Enjoy!

The Long Way Home

Part 7

Cashed Up

Chapter 2/3

True to his word, the very next morning they hunted around a few weapons stores until they found a katana that Sasuke liked. It put a bigger dent in their pockets than either of them had expected, but they still had plenty left over and now with at least one of them armed they felt a little more relaxed than before.

Well, Sasuke did, with Naruto it was hard to tell. Since finding out that this country wasn't like the last one, Naruto seemed to have little fear of their surroundings. It probably came from a long used to mindset that he was stronger than most anyone anyway and losing his chakra hadn't seemed to teach him otherwise.

But Sasuke was acutely aware of his own shortcomings now. Not that he thought he had much to fear from everyday citizenry, he was still a vastly skilled fighter chakra or no. But having only physical prowess, no matter how good he was and having nothing left to fall back on made him feel vulnerable.

He hated feeling vulnerable.

It did occur to him that Naruto had worked this out for himself. There was really no clear reason to arm Sasuke at present. All it did was eat up their money and give Sasuke some sense of calm about their predicament. Naruto might be a moron sometimes as far as Sasuke was concerned but he could be inconveniently insightful sometimes too and Sasuke wondered whether Naruto wanting to get a sword for Sasuke was just to give his companion a greater sense of peace and control than he had before rather than actually feeling any sort of danger.

Sasuke hated to admit it, but it had worked. Assuming the dobe had done this for him of course.

Though perhaps he was just giving Naruto a little too much credit

They had only planned on staying in this village for the night and heading out today but sword hunting had taken up the better part of their morning and Sasuke was weighing up the pros and cons on moving on or spending another night with a bed and hot water. Naruto meanwhile was looking around him as the village was setting up bunting for some kind of town festival with a look in his eye that told Sasuke he was thinking about staying too.

"Sasuke..." Naruto began eventually.

"Fine," Sasuke cut him off. "One more night, but then we have to go."

Naruto gave him a big smile. "Sasuke..."

"No."

"But I-"

"No."

"They're having-"

"No!"

Naruto's smile turned down a little at the corners and he turned forward, watching him out of the corner of his eye. "Fine, I'll check the festival out on my own. You're such a bring down you'd probably ruin it anyway."

Sasuke watched him try to be manipulative for a full minute. There was a festival on tonight and Naruto wanted him to come along. But knowing he couldn't tempt Sasuke with regular fun things he was trying to tempt him instead with the possibility of ruining Naruto's good time. And it might have worked if Naruto's attempts at deception weren't as see through as well polished glass.

"If you look at me like that for too much longer your eye will get stuck that way."

"It will not!" Naruto replied hotly looking away and rubbing his eyelid anyway for good measure.

"C'mon teme, they'll have games and stuff where you can show off and win at everything."

"No."

"So you're going to sit in our room all night and stare at the walls and be bored. Is that the master plan?"

Sasuke hadn't thought of that. While Naruto was off at the festival he'd have some rare alone time to do whatever he wanted. He didn't have to spend his time in their room.

"No."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Okay fine, be boring. I'm going to play games, eat great food and watch fireworks."

"Why do you care whether I come or not?"

At first, Naruto seemed perplexed by the question. "Well it's more fun going to a festival with someone else than on your own."

"Maybe you can pick up a date while you're there," Sasuke told him snidely.

"Well if you won't be my date, maybe I will!" Naruto thought about that for a moment. "That didn't come out the way I meant it to."

"Obviously."

When dusk came along the sounds of music could be heard echoing through the streets. Naruto left the room to go down to the festivities while Sasuke left the town entirely.

He didn't go far, just off into the surrounding fields where he could practice with his new katana in peace and get some exercise. He'd been worried lately that he hadn't been training enough and tonight gave him a good excuse to start training again.

He went through some warm-ups and then started on some drills, all the while he could hear the music and laughter of the festival kick into full gear in the distance.

He found the noise a little distracting though and after an hour he let his aching arms drop and stood and looked over at the glow of the town for a while. No doubt somewhere in there Naruto was busy stuffing his face and making a fool of himself.

Maybe after he was done training he could wander past the festival and see what the idiot was up to. Maybe annoy him a little before going back to the room for the night.

A cool breeze picked up and tugged at Sasuke's clothes and tossed his hair while he stood there contemplating it.

Of course he could go now, training could wait until tomorrow. It might even be easier training with someone to aim at.

Besides, Naruto might well be getting himself into trouble, he had a knack for it.

Sasuke sighed and let his head drop while he tried to work out what was wrong with him.

The way that Naruto's face lit up when he saw Sasuke almost made Sasuke turn around and leave again. But he didn't, he fixed Naruto with a deep scowl as the moron ran up to him and caught his arm.

"C'mon, the dancers are on soon and I don't want to miss it."

Naruto was acting like he'd known this would happen. It annoyed him more than the fact that he had let it happen. But what could he say at this point? Better to pretend that he'd known it all along and go with it than protest otherwise or get overly angry about it. He didn't want Naruto to think he'd won.

Sasuke even allowed himself to be steered off to an area where Naruto gestured for him to sit down on a log while he ran off again. Sasuke saw that the logs were set in a large ring. Inside the ring were a few small braziers for light where a few dancing girls in long flowing sapphire blue skirts were limbering up.

Naruto came back, depositing himself on the log next to Sasuke and handing him a bowl of something and a mug than smelt strongly of alcohol.

The food smelt pleasant enough but Sasuke eyed Naruto as he took a gulp out of his mug. After a moment he sipped at his own and then felt his throat begin to burn. He tried desperately not to cough which made his eyes water badly.

Naruto grinned at him. "Good, isn't it?"

"Moonshine," Sasuke muttered. "What the fuck is wrong with you? You could get drunk off this just by sniffing the fumes."

Naruto shrugged like it was no big deal. "It's just cider apparently. I've never really drunk before."

"Because you aren't old enough," Sasuke pointed out.

"I don't think they care here. C'mon Sasuke, loosen up. Have some fun!"

Sasuke just gave him a look.

But despite his objections, after he'd finished his food he did take a few more drinks out of his mug. It wasn't so bad after the first try and tasted faintly of apples.

They watched the dancing girls, Naruto occasionally clapped along with the rest of the crowd and Sasuke was vaguely aware at some point that Naruto left and came back with a full mug to replace both their empty ones.

Whatever the stuff he was drinking was it was pretty strong but since he'd started drinking he didn't want to stop at this point. Stopping now might give Naruto the impression that he couldn't handle it.

Besides as he got down through the second mug the pleasant apple flavor became stronger while the after-burn started to lessen.

He watched the girls dancing with a kind of focus that had less to do with what he was seeing and more to do with just letting his slightly fuzzy vision rest of something for a while. But as the girl he was watching started to drift closer he became aware that she was watching him right back. He tried looking at the ground after that but the girl twirling around in front of him seemed very intent on getting his focus back and he could hardly pretend not to notice her anymore.

She was pretty, he supposed, with dark chestnut hair and even darker eyes but the look on her face was annoying him. She was trying to flirt with him. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Naruto with an odd sort of worried amusement. It was almost like he was entertained at the girl's attempts to get Sasuke's attention but also worried that at some point he might have to rescue Sasuke, or the girl come to that.

Sasuke solved it for him by getting to his feet a little unsteadily and grabbing a fistful of Naruto's shirt and dragging both himself and his companion away. Naruto had to get up and follow or risk ending up flat on his back in the dirt.

A dozen or so steps away Naruto managed to pry Sasuke's fingers off his shirt and hanging onto those fingers, pull Sasuke to a stop.

"Hey teme, settle down. If I knew you were gonna get eye molested by the dancers we coulda left sooner. Doesn't mean we have to leave the whole thing yet."

"I've had enough," Sasuke told him looking down at Naruto's hand still holding his fingers loosely.

"Are you holding my hand?"

"No, I just haven't let go of it yet," Naruto answered like it didn't matter. "C'mon Sasuke, the fireworks'll be on soon."

"Fine, but not here."

On their way out of town, Naruto managed to get another couple of drinks as Sasuke led him up to the rise he'd been practicing on earlier. From here they had a fantastic view of the town and where the fireworks were supposed to be. The moon shed enough light that neither of them fell over while wandering over the dark fields. Sasuke sat down in the cool grass and Naruto sort of half fell/half sat beside him.

"You're drunk," Sasuke told him.

Expecting vehement refusals Sasuke was quite surprised to hear Naruto reply, "Yep. So are you."

Sasuke blinked a few times. "Probably."

Naruto peered into his mug. "What could someone do to an apple to make it into this?"

"A lot."

He didn't have a lot of experience with alcohol but he was pretty sure apples weren't meant to be flammable.

Naruto finished his mug and leaned back on his hands with a contented sigh. "I knew you'd come back."

Sasuke warmed himself up for a cutting reply but didn't voice it. Instead his alcohol infused brain instead chose to ask, "How?"

"I know you aren't the most fun loving guy in the world, but even you have to find some way to relax sometimes."

"Training relaxes me."

"Plus, I knew you'd get bored without me," Naruto continued as though he hadn't heard.

Had that been it, had Sasuke simply gotten bored being on his own again? It seemed unlikely since he was used to being alone prior to this. But just like Naruto had known he would, he turned up after a mere hour and gone searching for Naruto.

"Left alone you'd probably end up in jail again. That was enough of a pain the last time."

Naruto grinned at him and then the fireworks began. Sasuke watched Naruto's face as he stared up at the bursting colors of light in awe, mouth open, completely stupid look on his face and wondered if Naruto had been right about something else as well. Perhaps he did just need to relax. He'd spent so much of his life wound up into a tight ball of rage and hate that perhaps now it seemed like he was unwinding a little. It was almost like a tight little ache in his chest was slowly fading and he was left with the vague feeling of leaving something behind, but something he could perhaps live without.

He wondered if it had anything to do with where he was, miles from home with nothing pressing to occupy his thoughts but traveling and his traveling companion. It was like he'd told Naruto last night, it was kind of a relief and now he realized just how true that was.

He turned his head forward again just in time to receive a kiss on the cheek. He didn't ask what to it was for this time.

"Don't make a big deal out of it," Sasuke advised. "Perhaps I was just bored."

Thankfully Naruto didn't reply though Sasuke did feel him lean against him a little as they watched the rest of the fireworks in silence.

He didn't feel like asking him to move.

They stumbled back to the room to find their futons made up for them already, so Naruto wasted no time stripping down to his shorts and sprawling on his back into the comfort. His head was still buzzing from the drink, so it took him a while to notice Sasuke had closed the door behind him and collapsed onto his own bed still fully clothed.

Naruto grinned in his direction. "You too drunk to even take your clothes off, eh?"

Sasuke didn't reply and Naruto realized it was because he had passed out.

Chuckling softly, Naruto rolled onto his knees and shuffled over to Sasuke. His friend was breathing easy, shirt already off one shoulder and his chest almost entirely exposed. In the moonlight streaming in through the open window Sasuke's skin looked incredibly pale and soft.

Naruto gave the skin a wobbly frown before he began the task of helping Sasuke out of his shoes and clothes for the night. It took all of Naruto's focus to do the task in the state he was in, but he managed it without waking Sasuke up at all. He'd just leave Sasuke's shirt on as it was because it would be too difficult getting him out of it and he seemed to like sleeping in it anyway.

Naruto swept unfocussed eyes over Sasuke's pale form ever amazed at just how good Sasuke always seemed to look. Naruto had thought he was used to looking at him now, but there was just something about him right in this moment that seemed different and not a little vulnerable. It was a side of Sasuke rarely seen, but Naruto liked the way his features smoothed in sleep with no hint of anger, malice or even sarcastic mirth. He just looked peaceful, and content and it was the only time Naruto figured he'd ever see such an expression on Sasuke.

Unsteady fingers ghosted down the side of Sasuke's face, tracing his jaw line down to his chin. His mouth hung slightly open, lips parted. He ran one finger over the soft lower lip causing dark eyelashes to flutter against Sasuke's cheek and his eyes to open fractionally.

Sasuke licked his bottom lip as though the touch had tingled or something.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

Sasuke watched him with half open sleepy eyes. "Tell me."

"You just look so...comfortable."

Naruto wasn't sure if he had meant it to be a reference from when he had kissed Sasuke before. And if he had meant it that way, he wasn't sure why he was bringing it up now. Had he wanted to kiss Sasuke again? Why? Again it didn't seem like a sexual want or anything, he'd just wanted to feel those relaxed and contented lips against his own, feel Sasuke in the most peaceful happy moment he seemed to have.

Sasuke was still obviously a little intoxicated so he took his time recalling the somewhat obscure reference.

"Okay," Sasuke replied before closing his eyes again.

Naruto didn't know what to do. Was that a go-ahead, or was that just acknowledging Naruto's explanation? Oh well, he was about to find out.

He leant down and carefully pressed his lips to Sasuke's cheek, the smooth slightly warm relaxed skin felt nice against his lips. Sasuke hadn't even flinched. For some odd reason Naruto didn't move away after that but across a little. It had only been his intention to kiss his cheek, feel that relaxed skin against his own but had he been thinking clearly he might have thought about where his head now was. But on his journey from Sasuke's cheek, his lips brushed against Sasuke's. It had been more or less accidental but didn't feel too strange to make him immediately move on either. Instead he moved his lips against the other's lazily as though wanting to keep that peaceful feel. Sasuke responded without too much encouragement, even parting his lips and licking once briefly at Naruto's bottom lip just like Naruto had done to him previously. Then Naruto felt a hand in the back of his hair, the strands moving around deft fingers as Sasuke drew his head down further and pressed their lips together more firmly.

As his tongue invaded Sasuke's mouth he felt rather than heard Sasuke's deep moan. The moan was a new thing, he hadn't heard that before, at least not what he figured was a real one, and it added a little something more to what was happening so much so that he drew back, his eyes firmly resting on Sasuke's wet lips, his half open glittering black eyes and completely blank expression.

It was at that point that he realized what he had done. He hadn't been thinking but it had felt like the most natural thing to do at the time. But now...

Naruto went to back away but Sasuke sat up, got up on his knees, gripped the sides of Naruto's neck and reinitiated the kiss.

It wasn't so soft, nor so gentle this time. A thumb on his chin was coaxing his mouth to open and after a little hesitation he complied and felt the brush of Sasuke's tongue against his bottom lip before Sasuke sucked it in between his teeth.

A hand low down on his back pushed their bodies together and this time it was Naruto who groaned.

He hadn't really comprehended how this was affecting him until another burgeoning hardness was pushed up against his own. Even through his shorts he felt it clearly, trapped in between their warm bodies.

Okay now this had a hint of the sexual in it. But he didn't want to back away this time. His drunken hazy mind forgot what was so wrong a second ago and all he could do now was feel.

Hesitation melted away in that moment and Naruto took back the initiative, pushing Sasuke back onto the futon and sliding up in between his legs to nip at the pale and, as it turned out, sensitive skin of Sasuke's neck. He was perhaps a little too eager because Sasuke hissed softly but it did make his friend grind up against him adding friction to the trapped heat of his erection as well.

Oh yeah, definitely sexual.

Naruto's drunken head felt dizzy and disorientated at this most unexpected change of events so much so that he almost called a time out just so he could breathe again and collect his thoughts. But Sasuke seemed determined to not let him get his moment and in a swift movement flipped them over so he was straddling Naruto's trapped legs. He pinned Naruto's hands above his head and kissed him deeply, tongue delving in as though it could map out every nook and cranny with the organ.

Naruto tried to free his hands but Sasuke growled ever so slightly and drew back to nip at his lip as though reluctant to give up his newfound dominance.

Well at least some things about their relationship never changed and that seemed to include their basic need to get one up on the other. But even with Sasuke's weight on him Naruto yanked his hands free and sat up, pulling Sasuke firmly into his lap.

Unfortunately this meant that lips were no longer within easy reach but Naruto didn't want to let that stop him. Sasuke's shirt was practically hanging off his shoulders at this point and Naruto had unhindered access to Sasuke's chest which he took advantage of by running his tongue up between Sasuke's pectoral muscles before diverting to instead lick once quickly at a hardened nipple. He didn't know what he was doing or why he'd done it. He'd just felt an irresistible urge to taste skin and had given in without thought. But no matter, despite his inexperience about what he was supposed to be doing, Sasuke drew in a shaky breath empowering Naruto's confidence enough to close his lips around the tight bud and graze his teeth across sensitive flesh. Sasuke rocked against him, grinding them together before stopping abruptly when a loud frantic knock sounded on their door.

The pair froze as a voice shouted on the other side, "Sirs, we need to evacuate quickly, the building is on fire. Sirs?"

"Yeah we heard!" Naruto called beyond irritated by the interruption.

What was even worse was that the interruption had not only cleared their heads a little of the drunken fog, but also called attention to what they were doing. They looked at each other for a while, not speaking until Sasuke frowned deeply and boosted himself up. Without saying a single word he began collecting their things and dressing quickly which Naruto figured he should also be doing before the entire building went up in flames.

Out in the street, the pair of them stood side by side near the other assembled guests staring up at a building that was most definitely not on fire.

"Sorry folks false alarm!" One of the hotel staff was calling out. "The manager has been through and it was just some guests letting fireworks off their balcony."

"Who lets fireworks off on their balcony," Naruto questioned sharply to no one in particular.

"What does it matter?" Sasuke asked. "We can go back inside and I'm tired."

With that Sasuke set off back inside without waiting for Naruto or looking back to see if he was following. Naruto followed slowly after him, unsure what would happen when they got back to their room and not sure he was entirely willing to know which way it might go.

Not that it mattered. When he let himself back in, Sasuke was curled up in his blankets, his back to Naruto, either already asleep or pretending to be. Naruto took the hint and lay down on his own futon and closed his eyes, willing sleep that was a very long time in coming.

TBC

See you Monday ;)