Archive of Our Own

“The Uchiha engagement would be the perfect momentum. We could align the candy festival with—”

Naruto has faced down tailed beasts, war, gods that tried to break the world in half. He’s stood in front of things that should have terrified him.

And yet nothing has ever hit him quite as hard as this.

It’s probably why it felt like the air had been knocked out straight out of him, his vision going out of focus. The sound of Shikamaru’s voice is now fading into something in the background. It’s like Naruto has been submerged underwater, like he has to swim to the surface to get a better hearing of everything that’s being said in the room right now and yet he can’t. 

He recalls the one time Sai told him about the feeling of drowning.

The feeling of your lungs burning, your throat tightening, and how your entire body is fighting as hard as it can to keep yourself afloat. He remembers how Sai mentioned the sensation of being on fire and how it is exactly the word Naruto would use for his situation right now. 

Heat in his chest, and it feels sharp and immediate. He wants to pull himself away from it, like how he would hiss and move his hand away from a pot that’s too hot whenever he accidentally touches it while boiling ramen. He wants to pull his heart away from whatever this all is.

“–Naruto?” 

Oh.

He is still here after all. 

“Are you okay?” Kakashi’s face comes into focus as Naruto takes in his surroundings again. 

Right, this is a meeting. 

It was supposed to be about the candy festival. Naruto had been so excited to go over it. Iruka had mentioned the amount of energy at the academy from how ecstatic the kids were to attend it. Kakashi has been putting him through all these meetings with him as a part of his Hokage training. He doesn’t remember how the words Uchiha and engagement could ever exist, let alone be a topic anywhere near the candy festival. 

The festival is going to happen in three months for fuck’s sake. 

Is Sasuke going to be married by then?

Who is he engaged to? 

There are a million things fizzing through Naruto’s brain right now. He knows this must look comical to Kakashi and Shikamaru, he is well aware of his own reluctance towards not opening his mouth. 

He sets his eyes on Kakashi. 

“Ah– ahem–” His throat is on fire. “Sorry.” 

“Everything alright?” Shikamaru is eyeing him and Naruto knows he’s been caught. 

The most observant shinobi is sitting in front of him with his eyes squinted like he’s staring at a string of code to be solved. Naruto is nowhere near as complex. He’s probably more of a children’s book of drawings for Shikamaru to read. 

“Yeah, just, um.” It’s really hard to find his words. “I never heard anything about a, what was it? Uchiha— wed— hah.” He huffs because he can’t even say it. His lungs feel like they’re going to collapse.

Kakashi’s eyes widen, as if he’s just as surprised as Naruto about this whole thing. 

How Naruto is the last to hear about this supposed wedding, when he was literally the one who fought tooth and nail to drag Sasuke back to Konoha. He doesn’t understand that himself.

His brain feels like it’s peeling itself layer by layer, piece by piece being lifted to see if there’s any crevices left untouched that consists of any mention, any sign of Sasuke’s engagement. He finds none, he remembers nothing, he knows nothing. 

God, Naruto was going to throw up. 

“You haven’t heard?” Kakashi sounds solemn, but Naruto can tell he uses this same voice when he’s trying to identify the levels of danger to a situation. This is what Kakashi sounds like when he’s in the interrogation room with Ino at his side, ready to peel back layers of a detonating bomb in the form of a human mind. 

Yeah, he’s really going to throw up. 

He pushes out his seat and stands up, “I have to go.” 

“Naruto, wait.” Kakashi’s hand shoots out to grab him, but Naruto flinches away. 

“I’m sorry, Hokage-sama.” The title leaves Naruto’s mouth before he can stop it. He hears Kakashi’s sharp intake of breath behind him. Hokage-sama. He’s never called him that before. Not once. It’s always been Kakashi-sensei, even after the hat, even after the office.

Now the word feels strange and heavy on his tongue, like it belongs to someone else.

Like everything suddenly does.

The room tilts and Naruto feels the ground slipping somewhere beneath his feet. The walls, the desk, the familiar clutter of Kakashi’s office. None of it feels like his world anymore. It’s like he’s already been pushed outside of it.

“I just have to—” He stops.

To what? To breathe? To get out before something inside him tears open? To find somewhere he can spill all of this out without anyone watching?

The sentence dies halfway out of his mouth as he storms out of the room. 

The voices of Shikamaru and Kakashi fade behind him as they call his name, the sound thinning out the farther he runs. Naruto doesn’t even know where he’s going. His feet just keep moving, carrying him away from the office, away from them, away from that room.

What the fuck is happening right now?

His head feels like it’s about to split open. There’s a high, constant ringing in his ears that won’t stop, like something inside his skull has started vibrating and forgotten how to settle. His heart is pounding just as loudly, a heavy, uneven thud against his ribs that makes it hard to breathe properly.

For a second, a strange thought cuts through the noise.

Is he about to faint?

He’s never fainted before. Never even come close. But the idea doesn’t feel impossible right now. Everything feels distant and too bright at the same time, like his body is struggling to keep up with whatever is happening inside his head.

Is it possible to faint from being overwhelmed?

Should he go to the hospital?

Naruto presses a hand against his chest, trying to steady his breathing, but it doesn’t help. The pounding doesn’t slow. The ringing doesn’t stop.

He doesn’t feel well.

His skin doesn’t fit right. It hangs on him wrong, stretched too tight in some places, sagging in others, like it was measured for a different body and pulled over his by mistake. Every movement makes him aware of it. The heat underneath. The way it feels ready to loosen at the seams.

There’s this crawling sense that it’s sliding off him in slow increments. Slip by slip. As if gravity has already claimed him from the inside out and the only thing holding him together is his confusion, his disappointment, his anger, and at last: his fear. 

So, he runs. 

He runs outside of the gate, he runs with nowhere to go, he runs until he can feel the chakra on his feet bubbling and surging like sands on the balls of his feet. The tree branches barely feel like anything as he heads for nowhere. There’s voices in his head, muffled but stacked on top of each other like someone’s turned on a radio and is turning the dial to different stations over and over and over again. The voices switch from one thing to another and another and another, but it’s not his voice. It’s not even Kurama’s.

It’s Sasuke’s. 

The sound of it cuts through everything else, sharp and familiar, echoing through Naruto’s mind as memory after memory drifts to the surface. Fleeting pieces of every moment they’ve ever shared flash past him, slipping in and out of focus like reflections on water. Sasuke’s voice saying his name. The look on his face across countless battlefields. 

The look on Sasuke’s face, when they had been bloodied and bruised, hearts on their sleeves, two-hands short. 

Naruto remembers the exact moment he felt like his heart was going to burst out of his chest and make a mess that’s worse than the blood coming out of his decapitated arm. 

I lost, Sasuke had said. 

The thrill he felt at the realization that Sasuke is coming home, he is going to be with him again. 

It isn’t long until Naruto tastes blood in his mouth. He’s been gnawing on the inside of his mouth and chewing his lips raw throughout this entire directionless run that this was bound to happen. God, he doesn’t even know where he’s going to go. 

He felt the tackle before he knew it. 

The familiar lightning sizzle he could read like the back of his hand. 

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” 

Naruto’s heart clenched at the sound of his voice. He wants to reach into his own throat, grab at it, and launch it at the other shinobi’s face, thudding and bloody and all. 

Look at this mess, he wants to say. You own this. 

Sasuke looks as calm as ever, that perpetual annoyed look on his face. 

“What are you doing here?” Naruto asks, and he knows he sounds breathless. It’s not from the running. He’s run halfway to Suna before without even noticing the burn in his lungs, but this is entirely different. The breathlessness he feels is more like he was just dragged from an open body of water, chest heaving, mouth spluttering out water in need to get air back into the lungs.

“I felt your chakra whizzing through the hospital. It was messy,” Sasuke says, like that explains everything. Like it’s the most normal thing in the world for him to notice Naruto’s chakra from across the village while being engaged to someone else.

Naruto stares at him.

For a brief, vivid second, he considers punching him straight in the face.

“Why did you follow me?” 

Sasuke’s eyes narrow, like the question had offended him. As if the question has too much of an obvious answer that to question such things looks stupid. Naruto wants to laugh, they haven’t even got to the worst part yet. Sasuke doesn’t know what Naruto knows.

“Don’t ask stupid questions, Usuratonkachi,” Sasuke mutters with a small, impatient click of his tongue. Then, after a beat, “Are you okay?”

That actually gets a laugh out of him.

It slips out sharp and humorless, and Sasuke’s expression shifts immediately, confusion knitting his brows together.

“Am I okay?” Naruto repeats, still half laughing as he takes a few slow steps toward him.

Sasuke doesn’t move back. He never does. This is what they do, one pushes and the other braces it. There’s never been anyone between the two of them that is familiar with the concept of taking a step back when the other steps forward.

Naruto continues, “You tell me, Sasuke. If you were to hear from literally anyone else in the world that I’m engaged to someone else. Would you be okay?” 

Sasuke’s eyes widen. The deep purple of his rinnegan contrasting beautifully with the rest of his face. He’s so beautiful. The way his hair falls and frames his face. The way the slope of his nose arches, the way his lips part in surprise. 

Naruto has had more dreams about Sasuke than the entire stars in the night sky. 

“What are you getting at?” Sasuke asks, and he has the audacity to look genuinely perplexed.

Like this whole situation is somehow unclear to him. Like Naruto standing here, seconds away from tearing his own hair out over the idea of Sasuke marrying someone else, is some kind of unsolvable puzzle.

Look at this mess. 

“Don’t be stupid, Sasuke.” Naruto huffs, he can hear his own fatigue. “That’s never your thing.” 

“No, that’s your thing!” Sasuke’s voice rises and it’s Naruto’s turn to be confused now. 

Why is he angry? 

He’s not the one who had to hear about this fucked-up, horrid story of an engagement. 

“Excuse me?!” Naruto feels his own chakra flaring up. The absolute audacity of Sasuke to be even remotely upset at Naruto makes him want to rip into a tree just to feel the bark scratch at the skin of his palms. There’s an itch there that makes him want to do something stupid, like hold Sasuke’s face between them as he searches those two-colored eyes for what the fuck is going on in his head. 

“What are you even getting at here?” Sasuke starts, “You’re about to throw a tantrum, all upset and angry, because of that?” 

Naruto is so baffled at the anger from Sasuke that he opens his mouth and closes it again. 

He was supposed to be the one angry here. 

“You literally never told me anything about it!” Naruto shoots back, irritation rising fast enough that he barely hears how sharp his own voice sounds.

The whole conversation is starting to crawl under his skin. It sits there, hot and persistent, like a rash spreading along his ribs. It itches in that maddening way where scratching only makes it worse, but ignoring it isn’t possible either.

“Why the fuck should I?” Sasuke says, his voice so flat it almost doesn’t sound like a question at all.

Naruto hears it immediately. That particular kind of flatness Sasuke only gets when he’s past ordinary irritation and sliding into something colder. The kind that means he’s already decided Naruto is being a pain and is two seconds away from shutting the whole conversation down.

There’s no raised voice or any real bite in the tone. Just that eerily even, level tone that feels more like a warning than calmness, like Sasuke is daring him to push this one step further and see what happens.

Naruto feels the shift and it only makes the knot in his chest tighten. Sasuke’s annoyed. Really annoyed. And somehow that makes it worse, because now Naruto knows this is Sasuke telling him he should probably back off.

He doesn’t.

“Because I don’t approve of it!” Naruto snaps, the words bursting out of him before he can even try to smooth them over. His hands curl into fists at his sides, knuckles whitening, frustration sitting hot and ugly in his chest. He hears himself and knows how it sounds. Petty. Stupid, even. Like some self-appointed authority throwing his weight around.

But the anger is already there, clawing up his throat, too big to swallow back now.

For a moment Naruto thought the words didn’t register, because Sasuke just stares at him with a straight face. 

Then Sasuke starts pacing.

The clearing isn’t large, just a rough patch of dirt carved out between the trees, but he uses every inch of it, boots grinding into the loose soil as he turns sharply and cuts back the other way. The scene looks eerie for Naruto, Sasuke is a lot of things but he is never openly restless. Not since their valley of the end. But right now, Sasuke looks like he’s seconds away from unraveling, with the restless, coiled movement of someone trying very hard not to lose their temper and failing anyway.

When Sasuke looks up again, his glare lands squarely on Naruto.

“Do you even comprehend the level of audacity you have right now?” he demands, already moving again, a tight turn across the clearing before he faces him once more. “Standing here in front of me like this, not even trying to hide your blatant disapproval, which I never asked for, by the way, at my engagement?”

The word my engagement lands hard between them. Naruto wants to shove it back into Sasuke’s throat. 

Take it back, he wants to say. 

Don’t call the engagement yours. 

It’s not yours.

Sasuke scoffs under his breath, shaking his head as if Naruto’s presence alone is enough to irritate him further.

“Did you even think about what it took for me to do it?” he continues, voice sharpening despite the controlled way he holds himself. “Or did that not cross your mind either?” He stops pacing then, fixing Naruto with a look that’s equal parts incredulous and furious. “Did you even stop for one second to consider that what you’re so openly disapproving of might actually be my happiness?”

“No.” The word leaves Naruto’s mouth before he even realizes he’s decided to say it.

Sasuke freezes. “What?”

For a second he just stares at Naruto like he might actually swing at him, jaw tight, eyes sharp with disbelief. Naruto feels the same tight heat sitting in his chest, that same ugly urge to shove back just as hard.

Still, when he speaks again, his voice comes out steady.

“I know that it’s not your happiness,” Naruto says calmly.

“Do you even know who I’m engaged to?”

“It doesn’t matter.” The words are hard and final. 

Naruto knows he’s never been the sharpest tool in the shed, but one thing he knows is Sasuke’s heart.

“Don’t do that.” Sasuke has stopped pacing. He stands rigid now, fists clenched tight at his sides, shoulders drawn taut like he’s bracing against something. He gives a small, sharp shake of his head, like he’s trying to cut Naruto off before he can go any further.

“Do what?” Naruto asks, the challenge clear in his voice as he takes a few deliberate steps closer to Sasuke.

“You don’t get to do this.” For the first time in their lives, Sasuke steps back.

It’s only a few steps, but Naruto notices it immediately. Sasuke never retreats. Not from him. Not like this. The movement looks almost instinctive, like he needs the space, like being close to Naruto right now is too much. It makes Naruto’s head spin.

“No, you don’t get to do this!” Naruto spits out, he can hear his own anger as he chases after Sasuke, taking extra steps to make up for the ones Sasuke took back. 

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Naruto?” Sasuke’s temper finally snaps through the restraint in his voice, and he shoves one hand into Naruto’s chest, pushing him back.

This, Naruto can take. Not the space, never the space.  

“You sound fucking insane right now,” Sasuke says harshly. He looks almost wild, eyes wide and sharp, anger pulled tight across his face.

“Sorry, but how the fuck am I the insane one here?” Naruto demands, genuine confusion cutting through the anger in his voice.

He honestly doesn’t understand where Sasuke is coming from. The whole thing feels backwards, like they’re having two completely different conversations and Sasuke is the only one who knows the rules.

How, in any version of reality inside Sasuke’s head, was Naruto supposed to be okay with him getting engaged to someone else?

Naruto starts pacing now, the agitation in his chest finally spilling over into movement. He drags a hand through his hair as he turns sharply across the clearing, words tumbling out faster the longer he speaks.

“I spent my entire life chasing after you,” he says, voice rising as he throws a hand out in Sasuke’s direction. “Bending over backwards for the smallest, stupidest sliver of hope that I could get you to come home.”

He turns again, pacing a few more steps before stopping and looking straight at him.

“So why, Sasuke, pray tell,” Naruto continues, the frustration cracking openly through his voice now, “why the fuck would there be a universe where I’d want you married?” 

Sasuke looks like he’s just been punched in the face.

For a split second he simply stares at Naruto, something stunned and raw flashing across his expression. Then he steps forward and actually does it. His fist connects with Naruto’s jaw, the impact snapping Naruto’s head sharply to the side. Pain flares instantly, a hot sting spreading across his jaw where Sasuke’s knuckles landed.

Sasuke looks livid now.

“You walk around the village with your perfect little Hyūga heiress hanging off your arm,” he spits, every word sharp with fury, “and you have the audacity to stand here and criticize me for being engaged?”

His eyes burn as he glares at Naruto, breath tight with anger.

Naruto blinks at him, completely thrown.

Hinata? What the hell does Hinata have to do with any of this? She’s his friend. She’s always just been his friend.

He barely even has time to open his mouth before Sasuke is shoving him again, one hand hitting his chest hard enough to make him stumble a step back.

“You don’t want me married?” Sasuke snaps, his voice breaking loose from that tight control he usually keeps on it, climbing sharp with anger. “Then what the fuck was I supposed to do, Naruto?” 

Another shove. 

“Just stand around in loneliness?” he demands, eyes blazing. “Waiting while you keep dangling this stupid, fucked-up concept of a friendship in front of me like it’s supposed to be enough?”

“Sasuke—” Naruto tries, but it goes nowhere. Sasuke looks like he’s vibrating where he stands, every line of him wound tight with fury.

“No,” Sasuke cuts in immediately. “You don’t get to say that.”

His voice snaps like a whip.

“You don’t get to stand there looking at me like that,” he continues, eyes blazing, “with that stupid, pained look on your face, my name on your lips, like any of this is somehow my fault.”

Naruto lets out a sharp huff, frustration boiling over. At this point he’s not even sure which feeling is louder, the anger or the sheer confusion twisting in his chest.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he demands, running a hand roughly through his hair. “No, seriously, what the actual fuck are you talking about right now?”

Now it’s Sasuke’s turn to go quiet.

The sheer force of Naruto’s frustration seems to knock the words right out of him. He just stands there for a second, staring, like he hadn’t expected the anger to come crashing back at him this loudly.

Naruto doesn’t give him the chance to recover.

He grabs Sasuke by the shoulders, fingers digging into the fabric, shaking him once, twice, like he’s trying to rattle something loose inside his head.

“Sasuke,” Naruto says, voice tight with something that’s dangerously close to breaking through the anger, “I dedicated my whole life just for the chance to be at your side!”

His grip tightens. He can see Sasuke’s eyes flitting to the fake arm built with Hashirama’s cells. Naruto’s own eyes flit to the empty space under Sasuke’s sleeve.

“Does that not mean anything?” he demands. “Anything at all?”

Sasuke wrenches Naruto’s hands off his shoulders, shoving them away like the contact itself burns.

He stares at him like Naruto is the one who’s lost his mind.

“I asked you,” Sasuke says, voice shaking with fury, “multiple times. Time and time and time again.” 

Each of Sasuke’s repetition lands harder than the last, Naruto feels it to his stomach like a fist connecting — blow after blow after blow. 

“Why did you do it? Why did you keep chasing me? Why did you refuse to let me go?” His eyes flash, jaw tight. “And every single time, Naruto, every single time, you gave me the same answer.”

Sasuke lets out a harsh, disbelieving laugh.

“That I’m your friend.” He gestures sharply between them. His one hand waving wildly between the two of them. As if he cannot stress it enough. “Your friend, Naruto.”

Naruto lets out a frustrated grunt, the sound dragged straight out of his chest.

“And you are!” he shoots back.

His head is starting to pound now, the ringing in his ears louder than ever, like the whole conversation has been cranked up past what his brain can handle.

Sasuke is his friend.

So what?

Naruto stares at him, breathing hard, trying to keep up with whatever point Sasuke thinks he’s making. He doesn’t get it. He really doesn’t. What the hell is Sasuke even trying to say here?

Sasuke looks like he might actually scream. Hand clenching into a fist at his side, shoulders tight with the effort of holding himself together.

“Do you hear yourself right now?” he demands, voice sharp with disbelief. “Do you have any idea how stupid you sound?”

His glare burns straight through Naruto.

“You fucking idiot.” Sasuke keeps going. 

He shoves Naruto again, harder this time, the force of it sending Naruto stumbling back a step. “You can’t fucking say I’m just your friend and then lose your mind when I get engaged to someone else!”

His hand is still clenched like he’s barely stopping himself from swinging again.

Just a friend?

Oh. 

Oh. 

It all clicks together now. 

Sasuke thinks that being Naruto’s friend is all that there is. Naruto is bewildered. For someone so smart, Sasuke is so fucking stupid. Of course Naruto doesn’t think that Sasuke is just a friend. 

God, why would being a friend negate the fact that if someone were to take a knife and slice it into Naruto’s chest, all that would seep out is Sasuke’s name through his veins? 

Sasuke lunges forward again, clearly about to shove him, but this time Naruto catches his wrist before he can.

“Sasuke—”

“No, shut the fuck up—”

“Sas— hey— fuck—, Listen to me!” Naruto’s grip tightens, both hands closing around Sasuke’s wrist to hold him still.

“Let go of my fucking hand, Usuratonkachi!” Sasuke snaps, trying to yank himself free.

Naruto releases him immediately, throwing his hands up in a sharp gesture of surrender.

“Okay!” he says, exasperation spilling into his voice. “But will you just listen to me for a second?”

Sasuke still looks like he’s seconds away from throwing another punch, anger coiled tight in every line of him. But he doesn’t move. He just stands there, breathing hard, glaring at Naruto as he waits.

Naruto has a whole speech ready. It’s been building in his head since the moment this conversation started unraveling, words lined up and waiting for the second Sasuke finally stopped yelling long enough to hear them.

But Sasuke has always been frighteningly good at pushing Naruto’s buttons. Instead of saying anything, Sasuke slips his hand into his own pocket.

Naruto barely notices at first. He’s still trying to keep hold of the words he’d been about to say, dragging them back together in his head before they scatter completely.

Then Sasuke pulls something out.

A ring.

It dangles from a thin chain, catching the light as Sasuke lifts it. Naruto’s eyes lock onto it immediately, the sight of it hitting him like a sudden drop in his stomach.

Sasuke doesn’t look away from him.

Slowly, deliberately, he lifts the chain and slips it over his head, letting the ring fall against his chest where it settles just below his collarbone.

As if he’s proving a point and he knows exactly what it will do.

Naruto’s brain short-circuits.

For a split second everything goes blank, the world narrowing to the small, brutal glint of metal resting against Sasuke’s chest. Something hot and violent surges up through his chest so fast it almost makes his vision flash white.

He’s about two seconds away from seeing red.

One.

Two.

Naruto moves before he even realizes he’s decided to.

His hand shoots forward, grabbing for the chain at Sasuke’s chest.

“Don’t fucking play with me right now,” he growls.

Sasuke twists away instantly. Fast. Predictable in the way only Sasuke can be.

Naruto’s fingers close on air.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Sasuke snaps, already moving.

Naruto doesn’t answer. He’s already lunging again, hand shooting straight for the chain hanging against Sasuke’s chest. Sasuke reacts on instinct, twisting his body sideways just before Naruto’s fingers close around it. Naruto only manages to catch the edge of Sasuke’s shirt instead, fabric bunching hard in his fist as Sasuke jerks backward to break the hold.

They stumble a step in the dirt.

Sasuke shoves at Naruto’s shoulder, trying to force distance between them, but Naruto surges forward again immediately, not giving him the space. His other hand comes up, reaching for the chain again, fingers grazing the metal for a split second before Sasuke catches his wrist and slaps it away.

“Are you out of your mind?” Sasuke demands, voice sharp with disbelief.

Naruto still doesn’t answer. His thoughts have narrowed down to one brutal point of focus: the ring swinging against Sasuke’s chest every time he moves.

He grabs for Sasuke again.

This time he catches him properly, fist twisting into the front of Sasuke’s shirt and dragging him forward while his other hand claws upward toward the chain. Sasuke braces immediately, planting his foot and driving his shoulder into Naruto’s chest to break the angle. The impact sends both of them staggering sideways across the clearing, boots scraping and kicking up loose dirt as they struggle for balance.

It isn’t graceful. It isn’t even really a fight. It’s two of the strongest shinobi alive grappling like idiots, shoving and grabbing and trying to overpower each other without any of the usual precision they’d bring to an actual battle.

Naruto tries to hook his fingers under the chain again.

Sasuke twists away, knocking his hand aside and grabbing Naruto by the collar to shove him back, but Naruto just uses the movement to drag him closer instead. The chain swings again between them, catching the light, and Naruto’s hand shoots up for it before Sasuke can pull away.

“Take that shit off,” Naruto says.

His voice is low enough that it barely carries across the clearing, rough with something that sounds a lot like a threat. The sound of it startles even him, but he doesn’t take it back.

Sasuke hears it as well.

His expression shifts immediately, something dark flashing across his face as he wrenches himself free and shoves Naruto back hard enough to break the grip. Naruto stumbles a step but comes forward again almost instantly, grabbing for him before the distance can widen, one hand catching Sasuke’s sleeve while the other reaches straight for the chain again.

This time his fingers close around it.

The thin metal digs into his palms as Sasuke jerks backward, the sudden tension pulling the chain tight between them, Naruto can feel the ring twisting sharply as both of them freeze for half a second in the abrupt strain.

Naruto’s grip tightens. 

All he can think about is snapping this fucking ring in half.

If it were anybody else, Naruto would have handled this differently. He would’ve stopped to think, would’ve been more careful about the force he used, more aware of the other person standing in front of him.

But Naruto has never been particularly logical when it comes to Sasuke.

So he doesn’t think about any of that now.

His fist tightens around the chain and he yanks.

The metal snaps apart with a sharp, brittle sound. The sudden break sends the loose ends whipping back, and Sasuke hisses under his breath as the chain drags hard across the back of his neck before falling away entirely. The ring lands in Naruto’s palm, the broken chain dangling from his fingers as Sasuke reaches instinctively for the irritated skin at his nape, jaw tightening at the sting.

“You crazy bastard!” Sasuke snaps.

Naruto barely seems to hear him.

The broken chain still dangles from his fist, the ring caught against his palm. For a second he just stares at it, chest heaving, that violent rush still pounding through his body. Then something in his jaw tightens and he throws it.

The ring hits the ground with a dull metallic clink, bouncing once before disappearing into the dirt between them.

Naruto is already moving before it even settles.

He closes the distance again in two quick steps, crowding into Sasuke’s space before the other shinobi can react. Sasuke’s hand has lifted toward the back of his neck where the chain scraped across the skin, but Naruto gets there first. His right hand reaches up, fingers brushing the irritated spot at Sasuke’s nape, rubbing gently over the reddened skin where the metal dragged.

“I’m sorry,” Naruto mutters.

The anger that had been crackling through his voice moments ago has burned itself out into something quieter now, but his chest is still rising and falling hard like he’s just run a mile. His heart is pounding violently, the rhythm loud enough that it feels like it’s shaking his ribs.

He still can’t think straight.

The sight of that ring had thrown his mind completely sideways, like the world had tilted and dumped him somewhere unfamiliar. Even now the feeling hasn’t fully settled, adrenaline still buzzing under his skin as his thumb moves slowly over the irritated patch at Sasuke’s neck, trying to soothe the sting he caused.

Sasuke lets out a short breath that almost sounds like a scoff. He takes a step away, Naruto lets his own hands fall from Sasuke’s neck.

Then the scoff turns into a laugh.

It starts small, just a quiet huff through his nose, but it doesn’t stop there. The sound builds unexpectedly, breaking loose into real laughter, shoulders shaking as he bends forward slightly like he can’t quite hold it in.

Naruto stares at him.

Completely baffled.

“What?” he asks, frowning, watching Sasuke try and fail to get himself under control.

Sasuke only laughs harder.

Naruto waits for the laughter to run its course.

He doesn’t interrupt, doesn’t move much either. He just stands there watching Sasuke while the sound spills out of him in uneven bursts. Sasuke bends forward slightly, one hand braced against his thigh as he tries and fails to get himself under control.

Naruto watches all of it.

Somewhere in the middle of it, the tightness in Naruto’s shoulders loosens a little. The anger that had been buzzing under his skin moments ago drains away, leaving behind a strange, quiet warmth he can’t quite explain. A small smile pulls at his mouth before he even realizes it’s there.

It’s rare to see Sasuke like this. Loud. Unrestrained. Not holding every reaction behind that careful wall he usually keeps up.

So Naruto just waits.

Eventually the laughter tapers off on its own. Sasuke straightens slowly, dragging a hand down his face as if he’s wiping away whatever had taken hold of him. When he finally speaks, his voice sounds tired in a way Naruto doesn’t hear very often.

“What are we doing?”

The question is quiet, almost absent-minded, but Sasuke is looking directly at him when he says it.

Naruto’s smile fades immediately.

Up close like this, the change in Sasuke’s expression is impossible to miss. The anger that had been blazing out of him earlier is gone now, burned out completely, leaving something else behind in its place. His shoulders look heavier somehow. His eyes tired. There’s a sadness there that settles into the space between them without either of them naming it.

And Naruto feels it like something inside him has ruptured open.

The feeling is sudden and violent, spreading through his chest so fast it almost knocks the air out of him. One second he’s just standing there, watching Sasuke, and the next it feels like everything inside him has cracked wide open at the sight of that look on Sasuke’s face.

“I’m tired of this, Naruto.” Sasuke says it so quietly that Naruto almost doesn’t catch it.

For a moment Naruto just stands there, the words hanging in the air between them. The world around them seems to rush in all at once. Naruto becomes suddenly aware of the woods again, the low rustle of wind through the leaves, the faint creak of branches shifting somewhere overhead. A cool draft brushes the back of his neck and he feels it with startling clarity, like his senses have sharpened without warning.

His eyes stay locked on Sasuke.

There’s something in his face that Naruto doesn’t like. Something settled and quiet in a way that makes Naruto’s stomach drop. The anger from earlier is gone completely now, replaced with an exhaustion that sits in Sasuke’s expression.

And it scares him.

A slow, creeping fear spreads through Naruto’s chest as he looks at him, the feeling tightening around his ribs before he can stop it.

He’s suddenly terrified of what Sasuke is going to say next.

“I don’t know how to do this with you,” Sasuke says, the words coming out slow and deliberate, like each one costs him something expensive. As if each word that slips through his lips are things he can’t exactly afford. “This whole I’m your friend thing. I—”

“Sasuke.” Naruto cuts him off immediately.

The word comes out sharper than he intended. He lifts a hand between them in a quick, instinctive gesture, shaking his head once.

“Shh. Just—” Naruto exhales, the sound tight in his chest. “Stop.”

For a second he can’t say anything else. There’s a heavy knot lodged in his throat that he has to force himself to swallow down before the next words will come.

“Just stop and listen to me,” he says more quietly, his voice rough around the edges.

For a moment it feels like everything inside Naruto folds in on itself.

Memories rush up before he can stop them. The first time he saw Sasuke, how the water had stretched upon his figure. He thought about the stupid, accidental kiss that had left them both frozen in shock, glaring at each other. Only for Naruto to wish for a chance to re-do it all over again.

The years after that, the endless stretch of them, Naruto running and fighting and refusing to let go no matter how many times Sasuke walked away.

It all flashes through him in the space of a heartbeat.

And through every memory, every stupid fight and every moment that should have made him give up, there’s only been one constant running underneath it all.

Love.

Naruto feels it now with a clarity that almost makes his chest ache. Everything inside him feels steeped in it, coloured so completely by Sasuke that it’s hard to separate where Naruto ends and Sasuke begins. His thoughts, his stubbornness, the stupid promises he refuses to break, all of it has been shaped around one person.

At some point, without even realizing it, Naruto stopped belonging entirely to himself.

Every piece of him, heart and bones and everything in between, has always belonged to Sasuke.

Naruto drags a hand down his face, breath still uneven, like he’s trying to gather all the pieces of his thoughts before they scatter again.

“I don’t know what the hell happened that got you all the way to… whatever fuckass engagement you’ve gotten yourself into,” he says, the words coming out rough and unpolished, “but I’m gonna have to apologize in advance for ruining your stupid wedding.”

Sasuke’s head jerks slightly at that, incredulous.

Naruto sees the look and lifts a hand quickly before he can interrupt.

“No, wait. Just—hear me out,” he says, pushing forward before the courage drains out of him. “Because that wedding? It’s not happening.”

His voice steadies as he says it, the certainty settling into his chest like something that’s been there the whole time, just waiting to be spoken out loud.

“It’s never going to be anyone else, Sasuke,” Naruto continues, holding his gaze. “It was always going to be me.”

The words hang there for a second, heavy and irreversible.

“I know that because it’s always been you for me. Since the beginning. I don’t even know how to separate myself from that anymore. The thought of me without even the concept of you is something so foreign that I can’t even think of that as something remotely possible.”

He exhales slowly, shoulders tightening. Sasuke is still eyeing him like he’s gone insane.

Naruto is just insane over him. 

“And I’m sorry it took me this long to actually say it,” Naruto continues, the words coming slower now, like he’s forcing each one out carefully. “I think I just… thought you already knew.”

He rubs the back of his neck, frustrated with himself.

“You’ve been so tangled up in everything I am for so long that it never even occurred to me that I had to spell it out. You’re just… there. In my veins. In everything I do. I didn’t think there was another way for this to be.”

Naruto exhales sharply, shaking his head once.

“So yeah. I’m sorry it took a literal engagement for me to finally put the words together properly. But you have to understand, I really thought I’d already laid everything out in the open. Heart on my sleeve and all that stupid shit.”

His eyes flick back up to Sasuke.

“Me calling you my friend was never supposed to cancel anything else out,” he says, voice quieter now but steady. “It was never to negate my feelings for you. You are my best friend. You always will be. It’s just that I’m also…”

He pauses, drawing in a breath like he’s bracing himself.

“Undeniably, irrevocably, stupidly in love with you.”

For a moment the world stops for Naruto. 

All he sees is Sasuke.

Then Sasuke huffs out an annoyed breath, the sound sharp through his nose, and iimmediately fixes him with a look.

“You’re such a fucking idiot,” he says.

The words land bluntly between them, but Sasuke doesn’t stop there. He keeps talking, irritation still threaded through his voice even as the anger from earlier has burned itself out into something else.

“The fact that it took all of this for you to finally say that,” he continues, gesturing vaguely at the dirt around them, the broken chain still on the ground after being violated from Naruto’s hand, the general wreckage of the last ten minutes, “should honestly be enough reason for me to never come near you again.”

As he says it, he starts walking toward Naruto.

The steps are slow, deliberate. Naruto stays exactly where he is, watching him come closer with that same tight, uncertain look on his face, like he’s still bracing for something to go wrong.

“I can’t believe you,” Sasuke mutters as he closes the distance.

But the irritation in his voice falters after a moment. He exhales, the tension in his shoulders shifting as something more thoughtful settles over his expression.

“Then again,” he adds quietly, “I guess some of this is on me too.”

He slows as he approaches, the anger gone entirely now. When he stops speaking for a moment his gaze drops slightly, not quite meeting Naruto’s eyes, like his thoughts have drifted somewhere further back than this conversation.

“I always assumed it was impossible for us,” Sasuke says after a beat.

The admission comes out calm, almost matter-of-fact, but there’s something tired underneath it. Naruto hates the way it sounds. He wants to take all of Sasuke’s exhaustion, drag it out of him, and shoulder it for him until it’s all gone. 

“I figured if it was ever going to happen, it would’ve happened already. If we were meant to be together, we would’ve gotten there somehow.” His mouth tightens faintly. “But it didn’t happen. So I just…”

He makes a small, dismissive motion with one hand.

“Thought I’d settle it somewhere else.”

Naruto lets out a quiet, injured sound at that.

By now Sasuke has walked all the way up to him. The space between them shrinks until there’s barely a step left separating them, Sasuke stopping right in front of him.

“God,” Sasuke mutters, dragging a hand through his hair in mild disbelief, “I’m going to have to call off an engagement.”

Naruto’s head jerks up.

Sasuke finally looks directly at him again then, and there’s a small smile pulling at the corner of his mouth now, something warmer slipping through the exhaustion that had been sitting on his face moments ago. The sight of it hits Naruto like a rock.

His heart feels like it might leap straight out of his chest.

“I’ve broken bones just to get to you,” Naruto says, the grin spreading across his face before he can stop it. “Breaking someone’s heart to keep you doesn’t really scare me.”

Sasuke stares at him.

The look on his face is pure, exhausted exasperation, like he cannot believe this is the person he has apparently decided to spend the rest of his life dealing with.

“Besides,” Naruto adds, unable to help himself, the corner of his mouth tilting up as he nudges the idea forward, “there can still be an Uchiha engagement.”

Sasuke’s eyes narrow immediately, already suspicious of where this is going.

Naruto grins wider.

“Just to an Uzumaki.”

Sasuke glares at him.

The look is sharp, unimpressed, his eyes narrowing as Naruto’s grin refuses to disappear. For a moment Sasuke just stares at him like he’s deciding whether to walk away or hit him again. Instead he shoves him, a hard push to the chest that sends Naruto stumbling back half a step in the dirt.

Naruto’s still grinning.

That seems to be the last straw.

Sasuke immediately grabs him again, fist twisting into the front of Naruto’s collar and dragging him forward before he can regain his balance. The movement snaps them back together, their bodies colliding as Sasuke hauls him close enough that there’s barely any space left between them.

“Shut the fuck up, Usuratonkachi.” Sasuke mutters.

Then he kisses him.

It’s not gentle. Sasuke closes the distance with the same force he’s been using all evening, slamming their mouths together like he’s been holding the urge back for far too long. Naruto makes a surprised noise against his lips before his hands come up instinctively, grabbing at Sasuke’s shoulders to steady them both as the kiss deepens, messy and heated and years overdue.

The world seems to narrow down to that point of contact. Sasuke’s hand still clenched in his collar. The heat of his mouth. The lingering adrenaline still buzzing under Naruto’s skin.

Naruto is entirely sure this is what he was made for. 

To hold Sasuke in his arms, to kiss him, to love him. 

And he can’t wait to spend the rest of his life doing exactly just that.