Enjoy!


The Long Way Home

Part 10

Quirks

Chapter 1/3

Sasuke came up from his roll to find Naruto grinning at him. It was an odd sort of mischievous grin that on anyone else might look smug and slightly calculating. On Naruto it just made him look a little goofy and slightly demented.

Sasuke straightened up and leveled his sword at his opponent.

"This is supposed to be serious."

"I am being serious," Naruto retorted. "But we're just sparring. It's not like it's a fight to the death."

"Don't tempt me," Sasuke muttered under his breath.

It had been his idea, more or less, to spar together. On the night of the festival Sasuke had lamented the fact that he didn't have anyone to train with because really there was only so much you could do on your own before you just needed something to aim at. Plus there was also the pressing concern that muscles usually honed for battle were becoming weaker and his reflexes were beginning to lose their edge. That and the loss of chakra was making Sasuke edgy and he felt too vulnerable. And since there was nothing he could do about the chakra, he could at least keep himself fighting fit in every mundane way he could think of.

So Sasuke had bought up the subject last night and Naruto had jumped on it immediately. It seemed he too was itching to get back into shape and Sasuke's idea had made him very happy. He also didn't seem in the least intimidated that Sasuke was armed and he was not and it took Sasuke a good half an hour during their training to figure out why.

It wasn't because he didn't see Sasuke as a threat or even because Naruto was being overconfident and cocky in regard to his own skill. It seemed simply because Naruto trusted him. The first time Sasuke had managed to get one up on him and rested his blade against Naruto's unprotected back, the dobe had just smiled and shrugged and said, "You're still really quick, I'd almost forgotten." For some unfounded reason, Naruto seemed to believe that Sasuke wouldn't hurt him.

Annoyingly they both seemed pretty evenly matched though Sasuke was still winning more rounds than Naruto but that could have just come down to him being armed. But Naruto was strong. stronger than he remembered him being and if he managed to land one well aimed punch or get a hold of you it was tricky and sometimes impossible even to recover from. The further fact that he was treating this as some kind of fun game was really starting to get on Sasuke's nerves.

Of course Naruto's ability to find the fun might not have been all there was to it as Sasuke found out a moment later when Naruto managed to grab Sasuke's arm and send them both down into a tumbling heap. Now this was a situation that Sasuke didn't like. He knew that once Naruto got a solid hold on him it would be difficult to get clear again so to try and counter the grab, Sasuke kept them rolling using the momentum and his superior flexibility to try and tear himself free.

He did come close to breaking free at one point but in the end Naruto managed to pin him solidly underneath him and the two were left panting heavily and red faced.

"Get off," Sasuke ordered him in annoyance after a few moments when it appeared that Naruto wasn't about to move any further.

Naruto looked down at him for a few moments longer before a slow smile began creeping across his face. Immediately Sasuke began to frown. Just what was the dobe playing at here?

"You aren't moving, " Sasuke pointed out.

Naruto leaned down further and Sasuke became aware of two new facts all at once that until this point he just simply hadn't been aware of. It wasn't until Naruto's face was inches away from his own and he could feel the warm slightly fruit sweetened breath gust up against his face that he realized that one; Naruto was practically lying flush up against him, and two; it had been a week since they'd been in such close proximity to each other. A week since that night in the hotel room when frustrations had taken over.

Despite talking about something like that happening again that night, Sasuke hadn't really thought about it since. At the time he'd needed to scratch an itch and it seemed as though it had worked. All in all he was pretty happy with that outcome. The need to do something had almost overwhelmed his every waking thought and since then he'd been a lot more clear headed and able to focus back on what he felt was more important. And until now Naruto hadn't shown any signs either that he was feeling any differently which was also a huge relief.

He had thought things might get awkward after that so much so that he'd almost expected it. But surprisingly Naruto had seemed to take it all in stride and hadn't even bought the subject up once.

Not even hinted. At all...

Okay so maybe he wasn't being as honest as all that when saying that he hadn't thought about it.

He'd had odd moments of heated memory, especially when they found themselves physically close to one another but it was nowhere near as bad as it had been before. He still felt more or less like his old self but he did wonder in moments like these how long that might last. The fact that he still thought about it at all made him realize that perhaps in the fullness of time such things might start to nag at him again but he certainly wasn't going to do anything until he was sure it was worth it.

I mean Naruto was acting surprisingly mature now, but what might happen if it did indeed become a regular occurrence? Would Naruto act so cool and carefree then? Sasuke doubted it, but then he hadn't thought Naruto would be so blasé this time either.

"Naruto, stand up," Sasuke said using words that couldn't in any way be misconstrued in meaning this time.

"Make me," Naruto challenged.

So Sasuke bought up his leg swiftly and kneed him hard in the back of the head forcing Naruto to let go and allowing Sasuke to roll free and up onto his knees. Sasuke smirked as Naruto sat back, rubbing the back of his head with a pained expression.

"Asshole."

"I warned you," Sasuke told him. "I have no qualms about hurting you either."

"Yeah, I figured that one out for myself."

Sasuke got to his feet and went back to retrieve his sword from where it had fallen from his hand during their tousle and spent a few moments looking around.

The spot where they had chosen to train really was very pretty. The area they were in was surrounded on three sides by the river, a small little roundabout bend in the river that according to the locals in the rainy season would be run through with overflow from the river but at the moment was dry and amazingly covered in a sea of knee high purple flowers that smelt slightly of minty.

Apparently these flowers sprung up in a matter of days after the flood and stayed around until the area flooded again, which it did, all through the spring and summer.

Sasuke felt something tickle his ear and reached up to pluck a purple flower from his hair and rolled his eyes. Thanks to the dobe he was probably covered in the things. Sasuke spent a few moments ruffling his hair and making sure he was flower free before Naruto finally got up and wandered over, still wincing a little from the harsh hit to the head.

"I'm surprised that hurt you at all," Sasuke told him frankly. "Your head's so thick after all." Naruto gave him an unimpressed look. "My head's a little tender today, okay?"

This was perhaps the sixth time Naruto had complained about his head hurting.

"Another headache?" Sasuke asked picking yet another petal off his sleeve.

"Well I didn't have one before you hit me," Naruto told him.

Sasuke watched him for a few moments wondering whether he should be concerned or something.

So many mornings now Naruto had been sluggish with glassy eyes and dark circles. Of course by mid morning he was generally back to his old self but it was unlike Naruto to not be boisterous and wholly irritating within the first ten minutes upon waking. True before those ten minutes he was like any waking teenager, slow, groggy and even a little gruff sometimes but it lasted minutes and Naruto was generally ready and raring the get the day going. But what had taken minutes before now took hours.

"Drink some water," Sasuke advised.

Naruto also complained about the heat a lot and to be fair, it was extremely hot today. He hadn't once seen Naruto stop for a drink yet so he wouldn't be surprised if the heat was affecting him more than usual. The hot days also made the nights incredibly warm which in turn could sometimes make sleeping difficult. All of this together would explain Naruto's unusual behavior if he wasn't keeping himself well enough hydrated.

"And you have flowers in your hair," Sasuke continued planting his sword in the ground and putting his hands on his hips.

But as the sword slid easily in, Sasuke felt the ground kind of shift underneath him. All at once he was falling. Some part of his startled mind had enough sense to throw a hand out to catch the side of the hole as he fell through but his stomach dropped as the dirt at the side of the hole crumbled under his fingertips. He didn't fall much farther though as he felt an iron grip around his wrist and he looked up into the startled blue eyes of Naruto who must have dove forwards to try and grab him the moment the ground had given way.

Now Sasuke was left dangling over nothing while Naruto's face scrunched up with the effort of holding onto him with one hand, the other presumably bracing him up so he didn't follow Sasuke into the hole. Naruto might be strong, but Sasuke gave him five minutes before gravity would win the tug of war and pull him downwards again. He reached up, his movements causing Naruto to groan with effort and tried to grab at the lip of the hole hoping the find some sort of purchase he could use to pull himself up.

There was no way Naruto was going to be able to do it with Sasuke's dead weight on the end of his arm. But no matter how much he clawed at the edge, he couldn't find anything to hold onto and only succeeded in pulling free clumps of dirt and widening the hole even more. It made him wonder just how stable to ground was where Naruto was lying.

He reached forward to the area underneath Naruto to find nothing but empty space. Apparently the ground Naruto was lying on was just as stable as the area Sasuke had been standing on.

"Naruto, let go," Sasuke told him in a surprisingly calm voice.

"No way teme," Naruto ground out through gritted teeth.

"If you fall we might be both stuck down there. If you let me fall you might be able to help me get back out."

Naruto stared right into his eyes and Sasuke could see the determination and above all stubbornness that generally gave him a bad feeling with Naruto in these sorts of situations. He also looked slightly panicked.

"I can't see the bottom," Naruto said, sweat beginning to drip from his face with the effort.

A sweat drop hit his forehead but Sasuke hardly noticed, the implications of what Naruto had told him being a little more important. If Naruto couldn't see the bottom of whatever this was then it was most likely a long way down. If Naruto let him go there was a possibility that there would be nothing left for him to try and save later but a dead and broken body. But really, what did that information change? It still wouldn't help anyone if Naruto were to get dragged down too.

"You're blocking out the light, it can't be that deep. Let go."

"No. Sasuke you-"

With a creak and a rush of air Sasuke's worries about the ground underneath Naruto proved correct. He felt Naruto's grip on him go loose and then nothing but the sensation of falling.


It felt like he'd fallen for a long time but in reality it was probably only a few seconds before he plunged back-first into the cold water below. The impact of the water did a lot to slow his fall but not enough as his back came into contact with the rocky bottom of the pool with a painful and juddering stop that almost wrenched whatever air he'd managed to keep in his lungs out. But he held onto it and pushed himself upwards, breaking the surface of the pool and dragging in a big lungful of air.

Well, all in all that hadn't been too bad. He'd half expected to hit nothing but a hard cold stone floor and break his neck, so in comparison this was quite a lucky eventuality.

The water beside him erupted with a spray of droplets and the audible intake of a large amount of air followed by a lot of coughing. It sounded as though Naruto hadn't been so lucky and did have the wind knocked out of him when he'd hit the bottom. It didn't stop him from looking wildly around though through his coughing fits till he clapped eyes on Sasuke and then he seemed to relax a little.

It lasted all of a moment till his eyes screwed up in pain and he set out towards the edge of the little pool swimming in a way that made it look like he was favoring his right side.

Sasuke went after him and watched as Naruto dragged himself out of the water to sit at the side of the pool, a hand clamped against his side. He gave Sasuke an unimpressed look.

"I told you to let go," Sasuke reminded him.

"How'd you even fall into a hole anyway?" Naruto asked slightly annoyed. "Weren't you the one calling me clumsy last week?"

"The ground opened up beneath me," Sasuke replied just as annoyed. "Normal reflexes will only get you so far. And you are clumsy. And an idiot. If you had let me go you could have gotten some rope or something to help me back out but you were too busy trying to play the hero that you ended up falling too."

Naruto didn't reply but Sasuke knew he'd scored a point by the way Naruto grumpily told him, "You're sword is over there," he said gesturing back towards where they'd fallen in.

"You saw it fall in?"

"No, I landed on it. I think it got stuck blade side up between some rocks. I just grazed it though."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and pried Naruto's hand roughly away from his side and pulled his shirt up. Sure enough something very sharp and very straight had given Naruto a four inch cut on his side. It wasn't all that big but it must have been fairly deep because the blood from it didn't take long to streak bronze skin with red now that Naruto wasn't keeping pressure on it anymore.

Normally such a thing would need stitches but that wasn't about to happen down here. Sasuke let Naruto put his hand over it again and went to the area Naruto had gestured to and dove around for a few minutes in search of his sword. When he found it he swam back and boosted himself up out of the water to take a look around.

Honestly, there wasn't a lot to see. The opening above them provided enough light to see by but not enough to allow Sasuke to see much of anything beyond the pool of water they had fallen into. The pool itself was only about six meters across and only deep in the area they had fallen into which made him feel doubly lucky that they hadn't fallen through anywhere else.

If they had they would have been either in a lot of pain or dead if they a fallen badly. the height or the cavern wasn't so high that it would have assured death but enough to make it a distinct possibility. And what they were in was a cavern. It stretched out further than the light properly reached and curved upwards meaning that even if they could scale the sides towards the top there would still be too much space between the wall of the cavern and the hole they had made in the ceiling.

But apparently they weren't as trapped as all that. There were at least three dark openings leading off from the cavern that Sasuke hoped might lead them either out or at least to a room that was a little easier to escape from.

Sasuke crouched down next to Naruto.

"Take your shirt off," he instructed briskly.

Naruto gave him a funny look. "Um, I might have been messing around during the fight, but I don't think here-"

"To bandage your wound," Sasuke interrupted, irritated.

"Oh, right."

In the end, Sasuke had to help him peel the sodden shirt off and then set about cutting it and tying it so it would wrap around Naruto's abdomen and keep pressure on the wound. It would bleed for a little while longer but it wasn't so bad that it wouldn't stop on its own eventually. But until then this would have to do.

When that was done, Naruto got to his feet and shivered rubbing his arms a little.

"It's really cold in here."

Sasuke wouldn't go that far. It was cool, far cooler than it had been outside or really anything they had experienced for over a month and the comparative coolness of the air down here mixed with the wet clothes was giving him goosebumps too. But they were hardly going to freeze either.

"You'll get used to it," Sasuke told him dismissively.

Naruto looked down at his destroyed t-shirt forlornly. "I wish we had our stuff down here. At least I'd have a dry shirt. Hey do you think our stuff will be alright?"

They had been pretty far off the beaten track when they'd made camp for the night. There had been no signs that anyone had been to that area recently so he felt fairly confident they wouldn't get robbed.

"Probably. I wish we had our stuff as well," Sasuke admitted. "As soon as we leave this room we're going to be in the dark."

But even as Sasuke had said it he spotted something that might solve that problem. A few small sticks that were still dry despite the moist feel to the cave plus some dry grass that had fallen through with the dirt would be a good start to making a fire. It took longer than Sasuke's pride would have appreciated but eventually he got the grass to smolder. Once there was a flame going they dried out what they could of the remaining bits of Naruto's t-shirt that hadn't been used for the bandage before wrapping it around a larger stick and lighting it.

It had taken so long though that the sky beyond the hole was starting to look decidedly orange but now that they had their torch they couldn't wait around. It wouldn't take long before the torch burnt out and they'd be in darkness after all.


The path Sasuke chose looked no different than the others but it was the only one that he figured led away from the river. No doubt it was the constant flooding in the field that had eroded the rock away in the first place but caverns didn't just exist in places like this normally. It was Sasuke's hope that tunnels meant someone had carved them out and that meant there should be an exit. He also figured that nobody would want to dig close to the river and so they should probably try and head away from it. But it was just a guess.

They were only down the tunnel twenty minutes when Sasuke got any proof to his theory though.

The two of them stood in the badly flickering light of the torch and stared down at very old looking but still usable twin iron tracks that ran down the first intersection they came to.

"D'you think this is a mine?" Naruto asked in wonder.

"It's a possibility," Sasuke replied though not half as excited by the prospect.

"But this is good news!" Naruto urged. "This means there should be a way out, right?"

"I'm not so sure."

When Naruto looked confused Sasuke gestured behind him. Naruto almost jumped when he saw the skeleton, or rather what used to be a skeleton but was now an unfinished jigsaw puzzle of a skeleton.

"Fuck Sasuke, warn me next time!"

"I didn't realize you were going to jump like a little girl," Sasuke replied with the traces of a smile on his face.

"How can you smile at a time like this?" Naruto asked him hotly. "We're stuck in an old mine with about ten minutes of t-shirt left to burn and we just found a dead body."

Good point. Sasuke wasn't so blasé about death that he would normally be smiling at a time like this.

Actually he hardly ever smiled to start with so this situation should certainly not bring out any kind of mirth. But here he was, not entirely irritated beyond reason at their predicament, just because it had sort of been funny to see Naruto jump in fright like that. And strangely he wasn't amused just because he had managed to give Naruto a scare but because of the reaction itself. One of those odd little Naruto moments that was more entertaining than irritating.

"There's something wrong with you, seriously," Naruto continued when Sasuke's smile only widened a little more in response. "So alright, why does that old skeleton mean there's no way out?"

That was enough to stop him smiling easily enough.

"He didn't get out," Sasuke said gesturing toward the remains. "Plus these tracks don't look like they've been used in a long time. Mines have cave-ins, people die. If nobody came to claim the body it might mean that they couldn't."

"Right, good point," Naruto conceded. "Still," he continued a little more brightly, "you don't know that for sure. Following the tracks is probably still our best bet."

Sasuke had pretty much come to the same conclusion but before they could continue he passed the torch to Naruto and started taking off his shirt. Naruto watched him closely but didn't ask any questions while Sasuke slit his shirt down the middle and carefully tied one half around a spare stick they'd bought and touched it to the lit and almost depleted one in Naruto's hand. It was a little more material than they'd had from Naruto's shirt but Sasuke doubted it would last much longer.

"When that one goes out, tie this around it and we'll keep it for later," Sasuke told him handing him the other half of the shirt.

Naruto nodded and the pair started following the tracks along the new tunnel.


A little ways onward Sasuke stepped out into an open area of tunnel. There were small amounts of light filtering down through small holes in the ceiling where water had worked its way through but nothing that looked promising as far as getting out of here was concerned. He could also hear the faint sounds of rushing water through the walls and see little rivulets of water criss-crossing the floor.

"We must have come back towards the river again," Sasuke said frowning.

He didn't like being underground much. Mainly because he had no real sense of direction when he was closed in like this and hated the feeling of being lost that bought. He certainly didn't like the idea of being trapped at all.

"Well that'll make it easier to backtrack and find our things if we get out near the river," Naruto said optimistically.

Sasuke didn't respond, having other things on his mind. Mainly he was gauging how much light was still left outside. Not much by the looks of things. It had been late afternoon before they'd left the first room so the sun had to be near setting now. And sure it probably didn't matter a lot down here because it was mostly dark anyway but they also wouldn't be able to see openings in the ceilings without the light shining through them and it would make it more difficult to find ways out.

And there was no way their torches were going to last all night. So the options were simple, grope blindly through the darkness and hope to stumble across an obvious way out or save their light and bunk down till morning.

"I had hoped it wouldn't take this long," Sasuke thought out loud.

"Yeah I know what you mean," Naruto agreed eyeing the fading daylight through the holes as well.

"But we can't take a break, we don't have much light left."

"I still have those sticks and some grass from the other room, we could always relight the torch again. And if we do sleep till morning we should stay somewhere we can see the sunlight tomorrow." Naruto looked around the area in distaste. "It's pretty wet in here, and cold."

Sasuke had thought about that. Naruto was right, it was a cold made worse by the dampness but it still wasn't too cold to be life threatening.

"It will be uncomfortable, only that. For someone who's mostly been living in the woods for over a month you're pretty picky," Sasuke taunted.

"Yeah in the balmy tropics, not in a dank, dark, cold, creepy cave. Look I know it's not actually freezing in here but it still feels like it. I'm gonna spend the whole night shivering."

"I don't actually care, just stop complaining."

Sasuke left Naruto standing there to find the driest spot he could and sat down, immediately feeling the chill of the rock through his pants. He resisted the urge to shiver himself and watched as Naruto frowned and followed him, sitting down beside him. There was a little patch of dirt nearby that had apparently fallen down through the holes above and he used that to extinguish the torch. Without the light and with the sun setting outside they were almost in complete darkness.

He could still vaguely see Naruto but that wouldn't last for much longer. And this was another reason Sasuke didn't like being underground. The darkness underground was just so complete. If there was no light source whatsoever you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face and for someone who relied on the power of his eyes quite a lot, this was a big feeling of loss for Sasuke.

It didn't help that Naruto was being oddly quiet either. Occasionally he could feel the sides of their arms bump as Naruto shirted where he sat but he was mostly quiet. This was one or those moments that Sasuke really missed the white noise of Naruto's idle chatter. He supposed he could make a conversation with him or at least start a fight but it seemed like too much effort just for a little bit of sound. Thankfully though, Naruto didn't seem to be able to stay quiet for too long anyway.

"You don't panic, do you?" Naruto asked randomly.

"What?"

"We've fallen through the ground into some dark scary mine with dead bodies, no food and hardly any light and you're still all cool and planning and stuff. I mean I've seen you lose your shit but even crazy you're still really focussed. Doesn't anything ever just stump you and make you freak out a little?"

"Would you rather I freaked out?" Sasuke asked.

"No, that's not what I mean. Actually this might sound weird but because you're like that it sort of evens me out too. I just figure that there's gotta be something that makes you go a little blank, ya know?"

Well there was one thing but Sasuke wasn't sure whether he should open that direction to the conversation or not because it involved Naruto himself and certain relieving of frustrations. But it was interesting to think that perhaps there really was only one thing that could reduce his thinking processes to a huge white blank as Naruto suggested. Aside from physical gratification perhaps that had been part of the draw. Maybe he liked to just simply not think for a moment and just feel physical sensations for a change.

"If you don't think I lose my shit that often, then I'm not sure we've met."

"I'm not talking about being all violent and angry and stuff," Naruto told him with a hint of amusement. "Or you getting all pissed off about stupid things like ants eating the fruit. I just mean that some of the things we've been through, most people might get a little freaked out."

"There's no point," Sasuke replied. "Freaking out will not solve the problem."

Naruto went quiet for a moment while he seemed to think over Sasuke's answer before very carefully asking, "So is that what happened back at the last town, solving a problem?"

Sasuke let his breath out slowly, not particularly happy that the conversation had ended up going where he hadn't wanted it to after all.

"We voted on this," Sasuke reminded him again.

"I'm not asking about the details of what happened. I just wanted to know if that was your way of solving what you thought was a problem, that's all."

Still not happy, but not feeling like lying either Sasuke answered, "Yes."

Some small part of him assumed his answer would make Naruto angry. After all, Naruto hardly ever did anything without some kind of emotion behind it and Sasuke's way of easing their situation didn't have a lot of emotional interest in it, but Naruto surprised him by not getting pissed about it.

"I'm really starting to appreciate this cold efficiency thing," Naruto told him, his earlier amusement back. "You've gotta be the most straight-forward but at the same time most complicated person I've ever met."

"I'm not sure if that was a compliment," Sasuke replied dryly.

"Not sure it was either," Naruto admitted freely. "But I guess that means your willing enough to do things you wouldn't normally do just to fix a problem, right?"

"Depends on how dire the problem is."

"Well, I'm cold. And so are you, don't tell me you aren't."

So apparently this rambling conversation had a point to it, did it? You had to give Naruto credit sometimes, he'd managed to throw him a bit by talking about their frustration solving just as a way to talk Sasuke into doing something he might normally object to.

"So? It's hardly a dire problem."

"So we'll be warmer if we share body heat."

Ah.

"I'm not jerking you off."

"I'm not asking! I'm not offering either. My fingers are so cold I'm not sure they'd be much use anyway," he added almost as an afterthought.

Sasuke couldn't help himself and chuckled at the comment he was sure wasn't meant to be funny but still kind of was anyway. But apparently Naruto saw this as a good sign because he felt a hand on his shoulder, urging him to lay back and Sasuke didn't immediately think of resisting. After all, hadn't this been part of the problem solving issue?

If he wanted things to work out he had to get over the who's and why's and focus on the end result. And if that also meant overcoming physical obstacles, well, it seemed to be all part of the process. So for now he went with it and once his back was resting against the smooth stone of the cave floor he felt an inviting warmth drape itself across one side of him, easing the chill against his back almost immediately.

Thankfully it didn't feel much like being hugged, that would have been too much. As it was it still was a little too close but he had to admit, it was a lot warmer. And Naruto was so carelessly lying half on him it was slightly more like being lain on than being held so it didn't feel particularly invasive either.

Except of course for that lone hand resting casually against the top of his leg. The positioning had to be an accident since it was full dark now and Naruto had been lucky to even find his shoulder in the darkness so Sasuke doubted Naruto was actively trying to be suggestive by the placement. But it was a little suggestive with his splayed little finger resting maybe two inches away from Sasuke's groin.

Of course he could tell Naruto to move his hand away but it sounded stupid. He wasn't actually touching anything inappropriate it was just the sensation of it being oh-so close that was bothering him. But he didn't exactly want Naruto to know it was bothering him so he just kept quiet.

It was just because they had been talking about the frustration thing, Sasuke told himself. It reminded him of hands touching him so he was just a little more aware of it right now.

He thought that eventually he'd just get used to it and wouldn't even notice it was there after a while but after about half and hour of being still and the hand still being right there, having warm breath gusting against his neck and naked hot skin pressed into his side made the sensation even more acute. That's about when he realized that the only reason the touch was bothering him at all was because it wasn't moving closer toward levels of inappropriateness. Part of his mind seemed to be intent on willing Naruto's hand closer while the other part kept telling him to stop being so stupid.

And it was amazing how concentrated and obsessed you could become to one little touch of 'almost there' that it was a while before Sasuke realized Naruto had started snoring in his ear.

Then he spent a few moments telling himself to calm the fuck down. Willing a hand to touch him and imagining what that touch would feel like again had narrowed his whole world for way more time than it should have warranted.

So that was that, the urges from last week hadn't gone away but he wasn't as worried about it as he imagined he might be. He couldn't talk his body into forgetting about it last week so he wasn't surprised he couldn't do it now either after he had actually experienced what it felt like to be touched. Embarrassingly though, even the expectation of it had caused definite swell so he was left feeling a little frustrated into the bargain.

And then Naruto snorted, shifted, and kept snoring. And his hand was... well it was definitely being inappropriate now.

Godsdamnit! Even asleep the dobe was irritating and frustrating! His hand was right on him, not moving at all but making that swell even more profound by complete accident. It probably had everything to do with Sasuke wanting nothing more than that fucking hand to touch him for what felt like so long and now that it was, it was as if he'd been drowning before quite suddenly breaking the surface and getting a lungful of sweet sweet air. He was actually fighting the temptation to move and cause some friction and get some relief. But then that might wake Naruto and Naruto would wake up to find Sasuke hard and yes, even panting very slightly under the tension and he still wasn't quite at the point where he was sure the possible relief might be worth the total embarrassment.

But then Sasuke realized that actually, yes he was, far past that point in fact. It was just impossible to feel embarrassed when you were that horny.

Sasuke turned his head slightly in Naruto's direction and felt the breath hit his face instead of his neck.

"Naruto."

Snore.

"Naruto."

Snore.

"Dobe!"

Naruto snorted again following it up with a, "huh, wha'?"

"If you're going to grope me in your sleep, at least do it properly," Sasuke hissed. "I'm sure your hand is nice and warm now considering where it is."

Sasuke spent a few frustrating moments letting Naruto's brain wake up properly and then for the demand to register and he knew when it did because he felt the hand on him flex experimentally almost causing him to moan.

"Did I really?"

"Yes."

"Oh. I get the feeling that you want to hit me though."

"That is completely contingent on what you do next," Sasuke told him dangerously.

He could hear Naruto swallow thickly. "Okay."

For a horrible moment he felt the pressure from that hand leave him but before he could start yelling a mouth found his in the darkness and slipped a tongue into his open mouth, swallowing the words.

Around the same time he felt fingers slip under the waistband of his pants and a hand close around his length.

This time he did moan.

And something else growled.

TBC