Just Come Here

Part 2

Chapter 9

He felt a ringing in his mind and winced outwardly at the pain. He had hit his head on his way down. On his downward decent into a deep unconsciousness.

He forced his black ink eyes to open. His eyelids felt heavy. Opening them sent sharp cuts to the corners of his eyes. The pain caused him to squeeze them tight again. Caused him to bring a pale hand to his head as the throbbing continued and intensified, sending an un-soothable ache throughout him.

He took a deep breath and tried to put the pieces of what had happened back together into a picture. He remembered Naruto's hands on his face. That strong solid body laying top of his. That delicious and erratic mouth over his own. Those hips pounding into him. He couldn't help but breathe harder.

His rival had said that he would give up his dream of becoming a valiant leader for the sake of him. Had said that he wanted to offer him protection. Had wanted his touch for a long time. Had wanted to be near him.

The man's words had left him feeling full. An overflowing sensation that had pushed the emptiness to the corners of his stomach. That tang of loneliness faded and almost forgotten behind it all.

He sighed into the darkness that he saw behind his eyelids and tried to clear it all away. He wasn't sure what would happen once he tried to open his eyes again and he needed to be prepared for what he supposed would most likely be some kind of emotion draining battle, whether or not Naruto was still around him.

If the yellow haired man was still nearby, which he was almost certain that he was because he had never known his rival not to see things through. Had never known him to be the sort of person that would abandon him after losing consciousness. The sort of person that could walk away from him after all they had said to one another.

If the man was still around, it would be nerve wrecking and painful to face his rival head on. He had never encountered such an intimate interaction with another living thing as he had with Naruto before his vision disappeared and the blackness had come. He had never been so close, been so vulnerable, with anyone before and it frightened him at the possibilities. At the unexpected. At the unpredictable.

If the man was no longer by his side, it would be even more painful still. Inside his head he knew that it would mean that he wasn't good enough to stick around for. That he was no longer worth it for Naruto to stay here with him after he had ruined it all in the way he had spoken to the man before. After he had revealed the way he had felt in his heart for a long time.

He hadn't said the words directly and he knew that he'd have to state it plainly for his best friend eventually, but he knew that the man would have to understand. He had called his rival an idiot countless times in the past, but he knew that Naruto was not that oblivious to not to understand his words.

Yes, it would hurt more than anything if he were to open his eyes and find no trace of the man that he loved. The pain would cut into him and he'd have to start over again. Have to begin again with everything, this time making sure that he did not allow anything or anyone to penetrate the walls he had worked so hard to build around his heart and emotions all these years. He'd have to push Naruto out from the hole he had made and patch it up with concrete and stone, while increasing his defenses and adding on a line of offense to keep everything away. He would have to become even colder to the world than he already was.

It was something that he was used to, but something that he was slowly and involuntarily in the process of changing. He was in the process of melting for the world, just for the sake of one man. He wasn't so sure that he was ready to reverse it all just yet.

He tried to control his breathing before he decided to open his eyes and get it all over with.

They still ached at the corners, but this time his vision focused and centered back in his eyes.

There he was, just there. That yellow hair, now darkened from the night air. Those blue eyes reflecting the moonbeams ever so softly in the glow. That scar lined face turned towards him. a smaller version of the grin he had become so used to played on those lips as a strong hand went to the back of that head to display the nervous habit.

He stopped breathing for a moment and realized that this meant he did not have to start again. That he didn't have to be as cold as he thought he would need to be. his rival hadn't left him. Hadn't abandoned him here. Hadn't proven his set perception of the man wrong.

"Ah Teme, it's about time you woke up. You've been out for a couple of hours now. I had to move us so that no one would find us. I figured that you wouldn't want them to. Did you get enough beauty sleep?" he watched that mouth form the words and he let himself get caught up in the movements.

He pushed himself to sit up straight, the pounding rhythm in his head becoming louder and more prominent as he moved.

"Where are we?" he asked, keeping his voice monotone to hide the pain. To hide his insecurity. To hide his embarrassment of fainting. To conceal his nervousness about what could happen next.

"We're about a mile from where we were before. I know it's pretty far, but I figured it would be safer. You were a lot lighter than what I thought you'd be. You're not eating so well are you?" the man asked him.

He tilted his head in wonder. After everything that they had said to one another and after everything that they had done together, the man hadn't mentioned any of it yet. Usually Naruto was the type of person to get right to the point and blurt it all out at once. Instead, he wanted to know about his eating habits.

He smiled inside himself as he kept a straight face on the outside as a mask he often used to keep his vulnerabilities safeguarded. Naruto was worried about his health.

"I only eat when I'm hungry and I eat healthy things. Not everyone can eat nothing but ramen for days straight whenever they feel like it," he told his rival.

"Yeah I guess not hehe, but seriously, you don't weigh anything. That's gotta mean you're not eating as much as you should. You've always been thin, but even when we were kids you were more solid than you are now. It's probably one of the reasons that you passed out like you did," Naruto told him.

He felt his face heat up at the mention of the weakness he had displayed in blacking out at such a crucial moment in their interaction. He prepared himself for the questions that were sure to come.

"I eat just fine," he said.

"Ok, then why did you faint like that?" Naruto asked him as he watched the man move a few inches closer to his body.

"I did not faint. I lost consciousness," he told the man, trying to make it sound less of a weak thing.

"Uh, aren't they like the same thing? But anyway, why'd that happen if it wasn't because you're sick or haven't been eating?"

He looked away as he tried to think of what he could say. Of what could make him look like less of a weak idiot.

He didn't want to outright tell the man that he had become overwhelmed with the emotions that went with it all. That he had let the man's words overtake him and make him feel hope for a small moment and had let it fill his mind up with a pleasurable dizziness. That what the man had said had made him feel not so alone.

He didn't want to reveal his deep hope that the man loved him just the same as he loved Naruto. That he was contemplating returning to that traitor village just to be with his best friend. Just to be close to his rival. Just to have a sliver of a chance of happiness.

No, he couldn't reveal it as plainly as he knew that he should. Not yet. Naruto was not oblivious and he was not as dumb as everyone including himself had thought him to be, but he'd need a bit of an explanation for him to fully understand the way that he felt about his rival, and he knew that he just couldn't provide a full one right then. He hated feeling weak and he'd rather try to accomplish something than admit that he knew that he couldn't do it, but he knew that even though the words were stuck behind his tongue and ready to come out, that he wasn't ready for the emotions and the questions that would come after it.

So he cleared his head and decided to avoid giving a full explanation as long as possible.

"I was tired, that's all," he said, knowing it was such a faulty lie that even a gullible man such as Naruto would be able to tell.

"You were just tired? Right. So I think that we need to have a talk. Don't look at me so coldly, Sasuke. Before you object like I know that you're going to at some point, because you always do, it's really important that we address some things," the man told him and he softened his stare.

He wanted to laugh.

"We need to address some things? What did you hit your head or something lately? Since when do you speak as if you have some sort of intelligence?" He let his mouth say as an involuntary smile played on his lips.

The man's blue eyes widened in something he thought could be surprise.

"Ha, I know it doesn't really sound like me huh? But I'm being serious, Teme, we have to talk about things," Naruto said, attempting to keep a straight face.

"Fine. Humor yourself," he said as he let himself fall into the distance he had always tried to keep between himself and all those that he saw the potential of infecting him.

He heard the man let out a long breath before he heard that familiar voice in the shallow darkness.

"Alright. Do you want to tell me why you went looking for me and why you purposely wanted to get me alone?" his friend asked as he those familiar eyes had become focused on his own dark ones.

"I wasn't looking for you," he said, trying to fall back into the way that they used to be.

"Liar. You came looking for me. There's no other explanation for us to accidentally run into one another again. There also can't be any other reason that your teammates led us away from camp to chase after them. They're too smart for that. And you're too smart to let me catch you. If you didn't want to see me, you would have run, and as much as I hate it, I know I wouldn't have been able to catch up to you if you hadn't wanted me to," Naruto told him, leaning a bit closer to him as if he were sharing a secret.

He didn't know how to answer. He didn't want to give into the temptation of breaking down the walls he had built around him just yet.

He took a deep but quiet breath and remained silent.

"You're not going to answer me with some witty and mean retort? You call me an idiot all the time, but just because I'm not clever, it doesn't mean that I'm dumb," the man said, tilting his head and leaning in even closer.

Again, he didn't know what to say. His rival was right. Naruto was a baka for the things that he did so spontaneously and erratically, but he wasn't stupid.

He knew that there was nothing that he could say that could disprove the man's assumption that he had intended for them to meet from the beginning.

He looked away from the eyes that stared at him and evaluated his facial expressions. He decided to look to the damp ground covered in the darkness of the night air.

"Alright, so you don't want to admit it then? That's fine. So now that we both understand that you wanted to run into me on purpose, let's talk about why, ok?" Naruto suggested from the small distance away from him.

He exhaled the breath he held in his lungs and decided to make his mouth move.

"There is no 'why'," he told the man.

He watched the man grimace, clearly unhappy with his answer. He felt his stomach turn and twist with nausea at the idea of once again displeasing the man that he loved.

"You're lying again. Why are you acting like this, now? Earlier today it was like you were letting your walls down for me a little after all this time, and it's like you've put them back up again all of a sudden. Don't do that. Either be sweet to me or be an asshole. Don't be both, choose one because I can't take it when you switch back and forth out of nowhere," Naruto said and he could feel the aggravation radiating from the man that he was in love with.

It pained him to know that even now, he was still hurting his rival. It wasn't what he wanted. He didn't want to cause any more damage than he had already done after so many years.

"You can't take it?" he asked tilting his head and trying to sound just as cold as he had always been while attempting to understand at the same time.

He scolded himself from within his head. It was a contradiction, but it was all he knew how to do.

"Yes, I can't handle it when you do that. You're kind to me one minute and letting me put my hands on you and being calm with you, and then the next you want me to get away from you. I don't know how to take it because I don't know what you truly want. I'll give you anything you want Sasuke, I just have to know exactly what that is," Naruto said.

His heart pulsated and pounded within him. Hearing his best friend offer to give him anything he wanted was too much. It was too much to be optimistic over.

He knew that the man didn't mean it the way he had said it. He knew that if he were to admit that what he wanted was Naruto and only him, the man would most likely reject him.

Despite what had been said between them earlier, he knew that he couldn't allow himself to think that there could ever be anything more between them than this unending rivalry and unbreakable bond of friendship. he knew that Naruto could never want him in any other way. The man might want his body, but that was only natural between humans where there was tension.

He didn't know how he should respond and it bothered him. it was unusual for him not to have an answer and it was uncommon for him to feel so confused.

"Then I'll have to be more careful not to be kind to you next time," he said, trying to sound as distant as he could.

The blue eyes that watched him lost some of their focus as the man's mouth set into a sturdy frown.

"No. That isn't really what I want, Teme. I meant that since you've shown me that you can be kind, I want you to stay kind. I want you to open up to me. I told you that I'd give you anything you wanted. You need to tell me what you want so I can try," he watched the mouth say and those eyes soften as they glowed from the reflection of the silvery moon.

"You told me to pick one way of treating you. So I do. I choose to remain the way I have always been with you," he said smartly.

"I'm not oblivious Sasuke. I know that isn't what you want. That wasn't what you wanted earlier. That isn't what you wanted the last time that we met. That's not what you wanted when you let me kiss you," Naruto said, leaning on two sturdy knees and placing both tan hands on the ground on either side of him.

His breath caught in his throat and he felt himself becoming anxious. He felt the heat rise again within his body and he fought the urge to reach out his hands to hold onto the man in front of him. He remained still.

"Let's talk about that Sasuke. Let's talk about what happened earlier, alright?" the man asked him with anxiety riddling through that usually loud voice. It was now a softer tone. A hushed one. An intimate one.

A knot formed in his stomach. He didn't want to talk about what had happened between them because he was afraid of what Naruto would say about it.

But he knew from their previous conversation that it wasn't easy for Naruto to talk about his insides with him because the man was afraid of getting hurt. He knew that it was important to show the man that he had no intention of hurting him anymore.

He allowed himself to nod in agreement as he waited for the rejection to come.

"You let me kiss you. You let me put my hands on you. You let me say things to you that you would never had let me before. You were so gentle with me. I liked it. I like it when you act like that," Naruto told him.

He couldn't deny how much the man's words pleased him. They filled his chest up with a warmth he hadn't felt in such a long time. But still, he didn't think he had the strength to allow all of his defenses to fall away so quickly. He knew he would come to regret it eventually.

"Why? Because it makes me weaker than you?" he said, looking away and off into the darkness around them.

"It's not about who's weak and who's strong, Sasuke. It's just simply about how you treated me. I like it because it makes me feel like I matter to you. It makes me feel like you care about me. Like I'm important to you," the man said and he let himself to turn to look at him again.

He couldn't help himself from feeling that heat die away slightly and his chest beginning to ache.

Naruto was important to him. He was so important to him that it hurt him when they were apart. He was so important to him that he had risked losing his teammates in order to confess that he felt something for his former one. He had thought about giving up his goals in order to return with the man to the very place he wanted to destroy. He had made himself appear weak and vulnerable just to catch a glimpse of the man.

Naruto was the most important person alive to him. he could never deny that.

"You are important to me," he admitted aloud.

"What?" his rival asked as if he were surprised.

"I said that you are important to me," he told him, looking down at his hands in embarrassment.

"Why?" the man asked.

"How could you ask me that? How could you ever doubt it in the first place?" he said loudly, attempting to ward away the embarrassment with anger.

"How could I not doubt it?" Naruto countered with a long drawn out breath.

He couldn't respond. He had no evidence to offer that could disprove the man's words. he hadn't exactly been the nicest in the past and he hadn't expressed his fondness for his rival before.

"How could I not doubt it? How could I not doubt that I've meant nothing to you all this time? How could I not think that I don't matter to you? You push me away from you every chance you get. You run off every time I get to see you. You tell me that you don't want anything to do with me or the village. You tell me that I'm just an annoyance. And I'm so confused right now about what you want. You're treating me so differently so quickly from what I'm used to that I can't help but be confused. I can't tell if you're just playing a game with me to hurt me again, or if you really mean it. I can't tell what this is all supposed to mean and my insides are all twisted up because I can't figure it out," the man told him.

It surprised him. It surprised him at how open Naruto was being with him given the conversation they had had earlier about the fear that he would use the man's words in a negative way against him.

He felt the ache grow larger and harsher as his own frustration rose.

"You act like you're the only one confused! Like I'm the one that's got it all figured out!," he told his rival, looking away again and raising his voice.

"Aren't you? Aren't you the one that's always gotta have control of everything?" Naruto asked him rhetorically, referring to the strive for perfection that he'd always had.

He lowered his head and quieted his voice back into something calmer and much more sullen than before.

"Well, I don't have control of this, alright?" he said softly.

He felt the man move a hand from the ground to rest on his arm and then the light squeeze that came after. His skin burned where the flesh connected.

"Then tell me Sasuke. Tell me what this is supposed to be. Tell me what you want this to be. I told you before that I'd give you anything. Just tell me what it is that you want, so that I won't be so confused," the man said quiet enough to be a whisper.

"I don't know where to start," he whispered back, afraid to admit that he didn't know what he was doing.

"Then start by answering my question. Why am I important to you?" the man asked him.

He had so many answers. He had so many reasons that Naruto was important to him. There was so much about the man to make him feel that deep hearted love that he didn't think that he could ever feel.

But he still wasn't ready for any of this. He had planned on confronting his best friend and he had planned on revealing himself to some extent, but none of this had happened as he had pictured it within his head during his planning. None of this was what he had been expecting and he wasn't prepared or ready.

"This is dumb," he said, a bit louder than when he had been whispering into the darkness between them.

"Maybe. But how else are we going to move on from this. You're obviously not offering up any information on how we got like this in the first place," Naruto said.

He realized that the man should be annoyed by him. That his rival had every right to be frustrated with him. He was ashamed.

He didn't quite understand the question. He didn't know what Naruto had meant by asking how they got the way they were. He didn't understand how he could explain.

"How we got like this?" he asked for clarification.

"Yes how we got like this. How we got to be on speaking terms. How we ended up with our hands and mouths all over each other. How we managed to be so close to one another after such a long time of being distant and you being resentful of me. How we landed here in the middle of nowhere hiding out from our teammates. You're not telling me any of that, so how am I supposed to know that you're being serious. Months ago you told me that you hated me and wanted nothing to do with me. You disappeared right in front of me with Orochimaru telling me you'd kill me the next time we met. Then the time I saw you after that, you had just kill-you're brother had just died and you had such a blank stare like you were somewhere else. and then the time after that one, I found you standing in the dark watching me before you let me push you up against a tree and taste you. You're probably not going to tell me how it all progressed into that, so at least tell me what I mean to you," Naruto told him.

He knew how he felt and he knew how weak the other man made him feel, but he honestly didn't know exactly what had changed in him to make him want this. He had always loved Naruto, he just hadn't realized it in the beginning. And he didn't know how him wanting to see Naruto again had progressed into something like this.

He decided to start the conversation over again from the middle.

"You are important to me," he said again.

"You said that before, but why? I'm really happy to hear you say that, but why Sasuke?" Naruto asked.

He tried to answer the best way he could without telling the man he was in love.

"You were my best friend. You were my teammate. You're still my rival."

"That's all? That's all you have to say?" the man asked him sarcastically and it made him uncomfortable because he wasn't used to such a negative pattern of speech from his best friend.

He could feel his silence hanging heavy in the air and increasing the tension between them. The man used the opportunity of the quiet to move closer still.

The man's body heat radiated and he could feel it dance across his chilled skin as he watch Naruto place both hands on either side of him to land on the bark of the tree behind him. Tan arms rested beside his neck as he allowed himself to lean against the surface.

He felt the nerves in his stomach become energetic and he suddenly felt the anxiety of fear for the first time from the man's presence.

There was nothing to be afraid of, he knew that, but he couldn't stop himself from feeling uneasy.

"Enough, I'm tired of this, Sasuke. I'm tired of all of this. I'm done with this charade of yours to seem strong and independent, without flaw. I'm tired of you pretending that you don't have any emotions. When you keep things away from me, it only complicates everything. It makes things into a bigger deal than they should be. It frustrates the hell out of me," Naruto admitted to him.

He couldn't help but look into the eyes before his, allowing himself to become mesmerized and completely captivated as his heart beat loud and clear in his chest as it pumped and swelled full of rich and thick blood.

He could hear the man's breath come out in ragged bouts and he felt the warmth of it land on the skin of his face and neck as Naruto remained bent over him.

Sweat gathered in a thin sheen over the skin of his torso and he could feel it lightly soaking into the fabric of his top as he remained still pinned between the tree, the ground, and his rival.

He allowed his eyes to close as he waited for what would come next.

"Just tell me. Just tell me whatever it is that you're thinking, Sas'," his best friend whispered in between them and he felt himself begin to shake again with the tenderness of the voice and the words.

He opened his eyes and made the decision to give in a small bit in order to offer up a piece of himself that Naruto had been looking for all this time.

"I've missed you," he let his mouth say.

He could see the eyes tense up and scan him for any sort of mockery that may be present. When the man sensed his honesty, he heard him let out a long breath, seeming to display a feeling of relief.

"I miss you too. More than you probably think. More than I ever wanted to admit to you," he heard the man say and he couldn't help but feel relieved as well.

His chest felt lighter at the realization that perhaps Naruto had thought of him as far more precious than he had assumed before.

He needed to be sure. He needed to be positive that it wasn't less than what he thought it could be before he allowed himself to get excited.

"You said that you thought of me like a brother," he said as if it were a question.

"What?" the man asked him as if he didn't remember.

He scoffed inside his own head and wondered how his rival could have forgotten that piece of the conversation they had had in that ending valley the day he had permanently left the village.

"The day I left, you said that I was like a brother to you," he reminded the man.

"Oh, I had forgotten that I had said that. Honestly, I didn't really even mean that. I said it because I was trying to make an excuse for why I didn't want to let you go. I knew that I was being clingy and I couldn't help it, so I had to give you a reason for the way I was acting that wouldn't make you tease me. and I needed an excuse for myself. I couldn't figure out why I was so attached to you and that's the first thing that came to mind. I see now that that's not really what I meant back then. I mean, I think of you as my family, but it's different than being related like brotherhood," Naruto told him and it made him feel optimistic.

"I wouldn't have teased you for your persistence, regardless of the excuse you could have given me," he said and tried to convince himself that it was true.

"Yes you would have Sasuke. You definitely would have. You already have on several occasions, claiming that I'm obsessed with you. And back then, you had such a bad habit of calling out my flaws in front of everyone just to make yourself seem better than me. You absolutely would have made fun of me and laughed in my face for acting childish and I didn't want you to reject me for not wanting to let you go," Naruto told him, his eyebrows slanting towards the middle of his face to express his unhappiness.

He didn't like that look, but he also couldn't disprove the man's negative expectations of him. He couldn't deny that he had in fact pointed out the man's flaws more times than he could remember and that he had also remarked on the way the man seemed to be obsessed with him.

The way Naruto had been so persistent. the way he had fought so hard just to bring him back to that forsaken village. The way the man seemed to be unable to let him go no matter what horrible and twisted thing he had done to him. The way he had said that he was precious to the man.

He looked away. He hadn't thought of that in a long time. He hadn't thought about how Naruto had proclaimed at some point that he was his precious person. He had forgotten, he had to be honest with himself. He had forgotten that part of all of this.

It seemed funny now, after all this time to think of such a thing. Perhaps if he had recalled it earlier, this confrontation and illusion of unrequited love thing would have been less of a fear and concern to him. Perhaps if he had realized that he was considered a precious person to Naruto, then he would have feared rejection quite as much.

Being precious to someone could have so many meanings. Friends were precious. Family members were precious. Fellow shinobi were precious. Lovers were precious. The word could have so many different meanings, but they all centered around the idea that that person is more important than all the rest.

If he had just remembered Naruto telling him that he was a precious person to him, then maybe he wouldn't have felt so anxious about seeming weak and being rejected.

"Then why were you so reluctant to let me go. You said before that you needed an excuse. What will your excuse be now after all these years?" he asked while trying to keep his upper lip from trembling.

He watched the man look away from him and stare at the cool damp earth, as if trying to think over what he should say.

"Sasuke. I've always liked you. Always, even when I pretended that I hated you. There was just something that made me drawn to you and I couldn't keep myself from wanting you near me or for you to acknowledge me, for you to be proud of me. At the time, I didn't want you to leave because you were the only friend that I had and also because I knew that I didn't like any other person quite the same way as I liked you. I didn't want to be a part from you. Recently, I've come to realize what 'liking' you had meant all this time. So my current excuse for not wanting to be separate from you is, and don't laugh at me because I mean it, is that I love you. I love you," Naruto told him.

He took a deep audible breath and tried to scan the confession for any signs or hints to a lie and when he found that there were none and that those blue eyes reflected nothing but honesty in them, he let the relief wash over him.

He felt light and full of an infectious warmth that spread throughout his body until it reached the very corners of him. his fingertips tingled with the urge to reach out and touch the man in any way possible, just to have physical contact, just to have a small part of him feeling the other's skin to prove that all of this was real.

His entire body felt lighter than before at the words and he found that he couldn't hold himself back from fully feeling the emotions he hadn't ever shown anyone else.

He squeezed his eyes shut, almost painfully and swallowed a deep breath of air to lessen the stinging in his throat from the tears that threatened to come out.

"Sasuke?" he heard his name and he decided to open his dark eyes in response.

He watched the man move his own mouth closer to his and he felt them connect. The heat from the other's lips bled into him like his father's calligraphy ink soaking into a piece of blank paper.

He sighed and couldn't help but feel content.

Then those hands were on him again as they were earlier. One cupped the side of his face and the other rested on his collar bone, the fingers rubbing gently just beneath the collar of his shirt.

He pressed his mouth hard into the man's and kissed him back. he raised his own arms so that they held the man closer to him. he let a hand land in that yellow hair in the way he liked best and the other cling to his rival's broad back.

He felt the man pull away from his mouth in a clumsy action.

"I have to tell you something," he heard his best friend say and the uneasiness return as he tried to still the spiraling thoughts within his head at what those words could mean.

"then tell me," he commanded softly without the force behind the words that perhaps there should have been.

"I don't want you misunderstanding anything, Teme. I love you. I love you with all of me, but I'm not admitting that just because I want you to come home. I mean, I want you to so that we can spend time together and so that I know you're safe, but that's not why I'm telling you now. I just couldn't do this anymore. I just couldn't hold it back from you anymore. I've been telling you to share yourself with me, but how am I supposed to expect that when I can't do that myself? I know that you probably don't feel the same way about me and that this touching and kissing thing is just physical to you, but I don't care right now. I know that I will eventually when you decide to get up and run off from me again, but right now I don't care about any of that. So just let me, alright? And don't think that I'm only telling you how I feel because I'm trying to trick you or something. You're so defensive. Just be open with me, even if it's only this once our whole lives," the man pled with him.

He wanted to believe his rival. he wanted to believe that it wasn't all some sort of ploy to get him to return. And so he decided to do so. He allowed himself to push all of his fears out of the conscious part of his thoughts and instead decided to focus on everything else.

Naruto was in love with him. Naruto loved him and wanted him. And he wanted Naruto back. his mind was to dizzy and cluttered to think of anything else other than the realization that all of his fears up until now of rejection were pointless and invalid and that Naruto loved him.

He let himself nod in the pale light of the moon and waited for Naruto to decide on what they were going to do next. The man had said commented on the fact that he always felt that he needed to be in control. He would show his rival that he was willing to compromise and allow the man to make decisions for the both of them.

"Sasuke, I want you. I want you so much," his best friend told him in the pale glow.

He allowed his calm demeanor and cold calculating thought process to fade out and disperse and decided to give into the way his emotions made him feel.

He leaned closer to the man and kissed him in response to show that he wanted him as well.