Empires for Whores

Title: Empires For Whores
Autho: Sintari
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

"Well, that could have gone better."

Naruto tried to keep his tone light, but his flexing fingers and stiff gait as they left the Hokage Tower behind told Sasuke all he needed to know about Naruto's latest meeting with the Council.

Technically, Sasuke hadn't waited for Naruto to emerge. The Council had summoned him to take new identification photos. The official notice had left off the phrase, "...in case we need to list you in the Bingo Book again," but Sasuke read between the fine brush strokes. Ever since he'd won probation and free rein of Konoha, the powers-that-be had annoyed him with petty harassments. It was psychological warfare, designed so that he wouldn't become too complacent and confuse nominal toleration with whole-hearted acceptance back into the fold.

Besides, Uchiha Sasuke didn't wait.

As soon as the door to Naruto's new apartment closed behind them, he twisted Naruto's shirt front in his fist and, with effort, slammed him against the closed door.

"It's because of me, isn't it?" he said flatly. "You'd be Hokage already if it weren't for me." After traveling alone for so long, Sasuke was still getting used to using his voice again, and he hadn't quite mastered things like inflection. Not that he had ever been very good at that anyway.

Their faces were inches apart, but Naruto turned his away. He still wouldn't say it. Naruto had always had that problem. He believed saying something aloud made it true, while Sasuke had always known that just thinking of a betrayal worked well enough.

Naruto easily disentangled himself from Sasuke's hold and walked over to the sink. He watched the water rise over nearly a weeks worth of dirty dishes. Sasuke had recently learned that Naruto only cleaned when he was unhappy, which explained a lot that Sasuke hadn't known about the state of his apartment back when they were Team Seven. Naruto's living spaces stayed much cleaner now.

Sasuke came up behind him, grabbing the dish soap before Naruto could.

"You shouldn't be seen with me for awhile," he suggested.

Naruto twisted the water off before turning around.

"I'm not going to lie."

With a catch in his throat that might have been something like nostalgia, Sasuke nodded and said, "I suppose you wouldn't. That was never your way."

Sasuke had gripped the counter on either side of the sink, pinning Naruto in. He'd been doing this since the first time they'd met again at Ino's birthday party three months before. Forcing himself into Naruto's path, trapping him, inviting confrontation. That first night in the alley, with the birthday party still going strong just yards away, Sasuke hadn't been sure if he'd wanted Naruto to hit him or fuck him. And he'd never had to choose. Naruto had done both.

But now Naruto twisted away with a grunted, "Get off me."

Naruto hadn't hit him – or anything else – since the night of the birthday party. Even though, at the time, Naruto had ostensibly been happily married to Hyuga Hinata and now he'd moved into this apartment across the river, where his wedding ring stayed wrapped in a sock in the top drawer of his dresser. Naruto was a novice at betrayal.

Dishes rattled in the sink, but Sasuke stayed behind Naruto, watching him wash and dry without offering to help.

"What are we doing then?" Sasuke asked tonelessly. There was so much more Sasuke wanted to say. I live with you, but you don't talk to me. You left your wife, but you don't touch me. But he didn't.

"What are we doing? I'm doing dishes. Then tomorrow I'm going to go on a mission. As for you, Sasuke, I don't know exactly what it is you do all day," his voice rose with every word, "or what you even want from me."

Wordlessly, Sasuke took a step forward, pulled Naruto flush against his body, and snaked one hand around Naruto's waist to rest his hand on the shape of Naruto's cock through his pants.

"That's what I want."

Naruto finally did turn around and look at him then.

"I don't believe you."

Sasuke didn't know if he believed himself either. But he was here, with Naruto. They had never talked much, the two of them. And Sasuke never claimed to know how to make and keep friends. But this – the way Naruto's cock had stiffened when Sasuke cupped it – this Sasuke knew.

Naruto turned yet again, reaching for the soaked dish towel, but stopped when Sasuke asked quietly, "So what do you want then?"

Naruto swallowed before answering him, took the time to fold the wet dish cloth over the edge of the sink.

"I want to give you something."

Sasuke followed him into the bedroom, where Naruto opened the drawer where he kept his wedding band. It was there, still wrapped in its sock. But Naruto was feeling around in the space behind the drawer, and he emerged with something that Sasuke somehow hadn't found in all his snooping. It was his own hitai-ate, easily recognizable because of the strike across the leaf symbol.

Naruto offered it on his open palm, but Sasuke made no move to take it.

"You should wear it," Naruto pressed. His tone of voice wasn't altogether kind.

Sasuke found his voice. "I don't want that. You keep that."

Now it was Naruto's voice that was flat and toneless. "But I think you do."

And it was Sasuke's turn to swallow. This was not the Naruto he remembered from all those years ago. Brash and clueless. This was Naruto from that alleyway three months ago, with irises startlingly red-rimmed and a presence that choked him like invisible smoke. He still held the ruins of the hitai-ate in his open palm.

Maybe, Sasuke thought, if he ignored Naruto, or if he walked away, then Naruto would yell at him, call him a bastard, bring things back to the way they were before. Back when Sasuke was as happy as a shinobi could expect to be and just hadn't known it.

Sasuke brushed past Naruto, left behind the bed where he was sure that, if Naruto would just join him, he could somehow fix things between them. Still holding the hitai-ate, Naruto swiveled to watch Sasuke leave. But, with his hand around the doorknob, Sasuke made the mistake of hesitating.

He'd heard that Naruto was a spectacular ninja now, crafty and fast. But he hadn't had an occasion to see Naruto in action since his return. So he was surprised when Naruto was suddenly behind him, using his bulk to force Sasuke flush against the closed door. During the attack, the doorknob had caught his hipbone and Sasuke felt the spark of pain that promised a bone-deep bruise. His arm, the one that had been going for the door, was twisted around behind him so tightly that even one too-deep breath would dislocate his shoulder.

His forehead resting against the wood of the door, Sasuke smiled, showing teeth. This was it.

He had to suppress a shudder when he felt the point of Naruto's chin dig into the soft spot between his neck and shoulder. Naruto's voice, nearly a growl, reverberated against Sasuke's skin.

"I want you…" he ground out. "...To have this."

Then the metal faceplate of the hitai-ate was pressing into his lower back. Naruto twisted, pressed the hitai-ate into Sasuke's constricted hand, then thought better of it and yanked Sasuke's shirt up around his chest instead. The movement released the pressure on Sasuke's arm minutely, and his shoulder radiated pain, but he held perfectly still. He knew without knowing why that if he moved, if he struggled, Naruto would let him go.

For a few seconds Naruto just held him there – claustrophobic, safe – between his powerful body and the unforgiving door. Sasuke realized he was panting.

Naruto's breath ruffled the hair behind his ear. "Unbutton your pants."

Sasuke worked his zipper with his free hand. There was no good reason to stay there, pressed against the front door, both tense and uncomfortable, but they didn't move. Calloused knuckles dug into Sasuke's spine as Naruto struggled with his own zipper. No clothes were removed. It wasn't necessary.

The tightness that Sasuke always carried in his chest spread to his whole body. He shuddered just from the feel of a mélange of Naruto's hot skin, hard cock and scratchy zipper pressing against his ass and the tender backs of his thighs. Sometime when Sasuke hadn't noticed, Naruto had began breathing heavily too, and Sasuke's heart quickened to match. Sasuke flexed his knees, prepared himself to get fucked, hard, against the door.

But instead of entering him, Naruto released his twisted arm. The cold metal of the hitai-ate scraped against Sasuke's bare back, then it was around his neck.

"I want you to have this," Naruto growled for a third time. His powerful body forcing Sasuke to stillness, Naruto roughly situated the marred faceplate on Sasuke's forehead and tied the knot. In his carelessness he'd caught hair, but Sasuke didn't complain. He reveled in the pinches of pain at the base of his skull.

For a few seconds, all Sasuke could do was wear the hitai-ate. On his forehead again, it was like he'd never taken it off. Naruto hadn't situated it just right, of course, and it dipped over one eyebrow but it was… comfortable. Like Naruto's weight at his back was comfortable.

"That's better," Naruto growled in his ear. The hair on the back of Sasuke's neck stood up at his next words. "Now you're worth fucking."

Naruto wasn't gentle when he violently gripped the base of his own cock and steered it into Sasuke's ass, and Sasuke appreciated that. They were both unmoving at first, except the heaving of their chests, until Naruto seized both of Sasuke's wrists and pressed them against the door. Naruto moved inside him then and Sasuke unconsciously dug his fingernails into the wood grain. A harder thrust, and the hitai-ate saved him from a bruise on the forehead.

"Talk to me," Naruto panted. "Is this what you wanted?"

Sasuke couldn't answer.

Naruto's words, and his movements, were persistent. "Tell me this really is what you wanted. Tell me…" Naruto moved just right and Sasuke gasped aloud. "Tell me you're not doing this because you want me to hurt you."

A lump had formed in Sasuke's throat. It warred with the cries of gratification he couldn't suppress. Naruto's thrusts, the heavy grip on his wrists, the throbbing in his shoulder, they all conspired to bring him closer to orgasm and he wasn't even touching his own stiff cock.

"'Cause I'm afraid…" Naruto was breathing in his ear. Sasuke knew he was getting close by the way his breath hitched. Naruto had only came for him once before, but Sasuke had replayed that night in his head a hundred times. "I'm afraid that's what you want from me…" Naruto was getting closer. "...Sasuke."

Not Sasuke-kun. Not Foolish Little Brother. Just Sasuke. And the feeling that this, right here, was where he was supposed to be all along.

"Feels good," he was finally able to mutter. "Don't stop." It was not the most poetic declaration in the world. There were no words of love, or apologies. But it was enough.

He felt Naruto tense behind him.

"Good." Sasuke had never heard anything more erotic than Naruto's voice at that moment, husky in his ear. "'Cause I never wanted to hurt you."

Naruto came then, with a great shuddering groan. At the same time his grip on Sasuke's wrists slackened, and Sasuke reached for his own cock. He finished himself before Naruto even stopped moving inside him.

Sasuke's next words may have been lost in the slick aftermath of their orgasms, but somehow he thought Naruto heard him.

"Me neither," he breathed. "Never."

END