Disclaimer: I do not own any of Naruto or its characters, nor do I make any money off of this fic.
Mulberries
by Lemon Drops/thatreevesgirl (they're both me)
One-Shot
Naruto thought it would be a marvelous idea to pick mulberries today, especially since it was warm and sunny out, and the mulberry trees' supply of dark, juicy berries should be ripened by arduous amounts of bright summer sun by now. Naruto had of course invited several people along, what fun was there in clinging to fruitful tree branches and stuffing yourself with delicious summer if you couldn't share it with a few friends? Sakura was training with Tsunade, Kiba had taken Akumaru to see his sister (seeing as the large dog injured his back paw), Shino had a family obligation, many of the other teams were off on missions, and Hinata had only murmured incoherently and walked away, blushing the entire time.
That's why Naruto was hanging upside-down from branches, chuckling to himself as he watched the only person who'd agreed to come with him, and they were completely inept at berry-picking.
"I swore these grew on bushes," the Kazekage mumbled as he picked a light-cherry colored berry and popped it into his mouth, rolling it on his tongue a moment before he realized that red meant not ripe and spat it to the ground below.
"Lots of berries do, just not mulberries," Naruto told his friend, grinning at the site of Gaara's purple stained fingers. Mulberries were horridly messy and always left you with the proof you'd been picking them for days, since their reddish-purple juices were nearly better than any dye.
Hopping up to where Gaara was, he pulled a berry from his lot of pickings and held it out for Gaara to see. "These are the ripe ones, they're almost black when they're mature."
"Aw, I see," Gaara said, and without warning pulled Naruto's hand to his lips and stole the berry from the blond. Naruto could still feel the ghost sensation of Gaara's tongue on his fingertips. "You're right, that is better."
Naruto would have chuckled if he wasn't so perplexed by what Gaara had done. Sure, he and Sasuke-teme were…well, not many people knew that he and Sasuke had been more than merely friends, but Gaara as well, Gaara in a non-friend kind of way? It was comforting to know there might be more people out there for Naruto, since Naruto's heart had nearly been done in after Sasuke ran off to join Orochimaru, stupid bastard.
Gaara plucked another berry from a nearby branch and committed the cardinal sins of mulberry eating, he sampled a tiny bit of it by biting the berry in half, obviously not wanting to have another encounter with bitter, half-ripened fruit. One should always eat mulberries whole, Naruto thought, because they are the messiest little things. This was true, because a tiny bit of deep-purple juice dribbled down Gaara's chin unknowingly to the sand shinobi, who was busy finding and eating more berries like the first he'd just tried.
"Gaara, um…"
Gaara looked at Naruto with curious eyes, the trail of juice still on his chin. Naruto knew if it wasn't wiped away soon Gaara would look like he wore the same purple kabuki paint as his brother, seeing as mulberries stain quickly.
Naruto moved closer, starting to bring his fingers up to Gaara's face to wipe the juice away, but then realized his fingers were covered in more purple liquid than Gaara's chin. Naruto wasn't one to be stopped by such an inconvenience, and with an impish grin he leaned in and licked the trail of juice away.
Naruto pulled back and waited for Gaara's reaction, hoping and praying it wouldn't be anger.
"You licked me," was the calm response from the Kazekage, no hint of irritation present in Gaara's voice.
"I suppose I did," Naruto replied, blushing just a bit, but hiding it by grinning like a fool.
"Why?"
Because if you let me I'd do a lot more than lick you, Naruto thought, but only verbalized, "You had some juice..." and finished by touching his own chin carelessly to show where the juice had been, realizing too late that he'd just marked himself with mulberry secretions as well.
Gaara moved toward him, "Let me help you with that," leaning in slowly and carefully placing his tongue on Naruto's chin, dragging it languidly over Naruto's skin several times until he was satisfied the purple mess was gone.
As Gaara pulled away Naruto realized he hadn't breathed since the first moment Gaara had begun the arousing onslaught of cleaning him thoroughly, and sucked in a nervous, broken breath. Gaara's eyes settled on the blond in a much focused way, seemingly intrigued by the reaction he'd caused.
The basket of berries Naruto had been holding plummeted to the earth below, completely forgotten by the leaf teen as he clutched Gaara's face, kissing him madly, smearing purple juice everywhere as he continued the smoldering embrace with his friend…well, they weren't really just friends anymore, not according to the way Naruto was attacking Gaara's mouth in a needy frenzy with his own.
(three days later)
Kankuro was completely puzzled to why Gaara had come home looking as it he'd been beaten thoroughly, purple marks everywhere on his younger brother's skin.
"I thought you went to Leaf on a diplomatic mission, why are you bruised…" but as Kankuro looked closer, he realized they weren't bruises and Gaara was grinning wickedly about his brother's observation. The purple marks were also on Gaara's hands, his neck, and from what Kankuro could tell, they trailed down below the collar of Gaara's shirt to his chest as well.
"Do I even want to know?" the puppet-nin asked.
"Probably not," Gaara replied, chuckling lightly at his brother's reaction. Maybe sometime when Kankuro was being annoying the Kazekage would share the story, and even relinquish the detail of how far down the purple marks actually went, that would definitely disturb Kankuro, good ammunition to have.
"So did the mission go well, did you find out anything?"
Kankuro was referring to the updates in the peace treaty between Konoha and Suna, but Gaara only replied, "I found that I like mulberries," and walked away.