More Than Just a Kiss (edited)

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the Naruto characters, I just like to imagine them in my own little world (which is totally of my making). No profits are made from this story, just gratuitous pleasure.

Summary: It was more than just a kiss. One minute he had been glaring into the eyes of his nemesis, Uchiha Sasuke, the next minute his lips were pressed firmly against those of that emotionless boy.

Rating: NC-17

Warning Codes: Angst,Lang,M/M,WAFF,WIP,Yaoi (other warnings as the story continues)

Pairings: SausxNar


Feedback is appreciated. I enjoy hearing from all of my readers. That you take the time to read is great, that you take the time to write is awesome. You are what makes writing worth while. I hope that you enjoy reading it and I look forward to your comments.

My sincere thanks to the following:

Trigger Happy Bitch: I’m glad you like him a bit better. I’m trying to make him not so much of a snob, but I think wedding plans are a bit premature at this point. They still have some ways to go. Thanks for all of your reviews.

Lady Laran: Thanks. I’m trying to evolve the relationship slowly. I want it to feel as if it is something that could really happen.

solitare1: Thank you for the compliment. I trying to make my version is just a bit more spicy.

basilika: I still have a lot of thoughts running through my head, so I hope you keep on reading. Thanks for the support.

hisoka kurosaki: He probably doesn’t even realize it himself, and if he did he’d most likely be mortified at the thought. Thanks for reviewing.

Kirai: I’m really trying hard to be true to the story line while adding my own little twist to it. Thanks for reading.

spoon: Thanks for your support. I’ll try to keep them coming as fast as I can. Sometimes I think faster than I can write it all down.


Once more, thank you all so much.. Please keep reading, and please review. That’s the only way that I know you like it.

**AN** Parts one through three have been re-edited for some minor changes and grammatical errors. Upon re-reading I found some glaring errors, and I can’t stand errors especially in my own writing.**

~*~

More Than Just a Kiss…

Part Five

Dark times had fallen over the village of Konoha. The trio returned to find the Third had fallen, a great many of the shinobi and ANBU were dead or injured and much of the village was in shambles. They reported what happened in the forest with Gaara to Genma in the mission room and he told them to go home and get some rest, an order to which they gladly responded. They left to their respective homes with no words spoken between them.

But Sasuke found that he couldn’t rest. He felt uneasy, alone and lonely in the empty Uchiha complex. Briefly, he wondered if he should have asked Naruto to come home with him, but quickly dismissed that as a bad idea.

The blonde unsettled him, confused him. He wasn’t quite sure how he felt about the other: friend, boyfriend, rival? All three? He felt as if his mind was constantly shifting between the three aspects and couldn’t seem to pick which one to settle on. He wished that there was someone that he could talk with, but the Uchiha was really quite isolated within himself. He had no family or friends to speak of.

All of the girls that he knew swooned over him, seeing him as nothing more that a status symbol to be collected by one of them, so they were out. The boys that were his age all saw him as standoffish and stuck-up, so they were out, too. He couldn’t see himself talking to any of the older shinobi like Kakashi or Iruka, because he had no idea of how to approach one to them for a chat. The Uchiha did not chat with anyone.

In all actuality, Naruto was the only person that he felt comfortable enough with to talk to, and he was the root of all of Sasuke’s current unrest, so he was definitely out. To quote Shikamaru, it was troublesome. So Sasuke continued to wander the empty Uchiha complex, alone with his whirlwind of thoughts until exhaustion forced him to seek his bed in the early hours of the morning.

~*~

Naruto also found himself restless and unable to settle down, but his answer was to seek out Iruka-sensei and talk him into treating the boy to ramen, which the other was more that happy to do.

After his third bowl of ramen, Naruto pushed back slightly from the counter and sat looking pensively at his empty bowl.

“Do you want to talk, Naruto?” Iruka-sensei asked him.

“Iruka-sensei, I have this sort of problem,” Naruto confided. “I’m not sure what to do.”

“Tell me. I’ll help you if I can,” Iruka replied.

“Well… there’s this person I like, but I’m not sure if this person likes me or not,” Naruto told him. “Sometimes I think they do, then, just when I think things are progressing along pretty well, they push me away. I just don’t know what to think, you know?”

“Ummm…” said Iruka, pretty sure that the blonde was referring to Sakura. “So, have you liked this person for awhile?”

“Yeah. And I try my hardest to show them how I feel, but…” Naruto trailed off, uncertain of how to proceed without giving away the fact that it was Sasuke he liked. He was pretty sure that Iruka-sensei would think he was talking about Sakura, but that was alright, as long as he could get some ideas of what to do.

“Well, if they are definitely not interested in you, I would say forget about that person and move on,” Iruka told him. “But if you think that person might really return your feelings, then you should continue to pursue them. But don’t be too hasty. Let the person know that you are interested, but don’t push them. It there are feelings there, they will grow. But if you try to force them, you may end up pushing that person away completely.”

“So, what do I do?” asked Naruto. “I have let that person know, but like I said, I’m not sure how they feel. Sometimes it’s one way, next time completely different. I’m confused by what they want.”

“Just continue to be yourself. Don’t try to change who or what you are. Be there when you can and let them know where they stand with you,” advised Iruka. “That’s about the best I can tell you. Relationships take a lot of work, whether they are romantic or just friendship. The important thing to remember is that you have to be able to communicate with that person. Don’t just talk to them, listen to what they have to say to you. Pay careful attention, because sometimes listening is more important than talking.”

“I think I understand,” mused Naruto. “Just be myself, be there for them and talk to them, but most important listen to what he has to say. I already do that, so I must be doing the right stuff.”

“He?” asked Iruka.

“Huh?” replied Naruto, a bit stupidly.

“You said ‘listen to what he has to say’,” said Iruka. “Who is ‘he’?”

“Not he!” exclaimed Naruto, horrified that he had made that slip. “I didn’t mean that he was a he… I mean, it’s not a he… I mean, he’s just a person…”

Iruka just laughed as Naruto dug himself into a deeper hole. The boy was blushing beet red by now, stammering and trying to get himself out of the hole he was in and just making it worse.

“It’s alright, Naruto,” Iruka finally stopped him. “I know what you meant. He, she, it doesn’t matter how you label that person. It’s just the person that you like.”

“Yeah, just the person I like,” agreed Naruto, glad that Iruka-sensei didn’t want to pursue his little slip of the tongue any further. Sasuke would surely kill him if he felt that Naruto had been talking about the two of them. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well, I’d better get home and get some rest. Thank you, Iruka-sensei, for the food and for listening to me,” Naruto told him. The boy hopped down from his stool and took off towards his little apartment, looking happy and full.

He, Iruka mused. Interesting. So, if it’s not Sakura anymore, I wonder who it could be. I wonder if it’s Sasuke? They certainly spend enough time together. I must mention this to Kakashi when I get home tonight and see what he makes of it.

Iruka smiled to himself as he paid for the ramen, then headed off to the apartment that he shared with Kakashi.

~*~

The funeral for the Third left the whole village mired in grief and Naruto and Sasuke had little time alone together. Only a couple of days after the funeral, Jiraiya approached Naruto with an invitation to accompany him on a mission to find some mysterious woman. Naruto immediately declined the offer.

“No thanks, Ero-sennin,” said Naruto. “This is just another one of your trips to go gawk at women, so I’ll pass.”

“But Naruto, this is a serious mission,” Jiraiya protested. “I could really use the company, and besides, I thought we could work on a new technique for you. But if you really don’t want to go, maybe I can ask Sasuke. Everyone says he’s really strong and maybe this technique would be better suited for him anyway…”

“Sa… Sasuke? A… a new technique?” stuttered Naruto. “No! No, Sasuke’s too tired from his fight with Gaara, and besides, if I’m going to be Hokage, I need to learn better techniques. Let’s not bother Sasuke right now. He needs his rest. I’ll go. Just to keep you company, that is. Not… not because you might take Sasuke, who definitely needs his rest, it’s just so you have someone to talk to and all…”

“It’s alright, Naruto,” said Jiraiya, a little startled at how agitated Naruto had gotten. “I really would rather have you along anyway. So, let’s get going. I’ll meet you at the gate in an hour.”

“An… an hour? We’re going right now?” Naruto asked, stunned by the suddenness of it all.

“No time like the present,” replied Jiraiya, turning away. “Now, hurry along.”

~*~

Sasuke, thought Naruto. How am I going to tell him? I just can’t leave him like this. He’ll never forgive me. But I have to do this. It’s for him, after all. I need to get as strong as I can, so I can help him, back him up. Oh, Sasuke, please forgive me for leaving like this, but there’s no one that I can trust to take a message to you, nothing I can really write to tell you why I’m doing this. Please, forgive me, Sasuke.

With an anguished heart, Naruto hurried home to pack what he needed, wishing that Ero-sennin had given him a couple of hours at the least. Then he could have found Sasuke and talked with him, explained things. As it was, Sasuke was going to think that Naruto had just left him without a thought and Naruto knew how the Uchiha’s mind worked. He would take that as the worst insult.

Well, he’d just have to work hard to smooth things over when he got back. It might take some time, but he was sure he could win his way back into Sasuke’s good graces. Yeah, things would be alright, he was sure of that.

~*~

Tired of sulking around his compound by himself, Sasuke decided to go in search of his idiot boyfriend. He’d run into him by accident, of course. No use letting the idiot think that he’d missed him, or was actually seeking him out. No, it had to seem like a chance meeting. With those thought in mind, Sasuke set out on his search to find Naruto.

He hadn’t realized just how long he’d been holed up alone as he wandered aimlessly around the village. The funeral for the Third had been several days ago and he’d avoided Naruto, even though the blonde had tried to seek him out. He just didn’t feel as if he could face the other so soon after the disgrace of losing the battle with Gaara in the forest. He needed to rest, to be alone for a while he’d told Naruto and it was in part the truth. He did need to be alone in order to come to grips with the fact that Naruto had gotten to be at least as strong, if not somewhat stronger, then he himself.

But after several days, he reconciled the fact in his mind that maybe it would be good to have someone that strong that he could work with, to make himself even stronger. That could be a good thing, and so, with a little lighter heart, he began his search, but to no avail.

He couldn’t find Naruto anywhere and he just couldn’t ask anyone if they knew the blonde’s whereabouts. They might get the wrong impression, and that just wouldn’t do.

~*~

He had been lingering near the gate when he happened to over hear a bit of the conversation between the two current gate guards. He’d slid a bit closer, so as not to miss their words when he heard Naruto’s name being mentioned.

“So, that Uzimechi boy went off with Jiraiya again, Izumo?” Hagame Kotetsu asked.

“Yeah, a few days ago. Jiraiya said he was going to search for Tsunade-sama. The council wants to talk to her about something,” Kamizuki Izumo answered.

“Well, I hope they get back soon,” Kotetsu replied. “We’re short handed enough as it is, and now Kakashi’s in the hospital and who knows when he’s going to be back in action.”

“It may be a while, but somebody has to go fine Tsunade-sama, and Jiraiya is most likely the best one we could spare at the moment,” Izumo said.

“It’s just beyond me why he took the Uzimechi boy,” said Kotetsu, with a shake of the head.

“Who know what these sennin think,” agreed Izumo, and the two fell silent, unaware that the Uchiha had been taking in their every word.

Naruto was gone again, and Kakashi-sensei was in the hospital? What had been going on while he was sequestered? He needed some answers and he needed them soon.

Sasuke wandered around for a bit longer, then headed for the hospital. It was only natural for a former student to see how his sensei was doing, wasn’t it? And perhaps he could glean some answers out of someone. Sakura was most likely around and she’d tell him what ever he wanted to know, that he was sure of.

~*~

TBC


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