Chapter Text
Naruto pours water in his ramen cup, puts down the kettle and close the lid, placing his chopsticks on top to add some weight, making sure the plastic sheet doesn’t rise and let the noodle get perfectly cooked. He grabs his frog looking timer and set it for three minutes. He looks at his instant ramen, thinking. He’s alone right now, Sasuke has been doing a lot of missions, on his own. He says it is to prove his loyalty to Konoha and repent for his crimes but Naruto think this is useless. Sasuke doesn’t need to prove himself, if anything it is Konoha that should prove itself to him after all. The blond boy is sure it’s also a reason why Sasuke does such long mission, he clearly wants to stay away from the village as much as possible because it doesn’t feel like home yet. But Naruto will make it Sasuke’s home, he will change this village just for Sasuke and he’ll make sure Sasuke feels safe enough to call it his home.
The timer beeps, indicating the noodles are finally ready to be eaten. Naruto makes the ringing stops and grabs his cup, walking towards the couch and sitting on it. He grabs the tv remote and plays a random series, plunging his chopsticks into the cup and swallowing a couple of noodles. How could Naruto make Konoha into Sasuke’s home? He needs to build him a safe place, somewhere he knows he can return without judgment, have friends and enjoy life. Lately Naruto has sent him a lot of letters but without responses which did upset him. He loves him, and he really hate being away from Sasuke.
He didn’t spend eight years of his life chasing him to the end of the world only for him to be restlessly traveling across the globe, he could at least let Naruto travel with him, but somehow, he always refuses. Sasuke knows Naruto loves him, and Naruto’s pretty sure he loves him too. They’ve kissed a couple of time after parties and Sasuke sorts of did a drunk confession to him, it wasn’t that explicit but Naruto knows Sasuke like no one.
He sighs as he puts down his now empty cup on the table. Today he’s determined to find a way to make Sasuke stay longer. He walks to his room to get dressed up in his daily outfit and he’s planning on wondering around the village, hopefully he’s going to find an idea while walking in the various streets of Konoha. Not everything is rebuilt but the reconstruction of the village is practically finished as it has been three years since the end of the war, which means a lot of new shops have opened. Maybe he can find inspiration by observing the different things the village has to offer now.
He crouches down as he puts on his shoes and grabs the new hoodie he bought; he grew out of his old clothes which were pretty torn up anyway. He leaves his house, closing the door behind him. The fresh wind makes him nose colder, it’s the end of the year, the winter is getting colder and colder each day, soon it’s going to snow.
He’s been walking for half an hour now and he’s had some ideas, like making Sasuke move in so they’d always be together, or asking Kakashi to give him a mission with Sasuke. Those wouldn’t really make Sasuke feel like Konoha is his home, but they’d be closer and maybe they could share new kisses, or even more. Naruto feels his cheeks warm up. That’s when a voice pulls him out of his thought.
“Naruto!” It’s Sakura, she walking towards him, a big smile on her face. She’s clearly super happy about something. Behind her are people from their big friend group, such as Shikamaru, Hinata, Chouji, Tenten and they all seem to be cheering and screaming, surrounding Sai and Ino who are both visibly blushing. “You’re not gonna believe this!” She screams, getting in his face. “Oh my god, we need to get everyone!” She giggles.
Naruto smiles, a bit confused. “What happened?” He asks her.
She giggles some more, her smile going ear to ear, she’s biting her lip to try to calm down. “Ino and Sai got engaged this morning!”
Naruto’s eyes widen as a soft warm feeling fill his chest, he looks up from Sakura’s shoulder to see the couple all giddy and Ino showing off her ring while Tenten grabs her hand to look at it on a better angle. His signature smile grows on his face. “No way!” He runs towards his friends and hug the both of them. “Congrats! I’m so happy for you guys!” He laughs as they both thank him and they separate. “We should throw a big party! Let’s do a hot pot with everyone!”
Ino’s eyes are full of stars. “A hot pot?! You guys are so sweet!”
Sai holds Ino by her hip. “This would be a very nice gathering, let’s do that tonight.”
Lee nods. “I’ll take care of bringing everyone there! Where are we gonna do the hot pot?” He asks.
Tenten hums, rearranging her scarf. “Well, there’s a place me and Hinata went to last week after a mission and it was delicious!”
“Oh yes! She told me about it.” Adds Ino. “Well let’s go there then, it’s the place the street after Ichiraku’s ramen if I remember well.”
“That’s settled then, see you around.” Says Shikamaru, already starting to leave, the others don’t waste time leaving either and they part ways.
⋆⁺₊⋆ ☯︎⋆⁺₊⋆
Cheers can be heard through the warm place as the large group of friends clink their glasses to celebrate the new fiancés. Their food finally comes in and Naruto slowly drink his beer as he watches the waiter puts his beef order in front of him. He seems to struggle a bit with the many plates he holds on his arms. He excuses himself and go back to get the rest of their order, he’ll probably need two more round trip to get everything they got on the table. Table that is actually three tables together. The restaurant is definitely not used to have eleven customers at once.
Naruto laughs after seeing the difference between Chouji’s plate and the others. No one can compete with his appetite that’s for sure.
“Do you already have plans for the wedding?” Asks Temari who happened to be in Konoha that day, her smile indicate she’s already a bit tipsy, which often means no good, she becomes so malicious once she’s drunk.
Everyone’s eyes are now on Sai and Ino. “Mh, well.” She finishes to drink her sake. “We obviously didn’t have much time to think about it but we’re thinking of doing it in about six months or a year!” Ino explains as Sai nods. “It’s a lot of preparation after all.”
Naruto is there without being there. He laughs and engage in conversations but he is still lost in thoughts he immediately forgets about. He’s clearly dissociating at some point, staring at his meat getting boiled in the flavoury broth in the middle of his table. Lee seems to notice it, he’s always the one to notice.
“Are you feeling well Naruto?” He asks, a hint of worry on his face.
Naruto plasters a bright smile on his face. “Yeah, sorry I was lost in my thoughts.” He casually puts more meat to boil, hoping Lee wouldn’t ask anything else, he wouldn’t be able to put words to how he’s feeling now, he’s just numb.
The rest of the night goes in the blink of an eye. Naruto is still troubled by Sasuke. He walks back to his apartment, lazily climbing the stairs and opening the door. He dumps his clothes on the ground and he hops in the shower, the warm water runs on his body. He stays there, looking at his feet, still not down on earth. When he finally finishes washing himself, he falls onto his bed, his nose squished on his pillow. He tosses and turns for a while, not being able to find sleep. All he can think about is Sasuke.
He sighs, trying to think about something else. He wonders what Sai and Ino’s wedding will be like, or how did Sai propose. That’s when it hits him. He sits up in a flash, eyes wide open. He could propose to Sasuke! Like that, he’ll have to stay with him forever, just like Ino and Sai. Well, he can’t really just propose, they’re not even dating but he’s pretty sure he can get a promise ring. Oh, this is perfect actually. After finally finding an idea, he’s able to go to sleep, pretty fast actually. He cannot wait to go in jewellery shops tomorrow.
⋆⁺₊⋆ ☯︎⋆⁺₊⋆
Naruto is looking at rings through the window shield of a popular jewellery shop in Konoha. But if he’s being honest, nothing looks good to him. All promise rings are quite girly, with complicated pattern and overly saturated by precious stones of different colours. Naruto does think some of them would suit Sasuke’s elegant hand but it’s clearly not his style. Sasuke would never agree to his proposal if he doesn’t pick a ring the other would actually wear. There is only one style of ring that is more masculine, but they’re just plain rings in different size, he could engrave it to give it more personality but it would still be boring even with it. Naruto sighs, this is definitely more complicated that he thought it would be.
He leaves the shop and the sound of the bell on top of the door resonate. Come to think of it, is a ring really that convenient? Sasuke is always fighting, maybe the ring would slide off, or get damaged, plus he never really saw Sasuke wear rings anyway. He never saw him wear jewellery at all actually, apart from a small necklace once. But of course! A necklace would he perfect actually. He can protect it by hiding it in his shirt, it can’t slide off his neck and it can be beautiful yet still masculine, just like Sasuke. He’s beautiful for a man, really pretty come to think of it. He snaps out of his thoughts as a ninja appears in front of him, waving his hand back and forth in his face.
Naruto blinks twice and shakes his head a little. “Uh, yes?”
The other seems younger than him, probably became a chunin recently too, judging by his uniform. “Sorry to bother you, mister Uzumaki…”
“You can just call me Naruto you know.” He interrupts the boy, clearly intimidated by Naruto.
He nods, an embarrassed look on his face. “Oh okay…well Naruto, I-uh.” He stammers. “I came back from the Hokage’s office and Lord six asked me to find you, to-to say to come.”
Naruto hums. “Thanks, I’ll get going.” He scratches the back of his head, what an awkward situation.
Naruto jumps building to building, running to the Hokage’s desk. He climbs the stairs two per two, waving to some other ninjas he sees in the hallway and he finally gets to the office. He walks in without knocking.
“Hi!” He greets his old teacher who waves to him.
“Hi, I hope everything’s doing ok for you Naruto.” He starts. “I have a mission for you.”
Naruto walks closer to the desk. “What is it about?” He asks.
Kakashi joins his hands on the desk. “I need you to travel to a village in the north of the country. Recently snow storms have been damaging a lot of towns and one in particular has requested help to rebuild it.” Kakashi brings out a map. “There has already been a couple death from the cold, so I’m sending you and Yamato there to help the population. You’re leaving in a few hours.”
⋆⁺₊⋆ ☯︎⋆⁺₊⋆
Naruto walks around to look if anyone need his help. So far, they’ve managed to rebuild most of the damage in the residents’ homes and they were able to make some of the fire places work again. Naruto is taking a short break after all his hard work which allows him to wonder through the village. It is small and the habitants are mostly old people which is why they had an hard time rebuilding the houses, but there are a lot of stuff to check out. Some beautiful places, nice restaurants as well as interesting shops where cool handmade trinkets are made and sold. Naruto walks in one of those shops, it is a wood craft shop with sculptures and engravement. The smell hit first, as he feels the strong sent of old wood and incense burning through the place burning his lungs. His nose wrinkles before adapting to the smell and then another weird feelings go through his body. The old lady running the business welcome him from behind the counter, visibly sculpting a bear.
“Hello there, young man. Can I help you with something?” She puts down her knife and sculpture down as Naruto gets closer to her, looking around.
He hums, feeling something strange emanating from the wood. It almost feels like he’s being watched by about ten people, he feels their sent. “What’s that?” He asks while looking around the place, unsure if she’ll understand what he means.
She laughs gently, her frail body walking closer to Naruto. She picks up one of the wooden statues that Naruto couldn’t stop looking at. He feels like the thing is haunted. “You’re a high ranked ninja so I suppose you feel it strongly.” She says and Naruto look down at her, confused. “These were craved in a special wood that traps chakra in it. That’s what you’re feeling, it is chakra.”
“Chaka?” Naruto says as he picks up one of the sculptures. Yeah, that’s it, he can feel it, this one is pretty strong too, probably from another ninja actually. He looks back at the old lady. “But why? Isn’t that…a bit creepy?” He still feels uneasy about the whole thing.
She smiles at him, understanding. “You see, I usually crave for people who wants to give or as a memorial. People come here specifically for that. They want to give to their loved ones something filled with their own chakra or want objects with chakra from a family member.” She sits back down. “For example, recently I had two parents and their daughter coming in, the young girl felt anxious to live without her parents as she had to go away for her studies so her parents filled two little statues of their chakra allowing her to always feel them close.”
Naruto’s lips are slightly parted, he feels an idea growing in his mind. It is clear to him, destiny brought him here, that’s exactly what he needed. “Excuse me, do you do jewellery perhaps?” He asks, a bit shy.
The woman hums. “Tell me about your idea, I like to know the reason of why I’m crafting something. My art always allows me to build endearing stories.” She says as she adjusts her seat and whips off with the back of her hand the left-over scraps of the wood she was craving before Naruto came in.
Naruto grabs the stool next to him and sits down, facing the old lady who looks at him with a soft smile, her scarf slowly falling off her shoulder. Naruto blushes slightly. “Well, you see, I’m in love with someone.” The lady nods, putting down her tools. “The thing is, he’s often away in very long missions, it’s primarily because he doesn’t like to stay in the village, he’s constantly running away.” He says, fidgeting with his hoodie’s strings.
The lady looks up to him, her face curious. “Do you know why he’s running away?”
Naruto barely bites his lips, he exhales loudly. “Some…bad stuff happened to him there, he finds it hard to call it home again.” Naruto clenches his fists as his eyebrow’s furrows. “But I’ve been trying to find a way for him to finally feel safe there, for him to have a reason to stay and be with me.” When he looks up, the old lady is looking at him, very concentrated on his story telling, her chin resting on her hand as she hums whenever Naruto finishes a sentence. “I’ve thought that giving him a promise ring would accelerate this, but the rings I saw weren’t really anything he’d wear, either too bold and feminine or plain and boring. So I thought about a necklace, and now that I’ve run into your shop, I feel like both of us having a necklace with our chakra trapped in it would be perfect.” Naruto darts his eyes dreamingly elsewhere, smiling. “Like that, even if we’re separated by work, we would always feel each other close to our heart.”
A big smile is painted on the old lady’s lips as she giggles. “What a beautiful story, really.” She grabs Naruto’s hand gently with her shaking ones and grants him a soothing look. “I can tell you love him a lot.” She stops, thinking. “Actually, I think I’ve never seen someone with a more loving look than the one you had when you were telling me all of this.”
Naruto feels a blush growing on his cheeks as he chuckles, his eyes closed for a second. “Yeah, I love him a lot.”
The old lady brings out two plectrum shaped wooden trinkets. “I think I have an idea on how the necklace would look like.” She slightly bends on the table and so does Naruto after understanding she’s about to show him. She takes one of the trinkets in her wrinkled hand. “You see, I specialize in engravement, and as you can see here,” She gestures on the wall behind her, showing different wood sheet attached. “I’m quite good at making portraits. I was thinking of engraving each of your faces on it, with your name behind it and then when you’ll meet up with him, you’ll put your chakra in it.”
Naruto’s eyes are full of stars, he loves the idea so much, he feels like he’s on a cloud right now. “That’s perfect granny! You’re a true genius.” She laughs at that. “I actually have a picture of him in my wallet, that would be better than just describing him, right?”
The old lady looks at him with a cheeky smile. “You have a picture of him in your wallet uh? Young love is beautiful.” She shows his palm to him, indicating for him to give it to him.
He blushes and pouts, feeling as if he was naked, that’s was his little secret. He often looks at this picture of Sasuke he got from Karin a while ago while he was visiting Orochimaru’s place to make sure everything was in order. It’s embarrassing how Naruto almost feel like a grieving husband looking at his dead wife’s pictures every time he feels lonely enough to go through his wallet and find this photo. He silently hands the picture to the woman and she audibly gasps.
“He’s surely a handsome young man! You’re lucky.” She winks at Naruto which makes him laugh.
He runs his hand through his hair, thinking of old memories. “This is an old picture; he looks even better now that he’s grown into adulthood.”
“Do you have a picture of you at the same age? It would be weird to engrave your faces from different times, wouldn’t it?” She puts down the picture of Sasuke and grab a pencil, slowly starting to sketch on the wood Sasuke’s face.
Naruto hums and nods in negation. “I don’t, but I could describe it to you? I used to have slightly longer hair, but I kinda look the same, maybe my jaw was not as strong as it is right now.” He moves his fingers in his hair and along his jaw to sort of show, the old lady nods.
She makes a fast sketch of Naruto with longer hair and a smoother jawline. Quite frankly Naruto is in awe watching her draw, her hands stop shaking as she fully concentrates to draw and it really show how experienced she is because she managed to make a rough sketch that looks much more beautiful than anything Naruto could ever do in his entire life. The most impressive part is how she really managed to recreate what Naruto used to look like at sixteen years old even without seeing any pictures and with the questionable description he gave to her. She raises the paper and show it to Naruto, looking for approval.
“This is perfect! You’re so talented granny!” He says in disbelief.
She snots. “I have been doing that since my early thirties you know, it is safe to say I’m a professional.” She says, confident. Seems like she appreciated Naruto complimenting her skills. “You haven’t seen the best part of my art yet, look closely young man.” She invites him to look closer with her hand, which he does.
She grabs a black pen and with experienced hands, she draws almost identically Sasuke’s face on the wooden plectrum, she tosses it aside and does the same with Naruto’s face on the second. Naruto can’t help but be amazed to how an old lady like herself is able to draw so fast such small portraits. He feels something bloom in his chest, watching his future promise necklaces get done. After the portraits are finally done, she grabs some sorts of needle. She closes her eyes, concentrating on her hand and chakra wraps around the tool. She then slowly starts to trace the faces made on each plectrum.
Naruto has never seen anything like it, to be honest, he never saw chakra being really used outside of the ninja world, who would have thought artists from small village would use it as a skill to make their trinkets! It’s really impressive. After a couple more minutes of the old lady engraving the wood with her chakra fuelled needle, she takes two ropes from under the counter, probably in a drawer and she puts each ornament in the rope to finish the necklaces. She hands them to Naruto, who’s speechless. There aren’t enough words in every language of this planet for him to explain the feeling he carries deep in his heart seeing the necklaces.
He inhales a sharp breath, holding it in. His eyes waters a bit, he sees the world blurry now. All he ever wanted in his life, was for Sasuke to stay by his side no matter what. Maybe it was selfish, but Naruto didn’t care, for once in his life he wanted to be selfish. And even if it meant losing everything else, as long as Naruto can feel Sasuke by his side, he doesn’t care about the rest.
He feels a hand wrapping around his, making his palm close on the two necklaces. He looks up to see the softest look he’s ever seen on anyone’s face. The old lady offers him a soothing smile. “Take them for free, you have done so much for our village and I’m sure you did even better things in life. This is a thank you for everything you’ve ever made in your life.” She says, her voice so gently it made Naruto melt.
His eyes widen, shocked by her gift. “No, you deserve to be paid for the masterpiece you just made me!” He backs away and search for his wallet. “Listen I-” He starts but gets shut down.
“No, no. I don’t want to hear it.” She turns to her left to get a small velvet bag. “All you need to worry about right now, is finally getting the love of your life able to call you, his home.”
Naruto feels a shiver run through his body, his lips wobble and the inevitable happens. He cries. Tears run down his face as he thanks the lady again and again, her small laugh echoing in his ears.
⋆⁺₊⋆ ☯︎⋆⁺₊⋆
Naruto is happy, really happy. In about three days, the week-end of the new year is coming. He sent a letter to Sasuke begging him to come back for new year and he actually agreed. He was going to spend the night at Naruto’s after pausing his mission Friday and then spend the entire week-end with Naruto. And of course the others.
Naruto watched an anime recently; he was still trying to figure out the perfect moment to do his not-actually-proposing-proposing. And then, he watched as the couple hugged in the night, only the fireworks lighting them up and after the male character whispered ‘happy new year’, they kissed. Naruto’s crisp dropped as his fingers opened and his lips parted.
New year’s festival in Konoha was going to be big this year, with tons of different activities, food trucks and concerts. Naruto knew a perfect spot to be in peace and quiet, just like Sasuke prefer, they would see the fireworks and Naruto would finally give him the necklaces.
The sad part though, he has a mission that takes one day to travel to. Right now, he’s getting ready to with his team, which is composed of Hinata, Sakura and Lee. He sighs as he puts his shuriken in his small bag. Sakura seems to notice his pout because she jokingly smacks her finger up and down Naruto’s lips, which makes him react right away, shaking his head backward.
“What the hell Sakura!” He shouts, his pouting comes back instantly as he is quite annoyed.
She’s laughing, clearly mocking him and his overreaction. “Sorry, sorry. I couldn’t stop myself from doing it! Your lips are gonna detach from your face if you continue frowning like that.” She smirks and sits down next to him on the bench. “Are you thinking about Sasuke?” She asks casually, probably already knowing the answer.
Naruto hums. “We’re going to come back to the village late in the night, which means Sasuke will probably be asleep when I get home.” He says, showing a sad face.
Sakura gives him a small smile. “Don’t worry, he’s gonna be here all week-end. He’ll only leave Monday morning.” She swings her legs back and forth. “It’s not that long but it’s better than nothing, right?”
Lee joins in the conversation, hands on his hips. “I can’t wait for all of us to be together! It’s gonna be just us, like old time!” He says positively. “Though we didn’t really hangout together like we do now, back then.”
Naruto looks at the floor blankly. A sudden anxious feeling bloom in his stomach. What if Sasuke rejects him? What if he doesn’t agree to his promise and leave again? Two fingers snap in front of his eyes and he shakes the feeling away. He turns around to see Sakura, worry painted on her face.
“Naruto, are you alright?” She asks.
He comes back to his senses, getting up of the bench. He doesn’t wanna worry Sakura with his dumb overthinking, plus he can’t really explain it. He never told what he planned to do to anyone as he really wants to have something private and intimate with Sasuke and Sasuke only.
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The moon is already up in the sky when Sasuke finally coming through the gates of Konoha. He slightly looks to each of his sides as he walks in the different streets leading to Naruto’s apartment. It’s been a while since he came back to the village, he would be lying if he wasn’t surprised the village changed again. But it makes sense since the last time he actually came here, the renovations were still uncompleted. One year, that’s how long Sasuke’s been gone. He did meet other ninjas during that time, Naruto included, just not in Konoha. The beautiful new year ornaments were already on in every street as well as the shops being decorated for the event. Seems like some temporary shops were already setting up their booths for the festival too. The streets were already crowded with tourist who came from other cities just for the new year. Sasuke doesn’t pay too much attention to that and continues to walk to Naruto’s place. Finally arrived there, he sees a note of the door. He moves his cloak out of his way and grab the paper taped there.
‘If you see this, it means I’m still in mission! The door is open, suit yourself out! -Naruto’ A silly smiley with a thumb up is near the text. Sasuke can’t help but let a faint smile grow on his lips. He puts the note in his pocket and open the door.
After lighting up the room, he puts his cloak on the coat rail provided for this purpose and he bends down to take off his shoes, leaving them in the entrance. He takes a good look at the place, it hasn’t changed a bit, apart from maybe being cleaner than usual. Naruto really did that for him uh? He walks to the kitchen, he stops in front of the fridge, wondering if there would be anything edible at all. Visibly not, all there is in there is an old milk bottle, some soda as well as leftover cake and harden rice. Sasuke looks at the fridge’s insides in disbelief, he would’ve hoped Naruto started to care more about his health but seems like he’s not concerned by what he puts his body through.
He sighs, close the fridge door and goes straight to the cabinet, thinking he’ll get luckier, it’s quite the opposite actually. The cabinet is so filled that when he opens it a few cups of ramen fall on his head. And as more escape on the counter, Sasuke mentally face palm as he sees how disorganized it is, it really looks like Naruto threw the cups here and crossed his fingers for his cabinet to close. He picks up the three instant ramen on the floor and put it on the counter with the others. He rearranges the entire thing and now all the cups are perfectly in order, classed by taste.
Sasuke closes this cabinet and tries the one on its left. He prepares himself in case more food fall on him but this time it’s not the case. He exhales the breath he didn’t realized he was holding in, cursing Naruto for making him go through the embarrassment of searching through his kitchen. In this cabinet, an open bag of rice and other dry aliments can be found. Sasuke grabs the bag of rice and leave it on the counter. There is also some seaweed which could allow him to make some onigiri if he finds anything to add flavour in. Luckly for him, in the cabinet next to this one is where Naruto keep some canned food and he finds one can of tuna. Great, that’s all he needs.
After finally finishing his diner, Sasuke eats the cooled down onigiris while ready a book. He’s trying to stay up until Naruto comes back home but it is getting very late, soon, midnight will pass and Sasuke had an already tiring day of travel. He can handle to do a sleepless night but he doesn’t want to be too tired tomorrow. He knows Naruto will wanna make him do a lot of stuff for the festival, then they’ll actually do a sleepless night for the new year and the day after tomorrow he won’t let Sasuke a single second for himself that’s for sure. He sighs as he swallows his last bite and drink the end of his cup of water. The clock makes a tiny ringing sound, barely audible, indicating it is finally midnight. Sasuke sighs as he puts down his book after leaving the string used as a bookmark between the two page he was reading. He gathers the plate and glass and throw them in the sink. Grabbing the soap and a sponge, he cleans the two pretty fast and leave them to dry. Grabbing his book in the movement, Sasuke leaves the living room after switching off the light. He opens the bedroom door and let himself fall on the bed after putting what he had in his hand on the bedtable. He pulls the blanket to his chin and close his eyes, wondering how long Naruto’s mission will last. He feels something weird in his chest, maybe it’s excitement? Sasuke doesn’t really know, but he cannot wait for tomorrow.
Still asleep, but now slightly waking up, Sasuke hears a distant sound. It’s the sound of the shower. Sasuke falls back asleep but then wakes up again when he feels a dip in the mattress and an unmistakable hand runs through his hair. He lets out a frustrated hum, just wanting to feel the bliss of sleeping again. He hears a low chuckle and the cover gets pulled up before a log lie down next to him, bringing cold air which makes him shiver. He frowns, still unwilling to open his eyes and lose the ability to go back to sleep. He suddenly feels pulled into large arms, one more shiver runs down his spine before he snuggles against the body that just disrupted his beauty sleep. He finally goes back to the dream realm.
When he wakes up, the sun is illuminating the room so bright that Sasuke pains to open his eyes. He blinks a couple of time. He feels so hot, and the reason is quite obvious, the heater is really high, he’s covered by a thick blanket and trapped int the arms of Naruto which radiate heat. Sasuke’s face get hotter, this time not because of the incredible high temperature in the room but because he finally realized his position. Before stirring off his sleep, his face was deep in the crook of Naruto’s neck, completely glued to the other’s body. He has a hard time peeling off Naruto’s arms from his body as he really doesn’t wanna let go of Sasuke’s waist. He grumbles when Sasuke finally gets tired of trying to get off without waking him up and completely pushes him away.
“ ‘Ske…” He says, his voice rough from the deep sleep he was in. He tries to reach again for Sasuke and puts him back to sleep but the other fights back.
“Naruto let me go, I need to go to the toilet.”
Naruto shakes his head after burying it in his pillow and then turning back to Sasuke. “Will you come back?” He almost whispers.
Sasuke sighs, this idiot really didn’t want to let him go take a piss. “Naruto it’s already early in the morning and I’m not tired enough to go back to sleep.” He huffs. “If you want to keep sleeping, that’s fine, you came back really late.” The sudden raise of Naruto startles him a bit.
“No!” He shouts as he sits up. “I want to spend as much time with you as possible!” He turns to his bedtable and open the small door of it, struggling to search for a paper that he finally takes out, he gives a slight push to the double doors that don’t even close it and he looks back at Sasuke. “Look, I made a planning for the week-end!” He hands it to the other.
Sasuke grabs it, not surprised but still not fully convinced of whatever Naruto planned. He looks at it carefully, its really messy, which isn’t a surprise either. Ink splashes there and there, stuff written visibly crossed out and chaotic scribbles showing two categories ‘Sunday’ ‘Saturday’ with different activities written down that Sasuke has to decipher. Either Naruto wrote that in a hurry or he concentrates while writing his letters for him because Sasuke is pretty sure he has never seen something so disgustingly scrawled. Though something particular catches his attention, at the end of the ‘Saturday’ category, there is a word written bigger than the other and circled as well as underlined. ‘SURPRISE’. A surprise is planned by Naruto? For him? He doesn’t have the time to think more about it because Naruto snatches the paper from his hands.
“Let’s get dressed! We’re gonna eat out for the morning!” Naruto smiles at him, this is about to be a really interesting day.
⋆⁺₊⋆ ☯︎⋆⁺₊⋆
Sasuke and Naruto walks into a restaurant which is already full of customers. It is already midday and after eating a brief snack for their breakfast earlier, Naruto dragged Sasuke there, explaining to him that they were gonna eat out with the ‘gang’. Which Sasuke supposes is how Naruto calls the large group of friends he as within the jonins of their generation. Sasuke doesn’t really mind them but he’s still a bit uncomfortable hanging out with them. He’s not completely awkward but he does have a hard time facing his relationship problems. He’s still embarrassed about some stuff that happened back then, especially since quite a few of them were involved in it. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath in before walking alongside Naruto to the large table put in place for the group.
Once they reach it, Sasuke notices they aren’t all there. He can see Sakura, Sai and Ino sitting in one side while Shikamaru, Chouji and Lee are sitting in the other side. It looks more like a reunion of the team seven and the team ten together than a friend group but Sasuke likes it more that way, they’re less people and he know them in majority the best. They all greet each other’s while Sasuke simply ow his head to them before sitting next to Ino and Naruto faces him.
“We’ve already ordered so you might need to call the waiter for your food.” Says Shikamaru.
Naruto nods. “We’ll ask him when he’ll bring your drinks. What did you pick?” He asks casually.
Sasuke doesn’t really follow their conversation, he doesn’t have anything to say after all. He does wish he could have done this with Naruto alone, even if he doesn’t mind the member of the team ten, he’s still very awkward whenever he’s close to them like right now. Mainly because two of them were deadly hurt when they tried getting him back to the village when he had just left. They haven’t said anything to him which could indicate they still were mad at him for that, quite the opposite actually, they’ve been a bit friendly to him. Which also brush him the wrong way. Sasuke thinks that he would’ve felt less bad if they actually held him accountable and then forgave him but they never did, they acted as if nothing happened. Well in all honesty, its not like they actually had the time to talk it out, Sasuke was in the hospital for quite a while and then in prison, after that he started traveling immediately and then took on missions while barely coming back to the village. He wants to stop thinking about it but he cannot stop castigating himself for his past actions. He’s trying to redeem himself the best he could but he has such a hard time communicating with others, it would be easier to simply pay his debt to them by helping them when needed.
He sighs and pour himself some sake and drink it in one go, putting his sake cup back down on the table with a somewhat loud sound which was definitely not a good idea because now everyone is looking at him.
He hides his hands under the table and slowly backs away from the table, looking eyes with everyone around. “Sorry?” He says awkwardly.
⋆⁺₊⋆ ☯︎⋆⁺₊⋆
Sasuke is sipping on a blond beer lightly, he’s at Shikamaru’s house, on the couch of the living room, crushed between Naruto on his right side and Kiba on his left. He’s highly uncomfortable and is sitting as far in the couch as he can as the two men next to him do a weird game. Every time one of them swing a water bottle and it lands on the table straight, the other has to take a shot of tequila and the one that drinks the most shots have to have an extra shot of vodka. So far Naruto is losing with two shots against one.
In front of him is a weird scene too, Lee has one hand on the ground while the rest of the body is lift high up and he’s trying to grab his alcohol drink with his teeth to drink it in this position, which is definitely ridiculous. And Sai keeps refilling the glass as it keeps falling on the ground. Next to them, Shino seems to be on babysitting duty as he helps Hinata stay on her feet, she only drank two can of beer but she’s always been pretty lightweight. The rest of the girls are having a conversation full of gossip, laughing at the top of their lungs, they’re all tipsy.
Kiba gets up to go get the vodka bottle as he won, he’s going to pour the loser shot to Naruto. Sasuke takes the opportunity to take the edge of the couch, finally free from the misery that was to sit between the two. But he gets dragged back to his original place by a pouty Naruto.
“Sasuke, can you imagine? I lost!” He whines, pulling Sasuke closer and closer until their thighs are so close, they almost overlap one another. “I thought I had the last oneee.”
Sasuke pushes him a bit but Naruto wraps his arms around his waist. “Tch.” He says in annoyance. “Thank goodness you only drank a couple shots because I can’t handle you completely wasted!”
Naruto giggles, clearly tipsy. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t really planned on getting drunk, just trying to relax.” He rests his chin on Sasuke’s shoulder which makes him blush a bit. “After the last shot, I’m not drinking anymore.” He says, closing his eyes and tilting his head even more on the side to fully ease himself on Sasuke.
Kiba is finally back and he immediately grabs one glass shot and fill it to the brim with the vodka he just brought. He smashes it on the table, spilling some on the wood which makes Shikamaru protest as he is watching the entire thing. Naruto reluctantly let go of Sasuke and straighten himself, he takes the glass between his two fingers and down it, his nose wrinkles and he sticks out his tongue in disgust. Kiba laughs at him loudly and Naruto frowns at that. He sits back down, his arm instantly going behind Sasuke and resting on his hip. Sasuke frowns, he sips more on his beer, he himself maybe too tipsy to act like he cares about the action, he even leans into the touch even more. But once he puts down his now empty can and he catches the look on Shikamaru’s knowing face while he saw the entire thing, his eyes widen and he suddenly becomes aware of everything, he let Naruto act like this, touching him so intimately in front of his group of friends. His face reddens and he looks anywhere but near Shikamaru and he takes Naruto’s hand off his hip and thigh. Naruto suddenly gets up which startles Sasuke a bit, taken aback from the abrupt action.
He looks down at Sasuke. “Wanna get a bit of fresh air?” He smiles.
Sasuke pouts, he can feel something is off, is it because Naruto kept looking at the clock on the wall every two minutes or is it because he also kept looking at something hidden in his pocket. He stands up, ignoring the fact that Naruto offered his hand to help him get up and they start to walk out. Sakura calls them as they reach the doorstep.
“Hey there, you’re already leaving? We didn’t even do the countdown yet!” She says, not tipsy anymore but clearly drunk, her lipstick is smothered all over her lips, what the hell were the girls doing in the other room while they were in the living room? Come to think of it, he doesn’t really wanna know.
“We’re just gonna get a bit of air, it’s getting warm in there.” Naruto says, scratching his head. Sasuke knows damn well Naruto is clearly searching for an excuse to go away.
Ino now comes in, she puts her hands on Sakura’s shoulders. “Come on Sakura, they’ll be back for the countdown obviously! Let’s go back with the others, Chouji is finally done baking the desert!”
Sakura pouts but she listens to her friend, waving to Naruto and Sasuke. “You better be back! I cannot spend another new year without my two close friends by my side, understood!” She shouts as Ino pushes her further away, waving away too and then she winks.
Naruto chuckles as he turns back to Sasuke. “I hope she won’t be too angry.” He sits down to put on his shoes and Sasuke does the same but still standing up. He wonders what this is about, and then he remembers the large ‘surprise’ that was circled on the paper this morning. He can’t help but feel something warming up his chest.
Naruto opens the door and close it between them after they leave. Sasuke feels a shiver run through his body, he should’ve taken the hoodie he left on the couch but not it is too late, he’s going to have to bear the harsh cold weather. Naruto notices it and wraps around him his wool scarf, which does help. Sasuke mutters a ‘thank you’ and they walk in silence, they feet leaving clear trace of their passage in the snow. Sasuke doesn’t know what to expect, he feels a bit anxious if he’s being honest. After their walk, they need to climb a short hill which they do while helping each other, finally on top of it, they have a clear view of one part of the village. Sasuke’s breath comes out white as he exhales in the cold air, his nose and cheeks pink from the low temperature, the lights of the festival slowly shuts off, letting only small lanterns illuminate the town to let place for the firework to shine bright in the sky without light pollution when the time will be.
He smiles and turns back to Naruto. “This is a really pretty view.” He says, his voice soft. He feels good right now.
Naruto seems to be frozen in time for a millisecond before giving him back a bright smile. “You think? I’m glad!” He slightly rolls up his sleeve, letting appear a frog designed watch on his wrist. Since when does Naruto has a watch? He clears his voice, visibly nervous. “Sasuke.” He says gently. Sasuke’s eyes narrow, he keeps the eye contact with Naruto. “I wanted to ask you something, please.”
Sasuke blinks once, his lips slightly parted. He’s confused of course but mainly curious. “Yes?” He invites Naruto to continues. He could feel his heart pounding with anticipation.
Naruto closes his eyes and he lets out a loud breath. He groans before speaking again. “I mentally prepared for this but somehow I still can’t say it! I’m a bit nervous, you make me nervous.”
Sasuke buries his nose in the scarf and rubs his hand against the fabric. He stares intensely into Naruto’s deep blue eyes; he makes him nervous? Funny how Sasuke thought the opposite, even if he feels the safest and most comfortable around Naruto, sometimes he feels nervous. Like when he woke up after the night they went out to drink and he kissed Naruto after getting waisted, Naruto acted like nothing happened so he did the same, hoping it was because Naruto forgot about it rather than just not addressing it.
Naruto sighs once more. “I miss you Sasuke.” He rubs his hands together too. “I can't bear you being away for so long, you rarely answer my letters too.” A sad frown now visible on Naruto's face makes Sasuke panick
Sasuke’s stomach drop, so this was the topic he wanted to share with Sasuke, is he gonna tell him he’s tired of him? Sasuke holds his breath in as he feels more and more anxious. He scratches his jaw as the wool fabric of the scarf become hitchy as he sweats from the stressful situation.
“I want us to be together, as much as possible. Even if I know you’re still busy and your goal of traveling around is still important to you, I want to feel you close and I want to see you more.” As he searches for something in his pocket, Sasuke’s eyes widen and his cheeks burn. His anxiety is still the same but now that’s not the reason why his heartbeats go faster.
He looks down at Naruto’s hand when he finally pulls it out of his hoodie’s pocket, it’s a black velvet pouch. Sasuke seems to realize a bit of what’s happening but at the same time he’s completely clueless about the most part. Naruto is clearly confessing to him but what is this about?
Naruto opens the small bag and he pulls out two necklaces, he puts it flat on his palm which allows Sasuke to see their two faces engraved on it. He soundlessly gasps, hiding even more in the scarf, smelling Naruto’s sent. He blinks a couple of times, speechless. He’s not cold anymore, he feels so hot all over, a strong lovely feeling coming from his heart. He lets a small moan escape as he looks closer to the necklaces. His face is so red, hopefully he can hide it behind the fact that it’s very cold outside.
“Sasuke.” Naruto starts as he locks eyes with him. “Please, let me be the one that make you call this place home, I know you’re still not very comfortable being in Konoha but…let me be the reason you come back here.”
Sasuke’s eyes shine, he swallows the saliva build up in his mouth. “Naruto…” He whispers, his senses are in complete shambles, he can feel his heart pumping in very veins of his body. The night seems to pause as Naruto’s words sinks in. A wild jumble of emotions spilled out in Sasuke’s mind, he didn’t really know how to react, as a ninja and an Uchiha, Sasuke has always known how to react to different kind of situations, even if in his life, he was often overwhelmed by his emotions and acted upon it, the past two years, he has relearned to stay composed again. But this, this was something so different.
Looking back at Naruto, who seems to have grown impatient, as always, honestly. He pinches his lips together and a frown appears on his face, he seems desperate. “I love you Sasuke!” He almost screams. "So please..."
Sasuke is not good with words, he never was, ever. While on the contrary, Naruto has always known how to express himself, so franc and honest. And once again, he is speechless as Naruto spills his love for him. So Sasuke does what he does the best, an action. He walks towards Naruto and raises his only arm in front of him, Naruto looks confused as Sasuke doesn’t stop his steps and enter his personal space. He grabs the behind of his neck and crushes their lips together. His eyes are closed and he let the feeling consume in as Naruto kisses him back, inviting his tongue between lips. They continue their warm exchange like that, their tongue battling against each other and they finally part away, catching their breath.
“Are you proposing to me, you loser?” Sasuke says, a cheeky smirk on his face.
Naruto smiles. “Well, it’s not really a proposing, its more a promise!” He says enthusiastically. “But if you want this to be a proposal, I’m down for it too.” He smirks back and then grabs Sasuke to kiss him again, and again.
Sasuke giggles, feeling like a teenager in a romantic comedy, he backs up to grab the hand where Naruto keeps the necklaces in. He takes them both, admiring the wood work. It is incredible, Naruto went out of his way to make something so personal for him, he smiles, giddy. “This is really beautiful.” He softly says.
Naruto pulls him closer, hands on his waist. Sasuke feels like there’s a magnet in both Naruto’s hands joining his waist because there is no other way it always seem to be connecting. “You don’t even know the best part yet!”
“Oh?” Sasuke tilts his head to the side, curious.
Naruto nods and hums. “Yes! This is actually special wood which we can impregnate our chakra in each of the necklaces and like that, even when we’re separated, we’ll feel each other!”
Sasuke’s breathing stops for a bit, he really thought about everything. This idiot is making him feel so in love it’s embarrassing! Sasuke pouts and give him a peck on the lips. “Let’s do that then.” He hands back the necklace with Naruto’s face to the other and he puts the necklace with his face around Naruto’s neck. Naruto does the same for him and with each of their hands, they grab the necklaces, infusing their chakra in it. Naruto tilts his head and kiss Sasuke again, connecting in such an intimate way. The fireworks then fly up in the sky, exploding in a big sparkly bright colour which startle them both and they turn to see the beautiful show of colours.
Naruto rises his arm up and then down, his hand in a fist, in a sign of victory. “Yes!” He shouts, probably seeing Sasuke’s confused face, he clarifies. “I finally got my romantic anime firework moment!” His smile is bright.
Sasuke gently slap the back of his head. “Idiot.” Naruto protests the act as he rubs his head.
They stay in each other’s arms side by side, gazing at the fireworks exploding high in the sky. Sasuke knew he had to say it back, right now. “I love you too, you loser.” He feels his body vibrates alongside Naruto’s as the other chuckles. His head comes to rest on the other's shoulder, feeling his laugh through his body, his sent on the scarf wrapped around his neck and the fresh chakra emanating from the necklace. He feels at home.