Archive of Our Own ^beta

i.

6 years old.

October.

The first time Sasuke sees Naruto, they are six years old.

It’s October and the air that surrounds his home and crawls under the cracks in the windows is cold (not as cold as in winter, but enough so that Sasuke has to wear socks when he’s getting out of his house). The leaves of the trees are color amber and dance in toasted, golden copper spirals that fall on the freshly cut lawn of his yard.

Itachi is reading a thick-capped book, leaning against the tree that leans against the back fence of his house, and Sasuke runs and jumps on the brown piles of leaves that are stacked around his brother’s feet.

Cop, cop, cop. The soles of his shoes tread again and again. Tac, tac, tac. Jump, jump, jump. Puuuf. The leaves rise like flecks of dust and are silhouetted against the clear afternoon sky every time Sasuke’s little feet covered in striped socks fall on the heaps. They rise and dance and make noises while the wind carries them away.

“Nii-san, look, I can jump higher than before, look, look.” Sasuke runs and jumps and the tips of his fingers carefully touch the almost naked branch that slopes down on the tree. When his feet touch the ground, he smiles proudly and looks at his brother. “Did you see that? The other time we were competing I couldn’t touch it, but now I can,” he says, bouncing enthusiastically on the tip of his heels.

His older brother looks at him over the worn pages of his book and smiles softly at him, his eyes brimming with affection, and the pride and satisfaction and exhilaration within Sasuke grows and spins and fills him from the tip of his feet to his neck, “Well done, Sasuke,” he says.

“Do you think I can reach your record, nii-san?”

Itachi laughs, low, soft and genuine in his throat, and his smile grows. “Of course, Sasuke. Just practice a little more.”

Sasuke nods. Practice. Of course. He will practice more and he will make his brother proud. He will practice until he can go beyond his brother’s record. He will practice until he can touch the tip of the tree.

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It’s close to four in the afternoon when the truck arrives. The sun’s rays rest on the street and the sky is a mixture of orange, blue, white and gold. Itachi has already gone into the house to finish his homework and Sasuke is still jumping on piles of leaves and running around the fence at the moment when the huge truck stops at the side of his house. It is gigantic, so large that it covers the entire extension of the other house and half of his own. The words Red Chair Moves are printed with red letters on the white surface of one side of the truck.

Sasuke frowns when he sees it. He walks and leans over the fence to look more closely. There is a woman with long, red hair, intense as the fire that falls in waves below her delicate waist, and a tall blond man besides her trying to load several boxes into his hands. The woman seems to be saying something to someone, looking down and talking with eccentric, exaggerated gestures; she doesn’t seem annoyed, but she is too energetic, neither his father nor mother would say anything to him or his brother that way, even if it was a scolding. Sasuke moves, but he still cannot tell who she’s talking to. Maybe if he moved a little… to the left…

“What are you doing, Sasuke?” His mother’s voice comes floating behind him. The footsteps of his shoes on the messy path of leaves crunching under his feet. There is a pause while Sasuke tries to lean a little more. “Oh, so they’re here,” his mother mutters, stopping right behind him. “I must tell your father, darling, but dinner will be ready soon. Get in the house in a few minutes, okay?”

Sasuke nods, looking at her, although he’s a bit confused. “So they’ve arrived”?Why does his mother say it as if she knew them? Sasuke is very sure that he wouldn’t forget a hair like that.

Anyway, Sasuke turns his head back to pay attention to the scene and, when he does it, there is a child standing right in the middle of the path to the porch of the house next to his own. He is small, probably a little shorter than Sasuke, blond as the tall man who loads and moves boxes from the truck, and is looking directly at him. His eyes are blue as the sky, Sasuke can distinguish them from where he is. But before he can pay much more attention, his mother calls him from within the house.

“Sasuke, dinner!”

“Coming!” he says, but when he turns back to look again, the child is no longer there.

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The next time Sasuke sees the boy, it’s two days later. Sasuke has gone out into the yard to play the day after their first meeting, and has leaned curiously over the fence to look at the other house, but all that were there were boxes scattered around the garden. Even the truck was gone. Instead of it, it was a small, red car laying on the sidewalk. Next to it was a small orange-colored bicycle too.

But then, it turns out that the Blond Man is someone important.

“A subordinate of the forces from California. Excellent history. And same with his wife,” says his father just after announcing the important dinner he organized. “He is someone impeccable. We need more men like him in the force. I want you to be nice, guys.”

Sasuke doesn’t understand much, but he doesn’t complain while he is putting on his elegant-shoes. Itachi leans a little to his side.

“Of course, father,” he answers, and Sasuke nods at the same time.

Hours later, Sasuke is standing next to his brother in front of the door. His mother is wearing a pretty, elegant and long, black dress that stands out against her white porcelain skin; heels decorate her feet. His father is very well dressed too.

When they ring the bell a second time, his father opens the door. His mother smiles kindly and Sasuke looks curiously at the people standing in the doorway.

They are the same ones from the other time. A tall man, blond, with bright blue eyes (kind, quiet, like those of his mother, Sasuke thinks) and tan skin. The woman with long, red hair, red as fire and too intense, and violet eyes; her expression is mischievous and her gestures are energetic, and when she speaks she is too loud; the opposite of her husband, who is much calmer (his serene expression, pleasant and soft smiles). The child is also there, bouncing on his heels right in the middle of his parents. At this distance, Sasuke can observe him better and pay attention to the details. He looks more like his father than his mother. He has blue eyes, big and bright, similar to the waves of the sea that Sasuke has just seen in the last vacation he had; his skin is the color of sand that burned hot under his feet on the beach and his hair reminds him of the rays of the sun that appeared warm in the clear and clear sky (golden, flashing, too bright to seep into his skin).

They all stand out in some way, Sasuke thinks when he sees them. They are toobright, glowing, radiant and cheerful colors. Like tornadoes and storms and loud laughter.

His father presents them both and shakes hands with the man. Minato Namikaze, he says. My wife, Kushina Uzumaki and my son, Naruto.

Naruto.

For a moment, their eyes meet again.

And Sasuke is not good with people, much less with children around his age. It’s hard to deal with someone when you don’t really want to. So no, he’s not good with people, and it’s not that he cares that much, because he has a cat andItachi, and he doesn’t need anything else, but for a moment, Naruto’s eyes are so impressive and they have something that makes Sasuke think that he will actually like him, that makes him think this time could be different.

That they could be friends.

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Minutes later, when everyone is sitting at the table, Naruto starts talking.

And minutes after that, Sasuke realizes that no, he was wrong, he’s not going to like him.

He learns three basic things about Naruto (which are easy to detect when sitting in the same room as him for more than five seconds): first, he’s noisy. Too loud. He speak too loud. He screams and laughs too loudly. Second, he talks a lot. In three minutes he has said more than what Sasuke says in three days. Third, he’s annoying. He is annoying because he is loud and talks a lot and is taking all the rice balls on his plate without leaving any to Sasuke.

Sasuke is not stupid. Sasuke always learns fast, and those are the basic things you can know five minutes after meeting Naruto.

His name is Naruto, he says when he sits in the chair that is too big for him, and even if his father introduced him already. Naruto like the fish cake they serve with the weird noodles, or ramen, as he says. Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto Uzumaki, who will become a policeman (the best policeman) even better than his father and his mother. He shouts it, literally yells it, and Sasuke frowns, because, yes, Naruto talks too loud, but on top of that he’s completely wrong. Naruto will not be the best cop of all because Sasuke will be, Sasuke will be The Leader like his dad, Sasuke will make an effort and surpass everyone, including Itachi, his brother, (who will surely follow the same steps), and impress his father. Then his dad will have to praise him just like he does with Itachi all the time.

“That’s my son” he will say, with warm eyes and a proud smile, one of those that he gives to his brother. “Such a prodigy. Impeccable, excellent.” Sasuke will show it to him. Sasuke will make him proud. Sasuke will be the best. A loud blond boy will not take that away from him.

“Wow, it looks like you’ll have some competition then, right, Sasuke?” his father says, looking directly at him.

Sasuke blinks, and is about to answer when Naruto speaks again.

“Do you want to be a cop?” He asks, his blue round eyes staring at Sasuke. He seems surprised.

Sasuke frowns. “I will be the leader, just like dad.”

Naruto blinks, his eyelashes fluttering against his eyelids. “Wow, is your father the boss of my father?”

Sasuke nods.

“That’s so cool! Because then, you can be my rival!”

“Your rival?”

Sasuke can hear his mother laughing softly at his side, and when he turns to see Itachi, his brother is smiling.

“We will be rivals!” the boy repeats.

“Okay,” he agrees, unwillingly, “but I’m going to win.”

“Sasuke, be nice,” says his mother, but Naruto doesn’t seem offended. On the contrary, his smile only grows. It doesn’t hurt?

“We’ll see it!” He shouts, pumping a fist in the air.

Noisy.

Naruto doesn’t shut up during the whole dinner. (He also takes the last ball of rice).

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Sasuke doesn’t understand why his whole family is enchanted with Naruto. He is not that interesting. He is just noisy and annoying and childish and eats a lot. Sasuke can do that too. Sasuke is even better behaved than him. But now he seems to be taking all his brother’s attention these days, and his mother also prepares rice balls and puts them in a special orange dish just for him. His father doesn’t get angry even if he walks barefoot around the room, and that’s saying a lot.

It is annoying.

Naruto has been going home for a week and receives more attention than Sasuke. And why does he keep coming? And why is he still smiling all the time? And why does he keep calling him a rival with a high, shrill voice all the time? Why does he touch his cat? Why does he talk to Sasuke and watch TV with him and color in his books as if they were friends? Who told him they were friends? They are only neighbors. And his family doesn’t even have cats.

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“I don’t need friends, Itachi, you are my friend.” Sasuke says days later, when his brother comes into his room just after Naruto goes to his home again. Because he keeps going even if Sasuke does not understand why. “He looked sad, Sasuke,” his brother says just as he enters. “You didn’t play with him?”

“Why would I have to play with him? He is not my friend.”

"Well, he could be. You need friends.”

Sasuke folds his lips in a pout, because that’s not true, Sasuke does not need friends, Sasuke has Itachi and Itachi is more than enough. Sasuke doesn’t need annoying blond children like friends when he already has Itachi. Even if Itachi is busy with annoying blond children.

His older brother smiles at him, eyes watching him softly as he drops his head to the side. “That’s very cute, Sasuke, but I will not always be here with you. Also, you have a brother, but Naruto doesn’t, and children don’t seem to act very nice to him, why don’t you try to? Naruto is a good boy, he would be a good friend, I'm sure.”

Sasuke frowns. Well, it’s true that the other kids in the neighborhood don’t like Naruto. Probably because he talks a lot, Sasuke hadn’t thought about it that much. But they don’t like him very much either, they only talk to him from time to time because of how important his parents are.

“Naruto doesn’t like me.” He replies, after a while, because maybe it’s even true, how can he be sure that Naruto actually likes him?

Itachi laughs. “Of course he likes you, he smiles at you all the time.”

“But he smiles to everyone all the time, I'm not special. Also, the other time he took my blue color without asking, he would not do that if he liked me.”

Itachi laughs again. “Just try, okay?”

“Hn.”

“All right. That’s enough. Trying's enough.”

“Hn.”

Itachi laughs again. Sasuke wishes he were like that all the time, but lately his brother does not have much time for him.

Maybe he’ll try. To be nice. If Itachi tells him something, he’s usually right…

But only one attempt. Because Itachi asked for it.

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When Naruto goes at the same school as him days later, Sasuke lets him sit next to him in the classroom and at the same table at lunch.

“Wow, Sasuke, there are a lot of girls looking at you,” Naruto says one day, as he eats his sandwich.

“Mm-hm.”

Sasuke doesn’t pay much attention to what he says, because most of the things he says are just nonsense, but he lets him talk. And Naruto talks a lot. He talks about insignificant things and gets excited about very small things too. It’s almost funny. And Sasuke doesn’t talk so much, but he does answer to his rants, sometimes.

Sasuke lets Naruto follow him everywhere and he keeps coming back to Sasuke's home again and again without even asking.

And maybe it’s because Sasuke felt a bit lonely after his brother did not have much time for him, or maybe because, after weeks, Naruto’s company is so usual and common that it seems normal, but Sasuke stops complaining one day.

Things change a little from there.

ii.

8 years old.

December.

Naruto is sitting in front of his TV, on the floor, surrounded by a thick orange blanket that his mother keeps in Sasuke’s closet for the times he stays to sleep (because yes, there are many times that he stays to sleep. Sometimes his two parents have stay late at work, so Naruto stays and makes movie marathons with him before going to sleep. It’s more fun than he wants to admit, and Naruto lets him choose the movie they’re going to start almost always, so he doesn’t complain so much) when Sasuke goes into his room. His parents are downstairs in the dining room talking and Itachi is helping his and Naruto’s mothers with the food.

“Mom let me have some cookies,” he says, leaving the plate on the floor and sitting next to him.

“Great!” Naruto doesn’t take his eyes off the screen as he gropes for the plate. Sasuke takes a cookie and places it in his hands because, seriously, that could last for hours. “Thank you, teme.” He smiles, putting the cookie in his mouth.

Sasuke takes a cookie too and looks at the screen. The truth is that is a bit cold there. Sasuke’s socks are not working, because his feet feel cold. Maybe he should…

“I bet I would be awesome in Quidditch.”

Sasuke turns to look at him.

“Hm?”

Naruto points to the screen, with another cookie in his hand. “Quidditch. I bet I would be awesome at it.”

Sasuke snorts. “You like Harry Potter?”

Naruto blinks. “Don’t you?” Sasuke remains silent for a moment, and it’s enough time for Naruto to smile. “I knew you like it, you have a snitch on your bookcase. That’s why I pick this movie.”

Sasuke takes his knees and hugs them to his chest. He grimaces. “Are you always so nosy?”

“Well,” Naruto says, shrugging his shoulders inside the huge blanket bubble. He smiles, “you’re my only friend, I have to know what you like, right?”

Sasuke places his chin against his knees. “I guess.”

You are my only friend.

Sasuke doesn’t know why that phrase causes something warm to pull in his stomach.

“Hey, teme.”

Sasuke turns to look at him. Naruto’s big eyes glow with the brightness of the television screen. He stretches an arm and opens a hole in the tangle of warm blanket around him. “You are trembling.”

Sasuke wrinkles his eyebrows. He should not…

“Come on, teme, it’s getting cold in there too.”

Sasuke says to himself that he does it because it is cold and because at his height he cannot reach the cover that is on his highest shelf, not because he wants to be closer to Naruto. Why would he want that anyway? And why does he feel like he’s lying to himself? It doesn’t make sense.

Sasuke crawls across the carpet and gets inside the blanket with him. Almost instantly, the cold disappears. Well, it was a good idea then.

In the end, they keep eating cookies and watching Harry Potter and then Home Alone (Naruto cries with that movie all the time. “He lost his whole family, teme!”, “He didn’t lose it, dobe, they just left without him.”, “That’s even sadder!”) Until they are called for dinner.

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Sometimes, it’s fun to hear Naruto talk. He is sitting in his living room as a little caterpillar surrounded by his blanket, just next to Sasuke, as he explains the huge plan to Capture Santa Claus number 3, because yes, Sasuke, Naruto Uzumaki can do it, and you will be my assistant.

Assistant? Sasuke is not anyone’s assistant.

But of course Sasuke doesn’t say it out loud, he just thinks it, and Naruto keeps talking and talking and he says how this can work and this can too and that they will need ropes and a bag and oh, but we have to give him ramen later, Sasuke, I don’t want him to take our gifts for thinking that we are bad kids.

Sasuke smiles a little and pays attention to the gestures, to his enthusiastic way of speaking. He thinks about how he has become so used to him. Thinks about why he doesn’t bother him so much anymore.

Seeing with the corner of his eye, he could see Itachi is sitting reading something, but by the smile on his face, it is obvious that he can hear Naruto too.

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In the end, Naruto’s parents spend the night at the house, so he and Naruto can stay to “camp” in the room, as Naruto calls it.

They sit next to each other in the same couch while watching Disney cartoons on TV and listen to the characters talk about the Christmas spirit, while Kushina and Minato are comfortably reclining against the other corner of the sofa.

Itachi continues reading his book, sitting on the same couch as his mother. And even his father is quietly sitting at the table reading a newspaper.

There is peace. And to be honest, Christmas has been better since Naruto and his parents are there. Minato is amazing doing imitations and gives Sasuke the best gifts and chooses the best movies. Kushina cooks the best desserts, even better than her mother’s (but it’s not like he’s going to say it) and she’s always smiling and laughing and telling good jokes at dinner time.

And Naruto… well, Naruto is good company. Sasuke doesn’t mind having him around. He likes to hear him speak. And he pays a lot of attention to Sasuke, which is great.

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Naruto doesn’t stay awake after nine o'clock at night. And Sasuke laughs, because he already expected it, because it has always been like this in the past Christmas.

They never discover Santa Claus, by the way, because Sasuke doesn’t stay long after, but being with Naruto there is more than enough for him.

iii.

10 years old.

May.

It is late in the day and the sky outside has begun to paint orange and gold colors behind the clouds when Sasuke hears the knock on his window. He turns on his bed the moment Naruto is swinging on the frame to get inside the room. The sun behind him is setting and it flashes his blond hair (like lights, like headlights) and his eyes are the sky and the sea and Sasuke may stare a little longer than is actually normal, but he doesn’t think about it for a long time after because then Naruto get in and falls on the ground clumsily. He stands in a second later, one hand scratching behind the back of his head and smiling sheepishly at him.

Sasuke raises an eyebrow and lies back on his bed. He doesn’t bother answering anything more than a “usuratonkachi” under his teeth as he retakes his reading in his Biology book.

Naruto grimaces with pursed lips and frown, and Sasuke knows what he’s going to say even if he’s not looking at him. He’s been too long around him to not know.

“Don’t pout, dobe,” he says, and almost instantly Naruto answers, his eyes narrowed and his fists clenched at his sides:

“Don’t call me that, you… bastard! And I don’t pout, I definitely don’t pout!” He hisses, lips tight.

Sasuke drops a soft “hn” while hiding his small smile from Naruto’s eyesight with the cover of the book. Naruto is an idiot. And for some reason, annoying him amuses Sasuke into the depths of his being. Maybe is his face or his goofy insults or the exaggerated gestures he makes or just his reactions, but there is something there that ends with Sasuke smiling involuntarily.

Naruto snorts, but he drops the subject. He never knows how to answer when Sasuke starts with his “hn-ing” (as he has personally named it), because if he responds with something Sasuke will only continue saying the same thing until Naruto runs out.

“Bastard,” he repeats, when he reaches to see the small smile that Sasuke tries (and fails) to hide with his book. He turns and falls on the bed, right next to Sasuke. His body bounces and the movement makes Sasuke jump to his side as well. His book slides between his fingers and falls from the bed and Sasuke throws daggers with his eyes while Naruto starts giggling.

“Don’t be bitter, teme. What are you supposed to be doing?”

Sasuke doesn’t answer as he moves and stretches to pick up the book, and Naruto frowns again.

“Temeee, answer,” he complains, in a childish voice, his finger pricking behind Sasuke’s back.

His dark-haired friend slaps him when he returns to his place, but Naruto doesn’t stop.

“I’m studying, idiot, because in case your little brain has forgotten it, I have good grades in school and we will have a test.”

Naruto looks up at him. The hair on his forehead falling on the pillow. His eyes look confused and he looks at his fingers as if he were counting something. Sasuke does not pay attention and tries to re-read until Naruto says “but Sasuke, teme, the test is on Monday.”

Sasuke raises an eyebrow. “So?”

“It’s Friday!”

Sasuke looks at him for a second. Naruto’s eyes are too blue. “So?” He repeats, because he doesn’t know what he means by that.

Naruto raises his arms to the ceiling in an attempt to emphasize what he is going to say. “It’s Friday! You don’t study for Monday tests until Sunday!”

Sasuke rolls his eyes before focusing on his reading again. “Who said that?”

“It’s a universal rule, teme!”

“I’m surprised you know the meaning of such a big word.”

Naruto is silent for two full seconds (Sasuke counts them in his head) before… “Bastard!” Naruto grunts, roars as if it were a war declaration. And it is the signal before the chaos begins.

Naruto’s arms fire at him to snatch the book from him, and he succeeds because one of his knees falls into Sasuke’s stomach as he rises and takes his air away the enough time to lose his grip on the book.

Naruto smiles victorious (with those big smiles that span half of his face, holy God) with the book in his hand and laughs at Sasuke’s face, who is growling under his knee and looks as if someone have just released a brick over him.

“Give me that back, you moron. I have to study.”

“Don’t be boring, bastard, your best friend has come to see you, pay attention to him.”

Sasuke smirks. “I know how much you need me, idiot, but if you’re going to be here you’re going to study with me or let me study. You could pick the first one, it wouldn’t hurt you that much.”

“You smug bastard! I’m not stupid, you know? I don’t need to study now.” There’s a way he doesn’t contradict Sasuke’s first sentence that leaves his stomach swollen and scrambled for a second. It feels like a knot. A tight, uncomfortable knot that get all the way stuck in his belly. And then Naruto continues with, “and you’re the cleverest of all in our class, teme, you don’t need it either. Come on, don’t be boring and do something with me,” and it doesn’t matter if he’s somehow insulting him, or if he’s saying Sasuke’s boring so rough, like he’s angry, because he have complimented him, and Naruto always does that, Naruto always finds the way to flatter and fluster him and sound pissed off at the same time. And for some strange reason, that makes the knot in Sasuke’s stomach just tightens more.

But then he deduces that it is Naruto’s knee what is bothering him, because the dumbass moves and sits on his stomach, arms folded and the book closed to his chest, and that’s definitely irritating him.

“Usuratonkachi. Get off of me now,” he orders, frowning, but Naruto doesn’t move.

“Come on, I’m bored.” He complains.

“That’s not my problem, give me that.” He snorts and stretches to get the book. Unfortunately, even though Sasuke is faster, Naruto is stronger, and by the time Sasuke has it between his fingers, Naruto turns and throws it back.

The book crashes against the wall and falls to the ground with a thud.

And Sasuke should not feel irritated, but the way Naruto is smiling at him, triumphant and mocking, awakens something intense and alive and wild inside him. He can feels the adrenaline rush into his veins, hot and latent, too.

Naruto’s lips open, but before he can say anything, Sasuke stands on his elbows and pushes the side of his body hard against Naruto’s chest. Naruto doesn’t expect it, so it’s easy to reverse their positions.

Sasuke smirks at Naruto’s surprised eyes below him. “You have to be more prepared, dobe.” He mocks.

He gets up on his knees and turns his back on him to pick up his book from the ground, and thinks it’s okay, he has won, but of course he forgot Naruto is the most stubborn boy possible, and of course he forgot Naruto hates to lose, especially lose against him, so the moment his bare feet touch the ground, Naruto is sitting on the bed and his hands are grabbing his shirt and pulling him back to the bed, and Sasuke cannot say anything until his back hit hard against the mattress. Naruto laughs, because Sasuke’s hairstyle is a mess, and Sasuke growls, because well, then, if he wants then… this is war.

The next thing he knows is that he is throwing himself forward and Naruto continues to laugh, but he defends himself, and it is a tangle of legs and arms and hands, and there are screams and laughter and grunts and Naruto’s hands are everywhere.

They roll and spin and make so much noise that it surprises him that his mother has not come to investigate or that his brother has comes to see what’s going on.

By the time they’re done, they’re both exhausted. Sasuke is gasping for air and it bothers him how Naruto doesn’t even seem so affected. He is not panting, he is smiling (like a madman), even though his hair is a golden mess that falls on his forehead and shoots in all directions, even though Sasuke must have kicked him like a thousand times and despite his favorite orange shirt is a mess. And when Sasuke looks up, his eyes are looking at him, blue and bright and intense, the way they do after every fight, the way they look at him when he has just made a prank or has a bad idea. The typical brightness that promises trouble and problems. The kind of look that says you’re fuck up, because I have an amazing idea right now. Sasuke doesn’t know why it attracts him so much, but somehow it does.

A second later, Naruto tilts his face and laughs, the corners of his eyes closing.

“You should see your hair.” He laughs, and Sasuke wrinkles his nose, irritated.

“Yours is not much better, idiot, now get off me.”

Why is it that when they fight that way Naruto always had to end up on top of him? Before it was the other way around. It was definitely better that way. (Even if Naruto’s happiness flashes more than before, even if the pride of winning over him somehow illuminates his face, even if Sasuke finds it… pleasing to the eye in some way).

“That was fun.”

“You and I have very different definitions for that word; now get off.”

Naruto smiles wider as he sits on Sasuke’s stomach astride and his hands sticks to the side of Sasuke’s face, both in the bed. “Not until you admit it was fun.”

Eyes that promise trouble.

Sasuke’s dark eyes narrow with a look of death, and he wonders how they didn’t affect Naruto at all when other people seemed to piss themselves when he addressed it to them. Stupid Naruto. Being so close to Sasuke all the time has made him immune in some way to it.

“And”, Naruto adds, because he’s an ass when he wants, his smile tingling with an arrogance that is more characteristic of Sasuke than himself, “Until you say I won and I’m better than you.”

“Of course you’re better than me, usuratonkachi—” he says, and Naruto’s eyes widen and his throat makes a surprised squeak as his legs and hands seem to lose some of their strength, and Sasuke smiles as he puts a hand on Naruto’s chest, “—in being an idiot.” He finishes and pushes his hand to move him off.

Unfortunately, the move causes Naruto to lose his balance and fall forward, his hands sliding on the surface of the bed behind Sasuke.

It’s fast, everything happens in a fraction of a second.

And for a moment, all Sasuke can see is Naruto’s eyes. Naruto’s eyes, big and blue as the sky, bright and childish, looking directly at him.

For a moment, Sasuke doesn’t understand what is happening. His back hits the mattress again and Naruto’s warm body falls on top of him, because Sasuke’s hand is still clinging to the fabric of his t-shirt. He focuses on Naruto’s eyes, which are right in front of him, with long, blond lashes flapping over his eyelids.

But then he feels it, the gentle pressure against his lips, Naruto’s cracked lips pressing against his.

Naruto is…

They are…

They're…

Kissing.

He is not really sure it can be call like that, because it is clumsy and without technique and none of them are moving. For a moment he doubts that Naruto is even breathing, he seems too surprised. His golden hair falls and tickles Sasuke’s forehead. He smells of ramen and the flower detergent his mother uses on his clothes and the coconut shampoo Itachi gave him the past week. He radiates heat from the pores of his skin and burns Sasuke’s skin wherever they make contact.

His senses feel all unstable and stormy and overload for a second and Naruto is way too overwhelming. He doesn’t seem to have the ability to move either. Sasuke can almost see the gears of his brain making a short circuit.

Somehow, Sasuke manages to move his hand to push Naruto enough. His fingers tremble a bit, and it’s embarrassing, because his lips make a clicking noise when they separate and Naruto’s eyes are looking at him as if Sasuke was a kind of strange dream. He seems inside a trance.

Sasuke feels the heat bubble and expand over his cheeks and his ears and the skin of his neck. Everything in him burns as if his blood was lava boiling and he thinks he will burn up.

The warmth coming off Naruto's body is too much, Naruto needs to move.

Sasuke squeezes his fingers on Naruto’s T-shirt and murmurs “move, idiot”, and that’s enough to wake Naruto up. He blinks through the mist and Sasuke starts to wonder if it’s a good idea, because Naruto looks up at him and realizes the color of his cheeks and everything is awfully clumsy and uncomfortable and Sasuke wants to sink into his sheets until he disappears.

Naruto pushes his hands awkwardly and staggers back to the other side of the bed. He looks nervous and insecure and scratches the back of his neck as he tries not to look into Sasuke’s eyes.

“Uh…” He starts, and Sasuke watches as Naruto’s tanned skin dye a deep red on his cheeks. “I… it’s… ah… I don’t…” He stumbles and stutters, and it’s strange, because Naruto always talks too much and all the time, Naruto doesn’t shut up, Naruto never stutters, much less when he’s giving one of his countless annoying speeches. “I’m sorry,” he finishes, and it’s ridiculous the tension and nervousness that practically send electricity vibrating through them.

Sasuke wished he had something to cut it in half. Sasuke doesn’t want to feel uncomfortable and wants the knot in his stomach to disappear now.

So he shrugs awkwardly and inflates with pride as he manages to stumble with a “you are so clumsy, usuratonkachi.”

He gets up and hopes his bangs hide enough of the blush on his face. His legs feel somewhat unsteady, but he walks across the floor with bare feet and reaches his book across the room.

He can feel Naruto’s eyes riveted on him all the way back to his bed. He sits down and takes the pillow and throws it at him. It hits full on his blond friend’s face and then falls into his lap. It works to get his attention. Even if it is hard to him, he has to look at Naruto, he has to do it if he wants everything to be less weird.

Naruto still has red spots on his cheeks, but his eyes look confused when they run into his. Sasuke prays to heaven that his cheeks don’t get worse, Naruto’s eyes make him too nervous.

“I’m going to study,” he says. “The next time you make noise I’ll hit you. And believe me, it’s going to hurt.”

Naruto blinks at him, as if he doesn’t know how to respond, but a second later his smile is there on his face again and he is laughing and calling him a “bastard” again as if nothing had happened before and it is as if the tension is vanished in volutes of vapor that the wind carries away.

Sasuke smiles internally because Thanks God.

By the time his mom calls them to dinner, Sasuke has read at least two lessons and Naruto has taken a nap. Both fight to see who arrives first at the table (Sasuke) and about who is going to wash the dishes (both of them) and who has the last onigiri (Naruto), and then… then everything seems normal again.

.

.

.

They are 10 years old and Naruto is annoying and irritating and calls Sasuke boring and doesn’t let him study on Fridays because it is a universal rule for students. They are 10 years old and Naruto climbs up to his window and enters through it almost every afternoon as if Sasuke’s house were his house, as if Sasuke’s room were his room. They are 10 years old and Naruto has long, blonde eyelashes and the bluest and purest eyes that Sasuke has ever seen before. They are 10 years old and Naruto smiles and talks too much.

They are 10 years old and Naruto is his first kiss. They are 10 years old and Sasuke knows the taste of Naruto’s lips (miso, stupid miso) and the way the iris of his eyes is darker on the edge if you are too close to be able to see it.

They are 10 years old and Sasuke is Naruto’s first kiss. How is that possible?

iv.

11 years old.

December,

They are 11 years old and Naruto is still annoying and even irritating, but he is also his friend. His only friend. Naruto does nonsense that is actually fun, even if Sasuke would not admit it aloud in his whole life. Naruto is also determined and stubborn and has completely no shame. He stands on benches and at school tables and shouts out loud how much Sasuke deserved that first place at the science fair. He shouts about how unfair it is that Lee was not able to join the martial arts club at school despite being the coolest, only because it is led by a hollow-headed teacher who prefers to have rich presumptuous members on the team than the ones who are truly talented ninjas (because, yes, Naruto thinks that Lee is a ninja). He is not worried about getting detention two days after that. He does not mind standing in the middle of the gym and shouting his name to everyone and the fact that no matter how much they make fun of him, he will become the best policeman the city has seen, that the whole world has seen, and he will be even better than his father and even better than his mother. He does not mind wearing that stupid orange sweatshirt that is old and horrible in the middle of summer just because her mother gave it to him on his birthday. He does not mind screaming in the middle of the class and challenging Neji, the genius of the Hyuuga family, to a fight in the hall just so he can kick his ass and show him that he is not a failure as he says.

They are eleven years old and Naruto is stubborn and wild and stupid. God, Naruto does not think, he just acts, and he’s so upset because Sasuke has to stay after class to accompany him to his detentions just so he does not go home alone, it’s annoying because he has to endure the shame of everyone else turning to see them in the hallway because Naruto is noisy as hell, it’s annoying because Sasuke has to listen to Naruto’s long speeches about ramen and miso and how amazing Ichiraku is, it’s annoying because Naruto gets excited about everything and talks all the time and Sasuke is stuck with him since his brother made him be kind to him.

It’s annoying because a part of Sasuke, the part that is hidden inside him, does not really care at all and actually enjoys Naruto’s company. It terrifies him to know that part of him admires Naruto for his way of being and even envies his stubbornness and his strength and his raw and savage honesty.

It’s annoying because Sasuke considers him his friend, because Sasuke considers him his only friend, and Itachi was right, Itachi was right as always and Naruto is a good friend, Naruto is always there, and Sasuke does not want to lose him.

It’s annoying because Sasuke does not want to need anyone. It’s annoying because Sasuke needs him.

“So, I was thinking…”

“Don’t try too hard, dobe. You’re going to burn your brain.”

Naruto rolls his eyes at him and smiles. He smiles as he does the whole damn time. Why cannot him stop smiling? Does not he get tired of it? There must be some disease in the muscles that you can give if you keep doing it. “Let me talk, Sasuke-bastard. So, I was thinking, do you think your mom cares that you’re home late? Because I have this amazing coupon that Teuchi gave me last weekend and…!”

Sasuke snorts. “I will not eat ramen again, usuratonkachi.”

“But it’s free! Two free dishes! Two, Sasuke! And it’s pork ramen-miso!”

Sasuke grimaces. “Go, but only you. It’s not like you can’t eat the two dishes by yourself.”

Naruto hits Sasuke’s shoulder. “Oh com’ on, don’t be so bitter. I know you like how the old man cooks, besides, Adame likes you.”

Sasuke looks at him as if he had grown two heads. “Adame doesn’t like me, you idiot. She’s older than me for years, and even if she liked me, what does that have to do with the ramen?”

“Well, how do you know? I would not be surprised if she liked you. And you shouldn’t be surprise either, idiot, half of the city already likes you…”

Sasuke raises an eyebrow. “Naruto. The point.”

“True. The point is, you have to go eat ramen with me.”

“Dobe…”

“Please. It’s free. And I want to go with you. And it’s ramen. Free ramen.”

“No.”

“Just look at the coupon, Teuchi drew a happy face on it. He wants me to go.”

“No.”

“Please, mom will not let me go if you don’t go too and…”

“No.”

“Just look at the coupon! Free ramen!”

“Usuratonkachi. Enough. I already said no. And you should start eating better, you will not live more than 30 years if you continue to consume all that grease.”

“Aw, it’s cute you worry about me, you bastard, but what the hell is better than ramen? Nothing, so…”

Naruto is so excited gesturing with his arms (because he has to move his arms, apparently) that the small piece of paper in his hand slips between his fingers. Naruto stops abruptly to turn to where the coupon has been flying in the air with the wind that moves it around.

“My coupon!”

“Dobe! Don’t…!”

Sasuke stretches his arm to try to take Naruto’s arm, but when he stretches forward it’s too late because the only thing his fingers take is air. Shit.

But then, it happens. So fast that Sasuke doesn’t even can make it clear in his mind.

There is a car. And Naruto is standing in the middle of the street looking for a stupid coupon.

It is easy to add two plus two.

And suddenly he feels panic.

“Naruto!”

He can hear himself screaming. He can feel the scream in his own throat and the way his voice is torn. His feet are moving, and suddenly there is no noise, only a perpetual buzzing in his ears.

And then there’s noise again, a loud noise, and a bang on his side and the cold, hard asphalt beneath his skin. The street is cold, it’s too cold, but there’s something hot that slides down his leg and a dull, sharp pain in his side. And everything is blurred and diffuses and he doesn’t distinguish anything clearly.

He can’t move, it’s as if his body had turned to stone. Hard and solid and heavy.

“Sasuke!”

There is someone who calls his name.

“Sasuke!”

It’s Naruto’s voice. Naruto is calling to him, why is he calling him?

Sasuke is sleepy, Naruto has to let him sleep.

“Sasuke, please!”

Sasuke opens his eyes, hardly, because it hurts, but he opens them halfway, because Naruto’s voice is shaking, Naruto’s voice is terrified, so full of pain and hurt and so broken, and Sasuke needs to see his face, Sasuke has to know what happens.

He tries to move, but his body doesn’t respond, damn it.

“Sasuke…?”

He tries to speak, but his voice doesn’t come out, and instead he coughs. He coughs and tries to look through the thick mist that is consuming his eyes, because there is something that moves in front of him but he can’t distinguish it.

“Sasuke?” The voice reaches him scattered. It’s soft and it’s broken and when Sasuke tries to look again, Naruto is right there. It’s right there and Sasuke can feel how one of his hands is holding him, he can feel the heat of his fingertips filtering through the hair at the nape of his neck, and through his haze and the misty curtain in his eyes he can see the bright yellow blur that is Naruto’s hair. He can see his blue eyes, blue as the sky in the summer mornings and the ocean in the sunlight, and Naruto is crying, Naruto is crying and Sasuke doesn’t know why, He has no idea, but his eyes are the only thing he can see.

His eyes are blue, blue, blue, like the color of sapphires and the vast mantle of the sky behind the yard of his house. Naruto’s eyes are blue and blue is his favorite color and Sasuke looks at them and doesn’t know what is happening, everything is very confusing, and the pain that beats on his side has numbed his body. Everything is diffuse and Sasuke can see how he stretches his own hand towards Naruto’s face because he is so close, and his eyes are so blue, but he is crying, and Sasuke just wants to wipe the wet from his face…

But then the buzzing comes back and he can hear screams and car horns in the background, and Naruto is saying something but he can’t listen to it.

And Naruto’s eyes are the last thing he sees before everything turns black.

.

.

.

It is difficult to breathe.

When Sasuke opens his eyes, everything is too white; like fog and steam and strips of light. It confuses him a little. His eyelids are heavy and difficult to move, but when they go up a little Sasuke can look through his eyelashes: there is nothing. Everything is blind white light. Too bright.

Sasuke tries to move, (the touch under his fingers is rough, but he can feel the texture of a sheet between his hands), but it’s a bad idea. His muscles don’t respond as he would like, and then there’s something hot that pulls on his leg, like molten metal, and a million needles stick just below the inside of his knee.

“Ugh…” he moans.

“Sasuke, you woke up.” That’s… Itachi’s voice? What is Itachi doing there? Where is he?

“What…?” He tries to speak, but his voice rasps. It stings in the back of his throat. “What…?” He tries again, before sinking into a fit of coughing.

Why can’t he focus on anything?

Where is he? Why does his leg itch so much?

“Don’t try too hard, Sasuke. Calm down, don’t move.” Itachi’s voice is soft, but authoritative at the same time, and for some reason Sasuke’s body obeys him. He blinks a couple of times, and tries to relax, even though his leg hurts like hell, and his eyes seem to see through a fogged glass, and although all the noise comes all cut to his ears, drowned, as if he were under water. He tries to not panic about it.

Then a blurred line enters his field of vision and after a few seconds, Sasuke can distinguish the outline of the Itachi figure looking directly at him. He is smiling. But there is a line between his eyebrows that even Sasuke can see.

“You’ll be fine. Now wait here, I think I should call Naruto…”

Naruto.

Naruto.

Oh fuck.

Where is Naruto?

Where is he?

He’s getting panicked.

But then there’s something hot that stagnates in the part of his body where his shoulder and his neck connects and it is pushing him back to the bed, and although Sasuke can’t define it exactly, he assumes that it is Itachi’s hand.

“I’m going to go for him. He has been asking about you for days, it will be good for him to know that you woke up. He has been very worried.”

“Nar—uto?” He stutters, and he gets a little desperate then, because his body doesn’t respond and his voice doesn’t want to come out and he cannot moveand he is beginning to panic again. Where is Naruto? What is Itachi talking about? Where the hell is he, damn it, why is he not moving?

Sasuke tries to rummage through his mind. Try to find any vestige of his last memory, but there is nothing concrete. There is a flash of blue… blue eyes. Golden sparkles. Naruto is everywhere, in all of them, but he cannot define what is happening.

“Sasuke!”

He doesn’t need to move to know who he is, because he can recognize that voice anywhere (even if it sounds like through cotton in his ears), but before he can even answer, a tornado is stamped on him. It is a swirl of arms and a nest of golden hair that twist and curl around him like an octopus. He is warm and soft and Sasuke thinks it must be the effect of whatever is attached to his arm and drained from the bag that hangs on the side of his bed, because he is not complaining and he usually doesn’t like hugs.

Sasuke does not know what it is, but having Naruto hug him as if his life depended on it makes his throat open a little and the knot in his chest that keeps him from breathing well comes loose. It takes a load off of him. Because Naruto is fine, and he’s there with him, and it doesn’t matter where the hell he is because Naruto is fine and…

“I’m so glad you’re okay, I… I thought you were not going to wake up and… it’s… I… I’m so sorry, Sasuke, I’m really sorry about it, seriously, really, I’m sorry.” Naruto’s voice is right in his ear and it’s too fast that it’s a bit incoherent. Naruto stutters and stumbles and starts again and apologizes again and his voice trembles, his voice breaks and breaks and he has to breathe a little to keep talking; and Sasuke’s heart shrinks and hurts as if someone had put his hand on his chest and squeezed it out. “I’m so sorry, Sasuke, it’s my fault.”

Sasuke does not understand. What is his fault?

“Naruto!” That’s Kushina’s voice. Is Kushina here too? Sasuke wants to see her too, he needs to ask her what’s going on. He needs to see her soothing smile and her sparkling eyes. It was going to be all right then.

“I’m sorry, mom.” Naruto says, his voice broken again, and he pulls back to leave him some space. At this point, if Sasuke could move his hand, he would bring him closer again. His blue eyes are full of tears, there are black and dark bags under his eyes and he looks so tired, why is he so tired? Sasuke just wants to stretch his hand and erase the worry that crosses his forehead right now. He wants to hug him again.

“Are you okay, honey?” Kushina asks, her voice soft and sweet. “Your mother will be here soon. Minato and your father are very busy with the office, but they will come to see you in an hour, Itachi already told them you woke up. We were all very worried.”

Hm?

Sasuke does not understand anything.

Kushina kneels in a crouch in front of his bed, so her face is at Sasuke’s level. She smiles, so soft that it makes Sasuke’s heart radiate heat that travels through his veins, and her amethyst eyes are so beautiful and full of affection. “And sweetie, Sasuke,” her voice is too soft, too low, and it breaks in the end. The way she says his name is full of feeling and makes Sasuke want to cry and Sasuke doesn’t know why. She raises a trembling hand to Sasuke’s face, and the tips of her fingers brush the hair off his forehead with careful touches. The corners of her eyes fill with tears. “Thanks for saving my baby.” She says, she almost sobs, and it hurts, Sasuke’s heart hurts a lot, because Kushina is crying and Naruto is crying too and Sasuke does not understand why, doesn't understand a single thing, but he wants to hug them both.

But before he knows it, he is asleep again.

And the last thing he hears is the voice of Kushina singing for him.

.

.

.

Later that day, when Naruto is asleep at his side, the mess of blond hair resting on the pillow and tickling the shoulder where Naruto has his face hidden, Sasuke finally understands it.

The doctor explains where he is and why he is there. He explains that his leg is broken (the kneecap, he explains) and that he also has superficial wounds on the arms and torso and a broken rib. He tells him that he has been asleep for a week after the surgery and that it is very likely that if the ambulance had arrived three minutes late Sasuke had bled to death in the street. He tells him that he is fortunate, so fortunate and very brave and a very good friend, and that what he did was incredible. He tells him that he admires him and that, despite losing a lot of blood, he will recover really well. He tells him that he will probably get out of there in three weeks, but he will have to carry crutches for two or three more weeks. And his bones will not recover completely until one or two weeks after removing the cast. He will have to do therapy maybe.

Sasuke doesn’t think he’s brave. He doesn’t think he’s a great friend, Naruto is much better than him. He didn’t even think when he save him, he just did it. His feet moved on their own.

And he’s a little impatient for the fact that he’s going to miss classes for a month, and the fact that he’ll have to use that annoying plaster that itches and hurts on his leg for so long. It is annoying because the food they give doesn’t taste so good and the hospital television doesn’t have good channels. It’s annoying because the smell of medicine and floor cleaner is making him a little dizzy.

“Leave it there.” Naruto’s voice is soft, a little hoarse after sleeping so much, and his hair tickles his neck, just below his jaw, as he moves and adjusts him in a better position. The arm that was around Sasuke’s waist tightens a little, and his body is so warm, it radiates heat through each of his pores and makes Sasuke not as cold as before. He is embracing him, he’s hugging him and he is a source of heat around him. He’s soft, everything in him is soft (his hair, his skin, his voice) and he smells good, like something sweet and soap. He smells like the fruit shampoo his mother uses. And they are so close that Sasuke can feel his hot breath on his collarbone and his shoulder too, his chest rising and falling against his side. His heart beating unhurriedly on his chest wobbles and hit Sasuke’s arm. Somehow, feeling it so close gives him peace.

“Whenever you see that movie you cry.” Sasuke mocks, but he doesn’t change the channel.

Naruto laughs. It’s a hot, bubbling stream that hits Sasuke’s cold skin. His chest vibrates against his torso and it feels right somehow. “Well, teme, the dog dies in the end, I’m not so insensitive.”

“Hn.”

Naruto ends up falling asleep after ten minutes. Sasuke lets him to, he lets him curl up against him even if it hurts a little. He lets him put his face in his throat and lets him mumble incoherencies in the middle of the dream. He allows him to be there and cling to Sasuke as if he were going to disappear, because from what Itachi told him, Naruto has not stopped crying for a week and has not slept or eaten well. So that’s okay, Naruto can be there. After all, Sasuke has a broken leg and his lungs hurt, he can indulge himself like letting his best friend cuddle with him.

.

.

.

Naruto keeps going during all the weeks he stays there. He goes every day. Naruto stays to sleep sometimes, for a while, because in some way he delighted the hospital’s boss, Tsunade (even if she seems to only see him as an annoying brat), and lets him stay longer than allowed in the schedule of visits. Naruto keeps apologizing all the time, and sometimes he cries too. He cries again while he is clinging to Sasuke’s body and Sasuke has no idea what to say, it only hurts, he just wants Naruto to stop suffering.

Don’t apologize anymore, Naruto. I’m here. I’m fine.

Nothing works.

Sometimes he has nightmares, but Naruto has them too, and when that happens they both end up turning on the TV and watching ridiculous infomercial channels until Naruto calms down again.

It takes a bit of time, (and Sasuke has to admit that it was scaring him, because Naruto seemed to get worse, because Naruto didn’t talk so much anymore and he wasn’t so loud, because Naruto just knew how to say sorry and cry again, and that was breaking them both), almost two weeks pass before there is a change, but Naruto returns a little to normal again. He starts eating better. He starts talking again. He begins to smile and laugh and call him teme again when Sasuke criticizes how ugly his handwriting is and how messy his notes are because “at least I took the courtesy to write them down, right?”

“I didn’t know you knew the word courtesy, dobe.”

“You’re a total bastard, I don’t know why I missed you so much.” He smiles. He smiles again.

And the first time he laughs again, with eyes as alive and sparkling as before, Sasuke feels as if he’s going to fly. Because having a noisy and annoying Naruto is much better than seeing Naruto crying and wailing every time he sees Sasuke.

And yes, maybe the plaster is annoying and itchy, and the medicine tastes awful, and there are days when it’s cold that everything hurts a lot more and his muscles get numb, and the rib that broke hurts like hell when he’s in a certain position, and the food tastes bad, and probably his leg muscle is always going to hurt, but at least Naruto is fine, at least Naruto smiles again, and Sasuke begins to understand why his feet moved by themselves. Because if Naruto had been in bed instead of him, not only would his leg be broken, but he doesn’t think he would have been strong enough to not break mentally as well.

Because at that moment he didn’t think if he could die, in that moment his body saw Naruto in danger and his whole being knew that it was worth sacrificing for him.

Naruto smiles and laughs and talks a lot again.

And Sasuke understands it. Understands it very well.

v.

12 years old.

August.

They are 12 years old and Naruto is still noisy as hell and a bit annoying, but he has beautiful eyes and hair as bright as the sun and tanned skin and Sasuke has begun to pay more attention to him. Sasuke pays attention to everything Naruto says, and the things he says don’t seem as much nonsense as before.

Naruto is his best friend. He goes every morning and has breakfast at home and then they go to class together and Sasuke likes that, even if he is not going to admit it out loud.

Naruto is an idiot most of the time, and he likes to steal his headphones (no, Sasuke, what’s mine is yours, so I don’t steal them) and download songs from One Republic and Imagine Dragons on his iPod (no, Sasuke, our iPod), because what kind of depressing songs you have here, Sasuke, don’t you like to dance?

“I can’t believe you like Justin Bieber,” Sasuke tells him once, when he sees the name Never Say Never on his playlist.

Naruto frowns, gestures with his arms. “Teme, that song is my moto, have you heard the lyrics?”

Sasuke rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t erase it. He doesn’t erase any even if they don’t match the tone of Radical Face and Of Monsters and Men, because it’s Naruto, and Sasuke can tolerate whatever Naruto likes.

They are twelve years old and Naruto needs help in math and science almost all the time, but it is fun to teach him and Naruto is very smart when he proposes to it and he understands everything quickly.

They are twelve years old and Naruto still loves ramen with madness, although he never accepts coupons anymore.

(“You have to get over it sometime, dobe.”

“I’m not going to get over the fact that you almost died, bastard.”)

They are twelve years old and Naruto likes Harry Potter a lot and the old martial arts movies and Jackie Chan and Ninja Turtles, because Naruto is like that. Naruto is childish and he likes magic and fights and adrenaline and Naruto cries and laughs and hugs Sasuke even when he knows that personal space exists, dobe.

Naruto sleeps at his home almost all the time and he invites Sasuke to lunch and enters through his window every time he wants. Naruto loves Itachi as much as his brother and his parents as much as his own. And Sasuke loves Kushina and Minato as much as he loves his own family too.

Naruto likes the color orange and see the positive side of things and sit in the yard of his house in summer and look for food-forms in the clouds. He likes to annoy Sasuke while he is reading and he likes to talk to Sasuke and about Sasuke all the time.

He is his best friend. He’s the closest person to him he have, and Sasuke doesn’t want anyone else. He would not choose anyone else.

vi.

15 years old.

July.

Sasuke looks at Naruto out of the corner of his eye. He is behind the bar in his kitchen, gesturing with his arms as he always does, helping to cut vegetables for food. He has just returned from his summer camp and he is taller than before, almost as tall as Sasuke is. His eyes are still a beautiful cerulean tone, but his skin is more tanned than before. It must be the sun. It’s not like Sasuke is complaining anyway, he doesn’t look bad. He wears a black inner shirt, which suits his tanned skin, and Sasuke can see the way his shoulder muscles stretch. God, his shoulders are broad. And his arms… has he always been like that? No. Sasuke would have noticed before, right?

He continues gesturing, moving his arms and twirling the knife in the air between his fingers. He is laughing at something, smiling bright and cheerful.

“… and then I thought I was going to lose, but Gaara is stronger than I thought, so at the last minute he made this movement of swush and paw and bow and whoops”, he waves his arms in the air, and the knife he holds in his hand slips between his fingers and falls to the ground. His eyes move to where it is like he’s saying stupid to himself and he stretches to pick it up. Sasuke can see the fabric of his shirt contract against the muscles of his back, and a thin line of skin kissed by the sun makes its way into Sasuke’s eyes when the shirt slides a little up, “I’ll wash it, I promise, Sasuke, seriously, I’m sorry, I…” he babbles, but Sasuke doesn’t pay attention, he’s too focused on Naruto’s skin. He has the urge to stretch his arm and touch it. How will it feel under his fingers? Is his skin soft or scratchy to the touch? Is it hot or cold? Surely cold, Naruto always have cold. He wears a sweater and sweatshirts in the summer, and when he was eleven and twelve he couldn’t stop wearing that ridiculous orange jacket with a thick collar and baggy pants. It probably doesn’t fit him anymore, he has grown about six inches since that time. But maybe his skin is hot too. The times he hugged Sasuke he felt warm, right? “… and we win!” Naruto ends, smiling, when he finally gets up.

Sasuke nods, even if he doesn’t know what he’s nodding at, because Naruto looks at him as if he’s waiting for an answer.

“Are you okay?” He asks, frowning. “You seem a bit distracted since I arrived.”

Sasuke nods again. “Yes, I’m fine.”

Naruto smiles and continues talking as he goes and places the knife in the sink and looks for a clean one in the drawer. He keeps talking and talking while he goes back to his place and keeps cutting the vegetables and Sasuke cannot stop looking and Naruto must have noticed that Sasuke is not working, because a moment later he stops. His lips have stopped moving, so he’s not talking anymore. Sasuke goes into a little panic, did he ask anything? What is he supposed to answer? Why was he not paying attention?

Naruto scratches the back of his neck, and the long strands of glowing hair that grew in the course of two months fall on his forehead. Sasuke’s fingers itch with the desire to remove them and see his eyes well. It’s not because he wants to touch his forehead or his face or his hair, of course not.

He smiles, awkwardly, and tilts his head a little to one side. “Sasuke, teme, you’re looking at me a lot, it’s kind of weird.”

Sasuke blinks. Shit. Of course Naruto noticed, anyone could notice that Sasuke has been watching him since he arrived. Shit, shit, shit. “Oh.” Shit, shit, shit. “I— I’m sorry, it's— you look a little different, that’s all.”

Naruto smiles. “Is it because I’m taller? Hey, look, I almost reached you.”

Naruto takes a step forward, a long one, and cuts the distance between them. Sasuke’s heart flutters on his chest, like a flower with petals in the wind, like a butterfly flapping its wings. Naruto is so close that Sasuke can see the three soft freckles on his cheekbones. He can distinguish each one of his golden eyelashes shining against his eyelids. He can see the way the iris is darker on the edge. The shape of his lips, cracked, that make Sasuke’s mouth become very dry. And heck, they are moving, so Naruto is talking.

“You see? Almost there.” He says, when Sasuke comes out of his stupor. The palm of his hand is placed on top of his head and Naruto moves it to indicate that it reaches Sasuke’s forehead.

He smiles, and when he steps back again, freeing himself from Sasuke’s personal space bubble, Sasuke feels like he can breathe again.

God. It’s too much.

Naruto’s too much.

And minutes later, when the food is almost ready, served on large plates, and Naruto is helping him wash the dishes, Sasuke confirms his theory. Naruto’s shoulders are broader, because every time he moves, his arm or elbow or his bicep or his hand rubs against some part of Sasuke’s body, and he has to contain himself so that the blood that boils in his belly does not go up to his head and shows on his cheeks, because that would be embarrassing.

So he focuses on the dishes. On the plates and in Naruto’s singing voice as he hums a song underneath his throat and soaps dishes and spoons.

“You know what?” He says suddenly, looking at Sasuke over the sink, when Sasuke is already serving the dishes a moment later. “I talked to Gaara a lot about you and he—”

“Who?” He asks, because he does not remember hearing about any Gaara in his school.

Naruto frowns and tilts his head to the side. “Gaara.” He repeats. “My friend from the camp. The boy with the eyeliner and without eyebrows I was talking about.”

“Oh,” he says, as if he remembers, though it’s not like that, because he has not paid attention to any other thing than Naruto’s body and Naruto’s face within the last two hours. “Of course.”

“Yeah, well, I talked a lot about you with him and I told him that you would probably get along really well because you’re both super pessimistic and he—”

“Dobe.”

“It’s the truth, teme. But anyway, I told him that and then he said me one day that I talked too much about you, although in my defense, I just wanted him to know how you were because I seriously thought you would get along, and you’re also my best friend so I can talk about my best friend every time I want. But anyway, then he said that and then he mentioned that I probably had a crush on you.” Naruto laughs after that, like he’s telling a toc-toc joke that makes him laugh so much, and not like he just imply that he could like Sasuke that way.

“Hn.” He answers, because his throat is too tight to say anything else. And he wants to laugh with him, because he thinks it’s what Naruto expects, that he laughs, but somehow he can’t, he can’t because it hits too close to home, and his legs are starting to numb.

“Oh.” Naruto stops when he notices that Sasuke is not laughing, and there must be something on his face that shows how tense he feels, because then Naruto gives him an apologetic look and a shy smile and continues with, “Oh, I’m sorry, I— it was not my intention— I mean. It was something uncomfortable to say, right? I— well, I just thought you would laugh, but…”

“It’s okay, dobe.” He manages to say, because yes, it’s uncomfortable as hell, but if Naruto continues it will be more.

“Anyway,” Naruto says, because apparently he cannot shut up even when Sasuke is having a crisis inside him, “you’re not my type.”

Ouch.

“You’re not that good either,” he growls.

Naruto laughs. “Bastard. I love you.”

I love you.

Sasuke doesn’t know why the words hurt so much.

“Yes, yes, whatever,” he says, but it feels like breaking up, “the dishes will not wash on their own and mom will be with your mother here in ten minutes, so keep up with that.”

Naruto just smiles and obeys. Because of course, the idiot always smiles. Goddammit.

,

,

,

Unfortunately, Sasuke was not the only one who noticed the change in Naruto’s appearance. Many girls did it too, and began to look at them more, not only for him, but they also began to see Naruto. It gave him a bit of nausea if he was sincere. None of those girls deserved to be with him. They were superficial girls, who would only go out with him because of his looks and not to hear his stories about ramen and his long chatter and to endure his shrill laughter and his too-bright smiles. Not to give him study sessions very late at night, and stay at three in the morning although you’re sleepy as hell just to see the premiere of an old movie on TNT with him on the cold floor of your room.

The teachers also noticed it, so when their new P.E. teacher, a man with a strange cut, thick eyebrows, a green kind-of-leotard and calf heaters (too eccentric, too energetic), the one that shouted to his students about the Ardent Passion and Flourishing Youth of the young boys and ladies (and made Lee cry with his speeches) selected Naruto to be on the school basketball team, it was not much of a surprise to him. Naruto was incredibly skilled, as well as determined and cunning and with his moto never giving up (which seemed to please the teacher a lot: “That’s the attitude! That’s the energy!”), and now he even seemed to have developed better his body with the camp, he was a perfect member.

Of course, not many had that train of thought when the teacher began to eliminate team members to get Naruto and other freshmen. Of course, although the children had stopped being cruel to Naruto for years and now had many friends everywhere, of course there was still a grudge in the people.

Of course someone was going to make a cruel comeback because Naruto was getting too much attention and it was not enough with the arrogant Uchiha, now it has to be the monster with disgusting marks on his face and of course Sasuke was going to be so angry about it and of course he was going to punch that bastard in the face and of course the other was going to return the punch (Sasuke dodged it anyway, it does not matter) and of course he was going to end up in the Principal’s Office with a very worried Naruto talking even with the elbows and asking if he was okay (even if Sasuke had already answered a million times yes) again and again, and of course they were going to call Itachi later, and of course he was going to receive a punishment: Two days of expulsion, Mr. Uchiha, because Hiruzen was a shitty principal who let the students say crap to other people in the hallways.

Of course, of course, of course.

“Teme, calm down! Let me check your fist, will you?” Naruto tells him, just after Sasuke ends up banging his locker door in an empty hallway.

He bends over once he closes the door, and takes his hand between his fingers carefully. The fabric of the gauze is cold and soft once it touches his skin. It stings and burns, a little, because the skin on his knuckles is torn and covered in dried, fresh blood, but it does not matter as much as the way Naruto is looking at him.

“You’re going to miss classes, Naruto.”

“One class! You two days of classes! Teme, I already know you’re irascible, but you never hit people, what the hell did he do to you? Was he talking about Itachi?”

For a moment, it’s hard for him to breathe. His vision clouds red. He cannot look Naruto in the eyes, he can’t. And the only thing he can hear, echoing again and again on the cranial walls of his head, is disgusting marks on his face.

And it irritates him. What does he know? What does he know about Naruto? What does he know about his life? What does he know about why he has scars on his face? Has he stopped to ask? Did he hear the story with a nine-year-old embarrassed Naruto in front of him, looking like it was the worst thing in the world? Does he know that a damn imbecile did them when he was three fucking years old? He doesn’t. And he doesn’t care.

And it makes him angry.

“Sasuke,” Naruto says, and his voice is soft and soothing in the loneliness of the hallway. His fingers are like burning embers when he places them on his shoulder. “Look at me, Sasuke.”

And Sasuke obeys. He turns and looks at him and Naruto has a storm inside those pretty eyes and Sasuke just wants… he just wants… “Honestly, I would kill myself if I had that face.”

God fucking dammit.

“He was talking about you.” He answers, finally, and his voice gets stuck and tightens in his throat.

Naruto blinks, surprise flooding the light blue of his eyes. “Oh,” he says, so low that if they were not four inches away in a desolate corridor, Sasuke would not have heard it.

“Itachi is waiting for me.” He says, because he really wants to leave at once, he wants Naruto to stop looking at him like that.

“Itachi asked me to check your injuries, Sasuke. Itachi is not angry. I guess he deduced what happened, he’s smart, so…”

“I’m not hurt, Naruto. Now let me go.”

Naruto stops pressing the cold gauze on the torn skin of his knuckles. The soft fabric that burns and itches on his skin, but not as much as the way Naruto keeps looking at him, hell.

“All right. But I… Sasuke, I don’t care about what they said, okay? I… I don’t want you to get into trouble because of me, it’s just… I know it bothers you, but it’s not important. You had a perfect academic history and now it’s ruined because of me, because you hit a guy you don’t even know, just because…”

“I don’t fucking care about the history, Naruto.” He interrupts, because it’s the truth, he does not give a shit at the moment.

“I thought you wanted to impress your father,” he says, and his voice reminds him a bit of Kushina’s when he crosses his arms, “you’re not going to impress him if you let the anger take you and hit anyone who comes in front of you—”

“Naruto.” He says, like saying this is not the time to talk about my father and the thousands of ways I disappointed him.

It’s scary, because Naruto seems to understand the whole context.

“I don’t care about what they say, Sasuke,” he continues anyway, “I don’t. I’m used to it.”

And Sasuke clenches his fist, because suddenly he is so angry again, because suddenly the anger boils again in his body, because Naruto should not be used to it, because…

“I do care.” He growls, and adds, because some way he feels he should, “I’m sorry.”

Naruto loosens his grip on his shoulder and gives him a soft smile. Too soft, too intimate. His fingers move and carefully touch one of the bangs that are on the side of his face. He places it behind his ear. His blue eyes are glued to the movements of his fingers, and for a moment, for an instant, Sasuke can feel the beat of his heart through the tips of his hands.

Everything is very quiet.

“And I care about you, you bastard. Don’t get into stupid fights, okay?” He says, and his voice is so soft, so, so soft, and he stops paying attention to his fingers even if they’re still in Sasuke’s hair, and he raises his eyes and deep, beautiful blue hits him full because he is so close, so close, and if only Sasuke bowed a little he could… maybe he could…

“Okay,” he replies. “I won’t.”

Naruto’s smile grows. “That’s my bastard.” He exclaims, and turns to put an arm around his shoulders and point him towards the door, where Itachi must be waiting for him. “Two days without school, huh? Well, that should be a luxury for me, but for Mr. Perfection… I think the plan went wrong there, teme.”

Sasuke snorts. “Usuratonkachi, it’s so easy to start joking with you, right?”

“What are you talking about? I’m serious.”

“Hn.”

They arrive at the door, and Naruto let him while Sasuke begins to advance to the place where his brother’s Ford is parked.

“I’ll take notes for you!” He yells, when Sasuke goes halfway.

He turns on his heels, and smiles mockingly. “Surely I’ll have more notes than you for when I return, dobe.”

“Ungrateful bastard!” He yells, and Sasuke’s smirk is genuine when he looks at him before turning to the car again.

Shit, Naruto. He makes Sasuke less angry all the time.

.

.

.

They are 15 years old and Naruto is the most beautiful boy he has ever seen. Naruto has grown up and he’s taller now, almost as tall as Sasuke is, and has the most beautiful blue eyes (beautiful as the clear water of the lakes, beautiful as the sky on summer mornings), cerulean, and long, blond eyelashes and cute lips and messy hair kissed by the sun. He’s gorgeous. And maybe Sasuke is paying too much attention, but hell, it’s hard not to.

They are 15 years old and Sasuke would hit a three-meter bully (and he would be better than him, because he’s that skillful) for that boy. Sasuke would do anything for that boy.

vii.

17 years old.

July.

“Happy birthday, bastard!”

Sasuke stares at his best friend in the darkness of his room. He wears a ridiculous hat made with gift wrap and a balloon in his hand. He is still wearing the Captain America’s pajamas that Sasuke gave him last Christmas and his in bare feet.

Sasuke rubs his eyes and looks at the portable clock that rests on the bedside table on the side of his bed. 12:09 am. It reads in incandescent red numbers.

“Do you have any idea what time is it?” Sasuke hisses, as he gets out of bed, and he feels a bit stupid, because it’s obvious that Naruto knows the time, it’s obvious that Naruto would crawl out his window at twelve o'clock in the morning just because it’s his birthday. It’s obvious.

“I’m the first one to congratulate you, right?” He says, with a smile that covers half of his face. His hair is more messy than usual and several blond strands fall on his forehead. His blue eyes sparkle in the darkness. His blue shirt sticks to him in all the right angles and Sasuke thinks if you were not so damn attractive, I would surely kill you right now, you idiot. But he doesn’t say it, because of course, that’s not something you said to your best friend.

“Hn.” Sasuke replies, in a bad mood.

But of course, Naruto is immune to that and laughs. “Well, it’s a little cold outside so you better take your blue sweatshirt with the fan on the back that you like to wear so much. Time to go, bastard.”

Sasuke stops halfway to put on his shoes, because, “What? Go where, you idiot?”

Naruto is already leaning over the window frame. “Mmm? There’s a Waffle House near here, if you drive in my dad’s van I think we can get there in half an hour, right?”

“Naruto,” Sasuke says, and his eye contracts a little. “What?”

“You like waffles, don’t you?” He replies. “Maybe I can make the manager put a tomato on them, I mean, it’s your birthday after all…”

“Naruto, I’m not going to get into your father’s van in the middle of the night and drive to a Waffle House at twelve in the morning.”

Naruto seems confused. He keeps his balance on the window frame and raises his hand to show him the set of keys. “No problem, Sas. I have the keys.”

Sasuke rolls his eyes. “And you want me to drive to a Waffle House in the middle of the night?”

Naruto shrugs. “All right, I’ll drive, but if a policeman stops us I’ll show him your driver’s license. I’ll wait for you below, birthday bastard.”

And with that said, he disappears through the window.

Sasuke grunts as he looks back at the clock. He growls and curses against stupid blond guys with beautiful blue eyes who wake him up in the middle of the night to tell him happy birthday, and who make him steal his father’s van to drive to a Waffle House at twelve o'clock at night just because he felt like it.

He drags his feet all the way to the door of his house, trying not to make noise, and he puts on the blue sweatshirt as he goes down the stairs and continues cursing and complaining between his teeth. Damn fucking Naruto. Damn stupid heart. Damn the one who decided up there that it would be a good idea to give him a nice smile and a beautiful personality and the eyes of Gods. Damn the one who decided it would be good for Sasuke to fall in love with a stupid blonde with a heart of gold, stubborn as hell. Damn the one who thought it would be a good idea for Sasuke to like his best friend. Damn the one who decided that the Waffle House’s could open for 24 hours. Damn Naruto with beautiful eyes, damn, damn, damn and fucking dammit.

“Are you going somewhere?”

Sasuke stops and freezes, one sleeve still midway his arm and his mouth hanging open. He turns around, where his brother is sitting on the sofa in the living room in the middle of the darkness looking directly at him.

“Itachi,” he says, and feels the warmth begin to creep up on his face. Shit, shit, shit. “Uh… I… Naruto…” He blurts out.

To his surprise, Itachi smiles. “Good.” He says, and his eyes sparkle with amusement. “Don’t make him wait. But come back for breakfast, will you? Mom will have a heart attack if she doesn’t find you in the morning.”

Sasuke blinks. “Uh… I… okay.”

Itachi smiles. “Mm-hm.”

When he is about to leave through the door, Itachi speaks again. “And happy birthday, Sasuke.”

Sasuke smiles. Damn you Itachi.

.

.

.

In the end, Sasuke ends up driving, because Naruto is bad for this, and Sasuke doesn’t want to die on his birthday, no thanks. Naruto turns on the radio and hums the songs in a low voice because it’s like a human jukebox and he knows all of them. He sits on the soft seat and raises his feet in shredded socks while crossing his legs and looks out the window all the trip.

It’s strange that he’s so quiet, but at least Sasuke can look at him out of the corner of his eye from time to time. And when the light from the headlights on the side of the street hits him right in the face, and Sasuke can admire how beautiful he is, how stunning his eyes are and how bright they look and how gleaming his hair is and the so pretty and alluring that is the whole him, all him… is those moments where Sasuke thinks that maybe it was not such a bad idea that Naruto woke him up in the middle of the night to drive to a Waffle House. Maybe it’s not so bad that Naruto is crazy. Maybe it’s not so bad that Sasuke is in love with him.

.

.

.

Sasuke returns for breakfast time. It’s around eight o'clock in the morning when he crosses the threshold of the door and although he is sleepy as hell and that waffle tasted like burnt oil, Sasuke could see Naruto for hours with his old pajamas and his cerulean eyes and his pretty gold hair. Sasuke could be sitting alone with him in an lonely Waffle House as if it were a date, and he could hear him talking nonsense for hours and sing the songs that came from the speakers on the place with no one bothering them. And even if it sounds a bit silly and a little girl-of-twelve years-with-a-crush, Sasuke could not be happier.

viii.

19 years old.

June.

“You’re a nerd.”

Sasuke stops writing to look at his side, where Naruto is leaning over his bench looking at the notes he writes on the notebook’s sheet. His writing is neat and tidy, even though the teacher speaks too quickly. Naruto raises his eyes from the paper to look at him from his place. His jaw resting against the back of his hand, his lips pulling a small, mischievous smile at the edges.

Sasuke frowns. “I’m not a nerd. Itachi is the nerd.”

Naruto chuckles. His blue eyes sparkle with amusement as he says, “Itachi is not a nerd, Sasuke, Itachi is only talented. And wise, which is different. You’re a nerd.” He points out, and smiles, his eyebrows rising and the corner of his eyes wrinkling. His hair falls over his eyes a little (it has grown in the last month, Sasuke realizes) when he adds, his voice sparkling. “A bastard nerd.”

Sasuke tightens his lips together and his nose wrinkles a little at the same time that his eyes narrow, sharp and edgy towards the stupid blond guy lying on the middle of his desk (and no, that’s definitely not a pout, Sasuke does not pout. The Uchihas are too proud to do something as mundane and ridiculous as that.)

There is a low growl that grows deep in his throat. “You idiot,” he mutters, irritated. “Let me work.” He orders, and pushes the palm of his hand against Naruto’s face as he leans forward and hits his nose against his arm. “Usuratonkachi.” He complains, and pushes until Naruto returns to his seat against his will.

“Aw, teme, come on, don’t get mad.”

Sasuke ignores him as he tries to recap his notes where he left them.

“Sasuke.”

The voice of his teacher is too low. Maybe he should ask him to speak louder…? Hm. No. Okay, it looks like he’s talking about the next topic now. Hell, Naruto, now he’ll have to ask for the notes of what he lost to someone.

Shikamaru?

A look to the front, two places of distance, indicate him that it is not a good option unless he wants to see drool on the notebook. Why is Shikamaru so lazy? He doesn’t sleep in his house or what?

“Sasukeee.”

All right. No problem. Maybe Sakura has them. He will get them later, he has to write for now.

"Bastard.“

The lymphatic system is connected to the osmolar balance and also collects quilio from the intestinal content…

”Bastard, listen to me.“

… The bone marrow is one of the primary lymphoid organs…

"Bastard. Bastard, bastard, bastard, listen to me. Don’t be an ass.”

… The scam too…

“Teme, you know I like you are a nerd. I don’t understand why you get so angry about it.“

If only he could shut up a damn time.

”Sasukeeeee. Sasuke, is enough. I love you, Sasuke, but you’re a total bastard.“

Holy shit. His hand contracts involuntarily and the tip of his pen sticks hard on the paper. Great. Excellent. In fact, it digs in so hard that the tip is ruined. Now the imbecile owes him a new pen.

"Was it because I mentioned Itachi? Are you jealous, you cocky bastard?”

Ignore him, Sasuke. Ignore him.

“Sasuke.”                          

Well, he’s sure that the tension in his shoulders from slouching so much over his notebook can be see miles away.

“Bastard. I know you’re listening to me.”

It’s not like that, it’s not like that, it’s not like that.

“I’m watching you shake your head, you idiot.” Dammit. And he even has to laugh when he says that? No, it’s not necessary, but Naruto does anyway.

“Sasuke.” Naruto’s hand closes on his wrist and the touch sends something resembling fury or adrenaline in Sasuke’s nerves. Everything inside him flutters and connects and he’s about to turn and yell at him to shut the hell up and stop bothering him, even if he knows he might be exaggerating, even if he doesn’t know why he’s suddenly so angry, but then Naruto talks again, he opens his stupid pretty mouth again and says, without hesitation, as if he were asking about the time, “Do you want to go to the prom with me?”

It’s like turning on a switch.

Sasuke turns his head so quickly towards Naruto that he can hear the way his own brain hits his skull. There is an audible click that comes from somewhere on his back or his shoulders, Sasuke is not sure what exactly. And his neck hurts.

Naruto is smiling. Literally grinning. His damn smile covers half of his face. From end to end.

Why. Is. He. Smiling. That. Way.

What. The. Hell. Did. He. Just. Fucking. Say.

“I knew you were listening,” he says, between clenched teeth, and he lets out a chuckle that, under other circumstances, would have made Sasuke smile, but not now, because now is not the time to be an adorable cocky idiot, not now.

Naruto is smiling towards him. Naruto is right there and still has his fingers clinging in chains around his wrist like hot handcuffs when he reaffirms:

“I said, do you want to go to the prom dance with me, bastard?” His lips pull up on the last part, in a half smile that is more characteristic of Sasuke himself than of him.

Naruto is watching him. He’s looking carefully at his expression and it is not until his eyes meet that he realizes he is gaping. Dammit.

He is very tempted to close his mouth with his own hands, but that would be even more embarrassing. Hell, it’s an Uchiha. Hell, it’s… Does Naruto know? Does Naruto have any idea how Sasuke’s heart is beating right now? Probably. Sasuke can hear it hammer against his ribcage at that moment, it would not surprise him if Naruto heard it too.

“You don’t say that kind of things, dobe.” He responds, trying to regain some of his composure as he pulls his hand away from the grip and turns his head to hide the blush that has begun to form on his cheeks. “If I were a girl I would probably be offended when you said you were kidding.”

Naruto snorts. “You already look like a girl, teme. And I meant it.”

Sasuke turns to him again. He rolls his eyes and purses his lips in a line in a gesture that he expects to look irritated instead of embarrassed.

“Well, so now I’m a nerd, and a girl too.”

“Don’t change the topic.”

“I’m not changing the topic. You just called me girl.”

“Are you going or not?”

“Dobe.”                                                                                  

“I’m serious, Sas. I want you to go with me.”

“Enough. Usuratonkachi, it’s not funny.”

“Bastard, can you shut up for a second, I’m…”

“Mr. Uzumaki, Uchiha, is there something you would like to share with the class?”

They both turn in the direction of the desk, where the professor raises his eyebrow from his place.

“No, professor”, both answer, in unison. And when Naruto returns to sit in his place without complaining, Sasuke thinks thanks God, but then Naruto turns to look at him again, and something in his eyes says this is not over.

Fuck.

.

.

.

“Sasuke.”

Sasuke ignores the boy while he keeps trying to get his biology book in his locker and taking out the math book.

“Sasuke.”

Holy God. Just leave me alone…

“Don’t ignore me, you bastard! Okay, I know the question is a bit weird, but…”

Sasuke turns to him and closes the door of his locker that separates them to be able to see his face (more so that Naruto can see his face saying how stupid he is). “A bit weird?” He exclaims, as if he has lost his mind. “Naruto, you’re inviting me to the prom like I’m your date or something.”

Naruto raises an eyebrow. He raises a fucking eyebrow. “Well, what would be wrong with that?”

Sasuke blinks. “I— you— you can’t be serious.”

“I mean it, Sasuke, teme. You’re supposed to be the smart one here.” He answers, waving his arms as he did when they were only eleven years old and he liked to emphasize things. “It would have absolutely nothing wrong. What do you think I am, a plague?”

Sasuke growls. “No but…”

“But actually, although there is nothing wrong with it, I was inviting you because you have no one to go with. And even though God and I know that you have a queue with thirty thousand girls waiting to be your date, you and I know that you will not ask anyone out and you will not say yes to anyone either.”

“Exactly.”

“See? And it’s the last dance, Sasuke. It’s probably the last dance together too, I don’t know if you’re going to that fancy college and— You have to go, and if you don’t go with any girl, then at least come with me.”

Sasuke frowns. He doesn’t understand. “Why?”

Naruto snorts, exasperated, and for a second it reminds him to himself when Naruto cannot understand something so simple. “Because I want you to take your head out of your ass for a moment and have fun with your best friend?”

Sasuke grimaces. He does not have his head on his butt; and he’s also starting to doubt why Naruto is his best friend. How can someone be best friend to someone who makes you feel so vulnerable and as if your heart would explode just by smiling? “Hn.”

“Sasuke,” he says, in a tired tone.

“I don’t even like to dance, usuratonkachi.”

“Well, at least go to eat.”

“We don’t even know where they get that food, how about…?”

“Sasuke, holy ramen, just say yes for once.”

Sasuke pauses. He straightens his backpack over his shoulder and looks at Naruto. He has a frown and his lips turned into a grimace. The determination is written on every fiber of his beautiful blue eyes. He’s serious, damn it.

Sasuke almost sighs. He raises an eyebrow, and says, “So what? The famous Naruto Uzumaki is going to leave the girl’s line behind him just for an emo boy?”

Naruto’s face transforms in an instant. He smiles. Big and bright as always, intense as his mother’s hair and sparkling as his whole being. Because he has always been good to see through Sasuke, he has always been good to read him as a book, and he knows that it is a yes.

“Well,” he says, his smile growing a little more though it seems impossible, “the bastard is my best friend, the girls can wait.”

.

.

.

You know how in that tragic movie where the girl has cancer she says something in the beginning like “I fell in love with him like falling asleep, suddenly and without realizing it”? Yes, well. Sasuke used to make fun of that, even if Naruto thought it was very romantic. But now, as he sees his best friend smiling in a damn suit that fits his body in all the right places, now that he sees him laughing with the gym lights doing wonders on his tanned skin, now that he is listening to him talk and laugh and just being him, being happy… now he understands it. Sasuke does not know when he fell in love with Naruto; he probably was always a bit in love with him. He does not know when it happened or why, the only thing he knows now is that he is completely, totally, utterly, head-over-heels in love with him, so much so that it is ridiculous.

The realization hits him. Hard and strong against his stomach, like the thousands of stones and heaps of earth in an avalanche. Destroying cliffs, roads.

His love for Naruto reminds him of that. Destruction. Storms, tornadoes. Because it’s brutal, too intense, too strong. It is inexhaustible. It’s unexpected and unpredictable and it makes his stomach ache.

It’s like when you have a leak in your house and you do not fix it and you probably don’t realize the damage it is doing until after weeks the hole on the cement floor is too big to ignore. It’s like the snowball that is falling and growing on the steep hill that you don’t realize until it’s too late.

Is just like that.

And the realization is so big and so brutal that it terrifies him, because Sasuke is not only in love with Naruto, Sasuke loves him. He loves every damn part of him in the rawest and realest way possible and it scares him so much that he can’t stand it.

Itachi would be ashamed of him.

His father would be too.

The Uchihas don’t flee. The Uchihas face the problems.

But Sasuke can’t. Sasuke has no idea what to do, Sasuke does not want to do anything.

It’s too much.

Naruto is too much for him.

Sasuke does not deserve him in any way.

And it’s horrible, but it’s the truth, and the awful and shocking this hits him leaves him breathless.

So he runs away.

.

.

.

When Naruto stops behind him, Sasuke wants the earth to swallow him.

Of course Naruto would know. Of course Naruto would know because Naruto knows him better than anyone else.

He can tell that is him by the sound of the shoes on the asphalt. He can know it’s him without even turning to look at him because Naruto has something that Sasuke can recognize, something he cannot explain, but it’s there, around them. His presence triggers something within Sasuke that would be incredibly easy to recognize even if they were in different dimensions.

“Are you leaving already?” Naruto’s voice floats to him to confirm it, but Sasuke can’t turn to look at him. If he sees him, something will explode and he will stop working. “You didn’t even stay to dance a song. How rude, you meanie.” His voice is mocking, sparkling at the edges, and Sasuke can’t…

“Naruto. I’m not in the mood,” he says, and his voice is tired, because he’s tired, he can’t stand it anymore, and he’s stupid, stupid, stupid, because Sasuke wants to cry, because Sasuke wants to kiss Naruto while he cries because Sasuke is a damn tragedy walking, but he can’t, he can’t and that’s hard.

“Teme, stop being so dramatic,” Naruto says, as if somehow he read his mind, “it’s just a dance.”

“Why do you care so much?” He answers. His feet feel too heavy, he thinks he is going to sink into the cement.

Naruto does not answer for a moment. Silence spins and charges and condenses between them like wisps of steam that carry electricity. Silence is the worst when Naruto is around. And he is silent for a moment so long that Sasuke is tempted to keep walking and leave him there and go at once in the damn Itachi’s Ford, but then, then he talks. He talks and when he does, his voice is a little irritated, even tinged with exasperation if Sasuke pays attention, and he is surprised, because Naruto rarely gets irritated, Naruto rarely despairs.

“Could you at least turn to look at me? What’s wrong? I just wanted you to have fun. And I brought you with me because I thought it would be more fun, but you still…”

“Naruto.”

“… you still don’t tell me what’s wrong with you, and you’ve been like this for days, and you keep avoiding me and…”

“Naruto.”

“… and you will not let me even finish…”

Sasuke clenches his fists at his sides. He feels so frustrated. And when he opens his mouth, the words start to come out and bubble out of him. They come out and they taste bitter in his mouth and they are not even true, it’s even the opposite, but once he starts, he can’t stop and…

“Well, maybe I don’t want to be with you anymore!” It’s not true, it’s not true. “You haven’t thought about that? Maybe I don’t think you’re funny or charming like all the new friends you’ve got.” You’re too incredible for me. You are fun and charming and always smiling and it is suffocating me. “Maybe after 13 fucking years I finally got tired of you and…”

And then he stops. Not for himself, but because Naruto stops him.

It happens so fast that he doesn’t have time to react. In a moment, Naruto’s hand twists from behind him (when did he get so close, he was not meters away?) and grabs him by the tie (pulls him so suddenly and so hard that Sasuke can’t even reason what is going on; he can’t even do anything to stop it), and in the next second his tanned face an inch away from him. It is so close that he can distinguish the darker color from the edge of his cerulean iris, it is so close that he can see his freckles (only three, three small ones in his cheeks), he’s so close that for a moment the only thing he can see is blue. Blue, blue, eternal, endless, inexhaustible, precious blue; that swallows him, that overwhelms him, that suffocates him.

He’s as close as that time when they…

“Sasuke, you’re a fucking idiot.” He says, his breath warm against his own lips (he smells like punch and mint and… wait, what?). Sasuke frowns, “idiot?” He is about to answer, but then Naruto pulls his tie back towards him and leaves him no time because he leans over and crash, stamps his lips on his.

…

Is…

Naruto…

Naruto is…

He’s as close as that time when they kissed.

Naruto is kissing him, Holy…

It’s abrupt and so sudden and Sasuke has not closed his eyes, (Sasuke can’t even believe it to begin with, because they’re kissing), but Naruto does, so he can see the thin, long golden lashes that flutter softly against his own cheekbones. They tickle him. He can see the cascade of hair on his forehead and the mess of color on his skin and everything is so familiar. The cracked feeling of his lips, the blue so close, the hair that tickles Sasuke… It’s making him dizzy. Everything is so familiar, and yet so different at the same time. Is coarser, stronger.

Naruto doesn’t seem to know what he is doing though, he just keeps pressing his lips so hard against his that Sasuke thinks he might knock out a tooth of him. His fingers continue to cling to his tie, crumpling it between his fingernails, and it’s…

Sasuke doesn’t care. Because Naruto is kissing him, and even if he’s clumsy, Naruto is kissing him, and the heartbeat of his heart thunders into his ears, the blood rushes in his veins and everything is chaos.

With Naruto everything is chaos.

Like the storms.

Like hurricanes.

Everything is too intense and strong and…

And then Naruto goes away from him.

He takes a step back and takes part of the storm with him, but Sasuke’s heart still ripples in his chest as if he was stuck to him.

For a moment, he seriously considers raising his hand and returning him to where he was seconds ago, but he can’t move.

Everything is chaos and Sasuke doesn’t know what just happened and…

And…

Is Naruto laughing?

He doesn’t realize that he is not looking at him until he turns to look at him again.

And there he is, standing in the parking lot of the gym, in a black suit that Kushina bought him and an orange tie that shouldn’t look that good (but he looks good with everything, everything looks good on him, dammit), the tie that is so striking that is comically ridiculous, in the shoes that Minato wore when he took Kushina to the prom dance years ago. He’s there with his sunny hair and his eyes from the sky and he’s laughing…

It’s a giggle. It is small and it escapes from his throat. Bubbles out as if it were not his idea, but then it only grows into a full laugh, and Sasuke blinks, because why the hell is he laughing after doing what he did and…?

“You know what?” He says, and he continues laughing, but not so much anymore. “Ino said you would make exactly that face.”

Sasuke blinks. What?

“Did you tell Ino about—” Sasuke doesn’t quite know how to define it, even if he’s supposed to be good with words, so he just manages to move his hand between them in a movement that Naruto would do, and add, “—this?”

Naruto moves his lips to the side. “Actually, I told Shikamaru, Ino was just there.”

Once again. What?

“What?”

Naruto grins. Bright and toothy, his eyes sparkling with fun. “Sasuke, teme.You’re easier to read than you think.” Sasuke is about to yell at him because what? But then Naruto’s smile softens, and it’s sweet and tender and intimate.And the words that come out of his lips moments later roll off his tongue and roll up through the air and dance and spin and hit Sasuke with such force that he practically staggers.

“I love you too, you bastard.”

It’s too much.

And Naruto is smiling, and Naruto is there and everywhere and Sasuke wants to drown in him.

So he does. He takes a step and closes the distance between them and drowns in him.

One of his hands takes him from the suit and brings him close to him and the other slips behind him and mixes with the strands of hair that are too soft against his skin. And then he kisses him again. He kisses him as he should be kissed. He kisses the brain out of him and leans against his personal space and enters his bubble of heat, the heat that radiates from every pore of his being. He kisses him and gets drunk with his smell and his skin and all of him.

He kisses him and Naruto kisses him back and Sasuke almost sighs. Because it feels so good to be real; because it feels like falling into bed after a long and tiring day. It feels like a hot shower against your aching body and like the emotion you feel when climbing a roller coaster.

It’s all at once.

Rawly intense and gently soothing.

It’s chaos.

And he kisses him again and again and again and again and again and again and again until he loses the count.

“You know what?” Naruto says in a moment. His voice is agitated and his breathing is uneven and unsteady and he is trying to pull more air inside of him. And his lips are a little swollen and Sasuke kisses him again, short and fast, before he speaks again, because Sasuke can’t help it and stop now. “Now that I think about it, I’m much better at expressing myself than you are.”

“Shut up, usuratonkachi.”

Naruto laughs. And it’s the most beautiful thing Sasuke has ever heard before.

.

.

.

Itachi used to tell him stories about the sun. About how they all orbited around him because his gravity was too intense and his magnetic field attracted them all.

Well, after years of knowing him, Sasuke knows it. Naruto is the sun. It’s too bright, too warm, too intense.

And Sasuke is probably just a planet or a distant star. Because Sasuke is a mess. Because Sasuke is a huge mess, and a lot of trouble. Because Sasuke is angry almost all the time and he gets irritated easily. He cries and he gets mad and sad and most people don’t like him aside of his looks. But Naruto… Naruto is the sun. Too warm, too bright. Naruto is determined and stubborn and obstinate and talks a lot. He is loud and clumsy and loves things with the whole soul. He’s loyal and wild and brave and strong and heartbreaking and it’s too much of everything that it overwhelms Sasuke.

Naruto loves him.

The sun loves him.

He loves Sasuke.

And sometimes Naruto, the Sun, is too bright that it hurts, but it doesn’t matter, because Naruto loves him.

And Sasuke loves him too.

And it feels a lot like being lost and then coming home.