First things first. I forgot to thank Ookima last chapter for being my
500th reviewer! I'm so proud. There. Done.
Wow... I can't believe I made it to chapter 40. and it's going to have a bit of sexual innuendo, too! Okay... less talk... more typing...
Chapter Title: 40. Touch of Insanity
A week and a half went by and Naruto was still with Sasuke. They had spent a lot of time talking about everything and nothing and they seemed to get a lot closer, even though Sasuke was still the only one who knew the details of Naruto's current lack of body. There were often times when he wondered to himself whether he'd gone mad or Naruto was telling him the truth, but it was always the occasional sight of chakra being used, or the feel of said chakra gliding across his skin that reminded him otherwise.
He sighed, staring listlessly at the ceiling of his room, tracing the cracks in it with his eyes. The sun was starting to set and the red glow of the dying light was beginning to make the bare ceiling look a lot more appealing.
He didn't need to look down to know where his rival was, he could feel the familiar touch of chakra dancing in circles across his exposed abdomen. He closed his eyes, enjoying the contact. He'd told Naruto a couple of days earlier of his fears of going insane, and actually requested that occasional tap on the shoulder or poke in the ribs or caress across the cheek to remind him of his sanity.
"And she's been checking up on me constantly." He growled. "It's worse than when you brought me back from Orochimaru."
"I know." Naruto replied softly, exhaustion starting to settle in from using his chakra all day. He lay his head down on the bed, beside Sasuke's hips and continued tracing patterns on the bare skin, grinning at the boy's complaints.
"It's even gotten so bad that she's ignoring Lee."
"It's too bad, though. You would have thought by the first thousand 'daijoubu' replies she would have gotten the message. She must think you're a wreck. Either that or you're keeping it bottled up."
"I know. I wish she'd just get off my back for two seconds and let me breath." Naruto silently agreed and dragged the strand of chakra down to the hipbone farthest from him and traced a line from one to the other, just barely above the hem of his boxer shorts.
A stifled moan startled him out of his sluggish haze and he looked up to his rival's face, wondering if he'd hurt him. His eyes were shut tightly, but the briefest of smiles was fixed there as well, turning the corners of his mouth slightly. He was confused at first, but looked back to where his finger was frozen over Sasuke's other hipbone and realization dawned over his features.
He continued moving his fingers along Sasuke's side, up and down both arms and back to his hips, before allowing them to venture down to Sasuke's kneecaps and back up again. Again, Naruto watched as the Uchiha stifled moans and whimpers at his touch, not knowing that Naruto could see everything he was forcing down. The fox grinned mischievously and chuckled to himself knowing that now he had Sasuke at the mercy of his touches.
He continued his ministrations on Sasuke's legs and up his thighs until Sasuke suddenly gasped aloud and his eyes shot open.
"Yamero!" Sasuke hissed through his teeth, trying to calm his hitched breathing. "No more."
"Doushite?"
"I don't like you touching me like that." Sasuke replied, biting his tongue from replying in a way that might give away his true thoughts. Naruto rolled his eyes, forgetting Sasuke couldn't see him.
"I thought you asked me to touch you... why can't I touch you there? It doesn't hurt, does it?" His voice emitted a mocking challenge.
"No..." Sasuke trailed off, wondering how to word it. "It doesn't hurt at all. That's just it. It feels TOO good."
"I thought that was the point." Naruto purred, laughter in his voice. Sasuke growled a curse at his rival and rolled away from him, to face the other side.
"I don't want us to go down that road." He exclaimed, huffing in mock anger. Naruto frowned, but didn't miss the shifting of Sasuke's legs to get comfortable. He smirked to himself and a feeling of triumph washed over him. It was surprising to learn the effect his chakra was having on his friend's body.
"Fine." He whispered and left the room.
***
Later on in the night, Lee looked up through the leaves of the forest and smiled up at the moonlight. It was just bright enough for him to see what he was doing. Spinning around, he landed another kick on the nearest tree. He had been practicing every chance he got, and occasionally even had Neji out working with him, but he still had a slight limp. He didn't mind it much, and was just thankful he was able to fight again and that the operation had been a success. The only thing he was beginning to get frustrated with was Tsunade-hime's adamant refusal to allow him to take missions, though he was able to mask his frustrations quite well from everyone else.
He took another swing at the tree trunk and smiled to himself, enjoying the peace and quiet of being alone. He was just mulling over that thought when he felt eyes in the shadows of the forest watching him. He paused for a second, wondering if there were enemies watching him before remembering his limp prevented him form being a worthy target. He sighed softly and continued training, all the time aware to the single set of eyes completely focused on his movements.
After a while the figure stepped out of the shadows. Lee turned around suddenly and was startled at who it was.
"Sakura!" He exclaimed. "What are you doing out so late at night?" He walked over to her, keeping her gaze, but her eyes dropped after a second, ashamed with herself.
"I may not have liked him, but I did love him and now he'll never know I cared." She cried. He frowned at her outburst. She ignored the look he was giving her and continued. "He died and his last memory of me is being in bed with you." He chuckled softly and pulled her into his arms. "He'll never know I loved him."
"Of course he knew." He shook his head. "He always knew."
They remained that way for a few minutes, before Sakura pulled away suddenly. She'd had her face buried in Lee's shoulder and she stared at the wet spot from her tears that was left on his sweater.
"Do you think I'm a horrible person because I'm in your arms now and yet still in love with someone else?" She asked. Lee frowned and shook his head in response.
"You're not." He said. "I'll always be there with open arms whenever you need me, regardless of if you return my feelings or not."
"Gomen nas-"
"It was almost three months ago." He interrupted. "You don't need to keep apologizing to me."
"I don't think Kakashi-sensei or Sasuke-kun will ever forgive me enough, Sasuke especially. How can you stand having to start over from scratch when everything around you is so tense?" He looked down at his once injured leg. He offered a smile.
"It's hard." He replied. "I had a really tough time, but I had friends to lean on, Neji and TenTen. Plus Gai-sensei is the coolest!" She snickered at his attempts to lighten the mood. Reaching up on her toes, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek and a tight squeeze before leaving for home.
"Arigatou!" She called over her shoulder. "Ja mata!"
"Ja ne!" He replied, his night being considerably brightened.
***
In the morning, Naruto had woken up early and was impatiently waiting for Sasuke to wake up. At the first sign of movement, he pounced on his rival and began poking him mercilessly until he declared he was awake.
"Sasuke, I'm bored!" He whined. "Don't you have any missions or something?"
"It's not even nine and you're bored already?" Sasuke yawned. "We don't have any missions today, which is why I had planned to sleep in, dobe!" Naruto huffed and poked the other boy in the side again.
"But I thought you said we did." Sasuke looked up, confused for a second before his eyes shot open wide with realisation.
"Shit, I forgot!" He leapt out of bed and ran towards his closet. "You were supposed to wake me up!"
"I did."
"You were supposed to wake me ON TIME!" Sasuke rephrased.
"It's not my fault you weren't specific enough." He heard Naruto laughing at his frustration and decided to ignore him for a second to get ready for his mission. Pulling out a shirt and a pair of shorts he walked briskly towards the washroom.
"You stay here while I change." He commanded, not entirely trusting of Naruto after the previous night. Naruto rolled his eyes. "I saw that." Sasuke called over his shoulder. Naruto's eyes widened in surprise and he stuck out his tongue at the back of Sasuke's head. Just before Sasuke closed the door behind him, he snorted and looked over his shoulder.
"I saw that too."
"Stupid bastard." Naruto grumbled loud enough for Sasuke to hear through the door.
***
They walked up to Kakashi, who was sitting on the railing of the bridge, reading from a little sheet of paper. He looked up at Sasuke's footsteps and nodded briefly, shoving the paper in his pocket.
"I know you've not been yourself lately since Naruto's death, so I think maybe you should take a little more time off away from missions." He exclaimed, standing up tall and clapping a hand on the genin's shoulder. Sasuke frowned and brushed it off.
"I'm perfectly fine."
"You say this now, but Naruto hasn't been gone for too long, and we all know how hard you took his death." Sasuke narrowed his eyes and his cheeks warmed. Kakashi continued on, unaware. "No body would fault you if you took off another couple of days."
"I would fault myself." Kakashi studied his student for a moment before sighing and nodding.
"I've already split up the missions between me and Sakura, but I have heard word that people are starting to wonder when Naruto's apartment is going to be sold. Thought you might make it your personal mission to check into it." Sasuke nodded, frowning to himself. "Oh, and Iruka is already there, sorting through some of his things." Kakashi added.
"What do you want me to do about it?" Sasuke asked, frowning slightly.
"Naruto's home is probably going to go on sale soon, along with all of his things, so if there was anything you wanted to save from the auction, you might want to head down there." Even though he couldn't see him, the Uchiha knew his friend was panicking.
"I don't want to lose my things." Naruto whispered softly into his ear. Sasuke nodded again to Kakashi and walked off in the direction of Naruto's apartment without any further words.
***
When they got to the apartment, both boys were surprised to find Iruka struggling with the lock on Naruto's hidden room.
"Sasuke!" Iruka said when he spotted the boy.
"What are you doing?"
"This room won't open, no matter what I do." He nodded to the cursed door. "I think it might be either jammed or locked, but I haven't figured out where the key is yet." Sasuke walked up to the door and studied the frame for a moment.
"Could it be sealed with chakra?"
"It could, but then the seal would have been dissolved at Naruto's death." Sasuke turned around and stared at the man.
"But if he wasn't dead then the seal would still be working?" He asked. Iruka stopped and thought about it for a second.
"Yeah, it would, but Naruto isn't alive anymore. You've heard some of the reports about the Kyuubi's rampage through the forests nearby. Naruto wouldn't allow that to happen if he was alive."
"But what if he isn't with the Kyuubi?"
"Why are you pushing this subject?" Iruka questioned, looking at the young boy curiously. "It's been almost a month. You shouldn't still be in denial."
"I'm not in denial." Sasuke spat back. "I was just thinking of all the possibilities. You forget that that grave is still empty." Iruka sighed and walked to the door.
"Believe what you want, but you're only making it harder on yourself." He hesitated, raising his hand to the doorknob. "I'd like you to avoid saying such things while I'm present. I don't like getting my hopes up, and I want to move on. I can't stand living in mourning for all of my life." He left, not allowing Sasuke the chance to protest.
"You should have revealed yourself to him as well." He said to the empty room.
"He's already lost so many things, and I wouldn't want to hurt him by making him think he was insane." Naruto replied. "You remember how you felt. I'm not very well going to waste my chakra convincing Iruka-niisan that I'm alive too. It'll be too much strain to split myself up between you two. Plus, you saw him. He's doing okay now." Sasuke sighed in defeat and looked back to the door.
"Is it sealed?" He asked.
"Yes."
"Open it."
"No."
"Why not?"
"I believe we've had this discussion before."
"What's behind this door that is so secret that you have to keep it from even me?"
"Let's just call it the skeletons of my closet." Sasuke turned around. "Please just leave it be." He nodded and scanned the room.
"What will you do if they do put this apartment on auction?" There was silence.
"Naruto?"
"I won't lose much, I suppose." He replied. A picture taped to the wall floated off, and Sasuke immediately knew where his rival was. He walked closer and looked over the invisible shoulder at the photo. It was him and Kashiya from the forest, taken by Konohamaru.
"You kept this?" The picture moved up and down in, what Sasuke assumed was a nod. He was surprised to see the scene from another perspective. Him and Kashiya looked so...
"We look so peaceful." Sasuke took a step back and shook his head.
"That wasn't you, Naruto. It was Kashiya." He denied.
"That's not true, asshole." Naruto's voice sounded defensive. "I was Kashiya, or did you forget?"
"In my mind you were someone else. You weren't my stupid rival."
"And you weren't a cold unfeeling bastard." Sasuke huffed and turned his back to his rival and the picture. There wasn't much he could do when Naruto was upset like that.
Suddenly he felt a shiver run down his spine and he realised that Naruto was using his chakra to run strands of chakra under his shirt, down his back. Sasuke tensed, realising that Naruto was angry about something other than his denial. He wouldn't have gotten so worked up over something so slight.
"Naruto." He whispered, meaning for it to come out strong and commanding. It came out so soft, it was practically a moan. "Yamero." He added, not making much difference. Naruto continued his teasing, moving the chakra along his sides and around to the boy's abdomen, tracing their way along each muscle.
Sasuke moved quickly, picking up the picture from where Naruto had dropped it to the floor and stuck it back to the wall.
"Why are you running?" Naruto asked, his voice so low it brought an involuntary shiver to the back of his rival's neck. Sasuke rested his hands against the wall and gritted his teeth, feeling the chakra again on his skin. This time it was touching him everywhere.
"I'm not running from anything, dobe." He hissed through his clenched teeth. "I already told you I don't want you touching me like that." Naruto laughed and his chakra began to move up and down Sasuke's thighs, slowly.
"You're such a spoil sport." Naruto chuckled, blowing a wisp of chakra across the other boy's neck. "I'm the one who doesn't have a body. At least allow me this one little bit of fun." But the breath was too much for Sasuke's senses and he dashed to the bathroom, slamming and locking the door behind him. Naruto laughed at the futile attempt at keeping him out, listening to Sasuke's curses through the door.
"You do know the door won't stop me." He called.
"Don't you dare come in here, dobe." Sasuke warned. "Why are you doing this to me? You do know you're wearing down my patience, ne? You should be lucky I'll even talk to you with all the crap you're pulling on me." Naruto let out a huff of breath, but avoided the question. He either couldn't figure it out himself, or he refused to admit it.
~~~~~~~
Wow... so long. This ended up being eight pages long. Eek. Well... I'm sure someone out there will be pleased with this. Okay, so this wasn't exactly as limey as I was thinking, but so far nothing has been as extreme as I thought it would be. I'm still keeping going to raise it to an R rating though, because from now on it will start to get a little... raunchier. I'm also going to see if I can space out a little bit of Sasuke's torture.
To Teki Star... TEKI STAR!!! There... that's twice you're name's been mentioned. I'm glad you're enjoying this story.
To Athea: how's that for more Naruto x Sasuke moments? No? You want more? Okay!!! ^_^... yes, I plan on making a ton more, so no worries on that.
To Lemmings12: Hm... I'm actually starting to lose my creative juices... I need to keep working on the notes... maybe I'll figure out some more mischief Naruto can have before he has to go back to his body.
To Muchacha: Yeah, Sasuke would be angry, but he's sort of getting over the fact that his best friend (and secret crush) is NOT dead... as you can hopefully see he's gotten over that quickly enough.
To Dearest: HAI!!! Naruto wa sugoi mo desu. Kono shounen wa ore no ichiban bishounen da! (here's hoping that second sentence makes sense... heh heh)
To The La/=/er: I've actually stopped looking at my numbers... they're to high for me to even think about seriously. I actually enjoy reading them more. Quality over quantity.
Wow... I can't believe I made it to chapter 40. and it's going to have a bit of sexual innuendo, too! Okay... less talk... more typing...
Chapter Title: 40. Touch of Insanity
A week and a half went by and Naruto was still with Sasuke. They had spent a lot of time talking about everything and nothing and they seemed to get a lot closer, even though Sasuke was still the only one who knew the details of Naruto's current lack of body. There were often times when he wondered to himself whether he'd gone mad or Naruto was telling him the truth, but it was always the occasional sight of chakra being used, or the feel of said chakra gliding across his skin that reminded him otherwise.
He sighed, staring listlessly at the ceiling of his room, tracing the cracks in it with his eyes. The sun was starting to set and the red glow of the dying light was beginning to make the bare ceiling look a lot more appealing.
He didn't need to look down to know where his rival was, he could feel the familiar touch of chakra dancing in circles across his exposed abdomen. He closed his eyes, enjoying the contact. He'd told Naruto a couple of days earlier of his fears of going insane, and actually requested that occasional tap on the shoulder or poke in the ribs or caress across the cheek to remind him of his sanity.
"And she's been checking up on me constantly." He growled. "It's worse than when you brought me back from Orochimaru."
"I know." Naruto replied softly, exhaustion starting to settle in from using his chakra all day. He lay his head down on the bed, beside Sasuke's hips and continued tracing patterns on the bare skin, grinning at the boy's complaints.
"It's even gotten so bad that she's ignoring Lee."
"It's too bad, though. You would have thought by the first thousand 'daijoubu' replies she would have gotten the message. She must think you're a wreck. Either that or you're keeping it bottled up."
"I know. I wish she'd just get off my back for two seconds and let me breath." Naruto silently agreed and dragged the strand of chakra down to the hipbone farthest from him and traced a line from one to the other, just barely above the hem of his boxer shorts.
A stifled moan startled him out of his sluggish haze and he looked up to his rival's face, wondering if he'd hurt him. His eyes were shut tightly, but the briefest of smiles was fixed there as well, turning the corners of his mouth slightly. He was confused at first, but looked back to where his finger was frozen over Sasuke's other hipbone and realization dawned over his features.
He continued moving his fingers along Sasuke's side, up and down both arms and back to his hips, before allowing them to venture down to Sasuke's kneecaps and back up again. Again, Naruto watched as the Uchiha stifled moans and whimpers at his touch, not knowing that Naruto could see everything he was forcing down. The fox grinned mischievously and chuckled to himself knowing that now he had Sasuke at the mercy of his touches.
He continued his ministrations on Sasuke's legs and up his thighs until Sasuke suddenly gasped aloud and his eyes shot open.
"Yamero!" Sasuke hissed through his teeth, trying to calm his hitched breathing. "No more."
"Doushite?"
"I don't like you touching me like that." Sasuke replied, biting his tongue from replying in a way that might give away his true thoughts. Naruto rolled his eyes, forgetting Sasuke couldn't see him.
"I thought you asked me to touch you... why can't I touch you there? It doesn't hurt, does it?" His voice emitted a mocking challenge.
"No..." Sasuke trailed off, wondering how to word it. "It doesn't hurt at all. That's just it. It feels TOO good."
"I thought that was the point." Naruto purred, laughter in his voice. Sasuke growled a curse at his rival and rolled away from him, to face the other side.
"I don't want us to go down that road." He exclaimed, huffing in mock anger. Naruto frowned, but didn't miss the shifting of Sasuke's legs to get comfortable. He smirked to himself and a feeling of triumph washed over him. It was surprising to learn the effect his chakra was having on his friend's body.
"Fine." He whispered and left the room.
***
Later on in the night, Lee looked up through the leaves of the forest and smiled up at the moonlight. It was just bright enough for him to see what he was doing. Spinning around, he landed another kick on the nearest tree. He had been practicing every chance he got, and occasionally even had Neji out working with him, but he still had a slight limp. He didn't mind it much, and was just thankful he was able to fight again and that the operation had been a success. The only thing he was beginning to get frustrated with was Tsunade-hime's adamant refusal to allow him to take missions, though he was able to mask his frustrations quite well from everyone else.
He took another swing at the tree trunk and smiled to himself, enjoying the peace and quiet of being alone. He was just mulling over that thought when he felt eyes in the shadows of the forest watching him. He paused for a second, wondering if there were enemies watching him before remembering his limp prevented him form being a worthy target. He sighed softly and continued training, all the time aware to the single set of eyes completely focused on his movements.
After a while the figure stepped out of the shadows. Lee turned around suddenly and was startled at who it was.
"Sakura!" He exclaimed. "What are you doing out so late at night?" He walked over to her, keeping her gaze, but her eyes dropped after a second, ashamed with herself.
"I may not have liked him, but I did love him and now he'll never know I cared." She cried. He frowned at her outburst. She ignored the look he was giving her and continued. "He died and his last memory of me is being in bed with you." He chuckled softly and pulled her into his arms. "He'll never know I loved him."
"Of course he knew." He shook his head. "He always knew."
They remained that way for a few minutes, before Sakura pulled away suddenly. She'd had her face buried in Lee's shoulder and she stared at the wet spot from her tears that was left on his sweater.
"Do you think I'm a horrible person because I'm in your arms now and yet still in love with someone else?" She asked. Lee frowned and shook his head in response.
"You're not." He said. "I'll always be there with open arms whenever you need me, regardless of if you return my feelings or not."
"Gomen nas-"
"It was almost three months ago." He interrupted. "You don't need to keep apologizing to me."
"I don't think Kakashi-sensei or Sasuke-kun will ever forgive me enough, Sasuke especially. How can you stand having to start over from scratch when everything around you is so tense?" He looked down at his once injured leg. He offered a smile.
"It's hard." He replied. "I had a really tough time, but I had friends to lean on, Neji and TenTen. Plus Gai-sensei is the coolest!" She snickered at his attempts to lighten the mood. Reaching up on her toes, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek and a tight squeeze before leaving for home.
"Arigatou!" She called over her shoulder. "Ja mata!"
"Ja ne!" He replied, his night being considerably brightened.
***
In the morning, Naruto had woken up early and was impatiently waiting for Sasuke to wake up. At the first sign of movement, he pounced on his rival and began poking him mercilessly until he declared he was awake.
"Sasuke, I'm bored!" He whined. "Don't you have any missions or something?"
"It's not even nine and you're bored already?" Sasuke yawned. "We don't have any missions today, which is why I had planned to sleep in, dobe!" Naruto huffed and poked the other boy in the side again.
"But I thought you said we did." Sasuke looked up, confused for a second before his eyes shot open wide with realisation.
"Shit, I forgot!" He leapt out of bed and ran towards his closet. "You were supposed to wake me up!"
"I did."
"You were supposed to wake me ON TIME!" Sasuke rephrased.
"It's not my fault you weren't specific enough." He heard Naruto laughing at his frustration and decided to ignore him for a second to get ready for his mission. Pulling out a shirt and a pair of shorts he walked briskly towards the washroom.
"You stay here while I change." He commanded, not entirely trusting of Naruto after the previous night. Naruto rolled his eyes. "I saw that." Sasuke called over his shoulder. Naruto's eyes widened in surprise and he stuck out his tongue at the back of Sasuke's head. Just before Sasuke closed the door behind him, he snorted and looked over his shoulder.
"I saw that too."
"Stupid bastard." Naruto grumbled loud enough for Sasuke to hear through the door.
***
They walked up to Kakashi, who was sitting on the railing of the bridge, reading from a little sheet of paper. He looked up at Sasuke's footsteps and nodded briefly, shoving the paper in his pocket.
"I know you've not been yourself lately since Naruto's death, so I think maybe you should take a little more time off away from missions." He exclaimed, standing up tall and clapping a hand on the genin's shoulder. Sasuke frowned and brushed it off.
"I'm perfectly fine."
"You say this now, but Naruto hasn't been gone for too long, and we all know how hard you took his death." Sasuke narrowed his eyes and his cheeks warmed. Kakashi continued on, unaware. "No body would fault you if you took off another couple of days."
"I would fault myself." Kakashi studied his student for a moment before sighing and nodding.
"I've already split up the missions between me and Sakura, but I have heard word that people are starting to wonder when Naruto's apartment is going to be sold. Thought you might make it your personal mission to check into it." Sasuke nodded, frowning to himself. "Oh, and Iruka is already there, sorting through some of his things." Kakashi added.
"What do you want me to do about it?" Sasuke asked, frowning slightly.
"Naruto's home is probably going to go on sale soon, along with all of his things, so if there was anything you wanted to save from the auction, you might want to head down there." Even though he couldn't see him, the Uchiha knew his friend was panicking.
"I don't want to lose my things." Naruto whispered softly into his ear. Sasuke nodded again to Kakashi and walked off in the direction of Naruto's apartment without any further words.
***
When they got to the apartment, both boys were surprised to find Iruka struggling with the lock on Naruto's hidden room.
"Sasuke!" Iruka said when he spotted the boy.
"What are you doing?"
"This room won't open, no matter what I do." He nodded to the cursed door. "I think it might be either jammed or locked, but I haven't figured out where the key is yet." Sasuke walked up to the door and studied the frame for a moment.
"Could it be sealed with chakra?"
"It could, but then the seal would have been dissolved at Naruto's death." Sasuke turned around and stared at the man.
"But if he wasn't dead then the seal would still be working?" He asked. Iruka stopped and thought about it for a second.
"Yeah, it would, but Naruto isn't alive anymore. You've heard some of the reports about the Kyuubi's rampage through the forests nearby. Naruto wouldn't allow that to happen if he was alive."
"But what if he isn't with the Kyuubi?"
"Why are you pushing this subject?" Iruka questioned, looking at the young boy curiously. "It's been almost a month. You shouldn't still be in denial."
"I'm not in denial." Sasuke spat back. "I was just thinking of all the possibilities. You forget that that grave is still empty." Iruka sighed and walked to the door.
"Believe what you want, but you're only making it harder on yourself." He hesitated, raising his hand to the doorknob. "I'd like you to avoid saying such things while I'm present. I don't like getting my hopes up, and I want to move on. I can't stand living in mourning for all of my life." He left, not allowing Sasuke the chance to protest.
"You should have revealed yourself to him as well." He said to the empty room.
"He's already lost so many things, and I wouldn't want to hurt him by making him think he was insane." Naruto replied. "You remember how you felt. I'm not very well going to waste my chakra convincing Iruka-niisan that I'm alive too. It'll be too much strain to split myself up between you two. Plus, you saw him. He's doing okay now." Sasuke sighed in defeat and looked back to the door.
"Is it sealed?" He asked.
"Yes."
"Open it."
"No."
"Why not?"
"I believe we've had this discussion before."
"What's behind this door that is so secret that you have to keep it from even me?"
"Let's just call it the skeletons of my closet." Sasuke turned around. "Please just leave it be." He nodded and scanned the room.
"What will you do if they do put this apartment on auction?" There was silence.
"Naruto?"
"I won't lose much, I suppose." He replied. A picture taped to the wall floated off, and Sasuke immediately knew where his rival was. He walked closer and looked over the invisible shoulder at the photo. It was him and Kashiya from the forest, taken by Konohamaru.
"You kept this?" The picture moved up and down in, what Sasuke assumed was a nod. He was surprised to see the scene from another perspective. Him and Kashiya looked so...
"We look so peaceful." Sasuke took a step back and shook his head.
"That wasn't you, Naruto. It was Kashiya." He denied.
"That's not true, asshole." Naruto's voice sounded defensive. "I was Kashiya, or did you forget?"
"In my mind you were someone else. You weren't my stupid rival."
"And you weren't a cold unfeeling bastard." Sasuke huffed and turned his back to his rival and the picture. There wasn't much he could do when Naruto was upset like that.
Suddenly he felt a shiver run down his spine and he realised that Naruto was using his chakra to run strands of chakra under his shirt, down his back. Sasuke tensed, realising that Naruto was angry about something other than his denial. He wouldn't have gotten so worked up over something so slight.
"Naruto." He whispered, meaning for it to come out strong and commanding. It came out so soft, it was practically a moan. "Yamero." He added, not making much difference. Naruto continued his teasing, moving the chakra along his sides and around to the boy's abdomen, tracing their way along each muscle.
Sasuke moved quickly, picking up the picture from where Naruto had dropped it to the floor and stuck it back to the wall.
"Why are you running?" Naruto asked, his voice so low it brought an involuntary shiver to the back of his rival's neck. Sasuke rested his hands against the wall and gritted his teeth, feeling the chakra again on his skin. This time it was touching him everywhere.
"I'm not running from anything, dobe." He hissed through his clenched teeth. "I already told you I don't want you touching me like that." Naruto laughed and his chakra began to move up and down Sasuke's thighs, slowly.
"You're such a spoil sport." Naruto chuckled, blowing a wisp of chakra across the other boy's neck. "I'm the one who doesn't have a body. At least allow me this one little bit of fun." But the breath was too much for Sasuke's senses and he dashed to the bathroom, slamming and locking the door behind him. Naruto laughed at the futile attempt at keeping him out, listening to Sasuke's curses through the door.
"You do know the door won't stop me." He called.
"Don't you dare come in here, dobe." Sasuke warned. "Why are you doing this to me? You do know you're wearing down my patience, ne? You should be lucky I'll even talk to you with all the crap you're pulling on me." Naruto let out a huff of breath, but avoided the question. He either couldn't figure it out himself, or he refused to admit it.
~~~~~~~
Wow... so long. This ended up being eight pages long. Eek. Well... I'm sure someone out there will be pleased with this. Okay, so this wasn't exactly as limey as I was thinking, but so far nothing has been as extreme as I thought it would be. I'm still keeping going to raise it to an R rating though, because from now on it will start to get a little... raunchier. I'm also going to see if I can space out a little bit of Sasuke's torture.
To Teki Star... TEKI STAR!!! There... that's twice you're name's been mentioned. I'm glad you're enjoying this story.
To Athea: how's that for more Naruto x Sasuke moments? No? You want more? Okay!!! ^_^... yes, I plan on making a ton more, so no worries on that.
To Lemmings12: Hm... I'm actually starting to lose my creative juices... I need to keep working on the notes... maybe I'll figure out some more mischief Naruto can have before he has to go back to his body.
To Muchacha: Yeah, Sasuke would be angry, but he's sort of getting over the fact that his best friend (and secret crush) is NOT dead... as you can hopefully see he's gotten over that quickly enough.
To Dearest: HAI!!! Naruto wa sugoi mo desu. Kono shounen wa ore no ichiban bishounen da! (here's hoping that second sentence makes sense... heh heh)
To The La/=/er: I've actually stopped looking at my numbers... they're to high for me to even think about seriously. I actually enjoy reading them more. Quality over quantity.