Parthenogenesis

Chapter 5

“I did not.”

“Come again,” said the blond boy into the pillow, nearly asleep in the bed in the double room he shared with Sasuke. Naruto rolled over on his side to study the Uchiha laying in the other bed in the room.

Sasuke laid on his back staring holes into the ceiling in thought. He sighed, finally tearing his gaze away from the white hotel ceiling to look into those bright blue eyes. He continued on with his thoughts aloud, “Earlier you said that I tried to kill all of Konoha.”

Flashback

“Dobe, why are you being so friendly with the kazekage?” asked Sasuke, his eyes narrowed.

Naruto seemed taken aback. That certainly wasn’t a question he would expect from the rooster-headed boy. “Well, we are friends, and I’m allowed to be friendly with my friend, aren’t I?”

Sasuke glared at him, and Naruto suddenly had the urge to gulp. “Have you forgotten he tried to kill all of Konoha?”

Naruto simply stared at the Uchiha in silence. His mouth seemed to try to form several words, his expression angry, but no sound came out. Finally, Naruto sighed and simply said, “So did you,” before jumping off to walk beside the distant kazekage, effectively ending the conversation.

End Flashback

Sasuke said, “I didn’t though. The only person I tried to kill was…well…” Sasuke had trouble finishing his own sentence. It brought back a dark history that he was trying to forget. He regretted his actions he took against his best friend back then. On that day, Sasuke vowed to gain power his own way, not to gain it the way his brother did so that he wouldn’t have to try to kill Naruto again.

Naruto finished Sasuke’s hanging sentence, now finding the ceiling a nice object to stare at too, “me. I know Sasuke, I remember.” The blond boy absently put a hand up to his chest as if he was feeling a hole made by a chidori there, but his facial expression stayed impassive.

Suddenly Sasuke was feeling very guilty. He remembered all too well too. He remembered the feel of his hand through his best friend’s chest.

Naruto continued, “You left us for Orochimaru, to become his next body. What did you think he was going to do with your body? Take it on a nice long vacation in hopes of getting it a tan?” Naruto suddenly felt the burning heat of a death glare on him. He looked over at the glowering Uchiha with his biggest smile. “Joking! Just joking.” His face went suddenly serious. “But Orochimaru wasn’t, Sasuke. He was going to use your body to destroy Konoha. By leaving us for him, you put us in danger.”

Sasuke considered this. It was reasonably logical, surprisingly so for the dobe. “I wouldn’t have let it happen.”

This made Naruto laugh. The blond boy said, “And you think you could stop Orochimaru once he was in your body? And they call me the idiot?”

“I had everything under control. I was going to take all the power Orochimaru gave me and then destroy him with it. Then I would find my brother and kill him,” responded the Uchiha. He had been contemplating what he would have done for a long time, but then, before he could carry out his plans, a young blond boy and his pervy sensei killed Orochimaru before him, dragging the Uchiha back to Konoha with both his arms and legs broken, just as Naruto had promised him. Sasuke should be angry at Naruto, but the kitsune boy was just doing what best friends do, or so he said.

It was with Orochimaru that Sasuke finally discovered what Naruto was- a demon vessel. He carried the legendary Nine-tailed fox, sealed into him by the Fourth Hokage. It explained everything about the boy: why he was always alone as a child, why the adults shot him such hateful looks, why he felt the overbearing need to get someone to recognize him, why he had such monstrous red chakra, and it even explained why Naruto had whisker marks on his cheeks.

What it didn’t explain was how Naruto had so easily forgiven Sasuke once he returned. It had just been like old times. They greeted each other as if nothing had ever happened. “Teme.” “Dobe.” And then they went about their mission of the day. They had never talked about it. Sasuke had never given a formal apology, not that Naruto would’ve cared. But it all was coming out now.

“Hphf,” sulked Naruto, turning over on his side to

“Just go to sleep dobe.”

“TEME!…Good night.”

And with that the two sleep deprived boys fell into an easy sleep. Neither were aware of the slight haze of red chakra that flowed from Naruto’s navel. Nor were they aware when the red chakra influenced Naruto’s sleeping mind into sleep-walking again- sleep walking right into the Uchiha’s bed. The blond boy curled up under Sasuke’s covers against the other boy. The red chakra withdrew leaving the two boys dreaming peacefully together.

O0o.o0O

Onyx eyes opened slowly to bright sunlight…wait. That wasn’t sunlight, that was shiny yellow hair. What…? Somewhere in the muddle of murkiness that was the Uchiha’s first thoughts of the morning, it slowly registered that he was seeing Naruto’s hair, and if he was seeing Naruto’s hair, then that meant Naruto must be in his bed…, …, …. “Argh!”

With a thump, Sasuke threw himself backwards and out of the bed, his heart was pounding in his chest. The sound of his fall woke Naruto, who gave him a quizzical look before yawning.

“Yaawwnn…whatcha..yawn…doin’ on the floor, Sasuke?”

“You were in my bed, dobe”

“Hmm? What are you talking about? I’m in my own bed, teme. I haven’t moved,” said Naruto, snuggling into the pillow to try to fall asleep again.

A vein was pulsing in Sasuke’s forehead. Naruto could be such an airhead. In a sudden whoosh of air, Naruto found himself flying out of bed. He climbed off the floor spitting in spite,”TEME! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?”

Sasuke merely brought his hands down from where they had been making a seal sign for a jutsu he had copied from some opponent or another, and stuck them in the pockets of his pj pants. “I told you, dobe: you were in my bed.”

Naruto looked around the room, taking in his bearings: sure enough, he had been in Sasuke’s bed. He laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. “Oops, well… I wonder how that happened.”

“Tch…such an idiot,” Sasuke mumbled under his breathe. He didn’t mumble it quiet enough, because Naruto still heard it.

“Well at least I’m not an insufferable jerk with a stick up my ass, bastard!” yelled Naruto. The Uchiha wasn’t even paying attention, or he appeared not to be. He turned away from the shouting blond boy and pretended to be focused on packing. He was turned so that Naruto wouldn’t be able to see the small smirk adorning his features- there were few things in this world that he enjoyed, and irritating the blond was one of them. He was sure Naruto felt the same way about their arguments. To everyone else in the world, they appeared to be the worst of enemies or very competitive rivals, but in reality, they were the best of friends. They needed each other as stress relievers. That’s all Sasuke would allow because, as he always repeated to himself especially when Naruto was near, he was asexual!

Naruto went right back to being his chipper self, the argument doing great wonders on his outlook. “Hey, teme, what are you doing?”

Sasuke grunted, “Packing my things for the return journey. What else would I be doing?”

“WHAT!” exclaimed the blond, “You’re leaving without even touring the city!?!”

“We completed our mission, now we return. That’s what we always do, dobe.”

Naruto looked outraged. “Yeah, but every other mission, we’re not in another hidden village! We have to go see the sights! We’ll explore around today and then we’ll leave for Konoha tomorrow. The old hag won’t care.”

“No,” was Sasuke’s simple reply.

“Awww…Sasuke,” Naruto whined, doing his best impression of a poor puppy dog, “Pleaseeee?”

“Hnn,” responded Sasuke, tuning out those big, sad, puppy-dog eyes. Dobe, puppy-dog eyes don’t work on an Asexual. Yet even as his mind said that, he found his hands betraying him. They were no longer packing things into his bag. No. Instead, he found those hands of his unpacking the stuff he had already stuffed into the bag. Dammit!

Naruto started bouncing with joy when he saw the raven-haired boy unpacking. “Yes! I know where we should go!”

O0o.o0O

It hadn’t been that bad, Sasuke concluded when they came back later that evening. It was dark by the time they made it to their hotel because Naruto had stubbornly refused to come back until Sasuke had watched an authentic Suna sunset. Naruto had also been stubborn earlier that day when they passed a stand selling Suna souvenirs and the blond boy wouldn’t let Sasuke go on without purchasing a bottle of authentic Suna sand. Sasuke had “tched” at this- he was pretty sure he had more sand on is clothes and in his hair from touring the village than all the sand in the souvenir bottle. The best epiphany to hit Sasuke all day was that Suna was appropraitly named. But even with all this, Sasuke still concluded that the day hadn’t been a complete waste. Sure, he would have preferred to be out somewhere training, but this was his first time just “hanging out.” It wasn’t as bad as he always assumed it would be.

By the time Sasuke had changed into his pajama pants, Naruto had already climbed headfirst under the covers with his feet on the pillows and was nearly asleep.

Sasuke rolled his eyes at the ridiculous boy before giving him a warning: “Make sure you stay in your own bed tonight, dobe.”

With his head under the covers, Sasuke didn’t see the light pink flush that spread over the blond’s cheeks. 'I wish you could like me the way I like you, Sasuke,' was the last wishful thought Naruto had before he fell asleep. Sasuke set a few traps around the room that would wake him up if the blond decided to sneak into his bed again. Not that it wasn’t comfortable, it was only that it was very hard to keep un-asexual thoughts out of his head when he woke up to a head of soft blond hair in his face and a toned and tanned body curled warmly up to his own…yeah, those thoughts weren’t helping him at all either. So, with a mental shake, Sasuke finished setting the traps and fell asleep in his own bed.

O0o.o0O

Sasuke felt himself being yanked back into the conscious world at the very early hours of the morning. He peered around blearily searching for danger before he realized that the thing that had awoken him had been one of his own traps. Sasuke could tell from where he was laying that Naruto wasn’t in his bed. Sasuke allowed himself a mental groan. Why couldn’t the dobe let him have one eventless night?

Sasuke forced himself to leave the warmth of his covers as the crisp night air assaulted him. He pulled on his clothes wondering where the dobe had gone. His hope that the blond might just have gotten up to use the bathroom vanished when Sasuke sensed his chakra a good distance away.

Sasuke wordlessly followed after the blond. The Uchiha passed along the roofs of the Suna buildings, transferring to the ground after he almost fell when a roof ended rather suddenly. Of all the nights Naruto could’ve gone for a 2 am stroll in Suna, he had to pick the night of the new moon, the night there was no moon. Obviously, Suna didn’t believe in having streetlights because the Uchiha could barely see the outline of his own hand in front of his face.

He came upon his blond friend a little outside of town and was able to see him from a distance because that yellow hair practically glowed in the dark. Sasuke observed the boy for a few seconds before nearly losing his temper- it looked like Naruto was sleeping- sitting Indian style yes, but still sleeping with his eyes closed. Sasuke barged right up to the blond, planning to give him a beating for making him worry….no, Uchiha’s didn’t worry, so he must’ve just been angry. So the Uchiha planned on giving Naruto a beating for making him angry.

If the Uchiha hadn’t been so angry, he may taken the time to observe some more. If he hadn’t been so arrogant in his own abilities, he might’ve activated his Sharigan for a moment to make sure everything was as it should. If it hadn’t of been so dark, he might’ve noticed that there was a seal drawn onto the ground that Naruto was currently sitting on. And had there been a smidgeon of moonlight, he might have noticed that Naruto hands weren’t folded in his lap as they appeared, but rather were in a hand seal. However, because the Uchiha had been angry and had been too self-confident, and because it was as black as pitch black could be, all of these things didn’t register to him. Instead, he had his sole focus on hitting Naruto in the head. That focus was only broken when he stepped onto the seal written on the ground and a perfect circle lit up with bright energy surging through it and whiting out all vision. In that circle, both Naruto and Sasuke felt the energy zapping them and clawing at them. It seemed as if it was going to rip them apart.

When the light faded, Sasuke and Naruto’s bodies slumped to the earth. Sasuke was able to catch a glimpse of red slitted eyes from the blond boy before he blacked out.

He last thought was, “The Kyuubi….”

The Kyubbi’s eyes were wide with shock for a few moments before thinking, “The Uchiha…this changes everything…” Then the Kyuubi allowed his eyes to close as he gave away to the stronger mind inhabiting the body.

O0o.end of chapter.o0O

A/N: Confused? Don’t worry. There will be an explanation next chapter(coming out tomorrow, Wednesday), so don’t fret over anything you don’t understand. However, I do have questions for you- two of them- that I would really like some answers to:
1.) If Sasuke and Naruto had a child, what would you name he/she and why? (e.g. Name it Sakura because they plan to ignore/abuse it(j/k, ummmmm…here’s another example) or name her Tiki Rane Gobell because that’s such an awesome name.(Okay two bad examples, but hopefully you get the idea).
2.) Why is Naruto the same age as Sakura and Sasuke and the rest of Rookie 9 if he failed the academy exam three times? They show clips of him being younger and growing up with the same kids, so it’s not like he just failed a grade. Shouldn’t he be older than the rest?

Befuddled authoress,

TRG