Disclaimer: Emmilene J. Rosalina (AKA EJR-Blue-Rose) does NOT own Kishimoto. I miiiiight own Naruto, but I haven't checked my e-mail to see if I won that E-Bay bid yet... damn. Nope. That's right, you stupid linguistic lawyers, you can stop circling my piggy bank like a pack of hungry vultures... Gama-chan's already empty from hanging out with Ero-sennin...
So... yeah. This is part 1 in a possible 2 part story. I hope you don't have to go throw up your eyeballs when you read it. Erm... I think I'll start the rating up on M for mentions of rape (literally, mentions. Like the way you'll joke about it.) and stolen virginity?
I hope nobody's
offended. If you are, that sucks; because I already told you that
this isn't my anime, so I can write whatever the hell I so please
as long as I have my awesome disclaimer of fan-authoress-y doom.
Naruto: We'd like to apologize for our OOCness, but the authoress was on caffeine...
Sasuke: I coulda SWORE that Red Bull was caffeine-free... innocent
--
My Lucky Star
--
You always call me dobe,
A loser, to be clear.
Always getting in your way,
Emotions that you fear.
Dobe this, dobe that,
My heart just goes asunder,
I used to hope, I sat,
And I'd most of all wonder-
Was this all over before it began?
Do you think that you can't, when really, you can?
Did you run away frightened, or leave us to hurt me?
With eyes like those, Sasuke, I thought at least you'd see...
--
Sometimes Naruto wondered if Sasuke was thinking at all, and if not, why he always pinned it on him. Kami above, not everything was Naruto's fault. Just because Sasuke wasn't aware enough of a ninja to keep from tripping on that wire trap that he set out for him didn't mean that Sakura should beat the shit out of him. In fact, that was what training was for, wasn't it? Not everything would go perfectly.
That didn't seem to work for Sasuke. Everyday, he grew colder and more distant; overall clumsier. Naruto hated to see his friend like this, ever since the Chuunin Exams. Everything had gone downhill from there. It was like he could see right through Sasuke; everything that was poisoning his mind and soul, every word that tainted his body, every sight that made his train of thought careen dangerously off the track.
He couldn't do anything about it. Whenever he came close, Sasuke would flinch or back away, or most recently, push him violently. "Stay the hell away from me, dobe," he'd hiss, making his friend cringe and pull back. Sure, they would have physical battles and tried to hurt each other whenever they could to come out on top, but the mental impression on Naruto left deeper and deeper slices into his happiness every time.
Nobody seemed to notice. They saw him so often, and it was so gradual, nobody had a doubt in the world that everything was fine, nothing was wrong. Iruka, Tsunade-baa-chan, Konohamaru, Sakura... nobody noticed the slowly fading grin. But as Naruto went down, the village went with him. The overall morale of Konoha had dropped increasingly low, and he had become the demon child once more.
Of course, this meant nothing in the eyes of anybody. Nothing had changed, in their mind. Or rather, everything changes. Everything changes, but it moves so slowly that nobody is quickly influenced by how dramatic the change is. If the information were to be displayed like global warming data, it would make the observer gasp. Naruto Uzumaki, the embodiment of joy, was depressed.
He spent more time by himself, drawing deeper and deeper into his shell, and people began to notice that Sasuke had as well. Only, Sasuke being a prestigious Uchiha, people noticed when he began to back away from the bonds he had only so recently made. He spent most of his time just looking at the stars from atop Uchiha Madara's head in the Valley of the End. Nobody could reach him, either.
As he lay there in contemplation one sultry evening, he heard the slightest movement behind him. He didn't bother moving - it didn't matter. They'd activate his explosives if they went any farther anyway. He went to close his eyes, and suddenly he heard someone clear their throat. Life sucked. Then again, the easiest way to get someone's attention was to sit down and look comfortable. He should have anticipated it, being a ninja. He turned in annoyance, confused to see a glint of indigo hair and blindingly white eyes.
"How did you get up here?" Bitterly. Angrily. Although she had done nothing wrong. Hinata flinched, maybe she should just leave... no. That went against her nindo. "B-Byakugan..." Sasuke inwardly hit himself in the forehead. He decided that he'd do something horrible to her later. "Have you seen Naruto-kun?" Sasuke glared at her. "Of course not. I'm not the dobe's babysitter." "Strange..." Hinata sat down, as if she had permission to be there. Sasuke felt like growling at her.
"He's been acting quite strange lately... I don't think I've seen him, and I've staked out Ichiraku's for a week or so now..." Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Not only did she stop stuttering, but she also openly admitted to stalking the blonde moron? This was beginning to feel like that one show, To Catch a Predator. "And you're telling me this because...?" Sasuke wouldn't admit it, but he was a bit worried for the dobe. He hadn't come after him once since... how long was it? A little after the Chuunin Exams?
His eyes widened a little in realization, but he kept his stoicity. "I'm telling you because... well... Naruto hasn't opened his mouth in about a month, Sasuke..." Shit. With all that crap about watching out for your teammates, there was no way in hell that Kakashi was going to let him slide for this one. Sasuke sighed with false annoyance; he really did have to find the dobe... "Fine. I'll find him. But don't guarantee he'll come back in the same condition he was in when he shut his goddamn mouth..."
Hinata blinked at the swears but looked away. "Thank you..." "Hn." With that, the Uchiha prodigy was gone. Sai smirked. Turned out he really could play Hinata's part perfectly. Kiba owed him twenty bucks. Oh, and Shikamaru owed him ten more.
Turned out the Uchiha was gay, after all.
But Sai still thought that neither of them had anything in the male department.
--
Sasuke found the dobe in the abandoned astronomy tower off the corner of town, where he thought he would. To his knowledge, Naruto had never been inside or ever heard of it; but it had attracted Sasuke unknowingly in his first week or so of elusiveness, so it couldn't be a horrible place to start.
The dobe was kneeling on the floor and looking through a huge telescope, his chin resting on crossed arms. It actually took a while to find him; he'd abandoned his orange for a bit, and his shock of blonde hair was the only way to find him in the gloomy spire. Sasuke didn't say anything; he figured he wouldn't need to. "Hey, Sasuke..." He could barely hear it, it was very quiet.
"Naruto..." The blonde moved a bit to the side, and the raven knelt next to him. There was silence again. It was comfortable, though. Not as empty as he'd thought it would be. Naruto broke the silence eventually, still so quiet that Sasuke practically needed to strain to hear him. "Sasuke, do you ever feel like you've just hit rock bottom and you can't get back up again? Like everything and everyone's against you... everything you've worked for caves in and crushes you like an insect..."
Sasuke continued peering through the other side of the telescope, which had three or so more eye pieces, if he remembered correctly. "Yes." Naruto paused, contemplating. Sasuke suspected that he didn't expect that kind of answer, but the dobe seemed to have forgotten that he was a heartless bastard. At least, he seemed to have forgotten that he thought that Sasuke was a heartless bastard.
The blonde brushed against him, but pulled back immediately, as though afraid that Sasuke would snap at him. The raven rolled his eyes a bit and took Naruto by the wrist, still looking through the eyepiece. He was slightly hurt by the feeling of fear when Naruto's body went rigid; had he really damaged him that badly? "Naruto, come over here..." The blonde gulped audibly, and moved from the other side of the giant metal magnifier towards Sasuke, but the Uchiha pulled him closer.
Sasuke moved his face to the other side of the eyepiece so that he could still see, but Naruto could too. The dobe was still jittery, as though the Uchiha was going to bite his head off at any minute. The raven rolled his eyes and tugged sharply on the tan wrist again until he looked through the other side. "What exactly am I supposed to be looking at, Sasuke?"
"That star, right there. It's kind of a blue color, and it looks like it's glowing. Well, more so than a normal star..." The blonde found what Sasuke was looking at and stared, almost going slack-jawed. It was gorgeous. A pinprick of blue light with swirls of a lighter blue around it, in a perfect orb. But he wasn't going to pull that in front of his greatest rival. At least, none of the jaw dropping. "Wow..."
Sasuke smiled tiredly. He was completely out of anger at the moment. "That star is about to explode. Or, soon at least. Nobody knows when, it's kind of random..." Naruto nodded slightly, eyes still fixated on the slowly rotating mist surrounding the star. "Particles that come off of the star form the sphere you see there, and the pressure builds up until the star eventually implodes, and the particles go everywhere, at speeds faster than Kakashi-sensei can run."
Naruto wanted to laugh, but was still a little bit afraid of the taller teen. He didn't seem angry, but Sasuke was impossible to read. Really. "What else?" His curiosity got the better of him eventually, and he resisted clamping his hands over his mouth. "Well, the particles spread around just about everywhere, and after a couple more years, they should have settled somewhere. It's been found recently that the particles from stars actually hold the same properties as what gives life on this planet..."
The blonde nodded again, completely entranced by the soothing glow and Sasuke's soft voice. He didn't think he'd ever heard him when he wasn't taunting him or yelling at him, and the change was nice. Sasuke felt Naruto's body relax under his light grip on the dobe's wrist, and he squeezed it a little, watching the pulsating star with his dobe. The blonde didn't seem to mind, and the star suddenly exploded; blue light passing over their vision. It looked like somebody had ground up diamonds and spread them over the night sky. Sasuke looked on in wonder, and Naruto gripped his hand tightly in shock.
"That was incredible..." Sasuke could barely hear the blonde, but it seemed more in awe than in fear. He was glad. Sasuke squeezed Naruto's hand softly and smiled a little bit. "I don't think I'll ever see that again, eh, dobe?" The dobe slipped out without him meaning for it to, but Naruto let it slide. Just this once. "Hey, Naruto?" The blonde smiled softly at how quiet it was. "Yeah, Sasuke?" How do I word this...? "I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier..."
The raven heard a small laugh and turned to look at the dobe. The blonde squeezed his hand and turned to meet his gaze. "You were forgiven the minute you walked in here, you silly bastard." Sasuke stuck his tongue out childishly; and it was almost like they were kids again. Naruto laughed and tackled him. "Don't stick your tongue out where it doesn't belong, or somebody might just try to bite it off!"
The blonde snapped at mid-air to illustrate his point, and now they both laughing. "Well maybe I want somebody to bite it off." The Uchiha mumbled like a child arguing with his parents. "That would be a memorable way to die. I can see the headlines now- Last Eligible Member of the Uchiha Clan Dies Due to Blood-Loss from Severed Tongue : Fan Club in Mourning." Naruto's face was crinkled like a rabbit's now from the giggling, and his ribs hurt. Sasuke laughed a bit more.
"Oh, shut up, blondie." He rolled them over and sat on Naruto's stomach, pinning his arms to the ground. Naruto quirked an eyebrow at Sasuke. "What?" The Uchiha crossed his arms and pouted off to the side at nobody in particular. "I win." Blue eyes rolled. "It's not a game, Sasuke..." There was an evil glint in the older boy's eye and Naruto fidgeted a little under his intense gaze. "Um... Sasuke?"
The Uchiha released the dobe's hands and let out an exaggerated evil laugh before tickling the poor boy until his ribs hurt. "I hate you Sasuke..." the blonde panted out, struggling for breath. "Yeah, love you too Naru-koi..." Naruto stuck his tongue out and Sasuke bit him lightly before he could react. "What the hell, Sasuke?!" "What did you say about sticking your tongue out?" The Uchiha smirked and Naruto ran his tongue over the back of his teeth. "Yeah, but now it hurts like hell, bastard."
Sasuke rolled his eyes and propped his head up with his arms, looking down at Naruto. "What exactly do you want me to do? Kiss it better?" The blonde made a puppy face. "Pwetty pweese?" The blonde felt soft lips press up against his own. At first, he didn't respond. He was still in initial shock. Sasuke coaxed the tan boy beneath him to respond to his advances, managing to hug the blonde a little closer to him, but enough for Naruto to push him away if he didn't want to continue.
The blonde began to respond, slowly at first, but he almost froze up when he felt Sasuke's tongue trace his upper lip lightly. Naruto pulled away, looking to the side and panting heavily. Sasuke let him, panting as well, but not so hard as the dobe. He tasted way better now than in that incident at the Academy. The raven licked his lips subconsciously and rested his forehead against the blonde, eyes closed.
"Damn, Sasuke..." One onyx eye opened to face half-lidded sapphire orbs. "Hm?" "My first non-consensual kiss, my first rival, my first friend, my first consensual kiss... what's next? You gonna take my virginity and marry me, too?" Sasuke actually laughed at that one, and Naruto smiled into the crook of his neck. He was just playing with his friend, he was okay with it as long as it wasn't a one-time sort of thing.
He heard a stressed purr from the Uchiha, who licked his whiskered cheek and rested their foreheads together again and smiled. "All in good time, Naru-chan... all in good time..." "Oh my Kami-sama, we'd better collar you before you rape me, huh?" Naruto giggled. "Don't worry about me, Naru-chan. It's not rape if it's consensual... you don't have to suffer the trauma of having your lover locked in prison for rape..."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Can we stop talking about this now?" Sasuke sat up and offered him a hand. "What? Me being your future husband, or jail?" "...I'm gonna murder you, Uchiha!" With that, they were both up and running again, Sasuke letting the other catch him and Naruto thwacking him on the head occasionally, like they had never even fought in the first place.
--
You were always the golden child,
Even though you're a dobe;
Changing from louder to mild,
I'll accept you for now, just shut up please, okay?
Then emotions come flowing,
They tear me to pieces,
As the star keeps on growing,
It can't pay off its leases.
So I ask you, dear Naruto; can you truly take care of yourself with no one around?
How do you manage to shine, to glow, to astound?
I see you and know that I'm destined for Sound-
But look again at my lucky star; the notion seems profound...
--
Owari
--
Or is it? DUN DUN DUN... please comment if you want a second part with a lemon, I was all lemon-bound when I started, but then it turned to sweet to be geared toward a citrus. I can't even fit a cup of lemonade into this chapter. DAMN SPLENDA RUININ' ALL MAI LEMONS!
Press the little blue button! You know you want to! Come on! Come on! Please?