Declaration, ch. 2
Title: Declaration
Summary: The Uchiha have always been known for their unfaltering perception. But Sasuke never completed his training with other Uchihas and anyway, with Naruto saying "I love you" left and right, he can surely be forgiven for misunderstanding... right?
Chapter: 2/? - Aggravation
Chapter One: Declaration
---This time, only two days passed before Naruto repeated his words. Then a week before he repeated them again. Four days after that, he said them again. And again, eleven days later. And again - for a month straight it was like this.
Sasuke did everything he could to stop them, but the confessions (were they confessions, though?) just kept coming. Naruto seemed able to take any slightest opportunity. Even though Sasuke completely avoided being alone with him, Naruto always seemed to know when he'd be in a corner with no escape or examining his weaponry or vulnerable in any way to a sudden whisper or mutter or out-loud confession.
Sasuke had reached the point where he was willing to spar with Sakura during team sessions, just so Naruto wouldn't seize an opportunity to mouth, "love you," while trying to stab him again.
It was ridiculous. And stupid. And confusing. And Naruto still didn't show any sign of being affected, and it was driving Sasuke utterly insane.
It… held all the hallmarks of a Naruto prank, and when Sasuke finally realized this, he cursed and flung the scroll he had been struggling to keep his attention on out the window.
He stomped outside in a righteously murderous haze of killing intent that sent even his usually fawning neighbors to the other side of the street, and headed towards Ichiraku Ramen. Naruto would be there. He had to be. Because Sasuke was angrier with him than ever before, and was seriously considering stabbing his eyeballs out.
Sasuke was furious, vengeful, and - he realized after arriving at Ichiraku's only to be forced to wait since Naruto wasn't there at the moment - betrayed. He actually felt betrayed to realize that this was just some sort of prank to drive him crazy. Because in the past month and a half that he'd been receiving Naruto's confessions - no, jokes - he'd actually been affected by them.
Sasuke had started to watch Naruto, as discreetly as possible and always from a distance, but unable to resist. He'd taken notice of what Naruto did and said, and how Naruto felt and reacted to things. He'd studied Naruto incessantly; unable to leave aside the mystery of why such a person would confess to loving Sasuke. Unable to understand, after a while, why he would even love Sasuke in the first place.
Naruto was, Sasuke had discovered after some time watching, extremely contradictory and mysterious in ways even Sasuke himself wasn't. The whole thing with the ankle had been the beginning - no matter how little it made sense, Sasuke was certain that it had been broken, and time had only proven him correct. Once he was actually paying attention, it was easy to realize that Naruto had to have some sort of special bloodline that rapidly decreased his recovery time and, perhaps, even gave him more chakra and stamina than most. After all, no matter what sort of injury Sasuke gave him one day - and, aggravated by the faux love confessions, Sasuke had felt no qualms about experimenting with wounding Naruto in visible places - it was gone the next morning. Really gone, not just mostly recovered or hidden under bandages or the like. And there had always been something suspicious about Naruto's ungodly stamina; it was relieving, in a way, to think that the many kage bunshin he could create were just the result of a bloodline and therefore no thanks to Naruto himself.
Of course, this inevitably brought up the question of just who the Uzumakis had been. It was a standard part of Academy lessons to go over the basics of all the bloodlines present in the village, as well as the more prominent ones in the rest of the ninja world. Sasuke had been a model student, but not one bloodline fit what Naruto seemed to have. Of course Naruto's bloodline could just be that of a lesser-known clan from outside the village, and Naruto himself an immigrant, but that solution came with its own problems. Clans rarely allowed members to leave their villages, especially those people who held their bloodlines. The most realistic solution Sasuke could come up with was that Naruto's father had been a married clan member in another village, and Naruto himself was the result of an affair. His mother must have left to Konoha to raise the baby under her own name, and then presumably died during the Kyuubi attack. This explained the way Naruto's last name didn't match any existing clans, and also why Naruto himself seemed unwilling to let others know about his bloodline abilities. But for some reason, and despite it being the only logical conclusion, Sasuke couldn't quite believe in his theory. It didn't seem to match up with Naruto's personality somehow, and if asked, Naruto was almost too open about never having known his parents. And really, who would prefer to be an orphan than to have family, even if it did come with the knowledge that one was illegitimate? Naruto didn't seem like the type of person to care about that, unless he'd never been told his origins and so really didn't know.
But even if Sasuke ignored all of that, he couldn't deny that he knew next to nothing of Naruto on a personal level. Case-in-point, he thought as he rapped his fingers irritably against the counter, he had to come hang around a ramen stand for hours on end if he wanted to even get in touch with his teammate. Sasuke had no clue where Naruto lived, or what he did in his free time other than pranking the village and eating ramen. Really, despite months of close contact, Sasuke knew little more about Naruto than he had when their team was first assigned: Naruto was loud, fond of the ramen and color orange, wanted to become the Hokage, and was a slightly better fighter than his grades had indicated. Only the last fact was anything new.
Still, despite his lack of concrete evidence, Sasuke had let himself be fooled by Naruto's tricks. He'd thought they were more of Naruto's well-hidden serious side manifesting itself. He'd thought the word 'love' meant something to Naruto, simply because he'd never heard the boy mention it before in his presence. He'd made rash assumptions, based on little more than the fact that he couldn't imagine Naruto ever professing love to him as a joke; he'd thought something like that was sacred to Naruto. Thought Naruto wouldn't sink so low. Sasuke had - somehow, despite constantly looking down on him - greatly overestimated Naruto.
And now he was the one paying the price. Sasuke wouldn't be willing to say he had been ready to agree to Naruto's professed love - for one thing, the guy never stuck around long enough for Sasuke to react, not since the time in the woods. And frankly, Sasuke had no interest in romance, not for a while at least. He'd gone to some effort to make that clear in the Academy. Even beyond that, it was impossible to imagine any sort of romance with Naruto. It wasn't the thought of the relationship being same-sex that was the problem; in ninja villages, acceptance about such things tended to be high. 'Since ninja were likely to die early anyway, why shouldn't they get to enjoy whatever sort of love they could find in the meantime?' was the general attitude, though certain clans were less approving, given the difficulty such relationships created for passing on bloodlines.
No, Naruto himself was the problem. Sasuke didn't think Naruto had a romantic bone in his body - the mere thought of doing something like holding hands or kissing with the other boy, it was… impossible!
But… still. Sasuke felt his face get hot even considering it, but the truth was he couldn't really picture himself involved romantically with anyone. It was also true, though - had become true - that he viewed Naruto as his closest friend: essentially the person who mattered most to him in Konoha, and who, if he had to consider romance at all, he had to admit he'd be more willing to try it with. Possibly. Maybe. If it hadn't been a joke all along!
Sasuke realized he'd been grinding his teeth loudly when the latest arrival at the ramen stand stood up and moved to the other side of the booth. Glancing down, he noticed his fingers were beginning to dent the wood where he'd been rhythmically tapping them.
Sasuke took a deep breath, removed his hand from the counter, and forced himself to calm down. No point in scaring civilians, even if they'd probably understand his ire the moment he mentioned the cause - sometimes it seemed like every individual in Konoha had suffered a personally devastating prank, courtesy of Naruto, and thus would be more than willing to be an alibi for any murder Sasuke might commit today.
…Not that he was willing to go as far as murder. Quite.
Luckily, Sasuke's homicidal daydreams were interrupted before they had the chance to really get off the ground. Even more luckily (well, not for Naruto), they were interrupted by the very person who had starred so bloodily in them.
Naruto waltzed up the street, hands behind his head and big grin on his face. The toad-shaped coin purse he was so proud of hung from his belt, bulging and jingling in a way that dared pickpockets to just try. Every line of his body was loose and relaxed, his hair messy and eyes bright, the very picture of leisure.
He never made it to the ramen stall - didn't even stand a chance. The moment Naruto rounded the corner, Sasuke made his move: with a confused shout, Naruto found himself tackled to the ground, rolled into a wall, netted, and dragged away around the corner. By the time the dust cleared they were already three streets down.
The people on the street glanced at each other for several moments, but seeing as Naruto had been the one in the net, and this was a Hidden Village, they knew better than to react any more than that. Teuchi at the ramen stand was a bit disappointed, as a full toad-purse on Naruto's belt usually meant his next month's rent - but the fingerprinted dents in his countertop were enough to dissuade him from arguing. It was best for business if angry ninja were far away from his shop, and Naruto would probably return for dinner, anyway.
---
Sasuke didn't stop until he'd reached an unused training area on the outskirts of the village. He'd intended the long run to cool his ire a bit, but one look at Naruto's annoyed-but-confused face and he had to punch the nearest tree to stop himself from murdering his teammate.
"You - imbecile," he hissed through gritted teeth, transported by a near-uncontrollable fury now that he was looking at the face of his malefactor. "How dare you?"
Naruto just squirmed in his bonds, clearly failing to realize the gravity of the situation. So far as he knew, Sasuke had gone insane and kidnapped him away from his ramen and that was the end of it. Naruto should be the one outraged, not the other way around. "How dare you, you bastard! Today's the two-for-one special and it's ending in an hour! Let me go back there!"
"You little - no. No. You are going to stay here and explain to me why the hell you did that and I'm going to try not to kill you, and -"
Naruto paused. "Why I did what?"
Sasuke nearly snapped, hands jerking out towards Naruto's throat before he managed to restrain himself. His fingers were shaking. Actually all of him was shaking. He suddenly couldn't breathe. Naruto had done all this to him and didn't even remember, didn't even care, how could he-
Because it didn't matter. It was easy to forget, of course. Just a prank. Sasuke was the only one who noticed, who cared, who brooded on it for days and had honestly started to feel something in reaction. Because Sasuke was the one who valued Naruto so much, trusted him as a friend even if he never said it, believed Naruto would never screw with such an important thing - whereas to Naruto, Sasuke was just a rival. That's what all of the arguments and sparring were about - Naruto really meant his insults, it wasn't just 'how they were' like Sasuke had begun to think and maybe Naruto valued him as a teammate but nothing more than that at all and he'd been stupid to even think it - Naruto didn't care. Of course not.
Sasuke felt like laughing wildly all of a sudden. He didn't, but only because he hadn't done so in years and wasn't sure his muscles remembered how. Still, something must have seemed off about his expression, because Naruto was giving him a funny look.
"Oi… what's wrong with you?" he asked, and Sasuke loathed himself for hearing concern in that voice. There wasn't any, he didn't even want any; he had to get out of here.
"Nothing," he spat. "I just figured you out, Naruto."
Filled with fury and self-disgust and some choking feeling he couldn't even name - he left.
---
Chapter Three: Revelation
Summary: The Uchiha have always been known for their unfaltering perception. But Sasuke never completed his training with other Uchihas and anyway, with Naruto saying "I love you" left and right, he can surely be forgiven for misunderstanding... right?
Chapter: 2/? - Aggravation
Chapter One: Declaration
---This time, only two days passed before Naruto repeated his words. Then a week before he repeated them again. Four days after that, he said them again. And again, eleven days later. And again - for a month straight it was like this.
Sasuke did everything he could to stop them, but the confessions (were they confessions, though?) just kept coming. Naruto seemed able to take any slightest opportunity. Even though Sasuke completely avoided being alone with him, Naruto always seemed to know when he'd be in a corner with no escape or examining his weaponry or vulnerable in any way to a sudden whisper or mutter or out-loud confession.
Sasuke had reached the point where he was willing to spar with Sakura during team sessions, just so Naruto wouldn't seize an opportunity to mouth, "love you," while trying to stab him again.
It was ridiculous. And stupid. And confusing. And Naruto still didn't show any sign of being affected, and it was driving Sasuke utterly insane.
It… held all the hallmarks of a Naruto prank, and when Sasuke finally realized this, he cursed and flung the scroll he had been struggling to keep his attention on out the window.
He stomped outside in a righteously murderous haze of killing intent that sent even his usually fawning neighbors to the other side of the street, and headed towards Ichiraku Ramen. Naruto would be there. He had to be. Because Sasuke was angrier with him than ever before, and was seriously considering stabbing his eyeballs out.
Sasuke was furious, vengeful, and - he realized after arriving at Ichiraku's only to be forced to wait since Naruto wasn't there at the moment - betrayed. He actually felt betrayed to realize that this was just some sort of prank to drive him crazy. Because in the past month and a half that he'd been receiving Naruto's confessions - no, jokes - he'd actually been affected by them.
Sasuke had started to watch Naruto, as discreetly as possible and always from a distance, but unable to resist. He'd taken notice of what Naruto did and said, and how Naruto felt and reacted to things. He'd studied Naruto incessantly; unable to leave aside the mystery of why such a person would confess to loving Sasuke. Unable to understand, after a while, why he would even love Sasuke in the first place.
Naruto was, Sasuke had discovered after some time watching, extremely contradictory and mysterious in ways even Sasuke himself wasn't. The whole thing with the ankle had been the beginning - no matter how little it made sense, Sasuke was certain that it had been broken, and time had only proven him correct. Once he was actually paying attention, it was easy to realize that Naruto had to have some sort of special bloodline that rapidly decreased his recovery time and, perhaps, even gave him more chakra and stamina than most. After all, no matter what sort of injury Sasuke gave him one day - and, aggravated by the faux love confessions, Sasuke had felt no qualms about experimenting with wounding Naruto in visible places - it was gone the next morning. Really gone, not just mostly recovered or hidden under bandages or the like. And there had always been something suspicious about Naruto's ungodly stamina; it was relieving, in a way, to think that the many kage bunshin he could create were just the result of a bloodline and therefore no thanks to Naruto himself.
Of course, this inevitably brought up the question of just who the Uzumakis had been. It was a standard part of Academy lessons to go over the basics of all the bloodlines present in the village, as well as the more prominent ones in the rest of the ninja world. Sasuke had been a model student, but not one bloodline fit what Naruto seemed to have. Of course Naruto's bloodline could just be that of a lesser-known clan from outside the village, and Naruto himself an immigrant, but that solution came with its own problems. Clans rarely allowed members to leave their villages, especially those people who held their bloodlines. The most realistic solution Sasuke could come up with was that Naruto's father had been a married clan member in another village, and Naruto himself was the result of an affair. His mother must have left to Konoha to raise the baby under her own name, and then presumably died during the Kyuubi attack. This explained the way Naruto's last name didn't match any existing clans, and also why Naruto himself seemed unwilling to let others know about his bloodline abilities. But for some reason, and despite it being the only logical conclusion, Sasuke couldn't quite believe in his theory. It didn't seem to match up with Naruto's personality somehow, and if asked, Naruto was almost too open about never having known his parents. And really, who would prefer to be an orphan than to have family, even if it did come with the knowledge that one was illegitimate? Naruto didn't seem like the type of person to care about that, unless he'd never been told his origins and so really didn't know.
But even if Sasuke ignored all of that, he couldn't deny that he knew next to nothing of Naruto on a personal level. Case-in-point, he thought as he rapped his fingers irritably against the counter, he had to come hang around a ramen stand for hours on end if he wanted to even get in touch with his teammate. Sasuke had no clue where Naruto lived, or what he did in his free time other than pranking the village and eating ramen. Really, despite months of close contact, Sasuke knew little more about Naruto than he had when their team was first assigned: Naruto was loud, fond of the ramen and color orange, wanted to become the Hokage, and was a slightly better fighter than his grades had indicated. Only the last fact was anything new.
Still, despite his lack of concrete evidence, Sasuke had let himself be fooled by Naruto's tricks. He'd thought they were more of Naruto's well-hidden serious side manifesting itself. He'd thought the word 'love' meant something to Naruto, simply because he'd never heard the boy mention it before in his presence. He'd made rash assumptions, based on little more than the fact that he couldn't imagine Naruto ever professing love to him as a joke; he'd thought something like that was sacred to Naruto. Thought Naruto wouldn't sink so low. Sasuke had - somehow, despite constantly looking down on him - greatly overestimated Naruto.
And now he was the one paying the price. Sasuke wouldn't be willing to say he had been ready to agree to Naruto's professed love - for one thing, the guy never stuck around long enough for Sasuke to react, not since the time in the woods. And frankly, Sasuke had no interest in romance, not for a while at least. He'd gone to some effort to make that clear in the Academy. Even beyond that, it was impossible to imagine any sort of romance with Naruto. It wasn't the thought of the relationship being same-sex that was the problem; in ninja villages, acceptance about such things tended to be high. 'Since ninja were likely to die early anyway, why shouldn't they get to enjoy whatever sort of love they could find in the meantime?' was the general attitude, though certain clans were less approving, given the difficulty such relationships created for passing on bloodlines.
No, Naruto himself was the problem. Sasuke didn't think Naruto had a romantic bone in his body - the mere thought of doing something like holding hands or kissing with the other boy, it was… impossible!
But… still. Sasuke felt his face get hot even considering it, but the truth was he couldn't really picture himself involved romantically with anyone. It was also true, though - had become true - that he viewed Naruto as his closest friend: essentially the person who mattered most to him in Konoha, and who, if he had to consider romance at all, he had to admit he'd be more willing to try it with. Possibly. Maybe. If it hadn't been a joke all along!
Sasuke realized he'd been grinding his teeth loudly when the latest arrival at the ramen stand stood up and moved to the other side of the booth. Glancing down, he noticed his fingers were beginning to dent the wood where he'd been rhythmically tapping them.
Sasuke took a deep breath, removed his hand from the counter, and forced himself to calm down. No point in scaring civilians, even if they'd probably understand his ire the moment he mentioned the cause - sometimes it seemed like every individual in Konoha had suffered a personally devastating prank, courtesy of Naruto, and thus would be more than willing to be an alibi for any murder Sasuke might commit today.
…Not that he was willing to go as far as murder. Quite.
Luckily, Sasuke's homicidal daydreams were interrupted before they had the chance to really get off the ground. Even more luckily (well, not for Naruto), they were interrupted by the very person who had starred so bloodily in them.
Naruto waltzed up the street, hands behind his head and big grin on his face. The toad-shaped coin purse he was so proud of hung from his belt, bulging and jingling in a way that dared pickpockets to just try. Every line of his body was loose and relaxed, his hair messy and eyes bright, the very picture of leisure.
He never made it to the ramen stall - didn't even stand a chance. The moment Naruto rounded the corner, Sasuke made his move: with a confused shout, Naruto found himself tackled to the ground, rolled into a wall, netted, and dragged away around the corner. By the time the dust cleared they were already three streets down.
The people on the street glanced at each other for several moments, but seeing as Naruto had been the one in the net, and this was a Hidden Village, they knew better than to react any more than that. Teuchi at the ramen stand was a bit disappointed, as a full toad-purse on Naruto's belt usually meant his next month's rent - but the fingerprinted dents in his countertop were enough to dissuade him from arguing. It was best for business if angry ninja were far away from his shop, and Naruto would probably return for dinner, anyway.
---
Sasuke didn't stop until he'd reached an unused training area on the outskirts of the village. He'd intended the long run to cool his ire a bit, but one look at Naruto's annoyed-but-confused face and he had to punch the nearest tree to stop himself from murdering his teammate.
"You - imbecile," he hissed through gritted teeth, transported by a near-uncontrollable fury now that he was looking at the face of his malefactor. "How dare you?"
Naruto just squirmed in his bonds, clearly failing to realize the gravity of the situation. So far as he knew, Sasuke had gone insane and kidnapped him away from his ramen and that was the end of it. Naruto should be the one outraged, not the other way around. "How dare you, you bastard! Today's the two-for-one special and it's ending in an hour! Let me go back there!"
"You little - no. No. You are going to stay here and explain to me why the hell you did that and I'm going to try not to kill you, and -"
Naruto paused. "Why I did what?"
Sasuke nearly snapped, hands jerking out towards Naruto's throat before he managed to restrain himself. His fingers were shaking. Actually all of him was shaking. He suddenly couldn't breathe. Naruto had done all this to him and didn't even remember, didn't even care, how could he-
Because it didn't matter. It was easy to forget, of course. Just a prank. Sasuke was the only one who noticed, who cared, who brooded on it for days and had honestly started to feel something in reaction. Because Sasuke was the one who valued Naruto so much, trusted him as a friend even if he never said it, believed Naruto would never screw with such an important thing - whereas to Naruto, Sasuke was just a rival. That's what all of the arguments and sparring were about - Naruto really meant his insults, it wasn't just 'how they were' like Sasuke had begun to think and maybe Naruto valued him as a teammate but nothing more than that at all and he'd been stupid to even think it - Naruto didn't care. Of course not.
Sasuke felt like laughing wildly all of a sudden. He didn't, but only because he hadn't done so in years and wasn't sure his muscles remembered how. Still, something must have seemed off about his expression, because Naruto was giving him a funny look.
"Oi… what's wrong with you?" he asked, and Sasuke loathed himself for hearing concern in that voice. There wasn't any, he didn't even want any; he had to get out of here.
"Nothing," he spat. "I just figured you out, Naruto."
Filled with fury and self-disgust and some choking feeling he couldn't even name - he left.
---
Chapter Three: Revelation