A/N: Again, thanks for the reviews, favorites and follows. On a side note, I will be posting another story either today or tomorrow. So if anyone is interested, please check it out.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
warning: Foul language, extreme deviation from plot, first time fic.
It was a perfect day. Naruto smiled and leaned further into the warm body behind him. The sky was painted in hues of pink, purple and lavender – a beautiful sunset. They were sitting on a branch of their favorite tree. Well, Naruto's favorite tree, Sasuke didn't really have a preference. He was content with wherever Naruto chose to cuddle. The blonde's smile widened, which he hid in Sasuke's chest.
Sasuke's hand automatically came up to run his hand through the blonde locks. Naruto took a deep breath and closed his eyes, content. Sasuke was with him. So close. Closing his eyes, the blonde listened to Sasuke's heart beat steadily. He rubbed the side of his face on Sasuke's chest, feeling the strong chest and his warmth.
The blonde felt, rather than hear, Sasuke's soft snort. "What are you doing idiot?" The boy being addressed looked at him, eyes shining with mirth. "I like your chest Sasuke", he said holding back a giggle.
The hand playing with Naruto's hair slipped down to stoke the cheeky blonde's right cheek. Sasuke had a small smile on his thin lips and amused black eyes. He cupped that soft cheek. "Well, I like you Naruto." And, pressed his lips against the plump pink ones in front of him.
Yes. It was a perfect day.
Sasuke stood up and rolled his shoulders. The kids were finally quiet. Neji had to join his team for a level A mission. The lucky bastard. Sasuke had nothing against the Kindergartners, after a week, the three boys had finally managed to get kids to listen to them. Which was a feat in itself, the teacher had gushed. But it does tend to get maddeningly boring after a while.
It was recess and the kids were running helter skelter in the playground. It was nice to see such free innocence after all that time with Orochimaru and his merry band of sadistic freaks.
Shikamaru was lying on the grass a little ways to the right, with four kids lying around him, all examining the clouds with their new friend.
Sasuke smiled and looked around, to make sure that none of the kids had decided to get too adventurous, and frowned. Three children – a girl and two boys were standing near the slide, the girl was crying, the boys were pretty shaken up too. In front of them was a kid, bigger than all of them and holding the girl's hand tightly. A bully.
They weren't kindergartners, but Sasuke just couldn't just stand back and watch this. He walked up to the group and stood in front of the bully, making sure he could show off his height, which wasn't really necessary since the kid only came up to just above his hip.
"Let go of her hand and go play somewhere else." The boy was about to say something rude, but after he looked up, up to Sasuke's face, he decided to listen for once.
After the boy had left, Sasuke crouched down to look at the little girl, "Are you ok? Do you need to go the nurse?"
The little girl shook her head, the two pigtails on her head whipping around. When she saw Sasuke, her big brown eyes widened, blushing adorably, she stammered, "I'm ok."
Sasuke pressed further, in a gentle voice, "Are you sure?"
The girl nodded. He turned to the boys, "What about you two?" .They nodded too. "We're ok, thank you mister."
The two boys were trying to calm the girl down. She's got good friends. "Does this happen often? The bullying I mean"
The taller of the two boys spoke angrily, with narrowed eyes "Yeah, he's the class bully. He's always so mean to us."
"To everybody", the shorter one chirped, his cheeks puffed out. Sasuke sighed and got up "I see, well, you can go ahead and play now". The children nodded and ran off.
Turning around and looking for the bully, he found him sitting sullenly under the shade of a large tree in one corner of the playground. Sasuke decided to join him. He could see the whole playground from that spot.
There were a group of girls of varying ages, playing hopscotch; a small line of children waiting to use the swings; quite a few kids running around screaming tag; he could even see Shikamaru and his little groupies. One of the kids had decided that the lazy ninja would make a great mattress and climbed on top of him, the others followed. Shikamaru, struggling to breathe, sat up angrily shaking his fist at them, the kids all tumbling off him and running off laughing.
Both Sasuke and the bully sat there looking at the other kids playing. After about fifteen minutes the child finally had had enough and spoke, "What do you want?"
Sasuke shrugged."Nothing. Just thought I'd give you some company."
The boy glared. "I don't need your pity. "
Sasuke simply leaned back against the tree with one leg propped up. Man, it is really comfy here. "Not pity. Company. I saw you sitting alone and I thought I'd join you."
"That is pity!"The boy shouted, pointing an accusing little finger at Sasuke.
Sasuke shrugged again. The boy clutched his legs to his chest tight, and glared at nothing. After five more minutes, he murmured "I don't want pity. And I don't need friends either. They all hate me anyway"
Sasuke spoke without moving his eyes from the playground in front of him "Did you ever thing that might be because you bully them?"
The boy looked down and spoke in an almost inaudible voice. "Doesn't matter. They won't talk to me anymore. I'm the class bully."
Sasuke took a breath, slowly letting it out. "Apologize to them"
The boy looked at him with suspiciously wet eyes." Why? They won't start talking to me even if I do"
"Doesn't matter. It's the right thing to do." Sasuke got up, dusting his clothes."Do you feel bad about what you did?" The boy nodded with wide eyes.
Sasuke nodded once in reply, "Apologize" Turning around to leave, he asked, almost as an afterthought. "What's your name kid?"
The boy's eyes widened in surprise. He swallowed, "Ryuga"
Playground time was over a while back, and the children were all safely deposited inside thanks to Shikamaru. Sasuke ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He's going to be pissed.
After a while, the kids were all napping, tired from trying to drive Sasuke and Shikamaru insane. Sasuke stood near the window, looking outside at the trees. A pair of puppies, which the kindergartners had found and claimed as their own, were rolling around playing, chasing each other's tail.
Shikamaru came and stood near Sasuke. "How'd it go with the kid in the playground?"
Sasuke wasn't even shocked at Shikamaru knowing about Sasuke's and the kid's conversation even though he wasn't there at the time. He noticed that the other man tended to do that. It had freaked Sasuke in the beginning, but then, he got used to it.
Sasuke shrugged. "Don't know". He continued to look at the puppies, now chasing after an innocent butterfly, which was flying away in sheer terror. It reminded him of the time his students chased him, trying to play with his hair. They pulled at it, trying to see if it was real. Sasuke had thought he was going to go bald.
After a while he said, "I think he'll apologize"
Sasuke visited Naruto again. The blonde had been avoiding him like the plague after the kiss. He had even taken a leave of absence from both his job as the Hokage's assistant and his job at the academy. When he knocked on the door, it opened and a lone blue eye peeked out, which widened after seeing him and door tried to shut on his face.
Sasuke held it from closing. Fortunately, he didn't meet much resistance. "May I please speak with you for a minute?"
The blue eye blinked for a moment, sighed and was joined by the rest of Naruto's body, which was blushing and avoiding Sasuke's eyes.
Damn. I'm such an ass.
"Naruto, I'm sorry about what I did the other day. I don't know what came over me. It felt right and I just –," He ran a hand through his hair. "– I can't justify what I did. And I'm not going to try. I'm sorry I did that and I won't do it again." He paused "Unless you want me too." He added, expecting, the blonde to stomp on his foot or punch him and/or shout at him.
But Naruto just blushed harder, and nodded, still refusing to meet his eyes.
Sasuke shuffled around in the same spot, feeling like a complete tool. After about two minutes of almost painful silence, consisting only of the thought that Naruto looked cute blushing, just nodded and took his leave.
The next day, the bully was sitting under the same tree. Sasuke was about to go back inside, to help Neji and Shikamaru herd the kids. But the prospect of facing down one little monster as opposed to many was too attractive, and so Sasuke joined him. Also, a small part of him wanted to know what the kid did after their little heart to heart.
Sasuke walked over to the tree, wondering how to bring about the topic and still come out looking cool and aloof. He could start talking about the meaning of life, regale the child with some of his less gorier battles and segue into teams and then into if the freaking brat took his fucking advice. Reaching the tree, he hadn't finished sitting before the boy rounded on him angrily "I apologized. They don't believe me" That was easy.
"Look Ryuchi –"
"Ryuga."
Sasuke looked at him annoyed "Whatever. It takes a while. Stopping the bullying helps the process though"
The kid looked back to the playground with sad eyes and nodded, "They might never talk to me again."
Sasuke sighed. "You did the right thing. You can't blame them for being scared or angry; it is a consequence of your actions" He paused "I was kind of a bully once, and now no one likes me" He looked at the kid, seeing him looking back at him skeptically. "Thanks for helping me out. But, you don't have to lie to me to make me feel better. "
Wha – why yo – that little – "Hey, I can be pretty scary you little brat" When the child looked back at him with even more doubt, Sasuke scowled. Damn my helping tendencies. But he still continued to sit there, and didn't move away when the kid shifted closer.
Naruto lay in bed for a long time, not sleeping. He had a hard time sleeping after the kis – incident. After the incident. Because even saying the word kiss made him flustered and the tips of his ear burn. But, it was almost impossible to sleep after the apology. Sasuke Uchiha did not apologize. That was a fact that Naruto had woven into the very fabric of his small universe.
He blinked up at the ceiling, thinking back to the scene again, the tall Uchiha stuttering about how he was sorry. Naruto smiled, Sasuke had looked adorable. He then closed his eyes, recalling the kiss – cool lips on his, firm and demanding, not taking no for an answer. Naruto parted his lips and breathed hard. He could feel his body tingling and toes curling. Then, he frowned; after Sasuke had said that he wouldn't kiss him again, Naruto had felt the cold dead weight of disappointment. Naruto opened his eyes slowly.
He was falling again.