Sasuke had attended the party as expected by Naruto and as much as he loathed to admit it, it hadn't been utterly terrible. Naruto had made the effort to introduce him to the other students and Sasuke had found Shikamaru and Shino to be mostly tolerable. Since accepting Naruto's invitation to go to the party, regardless of Naruto's true intentions, it seemed Naruto had kept his word. At least, the university newspaper hadn't been knocking down their doors for the scoop, so Sasuke assumed his secret was safe. At least for now. He found it difficult to comprehend that Naruto truly had no darker motives. It just wasn't natural and despite Naruto's seemingly innocent and friendly demeanour, Sasuke felt he sensed something else under the surface. Something darker and akin to Sasuke's own true self. If Naruto was putting up a front, eventually it would be exposed.
The classes picked up a brisk pace, as did the assignments, and the pair had formed a predictable routine. Sasuke even found himself joining Naruto weekly when he would join the dorm opposite for movies and game nights. While the loud combination of Naruto and Kiba still set Sasuke's nerves on edge, he somehow found it more companionable that sitting alone in his room at night. The other members of the group had also become accustomed to Sasuke joining them and, suspiciously, since Sasuke's visits, Sakura's presence was on the increase too. Naruto sat down next to him to eat his ramen, another routine Sasuke had somehow found himself adopting. Without noticing, their mealtimes had started to overlap and eventually Naruto just joined him for dinner each night. Naruto leaned back into the old, stained sofa, throwing his legs onto Sasuke's lap. The familiarity made Sasuke uncomfortable. Sasuke threw him off with a scowl.
He shouldn't be surprised, really, Naruto was friendly and tactile with most people he met. For some reason this thought only irked him further. Possibly because the man before him couldn't be more polar opposite if he tried.
"I was thinking, when I made dinner tomorrow, I could make some for the both of us?" Naruto asked.
"Why?"
Naruto hadn't expected that. He had expected a retort about his severe lack of cooking skills or a reminder that Sasuke would rather claw out his own eyeballs than eat instant ramen.
"What do you mean, why?" Naruto asked, pulling a face.
"It's a self-explanatory question, moron. Why?" he asked again.
"Someone offers to cook for you and you just ask why? I'm doing you a favour, I guess? Something nice?" he said with a shrug. Naruto rolled his eyes and almost wished he hadn't bothered to extend the offer. It wasn't often he cooked anything in particular, other than instant ramen, so he thought it would have been a nice gesture to Sasuke. An unappreciated one at that. He idly wondered why he had made the offer in the first place, knowing this was the likely reaction.
"Something…nice." Sasuke repeated slowly. The words felt weird in his mouth.
Naruto rolled his eyes again, sighed, and took a long slurp of noodles before speaking.
"Well, yeah, that's what friends do!" he said, wiping his mouth on his sleeve.
Sasuke didn't suppress a look of distaste, at both Naruto's words and his actions.
"We're not friends." He insisted, his face crinkling in disgust again.
"Oh no?" Naruto asked, his expression suddenly playful and light. He placed his ramen down on the table and sat cross-legged, facing Sasuke. He brought his hand to his face in mock thought, eyes squinting, almost completely closed. With the scars across his face, it almost made Naruto look like a fox.
"You've helped me with my assignments four times in the past two weeks." He said.
Sasuke shrugged.
"I like charity work."
Naruto snorted, imagining Sasuke doing some real charity work, giving back to the community, helping the homeless. It was laughable. Naruto snapped his fingers as he thought of a good example.
"On Monday, you knew I hadn't had time to get out because my assignment was due, so you picked me up groceries!" he said, triumphantly.
"I was at the shop anyway." Sasuke reasoned.
"Ah, but you didn't have to!"
"Rather that, than having to listen to you moan about how hungry you are." He countered.
"You bought me ramen."
Sasuke didn't have a response to this, and his cheeks pinked slightly at the memory. It was true, he had picked up some things for Naruto while he had been shopping. Naruto had been working non-stop and barely eating at all. Sasuke had happened to notice his usual stash of ramen had been getting low and for some reason had felt compelled to pick up some extra items while shopping. He stopped eating to silently ponder his actions. It had been so unlike him to consider anyone, let alone an idiot like Naruto, and do a favour without being appropriately compensated. He'd helped Naruto without a second thought. Something was changing and he didn't like it. On the other hand, Naruto was his roommate, and he was entirely unbearable when he was hungry. Facilitating feeding Naruto was more like the lesser of two evils.
"We're not friends." Sasuke insisted, too irritated to think of a proper basis for an argument.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now be a pal and pass me the salt, yeah?" Naruto gestured to the table.
Sasuke passed it over silently. Friendship. From the beginning, Naruto had been insistent on somehow forcing his way into Sasuke's life. And it seemed, somehow, he had been successful. At some point, without noticing, Sasuke had been drawn into conversation. He had been enjoying Naruto's company. He hadn't genuinely enjoyed the company of another person for many years and suddenly he felt vulnerable.
Naruto added an inordinate amount of salt to his already salty noodles, and continued to slurp. Sasuke watched his cheeks puff as he sucked up the noodles and his eyes were drawn again to the scars on Naruto's face. It were as though sometimes they appeared darker, or thicker, but Sasuke knew that had to be his imagination. Over time, he had contemplated the origin of Naruto's scars, but for some reason now more than ever, he felt compelled to know more.
"How did you get those scars?" he asked, the words tumbling from his mouth unbidden. He almost sighed in contempt for his own actions. He felt like a child again, just blurting out everything that came to his head. He was picking up Naruto's awful habits.
"They aren't birthmarks, like I first thought." He said simply. They were too straight and too perfect.
Naruto stopped, placing his empty cup down on the table.
"Usually people don't ask." He said. He didn't look up. "They feel too awkward about it."
"And when they do ask?"
"I tell them it was my initiation to the mafia." He said with a wink, tapping his cheeks.
Sasuke knew he was asking something personal; Naruto always made light of the most important things.
"What do you really tell them?" he asked.
Naruto shrugged, shuffling on the sofa, still not lifting his eyes to Sasuke's.
"I'm serious, that's what I say. People usually laugh and drop the subject." He admitted. He looked up and their eyes met. Sasuke swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry.
"It isn't something I like to talk about." He added. The usual cheer was gone from Naruto's face and the atmosphere in the room had shifted. It was rare Naruto had a serious moment and stopped trying to laugh and joke about everything. In that moment, Sasuke felt as though this side of Naruto were something he could find a friend in. He pushed that thought aside.
"That's something I can understand." Sasuke admitted.
"If I tell you, will you tell me who you were on the phone with?" he asked.
Naruto saw Sasuke's automatic defences reach maximum and a dark look pass his face, yet Sasuke didn't stalk out the room. He simply sat in silence for a moment, considering the offer.
"Perhaps."
"Alright, well, you know I used to live in a small village?"
Sasuke nodded.
"We didn't have a lot of crime. It was quite a small place and everyone knew everyone." He said. He began picking at the threads on the sofa as he spoke.
"There was this guy, he came to town passing through one August, he said he could sense the devil inside you or some rubbish like that. He kept insisting there was a devil among our village. It scared the life out of the older superstitious folk. A lot of the older generation really believed in the old tales about demons in the village. We were used to passers-through so we didn't really pay him any attention. At least, I didn't. Until I came face to face with him down an alley one night."
Naruto pulled a large thread from the sofa and flicked it away absentmindedly. Sasuke took a large breath in, dreading where this was going.
"I don't think he was…all there. He kept saying that there was a demon inside me, that he'd killed the source, but I still remained. I didn't realise it at the time but he'd been to my home first and killed my parents." He said quietly.
Sasuke felt his heart thud loudly in empathy. He had sensed something, beneath his sunny exterior, but he hadn't even begun to comprehend that Naruto had faced horrors not unlike his own.
"He had a knife, and said he would make sure everyone could see on the outside what I was on the inside. He said if I didn't stay still, he'd cut my throat." Naruto took a breath before continuing. "We had a legend in the village, of Kyuubi, the nine-tailed demon fox, and I was marked in his likeness."
"But you escaped?" Sasuke asked softly.
"Yeah, I was on the floor of the alley and felt something by my hand. It was a shard of glass, from a broken bottle I think, and I stabbed him in the neck and escaped."
Sasuke took a moment to imagine Naruto, bleeding and fighting for his life, and it made his insides feel twisted and tight. He wondered how old Naruto had been when he had been attacked. The scars were obviously old and well-healed. He felt compelled to reach out and touch Naruto, but he resisted the urge.
"It was my brother. On the phone." Sasuke said.
Naruto's eyes were wide, and the moment Sasuke had uttered the words he regretted it. He hadn't revealed information like this to anyone else before.
"I didn't even know you had a brother." Naruto said.
"I don't. I did. It's complicated." Sasuke's tone was stressed and final, and Naruto could tell he wouldn't be willingly sharing anything. He was disappointed, but he didn't want to push Sasuke into revealing something personal until he was ready. Naruto knew the personal strain it took to say something so important out loud.
"It's alright," he said softly. "You'll tell me when you're ready!"
With that, Naruto leant back into the sofa, and jabbed the remote at the television, turning it on. He flicked through the channels. Sasuke was grateful for Naruto's carefree attitude towards the reveal about his brother and he felt especially grateful that Naruto was allowing him the privacy he needed, despite revealing something so personal about his own life.
Sasuke watched Naruto as he watched the television and felt that somehow, something in their dynamic had permanently shifted.