Naruto jerked awake to the metallic click of their dorm room door. It was still dark—maybe one or two in the morning—but the numbers on the clock blurred as his eyes struggled to make sense of them. He heard a second, softer sound, almost a whimper, then the slow wet patter of someone tracking rain across linoleum. He sat up, heart skittering.
Sasuke stood just inside the doorway, unmoving, his silhouette blotting out the night-glow from the hall. He wore the same black dress shirt from earlier, but it clung to his skin now, sleeves stuck to his forearms and collar limp and defeated. Water dripped from his hair in steady rivulets, beads catching the light as they ran down his neck. His right hand, still curled into a loose fist, left a bright streak of blood along the white wall as he leaned for balance.
For half a second, Naruto wanted to say something snarky—Nice of you to come home, princess, or Did you swim back?—but the words dissolved before they could cross his tongue. There was something wrong with the way Sasuke held himself, something more than exhaustion or even misery. Naruto blinked once, hard, and saw the red. Blood, not just water, darkening the fingers and dripping onto the floor, pooling among the raindrops.
Naruto flung his blanket aside and padded across the room, the icy carpet shocking his bare feet awake. When he reached for Sasuke's wrist, the other boy only stared back with vacant eyes, pupils blown so wide they devoured the irises. Sasuke remained motionless as Naruto eased the wet shirt from his shoulders and down his arms until it fell to the floor with a wet slap. Naruto hesitated, glancing up at Sasuke's face, then knelt to help with the soaked jeans. They clung to Sasuke's legs, but together they managed to work them off along with his shoes.
"Sit," Naruto ordered, voice low. Sasuke did, collapsing onto his bed, with zero resistance.
Naruto moved on autopilot, rummaging through the shared bathroom cabinet for the first-aid kit. He found a towel, rough and ugly and orange, and draped it over Sasuke's shoulders, then knelt to examine the hand.
The knuckles were a wreck: split open in three places, blood still seeping from the cuts, the skin gone raw and angry. Naruto reached for the hydrogen peroxide and poured a stream over the wounds. Sasuke's breath caught, but he didn't pull away. He just watched the ceiling, lips pressed flat, jaw set hard as if bracing for a blow.
"Are you going to tell me what happened?" Naruto whispered. He pressed a gauze pad against the worst of the bleeding, then wrapped the whole hand in clean bandage. The scent of blood clashed with the sharp sting of antiseptic, filling the small room with a chemical haze.
For a while, he wasn't sure Sasuke had heard. Then Sasuke laughed, a dry, hollow sound that caught in his chest before escaping. "I broke my hand on a wall," he said. "Turns out it's not as satisfying as it looks in movies."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Don't give me that crap. You stumbled in here bleeding and half-drowned. What really happened?"
Sasuke's silence stretched so long Naruto thought he wouldn't answer. With a sigh, Naruto tucked away the first-aid supplies, then climbed onto the bed behind Sasuke. He grabbed the towel and began working it through Sasuke's hair, soaking up rainwater that ran in rivulets down his neck.
Under Naruto's careful hands, Sasuke's shoulders finally slumped. "I went to see Obito," he said quietly. "My uncle. Asked him point-blank if Uchiha Corp was behind the Chimera Project." His voice hardened. "He didn't even bother lying about it."
Naruto's hands froze mid-motion, the towel bunched between his fingers. He swallowed hard, forcing his voice steady. "What did he say?"
"He said it was for the good of everyone. Called it 'business.' Like it was just numbers on a spreadsheet, not people." Sasuke's lips curled. "He told me that my parents were too weak to see the future. That's why he's in charge now."
Naruto set the towel aside, words caught in his throat. He shifted to sit beside Sasuke on the edge of the mattress, their knees almost touching, the heat between them a fragile, living thing.
"He's been my guardian since I was twelve," Sasuke said, the words starting to spill out in a low, relentless flow. "Showed up at every graduation, bought me my first phone. He made a big deal about supporting me, about being family." Sasuke shook his head, hair falling over his eyes. "Then, on my eighteenth birthday, he had me sign some papers. Said it was for my trust fund. Turns out it was a contract—putting everything in his control."
He flexed his bandaged hand, then let it drop to his knee. "I was just another asset to him. Another part of the company to leverage."
The rain outside had picked up, hammering the window in a relentless rhythm. Lightning flickered beyond the glass, ghosting Sasuke's profile in shades of blue and white. Every few seconds, thunder rolled in, but softer, distant, as if the world itself was holding its breath for what happened next.
Naruto wanted to say something comforting, but the words wouldn't come. He couldn't imagine—didn't want to imagine—what it would feel like to discover your only remaining family had been grooming you for the slaughter since childhood, instead he reached between them and held Sasuke's hand.
For a while, they sat in silence, listening to the rain tap against the window like impatient fingers drumming on glass. Sasuke finally broke the quiet, his voice barely audible above the storm. "After I left Obito's office, I called Itachi." He uncurled his injured hand and slowly laced his fingers through Naruto's. "I couldn't make myself speak when he picked up. Just froze there with the phone against my ear." He swallowed hard. "He's tried calling back. Three times now." The last words caught in his throat, and he turned his face toward the wall, as if the darkness might hide what pain couldn't.
Naruto's chest tightened with an ache he couldn't name, didn't want to name. His palm burned where Sasuke's fingers threaded through his—he should pull away, he told himself, but his hand refused to move. He wanted to reach across the inches between them and somehow absorb Sasuke's pain into himself, while another part of him whispered that getting any closer would be the biggest mistake of his life. The war inside him left him frozen, caught between the urge to comfort and the instinct to run.
After a long stretch, Sasuke broke the silence again. "I don't know who to trust anymore," he said, voice as thin as rice paper.
The admission hung in the air, raw and terrible. Naruto turned to face him, scooting closer so their knees were touching. "You can trust me," he said, no hesitation. "I'm not going anywhere."
Sasuke looked at him, really looked, as if searching for the catch or the joke. When he found neither, he let out a shaky breath. "You don't blame me? For any of this?"
Naruto shook his head. "You didn't sign up for your family's mess. You helped me look for Kurama. You risked your own ass to break into that office with me. If anything, I…" He trailed off, embarrassed.
Sasuke prodded. "You what?"
Naruto looked away, cheeks going hot even in the low light. "I thought you left because you were pissed at me. For doubting your family. For doubting you."
For a moment, Sasuke said nothing. Then he gave a small, hollow laugh, not bitter this time but full of a sad kind of wonder. "Sorry," he said.
The storm outside softened, the rain thinning to a slow, tired drizzle. The world contracted to the single warm pool of light around their beds. Sasuke's breathing slowed, the tension in his jaw finally beginning to fade.
Naruto watched him for a while, letting the silence stretch now, but it was a different kind of silence—one that felt less like a threat, and more like a promise.
A beat passed—then Sasuke turned to face Naruto, releasing his hand. Before Naruto could protest the lost connection, Sasuke gripped his waist and lifted him with surprising strength. In one fluid motion, Naruto found himself straddling Sasuke's lap, knees pressed into the mattress on either side of those muscled thighs. Heat rushed to Naruto's face as he froze, suddenly breathless, unable to process the intimate position or the intensity in Sasuke's eyes.
He didn't say anything at first, just buried his face in the crook of Naruto's neck. The first exhale was hot, the next shuddered, as if holding back a cry or a confession. Sasuke's nose pressed against the pulse there, the tip icy with leftover rain. Naruto's hands hovered, uncertain, before settling gently on the back of Sasuke's head, fingers sifting through damp, midnight hair. He let his chin drop, resting against the crown of Sasuke's skull, their bodies close enough to feel the tremor that ran through both.
"I'm sorry I left," Sasuke whispered, words muffled by skin and collar.
Naruto tried for a joke—"You made up for it with the dramatic entrance"—but the attempt fizzled, the words trembling before they could finish. He hugged Sasuke back, arms winding around his neck, face pressed into the patch of hair that still smelled faintly of soap and wet leaves.
They sat that way for a long time, the silence less like a void and more like a space they'd carved out for each other. The world on the other side of the window was still there—rain, city, the endless echo of what waited for them—but here, now, there was only the warmth of skin and the slow, stubborn thud of their hearts.
Sasuke moved first. His lips grazed the side of Naruto's neck, tracing the faded mark where he'd bitten him before. The touch was tentative, almost reverent, but it sparked a hot, dizzy pulse straight to Naruto's core. He made a sound, somewhere between a gasp and a whimper, and Sasuke seized on it, pressing another kiss, harder this time, then a slow drag of tongue that left the skin wet and tingling.
Naruto jerked, not out of discomfort but the rawness of it. He started to pull back—instinct, surprise—but Sasuke held him tighter, one hand braced at the small of Naruto's back, the other cradling the back of his head. "Don't leave," Sasuke murmured, a plea with all the edges filed off.
"I'm not going anywhere," Naruto managed, voice gone thin and breathless.
Sasuke's mouth found his neck again, this time trailing upward, kisses turning from gentle to hungry as they moved along the line of Naruto's jaw. Every touch left behind a burn, every inhale brought the sharp bite of rain and the salt of blood still lingering on Sasuke's lips. Naruto felt the world narrow to a pinpoint, senses sharpened so that each pass of Sasuke's tongue, each nip of teeth, sent sparks racing under his skin.
A whimper escaped Naruto's throat, high and needy, as Sasuke's mouth traced a burning path along his collarbone. Each press of lips sent shivers cascading down his spine, pooling like liquid heat in his core. Sasuke responded with a deep, rumbling groan that Naruto felt more than heard, the vibration traveling from Sasuke's chest to his own. Naruto's fingers twisted helplessly in midnight hair, his head falling back to expose more skin to that hungry mouth. Sasuke took the invitation greedily, tasting salt and sweetness with deliberate, devastating slowness.
When Sasuke finally pulled back, his eyes were midnight pools, pupils blown wide with want. Rain droplets still clung to his lashes, trembling with each ragged breath. Naruto felt himself coming undone beneath that gaze, his own breath catching as Sasuke's thumb traced the outline of his bottom lip with reverent precision.
"I shouldn't," Naruto whispered, the words dissolving into nothing as his body arched toward Sasuke's touch, seeking more. His hands moved of their own accord, cupping Sasuke's jaw, thumbs brushing across the sharp angles. Their lips met in a kiss that started gentle but quickly blazed into something primal—Sasuke's tongue sliding against his, tasting, claiming, while Naruto melted against him, surrendering to the heat that had been building between them since that very first day.