Sky blue eyes regard Sasuke as he sat, contemplating his next course of action. Clear, lively eyes taking in the slowly growing pile of paperwork on Sasuke's desk before blinking shut.
"Well I'm bored," Naruto heaves a great sigh, making his overgrown bangs flutter high. The blond does it again, seemingly amused, childishly distracted.
Sasuke feels the corner of his lips twitch, "Then find something to do."
There are numerous amounts of books and scrolls on the bookcases arranged artfully against the office's walls. Each one carefully chosen for their unobtrusive, neutral content. Sasuke had selected each one a couple of hours after Naruto passed out, tired from the Sharingan's tampering. He knew that Naruto would, at least, rib him for the too bare office and how so much like Sasuke.
Something to occupy his time while Sasuke thought of explanations and plans. Contingencies and what needs to be altered.
But Naruto has always been kinetic energy bundled in flesh and blood.
"Everything here is boring," The tanned boy pouts, despite not laying a finger on any of the materials around him. Languidly stretches with an arm on his abdomen and his face tilted to endlessly stare at Sasuke's form. The sunlight beaming from the window above Naruto casts a serene glow about him, amplifying the content, yet restlessness his shifting signified. He sunbathes not unlike a relaxing cat, happy to twist and curl on the blanket covered floor as he bluntly watched.
There is no question in the unwavering gaze. No inkling of why, what, where, and how in the other teen's statement. Where are we? Why am I stuck in this room. What are you doing? How did I get here?
Just blank, straightforward statement.
"Staring at you is kinda getting boring," A hand raises to stifle a wide yawn, unused chakra spiking with the action and quiets, a soft humming buzz. A constant presence of power untapped. Leaking and wasting away.
Sasuke's irritated frown is met with a cheeky, chesire grin. His dismissal with a long, drawn out, frustrated huff.
"Sasuke," Naruto whines in that particular way that grates every nerve in Sasuke's ears. So high pitch and annoying, Sasuke crushes the brush between his fingers with a loud snap that echoes in their silent room, dark eyes flashing to glare at the blinding smile in front of him.
It is the first full day of Naruto and already Sasuke wants to strangle him.
Sasuke continues his work with as much gusto as he can muster. It involves reading lines upon lines of negotiations, small villages groveling and asking for as much help as mercy. The larger villages, much stronger, either dispassionately ignore the upheaval that's rocked the shinobi-based social structure or, in Konoha's case, beg in clemency.
Frankly, all of it bores Sasuke to sleep. He used to doze once in a while, when the scrolls were extra dull and the Kyuubi doubly silent, cowed and trapped in Sharingan swirls. He used to spend moments lost in thought, of dropping everything for the slow burn of legs strained in travel and the wide open sky. Of delegating someone to handle such brain numbing paperwork.
But no one is fit for the role. No one bent enough under his will to govern right.
However, now there're pronounced shuffling every couple of minutes. Disgruntled mumbling and sweet, upbeat whistles that make him twitch and growl and pay attention to everything around him. Down to the minute details, like Naruto scratching at his whiskered cheeks as his head bobs in a tune only he hears and the out of place concentration Naruto aims at the window as a songbird drifts too close with it's lilting call.
Sasuke lops a finished, closed scroll at the distracted blond. The arc, on point, hits vertically with a dull thump before opening to slap Naruto in the face and shoulders.
"Teme!" Naruto splutters, crinkling the paper as he gathered them back in place. He doesn't look at the contents within before hurling the object back, straight for Sasuke's face.
Which Sasuke dodges easily. With a small tilt of his head and a large smirk on his lips.
Again, the scroll unfurls. Makes a mess that Sasuke attributes to Naruto's mischief.
Pale fingers reach for another scroll as bronze reach for a book.
It takes Sasuke an hour to remember to care.
The rest of the day passes uneventfully, Naruto lazily lounging and dreaming the day away while Sasuke plows through the ever growing stack of paperwork, making a sizeable dent before a tentative knocks interrupt the sense of just being.
"Enter," Sasuke scrubs at his tired eyes and sits up straighter, the familiarity of Naruto lulling him back to horrible posture of younger days.
A civilian girl enters, hesitant smile flitting on and off her face. She is vaguely attractive, her face fair in the same way Sasuke acknowledges Karin's face was when she restrained herself. Her brown hair sways as chocolate eyes look at everything but Sasuke until it rests on the other teen in the room, furrows confusion.
Naruto gives her a friendly, innocently blinding smile that sets Sasuke's teeth on edge.
"Ah...Sa-Sasuke-sama, dinner will be ready..." Her eyes never leave the blond, "W-will you and..." Sasuke glares at her, "um, will you be joining us?"
In their minimal activity, both he and Naruto seems to have forgotten lunch. The shifting of bright noonday light to the warm shades of dusk unnoticed.
Naruto's cheeks flush as he scratches the back of his head.
"Bring it here," Sasuke watches, notices the reassuring vibes Naruto shoots her way and how much it boosts her confidence.
Her dark eyes finally moves Sasuke's way, not quite meeting his eyes, but still, "Would-"
"Yes." He cuts her off, neither explains nor gives her a name.
Her face registers surprise, head bowing to both him and Naruto, "Very well." She closes the door softly, the quiet she leaves behind is pressing and claustrophobic.
Naruto snorts, "So rude."
"Shut up," Sasuke breathes, clicks his tongue at the toothy look Naruto adopts.
"Whatever you say, Sasuke-sama." Naruto sticks out his tongue, like the immature twelve year old in their shared memory, before perusing one of the previously ignored bookcases. The blond chooses the brightest, most flashy binding, yelling an 'aha' before he plops back on the floor to read the drivel he'd chosen.
Sasuke tilts his head down, long black fringes obscuring the genuine smile gracing his face.
Some things never change
For their first meal together, dinner is oddly an uneventful affair. The girl, her name still unknown, wheels the meal inside with only a furtive glances at both of them. She sets the bowls and plates down the table, now void of clutter, as Naruto makes appreciative noises. Blue eyes sparkling in joy.
A healthy mix of protein and vegetables for Sasuke. A steaming serving of ramen for Naruto.
Sasuke vaguely remembers her face behind a busy counter, standing beside a portly man.
She leaves with an 'please enjoy' and a bow.
Naruto waves at her, his mouth stuffed and cheeks puffing. Kicks Sasuke's shin when he just glares her out the door.
"Manners, man," Drops of broth splash Sasuke in the face.
Ignoring the blond's lack of manners himself, Sasuke openly stares at the blond with a neutral expression in place, "Do you know her?"
"Um, no?" A perturbed frown settles on Naruto's face, "I mean, I don't think so?"
The curious tilt of Naruto's head, the pout on his ramen wet lips, and the squiggle of eyebrows in concentration is disgustingly endearing. His puffed out cheeks and creased up face makes him look like a rat caught in between eating.
"Maybe?" Blond eyebrows dip lower.
Sasuke bites the piece of fish on his chopsticks with more force than necessary. "Doesn't matter."
They eat in silence, or as much silence as Naruto's appreciative slurps allows. Sasuke remembers her name, Ayame, and the fondness Naruto used to speak to her as they sat in the ramen stand, waiting for their orders.
That Naruto couldn't recognize her and Sasuke could is a little concerning. His manipulations shouldn't have affected such a tedious detail.
"She is pretty cute."
Sasuke scowls at the embarrassed, boyish shyness that Naruto's face adopts. Noticing it sends a shock of heat on his face other than what can't be and flings a wilted piece of leek squarely between the blond's eyebrows.
"Oi! Sasuke that's gross!"
The rest of the day passes by in the same companionable pattern, except Naruto shows more curiosity toward the books resting in the bookcases, occasionally reading passages to Sasuke's distracted ears.
Once in a while the blond pauses, alarmingly deep in thought, hardly moving and breathing. Face scrunched, perturbed at something he can't understand and Sasuke has to explain to fill in the soundless void the blond's thinking leaves.
But sometimes Sasuke himself prompts those bronze lips to open, to share thoughts just as much as they share space. When his mind doubts and skin prickles, as the room falls into the quiet flipping of papers and scratching of his writing.
Because Naruto is too considerate.
Sasuke breathes relief, draws it into himself like a blanket when Naruto blooms under his interest, sometimes passionately pointing out a sentence, a picture as he perches on Sasuke's desk, unheeding of the forgotten paperwork inches from his position.
Relief smells like ramen and overflowing chakra untainted by the fox, teases Sasuke's nose with familiarity and assurance. Just enough that he inhales, lets Naruto linger in his space even though nothing productive is being done.
Once, and only once, their eyesight meet, hanging on a precipice of an unknown that prompts an unfamiliar blush on Naruto's cheeks and a familiar burn in the center of Sasuke's chest.
And Sasuke wonders what emotion Naruto feels, what memory had been forged to answer which need.
But nothing happens, not when his fingers are glued to pen and paper, fear nipping at his heart and guilt gnawing at his mind, while Naruto never strays from Sasuke's simple wish.
To exist, unobtrusively, by his side.
Night closes in on them after an uneventful dinner, full of light banter and furtive glances. Naruto at the open window, commenting of the twinkling stars, while Sasuke stares on, watching the dark spread across brilliant sky blues but by no means over run it.
He leads Naruto to the bathroom with minimal teasing. The tanned boy unblinkingly accepting clothing not unlike what Sasuke is wearing, proudly emblazoned with the Uchiha clan emblem.
Although he knows there are rooms available, can vacate a room close to the one he's chosen to be his own to give to Naruto, Sasuke tosses the thought aside. Returns to their room without a backward glance while Naruto's footsteps obediently trails after him. Muted but following.
Neither of them bring up their odd sleeping arrangement. Of the sparse room and shared bed clearly meant for two.
Not the way body heat is shared between them, under the single blanket. Close enough that the space between them crackles. Pleasant but unnerving.
Not the way Sasuke's fingers drift enough in half wakefulness to touch skin, comforting in warmth and weight.
Or the way Naruto welcomes his arms' confinement when Sasuke's dreams slide to nightmares full of dripping liquids and horrified screams.
No questions, no protests. Just blind acceptance.
Binding. Incriminating.
And they wake with Naruto goofily, freely yawning and Sasuke feeling all the weight building heavier and heavier as his pale drawn mouth tilts into a smile. All to trigger an innocent mirror, to send pearly whites and blue orbs shining.
It sinks deep in his gut, the burden, but elation chases it down, makes it easier to swallow. Like a poisonous pill coated in joyful sugar.
A drug of his making.
For two weeks they follow this cycle, soothing normalcy.
Supposed normalcy.
But he sees the wandering eyes. Lighting up every time a new person opens the door. Yearningly looking at the scenery past the window. Wandering hands glancing against the weapons Sasuke keeps within his arm's reach.
The words sealed behind complacency.
Leaves him waiting for the pin to drop, for Naruto's explosive nature to take charge.
Stones upon stones.
Building up with every chance Naruto doesn't take to question. To create tension, friction in this lull that their relationship has never been.
So much need to hurt, bend, and take. Force a reaction. The urge to ram the blond to the nearest surface, to make him bruise and bleed that red dark passion, is so strong it burns with every conversation that does and doesn't happen.
He has just one outlet. One course of action that would release the pent up frustration.
A necessary summon. Born of need he can't address. Not now, perhaps not ever.
Sending one former teammate away, to amuse himself in the bedroom with a taijutsu scroll, as he calls for the other.
Sakura looks surprised, her green eyes inquisitive and only mildly colored in suspicion. She enters the room with confidence, eyeing the closed bedroom door and the person that quietly stays within.
With a gesture, he communicates his need, peeling back his shirt with dispassionate purpose.
Never turning his body away, his eyes rooted on her as she approaches.
"This is the second time," Sakura nervously titters, "that we're on a table." She blushes at the indecency of it, the carnal act of sex once again less traditional. But she capitulates, undresses like a flower blooming in spring, wide open for him to pluck.
And he falls within her embrace, without a word or smile. His mind's eyes seeing gold and bronze and the never ending sky.
Guilt upon guilt piles higher and higher.
Observing Naruto's repetitive motions, his agreement to everything Sasuke says. The endless smiles
Sakura comes and goes with a grin on her face, too happy to be part of Sasuke's life, but never words for Naruto. Because Sasuke has never given her permission.
Awkward silence overtaking them all whenever green meets blue as Sasuke tests their loyalty. But she is too elated and he too horribly clueless. Naruto always silently looking on. Unaware of her name and what Sasuke hasn't told him.
He needs a reprieve away from Naruto's naive gaze.
Sasuke tries to calm his mind as his mouth opens one day, to introduce Sakura to the hapless blond. Still the trepidation hammering in his chest as Naruto beams at the prospect of training now that Sasuke's introducedsomeone else.
Someone from the outside of their confining room.
Separate from Sasuke.
To show Naruto the other parts of their fortress
The warning flashes in his eyes, Sasuke wordlessly ordering Sakura to stick to his explanation.
That she is a stranger, a medic nin whom Sasuke met during his personal training. A test of her devotion as much as Naruto's mind.
Would the blond remember someone he held so dear? After listening to her lilting voice, the yearning in her gaze as they're finally, finally allowed to interact.
But no inkling of recognition lights up Naruto's eyes. Nothing but pure curiosity buzzes from him. Elation spewing from his mouth, firing mundane questions at Sakura. That and just that.
And there is something like disappointment mingling with relief flooding Sasuke's heart.
Momentarily.
Until it is swept away by the happiness the two exude as they stride away from him.
Hours upon hours of silence falling like a blanket on Sasuke's senses should be comforting.
But it isn't.
Time to focus and plot without distractions, floats away with his erratic thoughts.
But he gets even less done than ever. One scroll, one correspondence of a mountain.
All because he wonders and worries. Thinks too much of what they could be saying. Doing. Away from his control.
He almost gives in, throw the useless pen from his hand to prowl. Make sure Sakura keeps her mouth shut.
And he's halfway risen, displeasure at the uncertainty writhing in his chest, when the door bursts open.
"Guess what, guess what?" Naruto skips into the room, slamming the door open with so much force it rebounds and closes. Their sanctuary once more.
An eyebrow rises, in question and fake annoyance.
Naruto blows a raspberry, playfully glowing. "Sakura's teaching me medical ninjutsu!"
"You mean trying." Sasuke frowns at the thought, though the tease escapes.
"Ha ha, very funny." Naruto bounds forward, around the desk to sit comfortably on it, right by Sasuke's side. "She says I'm doing great." His legs swing childishly unperturbed. "Maybe I'll be better than you."
Sasuke snorts, winning a smile and a gentle nudge at his side. And the air around them moves, alive with the energy Naruto always brings.
"It's really fun." The blond beams, nosy as he looks at the paperwork strewn all over the desk. "Better than your boring ass papers."
Sasuke gathers the mess away from prying eyes. Piles them neatly to the side. "You're too simple for them."
A good-humored kick to the side in response. "And your other friends are cool too."
The air stills.
He doesn't control team Taka, not in the way he can Sakura. They seek nothing from him, the way Sakura covets.
In complacency he'd forgotten, foolishly forgotten the precarious nature of their reality.
"What did they say?" Sasuke pins the blond hard with a glare, his presence a menacing wall of misdirected aggression. Almost growling in panic.
A head tilt. Empty. "Nothing much. Just stuff about the outside."
"What did they say." He repeats, teeth grinding, body tense. So many details they could reveal, unraveling this world he'd created.
Alarmed, Naruto's fingers grasp at Sasuke's arm, trying to soothe what he doesn't understand.
Too gentle. The contact burns. Sickening.
"Sasuke?"
He's sick of this.
Charade.
Dread. Always nipping at his heel.
"What the hell," A curtain of black separates him from Naruto's ill-placed concern. Too kind. "Do you want from me."
He speaks to the specter with Naruto's face, but not his actions. And it takes his drawn words, tightened shoulders as an invitation. To comfort him the way other boy does in bed.
Sasuke bolts up, knocking Naruto back with a thud so easily as if they both weren't high class nin.
It fuels his anger, feeds it timber as he lunges forward. His nose almost touching Naruto's, body brushing against the other teen stiffly bent on the table, fingers digging into Naruto's shoulders. The slight familiarity of their positions digs deep in Sasuke's gut and ignites the need, the urge he's fought tooth and nail to keep at bay.
And something catches when Sasuke's grip tightens on Naruto's arm. A frown without an ounce of friendliness glints in the vast blue.
A flash of anger darkening the sky.
I fell into itanaru hell. IM so sorry. working on my other fics slowly as I recover the muses. Xd
