Like Ninja Fighters

Happy Birthday Naruto!

Like Ninja Fighters

Chapter 3: Evasive Battle Maneuvers

"If you hit him with fire, and I hit him with wind, we might get the double attack hit this time," Naruto spoke. Sasuke didn't answer, his fingers already clicking away, pushing the buttons in the pattern that would allow him to use his blazing fire hawk attack. Naruto's fingers click-clacked on the buttons to get the right combo to use his dynamic whirlwind fury rush. The result of their attack flashed on the screen.

TRIPLE DAMAGE! Super effective combo! Great teamwork!

The bar indicating their opponent's life drained all the way down, and the image of their opponent dropped to the ground before it disappeared.

They'd just beaten the first of the four main bosses: the first of the four Samurai Guardians.

"Yes!" Naruto whooped, pumping his fist into the air. Sasuke just gave a satisfied smirk as the option to “save” or “save and quit” appeared on the screen.

"Lunch," Sasuke said as he hit the “save and quit” option. Frowning, Naruto turned to look at Sasuke.

"I wanted to keep playing," Naruto protested.

"You always want to keep playing. Even if there were an earthquake, you would want to keep going. It’s a good place to save so we can eat lunch. Besides, I need a bathroom break," Sasuke grunted as he put the controller down and headed to the bathroom. Naruto blinked and considered the idea. Now that Sasuke had mentioned it, he realized he also had to use the bathroom. Putting his controller down too, Naruto decided he'd get lunch started first.

While he could wait at the bathroom door and bug Sasuke to hurry up as he used to do, Naruto decided that getting lunch started would mean they could get back to playing as soon as possible. Plus (Naruto blushed in thought), Naruto wanted to give Sasuke as much space away from anything personal like that. After what happened about a month ago...

Naruto distracted himself from his thoughts as he started boiling water for ramen. When Sasuke came into the kitchen, Naruto headed to the bathroom. When Naruto came back into the kitchen, Sasuke had sliced up some vegetables and began to sauté them. It was an unspoken thing between them: Naruto made ramen, Sasuke made vegetables to supplement it.

"Game time says we have a total of 13 hours and 23 minutes playing time. We got through the first of the four Samurai Guardians. The internet game spoilers said estimated time to get to him was 15 hours and 20 minutes. We're almost two hours ahead," Naruto said as he poured the ramen noodles into the boiling water.

"We should also have an advantage over the third Samurai Guardian because of that Ninja Chronicles episode that gave us the secret code last week," Sasuke mused.

"Yeah, but that's a shortcut."

"Entering the code will let us have the battle with the third Samurai Guardian twenty rooms earlier when we get to the Summer Palace. It will save at least an hour of playing time. The only thing we'll miss out on is experience points fighting the Palace’s Ninja Ops. Besides, if we enter that code, we fight him in the Ninja Warrior Room of the Summer Palace versus the Samurai Warrior Room of the Summer Palace. In the Ninja Warrior Room, you know that Nori and Jun have greater power because they're ninja. The Third Samurai Guardian would have more power if we waited because we'd be fighting him in the Samurai Warrior Room, which gives him the advantage. You know he's the most powerful of the four Samurai Guardians, so you know he's going to be a pain in the ass to defeat in the game too. Don’t you remember how long it took us to defeat him in Ninja Chronicles Game Six? And that wasn’t even to kill him. This will get rid of him like in the show."

"Yeah, yeah, but I really wanted to fight him in the Samurai Warrior Room! That's what really happens in the show when they finally manage to kill him for real. The Ninja Warrior Room isn't where they fight him. It's like cutting out five episodes of the series if we fight him sooner."

"But it saves time since the Ninja Warrior Room comes first. Don't you want to finish the game before the last episode of Ninja Chronicles airs?" Sasuke wondered.

"You know I do! But still, I like the part in the Ninja Warrior Room when it's just Nori and Jun. It takes away something from what happened if that stupid Third Samurai Guardian is there. That’s where they finally find out for sure that Jun is the true Emperor's son, and that Jun was stolen at birth. That was such a big part of the series! They’ve been trying to assassinate the fake Emperor since the very beginning and reinstate the true Emperor on the throne. I mean, it was so obvious that Jun was the real Emperor’s son, even from the very beginning of the series, but of course they didn't confirm it until almost ten years later in the anime!"

"Of course they didn't confirm it until later. That would have spoiled the suspense."

Still, it was something that both Sasuke and Naruto were looking forward to in the final two-hour special on Monday; how would Jun tell the true and rightful Emperor (who Jun had just happened to save in the previous episode from the evil/fake Emperor's hands) that he was really his son? How was Jun going to reveal his true heritage? How would the true Emperor take to this news?

They'd both been so eager to find out what would happen with Jun and the Emperor for years. Over three years ago, even before they'd known the "truth" of Jun's parentage, they had started going online to look for spoilers. Of course, with the hype and popularity of the Ninja Chronicles series, it was hard to believe what sites were actually giving out real information.

Upon looking for spoilers, it was then that Naruto had stumbled upon fan-fiction. Ninja Chronicles was the most popular anime that people wrote about, so he became fascinated with reading people's ideas of how Jun would reveal his secret. Sasuke started reading fan-fiction as well, but initially he had done so with less enthusiasm and intensity as Naruto.

It was Sasuke, however, who had accidentally stumbled upon the Nori/Jun slash community. Not being as big a fan-fiction reader as Naruto at the time as he preferred the real story to amateur writers, he stumbled upon a fic where Nori/Jun was listed in the summary. He assumed that it meant that they were the main focus of the story since they're the main characters of the series.

It wasn't until 20 chapters in the massive fic that he realized Nori/Jun with an "M" rating wasn't due to the violence in the story but a more intimate reason.

Nonetheless, the story was well written, and he continued to read it to the end, even after the very graphic male/male sex scenes that the fanfic writer had written between Sasuke's two favorite characters. In fact, the story was so well written that he decided to read other fics by the same author and found all of them to be good despite the Nori/Jun pairing.

He read all of the fics that she recommended in her author profile, and then began to read all of the fics in those authors’ profiles. Most all of those stories centered on the Nori/Jun slash pairing (or Jun/Nori at times), but it didn’t bother him as much as he felt it would have bothered Naruto.

After almost a year went by of reading fanfiction, Sasuke realized he was beginning to look for that pairing. It seemed to fit cannon, and the Nori/Jun fandom seemed to have the best (as well as the worst) authors.

Sasuke never told Naruto about the type of fics he read though. It would be too embarrassing and awkward. Even more embarrassing was when he'd begun to read through the stories, and in his imagination replaced Nori with himself and Jun with Naruto's image when he read the fics.

The damn fanfiction had begun to make Sasuke look at Naruto in a new light.

He began to fantasize about Naruto in a very less than brotherly fashion. How do you explain to your best friend you have begun to fantasize about having sex with him? How was he supposed to explain he enjoyed watching Naruto’s body whenever he took his shirt off?

After looking back on their past, Sasuke began to realize that he had always been jealous of the friends that Naruto had made. He had always chalked up his jealousy at feeling replaced.

The feeling had actually made them have a slight falling out their freshman year when all of their fights hadn’t actually been staged. Some of those had been out of actual anger. One in particular had been due to a pretty bad misunderstanding.

But now, looking back on it, he’d been jealous because he had liked Naruto. Not to the degree he did now, but it had been intense even then. Sasuke had felt a bond for Naruto so strong that he hadn’t wanted anything – and especially anyone – to come between them. He had lost his entire family at the age of eight, and he wasn’t about to lose Naruto any time soon. Not to anyone.

Of course, living as brothers, he had always assumed that it was a brotherly connection. Sasuke had a feeling his own horrible past with his brother had made a normal brotherly relationship with Naruto impossible. He hadn’t ever thought of Naruto like a true younger brother. He was protective of him but almost possessive about Naruto’s attention. Sasuke didn’t want anyone else to be a part of the relationship they had – unless it was Kakashi, but that was different.

Sasuke worried that at some point and time, Naruto would realize he wouldn’t want to be with just Sasuke and Kakashi anymore.

Sasuke realized that he wanted, in a strange rush of embarrassment, to spend the rest of his life with Naruto. He had always thought they’d be together forever.

The sexual part of it hadn’t come until he’d started reading the damn fanfiction.

But he hadn’t wanted to like Naruto like that. He didn’t want to see him as something different. And he especially didn’t want Naruto to freak out on him if he realized his feelings for him were in any way sexual.

It was weird really. He’d seen Naruto naked a lot growing up. They’d taken showers together and hadn’t thought anything of it. Sasuke had seen Naruto’s body develop over the years, but in the past year…

The past year, Naruto had finally grown into his body.

When his desires became more intense during the beginning of their senior year, he began to draw away from Naruto to prevent himself from acting on those feelings. If he drew away first, Sasuke reasoned it wouldn’t hurt as much when Naruto did it himself.

Of course, hiding things from Naruto was never easy.

Naruto noticed Sasuke’s behavior, and started doing things to try and bug Sasuke to tell him what was wrong. Sasuke refused. Instead, he locked himself in his room and read more and more fanfiction, or worked out his frustration by practicing solo karate moves.

Needless to say Naruto wasn’t one to sit around and do nothing about Sasuke not talking to him. Not to mention, Naruto was worried about Sasuke.

The only time Naruto could get Sasuke to do anything with him was when they did karate together. They both loved to practice it, and it was something that just seemed to come to them like second nature.

Naruto craved Sasuke’s attention. He needed Sasuke to pay attention to him. While it had taken years for Naruto to finally admit it to himself, he actually liked that Sasuke usually only paid attention to him. Yet when Sasuke began to stop paying as much attention to him, a slight sense of fear began to well up in him. He tried to ignore it, and scoff it up to Sasuke’s bad attitude.

But when Naruto noticed Sasuke was starting to avoid even playing videogames with him, it had started to really bother him. He was getting desperate to figure out why his best friend was pushing him away.

When Sasuke wasn’t happy, something in Naruto tugged at his heart. After all, Sasuke was his first real friend. He had chosen Sasuke to become a part of their family, and it hurt that Sasuke seemed to be rejecting him.

Two months previous Naruto logged on to Sasuke's computer without permission in an attempt to see why Sasuke was spending so much more time online than with him.

Naruto found the answers he was looking for, even if he had no idea what to make of it. When Sasuke caught him on his computer Naruto claimed he was looking for some new fics to read because Naruto was in desperate need of more fics.

Sasuke thought he might have been lying, trying to find answers as to why Sasuke was avoiding him.

Either way, it didn’t matter what Naruto had been trying to find. It was obvious Naruto had seen all the Nori/Jun and Jun/Nori fics in Sasuke’s favorites. Naruto didn’t confront him about it when Sasuke demanded for him to get out of his room. In fact, Naruto seemed more than pleased to hurry away.

Sasuke didn’t like how Naruto was clearly uncomfortable around him after that.

Naruto wasn’t sure what to make of Sasuke’s curiosity. He also wasn’t sure how to handle the fact of how curious the idea of Nori and Jun – of Sasuke and himself together had made him.

It wasn't until last month (a full month after the “discovery”) that Naruto finally decided to confront Sasuke about the fics when Sasuke still refused to talk about it.

"Why do you have so many Nori/Jun stories in your favorites’ folder? You realize that they have gay sex in them, don’t you?" Naruto finally blurted out as he walked into Sasuke's room.

"They're well written, detailed, and show better character growth," Sasuke replied, minimizing the story on his computer which happened to be another Jun/Nori fic – and he was right in the middle of reading a sex scene between the two of them no less. He turned around in his seat to face Naruto, doing his best to hide any and all embarrassment from his face. The total embarrassment of getting caught reading the story had at least had the effect of killing his semi-hard erection.

"Isn't it weird?" Naruto prompted.

"Isn't what weird?"

"They're both guys and stuff..."

"I didn't realize you were discriminatory against another person's choice in lifestyle-"

"I'm not!" Naruto interrupted on the defensive.

"Then what's the problem? The pairing seems very close to the storyline in the anime as they're so close to each other."

"But two guys being good friends doesn't mean they're in love with each other, and it especially doesn’t mean that they go around wanting to screw each other. Being close doesn't mean there's anything romantic at all! Guys can be close and mean nothing by it. I mean, we’re not like that!" Naruto said with a blush. Sasuke found he couldn’t quite meet Naruto’s eyes for that statement.

"Of course. But guys can be close and be pulled together romantically."

"Well, yeah, I guess, but...doesn't it bother you?"

"Should it? They're just stories," Sasuke said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

"I mean, don't you kinda think of Nori like you and Jun like me?"

"What are you implying?"

"Reading those fics is like reading about us having sex!" Naruto blurted out, his face scarlet red. Sasuke didn't say anything, his heart beating faster. Of course he'd known what Naruto had implied when he'd mentioned Nori being like him and Jun like Naruto; he just wanted to see if Naruto thought so too.

"You thought that?" Sasuke murmured seriously, trying to turn his insecurities around on Naruto.

"Yes! I mean, no! I mean, but yes and, well, didn't it make you wonder?" Naruto asked uncertainly.

Silence settled between them. Apparently Sasuke wasn't the only one whose ideas had been influenced by those fics.

He watched Naruto’s face and was fascinated when he saw a strange look of curiosity come over Naruto. It shocked Sasuke to see Naruto so blatantly curious about how their relationship could develop into something more.

"Somewhat," Sasuke finally said honestly. Naruto paused, scratching the back of his head nervously. "You’ve been reading these types of fics longer than just when you found them on my computer, haven’t you?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, maybe. It’s, I dunno. Safe that way. To think of us like that; it’s like it’s us but not."

Even though Naruto’s words held no real substance to them, Sasuke felt he understood completely.

Both blushed as they realized they’d both wondered what it was like to be with the other.

"What does this mean?" Naruto asked. Sasuke shrugged.

What were they to say when they realized they’d both been secretly wondering what it would be like to be involved sexually with someone they’d known for half their life? Well, maybe not sexually but more than friendly. Okay, sexually.

"Who knows?"

"You're the genius! You're supposed to know!" Naruto yelled angrily.

There was a strange excitement in the pit of Sasuke's stomach.

"Well," Sasuke began, "It could mean nothing. We’re both curious though. I’ve read through various articles, and more than fifty percent of the populace wonders about what it would be like to engage in same-sex acts. People are curious beings. We should test it."

"Test what?"

"To see if there could be a spark of something between us, or if it’s just because we’re both curious."

Sasuke had a feeling Naruto was thinking about asking what "it" was. But Sasuke also knew Naruto knew what he was talking about. Testing "it" meant testing the relationship between the two of them. Were they just two close friends? Or could they be like in all those fics where Nori and Jun pushed their relationship further?

"How do we test that? A k-kiss?" Naruto stuttered, blushing madly.

"Yeah," Sasuke said, jumping at the opportunity. He couldn’t deny that he’d thought about it and had wanted to kiss Naruto for months now. More than kiss in fact. But a kiss would be a nice start.

Sasuke swallowed and felt his stomach flip-flop now that it was out in the open. A kiss. He was going to kiss Naruto. Somehow it was more nerve-wracking than erotic. Wasn’t it supposed to be romantic and sexy like in the stories?

Naruto licked his lips. Feeling awkward, Sasuke stood up. Naruto wiped his hands on his pants, clearly unsure of what to do with them.

They moved toward each other hesitantly. Sasuke felt overly aware of how the few times he'd kissed anyone seemed like too long ago to remember how to kiss properly. He also didn't recall enjoying kissing any of those girls much either.

Naruto didn't think the tentative kiss that he'd shared with Hinata had prepared him for a kiss with Sasuke, but it wasn't like it was going to matter how good a kisser he was, right? It was supposed to be a terrible kiss anyway since they were both guys. It was Sasuke. He was just being stupid for being curious.

There was nothing romantic or sexual between them, Naruto thought firmly.

Leaning in slowly, their lips finally touched, and Sasuke and Naruto's eyes fluttered closed. Neither moved their mouths, instead just let the kiss be a slight pressure of lips against lips. They kept their hands at their sides, no interaction in the kiss what so ever.

Their hearts beat rapidly at the thought of what they were doing, of the final answer to their curiosity.

It was nice. Soft, tentative, but it sent a thrilling jolt through both of them.

"What are – ?!"

Sasuke and Naruto broke apart at lightning speed, looking mortified as they saw Kakashi standing in the doorway, staring at them in shock.

"He – "

"I – " Naruto and Sasuke spoke at the same time. "Nothing happened!" Naruto exclaimed in a rush as he stormed out of Sasuke's room past Kakashi. Sasuke didn't look after Naruto as he sat down in his chair, spinning it around to look at his computer screen, his back facing Kakashi, his cheeks a bright red.

After a moment, Kakashi left the room without a word.

Nobody spoke about what happened. Even so, it was obvious that Kakashi kept an extra close eye on them and their behavior after the little “incident.”

Because of their embarrassment, Sasuke and Naruto had been avoiding each other even more. Not that it was difficult at school. They rarely spoke on school property – fought, yes, spoke, no.

In middle school they had both been almost inseparable during school hours and were known for singling out bullies and beating them up. Of course, that was how they had managed to get expelled from school. Twice. They had a tendency to go overboard when dealing with bullies.

Back on their first day of high school they had concocted a plot to keep from being expelled from school for beating up bullies. Naruto knew he would want to hurt any bullies there, and Sasuke knew that if Naruto did that, the bullies would go after Naruto, and Sasuke would come and have to save Naruto’s butt. However, if they fought each other and staged how to look so amazing in their fights, bullies would be so scared of them that they wouldn't want to pick fights with them, or pick on innocent kids in fear that Sasuke or Naruto might beat them up. At least, that’s what Naruto had reasoned.

Plus, if they pretended to be heated rivals, no one would suspect anything when they got into a fight at school and got suspended from school to play videogames. It was like a game: a secret mission. Pretend to be hated rivals yet really be best friends, secretly getting kicked out of school whenever they wanted to hang out together.

It was easy to avoid each other at school because they'd been keeping this façade up for years.

At home it was a little more obvious that they were avoiding one another – more obvious to each other and to Kakashi as well.

However, when the release date to Ninja Chronicles 7: Return of Order was set to come out, the two started planning on getting kicked out of school again so they'd have time off to play the newest game.

Sasuke had to admit that the title intrigued him. Nori and Jun’s kanji were forms of the word “order” (even if Nori got teased about how nori also meant seaweed).

Now that they had the extra time to talk, now that they were no longer planning on how to get suspended from school, the memory of the fact that they should be talking about the kiss that they shared hung heavily between them.

It was something they needed to talk about. Something had happened that they shouldn't avoid talking about.

Both of them had enjoyed it: Sasuke to his embarrassment and Naruto to his great surprise.

So now that they were home alone, not avoiding each other, they had plenty of time to talk.

Instead, they went back to playing their videogame.


Next Chapter: Battle of Mock Proportions

Just fyi, the next few chapters will all be about Naruto and Sasuke’s past. Hope you enjoyed this! ~ Jelp