What We Are
What We Are
Thunder cracks in the distance and he sees Naruto’s bruised, bleeding face in the few seconds that the sky is illuminated with light. Chakra sizzles along every nerve, leaks out of every pore, and magnifies the pain of the cold, needle-like raindrops falling on his skin a thousand fold.
“Why didn’t you kill me then?” his voice is barely a whisper, but Sasuke catches it effortlessly on the wind. The hairs on the back of his neck prickle at the tone; deceptively soft, the sound of a predator waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting prey.
It is easy to tell himself that he doesn’t answer out of caution. That Naruto is just waiting for him to let his guard down so he can attack.
They both know that isn’t the reason.
Sasuke’s eyes strain with the effort of being kept open for so long. The rainwater drips from his lashes and burns him, but he refuses to blink. The millisecond it would take could destroy him. He stares at his rival, the Sharingan spinning slowly along his iris. He is almost grateful for the dark, so he doesn’t have to see that bright blonde hair stained a bloody red, like everything else is.
“Why didn’t you kill me, Sasuke?”
This time the voice is mocking, and he feels his hands clench in response. Something about that cocksure tone of his had always made a quiver of fury skid down his spine.
“You weren’t worth my time.” He hisses, but regrets the words leaving his mouth as soon as he sees Naruto’s teeth gleam in the shelter of the darkness.
“Liar.”
Sasuke’s Sharingan spins wildly as he lifts and crosses his arms a hairs breath before they connect with Naruto’s foot. He feels something knock into the back of his right knee and twists to the side urgently, thumping his hands on the ground and using them as leverage to kick back. Chakra pulses frantically in the air, surrounding them with oppressive energy as Naruto continues to advance.
Something slams into him from behind and Sasuke takes a split second to see Naruto’s flashing red eyes and toothy grin before turning back around only to be faced with… another Naruto. He looks to the right. Another one. To the front. Another. Up above…
Only three years of being a missing nin could have prepared him for the rain of shuriken that fall from above. He doesn’t bother trying to dodge them all, knowing the impossibility of it. He crouches instead, spinning on his heel quickly, deflecting as many as he can with his arm braces before leaping to the side and shifting chakra into this hands to propel him onto a tree.
And then he makes the mistake of looking down.
Either the Sharingan had thrust the world into negative, a mass of chakra obscured with pinpricks of rain, or there were a hundred Naruto’s surrounding him. A thousand. The air cuts into his lungs like shards of ice, and he barely has time to form the seals for Chidori with his torn, bleeding hands before a hot press to his jugular cuts off all oxygen.
Crimson eyes bore into his and up close, he can see the flicker of fire in their depths. It was no secret that he had always been drawn to fire. He leans forward almost imperceptibly and the grip on his throat tightens, reminding him of their stalemate. His hands had frozen in the act of forming the last seal, and they both knew that Naruto could snap his neck just as quickly as he could Chidori a hole through his rival’s chest.
The foliage provides a thick coverage from the rain and now Sasuke can clearly feel everything, from the slow, thick slide of blood from the wound on his temple, to the short, heady puffs of air Naruto exhaled into his mouth. The hand on his throat releases just as soon as he begins to feel the burn in his chest. It hovers, just brushing his skin. No pressure against his jugular, nothing but the threat of imminent death.
Naruto’s thumb brushes against the curve of his jaw in a slow, callused caress, and Sasuke’s breath stops on its own.
“It would have been so easy.” Naruto breathes, rubbing in that tender, maddening way again. “So easy to finish me off.”
He lifts his other arm to place it against the tree, and Sasuke feels as trapped as he would in chains and shackles. Naruto licks his lips and the slick sound of it makes heat rise like a sleeping demon in his chest, burning, overwhelming him, until it escapes in a sharp breath.
“That was your goal, wasn’t it, Sasuke?” A soft sigh against his lips, so intimate that Sasuke feels his toes curl. “To kill your brother. Avenge your clan.”
Sasuke can’t look into those patient, knowing eyes any longer. He shifts his gaze to a point somewhere above Naruto’s shoulder, and pretends he can’t feel the steady stroke of his thumb on his neck, or the press of his thigh against his own.
“Why didn’t you do it? Was it because you were… afraid?”
If Sasuke had been in a more rational state of mind, he would have recognized the mild query for what it was: bait. But he wasn’t, and he didn’t, snapping his eyes back to his rival’s instantly. “It was because you were a weakling.” He bares his own teeth in a snarl. “A waste.”
“A waste, hmm? Then why not just dispose of me? Do your good deed for the day?” Naruto’s obvious amusement only incenses him further, and for a brief moment he debates finishing that last seal.
“You think so highly of yourself, Naruto.” He sneers instead. “Your death would have done nothing but dirtied my hands with your filthy blood. You’re not even human, how did you ever consider yourself my friend?”
He recalls the days when a comment like that would’ve caused Naruto’s eyes to spark with a deep sort of despair, masked with a thin veneer of boisterous anger. He stares dumbfounded, uncomprehending, as he finds pity in those eyes instead.
“You’re right.” Naruto murmurs. “I’m not human, and we’re not friends. So then what are we, Sasuke? Enemies? If we’re enemies then why are you hesitating?” Those red, red eyes drop to Sasuke’s motionless hands, held defensively against his stomach.
It is then that he realizes that the hold on his throat vanished a while ago.
He lifts his eyes and stares into glowing red, the only part of Naruto’s face that is visible to him. And then, as if nature itself was urging them on, lightening shoots across the sky, dappling his rival’s face with shocks of light, and Sasuke’s hands fall limply to his sides at what he sees. Trust. Absolute, unequivocal trust in the set of that jaw, the slant of those eyebrows, the press of that mouth… all without a hint of doubt.
Thunder booms again just a soft, broken sound escapes him and Naruto’s eyes widen with urgency.
Large, hot hands grip his shoulders firmly and Naruto leans forward until their noses brush. “What are we, Sasuke?” he whispers. “What are we?”
It is as if his lungs are being crushed by some phantom weight, the fear of this confrontation causing pain to bloom in his chest. He clenches his eyes shut, Sharingan spinning him into oblivion, and tosses his head back against the rough bark of the tree. The hands squeeze tighter and he gasps as suddenly they leave his shoulders to cup his face.
“What are we?”
A low noise escapes him as he shakes his head helplessly and Naruto responds with a growl of his own. “Open your eyes.” Sasuke obeys his command, the absence of the Sharingan feeling like the loss of a limb, like a dip into an icy cold lake in the middle of winter. He feels blind, but he is more afraid of what he will see than what he won’t.
“Sasuke.” A moan now, and a smooth slide of skin against his cheek. He has to shut his eyes again as Naruto’s hot breaths coat the sensitive crest of his ear.
“You don’t have to say it.” Naruto gasps against his neck. “Just believe it. Just believe it, Sasuke, and I’ll know.”
A breath edging on a sob tears out of his throat and he fists his hand in Naruto’s hair and jerks his head back. He is surrounded by complete darkness, unable to see anything but the faint flickers of light in the distance, so he lets himself feel instead. His hands trace over the face that had managed to burn its way into his memory like no one else ever could, over the thin scars, plush lips, those eyes that hold Naruto’s soul. The wetness that trails from…
They both still, and he feels more of that incriminating moisture collect against his finger. He lets out a shuddering breath, the ache expanding to fill every part of him that had been empty since that day when he became an Avenger. Yet still some corner of his soul shies away. The rain, it whispers. Don’t fool yourself, Sasuke. It’s just the rain.
The doubt pulses in his mind, and he can think of nothing but to silence it. He leans forward that scant inch that separates them and presses his lips against Naruto’s cheek, licking just the edge of his finger. The salt floods his senses and cleanses him, and he can do nothing but cry out, lock his arms around the blonde nin’s shoulders and pant into his skin.
“Soulmates.”
He wants to chant it, yell it, let the whole world know what he’d been denying for so long. But Naruto’s mouth cuts off his triumphant gasps. “Soulmates.” He whimpers in between urgent presses of Naruto’s mouth. “Soulmates, Naruto, that’s what we are—“
“Yes, yes, yes.” Naruto laughs brokenly, half crying, running his hands over Sasuke’s face, worshipping his mouth with his own. A hot, wet tongue worms its way in and Sasuke clenches his hands into blonde hair and moans. The bump of noses and clash of teeth should have been jarring, uncomfortable, but it just feels real, like the air in his lungs, the pain in his hands, the love in his heart.
Everything he’d kept buried under anger and hate and the desire for revenge has been eroded, spilling out of him, and Sasuke can’t stop it, can’t do anything but tremble and break apart in the face of Naruto’s love. He opens his mouth wider, strokes Naruto’s tongue with his own, moans. He’s drowning, suffocating, reaching out to Naruto for help, but gods, he’s just dragging him deeper.
Teeth latch onto his neck and crimson orbs flash at him warningly as he arches his back. And then, a hand, a hot, hard press between his legs and his entire body seizes suddenly as he comes and comes and comes.
Naruto swallows his scream, gives it back twofold, and teaches him how to breathe again. In and out, in and out, a steady exchange of breaths as their lips meet and cling.
“Sasuke,” he says his name like a paryer. “Tell me…” An audible swallow. “Tell me this isn’t a dream.” A shuddering sigh. “Tell me we’ll still have this when the sun comes up tomorrow.”
“Naruto.” He sighs, and is stunned by the love that spills out of his mouth instead of words. He can’t help but lean forward and tease those lips open again. “Tomorrow? No.”
They nuzzle like affectionate kittens, mouths open, and Sasuke feels his disobedient lips twitch into a smile.
“We’ll have this forever.”
A/N: Hey all, this is Ella, a friend of Elli's. I share this account with her, and I'm bleepbloopbanana at FF.net. I'm not as much of a hardcore pr0n writer as she is (haha) but SasuNaruSasu is my OTP and you'll probably see a lot of that from me. This was mainly an exercise for me to add some emotion into my writing, so if this made you feel something, anything, please PLEASE drop me a review. It'll make my day!