Yup, it's almost 11 here and I'm STILL posting for you guys. Thank you so much for all your support! :D You guys make my day, and sorry I haven't replied to you all D: I'm forgetful and busy and usually that's a terrible mix... but yeah, I know you all wanted to know where I got my information for the actual sasunaru pairing, and I found the interview on livejournal. I'll google it and post the link onto my profile either tonight or tomorrow. (:
Warning: I make things cute, fluffy, and humorous EVEN A LITTLE SEXUAL IN THE BEGINNING, but then I just gotta go all zebra stomping bunny hopping panda chomping angsty. Wait... those animals are cute o.o. What the fuck am I saying right now?
Disclaimer: I own my invisible straight jacket! It has hearts on it c:
Enjoy!
Chapter Thirteen: We're Going to Crack the Surface
+The Tenth Promise: Acceptance+
"I... I don't want you to go," Naruto whispered against parted lips. He had lost count of how many times he and Sasuke kissed in the front seat. Sasuke's body was pressed flat against his, giving Naruto sharpened senses towards the curves of Sasuke's body, how well they molded together, and the pattering, hammering sounds of the raven's heartbeat.
Sasuke pressed a searing kiss on Naruto's neck. Trailed kisses all the way down to the blond's collarbone, then sighed. The scent of his blond was intoxicating—light and fresh like newly done laundry. "Hn..." he clasped their hands together in an unbreakable bond. "Can I comes upstairs?" he whispered towards Naruto's reddening ear.
Naruto audibly gulped. His heart was demanding to escape from its bony prison it could entangle and knot itself in-between Sasuke's heartstrings. His fingers desperately itched to claw at naked skin—to make fresh marks and claims. But his mind was hesitant, as always when it came to this final gap to jump over. His heart was ready to move on; it already had. It was now in the clutches of a new, gentler host. His mind—the torturous subconscious that trapped his minds and thoughts in a steel cage—was holding back. It reminded his body in silent tremors and frigid shivers about the last pair of hands that touched his body.
Defiled it.
Marked it.
Bruised and burned it.
The raven pulled back, taking the air of silence around them as the answer. Onyx eyes clashed with blue—understanding grinding with guilt. Sasuke smiled softly, the smile reserved for the blond, and pressed their lips together in a simple kiss.
"Though my lower body may not be too happy about your answer, I won't rush. I already promised you that."
And if Naruto wasn't already aware of Sasuke's little issue already...
"Dammit, Sasuke!" Naruto leaned his head back on the seat, "Don't point things out that are extremely obvious—Ahhh!" Sasuke had rolled his hips into Naruto's, their prominent erections grinding dangerously close to one another. Blue eyes snapped up in anger, only to be watered down by playful onyx orbs. "You said you were gonna take it slow!"
Sasuke smirked—a deadly sin in itself. "Oops," he attempted to look sorry but he failed; miserably.
"That's it," the blond squirmed in his seat, a little more than anxious to push Sasuke off. "You're never getting into my house now. I forever ban you from even thinking about coming in!"
The raven rolled his eyes, using all his body weight to keep Naruto firmly in place. They had time, and it wasn't like they had anywhere to go. "Naruto, please, you act like I'm going to respect your wishes."
"Because you will!"
Sasuke snorted and poked Naruto on the nose. "In your dreams, Dobe."
November air chilled the walls of the car, whispering the approaches of a cold Winter approaching. Despite that, Naruto felt warmth seeping to the very roots of his bones. Granted, that could just be from the hormones pumping crazily through his system, but Sasuke was a huge contributor to that heat. With a sigh, Naruto rested his head against Sasuke's shoulder and blindly searched for the car lock.
"You're not going to win this one," Naruto mumbled, pulling up the car lock.
"Those are the words of the defeated talking," Sasuke shot back. He placed his hand over the blond's and pressed their lips together. "You can't leave yet..." he whispered and kissed Naruto again. "Just a few more kisses."
The kisses started off soft and tender at first, then escalated into something bigger. Sasuke's tongue had slipped into Naruto's mouth and was now mapping out the hot cavern he had come to crave for so much. Their tongues touched. Electricity burned up and down their spines. Moans were swallowed and eaten up by the passion.
And Naruto was drowning. Drowning in the heat. Drowning in all the moans, and touches, and thrusting hips. His mind was swirling into a tizzy. His thoughts did not connect, but were merely disjointed—and all from a dirty kiss.
Their lips broke apart, but their tongues still touched, and lapped, and played. Sasuke's thumb pads were digging into Naruto's hipbones. Circles were drawn into the clothed skin before curious digits start to sneak up the blond's shirt…
"No!" the blond gripped onto Sasuke's wrists. Blue eyes were widened in alarm. He saw the shock pour into Sasuke's eyes before they dulled down with acceptance—brutal, cold acceptance. "Sorry," Naruto whispered feebly. His heart was on the verge of giving out. "I-I'm self-conscious…"
"What are you hiding?"
The words were strung together by gentle touches to the face, caresses—whispers. However, the emotion in them was enough to slice Naruto's heart in half. He swallowed. The words he wanted to say, to make known, were trapped back in their cage. Fear locked them up.
"I'm... sorry."
Next thing Naruto knew he was standing at the curb, clutching onto his duffle bag, waving lamely towards the raven who's face was pointed straight ahead. Naruto wasn't kicked out of the Jeep, he simply walked out himself after Sasuke pulled away from him.
"Sorry," Naruto whispered. Guilt iced his words.
Sasuke nodded slowly, and somehow managed to slip a tiny smile on his face. "It's fine. I'll see you tomorrow, all right?"
The black Jeep quickly blended into the night. Regret pumped furiously through his veins as he stumbled into his apartment building. 'Why can't I tell him?' Naruto had a firm grip on the door handle now. It was cold and froze his shaking hands. 'He deserves to know. Granted... I don't really know anything about him either...'
And that's when it hit him.
'We're like strangers.'
His duffle bag plummeted to the ground, heavy with realization. The blond sighed and pushed back his ever-growing bangs out of his eyes.
"Oh hey, Naruto you're—you're looking pretty down," Iruka walked out of the kitchen, his classic light blue apron tied around his waist. His hands were covered with soapsuds so he swiftly wiped them off his apron and walked over to Naruto; hugging him tightly. "Did Sasuke-kun say something to you? Should I send Kakashi on his ass?"
"No," the blond sighed. He really did love Iruka—a lot—but the man was overprotective and over dramatic to the extreme sometimes. "It came up into the conversation." blue eyes shot down towards his stomach.
Iruka got the message loud and clear.
"Come on," he said leading Naruto to the kitchen. "I'll make you some ramen and a hot cup of chocolate. Then we'll talk about it, okay?"
Naruto simply nodded. His stomach was craving for something hot right now, if only to warm up the bone-chilling frost that had come to conquer it not too long ago.
+I Promise+
"You're going to have to tell him about the mark sooner or later, Naruto." Iruka swirled his black coffee around and around in his cup. It was nearly eleven pm and the two had been talking for hours about every ounce of insecurity Naruto still clung onto. "We've gotten passed the emotional scarring already, holding onto such a secret is going to push Sasuke-kun away sooner or later."
"I know that," Naruto's cheek was pressed against the cool table top. His eyes were stinging and he had a loud headache knocking against his skull from five minutes of intense bawling.
"If he loves you, then he'll accept you no matter what."
A smile wiggled its way to Naruto's face. "Funny how that sounds like a Facebook quote."
Iruka matched the smile, "It's even funnier that I posted that today and I got around twenty likes."
By the end of that night, Iruka's post had gotten up to forty likes and Naruto felt a little more confident.
'I'll tell him,' Naruto thought, snuggling into his bed covers. 'When the time comes.'
+I Promise: We'll Open You Up One by One+
The next morning Naruto woke up with his cellphone balancing on his nose.
"How did this…?"
"You could sleep through the apocalypse, couldn't you?" Gaara was sitting Indian style on Naruto's bed, leafing through the pages of some random manga he found in Naruto's bookcase.
"We even poked you none stop and you still wouldn't wake up," Kiba added in. He had perched himself on Naruto's desk and was reading through his text messages. "I thought you were dead."
"Then I told him you weren't."
"So I said let's feel him up a little and see if we get a reaction."
"To which I scoffed and reminded him that you were taken property."
Naruto blinked back the sleepiness from his eyes, though it still clogged up his mind. He slowly sat up and took in the sight of his two best friends idly sitting in his room as if they were meant to be there all along.
"Iruka let you in?" he asked finally, stretching out kinks. It was a Saturday morning. And that normally meant the three of them got together for Saturday morning cartoons at the blond's house. Yeah, it was a ritual—they loved it.
Kiba nodded, "Yup. Told us not to blow down the house. Jeez! One accident with the toaster and I can't eat breakfast in the kitchen anymore!"
Gaara shook his head, "It's not like we eat in there anyways. We always conquer the couch." Then he turned to Naruto, "Oh yeah. You're phone kept on vibrating. It even fell of the desk. You've got like, ten messages from Uchiha."
"What?" Naruto's heart pounded obnoxiously as he grabbed his cellphone that had dropped into the blankets and flipped it open. What was supposed to be ten was actually twelve—six from Uchiha and the other six from Deidara who didn't understand the concept of "If I didn't answer once, then obviously I must be busy".
"We already read the messages from Deidara. They were all forwards," Kiba said. "One of them was really creepy though... Like if you don't send it in the next ten minutes you'll receive a visit from Amber Conway in your sleep and be whisked away to Hell."
The redhead looked at Kiba as if he had just sprouted two heads. "Those aren't even real, dumbass."
"Ha!" Kiba stabbed his finger in Gaara's face, "Tell that to Lisa Moore!"
"Who?"
The brunet crossed his arms, "Exactly," he said haughtily.
Naruto wasn't really paying any attention to the banter being thrown around him—it was usual for a Saturday morning and half the things that came out of Kiba's mouth were less than logical—and scrolled through his messages sent from his beloved raven.
Sorry about last night. Hope you're not too mad—Sasuke.
Btw. I saw what you did with my background. I don't want to know where you got the cat ears from though... :L but it was... cute (;
Oh, I sent you a picture to. So you can put it on your background... unless that's creepy... but then you can't complain about never seeing my beautiful ;D face enough.
… * heart *
Naruto mentally snapped a picture of that heart. It meant a lot of things with only a simple symbol.
The last two messages were just Itachi stealing Sasuke's phone and sending lewd text messages, a few Kiba had actually read out loud in a seductively tantalizing voice. Needless to say, everyone was thoroughly scarred for the rest of their lives.
A few minutes later the trio found themselves in Naruto's living room with a bowl of cereal in one hand, a spoon in the other, and a mind ready and willing to be turned into mush.
"So where should we start today?" the blond picked up the remote and started flipping through channels. "Cartoon Network, CW4kids, Nick, or screw them all and go with On Demand?"
"It's nine so Pokémon should be on right now. Oi, Gaara, pass me the Coco Puffs and Reese's Puffs please!" Kiba barked, stretching over the blond in the middle for the box.
"Hold your paws back, mutt." Gaara handed over the box of cereals with little complaint. "I'm not in the mood for Pokémon, Let's watch Yu-Gi-Oh."
"No way!" Naruto shot out. "They censor the shit out of that show."
Gaara smirked like sin, "That's why you watch it; for the kicks."
He had a point. Watching American censorship isa good laugh.
"Okay, so since we're not going to get anywherewith this..." Naruto pressed the ON DEMAND button and the interface popped up. He searched for Supah Ninjas and pressed a random episode to play. "I needed to catch up on this anyways."
"Dude, at least pick some cartoons!" Kiba whined. He reached over in an attempt to pull the remote from the blond's but failed. Naruto was just too much of a ninja for him to beat.
"My house, my couch," the blond plopped his feet on the coffee table and took a spoonful of Captain Crunch in his mouth, "my rules."
"Can't beat logic," Gaara said after spooning down some Trix.
Thirty minutes into the show and Kiba and Naruto had gotten into a game where they would watch the episode once, then see how many lines they could recite in time with the actual actors. Gaara was the judge; and right now the two were pretty even—in failing miserably at the game.
"You two suck at this game," the redhead was scrolling up and down through his phone, not really looking at anything to be honest.
"I'd like to see yo—DINGDONG—Ugh," Naruto pushed himself off the couch albeit reluctantly and trudged towards the door.
"Morning," Sasuke was propped up against door frame with a knowing smirk on his face. He leaned forward and kissed Naruto on the mouth. "I like your morning attire. It screams..." pulling back, he tugged at the waistband of Naruto's sweatpants, "I wore these because they're easier to take off in a rush"."
By now, Naruto was used to the raven's impromptu sexual comments. It was just the catcalls, wolf whistles, and perverted comments his best friends had to throw in that made his face explode and the urge to dig a hole grow immensely.
"Ow, ow! Get some, Blondie!" Kiba hollered.
"Use protection," Gaara reminded.
Naruto bashed his head against the open door. "I'm sorry my friends are idiots."
Sasuke shrugged, "They've started to grow on me. Are you going to let me in?"
"Yeah, but you'll have to answer the secret code." Naruto teased.
"Oh really now?"
"Yup! Here's the question: Why are you at my house so early and... is that a rose in your back pocket?" craning his head so he could get a better view of the flowery bundle, Naruto leaned in closer only to get blocked by an overconfident looking Sasuke.
"Can't you have any patience?" he sighed in mock shame. "I'll have to talk to your guardian about this..."
"Sasuke! Answer my damn question already!"
"Well I was thinking about taking you on a date..."
"At..." Naruto shot a glance at the clock, "Ten-thirty in the morning?"
"Sure," the raven shrugged. "Why not?"
Good point.
"You guys going out?" Kiba called from the living room. He had the remote in one hand flipping through channels and a spoon dangling from his mouth.
"Pretty much!" Sasuke called back.
"No we're not!" Naruto defended, and then whirled around to give Sasuke "The Look". "First of all it's almost eleven and I haven't had my ten bowls of Captain Crunch yet to start the day. Also...maybe I don't want to go with you."
"But you do," the look in Sasuke's eyes told Naruto that he could see every bluff the blond was spewing out. Well that was fine. Naruto was only being difficult for the hell of it anyways. Grabbing Naruto's hand, the raven pulled him towards the door. "Come on. I know this great place in the city that sells these Nutella Crepes I know you'll love."
"Nutella Crepes?" Naruto's stomach literally growled its agreement. The blond held his tummy in mild embarrassment and shot one more glance towards his friends on the couch.
"Make sure you bring him back by five," Kiba said listlessly.
"Better yet, don't even bring him back." Gaara added in.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do sober—and even then just sit down and count your toes."
"Keep the PDA down to a minimum."
"And Heaven forbid if I see you two on the news...!"
"Okay, okay!" Naruto had his head buried in Sasuke's chest with a humongous wildfire threatening to burn off his skin. "You guys are so fucking embarrassing I'm about to remove you from my list of friends I actually can stand!"
Kiba and Gaara exchanged looks before turning back to the TV screen.
"It's so funny seeing him make jokes like that when he knows he's not that funny..." the brunet shook his head and sighed, channel surfing once more.
"Poor kid," Gaara added in. "Uchiha, text us if anything happens."
"Got it," the raven nodded and attempted to drag Naruto out the door again only to be stopped... again.
"What is it now, Naruto?" Sasuke was getting a little impatient. He had the whole day planned out but Naruto was being difficult, stubborn... and simply Naruto!
"Well I'm not about to go out there in a pullover and sweats, Sasuke!" Naruto huffed.
Sasuke muttered something under his breath, pulled off his own jacket, and placed it on Naruto's shoulders. "There, now you have a jacket on. Can we go now... please?"
An act of kindness and a please? Naruto had to give in now...
A small smile tugged its way on his face as he latched their fingers together and headed out the door. "Yup! Let's go! I'm itching to try out some Nutella Crepes!"
"Bring some back for us, buddy!" Kiba cried out before them.
The reply: A door slamming shut that could easily be interpreted as: "Fuck no. You're on your own."
+I Promise+
They entered the cafe hand-in-hand. It was a normal date for a normal couple on a normal Saturday morning. Sasuke picked them out a spot with a great view of the city and they started to poke around the menu.
"I hope you know I'll probably be eating nothing but Nutella," Naruto warned Sasuke. His stomach would jump and cheer every time it landed on something that had, started, or mentioned the word Nutella. He was an addict through and through.
Sasuke chuckled and pointed Naruto to the section of the menu where it featured all its Nutella products. "This place is known for their creative uses with Nutella."
"Wow," Naruto's eyes sparkled as he read through the choices. He looked up at Sasuke and beamed like the sun. "I can't believe you found a place like this."
The raven tried to look as nonchalant as possible but his mask was cracking. 'Why would I even put it on in the first place? Naruto can break it apart in seconds without even trying.'" It wasn't too hard. I was looking for a place like this for you so..."
"Okay, that's it," Naruto threw the menu down and flashed his hands in the air in surrender. "You are, in the history of boyfriends, the best and deserve a reward."
Sasuke cocked an amused eyebrow, "A reward you say?"
"Yup! Anything you want, I'll most likely give it to you."
"Well then, with a guarantee of most likely," Sasuke teased, but then his eyes hardened over with severe solemnity. "I'd like to learn more about you."
"As a reward?" Naruto's stomach turned into pretzels.
The raven clasped their fingers together. "As a reward."
'Of course he asks for this,'the blond mentally chastised himself for being swept up in the hype and offering up something he knew he'd regret later. Funny thing he was... he couldn't find the dewdrops of regret anywhere... With a sigh, Naruto drew invisible circles on the glass table. "All right, I did say I'd give you a reward. But you have to put something on the table too, Sasuke."
There was a brief bout of hesitation in the raven's eyes before he nodded. "Sounds good. It'll be an exchange; a question for a question, an answer for an answer."
And that's how the riddles became clearer more... solid. The lines were less blurred and more realistic. The missing puzzle pieces you thought were lost for an eternity had come to fill in the blanks needed to complete the picture. Notes to the score came in to perfect the melody of the gap being filled, of two hearts connecting, of emotions and words being shared with the one person your heart seems to yearn for the most.
"So you skip school sometimes because of your father...?" Naruto had finished his Nutella Mocha and was now busying himself by swirling his bendy straw around and around... and around. When Sasuke nodded, Naruto hummed in thought. "And you and Itachi are like... spawns of a corporate King Kong?"
Sasuke nearly chocked on his hot chocolate. "You... you seriously view it like that?" sometimes he wondered why he liked Naruto so much. Then he reminded himself, 'It's the moments like these that I like.'and he really couldn't argue with the logic of his heart. "Okay, yes. My father is King Kong."
"Holy shit... I mean, I knew you guys were rich and everything but... your dad has business like... everywhere. Are you sure he's not secretly president of the world or something?"
"No, but he's certainly a tyrant," Sasuke muttered under his breath. "Sending his kids off to manage parts of his business as a way to 'Get you ready for the real world'. Bull shit."
'Idon'twanttosaysomethinglike "Iknow...",'so he said the next best thing: "That sucks, babe."
The raven smirked coyly, "That it does."
"Okay, so your dad's a dick. I can see that. You must have gotten that part of you somewhere," Naruto teased. "Oh don't pout, you'll get wrinkles. So what about your mom? What's she like?"
"She's the book definition of anti-social," Sasuke grounded out. Okay, Naruto wasn't expecting that as an answer. "My mother's a work-a-holic who doesn't believe in the word 'vacation' and holes herself dealing her online business empire." he sighed and rested his chin in the palm of his hand, "It's rather annoying."
"So overall your house has issues?" Naruto concluded.
"Like you wouldn't believe."
"Well, if it makes you feel better... my parents are dead."
Onyx eyes blinked back the truth; the blind, naked truth. Sasuke's jaw went slack. "Dobe, how in the world is that going to make me feel better?"
Naruto shrugged lazily and stretched out his arms behind his head. "I dunno. I honestly don't know if they're dead, but I haven't seen them in years, so they're either lost, captured by rabid foreigners, or dead. The last one seemed realistic enough for me to believe all these years."
"So you just automatically assume the worst?"
"Well, my dad's dead. That's for sure. He died the day I was born. Mom... Eh, I'm not to sure where in the world she ran off to. One day I just woke up and Iruka was there holding me. Mom was nowhere in sight." Naruto tried to scratch back the thick layers of dirt clogging his memories. The dirt wouldn't shift. And really, Naruto didn't want to remember. "Oh don't give me that look. Have you seen me complain once about not having my mom and dad?" Naruto snorted and pinched Sasuke on the cheek, "I'm not the type of person to bitch, whine, and mope about something that's already been done."
The raven smiled and leaned into the comforting touch of Naruto's fingers, "That's an admirable quality."
"I know," Naruto sat up a little straighter, "I've had quotes written about my strength."
"And your stupidity," Sasuke joked.
"That you find fucking adorable!"
"Can't deny that."
Witty banter always seemed to sew its way threw, to leave it sparkles, only to censor out the sharpness of the next few words to come.
"So about last night..." Sasuke started. His eyes instantly landed to his stomach. Guilt embedded itself into his veins when he saw Naruto flinch and go to cover his stomach. "Naruto... Naruto Uzumaki, look at me." his words were the string that brought Naruto's head to obey his command. "I need to know. For the sake of us...you need to tell me."
"If he loves you, then he'll accept you."
Iruka's words from last night rung loudly, heavily, obnoxiously, through the blond's ear. They made marks in all the right places and embedded themselves into Naruto's mind. 'I knew that was going to come back and bite me in the ass.' The past hour or so the two had spent sharing the miniscule and humongous scopes of their life, though there were some gray areas left uncolored but with time a paintbrush will come to finish up the work.
His heart no longer ached, surprisingly, at the aspect of sharing the black hole on his stomach. And with more courage he thought he had on the subject, Naruto reached for Sasuke's hand and grabbed onto the rose he received earlier in the other.
"Not here," Naruto breathed out. "Can we... go back to your place?"
Without any other words exchanged, Sasuke led the blond to his car and back to his house.
+I Promise: When I Say Something, I Mean It+
Standing in the bathroom, a dim light basking a dull glow over them both, Naruto stood in front of the mirror that both mocked him and supported him. Hesitation made his body spasm and break out into tremors. Sasuke was there, though, holding him from behind, giving off the heat and support he needed. It reassured his rapidly accelerating heart that jumping ship would not be an option.
"You're scared," Sasuke whispered into the back of Naruto's neck. His fingers were placed on top of Naruto's. They were holding onto the hem of Naruto's shirt.
"N-No," Naruto gulped. His eyes refused to look in the mirror, but at the same time... he wanted to face the fear and his past head on. "Of course not... why would I be scared?"
"You shouldn't be, because whatever you have to show you won't change how I feel."
The blond couldn't help it. He had to ask, "Promise?"
Sasuke chuckled despite the severity of the situation. "I gave you the rose, didn't I?"
The spoken rose was sitting on the bathroom sink—radiantly shining.
A spike of confidence exploded through out the blond's systems at those words; from the rose. With shaking hands and much needed guidance from the raven, Naruto lifted up his shirt excruciatingly slow until it reached his midsection.
He could feel Sasuke's heart nearly skip a beat from his back.
A black, never-ending swirl leading to his belly button was surrounded by bruised flesh.
Defiled, marked, burned and bruised.
As you can see from the example above (points up thur^) I have an unhealthy obession with Nutella c: Speaking of Nutella, National Nutella Day is on Feburary 5th, but my friends and I wanted it to happen sooner and longer and made it Nutella WEEK ;DDD. We're pretty pumped.
ANYWHOOO. Thanks for reading. Save a baby panda. Eat some Nutella. Reblog on Tumblr. Read some Yaoi -babbles on because she is so tired-...
~Too tired to make something witty to end this A/N~