Petrichor

By: Prosely

Petrichor: (noun) a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather.

Chapter 1: Unsettling Revelations

Few things were as incredible as Sasuke's chidori, glittering in the morning sun's rays as the blue lightning danced across his pale skin. Naruto took another step back, feeling the static build and watched the air around the raven-haired shinobi grow darker. The powerful jinchuriki could taste the electricity on his tongue as it crackled in the atmosphere.

He inhaled deeply, and was overwhelmed by the peculiar scent that clung to Sasuke: the fiery fragrance of lightning and the rich smell of earth after a thunderstorm. It permeated the very air Naruto took into his lungs with deep, gratifying breaths; feeling adrenaline sing through his bloodstream from the anticipation that was building at the base of his spine.

His clones frantically tried to strengthen the rasengan they were forming in his hand to counteract the blow from the chidori, and the future Rokudaime Hokage of Konoha felt it pulling from his deep chakra reserves, drawing from the kyuubi's power. The energy warped the air around him into a red haze reminiscent of desert heat.

The rivals leapt for each other in complete unison, their hands outstretched to clash, tension rising as the light rippled in their hands until the very last moment when they swung away, diverting their powerful attacks into their surroundings.

As much as they both wanted to put their respective formidable power to the test, they knew they couldn't destroy such a large portion of the Konoha training fields, and had made the unspoken agreement to always stop their attacks before things got out of hand. Of course, they still pushed towards each other like polar ends of a magnet, pressing forward despite the increasing tension until the very last possible second, testing to see who would pull back first.

Sasuke diverted his chidori into a nearby tree with an impossibly graceful backflip, katana flashing in the amber light of dawn as the sun continued its ascent across the lake.

The subsequent blast shook the ground, and Naruto could feel the heat on his skin as the tree was completely incinerated. His clones helped him redirect his rasengan above him, channeling the excess energy directly towards the sky. It hissed around them both like something alive, swirling for a brief moment and making Naruto's skin tingle as it washed over him.

He glanced up to meet Sasuke's usual look of derisiveness, but instead, saw something much more…predatory in his rival's dark gaze that made the jinchuriki's heart pound from the unspoken challenge. They were both hunters fighting for dominance, their entire existence focused on the desire to win-to be the best. Sasuke's crimson eyes felt like embers as they raked over him, burning trails of heat across his skin as the Uchiha seemed to evaluate how much of a threat Naruto posed that morning.

Ever since the Sasuke had returned, he had been quieter then ever in regards to their rivalry, though it hadn't lessened at all. If anything, Naruto thought, catching his breath as he slid into his taijutsu stance, their mutual thirst for fierce competition with each other had only increased alongside their vast growth in power.

The Uchiha head tilted back, his body sliding into in a mock slouch, the only evidence of tension in his frame being the derisive set of his mouth. Swirling cerise eyes regarded Naruto's stance with a glittering of contempt, before, with a sudden rippling of muscles. Sasuke moved.

Naruto's arm flew up as he felt the raven's chakra, tasting the raw lightning in the air again before he saw the fist flying towards the side of his face. The blonde reacted just as fast, jumping back and twisting to the side, grabbing Sasuke's wrist and planning to swing the bastard into the river. But the nuke nin made another elegant spiral, breaking out of the blonde's grip and vanishing again, so fast that it was impossible to track him with the human eye. As Sasuke tried to come in from his other side Naruto countered with a vicious kick of his own, but the shot went wide. The jinchuriki heard the whistling of his rival's katana, and his kunais deflected it in a flash before the blonde was back on the offensive, attacking with his signature flurry of punches and kicks that forced the Uchiha back to parry against him.

Anyone watching wouldn't have been able to even see the blows the two exchanged—from the outside, they were nothing but black and orange blurs that clashed in clangs of steel and flesh around the field, the air around them becoming heavier with the latent energy and chakra swelling in the atmosphere.

Sakura, who had first stumbled upon Naruto and Sasuke's private "training sessions" a few weeks ago, had taken to watching the two from a safe distance, her own chakra perfectly masked as she studied the men who had once been her teammates and best friends. The morning mist curled around her feet, and in the distance, she could hear the faintest sounds of Konoha waking up to greet a new day. She tucked a strand of pale pink hair behind her ear and watched as Sasuke's hands moved to form some quick, successive hand seals, and fire roared out with a hiss into the crisp autumn air.

She didn't understand why her former teammates felt they had to keep their entire training a secret from her to begin with. Sasuke had certainly been warming up to her—their conversations had graduated to whole sentences in the past month. Naruto was sunny as always, meeting her for their weekly lunch and training sessions where she got to practice with using her full strength on a kyuubi vessel that healed faster then she could hurt.

Whenever the three of them were together, the two were much more subdued then she recalled from their childhood, Naruto usually only rising to Sasuke's decidedly weaker barbs half the time. And though the blonde still muttered about the Uchiha's "bastardly" ways, it wasn't with half as much intensity as he used to have in regards to their quiet, self-serving teammate. If anything, the usually unstoppable force of energy named Uzumaki Naruto just seemed…tired. Tired of fighting, tired of blowing up at someone who would now only scoff in response.

The waves in the lake undulated beneath the force of their blows as the two clashed again, water rippling out across the shoreline. Sakura knew that Kakashi and Tsunade were working the blonde to the bone as they prepared him to take the title of Hokage, but although he presented a convincing façade of energy with their other friends—Sasuke seemed to bring out this…edge to Naruto that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

When they were younger, Naruto had lived for the moments when he finally got Sasuke to react to him. But perhaps he had just stopped because he really had grown in more ways then she realized, Sakura thought, shifting her stiff legs as Naruto and Sasuke moved out to the water. Then again, Naruto had always been a little emotionally stunted when it came to the Uchiha, so that might explain why their new rivalry-friendship left her ill at ease. She just wasn't used to the idea of Naruto and Sasuke behaving "normally" towards each other. Certainly not when they were acting as cordial as they had been.

So even though Sakura was confident that her friendships with the two were strong, and despite that she certainly believed that Sasuke and Naruto were entitled to something that was just...for them, she was still slightly hurt by not even being invited to their training in the first place—though the more she watched them (even at the cost of sleeping in on her days off), the more she got the feeling she was falling behind again. It didn't matter that she was easily one of the best kunochi in the fire nation, Naruto and Sasuke...they were on a whole different level. They made the ANBU look clumsy.

Regardless to the fact that the medic-nin couldn't figure out exactly what it was that was so…off, she nevertheless studied them closely. She would get to the bottom of the matter eventually. Sakura had learned to trust her gut feelings, and they were screaming at her that there was something else going on with those two.

To begin with, on the mornings they trained, they didn't say a word to each other, not even throwing a joke or customary insult. Sakura wouldn't have believed that Naruto could be so quiet for so long if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. They just both appeared an hour before dawn broke and prepared themselves in total silence. Sasuke would wrap bandages around his knuckles and move through his katas, and Naruto would meditate for the same length of time, his eyes closed as his faced the river. Sakura still wasn't sure what their unspoken signal to begin was, but suddenly they would be moving, and it was like the rest of the world faded away.

Watching Naruto and Sasuke fight was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. It was like music for the eyes, played by the most talented orchestras in the world; except in this case, Naruto and Sasuke's instruments were their bodies, their weapons, and their kinetic energy; twining together in a seamless dance and making the world around them seem almost garishly ordinary.

It was when they fought that Sakura felt the most nostalgic, because they finally looked like themselves again: Sasuke with his signature smirk and his impossibly dark crimson eyes swirling and lit with a sort of fire Sakura had almost forgotten existed, and Naruto's face reflecting that light and—shining with unadulterated joy. They moved with such feral grace and beauty, free to fight without fear of hurting the other, flexing the full strength and range of their abilities. When one did manage a hit on the other, it made Sakura's heart leap to her throat, because the resounding noise would sound like the earth breaking, and was always almost immediately followed by a second ringing crash that reverberated in her bones, as neither man would settle for the other rival getting away with a hit for long. It incited an even more of intense tension to the atmosphere, making the pale pink hairs on the back of her arms rise.

Naruto suddenly reappeared close to the edge of the clearing, spinning from the force of Sasuke's blow. He was bleeding sluggishly from his arm, though Sakura could see the glow of the wound knitting up even from her distant vantage point.

She tensed as the blonde's back came towards her, ready to use her prepared teleportation jutsu if it looked like she was going to get caught. Though she knew her technique to mask her chakra was essentially flawless, she still wouldn't put it past Sasuke's sharingan to find her anyway. And though nothing happened outside of training those mornings, some part of her still felt like was watching something she shouldn't be, and knew that Sasuke would see it the same way and be more then a little pissed if he caught her.

The Uchiha in question materialized in front of Naruto almost an instant later, re-sheathing his Katana as he said something that Sakura couldn't catch with apparent disdain. Naruto responded with a savage growl that reminded the kunoichi just how dangerous and deadly her usually bright friend truly was before he jumped forward, grabbing Sasuke by the collar and slamming the man's back against a tree.

Sakura waited for the Uchiha to vanish or throw a punch as Naruto invaded his rival's personal space, the blonde's voice raised so loudly that even she could hear it, though she only made out a few words from the distance she had imposed. Close up, the sound had to be deafening.

"Bastard—how dare—" Her breath caught as the tension in the clearing seemed to rise even more as Naruto pressed even closer and—

Oh.

Oh.

Sakura felt her jaw slacken as she watched Naruto's lips crush into Sasuke's with a passion and violence that was reminiscent of the fight they had been absorbed in mere moments before. He was met with equal ferocity as the dark haired man's fist tightened over Naruto's shirt, pulling the blonde closer as lightning skittered over the Uchiha's bloodied knuckles.

If Sakura had thought that their battle was like music, their kissing was a full symphony, their taunt bodies rippling with tension as they moved with that same unity—that unity that, for all her brilliance, she still couldn't wrap her mind around. had always been like night and day, dark and light—but somehow, seeing them now it suddenly made sense, Sakura thought, struck with a moment of clarity. It just seemed, right for them to just...be.

Naruto's hand tilted Sasuke's head back and slid from the raven's swollen lips (was Sasuke panting?) to kiss down the Uchiha's pale throat, teeth flashing as he bit and nipped down velvet skin. A corded muscle in Sasuke's shoulder rippled as he shifted to push back against Naruto's frame—or was that a shiver? The kunoichi swallowed, her mouth suddenly very dry as she saw Sasuke moan, his lips parting and his fingers flexing on Naruto's arm, threatening to rip the fabric of the man's jacket. The sheer sensuality of the moment shook Sakura from her stupor, and she realized that she finally had crossed the line into watching something very private—she was turning into Kakashi at this rate!

But something about the two together just held her in a strange sort of riveted trance. She didn't think she had ever seen Sasuke so expressive, so alive. It was as if some of Naruto's light had broken off inside of the other man and was being reflected back into the world.

Her brain still short circuiting too much to process what she was watching, Sakura quickly took a step back to teleport back to the front of the training grounds, deciding she would figure out what to do from there. She quickly formed the seal with her hands, glancing up to make sure her old teammates were still—well—preoccupied, when she felt her muscles begin to seize up in her skin, the chill of overwhelming dread settling into her very bones.

Sasuke's eyes were open and bleeding red, black tomoes lazily swirling into the mangeyko sharingan as he met her stare dead on, threatening to pull Sakura into a world of exquisite agony. The spinning crimson stare held the kunoichi in place, even as Naruto, still oblivious, pushed a tanned hand under the Uchiha's dark shirt, his fingers splaying out against a long, unnamed scar one the ivory skin of Sasuke's stomach. The raven's gaze didn't leave Sakura's as Sasuke let out a fierce growl of approval; his long and elegant fingers threading into Naruto's hair and tugging the blonde back up to his lips. His ruby-eyed stare remained fixed on her wide jade eyes, almost mockingly keeping her frozen as he ravished Naruto's mouth, drawing blood as a the blonde's touched parts of him that Sakura was still not quite sure she could entirely comprehend without getting weak at the knees.

She swallowed as Sasuke smirked at her in the indolent, self-assured manner of a cat who had caught a mouse but was obligingly releasing it to flee; finally closing his eyes and turning from her as his head fell back against the rough bark of the tree and Naruto returned to his vicious ministrations on the Uchiha's neck. Sasuke's lips involuntarily parted with in a small, muted gasp as the blonde's mouth closed on the base of Sasuke's throat, his rival's pink tongue dragging across the his pulse before biting down, causing the Uchiha to hiss as Naruto moved his knee between the raven's legs.

Sakura had to go. She had to go now.

With a shock of smoke, she vanished, still not processing what she had just seen as she leapt from where she reappeared at the front of the training grounds to the nearest rooftop. She hurried as fast as she could to the hospital, moving from building to building with an almost desperate purpose, barely seeing what was in front of her. She had to do something to stop the images she felt were now burned onto her retinas, looping over and over again like a bad movie. She needed something to distract herself with-

And if that meant being elbow deep into some poor shinobi's guts, then so be it. She would figure out how to deal with the new problem of Sasuke and Naruto later.

Sasuke flexed his hand, curling his fingers into a fist to resist temptation, even though he felt like it was overwhelming him, hotly pressing into him, every centimeter of his skin craving more contact. It was wrong; and he knew, deep in his heart, that what he was doing was sick and selfish.

Then again, he had never advertised himself as anything but selfish, so who was Sakura or anyone else to judge? He thought, trying again to justify what he was doing; but it was a weak attempt, even in his head.

Here he was, the last Uchiha, again only seeking to satisfy his unnamed and unvoiced desires, and not giving a fuck for potential consequences. You would think he would've learned by this point.

But the fact that Sakura had seen his first successful attempt at getting Naruto to kiss him was troubling enough. He couldn't believe that he hadn't detected her the entire morning-or any other time she might have spied on them-until the spike of heat and chakra from that direction when his…experiment finally yielded results-

Besides, it wasn't as if he was truly warping Naruto's mind all that much, he reasoned. There was a reason that fighting and sex went hand in hand: the emotions, the heat, the adrenaline, they all revved the same receptors in the brain. His mangeykou sharingan just shifted his friend's perception a little, so that while Naruto still believed they were having a really great spar, in reality, he was helping Sasuke deal with the excessive amount of pent up sexual frustration the Uchiha had been dealing with concerning the idiot.

Sasuke hadn't even realized he had the power to do anything about his increasingly uncomfortable feelings about Naruto until a few weeks ago. They had been training as usual, and the kyuubi vessel had gotten pissed off about an offhanded comment Sasuke had made about the Hyuugas, most likely because rumor had it that Naruto and Hinata had finally gone on a hesitant date, and the blonde was still clearly nervous about impressing the other girl. Sasuke had said something along the lines of how weak minded the clan was, and how the trait seemed to be inbred.

And suddenly, Naruto was far closer then Sasuke could remember him being in recent memory, his hands gripping his rival's arm hard enough to leave bruises, trembling with a rage that made Sasuke's pulse race. The Uchiha's sharingan had reacted out of instinct and reflex, and suddenly, instead of throwing a punch at him, Naruto had snaked a hand into his dark hair and pulled the raven close in a thrilling, excruciatingly painful way that sent electricity spiking to every nerve in Sasuke's system.

"Fuck. You." The blond hissed, his lips inches from Sasuke's own, his hot breath forcing its way down his rival's throat. Sasuke hadn't even realized that his bloodline limit was even tapping into his latent desires for the blonde and pushing them onto Naruto until a moment later, when the other man snapped out of it.

The kyuubi vessel stumbled away from him, blinking furiously and looking dazed as the mangekyou faded from Sasuke's eyes, and the Uchiha remained motionless, immediately understanding what had happened. His sharingan had simply shifted Naruto's awareness and actions so that while his body was doing what Sasuke (albeit subconsciously) wanted him to do, in Naruto's mind, the blonde had actually just thrown a solid punch at Sasuke's face, which the latter had dodged at the last second.

As Naruto returned to the real world, Sasuke had immediately turned away, declaring he was bored and ending that day's session as he tried to process exactly what happened. The blonde idiot had of course stomped off even more pissed off then usual, but still showed up for their practice the next morning.

Not that Sasuke had any doubt that he would. If Naruto was anything, it was loyal.

The saddest part was perhaps that brief, flickering moment, when he was caught staring into the oblivion that was those impossibly blue eyes, Sasuke had actually believed it had been real: that the strange dreams and cravings that had been haunting him since his return had strangely manifested into reality.

And then he was struck with abject horror as the enormity of his own projected desires washed over him.

Sasuke was utterly disgusted—with his lack of control, and moreover, with himself. He almost burnt an entire section of the old Uchiha complex to ash that afternoon before he managed to calm himself down. Afterwards, he meditated for hours in the estate's overgrown gardens, wondering if he was going mad, or if the Mangekyou had finally been broken by his hands, to have it react in such a way to what he had previously labeled as a distant, isolated interest.

Sasuke had assumed that his brief sexual fascination with the blonde upon his return was just a part of the overwhelming emotions and sensations of coming back to Konoha. He thought it was something that would pass with time, until it manifested in his sharingan that strange, concrete way that put the raven on edge even hours after Naruto had been so tantalizingly close to him. The Uchiha's mind continued to replay every moment, even as Sasuke tried to push the damning thoughts away: all he could concentrate on was the taste of Naruto's hot breath, the salty, sea water smell of his skin and the crystalline bead of sweat slipping from the blonde's temple to trace the curve of his tanned face.

Pale, elegant hands trembled in his lap as Sasuke relived the sensations, giving attention to the darker hunger that swirled in the back of his mind, his desire that easily metamorphosed into bloodlust. He wanted pain. He wanted to hurt Naruto, blaming his rival for making him feel this way. Sasuke wanted bruise him and break him and be broken in return. He burned for the blonde to hate him, to destroy him, just as he needed Naruto to want him, and what was worse was that Sasuke wanted him too, more then he had ever desired anything else in his life and he was so fucked-

Sasuke vomited after that, spilling his dinner behind an azalea bush. Twice.

He steadied himself and took an icy shower to clean up. Toweling his hair and feeling far more in control after the normalcy of his daily ablutions, the raven decided to open the clan vaults. He was determined to find the source, the reason for his twisted desire for Uzumaki Naruto because there was no other plausible answer in his mind.

Unless he finally was going insane, he thought, adrift in the piles of ancient clan lore and histories, having read his way through the bulk of it with little progress.

"You're quite sane little brother, all things considered." Itachi's voice had replied languidly from within his mind, as if Sasuke's mental projection of the elder Uchiha was amused by the younger's strong aversion to the foreign desires stirring his blood.

"The sharingan runs on strong emotions: on passion as much as hatred. Naruto has existed on both ends of that spectrum for you. He is the reason your sharingan activated in the first place, is he not?" If Sasuke had the power to glare within the frame of his own mind, he would've. "So this…lust, it's just a reaction to the sharingan then? Some strange side effect?" The younger shinobi demanded.

His Itachi-projection shrugged. "Naruto was always the trigger for its transition and change, even before I gave you my power. He is intertwined with your sharingan, almost as much as you are. Conclusively, it's safe to assume the two are connected."

And somehow, blaming the sharingan for that strange, bubbling craving made it a lot easier to deal with in Sasuke's head, justifying his attempts to activate the sharingan's…extraneous use again in their training. Surely, he thought, he could just kiss the moron, satisfy the desire, and move on with his life.

A part of Sasuke that the raven didn't really want to give voice to felt that his new "gift" was a particularly cruel twist of fate. His eyes could grant him his every desire, but it would always be within the parameters of some sort of an illusion. The development in the sharingan's powers was new and clearly something he needed to cultivate, since it would make him close to unstoppable—but for all of his training and attempts to rework the ability by himself, he found himself attempting the new technique almost exclusively in Naruto's presence, and always for the same reasons. Always for the same outcomes, despite what he told himself.

And with each failed attempt, his once latent desires had become more agitating, the dreams more hellishly arousing, and the sharingan's gift for eidetic memory an exquisite sort of curse. It was Sasuke's personal hell, being attracted to the idiot who was still the only person in the world with the ability to cause such monumental changes in the Uchiha's psyche.

But there hadn't been a repeat performance until today, when that same feverish Naruto was on him again, smothering him in that scorching fury, and Sasuke realized that he needed that condition—he needed Naruto's rage to feed into the mangekyou and give him what he wanted. The Uchiha paid attention and felt the shift that time, aware of it taking over as his eyes darkened to an unnamable shade of crimson.

He saw the genjutsu reality Naruto's mind easily fell into, one where he and Sasuke just went at it again in full force, unaware that his physical body was being directly influenced by all the powers of Sasuke's hunger and pressed forward-

But then Naruto's mouth was on his and all of the calculating parts of his brain began to break into barely cohesive fragments of thought.

If this was what an illusion was, he never wanted to leave his newly formed reality, Sasuke decided, his world no longer existing outside the feeling of Naruto's slightly chapped lips on his own, a calloused hand catching on the smooth skin of his throat. He wasn't sure if the blonde knew exactly where to touch him because of the sharingan's influence, or if it was in spite of it.

The other man seemed to radiate a heat that sunk into Sasuke's bones, rattling the Uchiha's usually flawless self-control. The raven had been hoping to just kiss the blonde and get whatever lust for the man he had out of his system, which was his usual way of dealing with the fleeting attractions he had felt for others in the past. But as Naruto slid to his neck, laving it with a rough attention that drew a sound from the back of his throat he hadn't known he was capable of making, Sasuke realized that his suddenly insatiable hunger for the other man ran far deeper than he had initially thought.

But then he felt Sakura's presence, and he had to drag himself from his pyrrhic victory to meet her wide jade eyes. The sheer shock reflected there told Sasuke all he needed to know, and the twisted, vindictive side of him that had flourished under Orochimaru and Madara for so many years held her in his thrall for a few thrilling minutes, forcing her to watch Naruto's mouth and hands touch and lavish his skin, his touch almost burning him in its intensity. Realizing that he was in far deeper then he realized, Sasuke decided he had enough of his former teammate's voyeurism and set her free, hissing as Naruto's teeth sunk into his jugular.

Sakura vanished with a soft gust of wind, and the distraction from releasing her from the sharingan caused it to falter. Naruto's eyes lost their slightly dazed look as he started to blink, his fake memories layering over the ones his body had just experienced. It took every ounce of Sasuke's willpower to push the idiot back, aiming for another quick kick towards the man's side to reinforce the false memories his doujutsu had created.

Naruto blocked the blow as a reflex and habit more than because he knew what was going on, but Sasuke pressed his advantage, the heat from his own frustration fueling him. Perhaps it was a bit Pavlovian, trying to get Naruto to hurt him after the blonde just made him experience incredibly pervasive desire that he still needed time to qualify, even as it seemed permanently settled into his blood, singing whenever the blonde got too close.

Sasuke hated how weak the idiot made him feel, hated that he had been reduced to his own subconscious and latent desires for the blonde taking action for him then his doing anything himself to approach the issue. And there was that stronger part of him that was still repulsed by himself, repulsed by how much more of Naruto he wanted. He craved the blonde with a violence that made most of his previous kills seem apathetic in comparison.

He translated that desire and his own abhorrence for it into a furious onslaught as Naruto blocked again, blue eyes hardening as the jinchuriki moved to take the defensive. They clashed once more with a resounding ring that reverberated through the forest. Naruto back flipped to crouch, his feet skidding to a stop as Sasuke mirrored him, feeling the earth crumble beneath his sandals.

The blonde was still flushed and panting from earlier, though he clearly attributed it to their training, Sasuke could still taste the man's salty sweat on his tongue. The corner of Naruto's mouth twisted in consternation as the kyuubi vessel realized that somehow, fighting with Sasuke had stirred parts of him he hadn't expected, and his sudden realization that he was turned on colored his face, made the dark animal that had taken residence beneath Sasuke's skin rumble.

"Let's call it a draw, eh?" Naruto asked with false brightness, better natured now that he had burned off some more steam, albeit not in the way he thought. Sasuke, at that point, couldn't even remember what he said earlier to piss the blonde off. The Uchiha shifted his weight to his left foot; his usual look of boredom etched onto his features as he coolly regarded the source of all his problems.

"If you say so, moron." He said. Instead of getting pissed at the nickname like he used too, Naruto laughed, his arm stretching up and behind his head.

"Yeah yeah bastard, keep telling yourself that. We all know I kick your ass four times out of five."

"Tch." Sasuke scoffed, trying to sound as nonchalant as he appeared. "Try one. If that." Falling back into their usual camaraderie of jibes and mockery felt so normal, the Uchiha could almost pretend the heat that was still prickling over his skin was just an illness that would pass. That all of the strange desires he had concerning the blonde would go away if he just ignored it long enough.

"You're just pissed because you choked first!" The blonde goaded, his chest puffing out in pride. "But still-it's nice that everything is finally…I dunno, getting back to normal. It feels right again." He said, that contagious optimism blooming again as he looked for some sort of distraction for how clearly uncomfortable he was feeling.

Sasuke opened his mouth for a dry retort about how Naruto should remember that people were still trying to kill both of them when they both turned to the sound of claws padding through the grass nearby. The Uchiha rolled his eyes, having become familiar with the sound during the past six months whenever his former mentor wanted to "check up" on him.

Pakkun, Kakashi's sardonic dog summons, appeared from behind a bush, his pug-faced head tilted at a confused angle as he sniffed the air in the clearing. Sasuke felt the muscles between his eyes tense, though the rest of his body was the picture of laid-back repose. He knew the dog could still smell the arousal that had been in the air better then anyone. He would just hope the idiot vermin would keep its mouth shut.

And he still had to figure out what to do about Sakura. She would probably be too embarrassed to say anything...or maybe she would just have to be...persuaded to keep quiet.

Pakkun gave the Uchiha a hard look, as if he could read the dark stream of thoughts behind those fathomless eyes, before beginning to address the blonde. "Naruto! Ya gotta head to the Hokage's tower, quick. I had to find you this morning because you weren't in your apartment when they sent for you." The blonde looked confused. Blue eyes glanced in Sasuke's direction, and at the other man's shrug, shifted back towards the small dog.

"Sent for me?" He asked, puzzled. He had been going to see Tsunade almost daily since she had woken up from her coma, and he didn't know what could possibly be so important that they needed him so immediately. Sasuke remained motionless as Naruto shifted uneasily from foot to foot. "What do you mean? Is Baa-chan alright?" The blonde asked, more worried as he quickly re-sheathed his weapons. He felt Sasuke watching him as he did so, an unreadable expression on the man's face. Pakkun made a toothy, shit eating grin.

"Didn't you hear the news kid? You're getting married!"

End Chapter 1.

I know there are a lot of changes to the cannon plot, but that's what makes it fanfiction, no? I'll go into more detail as the story progresses, but let me know what you think! Be prepared for more character appearances soon, more focus on Naruto, and a lot more frustrated sexual tension ;)

I tried to keep the balance between all of the reflective thinking and action for this chapter, but I had to set up the characters and the setting for the story. Additionally, I want to try and stay as true to the characters' personality as I can—which is why Sasuke is having such a difficult time dealing with his burgeoning attraction and why he's blaming it on his sharingan (I do see him as the one to notice it first and be in total denial). Also, I feel like the initial attraction could be arguably connected to the sharingan's initial manifestation and the progress of Sasuke and Naruto's relationship throughout the series. As the plot thickens, this may end up being a returning cause of grief for you, dear reader, because Sasuke and Naruto are both just too damn stubborn to realize what it is they really want.

I'm not sure how long this piece will be in total, but I don't think it will be too bad. Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think! Reviews are love.

Ja ne!

-Prosely

PS: The cover art is NOT mine. It was created by an artist named Lily who is incredibly gifted, so you should go find all of her stuff. Just search for "Naruto Lily fanart" and her work should come up!