Hi guys, I'm going on a trip so I won't be posting chapters for about a week or two. I just wanted to let you guys know I'm not dropping this I'll be back soon, thank you guys for the comments it's nice seeing people who like this story as much as I do :)

Enjoy!

The Long Way Home

Part 15

The Deed

Chapter 1/5

Naruto hated shopping. Usually he would go out of his way to avoid it. But lately Sasuke's shopping trips had gleaned nothing but vegetables and other assorted healthy food and Naruto was getting thoroughly sick of it.

Of course if he was being honest he did have to admit that the food didn't taste all that bad. Sasuke had a way of cooking boring vegetables that made it almost tasty but just once in a while Naruto craved something a little more solid with juice that would drip down your chin and leave you with creasy lips and fingers. Vegetables were fine, but what Naruto really craved right now was meat.

In Konoha red meat had been a little on the pricey side but here it seemed plentiful and cheap and Naruto aimed to make the very best of that situation. If he couldn't get ramen, it was the next best thing. So that was why this time, Naruto had volunteered to shop and let Sasuke rest up for the afternoon.

Of course Sasuke wasn't stupid and had given Naruto a knowing look as Naruto had offered when they walked into town that morning.

"Meat won't keep on the road for very long," he had told Naruto.

"Yeah, I know that. But it'll last long enough for one right, right? I need meat," Naruto almost wailed. "All these vegetables and fish and dried food is all so..."

"Healthy?" Sasuke offered with a raised eyebrow.

"Look I've got nothing against healthy. But I'm a grown man, I need something more than that."

"A grown child, you mean," Sasuke muttered. "What's the sudden need for red meat? You used to live on nothing but ramen before."

Naruto gave Sasuke a dirty look. "You just had to remind me, didn't you? Well I can't get ramen so I need a real food substitute."

"Ramen isn't a real food."

Naruto gave Sasuke a shocked look and stopped dead. "Take that back!"

"Tch, see, a child."

Naruto's suddenly smirked at him. "If I'm such a child then I'm pretty sure what you did to me this morning was illegal."

Weirdly Sasuke looked a little disturbed by that and Naruto's grin slowly faded.

"I was just joking Sasuke."

"I know that, idiot!" Sasuke snapped before turning his back on him and beginning to walk away. "I'm going to get us a room. Just go ahead and go shopping or something."

Naruto watched bewildered as Sasuke stalked off and wondered what he'd said this time. And okay, usually it didn't take much but this was an abrupt change even for Sasuke.

But even so, Naruto spent the morning trying to figure it out in his head while he did his shopping. He didn't really think Sasuke had gotten upset about the child comment. I mean they were barely three months apart in age and almost eighteen the pair of them.

Actually come to think about it, they had been traveling for over three months now and if it had been April last time he'd been in Konoha. So it had to be around mid to late July by now. Wasn't Sasuke's birthday soon?

Naruto turned to the merchant that was busy packing away the supplies Naruto had asked for.

"Hey old man, what's the date today?"

The old man paused in his packing. "It's the thirty first day of the summer season," he answered as though Naruto should know this.

Naruto frowned. What the fuck? Didn't they have proper months here? But already the guy was looking at him as though he was crazy so Naruto didn't feel like pushing it. Besides, he had a feeling Sasuke would know what it meant. And it didn't really help him with his current problem anyway.

All he'd done was make a joke about this morning and Sasuke had looked at him like he really wished Naruto would just shut up. Well, more than usual. But it wasn't too unusual to make the odd comment about things like this morning, was it?

Naruto thought about it some more and realised that it was actually a pretty rare occurrence. Occasionally they did talk a little about it but it was usually just pre, post and during. When traveling like they usually did, nothing was ever really discussed and definitely not when they were standing out in the street of a town.

Could it be that Sasuke was actually embarrassed about it?

Naruto pondered over that question all the way back to the town's only inn and after a few inquires pondered it just a little more as he made his way to their room. Eventually he pushed open the door to find Sasuke sitting on the bench seat near a large open window and looked at him in confusion.

"Hey Sasuke, did I piss you off before because I said that stuff in public?"

Sasuke's eyes went a little wide and flicked toward the open door behind Naruto.

Rolling his eyes, Naruto kicked the door closed and put down his bags.

"You know I didn't actually say anything this time right?" Naruto asked him.

Sasuke scowled at him. "I'd prefer it if you didn't say anything at all."

"You're really weird, ya know that?" Naruto asked coming to sit down beside where Sasuke had his feet propped on the padded seat. "You don't actually like people at all but you care if some stranger hears some random comment on the street?"

"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not talk about it at all no matter where we are," Sasuke told him snidely. "But if you must discuss it, do not do it where other people can overhear. It is nobody else's business."

"Seriously? So it's okay to do, but not to talk about?"

"Just why is this important?"

Naruto shrugged, he guessed it really wasn't. Naruto was still getting used to the latest change in their dynamic and was happy enough to just do instead of agonize or get confused. But he felt Sasuke was missing something here.

"You don't need to be so serious about it, that's all. It's fun right? You should at least have a little fun with it."

"I do, " Sasuke admitted though somewhat reluctantly.

"I don't just mean at the time. C'mon Sasuke I've never done anything like this with anyone else and the first person I do ends up being you of all people. You gotta find the funny in that. We tease each other about everything, why not this? I mean you don't regret it do you?"

"No," Sasuke replied carefully but Naruto could see that he had sparked some sort of interest there. Which for some odd reason made him a little overwhelmed for a moment. It was a rare moment when Sasuke appeared to be talked around about anything at all. Had Naruto just presented an argument and won Sasuke over? Why couldn't he do it that easily before?

"Then chill out a little, would you? Just 'cause I'm getting better at figuring you out doesn't mean you have to make it like a daily test or whatever."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and looked back out the window at the square below.

"Oh and hey Sasuke, what's the date if it's the thirty first day of summer?"

"July twenty first," Sasuke replied without looking back at him. "Thirty one days since the summer solstice."

"Oh, okay, thanks. No wonder it's getting even hotter."

And then Naruto realised the importance of the date.

"Isn't your birthday in a couple of days?"

Sasuke however seemed unmoved by the information. "I guess so."

"Wow, you're gonna be eighteen!"

Finally Sasuke looked around at him. "So?"

"So?" Naruto repeated like he hadn't understood him. "So that's a big deal, isn't it?"

"I don't see how."

"But..." Naruto faltered. "But it's your birthday," he tried again lamely.

"I don't celebrate birthdays," Sasuke told him blandly.

"Why not?"

But Sasuke only seemed to be getting irritated at him again. "Because I don't, let it go." Naruto did, but only because he couldn't work out Sasuke's new problem. Maybe it was hard for him because he'd had nobody to celebrate it with him in such a long time but then neither had Naruto and for a lot longer than Sasuke.

These days his friends generally did something nice for him, but this hadn't always been the case. When he was little he'd had nothing and no one to even acknowledge it. But even if he never got a cake or any presents, Naruto had still tried to make the day special in some way just for the fun of it. Apparently Sasuke was still having issues with that concept.

"What if we do something fun?" Naruto suggested.

Sasuke snorted. "Fun? And just what would you suggest? That we stop walking across the countryside for the day just for a change of pace?"

Naruto sighed, "I think your idea of fun needs some work teme. C'mon there must be something you want to do."

"Just wait while I go over the fantastic choices presented to me," Sasuke said sarcastically.

"Is there something I can do?"

Naruto had meant it as an innocent enough comment but the way Sasuke first thought about it and then eyed him all over with a speculative look made Naruto a little uneasy.

"What?" Naruto asked a shade nervously.

But apparently Sasuke had thought better of his idea because he looked away again.

"Forget it. It isn't a big deal."

"Tell me," Naruto forced out. He hadn't been comforted by the look but any chance for Sasuke to find the fun would be worth almost anything.

"Would you just fucking drop it!" Sasuke exclaimed swiveling back around and putting his feet to the floor as though he was going to move away

Naruto grabbed his arm as he stood and pulled him back down to sit once more. But he'd made Sasuke sit a little awkwardly so that Sasuke was forced to grab his shoulder in a tight grip and lean into him. Naruto felt the hot breath gust against his face and saw the slightly startled look in Sasuke's eyes. It lasted all of about three seconds before Sasuke started to look pissed again.

"Grab me again like that and I'll break your arm," Sasuke warned him.

Naruto was definitely not afraid of the threat though mainly because he had a warm body pressed somewhat against him.

"Is that what you want for your birthday? If you want I'll promise to keep my hands to myself."

Sasuke stared at him for a moment. "That's almost what I had in mind."

Naruto had not expected that. He'd gotten nervous before because he had suspected Sasuke wanted to make him do something cruel for his own amusement. He hadn't expected that Sasuke's birthday wish would be for Naruto to completely stay away from him.

So Naruto let him go, very uneasy at the thought.

"If that's what you want."

Sasuke frowned for a moment then rolled his eyes when he understood what Naruto was getting at.

"That's not what I meant."

"Then what...?"

"You really aren't going to let this go are you?"

"No, of course not. Just tell me what you want!"

Sasuke watched him for a moment longer. "You said I should find the fun, right? What do you think I would find fun?"

"I dunno. I mean if you want to spend the day alone I guess I understand. That's the only thing I can think of that doesn't involve me being near you."

Sasuke sighed. "I told you that isn't what I meant. I meant in training. We haven't trained properly in weeks."

Naruto blinked at that. Of course, training was something Sasuke did enjoy. And although they had made the effort since that first time when Sasuke had fell into the mine, they had been quick, end of the day practices when both of them were already tired from walking. Generally it only lasted barely twenty minutes and lately they'd been finding other more interesting ways of working out instead.

"You want to spend the day trying to kick my ass?" Naruto asked with some surprise. "I mean I'm not completely shocked, but I've heard of more relaxing and enjoyable birthday wishes than that."

"There will be no 'trying' involved. I doubt you will be able to lay a finger on me," Sasuke told him.

Ah, okay, so that's what Sasuke had meant with the 'almost' comment. Asshole could never just come out and say what he wanted, he still needed to lead the conversation the long way around.

"As if," Naruto snorted. "Okay, if that's what you want to do, it's a plan. If we're gonna spend a whole day somewhere we should find somewhere nice too," Naruto told him starting to get excited with the idea despite himself.

"And private," Sasuke emphasized. "I don't want some local townsfolk stumbling across us. Or bandits again," he added as an afterthought.

Naruto shrugged. "I wouldn't worry too much. I mean people around here must do some sort of fighter training. Not everyone can be a farmer."

"It wasn't the training part of the day I was worried about. It was the... afterwards part."

Strangely Sasuke looked a little pink when he said that. There wasn't many things that ever made Sasuke blush even slightly, in fact Naruto could count the times on one hand he'd ever seen it happen.

And even when he realised what 'afterwards' Sasuke was eluding to figuring that he wanted a little fooling around time to cap off the day, it still didn't seem to make a lot of sense even factoring in that Sasuke generally didn't like talking about that sort of thing. So what the hell was Sasuke thinking about?

"Uh, okay, sure. Pretty and private. Can't be too hard, it's not like we've been running into a lot of travelers lately in this weather. And we've only run into bandits that once."

Maybe that was it, when the bandits had come across them they'd been a pretty compromising position which was enough to embarrass anyone. Not that Sasuke had seemed all that concerned at the time.

He'd seemed a lot more concerned about keeping their stuff than caring what anyone saw. Which was a little contradictory considering his sullen attitude this morning about discussing things in the street.

But then physical doings were a lot easier for Sasuke than sharing so maybe that was all there was to it. After all there hadn't been anything really different that time. Well unless of course you counted it when Naruto had accidentally nudged him just...

...No way.

"Did your brain just stop?" Sasuke asked with a raised eyebrow.

"For a moment," Naruto admitted quietly. "Ne Sasuke, you aren't going to you know, tease me again, are you?"

Unfortunately, Sasuke seemed to know what he was thinking which was a little worrying.

Sasuke just smirked at him. Which was not comforting in the least.

"Don't give me that look, you're the one who started it with this 'birthday fun' stuff."

"I didn't realise I was setting myself up for a night of torture!" Naruto replied hotly. "I was thinking about getting you a cake or something."

It had been a big ask for Sasuke to come out and say what he wanted and he sat back in his previous spot now and crossed his arms over his chest defensively.

"I don't like cake."

"Figures. Well okay, sure, pretty spot, sparring and then... afterwards. If that's what you really want. Gee Sasuke, I can't believe you want a day of training for your birthday. But okay, I get it. You're kinda sadistic in case you haven't noticed."

"This coming from the person that bit me so hard last week that I can still see the mark."

Naruto grinned and wondered if Sasuke realised what he was doing. For once they were actually planning to have some fun. Alright so they were mainly teasing each other but it was still a positive step as far as Naruto was concerned.

"You're complaining about me biting you?" he asked incredulously. "Sasuke you bite me all the time! I'm starting to think you might like the taste of my blood or something."

"Or something," Sasuke replied mysteriously but with a definite smirk.

"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"

"Quite possibly."

What the hell was he thinking?

That was pretty much the main thought circling in his mind throughout the following day. And not for the first time that day he wondered what Naruto was thinking as well.

Sasuke couldn't really tell from the way he was acting since for most of the day Naruto had been regaling him with some tale about how he, Sakura and Sai had been sent off on a mission to the Wind Country complete with the occasional air punches as Naruto retold a particularly nasty fight he'd been in. And while Sasuke had been listening enough to get the overall plot, he hadn't exactly been paying attention to the details.

But that wasn't unusual. The type of story wasn't all that unusual either. But just very occasionally Naruto would look at him, quickly give him a once over with his eyes before snapping out of whatever brain freeze that had made him pause in the first place and carrying on exactly as he had been before.

He could have just been reacting to Sasuke's own introspective mood, but then that sort of mood wasn't unusual for Sasuke either.

Was it possible that Naruto was thinking about what Sasuke had meant when he'd mentioned what he'd wanted at the end of their sparring day? But then did Sasuke think that because that was what he'd been thinking about all day too? But if Naruto was indeed thinking about it, Sasuke really did want to know what he thought. Mainly because Sasuke himself wasn't all that sure he knew what he'd meant.

That whole thing about nobody interrupting was mainly Sasuke worrying about anyone sneaking up again while his mind was off in happy sensation land again.

But that remark about the bandits might have more telling than he'd intended because he had in fact been thinking about what had happened just before they had shown up. Honestly they'd so far shown a blatant disregard for their surroundings when they'd fooled around. Generally speaking they hardly ever got interrupted and he hadn't really spared a thought about what might happen if they were.

It wasn't like he hadn't cared, he was a pretty private person after all, but he hadn't cared enough to be more careful about it. But this time Sasuke had been adamant about being more careful and he'd been thinking about that moment before the bandits had interrupted them when he'd mentioned his wish to Naruto about privacy.

And obviously Naruto had caught on somewhat because he'd asked if Sasuke intended to tease him again. But that didn't necessarily mean he'd taken that idea to the next level, it just meant that he knew what Sasuke had been thinking about.

But what was that next level anyway? Did he like the feeling so much that he wanted to replicate it? Did he want to try it on Naruto instead? Or was he just thinking about what it would be like to go just that one little bit further...

"C'mon Sasuke, most of the time you at least pretend to listen."

Sasuke was broken out of his thoughts when Naruto spoke that sentence a little louder to catch his attention.

Naruto was giving him this sort of teasing grin that made him look like he thought he was winning some sort of childish game. Sasuke had used to think the grin was annoying but he almost half smiled back out of reflex before he could stop himself.

"No I don't," Sasuke argued.

"Okay fine, but generally you're not so obvious about it. I knew you weren't listening when I started talking about how Sakura almost went on a date with me when we were in Suna but then Sai ended up coming too and I was so sure you were gonna tease me and then you didn't and I-"

"Have you been on a lot of dates with Sakura?" Sasuke interrupted.

Naruto was obviously not expecting that question so it took him a little while to respond.

"I guess that depends on what you'd call a date."

"Normally that shouldn't be such a difficult question," Sasuke pointed out.

"Oh you know what Sakura is like," Naruto said dismissively. "One moment she's all smiling, the next she's punching me because I said the wrong thing. Girls are really hard to work out, ya know?"

"Not really."

"Even you're easier to work out than her, I swear. I guess I've never been on a 'buy flowers, eat dinner, watch a movie' kind of date if that answers your question."

"With anyone?"

"Nope," Naruto responded like it didn't actually bother him.

But then he supposed that shouldn't really be a surprise to him. Naruto might have had a crush on Sakura times past, he might see a pretty girl in the street and give her an impulsive smile, but he wasn't exactly what Sasuke would think of as a girl chaser.

Sakura was probably the only girl he'd liked enough to even ask for a date but he'd also said a few months ago that he'd sort of given up on dating her now. Therefore such news seemed pretty expected.

"Doesn't shock me."

"Hey, there's probably heaps of girls that would go out with me," Naruto told him completely missing Sasuke's meaning. "I just get real busy with training and stuff," he finished defensively.

Which was also probably true. Such things would take precedence to Naruto especially since he didn't really have his eye on someone special. Of course that didn't mean Sasuke wouldn't mock him anyway.

"Uh-huh, sure."

"What would you know anyway?" Naruto asked him. "You've probably never even been on any sort of date"

"I get the impression you think this news would bother me."

"Yeah, I guess I kinda didn't think that one through," Naruto admitted. "The closest you've probably ever been to a date is with me."

Naruto had meant it as an off-hand partially offensive comment but it did give Sasuke pause. Especially because he was probably right. The night of the festival in particular was a little close for comfort. Of course going to a festival was also something you could just do with a friend too. Minus the groping. Well maybe including the groping since they were in fact friends and that wasn't unusual for them anymore.

"That's a disturbing thought," Sasuke responded with a frown.

"Tell me about it," Naruto agreed. "Ya know, maybe we should have stayed in town for your birthday. You could have gone on a real date or something with someone. You never know, you might have liked it."

Sasuke gave him a look.

"Alright, maybe not," Naruto amended.

A random date with a stranger just for the novelty of it didn't really appeal to him much. Actually he couldn't think of a single girl who would actually want to do the kinds of things he might actually enjoy doing. Even all the kunoichi he knew probably would have balked at the suggestion of playful sparring even for fun as opposed to a proper romantic date.

"I'd rather spend the day beating you up," Sasuke told him honestly.

"You know we really have to work on adjusting your idea of 'fun'," Naruto told him with a smile.

"Plus I don't have to buy you flowers to get into your pants," Sasuke added snidely in an attempt to shut him up.

It worked, though perhaps a little too well.

"I thought you said I should talk about it more," Sasuke reminded him.

But it looked as though Naruto's brain had frozen again.

"It was a joke," Sasuke said plainly instead.

"Well I guess it's true anyway," Naruto replied eventually.

He didn't look particularly offended about the comment, just kind of thoughtful. Which gave Sasuke his answer to his previous question anyway. Naruto was thinking about what would happen tomorrow night. And he was putting a lot more thought into it than he usually would.

But what to do, dissuade him? Of what exactly? Was he really thinking of possibly having...

"Sasuke?"

"What?"

"I don't think I could do this with anyone else."

"Define 'this'. You mentioned it already about the traveling thing."

"I don't really mean that. Well not just that. I mean the other stuff. Well sure I'd be able to if I was actually dating someone and everything but with another friend, no way."

"I wasn't suggesting you were easy," Sasuke told him tiredly. "If you were, I suspect you wouldn't still be a virgin after your night with Amaya."

"Good, just so you know. And I only kissed her for your information."

"I hope you washed your mouth out," Sasuke replied unthinkingly.

"I've had a lot stranger things in my mouth since then," Naruto reminded him. "I'm not tryna make it sound all special either though," Naruto added. "It's just different, with you."

"Is there a point to this?"

"Uh, not really I guess. I just wanted to explain."

"You really don't need to. Ever. We've been over this before."

"Yeah but, well, the thing is that I don't really know if different is enough. For... you know."

"No, I don't."

Naruto sort of clammed up after that. Sasuke spared him the occasional glance but Naruto was looking at the road ahead and didn't even seem inclined to return to telling his story either.

Sasuke had been lying though, he was pretty sure he knew exactly what Naruto had meant. He just hadn't wanted to get into a discussion about it right this moment in case he was wrong. But maybe Naruto's brain had taken Sasuke's veiled suggestion further and had perhaps come to the conclusion that he didn't want that with him. Which was understandable in many ways.

The main reason he probably hadn't done anything much with Amaya was because what he felt for her wasn't enough and it shouldn't surprise him to learn that just being friends with Sasuke wasn't enough either. It was completely understandable yet surprisingly very infuriating at the same time.

What the fuck had he been going through all this time with all that sharing/caring shit if he was going to be heaped in with someone like her. That idea really ticked him off.

"What's pissing you off this time?" Naruto asked apparently deciding to pay attention again.

"Nothing," Sasuke muttered.

"Really 'cause you look like... Hey, what's that over there?"

Sasuke went from pissed off to shocked when Naruto grabbed his hand and started jogging off the road. Naruto plunged them into the bush and kept up his pace till Sasuke got sick of being dragged along and pulled his hand free of the tight grip. Naruto didn't seem to care and kept going regardless leaving Sasuke in a fuming standstill in the dense forest alone.

"Sasuke, come on!" he heard Naruto yell from the distance.

The excitement in Naruto's yell made him eventually start walking toward the sound of his voice. After a few minutes he stepped out into a small area carpeted in what appeared to be blue clovers. The shock of seeing it made him stop dead and look around for a few moments.

"I saw this flash of color through the trees and saw a really small trail of them and look, there was no path and no footprints here. I don't think anyone else has been here in a while and it was really hard to see the little ones closer to the road that I followed to get here so I'd say it's pretty private."

Sasuke hadn't even seen the ones Naruto had been following to begin with.

"I've been keeping my eye out all day for somewhere interesting," Naruto told Sasuke's disbelieving

The trees around them were pretty dense, it had been hard to even get through them in the first place and it had taken a good few minutes for Naruto to run the distance to this place. Sasuke was frankly amazed. The clovers grew so thickly on the ground it was almost like a little lake of dark blue clovers.

"So, what do you think? Good birthday surprise or what?" Naruto asked with a grin.

"Not bad," Sasuke allowed carefully. It really was quite beautiful actually.

Naruto frowned at him. "You're really hard to please, ya know that?"

"This is fine," Sasuke relented dropping his bag.

Naruto walked back over to him and stopped directly in front of him, crossing his arms over his chest.

"All right, I give. You've gone from teasing to grumpy too quickly even for you. What did I do?"

"You're breathing, aren't you?"

"Well you're being an asshole but at least you're joking. I think. Look you've been weird since I mentioned the 'different' thing. You said you didn't understand what I meant so I don't get why you're pissed off. And even if you lied, I still don't get why you're really that pissed off."

"Then prepare to stay confused," Sasuke told him dismissively moving to walk past him.

He heard Naruto drop his bag just before his shoulder was grabbed. He twisted instinctively to escape the hold but Naruto had been prepared and tripped him up sending them both tumbling into the clover.

They rolled for a few moments but just as Sasuke had found before, once Naruto had a hold of you it was difficult to break loose. He ended up being pinned under Naruto's solid weight while the latter leaned down over him placing his face inches from Sasuke's.

"I'm not spending the night fighting with you," Naruto told him plainly.

"So what?" Sasuke spat back, "You're going to spend the night pinning me to the ground?"

"I'm pretty comfortable," Naruto challenged him. "How about you?"

"Get off, idiot!"

"No."

"You know this is a pretty shitty way to treat a friend," Sasuke told him viciously.

"I wouldn't treat any other friend like this. But you just need more of a push than others."

"Because I'm different?" Sasuke questioned sharply before realising what he'd said and letting his eyes drop closed.

Well, fuck.

Strangely Naruto grinned at him. "So you did know what I meant before."

"You're not much of an enigma. Most of the time."

"So if you know what I meant, why don't you tell me?"

Sasuke glared at him. "It's not like I care what your problem is."

"My problem?" Naruto asked, confusion twisting his smile a little. "You're the one with the problem. Just because I don't feel like being teased again..."

"What?"

"Teased," Naruto repeated obviously. "Look I said it's different with you and that's true. But we've gotta draw a line somewhere and that teasing thing you were doing before the bandits got us was too much okay? Fine if it's your birthday wish to annoy the shit out of me with that again but that's it, no more after that, okay?"

Sasuke was officially confused.

"So you weren't thinking of... nevermind."

"Thinking about what?"

"Nothing, it doesn't matter. I don't want anything else anyway."

"So you... did want to tease me again?"

"Maybe. I like that it makes you so frustrated. I would have tried it sooner if I'd known you hated it that much."

"You really are an asshole, ya know that? Wait, so what didn't you want anyway?"

"Nothing, I told you!"

"Ah, okay."

Slowly Naruto released his hold on Sasuke and sat down in the clovers next to him instead. Sasuke sat up as well and quick as a striking snake hit him upside the head.

"Ow, Sasuke!"

"You deserve it," Sasuke said simply.

Knowing what Naruto had been talking about now had a calming effect on him though and he didn't feel quite as angry as before.

"You must have thought I was talking about something else," Naruto realised after a moment.

Well since the option wasn't really on his mind anymore, Sasuke suddenly didn't feel so wary about it strangely.

"I thought you were talking about sex."

Naruto sort of snorted and choked at the same time and Sasuke spent a few amusing moments watching a red-faced Naruto try to suck in a breath of air. Maybe there really was something to this sharing thing. It would have made his morning a little less worrisome and given him a moment of fun at the same time if he'd mentioned it earlier.

"Gods, Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed when he could breathe again. "I mean okay, we've done a lot of stuff together but that's like a whole other level, right?"

"I don't really see how. And now that I think about it, I don't see why I would have been worried what you were thinking about it either. I don't share this weird ideal you have about it being some big magical moment. It seems... impractical."

"C'mon Sasuke not even you're that cold. Don't you want to have special moments in your life with someone you really care about?"

"No. There are no perfect moments, just moments. If you don't want to live in those moments because you're wasting them waiting for some unattainable perfect one you'll miss out on making the most out of the rest."

"Wow Sasuke, that was almost positive sounding. For you anyway. I'd still rather have a better reason than 'why the hell not?' though."

"Which is why it is no longer bothering me. It's not an issue. You're right, after tomorrow we should tone it down. It is becoming frustrating again and that is making it confusing for both of us."

"After tomorrow?"

"Yes. You keep reminding me that it's my birthday. I don't expect to be denied anything."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I won't know until it happens but I doubt it's going to please you much."

"You jerk, you are going to tease me again! I knew it!"

"You should hope that's all I'm going to do."

TBC