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It wasn’t one of his regular dreams, definitely: his feet moved with a normal, steady pace as he was running down the endless corridors of Orochimaru’s hideout.
Whenever Naruto dreamt of this moment in his sleep, his movements slowed down more and more as if he was running through a knee-high layer of thick goo. Every dreadful time, at the end of the dream, he found either Sasuke’s body or his fresh footsteps - anyway, he was gone. He woke up in cold sweat, breathing heavily and deeply terrified until he realized it was just a dream. If only it was.
Sometimes the dream was a bit longer and he managed to catch Sasuke’s hand with a firm grip. The feeling of his warm skin was oddly realistic despite their barely ever holding hands like that. Naruto could even recognize the calloused spots which came from all the hard training. He could even recognize how he smelt after running away from him for long and the way his attire rustled as he moved.
Naruto was too devastated even to feel embarrassed in front of his team when they tried to sleep in their quickly-made camp. Sakura would punch him for yelling and calling for Sasuke in the middle of the night, and Sai would make some dick jokes about morning mokuton as usual. Yamato-sensei said nothing, he only allowed Naruto to cry on his shoulder quietly for once. He cried from frustration, exhaustion, longing, and a hundred other feelings he never wanted. He was in so much pain.
Yamato-sensei only said: ‘I understand,’ and somehow Naruto knew that he did.
He opened every single door of the real hideout expecting that Sasuke would be there, rejecting the thought of his leaving prior to their arrival. Naruto left the rest of the team behind and rushed forward, hoping that he would finally reach him if he was fast enough.
He would not be able to explain it to anyone but somehow he realized that Sasuke was right there at that moment. Naruto felt his presence acutely: it was a feeling similar to the one when he woke up and knew that the alarm clock would ring in a minute, or smelt the char siu pork at Ichiraku’s and knew that his ramen was ready to be served.
And then the realization hit him in the back of his head - literally. Naruto yelped and stumbled, although he turned around quickly and attacked him with all the speed he was capable of. Sasuke moved lightning-fast though, and there wasn’t enough room for maneuver in the narrow corridor. There was barely any light too and Naruto had to rely on dim rays of sunlight coming through the cracks in the ceiling and on his other senses rather than sight. Jinchuriki's power gave him excellent instincts, yet he couldn’t stand a chance against the Sharingan - apparently, Sasuke could see in the dark.
He pinned him to the wall roughly, making him hit his head again. Naruto wasn’t bothered by the dull pain as long as he could feel Sasuke’s warm body pressed against his.
‘You are harder to get rid of than pimples, usuratonkachi,’ he said in his ear, making Naruto shiver.
‘Sasuke’, he called quietly - it was almost as if he had forgotten any other words except his name at that moment.
‘Yeah, that’s me,’ he nodded. ‘I almost thought that you were blind, looking at you running around like a headless chicken’.
‘Shut up’, Naruto snapped and grabbed him by both shoulders, not to push away but to keep him still.
He knew that he might not get another chance, so he yanked Sasuke closer and attempted to kiss him on the lips - he managed to turn away, avoiding the contact. Naruto’s lips merely touched his cheek, and he already knew that all the humiliation that was going to come was worth it.
‘Oh my, do you ever brush your teeth?’ Sasuke mocked, trying to push him away weakly. ‘You smell like pork broth’.
Before Naruto managed to come up with a witty response, he pressed his lips against his, kissing him somewhat angrily. Sasuke grazed his teeth against his lower lip and Naruto gave him a quick lick - he still didn’t know how to kiss properly despite it being his third time.
‘Stop it,’ Sasuke demanded, withdrawing from the kiss. ‘I don’t have time for your sloppy smooching’.
‘You kissed me yourself, jerk!’ Naruto exclaimed and grabbed him by the shirt.
He couldn’t help but smile widely like an idiot in love he was. He had already forgotten about Yamato-sensei, Sakura and Sai who might reach him at any moment, let alone Orochimaru and whoever else was keeping Sasuke hostage. He was right there in his arms, squirming and trying to push him away too weakly for him to believe it was intentional. Naruto tried to carve every second of this encounter into his memory, right beside the other precious moments he wasn’t going to share with anyone. He reached out and put his hand on the back of Sasuke’s neck gently, not knowing exactly what he was trying to do.
Then there was an abrupt clink and a cold razor of Sasuke’s katana got pressed to his side as a mere warning.
‘Listen to me,’ he said coldly, ‘I have a few minutes only before Orochimaru suspects that I ran away and finds out I was talking to you. If they do, you’re gonna have snakes so deep up your ass you’ll puke’.
Naruto snorted and laughed at the thought. He wasn’t scared a bit as long as he was beside Sasuke. He covered his mouth with his palm and hissed at him, demanding silence.
‘Got some experience with snakes, huh?’ Naruto mocked, having freed his mouth again.
He could see Sasuke’s face very closely and it was enough for him to catch every tiny change in its expression. Sasuke frowned even more, as if from acute pain.
‘You don’t know what they’re capable of,’ he whispered. ‘What they can do to me. I have to go’.
‘No, come with me,’ Naruto grasped his wrists so tightly that he knew it hurt, but couldn’t help himself. ‘I will protect you’.
‘You?’ Sasuke smirked. ‘You can’t even protect yourself’.
This one definitely hurt. Naruto blinked away angry traitorous tears that started dwelling in his eyes and eased his grip on Sasuke’s wrists, still unwilling to let him go.
‘I don’t need protection,’ he added.’I need the power to defeat my brother. I know you can’t understand, but at least try to do so’.
‘You can get power elsewhere,’ Naruto said stubbornly. ‘You don’t need to follow some pale-ass creeper to become stronger’.
He almost heard the clock ticking in his head after he had heard Sasuke’s words about a few minutes he had left. His heart rushed even faster than before and his vision blurred a bit as if he was going to faint at any minute. Naruto started to panic and couldn’t find any words to make Sasuke stay.
Why did he come to meet him even if it meant he risked getting into trouble for this? Did he want to warn him about something or just…
Naruto dared to think that maybe Sasuke just had the same strong desire to see him as he did. Why would he kiss him otherwise?
His train of thought stopped because of the familiar voice calling his name.
‘Naruto-kun!’ Sakura called from afar. They both flinched and focused on the voice: Naruto knew that Sasuke tried to determine how close she was and if anyone else followed her.
‘Make a sound and I will kill you,’ he whispered in his ear. It should have sounded intimidating, yet Naruto felt the urge to whimper from arousal. Sasuke’s warm breath teased his earshell and his whole body pressed against him even closer as if it would help to stay unnoticed. Sasuke was already a bit taller than him and it was annoying, yes, but not as annoying as his own desire building up in this terribly inappropriate situation.
Naruto squirmed and tried to hide his growing hardness until it was late: Sasuke noticed it and froze, it seemed like he even stopped breathing for a few seconds. Naruto wanted to apologize or to make a joke, to do something to fix the situation and make himself look less of a horny idiot. Even if it was all Sasuke’s fault for throwing himself all over him like this. It was all Sasuke’s fault for appearing in his dreams all demanding and needy.
Not a single word escaped his lips as he remembered that Sasuke told him to keep silent. Naruto opened and closed his mouth uselessly, staring into the dark aisle behind Sasuke’s shoulder, begging all the gods and spirits for Sakura and the others to leave them alone. Every wasted second hurt and Naruto wanted those few minutes they had to last for eternity.
When the sound of footsteps became more distant and they realized that the team took the wrong way, Sasuke let out a relieved sigh and pressed his cheek against Naruto’s shoulder. Somehow this felt more intimate than the kiss.
Naruto wrapped his hands against the other’s waist, a reassuring and tender touch he wanted to cherish. He was deeply embarrassed and still afraid to make a wrong move and scare Sasuke away, to lose this awkward yet soothing intimacy between them. It lasted for a mere second and the next thing he knew was Sasuke making a soft noise and rutting against his crotch shamelessly. Naruto gasped and clenched the fabric of his shirt in his fists, taken aback by the new sensation.
‘I said shut up,’ Sasuke said abruptly before he even dared to open his mouth. ‘Don’t you fucking dare to say anything’. So he didn’t.
The aisle filled with the sounds of their rustling clothes, wet skin and heavy breathing. Every single thought left Naruto’s head as he was thrusting against Sasuke unsteadily, copying his movements. He couldn't care less should they get caught like this, pants down and humping like some animals in heat, as long as he could touch Sasuke and hear him make tiny desperate sounds. They were both so touch-starved that even the tiniest friction felt like a water droplet on the scorched ground of Sunagakure.
He imagined it so many times it almost didn’t feel real at that moment. Did Sasuke imagine it too, when he was lonely? Did he crave Naruto’s touch specifically, or did he just want to get off with someone? Even if it was the latter, right at that moment, with Sasuke in his arms, he could easily convince himself that his best friend and his worst rival really wanted him and no one else.
None of them really knew how to do it, they simply chased their release and the pleasant sensations that skin-on-skin contact brought. The heat between their bodies and the smell of Sasuke’s skin and hair suddenly became too overwhelming. He spasmed and shuddered, clenching his waist and hips so hard it could leave bruises. Sasuke followed him very soon, groaning from pain and pleasure at the same time. He spasmed and shook violently, still grinding against his hip until the last sparkles of satisfaction faded away. None of them wanted to withdraw; Naruto closed his eyes and tried to catch his breath until he yelped from the sharp pain. Sasuke bit the exposed skin of his neck, leaving a bruised mark. He won’t be able to hide it from the others.
‘I hate you for this,’ Sasuke whispered, out of breath too. ‘I hate myself for this’.
‘Don’t say that,’ Naruto interrupted. ‘You did nothing wrong. Well, except for staining my jacket’.
The moment of passion was gone, and Sasuke hid inside his usual clamshell again, leaving no sign of his vulnerable self. He let out an irritated sigh and adjusted his pants, tying the rope belt where it belonged. Naruto couldn’t tell how his facial expression changed now that they weren’t nose-to-nose. What he could tell for sure was that he was the only one to see Sasuke like that.
‘It felt good,’ he said suddenly, having murmured it so quickly that Naruto had to half-guess the words. Maybe he didn’t even say that, and it was only his imagination. Sasuke poked his chest with the katana handle and added, trying to sound all cocky again: ‘And if you tell anyone about this, even think of telling, I will find you and I will disembowel you’.
‘Gonna miss you too,’ Naruto replied, smiling even though his chest hurt from the inside.
He knew that it was over, Sasuke had already made up his mind and put his goal above him and their undefined feelings. Who was Naruto to him, anyway? He had never mentioned it except his usual ‘usuratonkachi’.
‘Okay, listen up,’ Sasuke said, acting all serious again. ‘Tell the others that I’ve run away and you didn’t manage to stop me. You’re not ready for this fight yet, believe me’.
‘No shit,’ Naruto hit the old brick wall with his fist, getting angry again. ‘I’ll rip the old perv’s throat out if he touches you again’.
‘You’re so dumb,’ Sasuke sighed and put his hand on his shoulder. ‘You’re not ready to fight me’.
‘I think I won’t ever be ready,’ Naruto said quietly, his anger fading out like a candle leftover.
They stared into each other’s eyes for a few seconds and Naruto knew he wouldn't be able to forget this sight even at death’s door. He hadn’t seen Sasuke’s eyes like this for so long: not the crimson irises of Sharingan, not the scary yellow curse mark - just his usual dark eyes he loved so much.
‘Til the next time,’ Sasuke said and stepped back. ‘Don’t follow me, please’.
Darkness covered his face almost completely, but Naruto didn’t need to see his face to tell that his heart bled. He reached forward in the last attempt to make him stay, but Sasuke already disappeared into the dark corridor as if he wasn’t even there a few moments ago. Naruto sat down and drew his knees to his chest. The floor was cold but he didn’t feel anything except the hole which ripped his aching heart open. Naruto wished he could cry but he wasn’t able to do even this little to mourn his loss - he felt so hollow.
He couldn’t tell how much time had passed but the sound of heavy steps brought him back to reality soon: only Sakura could be stomping like this, and his shinobi hearing recognized Yamato-sensei and Sai who followed her. Naruto did nothing to announce his presence until the team found him, sitting on the stone floor and staring at the wall in front of him.
‘Here you are,’ Sakura exclaimed, breathing heavily from the running. ‘What the hell, Naruto-kun? I thought we had a plan’.
‘Did you find Sasuke-kun?’ Yamato-sensei asked and reached his hand to help him raise to his feet. ‘I believe you sense his chakra better than any of us do’.
‘I did,’ Naruto replied and looked away. ‘He beat my ass and ran away’.
There was a moment of silence during which he understood the team did not believe any of his words. Sai observed him with a suspicious look on his face and concluded: ‘You smell like a whore’.
‘Reminds me of your mom,’ Naruto snapped and tucked the stained edge of his jacket under his belt.
‘That’s enough,’ Yamato-sensei interrupted strictly. ‘Which way did he go?’
Naruto hesitated for a moment. Sasuke told him not to follow him and the easiest way to handle this was to point in the wrong direction in the maze of identical corridors. He had already compromised himself enough in front of his team, so another lie wouldn’t hurt.
Only that it did. He imagined Sasuke getting in Orochimaru’s hands again, suffering from the curse mark and experiments that poisoned his body. Was it voluntary or not, he didn’t give a shit. He rushed forward, taking his way down the aisle Sasuke had disappeared in.
‘Follow me,’ he said to his team. ‘I’ll show you the way’.