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Sasuke was drunk.
Or rather, he was tipsy.
It wasn’t a scene Naruto was used to seeing. That soft pale skin flushed with a blush, those mesmerizingly dark eyes half lidded and fuzzy, and that smirk of his that Naruto hadn’t seen since before, well, everything.
It was nice, but also surreal. To have Sasuke home—finally—eating ramen with him at Ichiraku’s and sipping his third glass of sake. It was enough to make Naruto’s heart swell and he couldn’t help his smile, though he did his best to cover it by inhaling his fourth bowl of ramen.
Naruto felt dark eyes on him as he waved at Sakura as she entered the restaurant. The way her gaze drifted to Sasuke as she worried her lip still sent a pang through his heart. Not because he wanted her to look at him that way—he had long since gotten over that small crush—but because he knew Sasuke would never return her affections. He had a feeling that Sakura knew that too—he and Sasuke hadn’t exactly been…discrete about their relationship since returning home. For some reason, that knowledge just made him feel worse.
“Naruto, I should have known you’d be here. Didn’t you just eat here last week?” Sakura smiled as she teased him, but those pretty turquoise eyes kept drifting back to Sasuke, who didn’t so much as glance her way.
“Exactly! It’s been a whole week since I’ve had Ichiraku’s! I can’t believe I lasted that long!” Naruto filled the room with his boisterous voice and did his best to chase away the shadows in Sakura’s eyes with his brightest grin. Her responding smile faltered, however, when Sasuke snorted and rolled his eyes.
“You were practically sprinting here on our way back from our mission. I’d hardly call that ‘lasting’. Not to mention all the times you kept complaining about starving to death without having your favorite ramen as your last meal.” The teasing glint in Sasuke’s eyes filled him with more joy than he thought possible—there were still nights he’d wake up and question if all of this was just a dream. That having Sasuke home, teasing him, smirking at him, annoying the ever loving shit out of him, was all just his imagination run rampant. But it wasn’t, and Naruto found himself stunned by the realization every time he had it.
“Ah, well…I’m glad the mission went well.” The heartbreak in Sakura’s voice snapped him out of his revelry and he desperately wracked his brain for a change in topic.
“What about you? How did your last mission go?”
“Nothing special, though…” A small blush overtook Sakura’s cheeks and she picked at the thread on her skirt, “I was asked on a date by the medical nin who accompanied me.” He couldn’t help but tense up at the smug look on her face, and his thoughts were a mess as she listed off all the things she liked about her medical nin. She only stopped when Sasuke huffed out another laugh.
“Oh, that’s cute.” Sasuke’s gaze was harsh as he glared at Sakura and Naruto was suddenly terrified of being the only physical barrier between the two.
The glare Sakura returned to Sasuke had Naruto’s hairs standing on end and he was already plotting the fastest way to escape her reach. He’d had more than his fair share of her punches and if Sasuke wanted to court death, well that was his boyfriend’s problem.
“What is?” Sakura might have phrased it as a question, but her tone was anything but inquisitive. If a look could kill and a voice could maim, Sasuke would have been six feet under by now.
“You think I care.” Sasuke lilted as he rested his cheek on his fist and rolled his eyes at her.
Naruto was seconds away from manhandling Sasuke and dragging him away, but Sakura didn’t crush him into smithereens as he had been expecting. Instead, she leaned over, plucked the bottle of sake off the counter and chugged the rest of it. The way she slammed the bottle down and wiped her mouth as she smirked at Sasuke had Naruto picturing Tsunade in one of her devilish moods.
“Trust me, Sasuke. I know you don’t.” She turned on her heel and stomped out of the restaurant before he could interject.
“Sasuke! What the hell is wrong with you!?” Naruto almost gave in to the urge to smack his beloved upside the head. He hadn’t spent all those years trying to save Sasuke just for him to piss off Sakura to the point of murdering him!
“The sooner she gets over me, the sooner we can find a balance again. I won’t censor myself around her just because you’re afraid of hurting her feelings.” Naruto was stunned when he saw that Sasuke’s eyes were no longer fuzzy from the liquor and his hand was steady as he brushed a fingertip along the marks on his cheeks. The touch was featherlight and yet it knocked the breath right out of him. His cheeks were burning but he caught Sasuke’s hand and intertwined their fingers.
“Fine, court your own death, but don’t expect me to save you again.”
The way Sasuke arched his brow at him was the final straw. He was dragging his beloved back home before he’d even really processed everything that had happened.
Sasuke didn’t let go of his hand the entire way back, and that made everything else matter a lot less. As long as they were together, they’d figure out everything else—even how to fix Sasuke’s relationship with Sakura.