Archive of Our Own

cursed

Just one.

Fuck.

After all those days on the road, he only had one single pill left. The supposedly “short” and “quickly handled” mission had taken much longer than Naruto had expected, and now he was sitting here in their small night camp - full of rising panic, his throat tight, his hands trembling.

In his palm lay the small, round pill that seemed to gleam almost golden in the firelight. He stared at the medication Iruka had first pressed secretly into his hand many years ago - and had reliably gotten for him again and again ever since. Especially now, it looked almost precious.

Almost holy, as Naruto thought.

Ridiculous, really, if he thought about it for too long. It was only a pill, after all. Some active ingredient he couldn’t pronounce and didn’t want to pronounce either. Strictly speaking, he didn’t want to deal with anyof it. For almost ten years now, he had tried stoically to look past the fact that this was apparently meant to be his fate.

As if it hadn’t already been bad enough that he had been rejected from the very beginning. No - of course it had had to get worse once he’d hit puberty. Just when everything might have started getting better. Just when he had finally felt accepted and like he belonged. When he had finally been accepted by the village - and had no longer just been that boy.

No longer just a Jinchūriki people had to be afraid of.

The thought alone of how unwillingly so much of his life had unfolded made his jaw clench. And this, too, was something he had not chosen - this terrible word that was supposed to determine everything. Something that was meant to be more than a simple word. One that was supposed to describe him - in his entirety, as if that was all he was:

An Omega.

He hated that word - had always hated it, with every part of his heart.

Because it felt like something foreign, almost alien, lodged into him. Another thing imposed on him from the outside, another fate he was supposed to submit to. As if he could be reduced to that. As if he had to be. To something he had not chosen. Once again.

I’m not like that, he had thought back then, when Iruka had explained to him what exactly had started happening to him at fourteen. I decide who and what I am - he had told himself afterward, over and over, like a mantra.

And to him, one thing had been crystal clear: he was neither weak nor needy, nor in any way… available to anyone like that. Not another thing people could demean, despise, and simply use however they pleased. A something - and suddenly no longer a someone.

No longer… human.

At least that was how it had felt to him. Because people turned up their noses at that “category” - and Naruto’s mouth twisted in disdain at the mere thought - of a person. In his opinion, people shouldn’t be sorted into categories at all. But what could he do about it?

Especially against that vast? Very little, probably - even though that was exactly what he had always wished for, and even though he hadn’t given up hope that he might at least be able to change something for Konoha itself once he became Hokage.

But for himself, on a smaller scale, there had been possibilities. Not simply having to surrender to his fate. Not having to continue enduring everything. But being able to fight back.

With these exact medications.

He swallowed hard and looked down at the pill in his hand.

At the last one, to be precise.

How could he have been so stupid as to bring so few?

Thinking a single blister pack would be enough now seemed like the greatest stupidity of his life. Especially because he wasn’t traveling alone.

He tried to calm himself down. Don’t spiral. Don’t assume the worst.

Easy now, cowboy, he told himself, trying to form one clear thought.

While I still can, shot through him at once - and his throat tightened even further. He tried to breathe in deeply, then out again. Falling into a panicked state before anything had even happened wouldn’t help anyone.

If I take the last pill tonight… - how long would it really take for the effect to wear off? He could only hope that over the past ten years, some kind of “reserve” had built up. That the suppressing effect would last longer. That month after month, year after year of swallowing those pills had to have done something, didn’t it? Surely there would still be enough time. At least enough until they were safely back in Konoha and he could barricade himself in his apartment for a few days.

He bit the inside of his cheek until he tasted the metallic tang of blood.

What would happen if they had to stay on this mission even longer? How would his body change?

His breath caught at the thought. Immediately, his heart began beating faster and heavier in his chest. He cursed himself for how, out of sheer defiance and stubbornness, he had never dealt with what any of it actually meant. Like an offended child, he had looked away and simply pretended, with mule-like obstinacy, that none of this concerned him.

And by taking the pills early on, he had managed quite wonderfully to ensure he never had to find out what it would feel like to go into heat. What it would feel like when his body took control over what it wanted. What it would feel like to be with… -

His blue eyes flicked over to the small, makeshift sleeping place. They slid over the body lying there - the back turned toward him, the dark hair that seemed almost eerily glossy in the firelight, the arm pillowed beneath his head. From here, he could see the slim fingers twitching in sleep.

Thank God, Naruto thought, trying to calm his pulse.

Sasuke was asleep. Deeply and soundly.

That was his greatest fear: what would happen to and - even worse - with Sasuke if the medication stopped working. Naruto wasn’t stupid. The Alpha would immediately be able to sense the change. That Naruto’s scent would shift day by day for every day he had to spend without the suppressing effect of the pills. That his entire aura would become different, and that…-

His eyes fell back to the pill he was now holding tightly in his fist. He barely allowed himself to finish the thought. But what frightened him most was the fact that he already suspected his old strategy wouldn’t work anymore then. Quietly, secretly, that small voice inside him was already whispering that what he had arranged so beautifully for himself for a decade had not been the whole truth.

That he had not wanted to bring Sasuke back only out of brotherhood, friendship, or because they were merely so similar in their fate. That it was something else.

That it had always been something else, if he had ever been able to be honest with himself.

That there had always been something that had drawn him to Sasuke almost magnetically. Something he simply could not escape.

Ever since Sasuke had returned, something inside Naruto had finally settled. The time when he had searched and searched for him, when he had done everything to bring him back - afterward, it felt like some strange fever dream. A time when Naruto had felt almost possessed, as if every fiber in his body had been focused on finally being with Sasuke again.

He shook his head despite himself.

No, thought the part of him that had always told itself it wasn’t like that between them. It hadn’t been about being with Sasuke. He didn’t feel that way about him. They were best friends - brothers - rivals. Something like that. Something in between.

Weren’t they?

Naruto sucked in a sharp breath and instantly clapped a hand over his mouth. His blue eyes widened at the far too loud sound and shot over to the sleeping figure, who thankfully didn’t move.

As if to prove that there could be no two opinions about their relationship to one another, and that absolutely nothing would change once his true biology came to the surface, he swallowed the tiny pill in one fluid motion.

The last one.

-

It had happened exactly as he had feared: they were essentially stranded in a contested border region between two villages and had had to retreat into a narrow cave in a rocky outcrop.

Because it had been raining relentlessly for hours. No - for days, if Naruto really thought about it. The sky had stayed permanently dark, so dark that he could barely say how many days had passed anymore. At times, it hailed so violently that fist-sized stones fell from the sky. And so they had had no choice but to seek shelter in this cold, damp, even darker cave.

At least until the worst was over.

Naruto had not even considered that the worst part would be having to be in such close quarters with Sasuke.

Right now, Sasuke was pulling his soaked shirt over his head and hanging it over the provisional line they had strung with a cord across the cave entrance. Naruto, too, felt as if the rain had eaten its way into his bones - and it was almost a welcome cooling against whatever had begun brewing inside him since that morning.

And that something made itself known again now, in that dreadful, treacherous way, as he had to watch Sasuke’s bare, rain-wet back gleam in the firelight. The tendons and muscles in his shoulders moving as he stretched to hang up the sopping wet piece of clothing.

Naruto’s mouth went strangely dry the longer he looked.

And yet he could hardly tear his gaze away. Instead, his blue eyes seemed magnetically bound to the other man’s body, to the muscles visible beneath the damp skin. His gaze wandered briefly down to the dark trousers clinging to Sasuke’s thighs from the rain. Then back up, along the trained and flawless line of his back, until it reached his shoulder. There, in the half-dark, Naruto could make out the black edges of the curse mark.

It had faded slightly by now. Or maybe Naruto only wanted to believe it had.

Because it had never disappeared entirely. And it was still a painful reminder of what still lived inside Sasuke. Of how he had lost him back then. To whom.

Sometimes Naruto wished he could simply forget what had happened back then. Sometimes he wished he could just pretend this mark was not proof of what Sasuke had truly been searching for.

That curse mark felt like a door - one that never fully closed. One that always remained ajar, ready at any moment to let in a visitor one should never have invited inside. One you would never get rid of again.

The thought of Orochimaru alone made Naruto shiver.

He didn’t trust the peace, if he was completely honest with himself. He always tried to soothe himself with the thought that Sasuke was here now. But he probably had to face the truth: Sasuke was back, yes.

Somehow. Halfway, at least. He was present. Physically, anyway.

He accepted missions. Sometimes he slept in his new old home - in Konoha. Where he belonged, as far as Naruto was concerned. At his side - and Sakura’s too, of course. Both of their’s. Kakashi’s, as well. Everyone’s, really.

Sometimes Sasuke said more than three words in two hours, and every single time Naruto felt, painfully, how his heart skipped a beat. Because although he was happy whenever Sasuke spoke to him, he feared a secret farewell in every single word - feared that something lay between them that might slip past him.

And that Sasuke would disappear again.

The thought that he might leave again made nausea rise in him. And alongside it, some other strange bodily reaction he barely understood. His throat felt dust-dry as he tried to swallow down the reaction and that strange state. Was that because… -

Now don’t start imagining things, he ordered himself. It doesn’t happen that fast.

But did he really know that? Could he even estimate what it meant that he had gone several days now without taking a single heat-and-scent suppressant?

How many days had it actually been by now?

He tried to count backward, but he didn’t get far. The days had begun to blur into one another because of all the darkness. No point breaking your head over it, he told himself. Where had his optimism gone, anyway? Unshakable, full of confidence, so completely himself, huh?

So, let’s get it straight for once: the mission wouldn’t last much longer. He would be home in time. He didn’t have to tell Sasuke anything at all - there was no reason to. Sasuke wouldn’t notice anyway.

Everything would be fine.

Only the little voice that grew louder with every passing hour disagreed.

But if you pretended to be deaf, you didn’t have to listen, did you?

… Right?

-

That strange… voice had become more and more intense over the past few days. At first, it had seemed like only a whisper to him. Or… a kind of tingling - unpleasant and lodged so deeply under his skin that scratching the place where it had started didn’t seem enough. And suddenly that state had spread through his entire body.

Sasuke was watching him by now. Not for long, more from the corner of his eye - but still. Just the fact that those dark eyes were on him made him shudder.

Naruto had tried to make some mocking, ironic comment to prove he was entirely himself. Everything as usual - everything perfectly fine.

That there wasn’t a violent tightening in his chest whenever Sasuke walked too close past him. That there wasn’t such a strange pulsing low in his body whenever Sasuke drank something and a few drops shone on his lower lip.

And even if there were, Naruto thought, then it had everything to do with the medication. Or rather, with the lack of it. And nothing - absolutely nothing - to do with their relationship to each other.

Naruto could admit to himself that, yes, of course it must have looked strange to everyone else that he had followed Sasuke to the ends of the earth and risked everything to have him back with him. As if he wantedhim - …but not like that, of which he had always been certain.

Until now, shot through his thoughts - foreign, far too loud, and yet so honest that his breath caught for a moment. Irritated, he blinked, ran a hand through his blond hair, then over his chin. Then over his thighs, as if he could wipe something off there.

What the hell was that?

He shook his head almost imperceptibly. Sasuke looked over at him - and his eyes seemed questioning. Or examining?

Caught, Naruto quickly lifted his shoulders and tried for an easy tone as he pointed outside, as if that should have been answer enough.

“Ah, just the weather”, he said, attempting nonchalance - though… was it only him, or did his voice tremble?

But Sasuke seemed to accept that statement - trembling or not. Maybe the barely perceptible quiver in his voice had been swallowed by the lashing rain.

Naruto hoped so.

-

By now, it was clear they weren’t going anywhere.

At least not for the time being.

Because by now, it almost seemed as if hell itself had broken loose outside. Water shot past their cave like a torrent, turning everything around the small outcrop into mud. Sasuke had commented on the whole thing with folded arms and a “Well” followed by an even more disinterested “Guess we’re staying, then. No big deal” for which Naruto would have most loved to go straight for his throat.

Because with every second longer he was forced to stay in this involuntary shelter, he felt like he was losing his mind more and more. All his senses seemed so sharpened that he barely knew what to do with himself.

The worst thing was the scent - his scent.

It was already nearly impossible to ignore and filled every tiny corner of this pathetic cave, but whenever Sasuke stood up or walked past him, Naruto thought he might faint at any moment.

He wasn’t sure he had ever smelled anything like it. It seemed almost… intoxicating. He could hardly say what the other man smelled like. Only that he felt an impulse inside him to move closer and closer, even though he knew very well that he should better not.

At least not as long as he no longer had any of the pills with him.

And, if Naruto thought about it longer, not in general either.

-

At some point, a heavy thunderstorm had set in.

At least Naruto vaguely believed he remembered lightning illuminating the darkness.

And hadn’t it thundered so loudly and closely that it had echoed through their small asylum? Hadn’t it even felt as though the stone walls were swaying dangerously?

But he was no longer entirely sure what was real and what wasn’t. With every trembling, half-held breath, it seemed as if the boundaries were blurring more and more. And then, again and again, that irrational restlessness broke over him, one that made him want to crawl up the walls.

And slowly but surely, his condition could no longer be hidden from Sasuke.

The first time Sasuke had asked if everything was all right, he had still managed a defiant, “You’re imagining things, man.” - But now?

His heart was beating in his throat. Everything inside him pulsed so urgently, so wantingly, that he wondered whether he had caught some kind of fever. As if he could still hope that he had simply become sick from all the wet and damp.

And to be fair, this state felt more like illness than anything he had ever known before.

His stomach clenched so violently that he felt nauseous for a moment. It felt as though something deep inside him was wreaking havoc. As though it wanted to make room for something - and was shoving everything else aside in the process until he almost felt at the brink of throwing up.

Feverishly, he tried to think about what he did know - what exactly awaited him now. He had always tuned out and simply ignored everything he had not wanted to hear. Hadn’t there once been something about a kind of rebound heat?

Something like a punishment, if you tried to outwit your own nature?

Was this the so-called punishment, then?

Naruto, at least, thought it felt as if someone up there had decided to put him through literal hell. That he deserved precisely this suffering because he had refused to submit.

He spent most of his time now in the back of the cave, knees drawn up, hands clasped tightly around them. He must have looked miserable. And as if he could hide from the truth - and from Sasuke’s gaze, which wandered over to him more and more often - he closed his eyes every now and then.

What you couldn’t see didn’t exist, right?

Or however that saying went.

Please, he sent a desperate prayer up to the heavens in his mind. Please let the rain and thunder stop tomorrow.

That he would become religious here, in this gloomy cave in some no-man’s-land, was not something he could ever have imagined. Not even in a dream could he have pictured himself getting into a situation like this and ending up believing in some god who would magically help him.

But not even the gods could change the fact that something much worse and an entirely different kind of storm, had long since begun gathering inside this very cave.

-

He no longer knew how many days had passed.

Strictly speaking, he didn’t know anything anymore - at some point in the past few hours, he had completely lost control of space and time. Everything had come apart at the seams, and every concept - even thought itself - had lost meaning. Because by now, he was so far from thinking that he could barely finish a single fleeting scrap of a thought. His entire mind felt frayed and scattered. All that remained were these uncontrollable physical reactions he was trying with all his strength to suppress. And the fact that he was still desperately trying to brace himself against what was happening inside him.

One of the last complete thoughts had reached him only shattered and half-formed: Can you die from this?

Because it almost felt like dying.

Days ago or hours ago - who even knew anymore - he had still been able to be defiant, furious, resistant. He had still been able to hold up that inner I don’t want this again and again. But by now…?

By now, there was nothing left of it.

And he no longer had to pretend anything to Sasuke either. Sasuke looked over at him from the fire, his expression unreadable, but his eyes piercingly sharp. After a pause that seemed to last forever, he said his name into the cave.

“Naruto.”

Sasuke’s voice sounded hoarse and rough. And just the way he said his name - maybe even the fact that he said it at all - made goosebumps rise on Naruto’s arms. He flinched visibly when Sasuke added, “You’re going to tell me right now what’s wrong with you.”

Naruto wanted to look away, but he barely could. It almost felt as if he had to… obey. As if the moment Sasuke addressed him, he had to look at him - whether he wanted to or not.

Then the Uchiha rose and took a step closer to him, and Naruto’s body reacted so quickly he almost grew dizzy. His lower body tightened, hot and cramping. For a second, Naruto could have sworn his vision went black. He sucked in a sharp breath and clapped a hand over his mouth at the same moment, as if he could still push the sound back inside.

It sounded so willing. So unbelievably needy. And so loud. Deafeningly and unmistakably loud.

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed at once. He clenched his jaw so tightly it had to hurt. For a moment, he stopped beside the fire. But when he set himself in motion again and came even closer, Naruto managed a breathless, furious, “Stay the hell over there.”

But Sasuke didn’t let himself be deterred.

With two quick steps, he had reached him and grabbed Naruto roughly by the arm.

The second Sasuke touched his arm, it felt as if the world suddenly tore open: as if it split in two with one loud sound, and behind it there was nothing but bright, burning fire threatening to devour him.

Naruto gasped in shock.

The touch burned so much he feared he might come apart from it.

For a fraction of a second, Sasuke’s fingers tightened around his wrist, and Naruto’s body arched involuntarily toward the other man before he could tear himself back with the last bit of remaining control. The movement was so violent that he fell sideways to the ground, trembling, eyes wide and barely able to focus.

Accordingly, he only vaguely registered the horror in the other man’s dark eyes.

With the last of his strength, Naruto tried to turn away, to put any kind of distance between them, but Sasuke’s hand reached for him again and gripped him so tightly that a sound escaped Naruto he had never made before. It sounded almost like a desperate whine and, at the same time, so submissive and wanting that it robbed him of breath.

He stammered a “Let me go” and pulled at his arm, but with so little strength one could have thought it was a half-hearted attempt. As if he didn’t really want to be released at all.

Sasuke’s eyes slid over his body, and Naruto thought he might melt under that gaze. He could feel his blood beginning to surge, feel everything in him pushing toward Sasuke, and yet he whimpered a “Don’t touch me” so brokenly that the words faded into nothing in the dark cave.

He felt terribly sick. And unbearably hot.

It felt as if all his skin were charged with electricity. His breathing came so shallow and brittle that, for a second, he feared he might suffocate.

“You…”, Sasuke began, then broke off. He inhaled just as sharply and startled as Naruto had feared he would. Struggling for composure, he then forced out a toneless, “You smell different.”

Naruto froze, then tugged helplessly at his arm once more and squeezed his eyes shut.

Sasuke bent lower, as if to make sure his suspicion was correct. A hot whimper escaped Naruto, because Sasuke’s own scent was so intense, so close, so much too much that he barely knew what to do with himself.

His heart raced so fast and loud that it drowned out everything, making every sound around him dull and unreal. His own breathing came so rattling that he thought his lungs might give up entirely at any second.

“What did you take?”, Sasuke’s voice thundered so loudly in his head that Naruto was no longer sure whether he hadn’t already lost his mind completely. A guilty sound escaped him, and he shook his head, not very convincingly. And Sasuke didn’t let go of his accusation, “You took something every night. Until recently.”

Shit.

Oh my God, shit.

He had been so certain Sasuke had been asleep.

So damn certain he had managed to hide everything.

To conceal what was really happening to him - and what he really felt about Sasuke.

“Don’t lie to me”, Sasuke almost commanded.

Naruto did not want this. He did not have to bow to this even more than he already had.

Somewhere inside him, he mobilized the last shred of will and strength, and with one forceful jerk, he tore himself out of Sasuke’s grip - which now did release him. Hot anger shot through Naruto’s veins, and for one brief moment he almost felt like himself again. Enough, at least, to draw his eyebrows together and make an indignant sound.

“And that coming from you”, Naruto hissed then, “Really fascinating.”

His voice shook, sounded insanely far away - and yet he couldn’t stop himself from adding another spiteful, defiant snort. He crawled a few pathetic inches away from the other man, who was still half bent over him. Every minimal bit of distance felt like safety.

For the briefest moment, something flickered across Sasuke’s face. In the half-dark, it was almost impossible to tell what exactly it had been - maybe anger, maybe pain. Maybe something else entirely. Whatever it had been, it immediately fell victim to the ancient reflex that snapped shut the second anything human seemed to stir in Sasuke at all.

Within seconds, it was gone.

As if it had never been there.

He straightened again, looked down at Naruto, and something glittered in his eyes that Naruto could not place.

“How long?”, Sasuke asked in an indifferent tone.

Naruto’s mouth twisted and he looked away. Defiant, angry - and yet just as ashamed and caught. But he didn’t have to show Sasuke that too. This was already bad enough.

“How long have you been taking them?”, Sasuke demanded anyway.

“None of your business”, Naruto panted, furious at how breathless it sounded.

The silence spreading between them felt so charged that one might have thought the storm outside had made its way into the cave. For a few moments, Sasuke said nothing. Then he swallowed hard and whispered so quietly it almost vanished into the cave,

“Everything about you is my business.”

Naruto’s heart nearly stopped.

Then it began beating twice as fast. Heat shot into his cheeks, and his stomach clenched tight. And it wasn’t only his body reacting to Sasuke’s entire presence - his heart was too.

So stupidly, so hopefully, because of those few words, that Naruto wanted to despise himself for it.

Everything about you.

Everything.

“Took you long enough to realize”, he murmured under his breath. His voice was so thick it almost broke. He crawled a few yards farther away and was both relieved and disappointed that Sasuke let him.

Sasuke simply said nothing.

Instead, visibly struck by the sentence, he turned toward the cave entrance. As if one could just turn your back on anything the moment it got too close - and simply walk away like it was nothing.

-

Sasuke had stepped outside the cave, pressed close against the stone wall, whose cold and damp seeped straight through his thin shirt and should have made him shiver.

If not for that crackling ember that had grown stronger and stronger over the course of days - and that he finally understood now.

He had known.

Always, really.

And now, alongside his anger at feeling so deceived, something entirely different vibrated inside him. Because suddenly it all made sense: all those years in which he had felt as though he could not get away from Naruto.

No matter that he acted so coldly toward him.

No matter that he had left Konoha.

No matter that he had nearly killed him.

His entire relationship with Naruto felt like a wound that simply refused to heal - like a splinter beneath the skin, one you couldn’t get rid of. A tiny little piece of wood you had to watch inflame, throb, and remind you of itself again and again. Call itself back to memory, no matter what you tried to do against it.

Sasuke had hated it. That inability to get rid of him.

Again and again, he had wondered what it was. And now, with the touch from earlier still burning beneath his fingertips, it was more than clear to him why he couldn’t get away from him.

Just… fucking unreal.

He forced himself to look straight ahead. Into the distance - far away from Naruto, whose scent was now filling the entire space even though the blond had curled himself up at the very back. He gritted his teeth and clenched his hands into fists.

Now that he finally understood what it had always been, he felt endlessly stupid and blind. How had he failed to notice it all those years? Failed to… understand?

Had he maybe wanted to look past it?

Because it would have terrified him too much to admit that there was more between them than friendship and that strange bond he had tried, by every means available, to cut through? Only to fail at precisely that in the end.

And return after all - to him.

Sasuke pressed his lips together hard, as though he could still suppress the furious sound that escaped him.

The fact that Naruto was obviously an Omega now sealed everything.

He had already felt as though he could not stay much longer. But like this?

Like this, there was no way he could remain in Konoha - or anywhere near Naruto at all. Not when this endless urge was suddenly threatening to take over everything, and would ultimately reveal what he trulyfelt beneath all those layers of coldness and emotional rubble. Not when his biology would eventually force him to bend to this experience.

Because he had felt himself losing control, piece by piece, over the past few days. He had felt how he could barely withdraw from Naruto, and how something in him had reacted to him more and more strongly. At some point, it had clicked. He knew the scent Omegas gave off - even if something else mingled beneath Naruto’s scent, something so seductive to him that he could think of nothing else. Nothing but wanting Naruto for himself.

At first, he hadn’t quite been able to place it, but then his suspicion had grown stronger. And his own physical reactions to Naruto had become increasingly clear.

He had found the final proof he needed in Naruto’s things while he slept. A silver blister pack, every pill pushed out of it. For the faintest second, he had almost felt embarrassed digging through Naruto’s belongings - but when he held the last piece of evidence in his hands, he had seen his suspicion confirmed and felt justified.

What exactly the pills had been, he didn’t know. He suspected some kind of heat-and-scent suppressant that had, over all those years, been truly surprisingly good at concealing that Naruto was, in reality, an Omega.

And now the rebound heat seemed to be growing so strong that Sasuke wondered how Naruto was even still sitting upright - at least sometimes. Because he himself could feel how, hour by hour, he was moving closer to a state that genuinely worried him. He knew an Alpha rut was coming if they didn’t somehow get distance between them.

But where was he supposed to go?

His dark eyes swept over the valley - but everywhere there was only impassable mud, rushing streams that had long since overflowed their banks, and thunder so violent Sasuke had to admit it: there was no way to get away from this cave.

He already suspected it wouldn’t be long before the effects of the heat forced Naruto into something he might never have wanted in a normal state - and he himself would be just as helplessly overcome by the whole thing the moment that happened.

And he didn’t even want to imagine what it meant that Naruto was a Jinchūriki. And what exactly awaited him if Kurama, too, had fallen prey to this heat.

Sasuke’s dark eyes slid up to the black sky, where yet another storm was gathering. The thunder was deafening.

And yet it was nothing compared to what hung here in the air.

What threatened to break loose with every passing second.

-

He couldn’t stand it anymore.

Not one second longer.

Something so dark and frightening had taken possession of him by now and occupied every corner of his inner world until Sasuke could barely grasp a single clear thought. Everything felt scattered and frayed.

It felt as though someone had sunk glowing needles beneath his skin. It burned everywhere and, to Sasuke’s dismay, grew worse from minute to minute. His self-control grew thinner and thinner - like a thread on the verge of snapping.

He couldn’t avoid Naruto forever. Not in this small cave. Outside, it seemed as though hell had broken loose - but inside was no better. This forced proximity was nearly unbearable. He was so tense he felt as though any moment some strand of muscle might simply tear apart.

He was dizzy - and that dull throbbing, growing stronger and stronger the longer he sat here in the cave, was slowly but surely robbing him of his mind. Naruto’s scent was becoming increasingly threaded through with something so instinctive that it made Sasuke shudder.

Several times, he had almost given in to the impulse to jump up, seize Naruto, and simply fuck him - no matter of the consequences. To finally take what belonged to him… -

Sasuke bit the inside of his cheek until the metallic taste of blood spread over his tongue. Day by day, he was more and at the same time less horrified by these kinds of thoughts, so possessive and demanding that he could no longer deny to himself that he wanted Naruto entirely to himself.

And perhaps always had.

It must have been night when Naruto began making those dreadful sounds that drove Sasuke to the very edge of his control. It sounded like whimpering - he seemed so overcome by his own body that he barely knew what to do with himself anymore. The part of Sasuke that did not want to cross this line, that wanted to keep pretending they were not like this with each other and would have preferred to cover his ears, grew smaller and smaller.

Because not only did Naruto’s chakra seem to be taking on a different shape, his scent had also become so intense that Sasuke’s desire took on a dimension he had not known before. And those sounds - that whimpering, that soft, broken gasping - broke something inside Sasuke. Maybe it was the last piece of morality, the last bastion against their relationship, which had never allowed itself to be defined - and now seemed to have been defined by their biology.

It felt as though something inside him simply fell out of its bracket. As though a hinge snapped back and exposed something that, in any other state, would probably have filled Sasuke with pure horror. Because suddenly it was as if his entire body caught fire. As though one spark had been enough to set everything ablaze within seconds.

He had not had to endure an Alpha rut in years.

Why he had been spared so often, he had never been able to explain.

But now, with Naruto trapped in this rebound heat, whimpering, and finally revealing that he was an Omega, everything seemed to be moving toward a situation that might always have been unavoidable.

As unavoidable as the fact of what this unbridled feeling of wanting-to-possess would bring with it and unleash. It was something he knew. And something Sasuke regretted deeply, even if, at the time, it had felt as though there was no other way to obtain his revenge: giving his body to Orochimaru. And even though the whole of Konoha had tried many things to properly drive out the curse mark, it had remained.

And right this moment, it began pulsing beneath his skin so strongly that his breath caught.

He could feel all his blood flowing toward his shoulder, pumping hot through his veins and gathering in the place where Orochimaru and everything he stood for had remained burned into his body.

No. No - No.

The last little bit of him still trying to cling to the world as he knew it was nearly screaming for control. It clung to what Sasuke believed was right and yet slipped again and again. The outlines of the cave began to blur before his eyes.

The curse mark began throbbing so violently that he almost pitched forward.

Panting, he clutched at the place that was beginning to pump waves of poison and foreign chakra through his body. Everything felt as if it were in flames - and the embers spread through his body at terrifying speed. He inhaled sharply and felt his heart beating so hard he thought it might break his ribs.

He did not want this. This could not happen.

Under no circumstances.

Not now. Not here.

Not with him.

And yet he could not fight it. The power of the curse mark washed over him with such force and dragged him down so deeply into its depths that, for a moment, Sasuke felt as though he were going blind. His own will slipped away from him more and more, until nothing seemed to remain of himself.

For a moment, he saw himself from the outside. Saw how his eyes became emptier, how they clouded over with something that no longer had much to do with him - or with something that was finally finding expression.

All sounds around him vanished - and with them all thoughts and all caution.

-

Naruto only registered it at the edge of his awareness.

In the past hours, his body had played so many tricks on him, had become so needy, so desperate, that by now he lay curled in the darkest corner of the cave, trying not to lose all connection to reality.

That strange arousal, which seemed to occupy every corner of his body, had grown so immense that Naruto had considered several times touching himself just to find some kind of peace. Instead, he lay on his side, eyes squeezed shut, arms wrapped around his trembling body and legs drawn up, trying to find any way to deal with the rising pressure low in his body.

But then it happened faster than he could truly understand: suddenly, the entire atmosphere took on something almost threatening. Something bitter, sharp, almost metallic lay in the air and slid beneath Sasuke’s scent, which had already been threatening to rob him of his sanity for days.

Naruto involuntarily held his breath.

For the first time in what felt like forever, he slowly opened his eyes and realized he could hardly keep anything in focus. At first, he thought it was because of the half-dark, but even when he kept his eyes open longer, his vision remained mostly blurred. What he could still make out, however, was Sasuke at some distance, bracing one hand against the cave wall. The other he had pressed hard against his shoulder, as if he were about to sink to his knees. A sharp, broken sound escaped him, immediately setting alarm bells ringing inside Naruto.

Oh God, no - the thought reached him only as though through cotton. And yet he recognized that gesture, that entire posture, and suspected what was about to happen to Sasuke.

And also - and this was much worse - what was now about to happen to himself.

His entire nervous system signaled how precarious, how dangerous, how threatening the situation was becoming.

Because the other man’s body began to tremble, and despite the poor light, Naruto watched in horror as the curse mark began to glow beneath Sasuke’s hand. It looked as if it were burning bright. With every tortured breath the other man took, the curse mark spread farther and farther like flames.

Naruto tried to part his lips, but they were so dry he could barely separate them. He tried again and croaked a rough “Sasuke”, which was supposed to sound warning.

Instead, it sounded like naked fear.

He planted a hand beside himself to haul himself up with the last of his strength and at least do something. Even if he did not know what, or above all how, when he was so overcome by his own body.

He began, “You…-” but the word broke off immediately with another shudder and tremor. The sentence, which he himself could barely remember the intended shape of, died in his throat before he had even been able to form it.

He felt as though he no longer had any control over himself.

As if none of his actual abilities or powers were available to him anymore.

When he tried to sit up, he already heard the hiss from the shadows, the crawling sound over stone, the almost soundless glide - and in the next moment the snakes were already at his arms, tearing him down.

Within seconds, he found himself on the cold stone floor, pinned down by the reptiles coiling around his upper arms. Their black scales gleamed in the pale light of the distant fire. Naruto’s breath caught, and sheer panic rose inside him.

What… is happening right now?

And yet, beside the fear, there was something else, something he could barely admit to himself and yet could not deny: Because it throbbed hot and hard in his lower body - whether he wanted it to or not.

In a trembling, brittle voice, he hissed, “Don’t fucking do that” though it sounded so thin that even he could barely take it seriously.

You have to…- But before the thought could truly come to an end, blood-red eyes lit up in the half-dark of the cave. Naruto wanted to look away, but the Sharingan had already caught him and drawn him into a spell he hardly knew how to escape.

It was as if he were suddenly completely at Sasuke’s mercy.

His hand, which he had just raised to tear the snakes away from himself, sank as if on its own. You should…- but the should and the must faded by themselves. For one second, it felt as though it hit him with full force: he couldn’t do anything else. Something inside him seemed to have been laid bare and forced him to submit. To no longer fight against what was raging inside him and demanding expression.

To give himself over to Sasuke.

It felt as if something was suddenly emanating from Sasuke, threatening to overwhelm him completely.

Something that perhaps had always been there and had always bound Naruto to him. And as if that something had now broken open, risen to the surface, and become so powerful that Naruto did not stand a chance against it. Because for years it had only been silenced by those pills - and yet it had always been there.

A truth that had never really allowed itself to be denied.

And that had always shone through every smallest crack.

Sasuke’s voice sounded so dark and deep that it seemed almost foreign when he finally spoke.

“Some part of me always knew”, then a sharp inhale followed, “And you knew too - didn’t you, Naruto?”

The moment he heard his own name from the other man’s mouth, the hairs at the back of his neck stood up. And just as quickly, he felt his body betray him as if in proof of exactly that. He bit down on his lower lip. It was as though his body, his entire biology, were exposing him.

The snakes tightened around his arms; a pointed tongue slid once along his forearm, sending a shiver down his back that was both hot and cold. And yet he was lost in that hypnotic blood-red. For a second, it felt as though all the things they had never been able to say lay inside those eyes. Everything they felt for each other and everything that had never been allowed to exist. Everything their relationship had ever been made of:

Every unspoken sentence shimmered in the air between them and stole Naruto’s breath. 

His heart beat so hard in his chest it felt as though it might shatter into a thousand pieces any second.

A tremor passed through his body, which began to curl in on itself and was kept from collapsing completely only by the firm grip of the snakes.

His blue eyes began to turn glassy, then to burn, until finally they filled with tears. Every one of them saturated with everything he had always felt for Sasuke.

A hot, salty tear ran down his cheek and left a wet, pale trail on skin covered in dust.

For one second, Sasuke blinked, and in that one micro-moment the red briefly went out. Naruto inhaled sharply at once. He tore his gaze downward, felt himself come back for a moment, no longer subject to the force of the Sharingan. He jerked abruptly, and a survival instinct kicked in that still enabled him to free his arm after all. Even the snake seemed so caught off guard that, for a fraction of a second, it almost felt as if he might gain room to move and influence the situation. Naruto’s hands shot together, and in a flash he tried to form a jutsu sign - but to his horror he realized that neither his chakra nor his eternal companion seemed to obey him.

Kurama?

The name of the Kyūbi echoed inside him.

And instantly, his fear rose beyond measure. Because suddenly Naruto realized that Kurama’s presence felt quieter and farther away than it ever had before.

There was… nothing.

No growling answer. No fox spirit that would get him out of any situation.

Nothing but this desire, this enormous longing that seemed to be pushing everything else aside.

Even Kurama - whom all of Konoha feared.

His gaze snapped back up to Sasuke, whose steps were drawing closer again. Wide-eyed, Naruto had to watch as the dark lines of the curse mark spread farther over his body at dizzying speed. Almost like ink dissolving in water and turning everything dark. They flowed over the visible skin at his collarbone, up his throat and over the delicate features that suddenly looked hard.

There was something in the Uchiha’s eyes, too, that seemed so far away from him that Naruto’s heart stopped. Was that even still Sasuke? Was this still the same person he… -

The thought tore off immediately, because within seconds that blood-red was fixed on him again. And dragged him back down into the vortex he could not free himself from.

He wanted to say something - anything that would defuse this situation.

But no words came out.

He felt his lips part, then close again. Maybe he even said something - he no longer knew.

Move, you have to…- reached him dully. But even that impulse, to save himself from what was threatening to break over them, he could not obey.

Then Sasuke himself froze for a moment as though rooted to the spot. His eyes widened - whether from shock or pain or something else entirely, Naruto couldn’t say.

Maybe something in him, too, was fighting against what threatened to discharge between them here. Maybe there was still one last remnant that had imagined this differently.

Please…- sounded feverishly through Naruto’s inner world and then broke off again at once. He could no longer say how the thought had meant to continue: Please don’t?

Please - what?

Then Sasuke’s lips parted a fraction. Naruto could see his chest rising and falling far too quickly, the curse mark crawling farther over pale skin until it reached his fingers.

The blood-red eyes were fixed on Naruto - so unbearably firm and rigid that, for a second, he was no longer sure whether Sasuke was looking at him or something inside him.

Something Naruto himself did not want to see.

Something Naruto had successfully managed to hide for so many years.

And that now lay completely exposed and raw. So defenseless that it frightened Naruto.

Suddenly, more snakes slithered out of the darkness, finding their way over his lower body, and Naruto went rigid as they pushed against his visible erection. Blood drained from his face, only to rush back into his cheeks and lower body the next second. Instinctively, he lifted his hips towards the reptiles and registered only dimly the shame of how badly his body was betraying him. Their scaled skin pressed far too firmly against the sensitive skin of his thighs as they coiled around him and eased his legs apart.

His body reacted so strongly and so quickly that he almost grew dizzy.

And yet there was still this part of him that continued trying to fight against what he was helplessly subject to: himself. And the thing that had been hidden beneath the medication.

Barely perceptibly, he clenched his hands into fists. So tightly his nails dug into his palms. His body turned against him so completely that he only just managed to suppress a self-accusing sob.

“Naruto”, he heard his name above him once again. Something vibrated in Sasuke’s voice that made his blood freeze in his veins and, at the same time, sent something hot pulsing through them.

He tried one last time: tried to fight against the snakes as well as against this dreadful desire inside himself and forced out a “Let. Me. Go.” It was meant to sound angry, outraged, threatening.

But it came out like nothing more than a breath.

The whisper that echoed through the cave in answer made him shake his head in disbelief and distress. A gesture that seemed to say No, You can’t be serious, and What? all at once. Because Sasuke’s voice sounded so far away, almost helpless himself, and for one second an expression flickered across the other man’s face that made Naruto’s heart stop.

“I just can’t.”

Immediately, Naruto’s heart began beating so fast he barely knew what was happening to him. He felt a strange heat spreading through his body, one he had never perceived before. One that felt as though he had to burn from the inside out. As if all the arousal he could no longer deny had reached an entirely new height.

He saw Sasuke’s eyes fall to his throat.

One part of him wished he had a hand free to place protectively over that place, beneath which his pulse was racing and beneath which he suspected lay what seemed to draw Sasuke in like magic.

Another part, however, almost urged him to tilt his head to the side and offer even more of himself.

He was startled by the impulse - and even more by what it meant.

By what he had secretly always wanted.

For Sasuke to mark him.

Sasuke’s voice was hardly more than a rough whisper, “You should have told me.”

One rasping breath later, he added a hoarse, “must have told me” and Naruto’s throat tightened so unbearably that it felt as though a hand were squeezing it shut. With an unrelenting grip - almost like that of the snakes holding his arms and thighs tightly and pressing down on his chakra points.

As if to prove his helplessness, he tried once more to lift an arm. Something inside him whispered that he should simply surrender to this feeling - to the pleasure, the desire, and everything he had always felt for Sasuke. As if the summoned snakes wanted to underline precisely that, he felt sharp teeth pierce his thigh. He gasped and clenched his teeth hard. Again, he felt his length throb against the pressure of one of the snakes gliding over his lower body. That fact alone drew an angry whimper from him.

Sasuke had paused for a second and watched the spectacle with an expression Naruto could not interpret. Then he set himself in motion again, walking toward him slowly, almost reverently, closing the last bit of distance between them.

He bent down to Naruto. His scent was so incredibly consuming that Naruto began to tremble despite himself. Sasuke’s breath brushed over Naruto’s throat, immediately raising goosebumps on the thin skin. It was so burning hot that a whine slipped out of Naruto, one that did not sound like him. Tears rose to his eyes again, without him knowing why.

Maybe because he sensed what was about to happen.

Maybe because he had always wanted precisely this.

“You always wanted me to stay, didn’t you?”, Sasuke breathed against his throat.

Naruto barely knew what he was doing. But as if in a trance, he moved his head slightly.

Had that been a nod?

Had he really just nodded?

And… said yes?

Yes to what, exactly?

He took everything in only dully now, as though through thick milk glass. And yet behind it glowed a strangely unshakable certainty. A certainty that he had always wanted this after all. That he had spent his entire life fighting against it - and that now, at last, his body was forcing him toward the truth.

Then he felt Sasuke’s hand settle against his jaw. The touch felt like glaring light - too bright, too much, too burning - and made Naruto squeeze his eyes shut. Beneath the touch, everything throbbed - hot, blazing - and with a reverent, far too slow movement, Sasuke turned Naruto’s head to the side and licked once over his stretched throat.

Naruto held his breath.

His heart galloped in his chest, nearly out of control. The feeling - that wetness, that heat - left by Sasuke’s tongue made something inside him come completely apart: everything reacted at once. The soft laugh that brushed against his skin made him lose his mind entirely. And before he could breathe, he felt the bite.

Sasuke’s teeth pressed into exactly the place that pulsed hottest - the place Naruto suspected he knew the meaning of.

He had never wanted to deal with it in detail, but he wasn’t stupid. And his entire body reacted in a way that left no more questions.

He arched into the bite, his whole back lifting from the stone floor as much as the snakes allowed. Something inside him melted like liquid honey. Warm, viscous, spreading over everything that had just been desperately trying to resist what had seemed fated anyway. It throbbed from the wound at his throat through his whole body and made everything soft and yielding.

When the teeth slowly released him, Naruto almost followed.

Almost as if he didn’t want that moment to end.

Almost as if he didn’t want Sasuke to withdraw again and leave.

And as though Sasuke suddenly sensed exactly that fear, he breathed against the wound, which began to tingle beneath the damp warmth of his breath,

“You belong to me.”

For one second, Naruto thought he must have misheard. The world began to grow smaller and smaller, as if everything were narrowing down to this one point. The one point at whose center he lay: Sasuke. No one else.

Whatever flowed from his throat through his body felt as though it were ensuring he sank deeper and deeper into Sasuke. As though he had to drown inside the other man. As though it were dragging him down into Sasuke’s depths.

It was almost comforting.

Almost… beautiful.

And then it felt as if someone dragged him out of the water - with one forceful jerk - and all at once he gasped desperately for air.

With a startled gasp, he came back to himself and immediately felt how unbearably hot the bite at his throat burned. Something pulsed from there through his body and seemed to sweep away, almost flood, whatever doubts or reservations still remained.

He felt the heat streaming through him, filling everything, beginning to gather deep in his lower body. It felt as if reality were slipping from him piece by piece.

He registered only distantly how the snakes loosened their grip on his arms and legs and slithered away hissing. His hand felt almost foreign, remote-controlled, as he slowly lifted it and found Sasuke’s shoulder with a tremble.

And yet it felt so right.

And not only as if his biology left him no other choice.

When Sasuke’s slim fingers pushed his clothing upward and touched the tanned skin beneath, it shot through him like electricity. Everything felt as though he might burn at any second.

For one moment, he closed his eyes and decided to give himself over to this fever, this state, once and for all.

Why should he keep fighting it any longer?

If it was predestined anyway, and if it felt this good on top of that - why shouldn’t he simply… let it happen?

After all, there was a part of him that wanted this - and it was growing louder and louder by the second.

-

Ever since he had sunk his teeth into his throat, it felt as though intoxication had seized him. The world had come off its hinges when he had finally been able to mark him. His scent was more than intoxicating - heavenly, rather.

The adrenaline rushed in his ears, racing against the blood.

In this state, he had barely noticed how he had rid both himself and Naruto of every piece of clothing. Now he looked down at the body trembling with desire beneath him and could hardly comprehend how beautiful Naruto looked. How much he had always wanted him.

His hand slid lower, almost reverently brushing over the other's erect cock, from which drops of lust were already trickling down. As his fingers slipped between the blond's legs, they immediately found the opening that was already wet with desire.

A narrow smile settled on Sasuke’s lips as he whispered against Naruto’s mouth, “Don’t lie to yourself.”

His voice was more a murmur than anything else.

“Look at you. You’re aching for it, aren't you?”

One could see Naruto first wanting to shake his head, but then he pressed his lips tightly together and pushed his hips toward him. The flush on his cheeks deepened as he pressed his own length against the other’s. Sasuke couldn’t hold back a deep, rumbling groan.

He wanted him so badly.

So he traced his fingers in circles around the other’s entrance. Naruto shuddered noticeably at his touch and practically bent toward him in pleading. The fluid on his fingers was sticky and was already pulling thin, transparent threads.

“See?” His voice sounded so thick and wanting that he could barely restrain himself. “So wet, hmh?”

Sasuke’s lips found the other man’s sweat-damp skin again, brushed over it, scattered featherlight kisses, then bites again, followed by soothing kisses breathed over them. When he licked over one of the nipples, Naruto let out such a willing sound that he couldn’t help but smirk against the rose-colored bud before returning to suck on it.

His index finger circled the opening, which trembled at his touch. Naruto pressed himself closer to him and let out a “Hnngh-” that now only sounded like desire and no longer like protest. He slid his finger into the wetness, which immediately closed around him.

Naruto’s startled, high gasp and the unbearable tightness made Sasuke close his eyes in surrender. He had to pull himself together, or he would lose control immediately. But Naruto was so impossibly tight, so little yielding, that he thought he might go insane.

“First time, isn’t it?”, he murmured against the skin he had just tasted. The scent glands released a fragrance and a secretion that mingled with sweat and threatened to make him addicted. Then Sasuke lifted himself slightly, reached into the blond hair, and forced Naruto to look at him. The other man had turned his gaze away in shame - but Sasuke didn’t only want to hear the answer.

He wanted to see it.

The blue eyes were clouded with desire. When Naruto nodded faintly and then bit his lip, another gasp slipped past Sasuke’s mouth. Instantly, something triumphant, possessive flared inside him.

Had he really…?

“Strange, isn’t it?”, Sasuke whispered into the darkness. He had to know. His question sounded almost mocking, but beneath it lay something hopeful he could barely admit to himself.

Somewhere, in some now abandoned and dark corner of his memory, he remembered how many people had wanted to be close to Naruto. He had always been able to see it in other people’s eyes - how much they liked him, how much they wanted him around.

Had no one wanted him entirely for themselves?

The way Sasuke had, when he was gone?

Every night he had lain awake on his cot in Orochimaru’s hideout, he had wondered whether Naruto didn’t already belong to someone else. Even if the next morning he had either wanted to forget it or dismissed it as some strange, diffuse nightmare.

“Who were you always waiting for?”, he asked quietly.

And inside him, everything was stretched to the point of tearing.

Naruto swallowed hard and tried to turn his face away again, but Sasuke wouldn’t let him. He pushed his finger deeper, began to curve it slightly, until the blond was audibly gasping for breath.

“Who exactly?”, he whispered again. And the words burned on his tongue.

Tears glittered in that blue, and next to them something else Sasuke had always hoped for - independent of the mating bite and bond that would now connect them forever in an entirely different way. Naruto’s voice was so quiet it could barely be heard when he whispered into the half-dark,

“For…You.”

Sasuke’s heart stopped for a moment.

For me.

Something contracted inside him, hot and demanding. Then loosened again, only to contract once more, even harder.

He’s been waiting for me.

“Say that again”, he forced out breathlessly. With the same demand, he pressed a second finger into the tightness of the blonde, and Naruto almost startled beneath the movement, only to press toward him with a moan. Sasuke began to spread his fingers without hesitation and gasped, almost furious, “Say it again - properly.”

Naruto grimaced, and for a moment anger flashed in his blue eyes as he snapped, “How many times do I have to say it, for fucks sake?!” A defiant expression settled over his features as he then muttered emphatically, “For you - goddamn it.”

Heat or not, Sasuke thought with an inward grin, he is and remains Naruto, hm?

As if this confession had sealed something once and for all, Sasuke withdrew from him decisively, grabbed him more firmly, and pulled him toward himself by the hips. With determination, he pressed the blond’s knees up to his chest, exposing his now slightly dilated entrance, from which he could barely tear his gaze away. Immediately, the snakes were there, slithering along the other’s body and winding around his thighs once more, allowing Sasuke to free his hands. With one hand, he gripped the blond’s wrists, pressing them down above his head onto the cold rubble. For one brief moment, his Sharingan flashed again, uncontrolled and feverish, almost as if something entirely different were taking over inside him now too.

He bent lower over Naruto and was only inches from his lips when he whispered against them with hot breath,

“I always knew you were only mine.”

Naruto’s willing, wanting sound made the final boundary snap down at once.

Without being able to think, he had already pressed his throbbing cock against the tight opening and pushed himself into the pulsing, scorching heat.

In an instant, Naruto clamped around him so firmly that Sasuke thought he was going to come right then and there. It felt as if the blond were pulling him deeper and deeper. As if he would never again risk allowing him to move even the slightest distance away.

It felt so hot and trembling around his length, that Sasuke almost lost control immediately. Something inside him quietly warned him that he could not simply begin to thrust senselessly into the other, even if he wanted to. That he had to give him time. Because Naruto lay beneath him, every trained muscle in his body tense, gasping hoarsely and almost sobbing under the overwhelming sensation.

Sasuke could barely suppress a moan himself.

Naruto was clearly struggling with the intensity and size of Sasuke’s cock, which was now pushing deeper and deeper into him. For the faintest second, pain drew itself across the other man’s features. Naruto’s insides tensed up wetly and throbbingly around his pulsating length. Then, piece by piece, the resistance gave way, and something relieved, feverish, took its place in the blond’s face.

Sasuke could not have waited a second longer.

That heat flooded everything inside him, made him lose every shred of control, and after he had gripped the blond’s narrow waist tightly, he buried himself completely in him.

Naruto whimpered beneath the abrupt motion, yet jerked toward it and tremblingly closed the final remaining distance himself. His thighs shook, and the snakes hissed softly when he began to writhe beneath them.

Sasuke thought he might faint from the way Naruto clamped around him.

His gaze found Naruto’s, and for a moment his breath caught. The blue eyes were half closed, heavy with pleasure and so glassy it seemed as if Naruto were dissolving in him, in this moment.

Finally, he belongs to me, shot through Sasuke’s mind somewhere between all his own hunger,

Finally, you belong to me alone.

It was almost paradoxical. After all, he had been the one who had left. The one who had not been able or willing to stay. But perhaps, something in his heart whispered quietly, perhaps he had simply always hoped Naruto would come looking for him. Follow him, no matter how far he ran. Refuse to let go of him, no matter how often he tried to fight himself free. Prove how much he wanted him, no matter how often Sasuke acted as though he did not want him back.

But now, with Naruto lying beneath him and Sasuke deeply immersed in his hot, wet depths, there was no longer any doubt as to how much he truly wanted him.

His gaze slid along the body, past the love bites, hickeys and bite marks beginning to bloom on tanned, feverish skin, down to the other man’s usually so narrow stomach. The tattoo around his navel, however, no longer lay flat - quite on the contrary. A deep, dark groan escaped Sasuke when his eyes fixed on the unmistakable curve there. Naruto’s eyes followed his and flickered briefly as they caught sight of Sasuke’s cock outlined against his flat stomach.

“Oh… my God…-”, came breathlessly from the other man. A small, shaky smile spread over Naruto’s lips as his hips lifted almost of their own accord, making the bulge even more pronounced.

“It’s so… deep”, he whispered, drew in a trembling breath, and added almost reverently, his voice brittle, “It feels like you’re…-”

Naruto’s words broke off and turned into a hoarse, pleading whimper, then into a helpless, wanting gasp, and finally into a needy moan when Sasuke drew back just enough only to thrust straight back into him fully and with one deep slam.

He gripped the narrow waist so hard there would be bruises there tomorrow and buried himself in the blond again and again, deeper and harder each time.

It felt like bloodlust: While he drove himself harder and harder into the other, he sank his teeth again and again into the skin that smelled so intoxicating. As if with every bite he wanted to prove that he would leave traces on Naruto forever. Whether he stayed in Konoha or not.

So that no one else would ever be able to touch Naruto, or even look at him, without immediately thinking of Sasuke.

That there would never again be any question whom Naruto belonged to.

-

It felt as if Sasuke were rearranging his insides with every deep movement.

Naruto would never have thought it could feel like this.

It seemed to him as if Sasuke filled every single corner of him, as if he were everywhere at once: above him, against him, inside him.

Especially the latter.

Because Sasukes cock felt overwhelmingly large inside of him. At first, it had burned and ached until finally his body seemed stretched enough to make any room for him at all. And yet he had longed for this moment for so long that he had pressed toward him.

Deeper into the pain and deeper into Sasuke.

Deeper into what he had always wanted.

The bite on his throat, which seemed to throb in time with each thrust, almost lit up whenever Sasuke bent lower over him and sweat dripped down onto him. Every time even a trace of his scent rose into Naruto’s nose, it felt as though that entire smell filled his lungs like smoke. Every deeper breath, saturated with that scent of musk and something undefinably warm, made him dizzy.

Whenever Sasuke touched the deep bite wound on his throat with his lips, bright flashes shot through him and drove him closer and closer to an edge Naruto had never touched before.

The wave inside him rose higher with every movement and threatened to sweep him away almost immediately when Sasuke’s hands slid beneath his pelvis and lifted him. From this angle, every powerful motion, which by now had taken on something so feral and unleashed, struck that one point inside him. Each direct hit felt as though electricity were jolting through him. And as though, hit after hit, the wave inside him swelled until he had the impression he would drown in it if it ever broke over him.

But every time he was close and the wave threatened to crash down, Sasuke pulled him into another position and held him at that edge. Whimpering and needy, he pushed toward the releasing motion, but Sasuke seemed unwilling to let him find relief.

Maybe because he, too, was afraid of what it would mean if this moment ever ended. What would stand between them then. So the other man simply refused to let it end and drove him to the brink again and again, letting him stare up at the wave in reverence and awe - only to drag him away from it at the very last second.

And with that, deeper and deeper into the dependency that had always existed between them after all. Into the place where Sasuke decided how much, how far, how long - whether it was about making Naruto search for him or about not letting him come until Sasuke decided it was time.

At some point, when Naruto found himself on his knees, Sasuke’s hand firm between his shoulder blades, tears from the overwhelm ran hot down his cheeks. The thrusts were so ruthless and ferocious that his abdominal wall was lifted again and again.

Naruto had begun trembling uncontrollably and kept begging to finally be allowed to come. Everything inside him was so taut that he feared he might tear apart at the center any second. Collapsed onto his elbows, his shaking hand reached back and found Sasuke’s, the one on his hip, holding him with iron firmness. He clutched at his wrist and squeezed once, desperately.

“Please…”

Sasuke only laughed hoarsely, bent forward, and found the bite wound at his throat again, licking over it first and then sucking gently at it. The damp pressure there made Naruto inhale sharply and whimper hoarsely. Immediately, glowing-hot arousal pulsed through his body and made something inside him almost boil over.

A sob escaped him.

He could feel how close he was.

“I…-”, he managed beneath the deep movements, “Please… I-”

The words were lost in another cascade of moans, gasps, and sounds Naruto had never made before. Because Sasuke had begun to pull him back on each of the thrusts. The sounds echoed almost obscenely through the dark cave.

“Please what?”

Sasuke’s voice was so dark, so dominating and breathless, that Naruto could have sworn he could’ve come from that alone. His fingers clawed into the dust beneath him.

“Please… let…-”, he forced out, swallowed hard, and barely managed to finish the sentence. He squeezed his eyes shut and gasped the final words more than he spoke them, “…let me come - please.”

He must have sounded so desperate, so small, so needy and helpless.

In this state, he didn’t care at all - because that was exactly how he felt: utterly surrendered to Sasuke, softened by every touch, wanting him so badly that every spark of remaining pride had been lost to him.

Above him came a sound like a hoarse, satisfied, and at the same time disdainful snort. A Well then and a Good boy all at once, one that instantly sent heat into Naruto’s cheeks.

“Well”, came the drawn-out word from the other man, who bent down to him once more, his tongue briefly brushing over Naruto’s ear. Naruto shuddered as damp, hot breath ghosted over the sensitive skin, “If you ask so nicely and take it so well… then I suppose I won’t be cruel, hm?”

And before Naruto could truly understand what Sasuke had said, one of the smaller snakes was already crawling through the dust beneath him, slithering up along his thigh and finding its way to his own cock.

Naruto’s eyes widened in shock as he had to watch the reptile wrapping itself around his dripping, desperately twitching erection and applying pressure that immediately drew a stunned yet compliant sound from Naruto and nearly made his vision go black.

A “Hnn-” escaped him as the snake began to slide up and down his shaft in the same rhythm as Sasuke’s pounding. For a moment, Naruto felt as though he were losing his grip on reality when he felt the snake’s pointed tongue flick over his sensitive tip.

Sasuke’s movements came faster and faster, and Naruto let his head sink in surrender. Sound after sound broke from his throat, tear after tear gathered at his lower lashes and then found its way into the dust.

The wave rose higher and higher, and when Sasuke’s hand shot forward and closed over the bite wound, it finally broke. The pressure there sent an unknown heat through him, making him tremble so violently that he almost fell forward. Everything inside him contracted abruptly, his eyes flew open and a soundless gasp flowed over his parted lips.

For the fraction of a second, he thought this had to be it.

That this had to be what dying felt like - because a darkness settled around him that covered everything, wrapped around him completely, and into which he sank until it felt as though he had never been anywhere else.

He heard only at the edge of his awareness how the snake hissed around his pulsating length as he was spilling hotly and in pulsating bursts onto the ground. Just as diffusely, he felt Sasuke shift him into another position. And at some point, time seemed to lose all meaning entirely.

He didn’t know how long this went on. He also no longer knew how many times he had come by now. All he still knew was that this desire for more and more simply could not be satisfied. It felt as if he had waited for this for so long that now he wanted everything, and so much more beyond that. As if he could no longer get enough of this overwhelming state.

-

He was breathtakingly beautiful.

And he sounded even better than he already looked. Every sound brought Sasuke himself closer and closer to the edge. Each time he had brought Naruto to another climax, that unbridled wish inside him grew larger and larger:

He should truly and once and for all belong to him.

More even than that.

He looked down at the sweat-damp, trembling body beneath him.

What would he look like if he… - Sasuke swallowed hard and felt the possessive, dark thing inside him react at once, hot and burning.

What would Naruto look like if he had to carry something of mine inside him?

Before Sasuke could truly think about what he was doing, he gripped Naruto more tightly. His heart beat in his throat, and he felt something shift deep inside him. Felt something surge so hot that he could hardly control the trembling that overtook him.

Naruto would never be anywhere without him again.

He would mark him forever.

Even if I leave you - you don’t leave me.

Something stays, even if I can’t.

-

Within seconds, he felt something changing.

Naruto blinked up at the ceiling of the cave above him in disbelief. He was already so far beside himself that he barely understood when and how anything happened to him anymore. The orgasms had blurred into one another, one climax following the next until they had merged so completely it felt like a single, endless high.

But now…

He could barely catch his breath. His chest rose and fell far too quickly as his desire-clouded eyes slowly moved to Sasuke. He tried to focus his gaze, but again and again it felt as though he were walking along the edge of unconsciousness. When he found Sasuke’s eyes, there was something in them so dark and at the same time so full of awe that Naruto had to swallow hard.

Sasuke pushed deeper into him, and Naruto whimpered when he felt again how overwhelmingly much of him there was - how his huge cock pressed against the inside of his stomach, making it bluge once again. He was just about to close his eyes, to surrender again to the desire, when he suddenly felt something pressing against his entrance, that made his blue eyes fly open.

He felt a swelling begin to form on the base of Sasuke’s shaft in a matter of seconds, and before Naruto could really grasp what was happening, Sasuke held him so firmly that he gasped.

It seeped slowly into his consciousness. Almost as sluggishly as sand sliding downward.

But then he understood in one blow what was happening exactly. His lips formed a silent No, though he hardly knew whether he truly meant it - or whether every single cell in his body wasn’t actually screaming Yes. Because despite everything, he pressed toward the swelling, the forming knot, moving through Sasuke’s cock.

Through a dense fog, he felt how Sasuke’s erection suddenly became bigger and wider at his opening - which, despite the many hours that had passed, still felt far too tight. The knot stretched the ring of muscle until Naruto was convinced it would tear any second. The pressure became almost unbearable for a brief moment.

“Ah-” came brokenly over his lips, which felt much too dry. His hands gripped Sasuke’s upper arms, which held him down and kept him in position. His fingernails dug into pale skin on which the lines of the curse mark still burned feverishly.

It was so unbearably hot. And the pressure was so strong it felt as though his body might capitulate at any second. His heart raced so fast, pumping blood down into his lower body as though it wanted to make something available that would help. Something that would allow him to take this knot at all. With a whimper and trembling thighs, he let himself sink back.

Sasuke breathed heavily above him.

He looked almost animal.

Then his eyes turned blood-red once more and fell on Naruto, and his whisper was almost lost beneath the hissing of the snakes finding their way back toward them.

“You wanted to bring me back so badly, didn’t you, Naruto?”

A hot, glowing pull began to spread through his lower abdomen. The pressure was almost impossible to endure, and yet, when Sasuke pressed closer still and the knot spread through him, it felt as though liquid honey were spreading deep inside him. It ran into every smallest corner, filled everything, and pulsed so hot and demanding inside him that Naruto could only release a ragged breath. Sasuke collapsed over him, pushing himself even more firmly against him and burying his face in the curve between Naruto’s throat and neck.

Naruto’s thoughts came apart completely now. All that remained was that thick, warm sensation filling everything. He could hear only his own heartbeat, thundering all the way into his ears. And so it nearly drowned out Sasuke breathing against the bite wound,

„Well - there you go. Now you’ve got something of mine to keep, if you want.“

Naruto barely understood what that meant anymore.

Only that it could no longer be undone.