Chapter 3
Waking up alone had been kind of a bummer when he’d realized that he was at Sasuke’s apartment, and not at his own home. The alpha had groaned and stretched to get rid of his bleariness and was amazed at how refreshed he felt. He hadn’t slept that good in days! Although that was probably because he’d been keeping an eye on Sasuke’s apartment at night..
Naruto didn’t let the omega’s absence bother him though, because he knew Sasuke was an early riser that preferred to train in the mornings, whereas Naruto was a late sleeper who preferred to train in the evenings.
An idea hit him as he allowed himself to stay bundled up in the cozy nest that now smelled like the both of them. He should make breakfast for Sasuke, to celebrate the two of them being boyfriends!
.. boyfriends. Naruto had a boyfriend. He had a Sasuke. Well, he’d already had a Sasuke, but that was the before Sasuke, not the after Sasuke, because the after Sasuke was his boyfriend and the before one wasn’t.
Naruto’s scarred cheeks warmed at the thought. Naruto had a boyfriend that he was going to make breakfast for! Suddenly, his heart felt just a tiny bit less lonely than it had the day before.
Ten minutes later, the alpha found himself staring at the abysmal food products the omega kept in his home. He’d traipsed his way into Sasuke’s kitchen area, and was appalled at the lack of ramen, to start.
Seriously, who had a small mountain of tomatoes and an avalanche of rice, but no ramen?!
Ramen.
It wouldn’t do. It simply would not do.
Offended, the Uzumaki turned on his heel to grab his signature jacket from where it lay buried on Sasuke’s bed and made his way to the marketplace.
If Sasuke didn’t have any ramen, he would just have to hurry up and buy some, and hopefully, with any luck, Naruto would get back to the Uchiha’s apartment before Sasuke did so that he could surprise his boyfriend with breakfast.
..or afternoon-breakfast, because apparently, the clock in Sauske’s apartment had said it was noon.
As usual, the crowd of bustling shoppers parted in eerie synchronization to give him plenty of room to walk through them. When he had been younger, he’d thought they were doing it to be kind, because he couldn’t see over the adults well in the crowds to know where he was going, and no one held his hand to guide him like other people did with the other kids, but eventually, one of the street venders had made it known that it was because they didn’t want him around.
Naruto never did get around to figuring out why.
There were a few people that would let him buy from their stores or stalls, and the disposable ramen cup stall was one of them. It was also his favorite, so he made it there at least once a week to scope out the awesome new flavors that had been shipped in.
As soon as the familiar stall was in his sights, he decided to jog the rest of the way to save time. The vendor, a strict, but patient man named Jiro, watched him with a bored expression. He’d witnessed the blonde’s excitement too much over the years to be phased by Naruto’s enthusiastic leaps and sprints towards the ramen stall.
When he made it, slightly out of breath, Naruto fished around in his pocket and yanked his froggy wallet out with the air of a determined businessman who’d spent a month going over his products and knowing which ones he wished to sell to customers..
“Hey mister Jiro! How’s it going?”
“Hmmpf” came the old man’s reply. Naruto had learned that he was a man of few words over the years.
“Great to hear it!” the blonde commented, knowing that the ‘hmmpf’ was a happy ‘hmmpf’.
“I’ll have four of your finest ramen cups please!” they were ninja after all, they were supposed to eat a ton to keep up with the exercise they did.
As he waited for the man to grab the items, a woman caught his attention to his left at the produce stall. Judging from her eyes, she was from the Hyuuga clan, and she did not seem happy as she talked to the vendor lady. “Ugh, and that Uchiha boy, who does he think he is, causing a disturbance and picking fights right in front of Hiashi Hyuuga’s home, of all places!” she complained as she perused the green vegetables.
Uchiha boy..? Fights? Hyuuga house?!
It wasn’t like Sasuke to pick fights with anyone! Well, the blonde thought, excluding himself and Kiba, because Sasuke and Kiba had a very tumultuous relationship. Why would Sasuke fight with some random Hyuuga person?!
Oh no.. Sasuke.. Sasuke hadn’t fought Hinata had he?!
Naruto strained his ears to listen harder to what the woman was saying, but a group of kids playing tag in the street made it difficult to hear, “-and then the poor heiress had to break the two up! Can you believe it? Sweet little Hinata Hyuuga threw herself into the mix and gave the both of them quite the scolding. Serves that Sasuke boy right! Going around and causing trouble where he doesn’t belong- and Neji! I can’t imagine how embarrassing it was for him to have to stoop so low by fighting an omega!”
The old hag’s rant made his blood boil. There was nothing wrong with fighting an omega! Omegas were some of the most capable people Naruto knew! And the way she talked about Sasuke, as if he were lesser because of his status and his clan!
Four cups of ramen smacking down on wood startled him from his angry thoughts. Naruto hadn’t even noticed he was grimacing, and his fists had tightly wound themselves into white knuckled balls of rage until old man Jiro gave him an odd look.
“Heh, sorry about that.. Here’s your money.” Naruto handed the man his compensation and grabbed the cups, ready to turn around and yell at that dumb old Hyuuga lady, but when he turned back around, she was gone.
It was for the best anyway. Sasuke was worth more as a person than she could ever even dream of being, so she definitely wasn’t worth Naruto’s attention or energy. Instead, he’d focus his time and skill on making them breakfast, and then getting to the bottom of what had happened this morning while he’d been asleep.
Quietly, Naruto hoped that Sasuke wasn’t hurt. Neji had been a tough nut to crack when he’d fought the other alpha during the chunin exams. In fact, his rib wound hadn’t completely healed yet from where Neji had jabbed at him. Still, if Naruto had to put money on one of the two prodigies, it’d be on Sasuke.
~~~
So much for the surprise afternoon- breakfast.. Sasuke had beaten him back to the apartment after all.
He let the apartment door fall shut behind him as he deposited the ramen cups on the counter, and decided not to say anything to the omega, who was pointedly wrapping shinobi grade medical tape around his wrist at the table.
One thing he had learned about the Uchiha since being on team seven with him, was that he needed time to cool off.
The alpha began to search through the cabinets, trying to find a kettle to boil water in for his amazingly romantic meal for the two of them, but came up empty handed. Where could it be?! He’d searched everywhere! All he found were plates and bowls and utensils and a pan and-
“Second cabinet on your right. Middle shelf.” Sasuke’s voice cut through the blonde’s confused silence, making Naruto jump a little. He hadn’t expected Sasuke to speak so soon.
“Right- uh, thanks!”
Naruto turned around to flash the omega a grin and was met with a raised eyebrow and a curious gleam in the Uchiha’s eyes. The Uzumaki followed his gaze and landed on the ramen cups on the counter.
“Oh, yeah, surprise?” Naruto cringed internally. That was not how he wanted his surprise first day as boyfriends breakfast turned late lunch to go..
When Sasuke didn’t respond, he decided to bite the bullet and come clean. “I wanted to surprise you with breakfast to celebrate being boyfriends.. but you didn’t have any ramen, so I went to go buy some, and then you were here when I got back, also how did you not have any ramen in your pantry!?” he ranted.
In his rush to explain himself, he almost missed the small smile that graced Sasuke’s usually stoic features. “Thank you.” If he didn’t have almost foxlike hearing, Naruto would’ve missed it.
“Of course! It’s what boyfriends do… I think..”
“Idiot.”
“Bastard.”
It felt nice, like that. Naruto standing in the Uchiha’s kitchen, about to make the world’s best ramen, bickering with Sasuke while the omega looked almost at peace.
He hoped every day from now on felt like this. Simple, and happy, and unalone.
“.. So what happened?” Naruto asked after a few minutes of comfortable silence. He nodded his head towards the bandages on Sasuke’s arms and pushed his unruly blonde hair out of his face to feign nonchalance.
Deciding to give the Uchiha a little bit of privacy while he explained himself, Naruto turned his attention to tending the ramen cups.
“Hinata was late to practice.”
That was weird. Hinata, from what little Naruto really knew about her, didn’t seem to be one who would skip out on training.
“Why was she late?”
His question seemed to strike a nerve, because the room filled with the fiery, smokey scent of a pissed off Sasuke, and Naruto immediately let out a wave of his own refreshing scent to hopefully calm the other boy down. His scent bond on his neck felt a pull, which was weird because the scent bond hadn’t bothered him since the night he and Sasuke had kissed, but he brushed it off.
He had Sasuke and ramen to worry about now, he could try and figure out his weird scent bond pull thing later.
“The Hyuuga prefer to train their own.” Sasuke spat bitterly, and Naruto heard shuffling from behind him, most likely Sasuke crossing his arms out of habit. Naruto had learned that Sasuke crossing his arms in anger was much more lethal than a Sasuke with balled up fists.
Kiba had yet to figure that out.
The words from that dumb old Hyuuga woman from the market began to float around in his mind. What happened made much more sense as he began to piece the puzzle together.
Hinata had been late, and Sasuke went to go check on her at her house, where he was told that she wouldn’t be training with him anymore.
But how did that lead to him brawling with Neji? How did Hinata not stop it before it had even started?
“That doesn’t explain your injuries though.” Naruto commented as he poured the steaming water from the kettle into the ramen cups.
“Neji Hyuuga was the one who answered the door.”
Ah, so Neji was.. Neji, and Sasuke.. was Sasuke. He could see how it escalated, Neji probably spouted some ‘I’m a Hyuuga and a prodigy so I’m better than you’ garbage and Sasuke had almost definitely reacted badly to it.
Naruto abandoned the ramen in favor of kneeling in front of Sasuke and taking his hands in his. The alpha noted the bruises on the would-be pale knuckles, and gently rubbed his thumbs over the injured areas.
He stared up at the Uchiha, and made sure he had his attention, “Are you okay?”
Sasuke never took defeat well, just like Naruto never won well. The Uzumaki couldn’t quite tell who had won the fight, if anyone at all, and the gossiping woman from earlier hadn’t given him very much to go off of. If Sasuke had lost the fight, he could be thinking of Itachi, or the chunin exams with his encounters with Gaara, and Rock Lee, and Orochimaru. It was a dark road that Sasuke’s thoughts seemed to travel down frequently, as of late, and Naruto was concerned.
Who wouldn’t be? Sasuke was always someone that everyone expected to be more than human, to be perfect and godlike, but now he was dealing with people either on equal power levels to himself, or way above his pay grade. Naruto didn’t want the omega to become disappointed with himself.
Naruto was way too familiar with the feeling of inadequacy to let Sasuke feel that way about himself.
Sasuke smirked, “If you think this looks bad, you should see the other guy.”
Naruto let out a breath of laughter and stood up, leaving the Uchiha alone at the table to go grab their five-star meal and deliver it to the probably hungry omega.
“So, I guess that means you gave Neji a good run for his money?”
If Sasuke were the type of person to preen, he would have. “Definitely made him think twice about insulting the Uchiha clan.”
Oh yeah. He’d forgotten what Shikamaru had said about there being some weird bad blood between the two clans a long time ago. It didn’t really make sense to the blonde that the Hyuuga still seemed.. Distasteful? Bitter? About a bunch of dead people, but old habits die hard he guessed.
“You could take on all of those suckers and win! Believe it!” Naruto exclaimed, excitedly flapping his elbow to emphasize his words, but all he ended up doing was accidentally sloshing some of the ramen broth onto the floor.
“Day one and you’re already destroying my home.” Sasuke remarked, already in the process of fetching a towel to clean up the spillage. Naruto had the decency to look embarrassed as he, this time cautiously, placed the food down.
After a moment of standing there awkwardly, unsure on where to find the chopsticks, and not sure if he should take over wiping up the spilled mess or go try and find the chopsticks, Sasuke rolled his eyes and told him to sit down.
“Just wait there, knowing you, you’d set fire to my kitchen just trying to open a drawer.”
Honestly, Naruto would be more offended if team seven hadn’t witnessed him accidentally set fire to his tent while trying to sharpen his kunai knives while on a mission. Kakashi sensei’s eyebrows had taken a long time to grow back, and Sakura had refused to let him anywhere near the sharpening kits after that.
“Are you sure you don’t want any help?” The alpha asked, guiltily.
Sasuke ignored his question in favor of disappearing to presumably deposit the sullied rag into his dirty clothes hamper. That was Sasuke speak for ‘no’.
When the Uchiha returned, he headed straight to the left drawer, the one next to the stove, and pulled out two sets of chopsticks. The Uzumaki followed him with his eyes, slowly taking in any potential injury locations that Sasuke had decided to hide from him.
There was a large bruise on the back of his leg, a stark contrast to the nearly cloud- white skin, and the alpha felt another surge of anger towards Neji pool in his gut.
Sasuke wrinkled his nose in disgust as he sat down and eyed the steaming cup of ramen in front of him, stealing the alpha’s attention away from the unbridled rage at the older alpha.
“What’s wrong?! This is some top-quality ramen! You’ll love it!”
Sasuke sighed and shoved his chopsticks into the meal, but his nose stayed wrinkled in distaste. “Is something wrong? We can go get some Ichiraku ramen instead if you wan-”
Sasuke cut him off, “What are we going to do about the scent bond?”
Naruto dropped his chopsticks and cringed as they clattered to the table loudly. Sasuke paid the sound no mind, as he was too busy staring into Naruto’s soul.
He hadn’t really thought about it. Hadn’t granny Tsunade said that they had at least three years to get rid of it?
“Uh, I dunno?” How could he know? It wasn’t like he was an expert on the subject, and with the back and forth going on between their senseis and the hokage, it was kinda impossible to actually make a decision.
“We chose to go through with the surgery before.. This happened.” Sasuke gestured between the two of them.
“.. and there’s a fifty-fifty chance that one of us wouldn’t make it..” Naruto finished.
The two shared a long look, and anxiety bubbled in the air.
The two had only just started dating, who knows what the future held for them. If somehow down the line they broke up, it would be torture to still be connected by an unwanted scent bond, but if this was it, and Sasuke and he never split up, getting rid of the bond would just be a pointless risk.
“What do you think we should do?” The alpha asked and suddenly the savory aroma of their romantic ramen lunch didn’t bring him the joy it had a few minutes ago.
Sasuke picked up his chopsticks and began to toy with the noodles within the steaming cup, “Tsunade said we have around three years before we mature fully, and the scent bond becomes a bigger issue. What if we give it a year, and if at the end of that year, we decide to go through with it, we do it.”
It made sense and was a better option than nothing.
The alpha nodded, “and if we don’t go through with the surgery, we just keep doing what we’re doing.”
The implication that Sasuke thought that their relationship would even last a year did not go unnoticed, but rather than do cartwheels around the room and shout in absolute joy that Sasuke had indirectly said he would stay with Naruto, he began to furiously devour his ramen, so he wouldn’t say anything stupid or anything.
Sensing the Uchiha’s distaste for his energetic chewing methods, Naruto gulped and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Proud of himself for displaying proper table manners, the alpha smiled to himself. Surely Sasuke had noticed how well behaved he was trying to be.
The Uchiha always commented on his habits, like burping or foregoing his chopsticks in favor of downing the instant ramen cup in one go. It had to be a good sign that Sasuke hadn’t said anything, right? Maybe Sasuke had been impressed with his romantic ramen gesture and was just holding back his compliments until after they’d finished eating.
“Here.” Sasuke’s voice cut through the blonde’s thoughts like a sharp blade through flower stalks. It was easy, and habitual, the way Naruto’s sole attention snapped onto the Uchiha, and he almost began to question just how long he’d liked the omega for.
His appreciation of Sasuke’s calmingly direct voice was interrupted, however, by the bastard shoving his second serving of ramen towards the alpha with his pointer finger, as if the object offended him.
“You’re not hungry anymore?” Sasuke had barely eaten anything, and now he was giving it away?!
In an instant, Naruto was out of his chair and perched on the table, right in front of the Uchiha. “Are you feeling okay?” he considerately only half yelled as he brought a hand up to feel Sasuke’s forehead. It was a trick he’d seen the caretakers at the orphanage do when the other children had been feeling unwell.
Naruto didn’t really know what putting a hand on someone’s forehead was supposed to do, but maybe it was a comfort thing? Like how hugs and high fives were meant to be?
Sasuke stared at him for a moment, and Naruto held his gaze, unblinkingly, hoping that whatever the gesture was supposed to do was working. “Cut it out.” The omega bit out only slightly miffed, as he yanked his neck away from the apparently offensive hand.
“That doesn’t answer my question, are you sick? Is that why you don’t want your ramen? Did beating up that stupid Neji guy make you too tired to eat? You’re still healing from-”
Sasuke shoved his chair away from him, causing the table to shake, and embarrassingly unsteadying Naruto to the point where his balance shifted unexpectedly.
Time slowed, Sasuke braced himself for impact, Naruto wobbled forward and fell, despite his attempts to steady himself.
He landed in the same way he’d landed twice before, with his face accidentally attached to Sasuke’s due to a complete and unforeseen misunderstanding. Naruto tried to not be offended when Sasuke pushed him away with the exclamation of “Why does this only happen to us!”
Naruto quirked his head to the side after staring at the omega for a long moment, “Was your lip bleeding before?”
A pale bandaged hand shot up to check, and liquid red dyed Sasuke’s fingertip. “You headbutted me, moron.”
“Wha-how was I supposed to know you were gonna knock me off balance!”
“How was I supposed to know that you’re the only ninja in Konoha who doesn’t know how to stay balanced on flat surfaces?”
They stared at each other, tense. Their scents were filling up the room out of sheer petty stubbornness, only combated by the strong smell of the cheap ramen that had sloshed all over Sasuke’s dining table. Sasuke’s eyes narrowed and Naruto’s jaw locked in a stalemate. Then, inexplicably, Naruto laughed, causing the Uchiha to grin minutely.
Maybe Kakashi sensei had been right when he’d said that they enjoyed fighting with each other more than fighting actual battles.
“Here” Naruto said, a little winded from the laughing fit he’d just had. He reached into his pocket, and rummaged around, before pulling out a slightly singed, yet oddly damp band aid and held it out for Sasuke to take.
The Uchiha eyed it like it was diseased, which judging by the subtle hints of green on the brown fabric, was probably not too far off. Noticing Sasuke’s hesitance, Naruto huffed in embarrassment, “Hinata gave it to me after the exit exam for the academy. I, uh, fell down some stairs and cut my cheek, but I forgot to actually put it on.”
Sasuke’s eye twitched. “Have you had it in your pocket.. for five months?”
“Yep! Figured one day I’d find something to use it for, cuz I kinda heal fast.”
Sasuke sighed and shook his head, confusing Naruto, because he hadn’t said anything to warrant it.
“You’re a different breed.” The Uchiha decided, standing up and offering a hand to help the blonde up. Naruto didn’t take it, still wary of Sasuke’s injuries.
He sincerely hoped that Neji looked worse for wear as well.
~~~
Naruto left Sasuke’s apartment shortly after their ramen had been disposed of. Sasuke hadn’t had much of a stomach for the quality meal, and after telling Naruto as much, they both agreed that while a nice gesture, the blonde had simply had the wrong timing.
The Uzumaki didn’t want to overstay his welcome, especially since Sasuke seemed to want to take a shower to clean a few of his cuts, so instead, the alpha took his leave.
He wished he could stay there all day, clinging to the Uchiha and making sure he was taking care of himself, forcing the pale boy to cuddle with him in his nest all day if he had to, but Sasuke was a man of little patience, a quick temper, and a deep distaste for being social for hours at a time. Sasuke needed space, to cool down and think, and Naruto would give it to him. He’d give him all the space he needed for as long as the Uzumaki could call him his.
Besides, Naruto had a certain Hyuuga to visit.
Tracking Neji down had been easy. All he’d had to do was figure out where Tenten would be at that time of day, and Neji would surely be accompanying her. Luckily, their whereabouts were the same as they usually were during the early afternoon, at the hospital visiting Rock Lee.
The desk woman startled as he ripped open the double doors leading to the shinobi recovery wing. “Do you have the correct identification to-” He didn’t respond, merely shuffling his bangs out of the way to reveal his leaf headband with a growl.
In the heat of the moment, he didn’t stop to consider her shock, or the way she immediately shrunk back, but he was a man on a mission, he didn’t have time to waste with pleasantries and protocol.
Not when Neji was just a few yards away and having nearly gotten away with picking a fight with Sasuke. No one got to pick a fight with Sasuke and get away with it. Well.. besides Naruto of course. Although Sasuke rarely ever let him get away with anything.
Naruto could smell the other alpha’s annoyingly bitter scent of polish as he rounded the corner. The blonde paused, briefly to collect himself and to mask his scent. He’d forgotten to do that when he’d left Sasuke’s apartment, and internally he cringed, hoping to whatever higher beings that existed that no one had caught on to how layered his own scent was and what it meant.
He twisted the doorknob but didn’t feel himself push the hospital room’s door open, because as soon as there was the slightest opening, he’d locked eyes with Neji, and all his other senses fixated on the older alpha.
“Naruto! What an unexpected visit! Are you here to youthfully discuss frogs with me again?” Rock Lee exclaimed. The enthusiastic alpha was wrapped nearly head to toe in bandages still, and the casts on his arms looked much sturdier than the last time he’d visited.
Tenten waved at him and excused herself to go to the lady's room.
But Neji, with those creepy eyes, stared at Naruto with a conviction and bitterness that he didn’t even think Sasuke could mimic.
“Nah, I actually came to talk to Neji about something. Active-duty ninja stuff, ya know?” The blonde feigned nonchalance, even though underneath the surface, his blood boiled, and a deep, dark part of him felt a wild rage rearing to break free and unleash itself on the Hyuuga.
“Ah, well, do not let Tenten and I stop you!” The bed ridden alpha saluted the younger boy, and Naruto was momentarily awed at Rock Lee’s energy, despite his situation.
Neji cleared his throat, and pushed past Naruto, leaving the room. As the older alpha nudged his way past him, the Uzumaki was able to get a better look at the Hyuuga’s injuries.
If he weren’t so angry right now, Naruto would have laughed and run to go hug Sasuke and tell him how cool he was, because clearly the omega had given as good as he’d gotten. Neji had many cuts and bruises, and if the Uzumaki’s eyes were right, and not just playing tricks on him, both of the alpha’s ankles had burn marks. His heart warmed fondly at the mental image of Sasuke setting Neji’s knees on fire.
The blonde waved at the occupants remaining in the room and shut the door behind him. He let Neji lead them down the corridor to a more secluded spot, before he grabbed the taller’s shoulder with a vice-like grip and spun him around, pushing as he did so, so that Neji’s back made a very loud, very hard thud against the wall.
“I hear you’ve been busy this morning. Picking fights and spouting clan elitist bullshit.” Naruto spat the words venomously, and for good measure, let out a warning growl that was so dark that it had even scared Jiraiya sensei on occasion.
Neji wrinkled his nose as Naruto let his scent run rampant throughout the deserted hallway so that the Hyuuga could get a feeling of just how threatening he meant to be in the moment.
“Well? Nothing to say for yourself?” The Uzumaki growled, slamming Neji against the wall once more, angry that the older alpha seemed to find his anger amusing. Neji should be shaking in fear right now, not staring down at him as if he were some toddler throwing a hissy fit over spilled juice!
“From the smell of things, I believe I’m right in saying that you should keep your omega in line, Naruto. He’s a pest, and if he continues to be disruptive, he will be squished like one.”
“How dare you! Sasuke’s no pest, and he’s his own omega, he doesn’t need anyone to be his keeper! From the way it looks to me, you’re the pest!” Naruto yelled, pulling Neji’s shoulders down to slam his chest into the Uzumaki’s bent knee.
Neji tried to retaliate, but Naruto was faster and uninjured. He grabbed the older’s neck, dangerously close to the Hyuuga’s scent gland, and leaned in close. “I beat you pretty badly in the chunin exams, if I remember correctly. Don’t make me do it again.” he growled lowly into Neji’s ear.
A silent moment passed, and Naruto released the older boy, ignoring Neji’s heated glare, and turned on his heel to walk away.
He needed to let off some steam at the training fields.
~~~
Two days later, Naruto had had enough.
This was the seventh time in two days that the “I love Sasuke’ cult had found out the Uchiha’s whereabouts. First, they’d ganged up on the omega when he’d been buying blankets for his nest, and then they were suddenly “tomato enthusiasts” and began selling tomatoes with such business ferocity, that they put the other tomato venders out of business, forcing Sasuke to have to get Naruto to buy them for him to avoid harassment while he was grocery shopping.
News flash, Naruto had no idea which tomatoes were good enough to buy, and Sasuke had been whining about it ever since. Well, whiny for Sasuke, which was really just petty silence. But still!
Then, they had flooded the hospital waiting rooms, right outside the room where Sasuke’s omega health check up with Tsunade was taking place. One girl had even gone as far as disguising herself as a nurse so that she could get a glimpse of Sasuke’s “god-like body”. Naruto didn’t know why everyone said Sasuke was so god-like, he thought Sasuke had always been a bit on the scrawny side himself. If anything, Sasuke was Sasuke, a class of his own, unable to be replicated.
Now, there were about twenty three alpha girls trying to sneakily peek over the fence of the men’s baths as he, Sasuke, Choji, Shikamaru, and Shino were trying to relax. Kiba couldn’t make it, as he had volunteered against his will to dog sit for his sister’s pet clinic. His sister could be scary when she wanted to be.
Sasuke was more than aware of it, that much was obvious by the way his hair was carefully in his face- blocking his expressions from their view. Only his lips were visible, and they were held tightly in a thin line. Naruto may have been staring at them for longer than he should have been, but who could blame him?
“Geez, those girls never give it a rest, do they?” Shikamaru groaned, sinking lower into the steaming waters. The genius was growing irritated at the disturbed peace, and the blonde couldn’t blame him.
No one responded. The boys were all too busy trying to avoid eye contact with the horde.
There was an excited screech from the group of girls, paired with a pair of binoculars making their presence known as an alpha girl brought them to her eyes to look through. Naruto suddenly understood why all those ladies got mad at master Jiraiya when he brought his binoculars to the baths. Pft, pervy bastard.
“I don’t know how you deal with it, Sasuke, I feel like on edge just with this one thing, they’re always doing this to you!” Choji huffed, turning around to face the girls and glared at them.
‘What are you looking at, fatty!” a girl called. Shikamaru and Naruto lunged forward to grab a hold of Choji before he could do anything reasonable, like crush the fan girls with his partial expansion jutsu. The furious omega yanked on his arms as the two alphas tried to restrain them, accidentally pulling Naruto under the water.
Sasuke watched for a long moment, before he sighed, and dove under the water to free the blonde. During the chaos, Shino got out of the water to alert the people in charge of the girl’s disturbance.
Naruto was not appreciative of being dragged to the surface so roughly by the omega, but he got over it when his lungs were met with the sweet, nutritious, addictive substance known as oxygen. Yes, the oxygen was very nice.
In his rather embarrassing display of gulping down air, Naruto didn’t notice the poisonous look that Sasuke gave Choji, who immediately released his jutsu and apologized after noticing how he’d almost drowned his friend.
“Sheesh, Choji, you can’t just go all berserk on everyone every time you hear that word.” Shikamaru sighed after he patted his friend on the shoulder in sympathy.
As Naruto recovered, and discreetly scented Sasuke to help calm his nerves down, he couldn’t help but bare his teeth in irritation. How dare those girls disturb them! Choji and Shikamaru had just gotten back from a mission, Sasuke had desperately needed the down time, especially after his fight with Neji, and he and Shino had been looking forward to hanging out with their friends!
They had no right to intrude, and even less rights to treat Sasuke like an object that they could obtain by stalking him and treating him as less than his own person.
Objectively, the Uzumaki knew that civilians had completely different views when it came to dynamics. Alphas typically being breadwinners that could do no wrong, and omegas being stuck in their homes, taking care of everyone and popping out kids, only rarely having a role outside of taking care of their families. But shinobi dynamics were different.
Whereas civilian cultures were more archaic, mostly because they hadn’t been forced to change their ways the way most every clan had been. Clans utilized every member that they could to make their clans more powerful and prestigious. Plus, with the death rates on missions and shinobi numbers having barely begun to recover after the last war, it was all hands on deck. Everyone from a ninja clan was enrolled in the academy, with few ever refusing to join the ranks that their ancestors had been a part of.
The culture shock that the civilian students faced when they enrolled in the academy.. was a lot to say the least. It’s partially why Sakura had been such a pain in the neck since she'd presented as an alpha. At home, she was treated like tough shit, something to be fawned over and idolized, but in the ninja world? She was no better than anyone else, because designations rarely mattered.
Her treatment of Sasuke after he’d presented had been because of the way civilians were taught to treat omegas. Sure, Naruto had been pretty ignorant back then too, the alpha cringed at how he used to trip over himself to open doors for the Uchiha and how he would volunteer to do heavy lifting on missions because ‘there was no need for Sasuke to get his hands dirty’. But Naruto’s ignorance had faded into knowledgeable tolerance and equal minded thinking within a week or two. Sakura still seemed to hold on to those traditional views, even if she was genuinely making an effort to understand.
It was another reason that the three of them hadn’t hung out in so long, and that was while they were all friends and teammates.
Those alpha girls that called themselves fans of Sasuke were all just sexist, ignorant people who refused to change and recognize that Sasuke didn’t owe them anything.
“Hey, uh, Sasuke? Do you know how to get them to leave?” Shikamaru asked, breaking the tense silence and distracting Naruto from his thoughts. He noticed Shikamaru pointedly glance at Sasuke’s hand that was still pressed onto Naruto’s shoulder, and Sasuke yanked his hand away as if burned.
Naruto missed the weight of the Uchiha’s hand as soon as it was gone.
“If I knew that, do you think we would be having this problem?” Sasuke rolled his eyes after delivering his sarcastic remark, and Naruto couldn’t help the hoarse laugh that escaped his lips at the perturbed look on Shikamaru’s face.
“Whatever, this is all a drag anyway.” the genius alpha turned and began to exit the pool of water.
Choji said something before following after Shikamaru, but Naruto couldn’t quite hear it over the screams of the girls at the fence as one of the workers began shooing them away.
Soon it was quiet, save for the gentle whistling of the breeze and the quiet rustling of the waters, leaving just the two of them to soak in the other’s presence.
“Your cuts look healed up.” The blonde noted, leaning closer to the pale boy to poke at his shoulder where the days old cuts from his fight with Neji resided, halfway healed and a stark contrast to the clarity of his pearly skin.
“Cut it out, Naruto!” Sasuke snapped with no bite. He didn’t shove Naruto away, or push himself back, so Naruto kept giving him a once over.
“I still have that bandage if you need it!” The alpha suggested, causing the omega to shudder at the mere mention of the slightly moldy bandage.
“I think I’m good, thanks.”
Silence again, a comfortable one.
“Hey Sasuke, wanna see who can hold their breath the longest underwater?”
“Weren’t you just drowning a minute ago?”
“Well- yeah, but I wasn’t ready!”
“..Fine.”
Naruto grinned as they inhaled deeply and plunged themselves into the water.
~~~
Festivus was the day he’d been dreading since Ino had told him about it back at the flower shop, so when the alpha had woken up that morning, alone and groggy, shaking his head to rid himself of the remnants of the dream he’d had about a red haired woman and her pet fox, he was miserable.
The only saving grace had been his plan to train with Sasuke in the afternoon, which the blonde had been looking forward to ever since he’d woken up that day. Sasuke was early, though not too early, if he hadn’t gone ahead and decided to practice by himself until Naruto showed up.
It wasn’t that Naruto was late or anything, he’d just been taking his time walking through the empty Konoha streets and enjoying the lack of scathing eyes watching his every move. His walk was lonely though, despite how relaxing it was.
“Took you long enough.” The Uchiha said as he threw a kunai at the Uzumaki’s head playfully. Naruto caught it with ease and grinned, “I was giving you some time to prepare for the epic beat down you’re about to receive.”
Sasuke scoffed, and sized the alpha up in mock determination, “You sure about that? Because from where I’m standing, you’re the one that chickened out and showed up late.”
Naruto huffed, “I’m no chicken! I showed up, didn’t I?!”
“Yeah, guess you did, makes you a fraidy cat then.”
Tired of their banter, Naruto squared up, and performed the hand signs for his shadow clone jutsu. Three extra Narutos poofed into existence, but Sasuke remained unbothered and smirked at the original Naruto.
“Sheesh, you’re eager to lose today.”
“More like eager to win!” one of the clones responded. Sasuke rolled his eyes at the lame comeback, and the original Naruto had to refrain from doing the same. Sometimes the clones were.. embarrassing.
The Uchiha steeled his gaze, and blinked slowly, activating his sharingan in the process. Without any hesitation, they surged forward. The omega flipped into the air, letting two of the clones run into each other and dispel, and the Uzumaki dodged Sasuke’s surprise kick with an alert quickness that he didn’t normally possess for daily life.
They flipped and kicked and punched and clashed blades, but neither had used any of their more sophisticated jutsu. No, that would be preserved for later, when they actually began to care about the outcome of the match.
For now, they would simply enjoy their violently romantic basic sparring.
~~~
“Hah! You lost!” Naruto hollered, overjoyed at the outcome of the match.
Sasuke stood himself up and dusted his white shorts off in a show of boredom. “Idiot, it was a tie.” he commented as he extended a hand to help the Uzumaki up from where he was rolling around in the grass in celebration.
“Exactly! We both lost, but you never lose, so you lost.”
Sasuke silently wondered if he’d given the idiot a concussion, or if he was just being, well- Naruto.
It was concerningly difficult to tell on most occasions. Both Kakashi and Tsunade had made similar assertions in the past, which had only provoked the blonde to act like even more of an idiot.
He hid his smile by pretending to cough.
Naruto was his concussed idiot.
“Hey Sasuke, why do you have that weird look on your face?”
Damn it!
“Whatever, let’s go. It looks like it’s gonna rain.”
The alpha perked up and dumbly turned his face to the sky, as if not believing Sasuke’s statement and wanting to fact check it for himself. “Yup. Rain.” he agreed, taking Sasuke’s hand in his as he led them from the training grounds. Sasuke’s compliance to being yanked away excitedly brought a smile to the Uzumaki’s whiskered face. Very few people would be able to tell, but the Uchiha was happy.
Sasuke enjoyed the rain. It was calm, and it often brought the comforting flashes of lightning and the rumbles of thunder that reminded him of the soothing roar of battle and the familiar crackle of his chidori. Which, he supposed, was a bit odd, but it felt cozy nonetheless. Not that he would ever say it out loud or anything. No, he’d made that mistake several months ago when he’d let it slip that he liked animals.
Naruto had tried to tame a bear and gift it to him for his birthday.. It had not gone well. Kakashi had managed to get a photo taken at the exact moment the bear had decided to use Naruto as a chair, Sakura fainted, and shoved its snout into Sasuke’s birthday cake. At the time, he’d been relieved, because he wasn’t one to enjoy sweet foods, but looking back, he felt a little bad about the cake that Choji had spent so long decorating, having gone to waste.
The streets were empty, leaving a hollow feeling in his chest that he tried his best to ignore. It had been five years since his clan had been destroyed, and that meant that for five Festivus holidays, Sasuke had been alone, cold and isolated on what was considered to be a day of love and strengthening of pack bonds.
This year would have been the same, had Naruto not demanded that they go train together. Idly, Sasuke wondered what Naruto had done for Festivus all those years, if anything at all.
“Whatcha thinking about?” Naruto’s loud voice cut through the quiet atmosphere almost jarringly. The question echoed off of the nearby buildings, highlighting once more just how alone they were.
Their hands were still intertwined. “The usual.” He responded. It was a lie, but Naruto didn’t need to know that.
Still, the blonde nodded solemnly, and laughed, “You’re pouting over your epic defeat a few minutes ago.”
Sasuke’s eye twitched. He didn’t lose, he just hadn’t won. Although if Naruto were going to brag about it having been a tie, the omega had half a mind to challenge him to a rematch and not hold back.
“I’m brooding over how annoying your voice is.” Sasuke corrected.
The pair fell into another comfortable silence as they continued down the pathway. The ramen stand was empty and closed, as was the ninja tool repair shop, and the saloon beside it. Sasuke thought the placement of the two establishments was poorly thought out, but whatever. It wasn’t his problem.
The sound of muffled crying sounded from their left, causing the pair to share a look of confused suspicion, before rounding the corner to see none other than Konohamaru’s small form perched on the front step of the Yamanaka clan’s flower shop.
“Hey, Konohamaru! The store’s closed, why are you crying?” Naruto called, releasing Sasuke’s hand to jog forward to talk to his friend.
This would be the first Festivus without Hiruzen.
Sasuke took his time joining the two, as the sound of a pup crying deeply unsettled him in a way that he could only blame on his stupid omegan status.
“I-I wanted to get the-the Festivus flowers t-” the eight year old cut himself off as another sob escaped his little lungs. Naruto bent down to rub his back, and Sasuke before he could realize what he was doing, Sasuke let a fresh wave of his scent permeate the air to calm the boy down.
“-To put on my grandpa’s grave but it’s closed!”
The blonde alpha scratched his head, seemingly too busy thinking, or attempting to think, as was the usual case, so that left Sasuke to be the one to respond.
Sasuke had no idea what to say.
“..Why didn’t you get the flowers yesterday?” The Uchiha cringed the moment he said it.
Konohamaru’s large, watery eyes settled themselves on him and Sasuke’s not-as-cold-as-he’d-thought heart panged. He remembered very well what it felt like trying to honor the bonds of the dead, and it never ended well.
“Becau-because my parents said they’d take me, but they left for another mission instead!” the Sarutobi heir sobbed. Before Sasuke could even try and think about how to stop the eight year old from crying, Konohamaru had flung himself off of the step and latched onto the Uchiha like a koala. A very small, fairly hairless, sobbing koala.
For once in his life, Sasuke was not sure of how he was supposed to proceed and judging from the mildly alarmed yelp that Naruto let out, apparently the alpha had no idea what to do either.
“Uh- Konohamaru? Sasuke doesn’t do hugs-” A loud wail interrupted the Uzumaki, and the eight year old held onto Sasuke like a lifeline.
“Wha-what am I gonna do?” The high whine that escaped Konohamaru pulled at Sasuke’s instincts to protect the boy from hurt, but there was nothing Sasuke could do to protect him from the pain of loss.
No one was ever safe from that pain.
Naruto clapped his hands together and smiled blindingly, and if Sasuke hadn’t been grimacing at the trail of snot that had begun to stain itself on Sasuke’s shirt, he might’ve glared at the other.
“I have an idea!”
.. Naruto’s ideas were bad. Horrendous. Terrible. His ideas included learning how to make friends by reading porn, proposing to unsuspecting individuals, washing his sheets with bars of soap in his bathtub, and worst of all… baking and eating ramen flavored birthday cake.
But, it had Konohamaru removing his wet, blotchy, snotty face from Sasuke’s stomach in hope, and Sasuke wasn’t cruel enough to dash his hopes by shutting down the Uzumaki’s undoubtedly terrible idea before it could even be uttered.
“Ino’s been showing me how to take care of flowers and stuff, and I know where they keep their Festivus flowers because I helped fix them up! If I can just figure out a way in there, I can get you the flowers and we can go to old man hokage’s grave together!”
That.. actually wasn’t a bad idea.
Yes, technically it was breaking and entering, but Sasuke considered it payback for the time Ino snuck into his apartment to see what kind of hair care products he used. Ino used to be much, much worse than she was after he’d presented. Now, all she did was demand he join her omega genin activism club and gossip to him about the latest happenings in the village.
Sasuke didn’t care, but sometimes the distraction was nice.
“Really?” the wide-eyed academy student asked wetly. He stared up at Naruto like he was a hero, and the omega supposed, in the moment, he was.
Naruto grinned and winked at Sasuke before crouching down and ruffling Konohamaru’s hair, “Of course! I’ll be so fast that I’ll be back before you can even blink.”
Sasuke felt a bit useless in this situation, as he wasn’t very good at verbal comfort like the alpha was, but it was nice to see someone succeed in consoling the boy.
“Hey Naruto?” the child said after a pause.
“Yeah?”
“I just blinked.”
The Uzumaki stared at the Sarutobi for a second, dumbfounded, and then squawked in indignation, causing Sasuke to hide his smile by pretending to push his bangs out of his face. Konohamaru acted like Naruto, but he was much wittier and deadpan than the blonde. For the first time, Sasuke saw a glimmer of himself in someone.
As Naruto began to build a ladder out of his clones so that he could climb into the second story window, Sasuke poked Konohamaru’s forehead to tease the kid. He ignored the memory that rose in the back of his mind in favor of watching Naruto nearly lose his footing while climbing the clone’s shoulders.
No one would know the meaning behind the gesture but him.
~~~
For a building owned by a ninja clan, the security was nearly non-existent, the alpha thought as he barreled through the window and collapsed onto the floor.
He rubbed his head- that he’d smacked on the wooden flooring in the process, as he sat up and peered around the room. This was the storage room, where the packaging and unused equipment like shears and display vases were held. Ino had given him a small tour of the entire store when she’d agreed to show him the ropes of gardening and plant care.
He made his way down the stairs. The silent, darkened building felt odd and eerie, as it was normally bright and filled with customers fighting over the best arrangements with the freshest blooms.
He poked and prodded at shelves and shelves of flowers, desperately hoping that there were some left over Festivus flowers near the back, but each row proved to be empty of the dumb plant.
Still, he refused to give up just yet.
He hopped up from his crouched position at a neck breaking speed, not anticipating the headrush, in his haste to move onto the next display case. Luckily, he managed to fall somewhat gracefully, and didn’t land on his head for once.
As he sat up, rubbing at his elbow because of course he hit his elbow, a flash of purple caught his eye. The alpha let out an excitedly hopeful cheer and surged forward, shoving whatever was partially blocking his view out of the way.
There they were. The last bushel of Festivus flowers.
Some of the petals were wilted, and the stems felt a bit soft, but they were there, and he could keep his promise to Konohamaru. It felt like the best thing he’d ever seen even despite the slight damage to the floral arrangement.
Well, besides Sasuke.. and those cool orange jumpsuits at old lady Ming’s sewing shop.. But mainly Sasuke. Yeah. Probably.
The alpha let out a relieved breath once he realized that no, Sasuke couldn’t read his thoughts and therefore, couldn’t yell at him for prioritizing flowers over his boyfriend. Instead of gawking, a light rumble of thunder lit a match under his bottom, and he threw some money onto the counter, knowing Ino or one of her cousins would see it when they opened the shop tomorrow.
With a concerningly little amount of self-preservation, Naruto clambered through the upstairs window and tossed himself out of it.
Of course, he made sure the flowers were secured first, so at least Sasuke couldn’t accuse him of being a complete idiot.
This time.
~~~
Watching Konohamaru whisper longing, childish words to a gravestone felt too personal and too familiar. Naruto was the one to wrap his arm around the Sarutobi and try to say words of comfort, but all Sasuke could do was watch.
The air was quiet, tinged with the promise of rain. It was fitting, the omega thought. The sky would share the burdens of the aching child’s tears and the clouds would thunder in solidarity.
There had been no rain for the Uchiha funeral. The sun had shone so brightly, that it had been marked the first day of spring, the first day of life and rebirth. What a cosmic joke that had been.
“Sasuke?” Naruto’s uncertain voice pulled the Uchiha from the beginnings of a memory he’d wished to erase. He looked up from where he was pointedly staring at a wilting weed,
The blonde’s arm was outstretched, beckoning Sasuke to go closer, and to honor the late hokage by helping his grandson arrange the Festivus flowers in the traditional ways.
He’d never really felt one way or another about Hiruzen.
The late hokage had randomly appeared a few times while Sasuke was training by himself the first year or so after the massacre. At the time, the Uchiha had been annoyed at being interrupted, and he knew the old man could tell, but still, Hiruzen would ask him how his studies were going, and occasionally offer him some advice on his stances or footwork.
As he got older, the third appeared less and less, and for that, Sasuke had been grateful. The nuisance of an elderly man’s pitiful gaze and long winded lectures on balance and the dangers of revenge had faded away, finally.
The Uchiha would never admit that sometimes, during one of those pointless lectures Hiruzen would give him, he would close his eyes and pretend that it was his father delivering those words of hypocritical wisdom. And sometimes, he would hide a dry sob with an angry scoff as the old man left him alone, smoking his pipe knowingly all the same.
Sasuke shuffled forward and mirrored what the third had done five years prior at the Uchiha clan’s funeral. Gently yet firmly, he placed his pale and calloused hand on Konohamaru’s shaky shoulder.
Bitterness welled within his stomach. It was Hiruzen who had put Itachi in such a difficult position, of course he would snap. It was Hiruzen who had turned a blind eye to Orochimaru’s misdeeds, and as a result, he’d pai the price.
The curse mark that lay dangerously close to his glands surged with energy, and he was thankful that Naruto was too preoccupied with Konohamaru to notice his hand shoot up to rub at the curse mark.
It had been fairly dormant since his fight with Gaara after the failed chunin exams, why would it activate now? He wasn’t even particularly angry.
Konohamaru’s small fist found its way to the Uchiha’s shirt and started pulling, so Sasuke filed that thought away for later and made sure his scent was as clear and calm as possible. That was more for Naruto than for the brunette, as Konohamaru was unpresented and wouldn’t have sharp enough senses to find any spikes in the omega’s scent. Naruto on the other hand, had a sense of smell even better than Kakashi’s, and with how familiar the blonde was with it already, he would be able to sense something was wrong.
The curse mark was Sasuke’s problem, he didn’t need anyone else worrying about it.
The trio began to respectfully place the Festivus flowers down, and it was quiet, save for the tiny sniffles of the little boy between the two genin.
~~~
Naruto didn’t really know what to do.
Sasuke seemed to be in his head, thinking about something, but the Uzumaki couldn’t catch a whiff of any bad emotions through his scent. It was as eloquently wild and electric as it usually was.
After the three of them had arranged the flowers for Konohamaru, the eight year old had cried himself to exhaustion, and now he lay sadly, sleepily between the two teammates. His small head was cuddled up to Sasuke’s side where there was a very noticeable wet spot near the kid’s nose, and his legs were in Naruto’s lap, scrunched up and painfully jabbed into the older’s ribcage.
Naruto was glad that Ino had explained to him the parameters of this stupid holiday, but he couldn’t help but be bitter now that he actually knew about it.
All this time, all those years, he’d missed out on another stupid thing because he was an orphan. And the worst part was, he didn’t even have someone that looked after him that would have invited him to celebrate the holiday with them!
It was just another thing that made him realize how alone he was.
A hand touched his, and instantly Naruto knew it was Sasuke’s. The blonde opened his previously closed eyes, and blinked at the omega, questioning the action. “He’s asleep.” The pair looked down at the cried out eight year old, who, lo and behold, was hiccupping erratic little breaths in his sleep.
“So do we just.. stay here?” he wondered aloud, trying to keep his voice low so he didn’t wake Konohamaru up.
“No, you idiot, it’s going to rain in a few minutes.” Just as Sasuke’s words left his mouth, thunder rumbled in the sky above the trio.
“Well, what do we do? We don’t exactly know where Konohamaru lives-”
Sasuke cut him off by hoisting the eight year old’s body into his arms and standing, staring at Naruto like he was an idiot as the blonde gaped at him in confusion.
“Your apartment is closest.” was all the Uchiha said, before turning away to leave.
That spurred the alpha into action. He was up and dusting his clothing off in an instant, and not a moment later he was by Sasuke’s side, blindly following wherever the omega would go.
The sky had darkened significantly in the few moments it had taken them to leave the memorial field, and Naruto spared a glance back at old man hokage’s stone. The flowers were probably going to get ruined by the rain. The alpha looked back at the sleeping form in Sasuke’s arms.
Then he noticed the still healing cuts and bruises on his arms from his fight with Neji. They stuck out like a sore thumb against the elder’s pale skin, and even worse next to Konohamaru’s peacefully snoring face.
“Let me carry him.” His words weren’t loud like they usually were, nor were they particularly lively. To his horror, later, he would realize that he’d sounded gentle, which was like, the biggest no-no in the book of being a ninja. Naruto would know, Kakashi sensei himself had told him that.
And Kakashi sensei would never lie.
Sasuke didn’t even glance at him, just tightened his hold on Konohamaru even though the numbskull was drooling on his bicep and ignored him. Typical. First Konohamaru begged to be his student, then he ditches that ugly helmet and starts wearing goggles on his forehead that only Naruto could pull off, and now he was trying to steal away his Sasuke.
The blonde scowled at the innocently slumbering face that had shuffled too close to Sasuke’s scent gland during the jostling movement of Sasuke carrying him. Hmpf, Naruto would bet everything in his frog wallet that this was all a ruse to try and steal away all of Sasuke’s attention.
“Sasuke, your arm.” Naruto pointed to the spot where Sasuke was still injured, “Let me carry him. You’re still healing.”
Sasuke considered him for a moment, silently staring into the depths of his soul, and Naruto knew that look. It was the look of Sasuke about to give in to whatever thing Naruto had been whining about. The alpha had gotten the idea when Kiba’s dogs were playing fetch with the Uchiha one day, after they’d escaped the Inuzuka of course, and the dog’s whines had melted the somewhat stony, withered heart of his into playing longer than he’d said he would. Naruto’s whining had been very helpful on missions when he wanted Sasuke to be his partner, not Sakura’s.
“Watch his head.” Sasuke sighed, and turned to the Uzumaki to transfer the eight year old to his waiting arms.
Naruto, too busy celebrating over getting his way, did in fact, not watch out for Konohamaru’s head, which thudded loudly as it smacked against his collarbone.
“OW!” he yelled before remembering that there was a sleeping person in his hold, then whispered out- to correct his mistake and hopefully save himself from the evil eye that Sasuke was giving him, “Ow!”
The omega’s hair fell into his face, and Naruto couldn’t get a read on his expression. “Idiot.” The pale boy grumbled out..fondly?
Naruto inhaled and caught the scent wafting off of Konohamaru’s unruly head of hair that kept tickling his neck. It was Sasuke’s scent, but mixed with the faint, milky scent of a child. The alpha didn’t know what drove him to do it, but he rubbed just a little bit of his own scent onto the kid too, and he had no idea what that or the weird gooey feeling in his chest meant.
He’d need to see if any of Kakashi sensei’s books said something about it later.
Rain began to pour as they neared his apartment building, causing Sasuke to hiss in annoyance. If there was one thing he’d learned about the prodigy, it was that Sasuke hated wearing wet clothing.
The stairwell, after they entered the building, was loud with the slippery smacking of their sandals against the stone staircase. Naruto tried to be extra careful, because the potential for brain damage if he fell and dropped Konohamaru largely outweighed the chance that he wouldn’t get it. Not that his head smacking against a stone step would be the cause, no, it would be Sasuke’s doing entirely.
He sighed dreamily at the thought.
Getting through the door of his apartment was a bit of a mess, because he’d forgotten to tell the Uchiha that he’d lost his key years ago, and usually entered through the window, but Sasuke had just shrugged after staring at him incredulously for a moment and picked the lock.
His boyfriend was so cool.
~~~
His boyfriend was a slob.
Sasuke hadn’t been to Naruto’s apartment since that fatefully embarrassing night where he’d built the idiot a nest, and clearly, the apartment hadn’t been cleaned well since he’d been there.
There was a tower of ramen cups arranged in such a way that it could be used as a table and stacked on top of the ramen cup table were dozens of ninja tools, haphazardly, dangerously strewn around. The floor was cluttered with shoes, kunai knives, and clothing, all of which were in varying degrees of ruin.
Sasuke’s hands itched to clean.
There was an awkward cough behind him, “Uh, where should I put him?” Naruto pointed his chin down at Konohamaru, who miraculously was still sleeping. Sasuke looked around at the mess and waded further towards Naruto’s bedroom.
Surely, the nest he’d made him would still be intact.
One turn of the doorknob, and a peek inside said otherwise.
If he were an expressive person, his jaw would’ve dropped. The bed, where his oh so carefully and respectfully crafted nest had been built, was in shambles.
“Sorry for the mess, I uh, am a wild sleeper.” Naruto mumbled as he entered behind him.
Sasuke sighed, assessing the situation. They were soaked, with an exhausted kid with no adult supervision to go home to, and Naruto actively lived in a disaster zone. Were those claw marks on his headboard?!
He pinched the bridge of his nose, “Take your clothes off.”
Naruto guffawed, “Wha- Sasuke, there’s a child here-”
“Not like that you idiot! You’re getting water all over the floor! Go change and find something for the brat to wear too.”
Pft, as if Sasuke would want Naruto to take his clothes off for any reason that wasn’t practical. He really needed to burn Kakashi’s collection of porn novels. They’d left a lasting impression on the blonde that Kakashi found more amusing than irritating. Sasuke just found it irritating.
“What about you? Won’t you need dry clothes too?” The alpha asked as he carefully placed the unconscious child on top of the mound of blankets on the ground.
Sasuke fished around in his pocket and cursed himself. He always had a sealing scroll that he used for storage in his pocket, which had basic necessities like an extra set of clothes, ninja tools, and maps. In his hurry to go practice with Naruto that morning, he must have left it behind.
For once in his regal life, Sasuke shuffled his feet awkwardly.
“...yes..”
Sasuke wasn’t a religious person, nor was he particularly keen placing his faith in others, but when Naruo trampled back into the room excitedly wearing dry clothes and held out an absurdly orange shirt and pants with little frog patterns on it, he silently prayed to whatever deity that could possibly exist to never let Ino find out about this.
She would never let him live down this heinous act of fashion sacrilege.
Sasuke began to slide his clothes off with moderate difficulty, as the articles of clothing were sticky against his skin and clung to the other folds of wet fabric. He didn’t much care if Naruto was in the room tidying up as he swapped clothing, they’d had to bathe together on missions and seen each other in various stages of undress countless times.
What he did care about was how the tangy scent of summer enveloped him as he yanked the other’s shirt over his head. All of a sudden, the somewhat gloomy holiday was worth it, he decided, if he could bask in the oddly soothing scent. Somewhere, in a deeply tucked away corner of his mind, Sasuke felt the urge to smile.
“Uh- Sasuke?”
Sasuke turned to look at the Uzumaki. While he’d been daydreaming like a child, Naruto had already swapped out Konohamaru’s soaked clothes for some smaller, dryer ones. Sasuke recognized the outfit actually. It was the outfit that the idiot had been wearing when they’d first met, back in Iruka’s class.
He snorted at the memory of a big eared blonde parading into the classroom, only to be swiftly put in his place by the sensei when he began jumping over the desks to amuse himself. At the time, Sasuke had been revolted, annoyed at the disruption and lack of class.
If only eight year old Sasuke could see him now.
“What?”
The alpha cocked his head and gave him an odd look, clearing his throat in the process “What now?”
Sasuke let his eyes fall on the bed, where the remnants of the nest he’d built lay in disarray. He set to work precisely, with a cool and collected manor to hide how oddly comfortable he was in this situation. Naruto didn’t need to know that he enjoyed being in the filthy habitat the blonde called home.
The Uchiha tossed all of the blankets to the side with an air of arrogance to level out the admittedly kind gesture he was committing. He couldn’t go and tarnish his own reputation by not being at least a little pissy.
He adjusted the mattress to fit more snugly against the corner and forced a pillow into the crevice. Before long, pillows outlined the general shape of a nest, and he could begin arranging the blankets. Konohamaru was still out like a light, but his tiny snores echoed in the room as Naruto shuffled away with the wet clothing. To do what, Sasuke didn’t know, although he hoped the Uzumaki was going to sit them out to dry.
“Do you need any help?” Naruto asked curiously. The alpha peaked over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of what Sasuke was doing, but the omega batted him away with his free hand. “You can help by not helping.”
“Awe, c'mon Sasuke! Why can’t I help? They’re just pillows and blanket-OW!”
Sasuke bent down to pettily snatch up the blanket Naruto had been standing on. If the blonde had fallen because of it, well, that was his own fault.
The Uchiha rolled the blanket out into the center of the nest and stepped back to admire his work. Obviously, like everything else he did, it was perfect. Not a single item stuck out. It wasn’t too soft, nor too firm, and while the color scheme was.. questionable, it was still the perfect look of cohesion.
Naruto popped back up from where he’d been whining on the ground and mumbling about how stupid gravity was just in time for Sasuke to climb into the nest and make himself comfortable. Sensing Naruto’s questioning look, Sasuke arched an eyebrow at him to get his point across. Nodding hastily at Sasuke’s silent order, the blonde hefted the sleeping boy up with all the gentleness of a drunken elephant, and dropped Konohamaru into the nest beside Sasuke.
The icy glare he received was expected, but Naruto grinned mischievously. It reminded Sasuke vaguely of a fox.
When Naruto went to turn away, a pale hand shot out and latched onto the alpha’s bicep, rooting him in place. “Huh?” he eloquently inquired, and Sasuke politely rolled his eyes. “Get in loser.”
He would need to work on Naruto’s complete lack of nesting social rules, but that could be saved for another day, he decided as the alpha made room for himself beside Sasuke. With Konohamaru once again drooling on him- why was it always him that got drooled on- with his childishly chubby cheeks still littered with dried tear tracks, and Naruto now cuddled up behind him, Sasuke allowed himself to relax.
Maybe, just maybe, he could.. get used to whatever this was. Maybe.
The day had been an odd day, he thought after a moment. It was a holiday, meant for packs and families to celebrate their closeness and bonds, but this was the first time he'd spent the holiday with anyone since the incident.
He barely remembered how Festivus used to be. If he concentrates, Sasuke can vaguely catch a glimpse of his mother’s smile as she snatched Itachi and himself into her arms. He doesn’t really remember his father there, but Shisui was there, with the purple Festivus flowers in his hands. He feels nothing when he remembers, empty, hollow. But the Uchiha knows that he used to jump around excitedly and fight with Itachi over who got to cuddle up on their mother’s lap when they were small, and he thinks he was happy. He knows he was happy.
Five years later, and Sasuke’s an omega, with an idiot alpha boyfriend who has no idea what this holiday even means, and he’s got a mourning pup latched onto his side like an octopus with severe separation anxiety.
“Hey, Sasuke?” Naruto whispers against his shoulder, dangerously close to where his scent gland is.
“Hnn” is all he responds with. It doesn’t matter though, because he knows Naruto would understand what he meant.
“What was it like to have a family?”
Naruto’s voice is tiny, much smaller and quieter than his usual tone that everyone who knew him had come to expect. It’s delicate and vulnerable, and Sasuke catches the faintest hint of wilted oranges in the alpha’s scent. Naruto.. was sad.
He supposed it would make sense. Where Sasuke knew what he was missing, Naruto had no idea of the magnitude of his own loneliness. He didn’t know what it was like to come home and dinner already on the table, or the irritations of having a brother that never played with him.
This, here and now, is Naruto’s first Festivus, and they wouldn’t have even celebrated it if the sky hadn’t decided to rain, or Konohamaru’s parents hadn’t taken a mission.
He can’t picture how bright his mother’s smile was as she smelled the Festivus flowers in delight as clearly anymore. Nor can he recall what his father’s scent was, and how it clung to the family nest even when he was in a meeting.
But he can remember the peaceful feeling that had spread through his tiny body as he rubbed his cheek against his mother’s apron. It’s taken five years, but Sasuke has a tiny bit of that peaceful feeling back, and he won’t let it slip away.
Sasuke shifted slightly so that the Uzumaki’s nose is directly at his scent gland, and released a wave of soothing lightning and rainy scent. Their scent bond thrumed under his skin, and for the first time, it didn't irritate Sasuke. Konohamaru’s elbow jerks in his sleep, lightly elbowing Sasuke’s side, but something deep within his brain, something instinctual that he would never admit to having if anyone were to ask, is endeared by it.
“Like this.” he whispered back.