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It was a tradition passed down since time immemorial—a ritual practiced for as long as memory had even existed. On this day, the sun would dance with the moon and together they would cast a shadow on the Earth; they would bring a moment of silence and awe to this chaotic world for no reason other than that it was their duty. Naruto had prepared for this moment for years, had known this day would come since he could first understand language. He was the son of the god of light and the goddess of fire—it was his sworn duty to perform this ritual and he took great pride in that responsibility.
There was just one problem.
One, tiny, insignificant problem.
He fucking hated his dance partner.
Sasuke “mister perfect” god of the moon was such an annoying, rude, condescending asshole and Naruto could not stop himself from arguing with him every second they were forced into the same space.
So, Naruto was not surprised on the day of the ritual to find that after five whole minutes, his dance partner was already getting on his nerves.
“You’re offbeat, again!” The furious heat in Sasuke’s glare would have fit better coming from Naruto’s mother—the goddess of fire herself—not the literal incarnation of the moon. As the son of the god of darkness and goddess of the night, Sasuke shouldn’t have been able to glare at him with that much fiery wrath. Then again with everyone else, Sasuke was the embodiment of cold indifference—perhaps it was a compliment in Naruto’s favor that he could bring out the anger in the moon god. After all, the very same moon god pissed Naruto off so much he couldn’t see straight.
“Well maybe I wouldn’t be off if you were in the right fucking place!” Naruto yelled, his temper fraying at the edges. There wasn’t much time before the sun would be at its zenith and the moon would cross its path—the eclipse would only happen once, so it’s not like they could just try again. What Naruto didn’t mention was the fact that Sasuke was not actually in the wrong place, but he wasn’t about to admit that he’d gotten slightly distracted by the other god’s soft pale skin, so fair that it gleamed like starlight. They had practiced in costume hundreds of times, so why was it that Naruto couldn’t ignore the tight, dark blue pants Sasuke wore? Or the way his abs glistened with the slightest shimmer of sweat as the moon god glanced up at the sun? Naruto was dumbstruck as he watched Sasuke shadow his eyes as he tried to gauge how much time they had left, his silky ebony black hair perfectly framing his features. He groaned and forced his eyes off of Sasuke—unlike his partner, he knew exactly where the sun was at any given moment, so he was keenly aware of the fact that they were running out of time.
“What is it going to take for you to get this right?” Sasuke growled at Naruto, his voice deep yet silvery, like the sweet sound of a crystal-clear bell on a still night.
“I’m not the one messing up!” He was—he really, really was, but after so many years at each other’s throats, it was second nature to contradict Sasuke.
The moon god just continued to glare, his dark eyes roving over Naruto. “You’re distracted. What the hell is going through your head right now?”
Naruto refused to answer that question—he wouldn’t even admit to himself that he was distracted by his shirtless dance partner so there was no way in hell he’d admit it to Sasuke of all people.
“I’m not distracted!” Naruto glared at the ground, hoping that the earth would open and swallow him whole so he wouldn’t have to acknowledge whatever the hell was wrong with him. Despite not looking at the moon god, he was hyper-aware of Sasuke stepping closer. When his dance partner snatched his chin and forced Naruto to meet his gaze, he completely froze.
Naruto felt like he was drowning in those bottomless ebony eyes, so dark they were comparable only to the empty space between stars in the endless night sky. Sasuke was the god of the moon, known throughout the world for his luminous beauty, but Naruto had never noticed the way his brows were arched so perfectly or the way his lips were just plump enough to tease, or the way his silky hair fell over his gorgeous eyes. No, that wasn’t true; Naruto had always known how beautiful the moon god was, had always seen Sasuke for exactly who and what he was.
Wait…what? Naruto’s brain short-circuited as he realized he sounded just like the groupies that worshiped Sasuke; the same maniacs who thought Sasuke was some kind of gentle, benevolent little angel. Naruto always liked to remind those foolish worshipers that the term lunatic derived from the word lunar.
Naruto jerked his chin out of Sasuke’s grasp and reigned in his temper before he set the moon god on fire with his wrath—Naruto might have looked most like his father, but he had thoroughly inherited his mother’s temperament.
Sasuke’s derisive snort had flames filling his veins. He didn’t even have to think too hard to picture the moon god rolling his eyes; before he could stop himself, he whipped his head back and stepped into Sasuke’s space.
“What the fuck is your problem?” Naruto growled as he crowded Sasuke; there were few beings, divine or human, that could withstand being in the sun god’s presence when his temper was this out-of-control, yet Sasuke didn’t bat an eyelash at his sudden outburst. The fact that Sasuke actually inched closer, hedging into Naruto’s personal space only infuriated him further.
He opened his mouth to take a deep breath before releasing the flurry of insults he kept stored just for Sasuke, but what happened next was something neither of the gods could have predicted. For an eon, Naruto would claim that his foot slipped—that his shoe broke and unbalanced him or that the earth god had decided to play a prank on them or…Naruto would literally spend eternity coming up with excuses for what happened, but the truth was something else entirely.
Naruto, the only child of the god of light and goddess of fire, the god of the sun himself, could not precisely remember what happened in the moment before his lips met Sasuke’s; he couldn’t even remember exactly what he was thinking in that moment, and he certainly could not recall what went through his head as his lips met the moon god’s. The only thing Naruto could really remember about the whole ordeal was being flooded with the sense of rightness, of the pleasure that melted his entire being. To this day, Naruto had no fucking clue who used their tongue first, but he did know that he lost all sense of shame and propriety as he tried to swallow Sasuke’s tongue down his throat, as their teeth clacked in their haste to devour one another.
Naruto had always been good at telling time; after all, humans had used him to gauge the length of the day for eons, yet as Sasuke cupped his cheek and kissed him, Naruto couldn’t even begin to guess at how much time they spent wrapped up in each other. It wasn’t until Sasuke pulled back and whispered against his lips that Naruto even remembered how words worked. Even then, it took him longer than he was proud of to decipher what Sasuke had said.
“The eclipse…” They were both lightly panting, their eyes slowly widening as they realized what exactly just happened.
“The eclipse,” Naruto repeated, the words feeling heavy on his tongue—the very same tongue that had been wrapped around the moon god’s only moments ago—his thoughts still hazy from the fog of pleasure that had crashed through him.
“Yes, dobe, the eclipse,” Sasuke hissed, his breath whispering across Naruto’s lips; if it hadn’t been for the old insult the moon god had used, Naruto would have melted again.
“The eclipse…THE ECLIPSE!” Naruto screamed and jumped back, moving so quickly he almost toppled over—the fact that he was a divine being was the only thing that kept him from being an undignified mess of limbs sprawled out on the ground.
“We have to go—we have to—we only have a few—the eclipse is starting!” Naruto was all but hyperventilating as he tried to process what was happening and failing miserably.
“Calm down. You know the steps; we’ve practiced them every day for our entire lives. Just breathe, usuratonkachi.” Sasuke sighed and rolled his eyes, glancing up again at the sun and moon that was all too quickly moving into place.
Naruto released a wordless scream—whether it was out of frustration, anger, nerves or a glorious mixture of it all, he could never properly recall. He pointedly ignored the way his gaze was drawn to Sasuke’s lips—still moist and swollen from their kiss despite his divinity. As to why that thought gave Naruto a rush of pleasure was absolutely beyond his capabilities of comprehending at the moment. Naruto focused on breathing as they ascended to where they were meant to dance and as they settled into their starting positions, Naruto knew he was screwed.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, I am so fucked! He couldn’t even remember the first step, or the transition or the sequence that came after that or the—the only thing that pulled him out of his spiral of anxiety was that crystal-clear, deep voice Naruto knew as intimately as he knew his own.
“Naruto!” When Naruto’s eyes met those ebony black irises, his heartbeat settled and his breathing evened out; as the music started his body moved on its own, flowing into the steps that he had engraved on his soul. His divinity flared, the power of the sun coursing up and through his veins as he danced, and the surge of the power he felt at his side had never felt so right before. The sun and the moon danced as two pieces of a whole—two halves finally come together.
For centuries, the humans would speak about the beauty of that day, the glory of the sun and the moon as they moved together. However, the names of those auspicious deities would eventually fade from human memory, as all things eventually must; the humans who had seen and heard of the moon and sun’s dance would give to the deities their own names, their own titles; but for eternity, for them, they were always Naruto & Sasuke.