Chapter Text
He woke up before dawn, and the room was even hotter, something he didn't think was possible. Outside, the evening thunderstorms had given way to steady, soaking rain, and he was tempted to stand outside and bask in the cool rain and the light breeze. He'd kicked off the cover and sheet that had clung to his sweaty body, but the mattress held his heat, making escape impossible. When he was able to overlook the heat, he noticed the fact that the room was saturated in his scent, with pepper, clove, and cedar like a cloud gently embracing him. He'd slipped into his rut. The realization was there and gone, replaced by irritation and the sudden urge to blame Naruto, even though Naruto had nothing to do with his predicament. He was unprepared to deal with a full-blown rut, but he would endure the worst and keep moving. He'd done it twice before, once when Naruto had found him in Orochimaru's lair, and once when he'd confronted the kage at the summit. Both times, he'd survived, pulling through without satiating his carnal desires. And he would do it again.
Neji was still asleep on the other mattress, oblivious to the fact that he was greedily inhaling jasmine and leather as if he were starving. His behavior made no sense to him. Scrubbing his hand over his face, he let out a frustrated sigh and risked a glance at Neji. When the man began to stir, Sasuke realized he'd have to explain himself, even though the thought of admitting he was in his rut was embarrassing. Briefly, he considered the easy option of gaslighting Neji, but he brushed that idea aside when he remembered that they were essentially stuck together for the foreseeable future. He saw the moment when Neji noticed his strong scent, and he quickly looked away. He didn't think he had a bad scent, but other alphas could react poorly. He didn't feel like fighting at five o'clock in the morning.
“Hm.”
“Not a damn word.”
“Maybe we should turn back.”
“I'm fine.”
“You really plan on continuing while you're like this? What if you catch the scent of an omega? What if you get aggressive?”
“I'm feeling aggressive right now because of this pointless conversation,” he growled, throwing a glare over his shoulder. He could feel the man staring at him. He could imagine the disapproving frown. Snapping at Neji would only reinforce the idea that he needed to isolate for the full five days, and he wanted to put as much distance as possible between Konoha and them. Biting down on his lower lip, he decided to speak to Neji as if he were speaking to Naruto, someone he genuinely cared about, someone he didn’t want to hurt. “I'm fine. I'll deal with it. This isn't my first time.” He wanted mandarin and orange blossom, but every inhale gave him endless jasmine and leather. He’d never spent his rut with another person, and he’d wanted to spend it with Naruto. He needed to move on.
“You mean you’ve never isolated before? How, you just kept going? It can be painful.” Neji sounded confused, so he slowly moved away from the side of the bed and pulled his legs back onto the mattress. Everyone knew that ruts and heats could be painful, sometimes downright debilitating, but he’d known pain for years. Physical pain was something he could endure. His rut would end. “Sasuke, no, never mind,” Neji decided. He arched his brow at the man, contemplating demanding to know the rest of what Neji had wanted to say. He waved his hand, urging Neji to continue with the thought. “You’ve never,” Neji trailed off, unable to meet his eyes.
“Just spit it out.”
“What do you do during your rut?”
“I train.”
“You,” Neji started, squinting at the mere thought. He scowled at the way the man’s face seemed to twist, almost as if the man had tasted something sour. They both knew the correct way to handle ruts because it was taught by one’s parents and by instructors at the academy. Sasuke recalled being embarrassed both times. “You train,” Neji stated, voice flat. Neji had clearly never tried to work through the worst of a rut, which meant the man likely spent the five days touching himself. Sasuke licked his lips. “You know it’s perfectly acceptable, even healthy to,” Neji trailed off again, “do something completely different.” Sasuke smirked, silently wondering if he could get Neji to say the words, to bring up the fact that it was normal to masturbat* or have sex.
“What is ‘completely different’ to you, Neji? What ‘completely different’ thing do you do?”
“I crochet.”
“Liar.”
“Things are different now. You’ll rest for five days,” Neji decided. He bristled at the man making a decision on his behalf when he was accustomed to relying on physical activity to keep him grounded. They couldn’t afford to sit around for five days. And the room was bordering on the temperatures in the deepest depths of hell. He winced when a bit of sweat went into his right eye. “I would offer to spar with you, but I have a feeling you’d lose your temper and try to murder me. That would end poorly for you.” He sat up straighter and asked himself if he’d misheard the man. Neji thought he would lose in a fight. The only person who stood a chance against him was currently in Konoha.
“Prove it.” His expression was serious, daring the man to back out after making such a bold statement. He knew he would likely lose his temper, but he wasn’t going to slip into a state of recklessness. Neji stood and began gathering his own clothing, so he slid off the bed and did the same. “You can make the rules,” he said, pulling on his shirt. Neji threw his pants at his feet, then continued dressing. He wanted a real fight, but he knew they didn’t have quick access to medical treatment if they happened to go too far with one another. He didn’t want to put Neji in the hospital.
“No dojutsu.”
“You can fight without it?”
“You saw me fight one time. I was thirteen.”
“I only needed to see it once.”
They stood near the bedroom door, both of them absorbed in their conversation. Sasuke didn't think he said anything odd, but Neji's mouth closed and the man stared at him with an intensity that made him avert his eyes. He hated that look. He'd seen that look every day for years. Orochimaru had that look whenever they interacted, always that look, like he was something interesting in one of the man's petri dishes. It reminded him of the experiments he'd suffered through for the sake of power. Sometimes he'd become so sick that he was bedridden. Those memories were best left to rot in the back of his mind. They only chose to resurface and cripple him at the worst times, like that moment, when Neji just looked at him. He brushed past the man and went downstairs, where he waited by the door. Neji came down several minutes later, carrying his sheathed sword. There were no words exchanged as Neji handed him the sword, but neither of them needed to speak to hold a conversation. He'd been so focused on leaving the room that he'd forgotten his sword.
In the end, he chose to lean it against the wall by the front door. He wanted to see what jutsu Neji could perform, so there was an unspoken agreement to use strictly ninjutsu. And there was nothing he enjoyed more than using lightning release in battle. He wrote his arrogance off as confidence and offered his hand for the seal of confrontation. The last time he'd formed the seal, he'd been fighting Naruto. Neji finished the seal, then the fight began. In the pouring rain, they made a total mess of themselves and the field of wildflowers in the back of the house. Neji liked testing his patience with earth walls, and he liked obliterating them by slamming his lightning charged fist through them. It was a tactic in itself, and he knew that. Neji wanted to anger him, playing on the fact that alphas could lose control, but he wasn't a stereotypical alpha, so that didn't work. After earth release, Neji turned to water release, so he turned to fire release.
The fight became more about learning one another, so he eventually asked to see the byakugan in action. He stood there, panting, soaked to the bone, watching Neji just move. Fluid movements and chakra release interrupted the falling rain. He watched with his sharingan and rinnegan, though not to ever mimic the movements, not when it was almost pointless without the byakugan. He had Neji repeat a move several times just to see the chakra emitted and shaped. He learned to attack to see more of the revolving heaven defense. The stronger he hit, the stronger the force was repelled. It was dizzying, but he found himself smiling. Naruto would have tried impaling him with a rasengan. Effective, but not as entertaining. Neji was the last to realize he was content standing in the cool rain. They'd crushed almost all of the wildflowers, and there was no way they could ever compensate the homeowners enough for the ugly sight, but he felt better, calmer.
“You were staring at me for almost an hour. What did you even get out of that?”
“You've improved a lot over the years, and I enjoyed your Eight Trigrams Palms: Revolving Heaven.”
“You would have seen it years ago if you had shown up to the chunin exams in a timely manner.”
“Yeah. Kakashi thought it would be cool to show up fashionably late. He had some fun and I didn't have to deal with idiots for an extended period of time. Win-win.” He tipped his head back and let the rain hit his face, savoring the chill brought on by the cold rain. But the moment of peace didn’t last. He recalled the rain he’d barely registered following his first major fight with Naruto, how it had penetrated his clothes but he still didn’t feel a thing. It was the first time he’d said goodbye to Naruto. One out of many. “Let’s go inside. I’m not burning up anymore,” he mumbled, blinking away the rain that had clung to his eyelashes. He turned first, then they left the field together.
