Enjoy!


The Long Way Home

Part 9

Frustrated

Chapter 2/3

It was mid afternoon the next day when Naruto lost his balance and fell into a bush.

All day Naruto had been unnecessarily quiet, just like he had been the previous day and it was starting to get on Sasuke's nerves. Sasuke couldn't quite place why Naruto being silent always got on his nerves but it did. Probably because Naruto was only ever that way when he was either thinking deeply about something, embarrassed or both. Usually this would lead to awkwardness, possible stupid questions and Sasuke hated both of those outcomes. Naruto's incessant chatter, while mildly annoying still, was better than the alternative by far. And for some reason Naruto not talking when he usually did made the silence that much more intense.

Yesterday Sasuke had attempted to lighten the mood by poking fun at him but it had failed pretty miserably. Acting like nothing was amiss sort of worked when he hadn't been able to start an argument so he figured that was probably the best course of action today as well.

The only problem was that acting that way was rather difficult today. And it was because of what had happened last night. And Naruto wasn't the only one who was bothered by it.

Alright so Naruto had gotten hard. Wasn't the first time. But it was the first time sober. Sasuke had been pretty sure up until last night that what had happened on the night of the festival was i culmination of alcohol and frustrations. But Naruto had been sober and thanks to his 'private time' should not have been as wildly frustrated either. But with almost no help from Sasuke he'd gotten really aroused and the effect hadn't been all that horrifying. Which was also bugging him.

This was new territory for Sasuke in a lot of different ways. He'd never allowed himself to get as close to anyone as he had begun to with Naruto despite his best efforts to keep his space. And the reasons for denying himself something so simple seemed very distant to him and growing ever more distant the further they travelled together if anything. But being companionable was one thing, this was... decidedly different.

Wasn't it?

He felt like he should be more out of sorts about it. He felt like he should at least be angry if nothing else but he was... intrigued in a way that was unexpected. His very first instinct should have been to taunt Naruto about it despite Naruto's one word plea not to. And he wasn't sure why he hadn't taken the opportunity to taunt him or yell at him or any of those things. Of course Naruto telling him the other day that he had regretting sharing might have made Sasuke hold his tongue this time.

And besides, perhaps it had been a slip. Perhaps Naruto had been thinking of something else. I mean, Naruto liked girls, right?

Sasuke wasn't sure on that score even about himself. He hadn't really thought about it all that much.

He hated most everyone he came into contact with male and female alike and had been so focussed on his dark past previous to this little jaunt that it was unsurprising to him that something he'd considered trivial up until this point hadn't given him much pause.

If he had to be completely honest with himself there was really only one person who had so far managed to get under his skin as far as sexual interest went. Sasuke had just thought he'd only gotten as worked up as he had because it was also the only time he'd been in such a situation with anyone else before.

He just had refused to let it surface because this one person had in fact been Naruto. Of all people. And weirdly it seemed that these impulses had started before they'd even gotten to Morio's.

The night Naruto had kissed his cheek he had spent the entire night feeling that soft brush on his skin making him toss and turn in his sleep all night. He hadn't known why at the time but he realized now that nobody had done that to him before. No one had dared to, which suited Sasuke just fine.

But all that had happened afterwards had been a sort of tempting tease for him because of it. Of course he refused to believe it was really all about Naruto, that was too bizarre. But the touches were new and thrilling in a way he'd never experienced. That drunken night of the festival had been him letting temptation take over for once and he'd regretted the whole thing the instant it was over.

Until now.

In all reality he wondered if he'd stopped regretting losing control because it seemed as though he wasn't the only one being a little frustrated here. Naruto might well be feeling something similar, being thrilled with the new experience if nothing else and it made Sasuke wonder in the logical part of his mind if letting his control slip again might be such a bad thing after all.

It seemed he liked being touched and for the first time in his life the thought of it wasn't irritating the ever-living fuck out of him anymore. He'd used to hate it so much so that even when Naruto had first started doing it, it had been his knee-jerk reaction to get pissed and annoyed.

Perhaps it did matter that Naruto seemed to understand the boundaries of 'too far'. A little cheek kiss might have caused Sasuke to get annoyed by the unexpected affection but he never did it in public, he never clung onto his arm like so many moon eyed girls of the past did either.

Besides, most of his actions seemed to be to prove a point more than anything else and Sasuke could at least appreciate the intention behind it, even if he wasn't sometimes so thrilled with the effects of it.

Sasuke stopped on the track and absently looked up at a tree full of his favorite fruit and frowned at it.

Perhaps he was just losing his mind.

"You want me to get you some fruit?" Naruto asked when it seemed as though Sasuke was unwilling to reach up to grab it himself.

Sasuke had only paused because of his thoughts but now he saw what Naruto meant. The fruit on the tree wasn't within easy grabbing distance and he'd need to go up onto his toes to even have a chance of reaching the lowest piece. Around the base of the tree was a thick thorn bush which they'd learnt from minor encounters previously contained thorns that caused a mild sting when scratched, so climbing was out of the question too.

Sasuke eyed Naruto for a moment. "You aren't any taller than me," he observed. "What makes you think you can reach it when I can't?"

Naruto shrugged and didn't reply which was abnormal behavior to say the least. They were both competitive by nature and Naruto could have been using the challenge as a way to show off. But without the show of bravado about it Sasuke figured the offer had more to do with him feeling bad about last night and wanting to make it up to Sasuke in some way.

Sasuke weighed up the pros and cons of letting him do it and decided he might as well. If it made Naruto feel better then perhaps it would stop the perpetual silence and make him more like his boastful self again. So Sasuke just gestured him forward making Naruto look first surprised and then pleased.

"You'll get no sympathy if you fall into the thorn bush though," Sasuke told him.

Naruto grinned for the first time since yesterday and walked up to the very edge of the thorn bush, reaching up and just managing to swipe the fruit with the very tips of his fingers. Getting bolder he went onto his toes and stretched up and forward, reaching and straining to get a hold of the fruit. He managed it but when the fruit came free of the tree he lost his balance and fell forward, right into the thorn bush.

Naruto might be a lot more clumsy these days without his chakra enhanced reflexes but he managed to turn his body to the side to stop himself getting a face full of thorns. He still yelled out when he went down though.

Sasuke went and stood over him as he attempted to struggle out of the bush without injuring himself further.

"You did used to be a ninja, right?"

"Damnit teme, just help me out."

Sasuke helped Naruto pull himself out of the bush and almost actually winced as he looked him over.

His pants seemed to have stopped most of the thorns but his thin shirt had been no protection. Here and there were thorns still embedded in his skin, over his left arm, hand and side. There were even a few poking him in the neck and side of the face.

Remarkably though he handed Sasuke the fruit which had come through the plunge into the bush seemingly unharmed. He managed a smile despite the pain and the embarrassment.

"Nothing to it."


They set up camp in the next available spot near the river they could find. The thorns were barbed and after ripping out a few of them, Naruto had decided to wait till he could sit down before yanking the rest of them out.

Sasuke didn't feel bad about the incident. Naruto might have been trying to get the fruit for him, but as far as Sasuke could see it was still Naruto that had been the one to head-dive into thorns and refused to let himself feel guilty about it. But after twenty minutes of listening to the litany of hisses and grunts of pain Sasuke sat down next to him and told to lie on his side.

"They're only thorns, Sasuke. I can manage."

"I won't tell you again," Sasuke replied tersely.

With a sigh Naruto finally did as he was told and lay down on his side, his back to Sasuke while the latter leaned over him and started working out the thorns.

These things stung like ant bites when you got scratched so he could imagine what having a ton of them embedded into your skin might feel like. Naruto had removed most of the ones in his arm, neck and face so Sasuke worked on his torso. When he'd removed the last one he pushed up Naruto's shirt to inspect the damage. Sure enough the thorns had left angry red welts on his skin.

His face wasn't nearly as bad though, probably because those were the first ones Naruto had removed afterwards. Sasuke placed his hand on Naruto's hip to brace himself and lean in for a closer look but the excessively warm skin under his hand distracted him a lot as he tried to inspect the welts for signs that the thorns might have turned out to be poisonous if left in for too long.

Trying to distract himself he ran his fingers lightly over the welts causing Naruto to hiss again.

"Do you feel sick?" Sasuke asked.

"No," Naruto replied in an oddly drawn out way, craning his neck around to look up at Sasuke. "Do you?"

"Why would I feel sick?"

"'Cause your, um, hand is..."

Sasuke frowned trying to work out what Naruto was saying. Then he focussed on what he was doing and stilled his hand immediately. His right hand, the one on Naruto's hip had been slowly caressing the smooth skin where it was resting. He didn't think the movement had been all that much but it was horrifying to realize he'd been unconsciously doing it.

If his hand kept doing things on its own like that he was going to have to cut it off.

"So you could feel that?" Sasuke asked thinking quickly.

"Uh, yeah."

"Good then. If you can feel sensation and you aren't feeling sick I should think the thorns haven't poisoned you after all."

"Oh. Well yeah, that is good news. Stings like hell though."

"You should go soak in the river then. Perhaps the water will help stop your bitching."

"Okay, sure. Asshole."

Naruto got up and stretched, pulling his shirt off and beginning to take off his pants when he realized Sasuke hadn't moved and was still sitting in front of him, watching.

"Aren't you coming?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke was too busy trying to work out what had just happened to hear Naruto properly.

"What? Why?"

"Well, 'cause I uh, owe you, remember?"

Sasuke had almost forgotten about Naruto's promise last night. And now faced with what he'd just been doing he wasn't sure if he'd welcome the distraction or not right now.

"Whatever dobe, I'll be there in a minute."


This particular part of the river was shallower than most. Even sitting in it, the water was only barely chest high. So after he'd wet his hair the pair of them sat down with Sasuke's back to Naruto as he began to wash out Sasuke's hair like usual.

What wasn't like usual was how he felt about it tonight. Had it always felt like this and he hadn't noticed or was Naruto doing something else tonight on purpose? Sasuke doubted it but for some reason he felt each touch a little more acutely than normal tonight.

He'd found lately that going through this ritual was relaxing in a way he couldn't fathom. Naruto had made him confess that he liked the treatment and he couldn't deny it for too long. The strong fingers pushing through his hair gave him tingles that ran down his neck and along his spine. The gentle tug on his hair and the massage against his scalp was like a complete mental switch off for Sasuke that he enjoyed a lot more than he imagined he ever would.

But tonight he was finding it a little more difficult to switch off than usual. He felt Naruto's gentle but firm fingers scrape across his scalp, occasionally trailing against his neck, rubbing against his ears and it was... distracting. It downright shocked him when Naruto leaned forward, his warm chest pushing up against Sasuke's back. Sasuke felt the 'thank you' kiss against his cheek before Naruto leant back again and continued his ministrations.

"What was that for?" Sasuke asked tensely, his back feeling very cold at the loss of contact.

"For the thorns. It feels a lot better now."

"It would be better overall if you stopped being so fucking clumsy," Sasuke shot back. "You don't even like that fruit."

"No, but you do. I figured I owed you."

Sasuke didn't reply at first. He had not wanted to talk about last night. But then something about that explanation bothered him for some reason.

"You want to thank me for not being an asshole?"

"Well I know how much of an ask that is for you," Naruto replied lightly.

"Tch. Whatever."

Sasuke let his head loll a little as he finally felt himself relax more. At least Naruto hadn't skimped on his promise. He sat there and ran his fingers through Sasuke's hair without further conversation or complaint and after a while he was so relaxed he started to feel sleepy.


He woke up a little while later, reclined back in the water, the cool water sliding against his chest and warmth pressed up against his back as well as the sides of his legs. It was pleasant lying there, still and relaxed.

Up until the point he realized why his back was so warm.

He came awake swiftly with that realization, his eyes snapping open and sitting up quickly, his hands clamping down on warm outstretched legs underneath the water where his hands had been unconsciously resting.

They weren't his legs.

He'd obviously fallen asleep back against Naruto who'd stretched out his legs either side of Sasuke and braced his arms out behind himself to keep them both comfortable and upright while Sasuke slept.

"You fell asleep on me," Naruto spoke up defensively as though sensing Sasuke's irritation upon waking.

"You could have woken me," Sasuke accused turning his head and eyeing the man behind him.

Naruto shrugged. "You looked pretty comfortable. But hey, Sasuke, do you mind letting go? If you dig your nails in any more you're gonna draw blood."

Sasuke let up his deathgrip on Naruto but didn't go so far as to remove his hands entirely. The skin beneath his hands felt smooth and nice. He realized suddenly that he didn't want to move his hands.

Despite his shock at what he'd done, Naruto had been right; he had felt very comfortable.

"C'mon Sasuke, let me go. I didn't mind being your backrest for a while but now you're awake I need to move a bit. My ass has gone to sleep."

Sasuke complied, shifting forward in the water and leaning over to duck his head underneath the surface to rid himself of whatever soap was left in his hair. When he flicked his head back up he heard a surprised cry.

"Fuck teme, watch where you're spraying!"

Sasuke was about to offer a scathing reply about how much he didn't care when he felt fingers moving through the wet lengths of his hair, knuckles occasionally brushing against the back of his neck. The sensation was enough to give him a shiver across his shoulders.

"Your hair is getting pretty long," Naruto commented.

"No it isn't."

"Okay so not long, long. But longer than I know you like."

"How the hell would you know what I like?" Sasuke shot back without thinking.

"Well I know you like me washing out your hair, which is weird by the way. But I also figured you liked your hair the way you've been generally wearing it since you were little otherwise you would have changed it by now"

It was an annoyingly good point and one Sasuke would have seen coming had Naruto not been distracting him.

"Well maybe it's time for a change," Sasuke replied spitefully.

"You with long hair?" Naruto asked with a small chuckle. "Hah, you'd look like a girl."

Sasuke seriously doubted that. "Bet you'd like that," he muttered once again without proper thought.

He didn't know why he'd said such a thing. He wasn't even sure where it had come from. No matter how long his hair got he was definitely guy looking. And he didn't really for one moment think Naruto thought otherwise either, he'd just been teasing him.

So perhaps he'd become a little too conscious about the weird happenings between them lately. All the touching, the frustration, everything. And then the further thought about how stupid it seemed that he could be the focus of Naruto's frustration even after last night because Naruto liked girls. He shouldn't be getting all turned on by his decidedly male friend. When he'd talked about meeting someone he'd mentioned girls even then, not guys.

"What, why?" Naruto asked confused.

"Forget it," Sasuke told him, regretting the slip instantly. He needed Naruto to stop touching him, that was his problem.

He got to his feet but Naruto grabbed his wrist before he could walk away.

"Is this about what you said ages ago about me wishing I was traveling with someone else like Sakura?" Naruto asked in confusion. "Cause I already told you I liked it better this way."

For a long moment Sasuke figured he should just jerk his arm free and walk away. He had decided against bringing last night up again because of awkwardness and all the rest. Plus he wasn't naturally a sharer either and didn't like voicing issues that weren't focused on whatever primary goal he was after at the time. But he knew it would bug him if he didn't say something. He enjoyed things bugging him even less than sharing.

"I think you're confused," Sasuke told Naruto evenly.

Naruto's brows drew together in clear mystification. "What?"

"You're confusing me with something else," Sasuke elaborated.

Unsurprisingly Naruto still wasn't getting it and Sasuke could only roll his eyes and sigh. Sasuke tried to think of another way to word it.

"You think I'm socially retarded because I've never been close to anyone other than my family before, fine. But for all your friends in Konoha you don't have anyone you are especially close to either so I don't see how you're much different than me like that other than an overenthusiastic want to bond with anyone who will let you get close. But I think you're getting confused over friendship bonds and... other bonds."

Naruto spent a few moments trying to work that one out. "Did you just insult me?"

"Kind of," Sasuke admitted carelessly. "In a way I just called you desperate."

Naruto didn't look happy by that observation one bit. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that you should have had a girlfriend by now."

Naruto tried to continue to look angry in what he knew must be still Sasuke insulting him but he was clearly still too confused as to what Sasuke's real point was. But then it was like a small light bulb went off over his head and his face cleared in understanding. Surprisingly he actually smiled.

"I'm not actually ever going to confuse you with a girl Sasuke. I was just teasing you. And sure, I'm not extra close to anyone in particular in Konoha but I do have friends. Girls, guys, I've never once..." Naruto's smile dropped before he could finish that sentence. "I know the difference. It's not desperation. I don't know what it was last night, but it's not just cause I'm getting confused by closeness and whatever."

"Frustration then," Sasuke told him instead.

Naruto shrugged. "Maybe. But it doesn't mean I'm confused about it the way you think. And it doesn't mean you're not my friend. And it doesn't mean you're anything else to me either, it's just..."

"What?"

"You, I guess. It's different with you."

Truthfully, they'd been all over each other a few times now and at least two of those times hadn't been just for show. Drunk sure, Naruto's weird little experiments, okay. They'd even made out a couple of times just to prove points.

But still, maybe he shouldn't be so surprised that situations past had started to get to both of them. Perhaps they were really just at a point where it was a matter of stopping it entirely or just going with it. And Sasuke wasn't sure how he felt about either alternative.

One thing was for sure, he was at least comforted by one aspect of their conversation. Naruto seemed to understand the difference between what was more in a usual friendship and what wasn't.

Plus, he didn't seem to be projecting anything more on into that feeling of friendship other than what he felt was already there. He wasn't reaching out to him because he was desperate to get close to anyone. He was reacting to what he felt was comfortable and natural to him with one particular person.

Sasuke still felt he was being a little weird about it though. Even if this kind of friendship was a one off with Sasuke only type of thing, it was still strange.

"Idiot," Sasuke muttered before pulling his hand free and heading back to camp.

Naruto grinned at him though so it was possible he hadn't said the word with much feeling behind it. Or if he had it was the wrong kind of feeling.


Why was it that he couldn't stop thinking about the body contact?

Sasuke didn't really like being touched in any way. He didn't like people invading his personal space either. It had a tendency to make him feel out of sorts and more than a little vulnerable. And he really disliked that feeling.

The only people that had used to even hug him had been his family before so perhaps he had issues about the touching thing because he'd never let anyone get that close to him after they'd been killed.

Of course the kind of touching he was experiencing now had nothing to do with family type comfort, far from it. But there was always the idea that the lack of trust he had in people because of what had happened to him could tie into his previous issues with having anyone physically close to him now. It sounded screwed up even to him and normally he wouldn't even try to work it out but recent happenings were making him think about it.

More and more he found himself in situations now where the slightest touch affected him a lot more than it should. It didn't feel abhorrent anymore, it didn't especially freak him out and he completely and utterly blamed that on Naruto.

With all his talk about frustrations, Naruto had bought to light something that Sasuke had never really thought about before. And he didn't know if it was because he had fallen into some kind of strange comfort zone with Naruto or not because of their almost constant contact with each other, but Sasuke was really starting to feel a particular kind of itch these days.

It teased at him even now as he lay there trying to sleep. Remembrances of hands on skin, kissing, the warmth and the borderline aggression even were doing strange things to his head. It was certainly a strange time to start to become aware that his body was awakening to something new but if he took a moment to think about it logically he supposed that it was going to happen sooner or later because he wasn't, as Naruto suggested, an alien but human.

And it didn't even really bug him that it was Naruto who had apparently led him into these thoughts anymore. He didn't assume for one moment it had anything to do with how he felt about him personally other than a grudging trust and an ever-increasing sense of familiarity.

Naturally he didn't like showing anyone any sense of exposure even physically but by this point he might only succeed in driving himself crazy by continuing to be stubborn about it.

By now they'd done more with each other than he had ever experienced before and like he had told himself earlier, he could tell himself that it was only happening because he was allowing his body to think for him due to his own frustrations and try to ignore it or he could just simply give in.

Giving in went against his nature but being annoyed and bothered by something was as well. And when Naruto didn't seem to think anything all that creepy was happening he felt stupid about being the one to over-think it. Plus, by giving in he had very little to lose by this point.

He had to admit, grudgingly, that there was little more Naruto could see of him that he hadn't already seen before. He doubted very much if giving in meant there would be too much uncomfortableness on either side. In fact it might even make it less awkward.

Besides, this was a physical thing. Even Naruto understood that, so why couldn't he? If this sort of thing hadn't been important to him before why agonize over it now, what did he really have to lose at this point? If nothing else it might just scratch that annoying itch so he could stop fucking thinking about it so much.

Across the darkened camp he heard Naruto move and he closed his eyes. It was childish he knew, but he didn't want to answer questions about why he was still awake.

He heard Naruto crawl closer, so close that Sasuke could sense him next to him.

"You're not asleep," Naruto told him.

Sasuke ignored him.

"I can tell you know. You look... different, when you're asleep."

Sasuke sighed and opened his eyes. Naruto was sitting next to him on his knees. It was a little dark but Sasuke could see the outline of his face clearly.

"What do you want?"

"I can't sleep," he stated unnecessarily.

"Neither can I with you watching me like that. It's creepy."

"You weren't sleeping, I know you weren't."

"And it's even more creepy that you've studied me that closely while I am asleep. What do you want?" Sasuke repeated.

"I guess I sort of... want to apologize."

That had sounded hard to say for Naruto and Sasuke couldn't blame him. It wasn't that Naruto was incapable of apologizing but he rarely did to Sasuke. But lately he seemed to be doing a lot of apologizing, it was kind of depressing.

"Fine. Go to sleep."

Sasuke rolled over and it was a few silent moments spent where Naruto remained unmoving and unspeaking. Then Sasuke felt a hand on his shoulder.

It might have been a knee-jerk reaction that made Sasuke retaliate, something left over from his past that meant if someone touched you suddenly they were a threat, or it could well have been the frustration driving that made him grab Naruto's hand, sit up and push him back almost in one movement.

But either way it resulting in him hovering over Naruto who had been pushed onto his back, their faces inches away from each other while Sasuke pinned the hand he had grabbed into the grass above Naruto's head.

By this point he was breathing a little harder than the effort warranted and though Naruto looked startled at first he then looked up at Sasuke with a faint smile.

"You're losing it, that didn't even hurt."

"That can change really quickly," Sasuke warned him darkly.

"Uh huh, sure."

The problem with Naruto was that he was pretty physically strong to begin with. Sasuke had better reflexes, more refined fighting technique but in a up close test of strength alone he was hard pressed to beat Naruto when Naruto put all his power behind something.

So when Naruto tensed his muscles and pushed Sasuke to the side, Sasuke didn't have much of an opportunity to resist and instead found himself on his back with Naruto straddling his mid-section Sasuke attempted to buck him off but Naruto leant over and put his hands on Sasuke's shoulders and used all his weight to hold him down.

Curiously his eyes closed briefly. "Don't do that."

"Fuck Sasuke, stop it!"

Naruto may rant at him a lot but he never ever used such a commanding tone and to his own horror, Sasuke couldn't help but still after that. Once he stopped, Naruto took his hands off his shoulders and sat back and it was then he realized that Naruto had told him to stop, not because Sasuke fighting against him was irritating, but actually quite the opposite.

So without thinking, once his upper body was freed Sasuke sat up and kissed him.

Just. Like. That.

This had become way too easy to do. Too easy and too good and he figured that it was official, his own physical frustrations were driving him crazy as well.

This couldn't keep happening like this. It seemed as though they were both too distracted by now and if that distraction continued without any respite this would only get worse. They both needed... something.

After a few minutes they stopped, breathed for a while before Naruto abruptly got up and went back to his own bedding. Apparently Naruto wasn't quite at the 'giving in' stage yet but Sasuke was pretty sure he was, whatever that might entail.

"Where are you going?" Sasuke asked him sharply.

"I liked your idea of punishment a lot more when you didn't know better," Naruto told him lying down.

That almost caused Sasuke to smile. Obviously Naruto thought Sasuke had done that to get back at him again. Well perhaps that was partially true but what that really said to Sasuke was that Naruto enjoyed it, perhaps a little too much. It probably would take next to nothing to persuade him that punishment wasn't all Sasuke was after here.

Logically, Sasuke reasoned, giving in was the fastest way to restore the status quo.

TBC