Insomnia Productions Presents...
by Clara
There was a man who had his arm around a rather charming woman, and they were curled up on a scarred, mahogany bench. Once in awhile he would turn to kiss her temple, and she would give him a smile that was only meant for him.
Naruto saw everything from his perch on the lower branches of his favorite tree.
Across the way, two young teenagers were lying side by side on the grass, fingers entwined. Earlier, the boy had given the girl a flower. She was twirling it around between her fingers, sometimes glancing dreamily at him.
Was this love? This perfection?
He wanted to throw acorns at them, but he was sitting in a willow tree.
He started when someone scoffed below him. Sasuke was leaning against the trunk, staring at one of the couples. He was idly tracing the designs on his Anbu mask, fingers following memorized lines.
"Disgusting." It seemed that he knew that Naruto was there, unless he took up a habit of talking to himself. Naruto wouldn't be surprised—it was lonely being alone.
"How did your mission go?" Naruto asked, trying to pull a disinterested voice. It didn't work very well.
Sasuke shrugged. He wore apathy so much better than Naruto did. Sometimes Naruto wondered if that was what it felt like to a brick wall. Or a block of ice.
He leapt from the tree and leaned beside Sasuke. "How long have you been here?"
"Long enough to want to leave. Why are you here?" The way Sasuke talked often sounded accusing.
"I don't know. This is my favorite tree." Naruto fidgeted slightly. "I wasn't just, like, watching the couples make sucky faces at each other or anything..."
Sasuke didn't answer, but he was looking at Naruto with surprising intensity. Naruto scrubbed at one of his cheeks in embarrassment—it was tingling and warm with a slight blush.
"But I did watch a little," the blonde admitted sheepishly. Sasuke made him babble, since he never knew what to say to him. "And I was wondering—is that love? The casual touches, the smiles..."
"Love hurts so much more."
Naruto glanced at Sasuke, and the Anbu was staring at the younger couple.
"Infatuation is painless. It fades when you realize that it isn't love, and when you lose that person it doesn't feel as if your heart is being ripped from your chest."
They fell silent and watched the couples. It was a nice day, if a little chilly for Naruto's taste. He preferred the heat.
"Brutal," Naruto said, after letting the silence draw out longer than necessary. "I never want to fall in love, if that's all there is to it. Don't see why so many people make such a big deal about it."
"But when you're with the person you're in love with, you feel complete," Sasuke continued quietly, seeming to ignore what Naruto said. "You feel immortal, and like nothing can touch you and your most important person."
Naruto has once been Sasuke's most important person. It sounded, now, as if he had been replaced. Maybe Sasuke had let one of the girls who had been 'infatuated' with him for all these years into his heart.
But he sounded so unhappy about it.
"Are you in love, Sasuke?" Asking that question made it final. Naruto's stomach clenched—Sasuke had been his first friend, and he didn't like sharing.
That quiet again, the stillness that made Naruto squirm. He could hear nature above them and industry in the distance, and those small sounds comforted him only slightly.
"Yes."
Naruto's heart twisted and he smiled broadly. "Well, that's good! What's she like? Are you going to get married to her? I bet she's so smug! After all, she snagged the most wanted bachelor in Konoha!" When Naruto had nothing to say, he talked too much.
"...she doesn't know."
Naruto's eyes widened and his smile slipped. "Why not?! You'd make her the happiest girl in the world!"
How dare Sasuke give hope to the hopeless.
Sasuke tilted his head to the side. "I don't think so. I think she would turn me away."
"Are you insane?!" Naruto stared at him, appalled. "Is she insane?! Come on, Sasuke, everyone wants you."
"Everyone? You think so?" Sasuke smiled slightly, and Naruto swallowed. It was a rare sight indeed, to see that slight curve of the lips. "She's a bit insane, yes."
"That explains it."
"She always has to be right, but never is." Sasuke was staring into the distance at really nothing at all, still smiling almost fondly. "She's a complete ditz and kind of an idiot, and has bad taste in everything, from clothing to food."
Naruto snorted. "Sounds like a real catcher. What's her name?"
"Naruto," Sasuke said.
"Yes?"
Sasuke chuckled slightly and snagged the strap of his mask on his belt. He turned to Naruto and advanced, backing the surprised blonde against the tree.
"For my darkness, she brings light." He reached up to touch Naruto's blonde locks. The jounin's eyes widened slightly. "For my fear she brings courage. For my anger she brings peace. For my void she brings completeness."
Sasuke's lips were so close to Naruto's that he could feel his warm breath. Naruto imagined he looked rather comical in his shock, and he tried to hide it by turning his face away. But Sasuke did not let him escape so easily. Gently, he caught the kyubi by the chin and turned his face so that their eyes locked again. Blue met black, and Naruto's breath caught in his throat.
"She never lets people destroy her, even when that's everyone's goal, it seems. She's determined and brave, and will follow her most important people to the ends of the earth—she did for me, multiple times. I can't understand the heat of her emotions, but she will never understand the intensity of my dreams. She is immortal, if only because I will never let anyone take her away from me."
Naruto bit his lower lip lightly, and then was struck by an epiphany. "Oh, I get it! You're in love with Sakura!"
Sasuke deadpanned and smacked the back of his head. "Idiot." He pinned Naruto to the tree by his shoulders, and looked him in the eye.
When Sasuke kissed Naruto, he stole his breath away. The blonde fisted his hands together, unsure if it was because he wanted to punch Sasuke or if it was a way to keep himself anchored to this universe. Naruto helplessly tried to kiss back, uncertain of what to do but following Sasuke's lead, venturing in tentatively with his tongue when Sasuke ran his own against the jounin's teeth.
It was when Sasuke touched the side of his face that he realized just what the hell he was doing and pulled back fast enough to smack the back of his head against the tree.
"Ow!" he yelped, and Sasuke gave him a dry look.
"Stupid." He kissed the blonde's neck, and Naruto put his hands on his chest, not exactly pushing him away yet.
"Hey—"
When Sasuke started kissing lower, Naruto tensed up immediately.
"—wait—"
"What do you think I've been doing for these past five years?" Sasuke rumbled against his chest, lips right over his heart. Naruto shivered and gripped the front of his shirt tightly.
"But you said she!" Naruto protested feebly, staring down at Sasuke's head. Sasuke straightened and rolled his eyes, placing his hand on the side of Naruto's head.
"Well, you are a girl sometimes..."
"So you're in love with me?! That's not what I meant by not wanting to share! And the Sexy no Jutsu doesn't really make me a girl!"
Sasuke gave him a puzzled look. "You talk too much, and you don't make any sense."
Naruto stuck out his tongue. Immediately, he regretted it when Sasuke kissed him at that exact moment, with an open mouthed kiss that made Naruto's knees weak. He made a protesting sound in the back of his throat that just seemed to spur Sasuke further on in this clumsy, electrifying kiss. Defenseless against such a strategic attack, he could only wrap his arms around the Uchiha's neck and cling as if his life depended on it.
He breathlessly tried to pull back, but Sasuke followed, sliding his hands up the back of Naruto's shirt and making him jump slightly. Sasuke chuckled against his lips and finally pulled away, creating delicate designs on Naruto's lower back.
"What, you don't like it?" There was a triumphant quality to Sasuke's tone that suggested that even if Naruto said he didn't, Sasuke wouldn't believe him.
"You stupid, smug, bastard—"
Sasuke laughed quietly and wrapped his arms tightly around Naruto's waist, crushing the smaller boy against him. "Are you going to try and tell me that you don't feel that way about me, too? After all the times you persistently went after me, after all those little smiles, after all those times we fought against and with each other? Don't tell me you never felt that energy."
Naruto scowled at him. "Well, yeah, but I wouldn't exactly classify that as love!"
"You don't even know what love is, so how can you say it's not?"
Naruto had a feeling that Sasuke was trying to trick him, and he had no idea how to respond. Instead, he continued to glower at him. It wasn't very effective—Sasuke just laughed.
"Come on," the black haired man said, holding his hand out to Naruto. After a moment of hesitation, Naruto laced their fingers together and pulled himself close.
love, love me
A/N: Love, Love Me might have a part two, eventually, but this will only be found on my page.
This is the result of me reading too many doujinshi and listening to Fiona Apple's Never is a Promise repeatedly. I swear, if there's one song that spells out SasuNaru for me, it's that one.