Sasuke Uchiha doesn't wake at the sound of the front door closing, but at the careful movement beside him; arms wrapping around his waist and pulling him closer to the warm, sleepy body next to his. He's still—
not used to this.
Not used to being comfortable, safe and content. He's not used to letting someone in so much, enough that he'd sleep next to them and let them touch him so easily. After Itachi he didn't think he would ever trust someone again. He'd lived his whole life that way and he probably should have expected that if anyone were to change him it would be Naruto Uzumaki.
He slides out of the bed, enjoying the familiar groan his bedmate makes as he slips from his grasp. Naruto doesn't open his eyes, though, which is what usually happens. Sasuke is always awake first; taking in the sunrise, then a shower, and putting on a pot of coffee. Sometimes he makes breakfast. Not—
For Naruto, he's not some pathetic housewife doting on the future 6th Hokage of the Leaf. He makes breakfast for himself and Naruto usually eats some. Its better if Sasuke makes it, because if he doesn't Naruto somehow convinces him to go to Ichiraku for breakfast and all that salt isn't good for them.
He lets Naruto sleep about an hour after he wakes up—most days he would let him sleep longer but he heard Tsunade tell the blond specifically the night before that they were doing some Hokage prep at 10 and he knows Naruto tends to oversleep. He sets out cereal and milk, checking to make sure it hasn't expired, then heads back into the bedroom to wake his—
Naruto.
Because he's just not sure—
What they are, what they're doing, how long they can keep this up, how long everything can be peaceful, how—
It's just, Naruto is all that really makes sense anymore, and he wishes he could just not question it, but he knows something's bound to change sometime. He doesn't want to be caught off-guard.
Naruto has taken up all the room that Sasuke had been taking up earlier, spreading his limbs across the bed in a comical way that Sasuke doesn't find endearing even a little bit.
"Oi, Naruto," he grunts, tapping his fingers against Naruto's bare ribs. "Get up, Dobe."
Naruto rolls over his way, eyes still closed as he smiles in Sasuke's direction.
"Hmmmm Sasukeeeh," he drags the last bit out with a little stretch and twist of his back. "Come back to bed."
Sasuke doesn't reply, just huffs impatiently with Naruto's easy-going nature. He never wants to get out of bed, always trying to convince Sasuke to get back in, just a few more minutes, just to drag it out a little. The first few days—
well—
The first few days they didn't really leave the bed at all. Sasuke barely remembers all of it, just Naruto's skin, and the way his mouth tasted, and how he kept thinking he was too tired to go on but they just couldn't stop.
He edges closer to the bed, trying to be reasonable because Naruto sure isn't.
The blond peeks one bright blue eye open and grins Sasuke's way, sliding closer to the edge of the bed and propping himself up on an elbow.
"C'mon Teme, just a few minutes."
"You have to meet with Tsunade in half an hour and I wanted to go grocery shopping before noon."
"That's plenty of time," Naruto purrs, sitting up a little straighter, eyes bright and deviously wide-awake. Sasuke sighs.
"Naru—" He starts, and then before he can react Naruto has his legs wrapped around his waist and is pulling him down by his shirt collar into a hard kiss. Naruto's got his body flush against Sasuke's in an instant, opening his mouth just enough to tempt Sasuke into—
"You'll be late," he pulls back, just enough to speak against the skin of Naruto's cheek. He's already half-hard and got one hand sneaking up along Naruto's spine. But he's got to try, or Naruto will find a way to blame him for being late.
"I won't," Naruto gasps, trying to pull Sasuke back down to the bed with his whole body, rocking his hips slightly and tasting the edge of Sasuke's cheek with his tongue. He gets a tiny whine to his voice when he's desperate for Sasuke to kiss him, just a little higher pitch than normal and it always sounds like honey, poured all over Sasuke's body, soaking sticky sweet into his skin.
"Yes you will," Sasuke growls, grinning imperceptibly and bending to pin Naruto beneath him on the bed, climbing back in after him the next minute as he kisses the smile daring to break his Dobe's face in half.
"I won't go, it'll be okay. What's the old hag gonna do? Bust down the door?"
"Hn. She would definitely do that."
"What!? It's fine, Sasuke. I mean it. No! Don't—what are you doing? Don't get out of bed now! After how hard it was to get you back in! No! I don't want to get up. You can't make—Sasuke—hey—!"
"I'm going to get food and you need to go get yelled at by Tsunade for being an hour late."
Naruto looks at him, pouting and stupidly adorable, with well-kissed lips and sex-hair and a mark on his collarbone Sasuke only made because he knows Naruto's shirt will cover it.
"I'll just tell her I was in bed with a sexy Uchiha and she'll understand."
Sasuke glares at him and slams the bathroom door closed so that he can take another shower and make sure he doesn't look as well fucked as Naruto does before he goes out in public.
"Do whatever the hell you want, Dobe."
Naruto has gone back to sleep when Sasuke leaves the bathroom dressed once again, and he can't even find it in himself to be mad. Naruto has been exhausted lately. Between Hokage training, keeping up contact with the other villages, and being the most popular person in Konoha, he always crashes into the bed at night like he might sleep forever. And despite that, when Sasuke follows him to bed a while later he's still awake, waiting. Sometimes they make out, or fuck, or Sasuke kisses him soft until he goes to sleep. Other times they just talk, still trying to work out the past, to know each other completely like they never got to before.
It's not the first time Naruto's stayed home but Sasuke would usually stay with him, spend the day until one of them decides its time they faced the world again. Naruto can always tell when Sasuke doesn't really want to go out and socialize, and he always refuses to leave, and Sasuke lets him. He hasn't been having much luck saying no to him lately. Someone is bound to notice they never leave Naruto's apartment at some point.
It was bad enough that he was staying here, but everyone just assumed he didn't want to stay in the destruction of the Uchiha compound, which was—
true, but Naruto was the one who asked him to stay, had practically begged until Sasuke could do nothing but say yes, follow Naruto up to his tiny apartment, and fall into his bed. Apparently he's always had a hard time saying no to Naruto.
So he lets him sleep and heads out the door to get food. Tsunade will surely deal with him later.
The store isn't far from Naruto's apartment, though Naruto acts like it's miles and miles and Ichiraku, which is farther, is just around the corner. But Sasuke should expect that. It's not like everything has changed.
Still, it's a nice little walk to get to the store, down several blocks and past the Yamanaka flower shop, Kakashi's apartment, and through a small park. It's spring and the flowers are blooming. There are a few kids running around the grass, some couples on park benches. Sasuke spots Hinata blushing and holding hands with someone who's blocked by a tree. Something—
makes Sasuke stop. And watch, as Hinata stares towards the ground, frowns like she's sort of bucking up all her courage, and pulls the guy gently out from behind the tree, leaning up just enough to press her lips against his.
It takes Sasuke a minute to process. Like there's just something a little off about the image of Hinata kissing someone, even though there shouldn't be. And then as he's staring and feeling like time is moving slowly, his eyes focus in on little things, like the messy blond of his hair, the tan, whiskered cheeks, bright blue eyes open in surprise, and then its—
it's Naruto.
Hinata is kissing Naruto, who is supposed to be asleep in his bed, who Sasuke just spent the morning with, who—
Sasuke has to close his eyes and teleport away, or he'll do something bad, because the hurt, the feeling like his heart was no longer in his chest—that was only there for a second. Now all he feels is a white-hot rage, and his throat hurts with the desire to roast something someone to a crisp.
Before he knows what he's doing he's on his way home because he has to get away, because he wants Hinata dead and it's not her fault she's just a—
theif! A whore who can kiss Naruto in public, a fat slut, deserves to die for touching his—
What's wrong with him? There's no way Hinata knows about him and Naruto—no one knows about he and Naruto, not like they could know. She can't know what seeing her and Naruto together did to Sasuke. She probably doesn't think she's doing anything wrong. It's Naruto—
he's the one who's going to die.
Naruto is awake when Sasuke walks calmly through the door, sitting at the table with a bowl of cereal in front of him. When he spots Sasuke he grins and lifts the milk container.
"You left it out! It'll go bad like that, you know. Where are the groceries?"
"Naruto—" Sasuke manages to say through his teeth. "Shut up for a second, because I'm trying really hard not to burn you to a crisp right now."
Naruto shuts up, surprising Sasuke, because sometimes he wonders if Naruto knows how to ever shut up.
Sasuke hesitates between the doorway and the table, deciding slowly whether he wants to have the benefit of standing over Naruto as he confronts him, or if having the table separating them will make it more likely that Naruto will be able to get away when he inevitably goes for the kill.
He decides to sit, carefully pulling back the chair and holding his posture tight and tense. Naruto's gaze follows his every move, face anxious. Sasuke can practically see the words bubbling against the inside of his lips, trying to come out.
"I—" he starts, tries, clenches his fists against the table, takes a deep breath in through the nose. He'd thought about what he was going to say in the short way home. He can do this.
"—you're going to be the next Hokage, Naruto. Everyone knows that—including me. I'm not an idiot. I was top of our class."
Naruto smiles a little, but Sasuke glares him back into submission.
"I can't stay with you like this once you're Hokage. I've always known that."
"Sasuke, what—"
"Shut up! Don't talk until I say. I don't have much self-control right now, so let me finish.
"Once they make you Hokage, they'll expect other things from you, like a wife, and kids. You and I both know I can't give you that kind of life. Half of the village still barely tolerates me. If I stayed with you they would—"
He has to stop, because thinking about it hurts more than he'd like to admit. Because having Naruto was one of the best things in his life. It was the center of his world, and Naruto fucking lied—
"Why didn't you just tell me the truth? Dammit, Naruto!" He slams a fist on the table, and Naruto flinches back, guilt already plain on his face and Sasuke hasn't even condemned him yet. He tries for calm again, breathes in through the nose.
"I saw you kiss her," he spits and it was supposed to come out as an accusation but it sounds more like a question.
Naruto can't seem to hold back anymore, and he springs up from the chair, stuck between staying still and trying to defend himself and coming closer to Sasuke, to force his way into Sasuke's space like he always does, like he's always done.
"No, no, no, Sasuke, look—" he swallows as he realizes he's been caught. "It's not like that, I swear! We were just hanging out, you know, and then Sakura just kissed me out of the blue, I didn't even—"
"Sakura?" Sasuke's voice goes up in volume out of his control. And then it clicks. He sits back, staring at Naruto shocked, like he doesn't even know the man across from him, who would go to all this trouble, to lie every day, so convincingly.
"Holy shit," he gasps, too stunned to be mad—yet. "Clones."
His glare darkens on Naruto again, who has realized now that he's made a mistake.
"How many, Naruto? How long?"
Sasuke doesn't even know if it's actually Naruto he's talking to, or a shadow of him. Maybe Hinata has the real Naruto. Or Sakura. Maybe he's been telling them all of the things he's been telling Sasuke, whispering and moaning them against their ears, too.
"Sasuke," Naruto pleads, a desperate edge to his voice now. "It's not like that. You've got to—"
"What? Believe you? How could I ever—"
And then something weird happens. Naruto flinches like he's been hit, then furrows his brow, and before Sasuke can ask what happened Naruto's face pales and he looks like he's seen a ghost. He turns to stare out of the window, like he's dreading something and it's about to fly straight into the apartment through that window. Sasuke looks out after him, and doesn't have to wait long to discover just why Naruto was panicking.
Sakura's voice comes loud and blaring through the air. Sasuke doesn't know how she got her voice so loud, but surely the entire village can hear as she speaks:
"ATTENTION FRIENDS OF NARUTO UZUMAKI! IF YOU HAVE SPENT TIME WITH NARUTO THE PAST FEW WEEKS, YOU HAVE BEEN LIED TO! HE HAS BEEN USING CLONES, SPREADING HIMSELF AROUND TO EVERYONE! IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY WITH NARUTO—DON'T LET HIM ESCAPE! CATCH HIM AND BRING HIM TO TRAINING GROUND THREE. WE'RE GOING TO FIND THE REAL NARUTO SO THAT I CAN KILL HIM!"
Sasuke doesn't hesitate and quickly summons a snake that wraps around Naruto's torso, tightening every time he tries to struggle and get away.
"Oh, come on, Sasuke! You've got to be kidding. Just—let me go and I'll explain everything, I promise, I'll—"
He nods and the snake wraps around Naruto's head and covers his mouth. Sasuke takes them to the training ground.
Sakura, he's sure, will get to the bottom of this.
They're not the first ones to arrive at the training ground. Sakura is already there, obviously, standing over by a clone being screamed at by Tsunade. His Naruto flinches and makes some kind of eye contact with the other Naruto that makes Sasuke rolls his eyes.
"You don't get to make that face, Dobe. You got yourself into this."
Sakura notices them then, just as Shikamaru, Sai, and Hinata appear in the clearing. She makes her way over to them, glaring daggers at Naruto. Shikamaru's got his Naruto in a shadow, Sai has his in an ink trap, and Hinata seems to have taken away the use of his limbs as he's laying on the ground at her feet trying in vain to shout apologies to her. She's angrier than Sasuke's ever seen her, which for Hinata just means slightly less shy than usual.
"You too?" Sakura grunts, glancing to his Naruto. He nods, crossing his arms.
"So which is the real one?" he asks. He doesn't know if he wants to know, really, but he has to.
"Not sure. We're going to find out, though. We'll go through every one of them until we do."
A few more people have shown up, some with their own Naruto clones and others that must have lost theirs or just came to watch the show. He has a feeling that's why Izumo and Kotetsu are there anyway.
A lot of the Naruto clones look different. Some are wearing his usual orange mission outfit and others are in casual clothes. Tsunade's is the only one wearing a headband.
Kiba has a Naruto. Iruka has one too. Konohamaru seems to have let his get away. Why Karin was with one he doesn't even want to know. And Kakashi's—
Is a girl.
"Why the hell does Kakashi have a girl clone of you, Naruto?" Sasuke manages to keep his voice steady as he asks, though just thinking about the possibilities is making him almost gag. She's clothed, thankfully, and has her arms and legs bound by a simple rope. His Naruto's eyes go wide and he starts shaking his head, practically screaming through his snake gag. Sasuke doesn't want to hear it and nods his head to have the snake tighten his hold. His Naruto turns a little blue but Sasuke is pretty sure he can still breathe.
A few others show up. Gai and Lee, Tenten following reluctantly with them. There's an old man Sasuke thinks looks only vaguely familiar hovering over by the edge of the grounds. Yamato appears and tosses a wood-trapped Naruto in with the others. Even the Ichiraku ramen guy, Teuchi, shows up; he doesn't have a Naruto but stands around looking very confused.
That's when Sakura seems to finish talking with Tsunade and speaks up to the crowd she has waiting.
"I think that's probably everyone, but let's check," she grins her scariest grin and grabs the front of Tsunade's Naruto's jacket, lifting him up off the ground and into the air. Sasuke sees him swallow thickly like he thinks he's really going to die.
"Are all your clones here now, Naruto?" she asks sweetly.
"I wouldn't lie, kid," Tsunade growls beside her.
Slowly, Naruto shakes his head no. Something in Sasuke's stomach sort of falls. He was hoping this was it.
"Where are the others?" Sakura demands, "if you can even remember them all!"
"J—just with Bee!" Naruto answers, voice about five octaves too high. "A—and—" he hesitates, glancing over at Sasuke so quickly before glancing away that Sasuke is amazed he even caught it. "And Gaara."
Sasuke's fist clenches at his side. There was another Naruto in Sand all this time and he never knew? His Naruto tries squirming against his restraint again but Sasuke doesn't even bother looking down. There's a pretty good chance Sakura's got the real Naruto in her grasps now anyway, considering that was the Naruto that was supposed to be in Hokage training with Tsunade. Surely the idiot wouldn't be reckless enough to send a clone for that?
"Is the real you here now?" Sakura asks. The Naruto she's interrogating starts nodding vehemently.
"Yeah! Yeah! If you'll just let me go I can explain—"
"No way, Naruto. Believe me, I'll find the real you. I just want to hear the story from all of these clones of yours before I do. Tsunade-shishou, if you'll do the honors?" She holds out the Naruto to her mentor and Tsunade slams her fist straight into his skull. He vanishes in a puff of white smoke.
All the other clones shudder when the impact hits them and Sakura has another one in her grasp before they can even get themselves together. He thinks its Shikamaru's clone, not that it makes a huge difference as Sakura pins him to the ground. Sasuke momentarily remembers why she's so mad at Naruto herself—that she apparently thought she was the only one Naruto was 'seeing' only to be shown it was all a big lie. On one hand he can see where she's coming from, on the other hand he remembers Naruto saying she'd kissed him and he kind of wants her as dead as he'd wanted Hinata. He doesn't know why he's getting so pissed over this idiot who's been lying to him for months, but he just can't—
seem to let it go.
"You actually sent a clone to Hokage training?"
"And strategy training," Shikamaru adds, seemingly bored and unamused by this turn of events. "If that is a clone. Considering that Tsunade's was, it's safe to assume mine was as well."
"I didn't think it would make a difference!" the suspected clone shouts. "I mean, I used my clones for training all the time, why would Hokage training be different? I get all the information when the clone vanishes at the end of the day anyway! And this way I could train with you and Shikamaru at the same time."
"It's irresponsible, Naruto," Tsuande explains, and the Naruto Sakura has pinned mumbles something about "drinking on the job" before Sakura slams him into the ground and he vanishes like the other one.
"Wow," Tsunade blinks. "Someone's a little pissed. What'd he do to you, Sakura?"
"Like you said," Sakura brushes her off, heading right for Hinata's Naruto, "it's irresponsible!"
"Sakura-chan, could I ask him something before you make him vanish?" Hinata asks as gently as ever, though Sasuke can feel the intensity of her chakra—and her sadness. Sakura seems surprised at first but backs off for a moment, breathing heavily.
"Naruto-kun?" Hinata bends down and, with a few careful touches of her fingers he can sit up on his own. He can barely look at her, and even Sasuke's Naruto seems to be staring at the ground guiltily.
"Were you trying to trick me the whole time? To make me think I was the only one?"
"No, Hinata, n—no way!" he answers, shaking his head, glancing at Sakura and then Sasuke before back to sweet, harmless little Hinata. "I—it started out just normal, because you—and Sakura too—you both wanted my attention so badly, and I felt like you both deserved a real answer from me. You know, about, uh, stuff."
"Relationship stuff?" Sakura offers, somewhat softer than before.
Every Naruto clone winces at once.
"Yeah. Relationship stuff. And, see, that was my plan in the beginning! To just come clean and tell you both the truth!"
"But instead you just strung us along for months before finally being forced to tell us!" Sakura shouts. Another wince.
"It turned out to be harder than I thought it would be," he admits. "I just didn't want you guys to be upset."
"I think we would have been okay if you just told the truth from the beginning," Hinata muttered quietly.
"Speak for yourself," Sakura asides.
"You never really liked me that way, did you, Naruto?"
He drops his head.
"I'm sorry, Hinata. And you, too, Sakura."
Sasuke notices that he doesn't get an apology himself. Naruto is still trying to keep them a secret. And it's not that Sasuke doesn't—
understand. It's just that he's hurt in a way he's never been hurt before, and maybe it isn't worse than other hurts he's suffered, but it's definitely different, and it definitely hurts.
"So you aren't the real Naruto?" Hinata asks, still a little bit hopeful, despite being told that she wasn't the one for him. He shakes his head. "I guess you won't mind this, then." Her hand moves so fast Sasuke barely sees it, just sees it connect with the clone's gut, and then a puff of smoke and he's gone. Simultaneously, the other Naruto's wheeze as the impact hits them.
Hinata leaves after that, and Sasuke almost feels bad for her. To think that she had Naruto, after all those years of pining after him, only to find out it was just a trick? Naruto is lucky a punch in the gut is all he got, in Sasuke's opinion. If it were Sakura…
"Okay, which one next?" She announces cheerfully, that mean glint still in her eye, despite his apology.
Konohamaru steps out from the crowd and Sasuke knows he's going to defend Naruto before he even opens his mouth.
"Hey! Don't you think you're being a bit hard on the boss?"
"Excuse me?" Sakura glares. The kid shrinks back just a bit, but remains adamant.
"I—I mean obviously he was busy, you know? He had so much to do he wouldn't have time to do it all. I thought it was cool that he was training me in his spare time and now I know that he'd never have been able to if he wasn't using a clone!"
"He was abusing them! Look how many he had! Are you really telling me you think he needed to be goofing off with Kiba or Lee all day just because he could? Don't you feel like you just weren't worth his full attention? You aren't even a little bit mad about just being another thing he wrote off to some clone because he didn't want to deal with it himself? Like you weren't good enough for the real Naruto?"
Konohamaru takes a shaky step back, stares at the ground.
"I guess once you put it that way…"
Sasuke's Naruto says something against his gag that sounds like a bit of a muffled "traitor," and Sakura turns onto another clone, Lee and Gai's this time.
Sasuke's starting to wonder which one is the real Naruto. Maybe it didn't even matter to Naruto where the real Naruto went? He probably just thought they were all clones. Maybe Kakashi's is the real one, or Iruka's, or even Sai's—
Naruto had better hope Sai's isn't the real one if he ever wants to breathe again.
Sakura makes a dent in the ground when she destroys this clone and it's something of a weight off Sasuke's shoulders, every time another clone is destroyed. Maybe his is the real one—
not that it makes that much of a difference.
She moves on to Iruka's Naruto, who holds his hands up like he's trying to calm her down.
"Hold on now, Sakura. I'm starting to think maybe Konohamaru was on to something. Just give this Naruto a chance, hear what he has to say."
He takes the gag off of his captured Naruto and adds gently, "Tell her what you were doing with me."
The clone seems skeptical, like he's not used to Iruka being so nice to him, then sighs and turns to Sakura.
"I—I was helping Iruka-sensei out at the school. You know there's been more kids than ever lately, and since the main facilities were destroyed with Pein's attack…" he trails off, like he's not sure it's making any difference. Iruka nods along, looking back to the angry girl.
"See, Sakura. He's not abusing all of the clones. His help has been invaluable the past few weeks. The kids all love him."
The old man Sasuke can't place but swears he recognizes steps forward then.
"This young lad," he motions to the Naruto that had been helping Iruka down at the school, "saw me one morning trying to carry all my groceries up the steps on my own and stopped what he was doing, which looked like very important business, and carried the food the whole rest of the way."
That's when Sasuke realizes where he knows the old man from. He lives in his and Naruto's apartment building, one floor down. Sasuke's seen him watering his plants on his back porch in the afternoons. Helping the old guy with his stuff sounds exactly like something Naruto would do.
"Ever since then," the old man continues, "he's been stopping by every day, helping out around the house, fixing little creaks and cracks that I can't get to anymore. I don't know much about him, but I know that he's a fine young man and I've been very grateful for his services."
"I'm not completely sure what this is all about," Teuchi offers suddenly, stepping towards Sakura, Iruka, the old man, and the clone, "but I do know that Naruto has been helping out around the shop lately when he can. Just coming by during busy hours and giving me an extra hand. You know, it's been hard to keep up since Ayame got married and I've been getting older. Even if it was just a—a clone thing, I'm grateful to him."
Iruka takes off the rest of his Naruto's restraints and he goes over to Teuchi and the old man with watery eyes, shakes both of their hands thankfully, then makes the hand sign to disappear, leaving a puff of white smoke like all the others. Teuchi announces that he has to get back to the shop, but he hopes he cleared some things up, and wanders off. The old man hobbles back towards town.
Sakura looks a little lost for a moment, like she isn't sure what she's still doing, and then glances at Kakashi's Naruto and shouts,
"WAIT A MINUTE! Helping out at the school and Ichiraku is all well and good, but you can't look at—whatever this is—and tell me Naruto wasn't going a little far."
"I can explain, Sakura," Kakashi retorts. The girl Naruto in the ropes at his feet tries to wiggle out of them and Sakura just puts a foot down on her back to keep her still.
"I was helping Naruto write some more of those books Jiraiya used to write. He was having a hard time writing from the girls point of view so I told him it might help if he transformed into a girl. Nothing weird going on or anything."
"He still shouldn't have been using a clone! If he wants to write those dirty books he can do it on his own time, not when he's—he's supposed to be training with Lady Tsunade!"
"I think you're just trying to figure out where the real Naruto is so you can see who he decided was good enough to spend time with in person. And to figure out why it wasn't you," Kakashi offers thoughtfully.
"W—well!" Sakura stammers, turning pinker than her hair. "Well who is so important—huh? If it wasn't me or Hinata, and I know it's not Tenten or Ino—Karin?"
The red-head shrugs, leaning against her Naruto clone with a bored look in her eyes.
"We were just going through some old Uzumaki records to see how closely we were related. It was this idiot's idea." She pushes him to the ground and it barely takes that to make him vanish in smoke.
"Sai?" Sakura asks. Sasuke glares more than looks in his direction as he answers.
"I asked Naruto a while ago if I could use him as a muse. He said no at first, that he was too busy, but he just showed up one day. He's a terrible model, can't sit still. But the pictures still turn out alright. I should have known it was a clone a while ago."
"So you didn't try to sleep with him?" it's out of Sasuke's mouth before—
he realizes what's happening, and everyone turns to him, surprised. He hasn't said barely anything since showing up, just content to watch the show, but something about Sai ticks him off, something about the idea of wanting to use Naruto as a muse.
"S—Sasuke!" Sakura gasps, like she can't believe he just asked. The Naruto at his feet struggles feebly against his restraint again, as does the Naruto Sai has trapped in an ink rope. The artist gives him one of those fake smiles and replies,
"I never said that."
Sasuke's whole body fizzles with electricity. The image of Naruto—like he'd seen him just this morning, on his back, out of control with lust—but with Sai instead of himself. He can barely control his chakra at the very idea of it.
"Don't worry, Uchiha. I didn't touch him. He shot me down, same as the girls." He constricts the ink rope tighter until the clone puffs away, proving his point. Kakashi tosses a Kunai at the girl Naruto and she's gone too.
Kiba shrugs and has Akamaru bite his clone, claiming they were just hanging out, and he didn't know Naruto had so many clones out there, not that it mattered. Gai and Lee had just asked him to train with them, not knowing he had other responsibilities. Yamato gets rid of his clone first, telling them Naruto had been helping him rebuild some more of the city. One by one the clones vanish, puffing away back into the last one left—
Sasuke's.
In a puff of white smoke, the snake he'd summoned releases the last Naruto and everyone stares at them, Sakura scowling between the two of them. Most of the others left once their clone was gone, Kakashi and Tsunade were still hanging around, as well as Izumo and Kotetsu, who were clearly just there to watch the show.
"I should have known the real Naruto was with you," Sakura sighs.
"We still don't know it's really him," Sasuke glares at his Naruto, who gives him a sad look, dropping his shoulders.
"Aw, come on, teme. It's me! I tried to tell you earlier. If you'd just let me explain—"
"Explain what?" Sasuke spat, angrier than he meant to be. "That you've been lying for months? You've been in Sand and Cloud and all over the village, with everyone under the sun!"
"No!" Naruto pleads, shaking his head eagerly. "No I haven't! Those were all clones! You just saw, they just told you! I was with you the whole time!"
"Prove it."
Naruto frowns, staring thoughtfully at the ground for a moment, then looks up smiling.
"Hit me! Hit me and I won't dis—" Sasuke hits him before he finishes the sentence, tackles him into the ground and slams his fist across his stupid face.
"Sasuke, no! You'll hurt—" Sakura shouts, and she's one to talk.
"No, i—it's okay, Sakura. I'm alright!" Naruto tells her. He doesn't even have a black eye. Sasuke didn't hit him as hard as he meant to. He just stays glaring at him, sitting on top of him on the ground.
"I thought you were fucking them," he admits, hating how stupid it sounds. Hating how Naruto's face lights up, half apologetic and half happy—happy that Sasuke got so madly jealous over him, Sasuke's sure.
"I wasn't, I promise," he explains. "You saw them, you heard what I said. They just—just got the wrong idea. I didn't let it go too far."
"But what if you had? What if I hadn't found out, would you just go on letting them think you were dating them?"
"No! Why do you think Sakura found out? She tried to kiss me yesterday and I went back today to tell her the truth. A—and I was planning on doing it in person, I swear—" he turns to Sakura, who's looking at the two of them like she's never seen them before. She nods a bit and he turns back to Sasuke, blushing lightly across his cheeks. "—but when you woke me up like that, like—I just couldn't stand the idea of leaving the house. I know I messed up."
Sasuke snorts and rolls his eyes. He stands and helps Naruto back to his feet.
"I tried to be okay with it," Sasuke mutters softly; he's hoping the others won't hear. "When I saw you with Hinata I thought that was for the best, because you're going to be Hokage and I'm not—I can't—"
"I don't care what anyone says," Naruto shakes his head, leaning into Sasuke's space like he does when they're alone, safe in Naruto's apartment away from the world. "I just want to be with you, teme."
"Naruto!" Sakura exclaims, and they both turn her way. No getting around it now, they know the truth. "Y—You and Sasuke are…"
"Now you know why I couldn't be with you, Sakura. I'd been trying to tell you for so long. You just… didn't want to hear it. Granny?" He turns to Tsunade, who's looking at the two of them with shrewd, unreadable eyes. Her eyes focus in on Naruto and her gaze softens. Sasuke knows Naruto is her weakness—hell, he's everyone's weakness.
"I should have known about you and this Uchiha kid," she begins. "Really, I should have known years ago, shouldn't I?" She looks down and mutters something like 'that pervert probably knew,' then looks up smiling.
"This doesn't change anything, kid. You're still gonna be in charge of this village in a few years. Trust me, I don't think you're the first Hokage to have the same… tastes. If anything this whole thing just proved you can manage your time well." She laughs, and Sasuke glances over to see Naruto's grin spreading across his face because maybe he made it out of this one alive after all.
"Don't think about giving me a clone to train again, though! It's unprofessional. I don't care if you've got a sexy Uchiha waiting for you at home, you've got to make this Hokage training your first priority, got it?"
"G—got it," Naruto answers, blushing so much that even Sasuke can feel the heat.
Tsunade turns on her heel and heads back towards the village, leaving Naruto and Sasuke alone in the training grounds—even Sakura seems to have vanished, though Sasuke is sure he and Naruto haven't heard the end of it from her. Naruto stands painfully still beside him like he's still afraid Sasuke's going to amaterasu him to ashes. Sasuke hasn't ruled it out.
"You need to get rid of the clones in Sand and Cloud," he says, not allowing Naruto to speak first and get the upper hand, try to convince him otherwise.
"I—I know," Naruto gulps. "I have to explain things to Bee and Gaara, but they'll be gone by the end of the night. I swear, Sasuke."
Sasuke turns to him and glares.
"Something happened with Gaara, didn't it? Like Sakura and Hinata…and Sai? Don't lie, Dobe."
The idiot avoids his gaze, stares down at the ground shamefully. He at least seems remorseful. Maybe this whole thing taught him a lesson after all. He nods and Sasuke huffs out an angry breath, looking towards the ground himself.
"It wasn't a big deal," Naruto tells him in a small voice. "He just confessed. I turned him down and he dropped it. I didn't think—"
"That's because you don't think, Naruto!" He has this strange mixture inside him of relief and anger because Naruto really can be so stupid sometimes, without even realizing it. "You don't realize how people look at you."
"At me?" Naruto squeaks, wide-eyed and gaping. "Come on, Teme. Don't be an asshole. You know the only one people can't stop staring at is you. It's always been like that!"
"I'm not the one who had four confessions in two months, and—"
Wait. Is that why—
"Is that why you've been keeping me in the apartment all day?"
"WHA—no! No, don't joke! That's the stupidest thing I've ever—"
"Maybe you weren't doing it on purpose," Sasuke feels a small grin creeping across his face. Naruto won't catch his eye, "but you were. You were trying to keep me at home so no one would stare at me when we went out. You were jealous."
Naruto makes a dejected sound, crossing his arms and pouting.
"I wasn't the one who almost chidori'd Sai today because he said he tried something with me."
'That's because no one touches what's mine," Sasuke replies, and it comes out more of a growl than he means it to—
but then again maybe it comes out just the way he means it to, because the shiver than crawls its way up Naruto's spine and the flush that peeks it's way across his cheeks is exactly what he wanted to see. Naruto blinks at him, flustered as usual, then grins and they head back to the apartment.
They're undressing before they even make it to the bedroom, bumping against the doorframe, the bedside table, the windowsill, kicking off shoes and loose articles of clothing without breaking skin contact. He drags his lips across Naruto's, earning a low moan. Naruto's hands snake their way underneath his shirt, clumsily trying to pull it over his head. As soon as it gets tossed to the side Naruto presses in for another kiss, mouthing unspoken words against Sasuke's tongue, fingers tracing the lines of Sasuke's stomach.
"Hnn, Naruto," Sasuke mutters into Naruto's mouth, taking a half-step back and leaning their foreheads together to show Naruto he's serious. "I mean it, no more clones."
Naruto just grabs at his hips and tries to push them back together, biting Sasuke's bottom lip and sucking in that way that always drives Sasuke crazy. Sasuke places his hands on top of Naruto's, stills him enough to get his attention, panting against his cheek.
"I'm serious, dobe. Are you listening?"
"No more clones, I know, you said—" he whimpers when Sasuke holds tighter to his hands and grinds down his hips, pushing Naruto until they're against the edge of the bed.
"I'll know if you're lying," He growls, kissing Naruto filthy and messy, bringing his hands up to hold Naruto's neck, the back of his head, to keep them steady as he presses in and licks into the corner of Naruto's mouth. Naruto bites back at his tongue, just a little nip, and Sasuke grins, tilting his head to get a better angle. He notices Naruto's hands doing something behind his back but ignores it in favor of the moan that he elicits when he slides his hands into the rim of Naruto's underwear.
He's caught completely by surprise when he feels the body slot itself behind him, nudging bulging boxers against his ass and slipping an extra pair of hands down past the line of his pelvis, teasing the inside of his thighs.
He might have panicked in surprise if it wasn't obviously Naruto—another Naruto—and if he hadn't felt the Naruto pinned beneath him grin broadly when he started at the initial feeling of someone behind him. He starts to growl Naruto's name threateningly, but Naruto beats him to it.
"Are you sure you don't want any more clones?" he asks, pressing his lips slow and soft against Sasuke's as the other Naruto presses his lips against the line of his throat, running dull teeth along his skin. The clone gently pinches one of his nipples and a shiver runs through Sasuke's entire body.
"Sasuke?" the clone asks, lips mouthing at the lobe of his ear, blond hair tickling his cheek. He shouldn't—
want it so badly. Or like the idea so much. Or arch his back to press his ass against the clone's hardness.
"Sasuke?" the real Naruto repeats nervously, lifting himself up on his elbows.
Sasuke can't help it. He leans down and chastely kisses his stupid, clone-happy—
Naruto. Growls lowly, eyes lust-blown and lips red and swollen,
"Just this once."
Sasuke tastes Naruto's teeth when he kisses his smile, pulling back enough, bumping into the clone behind him, so the original can climb up onto the bed. Sasuke starts to follow him but he's stilled by Naruto's voice and the clone's hands folding across his chest.
"Wait!" the original Naruto holds a hand out to him, blushing furiously. Sasuke looks from the clone's hands holding across his chest up to the Naruto sitting on the bed and raises an eyebrow.
"I—I wanna watch," he murmurs sheepishly. Sasuke's cock twitches and the clone's hands pinch at his nipples, grinding his cock against the ridges of Sasuke's ass. He's still wearing his boxers, the front tented and a wet spot blooming where the head of his cock is straining against the fabric. One of the clones hands move downward as the other one moves up, lightly tracing a line up his neck. The hands nudge against his lips and into the elastic of his boxers clumsily. It doesn't matter how much they do this, whether Sasuke takes the lead or Naruto—the blond always acts like it's his first time, touches just the right kind of rough, comes too quickly, is so eager he could be 16 again—
Sasuke hopes he never changes.
The other Naruto slides the boxers over his cock, lets them drop to his ankles. He's breathing loud in Sasuke's ear, rutting just gently enough against Sasuke's ass, skin separated by the fabric of the boxers he's still wearing.
Naruto doesn't know how to tease, not on purpose anyway. It's always Sasuke who'll have Naruto begging, sobbing and ripping the sheets with his teeth, making him wait and wait and wait until he can come. When Naruto teases it's an accident, like the soft touch of his fingertips against the inside of his thighs, the feeling of his breath on the back of Sasuke's neck, the way he hesitates and swallows before wrapping his hand around Sasuke's cock and stroking. Sasuke lets out a low moan; feels the clone's fingers at the edge of his lips. He lets his tongue slide over them and the hand around his dick tightens, then relaxes again, stroking him slow and steady. His tongue wets the fingers again and they slide further into his mouth.
"Shit, Sasuke, " the original Naruto moans from the bed, and Sasuke looks over to him, cock jolting at the image of Naruto with his hand wrapped around his cock, stroking himself to the image of Sasuke and the clone. Sasuke's chest feels like it's on fire, his heart beating so fast. The clone swipes his thumb against the top of his dick and its wet with precome. He moves his hips, twisting them a little against the clone's erection, trying to get more friction.
The Naruto clone groans against the skin of Sasuke's back, between his shoulder blades, juts his hips forward, hard. Hard enough to knock Sasuke off-balance and send him stumbling forward. The clone catches him before he falls into the bed, apologizing repeatedly.
"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry Sasuke, I got c—carried away. Sorry!"
"Hn," Sasuke smirks, enjoying the feeling of the clone's hands holding his hips steady. "Don't worry about it, dobe."
He turns his head enough to kiss the second Naruto open-mouthed and dirty, reaching one had up to wind his fingers in the short blond hair.
"Heeeyyy," the Naruto on the bed whines. "Don't kiss him!"
"Don't be jealous of your own clone, idiot," he replies, smirking and taking a step towards the bed, a look in his eyes that makes Naruto quiet and swallow thickly. He climbs up on the bed, over Naruto's body, quickly sliding his underwear off his feet and pulling down Naruto's at the same time. He arches his back and pins Naruto's body beneath his, shooting a quick glance back at the clone, still standing feet from the bed. He turns back to the original right away but catches the clone's rapid movement from the corner of his eye. He feels him climb onto the bed and kneel behind him.
Sasuke doesn't waste time; he moves back a little, just so he's in the right position to lick a long line up Naruto's cock, carefully spreading Naruto's legs as the blond throws his head back and gasps at the feeling of Sasuke's mouth around his cock. The clone wastes no time either, reaching to the end of the bed where they keep the oil and spreading it on his fingers and along his cock.
(Naruto had been so embarrassed when he first proposed the idea, blushing up to his ears and holding the bottle like it might explode.
"F—for convenience," he stuttered, and Sasuke—
nearly tackled him to the bed, almost dropping the oil if not for shinobi reflexes. He'd made sure to use plenty of it that night, because Naruto had gone to all the trouble of thinking of it, and he loved the way Naruto's body looked slick and covered in shiny oil.)
Sasuke arches his back and the clone inhales sharply. Sasuke can feel him moving, wrinkling the sheets as he crawls closer, tentatively spreading Sasuke cheeks, leaving oily smears on his skin.
"You always act like it's our first time," Sasuke teases, dragging his teeth against Naruto's shaft. The original is falling apart underneath him, mewling jumbled words of nothing as Sasuke teases, just barely takes him into his mouth, sucks just lightly enough that when he pulls away Naruto arches up off the bed, chasing his mouth.
"I can never get enough," the clone answers, pressing oil-slick fingers against his hole and chaste kisses along his spine at the same time. "Sometimes it doesn't feel real," he admits in a breathy hush. Sasuke—
knows what he means but stays quiet, ignores the flutter in his chest and the heat in his face.
The clone slides two fingers easily past the ring of muscle and Sasuke stills. When he slowly, carefully moves the two fingers deeper, twisting them and scissoring them in and out Sasuke tilts his head and bites at the skin of Naruto's inner thigh. He makes himself concentrate, sucking on the fragile skin until a mark blooms, nudges his nose against Naruto's thigh as the clone sinks a third finger inside him. He hides his face against Naruto's skin, more pleasant then shoving it into the sheets or biting hard on the pillow or his hand—what he usually does to keep is voice in. The moans always manage to escape anyway.
"Why do you always do that?" the original Naruto asks him, looking at him fondly. Sasuke flushes for forgetting that he'd been trying to suck Naruto off before the clone's fingers distracted him.
"Do what?" he asks, shifting his position as Naruto does too, sliding his body lower so they're more or less face to face.
"Muffle your voice," Naruto answers, pouting. "You never let it out, I'm always the one who's—"
"Shut up, dobe," Sasuke smirks, kissing him desperately to distract him, and to distract himself as the clone presses the three fingers in deep and rubs his dick along Sasuke's thighs. He's got his other hand firm on Sasuke's waist, trapping him if he'd had any intention of getting away. The real Naruto reaches down between their bodies, jerking them together, clumsy and fast, his own need painfully obvious in the desperate flick of his tongue inside Sasuke's lips. He pulls back and groans in unison with the clone,
"I wanna be inside you, Sasuke."
"So do it," he huffs out, voice a kind of high and needy that he hates.
It took him forever to bottom for Naruto. He still loves to top, to make Naruto fall apart as he sinks his cock in the blond's ass, fucks him slow and slow and slow until he can barely stand it anymore and then hard and fast until they come almost at the same time. But he loves the way Naruto tops him, trying so hard to be gentle, but too eager and impatient to follow through. He'd resisted bottoming for so long, even though inside he knew he wanted to try it. He was too proud, to anxious that maybe he'd like it too much, that Naruto would be too good at it and he'd never be able to top again. He didn't want Naruto to get tired of him, to think of him as some girl he got to fuck whenever he wanted. But—
the first time he'd bottomed he rode Naruto, who was lying on his back, and the whole time Naruto had stared up at him with this stupid smile on his face, like Sasuke was a dream, like it wasn't even real. It was the only time Sasuke ever came first.
Naruto still looks at him like that, even now as the clone slides the fingers out and Sasuke gasps, stars in front of his eyes, Naruto's eyes crinkle closed as his face splits into a breathtaking smile. He feels the clone grab tight to his hips, scoot forward to line his cock up to Sasuke's hole. Sasuke can feel it pulsing, aching for Naruto to sink inside and stir him up. He shifts his legs to spread them wider almost on instinct.
"Shit," Naruto pants into Sasuke's mouth.
"Fuck," the clone agrees in an equally breathy huff, nudging the tip of his dick against Sasuke's hole. Sasuke jerks back just a bit, hiding his face in the crease of Naruto's throat and shoulder.
The clone pushes inside with the same tentative carefulness as always. No matter how much Sasuke demands Naruto not to do it so slow, not to drag it out because he can take it, he's not a girl, he—
just hates how much he can feel it, in his very core can feel every inch of Naruto as he pushes in. He wishes Naruto would just fuck him—hard and rough and careless because then he wouldn't have to feel how careful Naruto is with him, how much tenderness Naruto shows with the soft slide of his hands along Sasuke's back and the gentle nudge of his hips forward. Sasuke always knows how much Naruto is holding back, can tell by the way he holds his breath and the way he whispers Sasuke's name like a prayer.
"Sasuke."
The clone settles inside, just rocking his hips in and out the smallest bit , sending jolts of lust to his stomach. The real Naruto wraps one arm around his back, hugging him close, letting his fingers trace along Sasuke's spine, breathing heavy in his ear. His other hand finds Sasuke's cock, stroking it just along the base, not nearly good enough, not nearly the right place, squeezing just a little too tight, on purpose, and Sasuke hates him, he hates him, he—
loves him. Loves that he's so tender and gentle when he has no real reason to be. He loves that Naruto just knows somehow that gentle is what he needs, even if it might not be what he wants.
The clone pulls out almost all the way and pushes in deep. Sasuke arches his back up, eyes flying open, and he spots the mark he'd left on Naruto's collarbone earlier that morning, how he'd only made it because he knew no one would see it, and now they know, somehow the word will travel and they'll all know that Naruto belongs to him.
He tries to focus, to distract himself from the rhythm of the clone's thrusts. He makes another mark, higher, right in plain sight on the side of Naruto's throat. He can feel the rumble of Naruto's moan as he sucks, feels Naruto shift his hips up, rubbing their cocks together like he just can't stop himself. And then—
"Ha—ahnn!" the sound escapes him like lightning, out of nowhere, because the clone found his prostate, hit it dead on without warning and Sasuke saw white.
The clone's voice feels like thunder against his back as he leans over Sasuke, crowding him down onto the bed and on top of the original, changing his angle and just going deeper, picking up speed but keeping the same even pattern to his thrusts.
"Feel so good, 'suke," he groans like he's been punched in the gut.
He keeps thrusting, jerky movements that betray the clone's lack of control, tell Sasuke how close he is, just on the edge. And he's almost there, too, can feel pressure in his balls, the base of his stomach. It threatens to overwhelm him every time Naruto hits that spot.
"Don't come," the real Naruto tells him, gripping the base of his cock, holding him as the clone rattles his whole body. "Don't come yet."
Sasuke barely hears him, the clone's shuddering gasp is so loud in his ears. He stills, feels sticky liquid wetting his thighs and he can't—
even be mad because he'd wanted it, wanted to feel Naruto all over him and he loves it in the stupidest most masochistic way when Naruto comes inside him. He hates it later but he loves when he first feels it. The same way he loves it when he comes inside Naruto, loves it even when Naruto makes him help wash in the shower afterwards and sulks like it's the worst thing in the world, but shivers as soon as Sasuke opens him up again.
And then just like that, a gasp and a puff of smoke and he's empty. It's so sudden it knocks him off balance, buckling his knees so Naruto has to holds him steady.
"What are you—" he tries to say but can't finish because Naruto flips him over quicker than he can believe, shifts Sasuke's legs and positions himself at Sasuke's open hole. The real Naruto looks down at him with the kind of eyes that make Sasuke wonder how much animal is in Naruto after all this time with the beasts. He starts speaking just as he presses his stone-hard cock inside and it's a wonder Sasuke can even tell what he's saying.
"I'm sorry I lied," he grunts, sinking in deep, almost just grazing that spot. He speeds up almost right away, and Sasuke lets him in, already slicked and open from the clone. It only hurts a little at first, because Naruto is beyond being careful and gentle, but it's a good kind of hurt, it grounds Sasuke just enough that he can try and stay in control, try not to come right away, to listen to Naruto as he tries to talk and fuck at the same time.
"I'm sorry about the clones," he leans a little more over Sasuke with every thrust, inching in closer and closer, like drawn forward by a magnet. "And Hinata, and Sakura, and letting them kiss me."
"Dobe—" Sasuke tries to growl; it comes out more like a whine.
"I didn't like it. It wasn't right," he's barely speaking, just gasping the words as best he can, thrusts manic and wild and everything Sasuke wants, driving him close and close and close to the edge, hitting that spot at random, sending shocks up his spine. He reaches for his cock, just wants to stroke it a few times and he'll come, he'll be sane, he'll be able to breathe again.
"No," Naruto tells him, batting his hands away. "Just c—come like this." He groans, slowing to a brief pause, gathering himself, chest heaving with the effort of not coming. "Don't wanna kiss anybody but you."
He thrusts again, careful, like he's just testing the waters, seeing if he can manage it. Sasuke arches his back off the bed, calls Naruto's name through clenched teeth. His hands have the sheets held so tight it should hurt. He thrusts again, and again, and again and—
Sasuke comes.
It shoots all over his chest and feels like it's over too soon, like it was a hundred years of pleasure in 4 seconds and Sasuke was wrong—he still can't breathe.
Naruto rides through it, chanting curses and Sasuke's name in time to the thrust of his hips. He's coming too, before Sasuke realizes it, filling him up the same way the clone had, cock pulsing hot and wet inside him.
"Love you," Sasuke thinks he hears just before Naruto falls like a lump on top of him, pulling out and curling his legs in what's left of the sheets. Sasuke—
smiles, and wraps the idiot in his arms as exhaustion overcomes him like a gust of wind.
Sasuke wakes to scruffy blond hair tickling under his chin. Naruto's head is laying at an odd angle on his chest, mouth open and drool falling from the corner. He rolls his eyes.
He's getting used to this—
but still not used to the gross, sticky feeling between his cheeks and ache in his ass. He wants to be mad about it, but there's something about it, and about Naruto's body curled around his that's making it impossible to be mad about much of anything.
He shifts his legs, trying to get more comfortable and Naruto frowns sleepily, shuffling closer and groaning awake.
"Wha time izzit?" he slurs against Sasuke's shoulder.
Sasuke glances outside at the sun and estimates.
"Almost noon. Tsunade is going to be looking for you."
Naruto's answering groan is long and drawn out, rumbling through his chest and into Sasuke's. His dobe is such a drama queen sometimes.
Naruto peeks up at him, blue eyes bright and more awake than Naruto would want him to believe. He grins and it's playful and dangerous and makes Sasuke's heart pound. He knows what Naruto's going to say before he even says it, and what's worse?
He already knows he's going to say yes.
"Do you wanna stay in today, Sasuke?"
END