Prelude

Naruto didn’t raise his voice; it rolled low and thick with the temper roiling just beneath the surface. A shouting match would have been preferable, an honest slap of frustration and fury as opposed to this seething, snarling alternative. It had developed into a sort of routine; Naruto demanding to be involved in missions that might end in Sasuke’s capture and return and the Hokage’s firm denial. It was a tense situation, but neither of them could afford to back down.



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While he didn’t exactly go AWOL, it was only through a quick decision by the Hokage to retroactively authorize his absence. Naruto had vanished without a word.

But almost everyone had caught the edge of fierce determination and furious chakra as he had left. His absence was a silence; a bit of background noise everyone had grown so accustomed to hearing that they only noticed when it was gone. While the ambiance didn’t exactly relax, the strain moved in a different direction.

They didn’t have to deal with Naruto himself, but now those who knew him wondered just who would come out on top and who they would be burying.



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It wasn’t a game of cat and mouse, as it lacked the fleeing rodent. They evaded each other without retreating, testing and teasing along the edge of each others awareness with the feral attentiveness of two predators scoping out the same territory.

Sasuke wrapped himself in borrowed elegance and assumed arrogance, his presence flavored with affected disdain. But he was quick to evade each approach, ghosting away as soon as Naruto’s chakra broke over his immediate environment like a wildfire.

He wasn’t frightened.

But he hadn’t quite worked out a way to lose his persistent pursuit. A nation’s ransom in ANBU had failed to snag him…

But Naruto knew him. Or at least knew his ghosts. Sasuke couldn’t hide behind a copied smile. Knew he wouldn’t be able to discourage this devil on his heels.

So he stopped trying.



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Naruto came at him with a ferocity that was expected, an echo of all their previous scuffles wrapped into one lunge.

It was the silence that threw Sasuke off. All of the complaints and condemnation Sasuke had expected were absent. Naruto’s face was twisted into something close to human anger, but the familiar things were just off enough to remind Sasuke what he was fighting. Lips were pulled up to bare teeth in a silent threat, eyes widened with animal antagonism, not narrowed with human threat. Blood was drawn each time they collided, a scrabbling tangle of claws and blades. Sasuke’s eyes twitched to catch every technique…

But Naruto wasn’t concerned with learned patterns. His clawing and biting neglected everything they had been taught, strained Sasuke’s sharingan and splashed the surrounding foliage with sweat and saliva as each unexpected bit of contact snagged and snarled the opposing fluid movement.



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It was a lucky blow that sent Naruto to land in a cloud of destroyed greenery and disturbed earth. It was an unexpected reprieve that allowed Sasuke to flee, no matter how distasteful he found the action.



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Naruto shook his head in an attempt to scare away the confusion and pain impact had inspired. His nostrils flared once, taking in the myriad of smells that surrounded him; musky earth, the sharp clean smell of broken plants, his own sweat, the deer that had rested there earlier in the day…

He licked a bit of blood from his lips and cracked a smile. He could smell Sasuke. Limbs trembling with exhaustion, Naruto stood. He never had been good at little things like taking a break or waiting for help.



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Sasuke would never admit it, but Naruto had worn him out. It was a convenient excuse, an easy way to brush off his capture by a handful of ANBU. In silence he was able to preserve his pride even as bound, blindfolded and gagged, carried off like some prized trophy.

His attention wasn’t on the ANBU around him.

It was on the heated gaze he could feel centering on him, the bit of familiar chakra that brushed against him with the tenderness of a jagged blade. He was defeated, but not by Naruto. Never by Naruto…

He felt Naruto leave, moving ahead, and fought a smile as he caught just how ragged his enemy’s chakra had become. Naruto had worn him down, but he had done the same to Naruto.



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Naruto was waiting at the gates when they dragged Sasuke home.

Sasuke was hard pressed to ignore the implication of a disgruntled parent catching him out past curfew. Narrowed blue eyes stared at him in a curious mix of defensive and possessive. Sasuke straightened as far as his restraints would allow in response. He had no apology.

And Naruto didn’t expect one.

Sasuke expected shouting, accusation…

He was at a bit of a loss in the face of silent recrimination.