Disclaimers: Naruto is someone else's, this is purely a fanfic using someone else's characters.

Warnings: This story includes strong language, violence, angst, hopefully some decent jokes, and (of course) beautiful SasuNaru love.

Chapter 6: Memories & Mistakes

"Kiss me, and you will see how important I am."

-Sylvia Plath

--

They made their way back to Sasuke's place with an armful of miscellaneous belongings from Naruto's apartment. Naruto tried to pause every thirty seconds to say hi to a villager (most of whom just ignored him), or to comment about some random memory he had, or to share some pointless fact about nothing. Sasuke was seconds away from losing his damn mind when they finally made it to the front gate of his estate.

As soon as they got the door open he made a beeline straight for Naruto's room, where he dumped everything in the middle of the floor.

"Hey!!" Naruto ran in after him, "don't break my shit, Teme!"

Sasuke raised a brow at the blonde then looked down at the junk by his feet. "Naruto- nothing here is valuable."

"Psshh. Maybe not to you" he grumbled. He dropped down on the floor to sort through his things.

Sasuke knelt down next to him. "What even is all of this?" He brushed his hand against an old book with a bent cracked spine, a thick satin ribbon, a toy kunai with blunted edges. It just looked like a bunch of nothing.

He looked up at the blonde quizzically. "Why does any of this matter to you?"

"Because my friends gave them to me" he said quietly.

Sasuke studied his face before looking back down at the random trinkets on the floor. They didn't look like gifts- they looked more like an after thought or just something that otherwise would've been thrown away. It made Sasuke's chest squeeze uncomfortably tight to see Naruto look at these things with so much love when they were likely not given with any.

As he continued to ponder over Naruto's strange collection, one item in particular caught his eye. No freaking way. He reached out and grabbed the rough stone. He smiled as he turned it over in his hands.

"I can't believe you still have this.."

Naruto looked up and blushed when he saw what Sasuke was holding onto. "Yeah.." he looked away.

"Do you remember how you got it?" Sasuke locked eyes on him, curious to see his reaction.

Naruto grinned. "Of course I do- why do you think I kept it? It's the first time you ever beat someone up for me."

Sasuke laughed. "Those fucking assholes deserved it. They threw this rock so hard.. I remember seeing you drop to the ground.." His jaw tightened. "Who the hell chucks a rock at a kid like that?"

Naruto looked down. "They didn't think they were knocking out a kid. They thought they were knocking out a monster."

"They're fucking idiots. And I'm glad I was there to kick their ass."

"That's not what I think of when I see this though.." Naruto said.

He reached out and carefully took the rock from Sasuke's palm. He turned it between his fingers before holding it back out, showing the side of the rock where a younger Sasuke had once carved a little smiley face to cheer up a very sad little boy.

"I think of the kid who gave me a reason to smile."

"The adult wants to do the same, you know.."

Their eyes met and something heavy settled between them. Sasuke's mouth felt dry and he could feel his heart hammering violently against his chest. He wanted nothing more than to grab Naruto and pull him close. He wondered how obvious his feelings were when he saw Naruto drop his gaze.

"Sasuke..?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks.." he looked up, "for all of this. I know it's awkward. And I know I don't make it easy.. Not a lot of people would do this you know."

"Don't thank me for being a decent human being, Naruto. I know you would do the same for me."

Sasuke watched him bite his lip, and it was far too enticing. Something stirred deep in his groin and he knew that if he didn't do something, anything else, he would not be able to control himself for much longer.

"You hungry?"

"Ohhh! We should have-"

"I'm not eating ramen two days in a row."

Naruto stuck out his lower lip, and Sasuke did his best to stop looking at it. "You're a terrible host, Sasuke."

"I can live with that."

After an actual meal, the two spent most of the evening just kind of doing their own thing. Sasuke settled on the couch with a good book and Naruto, surprisingly enough, pulled out a sketchbook. Sasuke raised an eyebrow when he took out the art supplies, but otherwise didn't comment. Naruto had seen the look though, and answered it like he had. "I'm allowed to have other hobbies, you know."

"I'm aware of how being a person works" he retorted.

Naruto rolled his eyes.

"I'm just surprised that over the years I haven't noticed this one."

"Well, it is possible that you don't know everything about me."

Sasuke cocked an eyebrow again as he studied the blonde. "Is that so.."

"I assume there are things I don't know about you." Naruto bit the side of his pencil as he thought out his next drawing. His eyes slide over to him. "Wouldn't you agree, Sasuke?"

The Uchiha narrowed his eyes. What the hell is that supposed to mean?

Instead he replied with a "hn" and went back to his book. Don't be paranoid- he's just talking out of his ass. No reason to jump to conclusions.

Time slipped by quicker than he expected, and when he looked up again he noticed that night had settled around them. He checked his watch and found that there was little time left before he'd have to corner a certain stubborn blonde. He also noticed that that certain stubborn blonde was no where in sight.

Goddamnit- why is he like this?

He momentarily wondered if he should start panicking when he heard him calling for him from down the hall. "Hey, Sasuke? Can you come here for a second?"

He put his book to the side and padded down the hall. He immediately felt concerned about what he'd find on the other end of it, though he couldn't explain why.

"Naruto?"

"I'm in the bathroom."

His worry doubled. What possible reason could he have for calling me in there?

He paused in front of the door. "You're not naked again are you?"

"Oh my god- just come in here."

The first thing he saw was blood. A lot of it. Naruto was sitting in the edge of the tub to keep it from spilling all over the floor. It covered his stomach and slid down from a gash in his arm. A bloody kunai sat on the tub next to him.

"What the fuck are you doing!!?" Sasuke screamed. He grabbed a towel and starting wrapping it around his wounded arm, but Naruto pushed him back.

"Hey! I'm still using that!"

"Are you out of your fucking mind? Why would you do this?!"

"Do you remember the symbol that guy drew on my stomach?"

"What?!"

"The symbol" he enunciated. "Do you remember what it looked like?"

"Is that seriously what this is about?" Sasuke growled, "You would do this to yourself to fucking change the rules for the curse?"

"Why are you so pissed? I'm doing you a favor!"

"Don't you fucking dare claim you're doing this for me. I never said I wanted this." He grabbed his blood-free arm and jerked him closer to him. "And I'm not going to let you experiment on yourself for something as stupid as avoiding a kiss."

Naruto struggled in his grasp and Sasuke, completely fed up with his bullshit, pushed him back into the tub and joined him. He grabbed his arm and wrapped a towel around the it, tight, cutting off the bleeding. He kept his hold on the blonde, forcing him to stay in the tub with him.

"You seriously won't even consider this? You won't just try??"

Sasuke glared at him. "You piss me off, you know that?"

"Yeah- the feelings mutual."

The Uchiha conjured up a quick shadow clone to retrieve some medical supplies, then released it. He carefully unwrapped Naruto's arm and worked on cleaning and dressing the wound despite the baka's many objections.

"Can you stop doing stupid shit for like three seconds?"

"If trying to fix things instead of just lying back and taking the crap life throws at you qualifies as 'stupid shit', then no- I cannot."

Sasuke wrapped the wound in a bandage and then stepped out of his blood-stained tub, pulling Naruto along with him. He wet a washcloth and tried to rub off the blood coating Naruto's stomach, but he snatched it away from him and did it himself.

"It frustrates me that I can't trust you."

"Yeah, well I know the feeling", Naruto snapped. He immediately slapped a hand over his mouth, but the pain had already settled in Sasuke's eyes.

"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?" Sasuke looked away, letting heavy raven curtains fall forward, hiding his face.

"Sasuke, I-"

He shook his head, then turned and left, leaving a blood smeared, guilt-ridden blonde to hopefully, eventually clean up the mess.

Author Note:

So the whole thing where Naruto has a stone that he's kept for years is a little idea from my own life. My boyfriend & I have been living together for over 7 years now, and I have made it clear since the beginning that I don't want to get married. Life has just shown me how pointless it is and I trust our relationship without some piece of paper or ring. Anyways, early in our relationship, he presented me with a small rock- rough, simple, little rock. A trinket of love and life and all of the jagged parts that go with it. And he said he wouldn't ask me to be his wife, but he did ask me to be his penguin, because they stay with their mate for life.

7 years later I still have that rock. And I still have my penguin.