Sasuke blinks once when Naruto unzips his jacket, half-squints when the stark white of the t-shirt in even the bamboo-shaded sun nearly blinds him, and then makes a face when Naruto brings all that white up to his face and smears it in more muck than Sasuke thinks he's ever had on his own entire body at one time. Gross.
Naruto's blink, those blue eyes, squirms that same fucking feeling in Sasuke's gut that he refuses to let be made visible in his body, or in his own stubbornly grey-black eyes, memories of so fucking long ago, and again, he stops himself from asking that clarifying question. Because Naruto isn't trying to put a kunai in him, or announcing that he won't, or spouting off the same line ad infinitum forever and ever, so maybe he can just. Set that off to the left for now and have this conversation instead. Even if it's obnoxious.
(Maybe especially because it's obnoxious, and he's a little less bothered by obnoxious than exhausting and infuriating.)
Even if being suddenly circled, standing barefoot in a jungle thicket wearing nothing but Konoha-green swim trunks and holding nothing but a bug net and devoid of anything resembling chakra sets every nerve on end, prickles goosebumps up the back of his neck. Part of him is extremely, extremely fucking aware that Naruto is still Naruto and Naruto is still the jinchuuriki and the kyuubi is the dictionary fucking definition of apex predator, even if all Naruto's chakra (and the kyuubi's besides) is as locked down as his own.
Strangely, that part is the part that is shinobi, and only that part.
Every part that is Sasuke cannot find it in him to be nearly so disquieted, and he almost breaks the dobe's nose in a fit of pique just for making him think that train of thought.
But he schools himself. He's been getting better at that.
"Yes, they're attached," he drawls, sounding more Naruto-weary than world-weary. "And yes," he responds to the second, less wearily, maybe with a quirk of smile to his lips, that Naruto did, actually, get to his clan symbol, without needing to be told twice. That's... he's not sure. He's not sure he has the word for it. (It's nice, but when was the last time Sasuke had the use for a word like nice?) "They're the same color as the Uchiha Fan." He pauses. "Not like Orochimaru's curse." Not nearly so personal. "Everyone had them, the last world I was in."
no subject
Naruto's blink, those blue eyes, squirms that same fucking feeling in Sasuke's gut that he refuses to let be made visible in his body, or in his own stubbornly grey-black eyes, memories of so fucking long ago, and again, he stops himself from asking that clarifying question. Because Naruto isn't trying to put a kunai in him, or announcing that he won't, or spouting off the same line ad infinitum forever and ever, so maybe he can just. Set that off to the left for now and have this conversation instead. Even if it's obnoxious.
(Maybe especially because it's obnoxious, and he's a little less bothered by obnoxious than exhausting and infuriating.)
Even if being suddenly circled, standing barefoot in a jungle thicket wearing nothing but
Konoha-green swim trunks and holding nothing but a bug net and devoid of anything resembling chakra sets every nerve on end, prickles goosebumps up the back of his neck. Part of him is extremely, extremely fucking aware that Naruto is still Naruto and Naruto is still the jinchuuriki and the kyuubi is the dictionary fucking definition of apex predator, even if all Naruto's chakra (and the kyuubi's besides) is as locked down as his own.Strangely, that part is the part that is shinobi, and only that part.
Every part that is Sasuke cannot find it in him to be nearly so disquieted, and he almost breaks the dobe's nose in a fit of pique just for making him think that train of thought.
But he schools himself. He's been getting better at that.
"Yes, they're attached," he drawls, sounding more Naruto-weary than world-weary. "And yes," he responds to the second, less wearily, maybe with a quirk of smile to his lips, that Naruto did, actually, get to his clan symbol, without needing to be told twice. That's... he's not sure. He's not sure he has the word for it. (It's nice, but when was the last time Sasuke had the use for a word like nice?) "They're the same color as the Uchiha Fan." He pauses. "Not like Orochimaru's curse." Not nearly so personal. "Everyone had them, the last world I was in."