a/n: This was supposed to be a longer chapter, but I was craving light-heartedness so badly,my favorite thing lately is writing about these two getting on each other's nerves/somehow laughing about getting on each other's nerves/Sasuke trying to make Naruto give out at least a smile (ahahah it's because I'm an emotional mess at the moment), and my attention span is really short right about now… so this happened?

...Oops?

. . .


you're out of my hands, i'm out of my head (I)


Summary of the chapter:

"I'm just... curious."

"Curious about… what?"

Sasuke doesn't break eye contact, lips stretching with the touch of a smile this time around. "About you, of course."

. . .


Naruto hadn't been able to get a wink of sleep after the whole...fiasco of the night—on his and Sasuke's part, Sakura keeps, fortunately, going blissfully unaware—so what better option than to await the break of dawn sopping up water in a bathtub? He had seen a movie once, where this girl used to lay in her bathtub just like this, only it was empty and she slept in it fully clothed and with make up smeared all over her face. She was also most definitely drunk. It was a somewhat depressive, somewhat humorous sort of movie, he also remembers laughing in some bits. Huh, he should probably try to find it again, he doesn't recall much from it but it must have been pretty decent if it stuck with him—

"Stuck inside a thought loop?"

Naruto blinks owlishly, then looks up.

"Yep, you'll be surprised to find it's not an exclusive caper. I mean, what better distraction's out there than your own mind?" Sasuke continues, brows slightly furrowed as he's seemingly engrossed in his rumination. "Though it is a double-edged sword...more often than not."

The 'neither-mean-nor-neutral' mien has taken a leave today, while his approachable self is back in full gear, if the friendly grin he is greeted with is any indication.

Sasuke is currently sitting on the edge of the bathtub, there are possibly five feet apart between them. His hand, which is grazing the transparent surface, dips in, and the water sparkles like undulating glass as it surrounds his outstretched fingers, whirling around, eddying. As if this is his first time seeing water being moved, Naruto is watching utterly absorbed the ripples created by the gentle motions. He has half of his face submerged in, so the small waves come up to lap at his cheeks, faintly tickling him.

The engulfing silence is soaking into his bones, effortlessly so, leaving him with a sense of placidity that is almost foreign.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asks, still and quiet, and a little dumbly, after a substantial amount of time has passed. His eyes are half lidded with drowsiness, but he isn't sleepy...well, okay, maybe he is a little sleepy.

Sasuke's grin widens a bit as he looks at him. "That's my line, seeing as baths are more of a garmentless deal."

Naruto glances down at his fully clothed self, his shirt and pants are now soggy in the lukewarm water. Then he levels Sasuke with a groggy stare. He gives a sluggish shrug in the water, making it lap once again and almost overflow.

"Some people are fuckin' weird, I guess? Deal with it." He snaps with a casual and calm sort of voice. He really doesn't have the energy to get annoyed, he feels too...lethargic for that. It's an almost Zen state of relaxation he's in and he doesn't particularly feel like breaking out of it today.

Or really, do anything except soak himself in a pool of thoughts. And water.

"Hey, easy with the safeguarding, soldier. The basic principle of no judgement still applies. If this is working out for you then, by all means, keep at it, clad soaks at the crack of dawn and all." Sasuke keeps up the stirring with one hand, while he rests his chin on the other. "I'm just...curious."

Naruto eyes him a bit blearily. "Curious?" He repeats the word, slowly, as if testing it out. "About...what?"

Sasuke doesn't break eye contact, lips stretching with the touch of a smile this time around. "About you, of course."

Naruto feels a weak wave of heat climb up his neck and behind his ears, and he shivers slightly from the cooling water and gaze. "...about me?"

Sasuke quirks a brow. "You're treating this like it's news somehow."

He feebly struggles to get air past his lungs. "...it's news to me?"

"Seriously?"

Sasuke's look is a cross between two opposing margins, like he is hell-bent serious, and like he's not at all, all at once. How does one person even manage this sort of expression?

"Well, I'll be damned. Have I been this subtle this whole time?"

"Yes?" Naruto blinks, feeling a bit dumbfounded. "Isn't subtlety your whole...thing, actually?"

Sasuke inches closer, the upward slant of his grin catches the glint of the rays spilling in, eyes lighting up in the sun. "Guess a change of plans is long overdue."

The water grows a tad warmer. Or maybe it's just all in his imagination.

"I..." It's fair to say Naruto is more than a little lost. "...what?"

Sasuke backs off just as quickly as he leaned in, amusement shining on his face. "You are so out of your depth right now."

Naruto doesn't exactly know everything that might entail, but he isn't dumb enough to miss the joke's on him, somehow. For seemingly the millionth time, he rephrases the question. "Could you maybe, I don't know, take breaks from making fun of me?"

"But that would take all the fun out of it?"

Naruto falls back too against his 'watery bed', unamused. Well, trying to argue with him won't take him anywhere. That doesn't mean he isn't going to try again and again though, still...

The loop of thoughts keeps circling back to one chain in particular.

Sasuke is...unpredictable.

And, yes, that's hardly news really, he figured it out practically the first day he met him. But he has never been this kind of unpredictable before, where Naruto doesn't even have a lead, a hunch to what might be going on inside his head. And it keeps him on his toes, trying to figure out what his next move will be, and never able to anticipate it anyway. Sometimes it looks like Sasuke doesn't even have an ace up his sleeve, other times it seems he is a jack full of trades.

Yes, Naruto is clearly out of his depth here.

"C'mon, man, these are the jokes." Sasuke is saying in feigned repentance, clearly still in jest.

Apart from the fact that he is being addressed so casually by him..."I'm doing my best to wrap my mind around the fact that you of all people are capable of dishing out jokes, so forgive me if I'm still a little slow on the uptake."

Sasuke looks to be relishing this fact a little too much, if you ask for Naruto's opinion on the matter. "That's more than okay, actually. You've always been a fast-paced thriller kinda guy. I'd say the slow approach is the most reasonable route you could go with right about now."

Naruto thinks there is a not-so-subtle insult sandwiched in there.

Before he can really call him out on that, however, Sasuke is following with a non-question. "By the way." A smug lilt tints his voice. "Did ya know," He starts casually. "You talk in an almost completely different manner when you're tired."

"Um...what?"

"It's like you switch personas, almost. You tend to sprinkle in a few 'big' words here and there, though I think you're doing it unconsciously." And the satisfaction only grows across his face. "Bet it's one of those whimsical little quirks nobody knows about you, isn't it?"

Naruto frowns, this being news to him as well. "What are you prattling on about? I don't use 'big' words when tired. I talk normally, as I always do." He pauses, blinks once, twice, then quickly backtracks. "I mean–I talk like I usually do! Shut up."

"Awe, are you mad I just discovered a new little hush-hush about you?"

"Uh..." He can't think of anything to answer with. So he goes in plainly. "...no?"

Sasuke's grin keeps curving in a crescent. "Have I already mentioned I like this quieter version of you?"

'Yes.' Naruto thinks grumpily, the reminder making him feel a little too embarrassed for some reason.

"...Not really." He replies gruffly.

"Cranky." Sasuke repeats in that same tone he used a few days ago and the smile in his voice is unmistakable, fond. "And guess what, the crankiness is insomnia-related. Again." The sigh he lets out is mostly for theatrics. "Okay, I'll just say this out loud now, you know what happens when you don't get enough shut-eye? You go mad, that's what happens."

Naruto raises his eyes to the ceiling in a half-hearted eyeroll. "Yeah, you would know about it."

"Ooh back at it with the swift jabs? I'm digging this, keep 'em comin' buddy."

At the out-of-character remark, Naruto feels tempted to outright laugh in his face.

Sasuke grins. "Is the sarcastic streak yet another thing no one knows about you?"

He wasn't aware they were still in the mood for the 'sharing secrets' circle. He wasn't aware they would be in the mood for it at all, actually.

Apparently, they are.

"The 'jabs', or whatever you wanna dub them, were never a secret." Naruto's mouth twitches at the next thought, but he presses his lips in a flat line. "Ask Kiba 'bout it."

"Aren't you just full of surprises?" Sasuke says it more playfully.

"I'd say that's you." But Naruto thinks it more earnestly—then realizes the thought has slipped out loud.

There is that mischievous glint in the boy's eyes that never seems to leave, as if he is always on the verge of getting himself in trouble, and enjoy it in the process, always up to no good. It shouldn't look this natural on him...and still, it does. The impish look is unwonted, but at the same time not in the least bit out of place as it flits across his countenance. It's almost a new version of Sasuke he has never seen before, and it takes him aback, far more than it should at this point in time.

Naruto sighs loudly, not exaggerating the heavy exhale. "I don't even know why I'm still talking to you..."

And it might as well be the most candid sentence to have ever come out of his mouth.

Sasuke dips his head on the tilt of a smile.

"That's a good thing, it means we're starting to connect."

Naruto narrows his eyes in what is supposed to be a glare, but it's really, really not. Although, with a spur-of-the-moment thought striking in, he's the one who shows the hint of a smirk. "And you know where you can go and put our 'connection'?"

But Sasuke is already mirroring his expression, before taking the words right out of his mouth.

"Up yours?"

In a lightning-quick motion Naruto splashes out half the bathtub's contents in an almost tsunami like billow as 'revenge' for getting beaten to the punchline—even if, regrettably, the other boy has already moved out of the water's way.

Sasuke's laughter bounces off the walls, ringing loud and clear and lighthearted.

And it's astonishing to think that this is the most comfortable he has felt in a long while. Naruto has to legitimately fight a smile off his face.