Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Exploding Stars ❯ Married to You ( Chapter 2 )

Yes, finally finished this chapter! ^_^ I wrote the beginning at least 6 times. >.> Just wasn't satisfied with it. Anyway, Christmas break is here so my updates should be faster. If at any time you'd like to check my progress, there's a progress report on my [FFN] profile which I update regularly. ^^ Hehe, I should've made this fic an AU and Naru and Sasu strangers. XD Imagine the horror. It would probably be more fun to write too. What do you guys think? Should I rewrite this?

 

Thanks to all those that reviewed. ^_^ Especially those on AFF that said this sounds like Las Vegas. XD I had quite the laugh.

 

Exploding Stars

 

Chapter 2Married to You

 

Naruto regretted answering the phone as soon as he heard the voice.

 

The blonde visibly cringed at the high-pitched, ear-piercing shriek violating his ears and quickly withdrew the earpiece. Sasuke, still on his elbows and pinned underneath him, could only describe it as screeching. Once it stopped did Naruto deem it safe enough to bring the earpiece closer to his ear.

 

“Sakura?” he spoke cautiously into the mouthpiece. Naruto had the sudden impression of treading in a minefield. Any wrong word and a bomb would explode under his feet.

 

He rapidly ransacked his memories for anything he might have done recently to upset the girl. He hadn't even been up to his usual tricks in a while, much to the relief of Iruka, the Hokage, and the villagers. Truthfully, he couldn't remember the last prank or scandal he had pulled worthy of gossip and attention. The harmless ones he was certainly guilty of, including slipping Kakashi's phone number to perverts saying it belonged to a hot, young chick (“But, Kakashi, those men were desperate. I need to give them some hope.”) to replacing Sasuke's underwear in his drawers with frilly pink bras and lacy thongs (“Sasuke, I didn't know you had a secret fetish!”).

 

Other than his arguments with Sasuke last week, there was nothing he could think of significant enough to warrant Sakura's anger. But those were a regular occurrence; the two clashed so often, it wouldn't feel natural if they didn't bicker every once in a while. It wasn't as if Naruto intentionally picked a fight either—the Uchiha just knew how to press his buttons and get him riled up. Sasuke loved goading him, and Naruto never backed down from a challenge. The girl should just learn to accept it—or better yet, take his side and yell at Sasuke for a change.

 

Sakura seemed to have reigned in her temper a little. “Naruto! What are you doing at Sasuke's house this early?”

 

Good question. I'd like to know the answer to that too. “Uh… well, you see, Sakura…” Naruto faked a cough, trying to stall enough time to fabricate a passable excuse in his mind. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

 

“What?” Sakura was getting annoyed, and Naruto could hear the mounting temper in her voice. His mouth was suddenly so dry, and he licked his lips. He was certainly in no mood to test Sakura's fury. (It must be one of those days when Sakura experienced severe, unpredictable mood swings which he never understood and didn't dare to ask.)

 

Naruto debated what to say. It had to be something believable and wouldn't sink him in deeper trouble. He decided to settle for the truth. Iruka had always told him the truth was foolproof and could never go wrong on him. He couldn't think of a fitting lie right now anyway, and Sakura had an uncanny ability to detect whether he was honest or not. She was always a hard one to fool.

 

However, Naruto wasn't, of course, as naive as when he was seven and caught red-handed by Iruka in one of his ingenious schemes. He wasn't about to tell Sakura, just because he chose to be reasonably sincere now, the complete truth. The modified truth would be a better choice. The blonde was definitely not about to inform the girl that the both he and Sasuke were stark naked and cuddling in bed. Sakura would murder him.

 

“Uh… Well, Sakura… It's like this. I swear I didn't do anything and it's not my fault, but I think me and Sasuke got drunk and slept together last night.” The words tumbled out of his mouth before he could rephrase them.

 

“WHAT?”

 

Sasuke wanted to strangle the blonde at that moment. It was often he found himself pondering how dense Naruto could possibly get. Just when he thought Naruto had arrived at the limits of his stupidity, the blonde had to prove him wrong time and time again. Growling, he wrenched the phone from Naruto's grasp and shot the boy a cutting glare.

 

“Sakura?” He spoke into the phone, still eying Naruto. It wasn't so much a greeting as a curt `What do you want?'

 

At the other end, Sakura's mouth was open, ready to demand what Naruto meant exactly by the words `slept together'. When Sasuke's voice came on the line, her tone audibly changed. “Sasuke? Are you all right? What is going on? What is Naruto doing over at your house?”

 

The last question was laced with a note of jealousy which Sasuke identified. His teammate's concerned words didn't go unnoticed by him either. It must be important if she was phoning him—he wasn't even sure he gave her his phone number. (Little did Sasuke know that approximately half of the female population under sixteen in Konoha had his phone number doodled with hearts somewhere. The other half had burned it to memory as soon as they had acquired it. Of course, they were all too shy to actually put it to use and call him. Had Sasuke known, he would've had his phone number changed immediately.)

 

“Yes, I'm fine,” replied Sasuke calmly, clearly confused. He purposely ignored the last question. He had assumptions of why Naruto was in his bed this morning, but certainly wasn't about to share them with Sakura. For all he knew (and hoped), there was the possibility he might be wrong about the entire situation. He added, “Why wouldn't I be?”

 

Sakura was lost on this. Yes, the Uchiha sounded all right. She promptly felt so foolish for worrying so much and imagining the worst case scenario. Of course, Sasuke was fine! Why wouldn't he be? He was a high-class ninja, better than many by a tenfold. Sasuke could take care of himself—he had even before she knew him, after all. He didn't need her to fuss over him like worried parent over a child.

 

He didn't need her.

 

Sakura winced at the thought. Even after ten years of being by Sasuke's side and enduring his indifferent attitude, it still stung to know the object of her affections didn't need her. The Uchiha's rejections weren't foreign—every girl that had worked up the nerve to confess her feelings to Sasuke all met the same fate. But what really bothered Sakura was the four years of being Sasuke's teammate, and she was no closer to the boy romantically than before.

 

“Er… I just wanted to make sure you are fine,” she began almost embarrassedly. She could feel her cheeks heating up and was thankful for the phone. “I guess it's nothing, really. I just heard some disturbing rumours flying around, but I know they're not true.”

 

“Rumours? What rumours?” That readily sparked Sasuke's curiosity.

 

“It's silly…” Sakura trailed off, but could hear the interest in Sasuke's words. That encouraged her—Sasuke was seldom interested in many things excluding missions—and she continued shyly, glad to have Sasuke's full, undivided attention, “Ino was telling me how everyone at the flower shop was talking about it. They were saying that…” The girl drifted off again at this point. Sasuke could picture her sawing nervously on her lips, contemplating what to say.

 

The last of the Uchiha bloodline was starting to grow impatient. Patience wasn't a virtue he had mastered early in life, and its limits were exceeded very easily—especially when it came to dealing with a particular, idiotic blonde. “Go on,” he pressed. Naruto thought he saw a fine black eyebrow twitch.

 

Hesitation was evident in Sakura's voice. “Um… she said that,” an inhalation of breath, “you're married, Sasuke. That you got married last night.”

 

Sasuke visibly stiffened under Naruto and his eyes widened in disbelief. He was still propped on his elbows, hips straddled by the blonde, with a hand cradling the receiver against his ear. Naruto thought the boy appeared even whiter than before. Aware of his undignified, open mouth, Sasuke quickly clamped it shut. His mind lit on the wedding ring on his finger.

 

The two on the phone lapsed into an awkward silence. Sakura was back to worrying her already swollen lips.

 

As far as Sakura knew (or thought she knew until today), Sasuke shared no close contact with any female other than her. The fact had pleased her so much, she hadn't accounted for the possibility that there could indeed be another girl. The girl might even perhaps share a more intimate relationship than her and Sasuke's camaraderie. Sakura hardened her resolve.

 

If there was a girl, whoever she might be, Sakura was definitely not going to lose Sasuke to her. The boy meant too much for her to let him go.

 

Sasuke's silence unnerved Sakura even more. “But you're not, are you?” she asked, just for confirmation. She wasn't aware of the droplet of blood dribbling down her chin—she had accidentally clamped too hard on her bottom lip and pierced the skin.

 

The next thing she knew was the dull beeping of an unconnected line.

 

Sasuke had hung up on the other end.

 

-----

 

Sasuke could feel the blue of Naruto's questioning gaze on his skin as he placed the receiver back where it belonged. He willed his hands not to shake, but he was sure Naruto detected it anyway.

 

Sakura had mentioned how everyone that has been to Ino's flower shop was blabbering non-stop about it. The meant people knew. The same people who he was always so careful to keep details of his personal life away from were now the same ones who knew exactly what happened last night.

 

Ino's parents owned the only flower shop in Konoha, so it was rarely vacant of customers. The girl oftentimes worked the early, opening shifts before she departed to meet her team for a day of missions. So it comes as no surprise when the girl is always one of the first to learn of the latest, juiciest gossips and rumours roaming around town.

 

Sasuke himself was no stranger to being the star (or, in his opinion, the prey) of the stories. The tales were more often untrue or exaggerated to a degree. Of course, that didn't prevent people from believing them. Uchiha was a prominent name in Konoha and being the last of the bloodline inevitably insured gossip following his heels, heightened especially with the massacre. Every little act done by him was taken, magnified, and exaggerated with fictional elements as it was released to the village.

 

And the tingling sensation in his stomach and a sixth sense told him however farfetched last night's scenario sounded, it didn't stray that far from the truth. He had a hunch last night was the biggest scandal to ever grace the records in both the Uchiha clan and Konoha.

 

To his chagrin, everything fell into place: waking up with Naruto in the same bed, unclothed to boot, no specific recollection of what transpired last night, with matching wedding rings on their fingers. It all fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

 

He and Naruto were married.

 

It explained why they were in bed and naked, which lead to the obvious conclusion he wanted to deny. He and Naruto had sex last night and had successfully consummated their marriage. Which meant, in the eyes of Konoha's law, he, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto were legally married. Which also meant they couldn't simply annul their marriage with the excuse they made a mistake while under the influence of alcohol. (Sasuke was seldom wrong about many things, but never in his life had he wished he was more wrong about this.) And that left, if Sasuke didn't want to have his life tied to one Uzumaki Naruto, a divorce.

 

And Sasuke was definitely not going to suffer through a divorce! It was disgraceful, and Sasuke had already shamed himself enough in the eyes of the Uchiha clan by an impulsive, drunk marriage. He was not going to bring another scandal such as divorce into the family name. Divorce, while not uncommon in Konoha, was severely frowned upon by the upper echelons of society. It symbolized instability and weakness—if one couldn't keep a wife or husband at their side, how could they be expected to control a clan?—and the Uchiha was not about to taint his family's honour because of his foolishness. To Konoha's noble, aristocratic clans, having a wife or husband leave you was pitiful; mutual separation too was scarcely taken lightly.

 

But what other choices did Sasuke have? He couldn't spend the remainder of his life with Naruto! (He would never admit it, but Naruto was the only person in Konoha, ninja or civilian, that Sasuke could remotely tolerate for so long.) It was either be married to Naruto or face another disgrace the Uchiha name.

 

Sasuke finally took notice of the rumpled pieces of clothing scattered carelessly everywhere in his bedroom. He easily picked out the ugly orange jacket Naruto always wore, his own dark blue shirt with the traditional Uchiha crest, Naruto's black sleeveless tank top and more among the discarded articles. There was also, he noted with a blush, his own underwear hastily cast aside before the bed.

 

He easily dislodged the blonde from atop of him and sat up. The two were now facing each other, rumpled blankets around them. Sasuke suddenly caught himself staring at Naruto's lean, muscled chest and toned torso. Naruto had certainly grown from their D-rank mission days; the years have been exceptionally kind to him too. His skin was bronzed handsomely from working in the sun (something Sasuke's milky white complexion could never compare to). The blonde had bloomed into muscles and also sprouted a good few inches over the years, even standing taller than Sasuke now.

 

Sasuke, red-faced, immediately tore his eyes away. Luckily for him, Naruto was unaware of his ogling.

 

“So,” Naruto began curiously, folding his muscled arms across his bare chest, “what did Sakura say?”

 

“Nothing of importance,” murmured Sasuke, cheeks still dusted with pink and eyes fixated elsewhere.

 

“Didn't sound like `nothing of importance,' ” Naruto mimicked.

 

Sasuke's cheeks reddened even more. If he had been any regular person, he would've sputtered, but Sasuke, with his dignified upbringing, managed to utter a little shakily: “What do you remember of last night, Naruto?”

 

Naruto opened his mouth to reply, and then stopped. Flashes of the previous night suddenly flickered across his mind. He tipped his head at an angle and frowned in thought. He spoke slowly, his face portraying uncertainty.

 

“I think I scored last night.”

 

-----

 

“We're WHAT?!”

 

Sasuke winced at Naruto's loud and obnoxious voice. He should have predicted a reaction similar to this outburst. If it wasn't for the severity of the situation, he might have allowed himself a smirk at the blonde's terror-stricken expression. Naruto's cerulean eyes were impossibly wide and stuck on Sasuke, his jaw dropping, and his mouth hanging open. To Sasuke, he looked almost cute with the three whisker scars on either side of his tanned cheeks, his sunny hair tousled and falling into his eyes. Not that Sasuke would admit it, of course.

 

A pale hand rose to massage Sasuke's temples. His head was clearer and sharper now, traces of hangover overshadowed by the current situation. He didn't think Naruto, despite how bright he could be at the best of times, would have figured it out even with all the obvious clues, so he had presumed to explain in detail his account of hours prior. His assumptions were logical and Sakura's earlier phone call only served to confirm them.

 

Sasuke chose not to reply and simply glared. Naruto, after years of practice deciphering the Uchiha's neutral glares and grunts, understood the look.

 

“So what can we do?”

 

“Nothing at the moment. We can't annul it, and we're not getting a divorce,” Sasuke replied.

 

“Why can't we get a divorce?” Blonde eyebrows creased together and made Naruto appear even more adorable to Sasuke. Then it dawned on Naruto, and the previously cute expression was replaced with a smirk. “Geez, Sasuke, if you wanted to marry me, you could've just asked like a normal person.”

 

Sasuke's chilling glare intensified. Snarling (and somehow managing to make it look elegant at the same time to Naruto), he lunged at the other boy. He effortlessly pinned the blonde down despite the bulky muscles Naruto boasted, and, just for good measure, straddled the blonde's waist. White hands held down his shoulders and with their faces scarcely inches away, their breaths mingling, Naruto was now fully subjected to the extents of the Uchiha's bone-chilling glare.

 

“This is all your fault, Naruto you knucklehead!”

 

“What? What did I do?” Naruto protested indignantly.

 

“You… you…” took my first kiss (Sasuke's mind briefly flashed to that humiliating moment during graduation from the Academy) and my virginity and now you got me married to you, that's what! Sasuke didn't finish—he was too consumed by fury and embarrassment to continue.

 

Naruto gulped, and a tingle traveled up his spine. His blue eyes roved over Sasuke's furious black eyes, down the white cheeks and the swan-like neck to his collarbone, and stopped. He stared. And stared. “Um…” Naruto mumbled, unsure of how to phrase his words. He pointed a finger at the juncture of Sasuke's throat and collarbone.

 

The Uchiha raised a hand suspiciously to his throat. His fingertips examined the expense of smooth white skin and brushed against uneven bumps. He suppressed a wince as the touch invoked slight pain. Sasuke followed Naruto's gaze and looked down; he almost gasped in surprise.

 

Trailing from his neck down was a series of light red and purple bruises and bite marks that were no doubt souvenirs from last night. He quickly observed Naruto's neck and chest, and, to his displeasure, found the moron completely free of bites and marks. (Even if Naruto did have them, they would've been gone by now, courtesy of the Kyuubi's swift healing.) His face flamed. Sasuke was sure he had blushed more times this morning than he had in his life. The fact that Naruto had donned a smug smirk underneath him didn't do to mollify his foul mood at all. That bastard is so gonna get it once he gets them out of this!

 

Sasuke needed time to think on this, to reflect and draft a solution; he needed a shower to clear his head. He pushed off the blonde and bent down in front of the bed to collect his discarded underwear, meanwhile unintentionally giving the blonde an eyeful of his ass. Naruto immediately shot up, his eyes riveted on the alluring view presented to him.

 

Wow. Naruto had never noticed it before, but Sasuke sure did have a very nice bottom. He was never going to look at Sasuke's backside the same way again in missions and training without feeling his eyes drift southward. Funny, how he had missed such a delightful sight for so long—especially since he was Sasuke's own teammate and spent more time than he would've preferred with the aloof boy.

 

And—he almost whistled wolfishly but caught himself at the last moment in fear of what Sasuke might do to him—the Uchiha had very, very nice legs. They were gorgeously long and slender, and looked so smooth and silky to the touch. They were also white and hairless and seemed to emit an attractive gleam, which promptly invoked a question in Naruto's head. Does Sasuke shave his legs? Or does he wax?

 

Naruto inhaled too sharply and brought a hand up to inspect his nose in case of a nosebleed. Dammit, he was never going to live it down if Sasuke caught him suffering a nosebleed because of the Uchiha's nice bum and great legs. He has heard of shaving or waxing one's legs before; Sakura once explained it to him, saying how girls did it because it made their legs smooth and pretty. Is that what Sasuke does?

 

He would have to ask the boy sometime. Obviously not now, Sasuke was not in a pleasant mood—though Sasuke in a pleasant mood by regular standards was very rare. He would ask when Sasuke was in a more acceptable attitude. Naruto could only imagine what Sasuke would do to him if he were to approach with that question right now.

 

Sasuke, still blissfully oblivious to Naruto's blatant staring, slipped on his boxers (his modesty refused to permit parading around completely nude in front of Naruto despite what they did last night), and made his way in the direction of the adjoining bathroom. He took one step, and nearly fell over, but managed to balance himself in time. There was an aching between his legs that he was almost surprised he had failed to notice earlier. Well, that just about killed any leftover scepticism whether he and Naruto had sex or not—virgin asses cannot possibly hurt this much. Not that he still doubted whether or he was still a virgin.

 

Sasuke didn't have to have a mirror to confirm the dark shade of crimson on his cheeks. Damn Naruto for making him blush this much! Was it even healthy to blush this much?

 

Argh! Could this morning get any worse?! It couldn't possibly go anymore downhill than it already has. He had woken up naked in bed next to Naruto (that alone was traumatizing) and found out he's now legally married to the dope. He couldn't just divorce the blockhead, and they've had sex (sex with anyone was enough to distress the Uchiha, let alone Naruto). Now, for the clincher, his butt hurt and he couldn't even move properly!

 

Angry and nursing his wounded pride, Sasuke limped the few feet to the bathroom.

 

“Sasuke? Are you okay?” Naruto asked, concerned, seeing the boy falter in his step and limp his way to the shower. Sasuke never limped and almost never tripped—he was too graceful for that.

 

Then Naruto understood and could help but start snickering.

 

His only reply was his own boxers thrown at his face.

 

-----

 

It was a little passed dawn when his tired feet entered the main gate of Konoha. The guards on sentry duty immediately recognized the shock of silver hair and allowed him to proceed. Kakashi had been running all night, leaping from branch to branch in the surrounding forest non-stop. There were respectable roads for traveling, but the Jounin always preferred the trees.

 

He had only been dispatched two days ago and was early. He wasn't expected back for another three or four days, but the mission had gone as smoothly as it could possibly go, so he had acted quickly. Of course, Kakashi wasn't about to let the extra few days go to waste—he was planning to spend the time lazing around and catching up on the latest volume of Icha Icha Paradise. Everything had just been so hectic recently, and he hadn't had a decent chance to so much as touch his favourite book. Jounins lived life on edge, and if Kakashi was to perish in his next mission, at least he could go without regrets, knowing what happened in the next edition.

 

Kakashi didn't report straight to the Hokage when he returned unlike most ninjas, but then, the man was never known to be conventional. Rather, he decided sleep was more tempting—he did spend his entire night up continuously moving—and headed instead to his humble apartment. He would write up the mission report and hand it in later. Besides, Iruka's shift wasn't until later in the day. Without the Chuunin there, Kakashi found no incentive to grace the mission room and tended to deliver his mission report as late as three weeks. And that was only because he was being constantly pestered for it.

 

It wasn't until hours later, almost noon, that Kakashi heard the news. The rumours spread madly like wildfire. Everywhere he went, Kakashi could pick out the gossiping behind his back with the words “Uchiha” and “that Kyuubi boy”. There was no doubt his troublesome students, Naruto and Sasuke, had done something when he was away. He would've sighed if he wasn't so used to it. It was at Ichiraku's that he finally learned what happened. He was enjoying a bowl of beef ramen, and what luck! Iruka was there too, just sitting down to order when he spotted the eccentric Jounin and joined him.

 

“You're back early,” Iruka commented politely, aware of the mission Kakashi was sent on.

 

Kakashi shrugged nonchalantly. “It was easier than expected.”

 

“Oh?”

 

Few things went by unnoticed by the Jounin; the schoolteacher's troubled demeanour, however subtle, wasn't one of them. He didn't comment on it though. Iruka wasn't one to keep things bothering him bottled in anyway. Kakashi wouldn't have to wait long. And he was right, as only after a few minutes of pleasantries (pointless, in Kakashi's opinion) shared, Iruka swiftly steered the topic around.

 

“Have you heard about Naruto and Sasuke?”

 

Kakashi didn't seem fazed. “Those two didn't destroy something, did they?”

 

“Er… well, no. I guess you don't know then.” Iruka's eyebrows furrowed as he eyed his order, pork ramen. He had yet to take a bite of his meal.

 

“I really don't know how to say this, but… Naruto and Sasuke got married last night. To each other.” The schoolteacher turned to witness Kakashi's reaction, waiting for the words to soak in and the shock to showcase.

 

The Jounin's face, however, remained as passive and indifferent as ever. Iruka suddenly wondered if he had unconsciously discussed the weather instead. Kakashi's presence always had an effect on Iruka's nerves. It wasn't uncommon for him to stutter or say the wrong thing or, quite frankly, act like an idiot around the man.

 

The Jounin's answer wasn't what Iruka had expected at all.

 

Kakashi turned back to his food but not before winking at Iruka with his one eye. “It's nice to see them get along for once, don't you agree, Iruka?”

 

To Be Continued