By the time they made it back to the dorm room, Naruto's stomach churned with equal parts anticipation and dread. His skin crawled where Kabuto's gaze had lingered, and he found himself alternating between wiping his hands on his jeans and bouncing on the balls of his feet. Had they just walked into a trap? Or was this the breakthrough they needed? He glanced at Sasuke's impassive profile, wondering if he should voice his doubts or swallow them down with the acid rising in his throat.
The door to the dorm clicked shut. Naruto's shoulders tensed, his fingers curling into fists at his sides. He spun around so fast his sneakers squeaked against the linoleum floor. Sasuke's eyebrow lifted a fraction of an inch, the only crack in his otherwise marble expression.
Naruto bounded across the room, eyes wide with anticipation, his breath coming in short bursts. "Come on! Don't keep me hanging, did you find anything?" The words tumbled out as he leaned in, close enough for Sasuke to catch the faint citrus scent of his shampoo. Sasuke's nostrils flared imperceptibly before he shifted back an inch, creating a pocket of cool air between them. He sat at his desk with deliberate calm, the leather of the chair creaking under his weight as he pulled out his sleek black phone, thumb swiping through the gallery with practiced precision.
"Look at this," Sasuke said. His voice was a flat hum that belied the intensity in his dark eyes, which remained fixed on the screen's blue glow illuminating his sharp features. "I found more than just your brother's file."
Naruto crowded against Sasuke's shoulder, his breath warm against Sasuke's neck as he leaned in. The citrus scent of his shampoo filled Sasuke's nostrils, triggering a subtle tightening in his chest. Did the idiot have any idea what standing this close did to an Alpha? "Show me." Naruto said enthusiastically.
Sasuke angled the screen for him, but the display was small, and the photos even smaller—crammed with text, raw and jagged, just like the feeling in Naruto's chest. Sasuke's thumb flicked through the images: first, a manifest of student files, each marked in pencil with a scrawled "O." Then a second photo, zoomed on a page titled "Chimera Protocol—Candidate List." The third was a close-up of the infamous sticky note: "Possible candidate for Chimera Protocol? Recessive trait activation confirmed. Archive immediately."
Naruto's knee collided with Sasuke's as he leaned forward. Though barely a touch—there and gone in an instant—it jolted through Sasuke like static electricity. He jerked in his chair, fingers fumbling with the phone, the screen tilting dangerously before he steadied his grip.
Naruto squinted at the screen, eyebrows drawn, leaning in until his shoulder pressed against Sasuke's. "Shukaku, Matatabi, Chomei—these are all real people?" He dragged a finger over the names, smudging the glass with a faint print. The movement wafted another wave of that citrus scent toward Sasuke, who inhaled involuntarily, his pupils dilating slightly as warmth spread across his chest.
"I believe so," Sasuke managed, his voice lower than intended. He tapped the edge of the phone, the case hitting the desk with a dull click, using the sharp sound to anchor himself against the pull of Naruto's proximity. "Whoever runs this, they're cleaning up after themselves."
Naruto's mouth set in a hard line. "They thought nobody would notice."
Sasuke's jaw clenched as Naruto leaned even closer, his breath warm against Sasuke's ear. The citrus scent overwhelmed him, sending a jolt down his spine that pooled hot and dangerous in his stomach. He jerked away, nearly knocking over his chair.
"Don't hover," he snapped, voice rougher than intended. Catching himself, he cleared his throat. "It's easier to read on paper," he added, more controlled now. "I'll print these."
Naruto watched Sasuke stalk across the room like he had a stick up his ass. What was his deal anyway? One second they're making progress, the next he's all cold shoulder. Whatever. Naruto shrugged it off—he had bigger problems than Sasuke's mood swings. The printer in the corner groaned to life as Sasuke jabbed at its buttons, carefully avoiding the crusty orange stain where Naruto had spilled ramen last week. The machine coughed up the first page with a mechanical wheeze.
Naruto looked at his own hands, as if seeing them for the first time. They trembled a little, knuckles marked with faint blue ink. He flexed them, made fists, then let them relax again. "You think Kurama's name is in one of these folders?" he asked, voice lower now, half hope, half dread.
"It's the thickest file in the batch," Sasuke replied, not turning around. "There are pages and pages of observation notes."
Sasuke returned with a neat stack of pages, flipped the first one over so it faced Naruto, and slid it across the desk. "Here. Start here."
Naruto sat down in the chair and Sasuke sat in the one next to it, the narrowness of the room forcing their knees to touch again. Neither said anything about it, but the air shifted, denser and electric. Sasuke read with a finger under each line, eyes scanning fast. Naruto read slower, lips moving as he tried to make sense of the medical jargon and cold, alien language.
Naruto squinted at Sasuke's hastily-captured photos, the blurry text swimming before his eyes. Certain phrases jumped out from the pixelated mess: "Candidate responded to compound" and "Extraction scheduled" and "Archive subject." His fist clenched involuntarily against the desk. If only they could go back and take all the files—real evidence instead of these grainy snapshots.
Naruto looked up from the sheet, eyes unfocused. "Did anything say what happened to them?"
Sasuke shook his head, his eyes still scanning the papers. "The medical ward appears to be just the recruitment station. They identify potential subjects here, but after they're taken..." His finger tapped a blank space at the bottom of a page. "The trail goes cold. Whatever happens next must be documented somewhere else."
The room fell silent except for the soft sound of Naruto's breathing as he processed what Sasuke had said. Then his phone chimed, sharp and sudden against the quiet. He jerked, fumbling in his pocket before pulling it out. His eyes scanned the screen, and the tension visibly drained from his shoulders. The corner of his mouth quirked up, and he exhaled something between a snort and a laugh.
Sasuke's jaw clenched imperceptibly. "Who is it?"
Naruto's thumbs danced over the keyboard. "Kiba. He wants to know if I survived the 'hospital of doom.'" He grinned, eyes bright. "He says he wants to come over tonight with snacks. To check on me."
Sasuke's shoulders tensed. The name landed like a stone in still water. Kiba. The loud-mouthed mutt who always found excuses to drape himself across Naruto's desk. "Kiba?" He kept his tone neutral, but beneath the desk, his grip on his phone tightened until the case emitted a warning crack.
Naruto's thumbs tapped out a reply, his attention fixed on the glowing screen. "He's basically the first real friend I made here." He shrugged one shoulder, not bothering to look up. Only when the message sent did he raise his eyes, catching the shadow that passed over Sasuke's features like a cloud across the sun.
A knife-like sensation twisted beneath Sasuke's ribs, unfamiliar and aggravating. His thumb pressed into the desk's edge until the wood bit back, offering distraction from the unwelcome feeling spreading through his chest. "You shared details about our clinic visit?" he asked, voice carefully neutral. Naruto's phone chimed again, and the blonde's face lit up with another grin that made Sasuke's jaw tighten imperceptibly.
Naruto's thumbs flew across the screen, the tapping sound filling the silence. "Yeah, I told him." He glanced up, the corner of his mouth quirking. "He thinks it's hilarious. Says he never thought he'd see the day when the great Sasuke Uchiha helped anyone." Naruto squared his shoulders and dropped his voice into a poor imitation of Sasuke's deeper tone. "Stay out of my way." His laughter rang out, bright and oblivious to the darkening of Sasuke's expression. "He's asking if I've got blackmail material or if you're secretly dying of something terminal."
Sasuke didn't respond. He glanced at the stack of printed photos, then back at Naruto's phone where Kiba's name glowed on the screen. Something hot and acidic crawled up his throat. His fingers twitched against his thigh, and he imagined snatching the device and hurling it against the wall.
"Yeah, I guess you can't tell your precious Kiba that I've seen you naked," Sasuke said, voice dropping to a dangerous whisper as he leaned forward. "Or that I know exactly what sounds you make when you come apart on my fingers." His eyes never left Naruto's, dark and possessive.
Naruto nearly dropped his phone, the color draining from his face before flooding back crimson. "W-what?"
Sasuke didn't answer, his jaw tightening as he stood and began re-organizing the evidence pile, sorting the files with sharp, precise movements.
Sasuke's mouth tightened. "Forget it," he muttered, turning away to shuffle papers with unnecessary force. His fingers paused on a document header. "This Chimera Project keeps coming up. We need to figure out what it actually is."
Naruto's mouth went dry, his eyes widening as the words hung in the air between them. He stared at Sasuke's back, waiting for some acknowledgment of what had just been said, but Sasuke just kept shuffling papers like he hadn't dropped a verbal bomb. Fine. If Sasuke wanted to pretend he hadn't just said... that... Naruto could play along. He swallowed hard and forced his attention back to the photos.
He shrugged and set his phone face-down on the desk, turning his attention back to the scattered papers. He couldn't waste time decoding Sasuke's moods when Kurama needed him.
Naruto traced his finger over the list of names, each one a person with a life, with friends who might be wondering where they'd gone. Shukaku, Matatabi, Chomei. He lingered on his brother's name, the ink smudging slightly under his sweaty fingertip.
"What happens now?" Naruto asked, more to himself than to Sasuke. "We can't just take this to the Dean, can we? What if they're in on it?" He looked up, meeting Sasuke's dark eyes. "But we can't do nothing. There could be others. Someone else could disappear tomorrow."
Sasuke reclaimed his seat across the desk, fingertips drumming a precise three-beat rhythm against the wood. "We gather proof," he said, each word clipped and deliberate despite the telltale twitch pulsing at the hinge of his jaw. "Photos. Recordings. The kind of evidence they can't make disappear with a phone call."
Naruto stared at the names again, his finger tracing over Kurama's until the ink smudged. His shoulders slumped. All these files, all this risk, and he still had no idea whether his brother was breathing, bleeding, suffering right now. His throat tightened as he whispered, "We're no closer to finding him, are we?"
Something clenched in Sasuke's chest at Naruto's crestfallen face. His fingers twitched with the urge to reach across the desk, to pull the idiot close and promise him everything would be okay. The impulse disgusted him even as it intensified. He wasn't supposed to care this much. This wasn't part of the plan. He swallowed hard and curled his fingers into his palm, nails biting skin. Not his problem. Not his responsibility. Except it felt like it was.
Sasuke's chair scraped against the floor as he stood abruptly. "We need food." He grabbed his wallet from the desk, keys jingling. "That place on Fourth is still open."
Naruto's fingers lingered on the edge of a printout, tracing the black-and-white photo in the corner. His stomach growled, betraying him. He glanced up, caught Sasuke watching him with that unreadable expression.
"The one with the red lanterns?" Naruto's voice cracked slightly. He stood, stretching until his back popped. "Their tonkotsu ramen smelled amazing when I walked past yesterday."
The corner of Sasuke's mouth curved upward—just slightly—and something fluttered in Naruto's chest, a bird trapped behind his ribs. "Sure," Sasuke finally said, his voice lower than before. Naruto launched himself from the chair, fist punching skyward. "Whoop!"