Three times when an adversary marked Sasuke, and one time when a lover did

Thank you so very much for the reviews and the interest. I'm really glad readers are enjoying this story as much as i'm having fun writing it. And thank you Kantayra for making this readable.

"Foolish little brother."

The Kunai flew toward Sasuke so fast that he barely even saw it. He heard the wood of the door crack behind him at the impact before his mind registered the pain in his arm.

He had been hurt before. When someone trained as hard as he did, it was inevitable. Not that long ago, he had twisted his ankle while practicing with shuriken, and his brother had carried him home. Just a few days earlier, his mother had tended to the burns he had sustained while training to use the Katon jutsu. Sasuke might be young, but he knew physical pain, and knew the sensation of warm blood sliding on his skin.

What he'd never felt before was this searing white-hot anguish as he stood there still, unable to understand. None of it made sense. Surely, in just a second, his mother and father would stand, wipe away fake blood from their faces, and explain the reasons behind this cruel joke. Surely, Itachi would apologize for cutting him, then he'd chide Sasuke for flinching into the path of the weapon. Sasuke refused to believe his brother had deliberately tried to hurt him. He refused to believe his brother had hurt anyone.

He just couldn't have.

Could he?

Itachi breathed deeply and closed his eyes for a second. When they opened again, they were crimson, and the sharingan had that strange wheel pattern again, that pattern that Sasuke had convinced himself he had imagined. The attack, this time, left no outward scar.

…

Sitting on the edge of what was now his bed, Sasuke closed his eyes and listened intently. Outside his door, the corridors were long, and sound echoed through them. Somewhere, a door creaked open and slow steps resounded toward him. Sasuke's brow wrinkled as he tried to listen even more closely.

"How is he?"

Sasuke grimaced at the voice. Orochimaru was approaching. He was the reason Sasuke was here, and Sasuke had demanded to see him as soon as he had arrived, but now he felt some trepidation at the thought of this first meeting.

"Exhausted." Kabuto's voice held no emotion that Sasuke could discern. "He probably used too much chakra when he activated the curse seal."

The voices were becoming clearer now. The two missing-nin had to be coming to his room. Sasuke even heard Orochimaru make a small noise in his throat.

"Is his body wounded?"

Sasuke shifted, just a little, and dull pain shot through him. He didn't wince or react in any way to the pain. Naruto had given him those bruises. And in exchange, he had shoved his fist through Naruto's chest. He had almost killed him, almost killed his best friend. He couldn't even remember anymore why he had wanted to in the first place.

"Nothing too bad. He'll heal, and I'm sure the scars will fade to nothing before you are ready to take him."

"Good."

Yes, it was good, Sasuke thought dully, that scars healed and faded. He had watched the wound on Naruto's chest stitch itself back together until nothing but smooth skin was left. He was glad. He wouldn't have wanted Naruto to bear such a reminder of his treason.

The voices were clearer than ever, practically at his door now. "Did he say what form the curse seal gave him?"

Once more, Sasuke's mind drifted back to Naruto. Naruto had… changed during their fight, not unlike Sasuke. His chakra had been different, stronger, and through him, Sasuke could have sworn he had seen a demon. But no, that couldn't be right. Sasuke was the one who had a demon inside him. A winged beast that had almost killed his teammate.

"He didn't say much. His shirt was ripped in the back, though. I was thinking wings, maybe."

"Wings. Very nice. I knew I made a good choice with this one. A pity I'll have to wait so long."

Wait? Why wait? Sasuke didn't want to wait anymore. He stood and went to the door, opening it to find the two men behind it. He'd waited long enough already. He wanted to learn. He wanted to fight. He wanted to kill Itachi.

And then he wanted to go home and heal those wounds that only forgiveness would soothe.

…

Sasuke had decided long before the fight had even started what attacks he would use against Naruto. He had to be convincing, which meant he had to use some of the nastiest stuff he had learned during his long years as Orochimaru's apprentice. The trick was to use the forbidden jutsus in such a fashion that Naruto could parry or ward off the blows.

They'd been fighting for almost half an hour already. Evening was slowly falling over the Valley of the End. Sasuke was satisfied with himself. He hadn't done badly so far. He'd seen flashes of fear in Naruto's eyes a couple of times, and Naruto had called onto the Kyuubi's chakra to intensify his attacks. Blood had been shed on both sides. Soon, it would be time to finish the game.

Molding lightning chakra, he sent it through his sword, holding it with both hands in front of him. Fifty yards away, Naruto and a clone were preparing his now familiar rasengan attack. Before the ball of chakra could be completed, Sasuke ran at Naruto, his sword raised high. He started slashing toward the clone—and realized at the last moment that it was the real Naruto. He swore, angry with himself for not having noticed. He'd been so caught up in trying not to kill him…

Desperation fueling him, he managed to stop himself before the sword could touch Naruto. Doing so, he left himself completely open, and unable to do a thing to avoid the full impact of the rasengan.

The world become pain. The impact sent Sasuke to crash back into a tree trunk. He tried to take a breath but his body refused to cooperate. He looked down at his side, and grimaced at the sight of the wound. His flesh was burned and throbbed where Naruto's attack had seared him. Still, he relished the pain. He'd never felt so alive. It was time to end it.

Holding his free hand against his ribs, he stood, flinching as pain lanced through him. He took a few stumbling steps toward Naruto, who looked at him through red eyes, his chest heaving with fast breaths. Sasuke stabbed the sword into the ground and let go of it, letting it stand between him and Naruto.

"OK," he said.

Naruto blinked. His eyes slowly shifted back to blue even as he kept staring as Sasuke. "OK, what?" he asked, his voice rasping.

"OK, you win."

Naruto's eyes widened. "I… win?"

Sasuke pushed back the urge to roll his eyes at how thick Naruto was. "I'll go back to Konoha with you."

"Really?"

All the pain in the world would have been worth it just to see Naruto's smile this brightly.

…

Nothing happened when they went to sleep, crammed again in the too small bed – nothing, that is, except for Sasuke giving him a chaste, hesitant kiss. Mentally exhausted, Naruto fell asleep easily, only awakening once during the night, when a gentle arm wrapped over his waist and pulled him tight against Sasuke's chest. He went back to sleep at once, relaxing fully at last.

Sasuke was already up and dressed when Naruto woke up. He'd found cardboard boxes somewhere and had started packing up Naruto's few possessions. Rubbing sleep out of his eyes, Naruto sat up on the bed and stared. Sasuke's packing had to have been really quiet if it hadn't awakened Naruto. It seemed the bastard could be considerate when he wanted.

"Well?" Sasuke said, a hand on his hip and a frown marring his features when Naruto had been staring for almost a minute. "Are you going to help at all or am I doing all the work as usual?"

Apparently, he could only be considerate when Naruto was asleep.

"Good morning to you, too," Naruto said with a small grunt. "Can I at least get dressed?"

Between the two of them and with the help of some clones, they finished boxing Naruto's stuff in no time, and took it all to the Uchiha district in one trip. It was still early in the morning, but they received strange looks on their way. Naruto and his clones glared at anyone who so much raised an eyebrow at them, but Sasuke didn't even appear to notice.

Rather than walking deep into the district to the same house as the previous evening, Sasuke led the way to a three-story building. When they reached the apartment on the third floor, Naruto remembered what Sasuke had said about living near the district's main entrance. It had to have been his place, he figured as he walked around the large but sparsely furnished apartment. He set the clones to cleaning the place. They complained but started dusting and washing the apartment anyway. It didn't look as though anyone had been in there in the past five years.

Curious, Naruto followed Sasuke into his bedroom. They'd been teammates and worked side by side, but Naruto had never seen Sasuke's place before. It looked like him, he decided as he inspected the room. Sober; restrained. He liked it. And he liked even more that the first thing Sasuke did was set upright a frame that had been lying face down. The picture inside it was very familiar.

After an hour, the place was clean. Naruto dispelled the clones and gratefully accepted a glass of ice-cold water. Standing in the kitchen, he eyed Sasuke critically. There was more dust and grime on him than there was left in the apartment. Sasuke returned his look and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well? What do you think?"

"Nice place. Even nicer now that it's clean."

A corner of Sasuke's mouth lifted, just barely. "You didn't have to put your stuff in the second bedroom, you know. Mine is big enough for two."

Feeling his cheeks burn with embarrassment, Naruto took a deep swallow of his drink. He hadn't dared ask where he ought to put his things, too afraid of imposing. Now, he wished he had asked, just to hear Sasuke invite him to share his space.

Clearing his throat, he changed the subject. "Will you ever move back into your parents' house?"

The half-smile disappeared. Sasuke turned away to put his empty glass in the sink. "Probably not."

"Aren't you going to restart your clan?"

"Why?" Sasuke looked back at Naruto and asked deadpan, "Are you offering to bear my offspring?"

Naruto's eyes widened in shock. He wasn't sure whether to feel insulted. In the end, he laughed, and Sasuke cracked a smile.

"No, seriously," he said when he had calmed down. "Wouldn't you want to have little Uchihas running around? I bet they'd be cute."

Nonchalantly approaching the sink to place his glass there, Naruto wondered if Sasuke would pick up on the compliment he didn't want to voice more clearly. Sasuke didn't glare at him, so he probably hadn't noticed.

"At the moment, it seems very unlikely."

Naruto laughed. "Unlikely that your kids would be cute? Have you looked in a mirror recently?"

Sasuke gave him an exasperated look. "Unlikely that I'd father children, given the gender of my partner."

That hadn't been at all what Naruto had expected. He couldn't say he liked the idea of Sasuke being with someone else, but it seemed rather inevitable. That Sasuke would dismiss the idea so easily made Naruto's stomach flop in a very peculiar way. "Your… partner?" he said, his voice cracking on the word.

Sasuke let out a little huffing noise. "I am not calling you my boyfriend."

"Partner is nice," Naruto said, a grin curving his lips. "Partner sounds like you'd share things with me. Tell me what's going on in that thick head of yours before putting yourself into more trouble."

Without batting an eyelash, Sasuke retorted, "Partner means that you trust me."

Naruto's grin disappeared as he remembered the previous night. Sasuke hadn't asked why Naruto had left a clone with him. He probably wouldn't, proud bastard that he was. How was Naruto supposed to explain himself if Sasuke didn't ask?

"I'm ready to trust you with my life," he said quietly, looking straight into Sasuke's eyes and willing him to hear the truth of his words.

Sasuke nodded. "But not with Konoha."

"I don't know if I can trust you with Konoha. Why did you want to know if you can control the Kyuubi?"

A couple of seconds passed before Sasuke answered. "I'm not the last of my clan."

Naruto's brow furrowed in incomprehension. "What does that have to do—"

"That person unleashed the Kyuubi on Konoha before. The Kyuubi confirmed it. That's what I wanted to know. He can't get anywhere near you. And you can't get anywhere near him."

Part of Naruto was relieved to finally get an explanation. It would have been even better if Sasuke were making sense, though. "Why do you think I'd want to go near him?"

Sasuke shook his head. "He's Akatsuki, Naruto. He's coming for you. And when he does, I don't know if I'll be able to stop him. But I promise you this – I'll die before I let him get you."

Sasuke's eyes remained dark as night, but they gleamed with a fire Naruto had never seen in them, leaving him in awe.

"You really did come back for me," he said, all but breathing the words.

Sasuke frowned. "I told you as much, didn't I? Did you think I lied?"

Without answering, Naruto closed the short distance between them and kissed him hard. Arms wrapping around each other, they wrestled for dominance, kissing, licking and nipping at each other's lips. Trailing soft bites along the line of Sasuke's jaw, Naruto followed the curve of his throat. He sucked hard at the crook of his neck. Sasuke moaned softly, his fingers tangling in Naruto's hair. He was breathing hard when Naruto pulled back to inspect his work. The hickey was the loveliest shade of purple on Sasuke's pale skin. Naruto grinned, then realized where exactly he had marked him – and realized for the first time what wasn't there anymore.

"The curse seal… it's gone. Did you kill him? Orochimaru, I mean."

A shadow passed over Sasuke's features, darkening his eyes. "I couldn't let him have my body, could I?"

For a fleeting moment, Naruto frowned. Sasuke hadn't really answered. It didn't matter anymore, though. His hands tightened on the back of Sasuke's shirt. How many times had he awakened from the familiar nightmare, his heart trying to break free from his chest at the thought that, somewhere, Sasuke had already been taken over by Orochimaru, and all of Naruto's efforts were wasted? "I thought you were OK with it."

Sasuke's fingers combed through Naruto's hair in an almost absentminded fashion. "I thought so, too. And then I decided that there were still things I wanted to do with my body, things I definitely didn't want that snake to do in my place."

Naruto tilted his head to one side, his curiosity picked. "Things like what?"

"Get inside you, for one."

Sasuke's tone was so serious that Naruto thought he had misunderstood for a second. The gleam in Sasuke's eyes was back, however, and the lust was unmistakable.

"I don't think—" he started, choking a little on the words, but Sasuke didn't let him finish. He drew Naruto's mouth to his own and started kissing him again. It wasn't long before Naruto had forgotten what he had been about to say, and not long after that when Sasuke's fingers found the zipper of Naruto's jacket and pulled it down. Unwilling to lose ground, Naruto tugged Sasuke's shirt out of his pants and pushed it off his shoulders and to the floor. Their mouths separated, and they looked at each other, both of them breathing hard, both of them wanting more now.

Sasuke sneezed. Twice. Violently.

Naruto couldn't help chuckling, the urgency of the moment forgotten even as Sasuke sneezed a third time.

"You're dusty," Sasuke said with a nasty look at Naruto's renewed chuckling.

"You're not exactly clean yourself. You should take a shower."

"So should you."

"You go first."

"There's no need for first or second, is there? The shower's big enough for two."

Naruto tried to protest. He wasn't too sure why, but he really did. However, as he had repeated countless times, Sasuke was a bastard. Not only that, but he didn't play fair.

In seconds, Sasuke had maneuvered Naruto into the bathroom, divested him of his clothes and pushed him under the already steaming spray of water. Seconds later, he had joined him and closed the glass door on them.

It was too late, then, to feel embarrassed about being naked in front of an equally naked Sasuke. Too late not to kiss Sasuke back when he pressed his lips to Naruto's. Too late to do anything but enjoy the feel of Sasuke's skin against his, and try to return the pleasure he was being offered.