Author's Note: Reviews are honey and nectar to my sugar-starved mind. Please deposit a few and revive my creative wanderings. Leave them at the door, and you may find a gift under your pillow this night, to wend its way into your dreams and transport your essence to a land unexplored. I free your captive minds to delve into the halls of despair, desire and rebirth! Also, if a few of you kind sirs and gentle ladies would find it none too harsh upon your beleaguered countenances, please visit my other foundling of a missive titled, 'Beyond the River's Edge'. It doth wither in complacency and midiocrity, it seems. (Translation: No one seems to like my other story and that makes a very sad, very poor writer who may wallow in a hole if she doesn't get what she wants, which also means . . . . you guessed it . . . the possibility of no more stories for you!) Well, maybe yes, since I can't help but write them, and what's the point in that if you're not going to share the spoils? Please, move forward through the queque and thank you for flying!
Added note: People never really commented on the hot-as-hell training-turned to mud wrestling-turned to kissing scene in the last chapter. Well, Cupricanka, merciful diva and imitiable Godess that she is, did, but none of the rest of you seemed to like it or so I think. Does that mean you might not enjoy the little nugget in this chapter, I wonder? Hmmmm . . . maybe I'll hold out even longer than planned for the full out sex . . . ;D
Review, review, review!
Chapter 12
Crash into Me, Bask in Me
Sasuke lifted the bushel of herbs to the cart and hefted them onto the other bunches, all tied carefully with color coded twine. Naruto sometimes had trouble deferentiating between them as evidenced by the frown he someimes wore when staring between piles of the different plants. Sasuke had come up with coding them using the different colored thread so that Naruto could continue to work with him whenever he went into the gardens behind the Apothecary shop to collect them. Since their training session last week, neither had mentioned the kiss. Well, to be fair, Naruto still wasn't speaking. He was, however, communicating more, using his fingers to form characters on sasuke's clothes or writing on a small pad he carried with him. Sasuke had looked in the small bookshop that also served as a library one evening and found the perfect thing to help draw Naruto further into the world again.
Back among the stacks of old literature and instruction manuals, Sasuke had been hoping to find something related to smithwork and metals. He intended to fashion more weapons as their kunai had begun to dull after repeated training sessions and the travel-sized whetstones were no longer able to hone them properly. The local blacksmith and weapons artisan would be willing to build him anything, he was sure. The townspeople had no fear of either of them. Sasuke felt they should. Naruto and he had shown up out of nowhere, and while they had all known Sasuke from his time with the Snake Sannin, they had claimed to sense something different in him and so had let him into their workplaces and homes easily. He couldn't fathom that kind of ridiculous naivete. Normally, he would have sought other lodging, leaving them to the slaughter that had to be inevitable. Somehow, he hadn't been able to keep going past the rocky outcropping that Naruto was so fond of and it was here that he had met Koji-san for the first time. Talking with him, exchanging knowledge and ideals and opinions, Sasuke had found a kindred spirit, even though they shared opposing views on many things. Koij had not minded the debate and Sasuke had been . . . content, for a while. Leaving had felt almost wrong until Sasuke remembered himself and his goals. Why he was having so much trouble keeping them close to his heart now was still a mystery that Sasuke was afraid he already knew the answer to. Shaking himself out of his reverie, he remembered his earlier thoughts on the bookshop and what he had ended up purchasing intsead of weaponry-making guides.
Wiping his brow and leaning against the boulder artfully placed near the center of the walkway that wound inside and around the garden, he reached down to his belt for the canteen and took a long drink. Spying Naruto in a corner rustling among the goldenseal they used to treat minor pains and headaches, Sasuke called him over. Naruto approached warily, a hint of suspicon and hurt flashing in his eyes a moment before it was gone again. Either he was getting very good at hiding himself finally, or there was still a lot of work Sasuke would have to do in order to draw him out more. A perfect time for the book, then.
"I have something for you."
Naruto raised his eyebrows in a comic look of surprise that Sasuke almost found endearing, but only almost. He chose to roll his eyes and grab for Naruto's hand, pushing the book into it. The look didn't fade until Naruto caught on and narrowed his eyes mistrustfully.
"Well, it's not going to bite you. Haven't you ever seen a real book before? And, I don't just mean ninja scrolls or primers from the grade school lessons we took before the academy," he said dryly.
He missed the look in Naruto's eyes, shadowed by the foliage above and around them in the peaceful space. Another flash of hurt passed so quickly it was perhaps only a shadow cast by an errant cloud drawn over and away from the sun overhead. Not seeing any reaction from his friend nor feeling anything was amiss, Sasuke turned to hunt for the light lunch Naruto had packed for them this morning. Strange, he seemed to take better care of what he ate now than he ever had when Sasuke had traveled with him on previous missions. A light pressure at his elbow and Sasuke felt his heart race a little faster. The pressure increased as Naruto tugged insistently on the sleeve of his simple, brown yukata. Naruto wore one just like it, along with loose fitting white pants. They were light enough for freer movement while they practised ninjutsu and taijutsu but thick enough to ward off the chill mountain air that sometimes left frost on the windows of their room overnight. Sasuke turned to look over his shoulder and found Naruto staring intently at him. The burning gaze so intense without meaning to be, and now, so familiar and feeling somehow only his. Naruto tilted his head and continued to stare until Sasuke felt he'd had enough.
"What?" It came out a bit sharper than he intended but Naruto hadn't seemed to notice.
He opened his mouth and for one delirous moment, Sasuke thought he would speak. Closing it again, Naruto looked down at Sasuke's hand and traced the veins there before forming the kanji for a question that Sasuke found perplexing.
'Is it a storybook?'
"What?" Sasuke asked, his voice sounding strange in his own ears, "No, it's, well . . ."
Naruto wasn't listening. He'd begun to trace more characters slowly. Sasuke, who should have felt uncomfortable with the contact if for no other reason than it should have tickled to be caressed in such a sensitive place as the small hairs at his wrist, coughed lightly.
'I've never had a storybook. Thank you.'
"Naruto," now Sasuke felt even more unsure of his gift, what it could mean, and how Naruto would see it when he learned the truth.
"It's not a story book, Naruto. It's a learning book. The pages are full of hand signs, though not ones to use while fighting."
Naruto blinked dazedly at him. Then, he grasped the edges of the book cover and pulled the book apart somewhere near the middle. Sasuke watched his eyes graze the pages and he imagined Naruto reading the lines, picturing the movements, the language. Sign Language was not something that had been used near Konoha in ages, as far as the book had stated. The author's name had faded from both the cover and the title page. But, remarkably, the rest of the pages appeared to be in prestine condition. Sasuke had had a problem wresting it from the small shop, at any price, when the seller had realized the condition of the cover and the name inside. The man had claimed it could not be properly attributed which meant that the author could not be given due payment as his name may not even be in the lists he kept on them all. Even if it was, the name was so faded neither of them could make out a single letter. Sasuke had had to pay more than triple what it was worth to get it. He had just wanted Naruto to have a way to talk to more than just Sasuke, even if it meant only Sasuke could speak for him. He didn't mind, really, if it helped Naruto to feel more comfortable with how things were now. Naruto waved his head from side to side in a gesture Sasuke didn't fully understand. Did he not want it? But, Naruto slowly rose to his feet, forgetting about all the work they still had to do and made his way into the shop.
"Hey, where are you going? We still need to shop for dinner tonight, you know," Sasuke called to him, irritated.
Naruto turned to smile at him and waved the book in the air enthusiastically. Sasuke huffed out a loud, exasperated breath and worked the cart over the pathway and around the front of the shop. He'd take his lunch in their room, since that was where Naruto seemed to be headed.
Naruto breathed in deeply, inhaling the fresh scent of clean sheets. Here, in this place, it didn't feel so numb. He was drawn to these people, to Sasuke the way he was now. He relaxed his guard a little and let the world in a bit at a time, everyday. Sounds, scents came to him vaguely and blew away again; the sight of the waves cresting and crashing to the shore calmed the flurry of pain and voiceless fear. He enjoyed reading on the hill overlooking it. He went with Sasuke to work, helped out whenever he could not fight the pull of voices and the quaint draw of the village off enough. It was a simple life, something that was both new and hard yet not something he had learned to fear. Tracing the cover of the book in his hands, Naruto sat at the bench he'd made and placed at the end of his bed. The village carpenter, after seeing the rudimentary craftsmanship, had fashioned a desk that was both serviceable and aesthetic to go with it. They matched quite nicely, although Sasuke thought it made the small room even more cluttered. Naruto could see that he was only angry because he hadn't thought about doing it. They used the desk often for reading, or in Sasuke's case, writing. Naruto hadn't missed the shifting expressions and the closed off body language whenever Sasuke did that. He knew who was receiving the messages and who they were about. Strangely, he wasn't as upset about Sasuke exchanging information about him to the Council or the Hokage without telling him. Perhaps because he knew also that Kakashi was the one to retain them first and was probably omitting half of what Sasuke told him, if only so he didn't have to speak so long.
Reading through the introduction first, Naruto realized that the language Sasuke talked about could help them communicate without Naruto having to speak before he was ready to. He liked that idea. He wasn't planning on remaining mute forever, at least not while he was consciously taking in his surroundings, which happened more often than before. Fear nagged in the back of his mind and the images replayed in his head every time he thought about speaking up though. That was the problem. The pain had begun to fester and burn through his stomach at night and was nearly insufferable when he felt too many people trying to gain his attention, or something else, from him. Using this as an outlet that wouldn't risk Naruto screaming rage and melancholy till his voice ripped his throat out was a solution he was willing to try, at least for now. Leafing through the pages, Naruto studied the hand symbols for letters and simple words. This was not phonetically the language used in Konoha, throughout Fire Country or in the lands to the east and west but rather stemming from an affluent country to the south that Naruto could not remember the name of. They didn't support a ninja village and so he had not bothered to learn as much about them. Well, Sasuke would be able to understand it. He was a genius after all. Naruto trailed his fingers over the smooth paper and steadied the book to try a few signs, his lips sounding out the letters and words without being aware of it.
Sasuke had set out the lunch in the small expanse of wood Naruto had not taken up and began to eat quietly. Naruto could feel his eyes. Looking up, he smiled a little shyly. He'd never been all that good with Japanese let alone English. Naruto pointed to the book, then at himself and finally at Sasuke. Sasuke raised his eyebrows elegantly and smirked haughtily at him.
"Finally! Realized you're going to need a little help, huh?"
Naruto snorted and tried to pull the book back to his lap when Sasuke's hand shot out, swift as ever, and grabbed hold of his wrist, not the book. Sasuke hadn't gone for the book. Somehow, Naruto felt pleased by that. Naruto watched warily as his friend flipped through the pages, frowning slightly, before his features evened out. Together they worked through the simple finger signs for the letters and then the remaining simple, word signs to communicate small sentences. Sasuke looked up at Naruto when they'd memorized perhaps one hundred words and the entire alphabet. Naruto stared back, puzzled but unwilling to try the finger-work necessary to ask. He was clumsy with it, as he'd been with many of the ninja techniques at first. The realization that, in the past, he would have merely kept going until he got it, no matter what, got lost in the swirl of smoke from the candle on the desk and the look in Sasuke's eyes. They'd changed since Naruto and he had spent these past weeks in Gure-pu Sawa. Something softer had taken over the blank cast and the sad lilt Naruto had noted in them since they were young.
"That's it, Naruto," Sasuke said simply and went back to his lunch.
Naruto tilted his head and, unbeknownst to him, his eyes widened and his mouth gaped slightly. To Sasuke, he looked like a fish that hadn't truly realized it was out of water long enough to begin struggling for breath. Sasuke leaned forward and shut the book with a snap.
"Enough for now, we still have weeding to do and dinner to shop for. We'll go see the shop owner tomorrow about ordering the next set or whatever."
Naruto frowned. Then, a thought hit him. His mind had begun to run down. He grew tired of interaction easily and sometimes the nightmares that plagued him at night, the ones that left him drained and unwilling to breathe let alone move, visited during the day. At those times, he would freeze up and refuse to move on his own or acknowledge anyone or anything around him, though it was less often than when they'd first arrived. Before that happened, Naruto wanted to prove to Sasuke that he could listen better than people thought, he just had trouble understanding things that felt too complex to him. He had a feeling that it wasn't entirely his own fault. He'd not been raised by adequate guardians or even the commonly used group caregivers that Konoha provided for the orphans of ninja. Stealing his resolve, Naruto pushed back the chair and raised his hands, forming simple signs to ask Sasuke why they were visiting the shop and did it mean he would have to already try this with someone he didn't know. Sasuke studied him silently for a moment before standing up to clear away their lunch.
"We'll go to the shop because I'm sure there are other books like that, only more detailed and advanced. You can't very well sign letters all the time when it's easier to use the motion for a word instead. I'll get you another book, if you think you can learn them all, that is," Sasuke challenged him.
Naruto smirked at him and made the signs for 'watch me', then stuck his tongue out at him. Sasuke twisted his face up in revulsion.
"That's disgusting! Come on! We'll get fish tonight. And no, I'm not asking the fishmonger, or any other produce seller, if they figured out how to make ramen for you. So, don't ask!"
Naruto pouted and crossed his hands over his chest, then smiled snidely. Flying through a few more signs clumsily and a finger gesture no one needed to have read the book to understand added in for good measure, Naruto slid off the bench and squeezed his bulkier frame through the door before Sasuke could hold him back. Really, Naruto has far too much luck for his own good, Sasuke thought as he sighed angrily and followed at a more sedate pace, stomping his feet a little along the way. He didn't care if it did seem childish. There were no ninja here to reprimand them for acting their own age. Fifteen was not so very different from thirteen and they never did manage to break Naruto out of his penchant for pranks. Naruto had left them behind all on his own.
Later that night, Sasuke woke in bed unsettled. A lone candle burned in the corner and the bench had been moved up against the bank of shelves with Naruto sitting cross-legged on top of it, a book in hand. Sasuke squinted in the low light trying to see what Naruto was reading. His lips were moving and occasionally his hands would flutter in front of him though they were hidden by the pages he was so engrossed in. The frustrated look on his face was enough for Sasuke to finally understand. Naruto was working hard on learning the language from the book. Laying back down he watched quietly as Naruto made clones to perform the same signs and memorize what they each meant over and over until he was satisfied. It made Sasuke feel as though things were closer to how they once were even if it was eerie to see Naruto so silent and know that he might not come back all the way were he to start speaking again suddenly. But, he was still here, he had stayed with Sasuke this whole time and they had made a place for themselves. That thought left Sasuke feeling warm and he turned to his side, able to fall asleep without any trouble for the first time in so very long. Naruto continued his ministrations not having registered any change, and if Sasuke had seen it, he would have thought that was very much like Naruto as well.
The bell above the door clanged loudly as Sasuke pushed it open. Naruto followed him in slowly, peering at everything in the shop curiously. Akito-san, the shop's owner and only salesperson came through a backroom to greet them. A portly man with a round, pleasant face and frameless spectacles, he smiled warmly at Sasuke.
"Hello there! Back for another round? I'm sorry, the shipment with the books on armory and metals isn't in yet, but I'm happy to help with something else."
Sasuke smiled thinly at him, truthfully still uneasy about the movement. Naruto nudged his shoulder carelessly as he wandered further into the shop pulling his head in all directions as if they were at a park with exotic animals on display or a circus that used clowns and women running along the pavement inside plastic balls for entertainment. Sasuke shook his head at him exasperatedly.
"I'm actually here about the book I bought the other day. This is Naruto, by the way," he added when Naruto turned to glare at him, making the signs to tell Sasuke he was being rude.
"Hello, Naruto! Make yourself at home! Take a look around, any questions, just ask!" Akito obviously hadn't caught on that Naruto wasn't going to answer and Sasuke sighed, preparing to explain.
Naruto leaped up to the counter and made a few signs, smiling widely. Sasuke moved in front, signing as well in order to get more practice.
'What?! I can't talk to two people at once!'
Naruto pouted, 'Ask him about the box with the white and black squares and the pedals, then, and I'll shut up!'
'You couldn't possibly be silent, even when you don't talk!'
Naruto looked surprised at this but Sasuke had turned to inquire about whatever Naruto had been talking about. Maybe Akito-san could figure it out. After a moment of puzzled frowning, Akito's face cleared into a delighted smile though his eyes looked wistful.
"Oh, that! It's called a piano!" he called loudly.
Sasuke grimaced and rolled his eyes. Now he remembered why he had spent so little time here over the last few weeks despite his love of books. The man was cheerful but in the loud obtrusive way that he found irritating. He was going to ignore the fact that Naruto had apparently never seen a piano, even in pictures. Something about the way he had asked if the manual had been a storybook and how he'd never gotten one before struck back at Sasuke and he shied away from it.
"Would you like to see it? The piano?" Akito asked Naruto who smile and nodded.
They went to the back of the shop where the instrument sat lonely and covered in a dust cloth. Naruto looked at the grained wood of the frame when it was uncovered and ran his hand over the top, then down to the fallboard, a piece of wood that hinged and swung forward to cover the keys. The look on his was one of wonder and Sasuke stayed silent, not wanting to chase it away.
"Here," Akito said gently, raising the wood and exposing the ivory and black keys.
"Naruto," Sasuke asked, realizing something, "how did you know a piano was under here? You asked me to ask Akito-san about it, but you described what it looked like because you had never seen one before and didn't know what to call it. So, how did you know it was even here?"
Naruto smiled sheepishly and made clumsy letter signs. He was still slow but it was getting easier to understand him. For Sasuke, it had been easy to learn the rudimentary lesson from the book quickly as it had been for many things he endeavored to learn.
'I had a clone peek through everything in the store because I'm hungry and you might take too long.'
Sasuke glared at him hard enough to peel paint.
'You're a bottomless pit who still isn't getting ramen but will suffer until I'm done,' he told him with his hands. Naruto laughed a little, dryly. Sasuke gasped at the sound. He hadn't heard it once since . . . how long had it been?
Akito looked blankly at them both.
"Is that what that book had in it? Those movements?" he tried to simulate a few of them with his hands and Naruto smiled, reached over and corrected him silently.
Akito laughed heartily.
"I never was very good with school, except with stories. I could tell so many and not a single one the same even when the words were! That, and the piano."
Naruto looked up at the bigger man questioningly while Sasuke still fought to regain his composure.
"Ah, I used to play for my children, then my grandson and his class along with some of the neighborhood kids back at the house," he looked sad suddenly as he remembered it. "But, they don't come around anymore, so I don't play."
Shaking his head clear of whatever he was seeing his smile brightened again and he gestured for Naruto to take a seat.
"Have a go! Who knows, you might like it!"
"Uh, Akito-san," Sasuke warned, "I don't think that's such a good idea."
"Nonsense!" he called out as Naruto drew his fingers along all the keys, pressing on them all one after another. Apparently the discordant notes delighted him, at least until he had stopped. He looked back at Sasuke and gestured again. Sasuke translated.
"He wants to know what's wrong with it."
Akito blinked a few times then smiled a little, embarrassed.
"Ah, well, you see since I haven't played in a while. It's gone a bit out of tune."
While he continued to make excuses, Naruto had lifted the top of the piano and was peering inside interestedly while banging at each key. Reaching in he started fiddling with things inside the piano and Sasuke balked.
"Naruto, stop! You'll ruin it! It's important to Akito-san!"
Akito rushed to quickly assure Sasuke, raising his hands in front of him. "Hey, it's pretty hard to break this thing, you know. I don't really mind."
Naruto glared at Sasuke, hurt, and started hitting the keys again while he signed that he knew perfectly well that it was important to Akito.
"Well, I'll be," Akito intoned softly from behind him as Sasuke gaped in surprise.
"Naruto . . . you, you fixed it."
Naruto continued hammering away at the keys happily until Akito showed up at his elbow so quickly that Sasuke hadn't even realized he'd gone away and come back. It meant nothing good for his skills as a ninja which made him none too happy. Akito smiled down at Naruto and spread a thin book out in front of him, open to the beginning.
"Naruto," he said calmly, "these are notes."
He pointed to the first page and ran through what each one was and what they all meant. Naruto nodded his head and stopped clamoring away aimlessly to finger out each note and even whole chords. Akito looked more delighted than ever and declared him a savant, no, better yet, a music genius. He had perfect pitch, something that Sasuke was told happened very rarely even to world renowned musicians. Naruto listened to a string of notes and not only knew where they all were on the keyboard but could play them back perfectly. He learned the terms for some of the speeds, the names of notes and about meter, keeping time and a metronome, which Akito rushed to set up for him on the piano's top. It was a triangular looking device with a needle running up the center that when calibrated and flicked, kept perfect time. Akito told him about the parts of the piano and the types of music he could play on it, the types of instruments he could accompany and about orchestras he'd seen in Mokuzai Nenshou no Toshi, or The Burning Wood City, the Fire Country's capital. Sasuke saw Naruto's eyes beginning to lose focus and he called out to Akito-san loudly.
"I think Naruto's a little overwhelmed right now. Perhaps, if you'll let him just play one more thing and then we can come back tomorrow?"
"Of course," Akito said, though the excited spark in his eyes had lost a little luster. That is, until Naruto squeezed his hand and pointed to a song on the page he wanted to try.
"Right," Akito boomed, "a perfect choice!"
"This one's called Suteki Da Ne, composed by Nobuo Uematsu. It's a calming, very pretty piece. Take your time, read the music and do about half, and only half," Akito waved a finger at him sternly. What was more, Naruto listened and did as he was told. The music flowed a bit disjointed and stunted but for his first time ever at playing, it was largely well crafted and beautiful. At least, Sasuke thought so and judging by the tears forming in Akito's eyes, Naruto really did have a lot of talent and natural skill. This surprising revelation was enough to make Sasuke really pay attention to what Naruto was doing, maybe for the first time ever. Sasuke had that same feeling as before run through him, when he'd spyed on Naruto studying. He wondered if it was truly Naruto, though, and not the music. Whatever it was, the music itself, and Naruto playing it, were magic and warmth all on their own. Sasuke hated the moments of silence when Naruto stopped playing and lifted himself off the bench. Akito then took a seat and spoke to Naruto about his fingering before beginning the same piece over again while Naruto looked on.
Sasuke watched Naruto listen to Akito-san finger the keys artfully. The song was more refined when he played it but Sasuke felt hollow all the same. It was different from Naruto's playing. Naruto; trying to understand him, what he was now, what Sasuke couldn't help but see in him, was terrifying . . . and intriguing . . . and complicated. All he knew now was not everything, Sasuke needed more. But, what he wanted was something entirely different, watching the look of innocence mixed with something beautiful and altogether dark somehow. It was captivating as so much about Naruto had always been for him. What was this feeling? Could Sasuke really call it by name? Was it what he thought? It was so foreign from any other feeling and yet so familiar, as if he should know it, had felt something like it before. Then, Naruto leaned into the aged wood of the piano top and craned his head to the side, smiling. The look of innocence and, dare he think it, joy, were thrumming right along with the tempo of the music flowing into him. Sasuke clenched his fists and held his breath. On trembling knees, he canted forward and came to a stop just behind his friend.
Leaning into his side and, lips just a breath away from his ear, he whispered, "Come with me, Naruto."
When Naruto didn't move, not even to lean his head over to indicate he'd heard, Sasuke grasped his wrist in hand and tugged him around just enough to see his face. Naruto had turned it away from Sasuke and leaned into the back of the piano. The song had started again, that much Sasuke could hear, but everything else was drowning in the feeling he could not name. It felt like he was trying to hold water, or trying to hold back the sea. But, the water, so cold and ominous, came crashing in as Sasuke leaned in further and placed his lips to Naruto's temple. The waves shushed and sighed through him and Sasuke was still frightened but that strange, magnetic pull that came up whenever he was this close to him overtook everything.
"Come with me," he urged softly, calling.
Naruto pushed away from the frame and slid along Sasuke's body, because he'd refused to move, and started toward the door. Sasuke still held his wrist and used it to force Naruto back around to face him. Walking and stumbling forward, Sasuke goaded Naruto out of the small shop ahead of him, not bothering to say anything to Akito-san. Instead, he connected with Naruto, in any way he could as they went. A touch of hands, a slide of his hip against another, once, a minute press of their bodies with Sasuke's hand trailing behind Naruto to draw him closer than ever. They'd managed to get back to Hoku's shop undeterred. Now, in their room, he calmly slid his fingers up the front of Naruto's yukata and around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss so fierce he could feel it everywhere. Tongues touching, lips sliding together and apart rapidly, then slower; Sasuke could not breathe. He recognized the same ragged sounds coming from Naruto. Shifting and gliding across the room while the music Naruto had played for him was still in his head, Sasuke walked them to the bed and pushed Naruto down in front of him. Not to be outdone, it seemed, Naruto grasped hold of the collar of Sasuke's yukata and pulled him down with him. Sasuke landed on his elbows, his head resting in the crook of Naruto's neck. That was fine with him. Kissing a smoldering line along Naruto's jaw and down the side, the skin so heated he thought his lips would burn Sasuke loosened the ties to Naruto's shirt and pulled it open roughly. Everything was hushed and hot and too slow. Continuing the journey downward, Sasuke kissed along Naruto's bare collarbone, feeling fingers riding through his hair and down the back of his neck softly. Humming under his breath, Sasuke reveled in this mysterious new feeling. Naruto moved his hands down to Sasuke's chest and around to his back, slipping them under his shirt from behind.
Sasuke kissed Naruto's chest and slid his tongue experimentally onto the skin beneath him. Naruto inhaled deeply and made a strangled sound in the back of his throat. Sasuke smiled into the flesh and did it again, longer, wetter, steadying himself up on his hands. Trailing his tongue and his lips down to Naruto's navel and kissing his way back up, he reversed the flow in the opposite direction. Sasuke stopped and moved his mouth back up to Naruto's in another passionate exchange. It was something he was definitely fine with. Another small sound escaped Naruto when Sasuke rasped a thumb under his chin, then bent to caress it with his mouth. Naruto had slid his hands back to Sasuke's chest and was rubbing along the cloth there. Sasuke did not enjoy the feeling. It was not enough. Stopping to push up, though, gave him a chance to absorb what they were doing. Sasuke waited, looking down at Naruto's face, breathing so unsteady and sweat covering his brow. Naruto had something hidden in his eyes, or maybe it was something Sasuke just didn't understand yet. He had no experience with anything like this, after all. Sifting through Naruto's hair again, Sasuke placed a gentle kiss at the side of his mouth.
"This isn't supposed to happen."
Naruto turned his head away again, but not before Sasuke caught the look, one that said so many things, none of them what Sasuke wanted.
"I'm supposed to watch out for you," Sasuke tried again to reason with Naruto, and himself.
Naruto huffed and turned back to stare angrily at him.
"Naruto," Sasuke couldn't understand it all yet, but maybe he didn't have to. He doubted Naruto could possibly have more insight than him anyway.
"I'm not supposed to be doing this but," he took a breath and kissed him gently and slowly on the mouth, "I can't help it. So, we'll start again from here, okay?"
The irony of Sasuke using almost the same words as he had when turning Naruto away was not lost on him. It appeared Naruto had thought of that as well from the quirked eyebrow and the sly, half-smile he gave him. Naruto wrapped his arms around Sasuke and pulled them closer together. Naruto's own bed lay cold and unheeded, the sheets tangled all together at the foot. Naruto stared at them sleepily before smiling softly and closing his eyes. Sasuke shifted until they were both more comfortable and they drifted off to sleep like that, encased in each other.