.

Moving Memories
26: A True Union

~ (^.^) (^.^) ~

"Naruto..."

The word was hardly more than a whisper, perhaps no more than even a breath of air, but it didn't need to be.

Blue eyes shifted from the painting that had become an almost daily distraction to the figure that murmured his name. There was a calm about Naruto that the blond would have previously associated with Sasuke. The raven always had this composure about him, this sense of propriety that seemed to linger in even his most crazed moments. In this moment, however, Sasuke looked as unsettled as Naruto supposed he'd been in a long, long while.

Almost entirely unmoved by Sasuke's sudden appearance or the sense of urgency he seemed to carry in every fiber of his body, Naruto could not recede from the atmosphere he'd created for himself so quickly. Indeed, it took a few lingering moments after his focus breaking his focus for the intensity his scrunched brows held to relax, although the tension did not entirely dissipate.

Naruto didn't meet Sasuke's eyes right away. He first checked the man over for any outstanding imperfections. Fortunately, Sasuke looked well. Healthy. Happy even. Anxious, nervous, and all around fidgety, but happy. Or at least that was what Naruto gleaned from a first glance interpretation of Sasuke's state of physical being.

Sasuke reacted to the silent appraisal, swallowing a lump of nerves in his throat and attracting Naruto's attention. Blue eyes flickered up to finally meet deep brown. Naruto's face had finally relaxed into a content visage, his aura's intensity fizzling down. He simply watched Sasuke, refusing to poke or prod. Instead, he waited for Sasuke to do the opening up, and Sasuke did. Bashfulness singed his cheeks as he averted his gaze while prying open his own defenses to give Naruto room to delve deeply into his aura.

Sasuke had been physically absent from the city for a while now. Naruto hadn't asked too many questions in his absence, which surprised everyone. He was satisfied to know that Sasuke was gone with Gaara and Kiba. He hadn't even asked for details about why. He didn't need to though. He had a feeling, or maybe it was more of a hope, that things would finally have fallen into place the next time he saw Sasuke's face. If that were the case, then Naruto wouldn't need to know anything. He'd just be able to look at Sasuke and see what needed to be seen. And as far as he could judge, he'd been right.

Sasuke had seen what he needed to see while he was gone. Or, rather, he'd been shown. Kiba, and even Ren, had helped lead Sasuke to a conclusion that Naruto needed the raven to realize.

Naruto was unaware of the actual happenings during Sasuke's absence. He didn't know that Sasuke had been at Ren's burial site or that Kiba had experienced his final shift there, making him officially immortal. He didn't know that Sasuke had been overwhelmed by jealousy as he watched the truth about love unfold between Kiba and Gaara in that moment. He had no idea what had brought Sasuke to him, but he could sense the haste that Sasuke had come with. The fact that Sasuke had come at all, and with such a need for connection and understanding in his eyes, was more than enough to placate Naruto.

Sasuke now knew the secret that Naruto and Ren seemed to have kept. The problem that had trapped Naruto and Sasuke in constantly different corners of the same ring for so long was not something either of them were doing wrong. The problem was, actually, the very idea that a problem even existed. They were meant to be. Soul mates. They couldn't be anything but perfect for each other at any moment. All the dancing around each other and trying to discover the "right" time on each of their parts was just semantics. None of it really mattered.

Naruto had realized that more quickly, but Sasuke understood it now too. He simply had to have faith and let Naruto be Naruto. Just like he'd had to accept things with Ren as they were to find peace, he needed to give Naruto the same space because Naruto had already done that for him so long ago. Essentially, all Sasuke needed to do was let his own need for control go. He had to surrender to the unknown, and this was his act of surrender.

Much as his gut twisted with nerves, for a slew of reasons he didn't have time to individually recognize, he managed to lift his eyes to connect with Naruto's unwavering gaze once again. He wondered if this was how Naruto had felt beneath his gaze so many times. It was nerve-wrecking to be on the receiving end of such solid surety. It seemed like nothing but Naruto himself could move the blond.

Sasuke didn't have the words to express himself, and he wouldn't have been able find them even if his mind hadn't been so frazzled by Naruto's unintentional intensity, but Naruto wasn't interested in explanations. They'd formed a silent understanding, and Sasuke was sure of it once a quirk of Naruto's lips revealed a pleased smirk. That was all the acceptance that Sasuke needed to be able to breathe freely again.

There was truly nothing left to be said between the two so, in a moment that passed like lightning to Naruto, Sasuke flashed forward and impulsively kissed him.

Sasuke tentatively enfolded Naruto in a loose embrace. Naruto was not so much shocked as just unassuming, but the feeling passed quickly and he followed Sasuke's example by giving in to the desire stewing heavily in his gut too. The careful kiss was broken to be replaced with something far more satisfying. Lips re-discovered each other and moved with more purpose on each end. Naruto's tongue slid out to tease at Sasuke's bottom lip only a moment before Sasuke thought of the act himself. The kiss quickly progressed into something intense enough to rob them each of their breath and good sense. They initiated a mutual pause, simultaneously pulling away and silently agreeing to allow each other air through the lock of their eyes alone.

It was an incomparable feeling for Sasuke to have Naruto like this. Sure, they'd kissed before, but this was of an entirely different caliber. Sasuke grew more and more excited as he imagined the avenues down which they could finally travel together now that he'd thrown caution to the wind. It was getting increasingly impossible to think of anything but Naruto and Naruto alone in a moment like this.

Alas, the best moments always pass too fast.

An unexpected onslaught of bloodlust bowled into Sasuke, not at all like the tempered build he was used to. Naruto was shaken by the sudden intensity of it too, having become super sensitive to Sasuke's aura. The blond had to take a moment to just adjust to the feeling, but he was unable to recognize it for what it was at first. For Naruto, it simply felt as if Sasuke's desire had suddenly grown. The only indication that it was something deeper was the suddenly very red tint in Sasuke's eyes and the way his mouth began to slightly salivate. The addition of the vivid mental imagery indicating the very obvious desire for blood was what Naruto ultimately used to discern that Sasuke was experiencing bloodlust.

Just how much bloodlust Sasuke felt was still a mystery though. Naruto was unable recognize the separating lines between true desire and what was the additive of bloodlust. That was what made bloodlust so dangerous for inexperienced vampires. Rather than a new sensation, it simply enhanced whatever one already felt. It was always in disguise and it took a great deal of training for a vampire, let alone Naruto, to realize where it stopped and began. Though Naruto was unable to gauge how serious the bloodlust was, he was able to gauge how much it spiked Sasuke's sexual prowess. So instead of worrying, he just ran with it.

As Sasuke recalled when he'd actually been able to taste Naruto's blood, Naruto tilted his head back in a moment of bliss. With Naruto's neck exposed and his breath coming to him more shortly, Sasuke's mental imagery only grew more vivid. He licked his lips and pinned Naruto to the nearest wall without preamble, but Naruto felt so attuned to Sasuke that everything the raven did felt completely natural to him, as if he'd thought of it himself.

Sasuke clenched his fists shut tightly, metaphorically hanging on to his sense of control for dear life. It was quite a feat that his nails didn't carve troughs in the wall from the tension he held in his fingers.

In that same moment, Naruto's hands gripped either side of Sasuke's shirt, resting his head back as he stared at Sasuke through half-lidded eyes. He watched Sasuke quietly, focusing on the constant rise in desire between them and choosing to ignore its origin. He dismissed the true meaning of the burn in Sasuke's eyes and the longer Sasuke stared, the more Naruto's blood seemed to boil.

Naruto's hands traveled south just enough to slip up underneath Sasuke's shirt. His fingertips slowly flitted up each side of Sasuke's torso, causing Sasuke's eyes to snap from the tan neck they'd locked on up to engulfing eyes. A tiny smirk pulled at Naruto's lips as he slid his palms around to the small of Sasuke's back. He paused only momentarily before jerking Sasuke forward to eliminate the little space that had still remained between them, bringing a heat to their bodies that their shared consciousness was already in the midst of creating.

Sasuke buried his nose in the crook of Naruto's neck without pause and inhaled deeply. He knew it wasn't smart to indulge, even momentarily, but the impulse was strong and Naruto was beckoning. Two pairs of eyes rolled back simultaneously on a shared sigh, Naruto's breath coming out softly while Sasuke's sounded more like a growl.

The scent drove Sasuke positively wild, and the enthrallment it caused only grew more and more intense as the seconds seemed to drag by in slow motion. In fact, Sasuke could swear he felt every strand of hair on his body raise in excitement one by one. Unlike Naruto, though, he could not be so dismissive of the true danger in this exchange. While titillating, bloodlust was immensely hazardous and it operated on such a delicate balance. One moment, you could control it entirely; but in the very next moment, it could snap your mental stability like a twig.

Sasuke could not let himself get lost in desire. If he did, he wouldn't be able to tell his impulses apart. A bite would start to feel as innocent as a kiss, and Naruto would be in real danger if Sasuke forgot to respect the border lines. In that line of thinking, a kiss could progress far too easily into a feast. Or worse, a change.

But as Sasuke's parted lips brushed against the soft skin beneath which Naruto's pulse thrummed gently but quickly, the lines blurred. If he forgot the tang of venom, Sasuke remembered Naruto's blood to be the most exquisite of tastes.

Naruto wrinkled his nose, snorting softly in mild distaste. "Don't imagine that," he murmured in reference to Sasuke's memory of the venom.

"And what of the other taste in my imagination?" Sasuke murmured back.

Naruto didn't waste time thinking about it rationally. After all, if it bumped the sexual tension up this much, it must be a good thing.

"That can stay," was Naruto's easy reply.

Sasuke couldn't see, but he could fucking feel Naruto's lips pull into a smirk.

Naruto felt Sasuke's scoff cut through the lustrous haze with conviction. It was not nearly as fleeting as the rest of Sasuke's emotions in this state had been. No, that scoff stuck in Sasuke's chest and demanded attention, which made Naruto's brow quirk curiously.

"You're mad at me for getting turned on by you?" Naruto asked innocently.

Another sound of irritation, more like a snarl this time, slipped from Sasuke's lips. This was suddenly not quite as arousing for Naruto as it had been just moments ago, even as Sasuke's fingers trailed lightly down one of Naruto's arms, making every strand of hair in its path raise. When Sasuke's hand reached Naruto's palm, he snatched it in a rather aggressive and swift movement to pin it against the wall near Naruto's ear. Sasuke was definitely agitated and Naruto realized that they were no longer on the same page.

"You think it's a game," Sasuke muttered, repeating the aggressive act of dominance with Naruto's other hand. His lips seared a hot path up the length of Naruto's neck, a stark contrast to the disapproval in his tone. "You think it's sexy for me to imagine the divine taste of your blood."

There was no hint of a question in his tone. In fact, the atmosphere was more like a lecture than anything. Still, Sasuke demanded a response, another stark contrast presenting itself between the shudder-inducing heat of his breath and the sharpness to his voice. "Do you?"

Naruto released an unintentionally very shaky breath before truthfully admitting, "Yes."

Sasuke snarled and leaned back enough to glare into Naruto's eyes. "Fucking fool," he muttered. "Do you know that it's inside me to instinctively create a mood?" he asked, the lecturing tone returning. "—to dazzle you," he went on. "—and incapacitate you," he added. "—and kill you," he finished darkly. "Only the weak fall prey to such a pre-constructed mood."

"Well, you're killin' the mood pretty quickly," Naruto replied impulsively, slightly annoyed but mostly confused by the way he was being treated.

Sasuke snorted mockingly. "You really are a moron, aren't you? You're such easy prey, Naruto."

Naruto didn't get offended. Instead, his lips pulled into a cocky grin. "I'm not the one who'll lose all his wits when he bites me," he pointed out. "Don't think you're so invincible Sasuke. You're just as easy prey for me."

Sasuke couldn't refute that. As a bijuu, Naruto was among the only beings in the world who could control even the most unruly of vampires. Irritated by this notion, Sasuke snarled and pushed himself away from Naruto, turning his back.

"It's not a game," he snarled.

"I'm not the one making it one," Naruto said back quickly, letting his arms drop from the wall and rubbing his wrists in turn. "Why don't you make up your mind, Sasuke?" he suggested. "You can't keep ping-ponging between being turned on and trying to lecture me. Either you want me, or you don't."

Sasuke paused before saying softly, "And if what I want is your blood alone...?"

Naruto paused then too. While at first he honestly didn't understand the bloodlust, Naruto was not so blind to it now. He trusted Sasuke, so he made the subconscious decision to use the edge to his raven as a tool. There wasn't even a single moment of hesitation in his body making him question whether utilizing such a mood with Sasuke was safe. But Sasuke was going to great lengths to prove the point that he wasn't safe, and it was getting annoying.

"Yes, I think your bloodlust is sexy," Naruto said openly. "Has being sexy ever killed anyone? Do you really have to be so finicky?"

"Bloodlust has killed a lot of people, Naruto," Sasuke said tensely.

Naruto sighed grandly and rolled his eyes. "That's not what I meant at all."

"Then what did you mean?" Sasuke demanded sharply, whipping his head back to Naruto, his eyes daring. "You think it's sexy when I imagine sucking your blood because you only feel the desire, the potential euphoria," Sasuke accused, and not wrongfully at all. "You're putting it in the wrong context, Naruto! If you're gonna be connected to me, then experience my emotions properly, not as you want them to be!"

"How am I supposed to understand bloodlust?" Naruto argued automatically. If it was currently serious enough for Sasuke to get this worked up about it, then Naruto must have been vastly misjudging it. "Is it my fault I can't gauge it properly my very first try?"

"I'm telling you!" Sasuke snapped irritably. "I'm showing you! You're just ignoring it!"

"That's not true!" Naruto denied loudly. He intended to point out that Sasuke was the one confusing him, sending him mixed messages and then saying it was all just a ploy in actuality. He intended to point out that, in reality, Sasuke was the one playing games. But Sasuke didn't give him a chance to say anything more.

"It is!" Sasuke hollered so severely that Naruto felt his entire being shudder and shy away. Stunned into silence, all Naruto could do was listen, which was all that Sasuke wanted him to do in the moment. "You need it in plain terms?" Sasuke went on, managing to quell his anger into something less intense and dangerous. "No matter what I feel, the bloodlust will intensify it and morph it into some deranged facet of desire. Somehow, even this anger will round back to it in the end. It's not what you think it is, Naruto. You can't just control it."

Naruto thought his assumptions were logical. He figured they should embrace the lust for what good it caused, because the way the atmosphere between them heightened with bloodlust mixed in could most certainly be a good thing in a sexual situation like this. But, apparently, there lay Naruto's folly. It wasn't that he was wrong, exactly. It was just that he wasn't understanding Sasuke's perspective fully. That was all Sasuke was really yelling about, and Sasuke was right. Just because Naruto saw how easy it was between them didn't mean that Sasuke did. And as long as Sasuke was convinced that danger existed, then danger would exist.

Sasuke wanted Naruto to recognize that danger. He wanted Naruto to choose to be as careful as he felt he had to be, and that was really just him projecting his insecurities. But Naruto couldn't just stand by and let Sasuke hash this one out on his own. Sasuke was still holding himself back, but Naruto was done waiting. This time, he was going to pull Sasuke into the promised land with force if he had to. By god, Naruto was going to have his lover and Sasuke was not going to slow things down or fuck them up anymore.

"Am I supposed to question every ounce of tension between us?" Naruto asked. "Am I supposed to assume it's always bloodlust? Because I guess I can't tell what's what."

Naruto didn't understand was why someone would want to live in a constant state of fear like that. Yeah, sexuality between them was a delicate thing, and he could accept that. But he'd rather risk his life every time than play it safe and always feel unsatisfied. There was simply no way he could accept that the bloodlust was always too much. In that circumstance, it was never an appropriate time to embrace. Ever. Plus, Naruto didn't actually think the danger existed to begin with!

Sasuke rolled his eyes away from Naruto's face at the man's response.

Naruto would just never understand. He couldn't. He would always have some rebuttal prepared because he would never fully understand the true struggle of bloodlust from a vampire's perspective. Was this what they were doomed for? Was Naruto never going to be able to understand Sasuke because of this elementary difference between human and vampire? Sasuke had thought that their bond strengthening to this depth would change things. Yes, it'd made Naruto more empathetic, but it would never be a substitute for true understanding, not the way Sasuke had hoped it would.

Despite all the suffering they'd both done for this, Sasuke was finally beginning to realize the reality of being in love with a human. Perhaps this was why vampires only made mates of other vampires, because humans could only grasp so much.

"I don't want you, Naruto," Sasuke grumbled in both frustration and defeat. He turned away again and cursed the way even his misery led back to a lust for Naruto's blood. "I only want your blood."

"Okay. You've expressed this a thousand times over," Naruto replied. "It's getting repetitive. I get it, dracula. You wanna suck my blood."

"You're mocking me now," Sasuke scoffed.

"No," Naruto denied. "I'm just saying you sound like a broken record, but I can't be blamed if I can't tell your bloodlust apart yet."

"You can tell," Sasuke insisted.

Naruto was about to shift the course of the conversation. He was going to admit to Sasuke that, yes, he could tell and that he actually just trusted Sasuke enough to not care, and he was going to demand that Sasuke trust himself that much too. But Sasuke made a comment that set Naruto off on a tangent.

"You just aren't trying hard enough," Sasuke grumbled.

Naruto decided to then address what he considered to be the elephant in the room. "Fuck you," he said surprisingly calmly for all the venom compacted in his heart. "You wanna pin all the blame on—"

Sasuke didn't wait for any more to come out. He fed off of Naruto's compressed anger and turned away, cutting Naruto off. "Forget it," he said flatly, prompting his departure.

"Always trying to fucking disappear!" Naruto snapped as he snatched Sasuke by the arm and yanked the man back around.

Shocked that Naruto had even been able to stop him at that speed, Sasuke could only look to the tight grip Naruto had on his forearm with surprise.

"That pisses me off to no degree Sasuke," Naruto added in irritation.

Sasuke's eyes flicked up and, for a moment, they just stared at each other. Then, Naruto huffed out a tense breath. "You're missing something huge here, Sasuke," he said more softly. "You've spent all this time thinking I was the one who needed to progress. You've been pinning the fact that we haven't reunited yet on me."

Sasuke said nothing so Naruto went on, pulling the other closer. Sasuke only allowed himself to be manipulated so far before he simply refused to move anymore, but Naruto took what he got.

"I understand, Sasuke," Naruto assured. "You think I'm not listening to you, and it doesn't feel fair."

"It's not a matter of what's fair, Naruto," Sasuke replied. "It's a matter of safety, of danger."

"That's not the problem here," Naruto argued. "In my opinion, there is no danger. I'm not afraid of you, and I'm not afraid of using your bloodlust for something good either. If there's danger, you're the one perpetuating it. If you just gave in a little, it'd be a different story." Naruto could see Sasuke's irritation rising and he chose to leave that topic where it lay. He didn't really need to lecture Sasuke about his own insecurities so bluntly, not with the mood already being so delicate. Instead, he quickly added, "But that's not the point. The point is that I'll never be 'safe' with you at this rate Sasuke, because something huge is missing."

Sasuke could feel it too. Something was, indeed, lacking between them. And it put him on edge. Whatever was missing between them was causing them to misunderstand each other too easily. It was keeping not only Naruto from understanding Sasuke in the right context, but it kept Sasuke from understanding Naruto properly too. For how deeply ingrained into each other's heads that they'd become, there was an awful lot of miscommunication floating around. But what could make them understand each other's perspectives in the right context?

They couldn't just poke around until they found what they were looking for. For one, neither of them even knew what they were looking for. And two, they both realized that this whole connection was not so easily exploited. They each still had up subconscious blocks to protect themselves, and Naruto got the feeling that Sasuke was sheltering some deeply-rooted secrets about the one thing they'd never truly spoken about yet: Ren. Of course, as expected, Sasuke's conscious mind was not dawdling on such a subject and Naruto was distracted by some fleeting thoughts of Sasuke's that made him growl in irritation.

"There you go again, thinking that I'm the one with the problem." Naruto narrowed his eyes at Sasuke. "You're offending me, asshole. Neither of us are defective, okay? What's missing here is trust."

Sasuke looked away, probably because he knew exactly where this was leading. Naruto stepped closer as his attitude grew more soft and serious at the same time, but Sasuke shuffled back to recreate the distance that Naruto was trying to eliminate.

"Stop," Sasuke growled, but Naruto understood it to be surface tension at best. Even the slight twitch of Sasuke's upper lip that hinted at a snarl was noncommittal. Inside, Sasuke's dominant emotion was uncertainty, and Naruto was determined to gently iron out whatever hidden insecurities still kept him at arm's length from Sasuke.

"What for?" Naruto questioned quietly. He waited for the attention of Sasuke's eyes before softly asking, "Because you're scared?"

"Of biting you, yes," Sasuke confirmed.

"You're not scared of that," Naruto disagreed. "You know you have the will power. You know you have the control, even if you don't think I have the sense to address your bloodlust. What you're scared of is true transparency," he accused. "You're scared to be honest with me, so you hide behind your identity as a vampire. I think we both know you would never touch a hair on my body the wrong way, Sasuke, so don't lie. Just be real with me."

Sasuke couldn't be shocked by Naruto's candor. He guessed where Naruto was going before the blond truly got there. At this point, he was just trying to delay the inevitable. Not quite bold enough to hold Naruto's gaze in this moment, Sasuke glanced away and stared off into space. He mulled Naruto's words over in his head, digesting them and slowly accepting them for their truth.

When Naruto shuffled closer again, Sasuke didn't flinch or try to interfere. Naruto took that as a green light for physical contact too, so he reached up and gently cupped Sasuke's cheek. After a moment, Sasuke lifted his hand to touch Naruto's forearm. He ran his fingers up Naruto's arm in a surprisingly gentle manner, passed over Naruto's wrist to brush his fingertips, and then backtracked to loosely hold Naruto's wrist again, ready to end the contact if need be.

"Sasuke..." Naruto began, gently urging Sasuke's face to angle toward his. The raven allowed himself to be manipulated. "—we're stuck at a stalemate," Naruto went on softly. "You keep seeing this version of the situation in your head, but I see something else entirely. What we need isn't for me to be the best bijuu I can or for you to go for the most controlled vampire award. You're more than enough as you are. We are. The thing blocking us up is really just trust." Once Sasuke nodded in acknowledgement, Naruto added in a murmur, "Trust me. Let me in. Let me see."

Sasuke searched Naruto's eyes for reassurance, trying to find and borrow some courage and strength. Lost in his own aversion to the solution to their problem, Sasuke was caught entirely off guard when Naruto suggested, "Bite me." He hunted in Naruto's eyes for answers to questions he didn't need to verbally ask, and he could feel Naruto actively imploring back, peeking into every corner of his aura for clarity. Their eyes stayed locked and the word "no" sat on the tip of each of their tongues, but it wouldn't slip out. For a moment, they both contemplated their sanity.

Naruto got closer yet and leaned forward to nestle into Sasuke's neck, which he kissed softly in a chaste act of comfort more than anything. While Naruto was reminded of why this was necessary, Sasuke was reminded of why it was such a bad idea.

"Bite me," Naruto repeated, the tone soft but full of the most convincing conviction.

Sasuke questioned if he could trust Naruto with his free will. What would Naruto have him do once the exchange was made? Then again, Sasuke didn't really believe Naruto would ever mistreat him at all.

Naruto was convinced that this would bring them closer, and Sasuke couldn't disagree. In a way, it made perfect sense. This would break down the barriers and give them the access to each other that they might not be strong or aware enough to consciously allow. Still, there was a hesitation that Sasuke could not shrug off.

The surety surging from Naruto to Sasuke made no sense to Sasuke at all. Because how could Naruto be so sure that things would still be perfect between them once everything to know was truly out in the open? And yet, that surety somehow seemed to belong at the same time. Somehow, Naruto was positive that this was what needed to happen, that this was the only way they were going to get what they wanted and needed from each other.

Sasuke finally nodded his head in an act of trust. "Okay," he whispered, pulling Naruto's wrist away from his face and pressing the palm of Naruto's hand to his lips. He kissed the skin reverently and closed his eyes, willing himself to trust Naruto as much as he deeply wanted to.

But the seconds dragged on, and they continued to drag on until...

"Sasuke," Naruto whispered against Sasuke's ear, a beckoning call to pull Sasuke from the giant wave of uncertainty that had overtaken him. "Give in," Naruto murmured, almost a plea. "S'okay."

Sasuke recognized that the race of his heart was not borne of excitement, but nerves. Naruto felt it too, that he was on the cusp of unveiling the last puzzle piece to true unity. Sasuke just needed to commit; but even as the bloodlust took on a whole other level of intensity, Sasuke continued to pause. And the reason for his hesitation made itself very known, filling Sasuke with a fragmented memory that was causing him more pain than he was willing to let on. Naruto could feel this pain too though, and it caused his brows to scrunch together in slight discomfort.

"Sasuke, just bite me," Naruto insisted.

Sasuke's fangs were bared, his grip tight, his eyes as red as blood... but he couldn't open his mouth. He couldn't make the move. He didn't like what this moment was doing to him, what it was making him recall. Naruto could catch only broken glimpses of Sasuke's struggle, still impeded by that last wall between them, but the volatile way Sasuke's emotions thrashed took its toll nonetheless. Sasuke knew that his internal suffering was hurting Naruto too, but this wasn't something he could just express so freely. In fact, it was such a raw part of him that his subconscious mind tried to bury it away from even his own self.

Naruto could sense that Sasuke's conviction was completely deflating. Even bloodlust, the very bloodlust Sasuke had so often sworn would be his undoing, wasn't enough to throw Sasuke over the edge.

Each second became steadily more overwhelming than the last until Naruto started shaking his head to try to dispel the ever-intensifying buzz. "Sasuke, you're torturing me," he said agitatedly, pulling away and rubbing his face with his hands. "You have to bite me or I'll go insane," he complained.

Naruto didn't want to imagine that Sasuke lived every day with this struggle deep inside of him when he himself could hardly manage it for a few minutes at most. He felt like he was being torn apart inside, and he knew he wasn't even receiving the half of it yet. Sasuke's emotions changed from one extreme to the other, the bloodlust only intensifying things when Naruto wanted them to settle. It was a mess! How did Sasuke manage this with such a straight face? Here Naruto was, unable to stop the tears from prickling at his eyes, and Sasuke's face probably looked completely unmoved.

But of course, Sasuke was about as steady on his feet as he'd been when he'd first arrived. The stoic front that was in itself his reputation was nowhere to be found. His raw, natural self had been pulled to the surface. His true face was stuck in a grimace as he watched Naruto struggle to not fall apart at the scenes. It truly must have been torture to experience even a fraction of Sasuke's pain and not understand it.

And Naruto wouldn't get less sensitive to him as time went on. He would forever be a victim of this torture if Sasuke didn't let him in, and Sasuke knew he could share that vulnerable space with Naruto. In fact, Naruto was probably one of the few people who could step into Sasuke's chaos and create peace. Now Naruto was offering his hand to create peace in Sasuke's core, in his heart.

It was no longer about what Sasuke did or did not deserve. Naruto had persuaded him away from that complex just minutes ago. It was now about what he wanted. He knew that he loved Naruto. But did he want to be loved by Naruto?

In that moment, Sasuke's priorities fell in line. It would be hell for him, he decided, to have to go through with this, but it was what needed to be done. He now fully understood why it was he who'd needed to come to Naruto and not the other way around. Because he was the one lacking courage. He was the one fighting the peace.

Gently, Sasuke placed his hand on Naruto's waist and re-positioned them so that he could stand behind Naruto, nuzzling into the crook of the man's neck. He carefully tightened his arm around Naruto's waist, urging the other to stand more upright as he sank his fangs into Naruto's skin.

Sasuke paused to swallow his first mouthful and Naruto tensed in anticipation, their minds beginning to meld together in a slow escalation. Naruto could tell right away that Sasuke was not going to be like other vampires for him. He was used to instantaneous results, but the connection to Sasuke had to taper gradually. The way Sasuke opened up to him like a book was magical, but Naruto knew that there would be no commanding him around like a puppy dog.

His influence was not lost though. While he knew he couldn't command Sasuke like other vampires, he was very capable of influencing the raven's emotions. Sasuke was openly receptive to his influence that way at least, though Naruto knew he would need to do some convincing to get Sasuke to be so open with other aspects of his being too. Nonetheless, he was eventually able to peek into Sasuke's deepest crevices. With some gentle prodding, Sasuke's walls began to become as transparent as glass. Naruto couldn't exactly touch or manipulate what he discovered, but he could finally witness it freely.

The two had, perhaps, never been more connected to another being in their lives than in that moment, but they were still so far apart. As Naruto was exposed to the true expanse of Sasuke's mind, he realized how little he actually knew about the man he was with. If what slowly filed into his mind's eye was the full, unhindered contents of Sasuke's heart, then Naruto had never really known the man behind him at all. For someone who had just become an irrevocable part of his soul, Sasuke suddenly felt as if he were thousands of miles away from Naruto.

The connection quickly overwhelmed Sasuke, sharpening his senses to an almost unbearable degree. The situation turned sickening as things that Sasuke was so used to suppressing rushed to the surface for Naruto's perusing. Part of Sasuke wanted to lock it all back away, but there was no stuffing these secrets back down, not with Naruto's gentle influence encouraging him to remain open. Unable to neither hide nor handle what bubbled up from his depths, Sasuke's lips began to quiver against Naruto's skin. Naruto, however, was so lost in what he was finally given the chance to see that he totally missed the soft sound of the huffs accompanying Sasuke's tears.

A woman's voice held Naruto's attention. No, not a woman. A girl. The voice was soft, its quality innocent and potentially very lilting, but a slight tightness in her throat and the edge of fear brought tension to her tone. Though scared, her voice was so quiet that it, somehow, became deafening. Next to manifest were her features—small lips, the gentle slope of a nose, smooth and flawless skin.

Naruto sucked in a sharp breath, his gut jumping as he felt the sensation of fingers against his elbow. He easily located both of Sasuke's hands elsewhere on his body and decided that the hand on his elbow wasn't real. The imaginary fingers squeezed just tightly enough to be alarming but still with such a careful grip. The contact of skin was so gentle that it turned every one of Naruto's bones to mush.

Breath was practically impossible to draw by now. The air felt so heavy and thick with a scent he did not want to be smelling that he thought he might choke on it and die. Familiar eyes that should have been raging and parroting the depth of her fear stared so mildly up at him that the lack of intensity actually seemed to sear holes right through his core.

An anguished sound passed his lips and Naruto clutched his chest as the emotion became too raw for him to handle. The scene became too tumultuous the stream smoothly and the images cut in and out of a suddenly very gory scene, at which point he decided that he needed it all to stop. He wanted to shut it down like flipping a switch, but the offset was proving to be painfully gradual. Naruto wasn't used to his partners needing persuading. Sasuke would obviously adhere to Naruto's will, but it had to be a slow and careful process.

Not only was Naruto simply not capable of just shutting Sasuke off, but he didn't think it would ever be right to do such a thing anyway. To do so would be an insult to Sasuke. It would be like defying him of his humanity. This was Sasuke's pain, and this was what kept Sasuke human. Naruto had asked to be here in Sasuke's head. He had wished to uncover any lost information so that he could discover the proper context to understand Sasuke, and this was it. This was exactly what Naruto had asked for, but he hadn't expected to crumple so quickly beneath its weight, and he hadn't expected Sasuke to fall to shambles too.

Though he managed to extinguish the hot flame of turbulence quite a bit, by picturing Sasuke's emotions as a sea and willing the water to calm, Naruto was unable to soothe Sasuke enough to rid the man of his tears entirely. Sasuke continued to react with his whole being—body trembling from head to toe and breath coming in short, pained gasps—but at least he wasn't sobbing uncontrollably.

Unable to function on even that improved level of emotion, Naruto found a way to reduce the depth of their connection and separate himself from Sasuke enough to peel himself away from the torn up shape he knew Sasuke was still in. He understood that reaction though.

He'd opened up a severe wound, and he couldn't expect Sasuke to recover with as much ease as he himself had managed to. When it became too much, Naruto was able to devise a way to escape Sasuke's crippling emotions, but Sasuke had to live with it no matter what. There was no escaping for him, and Naruto began to feel guilty about bringing up such deep demons in the first place as he witnessed Sasuke suffer in such plain view.

Deeply understanding the origin of Sasuke's tears and why they could not be suppressed so easily, all Naruto could do was continue to try gently easing the uproar of Sasuke's mind into a quiet din that they could brave together. He cooed Sasuke with both his voice and touch until their bodies began to synchronize. Sasuke's breath started to settle and match Naruto's and their chests struck up a shared rhythm of rising and falling as one.

Eventually, Sasuke was relaxed enough that his lips pressed against Naruto's skin again in their own time. He didn't bite into it or even tend to the small wound he'd already made. He just kissed it tenderly, apologetically. Naruto moved Sasuke's hand, which he'd taken in his own long ago, from atop his heart and pressed it against his lips in reverence, his own apology. He replaced their hands on his chest, a lump forming in his throat.

"I never understood this," Naruto murmured. A pause. "I never understood her."

Sasuke's eyes closed and, like a breath he never intended to breathe, he whispered, "I killed her." His arms tightened around Naruto, pulling the blond into something more like a hug than the loose embrace they'd been sharing.

Naruto, of course, already knew this truth. He'd just uncovered it, just seen the bloody details in his head, but hearing it spoken aloud like that made him want to flinch and shy away nonetheless. Naruto wouldn't let the discomfort linger though, lest Sasuke pick it up and they crescendo right back into that tempestuous place of emotion again. Instead, he took a deep breath and just let it go. He let it seep away from his bones, leaving nothing but faith and love for Sasuke in its place. It was exceedingly easy for him to forgive Sasuke now that he knew what had been truly plaguing the man all this time, but that was not what Sasuke had ever been looking for. No, Sasuke was in need of something else, a forgiveness that had to come from within.

"I've... never said that out loud before," Sasuke added after a long moment's pause.

"I know," Naruto whispered, stroking Sasuke's arm in an attempt at comfort.

"You know..." Sasuke's tiny and trembling voice trailed off.

With Naruto there to temper him, he didn't feel like he'd spiral out of control anymore, but he also didn't feel like there was any sense in dragging it out either. The wound was raw, and he wasn't even sure he had anything he could even say on the subject. His inner monologue was a different story though, and it was that which lead Naruto to speak up again.

"Lemme see your face."

There was a pause, and then Sasuke shifted so that he was no longer hindering Naruto's freedom to move. Naruto glanced back and focused on Sasuke, seeing moments before the man moved where he'd end up. A second before Sasuke could open his mouth, Naruto was walking toward his bedroom.

Sasuke paused, somewhat surprised that Naruto had read him so seamlessly, but he followed Naruto as the blond disappeared into his room. Sasuke entered as Naruto was sitting down on the bed. He looked up and smiled softly, patting the bedding beside him.

"Lay down. Relax."

Sasuke was wary, but he decided to begin embracing this trust between them and did as told. He walked up to the bed, turned, and fell flat on his back. Naruto leaned over Sasuke once the man had stopped bouncing, bracing his weight on one hand by Sasuke's head. He looked into Sasuke's eyes, but Sasuke just looked through him. Naruto witnessed without interrupting as Sasuke's thoughts slowly circled and his emotions built until his throat was choked tight and a tear struggled to break free. He re-positioned his weight to shift from his hand to that same arm's elbow instead, bringing his face closer to Sasuke's. He allowed Sasuke a moment to focus on his eyes, using his free hand to comb a hand through Sasuke's hair, before speaking.

"This is easy," Naruto said softly. "I know you're still reluctant," he added, "so I won't push you. We'll just chill out until you're comfortable with your true self again."

"My true self..." Sasuke repeated. "It feels like trash."

Naruto shook his head, smiling surely. "You're not trash."

"I'm not..." It was neither a statement nor a question, but stuck somewhere between.

"You're not," Naruto assured. He kissed Sasuke's cheek. "—no more than me," he added.

"You're not trash!" Sasuke exclaimed quietly but quickly. His arm pulled more tightly around Naruto's waist.

Naruto pulled back enough for his eyes to flicker back to Sasuke's, which were already looking his way.

"No, not with you," Naruto agreed, smiling.

Something unspoken passed between them and Sasuke nodded. "Not with you," he repeated.

To be continued...

Author Note: This chapter was a long time comin'. Glad I finally got it done though. Technically, there are 2 more chapters, but those chapters contain explicit content and are gonna be censored for this site. The last chapter (28/epilogue) can't be censored, so I'm just not gonna post it here. But the next chapter (27) will be censored. No sweat though cause I'm gonna provide access to the full, uncensored versions which will be up on on my AO3 profile.