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Death is terribly peaceful, Naruto thinks. But it is also less quiet than he’d have thought it would be. He can hear the whistling flutter of a breeze passing through leaves. The muted rhythm of what must be a heavenly ocean lapping against a shore.
There is a faint trace of cedarwood and something redolent of clove. Incense, he presumes, and Naruto is pleased to be remembered. His stomach grumbles; he hopes there are some offerings for him, too. He wonders if ghosts can eat. Naruto hopes he’s turned into the kind that can–if he’s even managed to become one at all.
But the weight of an arm tightening across his waist extinguishes those thoughts. Ghosts certainly can’t feel touch, can they?
“Oh,” there’s the softest whisper behind him, tickling his ear, “you’re awake?”
Naruto’s eyes snap open.
A vase of freshly cut flowers atop a nightstand looks back.
His heart plunges somewhere near the vicinity of his stomach. Naruto’s gaze darts down, to the buttery soft linens across the bed he’s now awfully aware that he’s laying on. Back up, to the wall just a few feet away. He can hear the ticking of a clock but can’t see where it is, and thinks it might be hanging a bit higher up.
But before he can try to take a look, the arm around his torso yanks him backwards, pressing him up close to a body. And when he looks down at it, at the hand now giving his chest a friendly squeeze, Naruto sees a thin silver band upon the ring finger.
Married.
Surely not.
Married?
Already? To—
A leg tangles between his own, knee nudging them apart.
“Why are you wea—shit, that’s today,” a voice is saying, a voice he is most definitely familiar with.
Naruto shuts his eyes tight and prays to every single deity, every ancestor he can think of, to just please let this be some sort of sick, twisted genjutsu he’s found himself under.
The hand stops stroking his pecs and crawls up, until calloused fingers are able to gently cup his chin—before they're very rudely squishing his cheeks together into a fish pout.
“Never did end up losing this baby fat,” the voice murmurs, “did you, Naruto?”
It’s the sheer adulation, the warmth in the way he says Naruto’s name, that has him convinced that no, this is not a genjutsu then. Naruto is very much dead and experiencing the afterlife.
Undoubtedly the most gratifying afterlife he ever could have imagined for himself, but what still must be an experience exclusive to heaven.
Naruto’s mouth moves without permission. “Sasuke,” he says, a quiet mumble muffled by the hand now turning his face this way and that, surely examining him.
Sasuke lets go only to take Naruto by the shoulder, turning him over to face him. Naruto screws his eyes shut even tighter because if he sees him, he might just die all over again. Or break the genjutsu, if it does turn out to be that.
Maybe, if Naruto never opens his eyes, everything will go back to before—before what? He furrows his brow.
The last thing Naruto remembers, vaguely, as if trying to recall memories from a week ago, is heading out for a mission with Sakura. Then, slowly, it begins to come back to him.
Success on their mission, albeit delayed by two weeks.
More time spent in an unfamiliar village than he would have liked.
The anticipation of his return crossing paths with Sasuke’s next visit to the village, after far too much time apart.
Complaining about the summer heat, and Sakura shaking her head, but smiling at him all the same.
An ambush on the road to their return.
The familiar glee of watching his best friend beat ass. The familiar delight in joining her in beating ass.
Then: a harsh slap to his back and the uncomfortable pressure of something stuck to him. Sakura’s voice, yelling, Naruto, take it off, your cloak take it o—
His hand flies behind himself, feeling across his back, but is met only with the fabric of his jacket.
He hears Sasuke sigh, feels it in the barest puff of warm air across his forehead. “All right, okay. We knew when this was going to happen, but I wasn’t sure how it would start. You wouldn’t tell me that.”
There it is again, that near imperceptible change of tone as he says you. Like a substitute for darling.
At that, Naruto braves squinting his eyes open. He’s rewarded by seeing that he is, indeed, looking at Sasuke.
Or rather, a Sasuke.
Sasuke, but different.
An older Sasuke.
A Sasuke whose Sharingan is whirring as his gaze darts across Naruto’s own face. Suddenly, he finds himself more self-conscious than he’s ever been in his entire life. But Naruto shakes it away and stares right back.
The consequence of knowing Sasuke’s face better than his own is that Naruto catches each and every change immediately. He looks the same, yet at the same time doesn’t. There are fine creases by Sasuke’s eyes, two short, slight lines between his eyebrows. The shape of his face remains the same of course, but the bones are somehow more prominent; chin sharper. Not really bigger, but grown. More mature. His complexion is still unfairly smooth, though now there are faint lines beside his mouth.
Laugh lines, Naruto recalls hearing Lady Tsunade refer to them once. The fact that Sasuke has them in the first place catches him by surprise—they're nonexistent on his Sasuke, or rather, younger Sasuke(?!). The realization that this Sasuke must have spent more time in his life smiling than frowning, enough for that happiness to etch itself into his perfectly handsome face, has Naruto’s heart crawling up his throat.
He swallows down the thickness of it, and instead forces his gaze to slide down Sasuke’s neck, to where it meets his shoulder. Naruto’s eyes widen.
At first he thinks Sasuke had to have been mauled. Then, horrifyingly, embarrassingly, his slowly working brain supplies: hickies. And if he looks closer, bite marks. Many of them. The distinct, parallel puncture marks of fangs that tell Naruto exactly who had to have left them.
Not me, he insists to himself. Other me—future me(?). Whatever that guy’s deal is. It’s bad when he sounds indignant in his own head. Naruto ignores it and shamelessly resumes his ogling.
Lower still to Sasuke’s chest, the most chiseled fucking chest Naruto has ever seen. Laying on his side, arm outstretched and thrown back across Naruto’s waist, has Sasuke’s pecs somewhat squished together. Naruto swallows the saliva quickly pooling beneath his tongue and focuses instead on the scars littered across Sasuke’s torso.
Far more than the ones his Sasuke has. Almost all of them are near white, but some must have been very deep, for despite the way they appear to be completely healed, they still remain depressed. A faded plum color, managing to look even worse than where his right arm ends. Naruto remembers how it had taken weeks for both their scar tissues to lose that aching sensitivity.
He also knows indubitably that Sasuke must have already taken care of who or what left these unfamiliar new scars, yet still Naruto feels something unfurl within his chest; something irrational and tender and protective.
Pushing the feeling aside, he takes the rest of Sasuke in. But that ends up being a mistake too, because somehow this older Sasuke has managed to retain abs. The sheets bunch up at his hips. He has what Naruto recalls once hearing Kiba uncouthly refer to as cum gutters.
Naruto feels a tug in his gut.
With his pulse going seismic in his neck, he drags his eyes back up to Sasuke’s face. For a quiet moment, they continue to take each other in. Naruto would really like to say something, anything, but for once he’s at a loss for words. His brain is empty. Blood thunders in his ears, drowning everything out.
Sasuke has aged deliciously, he’s built, and he’s half naked in bed with Naruto. A bed that they clearly share in the future. Their marital bed.
How, he wonders. How in the world do we get here? Nothing comes through the pith of his mind to answer. And it’s such a ridiculous thing, to be jealous over his own self for his own future happiness. Such a juvenile, insensible thing.
Yet Naruto is completely helpless to the waves and waves of ugly, rotten emotion roiling over him.
It should be me, he thinks ruefully, like he’s a sulking child at a playground.
He thinks of the last conversation he had with Sasuke, the younger Sasuke, his Sasuke. It had to have been months ago now, when Naruto was seeing him off after his last stop by Konoha.
Naruto wishes it had been longer.
"Sasuke," he said, "I have a question for you." He swallowed, digging the heel of his sandal into the forest floor. "I know—well, of course you’re not still in trouble for—um, everything.” A sudden, strange shyness came out of nowhere. “But if it didn’t happen, or if they never—ugh. What I mean is, if none of it happened," he says, "would you still be going away?"
The question made Sasuke’s eyes softer. "Yes."
Of course, he had known the answer before asking. But hearing it still hurt.
"My turn," Sasuke said then. "Would you stop serving Konoha?"
Naruto blinked, mouth dry. "I-how do you mean?"
He knew exactly what Sasuke meant.
It’s a thought that Naruto found himself wrestling with more and more these days, and it frightened him a little.
Sasuke hummed. "There now. We’ve both asked each other the same question.”
“No we haven’t.”
“Have too. You asked me to stay, and I asked you to come with me.”
Oh. He did, didn’t he? Naruto came closer and reached for Sasuke’s hand. He gave it, and for a moment, Naruto traced his fingers across his palm, feeling the warmth of his skin.
Then he pressed it to himself, but Sasuke was already pulling him into a crushing embrace. Arm so tight about Naruto’s shoulders that it forced all the air out of him.
Sasuke held him for a long time.
It dawned on Naruto, as he looked upon Sasuke’s retreating back, that this was always how it would be.
Sasuke would come and then Sasuke would go.
But the return was as real as the leaving, and the return would always be a promise.
It would have to be good enough.
Hit by a wave of physical longing, Naruto knows. It's so sudden, and yet so mundane, he feels a hysterical laugh build in his chest; at the fact that now of all times is the moment that it clicks.
He knows exactly why he could truly never live a life without Sasuke; why he missed Sasuke before they had ever come into each other’s lives.
Naruto knows this simply because what he knows best is Sasuke; knows the geography of him, understands all his internal mechanisms. Everything he keeps buried, tightly controlled under the polish of a precise, carefully selected arrangement of traits he plates himself with—revealed only to Naruto.
He knows, unequivocally, why the mere promise of return could never be good enough.
Naruto is pulled from his enlightening (and frankly, embarrassingly sentimental) thoughts when finally, the older Sasuke before him says, “Explaining all the space-time manipulation in depth gets a bit... perplexing.” He lifts his arm from Naruto’s waist, and he misses the solid warmth instantly. “So you shouldn’t worry about it either.”
Sasuke runs his hand through his hair, pushing it off his forehead. It’s longer, Naruto realizes belatedly. The rest of it must be tied back. Streaks of silver run through the black, a thicker strand by his temple. But it’s seeing the messy, ducktail-like tufts sticking up at the back of Sasuke’s head, still untamable after all this time, that has Naruto’s eyes pricking.
His throat feels swollen shut, and suddenly, despite the unfairly gorgeous gorgeous sexy man before him, Naruto misses his Sasuke.
And Sasuke has always understood him better than anyone; the only one to shoulder his burdens. Which means that this Sasuke does as well, of course.
He cups Naruto’s face, swipes his thumb across his cheek. Up to the delicate skin just below his eye where, to Naruto’s mortification, a tear has escaped.
“You’re crying.”
“I’m not.”
“Sure,” he says mildly. “I suppose you just got rained on.” But Sasuke is kind enough to drop it. “Come on,” he says. “I’ll make you lunch.”
After instructing him to take anything from the closet and showing him where the en-suite is, Sasuke gives Naruto some privacy. Though, not before he’d leaned in for what Naruto is sure was an aborted kiss, before catching himself and straightening back up.
He closed the door with his mouth dancing in and out of an annoying little smirk. It’s such an extremely Sasuke-like expression it makes Naruto’s stomach do a flippy dip. He feels as giddy as the first time Sasuke caught his eye on the pier, all those years ago. Except now, it’s proliferated by tens of hundreds of thousands.
So of course he has to take it out on the pillows, mercilessly beating at them until they lay puffed out like obedient clouds. And then, for good measure, Naruto buries his face in them and kicks his feet until he feels he can stand without buzzing right out of his skin.
It’s easy to tell where Sasuke’s clothes begin in the closet and his future self’s end. Naruto grabs a bright tangerine hoodie and a pair of shorts. Inside the bathroom, and Naruto gasps: there's a bath set up of his dreams. A ginormous, deep tub for soaking in, with bottles and bottles of oils and soaps and dried flower petals lining a shelf just within arm’s reach of it.
There is also an industriously sized pump bottle of lube casually sitting beside them. Unfortunately, the implications alone have Naruto half hard immediately. He diverts his attention to the big, luxuriously fluffy towels instead while he scolds his dick.
Naruto can’t wait for the bath to fill nor strip down fast enough. He’d been dressed for combat, and it’s a luxury to leave his travel-worn clothes behind. There’s no telling how long he lays submerged in the bath of his dreams, but his fingers have wrinkled like prunes and the water is lukewarm when he eventually forces himself out.
Assessing himself in the mirror, Naruto frowns. His skin is pink from the heat of the scalding bath, and yet his eyes do noticeably look redrimmed, like he’d been crying. Shit. He sighs and towels off his hair.
When Naruto finally pokes his head out of the bedroom, it's into a hallway with too many sets of doors in a home for just two people. But Sasuke hadn’t mentioned anyone, and Naruto is sure that if anyone else were there, they’d have made themselves known by now.
“Sasuke?” Naruto doesn’t know why he’s whisper-shouting as he takes a few steps down the hall. What he figures is that he probably shouldn't be looking at anything too closely, some sort of time travel rule he reckons, but still he tries to take it all in. Bare shelves line the hallway, Or, not completely bare, but enough for Naruto to gather that Sasuke had taken any pictures down. There are a few blank spots among a mini photo wall of beautiful landscapes.
A plethora of potted plants take up space before every window in the living room, lush and vibrant. The walls are a lovely piney green with flecks of white that glitter beneath the scant sunlight making its way through translucent curtains. Blankets are thrown about the sofa, and Naruto knows an afternoon nap here would change his life.
But aside from that, there’s not much else to go on as to what their lives together look like. Before Naruto can start snooping around for more information—who really cares about the time travelers' code—Sasuke appears.
Naruto is very appreciative of the fact that he’s now wearing a shirt, for the sake of his heart not giving out at the big age of twenty. Wordlessly, he tilts his head, and Naruto follows after him into the dining space.
Despite how large the low wooden table is, there are only two floor cushions set side by side before it. Naruto plops himself down, and from here he can see into the kitchen. Sunlight shining like gilt beams in through the window over the sink, and he can see more plants hanging nearby.
Although Naruto is certain that it’s mackerel he smelled, Sasuke sets a piping hot bowl of the most delectable miso chashu ramen he has possibly seen in his entire life—sorry Teuchi!—in front of him. Naruto stares at it for a moment, as if the nori and spring onion garnishings can tell him something.
His mouth is watering but his brain is noisy, so noisy, probably noisy enough even for Sasuke to sense it.
Is this really my life, Naruto thinks. How is he allowed to have this all? And what's the rest of the future like? Where are Iruka-sensei and Sakura and—
Naruto has too many questions and isn’t quite sure if he'd like to hear the answers to any of them.
It's exciting and daunting at the same time, and all so mind-boggling.
Clearing his throat, Naruto finally picks up his chopsticks. “So, I was just thinking,” he says as he makes himself a perfect first bite.
“Always a dangerous endeavor,” Sasuke agrees.
“You would know,” Naruto tells him, not missing a beat.
Next to him, in his peripheral, Sasuke puts his chin in his palm. Naruto can feel the weight of his gaze on him, examining Naruto’s face carefully while he burns his tongue on the broth. “What were you thinking about?”
“Well, it’s not like I have any clue how to get back to where I came from,” he says. “I mean, how much time have I missed anyway?”
Sasuke hums. “Twenty-three years.”
Which makes the Sasuke beside him—over twice his age? Naruto gives himself whiplash turning to gawk at him.
Unfazed, Sasuke takes the chopsticks from his hands, picks up a perfectly braised piece of meat, and presses it to Naruto’s lips. He opens his mouth automatically and eats.
It isn’t the first time Sasuke has fed him; that memory sticks out far too clearly in his recollections of academy days gone by. He hadn't grasped it at the time, but later it became abundantly clear that it was one of Sasuke’s many own ways of showing affection. Naruto’s chest tightens a bit at the memory, how this is yet another thing about Sasuke that has remained unchanged.
He allows Sasuke to feed him the next couple bites before suddenly, stupidly feeling bashful, which is so dumb because it’s not anything new, and also, it’s Sasuke. His stomach starts doing flips again.
“Um, so, the me from... here. I mean, the older Naruto, like, your me?” Naruto tries. He is so fucking confused.
Sasuke purses his lips, then lets the corners of his mouth curl up. “My husband,” he supplies, looking much too amused as Naruto chokes on his ramen. “Yes, go on.”
Doing his best not to let their marital status get to him, “Is he back there then? Is this some sort of place swapping situation?”
“You could call it that, yes. I did say you were the one who warned me that this was going to happen.”
“Oh. I guess you can’t say any more than that? Because you do understand this is like. The weirdest fucking thing that’s ever happened to me. I thought I was dead.” Naruto takes a big sip of broth from the bowl. “Or like, in a genjutsu, y’know.” He’s aiming for his usual brand of levity and must miss the mark terribly, because Sasuke takes Naruto’s hand in his own. He squeezes.
The anxious knot in Naruto’s chest loosens.
"Well, you—the one from now, that is—and Sakura are the ones who figure out how to switch you guys back.” Sasuke says carefully. “We were worried about messing something up, especially considering the gi—,” he stops himself and clears his throat. “Anyway, we decided that I can't tell you much.” His thumb sweeps across the tops of Naruto’s knuckles.
“Oh,” Naruto says. That does make sense, after all. Best not to make changes to the massive, nonlinear time-space system if they could help it. And then, “Shouldn’t have let me find out what a hag you are now, though.”
A muscle under Sasuke's eye twitches.
Then he leans in so quickly it startles a squeak out of Naruto. He peers closely, Sharingan returning as he looks deeply into his face. “Ugh.” Sasuke sits back, scrunching his nose. “I almost forgot how adorable you used to be.”
“Hey, you said I still have the baby fat!” Naruto objects, heart still pounding from the brief proximity.
“Well you’re hag aged by your own standards, so that’s not really going to work for you anymore, now is it,” Sasuke fires back.
Naruto bites away a grin and finishes up his ramen. It’s an immense relief to slip back into familiar bickering so effortlessly; as comforting as the feeling of well-worn gloves, leather molded to the shape of his hands over time.
“And besides,” Sasuke continues, “It wasn’t exactly cute when you told me what you and I are getting up to.”
Naruto blinks. “Huh?”
Sasuke leans back, narrows his eyes. “I'm sure we're having a wonderful time where Naruto has gone off to.”
“We're as in him—me and... ,” he trails off.
“Who else?”
It takes a minute to process in Naruto’s mind.
The moment it computes: an anvil dropped directly on his head. And all of a sudden, that fierce, sour jealousy reignites in Naruto’s chest.
“He can't do that!”
“He?”
“Me! Your husband. The other Naruto!” He frowns.
Sasuke hums. “Well, why not?”
Because it's not fair, Naruto thinks petulantly. Why does he get to have you before I do?
“He already has you,” he explains with a huff. “That's my Sasuke.”
Sasuke lets go of his hand to collect his empty bowl and stands. “Your me.” He makes for the kitchen.
“Yes!”
“Your husband,” Sasuke clarifies over his shoulder.
Naruto nods vigorously.
Depositing the dish in the sink and turning back to face him, leaning against the counter. “So it's fine, isn't it?”
Naruto scoffs. Crosses his arms over his chest. As if. “He's married.”
“To me.”
“Yeah, not him.”
Sasuke raises a brow. “But I'm him.”
“You know what I mean!” Naruto shoots to his feet and stomps his way over, and yes he knows he’s pouting but so what! He doesn’t stop until he’s standing nearly nose to nose with Sasuke.
Unperturbed, Sasuke pushes off the counter—and why the hell does he seem taller? Leaning in, he lifts his hand beside his mouth, like he’s about to tell Naruto something in the strictest of confidence. In a mock whisper he says, “Should we kiss and make them jealous?”
Sasuke steps back again. His eyes have taken on a sheen of mirth.
“You're laughing at me,” Naruto sulks.
“I'm not.” He wraps his fingers around Naruto’s wrist. “It’s just—you’re still so easy to rile up.”
Despite the teasing in his voice, Sasuke looks like he’s having some sort of internal debate. A little pinch appears between his eyebrows and deepens the lines there. It’s annoying how it makes him look even more attractive.
Then Sasuke’s hand travels up Naruto’s arm. Skims across his shoulder to cup the side of his neck; pets his nape with two fingers, like he’s a baby animal.
Naruto soaks up the affection greedily and thinks, almost deliriously, what the fuck. Sasuke is simply looking at him now, with his dark eyes burning deeply into Naruto's upturned face.
Obeying his body, Naruto kisses him, just to see what happens.
What happens is that Sasuke kisses him back.
It’s soft and adolescent, possibly even more so than their first kiss, yet still washes a thrill over Naruto like heavy summer heat.
When he pulls back, Sasuke twists his fingers into the hair at the back of Naruto’s head and says, “We can do better than that.”
Naruto swallows. He has basically nothing to go off about except for a few makeouts with his own shadow clones, done just to see what all the fuss was about. It was nice, but nothing truly significant. But this is far different. There’s a giddiness building up inside of him, tingles sprouting along Naruto’s spine. He needs this so bad his chest nearly aches with the force of it.
Sasuke is the one to close the distance between them this time, with a warm, close-mouthed kiss. Naruto shivers, his hands bunching in the font of Sasuke’s cotton shirt. It’s more than anything he could have painted in his mind. Their lips drag against each other, Sasuke slowing them down with each kiss, as if they have all the time in the world.
Naruto lets go of Sasuke’s shirt so he can get his hands under it. He feels way out of his depth, but knows he needs his hands on Sasuke’s bare skin like it’s the only fucking thing that will keep him anchored. Sasuke rumbles a pleased noise that he can feel all over. He wonders whether Sasuke can feel his heart thudding behind his sternum, gone arrhythmic.
And then, as though Sasuke has decided there’s no need to hold himself back, he uses his grip on Naruto’s hair to tilt his head at an angle so his tongue slips easily into his mouth. He slides it against Naruto's in a wondrously delicious and dizzying way.
Sasuke is relentless, kissing him over and over again. Naruto’s head spins into another dimension. He makes his best efforts to keep up, following Sasuke’s lead, but it’s difficult when he’s licking the underside of Naruto’s tongue and closing the kiss with a gentle tug on his lower lip. He flicks his tongue out to break the thin thread of saliva connecting them.
Naruto is breathless, and it’s as though Sasuke has seized the very air molecules around them. He’s panting helplessly while Sasuke looks like he wants to absorb him. The voracity of his gaze feels like starlight on Naruto’s skin, a thousand tiny burning suns.
What little composure Naruto had is shattered instantly when Sasuke lets go of his hair to instead reach down and press the heel of his hand roughly between Naruto’s legs. The sound he makes is desperate, speechless.
Sasuke’s grin shows his teeth. “From a little bit of kissing? How sweet.”
"Fuck off," Naruto gasps, even as he wraps a hand around Sasuke’s wrist to keep him from moving away. His chest feels funny, his blood churning thick and syrupy through his hammering heart. “Wait, fuck me,” he amends.
“I—,” Sasuke falters. He scoffs. “You’re something else, you know that?”
“‘Course I do.” Naruto grins even as his hips continue to grind forward against Sasuke’s hand. “Something you like enough to marry.”
Sasuke breathes deeply through his nose. A nice pink color creeps into his cheeks. Naruto finds him spectacularly cute, and horribly handsome, and twenty-three years is not nearly enough to prepare him for this being his everyday.
Keeping his hand firm between Naruto’s legs, Sasuke surprises him by tipping his face down and pressing a kiss into Naruto’s hair. It’s warm, soft and barely there.
Naruto’s pulse jumps. Everything that’s supposedly regular between them is all brand new to him.
Sasuke’s voice becomes a caress. “Bedroom?”
Naruto nods a little too quickly. Trying not to seem too eager, he says teasingly, “You want to make sweet love to your hot younger husband in our marital bed?”
Sasuke rolls his eyes. “Whatever you say.” It’s not a denial.
And then, before Naruto can point out just that, Sasuke crouches slightly, arm sliding warm around Naruto’s thighs. He lifts him up and over his shoulder, just like that,
Naruto clings to the back of Sasuke’s shirt with a startled laugh, delighted. He knew those muscles weren’t just for show! That’s the result of years of swordsmanship and taijutsu. He fastens his arms around Sasuke’s waist, and it’s a little awkward, but allows him to tuck himself more tightly against Sasuke’s back while he takes them through the house. Naruto is pretty sure he jostles him with every other step on purpose.
Sasuke carries him all the way back to the bedroom, until he pats Naruto on the butt and drops him onto the bed. It bounces back a little beneath his weight. Breathless, Naruto scrambles to scoot further up as Sasuke plants a knee between his legs.
He doesn’t need to touch his own face to know how flushed he is. The heat practically radiates from how burning hot the skin of Naruto’s cheeks has become. How in the hell did Naruto actually get here. He’s not quite sure this isn't his own personal heaven.
The bed dips under Sasuke's weight, and then he's hooking his arm around Naruto’s waist, pulling him into his body. Naruto gasps. He can feel the hard line of his cock pressed to his belly, hot and heavy through the thin fabric of their clothes. It won't do to moan like a broken man when Sasuke hasn't even really begun anything yet, but the anticipation coils deep in Naruto’s gut.
He feels Sasuke nose at his temple, open lips dragging across his skin. Gentle roll of his hips like a small wave, and it makes Naruto whimper this time. Then he does it again, harder, before letting go so Naruto drops back down to the sheets.
As Sasuke slides his hand underneath the hoodie Naruto's wearing, Naruto reaches to hold his face between his palms. Allows himself a moment to just look at him up close. His Sasuke.
It takes another moment to convince himself that this is all really happening.
Sasuke lets him sit up enough to pull the hoodie off, but as soon as Naruto lays back down, he settles between his legs and just looks at him. Inspecting even, taking his time, and it’s not enough. At the same time his gaze alone is too much. The heaviness. The intensity. Naruto squirms fitfully. He’s never been harder in his life. His hips roll up unwittingly, chasing friction against nothing. Naruto suddenly feels incredibly conscious of how desperate he must look, how flushed his entire body must be.
But at least Sasuke seems equally thrown off balance. He inhales sharply through his nose, tips his head back for a second and runs his hand through his hair. Then he smiles softly at Naruto, looking entirely too beautiful in the midday light filtering in through the curtains. His Sharingan is whirling wildly. He’s so... Sasuke.
Sasuke splays his fingers over Naruto’s stomach, right over his seal mark, and there's no way he can’t feel how hot Naruto’s skin has gotten. And it doesn’t matter that Sasuke has seen every inch of his skin before, knows exactly how hot he gets for him; Naruto wasn’t there for it. He tries not to resent his own future self again, because he is not petty.
Fingertips trace around the mark in a slow, winding circle. Just soft enough that Naruto has to hold his breath so as to not buck up when it tickles. The touch is so delicate that perhaps it is only the static that touches Naruto. That’s what it is, he thinks. Yeah, static, because the sensation that flickers through him in response is electric. Naruto’s whole entire body thrums with it.
“Come on,” Naruto says. “Hurry up.”
“Quiet.” Sasuke pinches his side. “I'm trying to decide what I should do with you first.” He sounds so unaffected while Naruto is going to implode.
He continues tracing concentric circles over Naruto’s belly with his thumb, idly now as he thinks. Before Naruto can complain again, Sasuke is fitting his hand under Naruto’s knee. It’s muscle memory from their countless taijutsu spars that makes Naruto promptly fold his leg up to his chest in order to get away with. An uncontrollable giggle spills out of him.
Sasuke simply raises a brow. “Is that what we're doing?”
He doesn’t give Naruto a chance to answer, and Sasuke still grabs him despite the attempt Naruto makes at getting away. Getting on his elbows to push himself back, Naruto tries to fold his other leg up to his chest too, before Sasuke can get a hold of him.
The only issue is that Sasuke has had their entire lives to figure out Naruto’s fighting patterns, and he subdues him embarrassingly easily. Still, Naruto laughs harder as he makes another flimsy attempt at getting Sasuke off him.
Naruto doesn’t even know when it happens, but Sasuke gets his arms above his head, both his wrists trapped in Sasuke’s hand. Most of the work is done by the way Sasuke deposits some of his weight on it, pinning him to the bed.
“Keep them there.”
Naruto pokes his tongue between his teeth. “Why would I?”
Sasuke huffs a laugh through his nose, and Naruto preens. “Feisty thing.” He sounds approving. “Older you doesn’t even pretend that he doesn’t like it anymore. He’s much more pliant.”
Naruto realizes now that he’s made the severe folly of underestimating exactly how well Sasuke knows him right now. He imagines just how much Sasuke could do with that, and something about it makes him incredibly nervous. But mostly horny.
“Your husband sounds boring,” he tells Sasuke. “You should do something about that.”
Sasuke narrows his eyes. He hasn’t stopped using his Sharingan, and Naruto squirms. Sasuke lets go of his wrists slowly, testing the waters. Naruto makes the mistake of immediately trying to put him in a headlock instead of waiting for the chance of Sasuke’s guard lowering.
He’s flat on his back with Sasuke’s susanoo arm conjured and holding him down before he can blink.
“That’s cheating,” he grumbles.
Sasuke looks at him pointedly. Naruto swallows, pulse reverberating in his throat. He makes an attempt to free his hands, but it’s all airs. They both know he could take the upper hand in a second if he actually wanted to. But Naruto sure does try to make it convincing.
He’s still squirming when Sasuke leans down, kisses his nipple and then bites it hard enough to make Naruto arch off the bed with an unrestrained squeak, because of course Sasuke’s touch is wired directly to his cock, and would make his stupid body get pain and pleasure all twisted up.
Naruto’s gut collapses with hunger, with want that builds every time he pathetically tries to pull his hands free from their overpowered trap. The downside to his incessant wiggling and shifting in feigned attempts to escape is that Sasuke uses it in his favor to get Naruto’s shorts down.
Even though he’s trying really fucking hard not to, Naruto makes a strangled sound high in his throat. His hips rock forward without permission. Sasuke lets him. His hand is back on Naruto’s stomach, where all his muscles squeeze tighter with anticipation. Naruto can feel his cock blurting precome onto his hip.
Sasuke swears with his head hung between his shoulders for just a moment before he lifts it to look directly at him. “You’re so wet.” He takes Naruto’s cock into his hand, nimble hand, calloused fingers; his touch makes Naruto see something akin to stars flashing behind his eyelids.
But just as quickly as he’d gotten his hand on him, Sasuke lets go. Naruto can feel his brain physically fizzle out as he tries to adjust to the sensation and the immediate loss of it at the same time.
Naruto bites his lip as Sasuke settles low between his legs, getting comfortable. Carefully kissing along his inner thighs, pausing every so often to nip at him. Naruto has to remind himself to breathe manually. It's the anticipation, he knows that's all it is, but still Naruto can't stop his muscles from jumping beneath his skin.
He can feel Sasuke smile against his hip for a brief moment before continuing, and Naruto is fully expecting him to drag it out. But then Sasuke slides over and brings his mouth right where Naruto desperately wants it. His wrists tug at their restraint, and Naruto shakily presses his hands against the bed, forcing them to relax as Sasuke licks the tip of his cock. Then, unexpectedly again, he gets his whole mouth around Naruto.
Naruto gasps and moans in the same breath before he can stop himself, fingers twisting in the sheets. Sasuke takes him in deeper, swirls his tongue around just so, and it's wet and hot and perfect. Forgetting himself again, Naruto’s arms jerk, unable to move, to tangle his hands in Sasuke's hair as he wants to.
His noise of disappointment turns into a broken groan as Sasuke pulls off his dick. A line of saliva from his mouth dribbles down to the tip, before Sasuke is smearing his swollen lips over it. Naruto keens and he whines and his knees twitch inwards, pressing against Sasuke’s shoulders. Stupid broad fucking shoulders.
The blood pounds in Naruto’s ears when Sasuke laughs against his cock before pulling away once more. All Naruto hears is ringing as his hips roll upwards, trying to seek out the wonderful heat of Sasuke's mouth again. He’s going to fucking die before he even makes it to this timeline.
Sasuke's runs his tongue along the length of his cock, teasing, winding him up tight, and Naruto can't look away. And then Sasuke is looking up at him, and his eyes are heavy and surely it must hurt how quickly his tomoe are spinning. Naruto bites so hard into his lip that he tastes copper, but he can barely even feel it.
It's almost too much, and Sasuke must know—of course he knows—because he yet again pulls away, only to plant his mouth on Naruto's stomach. The sudden jolt of the tip of his tongue into the dip of Naruto's navel forces a yelp out of his throat.
“What the fuck, what’s your problem,” Naruto whimpers. “You’re such a horny fucking bastard.”
Sasuke knows each sensitive spot on his body, when even Naruto hasn’t discovered them yet, and he plays around kissing and sucking at Naruto's navel until he deems it's had enough attention. Naruto's hard and needy and out of breath. He digs his knees more firmly into Sasuke’s shoulders. All he does is moan against Naruto’s skin, as if this alone is enough to turn him on.
Remembering to breathe, Naruto inhales like he’s been drowning this entire time, so deep it makes his head spin even more than it already is. “Sasuke,” he whines. “I’m so close, ‘m so close, come on.”
Naruto's stomach twists, twists and tangles into a knot as Sasuke leans down, messily spreading saliva and precome over his skin. His breath comes out in hot, ragged pants, and Naruto can see now that he’s grinding his own hips into the sheets, and if this alone is doing it for him Naruto is well and truly fucked.
"So soon?" Sasuke says hoarsely against his skin, mouth still moving, making a mess of him.
Naruto gasps and shakes, body wound too tight, his brain capacity overwhelmed; he can't take anymore, and as Sasuke wraps his lips around his cock again his back bows off the bed. The sheets cling to his sweaty back.
He forgets his own name when he comes, only remembers Sasuke's, gasping it out over and over. He remembers the shape of Sasuke’s lips when he calls him my husband.
Naruto's toes curl in the sheets as Sasuke hums against him, allowing some of the come in his mouth to fall out onto Naruto’s stomach, where he licks it up again, because he’s an awful mean horny freak.
“Sasuke.” Naruto’s voice lands somewhere between desperate and disgusted. Taking sipping little gasps of air, Naruto tries his best to recollect himself. It’s only now that he realizes his hands are free, and he scrubs them down over his face. It’s wet with tears that he inadvertently smears across his cheeks. Shit.
“What—,” clearing the sticky feeling out of his throat, “What about you?”
“Don’t worry,” is all Sasuke says as he sits up, strips his shirt off.
Naruto grumbles, a bit petulant about it, because umm, aren’t they married? “Don’t you want me?”
Sasuke snorts, and it pisses Naruto off that he manages to make it sound sexy. He runs his fingers up Naruto's side, digs into the soft below his ribs. “I am going to find a way to time travel myself to kill me if I find out I fucked you first.” He pats Naruto’s hip. “Make room, would you?”
“You’re a bastard,” Naruto tells him but does as he’s asked. He has no idea what Sasuke is doing as he shifts behind Naruto, not until he's pulling him backwards, right into his embrace.
Sasuke’s chest is a furnace against his back. He kisses his shoulder and Naruto lets out a sigh, content and floaty. He closes his eyes, lets Sasuke maneuver them around until Sasuke hooks Naruto’s thighs over his own and pulls his legs apart like that.
Naruto blurts, “I’m gonna die if you make me come again.”
Sasuke makes a dubious sound and strokes his hand down Naruto’s front, blunt nails scratching at his skin pleasantly.
“You won’t,” he says.
He totally will.
“I'll seriously die,” he rebukes.
Sasuke ignores him and gropes at his chest. “How did I ever keep my fucking hands off you?” He practically murmurs to himself. Naruto scoffs.
“That’s what I’d like to know!”
“Ungrateful little bastard,” Sasuke sighs, and Naruto grins.
He tilts his head up and back, sees Sasuke’s upside-down face. Sasuke tips down and brushes a petal-soft kiss across each of Naruto’s eyelids in turn. His stomach is doing somersaults.
Then Sasuke’s reaching across to grab something from the nightstand. The sound of a bottle opening makes Naruto sit upright.
“Sasuke. My dick is going to fall off,” he warns.
“I won’t touch your dick,” Sasuke promises. Then he reaches around Naruto’s front, nudges his legs even further apart, and presses a wet, lubed up finger to his rim.
Naruto’s breath shivers out, helpless as Sasuke circles his fingertip. He’s done this a few times, but never really got much out of it. But when Sasuke’s finger slips in, it immediately goes deeper than Naruto’s ever have.
Sasuke fingers him open so slow it’s like something he’s trying to win at. A game where he gets first prize for turning Naruto gooey and breathless. Then he just continues, gentle as he fucks his fingers into Naruto’s body.
In a strangely straightforward way, it feels good. Idle, thrumming pleasure. Like years of tension he’s been carrying are being fucked out of him.
After a moment, “You can go deeper.” And for some reason that unexpected bashfulness returns. Naruto flushes.
So Sasuke presses in deeper, and it’s an actual stretch now. The width of his knuckles threaten to press in too, and Naruto sucks a sharp breath in through his teeth.
Slowing but not stopping, Sasuke asks, “Good?”
Naruto nods. “Yeah.”
Sasuke keeps fucking like that, slow and thorough and a little achy now, but in a satisfying way. Then he presses his fingers in deeper than before, and when he draws them out. Naruto wheezes out a helpless noise. He slides down the sheets just a little, making himself more accessible.
“Greedy,” Sasuke murmurs offhandedly, but he keeps going, until his knuckles begin to just barely slide in and out of him.
Naruto pulls in a raspy breath, but it doesn’t hurt. Sasuke even spreads his fingers ever so slightly now. It takes a minute for Naruto to relax again, melting back against Sasuke’s chest when he does, and suddenly he knows he’s going to come. His cock is already hard again, precome dripping onto his hip.
“I think I—” Naruto cuts himself off with a terribly wet gasp, and his breath sticks in his chest as Sasuke’s fingertips prod against his prostate. Then he does it again, and Naruto’s body goes tight, hips twisting away. Except that just makes the angle better, and better makes it worse. “Fuckfuck—fuck,” he says a little despairingly, even as he tips his head back onto Sasuke’s shoulder,
Sasuke continues, slow and deliberate, fingertips strumming against Naruto’s prostate until he’s trembling. It’s efficiency; brutal efficiency with which Sasuke fucks him, and Naruto swears, lifts his head. Fuck Sasuke for being his husband and fuck him for knowing exactly how his body operates. He’s relentless until he abruptly stops moving entirely; keeps Naruto full on his fingers as he desperately grinds his hips down onto Sasuke’s hand.
Sasuke rests his chin on Naruto’s shoulder to watch, and when Naruto cranes his neck towards him can barely tell if he’s really seeing him or looking straight through him as he loses his breath and gets fucked into the sheets. He’s so hard he’s dizzy,
“Wait wait, fuck. I’m close—again.” Naruto’s words are barely audible to himself
“I don’t even have to touch your dick?” Sasuke laughs. He’s a mean wicked bastard.
“Shut the fuck up.” The high, sharp noise Naruto chokes on undercuts his words
“You like when I touch your dick too, though,” Sasuke continues.
Naruto bobbles his head in a stupid little nod instead of begging Sasuke to jerk him off.
“When it comes to getting fucked you always become so obedient.” He can hear the smile in Sasuke’s voice, and that’s what does it. There is no way Naruto’s going to stay all docile now.
His breath is dissipating, he’s dying, he needs to come again and Naruto is going do it himself if Sasuke won’t. He works a hand between his own legs, fingers just about to curl around himself when he’s seized by the susanoo arm again.
The fight vacates him instantly.
“Let me come,” he whimpers.
“You will,” Sasuke says neutrally.
Naruto is going to die in the process. “It hurts!” he whines. “Please, c’mon, do it properly—”
“You like when it hurts.” Sasuke presses his fingers in so deep that Naruto’s whole body rocks when he pumps them. “I know you do.”
Naruto has nothing to say that could counter that. His hips rock in small, hitching circles as Sasuke drums his fingers across his prostate again. He keeps going until Naruto’s hands squeeze and clench the bed spread. One hand flies back towards Sasuke to grasp onto his arm, grounding himself. And while he’s there he might as well grope a little and dig his fingers in. Naruto grips tight over his bicep and lets out a strangled groan when he squeezes tightly flexed muscle.
Each time Sasuke drives his fingers back in punches another high whine from his lungs. Naruto pushes down against him, seeking every thrust. So full that he can’t breathe. Something is blurring his vision; his eyelashes, Naruto realizes. Heavy and spiked together with tears.
Naruto tilts his lower body, trying to take Sasuke deeper, chasing his touch, uncaring about the way he probably looks pathetic. The sensation’s unreal, heady, surging through him.
“At least—can you just—fuck, ” Naruto’s words practically tumble into each other. “Sasuke, ‘m gonna die.” He can feel the sweat rolling down his neck, how it collects in the dip at the base of his throat. It’s uncomfortably sticky. “I don’t think—I can’t take it, c’mon.”
“Of course you can take it,” Sasuke coos, like he’s reminding him, and Naruto can really only agree because Sasuke has always known him better than he knows himself. He nods breathlessly. Shame and arousal no longer exist as two separate things to his body. They swim together, and he feels high out of his mind.
His thighs try to roll inward but can’t where they’re hitched over Sasuke’s. The tendons at the seam of his legs and torso flex and tighten.
And it’s just as his mouth falls open, when Sasuke leans forward and licks the shell of his ear, that he comes again. But Sasuke doesn’t let up, continues fucking his fingers into Naruto with long, steady strokes. Keeps going until he’s overstimulated and desperate.
“You’re so mean,” Naruto gasps. And yet he makes no move to stop Sasuke. His thighs twitch, and then one leg involuntarily jerks to the side and back. His heel slams into Sasuke’s shin hard enough to bruise. “Sorry,” Naruto grits out, but that seems to have knocked Sasuke out of whatever horny freak trance he’s been under.
The huff of his laugh against Naruto’s neck is warm and amenable, and Naruto’s entire body feels molten. From his hips to his fingertips, to his toes, he’s oozing down into the sheets, onto the pillows as Sasuke slips out from behind him.
Naruto takes a few slow breaths to try to control his pounding heart. He thinks his spine is melting. It’s staggering, how overwhelming it is, but also how easy, comfortable, with Sasuke there to gently roll him onto his stomach. He sighs, folds his arms and pillows his chin with them while Sasuke straddles the backs of his thighs.
The speech center of his brain has yet to reactivate, but he hums as Sasuke pats a hand over his ass. A flare of heat cuts through him. He knows Sasuke said he wouldn’t fuck him, because then Sasuke would go ahead and kill Sasuke, but a part of him wishes he would; never mind the fact that Naruto doesn’t think he’ll be able to come again for the next week.
Sasuke’s fingers press into the fleshier spot just above the area where his ass meets his thighs. Then he smacks him there with the flat of his palm, and it makes Naruto jolt and choke on a breathless giggle all at the same time as his back arches away instinctively.
He tilts his hips up a little, hopeful, would give a wiggle if he could move with Sasuke on him. He hears Sasuke groan, rubbing his face against Naruto’s shoulder and sighing. His breathing is ragged, and the sound drives Naruto to the edge again faster than anything. Sasuke’s cock is pressed to his spine, heavy and wet, and Naruto really doesn’t think he can actually come again, but before he can voice as much Sasuke is lifting off him.
He hauls Naruto’s closer and grinds against his tailbone, pressing bruises into his hip with his fingertips. Naruto shuts his eyes and groans; rests his cheek atop his crossed forearms. It feels like the world is tilting. Then Sasuke’s hand is back on his ass, digging his fingers into the meat of it like he’s testing the weight. Keeping his hand there, he pulls to the side, and slides his own body lower. Fits his dick between the curve of Naruto’s ass and gasps like he may as well be inside him.
And then he starts moving, slow at first and then gaining speed. His hand grips Naruto tight by the hip, leverage to nestle his dick closer. His body presses tight against Naruto's as he grinds forward, warm and heady. Naruto’s brain fucking whites out even though he’s not being touched. Sasuke’s got his hips hoisted up just far enough that he can’t gain any friction against the sheets.
Nosing at his hairline, Sasuke lets out quiet groans and Naruto's sweating, gasping, his hips rocking back to meet Sasuke’s slow rutting. His chest blooms hearing Sasuke feel good, his voice low and strained. A sound that will be locked in Naruto’s mind forever.
It’s enough to leave him overwhelmed. Desperate. Ravenous. It’s building, building, each motion of Sasuke’s hips melting something deep inside Naruto’s gut. He thinks for a moment that he’s going to come, and then he does, but it’s a weak dribble as Naruto’s pulse pounds in his ears and he gasps for air he can’t take in. He feels Sasuke shuddering when he comes moments after, warmth dripping down to collect in the divot of Naruto’s spine.
Naruto maybe loses a little bit of time. His brain goes so fucking quiet he can’t even tell if there’s anything living inside it anymore. Sasuke hasn’t even left before he’s back with a washcloth, gently wiping up the come and sweat from his back. He lets himself be maneuvered onto his back so Sasuke can clean up the mess he made on his belly.
When he makes to get up again Naruto quickly catches his wrist.
“I—.” He swallows thickly. Suddenly, he feels engulfed by a barrage of foreign feelings.
Naruto doesn’t think he can let this go once he’s had a taste. I don’t know how we’ll get here, is what he doesn’t say, but he’s sure Sasuke knows anyway.
He drops his wrist.
But Sasuke doesn’t leave. He sits back down, uses his knuckles to rub away the tear tracks on Naruto’s face, gentle as anything. He runs his fingers through his hair and scritches pleasantly at his scalp until Naruto can remember how to speak again.
”—I want another bath,” he says, after forever and no time at all. Sasuke laughs and smudges a kiss to his cheek before heading for the en-suite.
Naruto sighs and flops onto his back as he listens to the bath slowly fill. He feels homesick for both Sasuke and Sasuke. He doesn’t know how they’re going to build this life together. Yet, the knowledge that it is most certainly possible if he’s here in the first place sends a thrilling tingle through his body.
He sighs again, deeper, and rolls over. He’s ended up on Sasuke’s side of the bed, and a picture frame lays face down on the nightstand. For a reason, Naruto think. He shouldn’t look at it. Who knows what sort of butterfly effect could take place.
Naruto waits thirty seconds and then reaches for it. He’s hardly lifted it an inch before Sasuke appears and pushes it back down. Naruto’s heart is racing. He didn’t hear a single sound of his approach.
Sasuke raises a brow. “You see it?”
Naruto shakes his head. “No, sorry. Got curious, y’know?” He leaps up and makes for the bath before Sasuke can question him further.
It’s not really a lie. He hadn’t seen the full thing. Only enough to make out the tops of whoever is in the photo’s heads. Dark hair, more dark hair, and a redhead. Huh. Weird, since he hasn’t heard from Karin in months. Well, whatever. Naruto stretches and lowers himself into the most luxurious bath of his life for the second time in what may be the foreseeable future.
When he’s finished and dressed and steps out: Sasuke waiting with a pair of sandals in his hand. At Narutos’s perplexed look, “Don’t think this should mess things up much. Come on.”
So they collect a blanket and a small towel and step into their shoes by the front door. And when they step outside with their fingers threaded together, when Naruto hears it, he gasps.
“I knew it was here!” he exclaims.
He bounds out, and just the frothy top of the sea is enough to exhilarate him. Naruto stands there, shielding his eyes against the glare of the water and the fiery sun. When Sasuke reaches him, he shifts so that he’s pressed into his side with his arm about his shoulders.
The wind is light so the water is calm and it spreads out like a beautiful blue blanket across the world, glittering under the bleached sunlight.
After a moment, Sasuke speaks. “I can’t tell you exactly where this is, but—well, whatever. There you go.”
Naruto beams at him, squeezing his hand.
Silence ensues, only the crashing of waves breaking it apart, but it’s comforting and familiar. In this unknown place where lukewarm wind billows and smells of salt and of squid, of the damp sand by the coastline, where all he knows is Sasuke beside him, Naruto can’t wait for his return.