Work Text:
“Imrama”
Celtic (n) - a sacred journey of the soul; A sea voyage on which we don’t know where we are going, but our spirit knows the way.
Coming back to town was a mistake.
Sasuke sighs, annoyed as he discovers another room, covered in dust with broken lightbulbs. Why had he been paying maintenance on this god-forsaken place if it had been left to crumble? He tries the lightswitch again, hoping maybe an extra jiggle will magically get the overhead to turn on. No luck, and Sasuke sighs. It was already getting dark- he would have to go out and get candles before night.
He shouldn’t have returned at all. He should have just sold this cursed mausoleum. He should have hung up the phone immediately when his attorney had called him and told him the property needed to be dealt with, firsthand. Instead, he was here.
Sasuke’s footsteps echo as he treads back to the entryway, past the discarded furniture coverings he’d left slumped on the floor. The thick coat of dust covering every inch of the place would need a professional company to come out, and same with the grounds. The double doors creak, but the lock worked as smoothly as it had in his childhood when Sasuke twists the key closed and accosts the house.
When he’d left at sixteen, he’d vowed to never return. And he hadn’t. Not for his father’s death, or his mother’s. He had studiously ignored the poisonous history that hung palpably from the eaves and branches of this estate, the thick memories that had followed him far away from this town, through the normal life he’d sought, and had somehow managed to drag him back after Itachi decided to go and disappear.
“The house needs a keeper, " he remembered his mother saying as she’d swept the foyer or cooked dinner. He frowns up at the heavy, shuttered windows, the lichen growing on the roof and the spanish moss threatening to envelope the balcony entirely. Why did he have to end up the keeper?
Driving up the driveway had been a hassle and a half, and it was about to be even more of a bitch to navigate it in the greying pre-dark gloom, so, with a last glance up at the sky, Sasuke decides to save his already suffering maserati and walk. There was a shop not far from here that was bound to have lights enough for tonight.
Walking through the property, submerged in murky darkness and drowning in the sound of cicadas though, was just as eerie as walking through the house. Despite the muggy, deep summer heat that was clinging to his skin, Sasuke shoves his hands in his pockets, taking a fast trot down the gravel drive and shouldering through the overgrown foliage. He swats at the gnats swarming him under the streetlights and makes his way east towards the shop, regretting his shoe choice, and his lack of bug spray. Living in New York had made him forget the brutal summers down here, and the voracious insects. He ends up turning up his collar and fastwalking until the shop’s sign shows up, glowing in the dusk.
Civilization, at last. Sasuke breathes a deep sigh of relief as he steps through the sliding doors and into the fluorescent lighting and linoleum of a real store. Already he felt better with the smell of floor cleaner and printer ink than the rotten must and gloom of the estate. Rolling his shoulders, Sasuke grabs a basket out of whimsy, planning on getting a few essentials while he’s here. The house had nothing- just the skeleton of a home left to the swamps.
He finds candles, as well as batteries and some lantern-shaped flashlights in the upper part of the house, which seemed to have become disconnected from the power grid. The kitchen still mostly ran, but he grabs lightbulbs and cleaning supplies to bring it back into some semblance of working shape. Then he wanders towards food- he disliked pre-made meals, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. And the closest actual grocery store was a forty minute drive away. He’d have to wait.
He’s debating on even trying the salad that’s offered (it looks more brown than green), when a sudden sixth sense has him still in place. Someone was watching him. Slowly, Sasuke looks up at the display he’s in front of, and the small line of mirrors placed above it for theft security. The store wasn’t exactly full, but the shelves were too high and angled to see anyone else properly.
But Sasuke’s hackles are raised. Without checking twice, Sasuke dumps the salad into the basket and decides that he’d had enough shopping. He makes a beeline for the register, but stops, halfway there.
Neon orange. Only one person in the godforsaken world would wear that godawful color out in public willingly. Sasuke stares at the bright orange sneakers, the orange shirt, the blonde hair, and feels his heartbeat throttle directly up to his throat. Naruto Uzumaki.
As if on queue, Naruto turns, and does he actually seem shocked, or is his sudden exuberance suspiciously jumpy when he exclaims, “Sasuke! What are you doing here? When did you come back to town?”
Sasuke’s lips thin to a line. The register in front of Naruto is the only checkout open; he has no choice but to make small talk. Palms suddenly sweaty, Sasuke grips the basket tighter. “Earlier today?”
“This morning? And I’m just seeing you now?” Naruto laughs, and it's ridiculously loud. Sasuke winces, glancing around, but it's just them, a grandma in the back, and the bored looking cashier popping her bubblegum. “Does anyone else know you’re back or am I the first? How long are you staying?”
The cashier was cashing Naruto’s bundle, which looked like an abominable amount of junkfood, at an especially slow turtle’s pace. Anxiety building, Sasuke’s gaze snaps back to Naruto. “I’m not staying.”
“Not staying? What d’you mean?” Naruto’s arms fold over his neon orange covered chest, and Sasuke is suddenly reminded just how much time had passed- Naruto had not only seemed to gain an assortment of decorative tattoos, but Sasuke had never remembered him quite so….. Bulky. No more was the pudgy, scrappy teen that Sasuke had left behind. Naruto had even caught up in height.
“Be real with me Sasuke- how long’r you in town?” Naruto is saying. “If you just got in, you’re at least here for the week, right?”
Truthfully, it was going to take Sasuke a lot longer than a week to get the estate and the grounds into shape. But he’d be damned if he was letting nosy Naruto know that.
“$38.76,” The cashier girl says, popping her bubble gum, and Naruto turns around to pay. He even had tattoos on his legs, tracing up his calves and disappearing beneath the thin basketball shorts he was wearing-
Sasuke’s gaze snaps to the ceiling so quickly he nearly gives himself whiplash. He would not be reopening that road.
The cashier girl hands over a receipt that gets crinkled up immediately and Sasuke puts his basket on the counter, praying that that was it- the encounter was over. He could go on about his night and pretend that Naruto Uzumaki of all people didn’t know he was back. Naruto, being himself, suddenly seemed very interested in making sure that didn’t happen.
“Longer than a week?” Naruto asks, hovering by Sasuke’s shoulder and not leaving. “You staying at your old place? You hear anything about Itachi?”
Sasuke’s teeth grit. “No.”
“No…. to staying longer than a week?” Naruto asks, “Or to staying at your old place? If you don’t have a place to crash- I mean, I know it’s been a while, but you can always stop by mine. No funny business- just friends cashing in favors.”
“$42.14,” says bubble-gum girl, utterly bored by this entire interaction. Sasuke curses her slow bagging with a hard stare at the way she was carefully dropping sanitizer wipes into the bag. He taps his card nearly before she’s cleared the transaction, and then practically reaches over the counter to get his things and leave.
“Whoa, what’s your rush?” Naruto says, as Sasuke breezes past him. Keeping a quick pace half of a step behind Sasuke’s heels, he follows Sasuke out into the night air and laces his hands behind his head. “Pressing meeting or something? I know you’re a hotshot lawyer or whatever now, but-”
“Fuck off, Naruto.”
Naruto stops. Sasuke listens to the way Naruto’s sneakers go silent halfway through his speech and keeps his head forward, refusing to look back. Naruto was a pest. He was a past that Sasuke had left behind. Rekindling dead ends when he had no plans of staying was a fool’s errand.
And then Naruto is right back where he was- one and a half steps to Sasuke’s left, keeping easy pace with him down the deserted road. “Why’re you still such an asshole? I thought money made people happier and stuff. You still seem pissy to me.”
Sasuke makes a face. “Money was never the issue.”
“Yeah? So then, what crawled up your ass and died then? You never learned how to have a normal conversation up in big-shot town?”
Sasuke stops. He turns on Naruto and Naruto nearly collides right into him. “Why’re you following me?”
Naruto is quiet. Sasuke had always learned to associate Naruto’s silences with something either monumentally stupid, dangerous, or both. But this was a new Naruto- one Sasuke wasn’t quite familiar with. He stands his ground and waits.
After a while, Naruto’s head tilts. His hands shove in his pockets, bag of junk food crinkling by his side. “Been a while since you’ve been in town. Your place is warded- just making sure you get back safe.”
Naruto is standing just past the streetlight- it casts his face in shadow, but even without that, his eyes are dark, the pupils wide and black, and in the midnight, a slim gold ring gleams around his iris. Sasuke’s eyes narrow.
“You’re close to a shift.”
Naruto blinks. He gives a shrug. “Not really.” But he had to be. Now that Sasuke was looking, he could see it written all over Naruto’s frame- the way his hair bristled, the thickness of the scars on his cheeks, the flash of his white, too-large canines when he smiled. Sasuke takes a step back and watches Naruto’s eyes track the movement. He snickers.
“Wait, you suddenly get squeamish while you were away?”
“You’re not supposed to be out, close to a shift.”
Naruto’s smile twitches to something less amused. “I’m not thirteen anymore, Sasuke.”
Sasuke’s lips press to a line. He turns on his heel. “I don’t need a babysitter.”
“You do if you’re gonna walk around like that, smelling all nice and unprotected~” Naruto mocks in a sing-songy voice, and Sasuke’s footsteps slow again, until he finally stops. He curses himself.
“Is it that bad?”
Naruto jogs to catch up, buoyant in his jubilance at the win. “Oh yeah. Smelled you from three miles out- I just didn’t know it was you. What, you just gave up everything entirely, when you left? Even self-wards?”
Sasuke keeps his gaze straight ahead. He’d given up everything. The occult didn’t seem to be as prevalent everywhere- he’d just learned to navigate to more mundane areas, where it didn’t matter. No, instead, what Sasuke had done instead was perhaps quite a bit more drastic, and decently more permanent. Warding had become unnecessary and impossible, while the subtle side effects could even be deemed as a skill-set amongst regular humans. It apparently didn’t smother every single effect completely though- a lapse in foresight that Sasuke would unfortunately have to somehow remedy.
“Wild,” Naruto tuts, “Absolutely wild. You’re gonna have to be more careful if you’re sticking around-”
“I’m not sticking around.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Naruto waves off. “Whatever you say. Either way, without your fam protecting the place, your house isn’t exactly the fortress it used to be. You sure you want to be staying out here alone? Why are you back anyway? Itachi disappeared like, five years ago, and you didn’t come back then…”
He’s walking too close. Every other pace, their arms or shoulders brush, and Sasuke’s blood pressure shoots through the roof. They had an entire road, and Naruto was walking too close.
“I really thought you would, too. Uchiha manor has never been empty- but after Itachi left, even all the workers went away. I stop by sometimes, clear out a path or two, but I don’t wanna, like, step on your toes-”
“You are stepping, on my toes, Naruto,” Sasuke snips at him. He can see the end of the driveway. “This is far enough. You can fuck off now.”
Naruto blinks. “Nah.”
“What?” Sasuke seethes, turning on him, more than ready to take out all the building annoyance he has been carefully holding back.
Naruto is shaking his head. “You aren’t hearing what I’m saying Sasuke. You can’t go back there alone. It's too dangerous.”
“I don’t care about-”
“Sasuke. You should care.” Naruto cuts in. He takes a step forward- with the height gap closed, it brings them nose to nose; only pride makes Sasuke physically steel himself to keep from giving space. For a swift second, Sasuke thinks that Naruto is going to reach out, grab his collar or his shoulder or his hair, but they’re too close. Then, when he can tangibly feel how small the distance is, Sasuke’s mind flies to the thought that Naruto might kiss him- If he tried, Sasuke would have him flat on his ass before he could say ‘blink.’ Instead, Naruto takes a long, deep breath, and his eyes flutter closed, blonde lashes brushing the thick whisker lines brewing across his tan cheeks. When he opens his eyes, the cyan blue Sasuke remembers is swallowed entirely by black. “I’m not the only one out here.”
It's been years since Sasuke has allowed himself to tap into the bloodline magic he’d forsaken. He’d spent nearly an entire year with an experienced mage, sealing each and every chakra point to limit any access to magic, and any access the occult would have on him. But magic was not easily stowed away, and Naruto, throttling with the energy that accompanied a shift, seemed to be pulling at all of the carefully glued stoppers Sasuke had sealed up.
Sasuke’s brow twitches. Carefully, he peels away a thin layer of insulating barrier from himself.
The change is instantaneous- Konoha was a festering mess of the supernatural, laid on leylines that brewed impossibilities and new realities of all sorts. At the height of summer, passing a quartermoon, Sasuke could taste the currents of ether in the air, could feel the runnels of magic that ran beneath the earth, swirling familiarly through the Uchiha property not far away like a glowing beacon. Naruto was right- the house was damaged in more ways than one.
And Naruto himself felt like a furnace, the force of his aura so strong without a mask, that he felt like a physical shield pressing up against Sasuke, at least ten degrees hotter than anything else. Like this, Sasuke could even see the glimmer of his ears coming in, could feel the roll of his power silencing the surrounding area for a good few meters. More than Naruto’s appearance had apparently changed in the time away.
Naruto’s nose twitches. “Did you do something? You smell different.”
Sasuke ignores this, still a bit peeved that Naruto was right, and it would be incredibly wise to return to the estate until morning. He folds his arms over his chest. “What do you suggest?”
Naruto perks. “I mean, my offer from before still stands!”
Spending the night at Naruto’s. It would be warded, the way Sasuke couldn’t on his own estate at the moment and the way a hotel would take hours to achieve. A full twelve hours alone with Naruto of all people, who was imminently close to a change, and had a record lack of control. Sasuke makes a face.
“No funny business.”
Naruto’s grin is not reassuring. “C’mon Sasuke- like I said, I’m not thirteen anymore. I meant what I said.”
Sasuke’s frown deepens. “I will castrate you in your sleep with a rusty spoon if you try anything.”
Naruto’s hands involuntarily flex towards his groin in protection. “Geez, do you have to be so graphic about it? I can be good!”
Sasuke just sighs, because that was probably the best he was getting. He motions Naruto to lead the way, and with a far too happy bounce, Naruto does, once again starting up that incessant chatter of his that never seemed to have an off button. Sasuke tunes it out, thinking hard.
When Sasuke had left at sixteen, he’d left before he’d been properly initiated. More than that, he’d spent his last years suffocating any and all magical emergences he’d had, unlearning his youth as quickly as he’d acclimated to a more mundane life. Now, there was no clan to lean on, not even Itachi, who had always been destined to lead the clan to help Sasuke fix the disrepair. And as long as his bloodline was tied to the land and he was the last person alive with that blood, he’d never be fully rid of all these stupid tethers until they were properly severed.
He’d have to reopen his chakras, fix his own aura and magic. Sasuke grimaces. To become completely free, he would have to reconnect nearly all of the bridges he’d burnt, and suddenly, his quick cleanup and weeklong stay in town is looking a lot longer.
“-ne, Sasuke?”
Sasuke glances up. Naruto has stopped, is looking over his shoulder waiting on an answer. Sasuke shrugs.
“I wasn’t listening.”
“What?!” Naruto gripes, swinging around until he and Sasuke are walking side by side again. His voice echoes. “Come the fuck on, here I am doing you a favor and sticking my neck out for you and all, and you aren’t even paying attention to me?”
“I thought you said you weren’t thirteen anymore.”
Naruto guffaws, and suddenly, Sasuke is getting a playful shove in the arm that nearly sends him directly into the bushes. “That’s not at all what I meant, and you know it, jackass! Now seriously- have you eaten, or am I ordering pizza, or did you develop a weird rabbit appetite as well?”
Sasuke, still righting himself from nearly getting swept off his feet by Naruto’s idiot strength, brushes off his shirt. “What on earth are you talking about?”
Naruto grips Sasuke’s shoulder, and says with utter seriousness. “Do you. Eat. Pizza.”
Sasuke rolls Naruto’s heavy hand off his shoulder- the contact feels like pins and needles with only one chakra point released. “I eat pizza, moron.”
“Good,” Naruto affirms, and then suddenly dips off the road into the blackness of the forest at apparent random. His voice calls from the bushes, “I’m ordering pizza then!”
With his feet still stamped to the asphalt, Sasuke peers into the shadows Naruto had disappeared within, trying to pick out some path or road. But it was just bushes. “What the fuck, Naruto?” He calls.
Naruto reappears from the bushes a foot to Sasuke’s left. “What?”
Sasuke doesn’t even have an adequate response for how ridiculous this was. “I thought we were going to your house.”
“We are,” Naruto says again, slowly, like Sasuke was being especially dumb. Sasuke’s hackles raise, and he’s about to snark something else when Naruto lifts up some ferns that were nearly as tall as he was. “Come here, and you’ll see the path.”
Begrudgingly, Sasuke does. What Naruto is on, is a glorified deer trail at best. Naruto’s neon orange shirt is already disappearing in the undergrowth, and Sasuke has to hurry to catch up before he disappears, the roadlights vanishing quickly behind them.
So Naruto didn’t live with his parents anymore- that shouldn’t be surprising, yet, Sasuke was having a hard time imagining this new, different, more independent and sure Naruto. The further they trekked into these woods though, the more Sasuke was starting to worry that he’d just signed up to spend the night in a woodland hunting hovel.
The deer path didn’t take long to become a wooden track, which turned to mulch after only a few yards. Sasuke was just catching up to Naruto’s ghastly orange figure when he sees lights through the trees, and then the trees ended abruptly in an open clearing dominated by a house that seemed to be built directly from the forest landscape. It was two or three stories, but hard to tell with most of the first floor submerged in a rising hillside, and the upper half growing into a convalescence of thick trees.
Stunned, Sasuke glances over at Naruto, who is confidently making his way up the stone walkway to the front door and looking back to see what was taking Sasuke so long. “Are you coming or not?”
Shaking his head and left with few choices, Sasuke follows Naruto up the pathway which was drenched in well-kept foliage, tall enough to obscure the windows. When he looked back out at the clearing, he could see that the trees formed a natural privacy barrier, enclosing the entire space into its own bubble. Naruto holds upon the heavy oak door for Sasuke with an unphased smile, like all of this shouldn’t be surprising at all.
Sasuke’s silence grows thicker though when he steps inside though- as impressive as the outside of the house was, the inside was even more theatrical. The foyer opened to a massive living room with a TV as large as an entire wall, plush couches lining the walls and an open concept kitchen that peeked from the corner, and a back wall with sliding doors that led to an apparently even more expansive yard on the other side of the house. The stairs that led to the second floor were a double wide coil with skylights that probably illuminated the entire space during the day. Naruto has already kicked off his shoes to join the messy pile near an expensive looking shoe rack and is moving to the living room, clearing leftover trash as he went.
“Sorry bout the mess- Whenever I’m supposed to get company, I pay Sakura to come over and blitz the place-”
Sasuke sets his grocery bag on the floor. “You live here alone?”
“Yeah,” Naruto says, picking up a t-shirt from the back of a couch, giving it a sniff test. It apparently fails and he tosses it into a laundry basket that had seen better days. “People stay over pretty regularly though, so you’ve got a bunch of places to choose where you wanna sleep.”
Sasuke is still in the foyer. Naruto’s place is nicer than his in New York. Somehow, that rankled more than everything else. “And how do you afford a place like this?”
For some reason, this is what makes Naruto jump, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. “Ah, well. It was like, a joint function to get the place… we needed it for pack meetings at first, so a bunch of people started throwing in, and then we started having coven meetings here too so it went through an expansion-”
Sasuke’s gaze sharpens on Naruto. “Aren’t pack meetings usually held at pack leader’s houses?”
Naruto meets Sasuke’s eyes. “Yeah, they are.”
Sasuke’s mouth feels clamped shut. Naruto was a pack leader? They were the same age- pack leaders were typically senior community members, or powerhouses that couldn’t be contested. He scrutinizes Naruto again in a different light. Naruto seems to dislike this a bit, breaking away from the gaze. He flops on the couch, and there’s the electric ping of his gaming console turning on before he’s pulling out his phone.
“What do you want for pizza?”
But Sasuke isn’t going to let it drop that easily. He comes around the couch Naruto has settled on, staring down at the boy he used to know, and the man he was quickly realizing he didn’t. “Covens and Packs don’t work together.”
“Yeah, well they do now,” Naruto returns drily, not looking up at Sasuke’s accusing glare, his face illuminated by the phone screen.
“What pack would allow that? Akashida, Namera-eki-”
“Both,” Naruto says. He holds up the phone to Sasuke. “What pizza do you want?”
Sasuke pushes the phone away, tired of Naruto’s deflections. “What pack are you the leader of Naruto? Why would a coven choose to have their meetings in a pack leader’s house, on pack land-”
“A lot’s changed, Sasuke,” Naruto says. “There isn’t Akashida or Namera-eki anymore. It’s just Konoha. And the coven has their meetings here because they wanted to, and I told them they could.”
Sasuke’s brows are furrowed in confusion. “Then-”
“Then I lead the Konoha pack, and we’re friends with the Konoha coven. Any other questions you need answered right fucking now, or are you gonna order pizza? Cause I’m hungry.”
Naruto has the damn phone back in Sasuke’s face. Sasuke is struggling to think. The pack’s of Konoha had had a rivalry so fierce it had dated back generations. Somehow, in a few short years, Naruto had risen through the ranks, ended a blood feud, become their leader, and mended a social break with the local witches? Naruto’s crystalline blue eyes are unwavering on Sasuke.
Slowly, Sasuke takes the phone. He orders a vegetarian pizza and adds sausage. Naruto snorts at the order before he places it.
Sasuke sits on the other side of the couch as Naruto logs in and queues up some show to watch while they wait for food. He doesn’t care what Naruto puts on. He’s busy sneaking glances at Naruto, who has changed so much and is pretending he doesn’t notice Sasuke looking, even though he has to be able to tell.
After a few minutes of this, Naruto sighs, and flops backward on the couch, then rolls his head to face Sasuke. “You know, I can smell that I’m making you nervous.”
“It’s not nerves,” said Sasuke, who was definitely more nervous than he had been before. The Uchiha’s did not belong to any coven- they were a family lineage of their own, like the Hyuugas. It didn’t change the fact that Packs and Witches historically didn’t get along, and he was sitting on the couch of the leader of a very, very large pack.
Naruto’s eyes roll, and then he turns on the couch, sitting crosslegged so he could face Sasuke full on. “Okay. Fine. Not nerves, whatever. But you gotta chill the fuck out. You’re driving me crazy. I’ll answer your questions if that's what’ll make you calm down.”
There’s still a good foot or two of space between them, but suddenly hyper-aware of every signal he could be sending, Sasuke leans back against the opposite arm of the couch. “When did you become pack leader?”
“First?” Naruto scratches his chin, thinking. “Not long after you left. Coupla months.”
Seventeen. He’d become leader of his own pack at seventeen. “And the packs joined together?”
“Took a couple of years, and a helluva lot of convincing.” Naruto’s grin is bright and carefree, but all it does is highlight just how large his canines have grown in the past few hours. “Everybody’s pretty happy with the situation now. Less territory disputes.”
“And Tsunade wanted to have her coven meetings here…”
Sasuke trails off because Naruto is shaking his head. “Tsunade’s not the head of the coven anymore.” His smile is softer this time. “Sakura is.”
“Sakura Haruno?” The pink haired annoyance that had plagued Sasuke’s middle school years was the head of the Konoha witches?
Naruto laughs at his reaction. “Don’t be like that, she’s really good at the job. She helped me find this place,” Naruto casts his arms around the room. “She takes better care of it than me, too. But don’t tell her I said that!”
Sasuke wouldn’t, for the simple fact that he would rather not face a girl who had been leagues beneath him in skill, and now would probably wipe the floor with him in practice. He prods at a few more of the blocked chakra points that he could feel like uncomfortable scabs, now that he had to pay attention to them.
“That said, this house is probably the most well-protected property in all of Konoha. It’s got every kind of ward and protection imaginable,” Naruto laughs again. “As long as you’re here, not a soul will know unless you want them to.”
Naruto’s phone pings and he glances down. “Pizza’s almost here.” He hops up off the couch and jerks a thumb at the door. “I gotta meet him on the road- the delivery guys always get lost on the pathway.”
“Gee, I wonder why,” Sasuke replies, thinking of the non-existent entrance. The house was hidden in more than a few ways.
Naruto flips him off, and then doesn’t even put on shoes before he’s disappearing out the door, leaving Sasuke alone in Naruto’s extravagant living room with some banal tv show droning away in the background. His house, a forsaken wreck; Naruto, a pack lead; Sakura, a coven head; the supernatural rifts he’d thought he’d known, completely turned on their axis. And Sasuke’s purposefully wreckage of his own magic keeping him from noticing any of it.
Sasuke stands. He needed to unblock his chakras. Right now. And if Naruto’s house was being used for coven meetings, then he had all the supplies already stocked.
He makes a beeline for the kitchen and his nose wrinkles- a luxurious house had apparently not changed Naruto’s slovenly ways in the least. Every single surface was covered in dirty dishes or empty wrappers. Ignoring all of this, Sasuke begins looking through cabinets, remembering that his mother had kept many of her herbalist goods in the kitchen.
He opens the last set of cabinets, near the stove and hits the jackpot. Hundreds of jars and vials containing herbs and tinctures of all sorts. And on the bottom shelf, massive clay pots containing divination salts.
Sasuke had never been into green magic- but his mother had been exceptionally affluent with it. He hardly remembered her words anymore, misted over by all the blocks he’d built up. The ones he was about to break down.
Whatever witch had stocked Naruto’s cabinets knew what they were doing- everything was meticulously labelled and organized. He pulls rue, hyssop and mugwort from the shelves first, and then adds yarrow for extra protection as an afterthought. A small clay pot yielded blue lotus oil, and that he took as well. Finally, from the bottom shelf he takes the largest jar of salt, giving it a testing rub between his fingers- cast with some sort of ash, for extra potency.
Sasuke considers bringing his ingredients through Naruto’s sliding doors to the backyard- these magics worked best under a night sky. But the idea of whoever or whatever else could have taken interest in Sasuke’s reappearance being out there nixed the idea. What Sasuke was about to do would no doubt draw attention.
So he settles right there in the open portion of Naruto’s kitchen floor and begins laying out a circle in salt, punctuated by herbs. He pulls an unused cookbook from a nearby shelf and uses the edge to draw the lines. He hadn’t done this in years, but even if the lessons themselves were foggy, Sasuke’s muscle memory seemed to hold up just fine. When he steps back, the floor is a decorative mess, suited exactly to Sasuke’s purposes. Before he could second guess himself, Sasuke shucks his shirt and steps inside the circle, clay pot of lotus oil in hand. He settles in the center and rolls his shoulders.
When he’d done this before, he’d had outside help, and he’d been sealing off a free flowing energy source. Now, he was releasing what were essentially plaster patches holding together a dam with all of Sasuke’s magic held behind. And he was doing it alone. A practiced mage probably would be hesitant to attempt the feat, and Sasuke needed to admit that he was no longer a mage at all. He would just have to be careful.
He presses lines of lotus oil to his skin- his forehead, his cheekbones, his scalp and neck, his collar and chest, down to his stomach and hips. He has to be careful not to muss up the salt lines he’s drawn over the tile while he does his legs, and saves his arms for last. Prickling with the stickiness of oil, Sasuke places the clay pot outside of the circle, and tries to settle into a posture he hadn’t used for more than meditation in ages.
He slows his breath, lays his palms flat above his knees and focuses inwards. Being around Naruto has made everything welded inside him feel itchy and stretched with the want to be free. Exposure to the area and Sasuke’s own house had probably started the process before Sasuke had even noticed- Naruto had just agitated the problem. Carefully, Sasuke runs mental fingers through the gaps of his nerves and the veins of his magic to the first point and gently unpeels the tacky glue.
It comes free in a gush, and Sasuke gasps at the sudden influx of candy-sweetness that’s flooding his tastebuds, bright and noxious. Hurriedly, he moves to the next in an attempt to balance the sudden overflow. The world becomes overbright even beneath Sasuke’s closed lids, but the smell abates a bit, so it’s easier to move on to the next one, worrying away at one fastening and then the next, softening glue and peeling it away until the world slowly seems to regain a sort of balance. The wards that protected Naruto’s house became bright like evergreen and citrus, the salt that surrounded Sasuke gained the glow he remembered from the spells of his childhood, the waxing moon outside felt like a cool crispness begging Sasuke to return, to embrace what he’d once left far behind. Sasuke breathes deep, feeling his magic bleeding back, piece by piece and expanding in place Sasuke hadn’t realized had been left empty.
“What are you doing?”
Sasuke’s eyes snap open, and he has to blink because the world is highlighted in ultraviolet, violent colors. Naruto is standing in the kitchen, pizza in one hand, stock still. With nearly all of Sasuke’s chakra points free flowing now, Naruto looks illuminated in brilliance, limned in gold that was bleeding from his every edge, the ears Sasuke had only been able to barely see before now fully visible and paired with the long tail Naruto was holding rigid behind himself. His eyes were practically a thanergetic glow, and they were entirely focused on Sasuke.
“I needed my magic back.” Sasuke says. He wasn’t finished. He shuts his eyes again.
“You shut it off?” Naruto asks. He still hasn’t moved from his rooted spot. “I didn’t even- you can do that? You’re undoing it?”
Sasuke manages to free another chakra point, and the feeling is akin to relief, no matter how much it makes reality warp for the briefest instant. Naruto gives a strangled choke and the pizzas slam on the counter.
“You- I-” Naruto chokes again, and Sasuke peeks an eye open. Naruto is gripping the counters edge like a lifeline. The lines on his face are distinctly thicker.
Sasuke frowns at him. “Are you about to wolf out?”
“I’m not gonna wolf out,” Naruto flails. He crouches at the counters edge, still gripping it, still staring at Sasuke with blown wide eyes. He repeats, “I’m not gonna wolf out.”
He doesn’t make a convincing figure, hunched like a gremlin and bleeding power into the kitchen. But Sasuke couldn’t stop the spell halfway through. He settles back, searching further.
The last tethers holding his power in check were the first he’d put into place- the cemented foundation that had sealed away the power source that made Sasuke a mage. These, unlike the others, don’t want to come free as willingly. Sasuke pries at them, looking for any fissure of weakness to weasel through, but every time he manages to get his fingers beneath an edge, it snaps back into place.
Sasuke shifts, rolling his shoulders, trying again, trying to smooth the coils of his chakra that had spent so long bent out of place- it was harder to find what he was looking for with this much magic welling up to the surface all at once. He swallows, pulls again at the last chakra points.
They come free with a pop that’s practically audible, and the kitchen floods with ether, the lines of salt surrounding Sasuke blurring in the frission of released heat. Sasuke can’t hear what Naruto says, because the world is filled with a white hot roar like he’d been dumped inside of a waterfall.
When the world comes back into focus, nothing has changed and everything is different. Sasuke blinks, looking around the kitchen, at the hues of spells and the glow of artifacts blooming into existence where there had been nothing before. He glances down at his hands, can see the blue lotus oil gleaming silvery over his skin and the quiet neon glow that was his newfound power trying to settle back into his flesh.
Naruto is still crouched where he had been. True to his word, he hadn’t wolfed out, but he didn’t look any better either. “Sasuke, your eyes…”
Sasuke blinks. He stands from his circle, stepping carelessly through it now that the spell was over and striding to the mirror on the wall. Sure enough, his black eyes had turned bright red, three swirling tomoe spinning lazily along his iris in slow tandem. The sharingan- a feature of an Uchiha initiation.
“Huh,” Sasuke says musingly, touching his cheek beneath the bright scarlet. That was an unusual side effect. He’d never considered the possibility of initiating himself.
“Holy fuck,” Naruto is wheezing. “You were blocking all this off before?”
“Blocking what off?” Sasuke asks, turning on Naruto. Naruto has sat himself at the kitchen counter. He has his face down on the cool marble.
“You reek.” He says into the stone.
Casually, Sasuke lifts an arm and sniffs himself. He smelled fine. Had to be a supernatural side effect. He picks up his discarded shirt from where he’d left it on the floor, pulling it on but leaving it unbuttoned, strangely overheated. “It’ll wear off.” Probably.
Business done, the pizza now smelled fantastic, and Sasuke’s stomach grumbles. He lifts the lid on the top pizza box, pleased to find that it’s his, and takes a slice. Naruto lifts his head off the countertop long enough to watch Sasuke take a bite, before he turns face down again.
“Change of plans. You can’t leave until you fix that.”
“Fix what?” Sasuke asks, mouth full of pizza.
Naruto makes a noise caught somewhere between a whine and groan. “C’mon Sasuke, don’t make me say this shit. Just-” Naruto’s hands wave in the air above his head emphatically. Sasuke watches him blankly, and takes another bite of pizza, wondering what the big deal was.
Naruto’s hands slap the counter, and he lifts his head to glare at Sasuke. He looks just like a petulant child again, and Sasuke can’t stop the smirk that scoops the side of his mouth. Naruto’s eyes dart down to the movement and he gives a loudly exasperated swear before he swipes his own pizza box off the counter and stomps to the living room, instead of finishing whatever he’d been about to say.
Sasuke watches Naruto, pouting on the couch, and takes his own pizza box before following. Naruto is staring fixedly at the show that never stopped playing and when he glances over at Sasuke’s approach, he looks away just as quickly. The glaring brightness of Sasuke’s initial magic influx has started to subside, and the gold limning Naruto has toned down quite a bit, though his ears and tail remain. Sasuke can’t tell if that’s a byproduct of gaining his sight back, or if Naruto’s shift has been pushed far enough along that his ears and tail are actually out.
Sasuke sits on the couch, finishing his crust and picking out another piece. “So you’re placing under house arrest in your house, now?”
Naruto grunts. “I don’t even know if you can stay here.”
Sasuke smirks, nudges Naruto’s thigh with his knee, “That bad huh?”
He doesn’t expect Naruto to jerk away, nearly flinging his meal onto the ground. He swears again. “Yeah, Sasuke. That bad.”
Sasuke bites his pizza. Naruto looks away, licking his lips. “Listen, I won’t wolf out, cause I have more control than that. But you should seriously stay inside until you can control whatever-” he waves his hands in Sasuke’s general direction. “-this is.”
Huh. Sasuke swallows. Sets his pizza aside. “Are you saying I’m gonna get jumped?”
“Yes, Sasuke,” Naruto gushes at him, clearly angry. It was always entertaining getting Naruto riled up- his face got red and his nose crinkled up ridiculously. “I’m saying you’re gonna get fucking jumped. Whether it’s a romp in the lilies or somebody drinking to wear your skin is really just a roll of the dice, isn’t it.”
Sasuke snorts. He was being absurd.
“Listen,” Naruto says. “I’ll get Sakura to stop by in the morning if she’s not already planning it. You sent out a goddamn shockwave, so I’m surprised she hasn’t called me already.” He’s pinching the bridge of his nose, and every few words he licks at his canines like they’re bothering him. “She’ll help you figure this out-”
“I don’t need Sakura’s help,” Sasuke replies instantly. “And I’m not staying for your ‘house arrest.’”
Naruto gapes at him. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Sasuke shrugs. He eats more pizza, which he’d never admit to Naruto had been a good idea.
“I need to ward the Estate. I can’t do that from here,” Sasuke explains easily, already thinking about the glimpses of broken protections he’d seen earlier, planning the supplies he’d need. “The sooner I-”
“Sasuke, you can’t.”
Sasuke ignores this, reaching for a new piece of pizza. Naruto snags his wrist halfway there. He makes Sasuke meet his eyes. “Listen. All cards on the table. You smell, really fucking good. And if I were anyone else, you would not be safe here. You have to stay.”
“That’s your way of convincing me?” Sasuke scoffs, pulling at his wrist, but Naruto’s grip was like a vice, and just succeeded in jerking them both. “That I wouldn’t be safe here if it weren’t you-”
And then Sasuke is toppling backward on the couch, and Naruto is looming over him, Sasuke’s wrist trapped on the couch above his head and Naruto’s knee pressing against the inside of Sasuke’s thigh. Like this, Naruto seemed huge, and completely immovable. The aura was back, but Sasuke didn’t think it was his eyesight playing tricks again- he could smell the ozone of Naruto’s power growing, could feel the pressing buzz like a living vibration pushing up against his skin. Naruto’s face was full of frustration as he leaned close, dropping his head on Sasuke’s collarbone with a heavy thunk and breathing deep through his mouth.
“Please, please just listen, Sasuke.” Naruto barely moves, but it feels like he curls closer, in a protective cocoon around Sasuke on the couch, and Sasuke can feel his lips moving a hairs breadth away from the bare skin of his chest, his voice is low and rough when he says, “I’m being so serious- I don’t know how to make you take me seriously.”
Sasuke feels like he’s on fire. His new awareness feels like it’s magnified everything, and every place that him and Naruto connect feels like it’s slowly being consumed by flame. He needs Naruto off, yesterday. His fingers flex hopelessly.
“Get off me and I’ll stay,” Sasuke gives in, far too easily. Naruto’s head lifts up, but this just brings their faces close together, which was infinitely worse. He turns his face away quickly. “Until you can get Sakura here.”
Naruto hasn’t moved. He’s still staring at the side of Sasuke’s face. “You aren’t lying?”
“I’m not lying,” Sasuke says, hating that he means it. He wasn’t as interested in tempting fate as Naruto seemed to think. But Naruto still hasn’t moved, and his scrutiny has increased. Exasperated, Sasuke shoves at him and like he’d suspected, Naruto is as immovable as a stone wall. “You’d smell it.”
This seems to be a convincing argument to Naruto, and as if for confirmation, he leans down, pushing his nose directly into the side of Sasuke’s neck and taking a deep inhale. Sasuke shivers, and tries to tamp down on every single other feeling that that motion arose within him. This close to Naruto, there would be no hiding it.
Whatever Naruto found seemed to mollify him though. In the next instant, he’s up and off of Sasuke, off the couch entirely, and taking his pizza too. “Good enough for me! I’ll shoot Sakura a quick text- she’s a wiz with the stuff, she’ll totally know what to do!”
Sasuke sits up, observing Naruto’s not so subtle retreat, quizzically. “Where are you going?”
“Oh, I was being so serious,” Naruto says, already halfway to the stairs. “I cannot handle being in the same room as you right now, or I might actually lose my shit. So I’m gonna peace out for the night- help yourself to whatever. Most of the bedrooms are up here- there’s a few on the east side down here, too.”
“Are you fucking kidding?” Sasuke asks, incredulous. It was that bad?
“Nope!” Naruto says, popping the ‘p.’ “Goodnight!”
“Naruto, what the hell?!” Sasuke shouts, but Naruto is already gone, footsteps muffled by the dense carpeting.
Stunned, Sasuke is once again left alone. Curious, he does another sniff test, but gets the same result: nothing. Naruto’s retreat certainly hadn’t been nothing. Sasuke shuts off the TV.
In silence, he thinks about this turn of events, munching quietly on a piece of pizza he wasn’t truly hungry for anymore. His magic felt like he’d been hooked up to a perpetual, humming generator, and sleep was a long way away. Brushing off his hands, he decides to go snooping.
The kitchen through magical sight was clearly the center of the house- like most covens, it was dominated by the glow of ether and spellwork, Sasuke’s leftover salt ritual in its center still smoking faintly. Sasuke bypasses it, investigating the hallway Naruto had said had more bedrooms. It did- two, one of which had curtains thicker than winter coats and was drowning in pillows and the stifling scent of musk. Clearly a wolf-den, as compared to the other room, which had a normal bed and desk for writing. There was also a well used gym, through which Sasuke could see a different view of the yard, and the pool he hadn’t noticed before. Adjacent to the gym was a bathroom, stocked with spare gym equipment, towels, and hygiene amenities galore. Gratefully, Sasuke shuts the door behind himself and flips the lock.
The shower was just as expensive as the rest of the house. Hot water still worked at Sasuke’s house, but the lack of electricity has seriously detracted from the experience when Sasuke had taken his after travel shower. Naruto’s guest shower got absolutely scalding, steaming where it hit Sasuke’s body. He grabs a few of the travel-sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner and gets to scrubbing himself free of the lotus oil and forest. Maybe it would even help with the ‘smell.’
Feeling much better after scrubbing every inch of himself raw, Sasuke steps from the shower a new man. He swipes the mirror free of fog, and stops.
Who stares back at him is clearly different. He’d been distracted by his eyes earlier, but now…. Releasing his chakras had grown Sasuke’s midnight black hair by nearly an inch, and his skin seemed somehow lighter? Or maybe brighter? Like something had lit inside of him, beating along with his heartbeat. His eyes were still red, a deep burnished scarlet with the tomoe still swirling in syrupy cadence, and he peers closer, inspecting them. He’d always known his elders to have the standard black eyes of the Uchiha; but, as initiated, they all had held sharingan. There had to be a way to turn it off.
After a few minutes of trying this, Sasuke gives up and scrubs his hair dry with one of the towels. Wishing he had some of the clothes still sitting in his suitcase back at the estate, Sasuke puts his pants back on and wears the towel around his neck to catch the worst of his dripping hair while he makes his way to the not-den guestroom. Sure enough, there’s some basic sweats bundled into one of the drawers that look like they’d been placed there out of courtesy. Couldn’t have been Naruto, but Sasuke thanks whoever had this type of foresight before pulling free some laundry-fresh clothing for himself.
Now truly clean and full, Sasuke looks at the bed. He would rather run a mile, than sleep. But he couldn’t do that, could he- because he couldn’t go outside. Because he was a liability. Annoyed, Sasuke heads back to the living room.
But it’s just him. He sits on the couch, not bothering with the TV, and takes out his phone, scrolling through work emails. He had nearly unlimited vacation time at the moment, but on the rare chance an emergency had occurred, he flicks through updates. There’s nothing worthwhile, and his mind keeps straying to the fact that he was trapped here, because of an apparent irresistibility that he couldn’t himself perceive at all. One strong enough to have a wolf pack leader running to his room with his tail between his legs. It would be funny if Sasuke wasn’t so pissed.
As if Naruto knew that Sasuke was thinking about him, a message pings into existence at the top of his phone screen.
23:47:06 - Naruto Uzumaki: Sakura didn’t feel the shockwave cause she’s in Bermuda right now- She’s catching a flight back, asap! Monday!
Sasuke stares at the message, disbelieving. The one person who could help him and she wasn’t even in town? It was Friday night- he couldn’t spend two full days trapped in Naruto’s house.
Before Sasuke even registers what he’s doing, he’s already taking the steps two at a time, reaching the top platform and casting about. The second floor of the house was a veritable maze, which only added to Sasuke’s mounting temper. He bypasses a rec room and flings open the doors to three separate bedrooms before he sees a light on beneath a door at the end of the hall. Triumphant, he storms to the door and bangs on it three times.
“What do you mean she’s in Bermuda?”
The door opens and Naruto appears, a toothbrush hanging from his mouth. He leans on the doorframe. “She’s in Bermuda,” he says around the stick and a mouthful of foam. Sasuke wants to punch it from his mouth. Naruto jerks his chin at Sasuke’s attire. “Good, you found some clothes.”
“Naruto, I am not staying here for nearly three days-”
“It’s a weekend, chill.” Naruto says, and brushes his teeth. But his ears are tilted back, as if he was unsure, and Sasuke snaps.
“You can’t even be in the same room as me.” He hisses, jabbing Naruto in the chest.
Naruto rubs the spot. “Hey, that’s not fair-”
“Yeah? When is Sakura actually coming back?”
“Monday! I said Monday!” Naruto exclaims, and then motions for a moment, apparently needing to spit out his toothpaste. The minute he backs away from the door, Sasuke shoves it open, steps inside, and Naruto throws down the toothbrush with a quick, “Whoa, hey, hey, hey-”
“If it’s not gonna be a problem, why are you freaking out?” Sasuke accuses, stood in the middle of Naruto’s room.
Naruto straightens. His face is turning red, and his tail is flicking strangely behind him. “I’m not.” He takes a breath, seems to solidify himself, and that stupid grin pastes itself back into place. “Truly, I’m not. I get that you don’t really understand this shit right now, but-”
“Then explain it,” Sasuke challenges. He steps forward, nearly kills himself on a pile of crud on Naruto’s floor, but it gets them close together, enough that he can see Naruto’s nostrils flare, can see the way the black of his pupils swell in reaction. “Explain it to me and prove that I shouldn’t walk out your front door right now, get in my car, and just leave.”
That seems to snap Naruto out of it. “We both know you can’t do that.”
“No, you’ve told me I couldn’t.” Sasuke holds his ground. “I know that I need to fix my estate so I can be rid of this godforsaken town, and you’re keeping me from doing it.”
Naruto’s eats flatten further. “I’m not keeping you from anything, Sasuke. You’re the one who decided you needed to blow up your aura like a cosmic fucking sun!”
That’s what it had looked liked? Sasuke folds his arms over his chest. “You can’t expect me to stay in this house, completely isolated from even you. This is nuts.” Sasuke throws his hands in the air, and Naruto takes a deep breath and a solid step backwards. Sasuke points at the motion accusingly, “This is exactly what I mean.”
“It’s different when you’re in here, Sasuke,” Naruto practically growls at him. He leans against the desk behind himself. “Listen. I promise, tomorrow, I’ll get it together. But you gotta give me some time to adjust…. And you can’t be in here.”
“Why?” Sasuke demands. Every answer from Naruto was an evasive duck. Since when had Naruto become such a coward? He became a pack leader and turned into a massive chicken?
Naruto levels him a glare. “Because.”
Sasuke takes a step forward, the exact distance Naruto had stepped back. “‘Because’ isn’t good enough.”
Naruto watches him take that step forward, and compresses himself backward as if he could phase through the desk itself. “Seriously Sasuke, don’t. You’re playing with fire….”
“Why?” Sasuke wheedles, taking another step forward, returning the favor of all the times Naruto had breeched his personal bubble throughout tonight. “It sounded like your last explanation was ‘give you time to get used to me.’ Are you afraid of a little exposure therapy?”
“That’s not-” Naruto sucks in a breath, and his eyes close. “It’s different when you’re in my room.”
It’s poetry to parrot Naruto’s earlier words, “Because?”
Naruto’s eyes flash open. They’re close enough that if Naruto stopped leaning back, he and Sasuke would be pressed chest to chest. “Because, Sasuke. This is my room- my den. It is covered in the scent of me, and it's personal, and you smell so good, but you smell so so good covered in the smell of me.”
Sasuke stops. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh,” Naruto is breathing heavily. “Now, back up before I do something we’re both gonna regret.”
Sasuke backs up, and Naruto turns, leaning over the desk and apparently trying to collect himself. Sasuke looks around Naruto’s room as if for the first time; it wasn’t all that different from his childhood one, with the same posters on the wall and the same beaten up lamp Sasuke remembered from middle school squatting in the corner. But the windows were shrouded in three different layers of curtaining just like the den downstairs, a shelf in the corner was towered with snacks, drinks, medicine in varying types, and the bed had tripled in size and was flooded in pillows and comforters. A nest.
“I’ll be better in the morning. I just… have to get used to it a little bit.” Naruto says, still looking at the wall. His tail was stiff, and Sasuke was certain that it, and his ears, were actually tangible. The closer Naruto pushed towards his shift, the worse his affliction with Sasuke was likely to become, since the shower had done nothing.
Sasuke makes a quick decision, only seeing limited outcomes, with everything laid out in plain view. Exposure therapy, right?
Naruto’s tail is only a few inches from Sasuke’s palm. He reaches forward, grasps where there should be fur and finds that yes, Naruto had in fact gotten his tail and ears throughout everything. Naruto jumps at the touch, spinning in his spot and looking at Sasuke aghast. “What are you doing?”
“Speeding things along,” Sasuke tells him, and leans forward until he can press his lips into Naruto’s.
Naruto makes a sound that isn’t even human. His head tilts… and then he’s gripping Sasuke’s shoulders and bodily shoving him back. “That is the worst idea you’ve had all night. And you’ve had some seriously fucked up ideas tonight, Sasuke.“
“I’m not spending the night on the couch,” Sasuke presses back into Naruto’s hands, gripping the edge of Naruto’s t-shirt.
“I gave you choice of the whole house! What happened to cutting my dick off if there was funny business?” Naruto protests, and when Sasuke pushes far enough, has to lock his elbows. “This is playing with fire- Sasuke-”
“I was always pretty good with fire,” Sasuke replies and uses his wrists on the inside of Naruto’s elbows to break his rigid hold, following Naruto’s arms back down to the desktop, pinning him in place, feeling the red hot rub of Naruto’s aura trying to leak out of control. “Is Sakura really coming back Monday?”
“She’s trying to!” Naruto says, looking anywhere in the room but at Sasuke’s face, directly before him. His tail gives an agitated swish. “But probably, Friday.”
“I knew it,” Sasuke cuts off whatever excuse Naruto’s about to try to give next by catching his face in one hand and then his lips, not letting him escape. Naruto makes another one of those noises, and then his mouth opens and Sasuke can taste him and the fresh toothpaste, and all the desperate want that Naruto has been holding back. When Sasuke pulls back, Naruto chases the movement with hazy, halflidded eyes and clinging hands. “Bad idea or not, it beats waiting around.”
Naruto shudders and blinks. “Goddamnit Sasuke- You have no idea what you’re asking….” Naruto groans, finally reaching back and digging sharp nails through the thin material of Sasuke’s borrowed sweats. “You know you’re gonna end up stuck with me for most of this cycle, right?”
Sasuke just hums, already dipping down to his knees, pushing Naruto’s shirt up and discovering that he’d gotten a lot of tattoos everywhere. “I figured that was probably going to happen either way if I ended up stuck here.”
Naruto is silent. And then he sighs. “I forgot how absolutely stubborn you could be.” Finally, he lets go of his deathgrip on the desk and instead twisting his fists in the front of Sasuke’s shirt, dragging him back to his feet. “Fine. You seriously want this? You’re seriously that afraid of spending a day alone?”
Sasuke sneers at him, because that wasn’t it- but then he’s flying through the air, landing with a winded ‘whumpf’ in the volcanic eruption of blanketing that was Naruto’s bed. Naruto crosses his arms and tears off his own shirt in one swift movement, and then he’s crawling atop Sasuke, bracketing him in the angle of Naruto’s arms. “Last chance to cut my dick off with that rusty spoon.”
“That’s not even what castration means, Naruto,” Sasuke tells him plainly and grabs Naruto’s hair to pull him back down for a real kiss. He swallows Naruto’s incredulous laughter and drags him closer until they’re lying flush and he can feel Naruto’s abs pressing against his own. Naruto is a living furnace, and it’s like the burgeoning wolf in him was calling to the magic in Sasuke, an invisible magnet begging them closer- Sasuke wonders if Naruto can feel it too. His hands run over the smooth expanse of Naruto’s skin, feeling the smooth edges of tattoos and healed over scars as Naruto kisses his way down Sasuke’s neck, the seams on Sasuke’s shirt popping in Naruto’s eagerness to get it off.
“You have no clue what you’re getting yourself into,” Naruto says when Sasuke’s shirt is halfway across the room. He bends closer, licks at the spot on Sasuke’s neck he’d been kissing, takes deep selfish inhale there. “You smell so good; better because it’s you.”
And Sasuke doesn’t quite know what that means, but he’s also not sure he cares. Running his fingers up the tattoos that limned Naruto’s stomach was making the pads of his fingers numb in the strangest, most intoxicating way, and he couldn’t seem to get enough. Naruto’s mouth opens in a hot gasp when Sasuke’s thumbs dig into the muscled divots at his hips and he snatches both of Sasuke’s hands in one of his own, pinning them above his head, punishingly.
“If you keep doing stuff like that, I’m gonna lose my shit.”
“And?” Sasuke asks, bringing his knee up just far enough that he nudges against Naruto’s balls and makes Naruto jump forward with a whoop, leaping away.
“Fuck, Sasuke,” Naruto laugh is a little hysterical and he whirls on Sasuke, running his hands though his hair. His eyes are wild- the air in the room could set a wildfire ablaze. Sasuke licks his teeth and Naruto catches the movement, and says again “Fuck. You’re- Do you want me to fuck you up or something?”
“You couldn’t if you tried,” Sasuke says, sitting up and propping an arm on a knee. Waiting. Something flashes in Naruto’s eyes, but he doesn’t move.
“.... Quit baiting me.”
Sasuke inspects his nails, growing bored of this game. Wishing Naruto would just give in already. “You used to be easier.”
Naruto gives a belly-rocking laugh that shakes the rafters, and then he’s pouncing atop Sasuke again. “You are such a son of a bitch,” He opens his mouth and his tongue laves up the side of Sasuke’s face, to which Sasuke smacks his shoulder none too lightly. Naruto just groans, unphased, “Fuck, you even taste so good….”
Sasuke shudders, hands on Naruto’s shoulders which are very broad- when Naruto moves, he can feel the flex of his muscles, can see the ripple when he looks down and swallows thickly. The last time he’d seen Naruto, they’d been teenagers. The last time they’d messed around, they had both been boys. Naruto’s teeth set in the edge of Sasuke’s collarbone, his sharp canine drawing a pinprick of blood that fills the air with the scent of metal and fresh magic. Naruto moans as he laps it up.
Fuck, was right. Sasuke feels clumsy shoving at Naruto’s waistband, slipping and then finding his way to cup the very prominent bulge beneath. Naruto’s head drops to Sasuke’s chest with a low sound, and his tail flashes, flicking Sasuke’s arm. One of Naruto’s large palms is spanning Sasuke’s hip, and his fingers twitch before he sits up all at once, knocking Sasuke’s hands aside to shove his pants to his thighs, then dragging Sasuke’s sweats down in the same motion. When he leans back down, it forces the accommodating spread of Sasuke’s thighs wider, and Sasuke’s breath hitches up a notch.
This of course, set Naruto’s chuckling off again, leaving vibrations along Sasuke’s skin as he nosed his way along Sasuke’s shoulder, up his neck into his hairline. “I can smell all that, you know,” He mumbles against Sasuke’s ear, breathing deep and Sasuke’s skin breaks out his gooseflesh. “So emotional- so easy to rile up-” He licks the shell of Sasuke’s ear and Sasuke jumps.
“Shut up, Naruto,” He says, having to twist to shove Naruto’s face away, and Naruto laughs as he backs off in favor of wrapping a large hand around both of their dicks instead. Sasuke curls inwards, ends up smacking the front of Naruto’s chest with the back of his hand, and then gets crushed backwards again with Naruto kissing him senseless, not giving him a second to even think before Naruto is pulling them both off together.
Sasuke’s heels dig into the bed, but all the covers make it impossible to find decent purchase, and every time Sasuke tries to use Naruto as leverage, Naruto just shrugs him off, forcing Sasuke into the concave of mercy Naruto has managed to put him in. Sasuke swears, bites viciously at Naruto’s lip until he can taste blood.
Naruto barely budges, though- when he pulls back, it’s like he’s giving Sasuke a concession, tonguing at the split in his lip a bit and swiping his thumb across the spot, examining the blood. He raises an eyebrow at Sasuke, sprawled out beneath him and is still trying to gain his bearings. With a grin, Naruto leans down and swipes his bloodied thumb across the red already daubing the corner of Sasuke’s mouth, smearing his lower lip and chin into something gruesomely picturesque.
“See, now that’s even better,” Naruto says, licking clean first his thumb, then craning over and tidying the art he’d made himself.
With Naruto’s overlarge canines just near his eyes, Sasuke stays very still before remarking, “You’re fucking sick.”
Naruto’s lethal grin still has red on his gums. “Animal, baby.”
Sasuke tries to shove him over, but Naruto knocks him back flat again, tutting as he does so. “No, no. I was nice all evening and you pushed every single button you could find. Now, you’re gonna stay real still…”
“Naruto…” Sasuke threatens, but it falls flat when Naruto grips his cock again and the end of Naruto’s name ends on a high rasp. Naruto’s grin hasn’t abated, and his teeth are too sharp resting casually next to Sasuke’s pulse, his free hand roving over Sasuke’s body freely while his other hand was busy making Sasuke come apart.
Sasuke swears profusely, kicking out and then gripping Naruto’s biceps, then giving up and slapping the bedspread. He thrashes, but Naruto seems to be enjoying the struggle, worrying away at the same spot on Sasuke’s throat while he jacked Sasuke off at a steady, yet infuriatingly dissatisfying pace that made Sasuke want to absolutely scream. He gives a soft hum when Sasuke’s heel lands coarsely on the back of his calf, but doesn’t move an inch.
Fuck. Sasuke felt like he was going crazy. There was a litany of swears coursing through his head, none of which could be turned into real words. It felt like his heart was going to beat right out of his chest- he didn’t have to feel to know that he was bleeding magic all over the room, probably all over Naruto’s house, and was suddenly massively grateful for the wards. He hadn’t needed magic awareness in ages, much less control, and even with the best control in the world, it felt like Naruto had somehow made it a mission to force Sasuke to come undone.
“Fuck, Sasuke,” Naruto whispers into the crevice of his jaw, “louder. Get louder-”
Sasuke shoves at his face, and this time Naruto growls, nipping at Sasuke’s hands. He uses his forearm and traps Sasuke’s arms beside his chest, bearing his weight down on Sasuke until Sasuke gasps up at him under the pressure. Spots appear at the edge of his vision and the whole world tries to swim gently out of focus, until all at once, Sasuke feels like he’s burning alive as a surge of energy wells up and spills outward.
Naruto gives a yelp, but he doesn’t stop, his teeth only sink into the top of Sasuke’s shoulder, and its hard enough that the skin nearly breaks. Sasuke jerks, but the pain only seems to add to everything else, coiling inside him like something black and fathomless trying to get out. His nails are biting into Naruto’s arms, his joints feel locked into place, and then everything all at once gives away.
It feels like the air compresses around them, hot and drowning, and all the while that Sasuke wants to float away, Naruto holds him down like a concrete weight.
After what feels like an eternity, Sasuke can taste oxygen again, and the world becomes slightly less gray, though no less warped. He licks at his lips, which are growing chapped- Naruto is curled around him, lapping at the mark he’d made on Sasuke’s shoulder, and the two of them are nearly submerged in the mess of his bed. Like he could feel Sasuke looking, Naruto’s face turns up, and his eyes are hazy and black, the irises swelled to encompass most of the whites, and the blue color completely gone, replaced by a thin sliver of wolf amber. He’s rumbling quietly, nearly purring as he laves at the sweat on Sasuke’s chest, coasting past his nipple, nipping at Sasuke’s collarbone and returning to the already bruising mark on Sasuke’s shoulder to worry at it some more. Then he meets Sasuke’s eyes, seems to realize what he’s doing all at once, and jerks away.
“Fuck,” Naruto hisses, whirling the covers from himself, and then Sasuke is much colder with Naruto sitting at the edge of the bed, holding his head in his hands. “Fuck, I don’t think I can do this.”
Sasuke sits up, and he can feel how wild his hair is. He can’t give a shit. “What?”
“You,” Naruto laughs, and he’s sounding more unhinged as the seconds pass. “I don’t think I can keep it together- you’re too much. You taste too good…” Naruto trails off, scrubbing his hair furiously, which has grown to something shaggier, trying to creep down the nape of his neck.
Sasuke shakes his head. He feels woozy. He feels like he’s gotten a power up and isn’t quite grounded at the same time. He frowns at Naruto’s back. “I don’t see how this is a problem.”
Naruto twists and looks at him incredulously. His eyes are a bit more human, but his fangs are long enough to catch the edge of his lower lip. “Sasuke, you are a problem. I haven’t… I haven’t lost control in years,” Naruto gives another one of those unhinged laughs and the end comes away in a rumble that shakes the carpet. “You’re gonna make me lose control if you keep this shit up.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
“Exactly!” Naruto throws his hands up in the air. “You- I almost marked you and you didn’t even try to stop me!”
Sasuke shrugs. So, Naruto wolf bit him. Sasuke had witch blood- he wouldn’t turn.
Naruto’s eyebrows rise at Sasuke’s reaction. “You really don’t care, do you?”
“Am I supposed to?”
Naruto sighs. “Yes, Sasuke. You’re supposed to care. I’m….” Naruto sighs again, stands, throwing his hands in the air all over again, pacing about the room. “Fine, you know what? You win. I can’t fucking handle my shit around you, not when you’re like this. I don’t know what the fuck we’re gonna do until Sakura gets here, but-”
“Pussy.”
Naruto’s head snaps to Sasuke. “Seriously, dude?”
Sasuke gets to his knees. His pants are still half off, and there’s cum splattered on his stomach… but the fact that Naruto was giving up because he wanted to be dramatic was too ridiculous of a concept for Sasuke to let slide. He crawls to the edge of the bed. “You’re being a pussy.”
“Sasuke-” Naruto chokes when Sasuke reaches out and snags one of his pockets, dragging him closer. His palm lands in the middle of Sasuke’s forehead, keeping them from getting any further together than they were. “If I mark you, you’re tied to me man, one way or another- and you were just saying you didn’t wanna stay….”
“It’ll be fine.” Sasuke says, increasing his pull, not caring about stupid wolf politics. He cared about the fact that Naruto was still half hard right before him and was being an idiot over stupid things that had nothing to do with sex.
“It’s not- Sasuke, don’t-” Naruto’s protests are weak when just licking the underside of his wrist has him letting Sasuke’s head fall forward, and Sasuke manages to pull Naruto the last few inches up to the bed. Naruto lets out a low, shuddering breath when Sasuke grasps him by the root, and Sasuke already knows he’s won.
“If it’s that big of a deal,” Sasuke says, leaning close, spreading his knees to get more comfortable, his words ghosting over the head of Naruto’s cock. His eyes flick upwards at Naruto who seems caught between several very difficult feelings at once. “Then just don’t lose control.”
“Jesus fuck… sometimes, I fucking hate you,” Naruto whispers, but his fingers are gentle against Sasuke’s cheek, and he’s hard again at the first lick Sasuke gives to the underside of his cock, jumping to attention, the muscle in his thigh twitching beneath Sasuke’s fingers. He tastes like musk, and something sharp and distinctly Naruto beneath the velvety feel, and Sasuke hums as he sinks down, feeling the way Naruto’s knees press hard into the edge of the bed. The vibrato of the room ascends another notch.
“Sasuke,” Naruto breathes, and Sasuke thinks he’s about to protest again, but he just exhales lowly, and then his fingers thread through Sasuke’s hair, winding around the black locks and helping smooth the movement. His other hand brushes over the bruise he’d left on Sasuke and Sasuke rolls his shoulder, like a dare. Naruto was the only one who cared about a mark- Sasuke might as well have some fun with it.
Shoving Naruto’s pants the rest of the way to his ankles is easy, with Naruto standing. Getting rid of Sasuke’s own pants while still maintaining his grip on Naruto, was another matter entirely, and he ends up dropping down to one elbow to finish the job. Naruto promptly runs a nail down the ridge of Sasuke’s spine from neck to crack, making Sasuke stand directly up instead.
“Hey-” Sasuke, protests, but Naruto’s mouth is covering his own, devouring, his palms cupping Sasuke’s face, both knees on the bed and walking them both backwards.
“I missed you, jackass,” Naruto mouths along Sasuke’s jaw, arm coiling around Sasuke’s back. He nuzzles into the bruise, then up to Sasuke’s face to kiss him again. “You’re gonna be the death of us both.”
“You keep talking,” Sasuke tells him, pinching at Naruto’s side, trying to get enough room to get back to work. Skin to skin felt great until you were permanently pressed up against a living furnace, and Naruto seemed to burn hotter and hotter by the second. Sasuke gasps as Naruto’s hand runs up his thigh, delving between his cheeks like a test. “Naruto-”
“Sasuke~” Naruto mimics. “You have no idea how delicious you are,” He presses an open-mouthed kiss to Sasuke’s other shoulder, sucks a hickey and then runs the flat of his tongue over it as if in apology. He groans again. “Fuck.”
“Naruto, back up-”
“No, just let me-”
There’s a scuffle as Sasuke tries to get Naruto to shuffle backwards and Naruto tries to get Sasuke flat on the bed, and then they both end up sideways in a tousle of sheets and tumble of limbs. Triumphantly, Sasuke manages to wrestle Naruto prone, using his full weight on Naruto’s thighs and wrists to keep him pinned.
“Stay like that,” Sasuke threatens. Naruto’s ear twitches and he gives a grin, but the second Sasuke releases his hold, he reaches back around Sasuke’s waist, dragging him up the length of his body and sealing his mouth around Sasuke’s nipple. Sasuke shoves at Naruto’s shoulders, then shivers as his tongue flicks over a pertinent bud and has to give up, because he is melting instead.
Naruto hums, feeling up the length of Sasuke’s thigh again and not stopping until he could cup Sasuke’s ass, sliding his fingers until they caught on Sasuke’s rim. Sasuke stiffens.
“Wait,” He says, pushing at Naruto, who pauses, then starts kissing Sasuke on the mouth again. Naruto’s hand smooths down Sasuke's thigh like he was placating a rowdy horse, tugs the crux of Sasuke’s knee higher around himself, clear on his intent. He shoves again, “Naruto, wait.”
“What?” Naruto, aggravated, releases his hold enough for Sasuke to pull away a few scant inches.
“I’m not bottoming.”
Naruto snorts. He tries to duck his way back down to Sasuke’s chest, but Sasuke snatches his chin. Naruto’s eyes flash, and his lip curls, canine’s shining whitely in the dim light of his room.
“Sasuke, I’ve given in to literally everything else you’ve asked from me tonight,” His fingers flex on Sasuke’s hips, dragging Sasuke back down again to sit flush in his lap. “Not this time.”
Sasuke moves as if to get off of Naruto, but Naruto’s arms are steel around him- he isn’t letting Sasuke leave…. He’s licking his fingers, all while meeting Sasuke’s disbelieving eyes. Sasuke swears at him, shoves at his chest again, but he’s tried this a few times now and he’s already starting to learn the answer. “Naruto, you absolute-”
Sasuke’s words cut off when Naruto successfully slides a finger past the stiff ring of muscle that was Sasuke’s perineum. Sasuke can count on one hand the amount of times he’d bottomed for other people. Panic sets in a bit and Naruto is suddenly crooning into his neck.
“Shh, relax, we’re already this far,” He cajoles, “You’re the one who was so pushy. Now who’s being a pussy?” And then he snickers at his own joke. Sasuke wants to smack him again. He wants to break Naruto’s nose. He wants to rewind back to the idea of the rusty spoon. He’s too busy trying to figure out how to get his lungs to keep working while Naruto stretches him out to the second knuckle. He swears into the air, canting forward, but there’s nowhere to go.
“Wait, I got this,” Naruto says, and leans over to reach into his bedside table. His grip on Sasuke is loose, so Sasuke, of course, makes a break for it. He nearly makes it halfway across the bed too, before Naruto grabs his ankle and pulls him back, bottle of lube retrieved. “Don’t do that- what’re you gonna do? Yell at me some more, suck my dick and we do this whole thing over again?”
Naruto has Sasuke’s ankle in the air and Sasuke half dragged across his bulk; Sasuke coils upwards, fist aimed at Naruto’s jaw. Naruto barely even moves out of the way, his head snapping to the side and his grip never faltering. He snorts out a chuckle, and hauls Sasuke the rest of the way back into his lap. “Okay, I probably deserved that.”
“I swear to god, Naruto,” Sasuke says, already back in place despite his will, suddenly feeling a lot more vulnerable about the fact that Naruto had nearly twice his muscle weight.
“There’s no god here,” Naruto smirks, plunging two very lubed up fingers home. “Just me.”
Sasuke keens, chest squeezing tight because it burned, and Naruto was too eager, but there was nothing Sasuke could do and this had been his idea, but not like this. He grips Naruto’s wrist to slow him, but all Naruto does is stop moving, which is somehow worse.
“Tell me when you’re good,” Naruto says, and proceeds to place soft butterfly kisses across Sasuke’s adam’s apple. Sasuke slaps his chest.
“I’m not fucking good,” He wrings out, and gasps when Naruto wiggles his thick fingers, red hot heat flooding him from the pit of his stomach outwards. He groans, sinking down despite his will and hating himself for it.
“Uh-huh,” Naruto lips at Sasuke’s chin, trying to stare another kiss. “You sound pretty good.”
Sasuke shivers as Naruto’s fingers split, threatening to pull him apart. The stretch is intense, the air in the room feels like it’s shaking. He can feel himself leaking all over Naruto’s abdomen, and he can feel Naruto’s rigid hardness pressing up against the inside of his thigh, and his head shakes. “Fuck-”
“Yeah, we’re about to be,” Naruto confirms, and his fingers slip free. He lets Sasuke lean apart and then strokes his lubed up hand, the one that had just been inside Sasuke, over his cock, making the head shine. He meets Sasuke’s eyes. “So what do you say? Still a no?”
Sasuke is breathing hard. He’s flushed from his head to his toes and throbbing in more ways than one. And Naruto looked good- settling back on the cushions like that made all the muscles in his shoulder and chest stand out, his eyes dark at half mast and the lower edge of a fang cutting a divot to his lower lip. The lazy stroke of his cock something tantalizing, a tease and an ask all wrapped in one. And it was a good looking cock.
Sasuke’s eyes narrow. “Not on your life.”
Naruto’s head tilts. His hand pauses, then resumes it’s lazy stroking. “Why you gotta be so difficult, Sasuke?”
Sasuke uses his foot to shove Naruto’s leg. “Make me.”
Naruto shrugs. “Sure.”
Sasuke is ready when Naruto tries to drag him closer this time. He bats away one of Naruto’s hands, then the other, but Naruto ends up catching his bangs, and then Sasuke is being lugged forward mostly by his hair, then the back of his neck, drawn up to Naruto’s mouth. Sasuke plants his knee hard on the bed, but it doesn’t stop Naruto’s hands from pulling his other ankle up and around Naruto’s waist. Naruto knocks Sasuke’s bracing hand away, and without it, it’s only one swift move before Naruto has Sasuke somehow on his stomach and he’s pressing his fingers back inside Sasuke.
“God, you feel good,” Naruto says covetously, pressing a kiss to Sasuke’s spine, making Sasuke arch, then using his knees to part Sasuke’s legs farther, his hold on the back of Sasuke’s neck keeping Sasuke pinned like a butterfly. “Look even better.”
Sasuke huffs, displeased at being used like a display project. He flexes, kicking back, but Naruto just pins Sasuke’s ankles with his own and continues playing, teasingly.
“I didn’t even know you were back in town this morning,” Naruto smoothes his hand from Sasuke’s neck to the center of his shoulder blades and presses. “Wouldn’t have imagined this….”
It was hard focusing on Naruto’s words when Naruto seemed hell bent on crushing all the breath from Sasuke’s lungs. He goes prone, brows furrowing when the pressure increases as Naruto leans over, licks a long stripe across the back of Sasuke’s shoulder blade. A noise tumbles from Sasuke’s chest, unbidden and Naruto growls in response, pressing another finger inside of him and setting his teeth at the edge of Sasuke’s ear.
Then Sasuke is left empty, and all the weight is gone. Air is a gush of cool relief on Sasuke’s oxygen-deprived lungs, but he doesn’t get to savor it before the blunt head of Naruto’s cock is pushing up against his entrance. Sasuke tenses, and Naruto’s hand lands in the small of his back again.
“Don’t- Just relax,” But Naruto’s words are empty when he’s relentlessly pressing inside Sasuke, too tight, yet unstoppable with the glide of the lube and the stability of Naruto’s hand holding Sasuke’s hips still. Sasuke’s hands press flat into the bedspread, barely able to see Naruto’s focused face from the corner of his eye, feeling like any second now he was going to split like so much kindling and combust into flame.
“Jesus,” Naruto echoes out Sasuke’s thoughts when he’s fully seated. He presses a kiss to the side of Sasuke’s jaw that he can reach. “Relax, Sasuke.”
“Fuck you,” Sasuke spits at him, sweating and burning hot and cold all over.
Naruto huffs a winded laugh. “Fine, be like that,” He says cooly, and then he’s pulling back and Sasuke’s world shrinks. He probably yells. He can’t quite tell- he’s busy losing himself as Naruto begins to really move. He was so thick, and Sasuke was not stretched nearly enough for his girth, but every thrust Sasuke can feel himself loosening, inch by inch and Naruto’s movements become smoother, easier, faster, his words a soft susurrus being placatingly laid across Sasuke’s back until Sasuke’s skin prickles.
“Slow down,” Sasuke gushes on an exhale, and Naruto does, but then he’s barely moving. Sasuke tries to cant his hips, but his legs are still pinned by Naruto’s ankles; he hoists himself to his elbows, but that makes Naruto’s cock feel like it’s spearing him so deep- Sasuke lurches, swears. Naruto’s fingers dig into his hips, pull him back up again and Sasuke moans, loud and embarrassingly lustful. Naruto’s grip flexes tight enough to leave bruises.
“Chill, chill, chill,” Naruto hums, but he doesn’t sound like he’s saying it to Sasuke- more as a mantra to himself. Sasuke looks back and Naruto’s head is tipped back, his eyes shut. His aura is doing a strange flickering; flaring in strange spots. like sun bursts. The whiskers on his cheeks have thickened to wet china ink, matching the tattoos lining his body.
Sasuke reaches down, pries at Naruto’s fingers. Naruto just drags him closer and curls forward over Sasuke. “No, you aren’t gonna pull this shit again-”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Sasuke hisses at him, shoving off one of Naruto’s ankles, twisting and grabbing Naruto’s arm and pulling him sideways. They came apart with a lewd suction sound and Naruto lands beside Sasuke with Sasuke rolling on top of him. Sasuke replaces Naruto’s hands at his hips, now kneeling above him. “You weren’t doing it right.”
Naruto splutters at him. “I’m not doing it right? Sasuke-”
Sasuke slaps his hand over Naruto’s chatterbox mouth. He never shut up. Finally in control, Sasuke reaches behind himself, grabbing Naruto’s cock and realigning it. At his own pace, he sinks down and all of Naruto’s yapping is blissfully muffled underneath the smother of his hand. Naruto’s nails are more talons at this point, and Sasuke can feel warm rivulets dripping down the top of his buttocks under the grip trying to force him faster, but Sasuke just braces. Naruto could fucking wait.
When Sasuke finally reaches as far as he could go- he still wasn’t even fully sat, but the feeling was so much that his hand slips and Naruto gasps, sucking Sasuke’s index finger into his mouth until Sasuke snatches his hand back. “Fuck, Sasuke, you feel so good, so fucking good, I could just eat you up-”
Sasuke slaps his hand back. That was more than enough of that. Carefully, Sasuke gives an experimental twist of his hips, testing his own boundaries, and Naruto immediately jack knifes up, ruining the effect and making Sasuke tip forward with a hot gasp. Naruto’s ears flick, clearly liking this, and Sasuke squeezes the hand around his mouth. “Behave.”
Naruto whines, and his hands start coasting up Sasuke’s ticklish sides, jeopardizing Sasuke’s position entirely, and Sasuke thinks. He had magic now- so much, he didn’t even know what to do with. He had to know a spell-
With a blink, Sasuke remembers. Naruto is nice and still when he thinks Sasuke’s going to kiss him, and so Sasuke leans down slow as he removes his hand, openmouthed to lavish Naruto’s lower lip. Naruto groans, clutching him closer, and Sasuke’s palms skate down the length of his arms, curling over his elbows, lacing with Naruto’s fingers until Naruto clutches back. From there, it’s easy to lead Naruto’s hands out and away from their bodies, flat against the bedspread, shoving excess quilting until Naruto’s hands were resting just above his head.
Sasuke hasn’t done magic in years- but threading a small barrier around Naruto’s wrists to hold them to the bed felt easier than water.
Sasuke pulls back, examining his work. Naruto tries to get up after him to stay close, but doesn’t manage to get more than his elbows off the bed- the tether at his wrist holds, glimmering faintly purple.
“What the hell is this?” Naruto asks, tugging again. He brings his knee up, but Sasuke just leans against it, satisfied, now free to do what he wanted.
“Your listening skills suck,” Sasuke tells him, using his hands to push Naruto’s knees flat. “Quit moving.”
“Did you just hex me to my bed- ah-” The muscles in Naruto’s arms bunch when Sasuke rolls his hips this time, but the tether holds still. Under Sasuke’s hands, Naruto’s knee tries to come back up and then drops back down. “A-ah, Sasuke-!”
Sasuke’s hips roll lower, deeper, able to relish the stretch like this, and Naruto flexes again at his restraints. He makes a long, low rumble and the bed quivers around them both. Sasuke smirks down at him.
“Frustrated?”
Naruto’s eyes are flickering, the animal gold trying it’s best to take over. He bares his fully exposed canines up at Sasuke. “Oh, you have no idea.”
Sasuke sways his hips side to side, able to achieve his deepest seat yet like this and enjoying the way it makes Naruto’s mouth pop open. “Good.”
Naruto’s body bows and he tosses from side to side, but Sasuke just leans on Naruto’s knees again, waiting for him to settle. Naruto collapses back again, breathing hard.
“Fucker,” He accuses Sasuke, and it comes out strangely through his fangs. Sasuke traces the china ink swirl of a tattoo along the center of Naruto’s stomach, over the crevices of his abs that tense, feeling the way it made Naruto’s dick jump inside him. He tweaks a nipple and Naruto slams the back of his skull into the mattress, jittering in place. “God, fuck, Sasuke, get rid of these-”
“No,” Sasuke tells him easily, and uses the cushion of Naruto’s chest as a brace to set his own pace, his own rhythm, ignoring the spout of curses and threats that Naruto starts up almost immediately. A small sweat begins to break out along Sasuke’s back. He stares at the small pool of sweat beading in the concave of Naruto’s sternum and bends down to taste.
Naruto thrashes. His elbows come together over his head and he sounds wild when he begs, “Please, please Sasuke, let me touch you, god-fucking-dammit let me go…”
Music to Sasuke’s ears. He settles down further, finally groin to groin with Naruto completely, and lets his tongue follow the line of Naruto’s next tattoo up to the hollow at the center of Naruto’s collar. Naruto throbs as he begs again.
“C’mon Sasuke, I’ll be good, I’ll do whatever the fuck you want, I don’t fucking know what you want, but fuck, I’ll do it.” Naruto rushes, practically vibrating in his spot. Sasuke gives a taunting smile and Naruto yanks himself upwards, making the bed bounce, whining, “You’re such a bastard- why are these so strong?”
Truthfully, Sasuke didn’t know. But they were doing a pretty good job. In a moment of inquisitiveness, he reaches up to touch the shimmering purple-
For it to vanish like so much vapor.
Sasuke has exactly one tenth of a second to think, Oh, fuck, before Naruto is up and swallowing Sasuke with both arms and a gleeful, “Yes!”
Freed from his prison, Naruto kisses Sasuke voraciously, and their teeth click harshly. Sasuke flinches, but Naruto just tilts the kiss deeper, forcing Sasuke back, pulling his hips up, rocking mindlessly and rumbling his savage happiness all the while. Sasuke tries to catch his breath, maybe get a word in edgewise, but Naruto is incorrigible, and needy, and everywhere. Every place he touches leaves a scalding brand of want on Sasuke’s skin, and soon Sasuke is being pulled along in Naruto’s thrall without being able to help himself, panting as he reaches for anything at all to hold onto.
His head bumps the wall, and Sasuke hoists himself up with the back of his shoulder, propping his arms around Naruto’s neck and hooking his calves on the back of Naruto’s hips to lever himself to a less punishing angle. Naruto, instead, just picks Sasuke bodily up and props him against the wall itself, every thrust pushing Sasuke up for gravity to pull him back down, face to face. Sasuke flushes deeper than he thought possible and Naruto tucks his head into the crevice of Sasuke’s neck, right where the almost-bite mark was.
There was a precipice rising in Sasuke, climbing through him like a pot that was trying to boil over with nowhere to go. He swallows thickly, grabs at the wall of all things, then at his own hair, and then Naruto’s when none of that’s enough. And judging from Naruto’s wet panting, the way he mindlessly mouths at the sore spot on Sasuke’s shoulder and his thrusts stutter every other pace, he was in much the same shape.
Sasuke shudders, knowing what he was about to say was probably very stupid. His head lolls to the side, and he murmurs, “Just fucking bite me, already.”
Naruto drags his face up to Sasuke, slowing. He would have looked sleepy if his skin didn’t feel like touching a raw livewire. “No…” He mumbles and kisses at Sasuke’s mouth. Sasuke turns his head so that Naruto meets the corner of his lips instead.
“I know you want to,” Sasuke feels himself shake again, full bodied. “I want you to.”
Naruto groans. He pressed himself so far into Sasuke that Sasuke wheezes and sees stars, smashed between the wall and Naruto holding him there with the wide spread of his palms. “Sasuke…. don’t say stuff like that….”
Sasuke twists his ankles together around Naruto’s waist, locking him in place. He licks into Naruto’s open mouth, feeling carefully around his fangs. The cut in Naruto’s lower lip was already healed, and Sasuke sucks that into his mouth with teeth, feeling Naruto’s hands convulse, and his hips start to roll again. “Do it.”
“No….” Naruto shudders out. His head shakes, and Sasuke lets his own fall back against the wall, reaching between himself and Naruto, skating past his own leaking dick, so hard it hurt, and felt the place where they met. Naruto’s hands on his thighs try to pull Sasuke closer, but they’re flesh to flesh, there is no closer. Except-
“Afraid?”
The blue gone from Naruto’s eyes and the gold left behind sharp and molten, Naruto meets Sasuke’s gaze, darkly unreadable. Sasuke smirks, and tilts his chin up.
Naruto’s moan sounds something like ‘fucker-’ then his teeth are sinking into the soft flesh of Sasuke’s skin with an easy gush, and bright white pain blocks out everything in blinding fire. Sasuke jerks, his nails raking across the back of Naruto’s neck, but then suddenly, the pain vanishes. And Sasuke can see everything.
Naruto’s den is a cocoon of safety, his aura like basking in the sun, golden and warm, so large it blocked out everything. Where it felt like the world had been loud and concussive before, there was suddenly silence, sweet in its caress and colored in the cataclysm of ether and aura that the two of them had drowned the house in; Sasuke felt like he had suddenly been cut adrift.
Naruto’s fangs were in his shoulder and his brows were furrowed- Sasuke could see the blood smeared over his mouth, smearing over his cheeks and down Sasuke’s chest, but he couldn’t feel any of it. He felt like he had been left in a hot spring too long and all of his limbs were slowly turning to jelly. He could feel the two of them sliding down the wall, but Sasuke felt like a puppet with the strings cut, letting Naruto pull him down, pooling like so much water right where Naruto wanted, and happy to do it. Sasuke didn’t know all that much about wolf bites- he’d never been bitten, and never thought he’d be in this position, but somehow, he doesn’t think it’s supposed to feel quite like this.
“Mn, Sasuke,” Naruto says, and his tongue laps over the mark he’d made, raw and red. When he bites down again, that same liquid flood of molten solace doubles, sucking Sasuke beneath its waves until he was submersed in Naruto, Naruto, Naruto….
“Say it again,” Naruto mumbles into Sasuke’s chest, up into his throat, his kisses tacky. Sasuke can’t figure out what he means at all; he’s having a hard time thinking past the pleasure that felt like it had replaced all the blood in his veins. Naruto’s mouth finds his, and his teeth cut into Sasuke’s lower lip, his voice a low rumble, “My name- say it again…..”
Sasuke gives a hot gasp when Naruto’s palm wraps around him, but Naruto is right there, swallowing every breath with one of his own. It didn’t matter: Sasuke couldn’t move if he tried. So he gives in, letting every noise and sound pour free from his body like the blood down his chest, into Naruto’s open mouth.
“Ah- Naruto, Naruto-!”
“Fuck yeah,” Naruto huffs, moving faster, running his other hand up the cresting arch of Sasuke’s back to cradle Sasuke’s head, before gripping a fistful of hair next to his skull. “Louder…”
“I-” Sasuke felt like he was losing control. No, the control had flown out the window eons ago, before he’d asked Naruto to bite him. Sasuke was freefalling, catapulting with no ground in sight and no more air left to breathe, and the feeling of Naruto everywhere.
He cums with a strangled shudder, nails digging into the top of Naruto’s shoulders, toes curling on the bed, and Naruto’s arm wrapped around his waist through it all.
Time is syrupy. The room sparkles. Sasuke might be in heaven, in hell, or thirteen million miles away drifting through a galaxy. None of it mattered- for a minute, the world was completely, and utterly quiet.
Naruto’s mouth is so warm.
What feels like ages but could only have been a few seconds later, Sasuke comes back to himself, slumped into Naruto, with Naruto pressing butterfly kisses all over his face. Sasuke stops him with a hand over his seeking mouth when Naruto gets to his eyelids. “Stop that.”
“Never,” Naruto says, halting his kisses in favor of rolling his hips where Sasuke was still seated. Sasuke keens, keeling forward back into Naruto, sensitive, and Naruto catches his face in his hands. He gives Sasuke a toothy grin, like he wanted to be apologetic, and just couldn’t find it in himself. “You sound so good,” and then does it again.
“Naruto,” Sasuke grabs Naruto’s wrist. Naruto just pulls him in for another kiss, his hands trailing down to Sasuke’s hips and giving them a gentle tug. “Ah-”
“Just a little-” Naruto adjusts, pulls Sasuke to something straighter, kisses him again, and pulls Sasuke’s hips back again, slow. “Just like that….”
The noises wrought from Sasuke as Naruto goads him into those small rocking motions could never be made for polite company. Sasuke’s hands hang limp over Naruto’s shoulders, deaf to everything but the dulcet grunts from Naruto, the soft compliments he lavished over Sasuke’s face and neck, burning up.
Naruto’s mouth settles with a wide tongue over the mark he’d made, and the sting is nonexistent, though it must be there. His thick arms curl so very tight around Sasuke’s middle and Sasuke’s name is on his lips when he finally releases, stock still.
Sasuke’s cheek drops to his own arm, still propped on Naruto’s shoulder. It puts his mouth right next to the golden tufting of Naruto’s long ear. Sasuke blows a puff of air at it, and Naruto’s ear twitches, but he’s too busy mouthing at Sasuke’s shoulder to notice. Sasuke does it again, “Naruto.”
Naruto grumbles, and his mouth drags up to Sasuke’s face, craning to kiss him again, his lips bruised and wet with Sasuke’s own blood, smearing it all over Sasuke’s face in the process. It should be disgusting, should be carnally vulgar; Sasuke doesn’t care, kissing back languidly.
Somehow they’ve managed to slump back down to the mattress, and Sasuke’s hips are sore and his shoulder is starting to ache. He isn’t sure if Naruto even has any sense left- didn’t wolfing out usually put out the human side completely? Naruto still looked mostly human, though honestly, the noises he was making sounded more like an overgrown house cat. Sasuke can taste the inside of his mouth where Naruto’s fangs have accidentally sliced him, but that too is just a dull, nearly numb ache amongst everything else.
“Shit….” Naruto finally whispers, like a sigh. Then he pulls his face away from Sasuke, and while his eyes remained unearthly amber, he was definitely still there, cause he looks right at Sasuke, plants his hand over the terrorized spot on Sasuke’s shoulder and says, “Oh shit, we are so fucked,” And begins laughing.
In the scope of everything, Sasuke isn’t really even surprised. Naruto had always been a little fucked in the head- maybe they both were. He moves Naruto’s hand, gingerly touching at his ravaged flesh and really wondering why it didn’t hurt more…. then makes the solemn realization that yeah, they were both probably pretty screwed up. Sasuke lays back, lax, and sighs. He never should have come back to this god forsaken town.
Naruto is still laughing. He sits back and presses the heels of both palms into his eyes. He looks insane, naked and effervescently golden, covered in blood from his chin down his chest and his shoulders shaking. Sasuke reaches up, grabs one of Naruto’s hands, the one that was covered in blood, brings it to his mouth to lick Naruto’s fingers clean- a solemn oath of solidity. They were both insane.
Naruto watches Sasuke’s tongue delve between his fingers and the laughter abates, mouth dropping open. Sasuke pulls one of Naruto’s fingers between his lips, blinking up at Naruto, and Naruto gives a guttural groan. “Oh my god-”
“Thought there were no gods here,” Sasuke teases, pulling Naruto’s hand from his mouth to his throat, a delicate collar. “Only you.”
Naruto stares, “Only me….” and his fingers tighten their necklace, his thumb pressing to the corner of the bite mark, then brings Sasuke’s face up to meet him halfway, grinning against Sasuke’s lips with blood on his teeth. He presses their lips together like a promise.
“Only mine, Sasuke.”
x
Ether - the natural magic/leftover magics of an area. Ex) a spell placed permanently (such as a ward or a fairy ring) would become part of the ‘ether,’ while an actively casting spell would be considered magic
Aura - A persons personal, permanent magic bubble. Everyone has one of these, though supernatural caste can alter the color/size.
Magic - Active magic in flux, through spellwork, divination, hexing, etc.