pretended not to hear. He slowly traced a pattern on the red table cloth, ignoring the beckoning from his energetic friend.
"Sasuke." Sasuke jumped violently and turned to see Sakura standing over him threateningly. "If you don't stop moping, I'm going to tell Naruto that you've loved him for ages, and that kiss on New Year wasn't supposed to be an accident- right here, right now and into the microphone. This is Naruto's event, so be happy or at least act like it."
Sakura knew about Sasuke's infatuation with Naruto, which was one of the reasons she continued to ignore Naruto's "advances". Sasuke was glad that Sakura agreed that Naruto was definitely a closet gay because if Sakura decided that she did like Naruto, she would be able to have him.
"You wouldn't." Sasuke replied, "Because that would ruin Naruto's event even more."
Sakura tossed her hair with a huff. "I'd think you would want to act happy to make Naruto happy. You can tell right now, can't you, that he isn't enjoying himself?" The two friends turned to look at Naruto.
Sasuke hated to admit it, but Sakura was right. Naruto was showing way too many teeth in his grin. If any more popped out from behind his lips, he would be grimacing. Sasuke sighed and nodded.
"Trust you to guilt me into being happy." He said, making his way toward the blond.
"Trust you to need to feel guilty in order to be happy." Sakura shot him a meaningful glance.
"Touché."
"Stop being such a wet blanket."
"He's too busy with his other friends to actually care about me."
"Jealousy does not become you. Hang this up, will you? It's too heavy for me." Sakura said, feigning weakness. Sasuke scowled at her- Sakura had gotten into weight lifting, and could probably bench more than Sasuke. He snatched the heavy banner up and set it haphazardly against a nail on the wall. Jeez, what kind of person puts gold rimming around a silly banner like that? If that banner fell on someone it could maim them. It wasn't his problem. If Sakura didn't like the way the banner was hung up, she could fix it herself. Sasuke was sooooo done with the party.
He made for the door, but was stopped by Naruto's hand.
"Wait! Where are you going?"
"Back to the hotel. I'm getting a headache from all this noise." He replied. And you're ignoring me, so why do you care, he thought to himself.
"Can't you stay? It…" Naruto was interrupted by a huge bang and a scream. The banner Sasuke had "hung up" had fallen from its perch and the gold border sent it crashing to the ground. It had almost squashed a little girl, but Sakura dove in to save her, and the banner had fallen on Sakura's leg. Thankfully Sakura was much sturdier than the little girl, and the banner didn't break anything- Sakura was only going to have a bruise.
The banner falling did create a damper on the party- the ambulance was called and everyone was a bit frightened that it would happen again, and Naruto was stressed and angry that the banner had harmed Sakura.
"Whoever hung that stupid banner is an idiot." He exclaimed after all everyone left. Sasuke didn't say anything. He knew he was the one to blame about the banner falling. He didn't want to tell Naruto because he was afraid that Naruto would hate him. After all, Naruto had put a lot of effort into the celebration, and Sasuke felt like he'd ruined it.
"Ha!" the Rooster cackled, "He'll never own up, and Naruto will never ever acknowledge Sasuke! Sasuke will be doomed to be a singleton for the rest of his life!"
The days of the Chinese New year were growing closer, and Tenten, Neji, Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto were planning on meeting at an outdoor festival to celebrate on the actual beginning of the New Year. Sasuke almost didn't go- he still felt guilty about the banner- but Sakura dragged him by the ear, and since he was attached to his ears, Sasuke ended up at the festival.
At the festival, Tenten dragged him aside.
"Fate isn't on your side anymore, what did you do wrong?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You look miserable. You aren't supposed to look miserable, you're supposed to look happy- and you're supposed to look happy with Naruto! What did you do wrong? Did you not open your fortune cookie?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"You have to fix this! If you don't, you will never ever, ever get back together with him!" Tenten exclaimed, "I'm not sure what kinds of conditions you made with the animals, but if you'd done it right, you'd already be with him! Fix it! You might have a deadline that you don't even know about!"
"I don't know…" Sasuke remembered the conditions, "Deferred gratification! I forgot! I was supposed to wait until today to make a move on Naruto, but I kissed him during the American calendar New Year! Shit! What do I do?"
"Maybe you need to prove to the Animals that you really do love Naruto, and your feelings aren't just based on hormones. True lovers share secrets. Is there anything that you should probably tell Naruto in order to keep his trust?"
And there was. Sasuke knew he had to tell Naruto about his mistake during the festival to raise funds for orphans.
The Rooster glared down at the interfering Two Buns. "She is ruining all of my fun!"
"Can, can we take this to a more private place? I have something really important to say. Sasuke said. Naruto looked at him oddly but agreed. Sasuke lead him to a small alley behind a dumpling vendor.
Sasuke took a deep breath. He was feeling rather reckless now. He'd already started to make his confession, and so it was now or never in his mind.
"Naruto… I…" Now that they were actually alone, Sasuke was starting to lose his nerve. He stopped and stared at Naruto. He knew he was supposed to tell Naruto something important, but Naruto's mere presence stripped his mind of all coherent thought. They were way too close…
"Is this about the kiss?" Naruto said finally, breaking the silence. Sasuke gaped. No, it wasn't but they could talk about that… Yeah, they could discuss the kiss first to get Naruto in a good enough mood to forgive him about the Banner Incident. Of course, talking about the kiss could totally backfire and make the confession null and void, but Naruto had opened up discussion for it, and Sasuke couldn't really back out of the conversation.
"Uh… yeah, about the kiss, I'm sorry if…"
"No!" Naruto exclaimed, waving his hands in the air, "I get it! It's perfectly fine." Sasuke groaned and smacked his head in frustration.
Naruto knew? How? And was this a good thing? He couldn't, he was much too happy, right? His mind was so busy spinning that he almost missed Naruto's next words.
"…an accident and I hope you don't feel weird about it, I mean, I'm sure your feelings about me are completely platonic. It's okay to be afraid of loud noises."
Sasuke blinked at him. What?
"You think that I kissed you because the fireworks went off, and I jumped in fright, causing our lips to meet?" Sasuke said slowly. Naruto nodded earnestly.
"No, Naruto, I kissed you because I… um, have feelings for you."
Naruto chuckled. "Silly Sasuke. April isn't for two months! Come on, you can't play April Fools jokes in February! I don't care how many people think it's funny to play a joke and say, 'Ha you were expecting it in April, weren't you!' Seriously! It's totally lame and…"
Sasuke cut off Naruto's babbling and pressed his lips lightly against Naruto's mouth. He felt Naruto stiffen, and closed his eyes, pulling away to rest his head down on Naruto's chest. Sasuke was shorter than Naruto, and his forehead rested nicely on Naruto's sternum.
"I love you dobe." Sasuke whispered quietly- so quietly that he wasn't quite sure he'd even said it out loud. Apparently he did, however, as Naruto his hands slowly rose to cup Sasuke's face.
"I don't know…" Naruto said slowly, "I can try to love you…"
"No wait." Sasuke said, "I… You might hate me for this. But I have to admit something… The banner that fell? Yeah, it fell because I didn't hang it up very well."
The Rooster groaned. The rest of the animals cheered.
Sasuke, who had put the tiger figurine back into his pocket, felt it heat up abruptly and quickly looked down to make sure his pants weren't on fire. Naruto took this as a gesture of abashment.
"Why would I hate you for that?" Naruto asked, tipping his head. Had Sasuke always looked this beautiful?
Sasuke sucked in a deep breath. The burning sensation in his pocket subsided, "I hung it up half-assed because I was jealous that you were paying attention to everyone but me."
"No, you're the most important person in my life." Naruto said. It was true.
"Good." Sasuke breathed. He leaned in to kiss Naruto again.
"No wait. I don't want to make out with you right here. Let's wait until we get back to the hotel, okay? I want to enjoy the festival!"
The two boys walked out of the shadows holding hands.
Tenten grinned and Neji winked at her. "Are you having fun playing match maker?" He asked. Sakura scowled.
"Hey, I had a part in this too!" She exclaimed.
"You wish." Tenten said.
"Hey!"
Sasuke felt himself being pushed gently down onto a chair. The hotel had a tiny bed, but a huge armchair. And anyway, the chair wasn't against a wall so no one would hear them banging about.
"Sasuke." Naruto rumbled, and Sasuke could feel the word reverberating through his chest. God, he could cum from that voice alone. He told Naruto so, and the other laughed. Sasuke reveled in the smooth tone of his friend's voice, but not for long.
The other man straddled Sasuke, his hands slipping under Sasuke's shirt, his lips crashing down on Sasuke's. Sasuke moaned into the kiss. Naruto's searching fingers found his nipples and pinched down, making Sasuke bite Naruto's lip.
Naruto pulled away and kneeled before Sasuke, fingering his zipper. His blue eyes flashed up, and Sasuke shivered. He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting. Naruto mouth engulfed Sasuke's member and Sasuke screamed.
"God…" Sasuke gasped. Naruto hummed around the pulsing organ, and Sasuke thought he was going to burst. When Naruto began sucking Sasuke so hard Sasuke thought he was being swallowed by an out of control vacuum, Sasuke did burst. Cum streamed out of his cock, and Naruto swallowed it, milking the orgasm.
Sasuke wasn't sure whether he screamed or not; he was lost as blinking pleasure shot through him. The only thing that kept him from passing out was the feeling of Naruto's tight hands gripping his hips. He slowly cam down from his high, and looked up at Naruto.
"Uuunggh." Sasuke said intelligently.
"K, well, I'm going to prepare you now." Naruto said. Sometime while Naruto was pleasuring Sasuke they had migrated onto the bed. Sasuke glared blearily down at him.
"Naruto, I understand that being the seme is your reward for putting up with my "assholeness", but if you don't stop narrating everything you're going to do then I get to top, and you have to bottom." Naruto snorted, but offered his fingers to Sasuke without a word.
Sasuke rolled his tongue around the digits, watching Naruto's face intently. He reached out and yanked Naruto's pants down as far as he could; wrapping his hand around Naruto's arousal. He rather liked the way Naruto's blue eyes scrunched up as he used his hands to slowly stroke Naruto's neglected member while he sucked on Naruto's fingers.
Naruto pulled his fingers away from Sasuke's mouth and pulled Sasuke's pants down the rest of the way, gently circling Sasuke's hole with a damp finger. Sasuke's breath hitched as Naruto pushed his finger in.
"Wow." Naruto said, watching in fascination as his finger disappeared into Sasuke. Sasuke groaned in discomfort, and wiggled. Naruto rolled his eyes and added a second and third finger, scissoring them inside Sasuke until Sasuke got impatient. He slapped Naruto's hand away and pulled Naruto's hips in, directing Naruto's arousal to his prepared hole. Naruto hastily spat on his hand to slicken his dick before Sasuke wrapped his legs around Naruto's waist and pulled him in. Sasuke ignored the splitting pain that followed and gasped for Naruto to move. If Naruto didn't move, Sasuke might die.
Naruto leaned over Sasuke, his hands the sheets beside Sasuke's head, his legs bent behind him for leverage. He bent Sasuke's legs up against Sasuke's chest and began hammering into Sasuke. The bed was against the wall between Neji's room and Naruto and Sasuke's room, so they decided it didn't matter that they were making such a racket.
Sasuke pressed his head into Naruto's neck and bit down. He vaguely heard Naruto yelp, but didn't particularly care as Naruto found his prostate and abused it accordingly. As for Naruto, he could hardly believe the tight heat inside Sasuke; it was obvious that Sasuke was a virgin.
Sasuke was the first to recover from his orgasm; he lifted his head from Naruto's shoulder and looked down at his best friend.
"I think I did it right." Sasuke said.
"Did it right?" Naruto said, "That was bloody fantastic."
"No I mean going to the temple and praying that you'd realize your raging gay-ness and fall in love with me." Sasuke said. Naruto sat up and frowned.
"You did… what now?" He asked.
Before Sasuke could answer, there was a knock at the door. Sasuke scowled. Kami-sama help whoever was knocking because he give them a severe ass-kicking. He was so not in the mood to deal with things with an ass full of cum.
Naruto wiped himself off, pulled on sweatpants and opened the door.
"It's Tenten." He said.
"Heh, just making sure you did it right, Sasuke." She said, "Okay, good night. And for round two, could you move the bed to the other side of the room? Neji's cranky, and it'll be funny to see Sakura's face in the morning."
"Did he really go to the gods to get me to fall in love with him?" Naruto asked. Tenten nodded, "Uh, yeah?"
"Oh man. Someone is going to get punished tonight." Naruto said. Sasuke licked his lips, "I've got to teach Sasuke a lesson he won't forget in a hurry. Don't you know that you're amazing, Sasuke? I'm just going to have to remind you again, and again, and again, and again…"
"And I'm going to go back to my room." Tenten said hurriedly. "Buh-bye."
Finally Naruto ran out of stamina, and the two men fell asleep. Sasuke was exhausted, but he'd definitely learned his "lesson". Sasuke was looking forward to sleeping in- their plane home didn't leave until the late afternoon.
The Rooster watched them carefully and then grinned. Sasuke the little punk was going to suffer. He might have really loved Naruto, but he still deserved a little more punishment for disregarding instructions. The Rooster smirked. He quickly the hotel alarm clock so that it would go off at its loudest and most obnoxious setting, and then manipulated the inner workings of the clock so that it wouldn't turn off. He then sat back to wait. In two hours time, the alarm would go off, waking up Sasuke and Naruto from a deep sleep. They would be extremely annoyed, he thought, but what could they do about it? He was the Rooster, and he was the master of the morning after all.
(1) There are these rack things where you hang up a card that has a prayer on it.
(2) This is something I just made up- red is a special color in the Chinese culture, though.
So, yeah! That's the new version.
Review please! But please don't flame.