Damaetas

Naruto's summer days settled into a lazy pattern. He woke up to train his genin, putting them through fire and water, making them camp and survive on their own in the forest, teaching them chakra control and any jutsus they were focused enough to learn, and refining the jutsus they already knew. He always asked them to fight him, giving them time to think up strategies, and admitted that they'd pulled some pretty good ideas out of their hats even when he beat them every single time. Halfway through the first month, they began taking missions. At the end of the second month, Naruto's tan was darker and bronzer and all of his genin had new scars.

June came and went, and Kaiki learned how to walk on water; Nagi hung upside down from a tree branch. Hikaru beat them all and was able to create a tiny Rasengan in her hand. He taught them the seals for the summoning jutsu, promising he would teach them how to summon frogs when they were stronger. He thought, briefly, about trying to teach them the Chidori, but he'd never been very good at the move anyway and with good reason - only two people in this world knew how to really use the Chidori to its full potential.

The end of July creeped up, slow and hot. Naruto's genin had tried to beat him, and failed again. Now they lay spread out in the clearing, panting and sweat-soaked, eyes glazed with heat more than the sting of failure. Naruto checked to make sure they were all still breathing, then walked up the trunk of a tree, hung from a branch and retrieved a bag of chocolates from his leg pouch.

"Naruto-sensei," Kaiki said suddenly, pitching his voice for Naruto to hear. "When are you going to teach us how to summon the frogs?"

Naruto unwrapped a chocolate and gnawed on its tip, tasting: it was good stuff, all the way from the Rain Country where they made the best and sweetest chocolate. "When you're ready," he replied, sliding his tongue further down the chocolate. "And not if you keep bugging me."

He turned his head and saw Nagi roll over, so the kid could see him. "Who taught you how to summon, Naruto-sensei?"

Against the chocolate Naruto smiled, paused to consider his answer. "A very nasty, haughty, impatient guy."

"Oh, like you," Kaiki shouted, laughing.

"Ha ha." Naruto aimed a kunai, and it landed spare inches from Nagi's and Kaiki's faces. "You can keep your thoughts on that to yourself. Jeez, you're brats."

"Only a few steps from brat to jounin, just like you!"
"I bet the summoning jutsu is easy, anyway," Nagi said. "We could probably figure it ourselves, without your help."

"Oh?" Naruto lifted his eyebrows. "Is that a dare, Nagi-*kun*?"

"If it is, I ain't takin' it," said Kaiki. "You're on your own, Nagi."

"Well - maybe it is." Nagi leaned forward on his elbows, frowning up at Naruto. "What could be so hard about it? We already know the seals. You just do them and call forth the frog, right? Put a little chakra into it and how hard can it be?"

"Okay. Okay," Naruto said, swinging himself upright and dropping to a lower branch, closer to the genin. "You don't think it's hard? That's cool by me. You go ahead and try it. Go on," he lifted his lips when Nagi hesitated. "Doing a few hand seals never killed anyone, kid."

"Cripes, fine, I will." Nagi sat cross-legged, shook out his hands, popped his knuckles; keeping one wary eye on Naruto, he formed the hand seals - slowly, Naruto noted, so slowly he'd get his ass killed in combat before he could squeeze out one 'horse' - then raised his four fingers and pressed them together, eyes sliding shut as he called up chakra. Naruto wasn't Neji, he didn't have a Byakugan and he couldn't see anyone's chakra system, but he could tell from the sweat on Nagi's forehead and the shaking in his fingers that he was calling forth a good deal, maybe enough to do maybe three fair-sized Kage Bunshins. "Summoning no Jutsu!" he said, fingers pressing tight together, so tight all the blood drained out of them.

A short pause, and then Kaiki said, "Ah, it didn't work."

"Correct," Naruto said, standing as Nagi collapsed on his back, face white with effort. "And I'll tell ya why. First of all, all summoning jutsus need the ninja to make a blood deal with whatever animal he wants to summon. I cut my thumb, I let it bleed like crazy and then I make the deal in blood, and now I'm the master of the frog summons. With me so far?"

"You could have *told* me it wouldn't work without this frickin' blood thing!" Nagi yelled at him. He could barely sit up, but he lifted his finger middle up at Naruto anyway. "Fuck, that was a waste of chakra, you bastard."

"Oh, please. Writing your name in blood doesn't mean you can summon creatures." Naruto sighed and rubbed at his headache again, the spot right above his eye these brats always seemed to make throb. "That puny amount of chakra you just summoned wouldn't get you anywhere. Maybe a tadpole, but I wouldn't bet on it. Depends on how your luck is, I guess."

"A summoning jutsu," said Hikaru, "requires a huge amount of controlled chakra expenditure, plus the blood contract. That's why most people who summon creatures are jounin masters, thirty or forty years old."
"Bingo!" Naruto raised a finger. "Chakra none of you have, right now. Or, maybe you have it, but you sure as hell ain't calling it up. So that, my young ninja friends, is why I haven't taught you the summoning jutsu yet. Are we all clear?"

Kaiki raised a thumb, Nagi his middle finger. Naruto rolled his eyes and reached in his pouch for another piece of chocolate. God, kids did him in.

"So you're the frog master," Kaiki finally said, after a long pause. "Then we can't summon frogs while you're - you know, ehh - still alive, right?"

"Nope." Naruto almost dribbled out a mouthful and caught it just in time, then licked his fingers clean. "You can summon them, you just aren't their master. Which means," and he snorted here, remembering, "you'll have a damned time trying to get them to do what you want. You're pretty much screwed if one of them doesn't take a liking to you."

"Why even bother, then?"

"Because," Naruto said, patience beginning to stretch, "one of them *might* take a liking to one of you. What, would you rather *not* learn the jutsu? You don't wanna be able to call up huge amounts of chakra? You want to stay a genin all your life?"

Kaiki sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose in a weirdly adult way. "No, Naruto-sensei. You're right."

Orochimaru took control of Sasuke's body on his fifteenth birthday - gave him enough time to grow properly, to mature into the type of body Orochimaru wanted. Naruto met him in a bar the night before, in a hot, sweltering gambling town, and by silent agreement they didn't fight as they usually would but sat in a booth, drinking sake and sampling the bar's ramen.

Sasuke never got to be too tall - his body had been used too hard - but he was tall enough that Naruto had to look up at him, and that always irritated him. Sitting down, though, the difference wasn't so obvious, except that Sasuke's fingers were longer than this and his legs, cramped in the small booth, brushed against Naruto's every so often. Neither said anything, but a bit of heat would touch Sasuke's neck and he would sit up straighter. They were both keenly aware that any wrong move could trigger a fight, end up in broken noses and bloody hands for the both of them.

Sasuke asked how Sakura was doing; Naruto told him about Lee, and after that Sasuke didn't ask about anyone else. They kept delicately away from the topic of Kakashi. Once the conversation strayed to Jiraiya, and Sasuke unbent long enough to ask who Naruto thought was stronger, Orochimaru or Jiraiya.

"Dunno," Naruto had replied, running his finger over his sake cup. "It's different, fighting a friend. I don't know who'd win."

A sardonic smile lifted Sasuke's lips and twisted them to one side. "You never have trouble fighting me."

"'Cause you're a dick," Naruto said, but he didn't say Sasuke wasn't his friend. Sasuke's twisted smile stayed in place, but he reached over and poured Naruto another cup and slid it across the table to him.

The bar closed, and the owner leaned over their table and told them, apologetically, that they had to clear out; looked at their flushed cheeks and heavy eyes, and asked them if they could get home all right. Sasuke stood, slinging Naruto's arm over his shoulders, and dropped some money into the owner's hands and told him they'd be perfectly fine.

They stumbled, cursing and tripping over each other's feet, into Sasuke's hotel room; Sasuke dumped him on the bed and fell on it beside him, and the room was heavy and moist with the sounds of their breathing. Naruto turned his head, pillowed it on his wrist and stared at the good side of Sasuke's face, the one with pale unmarked skin and a heavy-lidded eye, pupil clear and iris coal-black. Then he closed his eyes, concentrating on breathing.

Something cool touched his neck, at his jugular, and his eyes came open again to find Sasuke's face crowding his, eyes lit with moonlight. Silver shafts of light played over the curse marks on the side of his face; they twisted flaming fingers down his neck and Naruto could almost feel the heat of them. He looked down at the knife pressed to his neck and, in a few seconds, felt the warm heat of blood gathering on his skin.

"I could kill you now," Sasuke whispered, warm breath raising the hairs on Naruto's arms. "I should. And then you'd be gone... stop bothering me, forever. Dead last. Useless. Stupid. I'd never see you again...."

He moved the knife to the side, and the blood ran down Naruto's neck to his chest. Naruto kept his breathing even and his eyes open, staring up at the black-and-white boy in his face, straddling his waist. His arms had gotten twisted together behind his back, somehow, with Sasuke's hands holding his wrists together in an iron grip.

He was very uncomfortable, but also very drunk, so the blade pressed tight against his skin - a little tighter and it'd be goodbye, kyuubi - didn't bother him too bad. Hell, Naruto thought fuzzily, wouldn't be too sad if he did it - if he killed him - he'd only be doing what everyone had been afraid to do when he was a baby, and were even more afraid to do know that his and the kyuubi's chakra had all but fused.

"Orochimaru would thank me," Sasuke said, this time against Naruto's neck where the knife had left a long, thin red mark. Breath against that mark made Naruto jerk a little, not quite from pain but - "And then I could do what I have to do and you'd have nothing to say about it, you wouldn't be looking at me like I'm something disgusting - fuck you, Naruto, I'm only doing what I have to do." He pressed his open mouth to the cut and his tongue flicked out, touched and tasted blood as he spoke: "And I'd finally be better than you, like I was in the first place, like I should be.... damn you, damn you, damn you to hell...."

Naruto swallowed, skin jumping against Sasuke's mouth. "Fuck you," he said dizzily, "it's my turn to be good at everything."

Sasuke's mouth on his neck, Sasuke's hand holding his tightly together and the other hand sliding up his waist - Sasuke slithered up Naruto's chest, mouth sliding from his neck to his jaw and then to his mouth, brushing open-mouthed against Naruto's lips. His hand released Naruto's, and Naruto raised his hip off them and lifted them to Sasuke's shoulders, then slid them into Sasuke's hair as Sasuke's tongue pried his lips open and dipped into his mouth. He pressed Sasuke's face closer, forcing his tongue deeper into his mouth.

He'd only kissed someone two times - first Hinata, and that had been her initiative, shy as she was. It was nice and all, but a little clumsy because they didn't really know how to use their tongues. Second had been Shikamaru, because they were drunk and good friends. That was better because damn, did Shikamaru know how to use his tongue.


But this kiss was different, because they were really drunk and Sasuke's hips were already starting to move against his. He'd never had someone on top of him like this and he'd never heard these noises, these soft wet sucking noises as Sasuke touched his tongue, tangled with it, forced their jaws together because he was going so far into Naruto's mouth. And he'd never had someone touch him like Sasuke did now, sliding a hand down his back, under his shirt, and then slipping under Naruto's pants and touching - Naruto jerked up, moaning into Sasuke's mouth, and felt Sasuke's lips spreading into a smile.

"Don't smirk at me, motherfucker-" he said, and Sasuke kissed him again, hard and deep. His hand tried to move, but Naruto reached down and grabbed his wrist, held him where he was. Sasuke smiled again, let go of his lips and touched his tongue to the strand of saliva connecting their mouths.

"I've never," he said, muffled against Naruto's neck, "done this before."

He was moving his hand and Naruto's eyes were rolling back in pleasure, hips seeming to move without his control, but he looked up at Sasuke anyway, seeing his rival hazily through a film of desire. "Doesn't he-?" he started to say, then his words turned into moans again and he couldn't finish.

"He doesn't count."

Sasuke. Sasuke. Sasuke. Naruto moaned his name as Sasuke fastened his mouth over his erection; lifted his lips up helplessly, jerking before Sasuke threw his hands over them and forced them back to the bed. Sasuke sucked him hard, sucked him fast and Naruto closed his eyes against a spinning world, feeling heat hotter than the sweltering fire of the kyuubi's chakra pooling in his spine, rushing down to his toes, centering overwhelmingly in the spot between his legs and where Sasuke's fingers rested on his hips.

And then the heat was cut off, abruptly, left hanging as Sasuke let go of him, slid up his body again. "Fuck!" Naruto spat at him, jerking his mouth away when Sasuke tried to kiss him. "What the fuck are you - bastard, you -"

"Shut up." Sasuke ran his tongue over his lips, pushed it in briefly and then licked his jaw and the cut on his neck, which was beginning to seal over. "There are better things to do, you dumbass." He touched a finger to Naruto's neck, which burned slightly as the skin finally rebuilt itself, and said, "I could cut you all over and watch that, all day."

"Do me a favor and don't."

"What, Naruto?" Sasuke flashed him a sharp grin and scraped a long fingernail across his cheek, not hard enough to cut. "I would have figured you for the kinky type, you weirdo."

"Sounds like something he would do," Naruto said distastefully.

Sasuke snorted, and flipped his finger over so it was smooth skin running over his cheek. "Yeah," he said. "It does."

They kissed, warm and soft this time, with Sasuke's hands running underneath his shirt and feeling over his skin, then sliding down to his hips. He slipped out of Naruto's mouth and reached across him, grabbing something - Naruto twisted his head and saw his white fingers on a yellow-tinted pillow. "What's that for?"

"To prop you up."

"Eh?" Naruto licked his lips, running his tongue over his teeth; trying to figure out which taste was him and which was Sasuke. His lips felt funny, his whole body did, actually. "Why?"

"God!" Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Lift your hips," he instructed, and shoved it under Naruto's hips when he obeyed. "You're such a freakin' virgin."

A finger strayed near his mouth; Naruto bit it with his canines, eyes narrowing when Sasuke cursed. "Don't call me a virgin, you shithead."

"Well you are, aren't you?" Sasuke slipped his pants off, leaving his shirt on, and settled himself on Naruto again, nuzzling under his jaw as he said, "The more you talk, the less I want to fuck you."

"Who says I want *you* to fuck *me*?" Naruto said indignantly, slapping Sasuke's hands away when they touched his pants.

"Holy shit, Naruto!" Sasuke moved off him, sitting cross-legged on the bed. His snake eye flashed. "You don't get anything at all, do you."

"Oh, fuck you." Naruto desperately wanted to reach down and jerk off, but he had a feeling Sasuke would get up and leave if he did. And - much as he hated the snake bastard, much as he wanted to kill him sometimes... this was the last night Sasuke would be Sasuke. He turned over on his stomach, gingerly, and stared up at Sasuke, who was looking not at him but out the window now. "Hey," he said, catching Sasuke's eyes. "What are you waiting for? Ain't your ass getting cold sitting over there?"

Sasuke tilted his head, frowned.

"Doesn't mean I like you or anything," Naruto continued, "but... you know. Whatever. I'm drunk, okay?"

There was that smirk again, that snakey smile; it stretched against his lips, not as cold as it looked when Sasuke kissed him again, feeling through his mouth like there was something in there, riches or maybe... just something he'd been looking for, for a long time. Naruto wrapped his arms around Sasuke's shoulders and fell onto his back, taking Sasuke with him and ending up with his legs splayed and Sasuke on his hips, sliding his pants down till they bunched around his ankles. Another kiss, another stroke against his tongue; then Sasuke slipped down, moving his hand toward....

.... Christ. Naruto tensed against the finger slipping through his muscle, into a place tight and hot that he'd thought no one would ever want to touch, much less... His cheeks burned; the pain wasn't too bad - he was a ninja, after all, and it beat having your arm bent at five different angles - but it was... pretty embarrassing, having Sasuke touch him this way. He tried to remember if he'd showered this morning.

"Naruto," Sasuke mumbled against his chest, looking up at him with slitted eyes. "You okay?"

The finger was going still deeper, and another was joining it, stretching and stretching. Naruto squirmed, trying to make it more comfortable. "Yeah," he said, and cleared his throat because it'd come out funny; repeated it. "Yeah, it's just... weird, ya know?"

Sasuke's smile showed teeth. "It gets better. Trust me."

Trust him? Trust Sasuke, his rival in early years, his enemy in later ones? The kid he'd thought was sort of kind of maybe his friend had turned out not to be after all, had actually turned out to hate him a little, to envy him. And yet... still... childhood memories were hard to let go of, and Naruto did trust Sasuke. He trusted him not to snap his neck when they were both tired from a fight and lying on the ground next to each other; so many times, it seemed, Sasuke could have killed him easily. After so many lost chances, Naruto started to figure out that maybe Sasuke couldn't do it; and then he started to figure, maybe he didn't want to.
He'd never thought about what Sasuke did want.

And what he wanted, now he was getting: Naruto was on bottom and Sasuke was the one with his fingers up him, stretching him, adding yet another one and Naruto was finding that yeah... this actually felt... not too bad at all. He was being conquered.

And yet... sometimes, when the heat died down - like now - Sasuke kissed him almost gently, almost like it was less of a battle and more a kind of mutual thing, just making him feel good. Times like these had always endeared Sasuke to Naruto, when they weren't fighting and were just hanging out; even if Sasuke teased him, it seemed a little like it was more because that was the only way Sasuke could express himself, not that he actually meant the insult or wanted Naruto to be hurt by it.

"You think too much," Sasuke said into his mouth. "I never thought I'd say that."

"Mmmm...." Naruto shifted, moving Sasuke's fingers with him, and tilted his neck back and stretched a little. "Sasuke...."

"Okay," Sasuke whispered. "Get ready." He laid his hands on Naruto's hips, moved his legs apart, and settled in between them. And then he *pushed,* and Naruto reared up because shit, now it did hurt, maybe worse than that arm bent at five different angles. He squeezed his eyes shut and cursed under his breath when he found that tears were gathering under his closed lids. He was Uzumaki Naruto, dammit, and he was not going to cry.

"Okay. Okay." Sasuke's voice sounded different, deeper and hoarser, strained. Naruto opened his eyes a little and saw Sasuke's face over his, looking weird, not all that different from his pained expression. Well, shit, was this going to be good for either of them? "Relax... you're too tense."

"That's because you've got your dick up my ass, stupid," Naruto bit out.

Sasuke snorted. Naruto opened his eyes all the way, watching him: Sasuke's face was changing, even as the pain was getting less. He bit his lip, then bent his head, and Naruto ran his eyes over the arch of his spine and the heaving of his back. Sasuke breathed deeply, once, twice, then lifted his head again and nuzzled against Naruto's neck again. "Relax," he repeated. "Relax."

He did, biting his lip, and thought that the pain was getting better. Chewing on his lip, Naruto moved his hips, experimentally, and heard Sasuke moan, long and heartfelt. "You can move," he told Sasuke, knotting his hands in the bedsheets. "You're supposed to, right?"

Sasuke nodded, then propped himself up on one arm and reached with his other to move Naruto's leg; then he leaned down, bent his head and thrusted. Naruto jerked and moaned, himself, without meaning to. Sasuke thrust again, his eyes getting heavy, mouth going lax with pleasure, and then he was moving into a steady rhythm and the hot-pleasure feeling spread through Naruto's body, in his dick, at his spine, radiating in spikes all throughout his body.
Sasuke whispered something, muffled in his neck; might've been his name. He leaned down and kissed Naruto, lips and tongue working frantically, thrusting in time with his hips. The pleasure was almost painful, now, he was rock hard; Naruto clutched frantically at the sheets, digging his fingers and his heels into the bed, then reached up to wrap his arms around Sasuke's neck, pushing himself closer. Sasuke groaned, cursed, propped himself on one arm again and used the other to lift up Naruto's leg and settle it over his shoulder, then did the same with the other leg. Then he let go, and they fell onto the bed together.

And that was it, that was perfect. Naruto bit into Sasuke's shoulder, groaning as he thrust harder and faster. Sasuke was pressing kisses against his face, wet and messy, whispering and moaning against his mouth; he thrust once more, groaned heavily, thrust again and came, deep and hot in Naruto.

And he went still, breathing hot against Naruto's neck, one arm tucked under Naruto's back and the other flung across the bed. Biting his lip, Naruto freed one hand from beneath his stomach and grabbed his dick, bringing himself to a fast and messy climax. Then, hesitantly, he wrapped his arms around Sasuke's heaving back. He stared up at the ceiling, at the colored lights on the ceiling from the gambling houses and brothels outside. Eventually, while he stroked his back, Sasuke's breathing evened out and he fell asleep; Naruto stayed awake and spent the night running a hand over the curse seal, again and again and again.

In the morning Sasuke was gone, and the next time Naruto saw him the body, face and voice were Sasuke's, but it was Orochimaru smiling behind Sasuke's mask.

He went home and began dating women.

--

Thanks again to the reviewers. Stormraven: *blinks* You know, I never really thought about the tongue thing. Sasuke with Orochimaru's tongue would be super freaky, but I guess he probably does have it. O_o And the really bad earrings and fashion sense, to boot - oh, Sasuke, you poor bastard.

twisted-sheets: There were actually some really embarrassing continuity errors in the ff.net version WHICH WE WILL NOT SPEAK OF. XD But thank you, I'm really glad you like the story. I always appreciate hearing that. :)