Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!

Summary: COMPLETE. It wasn't really a proposal. It wasn't really a wedding. But him and Sasuke had never really done things normally, had they? Canonverse, Sasunaru/Narusasu, Oneshot. Proposal x Wedding AU for silvertonguedmaiden on tumblr!

A/N: Hi hello it's definitely not the last day of April and I'm definitely not cutting it close or anything. I've spent all my time writing my longer fic (if you follow me on tumblr then you already know about that office AU coming up!), but that won't be ready until next month at least - so in the mean time, please enjoy! This fic was a prompt from silvertonguedmaiden on tumblr, who asked for a proposal x wedding AU :)

Reborn by Flame

It wasn't really a proposal.

Looking back on it, he wasn't really sure how to explain that it undeniably was. Naruto had been living with Sasuke for ages—he hadn't slept a night without Sasuke at his side since the Uchiha had decided the best way to shut him up was with his mouth—and they'd been dating since...well. He didn't really know when that had started.

Probably before he'd realized it.

But then Sasuke had spent half a week staring at him way more than usual, and Naruto had spent half a week trying to get the asshole to just tell him what he was thinking, and it wasn't until Sasuke had dropped a bunch of scrolls on Naruto's lap, it wasn't until every inch of Naruto had frozen at the sight of the Uchiha clan symbol blazing across the paper, it wasn't until Naruto had barely dared to whisper—

"These aren't the originals, are they?"

And Sasuke had laughed. A small, surprised sound (it was the only way to get Sasuke to laugh, really—by surprise, but Naruto was pretty damn good at surprises) that had quieted as he ducked his head, and as Naruto had found the strength to breathe—

"Obviously not," Sasuke had told him. "Learn them."

And then he'd just left.

Like the antisocial, what-do-you-mean-normal-people-have-emotions dickhead that he was, he'd dropped a bunch of scrolls heavily detailing every aspect of a traditional Uchiha clan wedding—

And then he'd left.

And it was a damn good thing these weren't the originals because Naruto never managed to figure out how to read the damn things without crying all over them, so then he'd just kinda done his wet, messy best.

He read them all, back to front, five times before Sasuke came back home. Well, four and a half for the last one. He kept getting confused around that one part.

And Sasuke still hadn't said anything. He'd just kinda looked at him—but that's how Sasuke spoke, sometimes, and sometimes Naruto didn't need words either, and sometimes, like that night, they told each other everything they needed to know with their hands and their mouths and their—

"You're daydreaming about Sasuke again, aren't you?"

"Wha—no, I was—"

"You know you're never going to figure any of it out if you just keep smiling at the floor," Sakura continued as if he hadn't said a word.

"Shut up," Naruto mumbled, staring back down at the scroll. That had been two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, and he was usually so much faster than this, but—

"Does it have to be fire?"

"It—"

"Like can you substitute a different element?"

Naruto opened and closed his mouth.

"That...that kinda—that goes against the whole thing. I'm literally being reborn by flame, Saku—"

"Okay, okay, relax. How was I supposed to know that? You've barely let me touch it."

Well, because Sasuke had given them to him. And Sasuke didn't know he had told Sakura this level of detail—or, well, maybe he did. Sasuke tended to just kinda know things…

"Can you just make Sasuke do it?"

"No," Naruto said. "No, I have to prove myself. That's the whole point," to lay himself down, in front of the clan and their ancestors, and to let them search him and find him worthy— "and my flame gives them the chakra. That's the connection."

"Who is them?"

"The…" Naruto bit his lip, waving a hand. "You'll see. I dunno how to explain it."

Sakura let out a frustrated breath

"How do you expect me to help you if you won't tell me anythi—"

"Sorry! Sorry—I mean—I, uh, I don't," Naruto said quickly, frantically, before Sakura's temper could really get into gear, "I just don't wanna...set something on fire."

"Set yourself on fire, you mean."

Naruto threw her a sheepish grin.

"You know, in order to do that," she continued, "that you have to be able to make flame in the first place, right?"

Naruto's grin was immediately a scowl.

"You're even meaner than Sasuke."

Sasuke caught him two days in.

Or, well, he made it known he did two days in.

They'd been walking back—back home, Naruto had thought. But then Sasuke had kept walking, so Naruto kept walking too, and it was only another few moments before he had recognized the path they were on was the one to the lake. The one to the dock. The one where he used to see Sasuke, all the time—

"It's a good place to practice," Sasuke offered quietly.

He crossed his arms and turned away, then, but nothing in the entire world was going to stop Naruto from utterly beaming at him.

"I know," he pointed out, and he didn't have to see Sasuke's eyes to know they were rolling.

Still, it was about another two beats before Sasuke turned—

"Well?" he said, arms still crossed.

Naruto suddenly felt very, very nervous.

"I—uh, I mean—I've been, like, when I've been—"

"Shut up and show me."

Sasuke moved to stand behind him.

Naruto let out a breath, and grappled with the panic. This was fine. This was fine. He did the best under pressure, anyway. He could do this—he could—

"Katon! Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"

Naruto pressed his hands together, clenched his eyes shut, and breathed—

…

Nothing.

Naruto spun on his heel.

"Don't laugh!"

"I'm not," Sasuke said, hand over his mouth, shoulders shaking—oh, that dickhead—

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke took three steps back, waving his free hand at Naruto—

"My element is wind, jackass, let's see you try to do my rasengan—"

"Your rasengan?" Sasuke looked up at him, eyebrows raised and smile brilliant (and fuck, if only Sasuke hadn't been laughing at him)— "You're going to compare your rasengan to the technique I mastered when I was barely—"

"Shut up!" Naruto grabbed at his hands, but Sasuke only laughed harder— "Shut up, shut up, shut up—"

He shoved Sasuke's hands back at him—

"I wasn't even a genin—" Sasuke tried to duck down again, duck away, still laughing—

"Oh my god, you—" Naruto pulled him back—

"You couldn't even—"

"Shut up!" Naruto shoved at him again, and he only had a moment where Sasuke's smile faltered, where his eyes went wide— "Oh, shi—"

Sasuke grabbed the cloth of Naruto's shirt and Naruto felt his stomach lurch—

And then he was in the lake.

He felt Sasuke let go of him as they hit the ground—it really wasn't that deep—and Naruto used it to kick himself back up to the surface—he sucked in a breath as he came up for air and wiped the water from his eyes—

"You monumental idiot," Sasuke said, hair sticking to his cheek, his forehead—he spat some of it out of his mouth—

Naruto couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah, use your fire now, genius—"

Sasuke shoved him into the dock. Naruto struggled somewhere between trying to float in the water and grabbing onto the dock, now soaking wet, because he just couldn't stop laughing—

He settled for grabbing onto Sasuke's shoulders.

"You're not doing a very good job of teaching me," Naruto said, wrapping his arms around Sasuke's neck.

"You're unteachable," Sasuke muttered, grabbing onto the dock.

"I dunno," Naruto said, wrapping his legs around Sasuke, too. "I think I'm a pretty quick learner."

Sasuke's smile widened.

"And what have you learned?"

Naruto leaned closer.

"Let me show you…"

He let Sasuke know, pretty quickly, that he wasn't allowed to watch him practice. It wasn't the nerves (okay, well maybe it was a little about the nerves), but he was distracting. And Naruto spent twenty-three out of twenty-four hours distracted as it was—

And this...this needed more focus than anything else he had ever tried to learn.

He was wind. He was wind—he had spent so long refining that part of himself that he could feel it even when it wasn't being used. That element was part of him. It was him.

And fire was its exact opposite.

It was like trying to go against everything he had ever learnt. It was like trying to do the opposite of everything he was. It was damn near to feeling fucking impossible, and he refused to believe anything was impossible. He—

"We can find another way," Sasuke said quietly, a few weeks into Naruto's training, "if you can't do it. Your ele—"

Naruto jabbed a finger right in Sasuke's face.

"I'm doing it."

Hard didn't mean impossible. It had never meant impossible.

And besides—

Naruto had an idea.

"Are you sure you need—"

"Yes."

Naruto didn't even look up. He knew it was crazy, somewhere in the back of his mind, but far more forward he knew it was needed, and—

"Is this what the ritual calls for? A candle for every clan member...unable to be there?"

Naruto tapped the end of his paintbrush against his mouth. There was no ink on it, yet, but he wanted to practice today—

"No, just close family members, usually." Hm...maybe if he changed how…

"Then—"

"It was to avoid chakra exhaustion." And that wasn't exactly a problem for him, so—

"I still think—if you had all of Sasuke's close family, then—"

"No, Sa—I—listen." He ran a hand through his hair, paintbrush flicked in between his knuckles. "I want the Uchiha clan to approve of me. The whole clan. You understand?"

"Sasuke is—

"The head of the clan." He stared back down at the scroll in front of him. "And if I do this right, he'll be able to be there, with all of his people behind him. Everybody. He'll be able to feel it, if I do this right—"

"Naruto," Sakura's voice was serious, "you're putting too much pressure on yourself."

Naruto met her eyes.

"I'm kinda getting deja-vu here, Sakura-chan."

"You should be." She plopped herself down beside him. "Sasuke makes you nuts."

Naruto ducked his head.

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I'll give you that."

Sasuke got absolutely zero information from him until the day came. It wasn't often Naruto got the chance to surprise him; the bastard usually knew what word would make it out of Naruto's mouth before he'd even managed to think it—so he was gonna take full advantage of this.

And he'd had a bit of a breakthrough a month ago—once he'd figured out that the fire didn't need to be perfect, not for this—and then it had just been about everything else, like getting the candles and having the montsukis made (Sasuke had insisted on sewing the Uchiha clan symbol into his himself, which had left Naruto feeling like he had to sew in the Uzumaki clan symbol on his own, and that had pretty much turned into another six hours of Sasuke laughing at him)—

It had felt like fucking forever. And now, it was finally…

"How are you holding up?"

Sakura gently closed the door behind her, before looking Naruto up and down.

"Um," Naruto swallowed, holding up a hand—fuck, he could barely hold a cup of water with the way he was—

"That nervous, huh?" Sakura laughed, trotting over to him.

"I'm—" he laughed and ducked his head. "I can barely—"

He waved his arms around him and ducked down, again, laughing—fuck, he was so—

"Deep breaths, Naruto."

Naruto sucked in a long, long breath.

"Yeah." He let it out with the word. "Yeah—I—"

He looked up at her.

"I'm so excited, Sakura-chan. I can't—how much longer? I'm—"

"Half an hour."

"Fuck."

Sasuke was beautiful.

He was always beautiful—always stupidly, stupidly magnetic and distracting and Naruto had never been able to ignore him, not for a second—but then sometimes, sometimes like now, or when they were twisted around each other with nothing but air in between them, Sasuke would open his eyes and look at him like—

Like this.

God, Sasuke was so fucking beautiful when he looked at him like this.

"You're staring, usuratonkachi." Sasuke's voice was soft and whispered. Naruto wondered if he felt half as weak as he did. Half as humbled, half as lucky, half as blessed—

"Better get used to it," Naruto told him. "You're gonna have to deal with it for the rest of your life."

The heat in Sasuke's eyes grew tenfold. Naruto swore he saw a flicker of his sharingan, but it was gone before he—

"Boys," Sakura called through the wood, "it's ready."

Naruto stared at Sasuke for at least three more seconds before he forced himself to move.

They'd cleared out the grounds for this. The largest one they had, not only because of the flame, but for the privacy. Sasuke's privacy, anyway. Naruto had no qualms baring his soul if it meant Sasuke would be happy.

And Sasuke would be happy.

Naruto stopped, smiling, in the sea of candles. He'd heard Sasuke's small intake of breath loud and clear.

A candle for each Uchiha that couldn't be there. A candle for each soul lost. A candle for every member of Sasuke's family.

As if Naruto would do anything less.

He waited for Sasuke to recover—to shift to his side until Naruto would call him forth—and for Sakura to get into place, poised to intervene in case everything went wrong—

And behind her, Kakashi and Iruka. Naruto wondered if Sasuke knew Naruto knew he'd invited them. Stupid compassionate bastard.

Naruto closed his eyes and felt each hand seal as he made it. He took his time, feeling the chakra with each one, letting his wind settle and settle until—

"Katon! Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"

It was the barest spark, but that was all he needed. Naruto held onto the sliver of flame, and let his wind roam free.

The flames boomed.

And Naruto smiled as they swelled around him, spinning in circles that lit the candles one by one, because it was so easy now, to suck in a breath and breathe back out life—

"You cheated," said Sasuke's whispered voice.

Naruto laughed and spun to face him.

"Rules are made to be bent," he told him, feeling the sleeping pattern beneath him begin to stir. They reacted to the flames—to Naruto's chakra—to Sasuke's presence— "Come here, asshole."

Naruto raised a hand and Sasuke pressed against it with his own.

He needed Sasuke's chakra, now. Sasuke's chakra to ground the ritual and tell it exactly who was calling and why—Naruto let his wind flicker and breathe with heat as Sasuke's chakra began to grow around him, within him—

Naruto fell to his knees, but kept his palm pressed to Sasuke's.

Sasuke sucked in a breath.

The earth burst with light.

And Naruto felt it, then, felt it like a thousand whispers, a thousand hands, a thousand flames lashing through him—it was working, it was working, it was working, it was—

He closed his eyes, and submitted.

Naruto had never normally been one to be submissive. Never one to stand back, never one to stand still—

But he had never been one to hide, either.

And so he watched, eyes closed, as the memories of him and Sasuke were laid bare, one by one.

Sasuke, barely six years old, swinging his legs off the dock—and Naruto, watching him with some sort of warmth in his chest, wondering if he could maybe sorta kinda reach out and—

Sasuke, almost twice as tall, with his eyes narrowed as Naruto frantically rattled off excuses as to why Sasuke had happened to win that particular round—

Sasuke, with amusement written all over his face as he looked Naruto up and down and his lips spoke the words scaredy-cat—

Sasuke, with his back turned and the tips of his feet on a rocky edge, and Naruto, with the terror and anguish and hurt and doubt and fear and fear and fear and fear—

And fear.

Naruto, waking on his teacher's back, feeling the blood on his skin as clearly as the failure.

Naruto, in the middle of the dark, staring at the ceiling, wondering if Sasuke slept to the same pain he did every night.

Naruto, staring up at his best friend, met with eyes that barely even recognized him. Eyes he barely even recognized.

Naruto, falling to his knees, with his hand grabbing at the air in his lungs as his vision grew black.

Naruto, baring his soul, and Sasuke, unable to hold onto that nothing anymore.

Naruto, knowing Sasuke still cared. Naruto, knowing Sasuke was still in there somewhere. Naruto, knowing—

Sasuke, accepting his loss.

Sasuke, awakening to a drooling, messy, passed out Naruto on the side of his hospital bed.

Sasuke, leaving Konoha with Naruto at his side.

Sasuke, returning to Konoha with Naruto's hand in his.

Naruto opened his eyes.

Sasuke's eyes were wide now, and he breathed in breaths that were heavy and fast—Naruto sucked in the heat as a tear trailed down Sasuke's face—

Oh.

A candle for each of the flames in Sasuke's family, but the three shapes at his side—

Even Naruto could recognize those.

The flame—Sasuke's father's flame, Naruto thought—pulled Sasuke's hand up, away from Naruto's. Naruto closed his eyes, and let the decision come.

The heat seared through him.

He felt it over his heart, like burning through him, burning in him—he felt it throb out from Sasuke's palm, lashing through him like a whip—

And just like that, they were cold again.

Naruto gasped for air.

Sasuke fell to his knees and clutched Naruto to him.

"Did—" Naruto breathed in again— "did it work?"

Sasuke let out a soft, wet laugh.

"Stupid," Sasuke said, clutching him tighter, "stupid, you're so—"

Naruto laughed. Once in surprise, and then in relief, and then in that overwhelming, consuming emotion—

"I love you," he breathed into Sasuke's skin.

Sasuke's voice shuddered.

"I know."

"Boys, boys, boys—" Sakura grabbed the back of Naruto's montsuki. "Sign these, and then you can go. Make it official."

Sasuke had been halfway to dragging him somewhere after they'd both recovered—or, well, recovered enough. Naruto could still feel the warmth pulsing on his chest, a reminder that he'd done it, he'd done it, he was really—they were really—

"Hold it together, usuratonkachi," Sasuke muttered, taking the sheets from Sakura. But even her eyes were still red, and Sasuke was some sort of bastard, acting like he hadn't been sobbing into Naruto's neck a second ago too—

"Teme," Naruto whispered, watching the pen tremble in Sasuke's hand.

And there it was, in writing.

Sasuke Uchiha-Uzumaki.

Naruto breathed out and moved forwards.

Naruto Uzumaki-Uchiha.

"Congratulations," Sakura said, smiling at them with watery eyes.

Naruto didn't manage more than half a sob in reply.

It was a solemn, quiet, private walk back to their house. Naruto didn't know if somebody had arranged that part of it, but it was something he...hadn't known he needed. He felt so...at peace.

"Stop staring at me like that," Sasuke muttered, eyes still on the floor.

Naruto's smile grew.

"I won't," he said, slipping his hand into Sasuke's. "I never will."

Sasuke let out a soft, exasperated breath.

"Stupid," he muttered, and Naruto laughed. But Sasuke kept pulling him forwards, even when they should have turned here—

"Are we not going home?" Naruto asked. He'd had pretty specific plans that required Sasuke and a bed, and he'd really rather get to them sooner rather than later—

"No," Sasuke told him, pulling him forwards.

Naruto rolled his eyes at the non-answer, but followed him all the same. Naruto had had his fun and kept his surprises for today—it was only fair that Sasuke got some of his own.

It only took another few moments for Naruto to realize where they were headed, anyway.

"The lake?" he asked, letting Sasuke pull him forwards. He couldn't quite make it out, but it looked like there was something on the—

"It's Uzushio tradition," Sasuke said quietly, "to spend the night on the water."

Naruto froze midstep.

"That's all I know," Sasuke continued quickly, and Naruto saw the apology in his eyes. That's all I know—that's all I could find—that's all there was left—

"On the water." Naruto's voice came out much stronger than he felt. "It's an Uzumaki clan tradition now."

Something in Sasuke's eyes settled.

It was a box, in turned out, on the end of the dock, filled with brushes and ink. And true Uzumaki fashion, Sasuke had already painted the spiral along the dock—

"When did you do this?" Naruto whispered.

"...After you learned how to cheat," Sasuke said, kneeling down.

Naruto followed his lead, but not before sticking two fingers in the ink and flicking it at Sasuke's face.

"You—" Sasuke flinched back, and Naruto laughed— "Give me that brush—"

"Wh—hey, hey, hey—you asshole, get back here—!"

They ruined the pattern pretty fast.

It was a few hours later, in the mess of the ink, that Naruto and Sasuke lay. The stars reflected off the lake, only obscured by their own shadows—

And Sasuke was still staring at Naruto.

"Does it hurt?"

Naruto smiled, and let his head fall onto Sasuke's shoulder.

"It's sore, yeah," he said, closing his eyes to focus on the feeling, "but I like it. I can feel it pulsing with my heartbeat."

He felt Sasuke shift, under his head, and it made him open his eyes. Sasuke's hand was raised, just barely, and the hesitation was written on every inch of him—

Naruto gently pulled his hand and slipped it under the cloth. The wound was already pulsing with heat—it had been since the flames burnt it into him—but somehow, the warmth of Sasuke's hand...soothed it.

Sasuke's breathing began to shudder.

"Teme," Naruto whispered, letting his head fall onto his shoulder again. Sasuke still didn't move his hand—he only continued to stare at it, as his breathing hitched once, and then again—

Naruto raised the hand behind Sasuke's back and slowly traced his finger along the back of Sasuke's neck. He continued the swirl, even as it ended—telling Sasuke, reminding Sasuke—you're mine too, bastard—

Their eyes met.

Naruto's finger continued to move.

"Uchiha." Sasuke's voice was barely a whisper.

Naruto smiled.

"Uzumaki."

A/N: Something short and soft - I hope you liked it! Let me know? I hope I can get my long fic ready for next month - I can't wait to do daily uploads with you all again!

Until next time,

- Kinomi