Chapter 1: Prologue
Chapter Text
Sasuke stood shivering at the edge of the field, the cold breeze brushing against his skin and the orange leaves on the floor by his feet. His eyes had finally adjusted to the bright sunlight and he could see the tall walls of his home before him a ways away. There was a fire in the pit of his stomach that was igniting, the drive for survival allowing him to move one bare foot in front of the other.
He placed his arms in front of him, to cover up his body as much as possible, to provide the little heat he could give himself. When he swallowed, his throat ached with pain, his lips burned from how dry they were but nothing stopped him from yelling out--a hoarse yell that was a desperate cry for help-- hoping to catch the attention of the guards at the post.
As he drew closer, he could hear the sound of his clansmen, could hear a guard warn the others of a person coming towards them and he felt tears slide down his face. He had nearly given up hope in ever returning and he was somehow here.
"It's the prince?!” A guard came rushing towards him just as his knees buckled and he landed on the wet earth. A shiver racked his body and he could feel the fur that had been on the mans body placed over his own, the heat of another human immediately warming up his back.
“Inform Lord Fugaku that the prince has returned!”
Chapter Text
“It seems like this is an issue that the Uchiha clan will not be able to handle.” Fugaku's voice cut through the chaos within the room.
The voices that had risen as they had argued suddenly stilled at hearing the head of the clan speak. The air seemed to thicken as they slowly sat back down, folding their knees below them; many fixed their attire as an action that showed them trying to collect themselves.
Several generations of Uchiha’s sat around before him, young and old, one stronger than the one before. He had asked them all to come and meet to speak on a very important matter, something that he had waited too long to bring up and, now that he had, it had caused an uproar. The call for blood and revenge immediately on everyone's tongue since the incident that had occurred was clearly a direct hit to the Uchiha name.
“Lord Fugaku, as the leader of the Uchiha clan, we respect your decisions and are aware of how this must be affecting you, our hearts are with the young prince, however, the Uchiha clan does not ask for help, we are the ones to provide the help.”
Many heads nodded in agreement and even Fugaku understood what his clansmen were feeling. They were a clan that brimmed to the top with pride because, for over 238 years, since Uchiha Madara had staked claim on the very land they lived on, the Uchiha’s were known for their power and discipline, many clans often requesting their assistance whether it was in training their own clansmen or providing guards for traveling daimyo's or their sokushitsu1. Despite the age of their clan, they continued to thrive, currently being at the largest they have ever been in numbers.
“I understand Fumoi, however, Fūma does not seem to care about who we are and what we do,” At that, their gazes changed, identical coal colored eyes stared back at him with a steely resolve, “They will stop at nothing until they see this clan down at its knees. Are we to wait until they are at our walls? Are we to cower within our homes, waiting for them to completely disgrace our name?!”
Fugaku’s voice held anger, his hands clenched into fists as he stared at a pair of black eyes towards the back, the eyes of his eldest son. “Fūma’s leader, a man who may not even be human, has placed his desires on your very own and has left a message informing us that he will stop at nothing to get him back.”
They had all been informed about the scout that had been sent after Sasuke's return. The scout had left on horseback with clear instructions of laying low and collecting data on the village. The Uchiha's wanted to know numbers, wanted to know about their fighting styles, and what sort of weapons this village used. It wasn't until a week later that a wooden box had been left at the entrance of their village and, within said box, laid the head of the very same scout that had been sent.
Fugaku had been informed immediately, a scroll having been handed to him, drops of blood staining the parchment. It read that Fūma had taken it personally having been sent a spy and that Orochimaru wasn't too keen on sharing what belonged to him. While the message had been short, his meaning had been pretty clear.
All attention was on him now, low murmuring had begun as they shared stories of how Sasuke, the second son of Uchiha Mikoto and Uchiha Fugaku, had disappeared one day.
It was as if he had vanished into thin air and, no matter how hard they looked and with word of his disappearance reaching all corners of the map, Sasuke had been gone for months. It had come to the point where even Mikoto had lost all faith and had fallen into a deep depression losing her youngest son and, with heavy hearts, the Uchiha clan mourned the loss of one of their own.
It wasn’t until one day, just as the foliage around them turned from green to orange and the air became crisp, did a body slowly make its way to the entrance of the clan, bare as the day they had been born, and the closer the body got, was when the guards noticed it was none other than Uchiha Sasuke.
His teeth were clacking loudly as his hands tried to cover his body as much as it could, trying to bring some semblance of warmth to his chilled skin. He cried for help, his throat raw as his voice continued calling out, his eyes stinging with relief as he saw his home. One guard had run to him while the others scrambled, news traveling fast within the village of how the second son had miraculously returned. The guard that was near him immediately removed his fur coat and threw it over Sasuke’s body, the same body whose knees had buckled in relief.
He had been whisked away and brought into his home. His return had been a blur to him; he remembered many voices, someone crying for a long time, and warmth.
Warmth that he hadn’t felt in such a long time as he sunk his body into a tub of warm water, every area of skin had been scrubbed and he had been dried and clothed in layers of fine silk, and was placed under four different layers of covers with a futon under him that felt like a cloud. The servants had slowly been feeding him some sort of broth, chicken by the taste of it, but he had ignored the warm liquid the moment his older brother entered the room, eyes frantic until they laid upon him.
Itachi, always so well put together, had rushed in with his hair tie slipping dangerously low from his hair and kimono askew. Sasuke chucked away the layers and ignored the voice of the servant who told him he shouldn’t push his body all in favor of running into Itachi’s arms.
The arms that wrapped around him were the same arms that had held him when he was born, the same arms that threw him up in the air when he was little, and were the same arms that sparred with him with the intention of making him a better man.
Uchiha Itachi had searched far and wide for his little brother. He had consoled their mother for days on end, had traveled around looking for him and asking anyone who would listen to see if they had seen someone that matched his description. Itachi’s hug turned almost uncomfortable from how tight he was holding onto his little brother, the same little brother he thought he was never going to see again. Their mother had entered the room, a loud, wet gasp left her lips as she spotted Sasuke tucked under Itachi’s chin and the sob that escaped her throat had Itachi pulling her into him as well. Her hair was wild from having ran to the room and her tears stained the blue kimono that Itachi was wearing but she didn’t care. All she could do was have her hands roam over every inch of her youngest son, her heart feeling full at having him back into her arms once more.
Fugaku stood at the door, face stern as he watched his family clutch each other, and, as they parted, he noticed something when Mikoto began inspecting their youngest. He could see the change in Sasuke’s eyes- gone was the brightness of growing youth he once had. There was something within those obsidian eyes, the same something Fugaku had seen in men that had fought one too many battles, men who had seen too much for their age.
Whatever Sasuke had been through during the time he had disappeared had changed him.
When Fugaku had asked Sasuke to recount the last couple of months, he knew from the short, clipped answers his son was giving them wasn’t the complete story. He sat against the wall of his room, the covers having been thrown back on his body with Mikoto not once stopping in adjusting them while she listened to her son talk. He explained about how he had been grabbed and drugged, how he had lost notion of time as he was whisked away to what would eventually find out to be the Land of Sound.
They were a small village, rather new compared to the older clans in the area, led by a man named Orochimaru. The village was home to outcasts, people that had been shunned or rebelled against their own villages, and sought out refuge. Despite most of the men and women who lived there going about life without ethics nor morality, they looked at Orochimaru like a deity and held the highest respect for him.
Orochimaru was anything but that.
Sasuke’s voice cracked at the tales he told them about the man, the man who had kept him under lock and key, hadn’t let him out to see the sun, had a sick interest in studying the human body and its limits. When asked how exactly he had been able to escape, Sasuke paused for a moment and said that he wasn’t sure. Someone had thrown a hood over his head and his captor hadn’t given away who they were. In distant parts of his memory, he could feel being laid across on horseback, the sounds of nature around him echoing through his ears. Sasuke had eventually woken up in the cold, just a couple of feet away from the Uchiha clan. Sasuke, during the entire story, spoke as if he was somewhere far away, his voice monotone and looking straight ahead at the wall before him.
Mikoto’s hands shook as they clutched the covers over her son's body, another sob wracking through her body. Fugaku asked for his son to stop, that it had been enough for the day and that he should continue resting. It was a difficult feat to get his wife to let go of the covers but, eventually, they let Sasuke sleep.
Itachi had stayed, however, not wanting to leave his little brother’s side. He watched how Sasuke’s eyes twitched while he slept, how his body seemed to be in constant motion as it tried to escape whatever images his mind conjured up.
It was well into the night when Sasuke had woken up and, with tired eyes, lifted the covers so that Itachi could crawl in, exactly how they had done when they were much smaller. It was then, under the heat of the covers, that Sasuke whispered in shame to his brother the things he hadn’t told their parents. He told him how the man, if he could even be called that, paraded him around to the others, as if he were a prized animal to be shown off, of how he was made to live in his personal chambers where, no matter how hard Sasuke had tried, couldn’t escape.
Itachi let his brother vent, never once interrupting him, instead, he held onto Sasuke’s trembling hands until he had exhausted himself into sleep, words slurring until they came to a stop.
Sasuke had slept through the morning and that had been when Itachi had gone to Fugaku and demanded that action must be taken, something Fugaku had been surprised at seeing his eldest, ever the pacifist, say something with so much venom. There was a fire within Itachi’s eyes that he had never seen before.
That was how they got to where they currently were, surrounded by the men of the clan all gathered in a room with their cups of tea cold and not a movement in sight.
“That creature that dares to call itself a human has come after one of our own and we must prepare to take action because, from the information that has been handed to me, it may very well be that he will appear at our doors.”
Looking upon the solemn faces and seeing that there were no objections, he continued on.
“I have in mind meeting with the head of the Uzumaki clan.”
The moment he had uttered the name, the room had gone up in an uproar.
“Fugaku! Have you lost your mind!?”
“We can’t bring in those savages!”
“What of the Inuzuka clan!? They're more beast than human but they are not savages like the Uzumaki!”
Fugaku allowed them to speak their minds, all the meanwhile sitting at the head of the room, calmly listening to what everyone had to say.
“I have thought this through,” His voice cut through everyone, bringing them all to a halt again, “Believe me, I have had thoughts that have been plaguing me, not allowing me to sleep at night nor work throughout the day. However, I keep coming back to the same conclusion.” Fugaku’s tone remained strong as he continued on.
"Consider the clans that surround us: the Inuzuka, known for living amongst the very beasts they have tamed, the Hyuuga’s, known for their prowess in discipline, the Nara, known for their wits and strategic planning. What is the one thing that the Uzumaki's have that none of the others have?”
He could see how, one by one, their expressions morphed from confusion to realization.
“We have all been told the tale of the demon child that grew up destroying villages and has eliminated lineages, a demon child who will stop at nothing to keep his clan safe. Last I heard, he was still alive and has made good friends with the Inuzuka’s first son. Our plan of action will go as follows: we will contact the Uzumaki’s through the Inuzuka’s, we ask to meet, to state their price for their protection, and, if we do not agree, see if we negotiate something else.”
The expressions before Fugaku did not appear to agree with him but no one countered with a better idea. They would have to fight fire with fire for this and be ready for whatever was to come their way.
“Our job doesn’t stop there. While this is going on, we need to gather any intel we can find on Fūma while pulling some of our men away from their missions.”
Their meeting, which had originally started early afternoon, continued on well into the night as they conversed about raising the number of guards around the village and recruiting more soldiers. It concluded with a couple of messengers to be sent out at first light and an uneasy feeling amongst everyone.
Notes:
Notes:
[1]
Seishitsu (正室) is the Japanese term of the Edo period for the official wife of high-ranking persons. The tennō, kugyō (court officials), shōgun and daimyōs often had several wives to ensure the birth of an heir. The seishitsu had a status above other wives, called sokushitsu (側室, concubine).
Chapter Text
The fall air blew into the room from the open doors, the smell of rain lingered from the downpour that had occurred the night before.
Sasuke sat amongst his many layers that made up his resting area, his eyes closed in pleasure as the comb passed softly through his hair. Where it once had had tumbled down his back, inky black, it had been shorn close to his head and spiked at the back during his time in the Land of Sound. When he had arrived it had lacked luster but his brother had entrusted himself in oiling his shorn hair. It took all of his willpower to not fall asleep under his brothers gentle hands.
“Some things don’t ever change huh little brother?” Itachi mumbled, his fingers holding on to the comb as he gently combed it through. Sasuke’s hair didn’t need any more brushing but Itachi liked to indulge him every now and then and this was one of his brothers favorite pass times.
“Do I really need to attend todays meeting brother?” Sasuke grumbled, his head lolling from how serene he was feeling.
“Yes, you are needed today. It will be the first time that we will be meeting the Uzumaki’s and Father would like for all of us to be there.” They had sent word to the Inuzuka clan two full moons ago and it had only taken a quick exchange of messages for a date to be determined.
Sasuke’s grimace didn’t lessen and Itachi playfully tugged his hair before patting his back softly, happy to feel that his little brother was slowly filling out. While they had waited for a response, Sasuke was slowly regaining his strength. He had arrived nearly looking like his skin clung on to his bones, his eyes heavy and empty as if adjusting to seeing life around him. With broth being fed to him three times a day, they eventually began moving him onto small solid foods. At first, even the soft dough of a piece of bread was hard for him to keep down. Little by little, his appetite grew and so did the strength in his limbs. So much so that he had began sparring with Itachi in the early mornings for a short time and often sat with him for meditation out in the sun, his skin regaining a healthier look rather than the waxy complexion it had.
“Let’s get you dressed and prepared for a long, boring talk.”
Itachi had dismissed the servants away who had been patiently waiting off to the side ready to assist. Once the sliding door was closed behind them, Itachi went about picking the pieces for Sasuke’s outfit while the younger man stripped out of his hadagi , the linen sliding off of his skin smoothly and placing it to the side.
Sasuke stepped into a heavy, black silk kimono and, while his brother tied the obi around his waist, he put his arms through the haori that had branches crawling up his sleeves and thousands of petals that had been hand sewn all throughout his arms and down his back. Itachi placed his hands on Sasuke’s thin shoulders, shaking him a bit only to laugh at hearing his whine.
The two brothers made their way out of the room and into the corridors, the heads of servants lowering as they passed by. Their socked feet were silent, the only noise was from the haori dragging on the wooden floors.
The doors to the hall opened and Sasuke was suddenly met with multiple similar eyes. Before him sat the most powerful men in the Uchiha clan. Men with years of training, years of blood passed down to their first born to be able to lead the future generation. The same eyes in the room had seen him come into the world, had been there when he took his first steps, his first sword.
As he took his place by his mother and Itachi by their father, he set his gaze towards the entrance of the hall. Murmurs were going around, whispers of their guests wove through each of them, rumors of stories they had heard about the Uzumaki's were suddenly being exchanged.
They were a group of savages, with hair as wild and as vibrant as the fire lilies that grew near the volcanos, their language guttural and way of living was ruthless. They never settled on one place, instead, they lived off of the land and wandered with the seasons. The Uzumaki’s worshipped a horse deity and bred beasts with incredible strength and stamina. They had recently set camp near the Inuzuka, the friendship that had blossomed amongst their sons had caused the two groups to begin a merge of sorts.
Fugaku had shared letters with Hyuuga Hiashi and Nara Shikaku about this new merge and sought out their opinions on whether or not action needed to be taken. While they had mentioned they had scouts keeping an eye on the Inuzuka, the hadn't mentioned any suspicious activity to report.
The sun cast their shadows on the wooden floors and, as the time passed by, the clan members became restless.
“Where are they? They were supposed to be here midday!”
“Can they even tell time? They’re brutes after all!”
The clansmen voices rose and just as Fugaku was about to speak, to calm his men down, the sound of war drums rang across the compound. Fugaku’s expression turned to stone as the guards outside ran around and yelled to open the main gate. The drums became louder and the sound of horse whinnying could be heard.
The doors to the meeting hall opened to show a group of six people; a blond man walked amongst a sea of red, his blue eyes were soft and his smile was warm. Next to his left shoulder stood a woman with red hair down to her ankle and steely eyes that took a look around the room. Two men and another woman stood behind them, all tall and long and held a powerful stance. Those with red hair wore it long and had strands of strings and beads woven throughout it, small bells rang with each shift of muscle.
Both men and women wore vests made of hide over their bare chest and horsehair trousers cinched by bronze medallion belts or thick rope. At their feet, some had on leather boots while others had leather sandals that laced up to the knee. Their skin showed signs of wear and were slightly tinted from the constant sun, their hair shone under the light with some sort of oil. The scent they brought into the hall was of grass, sun, and wet earth.
Amongst the group, there was a lone figure towards the back with a hood over their head but all eyes landed at the blond man at the front who bowed.
“Hello and, please, excuse our late arrival. We ran into some trouble on the way here. My name is Namikaze Minato and I’ll be speaking on behalf of the Uzumaki clan.”
The man’s voice rang clear and his Japanese pronunciation showed him to be a fluent speaker.
“Namikaze Minato? The first born son of the Namikaze clan that defected?!" The murmurs in the hall weren't so quiet. Fugaku had heard the stories but hadn't known that the man before him had left to join the Uzumaki's.
Minato had been born with his life already written out for him. His family had given him the best scholars to study with, the best swordsmen to spar with, all with the hopes of him leading their clan to a better future. He had an arranged marriage to a woman from the clan whose upbringing was similar and they were to keep the lineage strong with their offspring but his family hadn't been prepared for him to fall in love with the another woman whom Fugaku assumed was the woman who stood to his left.
"The very one. I was the one that responded to your correspondence and spoke to my clan about setting the meeting. I have always admired the Uchiha clan for its strength and training regimes and I am sure that the two clans can benefit a lot from an alliance."
Despite living with the Uzumaki's for years, Minato showed he had yet to lose all the formal training he had received.
Fugaku gestured for him to sit in front of his family where a low table had been placed so that they may speak and, while Minato sat gracefully and thanked them for the tea that was poured into his cup, the man on his right sampled the drink before he could.
"They're overly cautious but with reason. We've had one too many others that have tried to assassinate us." Minato took the cup in his hands and took a moment to appreciate the warmth it provided. "Now, how may we be of assistance?"
Fugaku’s eyes left the blond man for a moment and stared at the woman next to him, the man that stood just behind his right shoulder, at the two other people behind him. They stood unmoving but Fugaku knew they had to be their best warriors and have already counted how many were in the room and divided them in groups if an attack were to happen.
"There's been a threat to my family, a clan that holds the stains and outcasts of all the clans in one area and they follow one man who they deem to be a God. They had somehow gotten through all our defenses and had stolen my youngest son right underneath our noses and he was returned to us by an unknown person not too long ago." Minato had turned to Sasuke and the smile on the blond mans face wasn't a sad one, rather, it was something akin to understanding. "We have reason to think he'll be back for him and, this time, he'll leave nothing in his wake. For that, we have reached out to the Uzumaki clan for extra protection."
Minato took a sip of the herbal liquid and cleared his throat. He suddenly began speaking in another language, one not known to anyone with the last name Uchiha. The language, called Uzuki , sounded rough and harsh, nothing like the Japanese they had just been speaking in.
The woman to his side looked at Sasuke and grinned something feral, a scoff leaving her mouth when one of the other men spoke. She spoke to Minato, fast and low into his ear, and he nodded in understanding.
"My wife, Kushina, and I can definitely sympathize with you Lord Fugaku, the fear of having almost lost a child is never something a parent should ever have to go through. We'd be more than happy to help protect you and your clansmen under one condition: the Uzumaki clan will need to take shelter within your walls during the time that we protect your own."
The other Uchiha members moved at that and that caused the Uzumaki clan to place their hand on the hilt of their swords. At the same time, Minato and Fugaku lifted their hands to signal their respective groups to settle down.
"The Uchiha clan may be strong but we may not be able to house a large number of your people. Our compound may not have the room." Minato nodded, his soft smile unwavering.
"Our people do not need homes. We need somewhere to store the horses during the winter and be able to settle an encampment for the oncoming storm. We have been informed that the worse is yet to come and would prefer not to lose our stock of horses. While they may be strong, this winter will be ruthless. The Inuzuka have their own to worry about and we wouldn't want to burden them with our own beasts. Provide us with that and we'll protect you as if you were our own."
Fugaku looked at his own men, met the eyes of all of those in the room, and watched as, one by one, they slowly nodded. It didn't seem like a ridiculous request and land within their walls they could spare. Depending on the size of the clan, they could section them off behind the palace where the clearing was used for training. Setting up a stable and corral would take the most time but, with enough hands set to the task, they could have it up fairly quickly.
"You have yourself a deal." Minato nodded and spoke in their language, the others nodded and grunted their agreements. "That's great to hear. I'll be meeting with you often to make sure that everything is going well and, in the meantime, my son will be in charge of making sure nothing happens to your own."
A weight that had been on Fugaku’s shoulders seemed to lessen at that. He had expected this to have been more difficult, had thought that their request was going to be something that was far out of their reach but it had all gone a lot better than he had thought.
"I'm glad we could come to an agreement Minato, the Uchiha clan will honor this for a long time to come." Fugaku bowed his head in gratitude and met the gaze of the man before him. "When will we be able to meet this son of yours? I wasn't aware you had one of your own."
It was at that moment that Minato's gaze changed. Blue eyes that had been soft suddenly turned wild and resembled those behind him; his grin looked much like his wife's. "He's been here this whole time. Naruto , introduce yourself."
The figure who had stood all the way at the back with the hood covering his head shifted and, from under his robes, something dropped onto the floor. It took shape into what looked like a tail but was red and translucent in the middle. It unfurled and slid over the wooden floor, its movements snakelike, the men that it moved past yelled out and pushed back in the hopes of putting distance between them and whatever that was. It bubbled and popped and, before he could move away, Minato's voice rang clear amidst the chaos, "It will not harm you Sasuke, you have my word."
Just as the words left his mouth, it had slithered up Sasuke’s thigh and had curled itself around his waist, up towards his torso and the tip landed right on the side of his neck. It didn't hurt but it was warm enough to the point where it felt like he had been under the sun for too long. His clansmen stared in awe while he sat stock-still, staring down at the hooded figure. The longer he stared, the more details he could make out under the hood: tan skin, a line that ran across his cheek resembling a whisker, and a fang glistened against the light that entered the building through the open windows.
The tail-like thing unwound itself from his body and his mother suddenly gasped, hands coming up to her mouth in shock.
“Minato! Explain what was just done to my son!” Fugaku looked at the reddened skin on Sasuke’s neck that looked like a scar that had healed over time. It wrapped around his neck like a thick stripe and ended below his left ear.
“That was Naruto’s way of accepting your request. Sasuke will be under our protection as long as you keep up your end of the bargain.” Minato smiled warmly, the feral grin he had donned on his face just seconds ago had vanished as he stood and bowed to the Uchiha family.
“But- how is marking my son like that a show of acceptance ?!” Fugaku roared as he went to stand, to do something to save face for his youngest son, but was stopped by the Uzumaki’s who pushed forward just the slightest bit.
“Well, for one, he’s still alive is he not? Had he not been worthy, Naruto’s chakra would have burned right through your son's skin. We’ll be taking our leave now. Please have things ready as soon as possible, winter is to be here by the next full moon.”
With that, they turned and left through the same doors they had entered through, leaving the Uchiha’s in the room speechless at the events that had just occurred.
Notes:
Hadagi: Most men wore an additional undergarment called the hadagi (also called hadajuban or shitagi), a white cotton undershirt, which typically would extend to mid-thigh and is secured with a thin obi or short ties sewn into the waist of the garment.
Obi: Obi (帯, おび) is a sash for traditional Japanese dress, keikogi (uniforms for Japanese martial arts), and part of kimono outfits.
Gi: There is the gi, or shirt, which covers the shoulders and some portion of the arms and is bound at the belly by a belt secured with a knot, called an obi. The gi might or might not be designed to cover the lower part of the body as well; the gi may end at the waist, or it may extend to mid-thigh, or knee, or calf, depending on its purpose.
Chapter Text
Sasuke tried not to fidget under his family's gaze but they all stared at him like some sort of abomination. He currently sat in his room with the covers placed over his legs but he had removed the top half of his kimono to show his torso.
“Do you think a balm will heal the skin?” Mikoto’s voice was soft, eyes never leaving her son's marred skin. She was taking the time now to notice smaller wounds that had not been there when he had been under her care. Her sons once pale and flawless skin now told a story of the months in which he had been taken away from her. There were small puncture marks on his arms, his wrists were slowly healing but they had been rubbed raw from having been tied and his neck had been collared, the skin there had looked waxy from whatever the material had been of it rubbing so often on the same spot.
“The priestess said it was a demon’s curse mark, no balm will cure it.” Fugaku spat, arms crossed against his chest while he avoided staring at his youngest son. The clothes he usually wore would cover most of it up but the one on the neck was visible to anyone who laid eyes on him, no matter the angle.
The room had erupted into chaos when the Uzumaki’s had left, Sasuke’s fellow clansmen had called for justice for marking their prince. Fugaku had adjourned the meeting, calling for a guard to bring the priestess and informing all the men in the room that they would meet at a later time, that, for now, to begin making preparations for their guests.
The priestess had entered the hall with a grave look and asked Sasuke to please show her the extent of the mark.
“While it is a demon’s mark, I cannot say exactly the reason for it or its meaning. What little there is known about demons marking humans usually is to inform lower demons that it is a meal saved for later and it shouldn’t be touched. There is not enough information collected on the demon child that hails from the Uzumaki clan. I could send word out to the other priests in the area to see if anyone has anything they could share.”
“Please hurry, I would like to make sure that my son will not be affected by this.”
The priestess nodded and bowed as she left the hall. Sasuke had then been whisked away back to his room and the conversation had continued there.
“Fugaku, perhaps Minato could give you more information about this when he returns.” Mikoto’s voice was soft but her fidgeting hands told her family just how worried she was.
“How can I trust him, Mikoto? Did you see him?! He had us all fooled into thinking he had kept his humanity but he had looked like them the instant I had agreed!” Fugaku seethed knowing he had been the one to fall for the trap. He had been surprised at Minato’s formality and soft demeanor, expecting to have had to deal with the Uzumaki’s ruthlessness but instead he had fallen for the trap Minato had effectively prepared.
“For now, can we not worry about this? I feel fine and it didn’t hurt when it occurred.” Sasuke said, hoping to still the conversation lest his headache become worse. He was still trying to recover and his energy wasn’t like it had used to be so all he wanted was for everyone to be quiet and give him space.
“We’ll let you be Sasuke, if anything, we’ll keep you informed.” Nodding to show his father that he had heard him, Fugaku and Mikoto took their leave, hushed voices disappearing with them as they closed the sliding door to his room. Itachi’s hardened face seemed to melt at the leave of their parents and a small smile appeared on his lips.
“Would you like for me to help you change into your sleepwear?” Sasuke, normally a prideful man who set out to excel at whatever task laid before him, nodded at his older brother’s attention and accepted whatever Itachi would give him.
Itachi laughed softly as he helped Sasuke remove all the layers upon his thin body and into his hadagi , the scent of pressed flowers and oils caused his eyelids to droop. “Rest little brother, tomorrow will be another day.”
The oncoming days had the Uchiha clan bustling with movement. Many of the men had been pulled away from their jobs and set to the task of building a shelter for the horses. They fenced off an area that began from the large walls that protected the Uchiha clan towards the palace so that the horses could roam free and that the Uzumaki’s knew where they were bound to.
A letter had been sent not long after the meeting with Minato explaining that the Inuzuka would shelter a few of their horses while the remaining horses would be traveling with them to the Uchiha clan. They had about 107 or so horses that would need to be protected, twice as many people would be joining them in just a few short days.
Construction of the stables had been quick with the confirmation from Minato on how it would be possible to place two horses in one large enough stall while the pregnant mares would need to be separated all together. Towards the middle of the month, Minato had appeared at the Uchiha clan once more, the same amount of people with him.
As they walked through the compound, their bright hair had people stopping whatever they were doing while they stared in awe at the large beasts they rode on. The horses had coats of all sorts of colors with red lines and symbols painted on them, their breaths causing white clouds to appear from their nostrils. Their thick necks quivered every so often and their hooves made large indents in the soil. The Uzumaki’s seemed to have put on more fur on their bodies to shelter them from the cold, something that the Uchiha’s had also begun with the plummeting temperatures.
Fugaku met them at the entrance of the palace, face seeming to be made of stone as Minato unmounted his horse and bowed to him. Mikoto stood next to her husband in her winter kimono, the navy blue of her noragi hanten stood out in contrast to their snowy landscape.
"Good morning Fugaku, I am honored that you'd meet us all the way here." Mintato said, voice soft and cheery.
"I'll be showing you the work we have completed but I'll need to ask you questions regarding your end of the deal." Fugaku's tone showed that he was not going to be fooled this time around.
"Minato, I'm sure you're aware of our customs but I just wanted to extend our hospitality to your wife and invite her for tea within our main hall?" Mikoto's soft voice had made Fugaku's frown deepen. They had spoken about it the night prior and how he was against Mikoto inviting the wife of Minato for tea but Mikoto had stood her ground, saying it was the least she could do for what they were going to be doing for her son.
As much as he tried, when his wife had something in mind, it was oftentimes useless to try to get her to move from it. Minato looked surprised at that but quickly recovered and translated for his wife.
"My language is not well." The woman said, voice gruff and tongue heavy around unused words.
"If I can hold a conversation with the lady of the Earth village, then I'm sure you and I will be just fine." Mikoto extended a hand out to her, a gentle smile on her face. The red haired woman shared a nervous look with Minato who gave her an encouraging nod. Slowly her hand, rough and calloused, slid onto Mikoto's own delicate one as she softly led her up the palace stairs as Mikoto kept her close.
"My name is Uchiha Mikoto and you are?" The men at the bottom could hear her ask and a soft, "Kushina" was said.
"That's something I don't see every day. Your wife is quite kind." Minato said as they looked at the two disappearing figures. Fugaku huffed and slid his arms into his kimono sleeves.
"Come with me, I hope what we've constructed meets your standards." He turned and didn't check to see if they were following. The faster they could get this over with, the quicker they could reunite with their wives.
Sasuke was burrowed into the thick covers on his futon and well into a nightmarish sleep. His body, wracked with shivers and sweat, spasmed as his mind showed him tampered memories. There was the room he had been locked in but the walls were long and the door was nowhere to be found. A ghostly pale face appeared in front of him but he couldn't move away from the wandering hands and the hissing in his ear. He whimpered, whether in his sleep or in his dream he wasn't quite sure, but the urge to get away had him suddenly running through dark hallways, voices whispering about him as he tried to find an exit until a hand latched on his wrist and tugged him back.
A gasp escaped his throat as his eyes sprang open, air quickly entering and leaving his lungs as his mind tried to comprehend exactly where he was.
"Father calls that a night terror." A deep voice suddenly said and that caused Sasuke's body to spring up from where he laid and locate the source.
Off to the right side of the room, right by the paper sliding door that led to the garden, sat a blond man with his back to the wall. The red scar that Sasuke had on his body warmed suddenly as Sasuke scurried backwards to have his own back against the opposite wall.
"You have many of those?" Blue eyes held his own dark, black ones captive.
"Who are you? How- how did you get in here?" Sasuke's throat was dry, his voice hoarse as he looked around but there wasn't a weapon near him.
A dark blond eyebrow rose and a tilt of his head signaled to the garden doors. "I hopped the wall and opened the door. No wonder you were taken."
Sasuke's teeth clacked as his lips opened to resemble a snarl at that comment. "Get out , you're not welcomed. These are my private quarters-- you shouldn't even be in here." The blond eyebrow rose even higher and a slow smirk appeared. A fang glinted with aid from fire within his room and Sasuke's muddled brain was suddenly catching up.
He was in the presence of Uzumaki Naruto, the demon child of the Uzumaki clan.
For all the lore and gossip behind him, he didn't appear like much. His hood remained on top of his head but Sasuke could make out the shaggy blond hair that had beads and red threads woven throughout the long bangs on the side of his face. The cloak he wore was slightly open from his nonchalant pose and it showed that he didn't consider Sasuke a threat. His chest and feet were bare, all that covered him were the same hide pants his other clansmen wore. He had one leg swinging slowly on the outside and the other towards him so that he could rest one of his arms on it.
"How am I to protect you, little prince, if I am not even welcomed into your space?" Naruto’s tone was clearly mocking as he waited for a rebuttal.
"Do not call me that. The least you could have done was wait in the hall, have you no sense of privacy -" Naruto scoffed as he used a long fingernail to clean the other ones on his hand. It was then when Sasuke noticed the length of his nails, made to work as claws he supposed, on his hands and feet.
"That word does not exist in my language. In my clan, all of my things belong to my clansmen. We eat, we sleep, and we hunt together. What use would we have for that word?" His tongue rolled funnily over certain words which gave anyone the impression that he didn't speak Japanese often.
Sasuke found his body slowly relaxing, his tense muscles loosening as Naruto appeared to not show much interest in him.
"Are you going to answer my question or will I just have to count your whimpers?" His tone was sarcastic but he glanced over at Sasuke noting the furrowed brow and found him amusing. The prince was most likely not used to being spoken to in such a careless manner and Naruto found himself grinning at how silly this whole interaction was.
"I didn't use to have them so much but now...they're frequent." Sasuke mumbled, looking away from the other man and out towards the barren garden outside. The fire burning in the pit in his room made sure he wouldn't feel the cold but his skin pebbled when he felt that he was being stared at. Naruto's eyes trailed down the pale column of skin, his mark a stark contrast against his flesh, and with the inner robes that Sasuke wore having slipped open, he could just make out the mark wrapping itself around his torso.
"I was once taken as a child, had just started walking," Naruto spoke when he noticed Sasuke wasn't going to share anymore, "and yet somehow I am reminded at night at how I was so close to losing my parents that my mind often plays out how I had killed those who had taken me."
Sasuke blinked, Naruto’s voice had sounded muffled as if he had been listening from underwater, and that had brought his mind out of that dangerous headspace it often went into.
"They do not leave but it does get better." His nails clicked as his palm landed on the wooden floor.
"Why don't you have proper clothing on?" Sasuke questioned- anything to get them out of this conversation. He didn't need advice from a demon vessel on how his mind was his worst enemy at the moment.
"Does it bother you?" Sasuke's scoff had Naruto grin at the immature gesture. "My body is not like yours- you need furs and cloths to keep you warm. Kurama provides me with the heat I need to survive in the cold."
A thin black eyebrow rose at the new name. "Explain."
Naruto ran his hand through his head, the hood that he had on slipped back and to Sasuke's immense shock, a tipped, furred ear popped out. The tip was pointed and the same blond of his hair. It twitched for a moment as he scratched the back of it.
"Kurama is the fox demon that lives inside of me. He talks a lot but he's been with me since I was born." That piqued Sasuke’s interest enough for him to look past the furred ear for now. "Your demon...has a name?" Naruto looked at Sasuke as if he was the crazy one.
"Your God's have names. Why can he not?" Sasuke went to open his mouth to retort when he realized that...he had a point.
"What's this Kurama like?" Naruto titled his head and seemed to think about that, a smile on his lips as if he was part of an inside joke.
"Troublesome most of the time. He likes to be set free every now and then but he is knowledgeable, older than some Gods spoken of, and enjoys causing havoc when he can."
It wouldn't be until the next day that Sasuke, while sitting on the edge of the floor with a blanket over this shoulders, a mug of steaming tea in his hands, and his feet dangling just above the grass right outside his room, would realize that the conversation between him and Naruto had dragged on for longer than he had thought. Sasuke had asked all sorts of questions and so had Naruto, seemingly curious about him and how the Uchiha's lived, and that his body had reached the point where he had felt so comfortable that his eyelids had begun to droop and hadn't been aware of when he had fallen asleep.
He had woken up the next day curled under his covers alone in his room and had found a thick thread of red string with white beads and a tassel at the end in his hand. His sleep muddled mind tried to remember if those were the same beads wound in Naruto's hair yesterday.
Notes:
While there are numerous traditional clothes in Japan that have evolved through the years, one of them that is still being used up to this day is the Japanese hanten. Also known as noragi hanten, it is basically a short coat worn during the winter season. The shape of the Japanese hanten is similar to that of the haori. While there were certain traditional clothes that could only be worn by one gender, the Japanese hanten can be worn by both male and female. The facing and lining of this type of traditional coat are padded with a considerably thick layer of wadded cotton.
The purpose of this layer is so as to provide warmth to the body of the wearer. This is why the Japanese hanten is best worn during the cold weather. Black sateen is utilized to create the collar of the coat. Moreover, it is common for the Japanese hanten to be adorned with the family crest of the clan or with other designs.
Chapter 5: A Gift
Chapter Text
It was when the snow had fallen for what felt like days and it piled high on the frozen floor that the Uzumaki's had walked through their gates to seek shelter. Hundreds of Uzumaki's made their way through the Uchiha compound, their heads held high as they surveyed their surroundings. The hooves of their horses reminded Sasuke of rolling thunder, leaving deep tracks where they stepped, children hopping into them when they would pass.
The Uchiha clan had horses but theirs were slim and made for speed, mostly used for sending messengers across the land, but these beasts were different altogether. Their necks and bodies were thick with muscle and they easily towered over their handlers. They huffed as they walked through the compound looking like a showing of a horse parade. Every now and then Sasuke could spot a dog that seemed like the ones the Inuzuka’s bred: massive burly things used to hunt large animals and guard their lands. They wove around the horses who seemed at ease to have the hounds so close to them.
Minato led his people up and around the castle where they would move their beasts into the corrals and stay until the snow began to melt. Under Mikoto’s guiding hand and Kushina's information about her clan, they had constructed a shelter for the Uzumaki with provisions of grain and non perishables seeing as they mostly lived off of meat and fermented mare's milk. There were cots that were placed down near a fireplace and blankets having been spun with wool for the cold weather.
"This looks wonderful Fugaku, you and your people have done a fantastic job." Minato said, his tone thankful as he watched his people begin to set up their horse hide tents and release the horses into a section of their own space. The pregnant mares had been the first to be stowed away to give them time to get used to their stalls and the others were put into the farthest corral.
They had taken a majority of the training fields, the fence extended for miles and provided ample space for all of them. Minato had mentioned that they would not need shelter-- they were all too used to living under the sky than in a home.
Fugaku harrumphed, Mikoto talking animatedly with Kushina about a special tea sent from Sunagakure that she had been waiting to try out with her. Sasuke had stood his ground and said he would join his parents despite them having preferred he stayed resting but he had been confined to such a small perimeter since he had returned and was feeling suffocated from being in his room. That debate had led him to standing next to his father, neck warm from the fur draped over his shoulders, yet despite the warmth, he couldn't help but notice the mark on his body remained inactive.
"Sasuke, it is a pleasure seeing you. You look well." Minato had moved on to him seeing his father wasn't up for any conversation despite Sasuke having told him that he didn't care about having the demon mark on him. It had been days since it happened and, under the watchful eye of the priestess and the servants who attended him whispering to his father the smallest things, they concluded that it wasn’t affecting his overall health. It was just a large scar in his body that seemed like it would never fade. Sasuke was sure his father still believed that it had been his fault for having been too trusting but Sasuke chalked it up to it being his pride having been bruised and that sulking it away would lead him to eventually get over it.
"I am much better, the rest and attention has done me quite well." Minato’s face was soft and Sasuke couldn't help noticing just how similar he and Naruto looked. Naruto had an interesting combination of both his parents: the blond hair came from his father but the wild and unruly fashion he styled it in was from his clan unlike Minato that still wore his hair as if he was still a noble's son. Naruto's grin was identical to his mother's and even the way he carried himself showed that the woman by his side had cared for him closely.
"So it seems. I'm sure Naruto will be happy to see you walking about; he had mentioned that sitting for so long and speaking for the time that you both did was a first for him." Minato said conversationally, his hands behind his back. Fugaku's head snapped towards them, eyes landing on his youngest son who took it into stride that he hadn't mentioned Naruto appearing in his private quarters.
Sasuke hummed in acknowledgment and his fingers twitched from holding back and asking the obvious. It wasn't needed because Minato eventually said, "He's out hunting. He believes that if we're to stay in someone's home then he should provide an offering. Our people have no need for money so this is how he will show his gratitude to the Uchiha clan."
Sasuke also didn’t think he needed to ask how they acquired certain materials or items. It was well known that the Uzumaki’s went about pilfering if they needed to. Mikoto had left with Kushina, complaining about how cold it was and leading her away by the hand.
"Minato, I had a question regarding your clan's customs." Sasuke waited until Mintato motioned for him to continue with the tilt of his head. "I had noticed that many wear beads twined in their hair. Is there a particular reason?" His arms entered the sleeves of his noragi hanten and stopped just before he had grabbed at his own tassel. Not even a full week with the thing and he was already clutching onto it like a newborn baby with a toy.
"It comes from a story from a very long time ago where Hashirama, a man from the Senju clan whom had married into the Uzumaki clan, allowed his daughter and then later on his granddaughter to twine beads into his hair because they believed that if they put all their love for him into the beads then it'll protect him whenever he had to leave their side. It may seem like a child's story but it was very rare for him to lose a battle. Our healer prays over them and hands them to those that seek them: some need it for protection, others for love. I believe the green one means that the person is seeking a relationship, the red is associated with strength, orange is to show their devotion to Naruto."
As Minato spoke and noticed that his clansmen were adjusting well, Fugaku motioned for them to enter the palace to escape from the cold and to prepare for dinner.
"Their devotion?" Sasuke questioned as they walked up the steps that led to a corridor. His mind also focused on the fact that this tassel had a mixture of red and white beads but Minato hadn’t mentioned that one.
"It's with the help of my son that this clan continues to flourish. They're very thankful and consider him a mighty and worthy warrior who also keeps them safe from any danger. He's very much dedicated to his people." There was no hiding his pride in his tone and, when he took his seat in front of Sasuke at the dining table, his expression showed just as much.
"How do you think he'd fare against our own?" Fugaku asked roughly, interested now in learning about their techniques. Despite having been in contact with the other surrounding clans, there was very little information documented on them. The Nara had one or two scrolls from the time they had traded horses for medicine and the Inuzuka didn't document much of anything to begin with.
Minato cocked his head to the side and placed a hand to his chin. "It would be rather interesting to see. Naruto and Kiba often spar but it's more roughhousing than actual sparring. I'm sure Naruto would be more than happy to spar with someone, he likes to show off every now and then since no one in our clan is affected by his abilities anymore."
He tried to hide a smile behind his tea cup but failed at doing so. The palace servants entered and began placing the dishes before them. Rice and meats and spices were laid out, the servants coming and going in a practiced dance. The two ladies of each clan entered then and took their respective seats next to their husband's. Itachi met them just before dessert had been served, claiming that he had been held up by an issue by the western wall.
The two families conversed in quiet tones until a shrill yell was heard near them. Voices suddenly rose in bewilderment and, just as Fugaku stood to go investigate, the paper door that led to the outside garden was opened to show a bulking mass of brown fur.
Sasuke squinted, trying to understand the sight before him, and, just as it began to move about, the beast was thrown down on the floor of the entrance to show a bloodied Naruto.
To the Uchiha’s surprise, he wasn't wearing his usual hood and robe. He stood tall and proud— blond hair matted with dried blood, perky ears seemed to be twitching in excitement as one of his bloody hands wiped at his mouth, red smearing over lips and a whiskered cheek. He wore hide pants that looked dangerously low on his hips and his feet were bare despite the snow outside. There seemed to be steam coming off of his body that slowly disappeared above him.
The boar at his feet was massive. It came up to his hips even on its side, its tusks enormous things that protruded from its upper lip and curled in through the door.
His grin was something feral as he presented his findings from his hunt and stared at Sasuke as if waiting for his approval. All Sasuke could think of was a distant memory of the cat that oftentimes walked the wall outside of his room and had presented him with a dead lizard once. It brought an involuntary smile on his lips which seemed to be all Naruto needed.
Kushina let out a bellowing laugh, her head thrown back and her hands clutched at her stomach while Minato shook his head in amusement.
"Naruto, you really went above and beyond this time." Minato commented as he stared at his son with pride. Sasuke could feel the mark on his skin warm suddenly and he looked away from Minato to Naruto and noticed that his gaze hadn't once moved away.
🐗
"He's a rather interesting character is he not?"
Sasuke tried his best not to jump in surprise at hearing his brother's voice. Itachi had always been very stealthy, so much quieter than Sasuke had ever been. Their mother often reminded them how Sasuke had always been more rowdy, more playful than his older brother.
"That he is." Sasuke said as Itachi came and sat next to him.
It was a cold day, but hidden under the canopy, Sasuke was shielded from it. He had found himself outside after having been pestered from the demon vessel to show him the palace gardens after lunch. They were traditional to the region with its koi ponds and carefully trimmed foliage. The palace had the main gardens and then every room had its own smaller version that was tended by the servants.
Naruto currently wrestled with a hound in the middle of said garden, the peace and tranquillity that the area often gave was broken from hearing the teeth clacking and the snarls. The dog had picked up his scent and had followed him throughout the day, not once leaving his side.
Sasuke was enjoying the weak sun and basked under the light. He felt languid; a feeling that came about the life of a second son and a satisfying lunch. Itachi was the crowned prince, the next in line to ascend the throne and take over for their father once he stepped down. For now, Itachi handled everything that was assigned to him by their father to prepare for said ascension.
There had been recent talk of marriage, of which noble daughter would be worthy enough to take on the Uchiha name, but it seemed like they weren't in a hurry for now. His brother seemed to always take everything in stride, knowing very well that this was the life he had been born into.
"I assume that you two are getting along well?" Itachi's voice was soothing, something that Sasuke would never tell his brother, but his voice often gave him a sense of peace. He couldn't recall a time he had heard Itachi raise his voice nor use it in anger or spite. He always spoke softly, his words always spoken with meaning and intent.
"He's a pest, a thorn by my side." Sasuke's face gave nothing away but no one knew him better than the man sitting next to him.
"Hmm," Itachi stretched his legs before him, toes wiggling on the stone. The floor they sat on was one Sasuke sought whenever entering the large grounds because the view from here allowed one to see not only the gardens but the large mountains in the distance. "You normally get rid of pests rather quickly- this one seems to have stuck."
Sasuke clucked his tongue on the roof of his mouth, hands moving behind him to hold his upper body from falling.
"He was brought to protect me was he not? Not much use if he's not around." It seems that the hound won their play fight because it laid on top of Naruto’s chest, tongue lolling to the side as it panted from exertion.
"If you're bested by a street dog, how will you ever keep me safe?" Sasuke called out and both cerulean and brown eyes turned towards him. A grin that seemed to mock Sasuke appeared on Naruto's face as his hands patted the dog's hips.
"Akira is smart, little prince, he allowed me to win. The Inuzuka dogs are better than just your common dog." His accent was heavy, especially on particular letters, the roll of it a lot more pronounced than how any of the Uchiha's spoke. The rough accent was slowly beginning to grow on Sasuke; even his mother had taken to learning the Uzumaki language.
"How are the Inuzuka, Naruto? I've only travelled there once before and that was quite a while ago." Naruto seemed surprised to be addressed by Itachi and Sasuke couldn't help but smirk when he noticed the other man looked nervous. He scrambled to sit up cross-legged and rubbed both of his hands in his hair, effectively removing any dust or dried leaves that had accumulated. He adjusted his clothing despite it always seeming to be in some sort of disarray. Akira, having been entertained, walked the perimeter, his nose low to the ground now that he could search the area.
"They are a...good clan. Very good. They helped with our sick people, took us in quickly. I am-" His expression changed to frustration for a moment as he tried to translate in his head, "How do you say when you feel like you need to give back to someone?"
"You feel indebted?" Itachi supplied, his serene smile never leaving his face. Naruto avoided his gaze, pink tinting the tops of his cheeks.
"Yes, Kiba and his family, I am indebted." Sasuke had a distant image of Inuzuka Kiba: a small wild child with crazy hair, sharp black eyes, and the little white puppy he carried with him like any child his age would carry a doll. They had gone with their father once to the Inuzuka clan years ago when they tried to negotiate an alliance but his father had commented how they were too wild for his taste and that they couldn't offer much to their clan.
Sasuke closed his eyes and tilted his head back to get sun on his face as the two continued to talk. Itachi, ever putting to practice his leader lessons, asked questions to draw out the most information out of him. Naruto seemed all too happy to supply him with whatever Itachi asked and it made Sasuke, opening one eye to look at him, notice how Naruto was a bit too eager.
"I see- that is rather fascinating Naruto. The fact that your horses are so versatile that they are used for just about anything. I wonder if they could be of any use here?" Itachi had a hand on his chin as he thought about the uses their horses currently gave them. A voice rang out in the garden, a servant calling for Itachi regarding the training for the new enrolled soldiers. It was to begin soon and those leading the training would like for him to attend.
"Ah, this is where I must bid the two of you goodbye. Duty calls." Itachi ruffled his little brother's hair and gave a small bow of his head as a farewell. Naruto watched him walk away, furred ears alert, hands clutching his crossed legs. Sasuke squinted at him for a moment before he said, "You have an interest in my brother."
Naruto's eyes seemed to take the size of the moon from how large they became. "I- No. I do not- No." His ears that once stood tall and alert seemed to move all over as he avoided his gaze. "No interest. I- To have a sibling is something I could never have. My clansmen and I are close, closer than some kin I have met but, to have someone who shares blood like that, that is something I will not have."
He looked forlorn for a moment, his gaze on the ground seeming far away. His birth had not been easy, for both his mother and his clan. Her body had gone through a lot to give him life while his clan, already looked down upon, had been feared from other surrounding clans at the news of a child cursed by a fox demon. This had made trading more difficult, traveling more worrisome.
As Naruto grew, however, the more respected he became, the stronger their clan became.
He always strived to prove his worth to his clansmen and, in return, they accepted and protected him.
"Come here." Sasuke said after he noticed the expression he wore wasn't changing. Naruto slid over with his hands on the ground and his feet barely lifting so that he was crouched before Sasuke who peered down at him.
Lifting his leg, the back of Sasuke's bare foot met a whiskered cheek, a simple nudge meant to move him. Naruto's fingers wrapped around his ankle before Sasuke could have tipped him to the side.
"If I catch you looking at my brother, you and I will have words." Naruto snickered, eyes closing and the skin crinkled at the valley between his eyebrows. It was the first time Sasuke saw the other man laugh, the swoop occurring within the lower region of his stomach made him think that perhaps his food hadn't settled well.
"Release your thoughts Sasuke, your brother is kind-- kinder than many of the people I have met. It is...pleasant to speak with him." He didn't release Sasuke, instead, he adjusted his grip and blue eyes caught sight of his mark around Sasuke's boney knee that coiled around an ivory thigh. There were scars, pink from time, that Naruto didn't think belonged to a prince, but his father had mentioned about the kidnapped prince of the Uchiha clan and how they were requesting their protection in case it were to happen again.
"You have never mentioned what the meaning of the mark is." Sasuke commented softly when he noticed Naruto's charged stare.
"I am not quite sure either. I just- it felt right at that moment. Kurama had said that I had to mark you as mine and this was the only way that I knew how."
A black eyebrow rose at hearing that. He tugged his foot away from Naruto's grip and crossed his leg over the other, the bottom half of his kimono moving to the side, leaving the sun to shine on the pink stripe on his upper thigh. "Yours?" He echoed back, his tongue seeming to test out the word.
Naruto's blue eyes flickered up to him. Those eyes were the exact same color as the midday sky and the blond hair that shined beneath the weak sun seemed to make him glow.
"Yes, you are mine to protect and I don't allow others to touch what is mine." The feeling in his stomach now churned at hearing how earnest Naruto sounded.
"Tch, who taught you how to speak like that?" Sasuke murmured as he looked off to the side. Naruto wasn't quite sure why Sasuke’s cheeks looked so red when it wasn't hot out but he found it utterly endearing.
Chapter 6: A Ride
Notes:
Hello~
It's taken me a while to upload this because in the span of a month I had to sell and get rid of everything I owned, moved across the world back home, and had a death in the family all in one. I will be continuing this story because I've been toying with this idea for years and I'm glad to finally have it out in the world. Comments with feedback and/or ideas would be highly appreciated~ I'll also be linking my twt and bluesky if you'd like to send me a message there~
Chapter Text
Snow had fallen the day the Uzumaki's had arrived but it hadn’t stayed for long. The snow had melted within a couple of days time and had left puddles of cold water and sludge around the compound. While the trees were bare and the foliage dull and brown, the occupants within the wall took advantage that there were weak rays of sunlight and little wind to shield themselves from.
Beyond the palace walls, sounds of men training and shouts from their commander attracted the attention of the Uzumaki’s who watched from their settlement. All work had ceased for the moment as they drew closer to get a view of a fight style that was much different than their own.
Minato had been squatting over a bowl washing his hands when Kushina entered the stall he was in and ran her hands through his hair. He looked up at his wife- the tan skin despite the sun having hid for days now, the long column of her neck, her red disheveled hair- and provided her with a blinding smile.
“Even when fighting they appear like flowers in a field .” She muttered under her breath, her hand still hidden beneath blond locks. Kushina stared ahead, seemingly entranced while she studied the Uchiha’s. The soft knickering of the mare in the stall as she called to her foal to suckle was background noise as Minato stood from the ground and wrapped an arm around his wife’s hip.
“How are their forms ?” Minato whispered in her ear and took pleasure at seeing her eyes fall to half mast at the feeling of his hands around her.
“They show discipline. Their movements remind me of fire- easily ignited and their swords hiss like a striking snake. They act based on memory, not instinct, which can be the difference between life and death on the battlefield. ” Kushina gripped onto her husband's hands, eyes never once leaving the practice field.
“Fugaku had mentioned if Naruto would like to fight the Uchiha soldiers. We haven’t asked him yet if that’s something he’d be interested in doing. ” Minato thought back to the proposition that had been brought up during dinner. At first Fugaku had asked out of mere curiosity what the Uzumaki fighting style was. The records on their clans that currently existed were next to non-existent with perhaps a scroll or two that laid in the back of someone’s library. Itachi, however, seemed to show an extreme interest- his intentions were pure when he asked Naruto questions that gained him the answers he sought for. The eldest son of the clan was clearly someone whose knowledge went beyond his years.
The more Itachi probed, the deeper the interest Fugaku showed in making this play fight an actual thing. Naruto didn’t seem to realize that as he seemed more focused on devouring the food before him and bickering with the younger prince on etiquette.
“It’s not like our son has time to be around for us to ask .” Her tone couldn’t hide her humor nor the sparkle in her eye. The lack of their son's presence hadn’t been noticed only by his parents. The clan members, both young and old, inquired about him almost daily. It had been strange to not see him amongst the sea of red hair, to not see him wrestle with his brothers and sisters, to not see him wandering about the horses where he’d caress their manes and lay on the back of his choice of the day for a cat nap.
He was taking his guarding job far more seriously than either Kushina or Minato had imagined.
“Do you think the young prince might have an interest in our son? ” The clouds seemed to part for a moment and allowed the sun to cast its rays upon them. The field where their settlement was had been casted with light and many of the Uzumaki members paused in whatever they were doing and turned their faces towards the light, enjoying the brief moment of warmth.
Minato thought about the question his wife had posed. It’s not like Naruto had ever had any interest in marriage despite still being their heir, however, out of all the people he could have ended up with, a prince from a clan like the Uchiha’s wasn’t one Minato would have thought was an option. The Uzumaki’s weren’t ones to worry about maintaining the purity of their blood: they were an old clan whose blood was strong and they often accepted many other travelers as long as they held up their end of their responsibilities and brought the clan some use.
Minato couldn’t exactly see the second son of the Uchiha clan being amongst their own for an extended period of time.
Before he could voice his opinion, there was a sudden commotion by the entrance of their encampment. A familiar blond head stood tall amongst the sea of red and their son's voice rang clear through the clearing. Kushina squeezed his hand and led them towards the small crowd that was gathering. They all migrated to him like insects to a light- pulled in by the admiration and respect they have for him.
Naruto’s mouth was set in a wide grin as he was clapped on the back and head rubbed in a gesture full of love. One of the men nearest to him punched his shoulder, exclaiming about his disappearance. The blond wrapped an arm around his fellow clansman’s neck and, with a show of strength, lowered him and rubbed his knuckles on his long, red hair.
“Glad to see you remember your family on these lands, Naruto, we thought you had decided to permanently move in with the Uchiha's. " Minato grinned, placing his hand on top of his son's unruly hair. It always amazed him at how much his son had grown. Having been so small when he was first born, both him and Kushina had thought that Naruto wouldn't have survived past the first month. He was small and weak, his cries barely heard. The demon in him saw to it that Naruto would have the strength to prevail. Now, he stood before him, taller than his father, shoulders wide, face no longer round like a child's.
"I don't think I could ever live with them. Just looking at their footwear hurts my feet. " Those nearby laughed loudly at the sheepish face he had and, suddenly, it brightened as if he remembered something. He whirled around and scanned the crowd quickly until his gaze landed on its target.
"Sasuke! Come!"
Minato and Kushina looked around either side of their son and those around them parted down the middle while all heads turned towards the entrance of the corral. There, by the entrance, stood the second prince of the Uchiha clan clutching onto the wooden pole that held the gate. Despite the warmer weather today, Sasuke was bundled up nicely in his furs looking almost like he could be smothered by them if he wore any more.
His first step was tentative upon seeing inquisitive eyes upon him, however, he seemed to have remembered who he was and walked with his chin held up high and a gait suited for a prince. Heads followed him down to where Naruto stood, eyes sliding over the prince's unusual garb and pale face, and, once he stood near Naruto, coal colored eyes seemed to stare at only one person.
" I've come to show Sasuke our horses. He's very interested in seeing the difference between ours and theirs ." While he spoke, his hand settled behind Sasuke’s back, a movement that held so many things in such a small gesture. It brought comfort to a new situation, it told Sasuke that he wasn't alone, and most importantly, Minato assumed, that Sasuke wouldn't be sought after.
Their clansmen all had knowing grins around them as the young prince allowed himself to be guided over to the fenced field where a majority of their stock grazed.
Kushina hummed, an acknowledging sound within the back of her throat, and stated, " I believe a unity will be planned quite soon ." She leaned her head on her husband's shoulder as the two stared at their son speaking animatedly to an attentive prince.
🐴
"I'm not getting on."
Sasuke wasn't one to back down from a challenge. He was quite competitive and was known to carry the fiery spark of their clan that has led him to countless spars and competitions with his brother and his own clansmen.
"The little prince shows fear."
This, however, meant his life could very much be in peril.
"You mistake fear for intelligence. I would never put myself on that beast."
Naruto's smile seemed to grow with every word. He was trying not to laugh in the Uchiha prince's face but it was quite funny seeing how small Sasuke had made himself look when Naruto brought him over to a gelding Naruto knew quite well. Its back was just at the tip of Naruto’s shoulders and, with its thick neck and tall stature, Yuya made quite the picture. Its coat was a deep burgundy that turned brown when wet, his muzzle speckled white.
It was the horse his mother had received once she had become a warrior, like all in their clan, and she had ridden him into fierce battles and had proven himself to be quite the mount.
"Should I hold your hand?" The teasing lilt was met with a deathly glare that would put any one lesser in a state of fear. However, the demon's vessel seemed to find it funny rather than want to cower in the face of it. Naruto grabbed onto the beast's mane and hoisted himself with ease, a thick, blond eyebrow raised in a challenge. He had been raised on the back of a horse, his people traveling vast distances through new and old lands on them.
He extended the other hand out for Sasuke to take and there was a lot in that gesture- security, trust, encouragement- that had him hesitate only for a moment before sliding his thin fingers along the rough, tan hand and placing his foot on Naruto’s so that he could heave himself up easily. The brute strength that Naruto had made it look like carrying the weight of a man on one hand was as simple as carrying a sack of rice. Sasuke was in no way small- they matched in height well and the time he had spent recuperating his body meant he had gained most of his original weight back.
Up so high, Sasuke felt like he was on top of the world. He could see past the encampment the Uzumaki’s were in, over the training field and just a bit past the wall that kept his clan safe from the outside dangers. He kept his hands on the beast's neck, confused as to what to do because, in the Uchiha clan, the horses were blanketed, saddled, and haltered whenever they were used, whether it be for patrolling the area or traveling long distances.
The Uzumaki’s rode their horses just as the day they had been born: bare with nothing but their hands and feet telling the horse where to go. Sasuke’s thighs burned from how they stretched from either side of the beast's withers while Naruto guided his hands to clutch onto the coarse hair closest to him. Tan arms corded with muscle appeared around his sides and pressed against his waist to also grab onto the hair and with a firm press of his heels and a click of his tongue between his teeth, the horse moved forward and followed an invisible path that Sasuke didn’t understand where it knew where to go. It quivered beneath him and Naruto spoke to it softly in his native language, something that was still such a mystery despite the time they’ve been here.
“Teach me something in your language.” Sasuke said as they moved towards where the vast tree line began. Naruto’s warm breath from his surprised chuckle hit the back of his neck.
“Suddenly?” The horse snorted, plumes of air rising from its nostrils as it scented the air around them.
“Your language isn’t written down anywhere, not even the Nara have something on it. What if I’m the first Uchiha to learn it?” Sasuke didn’t care about any of that; honestly, he thought about how interesting it would be to be able to speak to Naruto in a language no one else knew. The idea of being surrounded by many and to be able to talk in something that wasn’t the common tongue felt a bit exhilarating.
“How about we begin with something even the little ones know how to say. Start with saying Athchochiwa .” Sasuke’s head tilted and tried to pronounce it. The language was really different from the common tongue that was spoken by all the other clans so it wasn’t something that was easily picked up. Sasuke tried but his tongue felt too clumsy around the foreign word and he could feel Naruto vibrating behind him as he tried not to laugh.
He turned his head to glare, his shoulder brushing Naruto’s chest and his elbow dug into his stomach. “Mocking a prince is a high punishment you know.” Naruto’s left arm that was around Sasuke’s slim waist tightened; a feeling Sasuke couldn’t put a name to slithered down his stomach as his fangs were on full display with that grin that he always seemed to sport.
“Do you feel mocked, little prince? I thought you said that perfectly well.” Sasuke could hear the sarcasm dripping from his mouth. His tongue clucked on the roof of his mouth, a habit he had been made aware that didn’t befit a prince, however, it was one he hadn’t gotten rid of just yet. He turned forward, away from the tan skin and cobalt eyes that matched the sky in the summer and pestered Naruto for more words.
Chapter 7: A Proposal
Notes:
let's not talk about how long this took me to upload...
I had lost motivation for this chapter because I didn't know how approach the conversation(s) so I kept putting it off until, alas, I found the inspiration and finished this within a few, short hours.
also, we're uploading this without a hint of an edit so we're just raw dogging this and hope I didn't fuck up too much.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Lord Fugaku!” The doors swung open which let in a rush of snow and steel-scented air. An Uchiha messenger strode in,his wide brimmed hat had clumps of tight snow on the top that melted the further in he walked, the heat in the room was almost suffocating with how the servants had the fixed central hearth constantly fed.
“Word was sent from the Hyuuga clan regarding the Fūma clan!” He didn’t pause until he stood before him, a trail of water led up to Fugaku as the messenger bowed while handing him over the scroll and stayed that way while he read. His eyes narrowed as he read the seal-stamped scroll.
“It says…some of the Hyuuga warriors that were returning from the Nara clan had encountered Fūma raiders and left little of them to bring home. One of the warriors by the name of Iroha escaped because one of his own had hit his horse to leave the area and get word back to their clan. Iroha claimed that, “ The sounds coming from behind him were something not of this world. They sounded like they were enjoying tearing other humans from their limbs. ” Out of the 28 warriors that had been out, he was the only one that had returned.” The men in the room listened in disbelief the longer the letter went. The letter was written by none other than Hyuuga Hisahi himself, the leader of the clan, with Iroha’s red inked fingerprint placed as proof of legitimacy.
“Does it say why the raiders were so close to their territory? Are they targeting the Hyuuga next?” Fugaku’s brow deepened in thought as he listened to his clan speak their thoughts. Their own area was patrolled around the clock- their own soldiers had schedules that they followed strictly, they had hounds from the Inuzuka that roamed around, and even the Uzumaki went out through the gates and strolled to gather whatever meager offerings winter could provide. Nothing out of the ordinary had been reported despite the time that had passed since the scout incident and Sasuke had been returned to them longer than that. Could they have moved on, lost interest, or were they laying low until just the perfect time?
“The timing is a bit too close to the Hyuuga Heiress wedding is it not?” Setsuna said, voice cutting through the quiet. Fugaku’s ink brushed paused.
With everything that had happened, the wedding of Hyuuga Hinata had completely escaped his mind. The Hyuuga had long valued appearances, honor and perfection–and now, death had suddenly appeared so close to the ceremony. As a child, Fugaku’s father would often take him whenever he had to meet with the Hyuuga clan leader and had been told to play and get to know the twin boys of the clan. It had been the same with Nara Shikaku who was just two years younger than him- they had been introduced at a young age which allowed them to create a life long bond which has helped their clans immensely.
The Hyuuga Heiress, Hyuuga Hinata, had been promised to a man of their own clan who had been away for years on a mission to further strengthen their borders, and with their wedding date so close to this incident it had Fugaku writing down his thoughts. While he and his clan spoke about scheduling more men out on patrol and triple checking their resources, the conversation soon turned into speaking about their guests within their walls. The Uzumaki’s had stayed true to their word- they mostly stayed in the confines of their area and hadn’t required any resources from the Uchihas. Mikoto has seemed to have found a friend within Kushina, the two often seen together as well as Sasuke seemed to have the demon child attached to his hip.
Were the Fūma clan bold enough to sabotage them? What could be their motive?
“The second prince was seen amongst the Uzumaki’s not too long ago.” Someone commented as the others began making small talk and that had Fugaku pause in his writing. “It seems it’s become a ritual for him at this point. He has shown a vast interest in their horses- I’ve seen him on horseback quite often.” Another mentioned as they went to sip their tea. “Ah but the second prince has been an excellent horse rider, ever since he was a young child! I don’t understand why the demon child must also ride on the same horse. Could it be that the Uzumaki horses require two people to be on them?”
“ Sasuke…amongst the Uzuamki beasts ?”
Fugaku re-read his last sentence, but the ink bled slightly from where his hand trembled before allowing it to dry for a moment as he listened on. He had no knowledge of Sasuke having entered the Uzumaki area. Not once had he been informed. Not by the guards, nor his wife or even his son himself. It seemed like he would have to have a talk with his youngest son once their meeting concluded.
While Fugaku planned his next move in silence, somewhere across from the estate, his youngest son yearned for silence.
Sasuke had been in the middle of an argument with Naruto about proper horseback riding techniques- an argument that was more him seething and the latter with a taunting sneer- when one of the servants had come to tell him that his father was asking for him. The valley between his brow remained furrowed in frustration as he let the blond know with a scathing glare that this conversation wasn’t over and the brute had the audacity to mock him in a shrill voice.
What would the world come to if the Uchiha prince couldn’t best someone like Naruto? Sure, he had the muscles and the grin of a stray dog but, intelligence ? No. Sasuke had tutors, scrolls thicker than the brutes thighs. All those dull lectures he had to undergo since he was a child damn well prepared him for a moment like this.
He moved up the steps and into the building in which his fathers private study was. When he was much younger, Sasuke used to sneak in here and pretend he ruled the lands, acting out orders and business meetings while a servant often than not came by to take him to bed since he would fall asleep amongst the many shelves filled with scrolls.
Now, he stood before his fathers door, a grown man that gripped the tassel within his sleeve before knocking. His father’s strong voice allowed him to come in.
Fugaku, always cutting an imposing picture, sat behind his low sitting desk reading over a scroll before looking up at his son. He motioned for him to sit before him and, while Sasuke primly kneeled, Fugaku grabbed another scroll from above a higher shelf to his right.
A single candle burned low, casting shadows across his face with the sun now having lowered significantly. The room smelled of dry paper, of ink soaked skin, and the oil that was used to make the wood shine.
“It’s been brought to my attention that you’ve been riding lately,” Fugaku said at last. “But not on your own horse.”
Sasuke’s fingers, which had already been resting on his lap, slowly closed into a tight fist. It was never a question with him and he wasn’t looking for a response just yet so Sasuke remained still as a stone, shoulders squared in the way he knew his father expected.
“You’ve always had a talent for horses. Your mother once told me that you took to them before you could even run.” Fugaku’s dark eyes never once wavered. “And now I’m told you share one.”
Sasuke’s silence continued. He wanted him to get on with it so that he may return to the comfort of his own room, to a warm bath and even warmer clothes.
“Need I remind you that the demon child of the Uzumaki’s is here to protect you and not to ride around with you as if you were mere children sharing a horse.” Silence cracked between the two of them like frost on a bark.
“You are the Second Prince of the Uchiha clan and I feel like it is time you have your own responsibilities to have.” Fugaku said, calm and absolute. Sasuke felt like a storm right before the lightning struck. “You will begin preparations for your engagement once the Fūma clan threat is dealt with.”
Blood seemed to rush in his ears, making things sound muffled as if he was under water. Heat crept slowly up his chest, his scar felt too hot against his clothes.
“To whom?” he asked, voice quiet as he tried to calm his breathing.
“We are finalizing the candidates,” Fugaku replied. “It will be someone of standing in which it will be politically financial for both you and the clan.”
Sasuke’s jaw clenched, the tassel within his right had creaked under the pressure.
“I gave you time,” he said, voice smooth and strong like polished stone. “Time to heal, to indulge but you are no longer a boy. We do not make decisions for this clan with our hearts.” As he spoke his gaze seemed to sharpen. “You will honor your name just as you always have. As your brother has. You will let go of whatever childish attachment you’ve formed with the demon child.”
Sasuke released a breath. It was quiet but sharp. He wasn’t annoyed, at least, not in the way his father expected. There was a storm brewing in him that felt like a rumbling sea, the rolling of clouds just before the winds take everything from its path.
“And if I refuse?” he asked. The candles before them flickered from what seemed like the tension in the room. Fugaku’s eyes narrowed, not with rage, but with calculation.
“You will not because I raised a son. Not a mistake.”
The words landed heavier than intended, perhaps even heavier than Fugaku realized. A flicker of something crosses his face but it vanishes before it could become anything more.
Sasuke looked away for the first time and stared hard at the walls of his childhood, of the place he once felt so safe in and seeing it for what they were: not shelter, but a prison.
“May I go?” he asked softly.
Fugaku stared at his son, at his youngest boy that used to cling to Itachi and pout when his brother was too busy with his studies, and gave him a curt nod. “You may.” Sasuke stood briskly, gave a short bow, and turned on his heel. As he reached the door, his father spoke again, almost too soft to hear. “Itachi doesn’t want to either.”
Sasuke stopped, his hand gripping the wood of the door so tight he feared it would crack from how much he held back.
“But he understands what is required of him.”
With that, Sasuke left without another word.
Inside Sasuke’s room, the fireplace crackled softly, heat licking at the edges of the sunken, stone lined pit. He sat cross-legged on the tatami, hands creaking from unclenching them multiple times as his eyes remained fixed on the flames like it owed him something. There was a small thump up on the roof, clumps of snow fell onto the group when a long, tanned leg appeared, another soon following after until Naruto dropped down onto the ground.
Back facing him, the blond shook off the melting snow on his heated body, and turned to look into the room, furrowed brows softening at seeing Sasuke bundled up in a black silk yukata that was worn loose around the shoulders, a similar colored sash held everything together. His hair was unbound, dark as spilled ink.
“You did not come back for a ride,” Naruto said as he stepped inside. “Have you finally realized I was correct?”
His voice was too loud for the room. Too alive. Sasuke didn’t appreciate the jesting mood the other man was in, not when his stomach rolled around in resentment.
His eyes remained on the fire while Naruto kept talking. “With the anger I can see in your eyes, it must be true then. Finally learned that your clan's riding style is for princesses.”
Naruto padded across the room with that casual arrogance of his–barefoot and bold, like the whole world belonged to him. Sasuke was taken aback when his mind betrayed him by realizing he, too, wished to move in that way. To move without a care, without a drop of responsibility. By all intents and purposes, they were both of the same status, both at the top of their clans, and yet Sasuke’s crown weighed heavy on his head while Naruto seemed to float.
The blond sat next to Sasuke, always too close, heated skin pressed against silk, and said, “It is okay if you look like princess Sasuke, I know of some princesses who are stronger than-”
That was the moment Sasuke’s vision blurred.
He moved before he even realized it. He had thrown himself over Naruto, hand on his throat as they tumbled down, the other thrown back ready for a punch while thighs pressed onto strong hips, the coarse horsehair trousers scratched at Sasuke’s thighs.
“Don’t you ever stop talking?!” Sasuke’s voice came out sharp, brittle, aiming to hurt. Naruto’s piercing blue eyes looked up at him even though his head was turned to a degree it looked like it hurt. “You just come in here like you own everything but you don’t! You act as if you belong here!” His hand tightened, his breaths coming out like a dog that was overheating.
“Why isn’t he pushing back!?” Sasuke yelled internally, the arm that was lifted trembled as he held it to sustain it up. “Look at this place,” he hissed, coming closer where their breaths became one. “You see anything here? Do you see anything that matters to me?”
His raised fist landed harshly on Naruto’s bare chest. To any normal man, they would have had the wind knocked out of them but all he did was hold on to Sasuke’s wrist. The walls, the floor, the bed tucked into its corner like an afterthought. The only softness in the room was the moonlight pooling on the garden stones outside.
“This is it. This is what I am. A room with nothing in it.” Sasuke spoke softly now, the anger that had rolled into a large ball seeming to have expelled within that breath. Naruto’s face remained unreadable as Sasuke sat there seeming to be painted in gold with the fire at his back. He spread his fingers out from the fist it had been in and seemed suddenly enraptured with the skin below him. He ran his fingers down the divots of ribs on either side of his body, long, spidery fingers uncovering new expanses of land. Black ink swirled on his lower stomach and Naruto’s stomach grew taut the lower he went.
“My father says I am to marry just like my brother will. He made it seem like I was just another name on his scroll.” On hearing that, Naruto’s brow furrowed. Sasuke continued his excursion, tracing every mole, every dip of corded muscle and hard bone he could find.
“Marry? Who?” Sasuke’s eyes glinted like steel in the sun. “It doesn’t matter.” He spat bitterly. “Someone appropriate. Someone useful.” His fingers traced the whiskered scars on both cheeks, the full bottom lip that opened under his touch. “He also said I should forget you.”
The words were said so softly but it cracked something in the air. Naruto stayed still under Sasuke’s attention despite the warmth occurring in the pit of his stomach.
“Do you want to?” Naruto asked but the answer never came. Not because he didn’t know, but because the answer seemed to burn more than the fire near his feet. Outside, the wind shifted. The paper door trembled and the snow drifted lightly into the edge of the garden, like frost encroaching upon something fragile.
Naruto leaned forward causing Sasuke to slide down onto his lap but a tan arm slid around his waist to hold him there, just like all the times they rode together.
“You said you have nothing here,” Sasuke held his gaze but Naruto’s intense look flickered between his eyes and low enough to look at his lips. “But I see a garden that is well loved, I see the clothes that have been worn many times.” As he spoke, his hand tightened on Sasuke’s waist, the yukata parting like the sun on a cloudy day to reveal porcelain skin marred with his mark and a pink nipple.
“You also keep letting me in.”
Sasuke’s heavy lidded gaze spoke of a different heat. Naruto’s eyes flickered over his shoulders for a moment, gazing out at the garden before him and it was enough to break the spell. “You can keep pretending that none of it matters Sasuke but, eventually, you’ll have to stop lying to someone.”
With that, Naruto slowly stood, easing Sasuke to the side leaving him all rumpled in his sleepwear. Naruto stepped forward towards the outside and paused for a brief moment. “I hope it is not yourself.”
The doors slide shut behind him with a soft snap.
Sasuke sat alone with the fire flickering as if nothing had happened.
Suddenly, the silence that he had been craving was too loud.
Chapter 8: A Journey
Notes:
I've found the sudden inspiration for this so I hope y'all enjoy the almost 10,000 words in this chapter lol I couldn't find a part to just break it into two so I thought, eh, why not just have a long one? They're broken up into acts because I had a clear idea of how I wanted their journey to go.
Like always, your kudos and comments are wholly appreciated!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
ACT I
Sasuke kneeled before the fire pit in his room as the silent servant passed the comb through hair with methodical precision. He hadn’t changed out of his yukata just yet, seeing as his travel cloak–a heavy piece of clothing that was heavily lined with thick bear fur- was being held up by another servant for Mikoto to inspect.
She had a dainty hand placed to her chin and looked like his father would when going over war plans. Not a minute passed before she dismissed them all with a flick of her wrist. The servants bowed low and disappeared soundlessly through the sliding doors.
“It’s too heavy,” she said softly, running her fingers down the edge of the cloak. “You never liked your clothes to fall too heavy on your body. Your brother always accepted whatever was put on him.” Her voice had the warmth of a mother recounting fond memories of her two boys who were both so different yet so similar in many ways.
Sasuke didn’t answer her with his mind distracted on so many other things than what clothes he was going to bring with him. His thoughts jumped from his fathers stare, to the throat beneath his hand, to warm hands at his waist, and the blue eyes that always seemed to shine no matter what.
“It’s fine,” Sasuke sighed at last. “With this blasted weather, I’ll need it.”
Mikoto looked among all the clothes that had been laid out and then her eyes flickered to her son.
“I know there’s a lot on your mind Sasuke. Just by the way you breathe, I know there’s something weighing you down, that’s one of the many reasons mothers are so special.” She smiled and Sasuke couldn’t help but provide her with the smallest of smiles back. His mother had always been his saving grace. A woman who had always taken his side, who would wink at him whenever his father was angry and would be as soothing as a balm on a bruise.
“I spoke with father yesterday. He has updated me on some changes that are to occur eventually regarding the clan.” Sasuke smoothed his finger over the tassel in his sleeve and the relief it brought him was instantaneous. Mikoto hummed in acknowledgement and sat next to her son as they stared out into the garden.
“Was Naruto at all mentioned?” she asked, as though she were asking about the weather, not the boy her son rode around with, argued with like no one she had ever seen him do, and orbited around each other like she had often seen birds do.
Sasuke’s posture stiffened at the mention of his companion. Mikoto smiled but it was a tired smile, like she already knew everything before he did. “You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want Sasuke. I see more than your father wants me to.”
Mikoto stood with ease and walked over to a different cloak to then drape it over his shoulders. “You will wear this,” she said, smoothing it carefully. “And you will walk with the pride of the Uchiha clan but I want you to remember this- you are not your brother Sasuke. You don’t have to become what someone else planned.”
He didn’t look at her. He didn’t know how to.
“What if I already am?” he asked.
She cupped his cheeks with her cold hands, thumbs behind his ears as she placed a kiss atop his head.
“Then I hope someone reminds you who you used to be.” The fire cackled gently in front of them. “I’ll always be here for when you return,” she said and left while instructing the servants outside the door to get him prepared for the long journey ahead of them.
The Uchiha gathered at the entrance gates looking battle ready: Fugaku stood at the head, mounted up on his black war horse, his armor ceremonial but still battle-worthy, his cloak protected him from the soft snowfall that covered the Uchiha fan crest stitched like blood across the front. Itachi just to the right of him, robes layered and perfect, every movement deliberate. Behind them, half a dozen guards, armed and disciplined, adjusted their formation as Mikoto emerged with Sasuke. She entered the caravan along with her lady in waiting.
Sasuke wore black over dark indigo, the cloak his mother chose clasped with an Uchiha fan pin. His expression was unreadable as he took his place by Itachi, where a second son belonged.
It wasn’t long before the Uzumaki’s arrived.
They arrived on foot and horseback–casual, glowing like sunlight despite the chill. Kushina rode bareback on her massive horse, her long red hair bound in leather and beads, a hunting knife that looked sharp and jagged strapped across her thigh. Behind her came warriors in layered hides and dyed cloth. None of them matched, as if they all valued to be different rather than showing uniformity, none of them armed in the same way, yet all watchful.
Minato rode on a speckled mare right behind his wife, looking soft-spoken in a winter robe the color of bone and flax. The wind tugged at the ends and he gave them an encouraging smile as they took up the rear.
And then came Naruto.
He was on foot, no horse near him for later use. He stood off to the side, arms crossed, lips pink from the cold. He wore no shirt under his fox-fur vest, just his customary beads in his blond hair and hide-wrapped trousers leading to bare feet that sunk in the snow.
Blue eyes found coal colored eyes and lingered.
“We ride to the Hyuuga lands quickly and in silence,” Fugaku announced to them all. “No conversation. No detours. No delays. Stay behind the lead or beside the caravan.”
Kushina snorted loudly. “ You hear that? ” she called back to her people after having translated. “ We’re to also be silent like them .”
A few of the Uzumaki had feral grins at hearing that, like it had been the funniest thing. One even whooped in the back just to show the Uchihas that they followed their own.
Minato spoke up gently, knowing his people too well, “We will keep pace.” Fugaku gave them one last look and gave a curt nod. “We’re moving out!”
Two opposing forces began their descent from the Uchiha clan: one like a blade of ice, the other like fire in the wind. Snow crunched under boots, hooves, and heels as the gate creaked closed behind them.
Naruto followed on foot…until he jogged up and grabbed the saddle of Sasuke’s horse. Sasuke looked down from the saddle and could see the playful glint behind those blue eyes, “Maybe it is time I learn to ride a horse like a princess.”
Sasuke exhaled but couldn’t help the smile on his lips. “Be quiet and get on.”
ACT II
The sun moved with them as they made their way through wide valleys and steep hills. It seemed to follow them no matter what direction they went, which was something that Sasuke was glad for because the landscape in the daytime was truly something magnificent. Trees as tall as the sky looked down at them and eventually opened up paths to clearings where animals ran from them or stared through the foliage with curiosity.
Riding with Naruto at his back, he didn't need to worry about being cold since it seemed his body warmth was working overtime. He wondered how it was possible that the man didn’t have steam coming from him from the heat that pierced Sasuke from the parts that touched him. No wonder he wore barely any clothes and walked about the snow without proper winter shoes.
One thing he would admit was that the Uzumaki’s were truly a fascinating clan. Every now and then, Sasuke turned to look back at them and they looked like they were out for a stroll and not on a journey that lasted three to four days. While his own men had faces of steel, a slouched shoulder or a trembling hand gave their exhaustion away. They were human after all and it was tiring having to move all your weight through the tightly packed or slippery snow.
As the sun was reaching the tips of the mountain tops, they reached an area where the trail narrowed without warning.
The trees pressed in on one side, a low, frozen ravine yawning on the other side. Ice crunched under feet and hooves as everyone slowed, the line of riders thinning the closer they got.
“Only one across at a time,” barked an Uchiha guard from the front. “Single riders only. Dismount if your horses lack discipline.”
A short whistle had come from the back, a familiar call to Naruto. His clan often used signals like that while they were out so that they wouldn’t attract attention if they just blended with the very nature they lived in. They used all sorts of whistles to communicate that could be confused with a bird if someone wasn’t paying too close attention.
Dismounting from Sasuke’s horse, he came over to his clan to take a broad, red-coated Uzumaki mare that seemed like she had never seen such a tight bend in her life. Sasuke’s mount obeyed his subtle cues like it had been born for it which didn’t come too much as a surprise-the Uchiha’s horses were slim and made for speed. He rode ahead in perfect silence, posture impeccable.
Naruto spoke to the mare softly, “ Come on, it’s just a little ice, don’t embarrass me now .” Patting her neck, he tugged the rope to get her moving forward. The mare dug in her hooves and tossed her head, nostrils flaring. His kin behind him laughed, not unkindly, but with the chaotic warmth that only their clan could deliver.
“ She doesn’t like the look of that cliff .” someone offered, chuckling. “ Maybe she senses what we all know ,” another added. “ That Naruto’s pride is heavier than that demon of his .” That had the men and women snickering at that little joke. Naruto clicked his tongue knowing very well Kurama wouldn’t take that too well, the demon being too proud and all, and wouldn’t hear the end of it for a while.
He tugged again but the horse reared slightly, snorting in protest. Just as he reached to calm her again, she bucked hard enough to knock him into the snow. While it didn’t physically hurt him, the loud laughter from his clan caused a loud groan to come from him.
An Uchiha guard close to them grimaced. “Undisciplined beasts,” he muttered. “And the horses are no better.”
Sasuke had already passed the worst of the trail. From atop his horse, he turned just in time to see Naruto brushing snow off his shoulders, red in the face from embarrassment but he still grinned as a man clapped him on the back for trying. He dismounted without a word and held the reins out for his brother to hold. The Uchiha’s parted as their prince made their way over to where all the commotion was occurring. Naruto paused as he dusted away the snow at the back of his legs and, with a furrowed brow said, “Sasuke, you do not have to–” Naruto began but was instantly stopped with one look from the other man.
Sasuke walked past him and stood on the side of the mare to not appear hostile. He stepped forward, placed a single hand against her neck and the other on her snout, and whispered something that none of them could hear. The hand on her neck brushed by the rope around her and held it, steady and firm. The mare blinked, chuffed–and moved.
Slowly, carefully, Sasuke led the horse across the narrow bend himself, reins in hand, cloak flaring against the wind.
Naruto watched in awe, his heart thumping as his clan caused a raucous of cheers and whistles. Now he would never hear the end of it from them on how he, born and bred in the great Uzumaki clan, had been bested in the very thing they revered by an outsider. When Sasuke reached the far side, he handed off the reins to one of the other Uchiha guards to hold until the Uzumaki’s also passed and mounted his own horse again without looking back.
Naruto crossed the ridge on foot and Sasuke didn’t even deem him worthy of a look as he took his previous position behind him.
“I was not in need of help. I could have done it.” Fugaku eyed them for a moment before his attention was taken by Itachi who was asking about how much longer they would be going until arriving at a rest area. The land near them wasn’t very common for solo travelers but there were wild animals in the area that they would need to be on alert for.
If Naruto’s arm around Sasuke’s trimmed waist tightened, Sasuke acted none the wiser as he pressed his back closer to his chest to make sure they shared the warmth he very much needed.
“And yet you didn’t do it.”
“I let you.” Naruto huffed.
“Of course you did.”
The caravan pressed on as they bickered.
🐴
Just before the sun had been replaced by the moon, they had reached a forest clearing surrounded by tall, dark trees. With the snow thin here, the frost coated the grass but not for long as each clan lit a fire as dusk bleeds purple into the sky.
By the time they made camp, the Uchiha’s were already at work. Their tents went up in geometric lines, fires built with clean wood and burning low to avoid smoke. Guards took positions without being told and there seemed to already be a pot of simple broth simmering in disciplined silence.
Across the clearing, the Uzumaki’s flourished.
There was one large tent that stood with two smaller ones on either side. Their fire was louder, brighter and puffed smoke like they didn’t have a care of who would see their location. There was someone already roasting a large slab of meat that sizzled and crackled as it was carefully turned every so often. They had their cloaks and hides to keep them protected from the cold and one of the guards had been softly setting up a rhythm on a drum that he held between his feet and knees.
Naruto crouched near the fire, bare hands slick with grease as he turned smaller chunks of meat in makeshift skewers. He laughed at something that one of the others said about how Itachi looked like he hadn’t slept in years.
“ If I had his face ,” Naruto muttered, the closeness of the fire not affecting the tips of his fingers seeing how Kurama always protected his vessel from danger, “ I wouldn’t sleep either. I’d stay up staring at myself all the time .”
That earned him a chorus of howls and a dozen glaring eyes from the other side of the clearing who were all sitting around the low fire, murmuring amongst themselves. Sasuke sat near his tent entrance, a bowl of broth cooling in his hands. He hadn’t said a word since the pass, seeing as he kept being reminded with every stare from his father of how his life was nothing but an illusion that was nearing its end.
His gaze flickered up as Naruto crossed the clearing, his people looking on in amusement. He held a skewer of steaming meat that caught the eyes and noses of his own people, one or two of them gulped in hunger as he reached Sasuke.
“Hungry?” Naruto offered, crouching beside him.
Sasuke looked at the offering, at the grinning blond that looked all proud of himself for having brought it to him, and Sasuke’s eyes turned towards movement near the fire to see his father with his downturned mouth and scowl.
Well, since his freedom was nearing to a close anyways…
Sasuke leaned forward and blew on the meat that had already been cut to bite size pieces. He assumed Naruto had done it with the intention of it being eaten right there and then so, with one last gust from his mouth, he grabbed the top piece and stopped chewing for a moment as the flavors seemed to explode in his mouth. It was lightly salted and had a hint of herb, the meat seemed to dissolve in his mouth and he hadn’t even noticed that he had closed his eyes for a moment as he chewed.
Blinking his eyes open, Naruto looked at him brighter than the sun had been that morning they had set out. He almost seemed to preen at being able to provide and took a bite of his own before holding it out for Sasuke whenever he wanted the next bite.
Silence settled between them but it wasn’t entirely uncomfortable. Sasuke tried to finish his broth fast before it cooled entirely by the cold temperature. The Uzumaki’s were singing a song accompanied by the man with the drum that made the clearing and the tall trees not seem so daunting. Naruto hummed along where he stayed crouched next to Sasuke, translating as best as he could, telling him a story about waves and lovers and moons.
“You did well with the scared horse today but I still could have done it had you given me more time.”
It took all the power inside him and years of etiquette befit of a prince to not roll his eyes at Naruto. “It was time we didn’t have.” Sasuke’s spoon hit the bowl harder than he had meant to.
“You say that about everything now.”
Sasuke didn’t answer.
The fire popped and a soft wind stirred the tree branches overhead, scattering a few needles of ice into the snow.
“We will not always be moving,” Naruto said after a beat, greased hand removing the chunks of meat from the skewer and placing them on Sasuke’s bowl before eating the last one. “One day we will stop and be in a place that is warm. Do you ever think about that?”
Sasuke let his breath fog the air.
“No.”
It was later on, when Sasuke laid inside his tent that he realized that Naruto included him in his future plans.
Sasuke had woken with a start and, just as quickly, his teeth clacked as they hit each other. He laid on his thin futon beneath a heavy blanket, his breath fogging the inside of his tent. The fire pit one of the guards had made for him in the center had long since gone cold. The wood still radiated a dull warmth but not enough to chase off the night’s chill. His fingers were cold despite the gloves he wore, his toes even colder.
The futon did little to stop the cold from the ground seeping into his shoulder and back but the blankets were thick–layers of stitched wool and fleece but no heat clung to his skin.
Sleep refused to come when all he could think about was the lack of warmth in his extremities. He lay still, staring at the black stitching of the tent’s seams above him, jaw tight, ears tuned to every sound outside: the crunch of footwear from the patrols near his tent, the wind howling, the crackle of dying ember.
And then– the whisper of fabric. A shadow just inside the entrance that lacked a greeting, just presence.
“I can hear your teeth from my bed.” Naruto muttered as he looked down at him and the dying fire.
“You’re going to get caught.” Sasuke said, trying his best not to stutter.
“Then speak low.”
Naruto crouched and stepped fully inside, pulling the flap closed behind him with an unnecessary amount of confidence. He pulled a leather strap from his hair to use it to tie the flaps in the middle into a ball to avoid it from letting in much of a draft. He was already barefoot, already stripped down to simple trousers. Sasuke turned his head over his shoulder enough to send him a glare that would have any normal person quaking.
“Aren’t you freezing? What does that demon do that you can parade around naked?” Sasuke stated in agitation because, honestly, how does one walk around like that in the middle of the winter season? Even animals grew a thicker hide to help them and yet the man before him paraded himself like a stork in the Spring.
“I am not but you look like you will be one with the frozen river soon.” Naruto crossed the space in two short strides and dropped down onto the futon like he owned it.
Sasuke rolled halfway to the side. Naruto shoved his clawed feet under the blanket, careful to maneuver so that he wouldn’t nick Sasuke in the process and didn’t hesitate to press the rest of his body up against the other man. Sasuke hissed softly.
“How are you boiling?” Despite the agitated tone, he had turned around and sighed in bliss as he kept his hands pressed onto his chest and stretched each digit out once he felt the shared heat soak into him.
“I am efficient.” Naruto said smugly. “Better than all your sheep wool combined.”
A long silence stretched between them. The only sound was the occasional stir of the guards outside and the wind slipping through the trees. Sasuke let his eyes close, nose pressed into Naruto’s clavicle and he could smell the travel on him, the sweat of hard labor, the smoke from the fire, and the meat they shared. Beneath it all, he could smell the grass in the spring, the freshness of cold water. He could feel himself finally relaxing against the warmth that seemed to surround him.
Then Naruto spoke, quieter this time, his voice seeming to meld with the lull of sleep.
“Sasuke, what if we were to marry instead?”
Sasuke didn’t answer right away because he entertained the thought the more he succumbed to sleep.
He imagined it quietly. Not the ceremony, the arguments that would be had, the obligations–but the quiet mornings. A shared space where there were no titles between the two of them, no expectations from their upbringing. Just a place where no one watched or dictated who they had to become.
“Wouldn’t work,” Sasuke murmured eventually, voice slurred in the way that meant he was close.
“Why not?” Naruto asked quietly as he rested a whiskered cheek on top of black hair.
“I think we’d get too tired of each other. I require many things Naruto.” Naruto snickered and rubbed his nose on the crown of Sasuke’s hair and Sasuke hummed in satisfaction.
“And I would bring you all of those things. I would come and present them at your feet if it means being worthy of you.”
Another silence, longer this time.
The arm Naruto had slung over Sasuke’s shoulder tightened to bring him closer, as if he wanted to bury him within his body and never let him go.
“You can’t even get a horse to go through a passage,” Sasuke smacked his lips before yawning, “What makes you think you can handle being married to me?”
Naruto groaned. He really would never live that down.
“You did not say no.”
“I didn’t say yes, either.”
“But you are thinking about it, yes?”
“...Go to sleep, you brute. I can’t marry someone who doesn’t let me sleep.”
Sasuke sighed and he thought of his father, of the duty bestowed upon him at birth, of the crest stitched into everything he wore before succumbing to complete darkness.
ACT III
Sasuke awoke warm.
That was the first thing he noticed. His limbs uncurled and he stretched out like a cat under sunlight. His neck wasn’t as stiff as he thought it would be since, last he had known of, he had rested his head on Naruto’s bicep. The frost hadn’t crept in and the blanket beside him was still heavy with shared heat.
However, a certain blond was nowhere to be seen.
The silence inside his tent was comfortable, for a moment, seeing as it was a rare thing in such a loud world.
Until he heard voices behind his tent.
“The demon boy wasn’t in the Uzumaki’s shared tent in the early morning.” The sound of someone huffing warm air into their hands could be heard after, then a pause.
“I wouldn’t either with all those bodies in one tent. Honestly, those Uzumaki’s are like nothing I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t want to sleep with everyone on top of me.” The other guard scoffed as if the mere idea of a shared tent with his fellow guardsmen was too much to fathom.
“Maybe he found warmer company.” A chuckle accompanied one of them as their footsteps crunched in the snow.
Sasuke’s stomach churned and turned cold, despite the heat still lingering in the fabric. He sat up slowly, forcing his breathing to slow and even out.
By the time he exited the tent, fully dressed and cloak drawn tight over his tensed shoulders, the camp had already begun its slow march towards movement. Uchiha guards were packing up everything and checking their weapons and gear. A few Uzumaki circled a fire, drinking warm fermented mares milk and ambling around seeing as they had little to pack.
Naruto stood by one of the horses, brushing its flank with a coarse brush, his golden hair lit by the early sun and made it look like spun gold.
Sasuke blinked and hadn’t realized he had made his way over to him, as if his feet knew exactly where he had to go without checking with his mind first. Naruto looked up, caught his eye, and grinned like they hadn’t fallen asleep pressed together, like Sasuke hadn’t curled into him like something claimed.
His cheeks were slightly pink from the cold and he held a dried piece of meat in his mouth that he removed before speaking.
“I am glad to see you awake little prince.”
Sasuke finally noticed that the mare Naruto was tending to was the one from the narrow pathway and she seemed much more comfortable in his presence.
“You always look like that after a bad night’s sleep?” Sasuke’s eyes immediately slanted into a glare at the teasing tone
“Careful,” he said evenly. “Your mouth runs faster than your brain.”
“What? You slept like the dead. You were so quiet when I left.”
Sasuke’s body stiffened but Naruto had been distracted by one of his people bringing dried meat wrapped in thick leaves to help preserve them. He turned to Sasuke to present it to him proudly, claiming it was for the long journey ahead.
He knows he hadn’t meant anything by it. It had just been a half-sleepy observation, not loud or boastful but familiar.
Too familiar unfortunately.
Several Uchiha nearby went still. A servant that had been pouring tea paused, eyes flicking to Sasuke. One of the younger guards glanced at Itachi, who gave nothing away.
“Careful,” he said flatly. “Someone might mistake that for impropriety.”
Naruto blinked, genuinely confused for a half a second, his brow creasing and his lips downturned.
“I was just–”
“Let it go.”
Naruto did but then why did the air around them feel heavy?
Their group set out as soon as the sun peaked up from behind the mountains. Mist curled between the trees and hooves crunched through frozen dirt. Naruto had made his way towards him to ride with him but a look from Sasuke had him turning right back around. He didn’t need his clan thinking and talking anymore about them than was strictly necessary.
Sasuke rides in the middle of the Uchiha line and Itachi draws his horse closer allowing the brothers to fall into step together. The forest muffles the world around them, leaving only the sound of breathing and the surrounding nature.
They didn’t speak at first. The horses moved steadily forward, their breath steaming in the air. The shadows of bare-limbed trees slid slowly across their path like watchful spirits.
“You seem a bit tense, baby brother.” Sasuke didn’t look at him, just muttered an “ I’m fine ” under his breath.
Itachi smiled faintly. “We both know that’s not true.”
A bird from up above scattered and called out, possibly letting others around that they were here.
“They’re watching,” Sasuke muttered eventually. “The guards, the servants. Our father. It’s like I can’t even breathe without being stared at.”
“They always are.” Itachi said simply. “That’s part of the role, being constantly watched and waited on. Having everyone constantly waiting around you with baited breath seeing what you’ll do next.”
“It’s exhausting.” Sasuke acknowledged.
“It is.”
The admission surprised Sasuke. He looked over as if seeing his brother for the first time in a long time.
“How do you do it so well?”
Itachi turned his head slightly, just enough to meet his brother’s eyes.
“Because I’d rather them look at me than at you.”
Sasuke frowned because that wasn’t what he wanted. His brother deserved to live his life and yet he’s never heard him complain about all the things that were expected of him, all the responsibilities placed upon him as the heir to the Uchiha clan.
“That’s not fair.”
“No,” Itachi said quietly. “It’s not but neither is life.”
They rode a little longer before Sasuke mustered up the courage to say, “Father will be arranging a match once the Uzumaki’s are no longer within our palace walls. Maybe before that if he’s desperate enough.”
Itachi stared ahead at where his father led in the front, all silent and stoic.
“I heard.”
“The last thing I want to do is marry someone I have no interest in being with. Did you accept when he told you that you were to marry?”
Itachi hummed in agreement. “Do you resent him for it?” Sasuke asked, the reins in his hands crinkled under the pressure.
“No, I made peace with it a long time ago.”
Sasuke clicked his tongue. “You’re stronger than I am.”
Itachi smiled and, suddenly, Sasuke saw a younger Itachi. The young version that would play with him after his studies, that would lay in the library and read with him and play pretend stories to entertain him since Sasuke was always bored when he was a little child.
“I’m definitely not Sasuke,” Itachi chuckled but there was no mirth behind it. “Just older. I’ve had more time to bury things.”
Another stretch of silence passed and Sasuke suddenly realized how loud his thoughts felt around his brother–how easily Itachi read the words left unsaid.
“You care for him.” Itachi added and it caused Sasuke’s jaw to clench. He looked back for a moment and could spot the blond head amongst black and red. He spoke animatedly with his mother, her arm moved around as she told him a tale from on top of her horse, and he looked like a child that thought his parents were the world. What two different upbringings they have had.
“I don’t know what it is,” he said. “But when he’s near, everything feels…lighter.”
Sasuke turned back and peeked under his eyelashes at his older brother in a bit of embarrassment. Itachi smiled and something in Sasuke’s chest warmed at his attention, the attention he always craved since he was young.
“Hold on to that Sasuke, even if you can’t keep it forever.”
Sasuke swallowed because, had it been from anyone else, he would have thought it had been treason. To speak against the clan leader's word wasn’t something that was tolerated unless it was by the court and, even then, they went about it in a roundabout way rather than being direct.
“And if it puts everything at risk?”
Itachi hummed at that, like he knew that’s what Sasuke was going to say.
“Then you’ll have to decide what’s worth protecting: your heart or your name.” Itachi’s eyes, soft and unreadable, remained on the path ahead.
The forest thickened around them, swallowing sound. Any birdsong that had accompanied them had long since vanished. Even the wind seemed to have stopped, trapped beneath the canopy of skeletal trees. Ice clung in patches on the bark and low-lying stones. Their path was no longer a road but a bare, massive clearing with an odd spacing of trees.
Sasuke eyes flicked side to side, his cloak wrapped tightly around him. The conversation he’d had with Itachi still echoed faintly in his chest–soft words like footprints in fresh snow.
Behind them, the Uzumaki’s whistled softly, trying to ping the area around them to see where the animals were.
The warning came too late.
A horrible squealing shriek erupted from the left. It was shrill, guttural and violent like a wild animal seconds before it would be gutted. Before anyone could react, a massive form crashed through the high underbrush, tearing tree limbs like parchment.
Then another.
And another.
They took the appearance of boars but they were twisted beyond anything natural. Each one looked like hulking, malformed beasts, sections of fur peeling in sick mats to reveal raw, veined flesh underneath. Their tusks hooked outward like weapons that had been forged in rage, their glowing yellow eyes fixed on them with unbridled rage and seemed to pick up speed now that they had new targets. Uchiha’s yelled out in warning and Uzumaki’s snarled in anger as they all parted and yelled at their mounts to run and disperse.
Each beast selected their first prey and one slammed full-force into Sasuke’s horse, knocking it off balance and causing the animal to scream as it toppled. Sasuke was thrown off onto the frozen ground, pain cracking up his shoulder and back.
“Form up!” the Uchiha captain yelled over the sound of beasts and humans alike screaming but it was absolute mayhem.
The boar-like creatures struck like a storm. Three beasts tore through the side ranks, scattering riders and crushing servants beneath snapping jaws. The Uchiha guards moved fast, drawing katanas with practiced discipline, blades flashing in the twilight.
But the creatures were too strong.
Steel bit hide but just barely. One blade snapped as it struck bone. A tusk gored a man mid-swing, flinging his body into the trees.
The Uzumaki fighters surged forward in response. They held weapons not forged from steel but weapons carved from bone, tools passed down by hand and rite. Spears tipped with serrated teeth, axes made from rib cages. Their movements were wild, fearless, chaotic but even they struggled to match the beasts’ brute power.
Sasuke was coughing in the snow, trying his best to draw in a breath but it was too difficult, as he tried to push himself up.
“Sasuke!” Itachi’s voice cut through the air, urgent and, for the first time in his life, he sounded scared.
One of the mad creatures turned to him after making sure one of the horses was truly dead. It ran towards him, its mouth wide open as it lunged.
He couldn’t get up fast enough and it was gaining up on him with speed he had never seen before.
Suddenly the hog stopped.
Not because of mercy but because Naruto hit its side like a thunderclap, a red like energy bursting outward in a brilliant flare. The tails that emerged from Naruto’s backside struck the beast’s legs, flipping it onto its side with a crushing thud. He followed with a bone-shattering punch to its skull that cracked it like a stone basin.
The roar that followed from his lips had animals and humans alike frozen in fear.
Two beasts lunged toward him. Naruto twisted low, feral grin with elongated fangs and nails, and slid beneath one, red energy whipping from behind like a second spine. He tore into its flank with clawed hands, ripping through flesh with raw, beast-born strength.
A third beast caught him with a tusk to the ribs or at least it attempted to. The tusk seemed to be stuck within the red bubble just millimeters before it hit skin. Naruto still grunted from the impact, the beast was large after all. He staggered back a bit, sliding with bare feet on the frozen ground and roared in its face.
The energy burned brighter, pulsing with heat and rage. His body hunched, more animal than man now, breath hissing between sharp teeth. The air warped around him, glowing with danger, with power ancient and untamed.
The final boar, the largest one, charged seeing the others falling.
“You don’t touch him ,” he snarled.
With a guttural sound, Naruto drove the beast down before Sasuke’s feet, pinning it against the earth. It bucked once, twice and, then, it stilled.
Its gleaming yellow eyes stared at Sasuke, the light in them diminishing like a candle at its last wick.
Steam rose from its wounds, blood turned the frozen grass below it a dark red and, in that breathless silence, Sasuke saw it.
Not Naruto. Not entirely.
The red cloak that surrounded him rippled of molten red and orange. For the briefest instant, it changed shape. It stilled like glass before eyes opened within it. Slitted, burning, and too ancient.
A second voice, very much not Naruto’s, rose from his mouth, low and gravelled, vibrated through the air and within Sasuke’s chest.
“So. This is the boy you’ve chosen.”
Sasuke’s blood froze. He couldn’t move, couldn’t think. That gaze was massive and knowing and it locked onto him, not with rage, but with calculation.
Kurama.
While he was unnamed to most, he was there in every heartbeat of silence, every flicker of dying flame.
And then-
Naruto’s entire body shuddered. He clenched his fists, breath choking into a growl as he wrestled something back inside. The energy around him stuttered, the tails behind him collapsed into steam. His body hunched forward, steaming, wild, and exhausted.
When Naruto looked up again, the gold was gone from his eyes.
The clearing was suddenly quiet.
A few of the Uchiha were wounded. There was one with a broken leg, another had his ribs slashed open. One Uzumaki had taken a tusk to the gut and Kushina was already at his side, hands pressing down with grim efficiency while Mikoto was tending to a servant whose arm had been hurt.
Sasuke stood slowly, eyes never leaving the blond while ignoring his bleeding arm.
Naruto turned his head to him, chest still heaving.
“Sorry,” He rasped. “Didn’t mean to scare everyone.”
Sasuke didn’t respond right away. There was no fear in his face, only wonder. He stepped closer instead, feet crunching through the frost-streaked grass, cloak dragging slightly from the fall.
When he stopped in front of him, his voice was low, barely louder than the wind.
“You’ve been hiding that all along?” Sasuke’s voice tilted in a way that had Naruto entering his orbit, a grin appearing on his blood speckled face.
His gaze dropped briefly to the carcass just to the side of them.
“How is it that you keep surprising me? You’re so much more than I thought you were.”
As Naruto stood there, blinking owlishly, like he had never been told something like that before, Sasuke reached within his robes. From one of his inner folds, he pulled out a thin, neatly folded handkerchief. It was fine cotton and embroidered at the corners with the Uchiha fan.
With practiced calm, he stepped close, too close for anyone else outside of his kin, and lifted it gently to wipe the blood from Naruto’s cheek, careful, unhurried.
Naruto didn’t move nor speak or barely breathed.
For one suspended second, all the noise and motion around them–the guards, the wounded–fell away.
There was only the warmth of fingers brushing skin, and something passed between them like the hus of snowfall before it touched the ground.
Sasuke stepped back, folding the dirtied cloth once again between his fingers, and said nothing else.
He didn’t need to.
The group had barely finished tending the injured when shadows moved in from the east.
Katanas were raised and the Uzumaki’s took a defensive stance. Suddenly a voice called out.
“Stand down! We come under the banner of Hyuuga Hiashi!”
From between the underbrush in which the beasts came, pale-eyed figures emerged and men dressed in white robes that were trimmed with indigo appeared. They moved with silent discipline, like the forest parted for them. The patrol leader stopped when he saw the bodies, the blood, and all the wounded.
He stared at Naruto who was bare and bloodied and immediately identified him as the demon child from the Uzumaki clan. Pale eyes sought out Fugaku and, when laying eyes upon him, said, “You’ve come a long way and have fought hard. Let us guide you the rest.”
As they followed the new group towards the Hyuuga clan’s lands, the terrain began to change. Trees grew taller and were more evenly spaced, stone lanterns dotting the path like watching eyes and, in the distance: pale, sweeping roofs with curved eaves and gates that glowed in the last light of the day.
Notes:
Would love to know your thoughts on this chapter! I've never written such a long chapter xD I ended up drawing the journey and things I wanted to happen on a whiteboard and kept fine tuning it as I wrote it out.
In the next chapter, we'll see how the two clans fare in Hyuuga territory!
Chapter 9: A Tea Ceremony
Notes:
We've finally made it to the Hyuuga clan~
A lot will be happening in the next chapters so hold on!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The gates of the Hyuuga compound opened like the parting of ice. It was silent, slow, and impossibly smooth. White stone walls rose around them in uniform precision, and beyond them stretched a maze of inner courtyards, swept sand gardens, carved walkways, and buildings of pale wood and slate blue tiles. It was so quiet here that even the wind moved gently, as if unwilling to disturb the symmetry.
Uchiha and Uzumaki horses stepped through the archway together, their breaths curling in the cold air. Snow had dusted the inner roofs and there were carved stone cranes that watched from above as though judging each guest. Dozens of Hyuuga guards stood in formation, clad in lacquered armor so pale it looked white as bone in the sun. Their hands rested on sheathed swords, eyes as milky as moonlight. There was a row of servants in muted pale blue robes that stood beyond them, heads bowed, ready to guide both guests and horses into their respective wings.
None of them spoke or smiled.
Sasuke shifted in his saddle, cloak drawn tight against the cold but only because Naruto was the one with the reins since his arm throbbed with pain. The man behind him muttered in Uzuki under his breath, “ Big place. It looks too clean as if only ghosts live here .” Sasuke’s mouth twitched at that and he elbowed him lightly for the comment.
At the front of the procession, Fugaku dismounted and locked arms with Hiashi. The man carried himself like pale stone: composed, precise and nearly impossible to read. He wore a high collared grey kimono layered beneath a winter-weight white haori, its edges embroidered with pale cranes in flight. His long hair, tied in a high knot with a silver clasp, framed a face sharpened by time and duty.
His daughters stood behind him: Hinata, reserved and elegant, and Hanabi, shorter, sharper-eyed, practically bouncing in place with curiosity. Neji stood on the side with his hands behind his back and sharp eyes scanning everyone.
Kushina and Minato came forward, followed by Mikoto, to join them and Hiashi inclined his head. “Lord Fugaku, Lord Minato, welcome to our home.”
Kushina snorted and looked at her husband who smiled in understanding. “Forgive the correction, Lord Hiashi, my wife is the clan’s leader. I am simply her husband.”
Hiashi’s brows lifted just enough to show surprise but there wasn’t disapproval in his eyes. “Ah. I see. A rare structure that I have yet to see but I have long heard of the Uzumaki being…unconventional.”
Naruto rolled his eyes causing Neji to pin him with a look and wondered why the two shared a horse rather than each having their own one?
“ That’s one way to say it .” Naruto said while dismounting and held the saddle while Sasuke followed suit.
Hiashi gestured toward the awaiting servants. “You’ll be taken to your quarters to wash and rest. We will reconvene before dusk in the west courtyard for a private council, followed by a formal dinner to honor the coming union.”
As the leaders turned towards the guest wings, Hiashi added in a low voice to Fugaku, “The creatures you faced, those were no accident. We have never seen those beasts on our lands. My scouts believe they were drawn here. Planted.”
Hiashi’s mouth thinned in thought while Fugaku’s brow creased. His wife joined his side and wrapped an arm around his. “Do you think it was them?” Fugaku asked, voice hardening.
“I believe,” Hiashi said solemnly, “that someone means to turn this wedding into a funeral.”
The guests were divided swiftly, as was custom. The Uchiha’s were to be taken to the eastern guest wing and the Uzumaki’s to the western side, across the inner gardens. The architecture was elegant but restrained. Each hall mirrored the next in both symmetry and looks. Paper doors whispered shut without a sound and every wall, floorboard, every turn in the corridors felt measured as if it was designed to make one quiet, whether they meant to be or not.
Sasuke walked beside his brother as they were shown to their quarters. Servants moved like water around them, preparing hot basins for washing, laying out robes and lighting incense. They all stopped at an intersection and the Hyuuga attendant turned to Naruto and gestured to the other hall.
“This way, honored guests. The west wing is prepared for you and your family.”
Naruto blinked, confused at the separation if they had come together, and looked to Sasuke, the corner of his mouth twitching upward.
“What? No shared quarters?”
“Don’t start.” Sasuke muttered.
He raised his hands up in surrender, “It is a simple question coming from a simple and honorable man.”
Still, there was something in those blue eyes that held a flicker of teasing softened by disappointment.
He turned, his voice floating back lazily in Uzuki:
“ Try not to miss me too much little prince .”
🛁
The council room was quiet and warm. A central hearth glowed low with fragrant cedarwood. There were no guards nor aides. Fugaku and Hiashi were seated across a lacquered table strewn with maps and scrolls. The distant sounds of water trickled through stone channels nearby.
Hiashi poured tea for his guests while Fugaku did the same for him.
“We recovered the bodies,” he said after a pause. “Three of them were torn apart beyond recognition. Two were found still breathing but barely.”
Fugaku held the tea cup in his hands but didn’t drink as he stood in thought.
“You believe the beasts were controlled?”
Hiashi’s eyes narrowed. “Those were no ordinary animals. Not in size, not in behavior, and not in number. My men believe it was a tactic: to test the strength of our allies before the wedding. To rattle us.”
“Fūma?” Fugaku asked.
Hiashi nodded. “Who else would be so bold yet so careful to stay unseen? They lost Sasuke. They’ll want to humiliate us or, worse, prove that we cannot prove our own.”
Fugaku’s jaw tightened. His silence said more than any agreement. Hiashi leaned forward slightly and said, “If your son had not been with the Uzumaki boy at this moment, we might have been mourning him again.”
Fugaku looked up sharply. Hiashi’s expression was unreadable. “I don’t trust coincidence nor do I trust emotion.”
The flames between them crackled and Fugaku‘s eyes drifted towards the maps again which showed lines of territory, alliances, and proximities.
“We’ll need to be ready for anything.” Fugaku gulped his tea down.
Hiashi nodded as he stared into the crackling fire. “This wedding must go on but we’ll have the guests dance while the swords sharpen behind the curtains.”
Over in another room, the younger generation sat stiff backed sans one of them who had an arm resting at the knee and the other leg out. The room was hushed save for the gentle pouring of water and the hiss of steam rising from the iron kettle. Tatami mats lay fresh beneath their feet and the paper doors were half-drawn to show a glimpse of a raked gravel garden, the patterns precise and untouched. Incense burned quietly in the corner, the scent of sandalwood drifting through the air.
Itachi knelt with the ease of someone who belonged in stillness. His dark hakama and charcoal kimono matched the winter outside, a modest silver crest of the Uchiha fan embroidered at his collar. Across from him, Neji mirrored his posture exactly. His white robes and pale blue over-jacket were secured by a jade clasp at the waist that had been polished recently and it was only his eyes that betrayed how tightly wound he was.
To his right, Hinata poured the tea with careful grace albeit she looked a bit nervous in the presence of someone new. Her movements were smooth and modest with shoulders that were curled inwards, her lavender kimono, patterned with soft mountain lilies, barely rustled. Her eyes flicked up only once, lingering on Naruto longer than she meant to.
Sasuke glanced across the room, his gaze catching Neji’s for a moment. The two shared a brief nod that held more acknowledgement than warmth. Sasuke respected his formality but oftentimes found him rigid. Neji, in turn, regarded Sasuke as one might regard a finely kept sword: valuable, cold, and dangerous when unsheathed.
Naruto moved to sit cross-legged, his posture just slightly off. He wore his usual garb of horsehair pants that sat low on his hips and had thrown on his fur vest again because one of the servants had given him a pointed look as he was leaving shirtless. Beads threaded in his hair clinked softly as he leaned forward to sniff the tea before drinking it.
"Smells like river water.” He commented in an attempt to whisper to Sasuke. While Sasuke kept his gaze lowered at his cup, his mouth twitched in amusement.
Neji’s fingers stilled on the rim of his teacup. “It’s mountain spring water,” he said, voice cool, “Drawn this morning.”
Naruto gave him an odd look and took the smallest of sips from his cup. “Tastes like river water.” Naruto replied and could see one of Neji’s eyebrows twitch.
There was a brief, tense silence until Hanabi laughed somewhere behind the screen wall. Itachi sipped his tea in silence but there was a smile hiding behind the cup. Neji set down his cup with pointed care, “Tea ceremonies are about discipline. It is a practice of mindfulness, of reflection.”
“So is wrestling a boar,” Naruto replied. “The only difference is one of them might squeal and run.”
“The Hyuuga do not… wrestle animals.” If Neji hadn’t had the training he did, Sasuke was sure he would have spat in disgust after saying that.
To defuse the tension, Hinata spoke, her voice soft as snow. “Have you heard the main banquet will include guests from the inner provinces? It’s rare we host so many outside our clan.”
“Even rarer,” Neji added, “for the Uzumaki to attend a formal union.”
Naruto raised a brow. “What do you mean by that?”
Sasuke answered before Neji could. “He’s pointing out that you’re unpredictable. It wasn’t meant as an insult.”
“It felt like one.” Naruto muttered and tipped back his cup and drained the rest in one go. “Better than the fermented tree bark my clan drinks when we can’t sleep.”
“That’s not for sleep.” Hinata said, almost too softly.
Naruto blinked. “No?”
“It’s for…other things.”
Neji looked at the two then turned to Sasuke. “Will you marry soon?”
Sasuke’s back straightened, the cup pausing near his lips. “My father has decided that it will happen.”
“To someone of another clan?”
“To someone who strengthens ours.” Naruto looked down into his now empty cup. The silence stretched, brittle and cold. Itachi, perhaps sensing the shift, spoke up for the first time. “Marriage is a mirror of strategy. Who you bind to your name can either reinforce your foundation or unravel it.”
“Or choke it.” Naruto said underneath his breath.
Neji smiled, humorless. “You speak of it like a cage.”
“Because it is, especially an arranged one.” Naruto placed his cup on the table too loudly to be considered proper decorum. Another pause but this one colder. Then, almost absently, Neji asked, “Your people don’t arrange marriages?”
Naruto smiled something that looked otherworldly. “Never and that is because we do not believe in trading our people like grain sacks.”
Sasuke glanced at him then with a quick, sharp look. Naruto met those steely eyes and softened slightly. “My apologies Sasuke,” he added, “I meant no offense to you.”
The air in the room seemed to settle. The heat from the kettle deepen the scent of the sandalwood incense that burned in one of the corners in the room. Neji refilled his own cup, his fingers moving in practiced silence before he spoke again, voice smooth as river stones.
“So what exactly is your role, Naruto?” The air went still for a moment, like a string being pulled taut.
Naruto blinked once, slowly. “My role?”
“To Sasuke,” Neji clarified, too easily. “You travel with him, sit beside him, speak freely when most don’t. Are you his personal guard? A servant? Something else?”
Naruto tilted his head. “Does it matter?”
“To us, it does.” Neji didn’t smile, but there was curiosity beneath the cool exterior, like a hound after having found a scent. “The Uzumaki have been ghosts for centuries. You walk into our halls like you belong and no one knows what it is you are. ”
Naruto’s smile dropped at the frosty tone.
“I am the heir of the Uzumaki clan,” he said plainly. “Firstborn of Uzumaki Kushina, direct descendent of Kaya and Rota Uzumaki . Chosen by rite, trained by blood. You might not understand how our customs work, but my title is not a mystery.” He leaned in slightly, voice low and steady. “I hold rank equal to Hyuuga Hinata and Uchiha Itachi — whether or not I wear silk robes or sit in gilded halls.”
The fire crackled as Neji blinked once.
“Good,” Naruto continued. “Now that that is clear—no, I’m not a servant and I am not here to make alliances or trade favors. I came because he needed someone at his back.”
“You’re his protector, then?” Neji asked, dubious. “Like a hired sword?”
“No,” Naruto said simply. “I am not here for coins. I am here for him.” Something passed between the two of them. Not a look, exactly but something more like an understanding that flickered unspoken.
Hinata set the kettle back onto the coals, her sleeves fluttering as she tucked her hands in her lap. Her voice broke through the thick silence.
“That sounds…kind.”
All eyes turned to her but she didn’t flinch. “To be chosen freely. Not because of your clan or title or bloodline. Just…because someone wants to protect you.”
There was a softness in her expression as she spoke, but a tremor in her voice gave her away. “You don’t feel that about your marriage?” Naruto asked, unexpectedly gentle.
Hinata hesitated. “I feel both honored and proud. Kō is strong and accomplished and I am sure he will make a good husband.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
She lowered her gaze. “No but…I don’t think love was ever meant to be part of it. Not for someone like me.”
“You deserve more than duty,” Naruto said without hesitation.
Neji’s brow furrowed. “That’s easy to say when you live outside tradition.”
Naruto met his eyes squarely. “Maybe tradition is the thing that needs breaking.”
This time, Sasuke did glance at him with something brief, but sharp and, Naruto, perhaps sensing the weight of it, let the moment pass.
He leaned back again and tapped the edge of his cup. “You can call me whatever you want. Bodyguard. Escort. Stray mutt the Uchihas dragged in. It still does not change what I’m here to do.”
Hinata looked up again, this time with something like longing and, for the first time, Neji said nothing at all.
Later, as Hinata filled their cups and Itachi had expertly roped both her and Neji into a conversation, Naruto shifted his weight closer to Sasuke. His body pressed to the other man's thigh, he lowered his head to meet coal colored eyes.
“You have been so quiet today.” He whispered, voice low enough not to carry.
Sasuke drank the warm tea and breathed in for a moment. He appreciated finally having a moment to rest and recuperate from the intense trip of it all and being able to be indoors.
“Just tired.”
Naruto nodded like he understood that despite having an unending reservoir of energy.
“From the journey?”
He closed his eyes and gave the smallest acknowledgement. Somehow, the blond seemed to move in even closer.
“Still cold at night?” Sasuke opened his right eye and somehow was able to still convey a pretty convincing glare from that. “Still smug?”
Naruto grinned, sharp fangs on full display. “You have not complained about it yet.”
He rolled his eyes because, here, between their own little bubble he didn’t have to act in the way he had been trained his whole life. “Try not to say anything ridiculous during the dinner.” he said.
“No promises.” Naruto replied cheerful as ever.
The paper lanterns in Sasuke’s room glowed low, the shadows stretching long across the tatami. The scent of woodsmoke lingered from the hearth, and a bowl of water had been left near the door for him to wash before going to sleep.
Sasuke sat by the firepit, slowly untying the belt of his robe. The outer garment slipped from one shoulder as he adjusted the fold, revealing part of the scar that wound like a phantom vine from his ankle to his legs, ribs, chest and neck. Its texture now pale with time, like lightning had written itself across his skin. He still remembered a time when they all thought he had been cursed by a demon and looked how far they’ve come.
He stared at the flames as he drew the robe tighter again, jaw tight.
The ceremony had left him even more tired. Too many eyes with too many hoops to jump through and, what surprised him the most, was that Naruto looked like he belonged once he got past arguing with Neji. He had actually held a pretty long conversation with Hinata in his thick accent about the Uzumaki’s nomadic lifestyle and she listened like God himself was preaching to her.
A soft thump broke him away from his thoughts. Sasuke turned sharply, a blade that was on the table ready as his hand. A figure dropped silently into the small garden.
“One day I’ll place a trap on the roof and you’ll be none the wiser.”
Naruto grinned, already barefoot, and wearing what Sasuke thought to be their version of sleepwear. He wore a loose flax colored wrap tied low at the hips, made from softened animal hide and layered linen, and a sleeveless wrap shirt, open slightly at the chest. He looked warmer than he had at the tea ceremony, but still wild, like the wilderness had curled up beside him instead of a fire.
“You could not catch me.” Naruto said, brushing snow from his arm. “I am too smart to be caught.”
Sasuke moved back towards the fire, adding a piece of wood to the glowing embers.
“You’re too loud.”
“Hmm, your guards do not think so.” Naruto stepped inside, the beads in his hair barely making a sound this time. He walked straight past the futon and to the low table where Sasuke’s robe had been draped. He eyed the fabric, rubbing it between his thumb and index finger, before looking at Sasuke again.
“You removed it.”
Sasuke stood up slowly while keeping his eyes on him and it did something to Naruto’s heartbeat. He uncoiled himself like a snake would before another animal's presence to show off his lean stature, all sharp angles and taut muscle.
“I was getting ready for sleep.”
Naruto’s gaze dipped, his eyes following the faint outline of the scar curling beneath the collar of Sasuke’s robe.
“Back in the clearing, it wasn’t just you, was it?”
Naruto reached out and touched the healed skin that caused Sasuke to flinch in the heat that burned through his body. It wasn’t of pain, just surprise, and Naruto’s lips parted in something that looked between a sigh and a grin.
“No.”
“I thought so. It was your demon was it not?” Naruto nodded, fingers passing following the roadmap it painted on Sasuke’s skin, reaching ribs and a rigid stomach.
“He was looking at me.” Sasuke shivered but this time he wasn’t sure if it was the memory of those eyes that spoke beyond time itself or the fact that Naruto had reached a point where he was playing with the sash that held his robe together.
“Tell me more about him. About Kurama.”
His expression became thoughtful, a wry smile on his mouth as he looked for the words.
“He is…old. Older than most names people give their Gods. He is not a spirit that you pray to because he does not give. He takes or protects. He does not have much in between.”
“And you’re not afraid of him?” Sasuke grabbed his hand because he couldn’t take it anymore and led him to sit on the futon.
“No,” Naruto said, gaze softening. “He was born angry but not cruel. He likes mischief more than blood and he’s never broken his word.” He paused, then added with a smirk, “He says I am the only fool who has ever kept him company this long without dying. Like he or I have a choice.”
“That’s comforting.” Sasuke muttered.
“Kurama does not pretend. When he is angry, everyone will know. When he is curious, he will look until he understands.”
“And when he accepts someone?”
Naruto tilted his head to the side. “That’s rare.”
Sasuke felt quiet again despite all the questions he had in his head. He realized he was getting answers to all this knowledge that, most likely, no one knew outside of the Uzumaki clan and it felt amazing.
“Did he accept me?”
Naruto didn’t answer right away. Instead, he leaned forward, close enough that the air between them tightened.
“He did not say much. The first time that I marked you, he saw you for a moment through my own eyes and said that you were acceptable.”
Sasuke blinked something slow, the darkness and warmth of the room along with the close company was drawing him closer to sleep. “That’s it?”
Naruto shrugged, a crooked smile that promised mischievous things. “That is practically a marriage proposal from him.”
Sasuke rolled his eyes at that but something behind them softened. “He doesn’t want to hurt me?”
“No,” Naruto said. “Even if he did, I would not allow it.”
The room fell quiet, the weight of his statement settling between them. Sasuke reached up and tugged lightly at the red bead that hung from Naruto’s hair. Their foreheads nearly touched.
“Sleep here.” He murmured, exhaustion making his actions slow like dripping honey. Naruto nodded, helping them shift into place like they had in the tent before. This time it was closer, if that had been possible. Sasuke’s hand found Naruto’s waist beneath the linen while Naruto’s leg curved beside his as the firelight flickered over them both.
“Don’t snore.” Sasuke said quietly onto Naruto’s chest.
“I do not.”
“You do and you do it loudly when you’re deep into a good dream.”
“Liar.”
Silence settled between them again, not sharp but soft and full of breath. Then Sasuke mumbled, cold nose burrowing into tan skin, “Thank you for protecting me.”
Naruto didn’t answer in words. He pressed his nose onto the top of Sasuke’s head and whispered something in Uzuki, soft as wind over grass. While Sasuke was too far gone to even translate, he somehow understood and that was just enough.
Notes:
If you haven't noticed, I do love me a Sasuke in a sleepwear robe, there's something so tantalizing in it that just makes mine (and Naruto's) brain go brrr.
In the next chapter, we have the Hyuuga dinner and we might be updating the tags *takes a long sip of tea*
Chapter 10: A Garden
Notes:
hi hi hi~
I've been super caught up with work and haven't been uploading, howeveeerrr, I have like nine more chapters already written! Please know this story is very much still continuing and I'm still working on it so definitely don't lose hope!
Enjoy the chapter ^^
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Sasuke woke to the warmth of another body tucked against his spine, breath steady and slow against the nape of his neck. The fire burned low where the room was now cool from the air that seeped in from the outside. Pale blue morning light seeped in through the edges of the paper screens which turned the frost-laced garden just outside painted in silver.
He felt Naruto shift behind him, slow and careful. “Don’t move yet.” Sasuke whispered, voice slow and deep from sleep.
Naruto chuckled in such a low manner that, for a moment, Sasuke thought the demon had made an appearance. The arm around him drew him flush against the man behind him and he could feel every curve and dip that body had. Sasuke dreamed for a moment that this was their own space, that they had the option for lazy mornings and no responsibilities to tend to, just this. They lay there in silence long enough to hear birds appear in the tree outside their room.
“I should go.” Naruto murmured against his shoulder where his robe had slipped low throughout the night and he could feel the warm, pale skin beneath his mouth.
“But they won’t be coming in for a while longer.” Sasuke countered.
“You like danger more than you pretend to.” Sasuke shivered as those words were pressed beneath his right ear and before he could even think of giving himself over completely, Naruto pulled away slowly.
Sasuke rolled over and brushed a few strands of loose blond hair out of Naruto’s face. It resembled more of a bird's nest than anything else but, with a few passes of a comb, it would sort itself out.
“If the Hyuuga servants find you in here, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“They will not.” Naruto pulled the wrap of his linen tunic over one shoulder and grinned. “I memorized the beams on the roof yesterday. You think I was just running over to you without looking anywhere else?”
“You were staring at the ceiling.”
“Yes but strategically.”
Sasuke gave him a flat look to let him know that it wasn’t as impressive as he thought it to be. Naruto bent over him one last time, their foreheads pressed briefly together before he slipped out the paper doors into the garden and, with barely a whisper of motion, vanished up the sloped wall like a shadow disappearing into the mist.
Sasuke watched the screen sway slightly in his wake. He exhaled slowly, eyes closed.
He was going to need a cold cloth before breakfast.
The Hyuuga compound had come alive with motion. It was a quiet splendor, the kind that breathed refinement into the bones of the estate. The compound sprawled across gentle terraced hills, shaped by jade-tiled roofs, ivory-white walls, and black-lacquered support beams arranged in perfect symmetry. Servants in soft white and silver robes passed gracefully through the courtyards, their sleeves whispering along the paths. They carried jugs of hot water and trays of grooming oils and teas with their lowered eyes and their presence efficient as a breath.
Sasuke sat on the raised wooden floor of his assigned room, lit by gentle morning light that filtered through the rice paper walls. Behind him, his mother’s hands worked deftly to smooth the back of his formal robes that was a deep charcoal montsuki adorned with the silver Uchiha crest on his back. Beneath it, there was a subtle blue-gray hakama that flowed over his legs in pleats, bound at the waist with a black sash. The fabrics had been lined in wool and padded for warmth in the mountain cold.
“Stand straighter, Sasuke.” Mikoto murmured. “You’ll crease the lower folds.”
Sasuke gave a faint sigh but obeyed. Two silent Uchiha attendants moved about the room—one polishing his footwear, the other setting out the matching cloak and gloves for the cold outside. Itachi, already dressed in a jet-black formal kamishimo, leaned against the doorframe, one brow arched.
“You always act like they’re dressing you for battle.”
“In this family, that’s not far off.” Sasuke muttered, eyeing his reflection in the polished brass mirror.
“You look beautiful,” Mikoto said, pressing a final fold flat with her palm. “Just like your father did when we were promised.”
“Chilling thought,” Sasuke murmured.
Mikoto smacked his arm lightly with her hand, which only made Itachi smile at the scene before him.
Across the courtyard, in a guest wing notably less structured, the Uzumaki quarters were far louder. Steam rolled from an open window as someone shouted in Uzuki, followed by the sound of metal clanging against stone. Inside, the room was scented with firewood, damp furs, and heated oil.
“ Why do I need to wear this again ?” Naruto grumbled as Kushina adjusted the clasp on the heavy cloak at his shoulders.
He stood barefoot in the center of the room, skin newly scrubbed, hair still damp. His ochre-colored kimono, patterned with swirling storm motifs in red and orange, hung open as Kushina re-fastened the ties beneath his arms. His bronze medallion cloak clasp was shaped like the spiral sun of their clan.
“ Because you are the heir to our clan ,” Kushina muttered in Uzuki, tugging the fur straight, “ and we will not look like less to these pale-eyed doll people .”
“ You say that but you’re not even the one speaking to them .”
“ That’s why I dress you like I am. So they know who commands respect here.”
“ This thing weighs more than a horse blanket, ” Naruto muttered.
“ Then walk like the heir you are. ” Her hands brushed his shoulder, tightening the fur-lined cloak. “ Today, you are the sky. ”
Minato chuckled softly from where he stood, already dressed in his dark ocean-blue kosode, his fur-lined vest draped over one arm. He handed Naruto a small strip of woven red cord—one end fraying with age.
“ Here. For your hair .”
Naruto paused. “ This is yours .”
“ It was your grandfather’s ,” Minato said, slipping it into his hand. “ It’s yours now .”
He let his mother tie it in—a single red band around the front of his hair that would need a bit of a trim soon, with just enough slack for the beads to sway like tiny bells.
“She’s right, you know,” he added in common tongue. “Besides, you look like the kind of man people remember at ceremonies.”
Naruto grimaced. “Great. I will be remembered for suffocating in fur.”
“ You were naked in the snow a week ago ,” Kushina snapped.
“That was different! ”
“ That was Uzumaki ,” she said, nodding proudly.
Kushina walked around him in a circle, looking like a mother cat prowling around its prey and she nodded once, proud of herself. The change was complete. When he turned, the room seemed to still because Naruto of the wild now looked like a storm tamed.
Even his kin stopped to stare.
When both clans emerged into the main courtyard, the contrast was stark.
The Uchiha filed in with perfect formation with Fugaku at the front in a richly embroidered black cloak, Mikoto beside him with silver kanzashi hairpins glittering in her bun, Itachi and Sasuke dressed like ink and smoke behind them. Their attendants stood in place like chess pieces-silent, alert, exact.
The Uzumaki, in contrast, emerged without symmetry, like a river winding its own way. Minato walked beside Kushina, his clothing simple but finely layered, the red tattooed sash of the clan tied neatly around his waist. Behind them, Naruto’s kin spoke loudly and gestured at the tiled roofs above them, their red hair glinting with beads and small bells.
Then Naruto stepped out from the guest wing and most of the Uchiha turned.
He looked like he had stepped out of a fable. The sun’s rays caught on the fur of his collar, the red wool falling in clean lines over his shoulders, his deep crimson sash took on the color of blood in the morning light. His eyes scanned the courtyard, confident, easy—but the moment he found Sasuke, his lips curved slightly.
Sasuke stood still.
“You’re staring again,” Itachi murmured.
“You’re not helping.”
“Just keeping track. I think we’re at twenty-seven stares this week.” Sasuke elbowed him lightly.
The morning bells rang through the estate, soft chimes meant to signal the arrival of guests.
The Hyuuga estate’s eastern wing was quieter than the main courtyard, with winding garden paths and a koi pond surrounded by snowy stone lanterns. It was where the younger generation was meant to "mingle" before the formal banquet—under the supervision of a few painfully stiff Hyuuga servants.
Naruto was wandering in search of snacks or something vaguely edible. The wool of his ceremonial coat was making his neck itch and if one more servant bowed at him without speaking, he was going to throw himself into the pond just to see what would happen.
He heard someone snort behind a tree. “You look like a boiled beet.”
He turned and met the eyes of a small, wild-eyed Hyuuga girl who stood crouched halfway up the bark of a tree, chewing something. Her robes were askew and looked half-formal, half-undone. Her padded jacket was half-off her shoulder, and her hair was tied messily, as if she had run her fingers through it often.
“...And who are you supposed to be?” Naruto asked.
“Hyuuga Hanabi,” she said around her chewing. “Second daughter of the main branch and future clan menace.”
Naruto blinked, then grinned. “Uzumaki Naruto. Current clan menace.”
Hanabi slid down the trunk and dusted her hands on her trousers—yes, trousers, clearly hidden beneath her ceremonial skirts.
“You’re the demon kid, right?”
“How did you know?”
“It’s what they call you.”
“They call you 'delicate flower of the Hyuuga',” Naruto replied. “You seem more like a kicked hornet’s nest.”
Hanabi snorted again and wiped her nose with her arm, soiling her kimono. “I like you already.”
She walked beside him like they’d known each other for weeks and, just as they got to a small wooden bridge that went over a pond, she tossed him a rice ball from inside her sleeve.
“Where did you get this?”
“Kitchen staff. I threatened to scream during the banquet if they didn’t give me something now.”
“That is very smart. We should trade strategies.”
She laughed and nodded. “You talk funny. I like it.”
They strolled the garden paths, crunching through frost while swapping insults about overly formal tea ceremonies, the weird silence of Hyuuga servants, and who had the worst ceremonial shoes. Naruto didn’t even notice how light he felt until she elbowed him mid-sentence.
“You’re sweet on the pretty Uchiha, huh?”
Naruto choked on the drink he had been handed at the sudden question.
Hanabi shrugged. “You’ve been glancing over your shoulder looking for him like a lovesick auntie since breakfast.”
“I—no. No, I have not.”
“You really have.”
“Look—maybe I just appreciate beauty.”
“Of his face? Or his backside?”
“ Hanabi! ” She cackled, darting away before he could flick snow at her.
“Princess Hanabi. Prince Naruto.” The sharp call of a Hyuuga servant cut through their laughter. Naruto turned, crumbs on his lip while Hanabi didn’t even flinch and gave the servant a bored stare.
The servant bowed stiffly. “Preparations for the welcome banquet are complete. You are to return to your quarters to be escorted shortly.”
“We’re coming,” Hanabi said, brushing crumbs off her sleeves. “Tell them I didn’t break anything.”
The servant didn’t respond.
Naruto leaned in as they walked back. “Are you always like this?”
“Only around people who deserve it.”
“So me, basically.”
“Exactly.”
By the time the first ceremonial gongs rang, the sun had fully set behind the mountains. The main banquet hall of the Hyuuga estate was a masterpiece of austere elegance: warm wood beams lacquered in black and lanterns hanging from every beam that bathed the hall in amber light. A fragrant haze of cedar incense hung in the air.
The seating was arranged in careful opposition. The left of the central aisle sat the Uchiha clan: dark, disciplined, and symmetrical. Fugaku sat at the head with Mikoto beside him and was followed by his two sons. Their robes were impeccably pressed, each gesture measured. The Uchiha guards and attendants sat behind them, backs straight, with expressions like carved stone.
To the right of the hall, the Uzumaki clan faced them like a flame answering the dark. Minato, ever graceful, sat calmly with a cup of tea in hand, while Kushina beside him stared unflinchingly at the polished floor like it owed her a duel. Naruto took his place at her side with hair that was still wind-tossed and one of the bronze clasps at his collar undone.
Beside them sat various family members and warriors. Some were barefoot while others had bells at their ankles but all with the intense air of people who thrived amongst chaos. Sasuke’s gaze flickered across the aisle to Naruto as he took a sip of his own cup. Naruto, predictably, grinned like he hadn’t just insulted half of the other nobility by breathing too loud earlier.
At the upper end of the hall sat the Hyuuga hosts, elevated on a platform behind low ceremonial tables. Hiashi stood now, framed by two slender, kneeling servants holding scrolls. He welcomed the room in the common tongue with a bow of his head.
“On behalf of the Hyuuga clan, we thank you all for journeying here for the union of my eldest daughter. Tonight we honor not only her upcoming vows but the harmony between our clans that such an event represents.”
With soft clinks heard around the hall, the first round of rice wine was poured, the polished gold cups raised by servants in pale robes. Their presence was ghostlike, never interrupting the harmony of the Hyuuga hall. Hiashi drank from his cup, sleeves of his charcoal-gray montsuki brushing the edges of his pants and he stepped forward. His voice carried clearly through the hall, each word weighted with formality and age-old tradition.
“We, the Hyuuga clan, are honored to host such a gathering. Our walls are open in peace and our tables are full of gratitude.” He turned first to the left, toward the Uchiha. “We welcome the Uchiha, Lord Fugaku, head of the clan, and Lady Mikoto. With them, their sons: Itachi, the clan’s heir, and Sasuke, second-born prince.”
The Uchiha rose only briefly, bowing in unison. Every fold of their dark, formal haori and hakamas are precisely arranged. Mikoto offered the faintest of smiles while Sasuke’s posture was stiff, his eyes casting on quick glance across falling back to his cup.
Hiashi’s gaze shifted to the right and there was a beat of hesitation before he continued.
“From the wandering bloodline of the east, Lord Minato Namikaze, consort to Lady Kushina Uzumaki, ruling matron of her people. Their son, Naruto, firstborn and demon vessel.”
A ripple of whispers passed through the hall as Kushina stood tall but didn’t bow, her shoulders squared beneath her crimson-patterned uchikake, while Minato offered a gentle smile and a slight bow. Naruto slouched like the formality itched but didn’t fidget lest his mother’s hand meet his shoulder again.
Hiashi nodded, then extended his hand towards the back of the room.
“We also welcome the Nara clan. Lord Shikaku, Lady Yoshino, and their son Shikamaru.” Shikaku gave the kind of bow that suggested he’d rather be napping while his wife bowed deeper. Shikamaru looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but in this very room.
“The Aburame–Lord Shibi, with his son Shino and their kin, Torune and Tatsuma.” Eyes behind dark glasses, no one moved more than they had to.
“The Akimichi have traveled a long distance. Lord Choza, Lady Choko and their son Choji, always gracious in hospitality.”
Choza’s robes were the brightest in the room. It was embroidered with a gold boar and his greeting came with a laugh that shook his sleeves. Choji bowed quickly, his cheeks already stuffed with steamed dumplings.
“The Inuzuka’s,” Hiashi mentioned, “send their regrets. Their northern patrols could not be spared and their absence is felt.”
A cup was lifted again and Hiashi extended his hand for the toast. “To peace in the winter. May all our clans see the spring.”
The final plates were cleared in near silence. Servants moved with practiced grace, stacking empty trays, refreshing drinks, pouring second and third rounds of warmed sake. The low hum of polite conversation returned in measured waves. Laughter, where it dared appear, was brief and flickering—fitting of a night beneath a formal roof.
Once dinner concluded, guests were invited into a secondary gathering hall—a long open-air corridor with sliding screens pushed back to reveal the inner garden. There, nobles and warriors mingled more freely, some seated on raised platforms with cushions and drinks, others meandering beneath hanging lanterns that cast pale gold light onto gravel paths and pruned plum trees just beginning to bud despite the lingering frost.
Sasuke stood near the edge of the corridor, one hand on the polished railing, his breath fogging faintly in the crisp night. The low hum of conversation behind him blurred into the background as he gazed into the garden’s stillness. The lanterns were few and far between here, and the further one walked, the darker it became, until the moss-covered stones vanished beneath shadows. The sharp lines of the compound gave way to something softer, less constructed.
He stepped off the corridor, his feet crunching lightly against the gravel as he followed a curved path, deeper into the quiet. He kept telling himself he wasn’t running, that he just needed some air where there was silence and space to breathe. His feet led him beneath an immense willow tree, fingers brushing the wide sleeves of his formal robe and the smell of night-blooming jasmine settled around him.
“Found you.”
Sasuke didn’t flinch because he knew that voice anywhere. He opened his eyes, gaze steady as Naruto stepped from a flowering hedge, golden light from the lanterns catching the soft lines of his face. His formal clothes seemed to wither the longer the night went on. His kimono hung open slightly, the sash tied haphazardly at his waist, and his hair remained wild but still woven with the faint shine of a red thread and small bronze beads.
“Don’t you have nobles to entertain?” Sasuke asked softly.
Naruto shrugged, coming to lean against the stone bench by the tree. “I already made a few choke on their rice wine. I thought that was enough for one night.”
Sasuke exhaled, faintly amused.
“This place is…quiet.” Naruto looked around, eyes staying up at the night sky. “Even the air feels polite.”
“It’s the Hyuuga compound. Discipline is everything here. Even noise is considered a weakness if it’s created as a mistake.”
“Yes, it says a lot about them.”
Silence settled comfortably between the two of them. They were far enough now that no one could overhear them and one hoped that they would be far enough that no one would notice if they stayed.
“You know, I came here thinking I’d have a moment alone.” Sasuke said as he shuffled his feed in the green grass. Under the protection of the willow tree, it remained unscathed from the random snowfall that occurred every now and then.
“You did,” Naruto replied, a soft smile on his lips as his eyes remained fascinated by the sky above him. “Then I got bored.”
Somewhere nearby, a stream whispered past smoothed stones and a cat skittered by, its glowing eyes staring at them before moving on.
“You look good,” Naruto offered suddenly, eyes scanning Sasuke with open admiration. “I did not think Uchiha clothes could be more rigid but, here you are proving me wrong.”
Sasuke narrowed his eyes and mumbled, “Careful.” It nearly sounded threatening had he not been under the intense stare that those blue eyes held.
Naruto grinned, long canines and white teeth, his tone softening when a thought seemed to pass by him. “Honeslty Sasuke, you look…” he paused a moment, “...strong. Sharp. Like a prince should.”
Sasuke willed the heat creeping up his neck and on his face to be still but the scar on his body warmed in a way he had felt before, in the same way that it lit up his whole body whenever the other was near. Naruto took a seat, knees brushed as he tilted his head towards the open air, eyes closed for a moment.
“Incredible how, no matter where we go, the sky is always there to accompany us.” Naruto took a deep breath, taking in the air and all the scents the party brought with it. “It almost makes you feel like the Gods are watching.”
“Didn’t take you as a sentimental person.” Sasuke said flatly, trying his best to see the sky the same way Naruto was but all he saw was a never ending black space with twinkling lights and full moon amongst them.
“Better sentimental than to brood.”
Sasuke hummed, accepting the jab for what it was. “Debatable.”
The familiar silence that fell amongst was comfortable. The quiet that had always existed between them was never an issue but it buzzed faintly with possibility.
Naruto leaned back onto his hands, letting out a sigh. “You laughed tonight,” His nose crinkled at the thought, the image appearing in his mind's eye and he remembered how he just sat there, staring with his mouth agape. “When Hanabi knocked the entire platter and yelled at the servant for ‘sabotage.’ I am sure you thought no one noticed.”
Sasuke scoffed. “I didn’t laugh, she caught me by surprise.”
“You did.” Naruto smiled at him. “It looked good on you.”
Sasuke stopped at that and turned his head to him slowly. The garden lights cast a faint golden glow along Naruto’s jaw, highlighting the unruly hair at his temple, the curl of a loose thread on his shoulder. He looked like he belonged out here, half-tamed by stone walls yet still wild beneath the surface.
“How is it that you say all these things so easily?” Sasuke murmured, entranced by the angle the figure before him cut.
Naruto met his gaze now, slower, softer. “Because I mean them.”
Sasuke blinked. Once. Then his body rushed forward, the pit of his stomach rolling with something that burned.
He hadn’t really thought it through, there had been no plan for it. One moment there was a breath of space between them and the next it was gone.
Their lips brushed so quietly that it felt like all the whispers they had shared in the darkness.
Naruto stilled for a moment, eyes wide open in disbelief until he seemed to melt into it with surprising gentleness. There was no rush, no teasing, instead, his hand rose, calloused fingers cupping the curve of Sasuke’s neck, where the skin was so delicate beneath his palm, his thumb brushing beneath his jaw that grounded them both in this strange, suspended moment.
Sasuke’s long lashes fluttered. The warmth of Naruto’s hand against his throat made him feel fragile and tethered all at once. He pulled back a millimeter, if at that, like he might say something, like his mind was working overtime to assess the fire that had caught between them. However, the other man didn’t let him go. The hand on his neck shifted, guiding him not back, but deeper. His angle changed and then his world exploded in lights like the sky above him.
He couldn’t remember when the rough hand had traveled lower. Only that the heat of it pressed down on his hip before slipping beneath the folds of his clothes- slow, certain- fingertips skimming the fabric that lay across the top of his thigh. Naruto’s palm bracketed behind his knee and tugged gently but with intention.
Sasuke’s breath caught; a hitch in his throat that caused Naruto to bite his bottom lip in response as he now straddled thick thighs.
It was clumsy at first, the way his knees fit around him, but Naruto shifted to steady him, his hands strong and sure. The shift in elevation, a new angle, brought a world of firsts that Sasuke hadn’t been prepared for.
It was the way their bodies now aligned, the way their mouths moved with a little more urgency now, hunger replacing any shy feelings that were there before. The sharp press of breath between kisses, the flutter of his robe slipping made him feel dizzy and wanting.
Sasuke’s fingers left the safe clutch of Naruto’s shoulders and found the thick, blond hair and gripped tight as if he would fall backward if he didn’t hold on tight enough. It caused Naruto to release the faintest noise that sounded all too similar to a growl and that only seemed to motivate him even more.
Naruto kissed like someone who had waited a long time and didn’t expect it to last.
And Sasuke had never kissed like this at all.
The wind stirred in the garden causing a lantern to bob gently on its line, casting rippling golden light against the walls. Somewhere far off, laughter echoed faintly from the other courtyard but there, in the hush of the Hyuuga’s private sanctuary, there was only breath and skin and the thunderous realization that whatever was happening between them had already passed the point of no return.
Chapter 11: An Insatiable Hunger
Notes:
Please understand that this chapter contains explicit sexual content intended for mature audiences (18+). The rating and the tags have been updated upon the release of this chapter as of August 9th, 2025.
Themes include:
Consensual intimacy between two adult characters
Detailed descriptions of sexual acts
Light dom/sub dynamics
Emotional vulnerability
First-time experience (with mention of physical discomfort)
Semi-public sneaking around / tension
Please read at your discretion. This content is a continuation of a slow-burn emotional relationship and reflects mutual affection and desire, but also explores differing internal expectations (freedom vs. claim).
If you'd like to skip the explicit section, stop reading at "A study of friction and surrender." and ctrl + f this part "Sasuke tried to respond, truly, he did."
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Sasuke finally pulled back, not far, just enough for breath to settle between them. His lips were kissed raw, his pulse fluttering beneath the surface of his throat. Naruto looked at him like he wasn’t sure if the stars overhead were real or if Sasuke had somehow pulled them down.
The moment lingered with fingers brushing against cloth, the faint sound of the lantern ropes creaking and the scent of the winter flowers between them. Suddenly, reality returned like a soft knock at the edge of thought.
Faint footsteps could be heard near the edge of the garden. Sasuke turned his head quickly, body pressed forward against Naruto's, causing the man to groan when thighs rubbed against a hardness below him. “The servants.”
Naruto’s hand curled a little tighter behind his knee. “Then I guess we run.”
Sasuke glared at him, breathless because he could feel the warmth of Naruto’s hands burning through his clothes. “You’re not serious.”
But Naruto was already grinning mischievously, that same wild, sunlit smile that made Sasuke feel like he was standing on the edge of something exhilarating. He rose quickly with Sasuke’s legs flailing before gripping around his waist, realizing all too late that the man had no intention of placing him back down onto the floor.
They moved through the garden like thieves using the tall hedges to their advantage.
“Why aren’t you putting me down?” Sasuke hissed, embarrassment flooded his body at being carried the way he was. Naruto ducked under a low arch of bamboo just in time to miss a trailing servant crossing between courtyards, a tray of empty wine bottles in her arms.
“Do not act coy Sasuke, I need to keep you flush against me to hide a bigger issue you have caused.” It wasn’t like Sasuke wasn’t aware of the other man's rigid hardness nestled onto his thigh and the position they were in surely wouldn’t help either of them.
“You have absolutely no shame.” Sasuke muttered under his breath but was cut short with Naruto taking that breath from him in a searing kiss. Whether it had been what they shared beneath the willow or the adrenaline of not getting caught, Naruto was trying his damndest to not take what was his right there and then but the rosy cheeks and swollen lips in front of him wasn’t allowing him to keep a level head.
“None,” Naruto whispered back and bit the bottom of his right jaw, the soft, pale skin immediately turning pink under his actions. “You kissed me which means you are now stuck with me. A claim has been made and I intend to honor it.”
Sasuke tried very hard not to smile as Naruto moved ahead, quick and sure-footed, weaving between stone lanterns and shaded columns like he’d lived here all his life.
By the time they reached the Uchiha quarters, the formal gathering had settled into quiet drinks and hushed conversations indoors. The halls had mostly been cleared and the sliding door leading to Sasuke’s rooms remained untouched since he’d left them. Since there were no guards, Naruto opened the sliding doors with a soft hush and closed them with one hand.
Inside, the room was just as he had left it: spare and clean, lit by the soft orange glow of the fire pit in the center. His futon was laid out, the comforter still pulled halfway aside with his robe draped over the privacy screen. Smoke curled from the fire lazily toward the high ceiling, the scent of cedarwood and ash hanging in the quiet air.
Naruto didn’t look at anything other than the man in front of him. Still holding Sasuke firm beneath his thighs, Naruto walked them towards the futon like a man with purpose and set Sasuke down onto the soft comforter like an offering that was to be laid out, worshipped and undone.
The fire behind them lit something behind those blue eyes and Naruto didn’t pounce. Instead, he crouched in front of Sasuke watching him with eyes that had seen too much and still managed to soften just for him. He brushed a thumb against Sasuke’s lower lip, gaze flickering to where it was slightly parted and noticed how it was still so pink and swollen from their earlier kiss.
“You sure?” he asked, voice low, grounded and reverent.
Sasuke’s throat bobbed, Naruto’s eyes catching the movement. He looked all like a predator keeping his gaze and claws in its prey that had just been caught. “Would I have let you carry me halfway across the compound like a deranged festival thief if I wasn’t?”
A flicker of a smile ghosted Naruto’s lips. “Maybe. You are one that enjoys the dramatics.”
Sasuke narrowed his eyes as his hands unclasped the medallion that held Naruto’s cloak on his body. “You’re the one with the god complex.” The robe was thrown to the side and the sash that held the ochre-colored kimono hissed as it slid over cloth and was also thrown over to where the cloak laid.
“No,” Naruto said, moving closer until their foreheads touched. “Kurama is the one with the god complex, all I want is you.”
Sasuke sucked in a soft breath. That quiet, devastating honestly was worse than any teasing because it made him feel like he had been stripped bare in a way that Naruto’s hands hadn’t yet done.
He went to untie his own sash that held his outfit together but Naruto moved them away. With slow, deliberate hands, he untied the black sash that caused his outer robe to fall away from him and his inner robe was parted by warm hands. The firelight flickered across pale skin, illuminating the winding scar that wrapped up from his ankle to his neck like an ancient curse but was a mark of belonging.
Naruto’s eyes darkened and Sasuke couldn’t tell if it had been the firelight or Naruto’s own energy that bled red into his irises. He reached forward, fingers gentle despite their clawed tips, as they traced the spiral of the scar. “Beautiful.”
Sasuke tried to scoff but it caught in his throat when Naruto placed a tongue on the section of the spiral that was under his right pec. The back of his hand met his lips, to try to muffle the noise that came from his throat but Naruto shook his head, nipping at the muscle on his chest.
“You are not to hold back your noises with me. There is no one nearby because of the dinner.” As he spoke, he untied the string that held his hakama pants and removed them like he was bestowing something on a pedestal.
Once Sasuke was bare to him, he took a moment to appreciate the lean muscles, the slight curve Sasuke had that led to a trim waist with toned thighs and long legs. He gripped the back of Sasuke’s left knee over his broad shoulder, his whiskered face held the expression of a man on a mission who was focused on completion.
“I can not prepare you in the correct way so I will do as much as I can but I will need your assistance.” He spoke as he removed the left overs of his own clothing, peeling it off piece by piece and discarding it across the tatami with careless grace. His body, all heat and strength, was a contrast to Sasuke’s leaner frame, yet, when they met, aligned in the way they were, it seemed perfect. A study of friction and surrender.
Sasuke nodded, a bit confused on how they were going to go about this from this position until his muddled brain caught on when Naruto lifted him slightly and lowered his head to a place no one else had been. He yelled in surprise, his body thrashed at the intrusion of a strong tongue that pierced his insides, but Naruto tightened his arm that winded over his thigh and hands that held him by his hips held tight enough to bruise.
There were tears on the corners of his eye lids, the burn of need in the places they touched, and his knuckles were white where they gripped onto the sheets. He wasn’t sure how but he felt like, somehow, Naruto was everywhere all at once yet not enough. Sasuke hitched forward in one of those full body twitches that seemed to occur the deeper Naruto’s tongue entered him and, just when he thought he would explode from the intensity, the blond pulled back seeming like a cat who caught the first bird of the morning. His mouth and chin were wet with moisture, shining lightly in the firelight and Sasuke heaved, his lower abdomen expanding and contracting with labored breaths.
“I need your help now unless you would like for me to keep going.” The proud look he had irked Sasuke, made him want to lower his head again until the blond was the one struggling to breathe.
Bringing Sasuke’s leg over his head so that he could place it on the futon again, he turned the man on to his side. “Put your fingers in my mouth.” Sasuke’s brow, already damp with sweat despite the little chill that entered through the semi open doors from the garden, furrowed. He wasn’t used to being the inexperienced one in things, normally taking to new things quickly but being intimate with another, especially a man, had him at a loss and had him wondering just how Naruto knew so much.
While his mind churned, he lifted his hand and watched, enraptured, as they slowly disappeared into a damp, warm mouth that sucked them in. Naruto’s tongue coated them with saliva, making sure that each digit received the same attention as the previous. While that occurred, he tried his best to keep his hips from moving but the way he looked gave Sasuke the thought that it might be almost painful holding himself back.
“Here.” He whispered, his voice hoarse as if he had been out yelling all day. Setting himself backward onto Naruto’s bare lap, he clasped his thighs around his engorged cock, and Naruto’s teeth sunk softly onto his fingers as a drawn out whine left his body. His hips undulated in a way that reminded Sasuke of the slow recede of ocean water before crashing against the shore.
It was Sasuke’s turn to see the man unfurl, to see him come apart with eyes half closed and saliva dripping out from the sides of his mouth in slow tendrils. The wet pop when they were released was almost lewd in its nature and, with a rough voice, he said, “Put them inside yourself.”
There was more muttering, something in Uzuki that made Sasuke’s ears burn.
“You’re not translating that.” Sasuke breathed as his hands found the place where Naruto had paid so much attention.
Naruto grinned as he leaned forward, either fist holding the blond man up while they were on either side of Sasuke, while his hips stuttered as Sasuke tightened the grip on his thighs as he inserted his index finger. “Not meant for polite company.”
“You think I’m polite?”
“No.” Naruto admitted and bit a part of the scar that crossed against his ribs. Sasuke’s body arched as the second one entered and Naruto seemed reverent in the way he worshiped every inch of skin.
“I do not think I can hold for long.” He grunted and paused his onslaught on Sasuke’s chest and sides to watch the third finger work his way in. He turned him onto his back and lifted him up so that his legs rested on his chest and knees over his shoulders. “Out.” The order came accompanied with a bite to a calf and Sasuke’s sore fingers popped out and pushed forward and almost saw stars behind his eyes at the tip pushing past his entrance.
Naruto entered slowly, deliberate in every inch, and Sasuke turned his face away, hands over his eyes. It wasn’t from pain but from how full, how seen, he felt. Tears gathered at the corners, blurring the firelight and it took all his willpower to not come to completion on the spot.
At one point, Naruto had fully entered, seating himself and adjusting before his knees stiffened to hold him up strongly as he pulled out just as slowly and the toes on Sasuke’s feet cracked from how curled they were.
“Naruto, I need- ah, don’t- I need you to move, I can’-” His right leg was moved off a shoulder and around a tight waist, slick with sweat but he held on tight as Naruto bit onto the side of his knee on his left leg before mimicking the other legs position. Clawed finger tips held onto a pale waist before drilling inside the other in one swift motion. Sasuke keened, his back arching, fingers clawing at the futon. His mouth opened in a silent cry as Naruto moved inside him, hands steady and hips relentless.
There were quiet gasps and whispered names with sweat-slick skin sliding against each other. Somewhere between the haze of pleasure and grounding pain, one of Sasuke’s hands found one of Naruto’s wrists and held it tight.
Because despite everything–his duties, his family, a war on the horizon–this was a moment he would never forget because this was one where he could choose.
His climax came as a surprise. His legs locked tight around Naruto, his abdomen felt like it was a pond of boiling water, and his head was thrown back as he came, hot strings of white landed on his chest and a bit on his neck. He felt like he was pulsing from the inside out and he laid limp on the futon watching with hazy eyes Naruto grunting above him, hips erratic as Sasuke clenched around him.
It wasn’t long before the man before him stilled to a halt, eyes half mast as he spilled inside the other, hips stuttering as he emptied himself in what felt like for an eternity. He fell forward, lips taking Sasuke’s in a way that told Sasuke that Naruto still had too much energy. He nipped at his lips, at his jaw, bit at a clavicle before running his hands in ink black hair and gripping at the hair at the back of his head as he his hips started up again, this time the snap of hips meeting skin sounded too loud in the room, too wet.
“Ngh no- you brute, how-” Sasuke’s body, now too oversensitive, seemed to pulse from inside as he could feel another oncoming climax in just the span of a few short minutes.
Sasuke didn’t know how long he lay there with limbs loose, lips parted and lungs working overtime dragging in air like it might never be enough. Naruto was above him, inside him, around him and he moved in a way not unlike a storm breaking over calm water-measured at first, then wild, something elemental. Each thrust dragged out a new sound from Sasuke’s throat, sharp cries that melted into breathless moans.
He felt like he lost track of time, of everything except the way Naruto filled him–again, and again, and again.
At one point, he had lost count at how many times they had both come from pleasure or the different ways his body had been moved because, despite his cries and demands, he wanted to continue, wanted to pretend this night was everlasting and that’s what it felt like.
He remembered being turned over on his stomach, hips raised with knees beneath him and Naruto’s mouth on him, tongue insistent and possessive as he lapped at his entrance and couldn’t even find the words to tell him to stop from the immense pleasure emanating from inside himself. When Naruto closed a fist on him and tugged with his tongue deep in him, he sobbed into the futon at that, clawing weekly at the covers as Naruto’s fingers and mouth dragged him through another climax that left his spine bowed and his vision white.
Later, how much later, he wasn’t sure, he was on his side, one leg raised towards his chest with Naruto’s hand gripping him tight around his thigh, slick and relentless as he rutted between his cheeks. Sasuke could only take it and could only feel since his own body didn’t want to respond to him anymore. This was a mercy in giving him a break before he painted streaks of white on his back. He continued to rut against him, grunting as he shifted Sasuke's knee as far upwards he could go before entering him once again, sighing from how easy the slide was.
Sasuke’s body was pliant, his limbs so loose he could not remember the day nor the time, only that there had to be a point in which Naruto’s ridiculous stamina came to an end.
When the light of the fire was low in the room and Sasuke had lain face down for too long, it was when Naruto grunted and stilled before he came to a stop, hips stuttering as he released himself for what felt like the last time.
Sasuke lay face down, lashes heavy and lips parted.
A kiss brushed his temple, followed by another behind his ear. Naruto’s weight lowered beside him as he pressed Sasuke’s back flush against his chest as if he didn’t want to release him.
“Still alive?” Naruto murmured against his shoulder, voice hoarse with use.
Sasuke tried to respond, truly, he did. Instead, what left his mouth was a slurred, broken string of syllables: “You…ridiculous..stamina…unnatural…demon spawn..”
Naruto chuckled, hand pressed against Sasuke’s stomach and the pressure had him twitching, a whine escaping his dry mouth from how sore he felt. “You should sleep. I will accept all complaints in the morning.”
“You owe…me Uzumaki.” Sasuke muttered, barely coherent.
“I will be forever in your debt,” He whispered, brushing a thumb over the faint scar trailing his collarbone. “Just rest.”
He pulled the comforter up over them both, settling in well despite still being inside him. Sasuke sighed, nuzzling onto the arm below him causing Naruto to tighten his arm around him. Sleep found them like that: tangled, breath steadying, bodies flushed with heat and promise. One claiming with his body, the other surrendering what little freedom he had left.
Chapter 12: A Morning After
Notes:
Please understand that this chapter contains explicit sexual content intended for mature audiences (18+). The rating and the tags have been updated upon the release of this chapter as of August 9th, 2025.
Themes include:
Consensual intimacy between two adult characters
Detailed descriptions of sexual acts
Please read at your discretion. This content is a continuation of a slow-burn emotional relationship and reflects mutual affection and desire, but also explores differing internal expectations (freedom vs. claim).
If you'd like to skip the explicit section, stop reading at "Confused, he cracked an eye open and blinked the haze of sleep from his vision." and ctrl + f this part "He always bruised so easily and it was showing now. "
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The soft crackle of dying embers was the first thing Sasuke heard as he tried to claw his way out of sleep. His limbs were heavy with the ache of overuse, the pleasant sting of soreness blooming in his thighs and lower back like ghostly kisses. It felt as though he had endured a week’s worth of harsh training, and yet, he was content. Bone-deep contentment that rooted him to the futon and had him breath slowly and heavy.
He hummed lowly, the warmth pulsing through his body causing his toes to curl. A flicker of motion near his abdomen made his hips twitch. Confused, he cracked an eye open and blinked the haze of sleep from his vision.
A tousled head of blond hair was nestled between his thighs, golden strands catching in the dim firelight. A warm, slick mouth wrapped around him with languid familiarity, tongue teasing the sensitive underside with unhurried care. Naruto’s nose was pressed just below his navel, breathing deep like he needed his scent to survive.
Sasuke's hips twitched again, this time from surprise. His body betrayed him, bucking slightly upward as a groan clawed out of his throat. “What are you-” he started, only to falter when Naruto’s palm flattened against his abdomen, holding him steady with surprising strength.
“Don’t move.” Naruto murmured, voice muffled, low and husky with sleep and purpose.
Sasuke mewled despite himself, back arching off the futon. His fingers instinctively found their way into golden colored hair, gripping tightly as if both to ground himself and urge the blond on. Naruto’s tongue flattened, then curled over the underside of his cock, then withdrew only to press in again, lavishing him with maddening reverence.
“You’re insatiable.” Sasuke whispered, almost as if in confessing a sin, voice still rough with sleep. He could feel the fresh bruises forming on his lips, the stings from the various bites laid out throughout his body, the lingering heat between his legs and, yet, the two of them wanted more. Maybe this was his own version of worship.
Naruto gave a pleased hum in response, the vibration sending another shudder up Sasuke’s spine.
“I’m supposed to eat breakfast with my family.” Sasuke said weakly but didn’t sound convincing at all, not even to himself.
Naruto pulled back slightly, lips slick and eyes lidded with something between mischief and adoration. This time, with the light of the rising sun slowly creeping over the horizon, Sasuke could see the tint of red he thought had been an illusion the previous night. It looked like a bleeding wound, slowly seeping into his blue eyes. “This is breakfast.” His voice was rough but not in the way it would be from just waking it up.
He went right back down and Sasuke had no chance to continue that train of thought as Naruto let him feel every inch of tongue and heat. Sasuke let out a sound that couldn’t quite be called a protest and, when stars exploded behind his eyelids, his body as taut as a bow string, and he was shooting whatever he had into the back of Naruto’s throat, he thought that maybe being a bit late wouldn’t be so bad as he felt the other man swallowing him whole.
It could have been minutes or forever because, by the time Naruto finally pulled back, he was breathless and it wasn’t from exhaustion but from the intensity. His chest rose and fell steadily as he licked his lips, chasing the taste before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Sasuke lay boneless on the futon, flushed and glistening, the corner of the comforter barely clinging on one hip. His skin bore fresh bite marks, the evidence of the night before painted in pale reds and soft purples. He always bruised so easily and it was showing now.
“You are absolutely insane.” Sasuke murmured, draping an arm over his eyes. Even without seeing him, he was so in tune with the other man that his body opened up in invitation as Naruto leaned over him, pressing a kiss in the center of his chest, where his heartbeat still thudded wild and frantic. “You always say that when you come undone.”
Sasuke let out a faint scoff but didn’t move. His free hand reached up, blindly landing on a warm back before finding its way up to hold the back of Naruto’s neck. “What time is it?”
Naruto turned his head lazily toward the paper-screened door. The light bleeding through was soft and gray which meant a dawn just beginning to break. “Still early which means there is still time before the servants begin to stir.”
Sasuke could feel the intention, the drive, emanating from Naruto’s body and he placed both hands on the man's face and pushed playfully but with meaning behind it. “Absolutely not- is that a pout on your lips ?” Sasuke said, indecorously but the laugh escaped his throat before he had a chance to reign it in.
The expression looked so silly on the other man that he couldn’t help but laugh. He looked like a petulant child who had been denied his favorite toy and the image of a smaller Naruto doing just that had him in a fit of giggles.
Naruto’s pout slowly melted and, in exchange, a soft smile found his way into his lips as he looked at the man who now held his stomach from all the laughter. It took him a moment to bring himself back to normal and Naruto was there to wipe the tears of laughter from his eyes.
“I am glad you found your fun with me.” Naruto murmured, his hand trailing through ink black hair and gazing at the face below him.
There was a pause between them, where they just looked upon each other before Sasuke’s expression neutralized and said, “You should go.”
Naruto didn’t move. He only studied him, eyes solemn now in the quiet afterglow. “I’ll come see you again tonight.”
“You always say that too.”
“Because it is true.”
The sadness in Sasuke’s smile was almost imperceptible but Naruto had caught it. He brushed his fingers down the length of Sasuke’s cheek, gently tracing the edge of his jaw. Then he leaned in for one more kiss, slow and reverent, a vow pressed to his lips.
“At least allow me to clean you before I leave.” Naruto said and Sasuke went to deny him because he felt like that would be too much but the plea in his eyes had him nodding instead. Naruto stood and Sasuke stared without shame. His dark eyes followed every movement: the way the golden light caught on the curve of the dip of Naruto’s back, the way his hair stuck out from not only sleep but Sasuke’s fingers. He wanted to say something, something cutting or clever to soften the intensity in his chest, but all he could do was watch.
Naruto dipped a cloth into the water basin near the hearth, squeezing it gently before returning to Sasuke’s side. He knelt over him with a kind of reverence, as if Sasuke were made of something holy. The cloth was warm as it passed over his skin, when the blond had moved a bowl over to the fire Sasuke hadn’t the clue, but it felt great over his chest, his stomach, the sensitive inside of his thighs where dried traces of their night remained. Sasuke twitched once but Naruto’s touch never lingered too long. It was not meant to tease, instead, it was with care, as if it was a farewell dressed in kindness.
When the cloth passed lower, Sasuke’s fingers curled into the comforter beneath him. “You’re going to make me miss breakfast.” He muttered, not entirely convincingly.
“You will make it.” Naruto replied, rinsing the cloth again. “You are always early, it is an Uchiha thing.”
Sasuke rolled his eyes but didn’t disagree. He watched as Naruto wrapped the cloth, now clean, around the handle and set it aside.
They didn’t speak as Naruto dressed, slipping back into the layers he discarded so hastily the night before. His kimono was slightly rumpled, his sash askew, but his hair looked exactly as wild as it always did. Sasuke got to his knees to help him tie a hidden loop around his cloak, Naruto’s fingers holding his jaw and his thumb brushing any skin he could find.
When Sasuke stood, it was Sasuke who kissed him this time and it felt so brief, so final, that Naruto pulled away with effort. He helped Sasuke dress in silence, another kimono that was dark indigo that would pass for a simple breakfast with his own clan, layer by layer, smoothing out the folds, tying the sash at his waist, brushing his hair back once with his fingers.
No promises were spoken but they both felt them.
Naruto slipped out through the door moments later, raising himself up to the roof silently as he’d arrived. The screen door behind Sasuke hadn’t shifted once. No one would know he’d ever been there except himself.
He sat quietly for a moment longer, hands resting on his knees, trying to gather himself.
Then he rose and rejoined the world.
The Uchiha family sat in a long dining room that overlooked the eastern gardens of the Hyuuga estate. Shoji panels had been drawn open to let in the breeze and weak morning sunlight, casting the pale tatami in gold. The gardens beyond were already humming with servants hurrying between buildings with ceremonial parcels, flower arrangements being refreshed, and distant laughter of the Hyuuga youth running drills on polished wood floors.
Sasuke entered quietly, dressed in a deep indigo kimono with the Uchiha crest stitched in black thread on the sleeves. His hair had been quickly combed, but not tied back. There was a rawness to his face—flushed cheeks, the faintest shadows under his eyes, a delicacy to the way he walked and it didn’t escape Mikoto’s intuitive eyes.
She didn’t say anything right away, just passed him a bowl of steamed rice and grilled winter radish, her fingers brushing his wrist with a pause that said many things that she couldn’t say outloud. When Sasuke sat beside her, she adjusted the lay of his sleeve to hide the pink teeth marks at his wrist without looking at him.
“It seems you slept well.” She said lightly, though her eyes flickered downward to see a faint shadow of a bruise at the curve of his throat. Her mouth twitched the way it always did when she noticed something and chose not to speak it.
Sasuke answered with the tiniest sip of tea. “The rooms here are quite comfortable.”
Itachi, seated across from him, glanced over the rim of his bowl. Their eyes met briefly and Sasuke expected some quip or a warning, yet he instead received a smile and his brother returned to his rice.
Fugaku had his attention fixed on a servant reading through the ceremonial expectations for the upcoming day. He didn’t even glance up to see Sasuke exhaling, slowly and grateful.
“Much to do today,” Mikoto murmured to her two sons, brushing lint from Sasuke’s shoulder with practiced care. “The remaining guests from the Haruno and Yamanka clans arrived just before dawn. You and Itachi are expected to stand beside your father during the formal procession.”
Sasuke grunted, lifting warm rice from his chopsticks into his mouth. “Yes, mother.”
Her fingers briefly touched the back of his neck, warm and motherly, before returning to her own breakfast. She didn’t press him further but he could feel the weight of her knowing.
In the Uzumaki quarters, chaos bloomed like wildflowers.
Kushina stood by the open window, her bright red hair being woven into thick braids by her husband who was looping her hair with experience. She adjusted the collar of her white and rust colored kimono, not used to wearing such fine clothes. Her reflections in the polished bronze mirror was grimacing as she fussed with the wide obi cinched around her waist.
Minato, ever calm, spoke to his wife in a low voice about the schedule for the ceremony today since this would be the first noble wedding she attended. They had been there for the Inuzuka’s heirs' wedding but their cultures were quite similar and it had been more celebration than all the steps the Hyuuga took into consideration.
Naruto stood by the door, yawning and rubbing his jaw, hair still damp from the quick bath he had taken before dawn. He looked far too pleased with himself seeing as he radiated the smug contentment of a man who had been thoroughly satisfied and had nothing to apologize for. His parents both knew it had something to do with the Uchiha boy because he had worn his ceremonial clothes without complaint and, perhaps most alarmingly, with great care.
His orange yukata had been replaced with one dyed in the color of wet fox fur: soft and rich, like something kissed by the night and rain. The wide sleeves flared elegantly, the ends embroidered with swirling spiral patterns along the hem in burnt gold. His vest had been replaced with a high-collared jacket dyed in a deep russet, trimmed with bone toggles and the Uzumaki symbol glimmered in dyed leather at his belt. He looked quite noble, like the prince he was.
“I wonder who it could be you’re trying to impress .” Kushina grunted and straightened her posture at the soft chiding from her husband who worked on tying it with a thin leather band at the end of her hair and went to grab the small bells.
“You, obviously .” Naruto stuck his tongue out as his mother and leaned over to kiss her cheek, and she swatted him lightly with the back of her hand. She snorted, muttering about cheeky sons, pretty Uchiha boys, and mutinous knots in her obi.
Minato hid his smile as he moved to lift a small lacquered box containing the bells meant for her hair. A timid Hyuuga servant had offered to do the job and had gone pale at Kushina’s glower and retreated after Minato gently explained, in the common tongue, that in their culture, a loved one was meant to prepare a partner’s hair for special occasions.
Naruto watched the careful braiding of his mother’s red strands, his mood quieting into something more contemplative. Then, sidling up beside her, he leaned toward the mirror and began tying his crimson headband into the side of his hair. His fingers moved with practiced ease, knotting it above his ear.
“You’re in a good mood this morning .” Minato said mildly as he wound the final bell into place, the soft chime delicate amidst the quiet.
Naruto shrugged but there was no hiding the way the corners of his mouth twitched. “Slept well ,” he said. “Had good company.”
Kushina raised an eyebrow and Minato and her shared a glance in the mirror but said nothing.
There was mischief in the air but also something else, something calmer, heavier. It could be pride or something like longing dressed up as confidence.
Chapter 13: A Wedding
Notes:
Please understand that this chapter contains explicit sexual content intended for mature audiences (18+). The rating and the tags have been updated upon the release of this chapter as of August 22nd, 2025.
Themes include:
- Consensual intimacy between two adult characters
- Explicit Sexual Content
- Semi-Public Sex / Wall Sex
- Clothes Half-On Sex
- Formal Attire Kink
- Finger Sucking
- Rutting
- Marking (hickeys/bruises)
- Dirty Talk
- Possessive Behavior
- Anal Sex
- Aftercare
Please read at your discretion. This content is a continuation of a slow-burn emotional relationship and reflects mutual affection and desire, but also explores differing internal expectations (freedom vs. claim).
If you'd like to skip the explicit section, stop reading at "Sasuke kissed him." and ctrl + f this part "The silence between them felt sacred."
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The courtyard of the Hyuuga compound had been transformed overnight into something almost ethereal. Fresh snow had been carefully swept into crescent-shaped lines along the stepping stones, and tall iron braziers burned softly at each corner, their flames casting orange halos in the cold morning light. Long banners of soft white and pale lavender fluttered gently from wooden beams, and servants moved in precise lines, laying out embroidered runners and floral offerings carved from ice and shaped from pressed winter blossoms like camellias, plum blossoms, even pale chrysanthemums still clinging to their color.
In the far distance, the beating of taiko drums echoed in a steady rhythm, signaling the beginning of the pre-wedding procession.
Minato and Kushina stood off to the side of the courtyard entrance, dressed in their clan's finest. While Minato looked regal in a long snow-colored haori with the Uzumaki spiral stitched in black thread along the hem, Kushina had been dressed in a double-layered white and rust kimono with wave-like embroidery laced in silver. Her hair was coiled back, still jingling with the tiny bells that Minato had placed there earlier.
Despite the sharp, foreign attention they received, the Uzumaki couple stood with quiet dignity. Whispers had already begun among the other clans: of their unfamiliar customs, of their guttural-sounding language, of how no one quite knew who was the head of the household yet none dared approach. The language barrier, despite everyone knowing the story behind Namikaze Minato, the fear of cultural misstep, and the awe that clung to the foreign clan like frost kept most at bay.
Across the courtyard, Sasuke stood beneath a winter-blooming plum tree at the far end of the courtyard, its pale petals trembling slightly in the cold air. The low hum of conversation filled the garden but he remained apart from it, arms crossed neatly over the front of his dark formal haori. It was trimmed in deep midnight blue, lined with white silk, and accented by the silver cloud motifs stitched along the hem. His hair had been combed and tied in a sleek half-knot at the back of his head, the rest falling straight down his shoulders.
Naruto had found him like a bird spotting its morning breakfast.
“There you are,” He said, appearing from behind one of the stone lanterns, his kimono sleeves swaying as he walked toward him. “Was wondering where you had gone.”
Sasuke looked at him and hated how his body warmed at the sight before him. Even if he looked anywhere, all he could remember were heated hands and hungry lips and a warm tongue on skin. Naruto somehow knew what was going through his head because he grinned as if he was all knowing.
“You’ve been busy being admired and I didn't want to disturb others.” Sasuke said, ignoring how close the other came up next to him.
“I did not do anything though,” Naruto said with a shrug as if he really didn’t seem to understand the effect he had on people. His grin betrayed no regret. “I think they are more interested in how I am dressed.”
Sasuke took a moment to enjoy the wind that went through his hair before giving the blond a sidelong glance. “It’s…not unflattering.”
Naruto’s brows raised and his head dropped to try to meet Sasuke’s eyes in a coyish manner. “Coming from you, that is high praise.”
Before Sasuke could offer a dry retort, another presence joined them, and a quiet voice cut in:
“Don’t worry Naruto,” Itachi said as he approached, his long dark robes rustling slightly. “Sasuke used to blush when one of the street cats looked at him too long.”
Sasuke bristled at the buried memory that was suddenly brought out. “That was one time.”
Naruto blinked and then burst out laughing. “You blushed?!”
“Like steamed persimmons.” Itachi said, entirely straight faced as he brushed his hands over his legs but he definitely enjoyed his brother looking like he might actually combust.
“I have decided Sasuke,” Naruto said, wiping a tear from his eye. “Your brother might be my new favorite Uchiha.”
Itachi offered a slight bow in gratitude. “An honor.”
They stood together like that, Uchiha elegance with Uzumaki fire and a surprisingly amused heir all side by side, before footsteps crunched across the pebbled path behind them.
Shikamaru, Choji, and Shino wandered over into the space, clearly having ducked out of something more formal.
“Figures we’d find you two here,” Shikamaru muttered, nodding over to the Uchiha brothers, as he joined the group, folding his arms behind his head. His pale green formal robes looked freshly pressed but the exasperation in his eyes said he’d had enough of ceremonial chatter for one day. “I told my father I had to step away before I passed out into someone’s soup.”
“My mom said I needed to circulate,” Choji added with a sigh. “I made it three feet before I ended up following a server with honey buns.”
Shino nodded silently, adjusting his dark outer cloak. “We were sent to mingle. This counts.”
Itachi tilted his head. “A wise use of time.”
Sasuke didn’t say anything because his attention was momentarily snagged on Naruto’s sleeves where it brushed his wrist. It was a brief thing, a familiar brush of fingers as the other adjusted the fold of his kimono.
Until he met pale blue eyes making their way to their group.
Two young women approached. One had bright pink hair tied back in a green ribbon, the other with long golden hair and a sharp gleam in her eye. They bowed before introducing themselves.
“Haruno Sakura,” the one with the pink hair said in a confident voice, “Daughter of Haruno Tadao, diplomat of the western provinces.”
“Yamanka Ino,” the blonde added with a grin. “Heir to the Yamanaka seers and floral clan.”
Naruto blinked and couldn’t help but appreciate the two beauties. “You both match your names.”
Sasuke turned slightly, raising an eyebrow in silent judgement. Sakura glanced at Sasuke underneath her long, pink lashes and smiled softly. “You must be Uchiha Sasuke.”
Hanabi practically skipped over from where she had been trailing after the two girls. “He’s the pretty one.” She chimed in, clearly enjoying the flustered look that passed over Sasuke’s face.
“I’m not–” Sasuke started but was cut off again.
“He’s blushing again!” Naruto crowed, hand clasped on Sasuke’s shoulder with the other one on his knee to hold him from falling on the ground.
“Persimmon red.” Itachi thought to add, sipping from a tea cup that hadn’t existed seconds ago. While Sasuke glowered, Ino glanced between the two and her gaze lingered for just a second too long on the faint space between them. Once Naruto had calmed himself, his laughter having turned into small giggles, he brushed a loose leaf off Sasuke’s sleeve, the half-second Sasuke took too long to blink. She didn’t say anything but her brow arched with quiet amusement.
Naruto, however, did notice when Sasuke turned to say some choice words to his brother. He gave her a wink that only made her giggle.
“I like them.” He muttered to Sasuke, who only sighed and looked away, cheeks faintly colored.
As the group settled into easy conversation, Hanabi climbed a garden stone and declared she would personally lead the boar patrol from now on, making Naruto swear an oath to help her. Shikamaru leaned against a tree, listening with a half smirk that disappeared quickly when Hanabi had turned to him with an evil gleam in her eyes. Sakura and Ino shared observations about clan traditions and spoke with Itachi about recent activities that had been occurring.
For a moment, it was just youth: easy laughter and banter beneath the plum blossoms, untethered by politics or duty.
A soft chime rang from the central courtyard.
One of the Hyuuga servants appeared with a polite bow. “The wedding ceremony is about to begin.”
As the others began to walk ahead, Naruto fell in step beside Sasuke, close enough that clawed finger tips held onto cold fingers.
“You alright?” Naruto asked, his voice lower now, softer, and Sasuke relished the sound of the low timber of his voice.
Sasuke’s eyes lingered on the line of guests entering the ceremonial hall. The sound of chimes and rustling fabrics was a hush against the cold air.
“I hate weddings.” Sasuke muttered.
Naruto nudged him gently. “What if it was ours?”
Sasuke looked at him, truly looked at him, and realized that Naruto wasn’t joking. Quite the opposite. He looked like he was serious and had it all planned out already. He turned away quickly, ears tinged red.
“Maybe not that one.” He said under his breath.
Naruto smiled, wide and glowing and, whoever would see him would think they really were attending their wedding. He didn’t press further and, instead, walked forward, side by side, towards the rising warmth of lantern light and the waiting crowd.
💍
The ceremonial hall at the heart of the Hyuuga compound was surrounded by a courtyard of white gravel and winter blossoms—camellias, snowdrops, and plum branches woven into tall standing arrangements that flanked the arched gateway. A shallow layer of snow had been swept carefully aside from the walkways, revealing stepping stones carved with the Hyuuga sigil. Paper lanterns with calligraphy hung from the rafters, swaying gently in the winter breeze.
Inside, the chamber was high-roofed and spare, but grand. Tatami mats lined the floor in wide strips, divided into squares for guests according to rank. A raised dais at the far end held a shrine to the ancestral gods, a shallow brazier flickering with soft light. Everything smelled faintly of pine, sandalwood, and dry cold.
The clans entered in order of formality: the Hyuuga seated first in their silver-trimmed ceremonial coats, then the Uchiha in dark blues and charcoals, followed by the other allied clans—Aburame, Nara, Akimichi, Yamanaka, Haruno, and others, each resplendent in seasonal wear. The Uzumaki followed last, drawing hushed murmurs and sidelong glances.
Kushina moved like a storm contained in silk while Minato, tall and golden, remained quiet but unmistakable as a leader in his own right. Naruto walked beside them, every step deliberate, his kimono catching the light like fire-warmed stone causing more than one head to turn as he passed.
“Those must be the Uzumaki,” a Nara elder whispered. “They really came all this way?”
“I heard their speech is like a storm. They only talk to each other.”
“Don’t let them hear you say that,” murmured a Yamanaka woman, lips hidden behind her fan. “They say the youngest one fights like a demon.”
“They say he is a demon.”
And still, the Uzumaki sat calmly across from the Uchiha, expression unreadable but posture regal.
The murmurings fell away as the ritual began.
At the center, Hyuuga Hinata stepped forward, her ceremonial robes pale lavender and white, adorned with silver cranes and plum blossoms. Her hair was arranged into a crown of braids and ornamental pins. Her face was calm, serene, the essence of Hyuuga tradition.
Across from her stood Hyuuga Kō, dressed in the layered greys and whites of the main branch house ceremonial garb, though trimmed in a darker dye to honor his new rank. His short brown hair had been neatly slicked back and his face bore the quiet humility of a man who knew his value had been earned, not given.
A Hyuuga elder intoned the sacred verses in a droning cadence. The couple stood silently as their hands were bound together with braided silk cords dyed in plum and pine which were the traditional colors of winter union. Winter bells chimed faintly, tied to the sleeves of the priestess who circled them three times.
Offerings were placed: winter berries, fermented rice, a slice of dried boar meat, and strips of parchment upon which their promises had been written in private.
As the vows were completed, Kō’s eyes flickered once to Hinata. A slight, soft smile passed between them, so brief it may have been imagined, but, at that moment, she looked stronger, just a bit steadier.
From the side, Sasuke watched the ritual with a curious expression. He was caught between reverence and distance.
The bell chimed one final time.
And the wedding was complete.
💍
The reception unfolded beneath a sky embroidered with stars and winter lanterns, soft golden light glowing against silk banners and plum branches dusted with frost. The Hyuuga compound had been transformed into a celebration of high elegance that was formal yet vibrant, a rare release of warmth from a typically restrained clan.
Musicians seated on lacquered platforms plucked gently at biwa and koto strings while a bamboo flute wept sweet notes into the night. Dancers wrapped in floral-patterned kimonos swept their sleeves across a polished dance mat, every motion subtle and precise. The scent of pine smoke drifted from small hearths scattered between tables, mingling with the rich aromas of grilled river eel, roasted chestnuts, miso-glazed mushrooms, and mochi skewered on sweetwood sticks.
The garden glowed with crimson and ivory lanterns strung between ornate stone posts. Noble guests, wrapped in fur-lined cloaks and ceremonial robes, sipped warm sake from shallow porcelain cups and exchanged pleasantries beneath embroidered clan flags. The air was filled with the gentle hum of polite laughter and the soft rustle of silk.
The Uchiha sat together, poised and severe in deep blue and black, their quiet dignity like still water in contrast to the fiery presence of the Uzumaki—who had no set formation and yet somehow stole every gaze. Their orange and russet robes gleamed under firelight, and though they spoke little, their energy crackled in every corner they stood in.
But it wasn’t just the food or music that made this evening so heavy with expectation.
It was the eyes.
Watching.
Weighing.
The other clans—Akimichi, Aburame, Nara, Haruno, Yamanaka—had gathered not just for a wedding but for an unspoken promise: a glimpse of the Uzumaki in full form, and how the Uchihas might walk beside them. Some guests dared to approach while most watched from a polite distance, unsure of how to speak to those who only half-understood their language and walked like spirits pulled from folklore.
And so, the evening shimmered on like a candle flame held before the wind.
At one point in the night, from a slightly raised dais at the edge of the garden, Mikoto sat beside Kushina, the two women draped in complementary silks: one pale as moonlight and the other dyed in deep orange tones. Both had their hair in elegant looks, though Kushina’s bells chimed softly whenever she turned her head too fast.
Mikoto sipped her rice wine in quiet observation while Kushina gnawed gently on a candied plum, her gaze never straying from the corner where Naruto stood, laughing loudly as Shikamaru tried to shoo off a persistent noble daughter.
“He doesn’t know how loud he is.” Mikoto commented.
Kushina offered a low hum of agreement, her lips pursing. “His heart…is big. Like wind. Can not hold back.”
Mikoto’s eyes slid across the garden until they landed on Sasuke, standing near one of the stone lanterns, drink in hand, posture too stiff for someone so young.
“He’s been differently lately,” she murmured. “Like he’s already preparing to leave me.”
Kushina tilted her head, lips glossy from the candied plum. “He is still boy.”
“Maybe,” Mikoto said, the corners of her mouth pulling in a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “But he’s in love. Do you ever wonder how different things would be if they were free to choose?”
Kushina glanced between them. Between the quiet shadow that was her son’s lover and the boy she herself had raised. Mikoto sighed, “I see it in Sasuke’s eyes. He’s clinging to this moment like it’s the last breath of freedom.”
There was a pause as Kushina drank deeply, her gaze flicking towards the gathering once more and finding her husband speaking patiently to an elder who was so hunched over that he looked like he was closer to the ground than the sky. She knew very well the troubles that came when one ended up marrying for love, Minato being the prime example. She looked over to Mikoto, a shining radiance and she felt a kindred with her as all mothers do.
“Still think mine is louder.” Kushina said as she went in on the plate of meat in front of her.
The two women burst into laughter that startled a Hyuuga servant passing nearby. Kushina raised her cup, “To foolish sons…and fierce mothers.”
Their cups clinked as they kept each other company throughout the night.
The wedding feast swelled into its second hour. The firelight shimmered across the open hall, and laughter twined with music under the high beams of carved wood. Dancers spun like falling snowflakes, sleeves blooming like petals as drums pulsed in a rhythm both ancient and alive.
Naruto was easy to spot, a streak of russet and orange warmth among the softer silvers and muted colors of the other clans and, if it wasn’t his loud colors, it was his loud voice that carried in a burst of laughter. He was talking with Shikamaru and Choji again, Ino curled in on his right, elbowing him whenever he said something cheeky. Sakura wasn’t far, sipping her wine, her eyes sharp and amused.
Sasuke watched from behind a carved column, sake cup loose in his hand, firelight catching the faint sheen of sweat at his collarbone.
He hadn’t seen Naruto for most of the dinner, not properly at least. There had been looks across the tables, flickers of knowing heat, but Naruto had been busy making everyone laugh, talking in animated bursts with his heavy accent and moving hands. Sasuke’s father had also dragged Itachi and him to every elder from every clan he made eye contact with and it was one conversation after the other.
With the alcohol now coursing through his body, he has come to realize that he was missing him and didn’t like it one bit. He sat down his half-full cup, straightened his robes, and moved. Naruto blinked when he was grabbed by the wrist and pulled from the group mid-sentence.
“Oi–!”
“Sasuke?” Sakura called but the dark-haired Uchiha had already whisked him behind a wove screen near the rear veranda, beyond the fluttering noren curtains that separated the guests from the quieter garden walkways.
“Sasuke, what–” Naruto asked, half-laughing until he saw the look in Sasuke’s eyes.
“You were ignoring me.”
“I was talking –”
“With everyone but me.”
Naruto’s eyes softened. “I did not mean to-”
Sasuke pressed him back gently against the lattice screen. The light was soft here, patterned from the lanterns strung above. Shadows flickered across Naruto’s cheekbones and he was so warm, even through the many layers of his formal wear.
Sasuke leaned in until their foreheads touched. “You’ve been surrounded all night.”
Rough hands slid around his waist too naturally, gripping him tight and pressing him closer. “Have you been thinking about me?”
“I’ve been watching you, you brute,” Sasuke whispered. “Waiting.”
“For what?”
“For this.”
Sasuke kissed him, no hesitation this time, his mind blissfully quiet. His hands curled on Naruto’s shoulders, the material of his kimono bunching under his hands and pulled him closer. It was messy, the kind of kiss that came from hours of tension and too much sake and the thrill of not caring anymore. Naruto made a small, surprised noise before melting into it, a hand trailing down a pale thigh and lifting it up to his waist, Sasuke hooking his leg like second nature. Naruto drank him in as if he could pull the flavor of the sake he had been drinking all night from his tongue alone. When they parted, Sasuke’s breath hitched against Naruto’s cheek as he rolled his hips just the tiniest bit into the crevice of his thigh. A slow grind, subtle and breathless and an effective message.
His lips hovered near Naruto’s jaw, and his hands slid across Naruto's chest to rest beneath his collarbone. He traced the muscle there through the fabric feeling familiar, almost grounding, and then, with the same boldness, he rolled his hips again, pressing the hard line of himself, a small whine escaping his lips.
“You are drunk.” Naruto whispered, not accusing but amused. He nipped Sasuke’s bottom lip, catching it between his teeth before letting it go, eyes half-lidded and warm.
“Maybe but I’m still thinking clearly enough to know I want you.” He shifted again, more deliberately this time. His leg, still hooked high around Naruto’s waist, pulled him closer. Sasuke tilted his head and kissed the underside of Naruto’s jaw in a slow and reverent way.
“I keep trying to forget what it feels like to choose,” he murmured there, against warm skin. “And then you make me remember.”
Naruto’s hands gripped his waist tighter, fingers digging through cloth. He didn’t interrupt nor move to stop him, only looked at him with a quiet reverence, gaze dark and unreadable. Sasuke’s fingers slid into the collar of Naruto’s kimono, tracing the line of his shoulder as if trying to memorize the shape. “No one else makes me feel like this.” He admitted quietly, a confession that’s only been said in the comfort of his own bed. “Like I can just…be.”
Naruto swallowed hard.
Sasuke kissed him again, deeper this time. No hesitation, no second-guessing, instead, he poured every lingering ounce of tension into it. Every buried fear and selfish hope, every broken promise he’s ever made to himself was said between heated lips. Sasuke whispered as he panted, stomach churning in need and pleasure, “I’m not theirs, not tonight, not yet. I’m yours.”
Naruto made a low sound in his throat, half growl, half plea, a noise that had Sasuke keening into him as he urged him to take action. Naruto pushed him softly against the wooden post of the secluded archway. The way he handled him, even in haste, was as if Sasuke were something sacred and he had been dying to touch.
“You are not theirs,” Naruto echoed, the smallest of growls echoed underneath his tone, as he mouthed against the pale column of Sasuke’s throat, “Not now, not ever. Not if I have anything to say about it.”
In the shadows, where no one could see them, Sasuke could believe it. His hands clenched in blond hair, his breath hitching as the world narrowed to heat and closeness and the sweet, forbidden risk of it all. His robes were parted, not entirely, but just enough for skin to find skin, enough to feel the calloused pads of Naruto’s fingers brush against the bruises he had left the night before, to skim the curve of his thigh. Sasuke barely noticed when Naruto tugged aside the lower layers, not caring about the cold air as long as Naruto’s mouth stayed on him.
“You know,” Naruto whispered, lips brushing Sasuke’s jaw as he reached down between them, “in an Uzumaki wedding, this would be the ceremony.”
Sasuke groaned, sharp and high in his throat.
Naruto grinned, all feral with elongated canines and white teeth, “This is how we vow,” Naruto whispered, lips to Sasuke’s throat. “We drink, we fight, we va’shiri . We are to rut at the ceremony.”
While Naruto whispered in his ear about all the ways he would be taken on their wedding night, Sasuke had three fingers in his mouth, effectively muffling himself despite becoming louder at the whispered words. When he pressed a finger inside him, he realized that he was still loose from last night so his body eagerly accepted the intrusion.
Sasuke’s eyes fluttered shut, lashes trembling like wings as Naruto mouthed down the side of his neck, lips dragging across flushed skin, open and wet. The hand between his thighs worked him open with unhurried, dutiful attention, as though this too was a form of worship. His body shivered as the second finger slid in beside the first, curling just so, and his body spasmed. He hung like a broken marionette, the only thing holding him was two strong arms wrapped around him.
“Still so ready for me.” Naruto murmured, voice thick with awe.
Sasuke made a broken sound, his hips rolling helplessly against his own palm. His mind felt like silk unraveling, pulled taut by heat and tension and the wicked promise in Naruto’s voice.
“You want this?” Naruto whispered. “Want to be mine, even if it is in secret? Even if no one else sees it, no one else knows about it?”
Sasuke pulled his own fingers out and grappled at Naruto’s clothes. “Just–just do it already–”
Naruto didn’t make him beg a second time. He lifted Sasuke with an effortless strength that made him feel boneless, his back pressed against the cold stone of the courtyard wall, hidden behind the folding screens and decorative ferns. The chill contrast only heightened the heat blooming through him as Naruto kissed him and everything was hot, consuming, and sharpened teeth grazed his lips until they were raw.
When Naruto entered him, the glide was so smooth that he immediately was seated. Sasuke’s legs shook and his arms had wrapped around his shoulders, pressing Naruto’s face against his chest. There was no futon here, no warmth of a private room, just moonlight, their breath fogging in the cold air, and the rhythmic hush of music from the distant reception. It made it feel even more dangerous, more holy.
He was speared open on Naruto’s length, the stretch so familiar now that it ached sweetly. Naruto rolled his hips with a controlled force that made Sasuke keen against him and, soon, there was no more restraint. Just movement and friction and heat and the rawness of two people who didn’t know how to say goodbye.
“Sasuke-” Naruto breathed and he had to mutter his name a couple of times because the Uchiha was so far gone. “Open your robes, I need you to- do it.” Sasuke nodded dumbly, using his right arm to anchor himself and his left hand to part his robe at the center, offering more skin, a pec and more of his mark. This spurred Naruto on, hips smacking wetly and loudly, his mouth zeroing in on a pink nipple that had Sasuke shouting in surprise. He nipped at the skin around it and sucked it into his mouth, his pants against it causing it to stand pert and ready for more attention.
“You are mine.” He whispered again, both of them slick with sweat and panting as they rocked together. “You are mine.” This time, it was more to himself, as though trying to anchor it into the world.
Sasuke couldn’t argue, didn’t want to, more so when they fell over the edge– Sasuke first, legs locked tight around Naruto, body trembling as he pulsed around him– it was with quiet gasps and open mouths pressed together to hide the sound. Naruto followed moments after, buried deep and being milked as Sasuke undulated, his groan a deep rumble in Sasuke’s throat. Even as Naruto began to soften, as their panting slowed down, they stayed there for a while, holding on like the night would never end.
The silence between them felt sacred.
Sasuke leaned his forehead against Naruto’s head, breath still shallow, his heartbeat finally beginning to slow. The cold stone at his back no longer bit into his skin, not with the heat lingering between them, wrapping them in a shared warmth.
Naruto ran his hand down Sasuke’s back slowly, the pads of his fingers gentle where they traced the faint ridges of old scars he had seen yesterday. His other hand cupped Sasuke’s cheek, thumb brushing the damp curve under one eye.
“You alright?” He whispered, almost shyly now that the intensity had broken. There was still that boyish wonder behind his eyes, the way he always looked at Sasuke like the moon had fallen into his lap.
Sasuke gave a small snort, looking at him haughtily. “I’ll be sore until spring.”
Naruto laughed quietly, his head rising to press a kiss to the corner of Sasuke’s mouth. “Was this okay?”
Sasuke glanced up and something in the look made Naruto’s chest ache. There was fondness buried beneath his usual aloofness, a rare softness only Naruto was allowed to see. “Yes,” he murmured. “But if I limp in front of an elder, I’m blaming you.”
Naruto beamed, nose burrowing into Sasuke’s clavicle. “You can not. I will just say it was part of the ceremony.”
Sasuke groaned, the noise somehow causing Naruto’s cock, still within him, to twitch. “There’s absolutely no way, get out of me.” Sasuke pushed at him, energy sapped out of him but Naruto removed himself, pout on his lips. Sasuke shivered, not from the cold air, but from the warm liquid that trailed out of him like honey.
When his feet were back on the floor, legs shaking like a newborn foal, he took one look at his bare leg peeking out and his ruffled clothes where his chest was still out and sighed deeply. “We look like we’ve been rolling through a battlefield.”
Naruto stepped back reluctantly, at some point having tucked himself back in. “Let me—” he murmured, brushing down Sasuke’s robes, fixing and adjusting his collar with surprising delicacy. He tucked a few stray hairs back from Sasuke’s face. “There.”
Sasuke looked at him through half-lidded eyes. The barest touch had him rethinking his words. “You didn’t fix yourself.”
“I look perfect.” Naruto grinned and Sasuke slapped his chest lightly.
“Fix your collar.” Sasuke grumbled as he helped Naruto attempt to look presentable while the other man did nothing but stare at him. A soft hum of music still carried from the courtyard and they could hear the chatter of lords and ladies still lingering at the tables, unaware that something had changed in the shadows beyond. Sasuke adjusted his clothes one more time and turned to go but Naruto caught his hand briefly.
Their eyes met, no words spoken, but everything was understood. There was a promise within the silence and their gaze. A vow that had no priest, no scroll, no ceremony, only firelight and whispered breath and the press of two hearts in the dark. Sasuke slipped back into the lantern glow, composed but glowing faintly from within. Naruto followed, always behind him.
The light of the courtyard hit Sasuke’s skin like the first breath after surfacing from deep water. Warm, golden, soft around the edges. Lanterns floated high above on paper strings, their glow reflected in cups of sake and the gentle ripple of winter-petal garlands strung between columns.
It was too easy to pretend, just a moment, that nothing waited beyond this.
He moved like smoke through the gathering, posture regal but relaxed, not drawing attention but never unnoticed. He felt clean despite what they had done, lighter, more himself that he had been in months. He made his way around, trying not to draw attention to the fact that Naruto had appeared through the same area just moments after him.
A familiar burst of laughter pulled his gaze toward a low table tucked beneath a blossom-draped pergola. Naruto had returned back to his little group and sat cross-legged between Shikamaru and Ino, cheeks faintly pink with mirth, eyes crinkled in amusement as Hanabi teased him with an empty sake cup balanced on her nose.
“—and then,” she was saying, “he tried to spar with me while I was drunk. I nearly knocked his head off!”
Ino snorted. “Spirited is what you are now. That night? You were one sip away from climbing the clan walls howling.”
“Would’ve made a good Uzumaki.” Hanabi added smugly.
Sasuke approached quietly, stopping at the edge of the group. Naruto’s head turned first, like he had sensed him first, and Sasuke caught the flicker of surprise in his eyes, surprise but something warm and unspoken.
“There you are,” Naruto said. “Thought you vanished.”
Sasuke raised a brow, moving past the others and sliding in beside him. “I was delayed.”
“By what?” Ino asked but her gaze was already narrowing as she caught the faint flush still high on Sasuke's cheek and the reddening spot on his neck.
“Private clan matters.” Sasuke said smoothly, taking the cup Naruto offered him.
Hanabi elbowed Shino, whispering something that made the usually unreadable man cough into his sleeve.
Itachi had joined at some point, sipping calmly from his cup while watching Hanabi and Shikamaru verbally spar. Sakura passed Sasuke a plate of rice cakes without a word, her eyes glinting as if she, too, knew something.
Somehow this chaos of personalities felt more comforting than anything court life had ever offered him. He found himself laughing at Naruto’s exaggerated reenactment of a training mishap, smiling quietly as Choji offered to prepare a plate for him without asking, content in the way Ino leaned back against the post behind Naruto, talking idly to Shikamaru about how lovely the Yamanaka gardens were in the spring.
Sasuke looked sideways at Naruto, at the relaxed line of his jaw, the shine in his eyes when he laughed, the way he instinctively bumped shoulders with him now and again like they’d done it for years.
It felt like it could last forever.
Which, of course, meant it wouldn’t
Chapter 14: A Goodbye
Notes:
Hiii~ Thank you all for having made it this far! I honestly thought this was going to be a pretty quick fic but I think we're getting to the climax now in this chapter??
Alsooo! Before we get started, I'd like to share an art piece made by omegaviolet, an avid reader and commenter of this fic! I'm always so happy to see all the love they give to this work so please give them just as much love and check out their art of Naruto linked below 👇❤️
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The courtyard shimmered in amber glow as the dancers spun, cups clinked, someone sang off-key, and Sasuke let himself drift a step away from the others, the warmth of Naruto’s touch still burned faintly beneath the layers of silk and memory.
A boom cracked the air making it deafening, blinding.
Sasuke barely had time to register the way Naruto’s head snapped up, instincts honed sharper than steel, before the entire eastern wall of the courtyard vanished in a blast of smoke and heat. Shrieks tore through the air while tables were overturned. The string of lanterns burst like firecrackers overhead, sparks raining down in gold and ember-red as shadows spilled into the light.
A massive beast erupted through the smoke, misshapen and snarling. It was some foul hybrid of boar and bear, covered in ritual scarring and armor made of bone and hide. Its tusks were dyed crimson, its eyes white and empty and, behind it, more figures poured in that were masked, cloaked, blades drawn.
Sasuke stood frozen at the masks appearing through the smoke. Those masks were the same ones, months ago, that had tied him down, that whispered around him and took pleasure in seeing the abuse that was done onto him.
The Fūma clan had returned.
“Protect the elders!” Someone shouted and people scrambled around.
Out of nowhere, he saw Naruto’s bright red glow flare to life from across the courtyard, wrapping around him like a wildfire barely contained. The air shimmered around him, eyes feral, the cloak bubbling around his limbs and long tendrils that looked like tails appeared behind him, snapping at the beasts.
“ Sasuke! ”
One of them pinned him down with a stare and charged at him. Sasuke turned to move, too slow, when something collided with him but, to his amazement, it wasn’t hooves nor tusks.
It had been Naruto.
Arms wrapped around him, tight, sure, and shielding. The blow that should have knocked Sasuke into the air didn’t touch him, it had been Naruto’s cloak that absorbed it, shimmering like a second skin, snapping outward in raw energy as the beast rebounded with a shriek.
“I got you,” Naruto growled, voice low and animalistic, feral red eyes glowing through the red haze as if his body was both instead of one. “I got you.”
Chaos wrapped around them as they regained their balance. People scrambled for cover, ducking behind overturned tables. Many hadn’t thought to carry their swords or weapons, only ran with sheer desperation.
Shikamaru hurled a chair leg at an approaching Fūma warrior, knocking them off balance. Choji used a serving tray as a shield as the large man yelled and tried to bulldoze into the enemy. Sakura had grabbed a broken flagon, wielding it like a dagger and the scent of smoke and blood and charred wood was everywhere.
On the far side of the courtyard, Mikoto stood with Neji, shielding a group of people while trying to keep them calm but it was Kushina who had leapt to the front, as she casted her kimono to the side revealing a long bone shaped tagger that she’d used to stab one of the beasts in the eyes. The Uzmaki’s roared in unison, revealing concealed weapons beneath their clothes as they each took their nearest enemies down.
Another beast made a break for Sasuke, this one even larger, foam-flecked and crazed followed by a Fūma assassin mid-air, blade aimed at Sasuke’s exposed back.
Naruto roared . The sound split the air like thunder, and a tail of chakra lashed out like a whip, striking the assassin mid-air and slamming them into the far wall hard enough to leave a crater while the beast had been thrown far enough to land on a roof. The protective cloak around him surged, and in a blur of motion, he dropped Sasuke behind a fallen banquet table.
“ Stay .” His voice rumbled, not like a man’s voice anymore. It sounded like something deep, ancient, and rooted in power.
With another roar that rattled the courtyard, the energy around him lashed out and caught the beast mid-air, slamming it into the ground with enough force to crack the tiles.
Every head turned.
Some looked in awe, some in terror because no one else had that kind of power, no one else glowed the way he did.
“Minato, what is he?” Hiashi’s voice came from the inner steps, already rallying what few guards were able to reach their stations.
Minato didn’t get to provide the man with answers because, at that moment, they attacked again.
Naruto stood between Sasuke and the chaos, glowing like a god of war.
But gods could still bleed.
A sharp crack rang out—another smoke bomb, but this time, it was different. No wild boar or man followed only a flicker of movement in the shadows.
Naruto turned sharply, instincts on fire, just in time to hear a cry .
“ Kushina !” Minato yelled out.
His head snapped to the side. Across the courtyard, his mother had fallen to one knee, blood trailing from a gash in her shoulder. One of the Fūma warriors had gotten through in the distraction, and though she’d buried a dagger to their heart, it hadn’t come without cost.
Naruto lunged—“ Mom! ”—
In that single heartbeat of divided attention, where his body had automatically moved away as he reacted to also protecting his mother, they struck.
A flash of silver that accompanied a shriek of chains bloomed through the air.
Sasuke’s eyes widened as a chain loop wrapped around his midsection and yanked him off his feet. His chest hit the earth hard, causing his breath to be knocked right out of him, skidding across stone, fingers tearing shallow grooves into the courtyard floor as he scrambled for purchase.
A masked Fūma warrior gripped him by the collar once he was close enough, yanking him upright. The curved edge of a short blade pressed against the vulnerable skin just under his chin. Sasuke froze, chest heaving, barely a whisper of fear in his expression, only fury.
“ No! ” Naruto howled, stepping forward.
“Don’t move demon,” the warrior hissed, dragging Sasuke back against his chest. “Take one more step and we slit his throat.”
The courtyard froze. The noise around them dulled the thrum of blood in Naruto’s ears.
“You ’re mine ,” he snarled, voice deeper than it had any right to be. “Th ey don’t ge t to take y ou ."
Sasuke’s breath hitched because Naruto’s voice was coming out garbled, a mess of ancient power seeping out his mouth, his tongue not able to form the words.
And then, something shifted.
The glowing cloak of energy that had wrapped itself around Naruto suddenly expanded, rippling like a living thing. A shape formed behind him: tall, feral, with four tails swaying like embers on the wind. Ears flared from the sides of his head, claws stretching longer, more curved. His eyes, once sky-bright, darkened into a molten black while his canines lengthened in a silent snap of bone.
He looked like a beast carved from fire and fury.
Across the courtyard, people gasped and backed away, with even hardened warriors faltering.
The warrior holding Sasuke gritted his teeth and hissed, “Do it and we cut him down. We’ll take the corpse either way.”
Naruto stilled , trembling with the effort not to move. His fangs bared, claws twitched as he thought about his next move but his head was pounding, Kurama urging him forward, telling him they could do it. Kurama had him lean forward, snarling as his palms slowly lowered onto the floor, ready to pounce at any given moment.
It was a sight to behold and everyone around them couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
“ Don’t, ” Sasuke said. It was quiet, a soft whisper that moved about in the breeze, but Naruto heard it. It was a thread of calm in a fraying world. “They want me but they’ll keep coming.”
“Then they’ll die trying .”
Their eyes met. For a heartbeat, the whole world was just the space between them.
A loud boom sounded, a final smoke bomb exploded at their feet. A second masked warrior joined, grabbing the chain wrapped around Sasuke's chest. With a jerk and flash of light, they vanished into the mist as they took him with him. The space Naruto stood in collapsed inward, as if the very air recoiled from his absence. Naruto stood in the center of it all, burning with fury, unmoving. The smoke swirled and settled and the silence that followed was not peaceful, it was charged. Every person in the courtyard had felt the moment something ancient stirred, something that should have remained dormant was no longer as such.
Naruto’s fists trembled as his sides, blood from his claws trickling down palms and knuckles.
He tilted his head back, clouds of smoke puffed out his nose, and his roar split the sky open.
Notes:
Tell me the truth: did y'all expect that?👀
Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the latest chapter! I'll update again on Thursday 😌
I'm also going to leave here some art pieces sent to me by another reader @hanguangjjunie via twitter and she mentioned that they look like inspo pieces!
Chapter 15: A Show
Notes:
This chapter contains graphic violence, torture, branding, psychological and emotional abuse, humiliation, and nonconsensual voyeurism/exploitation. Orochimaru and his followers subject Sasuke to physical and mental torment, including invasive touching and verbal sexual harassment in front of a crowd.
There is no explicit sexual assault, but the atmosphere is intentionally coercive, degrading, and heavily charged with nonconsensual intent. Please read with care.
Tags have been updated as of Thursday, August 28, 2025
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The courtyard was up in smoke. What had been a celebration hours ago now looked like the middle of a nightmare with its shattered tiles, torn banners, bodies scattered like broken dolls. The chaos had dimmed into an eerie stillness, a silence broken only by the far-off shouts of Hyuuga and Uchiha warriors as they scoured the perimeter, calling names, checking pulses, searching for what could not be found. Their voices reached Naruto as though from underwater, muffled and distorted, drowned beneath the thunder of his own ragged breathing.
Each exhale steamed in the cold night air, coming out in harsh, animal puffs. A growl followed, vibrating from deep in his chest, guttural and raw.
He stood barefoot in the wreckage, his formal clothes had torn down one side from his chest to his arm, blood drying against his ribs. His chakra burned out of him in waves he couldn’t hold back, cloaking his body in molten red. It writhed like a living thing, tails twitching and snapping behind him, too many to count. His fox ears stood tall and sharp, quivering with rage, flickering like fire. His eyes that had once been blue were nothing but slitted, molten red, so bright they lit the smoke.
No one dared draw near.
Minato was the first, his steps slow and deliberate, his expression a mask of calm over the dread in his gaze. Kushina followed close, limping, a hand pressed against the blood seeping down her arm.
“Naruto—” Minato’s voice was steady, but low, coaxing, like he was reaching out to a wild animal balanced between retreat and slaughter. His hand lifted slowly, palm open. “Sasuke’s gone… but you need to come back.”
The words pierced him but they did not calm. The energy around him only flared brighter, tails snapping like whips against the tiles.
“They took him,” Naruto said, his voice guttural, inhuman, vibrating through the ground, the walls, the bones of everyone who heard. His lips curled back, showing teeth too sharp. “I had him, he was with me , and they took him.”
The fury cracked into grief, and it was unbearable. Kushina stepped forward despite the heat blistering off his form. Her voice softened, trembling but certain. “ You protected so many tonight, Naruto. You saved them. ”
His head jerked, eyes unfocused, gaze cast far past her into smoke and memory. His words came out broken, not for them, but for the ghost in his arms. “He said he was mine.”
Something in Minato’s face wavered, just for a second but his voice stayed firm, sharp with conviction. “We’ll bring him back.”
It was that certainty, his father’s promise, that cut through the roar loud in his head. Naruto’s form trembled, ears flattening, chakra sparking erratically. Slowly, painfully, the cloak began to sputter, collapsing in on itself. The tails coiled inward, tighter and tighter, before flickering out entirely. The fox ears vanished, leaving only the boy beneath: trembling, pale, chest heaving.
When the cloak disappeared, the strength went with it. He dropped to one knee, the impact causing him to slip and having to bring an arm out lest he fell. Kushina caught his shoulders before he could fall further, pulling him close, whispering words he couldn’t hear through the ringing in his skull. The silence afterward was oppressive, heavy with smoke and grief. The other clans pressed together at the edges of the courtyard, ushered by Hyuuga guards as they counted the living and searched desperately for the missing.
Hiashi stood bloodied, one hand pressed to the wound caking his temple. Fugaku attempted his usual composure but couldn’t mask the tremor in his jaw and Mikoto shook as if her whole body had fractured, her eyes wild and frantic.
“Where is he?” she demanded, her voice cutting through the smoke, aimed like an arrow at Minato.
Minato didn’t flinch. He met her gaze, his tone iron though his face was taut. “He’s alive.”
He let the weight of that promise hang heavy, unshakable. “We regroup. Tonight, we will not sleep.”
It had been two nights since the smoke cleared. Two nights since Sasuke was dragged into the dark while the beast tore through snow and fire. The Hyuuga grounds had become a place of hushed dread as messengers came and went, carrying scraps of information that never amounted to much. The younger clan heirs nursed burns, bruises, and broken bones. The elders whispered of omens, of curses, of the audacity of outcasts striking so boldly.
Naruto had not slept. He burned through the hours in silence, either standing guard outside the Hyuuga walls or kneeling in the training grounds until his knuckles split open on stone. Minato and Kushina hovered near him but never stopped him — perhaps because they knew there was no stopping him.
And when the summons came at last to gather in the council chamber, it was not to deliberate if there would be blood spilled, but how soon.
Naruto sat on his heels in the center of the Hyuuga council room, shoulders bare and spine rigid. His knuckles were scraped raw, a smear of ash across one cheek. Minato stood at his side with arms folded while Kushina leaned against the wall, the wound on her shoulder already had been tended to and wrapped. Fugaku’s eyes were hard as he stood at the front of the room. He wasn’t angry, he was downright furious. He hadn’t spoken until now, letting the murmurs die down among the clan heads who had been ushered into the room: Hiashi, Shikaku, Shibi, Choza, and Inoichi.
When Fugaku finally spoke, the silence was cutting. “You were supposed to protect him.”
Naruto’s jaw clenched.
“We gave your clan shelter,” Fugaku went on, voice like cold steel. “We opened our gates, we gave up land to stable your horses, cleared our grounds for your people. You told us Sasuke would be protected like your own.”
Minato stepped in after seeing where this was going. “Your son would have died that night had it not been for Naruto.”
“But he was still taken,” Fugaku snapped, turning his head just enough to glance at Kushina whose eyes could slice skin if it had the power to. “You offered your son. You said he would be the blade that guarded my son’s throat and now where is he ?!”
Naruto stood up so fast that some of the men in the room flinched, now knowing how much power the blond harbors.
“Do you think I do not know what I lost?” His voice cracked, fury laced with guilt. “I let them take him because I looked away. If I had followed, and I wanted to , you would be recovering a body.”
Fugaku’s eyes narrowed, not backing down.
“And now they have him again. The same way they had him the first time. What’s to say they won’t carve him up and feed him to those beasts that they brought?”
“Enough.” Minato’s voice reverberated, sharp and absolute — but it was Naruto who stepped forward again, chest heaving.
“I will bring him back.”
“And if you don’t?” Fugaku seethed. “Will you offer me another son?”
Kushina stepped forward, her expression unflinching, her braid swinging as she moved. Her accent thickened as her words clipped through the air. “You speak son like coin, Uchiha.” Her hand twitched near her waist, conveniently where her dagger was. “Say again and I crush teeth with hand.”
Fugaku’s eyes flashed but said nothing. Minato’s silence behind her was not agreement but trust. He knew better than to pull her back when she meant every word.
Hiashi, ever the diplomat, folded his arms with the cool neutrality of someone used to calming tempests. “Enough. The boy is gone. Pointing blades inward will not bring him back.” He let the room breathe for a moment before continuing. “We must assume Sasuke is still alive. If they didn’t kill him outright, then it must mean they took him for a reason.”
Shikaku nodded, gaze sweeping the room. “We need scouts that will help us infiltrate, not an army. If we march too soon, they’ll slaughter him before we ever reach their gates.”
Naruto’s voice cut through the room. “Then I’ll go.”
All heads turned to him. “I’ll find them,” he said, standing tall now. “I know the terrain better than anyone, I just need three days.”
Inoichi folded his arms across his chest and thought for a moment. “We need to decide the next course of action carefully because this was definitely all coordinated which means there will be more traps ahead.”
Naruto’s jaw clenched. His fists, still torn and bloodied from the earlier chaos, curled at his sides. “You can talk about your strategies but I am not waiting.”
Minato’s head turned, eyes narrowing faintly. “You said three days.”
“I did.” Naruto’s voice didn’t rise but it hardened. “And I meant it.”
The meeting adjourned with heavy silence. The clan heads filed out one by one, subdued but galvanized. Plans were drawn, scouts were discussed, and names were offered as they updated their respective clans on the news.
But Naruto, by dawn the next day, was already gone.
He left no note, only a faint scorch mark in the snow where his chakra had flared when he leapt over the compound wall, his footsteps covered in fresh snow. Whatever allies the clans had selected to accompany him would be a day too late, because Naruto had no intention of letting anyone slow him down.
They dragged Sasuke in through the gates like a prize.
The Fūma clan stronghold loomed ahead, crumbling stone and crooked wooden beams sagging under years of rot and saltwind. The gray clay roads were slick with slush, and gutters ran thick with ash and runoff. There were rusted windchimes that clattered from low-hanging eaves, their once sharp songs now brittle ghosts of sound. Sasuke stumbled behind the horse that tethered him, wrists bound and hair tangled over his eyes. His yukata clung to him muddied and torn from the ride, the hem stiff with dried blood. The ropes burned at his wrists and one of the men who was gray-cloaked, faceless, and unkind, jerked him forward when he lagged, muttering something low and foul.
The villagers didn’t stare, they barely looked at him. They were gaunt and mismatched: a woman with one eye and a silver tooth stirred a wooden spoon inside a large pot; a child hunched beside a pyre of bones and straw to keep himself warm; a man that was missing three fingers guided a pack mule by its teeth.
These were outcasts, people who had been scarred and discarded from their own clans. People who had once belonged somewhere and had been cut loose and, for a place to stay, they allowed themselves to be experimented on.
They bowed not to a lord but a shadow that ruled over them and they called him Orochimaru.
The gates to the inner sanctum creaked open. The stench of incense, old iron, and wet wood filled Sasuke’s nose. He was pulled through a long corridor where broken paper lanterns hung like sagging stars and tapestries lined with scales and ink drawings of beasts swayed gently from the beams. Whispers followed them as people around them took notice of him. He was brought into a hall lit by a single brazier. Orochimaru sat reclined on a wide platform draped in faded silks and stitched felts, surrounded by a loose circle of strangers that looked to be scribes, tinkerers, alchemists, and failed warlords. His smile cracked his pale face like old porcelain.
“Look what the gods have returned to me.” He said to the room, spreading his arms with unholy delight.
A ripple passed through the gathered circle yet they all leaned forward like beasts drawn to blood. Orochimaru gestured, fingers curling like serpents. “Bring him closer.”
One of the cloaked men gave a harsh yank on Sasuke’s bindings, and he stumbled onto his knees on the cold floor before the dais. His pulse pounded in his throat but he didn’t flinch because showing weakness always made the man smile too wide in pleasure. A wiry man in rust-colored robes stepped forward from the circle and gave a small bow to Orchimaru. “My lord, we noticed this boy has been burned by the fox demon.”
Orochimaru’s eyes gleamed. “And the fox?”
“Changed,” the man murmured. “They say he cloaked himself in fire and teeth. That his eyes weren’t human. He was…not of this world when we took the boy my lord.”
Silence fell within the room as Orochimaru leaned forward, intrigued.
Orochimaru’s tongue darted along the edge of his teeth. “Fascinating. My sweet little nightbird has been singing while it’s been away.”
He propped a cheek on a fist, yellow eyes trailing down Sasuke’s form. “We’ve missed our little nightbird.” Orochimaru murmured, voice like oil across silk. “Let’s see what his wings can still do.”
He had been sent to the baths, to be scrubbed down to then only be brought right back. When they dragged him back in, the room was loud with noise and chatter but the noise was all muffled in his mind due to the toxin they had given him in the baths.
Shoes scuffed across the stone floor, smoke from torches curled thick in the rafters that mixed with the stench of fermented rootwine and something sweet and spoiled. Sasuke’s wrists already burned from where the rope bit in. His feet scraped stone, steps unsteady from from the haze of the thing he had been forced to inhale that made his head feel heavy.
Men and women lined rough-hewn benches, seated beneath swaying lanterns. The long table stretched nearly the entire length of the crumbling great hall, heaped with overripe fruit, roasted meats, piles of flatbread no one touched. It wasn’t about the food, it never had been. It was about the spectacle they were about to witness. Rough hands forced him forward towards the carved dais that stood at the end of the room like an altar. Above it, ropes hung from a rusted iron fixture bolted into the ceiling where his arms were hoisted and tied there, wrists raw and his back exposed to the heat of the fire pit behind him.
He wouldn’t look up. He couldn’t meet the eyes he felt crawling over him.
“You all remember this one,” a voice purred from above the murmurs. Orochimaru, seated on a crumbling throne-like chair, lifted a goblet of dark liquid, a smirk curling over his pale lips. “The little bird that tried to fly too soon.”
His gaze raked down Sasuke’s form slowly, like he was admiring a piece of art long absent from his gallery. He didn’t move from his seat, didn’t need to come closer, but his words were enough to make the air choke with silence. “Tsk. Look at what’s been done to you in the time you were gone.”
The crowd shifted forward slightly as Orochimaru’s voice dropped.
“Bruises on your hips, teeth marks along your body. My, my, someone’s been greedy.” He crooned, voice slithering through the hall. “And here I thought the Uchiha prided themselves on restraint.”
A few jeers rippled through the room like oil on water. There was laughter and someone whistled a tune that was low and crude. Sasuke’s head lolled forward as he fought to stay conscious. A slice of cold metal pressed against the inside of his thigh and he flinched.
“Did you offer yourself, little bird?” Orochimaru titled his head with mock innocence. “Or were you simply taken?” His smile grew wider, venomous. “Did you like it?”
There was no way to answer that question, not with his body laid bare, his wrists bound and raw above him, the heat of the crowd prickling over his skin like a thousand knives. His silence was its own resistance, but it only seemed to entertain them more.
“Or perhaps you were… claimed,” Orochimaru murmured, eyes sliding to the scar curling along Sasuke’s body. “Ah, there it is. I remember now. The fox's mark.” He sipped from his cup, unhurried. “A precious little vow burned into you like branding iron. How quaint.” The cruel smirk grew. “Let’s see how long it holds.”
The laughter grew, ugly and wet in the throat. Cups were raised while someone shouted something obscene in a dialect Sasuke didn’t recognize. Fingers pointed and coins clinked on the table as they placed bets. A woman with a shorn scalp and inked skin leaned forward, tongue dragging across her teeth as if savoring him from a distance. There was a couple off to the side intertwined and rocking against each other. They were wolves in human skin, every last one of them.
Not a single face looked away. No shame. No disgust. Just the anticipation of something grotesque made sacred by the stage and the suffering.
Sasuke’s shoulders burned from where he hung. His arms had long since gone numb, but the ache still pulsed somewhere deep, right down to the bone. His legs trembled with the effort to stay upright, and he hated that he was beginning to sway — not from weakness, but from how dizzy he felt. The firelight danced in and out of focus and the heat from the flames made the sweat on his skin bead, slick and cold in contrast.
He could feel where they’d touched him earlier; where they probed and measured, the questions spoken as if he couldn’t hear. They hadn’t used tools, just hands and eyes and words that stripped more than any knife could.
He didn’t know how long he’d been up here and he didn’t care because his mind had drifted—back to the garden, the first kiss, the sacred warmth of a whispered “ I’m yours .” Back to Naruto’s hands, smoothing down his thighs, brushing his hair back, the press of a kiss to his collarbone. Back to a night that had been his.
It’s mine , he reminded himself. They can’t take that from me .
He closed his eyes, trying to hold on to the memory but whatever they had given him was potent because he couldn’t hold on to any thought. The laughter in the room sounded sharp while another person whistled again, high-pitched and ugly.
“It looks like the little prince is praying!”
Sasuke didn’t react. He didn’t give them the satisfaction but, inside, something coiled tighter. Like a spring ready to snap or a scream ready to bloom in his throat. His gaze fluttered open, and for a split second, his reflection caught in the plate of a nearby guest. He didn’t recognize the man staring back: bruised, sunken-eyed, mouth swollen, rope-burned.
The clink of tools being unwrapped cut through the air like thunder causing the crowd to still. Orochimaru stood slowly, finally, goblet set aside with deliberate grace. His shadow loomed long behind him, dancing in flickers across cracked plaster and stained banners.
“My little nightbird,” he crooned as he stepped down from his throne. “Let’s see how much song you still carry in that throat of yours.”
A shadow moved through the firelight, carrying a rod that was etched with a coiled serpent. It was red-hot, glowing and Sasuke barely had time to brace before it touched skin.
The pain was instant and absolute. He offered them no scream, just breath punched from lungs as his body arched, the burn searing over the scar that marked him as Naruto’s. The scent of cooked flesh filled the air, and the crowd howled their approval.
His vision blurred but he could still feel it, Naruto’s energy—the protective warmth that once wrapped around him like a second skin—pulling away, distorted, confused as to why it was being tampered with. An old woman in gray chalked paint began chanting in a language he didn’t recognize, her fingers dipped in blood. Other painted symbols across Sasuke’s chest, one of which burned with sharp familiarity.
Uzuki.
Va’shiri . Bound. Yours.
But it wasn’t Naruto’s language this time. The words were twisted as if someone had tried to recreate it from memory and corrupted it in the process.
“Let the vow be undone.” Orochimaru declared, stepping in close enough to cast his shadow over Sasuke’s ruined chest. “Let the fox feel it break.”
Sasuke’s knees gave out, but the ropes kept him upright. They cheered again and the sound was deafening. Drums started and they sounded thunderous, off-rhythm, savage. Wine spilled from goblets and women laughed too loudly while others howled like beasts.
Orochimaru stood and raised his arms. “Let us celebrate his return!”
The doors opened again so that a small procession of veiled women and men entered the room, their faces hidden, their clothing diaphanous and stained with red powder at the hems. The crowd hooted and grabbed at them, rough and eager, treating them as dessert to the cruel feast. The scene unraveled like a fever dream; bodies pressing close, mouths wet with wine and or something worse, teeth glinting with gold. One of the women tripped and was immediately pulled onto a lap, her muffled cry lost beneath all the noise. Sasuke, head down, watched it all through the curtain of his hair. His body trembled not just from pain but from the weight of being completely, utterly exposed, his dignity stripped and rewritten in fire.
He didn’t scream.
He wouldn’t.
The only thing that kept him from falling apart was the memory of Naruto’s touch and the hope, foolish or not, that he would soon come for him. He didn’t notice Orochimaru approaching until the man’s shadow fell over him again. There was a curl of amusement in the air, and when Sasuke raised his eyes, just barely, he saw that smile, all teeth and no soul. Orochimaru circled him like an art collector appraising his stolen piece.
“These bruises,” he murmured, brushing air just inches from Sasuke’s hipbone, “fingers. Too tight. And here,” he motioned to a purpling bite on his inner thigh “teeth. How… possessive.” His lips curved as he took in another mark at Sasuke’s collarbone.
Sasuke’s lip curled despite himself. “Ah,” Orochimaru chuckled, darkly delighted. “Still some fire in you.” With a wave of his hand, the ropes were cut. Sasuke collapsed, catching himself on shaking arms.
“Put him in my chambers,” Orochimaru said lazily. “Let him sleep. He’ll need strength for what’s next.”
Rough hands gripped him, dragging his aching body away from the firelight and the stench of sweat and wine. He didn’t struggle, not now, but as they pulled him across the stone floor, one of the symbols on his chest burned hot—sharp and sudden, like a flare under the skin.
Naruto’s name.
Though it felt twisted somehow, it still echoed with power. He clung to that, barely conscious, as darkness swallowed him whole.
Notes:
When I tell you that I literally edited the first half before uploading because I didn't feel like we could truly feel Naruto's pain in the beginning half so, hopefully, the edits helped.
Also things are going to get better for Sasuke, I PROMISE, but he's going to have to go through this for a second before we're back to the good stuff.
twt and bluesky if you'd like to come yell at me through the socials.
Chapter 16: A Claim By Both
Notes:
Content Warning: This chapter contains scenes of captivity, branding, and psychological manipulation. There are references to torture and threatened non-con (but no sexual assault occurs). Please read with care.
This chapter includes:
Graphic Depictions of Violence
Torture (implied/referenced)
Non-Consensual Body Modification (branding/vow mark overwritten)
Psychological Manipulation / Power Imbalance
Implied/Threatened Non-Con
Dark Themes
Tags have been updated as of Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
He didn’t remember how many turns the stone halls took, couldn’t remember how many feet walked beside his. Sasuke only came to when the heavy door slammed shut behind them echoing like the crack of bone. He laid on cold stone, muscles twitching with residual pain. The air was still and heavy with skin that smelled like iron and smoke, like he was no longer a person but something sacrificed. His body ached with dull, blooming soreness, but it was the brand seared over his mark that throbbed like a second heartbeat.
There were footsteps that padded closer but they were lighter this time, something about them felt feminine.
“Shit,” a voice whispered. It was a woman, tone sharp and surprised. “He’s worse than last time.”
Fingers that were delicate but calloused, brushed his shoulder, then flinched back as if burned.
“Karin,” another voice rumbled, softer, deep. “He needs rest, not more panic.”
“I know that, Jūgo, but—gods, look at him.”
Sasuke blinked his eyes open. A mop of red hair hovered into focus and it was Karin who knelt beside him, her hands hovering again, uncertain. Her cheeks were freckled, her eyes red-rimmed, not from crying, but from rage.
“You’re lucky,” she said, not looking at him directly. “We were close enough to pull you out before the rest of them touched you again.”
The words took a moment to sink in.
Sasuke’s throat worked. “Again?” His voice was a rasp.
Karin flinched. “Not… like that. I mean before they branded you another time.”
He let his head fall back, breath shallow. Jūgo emerged from the shadows with a menacing stalk but Sasuke knew better. He was taller now than Sasuke remembered yet still broad and quiet, with wide, kind eyes that didn’t match the rough scars down his arms nor the mutilated scarring on his right cheek.
“You shouldn’t have come back,” Jūgo said softly. “You’re stronger than anyone here, but… not against all of them.”
“I didn’t come back, I was taken against my will.” Sasuke whispered.
“Then why did they say you did?”
“Because they’re liars.”
Karin looked at him then, something flickering in her expression.
“You remember us?” she asked quietly.
Sasuke nodded, just barely. “You were the ones who helped me… before.”
Karin pulled a clean cloth from a rusted basin and dipped it into cool water. Her fingers were careful as she began to wipe at the grime on his chest, but she paused over the fresh mark that still sizzled faintly in the air.
“That’s… not just a brand,” she murmured.
“It was a vow mark,” Sasuke muttered, each word painful.
“And now it’s trying to overwrite your scar.”
“I still feel him,” Sasuke said, barely audible. “Even through the burn, he’s still there.”
Karin’s brows pinched. “Then that’s dangerous for Orochimaru. If the vow still holds, no matter how buried... it could be used.”
“Then he’ll want to dig deeper next time,” Jūgo murmured, sitting back on his heels.
They sat in silence for a moment, the three outcasts under the roof of a godless man.
“I can hide you,” Karin said suddenly, voice low and fierce. “There’s a vent in the back chamber. It leads to the cold tunnels but no one uses them in the winter.”
“He’ll search the whole compound,” Sasuke said.
“Then we get creative.” Her voice broke like glass. “You’re not dying here, Uchiha.”
He blinked slowly, head growing heavier. Despite the pain, the cold stone, the brand still burning on his chest… he felt something stir.
A memory of fingers brushing his jaw, a kiss like a vow, a name spoken like it belonged to no one else.
“Naruto…” he exhaled, lips barely moving. Karin’s fingers froze and Jūgo’s eyes flickered over to her.
The redhead looked at Sasuke again, more closely now.
“I’ve heard that name,” she said softly. “In whispers and in stories. Someone with fire at his back and light in his voice.”
Sasuke said nothing and he knew she didn’t need to. He only needed to survive long enough to see him again.
The forest seemed like it was alive with ghosts.
Every pine branch breathed cold mist, every underbrush was slick with frost, and Naruto moved through it like a shadow, barefoot, bare-handed, and burning. Kurama’s presence curled at the edge of his mind, coiled like a serpent waiting to strike. He hadn’t spoken to him just yet but the bond between them pulsed, a hum beneath Naruto’s skin, louder with every step deeper into the woods.
He’s close , Kurama finally rumbled, low and certain.
Naruto’s hands flexed as claws sharpened. His breath fogged in front of him, steam rising from skin too warm for the weather. The mark, the one that coiled around Sasuke’s chest, burned like a lantern flame against his chest. He felt the distortion as if someone had put their hands inside him and twisted.
“Something’s wrong.” he whispered, and his voice didn’t sound like his own. He dropped to one knee and pressed his palm to the frozen earth. The ground vibrated and a ripple of power flared out that was wild and instinctive and in it, he saw flashes.
There was rope and firelight, screaming that didn’t sound like Sasuke but felt like it could have been. The mark called to him like a beacon but it was flickering and Naruto didn’t like how it felt unstable.
“ Someone’s tampering ,” Kurama growled. “ It reeks of blood rites and corruption .”
Naruto’s lips peeled back in a snarl and, in a voice that sounded like it came from two, said, “Orochimaru.”
The name felt like acid on his tongue. His other hand went to the ground and this time he dug into it that it clutched onto the roots, into the energy beneath it all. The trees above him shuddered as his own chakra burst outward, no longer cloaked but raw and pulsing.
A fox-shape shimmered in the branches above, nine faint tails curling around pine needles. His ears elongated, nails cracked and reformed, and his irises bled to red.
He wasn’t tracking anymore, now he was hunting.
Kurama’s voice was calm now, coiled in the way only old things could be. They’ve marked over our own. They think that undoes it, they think you’ll let them have him again.
A heartbeat passed. The snow at Naruto’s feet hissed and melted.
“They’re wrong.”
Sasuke’s body ached like it had been broken apart and rearranged after he had been thrown back into the room again. Daylight didn’t reach the depths of Orochimaru’s lair so Sasuke had no idea how many days had passed since he had been taken. The only way he could mark time was during the moments they came to take him out, throw him back in, and Karin and Jūgo would patch him up for him to fall into total darkness and do it all over again. The scent of medicinal herbs and burnt incense lingered in the air, trying, but failing, to mask the bitter tang of blood and smoke. He didn’t realize he’d drifted until a damp cloth touched his brow.
“Don’t move.” A voice said, quiet but firm.
He blinked slowly, allowing the light above him to come into view. It was dim, flickering from a cracked lantern in the corner. Two shadows were near: one crouched at his side, the other standing, arms crossed.
The girl from before with the red hair, thin wrists, and thick lenses slipping down her nose, was the one tending to him. Her sleeves were rolled up, hands moving with practiced precision as she wiped sweat and soot from his skin.
“Water.” He rasped.
She paused and, a moment later, a flask touched his lips, and he drank greedily, only stopping when he coughed from the chill.
“That’s enough.” The second voice said, lower, softer, coming from the hulking boy standing near the edge of the mat. His hair was wild, and his body looked too large for the room, but his expression was calm. Careful.
Jūgo.
The name came back to Sasuke through the haze.
“I know you.” He muttered hoarsely.
Karin snorted because she could tell he was still a little bit out of it. “We should hope so. We’re the ones here keeping you alive.” Karin looked at him for a long time. Her hands didn’t move. “We thought you were dead.”
A beat of silence. Then, softly, she asked, “What did they do to you?”
Sasuke’s gaze went to the ceiling. His throat closed around the words, so he gave her the only answer he could: “Too much.”
Jūgo came closer then, kneeling beside Karin. He didn’t touch Sasuke, but he offered presence, a kind of silent steadiness that didn’t demand anything. Sasuke found himself grateful for it.
“They branded it over again, didn’t they?” Karin said after a moment, her voice tight.
He didn’t answer because he didn’t need to. She saw it when she’d cleaned his chest, on how the skin was swollen, the old scar warped into something new, gnarled from the heated metal pressed on his skin, the reddened words etched across his body as a reminder. The Uzuki script branded beside it still flared faintly beneath the salve.
“Those aren’t just marks,” she murmured. “It’s a curse laid over a vow.”
Sasuke closed his eyes. “I know.”
“You should know… the vow is still there,” she said. “Buried and it’s hurt but not broken.”
A strange relief hit him so hard he felt like he might be sick. Before he could speak again, footsteps sounded from the hall. Slow, deliberate, scraping against the stone floor like a blade being drawn. The light dimmed and the room went cold. Karin cursed under her breath and stood, wiping her hands. “He’s coming back.”
Jūgo moved to the wall, his whole body tensing.
“Don’t speak unless you’re spoken to,” Karin whispered to Sasuke, pulling the cloth back over him. “And don’t look him in the eyes.”
Sasuke didn’t answer. He had no intention of looking anywhere but away.
The door creaked open and Orochimaru entered, smiling as if seeing the scene before him brought him the utmost joy. The door closed with a whisper behind him, but Orochimaru’s presence flooded the chamber like cold smoke. He moved slowly, deliberately, as if savoring every step.
“Still alive,” the man said with delight. “How lovely.”
Sasuke didn’t look at him but he didn’t have to. He could feel the weight of those golden eyes on his skin, slithering over every mark, every bruise, every scar left unhealed.
Karin shifted near the shelves, spine stiff. Jūgo had gone still, his massive frame hunched as if to make himself smaller. Orochimaru stopped near Sasuke’s cot and exhaled through his nose like he was admiring a painting. “Your color is coming back, that’s good. I hate when my treasures look pale.”
Sasuke’s jaw clenched. “I’m not yours.”
“No?” Orochimaru crouched beside him now. “That’s not what the mark says.”
He reached out, not touching, just hovering a hand above the branded scar. “It took quite a bit of work, you know. Your Uzumaki left a deep signature.”
“You didn’t undo it,” Sasuke said. His voice was raw but steady. “You twisted it.”
“Semantics,” Orochimaru cooed. “But you’re right. I couldn’t break it, not entirely. There’s something primal in that fox boy’s magic so I added my own. A counter-signature, if you will.”
He stood slowly, trailing a single nail along the edge of the wooden pillar beside him. “Now, you’re claimed by both and isn’t that just absolutely poetic?”
Sasuke turned his head, finally meeting Orochimaru’s gaze. “You’re afraid of him.”
Orochimaru’s smile widened. “Fear is such a mortal word. Let’s say… I’m curious. The energy that flared when we took you, the transformation that was witnessed, it was divine.” His eyes glittered. “One of the men who dragged you back told me what he saw. The tails, the fangs, the rolling energy that could stop many. He swore your Uzumaki turned into a god-beast.”
There was reverence in his tone. Lust, even.
“He’s more than a boy,” Orochimaru continued. “He’s a relic. A remnant of something ancient and he burns for you.”
Sasuke didn’t respond, he didn’t have to. The memory of Naruto’s voice, his hands, his vow, flared so hot in his chest it almost hurt more than the brand.
“Perhaps,” Orochimaru said thoughtfully, “if I study your bond closely enough, I can replicate it or, better yet, control it.”
He moved to a shelf behind Karin and Jūgo, picking up a small knife and a dish of red powder. “I’ll need a bit more time, of course but you’ll stay, won’t you? As my guest?”
He looked over his shoulder, amused. “Karin, dear. Don’t let him bleed out. I need him whole.”
The door creaked open again, and the serpent slipped out, robes trailing like mist, the faint scent of lotus and rot left in his wake.
The silence after he left was sharp and Sasuke exhaled shakily, his arm aching in the way it had been strung up and his throat burned with rage. All that kept him going was that the bond still throbbed under his skin.
Notes:
Are you guys surprised!? It's Karin and Jugo! :D I've been waiting for so long to include them in the story so I'm glad we've finally gotten to it. What are your thoughts on Orochimaru?
We're almost there everyone :') Naruto will be there soon~ Sasuke just needs to hold on a little bit longer.
twt and bluesky if you'd like to come yell at me through the socials ^^
Chapter 17: A Roar for the Gods
Notes:
Before we dive in, I want to give you a gentle heads-up: this chapter explores some very dark territory. There is:
Graphic depictions of violence
Torture, branding, ritual humiliation
Psychological manipulation and coercion
Non-consensual touching/atmosphere
Blood and body horror
Trauma, PTSD themes, and recovery arcs
That said, this is also a story about devotion, survival, and the cost of protection. It’s about finding belonging even in the middle of trauma and politics. If any of these elements might be too much for you, please take care of yourself first. Skip chapters, or skip the story if you need to because your well-being always comes first.
Thank you for being here and for trusting me with your time. I hope the story resonates, even in its darkest moments. 🖤
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Karin hadn’t even finished rewrapping the cloth over his wrists when the door slammed open again, gray cloaked figures swept in like rolling clouds from a storm and wrenched Sasuke up by the arms.
Jūgo surged forward with a snarl, but the chain around his ankle yanked him short. Karin staggered upright so fast she nearly fell. “He hasn’t healed—”
No one listened as they dragged Sasuke out like he was nothing more than livestock returned for slaughter. On the way they shoved something acrid beneath his nose, foul and bitter and its effects were instantaneous, causing his head to loll back and his body to feel heavy and useless. The room seemed similar as before except it felt like the crowd had grown. The air clotted with the stink of sour wine, old grease, and blood that had never been washed away. The crowd had grown and faces leaned forward, eyes fever-bright as they hushed when he entered. Not out of respect or fear for him, rather, it was insatiable hunger they felt like the silence of wolves before the kill.
At the center, Orochimaru waited. His smile was a knife, the fire behind him roaring hotter, the metal rods glowing in the pit. They hauled Sasuke upright and had his wrists pulled above his head until his shoulders strained. The ropes cut deep, biting into already raw skin while his toes barely scraped the floor. He dangled like a carcass hung for display. He barely registered the stares on his bare body, the way they leaned forward wanting to touch his marred skin.
Orochimaru approached slowly. His hands were empty, gloves gleaming in the firelight. He lifted one finger and traced the scar carved into Sasuke’s chest by Naruto’s vow. The touch was deliberate, almost tender, and obscene for it.
The touch made Sasuke flinch. It wasn’t painful yet and, somehow, it felt worse, like a mockery.
“You feel that, don’t you?” Orochimaru whispered for all to hear. “Still alive, still his.” He tapped the skin where it wrapped around his ribs. “Let’s fix that.”
Then, without warning, he reached into a clay bowl and dipped a thin, heated pin into dark resin. Before Sasuke could process it, he jammed it into the curve beneath his ribs.
Sasuke choked on a cry, breath punched from his lungs and yet that was only the beginning. One after another, the burning pins were pressed along the length of the scar, marring it with dots and streaks of angry, blistering skin. The heat sunk deeper than flesh, it pulled at the tether, the energy inside the mark sputtering in alarm like a candle would in the wind. He could feel himself shudder, felt it in more than flesh. The tether sputtered inside him, guttering like a candle in a storm. He writhed, arching against the ropes causing his arms to shake with the strain. His toes scraped stone, trying to find purchase but they bled from his desperation. His body trembled, unable to hold still.
“The vow is a tether,” Orochimaru explained, his voice silk on stone. “A line pulled taut between predator and prey. Cut the line and we snap the bond.”
A servant brought it over on a black pillow where on it laid a coiled serpent wrought in iron, tongue curved into a hooked fang and it glowed hot as Orochimaru lifted it up. Without hesitation, he pressed it inside Sasuke’s thigh, right where the mark was.
There was a sizzling sound as smoke curled and flesh sizzled.
Sasuke convulsed, back arching so hard the ropes creaked. The scream that ripped out of him was raw and primal, echoing until the chamber swallowed it whole. No one moved. They only watched. It echoed through the space and no one moved to stop it. Instead, the crowd watched in perfect silence, enthralled by the scene.
When the brand cooled, another figure came forward. Masked, hands already stained, he carried a deep bowl of black ink and a bone needle. He stood before Sasuke’s exposed hip, and, without hesitation, began to tattoo into living skin. Each character was carved in painfully slow, deliberate strokes making it feel ritualistic, cruel, and sacred all in one.
Orochimaru recited them as they were written: “ He who bears this mark is no longer his own .”
When it was done, Sasuke’s skin shimmered, red and angry. The scar pulsed dully, warped and split at the edges, warped and pulsing like a corrupted heartbeat. Sasuke hung limply, body slick with sweat and blood and black ink. His hair clung to his temples like angry snakes, his knees had given out long ago, but the ropes kept him upright, like a puppet.
He breathed in shallow gasps. His skin felt like it didn’t belong to him anymore. Orochimaru turned toward the crowd and whispered, “He has been remade.”
No applause. Just stillness. Reverence. Devotion.
And Sasuke didn’t feel anything anymore. Not the warmth of his connection, not the reminder of a soft touch nor the glide of warm lips.
He no longer was connected to him.
There was no warning but the ground shuddered as if angry for him. At first it was low and distant, like the roll of thunder buried in the earth and then came another, closer, harder, shaking loose flakes of plaster from the vaulted ceiling.
A servant cried out as a chunk of plaster fell from the ceiling and then came the sound of splitting stone. Cracks raced up the walls like spiderwebs as the crowd turned as a portion of the far hall, a full section of the keep, exploded inward .
Through the haze of dust and smoke stepped a creature made of wrath.
Nine long, spectral tails whipped behind him, their tips flickering like flame and smoke. His body was taller than before, broader, glowing from within like a furnace barely holding shape. His face was mostly human, but the fox showed through him with elongated canines, slitted pupils, energy rising in streaks along his forearms and shoulders.
Each step of his clawed feet landed like thunder against stone.
The energy pulsed in every direction, not contained but hungry , alive, rippling like a heat haze. The weight of it pressed down on the chamber until lungs seized and throats closed and the first wave of onlookers dropped to their knees, gasping under its suffocating heat.
His gaze locked onto Sasuke who was bruised, branded and bleeding all while stripped and suspended like an offering.
A rumble started in Naruto’s chest, low and broken. It grew until the walls trembled with it. “ You’re mine .” Naruto’s voice was ancient , distorted. “ They don’t get to take you .”
His next step cracked the floor beneath him causing someone to scream.
One of Orochimaru’s enforcers lunged in a desperate act but they didn’t make it far. Naruto’s tail shot out and impaled the man midair, lifting him effortlessly before flinging his broken body into the rafters and that’s when chaos erupted.
A second guard attempted a flanking move which had Naruto whirling, claws glowing, and slashed clean through a support beam, sending half the platform crashing down causing the ceiling to cave. The impact sent people scattering, tables overturning, goblets and food flying like thrown bones all the while the crowd shrieked in panic. In the center, Sasuke hung motionless, too weak to cry but Naruto was already moving again, cutting through stone and flesh like a god of ruin.
Naruto stumbled as the blood-drawn runes underfoot flared crimson as if they had been waiting for him to arrive. They pulsed like veins across the floor, desperate to hold him. For a moment the bindings caught, chains laced with seals snapped tight around his arms, his throat, his legs while dozens of hands heaved at once, dragging him toward the ground.
For a heartbeat it looked as if the storm might break.
Then Kurama spoke.
They dare leash us?
Sasuke’s heart tripped in terror. His vision blurred as Naruto’s head snapped upward. His eyes had gone white, blazing with heat that seemed to sear even at a distance. The blast of force knocked air from Sasuke’s lungs as his body whipped forward on the ropes as dozens of enforcers slammed into the walls. He coughed, chest rattling, vision swimming.
“ You don’t get to take him from me! ” His voice cracked like a fissure splitting the earth.
A ring of metal-tipped spears descended and an explosion came from within. A wave of raw force hurled bodies back. Chains liquefied against his skin. The nine tails solidified, no longer spectral, but flesh and flame. Each one lashed against the walls, splintering pillars, tearing stone until the keep groaned like a wounded beast. Naruto’s head snapped up, and his eyes turned completely white, irises gone, searing like fire behind glass. A wave of pure force blasted from his core sending bodies flying in every direction. The chains melted against his skin. The nine tails erupted—no longer semi-spectral, but corporeal, flickering with fury and fire. Each one lashed against the crumbling stone walls, splintering pillars, collapsing the platform where Orochimaru had once lounged.
Naruto’s scream was worse than any blade. It split the chamber, a sound of grief and rage so raw Sasuke felt it in his marrow. His body shook against the ropes as though the sound itself could unmake him. It tore from Naruto’s throat that was not a roar, not a scream, but something primal; something like a curse and a warning.
Mine, Kurama’s voice reverberated through him, thunder in his veins, Mine to protect. Mine to destroy for.
Sasuke, still bound, lifted his head and his vision blurred but he saw him, not fox, not man but something in between. A god made of wrath and fire.
The men in grey cloaks broke ranks and ran as fire licked at the walls and the air warped with heat. Sasuke’s lips parted but no sound came. Not from awe, not from fear, but from the recognition that something sacred was breaking and would never be put back together again.
Naruto advanced, claws reaching out for him, each step made the ground quake.
And then Orochimaru appeared.
Not in flesh, but in a veil of smoke, retreating with a cruel smile curled at his painted lips.
A shadowed hand seized Sasuke and pulled him backward into the dark. The ropes cut deeper. His scar still burned, twisted with corrupted fire.
Naruto saw it and roared as if he was calling the Gods themselves to help him. He lunged towards him but he was too late. A second detonation of smoke consumed the remnants of the feast hall and, when it cleared, they were gone.
All that remained was the scorch mark where Sasuke had once knelt.
Notes:
No more okay? 🥹 Last chapter before things get better, I promise. We're going to have a couple of chapters of growth, love, grown up talks, and then we'll see how this story ends~
Here's more art, this time shared with me by @annoyingcrow another reader~ they've been sharing this with me because it reminds them of the story, I love it so much
Chapter 18: A Mark Struck
Notes:
Hiii, sorry for not having uploaded! I was traveling for work and, once I got back, I got so sick but I had to continue working so I was just exhausted every single day D:
I'll be uploading two chapters and then we'll resume uploading on our regular schedules of Tuesdays and Thursdays :")
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Silence followed after all the noise. It was the type of silence that rang loudly in the ears, the one that pressed tightly on the lungs, and it was the one that told the body: the danger has not left, we are not done. Naruto stood at the center of ruin, chest heaving, his pulse straining toward Sasuke through their bond. The connection was faint, stretched tight like a string about to snap, and when a phantom heartbeat flickered through him he realized it was Sasuke’s own, weak and slipping. His breath caught and Kurama’s voice growled low inside his skull: They touched him, they’re trying to unravel it and it seems that they are succeeding.
Naruto’s breath hitched upon realizing what that meant. Kurama’s voice was low and livid in his skull.
No.
He stepped onto the scorch mark, ash clinging to his feet, blood crackling under his heel. His hands trembled at his sides where claws half-formed and his jaw ached from how tightly he clenched it. Behind him, no one moved. Survivors cowered, hoping their stillness might spare them. Naruto stood among rubble, a scorch mark, and rage made flesh. Let me go, Kurama whispered, voice coiled like temptation.
“Let me go.” Kurama whispered and it sounded so tantalizing as if, by letting him out, all of Naruto’s problems would disappear.
Naruto exhaled a breath that was shaky, a bit shallow as he lowered his head in defeat.
“Bring him back.”
The chakra tore free like a second sun detonating in his chest. A wave of blistering red and gold surged outward, flattening the remnants of the broken walls and shattering what had been left of the celebration hall. Human bodies flew through the air as the wind howled, the ground split open and the lanterns blew out in bursts of cinder. His hands took a different shape, something that looked like it could tear through flesh, his bones cracked and reformed. Kurama burst forth in something that was immense and radiant and, most importantly, unstoppable. Eyes like twin furnaces snapped open as he bared his fangs and roared, the sound rattling the trees behind the walls of the clan, a call the entire land would hear and never forget.
“My, it has been quite a long time.” Kurama’s voice seemed to almost purr, voice deep as he surveyed around him. “To take part in such chaos, how trivial.” He said, lips curling back over massive fangs. Kurama rose to his full height, towering over what remained of the grounds. His tails lashed once, twice, then fanned outward in a wide arc causing them to crack stone, uproot the trees that it touched, and tore apart the earth. A paw slammed down and flattened towers where screams rose faint beneath him but Kurama only turned toward the woods where blood and dark magic clung to the air.
“You worms dared to touch what’s ours.”
A single paw came down and the shockwave flattened an entire row of guard towers. Screams echoed faintly below him but Kurama did not look back, instead his head turned towards the woods where the scent of blood and dark magic lingered like breadcrumbs. He could feel it deep within his chest, the bond to the Uchiha, but it was weakened and burned and quickly slipping.
“Enough talking,” Naruto’s voice growled through Kurama’s snarl. “Go.”
“Hush boy, it is my time now.”
Naruto’s voice had flickered off, like a candle that had completed its job, and Kurama’s jowls vibrated as he sneered at the humans running away from him. He dropped to all fours, causing the nearby area to explode in a blur of motion as he moved forward.
He would bring back what they thought they could take, but, before that, Kurama was looking forward to stretching his legs after what felt like centuries.
Sasuke tried to follow where it was that they were taking him but all he knew was that there was no sky where he was. There was only stone above him that was cold and cracked and he could hear it dripping with moisture that smelled of rust and blood. Chains hung from iron loops in the walls, some rattling faintly with the movement of wind or things still alive. It was pretty quiet now but the silence in this place never lasted long. He was lying on his side, skin raw and wet. The floor beneath him pulsed faintly with old magic, remnants of whatever rites had been performed here from long ago, and it was messing with his senses.
His own mark throbbed, hot like a brand on his body, and it burned to a point where Sasuke had to suck in a breath, sharp and ragged, and tried to shift his arms. Restraints still clung to his wrists, they were loose now, as if they’d stopped needing him. He realized, slowly, that he couldn’t feel one of his legs, the pins and needles spiked up the other one. His chest hurt because of the air that was pressed against him like wet wool, every inhale tasting of metal and ash. The scar had been carved again and again: first with fire, then with blood, and lastly with ink. He remembered Orochimaru’s voice echoing over the crowd like a hymn: He who bears this mark is no longer his own.
He wanted to vomit, the bile rushing up his throat told him it would definitely be happening, and he turned to his side as it spilt out of his mouth, the remnants of whatever the last thing he had eaten leaving his stomach. Karin, who had appeared out of thin air, cursed under her breath and dropped to her knees beside him, gripping his shoulder as another dry heave forced his body to curl.
“Careful Sasuke, don’t tear the mark open again.” Her voice was sharp but not unkind. She pulled a cloth from a pouch at her hip and wiped his mouth, her hand trembling slightly. “You passed out and Jūgo carried you out before the ceiling dropped on you.”
The man stood behind her, silent and still, eyes scanning the low, crooked ceiling as if expecting it to fall. The air was stale, thick with damp earth and old soot. The ground above them shook as if the very earth moved together and Sasuke blinked as some of the dirt came down onto his face.
“The fox demon,” Jūgo said softly. “It leveled the compound so we used the chaos to get you down here. Orochimaru’s attention was…elsewhere.”
“Kurama,” Sasuke rasped, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand when Karin pulled away. The name tasted familiar on his tongue and he remembered a roaring fire and a deep voice as thin eyes looked him over. “Naruto?”
Karin nodded, lips tight. They seemed sickly pale in this light, her face gaunt with worry. “Yeah, he came for you and blew apart the walls like it was made of paper. He was so loud that I thought my ears would bleed.”
“The upper levels are probably still burning.” Jūgo added, his deep voice barely carrying over the quiet sound of dripping water. “There was no time. The tunnels are old, from before Orochimaru took the stronghold. He believes that they’ve all collapsed but one or two of them remain intact.”
“Barely.” Karin muttered. “You weigh more than you look, you know.”
Sasuke leaned back against the stone wall, his head spinning from everything going on. The pressure in his chest hadn’t subsided, like the two brands were battling it out in him.
“They’ll be looking for us.” Sasuke murmured and stared at the two before him. These two had sacrificed so much for him before and they continued to do so.
“They already are.” Karin pressed a thin hand to his forehead, frowning. “But the deeper we go, the less chance we have of them getting to us. They’re counting on your bond being severed or, at least, weak enough to then be able to somehow tie the demon to Orochimaru.”
Jūgo crouched beside her now, his expression unreadable. “The demon will buy us time.”
Sasuke closed his eyes, breathing still shallow. “He came for me.” His whisper felt so loud in the underground space they were in.
Karin stilled, her hand remained on his brow.
“Yeah,” she said quietly. “He did.”
The torchlight flickered like dying stars, casting long shadows against the damp stone walls. The air was wet with moss and rot, heavy with silence except the rapid footfalls of Karin and Jūgo.
Sasuke could barely lift his head. His body was in a litany of pain, skin scorched and stinging, a half healed brand etched into his hip still seeping warmth that didn’t belong to him. Every jolt as Jūgo carried him sent fire down his spine but he said nothing, couldn’t really say much other than grind his teeth.
“Almost there,” Karin murmured, glancing back, red hair matted to her cheeks with sweat. “Just a little further and we’ll meet up with–”
A flicker of movement ahead cut her off.
Water pooled under a jagged arch of stone where the tunnel widened and a figure emerged from the shadows, lounging lazily on a stone ledge like he hadn’t a care in the world, his sharp teeth gleamed as he grinned.
“Well, well, well, look what we got here,” Suigetsu said, swinging his pale legs over the edge. His white hair clung to his jaw, skin pale like milk and eyes the color of stormwater. “Look what you dragged back in. It’s the little brooding prince.”
“Shut up.” Karin snapped, fist up to show she meant business. “Help us or get lost.”
He hopped down anyway, inspecting with a cocked brow. “You look like shit, Uchiha.”
Sasuke managed a rasp, something between a grunt and a breath. Suigetsu clicked his tongue, then reached into his coat to hand Karin a water skin. “He needs this more than I do.”
They moved after giving Sasuke a sip of water with Karin leading, Suigetsu at the rear, and Jūgo still carrying Sasuke carefully in his arms but, even as they made progress, the air shifted around them. The faintest hiss slithered through the damp air where, ahead, the tunnel’s mouth yawned open into the cold night. Karin’s grip tightened on Jūgo’s arm, fear coming out of her in waves as a cold weight settled over their group.
“Did you hear that?” Jūgo whispered, voice barely more than a breath. From the shadows beyond the exit, a silhouette emerged, sliding forward like smoke curling through dead leaves.
Orochimaru.
His tall, sinewy form moved with unnatural grace, the moonlight catching the glint of serpentine eyes. He studied Sasuke with a predator’s patience, lips curling into a knowing smile. “Running only delays the inevitable.” Orochimaru’s voice purred like a blade against silk.
Sasuke’s chest clenched as the brand on his ribs flared now that they were in front of him and realized that this wasn’t the same feeling he always got with Naruto. Normally it flared with warmth, like a hearth fire in winter, protective and steady. Now, this brand felt thick like honey, cold and slow, gliding across his skin like a snake wrapping itself on his body.
Karin swallowed hard and whispered, “We can’t fight him.” She was inching back, tears sliding down her face as fear marred her expression.
Orochimaru’s gaze drifted to Jūgo. “Put him down.”
Jūgo hesitated, arms tightening protectively around Sasuke’s form.
“I won’t ask again.”
The weight of Orochimaru’s presence was suffocating and, the three before him, had been subjugated to enough time around him to cower in fear at his presence alone. With clear reluctance and trembling hands, Jūgo knelt and laid Sasuke onto the ground, careful not to jar his injured side. Karin crouched beside him, lips pressed together with her hands hovering helplessly over his chest. Orochimaru stepped forward, expression alight with a twisted kind of reverence. From his robes, he pulled a slender rod of blackened iron etched with serpentine sigils, its tip being placed on the torch Suigetsu held in his hands, letting it glow red with searing heat.
Sasuke tried to lift his arm, to move even a single finger but his limbs refused him. His body was frozen, locked under the weight of his mark, as if it responded to Orochimaru’s voice and not his own. The rod hovered above his back and he looked into Karin’s wet gaze.
“Let’s place this where it can’t be easily hidden.” Orochimaru murmured, eyes wide with excitement.
The mark struck.
A sharp hiss of burning flesh echoed out in the open air. Sasuke’s mouth opened in a silent scream as the pain surged like fire through his spine. The curse mark bloomed into existence on his left shoulder blade. A coiled serpent, its fangs sunk into the spiral of the scar already carved into him, caused the two marks to tangle, feeding off one another, a parasitic bond reforged. His vision blurred and he tasted blood in his mouth.
Among his destruction, Kurama halted. A violent pulse through the bond he shared with Naruto, a searing spike of pain that wasn’t his, but he felt as if it were. Their bond twisted, the link flaring bright red for one final beat and then snapped like a frayed string. The great fox’s eyes narrowed and he growled, the earth trembled beneath him as he shifted direction, claws tearing into soil, and leapt towards where he knew he’d find them.
Chapter 19: A Conversation With A Demon
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
The scorched mark still sizzled on Sasuke’s back, the skin around it blistered and weeping as he fell forward limp, breath ragged and shallow, the whites of his eyes showing.
Karin clutched his shoulder. “Sasuke–!”
Orochimaru tilted his head back to admire his work, calm and clinical. “There now, all mine once again.”
A low rumble pulsed through the stone beneath their feet as dust sifted from the ceiling and the torches flickered before they snapped.
Jūgo turned sharply towards where he felt the shift of energy. “He’s coming.”
A gust of wind howled around them in the little clearing at the mouth of the tunnel and, suddenly, he appeared. Kurama’s humanoid form stepped from the trees around them, tall and terrible, eyes glowing like twin embers set deep into a fox-like face. His hair was wild like flames, the lack of proper clothing made him more like a beast than human, and his hands were clawed, crackling with heat, and they curled into fists at his sides.
His presence was so suffocating that even Orochimaru stiffened.
“I was very patient,” Kurama said, his voice layered with a low growl, echoing like it came from under the earth. “I let the boy have his tantrums, I stayed buried while you all squabbled over your little borders and bloodlines.”
He stepped closer and the tunnel seemed to groan.
“But this…this is mine.”
Karin instinctively shielded Sasuke’s body while Jūgo had gone completely still, too afraid to breathe. Orochimaru’s mouth twitched between a smile and awe. “You’re nothing like I’ve ever seen before.”
Kurama tilted his head, eyes gleaming. “You’re not entirely human are you?”
A flicker of something feral twisted Orochimaru’s grin. Kurama raised a clawed hand, palm opened, and heat slammed forward like a wave, sending a blast of red energy ripping down the tunnel. Orochimaru sidestepped with speed that definitely wasn’t human-like, causing the wall behind him to erupt in flame and stone. While he was fast, Kurama was faster. The fox vanished, reappearing mid-air above him, claws glowing. Orochimaru barely had time to twist his body before Kurama slammed into him, cracking the stone beneath their feet. Orochimaru hissed, sliding back, black tongue darting out to taste the air.
“You won’t kill me,” He said, licking dark blood from his lip. “The boy is too valuable to you. You won’t risk hurting him.”
Kurama’s smile was cruel.
“Who said anything about killing you?” He said, “I just need to break you.”
The air cracked as Kurama lunged again, his clawed hand slamming into Orochimaru’s gut and sending him flying into the stone wall. It caved in, dust and rock exploding outward as the man slid down, coughing violently, his chin now dark with blood. The ground hissed with the heat left in Kurama’s wake.
“I warned you,” Kurama snarled, stepping over the debris. “You should have stayed in your crypt.”
Orochimaru laughed hoarsely, teeth bloodstained. “You think…this is over?” He raised a hand. “You think you understand what he is?”
Behind him, Sasuke gasped, a sharp, choking sound, and his body convulsed.
Karin cried out, hands holding on to him. “Sasuke!?”
The brand over his heart pulsed red-hot, spiraling like an open wound and the fresh curse mark on his back flared to life, burning purple and thick. Black energy, dark and writhing, began to glide across his body like flower petals floating down a river.
Kurama flinched.
The connection hit him like a hammer to the skull. It felt like a feedback loop of two conflicting powers, both claiming ownership of the same soul. The mark he had etched into Sasuke, meant to protect, collided with the parasitic seal Orochimaru had placed. Kurama looked at the pale form of the Uchiha boy, ancient eyes studying the scene before him. From deep within him, Naruto stirred, his consciousness like a faint glimmer.
“He’s burning–Kurama, you have to stop–”
Kurama couldn’t stop the tremor in his arms. He felt the same energy tearing through Sasuke echo in himself as if he was pulling on a thread that ran between them both. The marks were feeding into one another, warping, twisting Sasuke’s soul like a snared animal.
Sasuke’s scream pierced the air.
Jūgo moved without thinking, grabbing him as his body arched in pain. “He’s seizing! Karin–!”
Kurama staggered, his red energy flickering erratically around his frame. His growl turned into something pained, almost human.
“I’ll kill you–” He started to snarl at Orochimaru again, stepping forward but Sasuke’s marks burned like twin suns and Kurama faltered as he was hit by the same agony, knees buckling slightly, his vision blurring.
“I said…” Orochimaru rose slowly, serpentine eyes shining with amusement. “You won’t kill me, not without shattering him first.”
His smile returned and he looked terribly calm. “We’re bound, you and I. Both of us…inside him. Isn’t that fascinating?”
Kurama let out a shaking breath, fist clenched but the fire in his bones refused to be unleashed because Sasuke’s feeble mortal body couldn’t take it. He couldn’t take it.
“Next time,” Kurama growled through clenched teeth. “There won’t be a piece of you left to bury.”
Orochimaru only bowed, mockingly, and then retreated, melting into the night, laughing as he vanished into the crumbling tunnels. Silence fell, broken only by Sasuke’s soft gasping and the crackle of lingering heat. Kurama turned, slowly, to where Karin knelt beside Sasuke. The boy was nearly unconscious now, drenched in sweat, a cloak having been wrapped loosely around him to provide him some sense of privacy, while both marks glowed dully.
Kurama’s voice was tired and furious. “You will not break, human.”
He knelt beside him, pressing a clawed hand over his chest and let his energy, molten red and viscous, run over him to assess the damage.
Whatever was occurring inside Sasuke’s body was chaos. It felt frayed, scorched, and tugged in opposite directions. Kurama’s face deepened in a scowl as he traced the pathways: his mark pulsed like a guardian on its last leg while the brand new curse mark slithered like rot, trying to burrow deeper with every labored breath.
“He’s holding on,” Karin said shakily, “But I don’t know how much longer.”
Kurama’s eyes narrowed. “I will help him hold.”
He hand shot a pulse of crimson energy that went in deeper, felt older, filled with primal heat, and let it flood Sasuke’s chest. Not an attack nor domination but containment and who better knew about being contained than the fox demon himself?
Sasuke’s body jerked once and then stilled.
Karin exhaled. “What did you do?”
“I anchored it,” Kurama breathed out, sounding like an ancient being tired of its existence, “The curse cannot spread while my mark lives, but, if one is severed, the other will burn him from the inside.”
Karin stared down at Sasuke whose chest rose rapidly. “So he’s…tied to both of you?”
Kurama didn’t answer. He watched Sasuke, the furrowed brow in pain and the tense shoulders. “You stupid, fragile little thing,” He said quietly, almost fond. “Of all the humans to choose us.”
Once they realized the chaos had stilled, the decision was made to move toward the Hyuuga clan where healers and allies could be found. It had not come easily. Quieter villages might have offered anonymity, places where they could hide and rest, but the Hyuuga had medicine, resources, and the weight of other clans at their back. Kurama had made the choice bluntly, without room for debate. He’s not going to survive this just lying in a cave. The longer those marks sit on him, the more they dig inside. And so they moved north, skirting roads, sleeping in short shifts, keeping fires small and low. Kurama led with an unhurried stride that deceived no one, his eyes constantly scanning the dark. Jūgo carried Sasuke without complaint, Suigetsu prowled at their flank, and Karin hovered near, nerves taut at every crack of branch or shrieks of a bird.
“He’s not going to survive this just lying in a cave. The longer those marks sit on him, the more it will dig deeper inside him.”
By the second day they had built a rhythm. Karin rose first and slept last, measuring Sasuke’s pulse as if she could hold it steady with her will. Jūgo spoke rarely but positioned himself between Sasuke and the cold, as though his body alone could ward off the night. Suigetsu disappeared often, returning with water and a grin that didn’t quite hide the edge of fear in his eyes. And Kurama was the gravity around which they all turned, his human form still alien, his skin flickering faintly with the fire of what lay beneath.
On the fourth night they found an abandoned home swallowed by trees, half the roof collapsed, moss spreading over the stone, but the chimney still drew smoke and the walls kept out the wind. Karin took Jūgo and Suigetsu to scavenge. Kurama stayed with Sasuke by the fire. Wrapped in a tattered cloak, Sasuke lay with eyes open for the first time in days, the flames reflected in them like black glass. The marks had quieted but not stilled. They pulsed, itched, and throbbed, storms fighting for the same sky.
“Where’s Naruto?” Sasuke rasped, his voice rough as broken glass.
Kurama didn’t look surprised by the question. His clawed fingers tapped the floor once before he answered. “Sleeping somewhere deep in our shared mind. You wouldn’t want him seeing what I had to do.”
Sasuke’s jaw tightened. “You make it sound like he’s a child.”
Kurama gave a low chuckle but there was no humor in it. “He’s not but he’s…sentimental, too soft, when it comes to you.”
That had caught Sasuke off guard, the flicker in his eyes said it all.
Kurama leaned forward, voice rougher now. “You’re bonded. That much is clear, but what you don’t get is that bonds go both ways. When those marks hit you, when Orochimaru branded you again, Naruto felt it. That’s why I am now here, out of his sheer desperation to keep you tied to him.”
Sasuke’s throat worked but no sound came out. Kurama’s eyes narrowed and he looked like all the predator that he was. “You carry him, boy, just like he carries you. These marks, this curse that was placed on you, they’re not damaging your body, they’re pulling you in opposite directions and you will not survive like that.”
There was silence after that, only the crackling fire and the soft wind could be heard. Sasuke finally asked, voice rasping, “So what do I do?”
Kurama’s head tilted slightly, the red in his eyes dimming. “First? You live. Then you will fight. You will not let that snake turn you into a cage.”
Another long silence stretched before Sasuke whispered, “He said I belonged to him.”
Kurama snarled, low and dangerous, the floor creaking beneath his nails. “He’s wrong. You belong to yourself and you’re going to prove it.”
For a moment, neither of them spoke. The wind outside whispered through the broken rafters of the abandoned home, and the fire cracked low, casting flickers of light that danced across the walls.
“I thought I was ready,” Sasuke said finally, voice dry. “After the first time I escaped.”
Kurama didn’t respond right away, instead, he knelt beside the fire and stirred the coals, red eyes flicking toward Sasuke like they were weighing something. “You survived the first time but that is not the same as being ready.”
Sasuke let the words settle and he didn’t argue, didn’t have the energy to do so. He was right in a way. While all the torture and shame he had gone through the first time he had been taken, this time around Orochimaru had really gone all out.
“…He knew,” Sasuke muttered after a pause. “He always knew where to find me and he was more intrigued because of Naruto’s mark.”
Kurama looked at him fully now, and his voice was surprisingly gentle when he said, “You were never meant to carry both.”
Sasuke’s hand lifted to his collarbone, where his mark still burned faintly under skin. Not in pain, just there, pulsing quietly. Unlike Orochimaru’s curse, which still throbbed like rot beneath his shoulder blade.
“I can feel them both,” Sasuke whispered. “Even when I sleep, even now.”
Kurama rose, his silhouette thrown tall and monstrous against the wall. “Then we tear the snake’s fangs out, piece by piece, until only our mark remains.”
He turned toward the door where the others had gone. “I’ll keep watch until they return. Sleep if you can. You’ll need it.”
Sasuke lifted his eyes, meeting the crimson glow in Kurama’s. For the first time since the ritual, there was no revulsion in his chest, only the faintest throb of something steadier, something that felt like recognition, maybe, or the bare thread of trust. He let his head sink back against the cloak. His eyelids fluttered, heavy, and the fire’s warmth began to blur the edges of his pain.
Outside, the wind rose through the trees, carrying smoke, carrying ash, carrying the promise of what still hunted them in the dark.
And Sasuke finally slept.
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