Sealed

Sealed
X

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Author: Ms. Trick

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Note: Reviews make my life. No seriously.

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Chapter 10

“ALRIGHT!! I MISSED THIS PLACE! LOOK OUT KONOHAGAKURE! UCHIHA-UZUMAKI NARUTO IS BACK!”

“You don’t really look like an Uchiha,” a disembodied voice said doubtfully from the building he was standing on.

“I’m married to one,” he yelled offhandedly, suddenly noticing the new addition to the Hokage Mountain. He openly grinned at the large rock reproduction of Tsunade’s face.

“You’ve grown a lot, haven’t you Naruto?” Kakashi said from surprisingly nearby.

“Tch, I doubt that,” Sasuke muttered.

Naruto spun on his high perch to find his sensei with a ubiquitous orange book lounging in the sun on a nearby rooftop. His very own dark-eyed husband was standing irritably at the masked jounin’s side.

“Kakashi-sensei! You haven’t changed at all!” He said, leaping onto the roof. “Sasuke! You’re...” His eyes roved over the taller teen. “...incredibly pale.”

Sasuke’s blank look dropped into a scowl.

“I haven’t seen that look in almost three years,” Kakashi said with a chuckle, turning a page in his novel with a thumb.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Naruto said, slinging his bag down in front of him. “I have something for you, sensei.”

“Sasuke-kun!” A familiar voice called up through cupped hands.

Sasuke looked over the edge of the roof to see Sakura waving up at him from the street. Jiraiya was standing at her side with his arms folded. He was turning to look as Konohamaru and his two team mates ran giddily towards them.

Naruto watched Sasuke leap elegantly over the edge from the corner of his eye, ignoring the way his sensei’s hands trembled excitedly as he took the new copy of the unreleased Make-Out Tactics. Kakashi got joy out of the weirdest things, Naruto thought.

“I thought it was kind of boring but you like it, right?”

Jiraiya scowled as the breeze blew their conversation down to him.

The blonde grinned at his masked sensei, who was holding the book like it was a holy object.

“Naruto? Naruto, is that you?” Sakura called up excitedly.

“Sakura-chan!” He yelled, turning to look happily at the little pink head below.

“Glad to be back then?” Kakashi asked, not glancing up from the glory that was his new reading material as he opened it slowly.

“Definitely! I missed everything. You and Sakura,” he drifted into silence for a moment, his blue eyes soft with nostalgia. “And Sasuke’s...incredibly pale. Like, paler than most people.”

Kakashi’s laughter carried all the way down to the others down on the street.

- - - - -

“Why wouldn’t Kakashi-sensei just walk with us to the training grounds?” Naruto muttered exasperatedly as he and the other two members of Team 7 ambled across town.

He had to admit. It gave him a small thrill just being with them again. Sakura was more of a woman (despite Naruto’s earlier reassurance that she hadn’t changed a bit--boy had she gotten mad) and Sasuke appeared even more formidable than he had managed at the age of twelve (Naruto chocked it up to the abundance of black his outfit contained). But knowing that despite the changes, it was still the three of them together again...Naruto couldn’t keep his smile off his face.

“You did give him a brand new perverted book. Why do you think?” Sasuke scoffed.

Naruto’s eyes slid sideways and subtly ran over the dark-haired boy’s form. He had to admit though, the black suited Sasuke. He was somewhat surprised to see both their clan symbols on the back of his collar.

Though Naruto of course still had the Uchiha mon on the opposite shoulder of his Uzumaki spiral (which was now sans the dangling addition), he had half-expected Sasuke to ditch his spiral as soon as the blonde had gotten out of town.

Naruto’s blue eyes took in the katana on Sasuke’s back and he briefly wondered how often it was used in battle--would Sasuke reach for it first thing in a fight or would he wait until he was forced to? A wave of giddiness coursed through Naruto as he considered that the upcoming match against their sensei would give him a chance to relearn his teammates’ fighting styles. Much like the first time the three of them were set against the masked jounin.

“Temari!” Sakura called, running ahead to meet the older girl, who had just appeared at the mouth of an alley in front of them.

The two girls greeted each other with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Where’s Shikamaru?” Sakura questioned.

“We split up after getting inside the gates,” the blonde girl supplied, her eyes suddenly landing on Naruto and widening.

“Naruto? So you came back...” she said, placing her hands on her hips and smirking. “You got tall, shrimp.”

He just grinned at her.

He wondered if black was in fashion this season or something as he took in her new black and red ensemble, noting that she still wore her Suna forehead protector across her forehead but had Konoha’s symbol engraved on the protectors on the back of her black fingerless gloves.

“Temari, do you want to come to the training grounds?” Sakura asked.

“Nah, I’ve got to report to the Hokage and get some more paperwork done for the Chuunin Exams.”

“Heh, the Chuunin Exams...that brings back memories,” Naruto said, his eyes suddenly flicking to Sasuke as he remembered that the memories weren’t good through and through.

“What are you planning?” Temari asked.

“What do you mean?” Naruto said with a frown.

“Well, it’s a Chuunin Exam. And the only one from our age group that hasn’t become a chuunin or higher is you.”

There was a long pause as this information sank onto Naruto like a dark weight.

“WHAT?!” He whipped around and stared at Sakura. “You’re a chuunin too?!”

“That’s right!” She said, giving him a peace sign.

Inner Sakura twitched at the fact that Naruto didn’t appear shocked at all that Sasuke had attained a higher level.

“Heh,” Temari chortled. “On a side note, Gaara, Neji, and I are all jounin. And Kankurou’s Kazekage.”

“Hn,” Sasuke said, already bored with the topic.

Naruto shot a sidelong scowl at the dark-haired teen, knowing that Sasuke would throw this in his face later. The rivalry that had had three years to cool off a bit was bubbling right back up all over again.

Naruto clenched his fists, feeling again the gap in ability that had separated him and Sasuke in the academy.

“Pretty good, Sasuke...” He said evenly, surprising everyone. “But I’m not going to lose to you, chuunin or not. And I’ll definitely become Hokage.”

“Tch, whatever, dobe,” was all Sasuke said in reply, the faintest glimmer of a smile crossing his face.

Sakura smiled at her blonde team mate. Looks like he’s grown up a bit, she thought warmly as he gazed up at the Hokage Mountain.

“Come on, you have to beat Kakashi first,” Sakura joked, playfully taking hold of each of the boys by the wrists. “See you for dinner, Temari!” She called over her shoulder.

Naruto and Sasuke let themselves get pulled along for a few seconds and then Sakura dropped her hands. Unseen, a relieved look passed over Temari’s countenance.

She let out a sigh and glanced sideways into an alley, where Shikamaru was leaning against the wall in the afternoon shadows, his hands in his pockets and his head tilted up towards the clouds visible in the strip of sky about the alley.

Temari casually made her way towards him. He didn’t stop his sky gazing even as she came to a stop directly in front of him. Her eyes ran over the sight of his torso, the muscles easily visible under the black shirt under the open chuunin vest.

“So, Naruto’s back, huh?” He finally said.

Instead of answering, she slowly slid a gloved hand around the nape of his neck, leaned in and pressed a long kiss to the soft skin under his ear. His eyes drifted shut and his hands escaped out of his pockets to grasp her bent elbows. Her nails scraped over his abdomen and a hot breath caressed the wet smudge left on Shikamaru’s neck.

He moaned softly and his eyes opened to find her sea-green ones studying him tenderly. Their mouths met and she sank into his warm body, her arms wrapping around his sides under the open chuunin vest. His large hands slid up to her shoulders, cradling her lithe body against him.

A crow squawked loudly from its perch on a telephone wire above the alley and the noise pulled them out of the moment. They stood in each other’s arms for a minute, both staring up at the interrupting bird.

Then Temari sighed tiredly.

“Should probably go,” she murmured, reluctantly pulling away from him.

She heard Shikamaru mutter ‘troublesome’ under his breath but nevertheless, he straightened and zipped up the flak green vest, feeling a little cold despite the warm air. She gave him a small smile and he watched her hands unhesitatingly flick through a well-known combination before she vanished, leaving Shikamaru alone in the alley with the smoke from the teleportation justu wafting up towards the clouds.

- - - - -

“Sakura, tell me you’re not making us take the long way just to show Naruto the stupid park,” Sasuke said, a little annoyed that he hadn’t noticed her manoeuvrings sooner.

“Ehehe, well he hasn’t seen it yet. Besides, regardless of a detour, what are the odds of Kakashi-sensei getting to the training grounds before us?”

“But Naruto would have seen the park at some point anyway,” the dark-haired teen said with a scowl.

“What park?” Naruto asked.

Then they rounded the corner of a bustling street.

“Oh. That park. Hey! That’s where the Uchiha compound used to be.”

At the end of the busy street, through the throng of afternoon shoppers, Naruto spied an oasis of lush green trees and grass. As the three of them made their ways towards and then entered the park via its main path, his eyes glittered. He took in the sweet, casual atmosphere that only a park could provide.

“What a neat idea! Was it yours?” He asked Sasuke.

He snorted. “No.”

The main path took them right across the entire expanse of the small park and followed the thin, muddy bank of the Uchiha lake. A muddy metallic glint caught the corner of Naruto’s eye and he turned to find a large bronze plaque set into a heavy stone sitting parallel to the path. He scanned the list of names and their embellishments to discover that it commemorated Sasuke’s entire family. Save the two who were still alive, of course.

Naruto caught sight of Team 8 relaxing on a bench on the opposite side of the lake and watched them with something akin to glee as he and his team mates continued strolling in the warm, afternoon sunlight under the very blue sky.

Shino had his hood thrown back and both he and Kiba were eating out of boxes of snacks balanced on their laps. Between them, Hinata had a fluffy, gold puppy wiggling on her knees and playfully trying to nip at the zipper of her coat and at the ends of her long hair. She was smiling and occasionally reached down to scratch a large white dog--that couldn’t be Akamaru, could it?--behind the ears, making his tail wag and thump against Kiba’s shins.

Naruto smiled at the scene and closed his eyes, inhaling a deep lungful of Konoha spring air. It was damn good to be home.

- - - - -

///Team 7 eyed the two bells jangling as they swung from their sensei’s fist with a keen sense of nostalgia.

As Kakashi attached them deftly to his hip, he said, “Come at me--”

“Like we intend to kill you,” Naruto inserted.

“Or else we won’t be able to get them,” Sakura continued.

“Right?” Sasuke finished.

Kakashi was faced with three knowing smirks. “Exactly.”

There was a pause and the masked jounin snapped his book shut and tucked it into his kunai pouch before deftly sliding his hitaeite up his forehead. His three students met his mismatched eyes with confidence and pride at their sensei’s confidence in them.

“Crap. Is one of us going to get tied to one of the stumps again?” Naruto suddenly said, his eyes on the three thick logs sticking out of the ground like thumbs. He remembered them taller.

Sakura rolled her eyes at the question and Sasuke smirked, remembering exactly who that ‘one of us’ had been the first time they’d done this.

Kakashi made a show of thinking before responding. “Possibly.”

“Ah, hey. No fair...Sasuke’s been training with you,” Naruto said, his voice reminiscent of his childhood whine.

“Not all the time,” Sasuke injected with a mutter, his eyes sweeping the ground.

Kakashi bypassed the moment and merely said, “Shall we begin, then?”///

Now, a handful of hours later, Naruto raced alongside his team mates through the darkened woods surrounding the training area, ears open for any sound that resembled a jingle. The full moon hung heavily in the rich sky.

In the midst of keeping a mental tally of his remaining clones, his remaining weapons, and his own location, a single thought fluttered across Naruto’s mind:

We’ve grown.

His clones were keeping Kakashi busy, chasing him towards the riverbank, where there was some open space that would hopefully counter Kakashi’s immaculate stealth abilities somewhat. He unthinkingly summoned another ten, fifteen clones, aiming to give Sakura and Sasuke enough time to take their sensei off guard.

Sakura’s improvement in the field over the last three years bordered on ridiculous. Naruto felt his crush on her rearing its head again. And why wouldn’t it? She was prettier and a better ninja--who wouldn’t be in love? He allowed himself a wry smile when he remembered he was married. Not that the one he was married to wasn’t also...well, prettier and a better ninja.

Naruto grimaced as he imagined Sasuke’s reaction to that last thought and focused more on the dark-haired teen’s movements. As they reached the clearing, as the three had planned, Sasuke’s sharingan snapped into place with a whirl and he shot forward with a burst of speed to meet Kakashi head on in a rather Naruto-like approach.

Movements blurred as Sasuke and Kakashi threw fists and kicks in a battle of speed that Naruto’s eyes could barely follow. There was a sudden glint in the moonlight and then the vivid sight of Kakashi adroitly flipping backwards to avoid the arch of Sasuke’s katana, which sang through the airspace that their sensei had been inhabiting milliseconds before.

Naruto would never admit that speed had always been Sasuke’s advantage over him, but it seemed that even he wasn’t quite up to Kakashi’s abilities just yet. Sakura gasped and Naruto’s eyes widened as the masked jounin’s hands flew through seals at an unthinkable pace, too fast for Sakura and Naruto to identify which seals had been formed.

“Shit,” Sasuke muttered, his red eyes on their sensei as Kakashi raised a hand curled into the shape of an ‘o’ to his mouth. “Move!” He yelled, leaping backwards.

His team mates followed him without hesitation and a split-second later a fireball the size of a small house barrelled towards them, ripping up the ground with deafening shreds and setting more than a few trees ablaze before colliding with a mountainous rock and exploding in a shower of hot boulder debris and large tree branches.

A deleterious, unbreathable cloud of thick dust and smoke whooshed out like a quick fog across the area and above the treetops into the night sky. Team 7 scattered out of its range, back into the cover of the large trees and their large shadows.

Sure he was far enough, Naruto glanced around him, his eyes squinting for sight of the others. Finding no one, he hurriedly created a clone and sent it out to search for them before he slumped against the trunk of a tree to catch his breath.

He wasn’t surprised when the clone returned with Sasuke a few minutes later. He dispelled the facsimile with a puff of smoke and his dark-haired team mate let him rest for a minute, red eyes scanning the woods.

“Sakura must have gone the opposite way,” he commented apathetically as the blonde pulled himself to his feet.

They began to walk, keeping to the shadows. Naruto sent out another two clones and Sasuke had his sharingan to make sure Kakashi didn’t creep up on them. He vaguely wondered how many clones Naruto had out and how many more he could call up--Sasuke suspected large numbers for both questions.

Naruto watched his husband as they walked. Sasuke’s gaze was on the path. After a minute of silence, Naruto predictably broke it.

“Why aren’t you looking at me?” He asked tactlessly. It hadn’t passed his attention that after the leaving the roof earlier, Sasuke hadn’t so much as looked him in the face.

“You assume you’re something to look at?” Sasuke retorted, eyes still ahead.

“Maybe I am...” Naruto said slyly. “Maybe ­that’s why you’re not looking at me.”

“Can we not do this now?” Sasuke hissed incredulously as he turned and suddenly fixed his glare directly on Naruto, who didn’t flinch at the sharp red gaze.

Sasuke made sure to keep the wall he was trying to maintain between him and Naruto solid despite the eye contact. The blue eyes made it a little more difficult than expected but Sasuke couldn’t think of a less dangerous way to deal with the thoughts he’d been having since Naruto’s reappearance that afternoon. He was attracted to the blonde; Sasuke could admit that much to himself.

He also knew all of the incredibly obvious reasons that it was a bad idea. The main one being Itachi--wasn’t it always Itachi? Sasuke let his gaze fall back to the ground, much to Naruto’s puzzlement, as Sasuke imagined exactly where this would go. He’d get attached to Naruto, he’d cultivate a bond, and Itachi would do a repeat performance of Sasuke’s blood-stained childhood.

Plus, Naruto would be better in combat against the Akatsuki member if he wasn’t fretting over Sasuke. Sasuke was sure that he shouldn’t let Naruto get attached to him lest Naruto suddenly find himself disliking the idea that Sasuke would sacrifice himself to bring his brother down. It wouldn’t do to have yet more interference in his quest for revenge.

Fucking bonds, Sasuke thought balefully.

“Wow, it’s like you didn’t miss me at all,” Naruto said cheekily, folding his arms.

“That’s not what I--” Sasuke broke off, frustrated. He was unsure how much of Naruto’s statement was meant to purely guilt him and how much of it was Naruto’s subtle way of asking something important.

Naruto was watching him closely and Sasuke took a step towards him, utterly unsure of how to breach the subject of how they should deal with any attraction between them. But he was consciously aware that this was neither the time nor the place for this conversation. Sasuke’s eyes finally drifted up to meet Naruto’s again.

It was hard to think with those blue eyes zeroed in on him.

The sound of a large water jutsu exploding out of the river in massive jets and waves to forcefully crash over the ground and through the tree trunks could be heard not too far away, alerting both boys as to the location of Kakashi and Sakura.

And Sasuke casually reached a hand out and hooked a finger into the black cloth of Naruto’s forehead protector, and swiftly dragged it down over his eyes.

Naruto resisted the urge to flail in the sudden darkness when he felt Sasuke’s hand on his shoulder. Naruto tensed, keenly aware of the possibility of attack, and opened his mouth to argue. But then Sasuke’s mouth was pressed firmly against his, the taller teen’s lips at a deep, insistent slant that made Naruto’s breath catch in his throat.

It was less of a shock than it had been when they were twelve.

There was a pause. A bird flittered out of the tree above them. Naruto found himself leaning into the kiss and the hand gripping his shoulder, wondering if Sasuke had his eyes closed this time.

- - - - -

Later that night as Sasuke lay in the comfort of his bed, he was still incredulous that they had won, had bested the famous CopyNin Sharingan Kakashi...because of a plot twist that Naruto hadn’t even actually known.

He stared at the ceiling, replaying how the blonde’s idea had gone like clockwork. Sasuke resisted the urge to snicker openly. Well, until Kakashi got to the end of the novel (or until Jiraiya stopped writing new ones), they held the key to his defeat.

The blonde teenager that was curled into Sasuke’s side shifted slightly, a hand coming into a loose curl in the middle of the taller teen’s solar plexus.

His quiet apartment had once again been filled with noise and energy as Naruto moved back in (laughing as he commented on how he thought Sasuke would have changed the furniture a little). In the few hours before tiredly climbing into his large bed, Sasuke had been absently wondering if Naruto would continue the habit that had begun before he’d left and sleep next to him.

About four minutes after Sasuke had laid his head down on his pillow, the blonde had finished brushing his teeth and had proceeded to take a flying leap over his prone husband onto what they both subtly designated as Naruto’s half. Naruto had given a chirpy ‘good night!’ and seemed happy enough with Sasuke’s noncommittal grunt for a reply.

Sasuke looked at him and frowned slightly. Now if only he could sort out how to deal with the guy he’d been married off to three years ago. If earlier this night was any indication, it was obvious he wasn’t going to get very far holding the blonde at arms length.

Not too long after nodding off, the blonde had ended up nestling into Sasuke’s side. Like he always used to, Sasuke had thought irritably. Now, two hours later, Sasuke was lying awake and staring at the ceiling, his arm around the blonde’s shoulders for the sake of his arm’s comfort--it had been going numb under the weight--while Naruto obliviously made himself comfortable against Sasuke’s side.

Due to the climate, both of them slept in their boxers with their torsos bare.

After a few minutes in this position, Sasuke realised that while this had probably been cute when they were 12, Sasuke would be 16 in three short months and snuggling under the covers meant a lot more than it used to.

As if confirming the dark-haired teen’s thoughts, Naruto’s sleeping self chose that moment to shift even closer. The blonde turned into Sasuke and Sasuke swallowed slowly as Naruto’s leg bent, curling over his own, and a bare knee dragged up his thigh, pushing up the hem of his boxer shorts.

Sasuke exhaled quickly as the hand on his stomach lazily drifted into a loose clutch under his bellybutton. He willed himself not to move, though he could feel his body starting to take an interest in the unfamiliar contact.

He’s so...close, Sasuke’s mind whispered almost in awe as he turned his head slightly and found Naruto’s face a scant few inches from his own. The blonde’s necklace was sandwiched between his shoulder and Naruto’s neck but Sasuke barely noticed. Almost involuntarily, Sasuke tilted his body towards the other teen, using the arm around his tan shoulders to pull them just that much closer. But the second before Sasuke closed the distance completely and brushed Naruto’s lips with his own, he ducked his head to the side, a blush blooming over his face and neck.

This is a bad idea, he thought, his nose buried in the blonde hair above Naruto’s ear.

A few meagre, tiny seeds of guilt and warning started to grow in Sasuke’s mind. If he allowed this mutual attraction to cultivate, it wouldn’t end fairly for either of them. He’d have to be completely honest with Naruto soon, he thought, tendrils of dread weighing him down into the sheets and cooling off his mildly aroused body.

Yeah, soon.

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