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As Naruto looked down at the pile of lutes in his shopping cart, he wondered if it had been a mistake to buy up all the stock in the Grand Bazaar. In his defense, lutes for one coin each was practically unheard of so as soon as he’d heard of the sale from a friendly bard, he’d hightailed his merchant caravan to the Grand Bazaar, his steed, Kurama—a nine-tailed fox the size of a horse, screeching at him the whole way about his irresponsible spending habits.
Pushing the little wooden cart back from the instrument stall to where he parked his caravan, he sighed. I mean—he could’ve just taken, like, ten and still called it a good deal! Why had he taken all thirty?
Having only moved to Konoha two years ago, he was still a relatively fresh and young merchant of these dark roads, yet he’d built up a great customer base of regular heroes thanks to his sparkling customer service (Kurama sniffed haughtily at that notion) and quick journeys via hidden, previously untraversable shortcuts.
A grin flitted across his face. Where other merchants had to factor in the cost of expensive amber lanterns when preparing to travel to the outlying towns via the treacherous shortcuts, Naruto had no need to trifle with such things because he literally glowed in the dark. Something about having blazing quartz in his blood from his mother’s magical fairy lineage, blah blah blah, Naruto didn’t really know exactly why his skin glowed a bright warm yellow in the dark (and on command, and when he was emotional), but it definitely helped him do his job.
He looked up at the dark sky, dotted with twinkling stars—most white or yellow but some pink or blue. The thirteen-week darkness had set in earlier that day, officially signalling the beginning of Lumi’s winter, so Naruto really had to get moving if he wanted to pick up his momentum and make a name for himself this winter.
Just as he was puzzling out how to fit thirty lutes into his tiny orange caravan (maybe he could hang some on the hooks on the outside? But then the snow would ruin them and he couldn’t sell them like that!), a very angry, very attractive dark-haired merchant strode up to him, cape fluttering, black hair flowing in the wind, and eyes burning with red fire.
Oh stars.
~ * ~ * ~
“How in the name of the stars are you out of lutes?” Sasuke said, slamming his gloved hand down on Sasori’s instrument stand, causing the other wares on the table (NONE OF WHICH WERE LUTES) to shake and chime.
Sasori raised one bored red eyebrow, adjusted his striped scarf and gestured across the Grand Bazaar to a bright orange caravan pulled by a huge orange nine-tailed fox.
Difficult steed, Sasuke thought. Powerful but temperamental. The merchant must be quite experienced.
Beside the caravan, was a blond merchant (also dressed in bright orange), currently attempting to stuff and hang lutes from every possible space on his caravan.
Usuratonkachi, he thought. It was an old Uchiha insult but it definitely fit this bumbling idiot.
Sasori continued, “We ran a word-of-mouth flash sale. Weren’t expecting many people to come—everyone’s more interested in woodwind over string these days—but that merchant barrelled into here and bought them all. Wasn’t my idea—I didn’t even try upselling him.” Sasori ruffled his red hair and turned back to the golden flute he was fiddling with.
“You don’t have any stock in the back?” Sasuke waved an impatient hand at the crates further into Sasori’s tent, butting up against the red canvas.
Sasori gave him a look that said, “You and I both know there are none left but if you want to give me a free ten minute break, be my guest.”
Sasuke huffed a sigh and turned away from the quiet musician, flicking his navy blue cape and scanning the rest of the snow-dusted stalls. Each stall in the Grand Bazaar specialised in a different type of ware and the Bazaar itself was only open to merchants. The artisans and salespeople here distributed the goods but it was up to the merchants to take them around Lumi selling them. Prices fluctuated daily and if a merchant wasn’t smart, he could end up purchasing stock at a high cost price, making it very difficult to turn a profit.
Sasuke, though, was an Uchiha. He’d grown up in his parents’ and then his brother’s caravans and so had cultivated an eye for market prices. He’d specifically planned this visit to maximise his profit on lutes, staves and chest armor—the most common items across his many commissions. But now, this idiot had bought up all the lutes and from the look of his struggle to fit them all in his caravan, he didn’t even need that many!
Merchant to merchant trading was a thing. Sasuke was well aware of that. But the reason he’d studied the market prices pretty much all year was so he wouldn’t have to resort to that.
He hated talking to new people.
As Sasuke pushed his cart back over to his deep blue caravan, patting his horse, Susanoo, and started neatly stacking his newly bought staves and armor plates, he scanned his commissions and knew he had only two options: talk to the idiot or try his luck at Orochimaru’s Dark Market. And he did not want to go back to that Dark Market if he could help it. Dude was way too creepy.
Steeling himself, he flicked his cape out behind him, adjusted his belt of daggers, potions and tools, and walked over.
Let’s just get this over with.
As he approached, the merchant’s features came into light. Strange, as there weren’t any street lanterns near him and he had none hanging from his caravan. He looked to be around mid-twenties, same entrepreneurial age as Sasuke, dressed in loose patchworked pants and a bright orange coat. His hair was spiky and blonde and his skin was far too tanned for Lumi’s forever winters. If he wasn’t standing next to a caravan with a cart full of lutes, Sasuke would’ve pinned him for a bard. And then he turned around and Sasuke met the most stunning blue eyes he had ever seen.
He wanted to collect those eyes and lay them in velvet like jewels. (Was that creepy?)
Momentarily thrown, Sasuke opened his mouth, planning for a formal if cold greeting.
What came out was: “Why in the stars name did you buy all the lutes?”
The blonde man at least had the tact to look sheepish. “Ah, so there was a sale—they were going for one coin each, can you believe it?”
“—I can believe it,” Sasuke cut in. “I calculated that the price of lutes would fall right at the start of winter with the newest woodwind craze amongst the local bards. I specifically came to the Bazaar today to buy lutes.”
“Look, man, I couldn’t turn down such a good deal!” Was it just him or was the man…glowing?
“You can’t even fit them all in your cart.”
“Kurama said he would hold some for me,” he said with a cheeky grin at his steed.
The fox growled as if to say, “I promised no such thing, you insolent brat.”
The merchant piped up again, ignoring his steed and continuing to hang lutes from its tails. “Why are your eyes glowing red by the way?”
Sasuke glared harder. “They glow when I’m angry.”
“Ah.”
“Yep.”
Sasuke took a deep, stilling breath. “Since you have no concept of supply and demand, do you mind giving some of your lutes to me as compensation for this inconvenience?”
The blonde glared back at him and nope, that wasn’t his eyes playing tricks on him, his cheeks were literally glowing with a warm orange light. “Oi, you bastard. I bought these lutes first! You can’t just go intimidating people with your stupid eyes and asking them to give up stock! I might have actually given you some of them if you weren’t so rude about it.” He turned back to his cart with a huff.
Sasuke just stood there, waiting for him to crack.
Finally, the blond turned back around, glow diminished. “Oh, fine, you got me. I don’t know what to do with all these lutes! I’m pretty sure my bard friends aren’t going to buy all these so I really don’t know why I bought them all.” He scratched the back of his neck nervously. “Do ya wanna come with me to the Ringway Inn? I’ve got to pick up some clients there and we can start again, have a drink and discuss the merchandise, yeah?” The blonde extended his hand to shake.
Sasuke weighed up visiting Orochimaru, mentally doing the financial and emotional calculations. Then he turned back to the blonde man, back to those literally sparkling blue eyes.
How could he say no to those eyes?
He took his bare hand in his gloved one and shook, starting a little when the blonde’s entire hand glowed with warm yellow light.
“Oh, ignore that,” the man said with a laugh. “It happens. My name’s Naruto.”
“Sasuke.”
Oh, stars, why did Naruto’s smile make him feel all warm inside? See, this was why he needed plans. People were just too unpredictable.
~ * ~ * ~
Sasuke was pretty. That was Naruto’s first thought as they rode side by side to the Ringway Inn. He couldn’t help sneaking peeks out of the corner of his eye. (He nearly trampled a pedestrian and got Kurama’s scolding but it was worth it!)
With his deep navy cape over fitted black travelling clothes and belt loaded with complicated shiny tools, Sasuke looked so very dashing. The little sparkles of silver on his dark outfit—the buckles on his shoes, a muff pistol on his belt, the moon-shaped clasp on his cape—made him look like the night sky and the stars (just the white ones though, he needed some pink, blue and yellow to truly look like Lumi’s night sky). Even his hair, cropped short and spiky in the back with long bangs in the front, was so dark it looked almost blue when they passed under streetlights, or when Naruto got just a little too close and his glow flared in response to their proximity.
That was a normal reaction to a new friend, right?
He’d heard Sasuke’s name here and there in the merchant circles. The youngest merchant in the Uchiha Clan (imagine an entire family of merchants!), Naruto had heard Sasuke only took the dark roads, delivered goods of impeccable quality and never ferried heroes.
Both visually and business-wise, they couldn’t be more different.
When they parked their caravans at the Ringway Inn, Sasuke’s steed, Susanoo, was nuzzling up to Kurama (weird, no one liked Kurama—not even Naruto some days). Even weirder was the fact Kurama was not only allowing the behaviour, but enjoying it?!
He did not understand that fox sometimes.
As they burst into the Ringway Inn, Naruto stopping to wave to Teuchi the barkeep and Ayame the server and Konohamaru the bus boy and Moegi the dancer, Sasuke eventually got fed up and dragged him into a corner booth.
Once they settled down with their pot of sun tea (Sasuke) and lemon soda (Naruto), Naruto opened their business discussion with a simple:
“You’re pretty.”
Ah, and there was that angry red glare again. Was it weird if Naruto found that kind of hot?
“You’re glowing again,” Sasuke commented.
Naruto looked down at himself, watching the soft light stream out from the gaps in his baggy clothes.
“Like I said, it happens,” he said, shrugging as it faded. He wasn’t about to tell Sasuke that he glowed when he got emotional because that would imply that Sasuke drew many emotions out of Naruto (and Sasuke didn’t need to know that).
“But why?” Sasuke pressed. “Who are you?”
Just then, Konohamaru approached with their order—a plate of puff pastries (Naruto) and a bowl of tomato soup with a ramekin of fresh cream on the side (Sasuke).
Naruto winked at the small brunette boy and flicked him a five-coin. Konohamaru caught the silver and blue oval coin with a smile and a wink in return. As Naruto fiddled with his coin pouch—weighing the gold oblong ten-coins and the hexagonal bronze one-coins—Sasuke stared at him.
“You know that’s five lutes, right?” Sasuke said. “You just gave him the equivalent of five free lutes.”
Naruto just shrugged. “He’s a friend! I’m not going to be thinking about profits and margins—Konohamaru’s like my little brother.”
He swiped a pastry from the plate and bit into it, unable to suppress a little moan and the slight pulse of his glow.
“They make really good fucking pastry here,” he mumbled.
Sasuke looked like he was one insult away from dunking Naruto’s face in his tomato soup.
“How are you a merchant?” Sasuke asked bluntly, exasperation clear in his tone. “How have you not gone bankrupt?”
“Oi! I may not be a clever little Uchiha like you—” Naruto started, barely resisting the urge to boop Sasuke’s nose, “—but at least I transport people!” He gestured at the inn around them, brimming with heroes, as it always was. “You’re missing out on such a big portion of the market.”
“People are unpredictable. And annoying. It’s less hassle this way.”
“You have to ask people anyway to get an idea of what’s popular, so why don’t you just take them along while you’re at it?”
“Please tell me that’s not how you work.”
“Well how do you predict the market?”
“With sales data! With spreadsheets and order history!” Sasuke’s eyes were blazing.
“Stars, you’re a nerd.” Naruto knew his cheeks were glowing and he probably looked ridiculous.
Sasuke’s cheeks soon flushed to match the red of his eyes. “If you don’t look at your sales data, how do you know what to buy?”
Naruto gestured out the inn’s window at his caravan and Kurama, the lutes gently swaying in the wind. “What’s on sale.”
“You’re insane. Do you take any commissions? Or do you just sell ad-hoc?”
“Eh, commissions are annoying—all that paperwork, ugh. I only take the ones that pay a hundred coins or more! Trust me, when you always take the shortcuts, delivering people is much more profitable—and fun!”
Sasuke looked like he was in pain. “So—” he coughed. “—about the lutes…”
“NARUTO!” came a screech and suddenly Naruto was buried beneath a pile of purple velvet and blonde hair.
“INO!” he yelled back just as loudly before standing to greet his friend.
Her platinum blonde hair and stylish purple cloak marked her as the heiress of the Yamanaka Clan of sorcerers. It was at her request and coin that Naruto was to ferry the whole group to her hometown of Nightpoem for her family’s annual winter masquerade.
It was especially exciting this year though, because Ino was to bring her girlfriend, Sakura, to meet her parents. Right now, Sakura was draped over Ino, her cropped blush-pink hair tickling the blonde’s cheek, and her light blue alchemist’s markings over her forehead and cheeks crinkling with her smile. She’d moved from Windglass to Konoha to study medicine and had fallen in love with the beautiful sorcerer somewhere along the way.
Watching them bicker playfully, Naruto pushed down the little twinge of jealousy and went around to hug the rest of the group.
There was Kiba—a burly skirmisher from Northbreak with the red face markings of the Inuzuka Clan of beastmasters. He was laden down with hat boxes, scroll cases and wand bags—likely all Ino’s equipment she had to bring back home for the winter.
Beside him, his nose buried in one of Ino’s books, was Shikamaru. While by title, he was a knight from the town of Scorchborn, he really was more suited to the loremaster roles of Nightpoem and Naruto knew he’d likely be seeking to study there and multiclass.
Choji, a jovial bard from Farglen, was helping himself to Naruto’s pastries—he had been best friends with Ino and Shikamaru his whole life so was likely going to Nightpoem just for them (and the varietal chocolates the town was famous for).
The quietest of the bunch, Hinata, a witch from Cursecairn, was going to visit her cousin Neji who’d recently moved to Nightpoem, and Shino, a Windglass alchemist like Sakura, was seeking to study Nightpoem’s ever-blooming flowers and the unique fireflies they attracted.
Naruto turned to Sasuke and gestured to the group. “These are my most loyal customers—”
“Oi!”
“—and dear friends! I was getting there, Kiba! I’m taking them to Nightpoem for Ino’s family’s ball. She’s a Yamanaka—you know, the mind sorcerers?”
Sasuke nodded, but his posture was tense.
Ino squeezed Sakura’s hand and twittered excitedly. “Ooh, Naruto, will you be bringing a gentleman friend to the ball?”
Naruto’s eyes sparkled and he shot Sasuke a wink for which he received an eye-roll in return. At least that seemed to make him relax a bit.
“This is Sasuke—he’s a merchant too and he’s mad I bought all the lutes from the Bazaar so we’re trying to work something out.”
“Have you ever been to Nightpoem, Sasuke?” Ino asked politely.
“I’m a merchant,” he said stiffly. “I’ve visited all the outlying towns for business at some point.”
Ino pressed on. “Will you be coming with us on Naruto’s journey?”
Naruto watched Sasuke’s face scrunch up as he tried to elegantly retreat into the collar of his cape. It was so amusing to watch him try to interact with his boisterous friends when the man eschewed transporting even the most quiet heroes.
An evil thought crossed his mind and he quickly slipped back into the booth next to Sasuke, just a little too close.
“Ya know, I’ll let you have as many lutes as you want—for free …”
Sasuke’s gaze snapped to him.
“...but only if you come to Nightpoem with me.”
Sasuke looked like he was doing mental math. “No.”
“Awww, please, Sasuke?” Naruto said, glowing ever so slightly. “I’ll take you via one of my secret shortcuts so it’ll be really quick and then you can get back to your important plans.”
Naruto watched Sasuke’s eyes dart around the air, clearly doing some more calculations.
Finally, he refocused, smirked and said, “Alright.”
Naruto whooped and held out a hand to shake. Sasuke had removed his gloves to eat and so his bare palm was warm against Naruto’s.
“ Usuratonkachi ,” he muttered softly.
The affectionate insult made Naruto glow even brighter.
~ * ~ * ~
As Sasuke steered Susanoo and his caravan out onto the roads leading to the Konoha border, he stared up at the sparkling sky and wondered why he was letting this dumb shiny blonde drag him along for a trip. I mean, he did have a lot of Nightpoem commissions taking up the bulk of the space in his wagon and he could probably stop by at Cursecairn on the way back to drop off another third but this wasn’t his original plan!
Stupid glowy Naruto and his pretty blue eyes and his impulse shopping. Here he was using an heirloom Uchiha insult like a pet name —ugh.
Repeating his rationalisation from back in the Inn, Sasuke remembered that quartz lanterns—the long-burning kind essential to using any of the shortcut routes—were fucking expensive so having Naruto offer to escort him via a shortcut really was a great deal. He’d make it to and from those western towns in half the time, he’d get free lutes, he’d clear up his caravan for more stock.
He’d also get to spend time with Naruto. But that wasn’t a factor in his calculation.
As he and Naruto passed Danzo’s Lanternworks, Sasuke scoffed at the long queue of caravans outside the tiny building, wedged between the Grand Bazaar and the Queen’s Commissions Office.
“So overpriced,” he muttered under his breath, thinking rude thoughts about the greedy man who ran the store and how he’d bullied all the other lanternmakers out of business. He slowed his caravan. “Do you need to stock up?” he asked Naruto.
From his perch on the driver’s seat of his own caravan, Naruto simply raised a glowing hand and smirked.
It all clicked. “That’s why you always take shortcuts.”
Naruto hummed. “I naturally glow when it’s too dark. But I can do it on command.” He held up a single glowing finger to illustrate the point. “Sometimes it just happens though—like when I get too emotional.”
Sasuke tried not to overthink all the times Naruto had glowed around him. “Do you have quartz in your blood or something?”
“Or something. My mum said it was something to do with her magical lineage,” Naruto said lightly, as if it was normal to be part magical.
He wasn’t from Lumi so I guess, wherever he was from, it must’ve been more normal.
“Is your mother a mage?” Sasuke hazarded a guess.
Naruto grinned impishly. “She’s part fey.”
Ah fuck, Sasuke was in it now wasn’t he? The fey were known for being cute, wicked and incredibly powerful, thought to have died out centuries ago. No wonder Naruto was so attractive.
He quickly pushed that thought down and pressed his lips together in a thin line. “Everything makes sense now,” he muttered.
Naruto laughed and his glow flickered like fireflies and if Sasuke wanted to capture that sound in a potion bottle and listen to it on a cold night, well…you'd be an idiot not to.
~ * ~ * ~
Just before the border of Konoha, Sasuke pulled them over to a path leading into the forests.
“Just need to stop by for some final wares,” he explained. Quickly explaining the stop to his passengers—who appeared to be midway through designing (or really, arguing over) a new board game—Naruto parked Kurama and his caravan next to Susanoo and Sasuke’s and quickly hurried to catch up with his new travelling partner who was already picking his way through the forest.
“Where are we going? What could you possibly need out here?”
“Rare goods,” Sasuke said with a twinkle in his eye. “We’re going to the Ruins of Uzushio.”
The Ruins of Uzushio, it turned out, were less actual ruins, and more a small castle half buried in the side of a cliff and the sprawling grey and blue branches of the forest. While it looked decrepit and abandoned from the outside, Sasuke simply walked up to the front door and knocked as if it was a perfectly normal place of business.
The door swung open to reveal a young white haired man with a giant glowing sword strapped to his back.
“Hey, Sasuke,” he said, grinning to reveal pointed teeth. “You’re late.”
Sasuke grimaced. “Change of travel plans,” he said, motioning towards Naruto who waved brightly. “Do you have everything I requested?”
The white haired man’s eyes widened when they fell on Naruto and his faint glow. “No fucking way. He's an Uzumaki.”
“Should that mean anything to me?”
“He’s part fey.”
“I know. He glows. We just went over this on the way here. Get to the point, Suigetsu."
Suigetsu unstrapped the sword from his back and held it up next to Naruto. “What do these have in common?”
Sasuke blinked. “Oh.”
“Oh, indeed.”
Naruto’s eyes darted between them, becoming increasingly more puzzled.
“I know we normally load up out here but you and your friend should come inside—Karin will want to meet him.”
Before he could protest, Suigetsu was ushering both him and Sasuke inside the ruined castle’s main foyer, which had been gutted out and converted into a warehouse of the most gorgeous goods Naruto had ever seen. In tall vases like flowers were intricately carved staves with rare gemstone foci. On rows of shelves, potions in handmade swirled glass bottles. Hanging from a rack, guns shaped like exotic birds inlaid with mother of pearl.
All of them shone with a light golden glow from various runes and markings on their surface, filling the dark castle foyer with soft, warm light. At the back of the room, ladders led up to a mezzanine—the grand staircase long crumbled.
“These goods are imbued with quartz magic,” Sasuke explained. “This is one of the only places you can reliably get them. I had no idea you guys made them though.”
“That’s because you never come inside, ya bastard,” Suigetsu quipped, guiding them through the aisles. “You’re always in a rush to get somewhere.”
Naruto beamed at all the glowing goods, stopping here and there to flip through a book or touch a piece of armor.
“Sasuke, this is so cool!”
Through the shelves, Sasuke looked back at him with something that akin to fondness.
While Sasuke and Suigetsu packed wares into crates and chests, Sasuke ticking off items from a small army of clipboards, Naruto was sent up the ladders to the mezzanine to meet the head of the Ruins of Uzushio, Karin Uzumaki—the bespectacled red-haired quartzsmith (a profession he didn’t even know existed!). Her skin, riddled with puncture marks, glowed just like Naruto’s. Karin, Naruto soon learned, was the one who imbued these goods with their quartz magic using her blood—essentially a regenerating supply of quartz that could be used like ink or varnish on goods—and ensured they would sell for a huge premium over their standard counterparts. Naruto was starstruck watching Karin use her glowing golden blood like paint and carefully brush it over the swirling title on a spellbook.
“If you come back and train under me, soon you'll be able to do this yourself,” she said excitedly. “Honestly, I'd love to have an apprentice. Didn't think there was anyone else like me here in Lumi.”
As Naruto was gushing over her skills, a tall, broad man—“Juugo, the creature handler,” Karin explained—appeared from a back room on the main floor and approached Sasuke and Suigetsu, carrying a small purple cave dragon in his arms.
Many merchants took magical creatures as travel companions, kind of like pets. Not only were they good company, they also had useful abilities. Cave dragons were known for their navigational and messenger abilities. Naruto had never really felt the need to have one—Kurama was as much a companion as he was a steed, full of snark, opinions and a growl able to scare off even the most vicious bounty hunters.
“Sasuke,” Juugo said. “Roary’s all ready for you.”
From the mezzanine, Naruto watched as a genuine honest to stars grin spread across Sasuke's normally solemn face as he scooped the little dragon into his arms, patting his round belly and short wings. Roary wiggled in happiness as Sasuke reached into the pouch on his belt and fed him tiny shards of blazing quartz.
That smile, seeing Sasuke all soft and tender with his pet, made Naruto feel all fluffy inside.
Karin nudged him in the side. “You like him, don't you?”
Naruto realised his glow had illuminated the entire mezzanine and floundered for a response but Karin just laughed. “You're part fey—you can't hide your emotions for shit.”
While they loaded Sasuke's special goods into his caravan, Roary perched on Sasuke's shoulder and nuzzling his cheek in a way that was absolutely adorable, Naruto looked back at the hidden castle, barely visible between the leaves and the cliffside and said,
“I didn't know my…glow…could create things like this.” He brushed his fingers along one of the staves and its warm glow.
Sasuke hummed. “You should come back here and learn under Karin.”
Naruto fished a shard out of Sasuke's pouch and fed it to Roary. “I wouldn't want to give up being a merchant though.”
“Maybe you could do both,” Sasuke said softly. “Be a travelling quartzsmith.”
Naruto kind of liked that idea.
He sat on the driver’s bench of Sasuke's caravan right next to Sasuke the rest of the way to the border. While he gave the excuse that he just wanted to play with Roary, really, he just wanted to see more of that soft, tender Sasuke, catch the shy smiles he would try to hide from Naruto behind his bangs.
As dark and serious as he appeared on the outside, Sasuke looked so very soft bathed in Naruto’s golden glow.
~ * ~ * ~
Roary was cute. Naruto was cute. Ergo, Sasuke could conclude that he just had an extreme weakness to cute things. Yes, that would explain why he kept smiling around Naruto. He reminded him of Roary—the cave dragon he’d basically grown up with.
There was no other explanation.
When they reached the walls at the edge of Konoha, the border guard, Kakashi, a scarecrow-like man with an eyepatch, face mask and tall spikes of silver hair, gave their little convoy an appraising glance.
“Maa, Sasuke,” he said, arching a brow and adjusting his long coat. “Made some friends, have we?”
Sasuke rolled his eyes but couldn’t stop himself from shooting Naruto an exasperated smile. “Long story.”
Kakashi eyed the lutes dangling from Naruto’s caravan. Even behind his face mask, Sasuke could tell the guard was suppressing a chuckle. “I see,” he said, tone light.
“They were on sale!” Naruto exclaimed, waving his arms. “I couldn’t resist! C’mon, back me up, Kakashi!”
Kakashi chuckled and reached up to ruffle Naruto’s hair. Was everyone friends with Naruto? He’d befriended the entire Ruins of Uzushio team in one visit and secured himself a future apprenticeship, whereas Sasuke had known them for years and had never met Karin before or even known of the quartzsmithing craft.
There was just something magical about Naruto—literally and metaphorically.
“So, where are we off to, lover boys?” Kakashi said, doling out the declaration forms.
It took ten seconds of watching Naruto write in his god-awful chicken scratch before Sasuke snatched the quill and filled out a single form for both of them.
“Nerd,” Naruto said, but he let Sasuke take the papers all the same.
In typical Naruto fashion, he chose orange wax and stamped it with a sun shaped seal dangling from his neck. Sasuke, as per his usual custom, chose a swirl of deep blue and silver, stamping it with his moon insignia ring.
“Sun and moon, eh?” Kakashi said, taking the form back from them with a chuckle. “It’s like you’re made for each other.”
Sasuke gave Kakashi a piercing glare but as soon as he turned to Naruto—fuck, he couldn’t be mad. Naruto was blushing bright orange, his eyes were so so blue, he was adorable and now he was laughing and Sasuke couldn’t help but laugh too.
Via the dark road Sasuke would usually take, the journey to Nightpoem was about a day (though ‘days’ as a concept didn’t really mean much when it was perpetually night).
With Naruto lighting their way along a shortcut like a human candle and Kurama scaring off any sign of danger with a flick of his tails, they were to make it there in eight hours, even with stops to let their steeds rest.
At one stop, Naruto’s passengers (the Yamanaka sorceress and co) invited Naruto and Sasuke up to the roof of Naruto’s caravan, where they played a rousing game of something called Pirates’ Dice. It involved loudly rattling dice around in metal cups and making bluffs and Sasuke turned out to be surprisingly adept at it which made him feel good and took some of the anxious edge off socialising. He also liked calling Naruto out on his frankly outrageous bets.
“ Usuratonkachi , there are twelve dice in the entire game—how can there be ten sixes?”
Over the course of that eight hour journey, Naruto continued to call him a nerd and Sasuke continued to use usuratonkachi like a pet name and over reins, dice and order forms, their hands would meet and brush as if magnetised.
After the game, after Ino and Sakura and all Naruto’s friends (who were slowly starting to become his friends by extension) had squeezed back into Naruto’s caravan to nap, Sasuke lay on the roof of his own caravan, staring up at the stars.
Naruto lay beside him, their elbows touching.
“I’m really glad I bought all those lutes at the Bazaar,” Naruto said quietly.
Sasuke scoffed. “Because that’s how we met?” He was only half-joking.
“Well…yeah,” Naruto replied, rolling onto his side to fix him with that jewel-like gaze. As a merchant, Sasuke knew that one way to tell the quality of a crystal was to see how many facets you could find within it.
Naruto’s eyes were infinite.
“I’m really glad I met you, Sasuke,” Naruto whispered, and his voice was soft and sweet and tender and Sasuke wanted to curl up inside it like a blanket.
He bit his lip to stop the grin from spreading all over his face but couldn’t stop his body from rolling and his hand from reaching out to tap Naruto on the chest.
“You’re glowing really brightly,” he said, “right here…”
Naruto smiled. “It’s because of you.”
The glow emanated from right over Naruto’s heart.
Sasuke could feel a burning behind his eyes and in the back of his throat.
“Your eyes are glowing,” Naruto said, concern weaving into his words. “Are you angry?”
Sasuke shook his head. “I have Uchiha eyes—the Sharingan, we call it,” he said. “They glow when we’re angry, yes, but also when we feel any kind of strong emotion.”
Naruto paused. “…Like love?”
Sasuke shifted onto his back so Naruto wouldn’t see just how bright his eyes were. “Yeah,” he whispered. “Like love.”
~ * ~ * ~
While Naruto had been to Nightpoem several times before, the sensory aura always took his breath away. The town was outlined in a low iron gate twined with lilacs, ivy and roses. Because of the special breed of native fireflies, there was no need for street lanterns and so the whole of Nightpoem looked like it was dusted with glitter. Every breath brought with it either the heady perfume of the various flowers or the rich sweetness of dark chocolate. Walking into Nightpoem felt like walking into a pastel lilac fog.
After Naruto dropped off a giddy Ino, a nervous Sakura and their other excited friends at the Yamanaka mansion, he collected payment and got Sasuke to fill out his paperwork (Naruto was starting to see the clear benefits of travelling with such a nerd). Bidding them goodbye and promising to return for the masquerade in a few hours, he and Sasuke slipped back to where they’d parked their caravans to sleep.
Peering into Sasuke’s caravan, still packed to the brim with commissions, Naruto scratched the back of his neck and gestured to his caravan.
“Do you want to…?” he asked shyly.
Sasuke smirked but wordlessly followed Naruto inside and collapsed onto the futon, stretching out his arms and inviting Naruto in.
For those next few hours, Naruto napped with his head on Sasuke’s chest, his fingers twined with Sasuke’s under the patchwork quilts.
When they arrived at the Yamanaka winter masquerade later that night, Sasuke looped his arm through Naruto’s like it belonged there and Naruto really had to focus on holding back his glow so that he didn’t blind the entire ballroom.
Naruto’s formal wear was a simple shirt and pants in brown and gold, overlaid with a gauzy set of robes in orange organza, woven with golden thread. His mask was a golden half-sun that covered the left half of his face.
Sasuke, his mirror, was dressed in a black shirt, navy pants and a gorgeous deep blue waistcoat studded with silver, pink, blue and yellow crystals just like the stars in Lumi’s night sky. His mask (barely a mask) was a half moon across his right eye.
“We didn’t plan this, I swear,” Naruto explained to Sakura as she approached them, jaw dropping at their symmetry.
On the dance floor, Naruto and Sasuke orbited each other like the sun and the moon in an old-fashioned Lumi waltz. From the way they moved together, fluid and easy and comfortable with each other’s presence, you’d think they had known each other for a very long time.
Distantly, Naruto noticed his friends’ approving nods and silent cheers, but whirling around in Sasuke’s arms, all he could think of was how lovely it felt to be held by moonlight.
~ * ~ * ~
Later that night, after the masquerade concluded and Sasuke had delivered all his Nightpoem commissions, he led Naruto into his caravan and folded out his plush canopied bed from between the crates and chests.
There, in the darkness, lit only by Naruto’s skin, Sasuke laid his lover, his best friend, his adorable Naruto, down like the masterpiece he was and outlined his body with the pads of his fingers. He learned that Naruto’s lips shone gold when they kissed, that Naruto liked to be praised, and that ‘I love you’ could be said with tongues and fingers and there, right there .
Naruto, in turn, learned that Sasuke’s eyes could glow really, really red, that Sasuke had a tattoo of black flames running from the base of his neck down his left arm, and that, despite his taciturnity, Sasuke could be quite loud when he wanted something badly.
His Sharingan burned the images into his memory:
Naruto’s glow pulsing in time with Sasuke’s thrusts.
Naruto’s blue eyes flickering and fluttering.
Naruto, above him, cheeky and playful and unbearably tight as he rode Sasuke until his screams made Naruto kiss him into silence.
Sasuke swallowed every gasp and drank every moan and nothing—not the richest chocolate or the freshest tomato or the fluffiest pastry—could compare to the taste of Naruto’s light on his tongue.
~ * ~ * ~
Afterwards, when Naruto’s hair was messy and wild and Sasuke’s neck blossomed with fresh stains of purple, Naruto said, simply, honestly:
“Hey, do you wanna team up? Like, forever?”
Sasuke laughed easily now. “If it’ll prevent your terrible spending habits, I guess I’ll have to, won’t I?”
Naruto read through the lines and bumped his shoulder. Sasuke could hide behind smirks and sarcasm all he wanted, but Naruto knew that he was already coming up with business plans.
And so the story goes:
Over starlit croissants dipped in Nightpoem chocolate and kisses sticky with icing sugar, Naruto and Sasuke formed The Starlight Merchant Company.
Within two years, they’d basically taken over all of Lumi’s winter trade between Naruto’s people skills and mobile quartzsmithing and Sasuke’s business eye and careful paperwork.
To this day, Naruto’s light guides them through the dark roads and Sasuke prevents Naruto from making any more awful impulse purchases.
Together, they are a force to be reckoned with.