Pushing Buttons

Pushing Buttons.

Setting: Some time after Presuming.
Description: Sasuke sees Naruto again. M/M,Yaoi

Naruto is the intellectual property of Masashi Kishimoto. I do not own these characters, nor do I make any pretence of owning them. Misuse of the English language is intentional in the character dialogue in many cases. I will seek out a beta soon but I wanted this published. May contain typographical errors as it was written late at night. Thank you for all the kind reviews on my previous story.

...I'm also not happy with the formatting of this but, what can you do?


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Sasuke was surprised. That was quite an accomplishment. Anyone who managed to overcome his proud apathy deserved a medal. Sasuke was, in fact, so slightly overwhelmed that his face hurt. Muscles long since wasted were clenching in his cheeks, trying to grimace, trying to gape. His eyebrows even managed the monumental feat of clenching together.

Naruto just watched him, pursing his lips. He was trying to look as nonchalant as one possibly could when chained to a wall. He’d been practising looking innocent of late. It had been a hit with the ladies. He’d made grown women cry with one wounded glance. Right now he was going for bored. Sasuke never reacted to emotion as well as he reacted to being ignored. In any case, his perplexed quasi-expression was becoming creepy.
“Dude, I know you’re surprised to see me but if you don’t shut your mouth soon… You’ll collect flies.”

Sasuke hardened, eyes reddening and mouth turning downward toward hell. His open palm collided with Narutos left cheek with enough force to slam him into the wall. The blond mans face started to bleed freely. In eerie silence Sasuke watched Narutos wounds attempt to heal. It was almost impossible, given that Naruto had a small rockery dug into his face. His right eye had gone completely red. Sasuke had probably ruptured a blood vessel or three. Not that he cared.
“How the fuck did you get in here?”
Narutos response was slurred, for obvious reasons, but still intelligible.
“Front door, how else would I get in? You live in a friggin cave these days.”

That much was true. Sections had been partitioned off to serve as rooms and cells but it was still a cave. Orochimaru had decided that Sasuke could have his own living space, given that he wouldn’t be running away anytime soon. Orochimaru trained him during the morning, he worked during the day and he slept in his unhappy grotto at night. He’d just returned to find Naruto Hanging off his living-room wall, feet swinging gaily in the breeze.
“I meant, Dobe, how did you end up attached to my wall?”
“Oh, that. I was coming to see you when I bumped into Kabuto. He said I should wait for you here.”
Naruto paused and then smiled,
“I should have called first I know, but it’s been so long and I just thought, what the heck!”
Narutos hands did a small flourish at that point. Sasuke left the room.

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Sasuke walked angrily toward his cave entrance. He hadn’t felt this way in years. It made his movements uncontrolled in a way he hated. The dobe always got under his skin like this, always got in the way. He was like a great big yellow brake that sat in front of the accelerator pedal, taunting him. His entire body felt taut with emotion. He wanted to walk up to Orochimaru and scream at him to remove the annoying bastard from his salon this instant. He got halfway past the last cell block before he slowed. If he told the snake-man now, he might find a use for him. Not a particularly nice use, most probably. As useless as Naruto was, he had a demon inside him. One in a million chance to try out some chakra experiments on a subject that would live through them.

Sasuke found himself not wanting that to happen. He stayed in the shadows, too far to be seen from the outside but with a nice view. He could see all the trees. He found that he could remember a very short time in his life when he was happy. Team 7 had been a part of that, despite all protestations otherwise. He loathed the very idea of it, none-the-less.

He turned back toward his old team-mate, rationalising to himself that maybe Naruto would take too much Orochimarus attention. He couldn’t have that now, could he?

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Naruto looked up at him as he came back into the lounge room. His face had remoulded itself in the short time he’d been absent. The right side of his face was scabbed but his eye had returned to its natural blue. The young man smiled at him, a little sadly. Sasuke felt some satisfaction at that sight, at Narutos true face. Naruto was a happy person, a passionate person, but that didn’t make him immune to feeling otherwise.

Sasuke took in the changes as he sat down. Naruto was taller, possibly taller than him. His hair had darkened from the pastel colour of his childhood. His jaw seemed squarer and his body, still covered in aggressive orange, looked like a ninjas. He could believe that Naruto might kill someone. He surprised himself again by feeling proud of his childhood friend. If Kabuto had not found him first Naruto might have been a challenge to him.

Stupid Kabuto…

The Uchiha leaned back and relaxed into his sofa. It would have been fun to spar with Naruto again. Pushing his face into the dirt had always been satisfying. Better than toast. He looked Naruto in the eyes, watching him shift uncomfortably under his powerful glare. Naruto had come here for some reason and he wouldn’t be so amiable if he didn’t want to talk. He just had to wait.

Naruto cracked first. He sighed loudly, pulled his lips together and then opened his mouth slowly. He winced and the closed it again. Sasuke had never seen this behaviour in the other shinobi before. He realised Naruto was thinking before speaking. He was…

He was trying to be tactful.

Sasuke decided that that was creepy enough, so he threw him a bone.

“Naruto, why are you here.”

Naruto started at being called by name. “But, I already told you…”

“Don’t act coy, dobe, it makes you look dumber than you are.”

Naruto tucked his head down and away from Sasukes sight. After a moment his shoulders began to shake almost imperceptibly, then quite violently. Sasuke felt some bewilderment. He shifted forward; saw the light shine off the wetness on his cheeks. For a moment he had thought Naruto was crying. A strange animal sound emerged from the blondes pursed lips. It turned into laughter.

“Sasuke, you haven’t changed at all!”

Naruto quickly found himself on the business end of a kunai. It pressed into his throat, not yet cutting the skin. He smiled at Sasuke, a chuckle moving him forward enough to let the blood flow. Sasuke had remembered Naruto as someone who hadn’t liked being hurt by friends. He wasn’t fond of this new form of rivalry. Sasuke knew if he pushed far enough he would kill Naruto. That first time had been a statement, rebellion against his brother. Old friends or no, if Naruto kept pushing his buttons he would pay for it. In the end Naruto broke his ponderings by speaking.

“I thought you’d be so mad you’d just kill me on the spot… But no, you just got all pissy at me like you used to. Just like when we were practising chakra control on trees, that exact face. ‘N you still call me dobe ‘n you swear at me ‘n all that shit.”

He paused.

“You got me worried there when you called me by name, though.”

Sasuke stepped back and sat down again. Naruto was smiling again, looking around uncomfortably.
“I… I just wanted to talk to you. For a bit.”
“Dobe, you do know where you are don’t you?”
“Well, yeah. But I think you’re forgetting who you’re talking to.”

Sasuke smiled but hid it in his palm.
“Yes, you never did give a damn about overwhelming odds, did you?”
“I did, you know. I wanted to beat them. Better pay out that way.”
“So, what did you hope to win?”
“You.”

There was uncomfortable silence. Sasuke felt his face redden. Naruto looked at him, gaze relentless this time.
“Things don’t make sense without you around.”
“Naruto, what the fuck are you talking about?”
“When we were a team everything worked. We all got along, we had a balance. Sakura won’t barely look at me anymore.”

Sasukes voice rose and boiled into a crescendo. “Sakura? This is about fucking Sakura?”
“Don’t talk about her like that!”
“You came here to ask me to come back to Konoha so you, me and Sakura could play happy friggin’ families?”
“Don’t be an asshole, you know what I meant!”
“You want to give up my goddamn mission in life, so we can fuck around?”
“YOUR MISSION IN LIFE IS TO KILL SOMEONE!”
“No shit Sherlock!”
“Well, what you gonna do after that, genius?”

Sasuke opened his mouth to retort but found no words. Naruto was glowering fiercely. His eyes were overflowing with angry tears. Sasuke felt the bile rise in his throat. He wanted to maim something, hurt something, burn anything. The dobe had come all this way to lecture him and… His convictions had suddenly failed him. No one had ever asked him what he wanted to do before. Not really. Yes, he wanted to restart his clan but he’d never thought how. He hadn’t imagined a life after his brothers death. He knew, somehow uncaringly, that Konoha would never allow him back.

So, how was he going to revive the Uchiha as a missing nin?

“You… you don’t know how you’ll do it, do you? How you’ll get your clan back.”

Sasuke was silent.

“That’s because you can’t get your clan back. They’re dead Sasuke. You’ve got no wife, no lovers. You don’t like people anyway, you’re not that fond of kids… The whole village wants to kiss you as much all the jounin want to kill you.”
“I’ll start fresh elsewhere. I don’t need Konoha, I’m better off here. It was holding me back.”
“Bullshit!”
“Shut it Do-“
“You wanna know what I’ve been doing these past three years? Training, just like you and just like everyone else. I can summon, I know a thousand different moves, I know all the local dialects, the intonations, the customs. What have you been doing dipshit?”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “Exactly the same shit you have!” His eyes widened when he realised just what he had said.

Naruto cocked his head to the side, sneering.

“All these years we could have been helping you. You should see Sakura now. She’s a medic nin. Moves faster than Kakashi does. We go on missions together all the time. She’s never let me down, doesn’t skip a beat. She misses you too. She loves you…”
“She’s infatuated. You are too apparently. I thought you said she wasn’t speaking to you? Sounds like a great relationship to me.”
“It would be different if you were around.”
“Well I’m not, grow up and take responsibility for yourself.”

Naruto stopped for a moment before replying, quietly. He seemed almost submissive. “She’s not angry at me, she’s just upset at… something I had to do.”

Sasuke felt his anger recede now that he’d hit the crux of their argument. Naruto was saying, in his own coarse way, exactly what he’d expected him to say. The dobe wouldn’t have bothered finding him if that was his only problem. To be honest, he now wanted to know what was grating against the blonde. Naruto had never been so irrational when he’d known him. Still, it seemed idiotic to allow himself to fall into enemy hands so easily.
“I could kill you so easily, whoever trained you wasted their time.”
“Yeah, you could. Ero-sennin didn’t waste his time though.”
“Did you just come here to annoy me?”
“No.”
“Well you are.”
“I… I met a guy called Sasuke. On a mission.”
“What? You came here to tell me that?”
“He had information.”
“So, you had to torture him and now Sakura thinks you’re a bastard?”
“Easier ways to get information, easier ways to get the right information.”
“Like What Naruto? Spit it out.”
“I had to sleep with him, ok?”

Sasuke recoiled, staring at Naruto in disgust. He’d never known that Konoha ninjas utilised such techniques. He’d at least thought only the girls had to do it. It revolted him to think of his rival just submitting like that. It was demeaning. In his mind honour and pride kept a ninja from behaving in such a base manner. He felt an uncomfortable stirring in his belly when he though of Naruto as a whore.

“Don’t look at me like that. I know you’re screwing Orochimaru.”
“That’s different.”
“He trains you, you can’t say he does it for free. Even if he turns you on you know you have to pay for it with your body, sleeping with him is like a down payment.”
“Don’t make me hurt you Naruto.”
“If you were going to you’d have done it already.”

Sasuke founds himself face to face with Naruto again. The Kunai was back and pressed into the blondes collar bone. It hurt and Naruto grimaced, eyes becoming darker. His lips pulled back into a feral snarl but he didn’t try to bite. He just looked at Sasuke so hard he felt taken aback. A part of Naruto actually wanted Sasuke to kill him.

“Finish the job. I can’t have you wandering around betraying me all the time.”
“You built up expectations. It’s not my fault that I didn’t meet them.”
“You said we were friends. Friends don’t act the way we do. Sakura keeps thinking I’m repressing my emotions because I didn’t cry after letting a guy with your name up my ass. She doesn’t get it. I’m sick of being reminded of you. I want Itachi dead so you can stop pissing about. I want you to come back so we can get some normalcy but I don’t know how to do it. I know that if you do kill your brother you’ll realise that you have nothing else. You just have this one goal. It’s not a life. It’s just sad.”
“Says the guy hanging from my ceiling. Like you can talk.”

Then Sasuke realised that if Naruto was really so helpless, he wouldn’t have been talking this way. Naruto talked like a man that was going to live. He talked like someone that hadn’t given up fighting for him. If Kabuto had found him, why didn’t Orochimaru know? The snake-man had always wanted to test him but he preferred extravagant displays. Before he knew it Naruto had pushed his head forward. His vision was blocked by bright yellow hair and his lips felt the soft touch of another’s. He kicked himself for allowing the dobe to cloud his judgement. He kissed back gently then pulled away.

“You aren’t really here, are you?”
“I can feel everything through a shadow clone, if I want to. This was the safest way to talk to you. I trust you won’t come after me?”
“No, I haven’t accomplished all that I need to here.”
“I guess that’s good. Take care Sasuke. Don’t go dying before I see you next.”
“You either.”
“This is a nicer parting than our last one. Maybe one day we’ll cut out the animosity altogether.”
“I sincerely doubt it.”
“Goodbye.”

Sasuke stepped back to see Naruto dissolve into a pool of smoke. He went to bed alone that night and got up early to train the next day. Life went on as usual.