Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!
Summary: Sasuke has spent three years trying to figure out how to live on his own. Maybe it's time to try something different. WIP. Future SNS, updates once a month. Canonverse. Rating may change!
A/N: couldn't decide which prompt to pick, so here's a little of both!
Day 12 prompts - one and only / childhood!
sunflowers for the skeptical
Chapter 12: a house that smells like ramen
Sasuke's head lingers with their conversation. The way things could have been. Should have been. Sasuke still holds a grudge. Holds a pain. Naruto does the same—he only tucks his firmly away. Sasuke flips it open. Sasuke leaves it out to be read.
He has the lines memorized, and yet—he's forgetting them. Somehow, he's forgetting them. Konoha feels like something distant. It's not even a day's travel away, but the sun is bright, and Konoha's looming shadow is gone from Sasuke's sky. It seems clear, all of a sudden. Like he's broken free of something.
Their control, maybe. Maybe it's this freedom. Maybe this is the way freedom feels.
Sasuke breathes in, and the house smells like ramen.
Naruto's right back to it—days later. Sasuke still pulls him away. Sasuek still could, even now. Naruto greets him with a lopsided grin and a look that doesn't dare linger for more than a second—
"It's almost done!" he says quickly. "GImmie a minute. Just—!"
He waves a hand in Sasuke's general direction, as if he can hold Sasuke in frozen place. With his wind, maybe he could. He might take out the house in the process, but…
Sasuke leans on the counter, and Naruto strains. Strains. Breaks.
"Bastard," he says, and he's already leaning in. "Hi."
Sasuke says his hello against Naruto's lips. He says it again, and for longer. And longer. And…
Naruto lets out a shuddering laugh, and Sasuke relents.
"Fine," he says, as if he isn't pouting. "Make your ramen. Is this why you woke up early?"
Naruto's hand gets stuck in his hair.
"...Yeah," he admits, and Sasuke blinks. "Don't look at me like—I can't focus when you're all—shut up!"
He grabs Sasuke by the sleep shirt and gives him a shake. A push. A pull. Sasuke barely moves, but his smile does widen at Naruto's strained, strained breath.
…
His thumb is lingering under Sasuke's shirt.
"Naruto," he warns, and Naruto snaps his hand back.
"Shit," he says quickly. "Okay, just—I think I have it now! I think I have it, just let me—"
The ramen finishes. Naruto babbles how close he is to being done for the entire three minutes left—much longer than the one promised—and then it has to cool. Naruto doesn't think it does. Naruto never seems to think it does. But Sasuke…
Sasuke can be very convincing.
It's later in the morning when they make it off the floor. Later in the day. Naruto tries his ramen and forces Sasuke to, too, as if Sasuke hasn't insisted that the amount of salt in his system is working its way to killing him.
It's good, though. Sasuke has to admit. It is really, really good.
"Yeah?" Naruto asks, and there's the galaxy in his eyes.
"I've been eating ramen for a week," Sasuke tells him, and Naruto laughs. Sasuke steals a kiss and resigns himself to another day…or two.
"But now what?" he asks, and he's paused on his way around Naruto. His hand still rests on Naruto's shoulder—he has to lean down to rest against him. He does. He can press a kiss to Naruto's neck this way… "Now that you've perfected your recipe?"
"Um," Naruto says, and it's full of his breath. Sasuke feels it as he swallows. "I don't…I dunno."
"Mm," Sasuke hums, pressing another kiss. "Something to consider, then."
He straightens, and Naruto snatches him back. Sasuke laughs at how easy it is. How easy he is.
How easy this is.
The kisses steal them away until the afternoon. Sasuke thinks he could have stayed locked much longer. But they've neglected the garden—and the rest of the house. Naruto's dishes are starting to pile up, and if Sasuke knows him—and he does, he always has—this quest for ramen is far from over. No matter how finished the recipe may seem.
He glances through the door, and Naruto's been staring at him. He doesn't work shirtless in the garden anymore.
Shame.
Naruto bites his lip, and Sasuke raises an eyebrow. Leans back against the counter. Against the mountain of dishes Naruto's created. He fans himself with a dirty plate, and Naruto breaks into a laugh.
Sasuke considers his work done.
They make it to town the next day. They're desperate, at that point. With the amount Naruto's been determined to cook, they've run out of groceries several times over, and Sasuke's body is craving—anything that isn't filled with salt. He'll take a goddamn sweet at this point. A cake. Peaches are out of season, but there are apples that aren't—and there's hope somewhere in there.
Naruto laughs at him, and tells him they still have way too much to eat. It'll go bad if they don't eat it. If someone doesn't eat it.
Sasuke eyes him with the words, and Naruto lights up.
They take the ramen to town. To their neighbours—to the market. Naruto doesn't mean to sell it, but people leave them money. Sasuke finds small cups and Naruto ladles out as much as he can and the money is left on the table without them even naming a price—two older men insist that they take a basket of fruit, and Naruto does what he can to fight his way out of cheese.
Sasuke isn't so virtuous. He'll happily take the trade.
Of course, they aren't working with much. There's no place to sit, and the cups are too small. There are rocks around and Sasuke drags three logs that he can lay on their side—Naruto spins to him with the news that they have no way to reheat it, and Sasuke—
Sasuke sighs, and uses his flame.
…
It becomes a bit of a spectacle. There's two kids and three adults around, and Sasuke tries desperately not to boil the broth in front of him.
"He is cool, isn't he?" Naruto says, uncaring. Unrelenting. Sasuke can't quite breathe. "I know. He used to drive me nuts."
"I still do," Sasuke mutters, and Naruto doesn't need to hear it to know what he said. He wouldn't be able to, either, over the sound of the children.
"How is he doing that?!" one of them yells, and the other is grabbing at his sleeve. Grabbing at the table. Grabbing at the adult who's with them—
She laughs, and gives Sasuke a resigned, happy look.
"We haven't discussed chakra very much yet," she says. "Maybe that'll be our next lesson, hm?"
She taps them on the shoulder, and the kids babble at her. Something about hating school. Something about it still being worth it. They can't even pronounce chakra. They don't even know the word—
"Go on, then. Go sit down and have some," she laughs, and turns back to them. "Thank you. They're a rambunctious pair."
Naruto laughs.
"Seems pretty familiar to me," Naruto says. "Like us, eh, Sasuke?"
"Speak for yourself," Sasuke shoots back, and the woman laughs.
"Well, that's high praise," she says. "Although I think you'd find their education rather lacking in comparison to where you must have been."
She spares them a smile, and Sasuke…catches something. Right along its edge. Right in the depth of her eyes.
"Are they your—boys?" Naruto asks, closing the lid of their pot. It's empty, now. They've given away the whole thing.
"My daughter's," the woman says. "Their parents passed away, long ago. On a mission, back in Konoha, you see."
Their heads flinch up, and Naruto and Sasuke speak at the same time.
"Who?"
Sasuke doesn't recognize the names. Naruto doesn't, either. The ninjas were before their time—before the war, before Sasuke had left, before Naruto had been able to make any changes at all. They'd still been in the academy, then.
They'd only been children. Only children. No different from the boys running around a tree, finished their ramen, trying to see which of them could break the other's cup first.
Sasuke feels something strange settle into him. Painful. Familiar.
"They're my grandchildren," the woman is saying, and Sasuke's heart is in his throat. "But, see—this area of life is something I don't know how to speak of. It was too painful, at first. And now I fear I've left it too long. But you two—you live alongside your chakra, don't you? Without fighting."
Sasuke breathes. It's all he can do.
"We tend to fight all the time, actually," Naruto teases, and Sasuke can feel him stepping in front of him. Sasuke can feel himself stepping back. Naruto's hand stays low on Sasuke's wrist, a gentle, grounding touch—
She chuckles, and Naruto shares the smile with her. It's kind—she knows. Naruto has that ability. That compassion, that reassurance, that understanding. Sasuke knows it better than anyone.
"If you would indulge us," the woman says, "I think they could learn a lot from you."
Naruto blinks. Sasuke breathes in. The old woman smiles and taps the table, and tells them to consider it. She thinks the boys would be partial to Sasuke's flame. Sasuke wonders if she has any idea who she's talking to.
He's ready to say no. He's ready to step back.
But the old woman leaves, and Naruto turns to him with a knowing, knowing smile.
…
"We're going to need more ramen," Sasuke says instead, and he turns on his heel.
A/N: i'm particularly wishing good things & good health for you all today. big hugs. see you soon!
- Kinomi