Title: Shift of Gravity

Author: Dea Draconis

Pairing: Sasunaru

Rating: T

Disclaimer: Naruto is official property of Kishimoto Masashi-sensei and poor fangirl me could do nothing else than to temporarily kidnap them, tie them up and let them have their wicked way… but I assure you they will be home safely by midnight!;D So, no harm is being done, no profit is being made and the fangirls are still happy! Yay!

Author's Note: To Uzumaki Naruto. Happy birthday.


:Shift of Gravity:

If someone would've asked him, he'd said yes of course he liked Sakura-chan.

After all how could he not? Sakura was everything a girl should be (besides her sometimes extremely... violent personality), sweet, cute, full of laughter and romantic dreams. Like the flower she was named after, she bloomed in the richest shades of pink pastel, soft and pretty and awakened the urge to stop and just watch this beautiful blossom, to drink in the rich colours of her petals.

Her spring-green eyes could shine like the sun between the cherry tree leaves and whenever a small chuckle escaped her, Naruto imagined he could hear the wind rustling between the branches. Her grace rivalled the one of a petal tumbling gracefully to the ground when her light pink hair fell into her face and revealed a bit of the soft and pale neck line, arching into her lovely cheek bones.

Yes, Sakura was indeed beautiful and everything one should desire in a girl so Naruto couldn't quite explain to himself why his attention was always drawn away from her charming sight like the gravity of the natural order of things was suddenly shifted and only came to rest when his eyes found the dark, ominous presence of his other team mate.

Their looks would cross; Sasuke would impassively stare back, daring him to turn his eyes away again, sometimes giving him one of those superior smirks Naruto resented so much. Really he didn't get. Alright, Naruto knew that he wasn't the brightest light illuminating the universe but he wasn't that stupid. He knew that cute girls belonged to cool guys like him and that it was natural for man and woman to get together.

But still.

Apparently Sasuke was really that mighty that he could mysteriously conquer laws nature had invented in the wicked brain of hers before humankind had even thought about existing, let alone things like reproduction, or he just didn't care. Probably the latter.

That didn't mean that Naruto understood. Understood the reason why something inside his chest would always give just the lightest squeeze when he beheld sight of his dark-haired team mate, usually scowling at one thing or another. It was foolish really, he told his brain, heart whatever was responsible for the fact that even though no matter how much Iruka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura and his other friends mattered to him, Sasuke always mattered just a bit more. Whether it was it training, missions, going out together as Team 7 or just raw competition, it was always Sasuke his eyes sought first, feeling like he could not be entirely satisfied with the situation until he could spot the black tuft and felt the slight flicker of recognition flash through the midnight-black eyes.

Naruto couldn't explain it to himself but Sasuke's Mood of the Day (as he had secretly entitled the Uchiha's difficult personality traits) always seemed to influence him as well. It could be decided in a matter of seconds in which Sasuke would either sneer down at him and call him a useless idiot and a loser or just lift the corner of his lips a bit until there was the mere presentiment of a smile that never quite came but Naruto knew was there, hovering just beneath the surface of the Uchiha's stoic mask, that would either make or ruin his day. It was only Sasuke who could reach for the strong walls he had build around his heart where a little boy with bright sunny hair and deep pools of azure would still be crying from time to time when the older one couldn't, and break them down with just a mere reaction. Just the blink of an eye lid and Naruto would feel his body glowing with pride, stilling the desperate need of acknowledgment or making him wail and tear up inside because it had been refused to be given.

The mess of emotions waging inside Naruto would more than often confuse him in more ways than he liked to admit as the heated feeling of rivalry fought fervently against the untameable craving to be friends with the lonesome dark-haired boy. To get close to him and beyond the masks and indifference which always covered Sasuke's face. More than often he found himself staring at Sasuke, his eyes shaded in a colour of deep contemplating, unconsciously drawing the outlines of how Sasuke's shirt melted into his neck line or how his raven hair would cover his cheeks, looking like it was nuzzling the pale skin carefully. Sometimes the Uchiha would catch him gazing at him and gave him a strange look in reply; sometimes Sasuke would stare back at him for the matter of a heart beat only to turn away quickly and start to beat the living daylights out of a training dummy seconds later. Most times Naruto was careful though, not to get caught, be it the dark-haired boy or Sakura and Kakashi. It was after all, not appropriate for a brazen and loud boy like him to go off and stare at your team mates, which were your biggest rival and the closest thing to a friend you ever had.

But in spite of all this, this still didn't keep his heart from eagerly leaping one step ahead or two and his stomach from pleasantly-painfully contracting whenever he forgot to keep himself from watching his friend for too long, didn't keep him from allowing dangerous thoughts like "If I just could…" and "What would be if I…" rising to the surface of his mind.

So one day, when Sasuke straight on walked up to him and before Naruto even had the chance to answer the intensive glare in the dark-haired boy's eyes with a "What's the matter bastard!", shoved him against a tree in the training grounds and suddenly, the world spun so violently in it's axis that Naruto felt dizzy, but this also could be because of this warm and demanding mouth covering his own and the ardent tongue licking against his lips hungrily like fire on dried wood. It felt strangely familiar this touch, this kiss between them and when Naruto couldn't hold back the low moan because this was Sasuke, this scent, this touch, this feeling, so entirely Sasuke, so close when he had been so far all the time and when Naruto felt a hand grasping his hair, clinging to it like Naruto would disappear the second the Uchiha let go everything suddenly clicked into place. Had Sasuke not pressing him against the tree, Naruto was sure, he would have fallen to the ground like a puppet that suddenly had snapped his strings off and found itself breathing and existing and living for the first time.

The answer was so surprisingly simple, so simple and yet so difficult that Naruto was sure, he would have needed another lifetime until he had figured it out. But fortunately there was Sasuke, ingenious and powerful and maybe a tad more intelligent than Naruto (not that he would admit that openly. Ever.) and right now he did the things Naruto's heart had been craving for all along, hidden behind painful lurches and tender but determined rises of pulses, securely tucked under carefully covered stares and loud insults.

The little boy inside him lifted his head, glancing at the other young dark boy in front of him, his tear-streaked face eyeing him cautiously as the boy just stood before him, silent and motionless like the sea on a windless day, looking just as lonely and left-behind as he did.

A hand caught in another, grasping, pressing fingers urgently against pale skin, imprinting crescent-shaped scratches into places where no one else had ever had the chance to and never should be again and blue skies and midnight darkness searching desperately for some answer to this strange pull, this unfamiliar attraction, this total shift of everything that was right and wrong because if this was wrong would there ever be a thing that was right? Naruto didn't know and when he was totally honest with himself couldn't even start to bring himself to care. It was just like this, Sasuke and Naruto, lone boy and demon boy, admired genius and forever despised dead-last, rival and friend, love and hatred in all odd and wondrous forms, you and me. Just like this.

A tiny hand closed trembling over the other one, pale and just as small. Carefully, they smiled.


:Fin:

#gives chocolate cake to everyone who finished reading#