Ignited Citrus

It had been three days since Sasuke had been released from the hospital. Ino had gotten back from her mission and on the second day, decided to throw a little party to celebrate Sasuke’s recovery. The only one who hadn’t shown up yet was Sasuke himself.

Naruto was getting impatient, and Kiba’s teasing was not making anything better. Sakura was still avoiding him, instead choosing to stand on the opposite side of the room than to speak with the blonde, no matter how much he tried to start a conversation with her to explain what had actually happened.

He didn’t really know who to talk to because Shikamaru was still irritated with him, and while Tenten, Neji, and Bushy Brows had been invited, only Tenten was really branching out and getting to know her fellow genin. Though, to be fair, Rock Lee was confined to a chair and Sakura was the one keeping him company, so naturally everyone else avoided them like the plague- no one wanted to get involved in Sakura’s turbulent moods these days. Naruto was both amazed and concerned at how resilient Rock Lee was being, in more ways than one.

Neji was monitoring Hinata’s every move, glaring at her and subtly shaking his head when any of their alpha friends got too close to her. Naruto kind of understood why the Hyuuga girl was so shy around everyone now, her entire clan barely let her interact with most people her age.

Ino and Choji were arguing over snacks while Tenten was asking Shino about his bug friends- he’d been banished from the snack table after one of Shino’s ladybugs had landed on Choji’s favorite dessert.

Naruto couldn’t help feeling a bit lonely without Sasuke there. Where was he? Sasuke was never one to be late for anything, and usually went as far as to timing the other members on team seven to chide them on their own lateness.

Had- had Itachi come back for him and no one had noticed?! What if that snake Orochimaru had kidnapped the Uchiha because of that stupid curse seal he’d given him?! Or-or maybe Sasuke’s fangirls had finally gotten a hold of him and because he was still injured, he couldn’t get away in time and they’d hauled him off to an impromptu wedding ceremony where they all took turns legally marrying him-

“Hey, Naruto, you okay, man?” Choji asked, startling the blonde alpha from his internal panic. The others all turned to look at him to see if he was okay and the newly silent room made him uncomfortable. The only silence he could enjoy was if it came from his best friend.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine, just looking forward to training with Jiraiya sensei later!” he lied. If he told them about how much he was worried about Sasuke’s belated appearance, they’d take it the wrong way. None of them had listened to him when he’d tried to explain that, no, he and Sasuke weren’t dating, they genuinely had just been very unfortunate and had a freak accident that no one could have foreseen happen to them.

Kiba especially enjoyed teasing the blonde about Sasuke. If it weren’t for Hinata, the shyest and weirdest girl he’d ever met, always scolding Kiba, Naruto would have punched him by now.

“Oh yeah, that’s right, you have a new sensei, what’s it like training under one of the legendary sanin?” Ino asked curiously, covering her mouth politely as she munched on a stick of dango. Neji, who the alpha still felt uneasy around after his fight with the older Hyuuga in the chunin exams, inclined his head in the blonde’s direction, interested in his response.

Before he could respond, the door opened, and none other than Sasuke Uchiha was standing glumly in the entryway looking as bored as ever. His eyes were still blank, like they’d been back at the hospital, and it made the hairs on the back of Naruto’s neck stand up.

“Sasuke!” Ino cheered, rushing forward to greet her fellow omega. Naruto would have, but he was too busy putting his detective skills to work. Sasuke didn’t look like he’d been chased by a mob of hormonal alpha girls. His hair was too purposefully messy, and his chest rose and fell calmly, indicating that his body hadn’t been exerted enough to require lungfuls of air.

He couldn’t sniff the air to see if there was anything off about the Uchiha’s scent because Sasuke was masking his scent and in a room full of ninja, he would surely be called out by one of them for doing so. Not naming names or anything, but Ino and Kiba had been enjoying picking apart his interactions with his teammate a little too vigorously.

Sasuke ignored their friend’s joyful cry in favor of analyzing the room. His gaze, from what Naruto could tell, lingered on Shikamaru and Neji a millisecond longer than anyone else, and his usual frown lessened microscopically when he noticed the omegas gathered around each other.

“Hnn.” came his response, and while it was monotone and borderline not even a response at all, it was music to Naruto’s ears. Sasuke was much quieter these days and Naruto often found himself missing the times when Sasuke would tease him. The alpha had always been teased and made fun of by his peers, but for some reason, hearing the little jabs fall from the Uchiha’s stoic lips felt important, like they were meant as compliments but Sasuke just didn’t know how to be so effortlessly kind that way.

“Sasuke! Even though we fought at the beginning of the chunin exams, I must say, I am very happy for your youthful recovery!” Rock Lee’s loud, energetic voice echoed in the room and Naruto could almost see the soundwaves bouncing off of the walls. He doubted Sasuke had enjoyed the older alpha’s energetic decree, in fact, he knew he didn’t because he could tell by the clawed shape of Sasuke’s hand that he was very close to chidorying the loud genin.

Sakura remained quiet and to be honest, it pissed him off. Choji had been the one to fill him in on how Sakura had reacted to the news, and every time Naruto had tried to smooth things over with her, she just started crying and shoved him away.

It was obvious that she resented the two of them, and if it hadn’t been Ino that had thrown the party, he would have made sure she wasn’t invited to begin with. He didn’t know what she was going to say to their teammate, but if the tongue lashing he’d received was anything to go by, he knew it was going to be bad.

Ino lurched forward and pulled her fellow omega fully into the room, “Sasuke! You have to try this food dish that Choji made! Look, it has your favorite, tomatoes!” she cheerfully announced, either too busy being a good host to notice or politely ignoring Sasuke’s willful silence.

The alpha wanted so badly to growl at the girl and steal Sasuke away from her so that he could talk to Sasuke, but he knew how everyone else would react to that. So instead of going over and hovering next to the omega and releasing his scent to comfort the tense Uchiha, like a good best friend would, he threw an arm over Shino’s shoulders and invested himself in the Aburame’s conversation with Tenten.

It was like time had started up again, because as soon as he had done so, everyone else continued what they’d been doing as well. “Naruto, I do not wish to discourage you, but you are upsetting my wasps.” Shino mentioned, subtly tensing his shoulder after a moment to shake the blonde’s arm away. “Oops, sorry Shino,” Naruto moved away from his friend, “Hey, Tenten, what’s the deal with Neji? I don’t think he’s blinked since I got here.”

She turned her head to where the stoic Hyuuga alpha was seated, legs crossed and arms folded across his chest, like a statue. “You don’t know? The Hyuuga clan always has some sort of escort for Hinata because she’s their heiress and an omega. Neji’s her cousin so the task usually falls to him.”

That didn’t make any sense to the blonde. If they wanted her to be safe and looked after, why had she trained to become a shinobi to begin with? Tenten must have seen his confusion written across his face, because she was talking again, “The Hyuuga are a very.. traditional clan, so while Hinata is an omega, it’s also customary for the first born to be the heir. That’s why she’s in the situation she’s in.” Shino nodded in agreement, preferring to keep quiet about his teammate’s pesky clan politics.

Naruto wondered what the Uchiha clan had been like. The Uchiha were distantly related to the Hyuuga, so did that mean some of their traditions would have been similar? If they were all still alive, would Sasuke be forced to have an escort like Hinata? The blonde couldn’t imagine that going over well with his friend. Sasuke preferred his freedom, having someone watching him all hours of the day would probably have ended in many, many agitated fireball jutsu and chidoris.

He smiled at the thought, which gained him an odd look from the two alphas he was talking to.
He spluttered, quickly wiping the grin off of his face but before he could come up with a convincing lie to explain his weird timing, Kiba had appeared, looking moderately peeved about something.

“Hey, Naruto, you need to tell your boyfriend to stop being such an asshole!” the Inuzuka growled, tossing a glare over his shoulder as he pointed towards an eerily calm looking Uchiha with his thumb.

“He’s not my boyfriend, dog breath!” Naruto stage whispered, having the good grace to realize that using his usual tone of voice would cause a scene.

“What happened?” Shino asked his teammate, not at all phased by the other alpha’s growl. Alphas typically were agitated when hearing another’s growl, as somewhere deep in their brain, it came across as a challenge, even if it weren’t intended in that way. That was why everyone had immense respect for Shino. That guy had such an iron grip on his instincts, that even Kakashi sensei would be put to shame.

“All I did was try to high five him but he caught my wrist and twisted it! And then he had the balls to snarl at me!”

Sasuke had never been one for physical touch outside of training or missions, but after Itachi.. it was like physical contact scared him. The omega was always tense now, ready to pounce and attack at the first sign of a threat. He’d probably just assumed Kiba was trying to attack him or something.

“Sasuke has just suffered a serious mental rewiring. Why is that important to this situation? Because he is still healing and recovering.” Shino explained as Tenten tilted her head to the side in thought. The group peered over to where Sasuke was standing still, like a statue, as Ino and Choji told him jokes. Ino’s hand brushed Sasuke’s arm and his jaw clenched, but nothing came of it other than Akamaru wagging his tail at the Uchiha.

“Yeah, well, he’s still an asshole.” the Inuzuka grumbled, glaring over at the omega while rubbing his sore wrist.

Naruto decided to join Sasuke and the others. He’d felt the pull of their scent bond from the moment he’d woken up that morning, and something was beckoning him closer to his pale teammate. He needed to be close, to make sure Sasuke felt reassured, but also to make it all feel real.

He still couldn't wrap his mind around it. Sasuke never lost. He never failed, and he never, ever looked so defeated and unsure. The omega’s, somewhat arrogant at times, confidence had dwindled from the raging inferno it had always been, to a tiny inkling of smoke, the ghost of a fire he’d once held within himself.

It scared the Uzumaki terribly.

He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been plagued by nightmares ever since that day at the inn with Itachi. Seeing Sasuke so limp, so helpless for lack of better words, had embedded such a deep, aching fear within him that not even his dreams were safe anymore.

Not that he missed that weird recurring dream of a giant orange fox in some sort of cage growling at him. Seriously, every night for as long as he could remember, he’d gone to sleep, only to be met with that fox in his sleep.

If it weren’t because Sasuke’s defeat had scarred him so badly, the blonde would have rejoiced at having a different dream for once. Now, he just wished he could see the fox in his dreams instead.

His attention was pulled away from his musings when Ino shrieked. Choji was apologizing profusely and trying to wipe up some water he’d unintentionally spilled as Sasuke just stood there, blankly looking at Ino furiously trying to wring out her soaked shirt.

“I-Ino do you want my jacket?” Hinata murmured, already sliding the article of clothing off and handing it to the Yamanaka.

“Oh, thanks Hinata! You’re such a life saver!”
~~~

“Tsunade, don’t you think it’s a bit early to be drinking?” Jiraiya’s voice cut through the stale air of the hokage office.

She had been here ever since their fateful argument in the alleyway, letting off steam in the form of paperwork, and because there hadn’t been a hokage for at least two weeks, there was a lot of paperwork. Shizune had been a great help with the initial stacks of documents, which for some reason were almost entirely about clan relations, but the blonde omega had sent her home after she’d fallen asleep standing up.

“Isn’t it a bit early for you to be here instead of at the women’s baths?” she countered, not bothering to give him the satisfaction of giving him her attention after the stunt he’d pulled, and kept signing the lengthy proposal on her desk.

She heard him sigh, and even though she couldn’t see him, she knew he was rubbing his face in exasperation. “Look, princess, I understand that this whole situation is dangerous. Believe me, I know because I’m the one that sensei sent to hunt down Orochimaru, but there is more at play here than two awkward ‘in love but they don’t know it yet’ teenagers.”

That caught her attention.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and finally glared up at him, “What aren’t you telling me?” she asked, not bothering to keep the bite from her voice as she reached for another bottle of sake hidden in her desk drawer.

Her old teammate took that as a signal to sit, and if he had a scent, she might have assumed he was antsy.

“They’re calling themselves the Akatsuki. They’re a terrorist organization comprised of all the big bad missing nins from all of the hidden villages. Word on the street is that Orochimaru was part of them for a while but broke off when they got to be too bad for even the likes of him.”

He paused to let the information sink in.

How bad could these so called Akatsuki be if even Orochimaru wanted to steer clear from them? Just what connected this group to Sasuke and Naruto? Unless-

“Itachi Uchiha, he’s one of them, isn’t he?”

The white haired alpha nodded, and he looked the very age Tsunade felt.

“So we need to protect Sasuke, give him a guard detail, something until we can figure out what this guy’s motives are.” she added.

“No, Itachi wasn’t after Sasuke. He was after Naruto.”

Her eyes widened with alarm, as his stared at her deeply trying to say without saying what they both knew. What they’d both been sworn to never speak of aloud for thirteen years.

“The Akatsuki want the Nine tails, and with the way village relations are right now, I don’t think we have the political leeway to ask the other villages if their own jinchuriki have been followed or worse, had a run in with the group. We’re completely in the dark on this one.” The sanin elaborated.

“Does Naruto know?”

He should have been told when he had joined the academy. She couldn’t believe their sensei had kept the kid in the dark for this long, especially when he also descended from arguably the most powerful clan to ever exist. It was stupid to leave him ignorant, especially with someone as unpredictable as Naruto. Who knew how he would react, how aggressively he would take the revelation, especially now after they’d taught him jutsu and given him one of the strongest jonin instructors they had.

“No, I haven’t talked to him. I don’t even know how I would bring it up. You knew you were from a powerful clan, and even the first hokage’s granddaughter. You knew how to conceal your identity. That numbskull? He’d probably find out and immediately go shouting it all over the village, and you know how gossip spreads.”

Tsunade leaned back in her seat thoughtfully.

“Sasuke is an Uchiha, if the nine tails is freed, theoretically, he would be able to control the demon. Why would you want their bond separated if an incompleted scent bond means they have to be near each other.” She inquired, internally grateful that she had moved her appointment with Danzo to later in the afternoon so that she and Jiraiya could hash the issue out in depth.

“He is from the bloodline, yes, but without a teacher from the same bloodline, how much can he actually accomplish with that sharingan of his? Kakashi can only do so much, and not to mention, most of the Uchiha’s jutsu scrolls were confiscated and hidden away to protect the kid. We have no idea if he would ever reach the power level strong enough to control the nine tails.”

Curse the stupid council and their hobby of snatching and sealing away important scrolls from the clans. No one had any idea what had become of the two measly Uzumaki scrolls Kushina had owned after her death, but even back then, Tsunade had a rising suspicion that they’d been stolen from the rubble.

“So, you won’t even give Sasuke a chance, Jiraiya? Seriously? He has way more potential than you did back in the day, and look how far you’ve come!”

“Look, that’s not what I’m saying. We have no idea what kind of timeframe we’re talking about here before the Akatsuki try to get Naruto again. Itachi knows they’re scent bonded, if he would murder his entire clan, he absolutely would have no problem with exploiting Naruto by kidnaping Sasuke, or worse, just killing him. Sasuke’s an omega, that automatically means he’s at a greater risk of either of those options.”

“Choose your next words very carefully.” the omega sanin cut in, glaring at him.

“Oh, for the love of- I’m not saying omegas are weak or a waste as ninja, it’s a fact that Sasuke will have heats and will be less likely to successfully protect himself from danger during one.”

Orochimaru had been a prime example of that.

“Still, there are other ways. We can keep Sasuke in the village, heavily guarded, with Anbu of Kakashi’s choosing to monitor him while you go off and train Naruto like you’d originally planned, or we can even send Sasuke with the both of you.”

Jiraiya wasn’t having any of it. “Tsunade, I’m telling you, the operation is the best option we have.”

“No, Jiraiya, it’s the easiest one. We can’t let either of them die. What happens when Sasuke dies, and we have no one left from his clan to keep Naruto in check if Kyuubi ever becomes an issue? What happens when Naruto dies and we have no one to seal the demon into because he is the last Uzumaki at our disposal? Konoha needs them, both of them, and I will not jeopardize that.”

The toad sage stood up and the chair squeaked against the old wooden flooring. “It’s always Konoha first until that same logic destroys the village.” he said darkly before leaving her office.

Tsunade couldn’t help but feel unsure.

~~~

Sasuke felt empty. Kakashi had come by, asking about how he was feeling, and before, it would have irritated him, but now, he felt nothing.

Logically, he knew he was scared and this was his mind’s way of protecting him, because it had been the same the first time around when he’d dealt with the aftermath of a dead clan and a three day genjutsu. Eight year old him had welcomed the nothingness with open arms, but thirteen year old him felt like he was vaguely missing out on something.

He couldn’t look his teammate in the face yet. Not after watching the blonde alpha die by his pale, shaky hands in Itachi’s genjutsu. He’d smiled until the very last drop of blood in his body had dribbled down Sasuke’s hands and the omega was nauseous just thinking about it.

He hadn’t reacted this strongly when it had just been his family’s deaths. Why did he feel so.. despondent now? It was just a teammate and he knows it wasn’t even real.

It felt real.

The curse mark on his shoulder burned more lately, like it was feeding off of his pain, and the scent bond stung, trying to force his body to seek out Naruto and scent him, but Sasuke wouldn’t allow his legs to move from where they were folded under him on his bed.
After what he’d done, real or not real it didn’t matter, he didn’t deserve to be in the Uzumaki’s presence. Not after everything Naruto had done for him, like making him part of a new family, or pulling him back from the dark path he’d been set on.

He’d betrayed the alpha by being weak and Sasuke couldn’t bear to be around Naruto long enough to make the genjutsu become a reality.

The Uchiha sighed and got out of bed. He walked over to his desk that housed the group photo of team seven and a single piece of paper with neat, uniform inky lines going down the page in a list format.

Sasuke Uchiha
Kiba Inuzuka
Shikamaru Nara
Sakura Haruno
Choji Akimichi
Ino Yamanaka

He picked it up with an embarrassed grimace. He’d been so stupid to think he could ever be part of Naruto’s future pack, much less pick and choose who would be part of it. Sasuke crossed his name out bitterly with his uninjured hand and crumpled the paper into a ball.

He could never be part of a pack while Itachi was still alive. He would never put the others in the position to have targets on their backs just because Sasuke cared about them. That would be selfish. No, instead, he would distance himself to keep his friends safe, even if it meant shouldering the burden of loneliness all on his own.

The cat was out of the bag on his and Naruto’s bond in Itachi’s eyes, so the omega couldn’t really shy away from the blonde now. That would just leave an opening for Itachi to come and finish the job he’d started, and Sasuke would not let Naruto die by the same hands that had killed his clan.

No, Sasuke would keep very close to the alpha, even if it shamed him to look him in the eyes.

~~~

Night had fallen hours ago, but Naruto couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned for what felt like ages before he finally stilled in frustration.

Anxiety plagued his mind. Sasuke was alone in his apartment, probably sound asleep, with no one to watch guard over him to make sure he was safe, and it ate at the blonde.

Why did no one seem to care that Sasuke was in danger but him?! Itachi had broken into the village with no trouble before, what was stopping him from coming to finish what he’d started in the dead of night? And everyone had apparently forgotten that while Orochimaru’s arms had been sealed, he’d gotten away and had who knows how many minions under his control to come collect the omega whenever he wanted.

If Sasuke was kidnapped or stolen away in the dead of night, Naruto wouldn’t ever get to show the omega how strong he was and how worthy of their rivalry that he strived to be. The thought made the blonde shudder in dismay.

A lightbulb went off in his head. If no one was looking out for Sasuke, what was stopping him from doing it himself?

The Uzumaki rolled out of bed, tripping over a tangled blanket in his haste, and scrambled to get dressed. Once he was done, he left through his window, so as not to disturb his neighbors that already hated when he made noise during the day time, and silently crossed over rooftops. He didn’t have to pay much attention to where he was going, because his feet had memorized the way to Sasuke’s apartment long ago.

Finding the perfect spot to see into Sasuke’s window from a distance while also being close enough to get there in a hurry should he need to proved more difficult than he thought it would. He wasn’t usually the one who scouted out hiding spots on missions, that was usually reserved for Sasuke or Kakashi sensei, so he was rusty to say the least.

The chill in the air sent a shiver down the young alpha’s spine but he ignored it in favor of focusing on his surroundings. The moon cast a bright glow on the streets below, causing shadows to stretch up the buildings like dark little claws, waiting to snatch whomever dares to step into the inky blackness.

Naruto didn’t particularly care for shadows, partially because he always looked so lonely, and also because when he had been younger, maybe five or six, the shadows always alerted him to when another bad person was coming.

He didn’t like the bad people. They were mean and yelled at him and called him names. As he got older, he forgot what their faces looked like, though every now and then he sees a familiar, anxiety inducing face when he goes to the market or to buy supplies for missions. The strangers haven’t yelled much these days, though, because now he had a leaf village headband displayed proudly on his forehead.

Although he suspected that Iruka sensei had a hand in making the villagers back off a bit. The omega had been ferociously protective of him after that misunderstanding with the forbidden scroll a while back. He could definitely see the brunette hissing and clawing at anyone who so much as glared at the Uzumaki.

Naruto secretly wondered if that was what a parent’s love felt like. If it was, he understood why Sasuke missed it so much, and also didn’t understand why Sakura got so frustrated with hers.

Maybe there was something more about having parents that he couldn’t quite grasp, and that’s why he didn’t really get why she was always so mad at her mom. Once upon a time, he would have jumped at the chance to ask her about it, but Ino, who had hung around him more because she’d grown close to Sasuke- as close as someone could get with Sasuke- had yelled at him for asking ‘invasive questions’.

Joke’s on her, he had no idea what invasive even meant at the time, but the punch she’d given him had gotten the message across clear as day. As payback, he’d thrown a frog at her when she wasn’t paying attention, and the shriek the blonde omega had let out still made him giggle a bit.

The Uzumaki sobered up. Now was not the time to be giggling, he had serious business to attend to. For good measure, Naruto glanced around at the surrounding rooftops, nodding to himself when he’d deemed the coast clear, and went back to focusing on Sasuke’s window.

He didn’t like how.. open Sasuke’s window was. The glass was closed, obviously, just the way it had been ever since he’d presented and all those crazy Uchiha fangirls started mobbing his apartment complex to catch a whiff of his scent, but there was nothing covering the window.

Naruto could see everything: Sasuke asleep on his bed, the dining table with its lone chair and a pile of tomatoes neatly stacked in a pyramid on top, even Sasuke’s Uchiha fan tapestry was on wide display, even from the distance Naruto was sitting at.

If he, a fairly unaware person, could so easily find Sasuke while he was asleep, so could his enemies.

Hmm, well, he’d just have to come back tomorrow night too. To make sure Sasuke was safe of course, not because the omega had just turned over in his sleep to face the window and it pulled at his heartstrings.

Seriously, for such a scary guy, Sasuke sure did look sweet when he was asleep, adorable even, like one of those little babies that were passed out in their parent’s arms. If he ever said that out loud, he’d get murdered viciously.

Naruto was pretty sure he’d die with a smile on his face if that were the case.

~~~

Sakura sat up in bed for the thousandth time that evening. Seeing Sasuke and Naruto together now that she knew that morning had stung. They didn’t trust her, and while she understood why they couldn’t, it didn’t mean her feelings weren’t hurt.

Neither of the two had even apologized to her for being the root of all her problems. How could she even be part of a team that consistently treated her as an afterthought? She had the most extensive knowledge fresh out of the academy than either of the other team seven genin, and she had the best chakra control too, not to mention Kakashi sensei had discovered her affinity for genjutsu resistance, but he’d followed it up with nothing. Even her training had been put on the back burner.

Why did they think she was so useless? Why did Sasuke not think she was good enough?

A deep resentment welled up in her chest for Naruto at the thought. It was his fault, all of it, it had to be. Hinata just didn’t know what she’d been talking about the other day at the practice field. The meek omega was just making excuses for her crush, like always.

Well, there would be no excuses made for Naruto this time, not when he’d stolen Sasuke from her. It should be her scent bonded to Sasuke. He didn’t even know Sasuke like she did, so what gave him the right to just stake a claim on the omega like that.

She needed to save Sasuke from that stupid Naruto. That’s why he hadn’t been himself lately, obviously he was too depressed about being scent bonded to Naruto to function properly.

The kunoichi smiled to herself, already plotting her top secret rescue mission. Sasuke was going to be so happy with her, that he would fall right into her arms and declare his love for her right on the spot.

Sakura couldn’t wait.

~~~

People were chanting his name as he towered over them on the hokage tower balcony. Sasuke was beside him, with Iruka sensei and Kakashi sensei and Sakura a few feet away, all smiling proudly at him.

Sasuke handed him the hokage hat, and as he drew his hand away, he began to speak with pink dusted cheeks and doe eyes that stared into the blonde’s soul, “Naruto, I-”. Someone from the crowd screamed out joyously, drowning out what the Uchiha had said next, but Naruto had watched his lips move, and it looked a lot like he’d said “dove moo''

Dove moo? Sasuke doves moo?

Before he could ask him to repeat himself he was ripped away from the scene abruptly.

“What are you doing?” screeched a child’s voice in his ear, startling him awake so viciously that Naruto jumped a few feet in the air and nearly fell off of the rooftop he was on. He landed unceremoniously on his butt, and glared at the grinning little elf that was Konohomaru.

“Ugh, Konohamaru!” he snapped, “Can’t you see I was sleeping!”

The pup ignored him in favor of looking around suspiciously. Naruto paid him no mind as he rubbed his sore buttocks from when he’d harshly landed a few seconds prior. He definitely should have been, because not even a moment later, Konohomaru was screeching “Hey! Isn’t that Sasuke’s house?!” at the top of his lungs. Naruto spluttered, blindsided, “Wha-NO! Why would you think that! It-It’s my friend.. Sesame’s apartment! Not Sasuke!”

The blonde alpha threw the kid a thumbs up, proud of his amazing deflection skills. Using sesame instead of Sasuke? Truly a work of his own genius.

“Nuh uh, that’s clearly Sasuke glaring at us from his windo-HI SASUKE!” the boy waved, proudly showing off his grin that was missing a few front teeth. By the time the morning was over, Naruto had a sneaking suspicion that Konohomaru would be missing a few more..

He didn’t want to look. He didn’t want to look into the cold, dead eyes of his teammate, and he did not want to see the omega’s response to Konohomaru’s display of exaggerated cheer.

Konohomaru didn’t give him a chance, however, because he was jumping on the blonde’s back and manually turning his neck for him. “Ouch! Would you quit-” Naruto cut himself off as his eyes caught Sasuke’s stare.

It was questioning, he could tell, because his lips were thinner than usual, and his eyebrows were impeccably straight. Sasuke did not like to showcase his uncertainty, so he usually kept a very blank face when he was confused about something. At first, back when they’d still been at the academy, Naruto had taken offense to the staring. He’d thought Sasuke was sizing him up and deeming him not worth his gaze, but after having gotten to understand the Uchiha, he knew better than to ever assume Sasuke would be like everyone else like that.

Now, after having been caught keeping an eye on his friend by said friend, he wished he could be swallowed up by the ground. Too bad the ground his feet were standing on was concrete and a roof, so if it swallowed him, he’d just be falling through levels and levels of floors. That would hurt, like a lot, so he kinda didn’t want the ground to swallow him whole, now that he thought about it.

“Look! Look! He’s coming over!” the runt on his shoulders shouted in his ear.

It wasn’t Konohomaru’s loudmouth tendencies that sent him over the edge, nor was it the fact that he’d been caught sleeping when he should have been watching Sasuke for any signs of danger, nor was it even really the unamused look Sasuke had given him while standing neutrally in his window.

No, the thing that set Naruto off was Konohomaru’s sticky fingers making contact with his earlobe. With no time to spare, the kid was sent flying off of his back, and onto the ground.

When Sasuke showed up, the alpha was having it out with the younger boy, fists were flying, and both of their round, petulant faces were already swelling with purple bruises. Konohomaru got a few good punches in, using his small body to wriggle out of the Uzumaki’s grasp like a worm.

Sasuke was almost amused.

He waited patiently, not feeling the need to stop the two idiots from being their own worst enemies. The morning sun was warm on his skin, and Sasuke silently cursed himself for not wearing a longer sleeved shirt to protect his skin from the sizzling rays on his arms.

When he was young, he used to ask his mother why their clan all looked like ghosts but still lived in a really sunny place. She would just smile, chuckling a bit at his inquiries, and ruffle his hair.

Sasuke never did get an answer.

Naruto’s voice squalled out something indignant as he yanked the kid’s scarf to send him flying back into his fist. “Help! Somebody help! I’m being attacked!” the brunette boy hollered to anyone that would listen.

Too bad they were on a very high up roof, and this part of the village was usually empty at that time of day. Finally, the third hokage’s grandson noticed him standing there, hands tucked uncaringly in his pockets. The pup’s eyes widened, pleadingly, and despite his large reserve of willpower, something softened within himself.

“Knock it off, loser.'' The omega finally spoke, looking off to the side, embarrassed to have given into the childish cries of an eight year old. Maybe it was because when Sasuke was eight, he’d also held a similar look of desperation on his face- no. Now was not the time.

“S-Sasuke!” Naruto shouted in surprise, releasing Konohamaru from his hold. “We were just, uh, DANCING! Yeah, uh, we have a dance- uh, team!”

Sasuke let a perfectly sculpted eyebrow quirk up in judgment, “What? Too weak to fight actual ninja so you’re beating up a little kid?” he snipped, enjoying the look of embarrassed annoyance painting itself across the Uzumaki’s face. Konohomaru, after dusting himself off and throwing one last retaliation kick to the blonde’s shin, proceeded to sniff the air thoughtfully as he turned to face Sasuke.

His little nose continued to sniffle at whatever he was smelling, and the child’s body followed the scent trail diligently. It dawned on Sasuke what the Sarutobi was smelling, him.

The omega backed up slyly, but as his left foot left the ground, Konohomaru leapt into his arms like a monkey. Because it was a rare occasion that Sasuke was caught off guard, he was unbalanced, nearly crashing to the ground as his arms wrapped tightly around the pup to protect him from the fall.
Before his body could make contact with the hard surface of the rooftop, a tan arm shot out, grabbing him by the waist to stop the omega’s descent. The scent of warm sunshine and fresh oranges invaded his senses, and for a split second, Sasuke felt at peace.

The peace was interrupted, however, when the larger of the two idiots began to yell.

“Konohamaru! You moron! Why’d you pounce on Sasuke?!”

The pup was too busy to give a full answer, seeing as he was rubbing his chubby little cheek against Sasuke’s chest. The scent of a happy child filled the air, and no matter how strongly Sasuke wanted to unwrap his arms from the imp, whose full body grip on the omega was as cute as it was irritating, his arms were locked, and he cursed his biology for making him not want to let the pup go.

“Warm, so cozy…” Konohomaru trailed off, nose tickling Sasuke’s neck as he discovered the source of the ‘cozy’ smell wafting off of the omega.

Against his better judgment, Sasuke discreetly scented Konohamaru as well. The sharp pang of loneliness filled the pale boy’s nose, and his heart ached. The pup was not only the same age Sasuke had been when-when- but he had also experienced the loss of someone precious to him, just like the omega had.

There had been no one to hold Sasuke, or let him scent them, and certainly no older omegas that would allow such a damaged and sad child into their arms. Not even the nurses at the time had offered him so much as a hug. He wondered briefly if anyone had hugged Konohamaru since the funeral..

Sure, the kid usually screamed his head off around the village about how cool his anbu parents were, but the Uchiha doubted he ever really saw them, the anbu were notoriously sent on long, harrowing missions that left them either a mindless bloodthirsty machine, or an empty husk, too damaged to provide many familial bonds to a child. He knew Asuma, the sensei for Ino’s team, was the kid’s uncle, and Kurenai, Hinata’s sensei, may as well have been an aunt to him, but having an uncle and semi-aunt that had six kids of their own to look after all the time probably hadn’t left much time for Konohomaru.

Sasuke held the boy a little tighter.

“Uh, Sasuke?” came the Uzumaki’s familiar voice from behind him, and loosely Sasuke realized he’d forgotten the alpha was there. He registered the weighted touch on his waist, and embarrassedly realized that Naruto was still holding him up.

Quickly, the Uchiha’s poker face was carefully back in place, and he gently placed the boy back on the ground, releasing the pup from his hold with a pang in his chest that would never admit to having. He spun around to face the blonde, “Why are you arguing with some kid outside of my apartment?” he bit out, forcing more force into his voice to cover up for the fact that he’d just let a random pup nearly topple him over.

From how close he was standing, he could count all of the Uzumaki’s bright yellow eyelashes and the sea of faded freckles that had made their home on the bridge of the other’s nose. “I-well-'' the alpha was interrupted by Konohomoru’s mischievous giggle, “He was watching you cuz’ he loooves youuu!”

Sasuke stepped in between the two idiots to block Naruto from strangling the brunette like he so obviously was debating. “No I DON’T! It's-its a mission! Yeah, I had a mission!” the Uzumaki argued, crossing his arms petulantly across his chest and sticking his tongue out at the younger.

A mission.

Someone had been given a mission to watch him.

That person thought Naruto, of all people, would be better at protecting Sasuke than himself.

They knew. Everyone knew what a failure he was, how he’d completely and utterly been unsuccessful at stopping Itachi and now they thought he was weak enough that Naruto had become a better, stronger ninja in their eyes than Sasuke.

The best Uchiha at their disposal. (The only Uchiha they had.)

Quickly, Sasuke sealed his scent away, ignoring Konohomaru’s pitiful whine at the ‘cozy smell’ vanishing from the air, and shoved away from his friend. The person sent to spy on him because he was too weak to be useful.

“Sasuke?” The blonde questioned.

In response, the Uchiha let the calm, neutral expression he reserved only for Naruto, Hinata, and Kiba’s dogs dissipate from his face, and replaced it with his darkest, most spiteful and hate filled look in his wide range of microexpressions at his disposal.

The alpha recoiled, as if he’d been bitten by a venomous snake and the curse mark on Sasuke’s shoulder sang whispers of sweet, poisonous threats across the span of his skin. “Your mission’s canceled.” he growled out, feeling the black swirls of the curse mark dance and expand along his pale, albeit light red from the sun beating down on him, flesh.

“Wait, Sas-” the alpha’s hand darted out to grab ahold of his, but Sasuke tore his wrist away, burned in more ways than one. “No!” the omega snapped once more, only this time it was louder to cover up the whimpering coming from Konohamaru. He knew pups were easily affected by moods, but in the moment, he didn’t care. All he cared about was being left alone.

The fight seemed to deflate from Naruto’s body at Sasuke’s reaction, and he retracted his arm dejectedly. “C’mon, Konohamaru, there’s no one here worth talking to.” the blonde spit out lowly as he walked past the Uchiha with a tense aura surrounding him. If Sasuke didn’t know any better, he’d think that Naruto had been.. Sad? Annoyed?

Sasuke may have been hurt by his words, but he was too proud to show it. The omega stood icily still as he watched the pair go. He ignored the sting of his scent gland, and the sting of his eyes as he turned to face the hokage tower. He glared with red irises at the large, imposing building.

The Uchiha had some business to attend to.

~~~

A hand slamming down on the solid wood of the hokage’s work desk startled Tsunade from her frustrated, although slightly tipsy, stupor.

She glanced up in boredom from yet another stack of papers updating her on clan politics, and was surprised to find the little Uchiha brat standing there, glowering like a pup who’d been denied a nap.

“Not that I’m not happy for the interruption,” she sighed in amusement as she let her pen fall beside the stack of papers and leaned back in her, rather uncomfortable, seat, “But how on earth did you get past my security team?”

The old omega raised a blonde eyebrow at him as her hands itched to reach for the bottle of sake and down the whole thing in one go. She had a feeling that whatever the teen was going to say, she’d need about a gallon of sake to get through it.

Too bad Shizune would notice if she tried to sneak a gallon of sake into her office.

Sasuke kept his hand on the sanin’s desk, and if it were a seasoned shinobi standing in his place, she may have actually the threatening implications the young omega was trying to exude.

“You gave Naruto a mission to spy on me!” he growled lowly. Tsunade was not fool enough to miss the red tinge of his irises.

That wiped the amused smile from her face. Tsunade leaned forward in careful interest, resting her head over her folded hands. Obviously, if someone had been given a mission to spy on the boy, she would not have sent Naruto of all people. That idiot could barely watch himself, much less someone as fast and subtle as an Uchiha.

How on earth would he have come to that conclusion. Unless- unless someone had tricked him and one of the kids’s growing list of enemies had been posing as the jinchuriki.

“There is no such order, or even mission, at this time for you to be spied on, tailed, or guarded. Where did you even get that idea?”

The omega’s glare only intensified at her. Unfortunately for him, she was much too drunk to care.

“Look, short round, I can’t help you if you won’t talk. What I can do, however, is actually send someone to guard you, only it won’t be someone you know, or even like, no, it will be the most obnoxious, chatty, enthusiastic and flamboyant jonin we have.”

His eyebrows shot up to his unnaturally perfect hairline in horrified understanding, and internally, she was smug at her successful attempt to pull some form of emotion out of the boy other than bored annoyance or neutral hatred.

“That’s right. I’ll assign Might Guy to the case. So you’d better start talking.”

Sasuke eased his arm away from where it had previously been anchored to her desktop and decidedly kept it by his side, both hands in white knuckled fists.

“Naruto was outside of my apartment this morning, watching me and he said that he’d been given a mission to do so.” he gritted out with some force. Honestly, the blonde omega was shocked, she’d never heard the lone Uchiha speak that many words at a time.

His voice was as dead as his clan, she’d noticed.

“And you’re sure it wasn’t some prank or disguise?” she asked gently, as if she were talking to a pouty, sick child before she healed them.

Her tone caused him to bristle, however, and did not achieve its intended calming effect. His face turned pinched, as if he’d tasted something sour, and she was sure that if he weren’t masking his scent at the moment, she would be smelling the dangerous scent of crackles of lightning.

When she had first met him, she’d found it odd that an omega carried such a tumultuous, dangerous scent. She hadn’t assumed he would have a sweet scent- as that was a rather annoying stereotype that did more harm than good for omegas, but it was incredibly rare for a freshly presented omega to have such a raw, powerful fragrance forever entwined with their person.

“No.” he replied sharply, before remembering himself and just who he was talking about, causing his body to soften a tiny fraction, “I could recognize his chakra signature even if I was blind.”

She eyed him consideringly, noting the glare the boy sported softening ever so slightly at his mention of Naruto’s chakra signature. If she knew him any better, she would probably say it was out of fondness, but alas, she did not- and nor did she want to. She’d put in more than enough time trying to learn the tones and mannerisms of one emotionally stunted genius, and that had been back when she’d been young enough to even want to try and figure Orochimaru out.

What had she heard the Nara boy say the other day while she finished up her meeting with Shikaku? ‘What a drag’?

Well, that was a drag.

Sasuke didn’t like the amused stare the new hokage had plastered on her face whenever he met with her. He certainly did not like her amused huff at his genuine grievances.

If she was telling the truth, and no one had been sent to spy on him, then why would Naruto find it necessary to watch him of his own free will?

A thought struck him instantly, and for once, Sasuke detested the sharpness of his mind, allowing his thoughts to come swiftly and unabashedly. If Naruto was watching him, and lying about it, then that could only mean one thing.

Naruto thought he was too weak to take care of himself.

“Sasuke?” the sanin’s voice cut through his troubled musings, “Are you alright?”.

He gave her another sharp glare, and parted his lips ever so slightly to breathe through his mouth. She’d been pumping her soothing, lemon scent into the room by the lungful and he didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of calming down. Normally, he would have no such issue, because he had perfected the art of not allowing scents to affect him, but her citrusy scent was too similar to Naruto’s for his liking.

Because of their stupid scent bond, Sasuke was unable to control himself as much as he would like when around that damned tangy fragrance or summertime oranges.

He hated that too, although slightly less than he would ever admit to.

“I’m fine.” he snapped, irritated again and the thought of the idiotic blonde alpha. The Uchiha swiftly turned around and left the office, not caring to wish the woman goodbye. Though, he hardly thought their interaction had even required one.

He wasn’t fine. Naruto, his sworn rival, turned out to be just like everyone else. He thought Sasuke was weak and pitiful and useless.

He needed to prove him wrong. He needed to get stronger and faster, and smarter.
Sasuke let his legs carry him towards the Uchiha compound’s old training grounds. What he was about to do needed to be done away from prying eyes.

~~~

“What now Tsunadeeee!” whined the toad sage as he trudged into her office. He had an ink smear on his hand, and binoculars around his neck. Of course the old fool had been out peaking at the women’s baths again for ‘inspiration’.

The hokage sighed in exasperation. “Jiraiya, am I going to have to give you an escort? How many times have I told you to stop researching here in Konoha?” she lectured, although there was no real authority to her words.

Instead of responding, knowing there was nothing he could say that he hadn’t told her a hundred times before, he opened a bottle of sake from his travel bag and held out another in her direction as a silent peace offering.

“Don’t think you can buy my affection so easily.” the omega said, ignoring the knowing chuckle he let out as she downed the sake un one go. She’d earned it. Making her way through six floor to ceiling stacks of paperwork was cause for getting black out drunk, but Shizune had said no, so Tsunade would just settle for the measly bottle Jiraiya had given her.

“Did you send Naruto to spy on Sasuke?” she asked, getting straight to the point.

Her eyes narrowed, watching her old teammate for any signs of dishonesty. “What?” he leaned forward like he’d heard her wrong as he coughed a little on his own drink, “Why would I do that?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe you don’t trust the kid to do something reckless, or you said it on a whim to get Naruto off your back about training and the idiot took it too seriously. Whatever the reason, tell Naruto to knock it off for me. Sasuke is in a delicate position right now. If we coddle him, we may as well go ahead and already call him a deserter and send him on his merry way right into Orochimaru’s waiting arms. If we give him too much freedom, he’ll be a jonin in no time and go after his brother before the time is right.”

For all of her drunken mistakes and complete distaste for strategy, which is probably why she was so bad at gambling, she had to be strategic about the Uchiha brat. She could see it in his eyes, that need for power. Orochimaru had held the same look in his slitted eyes many years ago, only Orochimaru’s path had been written in stone long before he’d even been born.

Sasuke had many different roads he could walk, and when she witnessed him interact with Naruto, she could almost see the gravitational pull the Uchiha felt tugging him towards Naruto.

If Naruto was used as a tool of the leaf village to contain the willful omega, then Sasuke was as good as gone.

“Alright, I’ll tell him, but princess, I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

And maybe, just maybe, Tsunade believed him.

~~~

The moon was barely in the sky when Naruto made his way to the same rooftop, he’d occupied the night before. The alpha scratched his neck in thought as he debated with himself on which corner he should set up shop, before ultimately deciding it didn’t matter. He could see any and all entrances to Sasuke’s apartment from the rooftop, so he rolled out his blanket directly in front of Sasuke’s window.

The window had its curtains drawn this time, and Naruto’s ears turned red in embarrassment because he’d been caught on day one. Even worse, apparently Sasuke was mad about it. Personally, Naruto had no idea why he would be. There was always at least one or two dudes in animal masks watching the Uzumaki when he was home, didn’t that happen to everyone?

A few hours passed as he squatted diligently on the rooftop, making sure to use every one of his five senses to the best of his abilities to make sure no trouble was headed Sasuke’s way while he was asleep and defenseless.

Sasuke hadn’t talked to him since the incident that morning, and the alpha hoped that by tomorrow, he had gotten over his frustration at the blonde. The day had been boring without being able to pester Sasuke. Sakura was still icy with him, and Shikamaru, even though Naruto had apologized for beating him up, still thought of him as a drag. Kakashi sensei had been in the process of moving apartments and wouldn’t even let the Uzumaki help because “Naruto, if I had wanted you to know where I lived to begin with, I wouldn’t be moving apartments.”

Even Pervy Sage had waved him off when he’d begged the sanin to train him. Dumb old man, who takes on a student and refuses to train them whenever some chick with big boobs walked by?!

Besides, none of the girls Jiraiya sensei even fell head over heels for were that good looking. They weren’t strong looking, or pale, or dark haired, and their eyes boring. Naruto liked pretty eyes that were a challenge to figure out. How could he not? Those kinds of eyes were like a competition, and the alpha was nothing if not a competitive person.

Naruto sighed, the last time he and the other alphas were hanging out, Kiba had made fun of him for having a type, but didn’t everyone have a type? Ino apparently liked assholes, and that weird girl Hinata supposedly really liked lively, stubborn people, but Naruto had no idea who she’d have her eye on. Kiba maybe?

Naruto couldn’t really figure out how the others knew when they had crushes on someone, let alone knowing their own preferences. He thought he’d had a crush on Sakura back before they made genin, but soon discovered that he’d just wanted to be friends with her very badly.

Choji had told him that crushes were just really strong feelings you had for someone, but Shikamaru had butted in and told the blonde that a crush was someone you wanted to spend all your time with.

That hadn’t been helpful at all, because Naruto had strong feelings for everyone and he wanted to spend all his time with Sasuke. The alpha rubbed at his scent bond absentmindedly as he glanced at the curtained window once more.

Had Sasuke ever had a crush on someone?

Naruto tried to picture what that would look like. The image of Sasuke blushing and stuttering around someone made him laugh, Sauske would never. Nah, Sasuke was more likely to chop off his own hand than to willingly act like a lovesick girl.

A thought struck him, once his giggles died down. What if Sasuke had acted like a lovesick girl before and his crush made fun of him for it and that was why Sasuke never let on that he liked anyone? The alpha’s fists tightened at the idea, and he had to remind himself not to growl because he was on a stealth mission to keep Sasuke safe.

If Naruto ever found out that someone had made fun of Sasuke like that- well, he’d kill them.

~~~

Sasuke woke before daybreak, unsurprisingly.

The omega allowed himself to lay there for a few minutes before getting up to start his day. As he stretched out, and ignored the sting of his muscles from yesterday’s rigorous training, he made a mental note to sharpen his kunai knives again before heading off to train alone.

Because the village was still in a disarray because of the chunin exams, Kakashi had been going out on more solo missions, so team seven were left to train however they wanted. Sasuke chose to train alone, relentlessly, from morning to night with carefully timed eating breaks.

Sasuke closed his eyes and let himself feel the area around him. He couldn’t feel Naruto’s chakra this morning, so he counted it as a win, even though he distinctly remembered waking up last night and feeling the raging orange chakra centered on the same roof the Uchiha had found him on in the first place.

He rubbed at his scent gland, and irritation shot through him.

That idiot.

It hurt Sasuke more than he cared to admit that Naruto saw him as helpless. It was such a stupid notion. Sasuke was the one always saving Naruto on missions. The omega even had dozens of needle marks to prove it.

It wasn’t fair that the moment Itachi came back, his new life was in shambles. All Naruto probably saw him as was some dumb, worthless omega who couldn’t even stand up to his older brother properly. And just to put salt in his wounds, Sasuke was weak to Itachi’s genjutsu and had no idea on where to start training his eyes to create the same threat level as Itachi’s Tsukuyomi.

Sasuke grit his teeth at the unfairness. Itachi had their father and Shisui to guide him in the Uchiha clan’s tricks and skills, Sasuke only had the fuzzy recollections of an eight year old mind and Kakashi, someone who had only guessed at the more intricate abilities because he wasn’t an Uchiha.

How long could he train for before he ran out of things to teach himself? There were no senseis that specialized in his kekkei genkai, for obvious reasons at his disposal after Kakashi, and already it felt like Kakashi had begun to run out of things to teach him.

With Naruto’s new sensei in town, Sasuke felt like he was losing their competition, and something much worse, Naruto’s respect. He could tell he’d begun to lose some of it during the chunin exams because he’d lost against Orochimaru, and in Naruto’s eyes, that was Sasuke’s first ever loss. Naruto was wrong of course, Sasuke’s first ever loss had happened eight years ago, on a blood soaked street, gasping for air as a monster with red swirling eyes towered over him.

Sasuke would not lose the next time he faced that monster.

The Uchiha pushed himself into a sitting position and shoved his unruly hair out of his face, and if his cheek had a lone, damp streak trailing down his face, well, there was no one around to see it.

It took him time to get ready. His breakfast was a practical one, light for an overworked body, but solid enough to gauge any feelings of hunger he would feel for at least half of the day.

Later, when he arrives at the training grounds, Naruto is already there, practicing against his clones. The blonde looks fierce, well, as fierce as a scrawny thirteen year old with all the menace of a penguin can possess, as he dives from a tree branch and dispels four clones at once with a technique he hadn’t witnessed the alpha use before.

His new sensei must have taught it to him.

That made his blood boil. Sasuke needed to catch up, he couldn’t fall behind because falling behind meant letting Itachi go free for even longer, and his team, his friends, wouldn’t be safe until he was brought to justice.

Sasuke summoned his own clone, and began to fight it. He was pulling out all of the stops, so much so that it distracted the other people that were there, such as Tenten and Shino, although Shino just appeared to be trying to locate more bugs, and even Naruto had turned to watch him practice instead of working on his own training.

Good.

Sasuke wanted Naruto to see. He needed the idiot to know that Sasuke was capable.

He trains like that for hours, not stopping even when the others shoot him questioning glances as they retreat to their homes for lunch. When one clone dispelled, he summoned two more in its place, until he was fighting about forty clones of himself all at the same time.

He’d obviously been overdoing it, seeing as his arm was still in a cast- which annoyed him to no end, because Kiba and Choji had written their names on it while he was unconscious and therefore, unable to threaten them into not signing his cast.

Sasuke lost track of time, and before he knew it, an angry Naruto was stomping towards him, or well, twenty seven of him. The irritated boy let loose a handful of kunai, sending them sailing into the clones closest to Sasuke.

“What is your problem!” Sasuke snapped. The Uchiha had as much patience in him as he had food in his system, which was exactly zero.

“You’ve been out here all day!” Naruto snapped back, his metaphorical hackles raised, “Are you trying to completely exhaust your chakra?!”

Sasuke rolled his eyes, debating on whether or not to sic his remaining clones on Naruto.

“I’m fine. Leave me alone!”

“NO!” Naruto blocked the omega from turning away from him and going back to his training, “You gotta eat something you bastard! You look like a ghost died, became another ghost, then died again and became a ghost times three!”

“If I were dead, I wouldn’t have to listen to your stupid interruptions anymore!” The Uchiha mocked, finally allowing his clones to disperse.

Naruto huffed but didn’t say anything else. Instead, he looked around, noticing all of Sasuke’s clones were gone, and began to walk away. “Stop being such a show off!” he spat over his shoulder, knowing Sasuke would hear him.

Good. That meant Naruto had noticed how skilled the Uchiha was today. Maybe the idiot wasn’t as incapable of seeing Sasuke as an equal as he’d originally thought.

There could only be one way to really know for sure, however.

Sasuke needed to test the blonde more.

~~~

It goes on for a month before things come to a boiling point.

They’d just set foot within Konoha’s gates, having just completed a week long mission in the land of waves. Sakura was the first to skip away from the team, anxious to get home and bathe properly for the first time in five days.

Naruto was glad to see her go. Ever since Sasuke’s party, she’d been scarily.. normal. Overbearing almost, although the blonde probably wasn’t the best person to determine if that were truly the case. Her smiles had started to give him the creeps too, and if he didn’t know any better, he’d say she was mad at him or something.

Which was a crazy idea because he’d already apologized to her about the accidental bonding thing and she’d accepted it very quickly. So, obviously, she wouldn’t still be mad.

Kakashi sensei had been gone when the orphan turned around to say his goodbyes, probably tired of the genin’s week long squabbling and not wanting much fuss.

That left him and Sasuke alone. Great.

Sasuke was such a bastard. Every waking moment on their mission, Sasuke had been doing outrageous things and took countless unwarranted risks. It was stupid and dumb and stupid- wait he’d already said that one. Ugh.

It was stupid though. Because what if the Uchiha had gotten hurt again? It would make it way easier for that snake pervert and Itachi to kidnap him and then Sasuke would be gone.

The blonde absentmindedly scratched at the bite mark on his left hand, that Sasuke had given him during their last argument about an hour ago, and huffed in annoyance.

He wished Sasuke weren’t so strong, then it would be easier to keep him safe because the stronger a shinobi is, the more powerful enemies they attract.

“Why are you growling, loser, upset that you can’t try to control me anymore?” The omega purred venomously. He’d been excruciatingly venomous for the entire duration of their mission.

Naruto was tired. He was hungry. He was angry because Sasuke was acting like he had something to prove, and he didn’t. Sasuke never had to prove anything to him because, well, it’s Sasuke. But Naruto had no idea why the asshole had decided to start acting like it now.

“No you bastard! I was trying to protect you! Do you know how close you came to losing an arm near the lake?!” the blonde shouted in return, gesturing wildly with his arms as if that would help him prove his point.

It was a familiar song and dance, Sasuke irritated him to the point where Naruto started shouting, Naruto inevitably lunged, Sasuke ended up winning.

But this time? Everything felt.. charged. Like every molecule of air surrounding them was humming in anticipation.

The tension snapped like a stressed rope, and they lunged at each other. Naruto kicked out, but Sasuke was quick and dodged it, finding the blonde’s open spot and digging his knee into the alpha’s side.

Sasuke hadn’t noticed Naruto’s arm swing through the air, and when the blonde’s fist made contact with his jaw, a thick thud sounded in the air.

It sent the omega stumbling back, giving Naruto just enough time to make a few shadow clones and send them after Sasuke.

The air in Sasuke’s lungs evaporated when he saw the shadow clones coming for him. It was just like Itachi’s genjutsu where he’d been forced to watch as endless Narutos died by his hand, unable to do anything about it.

He couldn’t stop the pained whimper from escaping his throat, and only the angry shouts of the clones had covered it. Sasuke refused to let the alpha see his weakness.

Instead of attacking, out of guilt from the genjutsu, or from a simple lack of wanting to give the real Naruto a leg up, Sasuke spun around just before two clones lunged at him, forcing them to crash into each other and poof out of existence.

He went for the real Naruto next, ignoring the remaining five clones. The Uzumaki seemed surprised, and Sasuke used it to his advantage. If Naruto had thought Sasuke was weak, well, he would just have to prove him wrong.

~~~

They’d fought for what felt like hours, but was really only about thirty minutes, and had somehow ended up in the forest near the foreboding old Uchiha compound. Neither of them had won, per se, but neither had lost either.

Naruto had been the first to collapse, however, because being thrown into a tree did numbers on a person’s back, but Sasuke had fallen not even a second after, clutching his side in pain. After that, they’d just laid there, close enough to hear the other’s rapid heart beating but far enough away to not care, faces turned towards the sky.

“Hey, Sasuke?” The blonde’s voice was soft but a little hoarse from all of the yelling they’d been doing earlier.

Naruto rolled over to the best of his abilities, looking a bit like an injured turtle, to turn his deep blue eyes on the Uchiha. Both of them were bruised, and battered, and exhausted, but something, something that they couldn’t name, kept them there on the grass, listening to each other’s harsh breaths and too tired to get up.

“What?” the Uchiha rasped out, unintentionally letting the alpha hear the rattle in his ribcage as he exhaled.

“I-” he cut himself off, not knowing what to say, but something was on the tip of his tongue regardless.

The silence that fell was a comfortable one, despite Sasuke’s expectant gaze lingering on him like a soft blanket. The air was no longer charged, and the Uzumaki’s blood no longer boiled, although something oddly energizing was thrumming under the surface of his skin.

“Sasuke,” he found his voice again, “do you regret our scent bond?”

Naruto couldn’t look away, not now when Sasuke looked so open, so youthfully exhausted and honest, but he probably should have, even if just for a flimsy excuse for privacy.

The trees around them were rustling with the wind, and it felt cool on the alpha’s scratched cheek. Night would fall soon, and he knew they should probably get up and hobble back to their apartments, licking their wounds, but laying there, together, that was healing in itself.

“No..” the reply came out in a broken whisper, almost like Sasuke himself was shocked by his answer.
Realizing what he’d said, the Uchiha began to turn away, but before he could, Naruto’s arm shot out and caught the pale boy’s chin and guided it back to face the alpha. The two stared into each other’s eyes, searching black pearls probing at the blonde’s face, trying to detect any traces of a trap.

Naruto knew him well enough by now to know when Sasuke was feeling unsure, “Do you?” the omega asked softly, breathlessly, and oh, right, Naruto had forgotten Sasuke’s ribs were probably broken.

Did he? The Uzumaki tried to think back to what life felt like before the accidental bonding but found it difficult trying to picture his life without such a strong tie to his best friend. Even when Sasuke had made him angrier than physically possible, he still wanted to be near him- as close as the grumpy Uchiha would allow anyway.

Besides, what did the scent bond even really mean? All Kakashi sensei had said was that it would mean they had a deep connection, but shouldn’t every teammate have some sort of deep connection like that?

Sasuke’s stare had begun to grow cold as Naruto thought, and when the omega began to sit up- with a pinch of thunderous ash permeating the air- he quickly blurted, “No! No! Never! Not even once, believe it!”

Which may have been overkill, but who was Naruto to say for sure?

The tension eased in the Uchiha’s shoulders as he let his arm fall from where it had been applying pressure on his stomach. The sleeve of his shirt rode up, and Naruto zeroed in on the fine little needle scars dotting the pale skin.

He forced his aching arm to move, gently making contact with the tiny healed wounds. “I never thanked you.”.

At Sasuke’s silence, he continued, “You saved me, when all I did on that mission was screw up, you saved me and you didn’t have to.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “Hey you bastard! I’m trying to-” Sasuke interrupted him, “You saved me in that fight with Gaara, we’re even, idiot.”

His words, which would have sounded mean and bitter to anyone else, made Naruto grin widely. Sasuke had just thanked him for something. Something shone in the Uchiha’s eyes, and his cheeks tinged pink, or as pink as they could be, given half of his face was a budding shade of purple.

The alpha couldn’t bring himself to feel all that guilty over Sasuke’s injuries, because Sasuke gave as good as he got, and if it weren’t for his weirdly fast healing, Naruto was pretty sure he would be paralyzed from that last jab the omega had delivered to his back.

Besides, he knew if he voiced any of his concerns for his well being, Sasuke would muster up the last bit of strength he had to chidori him right in the face.

Another question popped into head, and due to a possible concussion, he didn’t possess the common sense required to keep him from asking, “Hey, what did you see.. in Itachi’s genjutsu thing?”

He knew he was an idiot from the second those words left his mouth, and if his left eye weren’t nearly swollen shut, he would have cringed at the way Sasuke’s body tensed.

The pale boy’s jaw clenched as he turned his head away from the alpha. Gone were the pink cheeks and sincere eyes from the moment before.

If he strained his eyes, he could almost make out the reflection of the moonlight in the lone test that dripped down the other’s chin, falling and catching on Sasuke’s shirt and leaving a lonely looking damp spot.

“You.” Sasuke croaked out, although with his ribs the way they were, it was more like a determined wheeze.

“ME?!” Naruto began to shout, before breaking into a coughing fit. Man, Sasuke had not been messing around earlier with those kicks to the alpha’s chest.

What was he supposed to make of that? Why would Itachi torment Sasuke with him. It didn’t make any sense. Unless- had the criminal used Naruto’s face to do the things that only Itachi would do to his younger brother?

“Sasuke.. You know I’d never hurt you, right?” Naruto meant every word. He would never hurt his best friend. Not when Naruto knew just how painful it was to exist being singled out by the people who were supposed to care and be there for him.

To know that someone had done that to Sasuke.. Something deep and dark and menacing growled from the depths of his mind, but Naruto ignored it. Now was not the time to be angry, now was the time to comfort his friend who had felt very little comfort in his lifetime.

“Pft, for a supposed rival, you care way too much about me.” Sasuke tried to joke, but it fell flat against the wind and Naruto’s injured and angry breaths.

“Damn it Sasuke, it’s not just some rivalry, we-we have a bond” Sasuke raised his eyebrow at him, “I’m not talking about the scent bond, what you and I have is something strong and deep, way deeper than some stupid rivalry.”

The tears began to flow freely on Sasuke’s face, and he aggressively started to try and wipe them away, which only served to irritate a cut on his cheekbone, causing a tiny trickle of blood to seep from the wound and mix with the fresh tears.

Ignoring his body screaming at him, Naruto moved to be directly beside the Uchiha, and wrapped his unbroken arm around him. It was a terrible excuse for a hug, but it felt right.

“We should really try and get back to the village.” the blonde chuckled, and he didn’t miss the sharp exhale from Sasuke. It wasn’t quite a laugh, but it showed amusement either way, so Naruto was happy.

“We would’ve been there already if you hadn’t decided to throw a hissy fit when we got back.” Sasuke teased, and he knew it was teasing because the omega did his best to showcase a slight smile.

He was obviously deflecting, but Naruto decided he wouldn’t call him on it. It wouldn’t be right to, not after he’d already pushed his luck with some poorly thought out questioning.

It was when the silence had fallen on them again that the alpha realized how close they were. His arm was still wrapped around the Uchiha, and that was shocking, because by now, he’d thought Sasuke would have pushed him away.

The moonlight had illuminated the inky blue-black strands of his hair like a crown. Sasuke looked.. ethereal like that, and his eyes still had a teary shine to them. Naruto understood why all the girls, and some guys, fell head over heels for the bastard, looking at him then.

He didn’t look perfect, no, but he was the closest damn thing to it that Naruto knew he would ever see.

The pair were exhausted, bloody, emotionally ambiguous, and in need of medical assistance, but all that his brain could register was how interesting Sasuke’s lips were.

What Naruto hadn’t realized was he’d already begun to lean forward. Gravity, what an interesting concept, seemed to both push and pull him towards his teammate. Naruto’s probable concussion only aided the blonde in letting his lips fall on the Uchiha’s with little hesitation.

Sasuke let out a shocked sound, but didn’t pull away.

Their scents were even more intertwined than usual, leaving the two almost entranced by the other.

Sure, the taste was a bit metallic because of course, Naruto decided to kiss him just after they’d had an epic fight, but it felt right. More than right. It felt normal, like that was what he should have been doing all along.

Sasuke ended up being the one to pull away.

“Sas-” Naruto trailed off as the embarrassment sunk in. He’d just kissed Sasuke. Sasuke Uchiha. And unlike those other times, he’d done it on purpose this time.

Before he could freak out, and change his name and run away to the village hidden in the clouds to live out the rest of his days in complete and utter shame at being so stupid, Sasuke spoke up, “Lets just watch the leaves.”

He didn’t seem upset. He didn’t sound angry or offended or disgusted.

Maybe-maybe Sasuke had wanted to kiss him too?

Naruto didn’t dare ask the Uchiha to clarify things, so instead, he gave Sasuke some space and silently watched the leaves.

Hopefully, when enough of their chakra had been restored, they’d go back to the village and get granny Tsunade to heal them. If he bribed her with some sake or maybe offered to tell her where Konoha’s only gambling house was, she probably wouldn’t even yell at them all that much.

~~~

“Fancy of you two to join me.” Kakashi remarked as the two sanin made their presence known.

He’d gotten back from a quick mission report at the hokage’s office no earlier than forty three minutes ago, and eleven minutes after that, had been informed by a distraught Iruka that Naruto hadn’t shown up for his nightly bedtime story, which led the seasoned shinobi to the forest, where he discovered his two students passed out, cuddling on the ground. Oh, and they were covered in cuts and bruises and burn marks and.. teeth marks?!

The bite marks weren’t as shocking as they should have been, Naruto was a known biter. Kakashi found that out the hard way when he’d jokingly pretended to steal some of Naruto’s ramen. The jonin still hadn’t been able to live down the teasing he’d gotten over the very high, very feminine scream he’d let out when the little gremlin sunk his too- sharp- to-be-one hundred percent- human teeth into his forearm.

The masked twenty six year old scratched at the bite shaped scar on his right arm as Tsunade stepped forward, “What the hell happened in the two hours team seven has been back in the village for them to have beaten each other up this severely?”

Jiraiya didn’t comment, as he was too busy pulling up the Uzumaki’s shirt to reveal a perfectly intact seal still displayed on the thirteen year old’s stomach. “Well, at least the nine tails probably didn’t have something to do with it.” the old man commented, placing the offensively orange material back in place and taking a step back from the sleeping morons.

Kakashi chuckled sarcastically, “I wouldn’t worry about the nine tails, Naruto and Sasuke have a rather,” he paused, gesturing whimsically at the two sleeping genin, “explosive relationship.”

Kakashi had learned that the hard way, unfortunately, and with how stubborn his students could be, it was a lesson he continued to learn. The other senseis loved giving him hell for it, especially Asuma, as he was one of the few people alive currently that could recall just how explosive his and Obito’s camaraderie was as well. Karma, what a bitch.

“Those idiots,” Tsunade mumbled half heartedly, her glance at Naruto was too fond for her words to hold any real bite to them as she quietly kneeled next to Sasuke and began to heal him. “Did something happen on your mission to cause this?” She asked, not looking up from Sasuke’s rib area- he probably had a cracked rib or two, if Kakashi had to guess.

“Eh, nothing more than usual. Naruto didn’t follow orders, Sasuke ordered him to follow orders, which you both can understand why that didn’t blow over well.”

Sasuke did enjoy rules. Not to the point that Sakura did, thank the stars, but he had an obvious need for normalcy, which Kakashi could understand, as he was very similar to the Uchiha when he was a teenager as well. However, if there was one person that could make Sasuke throw caution to the wind and lose every ounce of sanity known to man, it would be Naruto.

“Pft, Naruto is too much like Kushina for his own good, not enough of his dad in him, poor kid.” Jiraiya sighed, pulling a stray kunai knife out of a tree trunk before leaning his back against the dented bark.

Dread pooled in Kakashi’s stomach at the mention of the two, how Jiraiya could say their names so freely, he didn’t know, and it hurt deeper than any stab wound he’d ever received had.

“He’s an Uzumaki, what’d you expect?” Tsunade joked as she moved on to heal the cut on Sasuke’s cheek.

Naruto was a Namikaze.

“Well, yeah, the Uzumaki were a pretty rambunctious clan, but still, it wouldn't have been terrible for him to inherit his father’s self awareness at least.”

Kakashi remained noticeably silent, too wrapped up in memories from what felt like a lifetime ago, as he stared unblinkingly at his student’s face that looked too much like someone else’s that he used to know.

“Do their glands look irritated or anything? Scent bonds can be a pain if the two people are in close proximity but still not mated yet” Jiraiya added when Tsunade began looking Sasuke over for more injuries. The old man’s hand lightly touched at where his damaged scent gland used to be, and Kakashi averted his gaze.

That could have been him, if the incident hadn’t occurred. It was something he inconsolably regretted, but was also a little selfishly relieved about. Scents were important to the Hatake clan, as were mates. Kakashi may have lost one, but at least the other stayed intact, even if he chose to keep his scent hidden from everyone around him.

“They shouldn’t have too much of an issue. They’re both still too young for actual mating, and their bodies would know that. We’ve still got about two years to remove the bond.” Kakashi said, willing his prior thoughts away with the distraction of conversation.

The past was the past, he needed to worry about the future, specifically his student’s futures.

“If we remove the scent bond.” Tsunade declared, glaring up at them from her crouched position, making the green glow of her healing jutsu cast strange and menacing shadows on her face.

“Oh?” Kakashi hadn’t been told that there was a disagreement on the matter.

“Look, Tsunade, I still think it’s our best bet. The Akatsuki are coming, maybe not now, but soon, and if you think Itachi Uchiha wouldn’t kill Sasuke if it meant getting to Naruto, you’re delusional.”
“Sasuke is capable, Master Jiraiya, he just needs to be trained. He only just awakened his sharingan. There is a reason Lord Third put the two of them on the same squad, you know.”

At both of the sanin’s questioning glances, Kakashi continued, “Sasuke is the last remaining Uchiha in the leaf village. He can control tailed beasts with the sharingan and Naruto has the strongest tailed beast sealed within himself. It’s also why I’m their sensei. I have the sharingan to both teach Sasuke, and also keep an eye on Naruto, should something happen with the seal.”

The jonin uncrossed his arms and shrugged before continuing, “They both have much more potential than what’s written on the papers. I did, Itachi did,” Kakashi let out a shuddery breath, “Kushina and Minato sensei did. Don’t underestimate either of them, especially Sasuke.”

“I understand what you’re saying, Kakashi, but potential can take entire life spans to actualize. We don’t have decades, we probably don’t even have two years. The truth is, they could die by the hands of the Akatsuki, by your hands, Tsunade,” the sanin turned to address the blonde woman, and Kakashi knew this was turning into a likely already discussed argument, “-during the separation surgery, or even by some random shinobi’s on a mission.”

“I am well aware of children dying in the shinobi world.” The omega spat bitterly as she moved over to take a look at Naruto, Sasuke having been healed already. It was a wonder neither of the two had been woken up by her jutsu, or even the rapidly turning heated conversation between the three ninja.

“We have time. The Akatsuki won’t move until they have all the chess pieces on their board in line, obviously, if Itachi Uchiha’s attack is anything to go off of, they are spread thin enough that only two members go on a retrieval mission for jinchuriki. Capturing a jinchuriki is clearly a difficult process, if you’ll remember when Kushina would run away from the village, and that was when she was playing a game. Even if we don’t have the time to wait this out and see what happens when these two mature, we can buy time.”

“But at what cost, princess? How many other leaf village shinobi’s lives will be lost to keep two from falling into the wrong hands? Sasuke is a target of the Akatsuki solely because of his bloodline, and Orochimaru already got his hands on the boy, and that snake knows Konoha. Do you think the Hidden Leaf can handle two strong opponents attacking at the same time? The two of them being in the same place is a death sentence for everyone around them.”

Jiraiya was an alpha without a scent, but even still, in his weakened, old age, his voice carried the weight of his status, whether he meant it to or not.

“So what if you took Naruto on your travels, Master Jiraiya?” Kakashi spoke up finally, “You could keep an eye on the boy, continue training him, hell, teach him about being a jinchuriki, while also gathering intel on the Akatsuki. With Naruto moving around constantly, they wouldn’t be able to get a plan of attack together to get him, especially not while Naruto was with a legendary sanin.”

Tsunade made a hum of approval and Jiraiya didn’t seem to disagree either, so the Hatake continued, “Sasuke would be kept here, in Konoha, where I would oversee his training, and the higher clearance shinobi would be able to ward off Orochimaru’s involvement. With Anko’s help, we could probably even figure out how to get rid of the curse mark.”

“That’s not a bad idea.” the toad sage spoke thoughtfully, holding his chin in consideration.

Tsunade sighed, “So we’re in agreement then, we split them up?”

Kakashi looked down at his students. He’d had them for a year and in that short year, so many things had happened. They’d broken into his apartment to complain about the other, they’d given the man nightmares filled with mischievously grinning genin, so many horrible pranks gone oh so wrong, and so much more.

Those two had breathed life back into the jonin, with the careful nagging of Sakura to guide the group along. Even though they weren’t his, they were his pack, even if it was unofficially. He would be so sad to see one of them go, and even sadder to still have Sakura and Sasuke, but know that his unspoken family of genin was incomplete.

Splitting them up was going to be hell, even more hellish because they had a scent bond and clearly some other connection the two had, and it was one Kakashi feared was unbreakable.

He knew from experience that those were the most painful kind.

“So how are we going to get rid of the scent bond?”