Title: A Soundless Longing
Author: Timothy Wren
Series: I Still Like You The Most, Post 1
Fandom: Naruto
Relationship: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Word Count: 2,476
Author’s Note: Just transferring this over from ao3, don’t mind me. Notable warnings: Pre-slash (they don’t get together in this), Pining, A single snake who is a friend, Unresolved Sexual/Romantic Tension
Genre: Anime, Mission/Case fic, Pre-slash
Summary: “Okay but when they said ‘contaminate the vats of ale’ I’m pretty sure they meant with, like, mold or fungus. Not snake venom.” Naruto muttered under his breath.
Sasuke shot him a hostile look from where he was holding a terrifying-looking snake over the top of the container.
“Okay but when they said ‘contaminate the vats of ale’ I’m pretty sure they meant with, like, mold or fungus. Not snake venom.” Naruto muttered under his breath.
Sasuke shot him a hostile look from where he was holding a terrifying-looking snake over the top of the container.
“Do you have any alternative suggestions?” He asked mildly, almost politely if not for the tic in his jaw.
“I’m just saying.” Naruto glanced around out of habit, though there was no real need; he was sure they were clear because none of his clones had dispelled themselves. “I don’t think it’s very believable that several snakes just happened to drop venom into the booze. It’s going to look like an assassination attempt, not sabotage.”
“Well, as long as it doesn’t look like sabotage, we’re fulfilling the mission parameters. Dobe.”
“We could also just. Water it down.” Naruto gestured at the amber liquid.
Sasuke paused. The snake in his hands looked disgusted at both of them and poofed away.
“Look, just send a clone or go yourself to get the recipe, or something.” Sasuke huffed, bringing his hands up to his mouth. He cycled through hand signs until he finished with Bird and executed a Suiton jutsu.
“Orrr I could just wait for you to take one look at it and memorize it. We can re-write it later. That way the owner doesn’t notice it’s missing.”
Sasuke exhaled liquid for a few more moments before pausing and wiping his mouth.
“You’re just using me for my Sharingan.” He huffed, trying not to smile. He elbowed Naruto. “Don’t tell me you don’t have a Copy Scroll. I won’t believe you.”
“Of course I have a Copy Scroll. I’ve got three Copy Scrolls. What kind of Uzumaki do you take me for?”
“A loud one.” Sasuke snorted. “Shut up before somebody hears us.”
Closing his mouth on a reflexive squawk of denial, Naruto glared at his teammate. Then he rolled his eyes hard.
“Come on, the office is this way.”
They left the sabotaged vats– that would now look like an improbably-venomous animal had gotten lost in the factory and they had a leak in the roof– to creep along the far wall to the main office.
Sasuke kept watch with red eyes as Naruto knelt to pick the lock.
“Any word from your clones?” He asked, shoulders a bit tense.
“None.” Naruto said, unconcerned. “I’ll know as soon as they see someone coming. Relax.”
“You relax.” Sasuke countered, without thinking. He exhaled, posture loosening. “It’s been too easy.”
“Don’t jinx us.” Naruto cautioned. “You know the deck’s already stacked against us, just being Team Seven.”
“That’s baseless superstition. We’re no more unlucky than any other team.” The lock gave way with a small click and Naruto opened the door.
The blonde turned to give his teammate an incredulous look.
“Baseless? Teme, we’ve got generations of bad luck receipts. The ‘first C-rank curse’ is for everyone but historically it hits Team Sevens worse than anyone. I think the Sannin and Kakashi’s first C-ranks were enough to escalate wars.”
“Ours could have started a war.” Sasuke said pensively, just to be argumentative. Naruto swept through the room and started looking through the desk, alone.
When he looked up, it was to see Sasuke leaning against the door, casual as anything. His bare arms were bleached grey by shadows and they half-hid his face. What was visible was almost heart-breakingly pretty and the rest was like a painting, draped in artful darkness, monochrome except for his eyes.
Even his lips and ANBU tattoo were rendered colorless by the dark and Naruto had to look down to keep his heart from beating too fast. It was dangerous to look at an Uchiha for more than one reason.
“I’m not seeing it.” Naruto said, after he’d looked through the drawers and found all the hidden compartments. He took a Copy Scroll and absently copied over the more secret documents from the false-bottomed drawer; something about cooked books or illegal tax dodges, from his half-glance. Not what their client asked for but useful for Konoha intelligence agents.
He slipped the scroll back into his pouch and turned back to Sasuke.
“Give me a second.” His partner murmured, stepping off from the door. He glanced around slowly, taking in the details of the room.
“Anything?” Naruto asked a minute later.
“Maybe.” In lieu of elaborating, Sasuke glided across the room, thin hands reaching up in front of the lone window, pale as bone in the moonlight. He touched some almost invisible nicks in the wallpaper and followed them back to a painting of the countryside.
“Huh. Think it swings open?” Naruto wondered curiously.
“Only one way to find out.” Sasuke felt along the edges for a hidden mechanism and they both jumped a little as it caught and clicked. Sasuke stepped out of the way as the painting– and part of the wall behind it– moved on hinges, revealing a safe.
“Oh great.” Naruto huffed. “Safes are such a pain on stealth missions.”
Sasuke shot him a look over his bare shoulder and Naruto shivered.
“Yeah,” Sasuke teased, seemingly not noticing or, more likely, not thinking too much of it. “You’re just pissed that you can’t take it out back and blow it up.”
“My ordinance seals are a thing of beauty! Elegant, precise, sophisticated–”
“You just like blowing shit up.” Sasuke let out an amused breath, turning back to the metal obstacle. “Don’t lie.”
“Everyone likes blowing shit up.” Naruto pointed out righteously. It was a traditional ninja pastime! He didn’t want to– or maybe it was more correct to say he wanted to too much– but he crossed the room anyway, able to feel Sasuke’s body heat from a foot away in the cold night air.
Sasuke was too focused on the safe to notice how Naruto lingered on the edge of his personal space, wrong-footed and awkward. They were on a mission and usually the stakes were too high to ogle his best friend, or ogling happened absently in the middle of a fight, but things were quiet enough tonight that his mind kept straying to how soft and warm Sasuke’s arms would feel under his hands, how the ANBU tattoo curled so invitingly along his bicep.
He wondered how it would taste.
“– you think. Dobe? Dobe.” The last was a hiss and it grabbed Naruto by the scruff of the neck, metaphorically shaking him free of his thoughts.
“Sorry, say again?” He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
Sasuke glared at him, all pissy. Shit, he’d be mad about that all night.
“Don’t worry about it.” He turned up his chin; sharp and shapely, Naruto couldn’t help but notice. “I think I got it.”
Naruto winced when his teammate wasn’t looking. Yeah, Sasuke would be pissed at him for a bit. He hated being ignored. Naruto resolved not to think about how biteable his jawline was.
“How?” He asked, leaning forward more attentively.
“Old fingerprints and little nicks in the metal.” Sasuke answered back in a murmur as he concentrated on maneuvering the dial. “It’s a three-number code and I can see the numbers, I’m just not sure about the order. I’ll try all the variations to be sure.”
A few minutes later the safe opened under his hands. The Sharingan was such a cheat; it acted more like a microscope than a magnifying glass. No wonder Konoha was the most powerful of the villages if they’d had hundreds of Sasukes running around for 90% of its mission history.
The thought made him scowl.
“What?” Sasuke asked, absently, even as he casually memorized the papers he was flicking through. He’d be able to perfectly replicate the content and handwriting later.
“Nothing.” Naruto said, then cleared his throat. “Is the recipe there?”
“Yes, among others. Yay, me, getting to know how to make ale for the rest of my life.” He rolled his eyes while Naruto checked the rest of the safe.
“It can be your party trick.” The blonde half-joked, only to receive a sharp elbow into his hip for the trouble. “Nothing else in here except money and a few pieces of jewelry. Shame we can’t take any with us.”
“Why, you need a few gold necklaces to feel pretty?”
“Ass.” Naruto straightened up and pinched Sasuke’s hip in sharp retaliation, over the clothes where it was safe. The Uchiha hissed at him.
“The drawbacks of stealth missions, I guess.” Naruto sighed, making sure the contents were back where he found them exactly. He went to the desk and started doing the same thing, determinately not holding his breath as he passed between Sasuke and the wall, close enough to smell him and feel the warmth of his skin.
Sasuke finished his speed-reading and slid the papers smoothly back into place; when the painting shut again, Naruto couldn’t even see the hinges. He repositioned the office chair and stepped back to make sure everything was exactly right. He didn’t have a dojutsu that gave him perfect recall, but his childhood pranks had transitioned weirdly well into not leaving any evidence behind on covert ops.
“Done.” He reported, turning back to his teammate.
“Same.” Sasuke said, looking around for any final checks. He adjusted a paperweight on the desk by millimeters, then nodded. “Clear.”
They snuck quickly back out of the factory, from its main production hall through the narrow hallways. Each time they passed a clone in the dark, it dispelled itself neatly, until finally they were out of the building entirely. Without a word, they took to the trees in a smooth ascent, flying half-a-mile away before they dared leave the canopy and talk on the open ground.
“Well, that was fun.” Naruto grinned, as they took stock of their equipment and their spoils. No losses, not even kunai.
“What’d you find in the desk?” Sasuke asked.
“Backdoor dealings, mostly. Stuff Shikamaru’s analyst minions might like.” He hummed and ran a hand through his hair, casting off a small leaf.
“They might like it more if you, just maybe, didn’t call them ‘minions.’’ Sasuke noted in amusement. Naruto opened his mouth to reply only to find himself suddenly thrust back against a tree, the wood solid at his back.
Sasuke pressed close to him, a palm soft over his mouth, and Naruto swallowed hard. Three shadows blurred above them, not directly overhead but several meters away; they were slower through the trees and noisy. Definitely not Konoha nin.
Naruto held tense and still as they passed, not making a single move. Neither did Sasuke, leaning tight and rigid against his body, breathing silently against Naruto’s throat. The minutes crept by, but the passing shinobi didn’t turn back.
With any luck, it was the brewer– rightfully– supposing that his competition might take his success of late as a threat, and hiring shinobi to defend his business and his life. Too late for him, however; the competition had hired a team from Konoha several days ago.
“Tough luck for them.” Naruto murmured against Sasuke’s curved palm. Konoha wouldn’t have accepted a mission contrary to a mission-in-progress; this far east, they’d likely gone to Iwa or Kumo instead.
Sasuke nipped at the fair skin at Naruto’s neck in admonishment. The blonde jumped, mind tripping hard over their positioning now that the danger was past; Sasuke’s hair tickling his cheek, his nose against Naruto’s ear.
“The last thing we need is to run into Cloud or Stone nin,” He said under his breath, but Naruto was hardly listening. Blood was rushing through his head from the simple touch of teeth on skin, the closeness in the night. His shoulders were pressed against rough bark and his teammate was still pressed against him.
“With our luck, we’d start a war.” Sasuke continued, noticing nothing.
Long seconds passed before Naruto could breathe again, echoes of that quick jolt of not-quite-pain ghosting through him.
“Ha.” He said, then coughed a little when it came out strangled. “So you admit Team Seven is cursed.”
Sasuke’s left brow went up, then the other.
“I don’t know about ‘cursed’.” He said, after a beat. “Prone-to-misfortune, maybe.”
“Tobirama’s law.” Naruto reminded. “Anything that can go wrong–”
“Will go wrong.” Sasuke finished, eyes still on the treeline behind them. “You know, he was probably on a Team Seven, too.”
“He predated the Team system.” Naruto countered, trying to focus on his breathing as Sasuke finally stepped away. For a moment his legs didn’t want to support him, without the tree behind and Sasuke before.
“No, I mean– he was the Sensei for the Sandaime’s team, right? I bet they were the original Team Seven. As in, the seventh team ever formed. Uncle Kagami was on that team.”
“It explains how Ji-chan was able to pass it down to the Pervy Sage’s team.” Naruto patted himself down, checking that nothing had flown off him in the struggle. All his scrolls were where they should be; weapons, too.
Sasuke shook his head.
“What?” Naruto asked, noticing.
“Nothing.”
“Come on, tell me.”
“Ugh. It’s just– do you hear yourself? You call the Third Hokage grandfather and Jiraiya of the Sannin ‘Pervy Sage’.”
“Well, he’s my godfather.” Naruto scratched his nose. “Jiraiya, I mean. I wasn’t actually related to the Third, unless you count by, you know– my dad was his successor. And his grand-genin.”
“That’s not a thing.” Sasuke protested immediately.
“Sure it is.” Naruto laughed. “Through Kakashi-sensei, you and Sakura are my dad’s grand-genin.”
“Please stop talking.” Sasuke did his own check of his equipment, then hopped into the trees without a further word.
“Hey!” Naruto whisper-yelled, not stupid enough to shout with enemies so closeby. “Teme, come on–”
“Keep up.” Sasuke tossed back, in the same undertone, and not for nothing was Naruto an Uzumaki and a Jinchuuriki. If it was one thing he did not lack for it was stamina.
He caught up soon enough, because Sasuke had speed but not necessarily endurance, and then their pace mostly-evened-out, though they did not say much of substance, settling into the easy camaraderie they’d built up over actual years.
Naruto was even less talkative than normal, and not just because the threat of enemy shinobi.
If he didn’t talk, it was because his mind was still replaying the same moment over and over again; Sasuke up against him, warm and solid, his breath hot on Naruto’s neck.
A hand over his mouth.
Teeth at his throat, a tiny sting and a rush of heat.
It was fortunate that they were less than a full-day’s journey away from home, because he doubted he could sleep a wink. This mission was a successful one– an easy one, even, and completely peaceful– but it would haunt him through this quiet night and on many more, besides.