Chapter Text
A silence soon settled over both boys that somehow neither of them could really understand... Atleast, understand beyond the significance of its weight.
Naruto finally broke it with a shuddering sigh. “So, the ‘gotta-be-in-ANBU-requirement’ that you were telling your fangirls is… I’m guessing… inspired by...” he started softly, trailing off without any real direction, nodding quickly when Sasuke took a long inhale only to let out a small, ‘Obviously…”
Obviously indeed. And was that a blush on Sasuke's fair skin?
Naruto took a deep breathe and tried to fight down his own blush.
To think that Sasuke… Sasuke of all people… was being shy about this. About his feelings towards...
“That’s really cool, actually,” Naruto affirmed in a stronger voice, prompting Sasuke to let out an impossibly tense and long exhale; as though he had been storing the words he had just shared with Naruto tightly in his chest for a long time, and was protective and anxious after releasing so many of them freely into the air, only able to relax after Naruto didn’t writhe in disgust away from him.
“Yeah,” was all Sasuke said back, but Naruto heard the sounds of the word fall heavily over him.
It sounded an awful lot like Sasuke saying ‘Thank you.’
And Naruto just didn’t know what to do with a grateful Sasuke.
“Why call him, uhm, Nii-san, though?” Naruto couldn’t help but blurt out; half to stop feeling so embarrassed, and half also because, he really, really wanted to know, “I mean… if he loves you so much, and he’s, like, the Naruto to your ramen… Why do you still call him something as stuffy as Nii-san?”.
Sasuke abruptly burst out into rare laughter, “What do you think I should call him instead? Onii-chan? Ita-nii? Don’t be ridiculous,” he huffed.
“It’s not ridiculous!” Naruto defended himself, “What’s wrong with a term that expresses how much you like him and your closeness? Nii-san makes him sound like the sort of older brother who... only ever talks to you to tell you to be quiet about the girls he sneaks into his room at night.”
“He’s certainly not like that…” Sasuke announced, his laughter trailed off as he furrowed his eyes, apparently angry just at the thought of what Naruto was saying, “He told me he’s only ever held hands, and only with one girl… And Izumi’s okay, I guess, but I think nii-san could... Nii-san needs someone grounded who will be protective over him, and see him as the sweet, thoughtful person he really is.”
Naruto nodded, “Yeah. I can see that."
“Anyways,” Sasuke said, coughing to cover up another blush. This conversation was so embarrassing; he didn't remember blushing so much throughout his entire life! “I am a boy, and my dad would probably beat me up if he heard me call my brother anything even near the ballpark of -chan.”
“Wait,” Naruto exclaimed, “So… You do want to call him something like that?!”
“Shut up!” Sasuke yelled back, smacking his free hand over Naruto’s mouth, “Not so loud, you big dummy.”
Naruto licked Sasuke’s palm in retaliation and Sasuke wiped it on his pants, leaving Naruto’s mouth open to say, “Well, going by what you say and what I've seen of him, I think he’d like that too…”
Both boys looked at each other for a long minute until Naruto burst into a stupidly infectious smile, Sasuke perking up a bit too.
“I mean, I guess it wouldn’t be that hard,” Sasuke started lowly, “For me to call him Nii-san in front of everyone else, and then… Ita-nii-chan… Or whatever, when it’s… just us.”
Naruto smiled a little more at that, but then he deflated a little, “Do dads actually beat their kids up? Just for doing something like that? Is that a thing?”
Sasuke sighed, “Yeah. Mine does atleast. Not when… Ita-nii-chan is around… Although, Mom doesn’t though... Come over, I’ll introduce you to my family sometime, and you can tell me more about all these times you apparently met my brother and didn’t tell me about it.”
Naruto just grinned and Sasuke ruffled his hair.
When Iruka called them back in for afternoon classes, he was shocked to see the two boys hunched over together talking lowly while staring at the pond, watching a girl on the dock paint a picture of the rippling water with calm, methodical strokes.