Growing together, growing apart

Warnings: Yaoi, occasional lemons/limes/citrusy goodness (if you don't like, scroll down to end of warning section), poor attempts at humor and drama.

Again, a huge Thank You to those who review. For those of you who hate Sakura, sorry, but I'm not writing a fic that brutally bashes her. I'm not a fan and don't particuarly like her, but I don't hate her either. I like showing the world from her perspective, it makes things interesting for me.

Enjoy!
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---Limey Flashback---

Heavy breathing came from the bed within Naruto's apartment. Naruto and Sasuke knelt on the bed facing each other, the blond's hands gripping Sasuke's side while the other's cupped whiskered cheeks as they kissed passionately. Their hitai-ate had been removed along with Naruto's jacket; long forgotten by the teens making out.

It had been a week since they had shared their first willing kiss and this was only the second time they had found themselves alone together since. Naruto had answered his door to an irritated looking Sasuke who had pushed himself right in and turned to the blond angrily. He was frustrated because he had spent the whole day wondering if he should go back to Naruto and continue what they had started. He didn't know what it meant to have these urges and it was pissing him off.

Sasuke said all this to Naruto who looked taken aback for a minute in which silence was all that could be heard in the apartment. Then the kyuubi vessel met the Uchiha's eyes and actually smirked. "Glad I'm not the only one having problems." With that, he smashed his lips to his friend's and things progressed till they were on the bed together.

Naruto was having trouble thinking. He had never felt anything like this intimate experience he was sharing with Sasuke, and all they had done so far was kiss. He loved it! He was actually aroused from physical contact and he wanted more.

Naruto gripped Sasuke's sides a bit harder, digging his nails into the material of the dark gi top, and slowly trailed nips and kisses past a strong jaw to a pale ear which he tentatively licked. At the sharp inhale from the raven and the fingers that twined into blond hair, he started to nibble on the ear. He continued his ministrations till he heard a moan escape the other.

Wide blue eyes met equally shcoked black ones. (Reading Icha Icha and orioke no jutsu just doesn't prepare you for the real thing) They stared at each other, not believing what was happening to them, till finally Sasuke growled, "Don't stop!" and dragged Naruto's head back to his neck.

Not needing to be told twice, Naruto repeated his earlier actions to his friend's ear and was rewarded with more pants and moans. Remembering something he read in that book of Jiraiya's, he trailed his tongue down the ivory neck to where it met the shoulder and applied pressure with his teeth then licked the area before sucking down on the skin.

Sasuke's hands had found their way to Naruto's shoulders and were clutching them so hard, it was like that was the only thing keeping him upright. Encouraged, Naruto continued licking and sucking, enjoying the reactions from his normally stoic rival. When he had read Jiraiya's latest Icha Icha, it had been out of boredom, and considering the behavior of ero-sennin, it wasn't something he thought he should be paying much attention too. 'Maybe I should read that book again' he thought to himself.

The raven seemed to be having trouble keeping himself upright and Naruto pushed his upper body against Sasuke's pushing him onto his back on the small bed. This snapped Sasuke back to awareness and he glared at the blond above him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"You just seemed like you wanted to lie down" Naruto answered sheepishly and started to untangle his legs from Sasuke's, but the action caused their groins to align and grind together. Simultaneous moans erupted from their throats and Naruto couldn't stop himself from grinding down again. The feeling was phenomenal and he didn't want it to end. Beneath him, Sasuke was meeting his hips with his own, adjusting Naruto to sit between his spread legs, his previous protest forgotten. His hands moved from clothed shoulders to pants clad hips and gripped the muscled buttocks he could feel through the cloth.

Lust hazed sapphire eyes locked with onyx as their motions became more frantic. Wrapping his legs around the blond's back, Sasuke lifted his head up to desperately kiss Naruto as he felt his release approach. They were inexperienced, but that didn't mean they didn't recognize an approaching orgasm. Naruto came first and collapsed on top of his friend who growled in his ear. Realizing the problem and, without thinking about his actions, he reached his hand down Sasuke's pants and finished him off quickly.

As they lay together coming down from their orgasmic high, Naruto looked at his cum covered hand strangely. He just jerked his friend off. Hell!...he just dry humped his best friend. If this didn't qualify as weird, he didn't know what did. Averting his attention to said friend, he realized Sasuke looked about as clueless as him. Feeling that there was too much tension going on, he decided to lighten the mood. "Didn't think you'd ever be moaning under me, teme."

The reaction was explosive. Naruto was thrown so hard his back hit the opposite wall and Sasuke was out the door in seconds. It's amazing he remembered to grab his hitai ate on the way out. 'Damn bastard' The blond sighed to himself. 'Maybe that wasn't the best thing to say.'

Naruto picked himself up and shifted uncomfortably from the stickiness in his boxers. Looking over to his rumpled bed and remembering the activities of minutes before, he was amazed to discover himself becoming aroused again. Quickly, he made his way to the bathroom and started up a cold shower.

'What the hell are we doing?'

---End Limey Flashback---

Sakura was finishing off her turn of guarding the camp for the night. The sun would be rising soon and she had a decision to make. She looked down at her teammates and still felt the hurt and anger that had been fighting with her feelings of inferiority since she had discovered them together.

Back when they were genin together, she had begun with nothing but an obsession for Sasuke. Who knew why she became a kunoichi, because besides excelling on the written exams, she seemed to have little interest in anything but looking good and trying to attract the young Uchiha. After their mission to the Wave Country, she realized that she needed to become serious about her duties and training, or she'd get herself killed.

Thinking back to that mission, she frowned to herself. Sasuke almost died on that mission. Sakura hadn't questioned much at the time; she had initially thought that Sasuke had managed to avoid getting hit to critical areas on his body by the senbom thrown from that masked boy, Haku. However, Sasuke said that that wasn't the case, that Haku wasn't trying to kill them. Even so, from what she overheard Naruto telling Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke had taken an attack meant for Naruto, had protected him.

'Just how long has this been going on between those two?!' she thought to herself. 'Why was Naruto worth rescuing then? I thought Sasuke hated him.' She conveniently forgot that on the same mission, Sasuke had stood in the way of two Mist-nin who were about to attack her as she was defending Tazuna.

Sakura couldn't help questioning her own worth. Like Naruto, she had spent the three years that he was gone studying hard under her own sannin, Tsunade. She had grown strong and become a chunnin before either of her teammates. When she looked in the mirror, she was pleased with what she saw, she was intelligent and an excellant medic-nin. 'So what's wrong with me?!? If Sasuke-kun wanted to be with someone, why not me? He's always known that I love him, he even seemed to appreciate my feelings when he left the village for Sound. So, why Naruto?'

In truth, Sasuke had seemed to warm to her during their genin days. She was the one who knew about the curse seal on him before he left, not Naruto. She was the one who tried to stop him from leaving, and upon declaring her feelings, he had actually thanked her before knocking her out and leaving. But now, for whatever reason, she just couldn't seem to get close to him at all, it felt like he was tolerating her.

Sakura couldn't stop thinking that if she was better, then it would have been her in Sasuke's bed that morning. Or maybe Naruto tricked him somehow? She shook her head and dismissed that thought.

Sakura had watched Naruto and Sasuke during this mission and they didn't behave any differently than they normally did. Naruto could still be loud and hyper, though he had calmed down over the years. Sasuke was still quiet and anti-social. But now, knowing what she did, she could see the concern the raven had had when Naruto allowed his hand to be stabbed in the attack the day before. She noticed how Sasuke paid attention to the blond, how he picked up on the fact that the idiot was out of food, when no one else was even paying attention.

It didn't help her anger any that she actually felt bad that Naruto had shared too much with the little girl. How could he always be thinking about others and trying to make them happy, then go and steal Sasuke-kun away from her? 'It's not like he was ever mine' she finally admitted to herself. She signed again, 'This has to stop.' She couldn't hold onto this anger forever.

She cared about Sasuke, but she had to admit, if she took away the fact that she was attracted to him, there wasn't anything between them except being teammates. He didn't seek her company or confide in her anymore, and when they were younger it was a rare thing. Sakura even acknowledged that Naruto had grown so much and that she truly did care about him and even found him a little attractive as well. As she grew older, she realized all the hardship he had been through and felt guilty if she thought that she was adding to it.

So, here she was, with the realization that Sasuke and Naruto were her friends, she wanted to keep it that way, and she did say that she just wanted them to be happy. "But why couldn't he be happy with me?" she whispered sadly to herself as she looked down at the sleeping face of her one-time obsession.

The sun was now rising as were the campers. Making the decision to start this day new and show her teammates that she was still a friend, she went to her bag and brought out enough rations for breakfast for two. She then made her way over to where Naruto was waking in his sleeping bag. Sasuke appeared to have gone off, probably to meet Nature's call.

"Naruto, would you like to share breakfast with me?" she asked with a tremulous smile as she held out her hands showing the bread and dried meat and vegetables she had. Naruto looked at her utterly shocked by her gesture, but quickly recovered and gave her a huge grin.

"I'd love to Sakura-chan!" and he scooted over making room for her to sit with him and eat. They ate mostly in silence, which was unusual for them, but this was so soon after Sakura called their friendship into question, it was bound to be a little uncomfortable. In the past, Naruto might have tried to break the tension with a stupid comment, but he had been learning recently that such actions generally don't have the best results. Instead, he enjoyed his breakfast and the thought that he hadn't lost Sakura's friendship after all.

All in all, a very pleasant way to begin the day.


TBC