Enjoy!

The Long Way Home

Part 8

Dare to be Nice

Chapter 1/1

"Usuratonkachi!"

It was too early in the morning for this. He'd been awake for literally minutes before the day's tirade had begun and Naruto's will to not hit Sasuke was already being eroded.

He never thought the day would arrive when he'd actually miss Sasuke: the quiet introspective guy.

But no matter how quietly cool a guy Sasuke could still be, as always the best way to make Sasuke talkative was to piss him off. Which was an easy thing to do.

Normally Naruto didn't care. Or rather he was used to Sasuke being pissed off so unless the resulting tirade got a little too personal, Naruto would just shrug it off as being just one of those moments.

But lately the random jump into immediate anger was testing his nerves. Mainly he put it down to the fact that they had spent over a month together now and neither of them was used to constant company to say the least. Sasuke was a loner by nature and Naruto, even though he had many friends back home, had lived on his own for as long as he could remember and wasn't used to dealing with another person so constantly.

And Naruto figured he personally was an easy enough person to get along with. Okay so Sasuke said he was too talkative and a moron among many other things but he wasn't mean and fairly easy going as far as Naruto could see. Sasuke on the other hand was irritable and often moody. It wasn't unusual for Sasuke to be almost smiling one moment and yelling the next depending on whatever random mood flux Naruto could inadvertently bring out of him with the most innocent of comments or actions.

Of course since the night of the festival things had become a little tenser between them as well. Despite feeling as though things had been worked out between them at the time, Naruto could still feel a tension between them he hadn't felt before. He had tried so hard to move on from the incident as Sasuke had suggested he do, but attempting to do so made him think about it.

That usually made him a little annoyed for some reason he still hadn't really worked out and therefore it put a strain on their relationship with each other. And he knew Sasuke felt it too because unlike Naruto, Sasuke didn't temper his reactions to things when he was annoyed. Sasuke instead seemed to prefer to vent and that usually meant having quite a lot of huge heated arguments. And lately it was becoming an almost daily routine.

Today it seemed as though Sasuke's current ire was because after a meal of the yellow/purple fruit last night, Naruto had neglected to wrap the fruit up again and ants had gotten in and ruined most of their supply.

Naruto rubbed at his still sleep bleary eyes after pulling on his shirt and tried to focus on the ants crawling all over the fruit in Sasuke's hand. He had been out training on his own last night while Sasuke had been sleeping and because of the ensuing headache he always seemed to get afterwards, he had found it difficult to get to sleep in the last few hours before sunrise.

"Sorry Sasuke. The little buggers love that fruit don't they? Can't say I share their tastes."

Of all the things to get bent out of shape about Sasuke was flushed with anger over a couple of bits of fruit being spoiled. Talk about tense.

"This was all the food we had until the next town, moron!"

"Oh c'mon Sasuke. They grow on trees remember, it's not like we'll have to buy more."

"I haven't seen one of those fruit trees in days, have you?" Sasuke asked acidly.

"It's not the end of the world. I'm sorry I left it out, okay? But it's not like we'll starve, I'll fish tonight."

"That's not the point!"

Either Naruto's brain hadn't woken up properly yet or he was missing something here.

"It isn't?"

"No! You're a complete moron, that's the point. You don't think!"

So now that the personal taunts had started Naruto felt his own anger rise as well.

"So I screwed up, it's just fruit, don't be such an asshole!"

And so it continued from there and onwards through packing up and getting back onto the road again. It was some time later when Naruto figured Sasuke had to stop ranting or be hit.

"For fuck's sake teme, stop already!"

"Then stop doing stupid things and we'll get along better."

"We'd get along if you could just chill out for even a second."

"You think I'm the hot-headed one?"

"Well, to me you are. To other people you're more of a distant jerk."

"I don't treat you any differently," Sasuke replied dismissively.

"You don't really yell at other people. When you get annoyed with them you're just quietly sarcastic. I bet you couldn't even go an entire day being nice to anyone."

Sasuke gave him a strange look in that moment. "Why the hell do you care how I treat people?"

"Because you're basically mean to everyone, including me."

Sasuke just rolled his eyes.

"I'm serious!" Naruto exclaimed.

"I don't care. And I think you're mistaking indifference to actual meanness anyway."

"Well whatever. I still think it'd make your head explode if you actually had to be overly nice to everyone for a whole day. I bet you couldn't do it."

Even though the conversation had veered off into making personal jabs at Sasuke now, Sasuke actually didn't seem to be getting any angrier surprisingly. If anything he looked intrigued.

"What do I get if I win that bet?"

That stopped Naruto. "What?"

Sasuke stopped a few paces ahead and turned to face him, all evidence of anger gone from his features. Instead he was smirking at Naruto.

"I go a whole day being nice to people, what do I get in return?"

"There's no way you could do it," Naruto replied wide-eyed.

But that was another thing about Sasuke. Tell him he couldn't do something and he'd find great amusement in proving you wrong in the most smug, self-satisfied way imaginable.

"That's what you think. You don't know me that well. You think I can't be nice to get what I want?"

"I don't think you could be nice if your life depended on it. But okay, if you win I'll do all the hunting and foraging for a week. I'll also set up the camp every night and take care of getting water and cooking and stuff."

"I can see your faith in me is great," Sasuke replied sarcastically. "What do you want if you win? Not that you will anyway."

Now it was Naruto's turn to grin. "Seeing you try to be nice to people will be worth it. Besides, I'll get to rub it in for ages."

"That's pretty tame."

"Well I hurt my shoulder again, you could fix it like last time."

"You hurt it again, how? Wait, never mind. You were probably doing something stupid. Fine."

Naruto ignored the jab. "And you'll have to work to win this. You've gotta be openly nice, small talk, everything with anyone we meet from now till this time tomorrow. And you have to be nice to me too. No yelling, no getting angry, no sarcasm, no arguments, nothing but a smile and kind words no matter what I do."

Somehow now Sasuke didn't look so certain. Naruto hadn't been joking before, Sasuke was generally unpleasant and uninterested in strangers but with Naruto lately he was unrestrained. Naruto realized there was just something in particular about him that could make Sasuke livid to the point of actual yelling these days and by the look on Sasuke's face, he realized this too.

"What's the problem?" Naruto taunted, "I thought you wanted to prove something."

"Fine. No matter what, I'll be nice."

Naruto's grin widened. "Never thought you'd be in for a dare," he told Sasuke. "Figured the stick up your ass never let you have any fun."

Sasuke still looked a little unhappy. "I'm not doing this for fun. If I can prove to you that people can act differently with enough willpower I'm hoping you might learn to think intelligently in the future."

The jab cost Naruto a little of the warmth from his smile but he kept it in place anyhow.

"I hope you got something out of your system just then cause you have to be 'nice Sasuke', starting now."

"Watch and learn, dobe."

As the day wore on Naruto was quite impressed by Sasuke's determination. And sure, Sasuke was probably the most determined person he'd ever met but there were just certain things not even Sasuke could usually do and that was being something he was naturally not. But apparently Sasuke was also very determined to prove him wrong.

During the first part of the day, the changes had been minimal. Naruto had still been the one to do most of the talking as they walked but Sasuke being quiet wasn't exactly him being mean and for once Naruto got the impression that Sasuke was actually listening to him. Usually Sasuke would only listen with half and ear which seemed to allow him to either tune Naruto out completely or join in if Naruto said something Sasuke actually had an opinion about. It was almost like he'd trained his brain to listen for keywords in the conversation which would grab his attention when necessary but not actively listen to anything else. It had been an impressive though slightly insulting talent he'd cultivated over the past month.

But now Sasuke seemed to be listening to everything. Naruto could tell because there was a subtle change in Sasuke's demeanor from when he was actually listening to someone else and not lost in his own head. Plus he joined in a little more often too. Not greatly, but there was a difference.

And of course the added bonus of the bet was that when he joined in his comments and observations weren't punctuated by sarcasm or derision either. He wasn't over the top nice though, but his responses for the most part were pleasant enough and even had the occasional smile hidden in there that it was enough to distract Naruto sometimes to completely lose his train of thought. He had seen Sasuke smile more recently than ever, but it was shocking to see the expression this many times in one day.

But the fun didn't really begin until they met the occasional traveler along the road. To get the full experience and amusement out the situation, Naruto insisted that Sasuke be the one to stop and talk to the strangers about the local landscape, usually a job that fell to Naruto.

As a rule, Sasuke hated strangers. Well he hated everyone, but people he didn't know put him on edge especially. And it wasn't just because he thought these people might be a threat, it was simply because he didn't want to have to deal with them at all. For Sasuke, such interactions seemed tedious and wholly annoying but Naruto figured that the more Sasuke got used to dealing with people, the better off he might be. And what better time to do it than when he couldn't be such an asshole to them. Finally he might actually have a friendly conversation with someone!

The first traveler they met was a cart load of people heading down the road in the direction they were themselves traveling in. There were about a dozen people in all and more than half of them were women. In fact Naruto got the feeling as they walked closer that he had seen these people before. But it wasn't until the cart had stopped on the road to allow the pair of them to come up and talk that Naruto understood why. He'd been pretty drunk at the festival but the dancers had certainly made an impression. Naruto watched Sasuke's face closely as recognition hit him as well but masterfully managed to hide his annoyance and offer what passed for Sasuke as a warm smile.

Naruto realized that Sasuke could look quite charming when he smiled. He was handsome enough to begin with but an actual smile gave an added warmth his features normally lacked. It was just a pity that the warmth didn't quite reach his eyes to make it completely believable for Naruto. But the ladies practically leaning over the side of the cart to greet the both of them didn't seem to notice one little bit. All they saw was handsome Sasuke and that smile of his and seemed too flattered by the attention to see what Naruto saw in Sasuke's eyes. And what Naruto saw was barely controlled violence.

Thankfully Naruto also knew Sasuke was way more determined to prove his point that such internal thoughts and feelings would never actually surface.

"Hi handsome! Need a lift?" A particularly pretty blond asked with a wicked grin.

"Tempting," Sasuke replied, again with that smile while Naruto internally rolled his eyes and called Sasuke a liar. "But it looks cramped enough for you ladies. I wouldn't want to make it even more uncomfortable for you.

"Oh I'm sure we could make room for you two," the girl continued with a wink.

"I'd be happy to sit on that one's lap," another redhead said to her companion in what was probably meant to be a quiet tone.

"Sorry about that lot," the driver spoke up with a withering look toward the girls in the cart behind him. "They get bored on the road."

"It's just nice to meet such... welcoming people," Sasuke replied carefully but pleasantly. "I was just wondering if you knew of a town up ahead?"

"A few," the man replied. "If you follow this road up for another six or so days you'll come across a medium sized town. We're heading up this road another day and striking inland though. Another town, another festival. That town's a lot closer, maybe three more days if you're walking but it's smaller, just a little village."

"Thank you for the information," Sasuke replied. "We appreciate it."

"No problem," the man replied before flicking the reins and getting the horses moving once more.

"Aw no."

"No way!"

"Come ride with us," was the general consensus of the back of the cart but the pair of them just stood back and waved as the cart proceeded them up the road.

When the cart was obscured in dust, Naruto turned his head and grinned at Sasuke.

"Well they were interesting," he prodded.

Sasuke wasn't exactly scowling but Naruto got the strong impression that Sasuke really wanted to.

"Interesting is certainly one word I would use," Sasuke agreed with forced joviality.

"Lively?" Naruto offered enjoying Sasuke's torment.

"Certainly."

"Persistent?"

"Friendly," Sasuke corrected.

Naruto watched Sasuke remain impassive for a few moments longer, those dark eyes apparently refusing to meet his before he snorted in amusement.

"Liar," he accused.

Now Sasuke did look at him and while he was smirking, it wasn't a particularly mean expression. It was pretty smug though.

"Nice," Sasuke corrected once again.

"Uh huh, sure."

They met only one more person on their travels and while they didn't need more information at this point, Naruto still made Sasuke stop and talk to the guy in the interests of getting the most of out the bet. Unfortunately this particular man was gruff and rude to the point that even Naruto wanted to be rude right back but admirably, Sasuke kept his cool and remained pleasant in the face of rudeness and the pair were soon on their way again.

The last traveler might have had the most hope for Sasuke to lose his cool but Naruto had actually been hoping to meet regular pleasant folk along the way in the hopes of proving to Sasuke what a little niceness could accomplish. But unfortunately neither party had been what Naruto had hoped for.

And yeah, the first group was good in a funny way but he had wanted to show Sasuke that not every stranger was a waste of his time. However the girls had been provocative, more so probably because of Sasuke's pretend pleasantness. The last man had been rude to the point that even Naruto had wanted to hit him and Sasuke would probably see nothing but wasted effort and revert back to his old self the moment the dare was over without learning anything.

But of course, this might not be such a bad thing either.

Naruto had never thought his dare might backfire on him so much. Sure at first he had enjoyed watching Sasuke smile pleasantly at strangers and talk to them while Naruto knew internally Sasuke was probably plotting theirs or Naruto's murder. Even with their first few interactions, Naruto had gotten enjoyment as Sasuke tried his best to remain calm and friendly in the face of Naruto trying his best to make Sasuke snap. But Sasuke was stubborn and as he'd learned from their stint at Morio's, not a bad actor either. And as Sasuke got more into his new role Naruto could almost believe that nice Sasuke was genuine and actually liked him.

Pity he knew the truth. And that was more depressing than he cared to admit.

Okay so it wasn't like he preferred Sasuke as some kind of smiling beam of sunshine, that was actually a little creepy. But the most basic nice gesture, the smiles and the laughing made him a little sad that Sasuke couldn't be like this more often of his own free will.

He often admired Sasuke just as he was, driven, proud and strong. Even the less pleasant quirks to his personality had an engaging uniqueness to it that Naruto didn't always hate. But he'd be lying if he didn't admit to wanting a few moments of a nicer Sasuke too. One that didn't seem irritated beyond reason by every small thing he did that Sasuke didn't like. Someone that could enjoy a joke, commiserate with him during a stressful time or even smile a genuine smile when he was actually happy a little more often.

By the time the camp was set up that night something of Naruto's melancholy must have been showing on his face because Sasuke was giving him something of a concerned look. Knowing that the concern was faked only made things worse.

"You don't look like you're having fun," Sasuke commented later as they sat beside the fire he had built to cook Naruto's earlier catch at the river.

Sasuke couldn't say it, but Naruto was betting he was pleased by the thought that Naruto might be thinking that he was going to lose the bet. Well Naruto wasn't so worried about that. Despite his mood he had a few tricks up his sleeve he figured would assure him victory yet.

"I'm not the one who has to look happy all the time," Naruto reminded him. "Besides, you don't actually care."

"Of course I do," Sasuke responded in a way too passable impression of caring.

Honestly it wasn't so fun right now.

He tried not to glare at Sasuke for the pure reason that if he did Sasuke would know just how much his 'niceness' was annoying Naruto right now.

"You know, being nice doesn't mean you have to lie teme," Naruto reminded him. "It just means you can't be jerk."

Sasuke just watched him with a corner of his mouth tipped up and Naruto knew what Sasuke wanted to say without Sasuke having to voice the words. Basically Sasuke telling the truth at this point would be him being a jerk. He'd just have to wait till later to have a proper conversation with Sasuke where Sasuke could respond how he wanted. It certainly made him realize how much he missed the part of Sasuke who'd generally just tell him the truth whether he wanted to hear it or not. Not that Sasuke was an open person with the truth, but if he wanted to answer a question at least he wouldn't lie just to make Naruto feel better about it.

Oh well, perhaps it was past time to break Sasuke now. He was confident in victory because even though Sasuke was probably the most determined person he'd ever met, Naruto knew just how to get under his skin. Besides, he'd now had over a month of learning firsthand just how to piss Sasuke off and a pissed off Sasuke could never remain calm.

Naruto crawled over to him and was pleased when Sasuke watched him warily. It wasn't a particularly happy look and Naruto smiled at the discomfort. Sasuke, obviously realizing he wasn't being very nice, cleared his expression to something approaching pleasant. It looked like a strain though.

"I'm impressed," Naruto told him, stopping to kneel in front of Sasuke still with his smile in place.

He could almost hear the unsaid scathing reply but Sasuke refused to be baited apparently.

"Thanks."

So Naruto ducked forwards, intending to give Sasuke his usual thank you cheek kiss but for some reason he didn't end up aiming for Sasuke's cheek.

"What-?"

Before Sasuke could finish the sentence he was silenced by an almost unintentional lip lock. Naruto had only meant to kiss his cheek and spent a Few surprised moments frozen in place while his brain tried to catch up with what he had done and why. But by then Sasuke's eyes had dropped closed and his lips were moving against Naruto's and Naruto stopped thinking entirely.

This hadn't really been intentional, his plan had been to give Sasuke one of those cheek kisses he hated just to get a rise out of him. But something had just come over him and now that it had become something more, he was leaning into Sasuke, his hand moving up to cup the back of Sasuke's skull in order to drag their faces even closer together like he no longer had control of his own movements. And Sasuke was letting him. In fact Sasuke had been the one to turn a moment of shock into a proper kiss and now they were...

Sasuke kissed me instead of turning away and saying something mean. But then Sasuke isn't allowed to do anything mean at the moment, is he?

Naruto drew away and watched as black, slightly glazed eyes opened and returned the gaze.

"You just did that because you're acting, didn't you?"

Sasuke seemed to think his reply over for way too long.

"I don't know what you mean."

He was lying, Naruto knew. Sasuke knew exactly what Naruto meant and his refusal to acknowledge it only made Naruto believe that was exactly what had happened.

"Godsdamnit," Naruto muttered pushing himself away from Sasuke.

Unexpectedly Sasuke grabbed his wrist and pulled Naruto forward and to the side making Naruto lose his balance and fall into the grass. He rolled onto his back just in time for Sasuke to throw a leg over his midsection, sit on him, lean forward and quick as a striking snake, plant their lips together once more.

Naruto refused to kiss him back, actually he was getting pretty annoyed by this game. Whatever he had planned it was definitely backfiring again and now Sasuke was using it to his advantage, doing this just to get back at him under the guise of it being the 'nice' thing to do.

But his refusal to cooperate didn't go unnoticed and eventually Sasuke sat back with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Too nice?"

Naruto bit his own lip hard to prevent himself from hitting Sasuke.

"Fine I get it, you're getting me back, you can stop now."

"You don't like 'nice' anymore?" Sasuke asked with a knowing smirk.

"You did that on purpose you jerk! I was only going to kiss your cheek cause I know that makes you all annoyed."

"It does not," Sasuke replied dismissively.

"Yes it...wait, did you just argue with me?"

Sasuke looked shocked at first and then he scowled and shut his mouth. But Naruto knew he had him. Well perhaps his plan hadn't been so bad after all.

"You argued with me! Sasuke, that's not being very nice."

Sasuke looked on the verge of disputing it but then must have realized that further argument wasn't going to win him any points.

"Fuck you."

Naruto grinned widely and sat up swiftly causing Sasuke to slip back into his lap with a surprised grunt but Naruto was too high on victory to notice except to reach an arm around Sasuke instinctively to prevent him from falling off.

"I won!" Naruto exclaimed elated. "I knew you couldn't go an entire day being nice, it's just not in your nature."

"Well I'm glad you got your kicks out of it, " Sasuke gripped trying and failing to stand while Naruto had a hold of him. "Personally I'm about ready to kill just about everyone we met today in the most violent way imaginable. Would you just fucking let me go already?!"

"Admit that I won," Naruto urged him.

"Bite me, dobe."

"Teme!"

Sasuke sighed and quit struggling. Naruto had him at a definite disadvantage in his precarious position.

"Fine, you won. Now let me go before I exact my frustrations on you instead."

Sasuke looked so comically pissed off that Naruto smiled almost fondly at the expression. He didn't realize but he'd been waiting all day to see a look like this one. Sasuke pretending to be something he wasn't, something other than himself had annoyed him far more than Sasuke just simply being his irate self as it turned out.

And before he knew what he was doing he was leaning forward as though he would kiss him again.

But when he realized what he was doing and the further fact that Sasuke had stilled completely and was watching him expectantly made Naruto stop and release Sasuke all in one go.

Sasuke hesitated momentarily before getting to his feet and 'accidentally on purpose' almost casually laying a foot into Naruto's side as he stepped over him

"Fuck Sasuke, ow!"

Sasuke looked back at him with a smirk. "Sorry," he said insincerely, "I guess that wasn't very nice."

They didn't talk for the rest of the evening until their dinner of fresh caught fish had been consumed and the two went down to the river for the nightly bathing ritual.

But Sasuke could feel eyes on him the entire time and he didn't like the feeling at all. He had thought Naruto might spend more time gloating. And honestly he would have preferred it over the uncomfortable silence. Eventually Sasuke got sick of not hearing the question he could tell Naruto was burning to ask and half way through bathing Sasuke snapped.

"What?!" he barked.

"Why were you doing that?"

"I was punishing you," Sasuke replied simply.

Naruto frowned. "So since when is kissing me supposed to be a punishment?"

Sasuke gave him a look as though the answer to that should be obvious. But apparently Naruto wasn't getting it.

"Isn't it? It made you weird and moody before."

"Yeah but not because I'm all horrified or whatever. It's just well, sort of confusing."

"Confusing?"

"Don't look at me like that, I'm not suggesting anything. I'm comfortable with the touching. Well more than you are anyway. You're acting like you're all okay after the festival thing but I know you aren't, you're just doing it now to punish me. But you're not going to be able to throw me by doing that again, just so you know."

"So you don't care one way or the other?" Sasuke asked skeptically.

"No, why should I? I told you it's not as big a deal, not even now. I know you're only doing it to get me back for things because you think it will weird me out or get some kind of reaction because of me touching you or kissing your cheek. But it's not gonna work. Like I said, it's comfortable, like a hug or whatever. Nothing to get riled about."

So Naruto thought that Sasuke was only doing it because he wanted to weird him out. It wasn't entirely inaccurate. But more often than not it was simply not the case. Naruto had lulled him into a kind of comfort zone where, as he suggested, doing such a thing didn't seem like such a big deal.

Actually it had become almost disturbingly easy. But there was a small part of him also that had just simply done it without thinking because he had wanted to. But apparently that weirded him out more than it did Naruto, which was a little annoying.

It might have been something in his competitive nature but he really wanted to make Naruto as unsettled as he was about this. Despite what he had said about moving past it, it had been more difficult a thing to do than he had thought it would be. He knew it was affecting the status quo between them and he hated the fact that it seemed to be mostly his inability to take his own advice which was mainly to blame. He really wanted Naruto to realize that stuff like that wasn't supposed to be familiar or so chilled despite what he'd said. He wanted Naruto to feel that same annoyance.

So without further ado he waded over to a surprised Naruto, hooked a hand around the back of his neck and drew him forcefully closer until the lips met. His other hand snaked it's way around Naruto's waist and drew their bodies together, and Sasuke felt warm naked skin against his, slicked by the water and whatever little soap remained on Naruto's skin.

The contact didn't feel repulsive in the least but he made himself focus on what he was supposed to be doing and delved his tongue into Naruto's mouth. He wasn't by any means very experienced with kissing and generally just did what instinct told him to do. But this was the first time he'd actively tried to make another person feel good this way. He licked against Naruto's tongue with his, played against it while moving his lips a little roughly against Naruto's. But when he felt Naruto's tentative touch against his side he stopped abruptly and took a step back, smirk in place ready to see Naruto's gob-smacked expression.

Just like everything else he knew he'd be good at this though this was perhaps the first time he'd ever thought to prove it. But his smugness was a little short lived when he saw that Naruto looked less annoyed and more, well, honestly he looked completely and utterly blown away. He was still standing there with his eyes closed, his lips still slightly parted and wet, even his hand was still raised as though to touch him. It lasted a few seconds only but Sasuke felt a little shocked by Naruto's expression himself. But as soon as Naruto seemed to realize Sasuke had abandoned him his eyes flew wide open and his jaw dropped.

Now this expression was worth smirking at.

"Care to say that again?" Sasuke asked mildly. "I bet that didn't feel like a comfortable hug. I told you that if it wasn't such a big deal you weren't doing it properly.' Naruto's mouth snapped closed and he glared. "Asshole."

Sasuke gave him one more half smile and turned, wading toward shore. As soon as his back was turned though he couldn't help a frown settling over his features.

He didn't like how easy it was to do that. He also didn't like how he'd reacted either. Naruto had looked so open afterwards, more vulnerable than he'd ever seen him and Sasuke couldn't deny that the look had almost compelled him to do it all again.

Just what the hell was wrong with him! Things like this shouldn't get under his skin. He'd never felt this kind of temptation before nor the urge to ever do such a thing even to prove a point. He'd wanted Naruto to get rattled by it, he hadn't meant to do it to himself.

And he didn't like that feeling one little bit.

"Sasuke wait!" he could hear Naruto crashing through the river after him but he didn't turn around or stop until Naruto grabbed his arm and pulled him around to face him. Naruto still looked a little flushed which wasn't helping.

"I thought you said stuff like that wasn't okay."

"No, I told you that I would tell you what wasn't okay."

Now Naruto looked slightly annoyed. "So what, it's okay so long as you are alright with it but not me?"

It hadn't honestly occurred to Sasuke that what he had just done wouldn't be acceptable to Naruto.

Well he had never really complained before that was true enough but the more he thought about it the more he realized that while Naruto had instigated the kisses sometimes, he'd almost never been the one to push it past a simple kiss to something a little more physical. Perhaps Naruto really wasn't okay with it and that was why he often became moody and sullen afterwards.

"I won't do it again," Sasuke said bluntly, turning away once more. His voice had sounded more annoyed than he'd intended.

Naruto dragged him around again, "I didn't mean you had to stop!"

Now Sasuke was thoroughly confused. As if all of this wasn't confusing enough Naruto had to make it worse. His confusion must have shown on his face because Naruto seemed trying to figure out how to explain but was obviously having difficulty finding the words.

"This has all gotten a bit weird," Naruto confessed. "I mean it's okay if you want to do that. I just don't get why."

Well, Sasuke didn't really know either. He did it because it felt nice, comfortable and easy. But admitting that sounded like a bad move. But then again, he wasn't the only one who did weird things out of curiosity.

"Why do you?"

Naruto looked slightly taken aback by the question.

"I asked first."

"And I am answering. Why do you hug me or kiss my cheek?"

Naruto frowned slightly. "To say thank you or-"

"But why does it feel okay to you?" Sasuke interrupted.

"I don't know, it just does."

"Try again."

"I don't really know!" Naruto shot back in obvious irritation. "The amount of shit I've gone through with you and because of you makes me feel closer to you than anyone else even after being separated for so long. But don't get the wrong idea I'm not like those girls, I'm not all in love with you or whatever, I don't mean 'close' like that."

Surprisingly, Sasuke actually felt a small smile tug at the corner of his mouth at the admission. At least they were more or less on the same page and that's all he'd really wanted to know. That and one more thing...

"So the fact that this closeness seems to make you at least a little aroused doesn't factor in at all?" he asked perhaps a shade smugly.

The redness returned a little at the reminder but Naruto didn't look away from him either.

"I didn't say it doesn't feel bad," Naruto admitted carefully.

Well he had his answer. He wasn't alone with what he felt and that made him feel a lot better than the attempt to kiss the breath out of his companion a moment ago. It was a relief to know he wasn't being the strange one here by feeling something purely physical because Naruto had pretty much just admitted to everything he was feeling too.

"Then you have your answer," Sasuke told him simply.

This time when he turned to walk away Naruto's loose grip didn't impede him at all. Actually Naruto looked too shocked to do anything but stand there and stare wide-eyed for the next few minutes at least.

TBC in Part 9