The ramen shop's bell announced their arrival with a cheerful jingle. Heads turned briefly before returning to steaming bowls. Sasuke slid into a corner booth, the vinyl seat creaking beneath him. Naruto settled opposite, his fingertips drumming an uneven rhythm against the laminate tabletop.
Sasuke flipped open the plastic menu. "You're not even looking at the options?"
"Miso ramen," Naruto declared, his voice catching. The confident smile slipped from his face, replaced by something fragile. "Kurama always..." His fingers froze mid-tap. "This place supposedly has the best in town. We had plans to come here together." The final word dissolved into barely a breath.
An unfamiliar ache bloomed beneath Sasuke's ribs. He lowered the menu, finding his throat suddenly constricted. "I'll have the same," he said, the gentleness in his tone surprising even himself. His Alpha instincts surged—urging him to reach across, to offer comfort, to shield from pain. He kept his hands firmly on his side of the table, though every fiber of his being fought against the restraint.
Naruto glanced up, blue eyes widening. "You don't have to do that."
Sasuke's lips curved into that half-smile that made Naruto's pulse skip. "I know I don't," he said simply, and somehow that was enough.
A server approached their table—a young woman with chestnut hair pulled into a neat ponytail, her name tag reading "Ayame." Sasuke ordered two bowls of miso ramen without consulting Naruto again. She collected their menus with a practiced efficiency and disappeared toward the kitchen, leaving the air between them thick with unspoken words.
Sasuke for once not able to stand the silence broke it by asking, "So tell me about your brother."
Naruto's fingers worried the edge of his napkin, folding it into smaller and smaller triangles. "Kurama's like a hurricane," he said finally, voice soft with memory. "Loud and wild, but he'd stand between me and anything." His eyes stayed fixed on the napkin. "Always has."
Naruto swallowed hard, his voice catching on the words. "After the accident, they split us up. Different foster homes across the city." Sasuke's hand moved before he could stop himself, fingers settling over Naruto's trembling ones. "But Kurama always found ways to see me. Didn't matter if he had to take three buses or climb through a window." A small smile ghosted across Naruto's face as his eyes dropped to where their hands connected. He didn't pull away.
Naruto's gaze dropped to the table. "There was this one foster home," he said quietly. "The Alpha who ran it had rules about doors always staying open." Sasuke's fingers tightened into a fist beneath the table while his other hand remained steady on Naruto's. "I woke up one night to find him just... standing there. Watching me sleep." A visible shudder ran through Naruto's shoulders. "I texted Kurama. It was after midnight, but he showed up anyway—sixteen years old with a baseball bat and enough rage to make a grown Alpha back down." The corner of Naruto's mouth lifted slightly. "That's my brother."
Steam curled between them as Ayame returned, setting down two bowls with practiced grace. Their hands fell away from each other. "Here's your miso," she announced, her smile bright beneath the shop's paper lanterns. "Let me know if you need anything else!"
They ate without speaking, chopsticks clicking against ceramic in rhythm with the shop's ambient noise. Sasuke watched Naruto's face as he sipped the broth, noticing how his eyes had gone distant, shimmering slightly in the lantern light. "The ramen lives up to the hype," Sasuke said, surprising himself with the gentleness in his voice. Naruto's gaze lifted to meet his. Something in that vulnerable blue stare made Sasuke's chest tighten as he added, "When we find him, I'd like to meet the person who'd cross town with a baseball bat for you."
The smile that broke across Naruto's face was like sunshine after rain, crinkling the corners of his eyes. "When we find him," he said, voice steady with certainty, "he's going to like you."
They finished their ramen in comfortable silence. When the check arrived, Sasuke slid several bills onto the table with casual precision. Naruto opened his mouth to protest, then closed it, settling instead for a quiet "Thanks." Sasuke merely lifted one shoulder in response, his eyes already fixed on the door.
They walked back to the dorm without speaking, though the silence between them felt easy, like a conversation without words. Sasuke found himself almost enjoying the moment when a voice shattered the quiet. "Yo Naruto!" Kiba bounded across the quad, planting himself directly in their path, his canine grin widening as Sasuke's expression darkened.
Naruto's smile brightened. "Kiba! What's up, man?"
Kiba jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Got a pickup game going in the quad. Just me and some of the guys from different classes." Behind him, several students kicked a soccer ball back and forth, their laughter carrying across the grass. "You in?"
Naruto's face lit up, his earlier melancholy vanishing like morning fog. "Hell yeah!" He bounced on his toes, already halfway to the field in his mind. Sasuke watched the transformation, his jaw tightening as Kiba clapped Naruto's shoulder, that same hollow pressure expanding beneath his ribs.
Kiba's eyes flicked to Sasuke, as though just remembering his existence. "You coming too, Uchiha?"
Sasuke's fingers curled into his palm, knuckles whitening briefly before he forced them to relax. He glanced at Naruto, then back at Kiba. "We need to get back to the files, right Naruto?"
"I can play for a bit," Naruto said, eyes darting between them. He shifted his weight, a half-step already taken toward the game. "Just a few matches." He met Sasuke's gaze with a tentative smile. "I'll catch up with you later, okay?"
Sasuke watched Naruto jog away with Kiba, something possessive twisting in his chest. For a moment, he considered following, dragging him back to their work. Instead, he exhaled sharply through his nose and turned toward the dorm, alone.
-
Naruto stumbled through the doorway of room 327 an hour later, his hip pushing the door open while his arms cradled a mountain of vending machine treasures. His right knee throbbed where he'd collided with Kiba during their impromptu quad soccer match. Despite the pain, his mouth still tingled with the afterglow of genuine laughter—something that had become increasingly rare since starting his search for Kurama.
Inside, Sasuke hadn't moved. He sat at the desk, back straight, hands folded on the textbook like a judge about to pass sentence. The evidence pile was now a series of perfectly aligned rows, a spreadsheet rendered in dead trees and ink. Only the tension in the air had changed: it hummed against the windows, pressed in around Naruto's ears as he crossed the threshold.
Naruto held up the bag of chips, a peace offering. "You want some?"
Sasuke's pen froze against the paper. His eyes traveled a deliberate path—from the mud caking Naruto's shoes to the grass stain smeared across his elbow, finally settling on the purple-red mark swelling at his knee. "What happened?" The words snapped between them like brittle twigs.
Naruto flopped onto his bed with a grin, sending a small cloud of dust from his clothes. "Battle wound. Kiba went for the ball, I went for Kiba, my knee paid the price." He tore open the chip bag and shoved one into his mouth with exaggerated satisfaction. "You should try it sometime."
Sasuke's lips thinned. "Some of us have priorities."
Naruto snorted. "You should try having fun sometime. Might loosen the stick."
A muscle jumped beneath Sasuke's eye as heat crawled up his neck, the same bitter taste that had been coating his tongue since Naruto first bounded away across the quad.
The silence that followed was so complete it amplified every chew, every crinkle of the chip bag. Naruto shifted on the bed, suddenly aware of a strange tingling at the base of his spine. He tried to ignore the way Sasuke's jaw was working, slow and grinding, as if he were chewing rocks. The room felt smaller somehow, the air thicker. A flush crept up his neck, sweat beading under his collar despite the room's persistent chill.
With each crunch of the chips, Sasuke's jaw tightened further. Something primal stirred beneath his skin, seeping into the air between them without his conscious permission. Across the room, Naruto's fingers drifted to his neck, rubbing at a sudden warmth there. His blue eyes remained oblivious to the invisible current now threading through the small space, though his body had already begun to respond.
A wave of heat crawled up Naruto's spine, making him glance around the room in confusion. Before he could identify its source, his phone buzzed against his leg. Kiba's name lit up the screen.
yo, u alive? if not, I get dibs on ur hoodie, lol
Naruto's smile was automatic, though his skin now prickled uncomfortably. Behind him, the temperature in the room seemed to plummet as Sasuke's pen stilled, his shoulders going rigid. Oblivious, Naruto started to type a reply, blinking against the growing warmth behind his eyes. The phone rang before he finished, Kiba's custom ringtone warbling across the room. He answered on speaker, swallowing against the strange dryness in his throat.
"Kiba, you dumbass. Didn't even wait for me to text back?" Naruto's laughter filled the room, oblivious to how Sasuke's eyes had narrowed to obsidian slits, tracking his every movement like a predator calculating the precise moment to claim what it considered already its own.
Kiba's laugh crackled through the speaker. "My bad! Called my sister right after I left you." Naruto's legs tingled with sudden restlessness, propelling him off the bed in one fluid motion. "Dude," Kiba continued, voice dropping to a whisper that made Naruto lean closer to the phone, "my sister actually knows Shukaku from some class they took together. Says he's got family somewhere. She's digging into it for us. Couldn't wait to tell you."
"Holy shit, really?" Naruto's voice cracked with excitement. He paced between the beds, three quick steps each way, his free hand raking through his hair. "That's—that's huge, Kiba." The room suddenly felt stifling. He yanked at his collar, skin prickling with heat, and crossed to the window.
"You are the best," he said, wrestling with the stubborn latch while balancing his phone against his shoulder. His breath caught in his throat, a sudden heaviness spreading through his lungs. He shifted his weight, uncomfortable with the strange tingling sensation blooming at the base of his spine.
Behind him, Sasuke's textbook creaked under white-knuckled fingers. The scent of ozone—sharp, bitter—spiked in the air, so strong Naruto almost thought the radiator had shorted out.
Kiba's voice barreled ahead. "So anyway, are you actually coming to the game tomorrow?"
Naruto's throat clicked as he swallowed. The phone slipped in his suddenly damp palm as he spun to face Sasuke, whose eyes had darkened to twin pools of ink. A familiar pressure built in the air between them—His stomach dropped like an elevator with cut cables.
Kiba's voice crackled through the speaker. "Naruto? You still with me?"
The phone nearly slipped from Naruto's slick palm. His legs wobbled as a telltale warmth crawled up his spine and settled low in his belly with frightening intensity. His free hand dove into his pocket, fingers scrabbling for the familiar outline of his pill case. "Yeah," he managed, the single syllable scraping his dry throat as understanding dawned in his widening eyes. "Count me in."
"Good," Kiba said. "Maybe we can get ramen after. That place on 10th just reopened—"
Naruto's hand closed around the case, thumb flicking at the latch. Kiba's voice faded to background noise as he glanced down, trying to be subtle. A shadow fell across his hands. Sasuke stood there, palm extended beneath Naruto's fingers, silently demanding the pills.
"—my treat, since you saved my ass last week."
"Deal," Naruto said, too loud, eyes locked with Sasuke's. "It's a date—uh, not a date date. Just, you know, a hang."
Sasuke's fingers closed around the pill case, sliding it from Naruto's grip. The heat on Naruto's neck flared, like a sunburn breaking through.
"Cool. See you at six," Kiba said. "Hey, one more thing—"
The line fuzzed as Kiba fumbled with his mic. Naruto glanced up and froze. Sasuke's eyes had gone glacial, chips of black ice watching him with an intensity that made his throat close. The Alpha's jaw was locked so tight a muscle jumped beneath the skin.
Naruto cut in, voice tight. "Actually, I gotta go. Talk later, okay?" He hung up before Kiba could respond, the phone dropping into his pocket with a muffled thud. He thrust his open palm toward Sasuke, fingers trembling slightly.
"Give them back," he said, voice raspier than he expected. The words scraped his throat.