Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!

Summary: Sasuke has spent three years trying to figure out how to live on his own. Maybe it's time to try something different. WIP. Future SNS, updates once a month. Canonverse. Rating may change!

Two is a Crowd

Chapter 14: if not a part of you (day seven)

Naruto was slow, the next day. Sasuke didn't know if he was the cause. He was being stared at and watched and lingered all over, and when the time came for them to stand, they didn't. Naruto didn't. Sasuke rested his mouth against the palm of his hand, and didn't either.

"Wanna take a break?" Naruto offered, and it pulled Sasuke's tired eyes up. "I could use one."

He expected Naruto to be lying.

He was a bit surprised to find he...wasn't. Maybe he shouldn't have been. He smiled into his palm, and Naruto seemed to notice.

He looked away. Sasuke didn't. There'd been a distance between them, since they'd come here. A strange…barrier. Sasuke blamed the water. Sasuke blamed the falls.

Sasuke found it strange that he looked at Naruto, and didn't know what he saw. Fundamentally. Easily. He thought he ought to. He thought he ought to know Naruto better than this.

"Do you?" he tested. "Did you require a break the last time you trained here?"

Naruto huffed out a breath and glared at him, like he was being an asshole. Sasuke leaned back, and knew he was.

"Did you leave yourself unfinished, then?" Sasuke asked. "Or is this time around something different?"

"It's different!" Naruto told him, and he was already sulking. "It's different. You—d'you wanna go meditate or something? You wanna go into the falls?"

"Absolutely not."

"Well—!" Naruto threw his hands up and stood and spun around, like he had somewhere to go, and Sasuke was the one stopping him. Sasuke was the one making him pause. At the very least, he stopped—with the sun shining behind his head, like a bright yellow glow. A circle. A hug and a halo.

The earth was laughing at him, he thought. The sun had come to mock him directly. He already had the water. Now the sky had joined in. Naruto turned around and blinked and scanned himself for something worth staring at. He didn't find it.

"What're you looking at?" he challenged, and it was an out. It was a fall into them. Their usual dynamic. Their familiar lines. It asked Sasuke to fight. It asked Sasuke to hide.

Sasuke stared at him, and just…didn't reply.

…

The smile slid off Naruto's face.

"What's yours about, anyway?" he asked, because if Sasuke wasn't going to show a kindness, he supposed it wasn't fair for Naruto to show one either. Unfortunately for him, Sasuke was even more well-versed in dodging questions than he was.

"Do you not know?" he asked, and Naruto's mouth thinned a little. He looked away, somewhere in the trees, and then back again. It could have been the ninja, Sasuke supposed. He wondered if the presence of all those monitoring them bothered Naruto at all.

He couldn't imagine it did. He'd had no shame shouting their secrets out to the world before.

"Guess I can guess," Naruto muttered, and Sasuke frowned. He pressed his palm to the log that could easily fit someone other than him, and Naruto walked off somewhere like there was something to do. Deal with drying clothes, Sasuke supposed. He ought to do the same. Maybe they could get ahead of…something.

He came to stand beside Naruto, reaching up to the branch that actually manages to catch some sun for some reasonable time. Naruto flinched as he did, and Sasuke stopped everything he was doing.

"Sorry," Naruto said quickly. "It's—the falls are—I don't know. I feel…stupid."

He sighed, and then looked over at him. He was waiting for the joke. He was trying their out again.

Sasuke didn't allow that escape.

"It's just messing with my head," Naruto finally settled on, with a step back. With two. He was moving away from Sasuke again. He kept moving away. Did he love him or didn't he? Sasuke breathed in—

Naruto turned around, and it was Sasuke's turn to panic. He snapped his hand back to himself. He didn't know when he'd reached it out. He hadn't meant to think that. He hadn't meant to hope that. Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it—

"I—" Naruto offered, but Sasuke had already left. He was going back to sit down. He was going back to sleep. His head was full of doubts and questions and offerings. Insidious little offerings, who held their hands out and told him to take them. Take the thought. Follow its path. Naruto hadn't just been angry, that first day. He'd been unsettled. He'd been something close to scared—what would make Naruto scared? What was even capable anymore? Naruto ran straight for his fears, not from them. He'd done the same with Sasuke. He always had. What was powerful enough to make Naruto not even want to touch it? What scared him that much?

He looked up, and Naruto's eyes had been on him. They lied as soon as he caught them. They were gone the moment he looked up. But Sasuke knew Naruto, and he knew Naruto's eyes.

Even as he stared, they kept up their lie.

Another thought stood in Sasuke's head, and held out its hands.

A/N: Okay, now that's it. For now, anyway. I hope you liked this little burst of unconventional chapters! Have a very happy new year, friends. Wishing you every kindness and happiness you can possibly hold.

See you next year,

- Kinomi