3. A Glimpse Of You
"I've worked with him before, several times," Suigetsu told Itachi and Sasuke as he approached them with a surprisingly pleased Karin in tow.
Karin nudged him, a sadistic grin forming on her face. "Tell 'em how you both met."
Suigetsu rolled his eyes but complied. "The first time I met him we were both just errand boys running around on commercial sets. I... happened to assume he didn't speak English. For five days he let me believe it! Five days!"
Sasuke felt amusement tug, not only at his lips but his chest felt lighter. He was coming to realise quickly that Naruto was a person who would not pass up an opportunity to have any kind of fun. It takes someone special to live in the here and now and enjoy it as much as they can.
"I spoke to him entirely in gestures and hand motions. Then that asshole comes to me on the last day, speaking perfect English and says he didn't get the role he was practising the language for and thanked me for letting him practice on me. Karin was ecstatic. Me? Not so much."
"Suigetsu, you slimy bastard!" Naruto piped up at the sound of a familiar voice. Evidently back from a haircut. Suigetsu snapped, crackled and popped in fake outrage at being called the slimy one.
As Naruto approached them, Sasuke turned to face him, biting his tongue at the sight. Naruto's hair was short and perfectly messy, falling into his line of sight like he was a troublesome trickster with naughty plans. Sasuke felt an urge bubble up, hot and slick grasping at his lungs with desire. A complaint about the unfairness of his attraction to this man, a complaint about everything crossed his mind but holding his tongue was second nature to Sasuke, so he did just that.
Naruto's mischievous gaze slid over Sasuke but when his eyes stopped to the right catching a glimpse of redhead suddenly his footsteps doubled up on speed. Naruto was a blur of gold hair, flashing past both Uchiha and the voluntarily silver-haired Suigetsu. Naruto wrapped his arms around Karin's hips, lifting the generally hostile woman into the air, swinging her around, forcing a squeal of glee from her as he laughed with joy. "Karin!"
"Naruto! Put me down! Or I swear—" She screamed and laughed again when he simply threw her over his shoulder and raced around to get her to laugh and cry out even more. "Na-ru-to! Let me—"
Sasuke looked on in wonder as the quiet yet short tempered woman shed her guise in front of him, and a few years from her face, as she yelled in actual good humour that she was not a sack of potatoes to be carried around.
"Oh Karin, don't lose hope yet, I'm sure Suigetsu will make an honest sack of potatoes of you yet." Naruto offered as he turned to face the three men, standing about watching the interaction with bare fascination.
"Did you just call me fat?" Karin demands though it's her ass facing the inside of the circle.
"No way." Sasuke denies once Naruto's words settle in his mind. "You and Karin?"
"Going on two years now," Suigetsu nodded with a grin, lifting a peace sign.
"Shut up." Suigetsu's eyes lit up with humour at Sasuke's disbelieving tone.
"Come on!" Naruto asserted. "You can't honestly say all their banter was sans sexual tension. You could cut it with a knife and distribute it among those lacking... if it wasn't abstract."
Sasuke watched Naruto struggle very little with Karin as she complained about being ignored like a sleeping bag thrown over Naruto's shoulder and he let her down before dragging her away to introduce her to Ino.
"Not even a hug for me." Suigetsu huffed then pouted. "Just because they're cousins twice removed or something, she gets all of his attention. That's why I never bring her to the commercials I do with Naruto."
"They what? Karin never told me about her having any cousins." Sasuke bristled.
There was a pause then two questions came up at the same time.
"Man, are you listening to yourself?" Suigetsu asked a furrow in his brow.
Simultaneously, Itachi raised the question. "Why do you care about Karin's family?"
"She knows about mine." Sasuke shrugged with his half cooked bluff, uncaring if the two men in front of him were unconvinced. His eyes following the blond leading Karin to introduce her to Shino Aburame and...Sai.
An unconscious shiver ran down his spine.
Naruto tried to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing when Ino showed him the dark red and light pink outfit. "Ino, the show is about ninjas. How can anyone camouflage with anything with colours like that?"
She shot him a pout before bringing out a green leotard to hang up beside the red outfit and several others he was critiquing.
"Okay, I have a confession..." Naruto reached out, felt the material, it was spandex. "I'm allergic to latex."
She sighed heavily, raising her hands up in the air and throwing them down in exasperation, chucking a blue haori on the floor. "Okay, if you won't wear a condom, I'm leaving." Ino decided to mutter out in irritation at his constant rejection of the outfits so far.
Naruto decided to take her up on the impromptu improvisation opportunity.
He moved closer, lets an arm slip around her waist and pull her closer, looking into her eyes. "But babe, we've been married six years, how can you leave me now? We define each other."
She floundered for a second, seemingly wondering if she should shy away and take the humiliation of losing this or play along. Looks like she made her decision, she locked her hands behind his neck. "Well, babe... Maybe, maybe we define each other too much... I... I need a break." She blurted out, grasping for a plot out of thin air.
Naruto let go of her abruptly as if burned by her, twisting away from her, breaking away all physical contact. "Babe... You...you can't mean that. After everything we've been through?"
Unable to think of anything to say in the face of the pained expression he was making, she muttered a soft curse. She looked around for an explanation. "I can't stay with you anymore!" She threw out and when he came up with nothing in return she scavenged a pile of summaries of TV dramas she's read online while looking for something new to binge-watch. "You're making me crazy; I do crazy things because of you!"
"Is that why you tried to kill me this morning?" Naruto prompted and she blanched.
"What? No!" She crossed her arms in front of herself in defence taking half a step back, she wasn't guilty of his accusation but maybe he was harbouring a grudge about the scissor thing earlier.
"Don't lie to me!" Naruto's voiced raised a pitch, his face reddened in rage. "I saw you lift that knife above my head at breakfast! I could see your reflection in the window!"
A bunch of people were now looking at them in concern and that had her shifting on her footing as well as her character, distractedly.
Naruto almost broke character, wondering if he should let go and laugh it off but before he could, Sasuke stepped into the little bubble.
"Is everything okay?" He looked like he was attempting to break the scene but Ino turned to him then back at Naruto her head bowed in shame.
"The truth is, Naruto... I love Sasuke now." She declared before turning and throwing herself at Sasuke who didn't bother putting his arms around her and almost huffed out a disgusted reply.
"No fucking way..." Naruto barely whispered out loud enough for people to hear. He couldn't believe Ino had roped Sasuke into the scene at least as a prop. He stifled a roguish grin and took a deep breath. "But...but I love Sasuke!" he declared right back at her, his open palm slamming up against his chest vehemently.
The little crowd that had gathered to watch gasped, but best of all was the slack-jawed expression on Sasuke's face, it was even more rewarding than Ino's exaggerated jaw-drop.
Laughter from his own mouth broke the scene for him and he let his hand go up and rub the back of his head almost bashfully. "Looks like you're done and I really can't anymore... Ino close your mouth before a fly gets in." he chuckled.
"I, um, okay, like, take five, everyone. Like, cut or whatever." A pause then an irate, "Scram!" Ino snapped at the people when they persisted hoping to nose into their business. They scattered to do the jobs they'd been given. "Whoa Naruto, ever thought of writing a drama? I'm sure you'd make great soap operas."
Naruto almost winced at that, then chuckled again. "I'm not a drama person myself, I never figured you'd be so unfamiliar with the genre, though." He carried on the conversation effortlessly.
It earned him a laugh and a grin from Ino. "I had fun. We should do this again sometime, maybe over drinks." She wandered over; crossing from the changing stall Sasuke stood next to the light up mirror Naruto was in front of.
This time he had to physically restrain a wince. "Sorry Ino, but I don't role play in public places."
She sidled over, made him sit in a chair and started on make-up. "Then how about dinner? My place." Though her eyes skated through the mirror to take in Sasuke's stiff posture. He hadn't moved an inch during the banter, sticking there as if he were a fly on the wall – something he frankly had way too much presence for at the moment.
This time Naruto did wince. He could tell that the reason she was asking him was because Sasuke's gaze was following his every move, sharply, and she was hoping to get a (probably jealous) reaction out of the black-haired man.
Naruto tilted his head then looked up at her, making eye contact for a few long seconds, the look made her stop and gaze back. When he was sure he had her attention he sighed. "I'm sorry to break it to you, love, but I'm a man's man."
She stilled. "Oh."
"Yup, strictly-dickly for me." He added.
"My bad." She said, her eyes now the size of the moon, her cheeks actually flushed with embarrassment.
"Yup. I'm straight as a Twizzler."
She snickered at that, her shoulders relaxing and he smiled, allowing her comfort in hiding in his humour.
"Gayer than the pride parade in San-Fran, sans censor."
She snorted, putting her stippling brush down, leaning against his seat, trying not to - and failing at - doubling over. He simply smiled as he watched her slowly crumple to the floor, laughing while holding her stomach.
"Also, I could tell you're trying to prank me, pay whoever you have to for that bet because I am not falling for that dress-the-newbie-stupid initiation." He added.
She straightened up, red in the face, tears in her eyes. "You knew?"
"The whole time." He nodded. She took a deep breath that was probably meant to steady her but then Naruto added, "Oh, yeah! Gayer than a school of male dolphins on Viagra."
And she fell over laughing.
By the time Tenten from wardrobe entered the room and she looked from Ino practically in tears from laughing and Sasuke stiff as a board still reeling from the pretend confession earlier and all the following horrid jokes and something else. He struggled to subdue a memory stirring in the dank and dark depth of his past.
"Do I want to know?" Tenten asked.
Ino shook his head but Naruto was already off on one again. Sasuke's eyes touched on golden hair and a bright grin of unbelievable megawatts. It's him. A memory buried deep down stretched and unfurled.
"Depends, are you going to hit on me in a failed attempt to make Sasuke jealous and then crumble to pieces at bad jokes?" Naruto asked her. It is him. Naruto is that boy.
"Uh... no?" she answered unsurely.
"Good, then you won't end up like her." Naruto gestured to Ino who was still rolling on the floor laughing her ass off, gasping for air. Naruto then pointed at Ino and pretended to take a hit from a joint and exhale imaginary smoke. A gesture that Ino caught from the corner of her eye and a fresh wave of laughter racked her body.
Tenten looked at Naruto then shook her head with a smile.
"Namikaze." Sasuke let the words fall from his lips before he could stop it and Naruto jerked in his seat, his blue eyes meeting his own gaze in the mirror.
Sasuke expected any emotion from pure hatred and resentment to pain but the fact that the face held unmasked disbelieve, pain and... a sort of vulnerability cut through him deep as if he's walked into a sharp wire held horizontally across his chest.
Breathing was getting difficult, his vision hazy. The blond, six-year-old boy had tears in his eyes, but they were angry tears. Full of frustration at being captured, livid at being so easy to subdue—
"Sasuke! There you are! Juugo is late. Something's wrong with his dog, he got into some food that was not meant for dogs, and he ate it, and they're at the doctor's, everything is in upheaval. Karin and I are going, are you coming?" Suigetsu hovered at the door, shuffling impatiently but Sasuke couldn't move, he was struggling with the onslaught of history that was unravelling before him.
"Uh, hey, baby Uchiha." The soft scratchy voice – it was like a sprinkling of fairy dust. The fact that the man was making him think of fairy-tale nonsense shook him where he stood.
Sasuke's eyes met a hand waving in front of his face, Tenten's hand, through the fingers he felt his heart snag on what was generally a gentle touch of that brilliantly blue gaze. But now it was a jagged gaze of a pool hardened by exposure to minus temperature. He didn't have time to dwell on it, though.
Suigetsu was before him, shaking him by his grip on his shoulders. "Dude."
"I... Yeah." He muttered numbly and let an exasperated Suigetsu drag him away.