Gah! I'm so sorry I haven't updated this in forever, y'all. I had school to worry about and the finishing of my other two long-running stories before I could concentrate on this. Those are finally out of the way, though, so you can expect updates to be more regular. Thanks for all the awesome reviews, and I'm glad you liked the last chapter even if it was such a tease. Hopefully you will all like this one just as much and douse me in reviews.

Disclaimer: Sora-chan, you rock my world; this one's for you, dear. Many blessings to you and your darling Tsumi .

Kishimoto-sensei is far more creative than I. He made it; I did not. I wish it could be otherwise, but…shit happens.

Habitual Infatuation .:. Chapter Four

"Sasuke is out of his fucking mind," Naruto muttered to himself, shivering as one of the last cool breezes of morning hit his wet body head on. The air was heating up quickly enough now that the sun had risen, but it wasn't quick enough for Naruto. Leaving that lake so abruptly hadn't given him a chance to dry properly, and he was freezing as a result. In contrast, there were certain parts of his body that remained uncomfortably hot…

"Stupid teme, where does he get off pulling a stunt like that?" The little blond was seething at the trees around him, since there was no one else nearby to hear his rant. He marched purposefully through the forest in the direction of the campsite he shared with the other boy, forgetting in his haste that he possessed ninja speed and could reach the site in a matter of minutes if he so chose. Instead, he walked at the brisk pace of an average disturbed adolescent, which in turn gave him time to mull over the morning's past events.

"What…was that?" he asked himself softly as his anger began to fade away, replaced by a flood of confusion. Of all the things he'd come to expect from Sasuke after training with him for so long, that was not one of them. Naruto couldn't even put that into words. His understanding of the event was nothing more than a tingling feeling in the pit of his stomach, just below the Kyuubi seal that marked him in a black swirl. This feeling, much as it unsettled him, was not one that he could expressly label as 'bad'.

At the same time, he couldn't exactly call it good due to the waves of confusion it brought along with it. Naruto didn't like being confused like this, and on top of that he had an unmistakable feeling of…frustration. The way Sasuke had touched him…the sound of his name pouring from between those sculpted lips like smoldering embers…how beautiful the other boy looked with water glistening on his skin like diamonds…. Naruto could barely stand it.

"Why?" That was all he asked himself, unable to think of more to add to the sentence. He simply wanted to know why.

With a small sigh, he spotted the familiar ring of trees that surrounded the clearing in which he'd slept last night with the very object of his puzzlement. Naruto had been so caught up in his thoughts he'd paid no heed to the ground beneath him. The time for thinking was over with; now that he was back at camp he'd have to work on stocking up firewood for the campfire, finding some food, preparing his bed for the night, and maybe packing some training into the day before the sun inevitably fell again.

Naruto pushed aside a stray tree limb as he stepped into the campsite, his brain already mapping out the quickest way to complete his list of tasks so he could find time for training. He was so distracted, he barely noticed the pure black eyes that locked onto him the second he broke through the foliage. Their gaze was so intense, however, even the dense Kyuubi could not ignore them.

"Sasuke?" Naruto asked before he could stop himself, his cheeks filling with color. "How the hell did you get here before me?" The other boy stared at him through a veil of damp black bangs. His usually meticulous appearance was just slightly ruffled, somehow making him even sexier than before.

"I'm a ninja; I used a jutsu," was his calm response, those glittering black eyes never leaving Naruto for a moment.

The blond boy felt heat rush to his face in a flood. "Oh. Right." He shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, unable to think of something more to say. The last thing he wanted right now was to be confronted with the person who moments before had made such alien feelings well up within him—was still making those feelings well up as the intensity of Sasuke's presence filled the air between them with electric sparks. Naruto was almost tempted to take a step back.

Before he could consider moving, Sasuke was on his feet and doing the moving for him. Naruto watched with anxious anticipation as the boy strode fluidly forward, slow and steady, until he was standing right before the blond. Naruto's breath caught in his throat as Sasuke's closeness reminded him of the closeness they'd shared just minutes ago; he felt it stirring low in his stomach yet again.

Sasuke's dark eyes ran once down the length of his body and back up again, settling on spheres of startling sapphire without so much as hinting at what thoughts lay behind the fierce gaze. The dark-haired boy seemed to be regarding him as one would regard a piece of famous artwork, never touching for fear of tainting but using the eyes as tools for scrutiny.

"Help me gather firewood." The words were spoken so plainly and calmly, Naruto almost failed to register them. He certainly hadn't expected that from Sasuke, or even that the other boy would speak at all. Some part of him had suspected they would remain in this impasse for all eternity, neither moving towards or away from the other for fear of breaking the spell created between their near bodies.

Sasuke ended the engagement by turning sharply to the right and trotting off into the forest, in search of the previously mentioned firewood. Naruto, in his daze, followed instinctively after him. They didn't have far to go to find wood, seeing as they were in the center of a dense forest. They found plentiful dried limbs scattered about on the ground, the remnants of a recent storm no doubt. The trick was finding them all the right length and density to make for a good fire. The two boys joined together in forming two piles out of the scattered wood, one for rejects and one for accepted branches. A stiff silence fell between them as they worked, interrupted only by the scraping of bark and shuffling of Naruto's feet. Sasuke made not a sound as he flitted this way and that like a forest elf.

He really is too perfect, Naruto couldn't help but think as he snuck a glance at the other boy over his shoulder. Sasuke moved with grace and majesty, combined with masculine strength that allowed him to move thick branches that normal boys his age would scarcely be able to nudge. All at once, the black-haired shinobi glanced up and caught Naruto watching him. The blond blushed and looked quickly away, suddenly fascinated by the different ridges in the bark of the log he carried. If he had kept watching, he would have seen the sly smirk that came over Sasuke's face the instant the boy realized he was being watched.

It seems the dobe's more interested than ever, Sasuke thought. He wants to understand what happened back at the waterfall. Sasuke never doubted that he could win Naruto back no matter how badly he might have scared him by losing control before, but it was pleasing to see he wouldn't need to. Naruto was disturbed, but not frightened. This would make Sasuke's goal that much easier to obtain. His mind quickly started searching for a way to take their current situation and bend it to his purpose.

Naruto, oblivious to the plotting going on in the other boy's mind, was still gathering wood. After being caught watching Sasuke, he'd buried himself in his work, determined to forget the black-haired beauty's presence. He did his job so well, he jumped three feet in the air when the heavy silence was finally broken.

"Naruto, I have a question for you," Sasuke said, pausing to look over at him.

Naruto spent a moment gulping air into his lungs to calm the beating of his heart. "Teme…what the hell do you have to ask me?" The question came out harsher than he'd intended due to his surprise, but Sasuke seemed not to notice.

"What do you want out of life, dobe?"

Naruto furrowed his brow in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Sasuke dropped the log he'd been carrying and leaned against a tree, fixing Naruto in his blacker-than-black gaze. "I mean, I've heard what you've said about love and friendship, and it seems fairly hopeless. If you're not looking for a lover or any lasting companionship, what do you want to do with yourself?" Sasuke chuckled inwardly, pleased with his plan. He would get Naruto talking and then turn the conversation in the direction he wanted.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head nervously. The question was innocent enough, but the smoldering look in Sasuke's eyes made him wonder if perhaps something more was going on here than he realized. Ignoring the unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach, he answered, "My goal is to become the next Hokage! You already know that, teme."

Sasuke waved a hand dismissively. "Yes, yes, we all know your less-than-attainable dream, but that doesn't explain what you want out of life. Surely power is not your only desire?"

Naruto chewed on his bottom lip thoughtfully. He'd never really considered it that way before. The way Sasuke said it made him sound like a selfish, power-hungry tyrant. He didn't think he was as superficial as that, but he couldn't think of anything else he wanted. It would be nice to be married someday, or to have lots of friends, but he just couldn't see that ever happening. Why hope for what could never be?

"I don't know." It was the only response he could think of.

"Are you trying to suggest," Sasuke said as he leaned forward, away from the tree his body was propped on, "that you never want to be married? You never want to go on a date or hold hands with someone just because you can?"

Naruto shifted from foot to foot, feeling uncomfortable again. Somehow, he got the impression Sasuke had led him through this conversation like a dog on a leash. Stiffly, he replied, "I don't really care. Maybe I don't need all those stupid things to be happy."

"What about sex?"

Naruto was so shocked to hear this question, he almost wondered if he'd imagined it. "What?"

"You heard me." Sasuke pulled himself out of his leaning position and took a step away from the tree, towards Naruto. "Aren't you curious about sex?"

"N-Not really," Naruto stammered, his face turning a lovely shade of beet red. He couldn't believe Sasuke was saying these things. When he'd teased the black-haired boy about being a prude, he'd only been half-joking. Sasuke was the last person on the face of the planet he'd ever expected to see a drop of perversion out of.

"I think you're lying," Sasuke replied, his voice a silken purr even as it dripped with challenge. "You're a teenage boy; you must have thought about it before, wondered what it's like." He was stepping closer to Naruto again, closing the space between them with aching slowness. The blond swallowed hard, suddenly feeling every inch of distance like a needle in his stomach. He wanted Sasuke to come closer and ease the pain, but every needle that was pulled out left a tiny, bleeding hole. He couldn't be certain what he wanted.

It hardly seemed to matter, however, since Sasuke was coming closer whether Naruto wanted it or not. He had the blond exactly where he wanted him, and this time there would be no escape.

"Naruto," Sasuke repeated, watching as the other ninja shivered in response to hearing his name said with such sensuality, "I don't think you realize what you're missing. Sex is a whole new kind of sparring that our sensei never taught us about. Two bodies moving in tandem, pressed together, sharing sweat and heat and pleasure…." He was standing inches from Naruto now, listening to his ragged breathing and watching the blush creep across his face.

A slight smile played across his lips as he made his voice low and tantalizing. "It's a beautiful and terrible thing. It's the ability to make another person scream until their throat is raw. It's touching and tasting and writhing because what else can you do in the throes of such tremendous pleasure? Your body will ache with need, beg for more, shiver and shake so violently. Your breath will catch in your throat before breaking into moans and gasps. Churning muscles, dripping sweat, and clenching fists will mean more to you than all the power in the world. And then, when it finally becomes too much, there will be only oblivion waiting for you over the edge of unimaginable ecstasy."

Naruto tried to hide the trembling in his legs, but he lacked the strength. Sasuke's words were sending him into a stupor unlike anything he'd ever felt before. It didn't help that the boy's strong body was so close he could feel his body heat. The way Sasuke had lowered his voice to a husky murmur…it filled Naruto's head with all sorts of images, most of which involved his body moving with Sasuke's in the way he had described. A wave of guilt hit Naruto fast and hard, but along with it came a wave of arousal. He couldn't stand having Sasuke so close and not touching him. He might not have been curious about sex before, but he surely was now. If Sasuke could do so much to him just by talking…what else could he do?

Stop it! Naruto's conscience screamed at him. He's your teammate and one of your biggest rivals! Tell the hormones to go to hell! The hormones immediately shouted back, You go to hell! Naruto hung in limbo as a battle raged within him. He wanted so much to be touched right now, but he couldn't stand the thought of using his teammate just to satisfy his hunger. It wasn't right. Sasuke probably wasn't even aware of what he was doing to the blond…

Or so Naruto thought. Then Sasuke did one very bad thing.

He leaned forward to whisper in Naruto's ear, closing the final distance between their bodies. "I'll ask you again, Naruto: what do you want?" It was all the other boy could do to keep his knees from buckling beneath him. Sasuke wasn't exactly pinning him, but his body was placed in such a way that Naruto could not move in any direction without pressing directly against the black-haired boy. He wanted so many things right now he couldn't even think through them. Most of all, he wanted Sasuke to pick one of the trees around them and press him hard against it; he wanted him to crush their bodies together and show him all the things he'd said before.

"Sasuke…I…" Naruto struggled to put his desire into words, but he just couldn't. It was unthinkable, these things that he wanted to tell Sasuke to do. How could he suggest anything of the sort? Naruto mewled softly, too frustrated to form actual words anymore.

Sasuke could see it in his eyes: the mad, uncontrollable arousal. The only reason Naruto hadn't jumped him by now was because he didn't know what to do. He was too ignorant about sex to understand how to get what he wanted. Sasuke knew all he had to do was lean forward and capture the other boy's soft rose petal lips and he would be his. They would tangle themselves together on the forest floor and not stop until they'd both been satiated. All he had to do was take what was being offered….

Out of a dark corner of his mind, a thought rose up to Sasuke. He hadn't been patient before, and it had driven Naruto away from him. He couldn't afford to make the same mistake twice. Naruto was confused right now and acting on instinct, but if that instinct wore off halfway through everything Sasuke wanted to do to him, the black-haired boy would be out of luck. He couldn't go through with this until it was the exact perfect time. Much as he wanted nothing more than to lick every inch of that lean, tan body before him, he had to keep his objective in mind: make Naruto fall in love, not lust.

A smirk played across his lips as he had an extremely evil thought. On top of waiting for the right time, he could give Naruto a taste of his own medicine. The blond would learn what it was like to be taken to the point of total arousal only to be left alone. Sasuke was not much for masturbation, but the scene back at the waterfall had left him with a very hot and uncomfortable problem that could only be solved one way. Now Naruto would know what it was like to be left high and dry.

With that same evil smirk still set beautifully on his face, Sasuke pulled away from Naruto. "Well, if you ever figure out the answer to my question, dobe, be sure to tell me." He could hear Naruto's whimpers of protest as he turned and walked away. Over his shoulder, Sasuke called, "I'm tired. Be a friend and finish gathering the firewood. I'll see you back at camp."

To himself, he thought with a blissful smile, Naruto's right about me: I really am a bastard.

To be continued…