"Sorry there isn't more I can do to help," Karin says, tossing Sasuke back the scroll he'd brought for her to her to examine, "Whatever language that's in, I certainly have no way of deciphering it."
"Hn," Sasuke grunts, pocketing it. So much for that lead then.
"You haven't taken it to Konoha yet, have you?" she asks, rolling her chair back toward her desk, "Their cryptologists have been making some strides with Ootsutsuki linguistics from what I hear."
Gritting his teeth, Sasuke glances away. He avoids visiting the village if he can help it, even after all this time.
Sasuke is thirty-two years old, and he's tired.
No matter how accustomed he's become to it, perpetual travel is exhausting— on the mind and body. Years spent chasing the legend of Kaguya have yielded little in the way of results thus far, but he's the only one capable of even that. Following impossible hint after elusive clue to all corners of the continent— and all they have learned is because of the time and effort Sasuke himself has put into this mission. It wouldn't do to quit now. Not when for the first time, he's close. He can feel a breakthrough— the missing link between Kaguya's kind and Earth— just out of reach. He'd tracked down her shine— now he just needed a way to unlock the secrets he'd uncovered there.
"… Maybe I'll send it with a hawk," he sighs, knowing even as he says it, it isn't an option.
He'd encountered not one but two of Kaguya's kind at the temple. There was no way to justify not delivering such information in person. Even after all this time.
Naruto… Naruto won't say a word about Sasuke's extended absence, as always. And it's that lack of concern that cuts the deepest, honestly. Every year that goes by without a single request for Sasuke to even visit and Sasuke feels a part of himself wither, just a little bit. He feels the urge constantly— no matter where he is, he always knows the exact direction Konoha is in, it's constant presence in the back of his mind. But he stays away. Because for all the hurt, it's still so much easier than the alternative.
Still… a hawk would be easier.
Karin does nothing but raise a single, bright brow, expression clearly conveying her judgment on the matter. She thinks Sasuke's being a baby about the whole thing, as always.
"Are you staying the night this time?" she asks, choosing to let it go, "It's already pretty late you know."
"… I should head out," Sasuke admits, even though the prospect of sleeping an actual bed for once is a tempting one.
"Aw, c'mon," Suigetsu drawls from where he's been skulking in the corner of Karin's lab during the whole exchange, "It's been forever since you've bothered to visit. Don't you miss us even a little bit, Sasuke-chan?"
"I have a lot of work to do," Sasuke reminds him sternly.
"Work you can't do until that hawk gets back, right?" Suigetsu points out with a knowing grin, "On top of that— Juugo's making venison sukiyaki tonight. He just brought back fresh meat from his visit to that little village of his and everything."
"Don't be an ass, Sui," Karin huffs, "It isn't just some little village and you know it."
"Ah, right," Suigetsu notes with a wink, "Sasuke hasn't heard that bit of gossip yet, has he?"
"… What gossip?" Sasuke grudgingly takes the bait— they're lucky Juugo's his favorite.
"Come to dinner and maybe you'll find out," Karin hums, turning back to her computer in obvious dismissal.
His friends were a bunch of jerks.
Though to be fair, Sasuke thinks as Juugo ladles out careful portions of stew for each other them, at least one of those jerks is an objectively fantastic cook.
"What's this news I hear you have then," Sasuke asks as he picks up his chopsticks, knowing Juugo isn't the type to bring such a thing up himself.
Juugo offers a rare, faint smile at that, "It seems I've found my soulmate."
He lifts up the hem of his shirt, exposing the small, yellow hand print emblazoned over his ribs, bisecting what is obviously a fresh scar.
"Oh," Karin leans forward, inspecting the mark for herself, "A lightning user, huh?"
"Maybe in another life," Juugo says as he drops his shirt to take his seat, "She's a medical ninja."
"… A lightning user?" Sasuke asks with a quirked brow, unsure how she could know something like that just from looking at Juugo's mark.
Any answer he might have received is lost, when the outpost's final resident enters the kitchen, and all eyes turn toward him.
Orochimaru only pauses for a moment under their collective stares.
"Sasuke-kun," he smiles in that sibilant way of his, "To what do we owe this pleasant surprise, hm?"
"I had business with Karin," Sasuke tells him brusquely— the years had done little to dim his dislike for the man, but his continued association with the former Team Taka unfortunately renders their occasional interaction a necessity.
"I suppose it would be too much to hope you would bother your closest allies with a social call of all things," Orochimaru sighs dramatically, taking one of the open seats at the long table, "Is that stew I smell?"
Suigetsu rolls his eyes as Juugo graciously rises to prepare an additional bowl.
"Cut the crap— we all know we aren't Sasuke-chan's closest allies anymore. He's got the Hokage for that, doesn't he?"
Sasuke scowls at him, "Shut up."
"Now, now, Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru chuckles, putting Sasuke immediately on edge out of sheer habit alone, "No one here is begrudging your partnership with Naruto-kun. We are all aware of what a… powerful connection you two share. Far be it from us to come between such a unique bond."
"Bond," Suigetsu snorts, "You make him sound like Sasuke's soulmate or something."
Clenching his jaw, Sasuke chooses to focus on his meal rather than this pathetic excuse for conversation.
"Soulmate bonds can indeed be a potent influence," Orochimaru says, oddly sage, "But more important are the bonds we chose to foster, whether it be with our soulmates or… anyone else. Isn't that right, Sasuke-kun?"
Sasuke can't help but meet the man's gaze, curious. The last time he'd spoken with the man about soulmate matters, his former master had not been nearly so generous with his words.
"Oh, don't look at me like that," Orochimaru grins as if reading Sasuke's mind— a terrible habit of his that makes Sasuke regret quite a bit about his past decision to associate with this man, "It isn't as if you have a monopoly on changes of heart."
"… So you've reconsidered you own bond then?" Sasuke asks, pointedly— hoping the jab will have the desired effect of shutting the conversation down.
When both Karin's and Suigetsu's eyes pop out of their skulls he knows any hope of dropping the subject is a lost cause.
"You have a soulmate," Suigetsu hisses, casting Orochimaru a gobsmacked look.
"Had, would be the more appropriate term, I'm afraid," Orochimaru hums, surprisingly wistful for how Sasuke is used to hearing him talk, "He passed, quite some time ago now."
"When did this happen?" Karin asks softly— sometimes Sasuke forgets that they've had much more time than he has, to reassemble their complicated relationships with the man.
"… As I said, it has been quite a while. And I wasn't exactly broken up over it, at the time," Orochimaru says as Juugo sets a bowl in front of him, "It's only in my advanced age I find myself… nostalgic, I suppose. For other possibilities."
Sasuke choses to remain silent, quietly marveling at the changes time has wrought upon the man he'd once despised so thoroughly. He can't imagine Orochimaru ever expressing something resembling contrition before.
"It's not as if I am immune to having regrets," Orochimaru says, obviously picking up on Sasuke's unspoken disbelief, "Time has a way of, hmm… rearranging our priorities. Wouldn't you agree?"
"… Ah," Sasuke admits hollowly.
"But you're all still young," Orochimaru continues, tucking away whatever fleeting vulnerability he's exposed to them before their eyes, as if it had never been there at all, "And if you're as smart as you think you are, you'll avoid the mistakes of your old, beloved master, hm?"
Even as the evening's discussion moves on to lighter topics, Sasuke thinks about Orochimaru's words for a long, long time.
Sasuke practically throws himself through the inter-dimensional portal, once the last of his allies have cleared the event horizon. He's honestly shocked he had the chakra to sustain the thing at all, after everything that'd happened in the last few hours.
As much as Sasuke is still indisputably one of the strongest shinobi on the planet, portals between dimensions were a dangerous drain on his chakra reserves. And he hadn't exactly been conservative with them, during their desperate battle against that wretch Momoshiki.
… As much as he hated to admit it, it was easy to get carried away, when he and Naruto were fighting side by side for once.
Regardless, he can feel his left eye throb, as he releases the jutsu. Knowing without having to check that he will have to lay off using the Rinnegan's abilities for the time being, in order to recover.
Which means he'll be stuck in the village for a little while longer, to his dismay. There was too much risk on the road, to leave without the full complement of skills at his disposal.
That news in mind, he wearily takes in his comrades, scattered across the roof of Hokage Tower where he'd deposited them. The Kage he spares little thought for, even as Kurotsuchi and Choujurou drop to their knees dramatically, moaning and groaning about the whole ordeal. Instead, his eyes are, as always, drawn to Naruto. Where he's crouching before Boruto, running hands over his son in an obvious inspection for any hidden injuries.
"What were you thinking?" he hears Naruto murmur, "A fight like that isn't a place for a punk who couldn't even pass his Chuunin Exam without cheating, y'know."
"What would you have done if I wasn't there, huh?" Boruto grumbles, "I totally saved your asses, y'know."
"… Language," Naruto huffs, though Sasuke can make out the hint of a smile, playing around his mouth as he stifles a humored snort of his own—
As if Naruto hadn't been spouting off twice as worse when he was half his son's age.
"And that isn't the point and you know it," Naruto continues.
"… Yeah," Boruto says, at least looking marginally contrite, even as he casts a furtive glance in Sasuke's direction, "But it was Sasuke-sensei's idea."
"Believe me, Sasuke-sensei and I will be talking about that," Naruto says, with a distinct edge as he follows Boruto's gaze.
Sasuke meets his eye unflinchingly. It had been the right call, even if it'd been somewhat of a desperate one.
Naruto… had very nearly died today. The reality— the emotional gutpunch— of that is still sinking in. Adding immeasurable weight to the lead already settling into Sasuke's tired bones.
"Well, what do ya'll think?" Darui addresses their cohort at large, cutting off anything Naruto might have followed up with, "I vote we debrief in the morning. I'm tired enough that my cramps have cramps."
"Someone will need to deal with him," Gaara reminds them all, jerking his head toward where Katasuke and his little cameraman are all but cowering against the rooftop's railing.
Nodding, Naruto rises to his feet— no longer a father, but the leader of his village and ostensibly the Five Nation Alliance itself, "Let me handle that. Everyone else get some rest, y'know."
Sasuke sighs— it figures even after being kidnapped, having half his chakra siphoned off, and fighting what basically amounted to a chakra god, Naruto would still insist on player the martyr.
Naruto had nearly died today, and here he was— shoving aside his own needs to make room for others, once again.
No one else dares complain though, obviously wiped out from the battle themselves. Only the Kazekage sends Naruto a brief, concerned glance before even he follows his compatriots down the Tower stairs toward the political guest lodgings a few floors below.
"… Sasuke," Naruto calls out, once they've departed, "Take Boruto home would you?"
"Hey!" Boruto puffs up indignantly, looking so much like a younger image of his father, Sasuke's breath catches, "I can take myself home, y'know! I don't need a babysitter."
"… Who said anything about babysitting?" Naruto grins wryly, "What if I need you to look out for him, huh? He just hauled everyone across space-time twice, y'know. What if he keels over in the street, huh?"
"Sasuke-sensei isn't you," Boruto sneers, but there's little heat to it, "He'd obviously sit down before passing out and bashing his head open."
"I have never done that," Naruto practically squawks, looking outrageously betrayed for someone who has almost certainly done that.
"You have almost certainly done that," a new voice interjects, as Shikamaru emerges from the stairway, "Just last week, if I remember right— you troublesome nitwit."
"Shikamaru— you said you wouldn't tell anyone about that!"
"Tough shit, idiot," Shikamaru fires back, "I'll take the kid home. You and Sasuke can handle…" he casts a put upon look toward Katasuke and his assistant, "Whatever this is. Do I even want to know?"
"Probably not," Sasuke admits as Naruto says, "I don't need help," a perfect mirror of his son's indignant attitude.
"Well, you're getting it anyway," Shikamaru says, giving Sasuke a look, "Right, Uchiha?"
"… Sure," Sasuke says, despite wanting nothing more than to collapse and sleep for the next ten to twenty hours.
And just like that, Boruto is whisked away by the man, leaving Sasuke and Naruto alone, but for the two buffoons who'd nearly cost them all their lives.
Naruto forms a familiar seal with his hands—
"Don't, usuratonkachi," Sasuke snaps before any clones can pop into existence, "The last thing I need is to have to schlep your sorry ass to the hospital when you keel over from chakra exhaustion."
He can practically hear Naruto gritting his teeth, "… Look who you're talking to. I'm fine."
Sasuke sighs feelingly, giving in to the urge to rub his temple tiredly, "All we have to do is hand them over to the Tower's ANBU. Don't make this a bigger deal than it needs to be, idiot."
Naruto watches him steadily for a moment before his shoulders slump, the exhaustion Sasuke had expected washing over his features at long last, "… Yeah, alright."
Naruto had nearly died today.
Still, he somehow has the energy to pick the foolish scientist up by his collar, slinging the man over his shoulder before they march him and the cameraman into the tower and the waiting hands of the plethora of ANBU littering the premises.
"You're lucky I'm too tired to deal with you tonight," Naruto tells the man, prying the scientific ninja tool off the man's wrist as one of the agents binds his hands behind his back with a stretch of ninja wire, "Tomorrow though— you're in some deep shit, Katasuke. Don't think I've forgotten who must have given Boruto that fuckin' thing in the first place, y'know."
Katasuke looks like he might protest for a moment before Naruto's steely gaze shuts him down, "… Of course, Hokage-sama."
Once they're gone, Sasuke isn't surprised when Naruto outright sags against the nearest wall.
"Shit, I could just sleep here," he says, "What a horrible day, huh?"
"… Ah," Sasuke agrees, feeling his own exhaustion weighing him down more and more by the minute, "Any of those guest rooms open?"
"… No," Naruto frowns, as if in thought, "Gaara and Choujurou are already bunked up. We don't normally get this many dignitaries all at once."
"… What about your quarters?" Sasuke asks, desperate avoid a trek all the way to Sakura's before having the chance to finally succumb to the bone deep tiredness already pulling at his eyelids.
Naruto's smile pulls at the edges of his tired eyes, "Just invite yourself over, why don't you."
Sasuke snorts, but ignores the lighthearted jab. As if Naruto could refuse him after Sasuke had singlehandedly— no pun intended— orchestrated his successful rescue.
With Naruto very obviously still relying on the wall for support, Sasuke shuffles over to haul Naruto's bandage wrapped arm over his shoulder.
"Tell me where we're headed, dobe."
Sasuke doesn't even remember finally collapsing into a bed, once Naruto'd directed them through the Tower and into the Hokage's private residence. Barely taking the time to shuck his outer layer of clothes before falling into blissfully dreamless sleep.
Sasuke doesn't even remember the residence only has one bed until the next morning, waking with the dawn as it's blinding light slips through the curtains neither of them had remembered to close the night before.
Sasuke remembers that detail very quickly, however— grudgingly prying his eyes open to the sight Naruto's slumbering face, mouth hanging open, mid-snore. A thin trail of drool dribbles from his mouth onto the plush pillow beneath his head. Sprawled with familiar haphazardness over more than half the bed they'd had no choice but to share.
It should be disgusting. It is disgusting. This close, he can smell the rank of Naruto's morning breath and the stale sweat battle. Despite the assault to his olfactory senses, Sasuke doesn't move a muscle.
It's been years since he and Naruto were this close, outside the thick of a fight. As much as he's grown used to the yawning distance gathering between them, every cell in Sasuke's body rebels against it. He doesn't think he could pull away, even if he wanted to. Content to simply exist in Naruto's unconscious proximity for the moment, before life inevitably pulls them apart again.
On top of that, he's still exhausted. If they'd managed to sleep more than a couple hours at this point, Sasuke would be shocked. Instead, he hauls himself out of bed for the brief minute to takes to pull the shutters closed before falling back into bed. Curled on his side directly opposite the curve of Naruto's body, slumbering away obliviously.
Unable to keep his eyes open another moment longer, sleep pulls Sasuke under once again. The last thing he sees being Naruto's face— relaxed and free of tension for the first time in recent memory.
The next time Sasuke wakes, its because someone is holding his hand.
He blinks awake, groggy and disoriented. Unused to any sort of physical contact— let alone the casual, familiar touch of hands on his.
Naruto's gaze snaps up to his face from where he'd been looking down at Sasuke's hand, cradled between his own.
"Oh my god," Naruto snorts, "You look like shit."
"… As if you look any better, moron," Sasuke rasps, coughing to clear the husk of deep sleep from his throat, "What time is it?"
"Dunno," Naruto murmurs, gaze sliding back to Sasuke's hand between them, where his open palm faces the ceiling of the darkened room, "Haven't bothered to get up and check."
Sasuke tenses, realizing what Naruto must be looking at. His soulmark. Almost perpetually covered by a customary glove. Rarely exposed to anyone— even Sasuke himself. He tries to flinch away, but Naruto's grip tightens, refusing him the security of distance. Too wrung out to protest, Sasuke lets himself relax into the pillows again. Of all people, Naruto just might be the one person he can allow himself to be exposed to, like this.
"Don't you have work to be doing?" Sasuke asks blearily, feeling his fingers twitch in Naruto's, "As always?"
"… Hm," is all Naruto says, seemingly content to examine Sasuke's soulmark, for at least the time being.
Sasuke allows the perusal, too bonelessly comfortable and content to bother dissuading him just yet.
But still, he finds himself curious, "What is it then?"
Naruto hums, returning Sasuke's question with one of his own, "You never went and found them?"
"… How many times do I have to tell you I have no interest in whoever they are?"
"… Maybe a few more," Naruto grins sheepishly, meeting Sasuke's eye for a brief moment— Sasuke's better thought threatening to drown itself in shadowed pools of blue before Naruto is looking away again, "I guess I thought you'd change you mind, after…"
After Naruto's divorce, Sasuke can't help but fill in for himself, when Naruto trails off abruptly. Recalling the last time he and Naruto had seen each other, before this most recent clusterfuck.
The one and only time Naruto had ever called Sasuke home. A mess of stricken grief and confusion after Hinata had made the painful decision to answer fate's calling after all. As much as Naruto had transparently expected the possibility, in the end the reality of his marriage dissolving had proved too much to bear alone. And he'd called on Sasuke, of all people, to be there with him. Propping him up through it all. A call Sasuke had been helpless to ignore.
For all he intensely appreciated the esteem Naruto bafflingly still held him in after all this time, it had been that same esteem that had keep Sasuke away for the four intervening years, before duty brought him back to Konoha's doorstep once again. Finding it too easy to see himself settling into it. Into the periphery of Naruto's day to day affairs as Naruto adjusted to his life, post-marriage.
Sasuke had been gone again, no sooner than the ink had dried on thedamning papers. If his abrupt departure had rankled, Naruto had never said a word about it, let alone asked for a repeat performance. Sasuke hated to admit a part of him had desperately been waiting for him to do so, against all logic and reason.
Sasuke was better off alone, in that regard. With nothing but the constant presence of his phantom sea breeze for company.
And yet here he is again. Carelessly settling into Naruto's orbit once more.
And Naruto is still staring at his mark.
"It kinda suits you," Naruto says, "The color. You're so obsessed with blue, y'know."
"… It's fine, I guess," Sasuke responds, not sure what else there is to say about the mark that has haunted and taunted him for years, "I expect yours is orange?"
"I wish," Naruto snorts.
Not for the first time, Sasuke wonders what Naruto's mark even looks like. He's never seen it. Has no idea where on Naruto's body it resides— just that its nowhere his regular garb would expose.
"I hate it," Sasuke finds himself admitting.
"… That seems like a strong reaction."
Sasuke shakes his head briefly before shoving his face into the pillow, "You wouldn't understand."
"Why not?"
Considering his words carefully, Sasuke finds his own eyes drawn to the mark in question, "… Because I can't be apathetic toward it. The way you can."
"… I didn't think it bothered you that much," Naruto says lowly, "Why not just find them then?"
That's a question Sasuke can't answer again. Not right now, when the nameless, amorphous thing that draws him toward Naruto sits just under his skin, buzzing and bright. Lured to the surface by the fear of almost losing Naruto forever. By the tension and contrary comfort of Naruto's presence. By the strange, heavy intimacy of this fragile moment of stillness between them.
"Why do you keep pushing it?" Sasuke asks instead, trying to pull his hand away once more.
Once again, Naruto refuses to let go, "Why do you want to be alone so badly?"
"I'm not."
"As if you don't go weeks without speaking to another living person," Naruto hums knowingly, "Is it so weird I care about you? That I want something different for you?"
"… Why?"
"… Because I remember what it's like to be alone, idiot."
Sasuke doesn't know how to respond to that. Of course Naruto remembers. Its impossible to forget something like that.
"… I'm not," Sasuke says again, nearly a whisper.
Naruto just hums and says nothing else.
He lets go of Sasuke's hand, at long last.
It's not as if I am immune to having regrets, Orochimaru says, in Sasuke's mind, Time has a way of, hmm… rearranging our priorities. Wouldn't you agree?
If you're as smart as you think you are, you'll avoid the mistakes of your old, beloved master, hm?
As if Orochimaru could be a beloved anything to him. But Sasuke can't argue that he's certainly grown tired of regret, as the feeling of bereftness threatens to hollow him out— as Naruto draws away from him once more.
Naruto had nearly died yesterday. If he had, all Sasuke would have been left with is regret.
Something cracks open in Sasuke's chest.
He is tired.
Sasuke reaches out, snatching up Naruto's hand.
Blue eyes widen in alarm.
"What—?"
"How can I be alone," Sasuke's voice feels like sandpaper in his throat, overcome and overwhelmed and letting it happen, against all logic and reason, "When you're here, idiot?"
Naruto's answering grin is… sad, "I'm not always here, y'know."
"… Yes, you are," Sasuke whispers, "Always, over and over and over again. I can't get away from you."
"That's…" Naruto draws in a shaky breath, "I don't—"
"It's fine," Sasuke says, meeting and holding Naruto's gaze for a brief, charged moment before he gives in to the nerves churning in his belly and looks down at their hands instead, "I hate this mark— not because of who's on the other end of it, but because of who isn't, usuratonachi."
… Naruto looks like Sasuke just punched him. Sasuke choses not to let that phase him.
"It isn't fair," Sasuke breathes out, "That the universe is allowed to jerk people around like this. If fate is real, how could it have gotten something like this so… wrong? That the one and only person I've wanted— that I can ever imagine wanting—"
Sasuke's voice gives out, throat closing up with the surge of emotion that rolls over him.
He closes his eyes, blotting out the view of Naruto's slack hand in his. Unable to even consider looking Naruto in the eye, after exposing himself so thoroughly—
Naruto's hand pulls away, leaving his cold against the sheets.
Sasuke releases a heavy breath, resignation washing over him—
But then the bed shifts, creaking underneath them as Naruto's weight is pushing into his— hands, one warm and one cool, curving around Sasuke to cup— no— cradle his clenching jaw—
A firm, implacable pressure meets Sasuke's forehead, where his hitai-ate used to rest, a lifetime ago.
"Sasuke," Naruto says, right up in Sasuke's space, leaving them hardly any room to breath, let alone move, without erasing that last sliver of space between them— "I don't care what anyone says— you're the stupidest man alive, y'know."
Sasuke's eyes snap open, a moment too late because then they're slamming shut again on instinct alone—
Because Naruto's kissing him.
Naruto is kissing Sasuke. Presumably on purpose.
But I mean— would it be so bad if she, um. Didn't? Like if she didn't, you know— find my match or whatever?
Can you blame me? I'm starting to feel like no one wants to be with me—
Fuck, you're not really helping here, y'know. It's not your fault. I'm just… fuck— I guess all this is bringing up a lot of other stuff for me. I'll… I'll get over it.
Is it so weird I care about you? That I want something different for you?
… Sasuke is the stupidest man alive, he thinks as his hand slides through blond hair, finding gentle purchase among the coarse strands.
Naruto had been telling him. Over and over and over again. As much as Sasuke had listened, he hadn't heard a word of it.
Until now.
In the brief respite they find, between revelation and responsibility, Sasuke listens. He hears Naruto's fear— in the hitch of his breath, the tense cant of his eyebrows— as they.., talk. Naruto has been burned before. By his village, who'd abandoned him before they'd ever had him. By his own soulmate, who never came for him. By Hinata, who had made promises she couldn't keep. By Sasuke, once upon so many times— Sasuke who still has a soulmate out there somewhere. Naruto has every reason to hesitate. Not to trust the truth Sasuke lays at his feet like an offering—
But Naruto also listens. To his words, yes— reassurances that someday, hopefully, will be enough on their own. To Sasuke's hand, where it cups his neck in reverence he's not even remotely capable of masking. To his eyes, that couldn't leave Naruto's face even if he wanted them to. To everything Sasuke's body tells him, because he's been able to read Sasuke like a book for most of their lives already. He knows Sasuke's mind, and his heart, better than Sasuke knows them himself.
Naruto listens, but it doesn't matter. Because Sasuke will continue to tell him over and over and over again, long after it's necessary to do so.
Sasuke chose Naruto. Not because destiny or fate or the universe had willed it— but because of who Naruto is. What they are and have always been to each other— even when Sasuke had been too blinded by his own misery to see it.
All too soon, they are forced to leave the sanctuary of Naruto's home and face the world. Because no matter what it feels like, the world continues to spin on. Konoha had been attacked yesterday. It's Hokage captured— most of the village remaining completely oblivious to his return, aside from whatever gossip the Kage and ANBU had managed to spread. Even though Boruto was probably louder than all of them combined, the village needed to see Naruto for themselves, before the dust would be allowed to truly settle once and for all.
As Naruto rights his disheveled clothes, he levels Sasuke with a Look.
"Shikamaru's going to notice right away, y'know."
Sasuke nods in understanding— the man in question being too astute, knowing them both far to well to expect otherwise. He's still fumbling his own outer layers back on by the time Naruto is shoving them both toward the door.
They aren't even given time to prepare, because Naruto's steadfast assistant is waiting for them, directly outside the doors to his residence, slouched against the railing overlooking a sweeping view of the village. Smoke billows from the cigarette between his lips.
He takes one look at the pair of them— cool gaze sweeping them up and down in less than a heartbeat— before his dark brows quirk in the closest thing to surprise Sasuke has ever seen on the man.
"… Congratulations, I guess," Shikamaru drawls, tossing the cigarette to the ground to stub it out with the toe of his sandal, "But don't think this means you get to slack off, Hokage-sama. It's a shitstorm out there."
As Naruto storms off in a huff toward his office— bitching and moaning about all the paperwork and reports waiting for him regarding yesterday's events— Shikamaru glances at Sasuke with an obnoxiously knowing glint in his eye.
"So, you two finally got your shit together."
"… What's that supposed to mean?" Sasuke asks pointedly, using his teeth to pull his glove back on over his hand— taking note of the way Shikamaru's eyes snap to the bright skin of his soulmark before the glove hides it from view once again.
"I've known you both a long time," Shikamaru says with little inflection, "As if I believed for a moment that you'd lie back and let fate run its course. You're both too stubborn for that."
"Hn," Sasuke grunts, angling himself toward the railing— prepared to launch himself off the Tower and into the village.
Sakura was already going to be furious with him for not reporting back to her and Sarada as soon as they'd returned. From there the rest of the day was sure to be a blur of debriefing and strategizing with the Kage and their respective advisers— Sasuke already had a headache just thinking about it.
"I just noticed," Shikamaru says, stopping Sasuke in his tracks, "Your mark— its the same color as mine."
"… What does that have to do with anything?"
"It's just interesting," Shikamaru shrugs, as if he genuinely doesn't care beyond idle curiosity— but Sasuke knows the man all too well for that, "I don't know if you're up to date on the latest research being done on soulmarks, but the theories have all but been confirmed. A mark's color correlates to the chakra affinity of the person who leaves it."
Sasuke isn't slow enough to miss that implication, "… Temari's a wind user."
"… An interesting coincidence, don't you think?"
Sasuke leaves. It is an uncanny coincidence. But at the end of the day, a coincidence is all it is.
The universe, for once, offers them a boon.
A rare afternoon when neither of them have anywhere else to be but here— back in bed where it all began. Or ended, depending on how you looked at it.
In the time since Sasuke had started listening, there hadn't been time for something like this. Naruto completely and utterly swamped with work in the aftermath of the Ootsutsukis' attack and the roughshod re-organization of the Chuunin Exams. Sasuke, pulled away from his side to properly reunite with his family and then dealing with the extremely concerning mark left on Boruto in the wake of Momoshiki's defeat. Whatever it is, Boruto's training must take precedence if he's to withstand whatever ominous effects might become of the strange mark.
Before Sasuke knows it, weeks have gone by, with hardly more than a few rare moments alone between the two of them since that one impossibly perfect morning.
Given the opportunity, neither of them waste time before picking up where they left off.
Sasuke groans as Naruto's teeth meet his collarbone— exposed from where Naruto had already torn the shirt off Sasuke's back.
Wrapping a leg around Naruto's waist, Sasuke doesn't hesitate to roll them over. Pressing Naruto's back into the sheets as Sasuke mouths at his neck, shoving his flimsy t-shirt up and out of the way. They have to break apart— just for a moment— to remove it completely. But that's fine— it's more than fine, because it gives Sasuke the chance to rear back, getting a good, long look at the man sprawled underneath him for the first time.
Sasuke blinks at the place where his hand braces itself against Naruto's waist. There's… something there— glimpses of bold color between the splay of his fingers. He pulls his hand away.
There, splashed in bold crimson just beneath Naruto's ribcage— his soulmark. In the shape of a broad handprint, like a proprietary stamp against tanned skin.
Sasuke stares. Something about it…
Underneath him, Naruto squirms.
"… What?" Naruto asks tightly, "You knew I had one."
"I… did," Sasuke answers slowly, trying to piece together the curious thoughts that niggle at him, in the back of his mind.
"So…" Naruto wheedles after a moment, "What's the problem, huh?"
"I'm not sure…" Sasuke frowns, staring even more intently at the mark, "But there's something…"
Out of the corner of his eye, another color pops out at him— the brilliant turquoise of his own mark. Sasuke brings his hand up to examine it properly, as if he's never seen it before.
… No.
"What's with you, huh?" Naruto huffs, "You do remember I said we only have a few hours right? Why're we wasting time—"
Sasuke ignores his whining for the moment, gazing shifting back to the bold handprint over Naruto's waist.
It… isn't possible.
A memory resurfaces— one he's pushed away countless times over the years. Of ambushing Naruto in the Academy yard. Of swiping his thumb over Naruto's eyelid— and coming away bereft.
"… You're really starting to freak me out, y'know," Naruto murmurs, his restless body finally settling beneath Sasuke's weight.
Out of the corner of his eye he sees the uncertainty in Naruto's gaze at it drifts back and forth between Sasuke's face and his own mark.
"Shut up, usuratonkachi," Sasuke demands almost absently, focus narrowed completely on the conundrum before him.
Because there is absolutely no way—
Sasuke sets his hand down, directly on top of the mark— lining his long fingers up with those in red—
They're exactly the same. Sasuke's fingers perfectly eclipsing the universe's brand over Naruto's skin.
But… they had touched countless times for countless reasons over the years. Before they were teammates. Before Sasuke had left. Before he'd come back. Never once had they left a mark on one another that wasn't born of violence. And yet.
It shouldn't be possible.
And yet.
Naruto's mark that had only appeared during the war and Sasuke's that had only tormented in the years since—
They're a perfect, inexplicable fit. A match.