Work Text:
I left the village after I recovered, or at least that was what I told everyone at the time. Well, almost everyone. I told Naruto that I’d simply be back soon, and that was exactly what I did every time I returned to the village to spend some time with him.
During that time, we picked up a new hobby besides training—going out for an afternoon treat, usually at a café. Unfortunately, we had to put that on hold for a while because we couldn’t seem to go anywhere without being recognized and interrupted, not to mention ending up on every news outlet in the world. Eventually, our little snack dates moved indoors, where we could stay away from people and have some peace.
But today is our first anniversary, and even though I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, Naruto was far too excited about inviting me out like we used to, and I couldn’t say no to those puppy eyes.
What he had to fight a little harder for was convincing me to go along with his plan to make sure no one found out it was us.
A transformation jutsu.
Except that… for some reason… he insisted that we transform into women. That way, our appearances would then be so far removed from our own that there would be no way anyone could recognize us.
It made sense… I guess.
It’s just that…
“So… whose clothes are those, then?” Sasuke asked between sips of his milkshake, taking another look at the outfit on the blond sitting across from him. Naruto immediately grew nervous, turning red.
Stammering at first, he finally managed to mumble, “Uh-uhm… Ah, these? I-I don’t really know, actually. You know, sometimes when I go on missions with the girls, they put their clothes in my backpack and then forget about them. I guess they belong to a few of them, y’know?”
Yeah… Sure…
Such a shitty excuse, along with trembling legs and a smile that could barely pass for convincing, would have set off the alarm bells of almost any partner—clearly, he’s cheating on me with several girls.
But no.
This wasn’t what was happening here.
“Hm… is orange and black in fashion now?” he asked, setting the large glass down before picking up the fork beside the slice of cake they were sharing. “It seems very convenient… that they just happen to be your colors…”
“You noticed?!” Naruto blurted out immediately, laughing nervously. “What can I say? Naruto influences society in many ways, y’know?!”
“Hmm…” Sasuke took a bite, looking over his partner’s outfit again, this time paying closer attention to the very noticeable detail that it suited him remarkably well.
Naruto had never been the type to follow trends. He usually wore the same things all the time, and his tendency to use such a loud, difficult-to-match color had always seemed less like a deliberate challenge to conventional fashion and more like the simple result of knowing absolutely nothing about it.
But now, it didn’t look like that at all.
Now, he looked well put together, with a clear intention behind the clothes he had chosen. He had even spent nearly half an hour doing his nails and then painting them a color that matched. In fact, now that he looked at him properly, not only did everything seem to fit together perfectly, but the clothes were also the right size, and he made no attempt to hide his figure or avoid showing some skin. Which was unusual, considering that in his everyday life, Naruto only wore loose-fitting clothes that covered almost his entire body.
“You know…” Sasuke leaned back against the backrest of his chair, trying to pay no attention to the way Naruto’s face immediately changed into one of utter panic. “…I always thought your obsession with the ‘Sexy Jutsu’ came from some deep-seated need for attention, like most of the idiotic things you did as a kid. But now I see that… every time you use it…”
Naruto swallowed, probably on the verge of passing out.
“…you look much more comfortable,” Sasuke continued. “You move more freely, you express yourself more openly, you dress better… you genuinely seem happier like that.”
“Uh…”
“Are you a woman?”
The question seemed to detonate like a bomb right over the blond’s head, leaving him completely dumbfounded.
“Or… well, something in between?” Sasuke quickly added, because maybe he had gone a little too far. “I know there are a thousand ways to identify, and I don’t know which one you’d be more comfortable with. I remember Karin beating Suigetsu up more than once for being ignorant about it, so I learned a thing or two from her very loud lessons on gender identity. She didn’t want—” But when he lifted his eyes from the cake to look at Naruto again, the man was still just as stunned. “Hey, are you listening to me?”
“Ah, y-yeah…” he frowned, the first facial expression to prove that there was still someone alive behind those eyes. “It’s just that… Karin?”
“Oh.” Sasuke blinked in surprise. “You didn’t know?”
Naruto shook his head, keeping silent in his obvious astonishment. In response, Sasuke let his head fall forward in defeat.
“…She definitely would’ve hit me for outing her just now. I thought you knew, since you guys brought her to Konoha back then,” he explained himself. “Anyway, forget it… the point is… are you…?”
Suddenly, Naruto seemed to remember that he had never actually answered the question. “Ah! N-no! No! What makes you think that?” He scratched the back of his neck somewhat frantically. “Don’t you think I would’ve told you by now?”
The laugh that followed gradually died out in a pathetic little whimper, and Sasuke could no longer stand all the mystery surrounding the subject.
“Have you ever thought about it?” he insisted, going back to his cake.
“Uhm…”
“I mean, about maybe feeling more comfortable as… uhm…” He paused, trying to remember. “…what was the name you use as a woman?”
“…Naruko?” He answered in the quietest, most uncertain voice those lips had ever managed to produce.
“Naruko, right.” Sasuke nodded as he picked up his milkshake again. “You don’t like it?”
Obviously embarrassed, Naruto lowered his gaze to his own empty cup of tea, fidgeting with it between his hands.
“Whatever.” Sasuke sighed after he finished his drink and set the empty glass aside. “Maybe I was reading too much into it. In any case, you’d be really pretty.”
The comment finally seemed to snap the blond out of his trance, making him look back at Sasuke with what might as well have been a hundred question marks floating around his head. “Huh?”
He nodded, smiling faintly. “You,” he affirmed. “You’d be really pretty. I mean, you already are, so it’d make sense.”
“But… this is just a transformation jutsu. If I were actually trans, I wouldn’t look like this, y’know?”
Sasuke shrugged. “Why not? A lot of people use permanent transformation jutsu,” he argued, thinking of the Fifth Hokage. “Besides, even if you wanted to actually transition, I still think you’d be really pretty.”
With every passing second, Naruto seemed more and more bewildered.
“I… don’t understand…” he struggled to get out, frowning again. “You’d be okay with that?”
Sasuke was caught off guard, his eyes widening just slightly. “Me?” He pointed at himself. “What do I have to do with it?”
“Well… you’re my partner, aren’t you?” Naruto raised an eyebrow. “You like me because I’m a man, and this works because we’re two—”
“Where the hell did you get that from?” Sasuke couldn’t stop himself from cutting him off immediately, deeply offended. “When did I ever give you the impression that I like you because you’re a man?”
The tone of his voice seemed to throw the blond right back into an abyss of questions.
“Are you kidding?” Sasuke’s frown deepened, his irritation growing with it. “I like you for everything you are, for the way you are with me, and for all the history we share,” he said firmly. “Even when I came out as gay, I told you I’d never been attracted to anyone else. Technically, I built my sexuality around you, around what I wanted to do with you simply because you were you. I called myself ‘gay’ because it was easier that way.” He lowered his gaze, feeling some warmth creep into his cheeks. “I do like your body… a lot… But if you changed it, I suppose I’d still like it just as much, because you’re the one I like.”
Suddenly, perhaps because the conversation had grown far too sappy, Naruto couldn’t resist making a joke to steer it in another direction.
“You know my dick could get smaller and become unusable, right? What are you gonna do when I can’t fuck you anymore?”
Once again, the Uchiha dropped his head at such a ridiculous question.
Ah… so you’ve looked into it.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure it keeps working,” he played along, looking back at him. This time, Naruto didn’t seem quite as overwhelmed. In fact, he looked much more relaxed, his previous cheerfulness beginning to return. “Besides, toys exist. I know you’ll find a way to fuck me, I trust you.”
At that, the blond laughed, finally breaking the tension that had built up around them, and hearing it made Sasuke feel lighter, too.
It always felt good to hear him laugh.
Although… only a moment later, the laughter died, and his lowered face, obscured by his blond hair falling over it, turned dark as his expression abruptly changed.
“We need to go.” He said in the most serious voice possible.
“Huh?” Sasuke raised an eyebrow. “What’s gotten into you now?”
“Now.”
In a hurry, Naruto got up from the table and went to pay the bill himself, not bothering to wait for someone to bring it over as they normally would. Sasuke, for his part, could only watch him with a look of utter confusion.
The blond then returned a few seconds later, still serious, and grabbed his partner by the arm, pulling him to his feet before dragging him out of the café.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?” Sasuke asked once he had been practically thrown inside the house. “Why the sudden rush? What happened?”
Naruto, still keeping the jutsu active, firmly shut the door behind him and stared at him in silence for a few seconds.
Then he started taking off his clothes.
“Clothes off. Now.” Was his only command.
And who was I to say no?