The ocean was amazing! The vast blue surface breaking into white foamy peaks as the waves crashed towards the shore was just amazing! It was so big and endless and amazing! For a moment Naruto stared over the endlessly amazing surface while standing atop a high dune. "This is amazing!" He said, smiling happily. Then he bolted full speed towards the edge of the water, ready to storm in when he came to a sudden halt that also cut off his breath. Sasuke had grabbed him by the back of his shirt and proceeded to drag him back while Naruto flailed about in protest. "Let me go, I wanna go swimming already!" He yelled, hitting Sasuke's hand without any real effort behind it.

Sasuke just rolled his eyes and sighed. "I'm not letting you get into the water fully dressed just to whine afterwards that your clothes are wet and you're cold, idiot." Sasuke said, coming to a stop near the dunes. It wasn't that warm today and the water was definitely not going to be warm either. He looked back to see Naruto pouting up at him. The adorable puppy dog eyes he was giving were almost enough for Sasuke to release him, but he held firm, knowing Naruto was going to be a whiny mess if he let go now.

"But I wanted to drink some of the water..." Naruto whined pouting.

Sasuke gave him an incredulous look. "Have you never been to the ocean? You can't drink that. The water is way too salty to drink."

For a moment a mischievous smirk flashed across Naruto's face, but he pulled himself together quickly and gave Sasuke the most innocent look he could muster. "I thought you knew by now..." He bit his lip a bit, quickly glancing down before looking back at Sasuke. "I like it salty."

Sasuke almost chocked at that statement, unable to keep the instant blush off of his face. He let go of Naruto, dropping him the small bit he had been keeping him up. "F-fine, just go, but undress first and don't come whining to me when you get sick!" The words hadn't fully left his mouth when Naruto started running towards the sea again, making Sasuke end his sentence in a yell. Along the way Naruto started undressing, leaving a trail of discarded items behind. "You could have at least left your underwear on!" Sasuke yelled after him, picking up Naruto's stuff and following him towards the water's edge at a leisurely pace. "Idiot." He muttered as Naruto crashed into the incoming waves stark naked and came up coughing, gagging and, somehow, giggling.

For the last two weeks they had been travelling, and Naruto had been showing off all of his different sides in that time. Sasuke had been eager to get to know all of him better. It has been nice. Peaceful, almost, to a point where Sasuke started suspecting something was wrong or going to go wrong, or something like that. The sense of dread had been slowly building in intensity ever since their meeting with the Hokage. Here and there Sasuke had caught Naruto staring at him in a way that left him a little unnerved, but it wasn't like Naruto wasn't just unnerving from time to time, so Sasuke didn't attribute much thought to it at first.

He caught Naruto staring at him like that again. Naruto was quite a way into the water and just his head was above the water, but it was clear he was staring at Sasuke with a calculated gaze. The moment their eyes met, the look on Naruto's face changed to a happy smile and he threw up a hand to wave at Sasuke, only to lose his balance and go under. Sasuke chuckled, but then his previous thoughts returned. It was like something was obvious and he was just missing it. With a sigh, he sat down and waited for Naruto.

After a while, Naruto came out of the water a shivering mess, practically dropping into Sasuke's lap and curling up in search of warmth. "Really?" Sasuke asked, feeling his clothes getting wet from the seawater. Naruto just stayed quiet and cuddled against him more.

Sasuke wrapped his arms around him. "You done?" He asked softly. Naruto nodded and Sasuke moved to stand up. When Naruto wouldn't let him, he chuckled, knowing Naruto didn't want to break the contact between them. "If you put on your clothes, I'll carry you for a while, but I do want to get to the next village before it gets dark." It was actually quite impressive to Sasuke how quickly Naruto could move with the right motivation. In mere seconds he was fully dressed, except for shoes, but Naruto seemed to avoid those most of the time.

It was quite relaxed, walking through a forest to the nearest village, Naruto cosied up against his back, half asleep.

"Sasuke..." Naruto said sleepily, moving to sit up a little better and fighting the fog of sleep away. "There's something I need to tell you." Naruto said, drawing in Sasuke's attention easily. "Remember when we got sent out on this mission and you thought it was weird Kakashi wasn't there and the whole mission thing? Well, it was, kinda. At least for you it was." Sasuke stopped and put Naruto down, so he could turn around and look at him. "We didn't get time to train together. We got a mission that should have been done in five days. And that was two months ago, not two weeks." Naruto said grinning awkwardly and waited for Sasuke's response. Naruto looked like a five-year-old confessing to doing something wrong and hoping for a good outcome.

"What did you do?" Sasuke asked, not quite grasping what Naruto just said, but certain it had to be something Naruto did.

"Why is your conclusion that I did something?" Naruto asked, almost sounding insulted, but also a little amused. Sasuke just glared at him for a while, silently demanding an answer. It didn't take long for Naruto to crumble to the intense stare. "Uhm... Well, you see..." Naruto started, avoiding eye contact with Sasuke.

"What did you do?" Sasuke repeated, now with a little threat in his voice.

Naruto clamped down his jaw, taking in a deep breath through his nose to collect some courage. "There was no way Jiji was going to let me stay free after our fight. The ANBU that guarded me probably already told him everything before we even got there. I didn't want to go back into the darkness, not ever again..." Naruto said. "I can't..."

"Please don't tell me you did something to Kakashi-sama or Sarutobi-sama." Sasuke said, almost begging. If they'd really been gone for two months and they'd left after Naruto did something to either one of the Hogake, they would be seen as Nukenin by now.  What did Naruto do?

"No! No." Naruto said, holding up his hands. "No, but uhm, I don't think they are expecting us to come back soon anymore... Or ever..."

"What..? What did you do, exactly?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Naruto and stepped closer. He was so frustrated with Naruto right now. His whole world was being flipped upside down right now and Naruto wasn't making it easy to understand.

"You can make someone believe a lot with a Genjutsu..." Naruto answered. The stumbling and insecurity were replaced by a sadistic grin and a steady stare. "What would you have done if you had the option to manipulate reality into the truth you need it to be?" He added, his eyes unfocused and his hand trailing through the air as though he was touching something, grasping at something. "But the Scarecrow has that eye. He can't be tricked that easily, so I made sure he was lost on the path of life real good and long on the way to work that morning."

Naruto focussed his attention back to Sasuke, who fought the urge to back up and run at the intensity of the stare and the insanity contained within that grin. For the first time in a long while, Sasuke realised he was in the presence of insanity. He'd gotten used to it, at least to some degree. It had become normal, but Naruto wasn't normal. He was untamed and, in a way, uncontrollable. There had always been something lurking underneath the surface and when it did surface, it was intense.

"It wasn't that hard." Naruto continued. "Sarutobi-san just didn't really hear what you were telling him. He was listening to my truth, and send us on an easy mission together. Locate and collect. Five days tops. We're just a tad bit overdue." Naruto grinned and winked at that. "And you only heard my truth as well, a long training mission. Even time is just perception and easily changed. That's why you think we left two weeks ago when it was two months."

"Why would you do that? I wouldn't have let them just drag you off into the department again. I would have kept you safe." Sasuke was feeling a little heartbroken and defeated at this point. If this was all true then they no longer belonged to Konoha... But it also kind of stung that Naruto didn't trust him to keep him safe.

The grin melted away, replaced by an expression that could only be explained as spiteful. Naruto dug his fingers into his own hair painfully tight as he stared at Sasuke. "I hate Konoha." Naruto hissed, his voice bitter and cold. "If it wasn't for Sarutobi-sama, I would have killed every single one of the ANBU that came for me that day in the woods." He took a step closer to Sasuke. "If it wasn't for Cat and Dog, I would have hunted down every single person that ever hurt me." He released the grip on his hair to caress Sasuke's cheek as he spoke. "If it wasn't for Morino-san, I would have been kept in a dark room with no food except the occasional cellmate and I wouldn't have hesitated to kill them, and anyone else that wandered across my path." Sasuke swallowed hard and stepped back, but Naruto followed him step by step, reaching out to Sasuke and placing his hands on the back of Sasuke's neck, intertwining his fingers. Sasuke backed up until he stood against a tree and was left with nowhere to go. "And if it wasn't for you, my mate, my sweet love, I would have razed that village to the ground for what they did to me." Naruto finally broke eye contact and looked down. "I can't go back there. I won't go back." He rose his eyes again to meet Sasuke's. "And that means you cannot go back. You're my mate. You belong with me." Sasuke held his breath as Naruto leaned in closer and ever so gently started kissing him.

For a moment, Sasuke didn't know how to respond, but he quickly collected his thoughts and turned his head away. "No." He chocked out, but Naruto twisted his hands into Sasuke's hair and kept him in place as he kissed him again, more forcefully this time. Sasuke continued to struggle, but as always Naruto proved to be stronger than him and when Naruto's lips caressed over the bite marks on his shoulder, it was like he lost all strength in his legs and he sank to the ground.

"Naruto, stop it." Sasuke struggled against Naruto as Naruto loomed over him. Naruto didn't leave Sasuke any room to move, trapping him against the tree, touching and caressing him wherever he could.

The moment Naruto leaned back a bit to breathe, Sasuke managed to hook his elbow into Naruto's face with enough force to get him off of him. Staggering to his feet, Sasuke quickly jumped away trying to run away from Naruto, but Naruto was faster than him. They struggled and Naruto easily pinned him against a tree again.

Naruto saw the look of fright clear on Sasuke's face and his heart gave a pang at that. He backed up a little to give Sasuke some space and started whispering sweetly, looking desperate. "Sasuke, please, you're my mate. You can't be afraid of me. Please, don't be afraid of me." He pleaded, tears in his eye. As he talked he pressed his forehead against Sasuke's, holding Sasuke's face and looking into his eyes. Sasuke stared back at him wide-eyed.

Sasuke swallowed hard and he felt his heart rate pick up in his throat. There was an innate sense of danger settling into Sasuke as he stared back, unable to break eye contact. At the same time, there was a sense of ease with Naruto so close to him. Right now, though, fear was definitely winning. He pressed himself further against the tree for as far as that was possible.

"You can't be afraid of me." Naruto said more harshly, twisting his hands into Sasuke's hair tighter and enforcing his grip painfully hard. Sasuke winched and grabbed at Naruto's wrists, digging his nails into Naruto's skin in an attempt to get Naruto to let him go. "Naruto, let me go!" He growled while trying to remain composed, but Naruto didn't seem to really hear him.

"You belong with me." Naruto said. "You know that, right? You can feel that just like I can. You must. There is no choice anymore, you and I belong together, forever." For a moment Naruto stopped to breath in harshly. "I will give you my forever and you will give me all you are." It wasn't a question. It was a demand. One that couldn't be denied because there was a fundamental truth in it, and Sasuke knew it.

Again Naruto kissed him, roughly but with love and passion. He let go of Sasuke's hair and instead held his face gently. He felt Sasuke attempt to push him away, but he held firm. After a couple of seconds, Sasuke stopped fighting him and after a moment more, he actually kissed back. Hesitantly, but he did kiss back.

There were so many emotions and thoughts running through Sasuke's mind, but the one that stood out the most to him was how right it felt to be with Naruto. The kiss only made that feeling louder, and Sasuke gladly gave into it.

All of the sudden, Naruto moved back, breaking the kiss, and the next thing Sasuke saw was the gleam of a blade flashing towards him. He ducked to cover, raising his arms in front of his face to shield himself. He felt the knife scratch across his Hitai-ate and when he dared uncover his face, he found Naruto smiling at him with a kunai in hand. Naruto had scratched Sasuke's Hitai-ate and proceeded to scratch his own too.

The conclusion settled into Sasuke's mind dully and almost emotionless. He guessed they were Nukenin now... He wasn't completely sure yet if he was okay with it all, but while looking into Naruto's eyes, he couldn't think of any good reason to want to be part of a village that Naruto didn't want to be part of. So he nodded to Naruto, accepting even this from him without much constraint in the end.

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