SasuNaru, yaoi, m-preg, OOC, OCs and unbeta-read

Naruto belongs to you-know-who

Chapter 26: You're not alone

He took a moment to observe the village from the Hokage tower, looking at it as lights glowed in the darkness like a sea of fire while the noises of celebration echoed in every streets of Konoha.

Being the hokage, he had made an appearance in every event of this celebration giving speeches, congratulating the winners as he handed out prizes, drinking alcohol beverages together with male villagers who used to hate him; spending few minutes talking with ladies who used to sneer at him and playing with kids who was too young to grasp the meaning of this celebration.

But even then he felt like an outsider while the villagers remembered how their loved ones lived instead of how they perished in the night when the Kyuubi attacked and how the demon was defeated by the Yondaime. In a way he was an outsider. How could he truly celebrate the defeat of a demon who had been kind to him than most of the villagers were even during his younger days? Where were they when he needed compassion and acceptance? Where were they during his birthdays? What did they do when…

Naruto stopped himself from brooding further and went home. He knew it would be lonely without his husband and his friends at home celebrating his birthday because he, out of masochistic whim, had scheduled all of them for the night shift of patrolling and attending to the needs of all the jovial celebrants. But at least this morning, his friends had dropped by at their house or office to greet him; Sasuke brought him breakfast in their bed and Yuuzuki gave him a bouquet of pretty flowers.

On his way, he smiled and thanked the villagers who greeted him a happy birthday and watched as they resumed partying. He ignored others, who in their drunken state, were shouting profanities at him and even just evaded the items being thrown at his direction. Naruto understood them and knew they were drunk so he tolerated all of them coolly as long as they won't do something stupid like attacking him.

The moment he walked into the genkan, he jumped in surprise as he heard voices greeting him a happy birthday in unison. Before he could turn on the lights, they all started singing a birthday song while Temari walked towards him, carrying a cake with the lights of the little candles flickering in the darkness. Swallowing back the lump of tears in his throat he blew the candles and then the lights were turned on.

"Did you make a wish?" Yukina immediately asked. Naruto looked at the girl who had the gentle disposition of his step-father, Iruka and smiled sheepishly. "I forgot." And his honest reply made all the kids present groan and the adults laughed. Honestly, Naruto didn't forget, instead of making a wish he decided to say a quick thank you prayer for his fortune.

He looked at all of his friends, "Thanks guys." Then he looked at them frowning, "Why are you here? What happened to your shift?"

All of them had the gull to look sheepish.

"Cut the crap, Naruto," Sakura scolded, "No need to worry. We have few people filling our shifts but if you feel like it, we are ready to accept any reasonable punishment."

"I'm sure you do. I'll hand out your punishment tomorrow" he said solemnly but the twinkle of his eyes said otherwise.

-SasuNaru is love –

He looked at his left side when he saw movement from the corner of his eye. He smiled when he realized it was Sasuke, joining him at the house's rooftop but the latter was bringing a bottle of wine and something else.

"Hi," Naruto greeted.

"Hiya back," Sasuke answered back as he settled beside the blonde.

Both of them looked at the beautiful heavenly scene the night painted for anyone who bothered to watch. They savored the silence that hang in the air after the loud party they had few hours ago.

A flicker of light coming from one of Sasuke's hands made Naruto take his gaze from the stars. He smiled as he saw the same cupcake that he had bought for Sasuke's birthday while they were on mission to the Hidden Rock village many years ago, on his spouse's hands. If celebrating Kyuubi's defeat had become a tradition to villagers, celebrating each other's birthday with a cupcake twice with its usual size was their very own tradition. However, it wasn't just a cupcake from any other store, but from the same store from the same village located between Konoha and Rock village.

And when Naruto blew the single candle, the two then started eating. The blonde grabbed for the bottle of wine and slightly frowned when he noticed something.

"You didn't bring glasses," he pointed out.

Sasuke chuckled, "I did that on purpose. Let's just drink from it directly."

Naruto blushed because to drink from the same bottle was an indirect kiss and anybody knew that. He also knew that tThere was no reason for him to blush, much less feel shy because they had done this before countless of times even shared torrid kisses and did each other too frequently that would be put even rabbits to shame. Anyway, the point was that he suddenly became shy and all because of the full moon hanging on the inky sky and the poignancy of the situation.

An amused Sasuke quirked an eyebrow while looking at the healthy blush gracing on his dobe's face. He opened the bottle, raised it in a silent toast before drinking it. He then leaned back on his elbows and gave a challenging look to Naruto.

"Dobe, it's not like we haven't done this before so why the blush?"

Seeing the look, Naruto grabbed the bottle and drink from it. He then regarded his spouse smugly.

"You're just too cute for your own good," Sasuke said but instead of kissing Naruto which the latter expected him to do, the dark-haired ninja lay down on the cold tiles of the roof and stared at the sky. Naruto followed suit and with their gazes towards the heavens, their hands silently moved as they shyly seek each other. When their hands met, they pressed it together – palm against palm. The blonde then let his fingers spread and Sasuke let his fingers fill the gaps between Naruto's just as the former returned the favor.

It didn't bother them that such simple gesture was usually done by couples who had just started dating because to them it just felt right and wonderful. And like that, the two spend a silent but romantic night together.

TBC

I decided to give Yukina (Kakashi and Iruka's adopted daughter) another appearance.

Next chapter summary: He was not a man who was forgotten by his lover nor a princess from a romantic fairy tale, Naruto knew that as he stood at the balcony, hoping...