Growing together, growing apart

Disclaimer: Still don't own.

---Flashback Lemon---

Sasuke woke in his bed as usual, the clock on the nightstand informing him it was nearly 7 in the morning. However, instead of immediately getting up and starting the day, he merely lay there on his side facing the curtain covered window in his room. Something was different.

Then he felt it, the arm draped over his side. He looked down to see his fingers entwined with tan ones resting on his stomach. 'This is new' he thought to himself as he remembered why there was a body pressed against his back and sleeping in his bed.

Sasuke and Naruto had been sleeping together for several weeks now and had made a habit of showering after they had sex and then the guest would leave and go home. They preferred Sasuke's home as it was larger and more accomodating. Last night however, their routine was disrupted.

Naruto and his almost inhuman stamina had been so passionate and the sex so mind blowing that they had been exhausted. After a final round in the shower, Sasuke didn't argue at all to Naruto collasping in bed with him the previous night. He found himself surprised that he also didn't mind waking up in his lover's arms. He distractedly made circles with his thumb on his partner's hand as he thought of how comforting the overall feeling was. Maybe they could do this more often too; they just needed to make sure Naruto always had clean clothes for the next morning in case they ever had to leave in a hurry. That wouldn't be so hard.

Lost in his thoughts, Sasuke didn't feel the fingers carressing his hand back. He slowly became aware of the leg shifting between his own and the lips nuzzling and nibbling at his neck.

"Didn't you get enough last night?" he couldn't help asking the blond. Not that he minded, not in the least. They were both naked as they hadn't even bothered with boxers before going to sleep the night before. That and the growing erection already rubbing between the globes of his ass was only increasing his own arousal. He moaned as he pressed back into Naruto.

"Hmm...gotta get as much as I can before you decide to go revive your clan" Naruto mumbled in his neck, still sounding mostly asleep.

Sasuke froze for a second. 'Does he even know what he said?' Not able to think further on it as the grinding movements were starting to become intense.

Naruto continued to lick and nibble against Sasuke's shoulder and upper back as his hand untangled from Sasuke's to reach down and lift up Sasuke's leg enough to move his own further between the pale thighs and was already preparing to push in. This was going fast, but from all their activities the night before neither of them would have needed much preparation.

Sasuke hand made its way to his own erection and started to stroke himself, hissing a little as Naruto entered him, his movements slow and gentle. They continued to move against each other, softly moaning, the feelings building in intensity. "Naruto" he whispered, but the other still heard.

Naruto's hand left Sasuke's leg to entwine again with Sasuke's own, which continued to stroke his arousal. Now Naruto was leading Sasuke's hand in the movements, occassionally reaching down to cup and fondle his balls just the way he liked, before coming back to carress him further. Sasuke could feel Naruto's necklace digging into his back, the man never took it off.

Sasuke's climax caught him by surprise, it had been subtly building till it ripped from him, leaving him satisfied and resting his head on his pillow with a small contented smile on his lips. Naruto continued to move inside him for a few more moments before orgasming as well.

They stayed entangled for several minutes until Naruto finally fully woke. He seemed suprised by their situation, but after seeing the satisfied expression on his lover's face, he relaxed and grinned, seeming very pleased with the world. "Good morning Sasuke."

"Hn." Sasuke pulled away and got out of bed. "Come on, dobe, we have to clean up again now, thanks to you."

"You're more than capable of keeping me off you if you didn't want it, teme" Naruto kept grinning at him as he followed Sasuke to the bathroom.

Not bothering to point out that that wasn't the point, he merely shoved the blond into the shower and turned on the water, enjoying the other's very manly shriek as he was doused in cold water. When the water warmed up, he joined Naruto in the shower and wrapped his arms around his best friend, hugging his back and kissed him on the back of his neck. "Good morning Naruto."

Sasuke could definately get used to starting his mornings with the blond.

---End Lemon Flashback---

Kakashi returned with Sakura to where they had left the others. Naruto's clone had informed him of what had happened with the two genin. He was carrying the unconscious figure of what was formally Sakura's opponent and was assured that another clone was likely bringing in his own.

Kakashi was alright, but Sakura was tired, sore, and a little bloody; somehow, she managed to get the strongest of the bunch to fight. It was a good thing Kakashi showed up when he did.

They arrived and found the wagon untouched; Kiri and her companions near it. Takamura was standing near Sasuke on the side of the road where the trees created an overhang. The sunlight was streaming through the leaves, creating shadows over their faces, and the four men tied up at their feet. He recognized one as the man he had fought so the clone must have brought him back. Naruto was pacing and looking aggravated a few feet away. He was the first to acknowledge their appearance.

"Kakashi-sensei! Sakura-chan, what took you so long?" Naruto called impatiently with a disgruntled glance at Sasuke and Takamura.

'Hmm...nice to feel missed' Kakashi thought as he deposited the body near the unconscious men.

"Sakura-chan, you alright?" Naruto asked, noticing her disheveled and blood-streaked state.

"I'm fine Naruto" she grumbled as she sat down on the ground and drank some water from her bottle. She had already healed her injuries, all of which were minor. She was in no danger and only aggravated that everyone else seemed to have fared much better.

Sasuke looked over the body on the ground, noting the wounds obviously made by kunai and raised an eyebrow at Kakashi. "Couldn't keep your's conscious either?"

Kakashi shrugged, "I overestimated his ability to dodge, he was doing a number on Sakura before I arrived."

"Hn."

"So, can we wake the bastards up and find out why they attacked now?" Naruto was practically vibrating he was so impatient.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and looked at Kakashi, who shook his head.

"I'd prefer to talk to Takamura first; let the Iwa-nin wake up on thier own."

Naruto shrugged, "Just as good, as long as we get some answers."

Finding all the attention now focused on himself, Takamura took a step away from the Konoha-nin. His guards, sensing the tension in the air came closer to him, while leaving one man with Kiri to make sure she didn't get involved with the coming discussions.

Kakashi didn't acknowledge what was quickly beginning to look like a stand-off. Affecting a bored stance, he asked nonchalantly, "Could you please tell us why these men attacked us?"

"I can't tell you what I don't know."

"Bullshit!" Naruto all but yelled, "When you hired us, you ranked this mission as a B, which those guys from the other day certainly didn't merit. You must have been expecting an attack from trained shinobi!"

Takamura started to look flustered, but he had no trouble meeting Kakashi's eye, feeling it better to address the team's leader. "I admit to not being surprised by what happened the other day. However, that was the extent of what I thought might happen, and was even more than I was really expecting. I've never hired shinobi guards before and I thought it better to be safe with a higher ranking, especially as I was told I'd receive genin as protection. I was under the impression that genin were beginners and I was not comfortable with being guarded by children." His gaze strayed to Sasuke and Naruto. "I guess I was mistaken about shinobi ranks."

Nobody felt it necessary to advise him of Naruto and Sasuke's unusual situation.

"So what's up with these guys?" Naruto butted in again, pointing to the still seemingly unconscious men. This was starting to annoy Kakashi as he had been about to ask the same thing, though somewhat more diplomatically.

"I don't know why they attacked us."

Before the blond could retort, Kakashi managed to field the next question. "Then please explain why we were attacked previously."

Takamura stiffened and crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't have to answer that. I was assured that my privacy would be respected and I will not accept being interrogated further! If you want answers from these men" he pointed to the tied up shinobi, "then feel free to question them. Just do not take too long about it as I want to be home by tonight and then you can be on your way."

With a huff, he turned to head back to the wagon.

"Why you--" Naruto was startled to see two of Takamura's men draw weapons and take a step closer to him. This was stupid, there was no way they'd be a threat to the Konoha-nin. Without thought, a kunai was already in Naruto's hand, a reflex to seeing a weapon drawn on him.

"Naruto! Step back now!" Kakashi was glaring at him. Naruto did, but kept glaring at the other men, he did not replace his kunai in his holder. "Naruto, go scout around, make sure there's nobody out there."

Recognizing that he was being told to walk away, and not appreciating being treated like a child, Naruto turned with a growl and stomped away into the woods.

Sasuke looked to Kakashi, clearly asking if he had everything handled. Receieving a small nod in response, Sasuke turned to follow the blond. He caught up to him after a few minutes, though they had traveled a good distance from where they left their companions.

Naruto was busy taking out his frustrations on an unfortunate tree that was foolish enough to grow in the jinchuuriki's way. He was punching so hard he was bleeding from his knuckles and had possibly broken some bones in his hands. Watching this behavior continue for another minute, Sasuke decided to intervene. He grabbed Naruto's wrist before he could land another punch and turned his friend towards him.

Without a word, he started pulling the splintered peices of wood from the bloody knuckles, noting with approval how the flesh healed quickly once the fragments were removed. It didn't appear that the blond would be bothered by his wounds at all in a few minutes. 'Must be nice' Sasuke thought, a little jealous. Naruto was still breathing hard and didn't look the least bit pleased as Sasuke took his other hand and repeated the process. Once he finished, he released the blond and leaned against the tree, almost as though he was protecting it.

Naruto started pacing back and forth, mumbling to himself, but nothing distinct for Sasuke to catch. Finally, after another few minutes of this, he had had it. Throwing his hands up in the air, he turned to the raven pointing a finger at him and yelling "How can you just stand there as though this doesn't bother you at all?"

Shrugging, Sasuke continued to eye his friend. "It doesn't really and I don't understand what's bothing you so much. I've seen you deal with dangerous situations much better than this. Why are you getting so upset?"

"This is just pissing me off. I don't know why, it just is. My instincts are telling me this isn't right." Naruto started up his pacing again. "I've gotten used to being assigned a mission, go hunt the target, do my job and return. This escort bullshit and not knowing what is going on is irritating. He tells us not to expect any further problems, and what happens? We get attacked and more than twice as hard." The blond's brain now working furiously to keep up with his mouth continued to vent out his frustations. "That's not even all! This has been too easy. Those guys from Iwagakaru shouldn't have been that easy to beat. If they were such chumps, why'd they attack us? And another thing--" Naruto found his tirade cut off as Sasuke appeared in front of him and kissed him thoroughly.

After a half-hearted struggle, Naruto wrapped his arms around his lover's neck and kissed him back, allowing Sasuke's tongue to enter his mouth and fence with his own. The kiss continued as Sasuke backed the blond up till he was pushed up against a tree and then his actions became harsher as his tongue plundered the other's mouth. Naruto moaned and arched his back, pushing his chest against the raven's. It's a good thing the boys had learned long ago to breath through their noses during such activity, because their kiss didn't end for several minutes.

Sasuke pulled away to observe the blond. Naruto's eyes were half lidded and he was leaning against the tree behind him looking thoroughly content with the world. Unexeptedly flattered by the reaction he received, Sasuke couldn't help the smug smirk that appeared on his face.

This was not lost on Naruto. With a half-hearted growl, he stood up straight and attempted to glare at his lover. "That wasn't fair."

"It did what it was supposed to do."

"You mean shut me up?"

Sasuke shrugged, "I could have hit you, but this way seemed more fun."

Naruto snorted, he couldn't deny that he was feeling calmer. "I'm still worried about this though. Five enemy shinobi shouldn't have been that easy to incapacitate."

Momentarily distracted by Naruto's occasionally surprising vocabulary, Sasuke nodded his head. "Let's look around and make sure there's no traps that we got caught in."

They started to walk in an arc around where their companions were still stopped on the road. They didn't spot anything suspicious, and were becomming more alert as they walked as a result. They were both in agreement, this had been too easy.

Suddenly, they felt the chakra manipulation of shinobi using jutsus in the direction of the others. Hurrying through the trees, they arrived in time to see not only the five they had fought previously, but two more Iwa-nin fighting with their teammates. Even Takamura's guards were actually earning the title as they defended the man while Kiri was hiding under the wagon. Not wasting any time, Sasuke and Naruto jumped into the fight.

Now this was something Naruto could handle. No hidden agendas or diplomacy, just a straight up fight, and this time, he could tell that they weren't holding back. He had to evade fatal attacks, use bushin after bushin, and found himself forming a lot of Rasengans as most of them were being deflected. This is where all those recent spars with Sasuke were benifiting him though; instead of losing his temper, he was actually calming. His fighting was becomming more fluid and he was more aware of the combatants around him.

As he continued to fight, he noticed that the enemy seemed to be focusing most of their attention on Sasuke. With sudden insight, he realized that Sasuke was the target. Turning to make the others aware of this, he noticed the man he had fought previously, and knocked out with relatively little effort, was anything but weak now. What was worse, was that he had managed to put himself in the prime position to attack the Uchiha from behind while Sasuke was already fighting two-on-one.

Sasuke had slowly become aware that while it looked like most of the fight was in earnest, it seemed that most of the intent was towards himself. Curious, but not overly concerned, he continued to defend himself. His senses warned him of danger from behind just as he heard a shout of "Sasuke!".

He turned in time to see a blade pass through the back of an orange jacket. Expecting to see a puff of smoke, his eyes widened at the spray of blood that hit his face.

TBC