"This Changes Everything" - by Ichigo-chan
Chapter Two: Birthday Presence
******
Ichigo: Hello again!
Sakura-kun: **waves**
Ichigo: I decided not to wait for reviews on my first chapter and just throw the second one out there right away. After all I've kinda been stocking up on chapters and just avoiding posting them! HAHAH!
Sakura-kun: Cuz you're a sissy ^^
Ichigo: shut up! **hits Sakura-kun with her keyboard again**
Sakura-kun: ITAIII!!!! _
Ichigo: Now - anyway, this is the chapter for the fan girls **grin**. But don't worry! There's plenty of good old fashioned ass kicking still to come! ^^
Sakura-kun: WAIIII! ^^
Hmmm, those of you who have just finished reading my first chapter and are actually bothering to continue - I thank you! I'm glad you're liking it so far! Or at least I've managed to make you curious enough to read on; and that's good too. Reviews are always gratefully accepted no matter what you've got to say!
Plot Summery (again, just in case) - The relationship between Sasuke and Naruto has changed a lot over the years, especially now that they both seem to have come to the same realizations. However, Sasuke finds himself unable too runaway from links to his past - especially those in the form of a strange, tragic, second generation, missing-nin. To find out more about himself, his brother, and to save a life, Sasuke has to decide just how far he's willing to go - as well as what, and who, he is willing to leave behind.
Now, about this SECOND chapter - it's a little shorter then the first, but it's all about the shounen-ai. Well, the complicated relationship between Sasuke and Naruto is really what plays a big part in events later in the story and make for all the emotional tension - so I have to make sure that I get it across well. Or as best I can anyway! So, hmm, yes, just read it, that's all I can suggest. Hehehe.
Chapter Summery - Sasuke and Naruto finally get the chance to spend some time together again - like old times. Yet, things between them are a little different now then they used to be, and the night ends up playing out a little different then expected.
Warnings - sasunaru, shounen ai
(Once again, this is my disclaimer: "not mine")
***
At first it had seemed a little strange to be going to Naruto's house, and to be hanging out with him just like they used to. Their conversation had started out a little uneasily, but before long the two had settled right back in, talking and laughing as if a day hadn't passed since they last saw each other.
That night they sat around for nearly five hours talking about the past, the future, and all the things they'd been doing. The more they talked the funnier it seemed to think back on the ways they'd treated each other as kids, because now it was obvious to both of them just how much they'd needed each other back then.
"Naruto." Sasuke said, his tone becoming a little more serious; as he sat at opposite end of the couch, facing Naruto.
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry that I snapped at you today, you now, about Sakura."
"Nah, it's ok." Naruto assured him, grinning as he shook his head, "It was stupid of me to ask anyway. I knew what you were gonna say. I guess I just wanted to actually hear you say so."
"Hum? Well, no, it wasn't ok." Sasuke shook his head back, "I got all defensive about and I didn't need to."
"Oh well, it's over now." Naruto shrugged.
It was silent then, as neither of them spoke, and the room was growing ever darker as the sun began to set behind the hills.
"Sasuke." Naruto said, half whispering.
"Yeah." he replied, looking up at Naruto's, now heavily shadowed, face.
"I really did miss you. You know, when I was gone, and when you were gone, and when we don't get to see each other hardly ever anymore." he began to explain, pulling his knees up close against his chest.
"I know." Sasuke replied quietly, noting the sad tone of Naruto's voice.
There was silence again.
"I have a month off duty now." Naruto went on again, smiling a little, but never turning his eyes back up to met Sasuke's. "I'll be home for almost all of it."
"That's good." Sasuke nodded, feeling a strange, uneasiness, in his chest. "They don't have anything planned for me yet either."
"Maybe you and I could do something together again some time." Naruto suggested finally looking up at him and grinning.
"For sure." Sasuke nodded.
Naruto, noticing how warm he was feeling, and got up from the couch to turn on the near by fan; sending a light, welcome, breeze running through the thickly hot room. Sasuke wiped the sweat from his forehead gingerly as Naruto sat down again next to him.
"Sorry it's so hot in here." Naruto apologized.
"It's ok. It's hot everywhere." Sasuke pointed out.
"Yeah." He nodded, "Hey! You got new earrings." Naruto smiled, motioning at his ears.
"Oh, yeah, Ino got them for me."
"They're really nice." he said, lifting his hand up and touching the back of Sasuke's ear.
Quickly - both of them jerk back a little when they felt their skin touch. For some reason Sasuke found himself swallowing hard, and the awkward tightness in his chest growing. Naruto looked away from him again and clenched his fists in his lap.
"Hey, do you ever wonder," Naruto started again, "what it would have been like, if you and I hadn't of wasted so much time hating each other?"
"Yeah." Sasuke nodded, "But I don't think I ever REALLY hated you. Insanely jealous maybe."
"I know, me too. I remember, like that time on the roof." he smiled sheepishly.
"Yeah." Sasuke nodded, thinking back to then, when he was so much younger and stupider. Which didn't go to say he wasn't now.
"Sasuke,"
"Yeah?"
Naruto looked him in the eyes apprehensively - as they were sitting so near to one another that their shoulders brushed. His bright, blue, eyes were uneasy and his lower lip was twitching ever so slightly, as if he were trying to get around to saying something, but couldn't bring himself to do it.
Sasuke could feel little beads of sweat running down the back of his neck and an unfamiliar tingle running down his spine.
Naruto seemed uneasy, his eyes darting about, searching Sasuke's face.
"Naruto?" Sasuke finally questioned, shattering the extreme tension.
"Oh, um." He looked away quickly - laughing uneasily.
"Do you ever wonder," Sasuke began again, his own eyes wandering across Naruto's tanned skin and erratic, dusty blond, hair, "what's going to happen to us?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Naruto asked.
"I mean, like, I'm seventeen now, and if I join the Anbu a lot of things are going to change. Worse things then us just not getting to see each other."
"Yeah, I know." Naruto said solemnly, looking back down at his hands.
"And I was wondering to myself today, with all those girls bothering me about stupid things," Sasuke went on, staring down at the floor; his long dark bangs hanging down in front of his eyes, "if I was ever going to meet - some, who's for me."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I mean, when I saw Shikamaru together with Ino today, I almost felt jealous of him - and I don't even like Ino."
"Yeah well," Naruto began quietly, "I'm jealous of you everyday." he confessed to his dark haired companion.
"Huh?" he looked back at Naruto questioningly.
"Girls follow you around constantly. To everyone you're like this, incredible, perfect, gorgeous, infallible, great, - oh, I don't even know!" he shook his head, searching for enough descriptive words to cover all the things he though Sasuke to be, "Sure most everybody likes me now, but, not the way they like you."
"What? I think you're way better then me." Sasuke confessed rather bluntly.
"What?"
"You actually care about people - and, you're not like other people either. You're my only real friend you know that?"
"Seriously?"
"Uh huh. Everyone else makes me feel, well, I don't know - sort of empty." he shrugged, "When I woke up this morning I was dreading today. Dreading the way everyone would want to be around me; and yet, I didn't want to be alone either. But then I saw you again, and I felt really happy. You don't make me feel the way everyone else does. I actually wanna be around you."
"That's good," Naruto smiled at him, "cuz, I wanna be around you too."
Naruto looked up at him hesitantly, his spiky blond hair hanging heavily around his face casting yet deeper shadows across his, pseudo-whisker-marked, face.
"Sasuke,"
"Yeah?"
Naruto looked back down at his hands as he shuffled closer to him.
"I was sorta wondering if," but he stopped.
"Wondering what?"
"If,"
"?"
"If you wanted to stay here, tonight."
Sasuke was quiet a moment.
"Sure." he nodded.
They didn't move for a long time, sitting there in the dark, both hearing the sounds of their own hearts beating quickly in their chest. The quiet, constant, whir of the fan the only sound audible to them both.
Their knees and shoulders touching, they both stared down at their hands sitting on the thighs, their knucks brushing ever so lightly against one anothers.
"I really did miss you." Naruto finally whispered quietly turning back to Sasuke again, their faces so close he could feel Sasuke's breath on his skin.
"I missed you too." he agreed.
Then - Naruto leaned toward him, and touched his lips ever so lightly to Sasuke's; so gently even, that it was more of a subtle brush then a kiss. Both tensely unsure of themselves they sat their a moment, eyes closed, foreheads and noses pressed lightly together. But neither could resist, and they both found themselves leaning forward to pressing their lips firmly against the others.
It was as if electricity was running through their bodies as they held there, for nearly a minute, the feeling of the contact between them so incredibly intense.
Breaking their kiss, both boys blinked at one another, feeling their faces flush and their throats tighten. Their eyes met and lingered a long time, both seeming to wonder what the other was thinking. Their hands found one anothers and their fingers intertwined, locking neatly together.
Tentatively, Naruto reached up and brushed his hand against Sasuke's pale cheek, to which Sasuke responded by leaned his head towards Naruto's hand, closing his eyes as Naruto ran his fingers through the damp hair at the back of Sasuke's neck.
Their lips met again and they both reached for each others waists, wanting to feel the other boys body close to their own. Leaning back into Sasuke's corner of the couch Naruto held him tightly with one arm, the other one clutching at Sasuke's broad shoulder. Likewise, Sasuke pulled Naruto's chest tightly against his own, his arms holding firmly around the thin, blond boys back.
They could taste the salty sweat on each others mouths as their lips touched more firmly and assertively each time they met. Their hands wondered across each others skin emphatically - neither boy ever knowing this sort of desire in their life.
It was Naruto who's tongue first grazed the other boys lower lip; yet Sasuke didn't hesitate a moment to open his mouth to him and let his own tongue meet Naruto's. The taste of his saliva was distinctly that of ramen; the answer to a curious question which Sasuke's subconscious had asked many times before.
"Sasuke," Naruto whispered softly to him.
"Yeah."
"Happy birthday."
***
To be continued -
******
Ichigo: SECOND CHAPTER - END!
Sakura-kun: **SCARY FAN GIRL SQUEEL**
Ichigo: must you?
Sakura-kun: *SQUEEL*
So, I hope that went as well as I was hoping it would. ^^ There's more to come, but you'll have to wait cuz there's still a lot of things left to throw into the mix! Review if you can, cuz I love hearing what you've got to say! Third chapter still to come!
What to expect in later chapters - Sasuke and Naruto are called out to reform their old team for a rather unusual mission - while keeping their recent encounters under wraps. Sasuke receives a mysterious gift, and a run in with someone who knows more bout him then they should shakes up everything - including all of Konoha.
(Oh yeah! And we have to thank Trish for het help with posting these chapters! Cuz without her we'd NEVER have been able to post this story at all! Thanx TRISH!!! ^^)
Chapter Two: Birthday Presence
******
Ichigo: Hello again!
Sakura-kun: **waves**
Ichigo: I decided not to wait for reviews on my first chapter and just throw the second one out there right away. After all I've kinda been stocking up on chapters and just avoiding posting them! HAHAH!
Sakura-kun: Cuz you're a sissy ^^
Ichigo: shut up! **hits Sakura-kun with her keyboard again**
Sakura-kun: ITAIII!!!! _
Ichigo: Now - anyway, this is the chapter for the fan girls **grin**. But don't worry! There's plenty of good old fashioned ass kicking still to come! ^^
Sakura-kun: WAIIII! ^^
Hmmm, those of you who have just finished reading my first chapter and are actually bothering to continue - I thank you! I'm glad you're liking it so far! Or at least I've managed to make you curious enough to read on; and that's good too. Reviews are always gratefully accepted no matter what you've got to say!
Plot Summery (again, just in case) - The relationship between Sasuke and Naruto has changed a lot over the years, especially now that they both seem to have come to the same realizations. However, Sasuke finds himself unable too runaway from links to his past - especially those in the form of a strange, tragic, second generation, missing-nin. To find out more about himself, his brother, and to save a life, Sasuke has to decide just how far he's willing to go - as well as what, and who, he is willing to leave behind.
Now, about this SECOND chapter - it's a little shorter then the first, but it's all about the shounen-ai. Well, the complicated relationship between Sasuke and Naruto is really what plays a big part in events later in the story and make for all the emotional tension - so I have to make sure that I get it across well. Or as best I can anyway! So, hmm, yes, just read it, that's all I can suggest. Hehehe.
Chapter Summery - Sasuke and Naruto finally get the chance to spend some time together again - like old times. Yet, things between them are a little different now then they used to be, and the night ends up playing out a little different then expected.
Warnings - sasunaru, shounen ai
(Once again, this is my disclaimer: "not mine")
***
At first it had seemed a little strange to be going to Naruto's house, and to be hanging out with him just like they used to. Their conversation had started out a little uneasily, but before long the two had settled right back in, talking and laughing as if a day hadn't passed since they last saw each other.
That night they sat around for nearly five hours talking about the past, the future, and all the things they'd been doing. The more they talked the funnier it seemed to think back on the ways they'd treated each other as kids, because now it was obvious to both of them just how much they'd needed each other back then.
"Naruto." Sasuke said, his tone becoming a little more serious; as he sat at opposite end of the couch, facing Naruto.
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry that I snapped at you today, you now, about Sakura."
"Nah, it's ok." Naruto assured him, grinning as he shook his head, "It was stupid of me to ask anyway. I knew what you were gonna say. I guess I just wanted to actually hear you say so."
"Hum? Well, no, it wasn't ok." Sasuke shook his head back, "I got all defensive about and I didn't need to."
"Oh well, it's over now." Naruto shrugged.
It was silent then, as neither of them spoke, and the room was growing ever darker as the sun began to set behind the hills.
"Sasuke." Naruto said, half whispering.
"Yeah." he replied, looking up at Naruto's, now heavily shadowed, face.
"I really did miss you. You know, when I was gone, and when you were gone, and when we don't get to see each other hardly ever anymore." he began to explain, pulling his knees up close against his chest.
"I know." Sasuke replied quietly, noting the sad tone of Naruto's voice.
There was silence again.
"I have a month off duty now." Naruto went on again, smiling a little, but never turning his eyes back up to met Sasuke's. "I'll be home for almost all of it."
"That's good." Sasuke nodded, feeling a strange, uneasiness, in his chest. "They don't have anything planned for me yet either."
"Maybe you and I could do something together again some time." Naruto suggested finally looking up at him and grinning.
"For sure." Sasuke nodded.
Naruto, noticing how warm he was feeling, and got up from the couch to turn on the near by fan; sending a light, welcome, breeze running through the thickly hot room. Sasuke wiped the sweat from his forehead gingerly as Naruto sat down again next to him.
"Sorry it's so hot in here." Naruto apologized.
"It's ok. It's hot everywhere." Sasuke pointed out.
"Yeah." He nodded, "Hey! You got new earrings." Naruto smiled, motioning at his ears.
"Oh, yeah, Ino got them for me."
"They're really nice." he said, lifting his hand up and touching the back of Sasuke's ear.
Quickly - both of them jerk back a little when they felt their skin touch. For some reason Sasuke found himself swallowing hard, and the awkward tightness in his chest growing. Naruto looked away from him again and clenched his fists in his lap.
"Hey, do you ever wonder," Naruto started again, "what it would have been like, if you and I hadn't of wasted so much time hating each other?"
"Yeah." Sasuke nodded, "But I don't think I ever REALLY hated you. Insanely jealous maybe."
"I know, me too. I remember, like that time on the roof." he smiled sheepishly.
"Yeah." Sasuke nodded, thinking back to then, when he was so much younger and stupider. Which didn't go to say he wasn't now.
"Sasuke,"
"Yeah?"
Naruto looked him in the eyes apprehensively - as they were sitting so near to one another that their shoulders brushed. His bright, blue, eyes were uneasy and his lower lip was twitching ever so slightly, as if he were trying to get around to saying something, but couldn't bring himself to do it.
Sasuke could feel little beads of sweat running down the back of his neck and an unfamiliar tingle running down his spine.
Naruto seemed uneasy, his eyes darting about, searching Sasuke's face.
"Naruto?" Sasuke finally questioned, shattering the extreme tension.
"Oh, um." He looked away quickly - laughing uneasily.
"Do you ever wonder," Sasuke began again, his own eyes wandering across Naruto's tanned skin and erratic, dusty blond, hair, "what's going to happen to us?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Naruto asked.
"I mean, like, I'm seventeen now, and if I join the Anbu a lot of things are going to change. Worse things then us just not getting to see each other."
"Yeah, I know." Naruto said solemnly, looking back down at his hands.
"And I was wondering to myself today, with all those girls bothering me about stupid things," Sasuke went on, staring down at the floor; his long dark bangs hanging down in front of his eyes, "if I was ever going to meet - some, who's for me."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I mean, when I saw Shikamaru together with Ino today, I almost felt jealous of him - and I don't even like Ino."
"Yeah well," Naruto began quietly, "I'm jealous of you everyday." he confessed to his dark haired companion.
"Huh?" he looked back at Naruto questioningly.
"Girls follow you around constantly. To everyone you're like this, incredible, perfect, gorgeous, infallible, great, - oh, I don't even know!" he shook his head, searching for enough descriptive words to cover all the things he though Sasuke to be, "Sure most everybody likes me now, but, not the way they like you."
"What? I think you're way better then me." Sasuke confessed rather bluntly.
"What?"
"You actually care about people - and, you're not like other people either. You're my only real friend you know that?"
"Seriously?"
"Uh huh. Everyone else makes me feel, well, I don't know - sort of empty." he shrugged, "When I woke up this morning I was dreading today. Dreading the way everyone would want to be around me; and yet, I didn't want to be alone either. But then I saw you again, and I felt really happy. You don't make me feel the way everyone else does. I actually wanna be around you."
"That's good," Naruto smiled at him, "cuz, I wanna be around you too."
Naruto looked up at him hesitantly, his spiky blond hair hanging heavily around his face casting yet deeper shadows across his, pseudo-whisker-marked, face.
"Sasuke,"
"Yeah?"
Naruto looked back down at his hands as he shuffled closer to him.
"I was sorta wondering if," but he stopped.
"Wondering what?"
"If,"
"?"
"If you wanted to stay here, tonight."
Sasuke was quiet a moment.
"Sure." he nodded.
They didn't move for a long time, sitting there in the dark, both hearing the sounds of their own hearts beating quickly in their chest. The quiet, constant, whir of the fan the only sound audible to them both.
Their knees and shoulders touching, they both stared down at their hands sitting on the thighs, their knucks brushing ever so lightly against one anothers.
"I really did miss you." Naruto finally whispered quietly turning back to Sasuke again, their faces so close he could feel Sasuke's breath on his skin.
"I missed you too." he agreed.
Then - Naruto leaned toward him, and touched his lips ever so lightly to Sasuke's; so gently even, that it was more of a subtle brush then a kiss. Both tensely unsure of themselves they sat their a moment, eyes closed, foreheads and noses pressed lightly together. But neither could resist, and they both found themselves leaning forward to pressing their lips firmly against the others.
It was as if electricity was running through their bodies as they held there, for nearly a minute, the feeling of the contact between them so incredibly intense.
Breaking their kiss, both boys blinked at one another, feeling their faces flush and their throats tighten. Their eyes met and lingered a long time, both seeming to wonder what the other was thinking. Their hands found one anothers and their fingers intertwined, locking neatly together.
Tentatively, Naruto reached up and brushed his hand against Sasuke's pale cheek, to which Sasuke responded by leaned his head towards Naruto's hand, closing his eyes as Naruto ran his fingers through the damp hair at the back of Sasuke's neck.
Their lips met again and they both reached for each others waists, wanting to feel the other boys body close to their own. Leaning back into Sasuke's corner of the couch Naruto held him tightly with one arm, the other one clutching at Sasuke's broad shoulder. Likewise, Sasuke pulled Naruto's chest tightly against his own, his arms holding firmly around the thin, blond boys back.
They could taste the salty sweat on each others mouths as their lips touched more firmly and assertively each time they met. Their hands wondered across each others skin emphatically - neither boy ever knowing this sort of desire in their life.
It was Naruto who's tongue first grazed the other boys lower lip; yet Sasuke didn't hesitate a moment to open his mouth to him and let his own tongue meet Naruto's. The taste of his saliva was distinctly that of ramen; the answer to a curious question which Sasuke's subconscious had asked many times before.
"Sasuke," Naruto whispered softly to him.
"Yeah."
"Happy birthday."
***
To be continued -
******
Ichigo: SECOND CHAPTER - END!
Sakura-kun: **SCARY FAN GIRL SQUEEL**
Ichigo: must you?
Sakura-kun: *SQUEEL*
So, I hope that went as well as I was hoping it would. ^^ There's more to come, but you'll have to wait cuz there's still a lot of things left to throw into the mix! Review if you can, cuz I love hearing what you've got to say! Third chapter still to come!
What to expect in later chapters - Sasuke and Naruto are called out to reform their old team for a rather unusual mission - while keeping their recent encounters under wraps. Sasuke receives a mysterious gift, and a run in with someone who knows more bout him then they should shakes up everything - including all of Konoha.
(Oh yeah! And we have to thank Trish for het help with posting these chapters! Cuz without her we'd NEVER have been able to post this story at all! Thanx TRISH!!! ^^)