The Morning After
Disclaimer: The sad fact of life is that I do not own Naruto.
Summary: On the way back from Wave, Sasuke and Naruto are acting a little odd. (Slash)
Chapter 1
Uchiha Sasuke awoke, slightly bleary eyed, and with the worst headache he could remember. While he waited for his eyes to adjust to the light streaming in from the window all he could think about was what kind of idiot let two thirteen-year-olds drink so much. Sure by being shinobi they were legally recognized as adults but it was the principal of the matter.
Rolling over he came face to face with his antithesis. Naruto was snoring away his head propped up on his ridiculous orange jacket and drool was dripping out of the idiot's mouth. Feeling like sharing his misery Sasuke proceeded to shove Naruto out of the bed and on to the flood. The blond landed with a loud thump and a scream of indignation.
"What the hell is your problem, Teme?" Naruto shouted.
"Time to wake up." Sasuke said with a smirk. Pissing off the blond was actually helping his headache.
"What kind of asshole wakes people up by shoving them out of bed?"
"You're too loud, and you snore."
"Do not." Naruto replied.
Sasuke was going to reply when the door opened and their sensei strolled in giving his usual greeting of 'Yo'.
"Pack quickly." He told them. "We leave right after breakfast." He didn't wait for a reply before turning around and heading back out the door. Kakashi paused just as he was walking through the door, "Did you two have fun last night?" he asked and quickly made his retreat.
"What does he mean by that?" Naruto asked while trying to think about what happened. "What did we do last night?"
"How the hell should I know, Dead Last. I was just as drunk as you."
With that both boys went about packing their belongings. Naruto started shoving half a dozen shuriken into each pocket after which he started rolling up his bedroll. Sasuke finished drinking his canteen of water and ran off to fill both of his canteens up with water whilst muttering about how stupid blonds couldn't have the decency to have a hangover.
When he got back to the room and started folding up his jacket he was surprised to find two large manila envelopes fall out. Picking them up off the floor he turned them over noting that one had his name and the other Naruto's.
"Oi Dobe, this is yours." He said as he tossed one of the envelopes across the room. When he opened his own and read what was inside his brain shut down.
SasuNaruSasuNaruSasuNaru
Naruto tried to catch the flying envelope only to trip over his shoes and face plant onto the floor arms stretched out in front of him. The resulting thud caused Sasuke to snort. Naruto hated klutz-ing out in front of the asshole. How was he supposed to be Konoha's greatest ninja if he tripped over his own shoes?
Grabbing the envelope, he looked at it trying to figure out where it had come from. After opening it he sincerely wished he had burned in on sight. Never had a piece of paper caused him such fear. His brain was going a hundred miles a minute and he felt like he couldn't breathe. He was desperately trying to piece together everything that had happened last night.
'Kami, Kami, Kami' Naruto was in a panic. Yesterday the bridge was finished and they had just gone out to celebrate, this wasn't supposed to happen. The guys were drinking and singing. Sasuke was drinking and brooding. All in all, a great time was being had. He vaguely remembers something about Elvis. There was singing and rhinestones and pelvic thrusts and a big blank space where memories were supposed to be.
"Oyaji is going to kill me." Naruto muttered as he looked down at the paper in his hand. "Worse Iruka-sansei is going to lecture me."
Sasuke hadn't said anything. He just sat there with a stoic, slightly queasy, look on his face as he gently rolled the offending document and placed it in his pack. Naruto took his cue from Sasuke and did the same, and none too soon seeing as Sakura-chan came cheerfully bursting into the room just as he was finishing sealing his bag.
"Sasuke-kun," Sakura cooed. "Breakfast is ready." Sasuke spared one last look at Naruto before following Sakura from the bedroom and heading towards the dining room. For once Naruto didn't want to eat.
SasuNaruSasuNaruSasuNaru
The walk back to Konoha was hypothetically supposed to be less stressful than the trip to Wave. They were stronger now and didn't have to escort anyone who had a hit out on them. However, it was proving to be even more stressful.
Sakura knew something was wrong. Not wrong in the sense that someone was trying to kill them. No one was following them. The weather was nice; a gentle breeze was keeping her cool. All in all, it should have been a nice trip so far. However, it had been six hours since anyone had spoken and it was driving her crazy.
Sasuke was normally quiet, and Kakashi-sensei was engrossed in his book, but Naruto was never quiet. And not once in six hours had he complained about walking, or being hungry. He hadn't begged for ramen, nor tried to flirt with her. He hadn't even tried to goad Sasuke, which she was sure was his favorite pastime. Naruto being quiet was breaking all the rules of the universe.
Everyone was just silently walking and she had never wanted to stab something or someone more in her life.
"That's it, I can't take this any longer." She screeched as she abruptly turned around facing the two boys lazily walking behind her. "What the hell is wrong with you two?" She demanded.
"Nothing." They said simultaneously.
Kakashi had stopped walking at this point to observe his oddly acting students. He lowered his book and raised his one visible eyebrow, and smirked at his very awkward and uncomfortable students.
"That's a lie." She shouted back. She saw them both briefly glance at each other before both boys took a flying leap in opposite directions landing in trees on opposite sides of the path. Both Sasuke and Naruto proceeded to bound effortlessly from tree to tree continuing on their journey.
"You're both impossible." She shouted after them while she started running too keep up.
SasuNaruSasuNaruSasuNaru
Kakashi noticed that it didn't take long for his rambunctious students to calm down and go back to that awkward silence. Personally Kakashi was enjoying watching his students trouble. With Sasuke and Naruto doing everything in their power to ignore the others existence and Sakura silently and sometimes not so silently fuming at the boys. It was amusing.
The silence continued on for the rest of the day. Setting up camp that night had been an illustration of efficiency. The boys quickly set up their tents and decided on watch. Sakura was too annoyed and too tired to argue.
The next day was a lot like the first all awkward silences. Kakashi did notice though that Naruto and Sasuke were at least not completely ignoring the other. It was interesting to watch as they kept glancing at the other when the other wasn't looking.
Kakashi thought back to last night when the two boys came stumbling in slightly drunk after the construction workers took them out to a bar. He watched the two boys share a brief but awkward kiss before passing out. He figured that after a little awkwardness the two boys would forget about it and be back to being friend/rivals in no time.
He knew that this mess would eventually sort itself out he just needed to keep Sakura out of it. He could see she wanted nothing more than to help but her interference would only hinder the uncomfortable situation that the boys found themselves in.
"Yo," Kakashi greeted his pink haired genin. "I've got a new training exercise for you." He told her as he reached into his bag and pulled out a small yellow book and tossed it to her.
"I'm not learning to read your porn, Kakashi-sensei."
"Give me a little credit. It's a book about chakra. It basic and boring and for beginners, but that is not the point. We are still working on chakra control. You are going to learn to read and walk at the same time."
"What does that have to do with chakra control?" She asked, relieved that the book wasn't one of his dirty novels.
"You have to be able to read and still be aware of your surroundings at all times. You need to keep a low trickle of chakra out in front of you at all times. Constantly sensing the terrain for obstacles so that you do not trip and fall flat on your face."
"Oh." She responded. "How do I do that?" she asked.
"It is in the book I just handed you." He said nonchalantly "You best start reading now while the path is wide and clear so that when the forest gets thicker you don't walk into a tree." With that Kakashi jumped a few feet ahead leaving the girl to her own devices. When he looked over his shoulder he was pleased to see her stumbling around trying to read and walk.
The sun was getting low in the sky when Kakashi dropped his pack next to a log and looked out over the small clearing.
"We'll stop here for the night." He told the group. He reaching into the left pocket on the side of his pack and pulled out a small green book. He tossed it to Sasuke who caught it with a questioning look on his face. "You and Naruto need to talk. You didn't want to talk while Sakura and I were around, fine, you have your privacy. I expect two rabbits and enough firewood for the night when you get back." He told them.
"What's with the book?" Sasuke asked.
"Pick up some edible greens while you're out. The book is so you don't accidently poison us."
Sasuke felt his eye twitch as he nodded affirmatively. Sasuke looked at Naruto and they both headed off into the woods.
SasuNaruSasuNaruSasuNaru
Sasuke walked silently through the forest his hands firmly embedded in his pockets. He never knew what to do with his hands when he was nervous so he would jam them in his pockets to avoid looking like a fool who twiddled his thumbs. Naruto on the other hand had no qualms about that, Sasuke observed. He watched the blond idiot twiddling his thumbs over and over again. He also watched the blond opening and closing his mouth seemingly trying to start the very uncomfortable conversation he knew they were about to have. He knew they needed to have. Still he absolutely refused to be the first one to talk.
Finally, Naruto couldn't take it anymore.
"So are we gonna talk or what?" The hyperactive blond shinobi asked.
"I don't know what to say." Sasuke admitted albeit reluctantly. His hands were still wedged inside his pockets and he was looking anywhere but at the orange clad boy next to him.
"We got married." Naruto stated. Sasuke could tell by the strange face Naruto made that the words had felt odd spewing from his mouth.
"I know." Sasuke sighed.
"We're thirteen." Naruto interjected.
"I know."
"We're married at thirteen."
"I know."
"What are we going to do?" Naruto asked.
"I don't know." Sasuke admitted. And he really didn't this was not the plan. He was supposed to kill his brother, avenging his clan, and settle down with some stupid kinochi who wouldn't mind staying home raising his children and restarting his clan. It certainly did not include being married to his male teammate as a teenager.
Over the past couple of days, he thought about annulment or divorce, but both of those ideas had one huge problem. The town would find out and even worse the council. He knew that showing how immature he was by acting rash was going to be just the thing they needed to gain control of his life. They had been itching at him ever since he gained control at graduation. As a legal adult he had the right to his own affairs, and that included sealing up his family district and turning down any and all arranged married offers.
So the last thing he needed was this situation getting out and ruin all his hard work in proving he was responsible enough to handle his own family affairs and investments.
SasuNaruSasuNaruSasuNaru
Sakura looked worriedly towards the forest where Sasuke and Naruto had wondered off to talk about whatever it was that they had been avoiding. She had just finished setting up the tents and was working on placing the rocks to make a fire circle when she stopped and turned to her sensei.
"Um, Kakashi-sensei, what do you think they are talking about." She asked
"Don't worry about it." Kakashi replied not even lifting his head from his book.
"But what if it's serious." She tried hard but couldn't keep the worry from her voice.
"Let them try to work it out first. If it is still a problem, then we can intervene." Her sensei assured her.
"Okay I guess. Do you know what the problem is though? You don't have to tell me."
"Yes, I know, they should be fine. It's nothing terrible just slightly embarrassing. Which is why they don't want us to know. So don't bug them about it."
"Yes Kakashi-sensei." Inwardly she was both glad that it was nothing serious and angry that Naruto had done something to embarrass her Sasuke-kun.
SasuNaruSasuNaruSasuNaru
Naruto stood crouch atop of a fallen tree looking like a frog on a log. He looked up at Sasuke who was leaning haphazardly on one of the branches.
"So just friends." He stated to Sasuke. They had been going in conversational circles for the past twenty minutes just trying to get their minds around everything.
"Hn." Sasuke it seemed was done talking.
"Friends who are rivals and fight all the time."
"Hn."
"Friends who fight and happen to be married."
"Hn."
"I can live with that." Naruto broke out into one of his trademark giant smiles happy that things weren't going to change. He never had any friends before and was glad that this wasn't going to ruin everything.
"Hey Teme, bet I can catch a rabbit faster than you." Naruto challenged the brooding monosyllabic boy.
"Not on your life Dobe."
End
AN 1: I have an idea for a continuation for this
AN 2: I was reading an NCIS fic where Gibbs and DiNozzo got drunk and married and thought what if Sasuke and Naruto did that. After that initial thought my brain would not shut up until this fic popped out.
The NCIS fic is called Burning Love by Rose Malmaison I recommend it.
