Autumn in Konoha had always been Naruto's favorite time of year. There was just something about the way the trees smelled, the way their leaves rustled in the wind. A dry kind of rasp, low and rich, filled with the smells of bright sap and dark loam and the persistent, all-encompassing skitter of bugs.

Life sounds, and life smells, and there couldn't be a better backdrop for a morning workout. He took a feint at a low-hanging branch as he passed by, ducking and turning, and hit his mark on a tree trunk a hundred meters away with a brace of shuriken. He'd gotten a lot better at weapons-throwing this past year since he'd started training with Sasuke and Sakura. The thought carried a fair degree of smugness with it. It wouldn't be long before he'd be able to outclass even Sasuke in that area; he was sure of it.

His thoughts were interrupted by a rustle of sound from somewhere up ahead. Curious, he pulled his shuriken out of the tree and absently returned them to his pouch. Someone else from the village must be awake and looking to train at this hour. Which wasn't surprising, really. After the attack by Sand and Sound during the Chuunin exam, and all the excitement over the inauguration of the new Hokage, it was no wonder people were more focused on training than usual. Naruto in particular was almost looking forward to the next attack; he wanted to have a chance to prove himself again, and to do what he could to help defend his home and his people.

He kept to the shadows as he moved forward, keeping as silent as possible. Whoever was up there might not appreciate being interrupted, especially if they were in the middle of practicing some powerful new technique. The thought excited him; sometimes the best way to learn a new technique was to watch others while they practiced it.

Finally the trees broke, and the ground in front of him took a sharp dive into a shallow, shaded depression leading up to the river. Sunlight spilled down between the broad leaves that clung to the trees' branches, whirling with pollen motes and the small, white-winged moths that ate them. There was a tall column of rock at the river's edge, hard-lined and weathered. A single dark-haired figure stood in front of it, fists clenched tightly at its sides.

It was Sasuke. Naruto almost called out to him in greeting, but there was something in the other boy's posture that made him pause. Sasuke's shoulders were hunched, his breathing ragged. Naruto couldn't see his face from this angle; that ridiculous mop of hair he refused to tie back fell forward at either side of his face, obscuring Naruto's view. Even so, Naruto couldn't help but think there was something wrong with him. The hair at the nape of his neck was matted with sweat. How long had he been practicing here?

Without warning, Sasuke uncoiled with a sharp cry and swung a roundhouse kick at the solid wall of the rock face, following through a splint second later with a double punch, then another series of punches that moved too fast for Naruto to follow. Naruto winced, seeing blood smear across the rock. What the hell was Sasuke thinking? It wasn't any good practicing ordinary taijutsu moves against unpadded stone, unless you wanted to break some bones or lose a whole lot of blood.

Sasuke fell quiet again, gasping, and wiped the back of his hand over his eyes. He swayed slightly on his feet; he was either exhausted, or injured, or both. Damn it, what was he doing out here training, anyway? It had been less than a day since Granny Tsunade had woken him up from that cursed sleep Itachi had put him into. He was obviously still healing, and needed more time to rest...

With a cry that was half-shriek and half-wail, Sasuke burst into motion and swung himself at the rock face again. Naruto tensed and moved without thinking, leaping out of hiding and intercepting the punch with his open fist before it could connect. Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise.

"Damn it, Sasuke!" Naruto swore, gritting his teeth. He dug his heels in and braced himself against the blow, but the force of it still rocked him backwards. He tightened his hand around Sasuke's fist to balance himself. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Sasuke drew in a sharp breath, and then his eyes narrowed. "Get out of the way, Naruto."

The fist in Naruto's hand was trembling. "No," he said, shaking his head. "You can't--"

A slight tensing of Sasuke's left shoulder was his only warning. Naruto broke off with a curse, ducking sideways, but Sasuke's punch clipped the side of his face regardless. Irritated now, Naruto lunged at him, using the weight of his body to force the other boy backward. Sasuke gripped his shoulders and swung his knee up toward Naruto's stomach, snarling in anger. Naruto grunted and took the brunt of it on his ribs, twisting sideways in Sasuke's grasp and shoving him backwards, hard.

Sasuke slid back several paces but regained his balance quickly, settling into a half-crouch and glaring up at Naruto through the thick fall of his bangs. His breathing was ragged.

"Damn it," Naruto said, breathing hard. "Stop it. I don't want to fight you, Sasuke." Seeing Sasuke draw in a breath, he added, "But I'm not going to let you keep hurting yourself like this, either."

Fury twisted Sasuke's face, distorting his features. He hadn't attacked Naruto with anything resembling his full strength -- it had seemed more like frustration than anything else -- but at this moment, Naruto was frightened of him. Frightened of him, and frightened for him, because something was going wrong here and Naruto didn't understand.

"What do you care?" Sasuke spat, clenching his fists at his sides. The light in his eyes was hard-edged. His anger was palpable, and completely out of proportion to anything Naruto had done. It pushed Naruto off balance, because he wasn't used to seeing Sasuke act like this. In fact, Naruto didn't think he'd ever seen Sasuke look this angry, except for the time he...

Naruto tensed in sudden understanding. "This has something to do with Itachi, doesn't it?"

Something broke in Sasuke's eyes. He stood up abruptly, pressing his mouth together into a hard, thin line. "What do you know about it? You don't understand anything. So stop trying to be the hero, all right?"

Naruto relaxed his defensive posture warily. "I understand that he hurt you."

"The hell you understand." Sasuke was shaking now. "All my life I've trained to fight him, to face him down and make him pay for what he did. And when I finally faced him, when I finally got the chance to make my dream come true..." His fists clenched so tightly Naruto could see the whites of his knuckles pressing up through the skin. "I was less than useless. My whole life -- the training, the sacrifices -- has been in preparation for that moment, and I failed."

The note of desolation in his voice was heartbreaking. How long had he lain awake last night with these thoughts running through his mind before he'd come out here to deal with them?

"Is that what you're out here doing, then?" Naruto glanced at the blood-spattered rock, his mouth twisting. "Punishing yourself for failing?" The thought made something stir inside of him. When he looked up to meet Sasuke's gaze again, he knew his eyes showed a fury to equal Sasuke's own. "Because that's bullshit."

Sasuke stiffened in anger. "You don't--"

"No." Naruto clenched his fists at his sides. Even the discovery of Kabuto's betrayal hadn't made him feel this pissed off. "You can't just give up like that."

"You--"

"And don't tell me I don't understand." God, when did Sasuke become so thick-headed? "I have a dream, too. All my life, I've wanted to be appreciated and recognized. I've worked hard for that dream. Sometimes I fail." He paused, needing to be honest. "Okay, so a lot of the time I fail. People still look down on me." It hurt to say it out loud; he grit his teeth against the truth of it. "But it doesn't matter. That just means I have to keep trying. Because that's what you do when you fall down -- you pick yourself up again. You don't just lie there face-down in the dirt."

Sasuke stared at him, looking shaken. "Naruto..."

Naruto was beyond hearing. He'd only ever felt this fired up when he was confronting rivals and protecting friends, and how ironic was it that the person standing in front of him right now embodied both? "Maybe it should have been Sakura who found you here, so she could tell you how great you are and that nothing you do is wrong. But it's me that found you, and all I can say is stop feeling sorry for yourself. So you failed. So what? As long as you keep trying, as long as you tell yourself that you won't give up -- no matter what -- and believe it, then Itachi hasn't won. He can't win, so long as you keep believing in yourself."

He'd never seen Sasuke's eyes look so huge. The silence of the morning around them seemed surreal, like the entire forest was somehow holding its breath.

"I want to believe," Sasuke said at last. He looked lost.

He swayed on his feet suddenly; Naruto rushed forward to steady him. "Idiot," Naruto said with feeling. "Didn't you get any sleep at all last night?"

The corner of Sasuke's mouth curled upward. "I've slept enough to last two lifetimes."

Naruto glared at him, anger and annoyance and worry bubbling up inside of him, choking him until he felt he had to let out a howl of frustration or collapse under the weight of it all. Before he could say anything, a slim hand curled around the back of his neck and pulled him close enough for Sasuke's mouth to press against his.

Naruto reacted without thinking, leaning into the kiss as Sasuke's mouth opened against him. There was nothing soft about it; the kiss was pure Sasuke, hard and fast and completely uncompromising, demanding compliance and offering everything of itself in return. Confusion whirled through Naruto's thoughts, eclipsing his earlier frustration, but it didn't seem to matter. It seemed a lifetime since he'd last felt Sasuke's mouth against his, back there in the classroom when they'd first met together as Genin. That had been an accident, and not one that was particularly welcome at the time, but a lot of things had happened between them since then. He'd started as classmate, then teammate, then rival, then friend. It was no wonder Naruto's thoughts couldn't make up their mind what to think about him.

Sasuke's hands were on Naruto's waist now, holding onto him tightly. He wasn't unsteady on his feet at all anymore. Naruto gasped, feeling dizzy at the sinuous slide of the tongue that pressed in against his own, doing its level best to drive him out of his mind. It felt strange, but good and somehow right in a way he couldn't describe.

He was starting to notice things about Sasuke's body that he might have abstractly noticed before but never really appreciated -- how Sasuke was taller than he was, and more slender, and how there was so much power packed into that deceptively fragile-looking frame. It excited him, making his heart pound fitfully as Sasuke pushed him back against the rock face and leaned forward against him.

There was anger in Sasuke's kisses, and want. It hurt a bit where his hands were grasping him, but Naruto didn't care. He gave as good as he got, holding tight, holding on, pulling Sasuke even closer as if he seriously thought Sasuke might try to get away. It was getting difficult to think; the stone wall was hard against his back, Sasuke hard and hot in front of him. Naruto made a small mewling sound in the back of his throat when Sasuke's knee slid in between his thighs and pressed upward.

The sound seemed to inflame Sasuke. He pulled back to look into Naruto's eyes, and wow. Naruto had never seen that particular look on him before, so fierce, with so much intensity in it. Which was surprising on its own, because "intense" was pretty much Sasuke's default setting, but this level of intensity was something totally beyond Naruto's experience.

Sasuke's eyes flickered over Naruto's for a moment as if they were looking for something. Whatever it was, he seemed to find it, because his mouth curled upward slightly. He bent down to kiss Naruto again, and no fair that the guy was so much taller than he was. They moved together, kissing and rubbing and pulling at any part of each other they could reach. It was like the best workout ever and then some. Naruto was dizzy with it, his heart pounding. He felt like he was in a race, and he was going to lose this one, he knew it, but he didn't care. He gave it up, throwing his head back and hitting the stone so hard he saw stars. Then he was coming, and it was fast and hot and glorious and he'd never felt anything better in his entire life.

Looking smugly triumphant, Sasuke finished his own race, tightening his hands over Naruto's body. Naruto held him, still feeling dizzy, and pressed his thigh forward to give Sasuke something to rub against. Sasuke's breath hitched, and then he tensed, burying his face against the side of Naruto's neck to muffle his cry.

Naruto hugged him close, his heart racing in sympathy as Sasuke shuddered in release against him. There was something oddly tender about the moment, something that echoed with the memory of challenge and commitment and the long year of adventures they'd shared together.

They stood holding each other for a long moment, waiting for their heartbeats to settle. Naruto stroked a hand over the back of Sasuke's head, feeling the hair there slide coarse and clinging against his palm.

"Don't stop believing in yourself," he said at last, smoothing his hand down the curve of Sasuke's back.

Sasuke shifted against him. "Okay," he whispered. His breath was hot and moist against Naruto's neck.

It was as awkward as Naruto had expected it to be when they pulled apart. Sasuke wouldn't meet his eyes, but he seemed more relaxed now. More at peace, if anything like that existed for him in this world.

Naruto straightened his forehead protector and picked at the belt around his waist, making a face. A shower was definitely in order. "You hungry?" he asked, breaking into the silence.

Sasuke turned to look at him, his usual mask of studied indifference fixed firmly in place. "I could eat," he said with a shrug.

"Great! How about we hit Ichiraku Ramen... after we get cleaned up, of course."

He could see the contemplation settle deep in Sasuke's eyes, the deliberation over whether or not he was going to allow Naruto to distract him from his anguish so easily. He'd come out here to wrestle with his demons, and that battle was a long way from being finished.

"Fine," he said, holding out one hand.

Naruto grinned and accepted the proffered hand, using it to pull himself away from the rock. An answering glimmer of humor shone briefly in Sasuke's eyes, there and then gone.

Before Naruto could say anything further, the hand gripping his turned him around, twisting his arm up high behind his back. "What-- whoa!" he squawked as another hand landed firmly between his shoulder blades and shoved him down to the ground. He landed hard on his palms, the breath whooshing out of him.

He looked up to see Sasuke standing over him, the corners of his mouth curled upward. "Last one there has to buy," Sasuke said, and turned to sprint into the forest.

"Hey!" Naruto surged to his feet, biting back a surge of laughter. Whatever else happened in their future, whatever challenges rose up for them to face, some things would never change. This was the story of their past association together, right here.

Challenge offered and accepted.

Naruto ducked his head and raced into the woods, promising himself that this time, he wouldn't let Sasuke get away.

The End
5/11/07