Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Skin Deep ❯ Cause and Effect ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Author's Notes: Err… We all knew Sasuke was hiding something.

Skin Deep
Alternate Universe
Chapter Three
Cause and Effect

[Edit: April 20, 2005]

If Sasuke were to call this a problem, which in frustration he often times did, he would have to say that it had all started a little more than two years ago, right after he had been passed the Chuunin exams. Sakura hadn't made it, having been beaten by someone from Hidden Rain; her chakra control was amazing and well developed, but her stamina and hand-to-hand combat was still not up to par. She had been furious since almost everyone else had passed. It especially frustrated her that her own teammates, Sasuke and Naruto, had passed with flying colors.

As some sort of congratulations, Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei had taken the pair off to Ichiraku and feed them Ramen until they couldn't take anymore. (Iruka-sensei had even thought to buy some onigiri for Sasuke, who refused to share with anyone else.) When the rest of the chuunin found them and dragged them off to a party they had thrown together, Sasuke could have sworn that Iruka-sensei wiped tears from his eyes.

Kakashi-sensei gave them the thumbs up, and in a whirl of hand seals, both of their teachers were gone.

The party at a seedy looking bar on the outskirts of town had been loud, wild, and yet Sasuke still found himself getting as marvelously drunk as the rest of them. Sasuke vaguely remembered something exploding and being kicked out onto the street by an angry looking owner grumbling something about idiotic chuunin.

Giggling in a way that was completely uncharacteristic of him -the Uchiha simply did not giggle- Sasuke and Naruto stumbled to the blonde's apartment and somehow started making out, twisting and rolling around on the floor. The last the taller shinobi remembered was taking off his shirt and passing out right in the middle of a very heated kiss.

It was nearly eleven when he woke up, a huge headache forming between his eyes and the realization of the previous night hitting so hard that he threw up. Naruto slept on, which he realized was probably for the better, and despite the fact that he couldn't find his shirt -it had probably been ripped beyond repair- and that the sun hurt his eyes and that he was dizzy with every step he took, he got out of that apartment as quickly as he could and stumbled home.

He remembered being scolded by his father, but only lightly, because apparently it was some tradition to get drunk when one was promoted to the rank of chuunin. (Sasuke really didn't want to know what happened when shinobi became jounin.) His father had also taken it upon himself to hide Sasuke away from his mother, saying that Sasuke had been out till dawn with “friends”, and had just crawled back managed to come back home. He deserved his rest and nobody was to disturb him, under a penalty that was little better than death.

Sasuke had a horrible day. He felt like he hadn't slept at all and he kept on throwing up. Even the medicine that his father had provided wasn't nearly enough to stop the migraine. He swore up and down at least a hundred times that he would never, ever get drunk again for the hangover was simply not worth it.

But if Sasuke thought that the day after was bad, when all he was thinking about was puking and sleeping and killing the inventor of alcoholic beverages, he was sorely mistaken. The ceremony in which he received his chuunin flak jacket was far worse. He had to smile for the camera. He had to stand in line for hours and wait till the Fifth could see him and officially give him the rank of chuunin. But worst of all, he had to withstand Naruto.

He couldn't stop thinking about the way Naruto had torn at him, kissed him, held onto him. They had been drunk, but damnit, Sasuke had liked the tiny scraps of memories his inebriated self had held onto. While Naruto stood in line with him and complained, all the Uchiha could think about was when and how he would get Naruto drunk again. All day he squashed the urge, disgusted at himself, refusing to ever allow himself to take advantage of his teammate like that.

As he recalled the feeling of warm lips on his neck and fingers in his hair, he found that promise harder to keep than he originally thought.

But Naruto didn't remember any of it. When Sasuke discreetly asked, he had told him that he remembered getting kicked out of the bar, somehow getting ending up in his apartment, and then the next thing he knew, he was dealing with the symptoms of a harsh hangover. Sasuke sympathized, and so did all the other chuunin, but after awhile the dark-haired teenager had wanted to nothing more than beat Naruto around until he remembered just how addicting his kisses and touches were. Hell, if Naruto wanted proof, Sasuke had found a few claw marks on his back and hickeys on his neck taking a shower that morning.

He thought the feelings would fade. But they didn't, and after every spar with Naruto he would walk back to the Uchiha Estates to take a cold shower. Not that Naruto ever noticed, and goddamnit it would stay that way. Sasuke, after all, blamed his obsession for the blonde on hormones. He knew he was a teenager and he wasn't about to suppress his sexual desires- at least, that's what his father said after catching Sasuke coming out of his usual icy shower. A good shinobi didn't let things like lust get in their way. Deal with it in anyway you can, his father had said, because it can come around to bite you in the ass.

So Sasuke did, but it did nothing to curb the tightening in his gut and the thrill of Naruto's touch. He didn't want to think that it would escalate into anything else; though Naruto had stopped trying to constantly vie for Sakura's attention, he was fairly sure that his preference still resided in the world of long legs and pouting lips.

It would go away. He told himself that all the time. It would go away.

But it didn't, so Sasuke, finally able to come to out after over two years of denial and tell himself that he certainly did have a “thing” for Naruto, decided to do something about it. He wanted to say that it was because he was taking his father's advice and not letting anything become between him and becoming a good shinobi, but then he'd be lying to himself, which was just as worse. He wanted to do something about because he was tired, tired of all this pretending and acting. He plotted and thought his plan of attack over and over, something he was very good at, and it was for that reason he was in this whole mess in the first place.

You see, after the chuunin exams, his mother and cousins and basically the whole Uchiha clan had noticed that he was acting strangely, teasing him about it constantly, blaming it all on a girl. He vehemently denied having any relations with any one until about a year ago, when he had made up “Midaki Suna”, throwing his whole clan off track. He even went to Hidden Wave every so often to see this so-called Suna, but in truth he was usually delivering something for the Hokage. (Tsunade found his predicament amusing to say the least, but Sasuke didn't need to know that.)

It was only until last week he had laid all his cards on the table, so to say. He had announced at dinner, with all his family present, that in by next Sunday they would be able to meet Suna. His mother had asked the occasion. Sasuke, who was known for his sometimes very surprising ways, had simply informed her that it was to celebrate his engagement.

The very effect of his words had been amusing. His cousins, especially the boys, had choked on their dinner, his father, who had been drinking some tea, spit it all out and all over his prone-to-over-react aunt, who barely even noticed. His mother's chopsticks had rolled from her fingers and every single family member had their jaw down the floor.

Naruto would have enjoyed it the sight of the “great Uchiha clan” struck dumb. He certainly did.

But he had been stupid. He should have thought about the nervousness and the guilt and the embarrassment, factors he had forgotten to evaluate into the original equation. He tried approaching Naruto three times before but had chickened out, something he was rather ashamed of. The dark-haired chuunin was simply too shy. He had never really thought of himself as such before, but then again he had thought himself a lot of things before Naruto came along.

So here he was, right smack dab in the middle of his problem. Tomorrow night would decide it all and the way things were going, it looked like it was all downhill from that point on forward.

Naruto was standing in front of him, fists clenched, his face an unnatural shade of purple and red. Sasuke would have found it rather amusing if Naruto were actually breathing, so he put the cover-up back in his pocket and shook his shoulders rather firmly. Normally Naruto came up to his nose, which was not as easy as it sounded-Sasuke was tall, very much so, and towered over his own father by at least half a head. The blonde was considered tall on his own, even standing next to Sasuke, but in his female form, he barely came up to his shoulder.

The bones underneath his hands were small and compact. He hated the feeling -it was as though he could crush them into powder without even trying. Sasuke quickly removed his hands and rolled his eyes in a quick display of exasperation. “Stop being so difficult. It's just a little bit of make-up. It is not going to kill you.'

“That's what you think.” The blonde grumbled, glaring at the pocket the cover-up was in. “You're not the one who has to wear this. I bet you think this is just so damn funny, dressing me up like a doll.”

“In case you haven't noticed, my ass is the one that's going to be fried if this falls through. It's not like I'm laughing inwardly at your expense.” Sasuke's jaw clenched. Naruto had always been difficult, and being constantly around him for the past four or five years did nothing to ease that specific pain. “Here, I'll make you a deal. I'll put the cover-up on your scars and if you don't like it, we can try thinking of something else.”

“What about an illusion? Like with the hitai-ate?” Naruto asked, gesturing to his discarded one on the table.
“It won't work. Remember that the second my family sees you, they will try and look through any illusion you cast. They'll see through it in a second and we'll both be screwed. Make-up is a lot less inconspicuous.” Sasuke reasoned, reaching slowly for the cover-up. Really. Dealing with Naruto was like dealing with a wild animal sometimes. He thought back to the scratches he had found on his back and pushed that fantasy away as quickly as it had come.

The blonde opened his mouth to ask about the Oiroke no Jutsu, but snapped his jaw back together with an audible click. His technique had developed over the years, especially after he had created the Kage no Bushin. Once Sasuke had been using the Sharingan while he performed the Oiroke no Jutsu, and had told the blonde that his technique seriously messed with the insides of his body. But, strangely enough, he couldn't tell that it was an illusion.

“Fine.” He spat out after a few moments of trying to figure out an alternative solution. Nothing came to him. So he tilted his face up towards Sasuke's and screwed his eyes shut, waiting. The cover-up was cold, slimy, but the sensation disappeared after a few seconds. He thought to several bowls of hot, steaming miso Ramen in order to keep himself from running away.

“There.” Sasuke declared after a minute or so, and pulled away, shoving the cover-up back into his pocket. His fingers lingered for longer than they should have. Naruto glanced around the chuunin's shoulder to stare at… “Midaki Suna.” The dark-haired chuunin whispered so softly that Naruto almost missed it.

Sasuke stepped out of the way smoothly, an arrogant tilt to his lips, but Naruto was too busy staring at his reflection in his old, ready to crack mirror to notice. He really looked different, and as much as he would loathe admitting it, he actually made a very beautiful girl. His wide eyes scraped down his body. It was slightly unnerving to see a completely foreign person stare back at you from the mirror.

“I have a real Hidden Wave hitai-ate at the Manor, but we'll have to get that later.” Naruto barely heard Sasuke say, watching from the corner of his eye as he pulled the hitai-ate from where he had put it on the table after it had been unceremoniously thrown at his head. He turned around and flipped it onto Naruto's head, pushing the bangs forward and tying the blue material with practiced grace.
He looked over the top of the blonde's head and into the mirror after he was finished.

Midaki Suna hesitantly looked at him with Naruto's eyes. For one reason or another, it twisted his stomach into knots.

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