Rating : T for swearing, very mild violence, and slash

Do not own, am not making money.

Edit : January 24,2009 - Updated and edited old typos, fixed plot holes and cliches, and lots of happiness and sunshine randomly inserted(or not).

This was the story I thought of when I first got into NaruSasu. The whole reason Naruto is important to Sasuke is because Naruto is the only person who's love for him is as pure as his hate, it's unadulterated yet at the same time unconditionel.

If that made sense to you, I applaud you.

Enough

A door slammed open.

Excited footsteps padded quickly down the hall; huffed breaths broke the heavy silence as a small raven-haired child burst through the door to his parents study. His father's eyes did not rise from the book he was focused on, while his mother smiled compassionately at the boy and opened her arms wide, beckoning.

The boy ran into them, a smile gracing his face.

"Mother! Father! We got our reports today!" The boy drew in an exuberant breath. "Guess what I got!"

The woman whose arms were wrapped snugly around the boy's waist smiled indulgently, peering over his shoulder at the paper he clutched excitedly. "Do tell, darling."

He turned his head slightly, flashing a white-toothed smile at her. "Perfect. In everything" There was no mistaking that the emotion coloring his voice was pride, along with a dash of reckless hope.

The man's eyes flicked up to look over his son. Silence pervaded the room for several moments before the man nodded slightly. "Good job, Sasuke. You'll make us proud."

Sasuke's eyes lit up, his smile widening almost against his will. He looked down at the paper in his hand, almost trembling from the exertion of keeping from jumping into his father's lap.

"Keep this up and you might follow in your brother's footsteps"

Sasuke's mouth twitched, the corners falling back down as if in slow motion, until his mouth was set in its regular brooding frown. He twitched in his mother's arms, prompting her to let go of him and leave him free to step away.

Sasuke nodded tightly, head bowed, hands held in front of his body, the paper crumpled in between them. He made to leave the room but turned at the sound of his mother's voice.

"We love you, Sasuke darling."

He paused, one hand on the door frame before turning and looking over his shoulder at her. The contemplative look on his face made her brow furrow slightly, before a hint of his regular smile returned.

"I love you too."

No smile, however bright, could mask how empty those words sounded.

The wind was cold that day.

Sasuke stood with the only person who knew what his smile looked like, how his laughter sounded - his beloved Itachi, the only person who believed that his brother could be just as brilliant as him one day; the only one who believed that Sasuke was more than just 'Itachi's younger brother'.

Sasuke was smiling, eyes wide and youthful.

Itachi was frowning, seeing the naivety in his brother's eyes and taking it badly.

"Brother! Am I holding this the right way?" Sasuke's pre-pubescent voice rang out, his hand - clutching a kunai - outstretched in a sham of an offensive position.

"No."

The disappointment on Sasuke's face was seen only for a second, before morphing into a vivid grin. "Show me how then!"

Itachi looked away, wondering how his brother could hold out a kunai – something solely meant to maim and kill - while looking at him with such eyes. Such trusting eyes.

Sasuke watched his brother curiously while Itachi stared off into the distance. Sasuke's arm drooped lower and lower with each passing minute until the kunai rested at his side. Itachi tensed, before holding out his arms in an uncommonly brotherly gesture. Sasuke smiled widely, running into them and clutching his brother for dear life. Itachi remained tense for some while, before folding his arms around the miniature version of himself and lowering his head so as to rest his nose among the younger one's hair. Itachi still didn't smile, but his attention was now focused solely on his brother - and Sasuke was enthralled by it.

No sounds, no wind, no other people. Just two brothers - each clutching tightly to the other.

And it should have been enough.

It was freezing outside, the snow dusting a blanket of white over everything left exposed to the elements.

Sasuke knew this, but he didn't hesitate to edge his chair closer to the open window, shivering slightly at the feeling of cold air breezing over his face and through his hair. His chin rested in one hand, the other tapping out a delicate rhythm on the wood of his desk. His hair fell around his face; eyes lowered to watch the ground outside the window, dark lashes leaving shadows trailing down his cheek. An air of hostile silence surrounded him, discouraging all but the bravest of admirers.

Unfortunately, his admirers were brazen in ways he preferred not to imagine.

A sound prickled the edge of his conscious, pulling him out of his reverie. His brows furrowed in confusion before he realized it came from a vague area to his right. He lifted his head up, dropping his hand to the desk; turning to look at the pink-haired girl who stood shakily near him.

Her hands were clasped in front of her and her vividly pink hair framed her face – most notably her slightly larger than average forehead. She shifted from foot to foot, a shy smile appearing and disappearing beneath his intense scrutiny.

She coughed slightly, lifting one hand to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"Excuse me, Sasuke?" Her quiet voice faltered for a moment when he didn't answer, but she continued with a sudden burst of fervor.

"I was wondering..." a light blush dusted her cheeks, "If... you'd like to go out with me?" The last phrase was rushed, as if getting it out faster would lessen her embarrassment. His eyes widened nearly imperceptibly before he turned his head away to look out the window once more.

Sasuke didn't answer for what seemed hours to the trembling girl behind him. She stood nervously, shifting her weight in an unease that was only slightly quelled when she heard his voice floating over his shoulder.

"Not interested." It was nearly impossible to hear, yet it was said with no small amount of force. Sasuke could hear an indignant Naruto begin to argue from somewhere behind him, but the black-haired boy shut out his strident voice easily. The high shrill of the girl's however, tore through his consciousness with the brutality of a dagger. Her previously shy demeanor shifted violently.

"That's just not fair! You should give me a chance!"

When no response came from the obvious object of the girl's obsession, she added hopefully, "I love you! With all my heart!"

Sasuke tensed slightly, eyes flicking up from the snow-covered ground to the gray sky that hung menacingly over the city. He studied it, eyes following the contours of the few clouds that floated through the air.

Love...

There was Naruto's voice again, this time managing to break through his thoughts.

"She said she loves you, asshole! Isn't that enough for you?"

Sasuke's eyes never moved from the sky. His expression never changed and his body still sat stiffly in its seat, his hands lying uselessly on the table in front of him.

No. It's not enough.

Over the bodies of two dead parents, the next generation faced off in an unacknowledged battle of love and betrayal. One's eyes glazed over with tears, the other's tainted red with devastating force.

The smaller boy's arms wrapped around himself as his tear-filled eyes took in the scene while his mind did its best to refute it.

"Brother...?"

The other's expressionless face was visible even through the darkness, the accompanying silence only making Sasuke shift in rapidly growing unease.

"What…?" But he already knew. Sasuke was not labeled a 'genius' for nothing.

And then he was running. Running faster than his legs had ever gone before, because isn't it always that you run faster when you are running from death itself?

Tears streamed down his face, leaving streaks through the grime accumulated throughout that day's rigors and fights.

His small body shook with a mixture of fear and determination, until he realized there was nowhere left to run. Everywhere there was death. Death surrounding him, swallowing him whole until all he could see was bright red blood seeping down walls, out of the ground, even out of his own hands.

"Please... " Sasuke's voice broke, his throat seizing up from terror. "Don't kill me!" His voice hitched, tiny hiccups escaping through his words. His eyes were opened wide and painted a light sheen that glittered luminously in the darkness. His whole body shook from terror. "Itachi..."

The only sound that echoed through the street Sasuke had found himself locked into was his own quiet hiccups. "Why?" He choked slightly, gaze blurring until all he could focus on were those impossibly red eyes.

"Why, brother?!"

And they both knew what he was really asking.

Why am I still alive?

Blood everywhere, blood consuming him – yet none was his own. And the guilt from that thought made him want to scratch him skin open, let a river of his own blood join that of his family. Made him want to curl up and sob. Made him want to kill this man in front of him and smash in his face in until it was no more than a bloody pulp.

And then he was falling, falling fast and far until everything was blurring except the red. The red blood that was pouring out of everyone he once knew. Every way he turned, someone was dying, their life was being torn away from them. And he was not joining them. He was watching it all, seeing it happen over and over again until he couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't cry.

And that dreadful whisper was repeating itself over and over again in his mind, accompanied by hateful swirling red eyes. That terrifying sound, the whisper that made the death, the destruction, the hate somehow worse. The voice, the words that he knew would haunt him forever more, even though they seemed void of all feeling:

"Because I love you."

There was only so much time that a thirteen year old boy could spend wandering around a deserted house searching for mirrors. Only so much time a boy that young could spend staring at himself until he had memorized every last flaw, every last imperfection he saw reflected in that harsh, cold glass.

Because if there was one thing in this world that could never lie to him, it was his reflection. No matter how long he stayed, how hard he stared, how much he yelled – it always reflected the same thing, the same person. At the end of every day, belligerent eyes always stared back at him.

That fact made him feel relieved, and at the same time, strangely hollow.

Yet no matter how many times Sasuke tried to drag himself away from those mirrors, he still came back to them. Still came back to stare into those depths and comfort himself that no matter what other's said – he was and would always be wrong. Corrupted. An existence only determined by his own weaknesses.

Something that... malignant could not possibly be capable of the level of connection normal people called 'love'. Other peoples' definition of love.

Sasuke's definition was made of nothing more than broken promises and dazzling blood.

And why should anyone willingly want their life to be ruled by that?

One dark morning when the sun had overslept, Sasuke stood once more in front of a mirror. Head tilted slightly to the side, one hand placed on the glass, silently contemplating the cold touch beneath his palm.

And there was that need, that need to scratch and destroy that tinted his vision red. To burn and hate and die until all that was left was his life's blood painting the walls in a silent promise of retribution.

And then his vision swam back to normality, leaving only a pajama-clad adolescent studying himself silently in a mirror.

His memory shifted, running through various moments and flashing them in front of his eyes to taunt him mercilessly. Thousands of declarations of love from frivolous girls, hundreds from glassy-eyed boys, and countless empty ones that meant nothing more than the oxygen they consumed. None of it was enough.

Sasuke lifted his hand off the glass, turning it around and flexing his fingers, watching the muscles shift in the reflection the mirror presented him with.

When had love ever been enough?

There was one day every year when their school preformed various games for the students entertainment, a stress reliever for some – annoyance for most. All students were expected to participate, but it was a group activity. It entailed teamwork, participation, and cooperation; traits not exhibited by the students at any other time of year.

In an empty classroom, some thirty feet above the field where the other students played, sat a lone boy. He sat at the same desk he always did, the one nudged at the perfect angle to see all the way to the ground from the adjacent window. The typical summer levity of stray laughs and shouts drifted lazily into the room, their dieing echoes giving the room a somber, isolated air.

The boy's gaze, however, was fixed upward, on the gray sky that hung menacingly over the students busying themselves in the field. He sighed bleakly, clasping his hands together in his lap.

The sound of a door opening jarred the boy's attention away from the window, drawing his gaze towards the other side of the room. The blond teenager shut the door behind him, his gaze catching the other's. Their eyes were locked for several awkward moments as they silently observed each other.

The first boy, his hair as dark as night itself, was sitting calmly on top of a desk, something forbidden by their obsessive teacher. His feet didn't touch the ground, rather dangling, giving the air that he didn't even have the energy to kick them. His dark eyes were wide, his lips pursued together in reckless denial of the fact he'd been discovered. A piece of stray hair dangled across his face, hiding one eye from view, while the rest was haphazardly set on top of his head, giving him the appearance of just having gotten out of bed. Something about him reeked of superiority, yet also a sense of exhaustion that was all too apparent in his eyes and in the way his shoulders slumped.

The blond stood awkwardly in front of the shut door, arms crossed defensively in front of his chest. His bright gold hair shined in the light coming in through the window, his blue eyes twinkled even through the undeniable melancholy look he was trying to hide. He shuffled his feet for a moment, breaking their eye contact.

The blonds' mouth turned down slightly, his brow furrowing. He turned his head to the side, giving a haughty sniff. "What're you doing here, asshole?" The boy swallowed. "Someone like you should be at the games. Give your fan-club something to drool at, right?"

Sasuke ignored the question, instead nodding at the blond in a silent greeting before turning his head back to the window.

Footsteps clicked on tile behind him, the sound of a chair being dragged out and a body being dropped into it echoed emptily throughout the room.

Silence prevailed as Sasuke kept his line of sight trained out the window, while the other's gaze constantly flicked around the room before settling on his classmate's back.

The blond opened his mouth to speak but was cut of by the soft-spoken words of the other. "You should be at the games, Naruto."

Naruto flushed , "I'll be wherever I want to be, jerk!" He huffed in silence for a moment before continuing, "And what about you, huh?" The blond smirked slightly in triumph as he saw the other's muscles tense under his shirt.

Sasuke didn't bother with a reply, getting off of his desk and moving to stand by the window. One pale hand rose to rest on the pane, a soft exhale leaving a puff of clouded glass in its wake.

Neither questioned the other's presence, just as neither tried to initiate conversation. There was nothing to question, nothing to ponder, nothing to understand except the fact that for one reason or another there was someone else who wasn't part of that day's festivities; who wasn't accepted- in his own mind or in the minds of his peers – and it didn't really matter which. Because in the end, they were the same, two lone boys in a room watching a sun hidden by clouds dip lower and lower in a gray sky .

And so when Sasuke felt a presence at his shoulder, standing silently behind him at the window, he didn't immediately jump away. He simply breathed a little deeper, a little faster; let his body tense just that slightest bit.

When he heard Naruto's hushed voice over his shoulder, Sasuke couldn't resist turning to see the other's face.

"Isn't it beautiful? I don't think I've ever seen the sky this color. I love it."

The peaceful smile on Naruto's face shone with contentment; the crinkles at the corners of his eyes conveying his trademark laughter even when his voice did not. Sasuke bit his lip for a moment, looking at that innocent smile before turning back to the window.

"How can you say that? It's gray." The harsher voice of the Uchiha made Naruto turn to look at him, one brow raised.

"Does that make it bad?"

Sasuke opened his mouth to respond, before closing it again as he absorbed the question. When no answer was forthcoming, Naruto let out the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.

"You always know it'll turn back to blue. It's comforting."

Sasuke's reply, coming several second later, was slightly softer, hesitant. "What if… it never turns back?"

Naruto's eyes softened slightly, his gaze burning a hole into the Uchiha's back, before he turned his head to look out the window once more, his reckless smile still carefully in place. There was no sound from him for several minutes as Naruto closed his eyes, breathing deeply. Sasuke's fingers were tapping a nervous rhythm onto the pane beneath them, his lip red from being bitten.

And just when Sasuke had thought Naruto would never answer, that soft voice drifted over his shoulder.

"Then learn to love it when it's gray."

-

"Idiot. You never learn, do you?"

Naruto pouted, crossing his arms in defiance from where he overlooked Sasuke on the tree branch. He balanced precariously, shoulders moving back and forth to keep up with the precarious demands of gravity.

"If you fall again I won't be there to catch you."

Naruto scoffed. "And who says I'll fall?"

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow. "All the money I own practically screams it."

Naruto carefully concealed his laugh in a hacking cough, holding a hand up to his mouth.

Sunlight poured through the cracks in the trees to land on the floor of the clearing where the two were practicing, long after their third teammate had gone home. Naruto's persistent attitude prevented him from giving up, and Sasuke's own defiant one prevented him from letting his teammate beat him.

Naruto sighed, some twenty feet over Sasuke's head. "This is boring, Sasu."

Sasuke gritted his teeth. "I told you not to call me that, idiot."

"Too late."

"You little-" And of course, Naruto being Naruto, that was the moment his control slipped. As if in slow motion, one foot dipped of the edge of the branch, his weight toppling forward. Naruto's scream froze as his throat locked up, his eyes catching Sasuke's.

Sasuke cursed under his breath for being teamed with someone who couldn't even keep his balance on a branch for more than five minutes. Sasuke's train of thought sped ahead of his actions, and in the few seconds it had taken Naruto to fall, Sasuke had remained frozen in place.

His teammate hit him full force – sending him to the ground in a groaning heap. One ankle twisted awkwardly underneath Naruto, whose body was flush against Sasuke's.

Naruto's head laid on the ground above Sasuke's shoulder, his breath coming unevenly, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

There was silence for a moment as Sasuke felt his cheeks grow hotter with every passing second while Naruto seemed to either be unaware, or comfortable in their position.

Sasuke scowled, resolutely ignoring the blush surely tinting his cheeks pink, and lifted his hands to press against Naruto's chest and shove him off. The blond yelped, eyes opening wide, as he was thrown some five feet away from his teammate. Sasuke pulled himself into a sitting position, keeping his gaze steadily trained on the ground as he waited for the blush to recede. He scoffed at himself for being so easily affected by something so meaningless.

A soft laugh came across the clearing, causing Sasuke to jerk his head upwards. Naruto, though rife with bruises and cuts, looked no worse for wear. It was impossible to tell that he had fallen out of a two-story tree only moments before.

"Are you blushing, Sasu?" Naruto's voice lilted, it's teasing ring not going unnoticed by the other.

"No." Sasuke scoffed, immediately redirecting his gaze to the ground as he tried to get up. The moment he put his weight on his left ankle, a soft yelp tore from his throat, much to his dismay. He scowled, biting his lip, as he stood up, resolutely ignoring the pain.

He breathed deeply, brows furrowed, hands shoved in pockets, awkwardly trying to rest his full weight solely on his right foot.

"Let's go." Sasuke took a step forward, wincing slightly.

"Asshole." Sasuke's eyes opened in surprise as he felt a warm arm around his shoulders, holding him up, preventing him from resting any weight on his left foot. Sasuke grimaced as he was forced to lean against Naruto or fall down.

"You never learn, do you?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the way his own words were thrown back at him, leaning out of Naruto's hold, attempting to regain his footing.

"I don't need any help from you, idiot."

"But I think you do."

"And I think I don't!"

"Maybe I don't care what you think." Sasuke tensed as the arm around him only held him tighter. Naruto took a step forward, arm still around his teammate.

"It would be easier if you put your arm around me."

"I never said I wanted help!"

"You never do."

Sasuke looked away, scowling when Naruto refused to remove his arm despite the Uchiha's half-hearted struggles. He grudgingly lifted his arm and placed it loosely around Naruto's shoulders.

"Not so hard, was it?"

Sasuke sighed, closing his eyes, as they started the awkward three-legged trek back to civilization. Enduring pain was one thing, being forced to depend on someone else was entirely another. Sasuke remotely wondered if Naruto would have done this for anyone else, before scoffing slightly at the redundancy of the thought.

Naruto would help anyone.

But, Sasuke wasn't just anyone. He was and had always been either no one or everyone and he had never felt what it was to be someone.

The unspoken questions running through Sasuke's mind caused him to tense, wanting to ask but knowing he never would.

"What do we live for, Sasuke, if not to make life less difficult for each other?"

There was no answer, but Naruto didn't require one. After one awkward moment, Sasuke relaxed in his hold and his arm tightened around Naruto's shoulders, and it was enough.

Neither of them dared to say it, but they knew it was there, hanging in the air between them.

And Sasuke realized that he had never before wanted something this much. Wanted something with every fiber of his being, every part of his sewn together heart.

He wanted love to be enough.

"Friendship, class, is a beautiful thing. Describe it in fifty words or less. You have five minutes."

Sighs of incredulity were accompanied by critical murmurs regarding their teacher's sanity as the students prepared themselves for an avalanche of cliches.

"No talking!"

The only noise in the room was now the sound of scratching as pens flew across paper. Each desk was occupied by an absorbed student, head bent, hand moving at a pace faster than light.

That is, every desk except two. Naruto sat, staring at the shut door next to him, the closed tip of his pen stuck precariously out of the corner of his mouth, fingers tapping a rhythm he remembered from somewhere but couldn't quite place.

He sighed, resting his head on one hand as his gaze unfocused.

Sasuke's elbows were on the desk, his head carefully cradled in his hands as he looked out the window. The heat of summer had not gone unnoticed by the general populace, their activities and lack of clothing proved that. He took a second to glare at the paper laid out in front of him, taunting him with the laughable amount of words on the page – none. His mind flew through memories, trying to pinpoint someway to describe friendship, but ending with nothing.

He chose instead to stare out the window, admiring the clear blue color of the sky, a tiny smile curving his lips at the memory of a spring day in this same room many months back.

"Time's up. Let's start on the left side of the room, going across the first row. That's you, Sasuke."

Sasuke ignored him, lost in thought.

"Sasuke!" He blinked, looking around the class to see amused stares coming at him from every side. The girls were on the edge of their seats, pens poised to take notes on the secrets of Sasuke Uchiha's soul.

He sighed, looking at the blank paper laying dejectedly on his desk, before standing up, the scraping of the chair's legs against the floor echoing dully through the room.

He cleared his throat, looking around the room, locking eyes with the only person who seemed to be listening for something other than leverage. Sasuke didn't smile at the blond, but kept their gazes locked.

"The friendship that is most important to me is the one I can find no words to describe." Naruto's eyes widened almost imperceptibly, before the ghost of a smile crossed his face and he abruptly looked down at his own paper.

Sasuke exhaled, carefully sitting back down, watching out of the corner of his eye as the girls set their pens down dejectedly, realizing they could delve no secrets of his soul from that statement. Somewhere in the background his teacher was praising him for his insight, yet all Sasuke seemed to be able to think of was the soft smile he had seen cross Naruto's face.

He allowed one corner of his mouth to curl slightly as he titled his head to observe through the window once more. And sure enough, the sky was still that bright blue.

After several carefully disguised proposals of blind love which Sasuke steadfastly ignored, he heard another chair being pushed out and a deeper voice than those of the girls cleared its throat. Sasuke turned his head to look at the blond who, like Sasuke, held no paper in his hand. Naruto's eyes were fixed on Sasuke, a tiny smile on his face.

"Best friends are like stars... You can't always see them, but you know they're always there." Naruto's eyes were laughing at Sasuke, and the dark-haired adolescent threw a half-hearted glare at him before turning back to the window, hoping that the other hadn't noticed the pink in his cheeks, the tilt of his lips, or the crinkles at the corners of his eyes.

More overrated clichés abounded while Sasuke fell deeper into thought, hands delicately cradling his head.

That warm feeling in his stomach was something completely new to Sasuke. Something he was not entirely comfortable with. The feeling of, maybe someday, this – whatever this was – being enough.

Leaves crunched underneath the boy's feet as he ran blindly through the rain, his speed only causing the drops to hit him harder.

The sunlight poured easily through the dry branches to rest on the floor of the clearing, covered in a thick layer of dead leaves. Every breath the boy took was a gasp, his legs threatening to give out under him from the cramps tearing apart his calves.

Then his motion slowed, before stopping completely. He stood in the middle of the clearing, a troubled sky hanging over him, raindrops soaking his clothes, wet leaves covering his bare feet, a kunai clutched loosely in his hand.

Minutes passed, while the rain's intensity steadily progressed. His fingers had long since relaxed, dropping the kunai to the ground, its impact cushioned by leaves. His breath had slowed, his eyes half-lidded, his shoulders slumped.

He sighed, his body dropping to the ground. He landed on his knees, face turned up to the sky. His chest shook; his hands clutched the fabric of his shorts tightly.

The sky rumbled, giving him a warning he didn't bother to heed, so when the rain turned into a downpour, he didn't bother to move. Sheet after sheet of water fell, drenching him, sticking his hair to his forehead and his shirt to his back.

His body shook from unreleased tension, his hands letting go of his shorts to clench into white-knuckled fists.

And out of the rain, a shadow appeared before Sasuke. His eyes saw bare feet, and then that bright, unmistakable color which could only mean one person.

"Kakashi told me what day it was." There were no scoldings, no desperate hugs, no pleasantries, which was a good thing in itself. Naruto was certainly the type to bypass all conventions and expectations and rashly follow his instincts.

When Sasuke didn't answer, keeping his head bowed, Naruto kneeled in front of him, eyes trained on the pathetic sham of a superior complex sitting in front of him, the wet clothes emphasizing the other's thin frame.

"You're going to get sick." Naruto's brow furrowed, reaching out a hand to grasp the other's chin – forcing Sasuke to look him in the eye.

Sasuke snarled, hand shooting up to grab Naruto's wrist.

"I don't care. Leave me alone, idiot."

Naruto's eyes narrowed, his captured arm tensing abruptly. "I care! You stupid stupid ass. I fucking care." Sasuke looked away, letting his hand drop from Naruto's wrist after a few awkward moments.

"You shouldn't." Naruto nearly missed the hushed words.

The blond forced out an aggravated breath. "I don't give a damn about what I should or shouldn't do, Sasuke, you're-" Sasuke looked up, eyes locking with Naruto, just as a ray of perfectly timed lightening lit up the sky behind him.

Naruto coughed, changing tracks. "Nobody should have to deal with this, even you. I know-"

Sasuke's eyes flashed. "How can you know, Naruto!? How exactly do you know how I feel?" Sasuke stood, legs barely supporting him, taking a step back from where Naruto stayed kneeling. "You never had anything to lose, there's a difference! I lost everything!" His voice cracked, "And I can't lose it again."

And then Naruto was in front of him, hands on his shoulders, head titled down only slightly. He smiled at the shocked look on the Uchiha's face.

"That was the first time you've said my name."

"..Excuse me? ...I say it all the time!"

"But never with that feeling."

Sasuke could feel his cheeks grow warm. "Wha-" He cleared his throat, "What feeling?"

"This one."

And then soft lips were on his, and Sasuke was being pushed backwards into the trunk of the nearest tree. Sasuke's eyes were wide open, watching as rain hit Naruto's forehead – his mind trying to decide whether to pull him closer or push him away.

And then the lips were gone, replaced by a soft voice that ghosted over Sasuke's lips, causing him to shudder. "Don't push me away, Sasuke."

And he didn't.

Sasuke was relieved to realize there was truth to Naruto's words, because Sasuke could feel a feeling unlike any other coursing through his body, making his blood boil and his skin heat up inexplicably. He felt an inane warmth coiling in stomach, making him forget about the ice-cold rain that mercilessly pounded against his skin.

There was a numb calmness in his mind, fixing something Sasuke had long since shut away, fixing something broken that nobody had ever succeeded in fixing. Until this one idiot, who could change all of Sasuke's expectations with just one simple feeling.

This feeling...

There was no need to go further, no need to slow down – they rested in that feeling of perfection and corruption. Perfected corruption, which was so sweet to taste. The feeling running through both their veins, the feeling turning their vision red, it was enough to warm the coldest of memories, heal the deepest of wounds.

And so when Sasuke put a hand on Naruto's chest, pushing him backwards slightly, Naruto's mouth opened to form an accusation only to have Sasuke cut him off.

His voice held no malice, no hate, no fear, but a certain sense of relief that caused Naruto to tilt his head in confusion." That's enough." Sasuke was staring at the ground.

"That's enough." He repeated, and his lips tilted upwards, in that customary expression of contentment Sasuke had seen on the faces of so many others but that he had never before figured out how to put on his own. Naruto's breath caught in his throat at the sight of it, his eyes widening slightly at the idea that someone so drenched and with eyes so swollen could look so beautiful.

Sasuke looked up, eyes full of some emotion neither could define but both knew instinctively.

"That's enough." Sasuke's hushed voice broke halfway through.

Eons later, so far in the future that time had melded, in a dark cave far, far away from Konoha, two black-haired shinobi were staring each other down. One was a betrayer, the other his replacement.

"He loves you. You know that, don't you?" Sai's voice was as emotionless as always.

Sasuke turned his head away, his quiet words lacking their usual force. "Yes."

Because for the first time, Naruto had made love enough.

fin

-

Maybe I have a twisted definition of love.

But if there is one thing Sasuke deserves, it is to have a real love.

And if it can only exist in fanfiction, so be it.

Fan-fiction Naruto slash writers unite!

-

All readers appreciated, flamers accepted, reviewers blown kisses, and constructive criticizers hugged so tightly their faces turn blue.