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Assistant: Title: The Aphelion and the Event Horizon
        Author: AcanthaMD AcanthaMD 
        Chapter: 13/13 
        Summary: The universe conspires to sunder Sasuke and Naruto at every turn, his own mother is determined to matchmake them off to other people —and with Itachi’s suspicious radio silence, Sasuke’s certain the cosmos itself is rigged against them. Then comes the final blow: Naruto, exiled to Pluto Station.As events become more and more extreme Sasuke has to swallow his pride and ask his boss—Neji whose cold authority masks a simmering obsession— a favour. Not knowing what he might ask for in return.Love was simpler when all Sasuke had to do was say he’d burn the solar system for Naruto. Too bad he didn’t realize Neji was listening.
        Contents: Chapter 13
    

    

        
          
          
            Naruto’s breath stuttered. Recognition flickered—clawed hands lifted, trembling, to cradle Sasuke’s jaw. Featherlight. Reverent.Sasuke pulled him down, knees knocking together, and pressed his stubbled cheek to Naruto’s pulse. Back. Forth. A mimicry of scent marking. Naruto’s skin tasted of salt and lithium, his ragged breaths syncing with the motion.“S’uke—what—why?” Naruto rasped, voice shredded.“So they know.” Sasuke dragged his jaw harder, marking sweat and scent into skin. “So you know.”
          
        

      
        
          With thanks to the lovely Nikolita for without their relentless cheerleading this story may have become interminably stuck in drafts.
            
            (See the end of the chapter for  more notes.)
            
      
  

  
  
    
      Sasuke leaned over the shimmering star map, fingers tracing the jagged outline of the asteroid field. His reflection flickered in the glass—pale, hollow-eyed, the smooth expanse of his sternum glaringly blank where the bondmark once burned.   Empty.   Kabuto’s voice floated through his memory, oily and precise. “Hostages are only useful if someone cares to retrieve them. Let’s see if your brother still does.”  Sasuke’s jaw tightened. He overlaid carbon traces onto the hologram—faint scorch patterns between asteroids. “Thruster residue,” he said, voice clipped. “Too deliberate for debris. He’s here.”  Temari leaned against the console beside him. “Or it’s scavengers. The Belt’s crawling with them since the relay collapsed.”  “It’s him.” Sasuke’s thumb brushed his unmarked sternum reflexively. The absence still felt like a phantom limb, nerve endings raw and searching. “Itachi would use the radiation to mask his signature. He’s close.”  Kankurō snorted from the shadows, his puppet’s joints creaking as he recalibrated its sensors. “Yeah, or he’s dead. No offense, Uchiha, but optimism’s a bad look on you.”  Sasuke ignored him, zooming the hologram. A flicker of movement near Asteroid CX-9—too quick, too calculated. There.  Temari’s hand brushed his elbow. “You should rest. Ino cleared you, but that doesn’t mean—”  “I’m fine.” Sasuke stepped back, the lie sharp. He forced a smile, muscles unaccustomed to the gesture. “We’re close. I can…”  A flash of memory detonated—cold gel flooding his nostrils, Kabuto’s face looming through the nanite pool’s viscous haze. “Let’s test your brother’s loyalty.”  Temari’s fingers tightened on his arm. “Sasuke?”  He blinked. The lab snapped back into focus. “I’ve had enough rest.”  "Blondie didn't look so hot earlier." Kankurō kept his tone casual, fingers dancing over the hologram's calibration controls. "Ino said he was seeing things. Full hallucination shit."Sasuke's stylus froze mid-adjustment on the asteroid trajectory map. He kept his voice flat. "He'll recover.""Hope so." Kankurō's cricked his neck with a resounding cracking noise, "Dude didn't recognize me when I went to say hi. Kept begging me to..." He trailed off. "Get me out of the pool." The words escaped Sasuke's lips before he could stop them, tasting of copper and gelid memory. His knuckles whitened around the stylus.Temari's hand descended on her brother's shoulder with a gauntleted thud. "Rō. Later."Kankurō shrugged with exaggerated nonchalance. "Just saying, bonds mess with your head. Reminds me of that time Baki's niece tried to chomp my—""—After eight tequila sunrises and a broken nose?" Temari cut in, leaning against the console to block Sasuke's view. Her smile was all bared teeth. "The only thing you saw that night was the inside of a medbay vomit tray."The comms chimed before Kankurō could retort. Neji's hologram flickered to life, his bandaged left eye lending his aristocratic features a piratical grimness. "Uchiha. I think we need you in the med bay, now."Sasuke's stylus clattered against the hologram, sending CX-9's asteroid spinning into oblivion. "Report."A metallic crash shuddered through the feed. Neji’s gaze flicked off-screen, jaw tightening. “We sedated Uzumaki. He woke early, tore through cerasteel restraints. Demands we return to the relay to retrieve your…corpse.” Another clang, closer. “Your assistance should be… expedient.”  The transmission died mid-snarl.   Kankurō leaned against his console, his fingers drumming a staccato rhythm. “Told you Blondie’s cracked. Bondmark psychosis’ll do that.”  Temari’s hand hovered near Sasuke’s elbow. “I can come. Backup if he’s volatile.” “No.” Sasuke straightened, the hologram’s periwinkle blue light staining his periphery. “He’ll listen to me.” Kankurō grunted, “Or rip your throat out. Either way, drama.”  Sasuke ignored him, striding toward the door. The lab’s sterile air clung to his lungs, thick with the ozone stench of overworked hologrids.  “Sasuke.” Temari’s voice chased him into the corridor. “If Itachi’s out there we’ll find him.”  He didn’t look back.     The medbay doors hissed open, releasing a cacophony of shattering metal and gurney alarms.  Neji stood rigid between two twitching med-droids, his bandaged eye wet with nanite fluid. Ino pressed herself against the observation window, hypospray clutched like a lifeline. "He's pulverized three neural scanners," she breathed, sea-green eyes wide. "Can't get within five meters—"  Another crash shook the reinforced plexiglass. Behind it, Naruto moved like a hurricane given flesh – ceiling panels rained down as he slammed a biometric monitor into the wall, eyes black voids swallowing blue irises.  Sasuke's nails drew blood from his palms. "Open it."  Neji's voice dripped exhaustion. "Use the comms. He's not rational."  "He thinks I'm a ghost." Sasuke ripped off his jacket, exposing sweat-damp undershirt fabric clinging to his torso. "Disembodied voices won't fix that."  Neji's lip curled. "Ah. Strategic undressing. Have I missed something?"  Sasuke ignored the jab, snatching the hypospray from Ino's grip. "If he smells me first, he might calm down."  The door lock chirped green.Naruto hurled a chunk of plascrete the moment the door slid open. Sasuke ducked, debris grazing his shoulder as he rolled behind an overturned counter.  The air crackled with tension as Naruto's chest heaved, violet veins pulsing like live wires beneath his skin. His eyes, wild and unseeing, locked onto Sasuke. “You,” he rasped, voice shredded by fury. “You’re wearing his face.” He lunged, claws slashing the air where Sasuke’s throat had been a heartbeat before. “Take. It. Off.”Sasuke sidestepped, the rush of Naruto’s strike whipping his hair back. “It’s me,” he insisted, breath ragged. The medbay’s sterile stench burned his lungs—antiseptic and scorched metal. He edged closer, palms raised, as if gentling a cornered beast. “On Mars, when we fought… you said it had always been me. Not the bond. Me.”Naruto froze mid-swing, muscles coiled like springs. His pupils dilated, flickering between violent violet and fractured blue. “Liar,” he snarled, but the word wavered. A tremor ran through his arm, claws retracting slightly. “I’d… feel you. I’d know—”“I was wrong.” Sasuke’s voice cracked, raw as the confession tore free. “I blamed the bond, but you knew. You always knew.” He took a half-step forward, boots crunching debris. Naruto recoiled, a guttural growl reverberating in his chest—a sound less human than feral, like a storm given teeth.  Sasuke halted, pulse hammering. The distance between them thrummed with static, alive and lethal. Naruto’s gaze darted, unmoored, as if trapped between memory and madness. For a heartbeat, the violet dimmed,  irises widening with fragile clarity before drowning again.  “I felt him die.” Naruto’s fingers spasmed toward his throat, blunt nails raking unbroken skin. “While we were—inside—he was—” A wet, clicking swallow. “—screaming.”  Sasuke’s gut turned to glacial slurry. My fault. He swallowed bile, pressed on. “You threw the glass. After.” His own hand lifted, slow as melting ice. “Thought I didn’t hear you cursing us both. But I did.”  Naruto flinched but held ground, pupils dilating as Sasuke’s fingers breached the lethal radius. Tears blurred Sasuke’s vision; he let them fall. “You called me a liar. Then yourself.” A fractured laugh. “Should’ve done this years ago. Admitted we were both… cowards.”  Naruto’s breath hitched—a wet, wounded sound that clawed at the space between them. His hand jerked toward Sasuke’s, claws retracting mid-reach as if burned.  Silence pooled, thick with ozone and unsaid things.  Sasuke pressed his advantage, voice fraying. “After, I sat in the rain. You called for me. I didn’t—” His throat closed. Coward. Liar. “I didn’t come back. It… it—”  “—hurt.” Naruto finished, the word a serrated whisper. His clawed hand drifted to his own sternum, mirroring Sasuke’s unconscious motion toward the bondmark’s ghost.  Electricity arced between them—not the bond’s phantom pulse, but the raw ache of skin deprived of its shadow. Sasuke’s fingertips grazed Naruto’s cheek, tracing the hollows grief had carved. “It hurt,” he murmured, “being away. Watching you with Tenten.” Naruto flinched at the name, a twitch beneath sweat-slick skin. “You looked happy. Whole. And I… didn’t know if it was your heart or mine breaking.”  Naruto leaned into the touch, lashes fluttering as violet receded like a tide. His pulse thrummed wild against Sasuke’s palm—alive, alive—but his voice frayed. “You didn’t come—when the hive—when I got hurt. I waited. Screamed. It took—”  “I couldn’t feel it.” Sasuke’s thumb brushed the hinge of his jaw, grounding them both. “The bond was gone. I was… alone.” The admission hung between them, sharp as shattered glass.  Naruto’s breath hitched. “Ceres-Green,” he rasped, as if the words were dragged from him.  Sasuke stilled. The memory unfurled—bonfire smoke, harvest drums, Naruto’s laughter bright as solar flares. Then the chill: transfer papers to Pluto.  “You signed them,” Sasuke whispered, “but stayed.” The distance evaporated. Naruto’s scent enveloped him—burnt ozone and copper beneath the familiar sunbaked hay, now curdled by the acrid sting of overheating machinery.  “You said you’d waited lifetimes.” Sasuke’s fingers tangled in dirt-matted hair, grounding them both. “Made me promise six months.”  Naruto’s lips shaped the words soundlessly. Six. Months.   “S’uke.” The name emerged fractured, disbelieving.   Sasuke knelt—not submission, but sacrament. The hypospray lay forgotten as he turned his throat to the light, baring the unmarked skin where their bond once burned. A mirror of that first desperate night, when teeth had sealed what words couldn’t. Naruto’s breath stuttered. Recognition flickered—clawed hands lifted, trembling, to cradle Sasuke’s jaw. Featherlight. Reverent.  Sasuke pulled him down, knees knocking together, and pressed his stubbled cheek to Naruto’s pulse. Back. Forth. A mimicry of scent marking. Naruto’s skin tasted of salt and lithium, his ragged breaths syncing with the motion.  “S’uke—what—why?” Naruto rasped, voice shredded.  “So they know.” Sasuke dragged his jaw harder, marking sweat and scent into skin. “So you know.”  Naruto shattered. His hands fisted in Sasuke’s hair, yanking their mouths together—a clash of teeth and desperation. Sasuke leaned into the violence, letting Naruto’s hunger carve through the silence between them.  “Hurts,” Naruto gasped against his lips, saliva bridging the fracture as they parted. “The quiet—it’s everywhere—make it stop—” Naruto’s teeth scraped his lower lip raw, the kiss less affection than exorcism—a frantic attempt to bridge the silence where their bond had roared. Sasuke leaned into the pain, letting Naruto’s desperation flood the hollows grief had carved in him. His skin burned fever-hot, vibrating with the same unstable energy that made the overhead lights flicker. Sasuke catalogued it all—the tremor in Naruto’s jaw, the grit of pulverized plascrete beneath his knees, the way Naruto’s hands clutched his shoulders like he might dissolve if grip slackened.  “You’re real,” Naruto muttered against his mouth, half-question, half-incantation. “You’re here.”  “Always.” Sasuke pressed their foreheads together, ignoring the sting of split skin. Naruto’s exhale hitched—a wet, ragged sound that seemed to slice into his soul.“Don’t let go,” Naruto rasped.  As if he could.  Neji’s voice crackled through the medbay’s intercom, sharp as a plasma blade. “Sasuke. Give him the hypospray, that’s not a request.”  The comms unit embedded in the wall spat static. Naruto’s head snapped toward the sound, pupils dilating back into black-void violet. His claws dug into Sasuke’s shoulders, drawing thin lines of blood. “Who—?”  “Ignore it,” Sasuke hissed, tightening his grip on Naruto’s wrists. But Neji’s voice came again, colder. “Dose him, now.”  Naruto recoiled at the intrusion, a guttural snarl tearing from his throat. His elbow jerked back—accidental, instinctive—and struck Sasuke’s temple, he cried out. Pain exploded behind Sasuke’s eyes, blood trickling hot down his cheekbone. He staggered and fell, vision swimming, as the medbay doors hissed open.  Neji stood framed in the doorway, sidearm drawn. “Uzumaki, step back.”  “Stop—!” Sasuke choked, but Naruto was already moving.  The scent of another alpha—rival, threat, interloper—ignited Naruto’s instincts. Neji stepped forward, calculated and cold, but Naruto lunged before he could speak. Sasuke saw it—the way Neji’s gaze darted to his injuries mid-evasion, the split-second delay as Naruto’s claws shredded Neji’s sleeve. Dark blood bloomed, but Neji didn’t stagger, slamming Naruto against the wall with a grunt. “Stand. Down.”“No—!” Sasuke lurched toward them, ribs screaming. Naruto’s elbow cracked against his chest, and he crumpled, iron-rich blood coating his tongue. Neji’s voice sharpened—too sharp, almost strained, sidearm clicked, barrel leveled at Naruto’s skull.  “Uzumaki, enough—!” Sasuke dragged himself upright, one arm pressed to his ribs. “Neji—he doesn’t know what he’s—”  “He’s feral. He’s going to kill you by accident.” Neji’s finger tightened on the trigger.  “You’ll have to shoot through me.” Sasuke staggered between them, back to Neji’s gun, hands raised to Naruto’s heaving chest. Blood dripped from his split lip onto Naruto’s clawed fingers.  Naruto froze, pupils flickering blue-violet-blue. His breath hitched—“S’uke…?”—as if surfacing from a nightmare.  “I’m here,” Sasuke whispered. He pressed his forehead to Naruto’s, ignoring Neji’s weapon humming inches from his spine. “Breathe. Breathe.”  Naruto’s claws retracted, trembling. His hands found Sasuke’s face, smearing blood like war paint. “Hurt… you,” he rasped, voice breaking.  “I know.” Sasuke’s knees buckled, pain radiating through his ribs. Naruto caught him, grip gentling, as Neji’s gun lowered with a hissed curse.  “Give him the drugs,” Neji growled. “Now.”  Sasuke didn’t argue. Naruto’s pulse thrummed against his palm—alive, alive—as he pressed the hypospray to Naruto’s neck.  “Sleep,” he murmured.  Naruto’s body sagged against him, violet fading to blue. When Naruto finally slumped under the hypospray’s dose, Neji holstered his weapon and gripped Sasuke’s arm—too roughly, but his fingers lingered half a second too long on Sasuke’s pulse point. “Med-droid. Now,” he ordered, dragging Sasuke toward the biobed. His tone iced over, clinical. “Cracked ribs, concussion, lacerations. All preventable. This was a ridiculous idea, reckless endangerment of—”  Sasuke winced as Neji jabbed a stim injector into his arm. “Just say you were worried.” Neji froze. For a heartbeat, his mask fractured—gaze snagging on the blood clumping Sasuke’s hair, lips thinning—before he turned sharply. “Worry implies I have time to spare for your theatrics.” He tossed a med-patch onto the biobed with deliberate indifference, but not before recalibrating the lumbar support settings. The biobed’s sensors hummed to life, gentle warmth radiating through Sasuke’s battered ribs.  “If you die playing a martyr I’ll revive you just to court-martial you.” Sasuke huffed a laugh, then hissed as pain lanced through his side. At the door, Neji paused. Not fully turning—just a fractional tilt of his head, the lights carving shadows into his profile. Their eyes met. And for a second Sasuke saw a crack in impenetrable armour.  Cold seeped through the medbay partition into Sasuke's shoulder blades as he slumped against the wall. His left hand lay palm-up on the frigid floor, fingertips nearly brushing the reinforced plexiglass separating him from Naruto's biobed. Through the blurred transparency, he watched Naruto's slack fingers curl toward the barrier in sleep - a mirror of his own unconscious reach.The absence between his collarbones itched. Sasuke pressed the heel of his hand against the unmarked skin where their bondmark once pulsed, trying to conjure the phantom heat of Naruto's presence through the wall. Only sterile air answered. He didn't remember closing his eyes. "Easy, Uchiha." Temari's calloused palm covered his mouth before he could speak, her other hand gripping his wrist to still the reflexive reach for a weapon. "They just got him under."Sasuke blinked crusted blood from his lashes. Beyond the partition, Tenten moved soundlessly between monitors - hair braided tight enough to pull her eyelids taut, fingers adjusting Naruto's IV with the accuracy of someone who'd dismantled warp cores blindfolded. The faintest trace of cherry blossoms cut through the antiseptic stink, making his molars ache."He shouldn't—" Sasuke rasped against Temari's palm."—Wake alone. Hence the babysitter." Temari jerked her chin toward Tenten. "She’s got a much better bedside manner than you anyway."Sasuke’s nostrils flared as Tenten leaned over Naruto’s biobed, her collar dipping to expose unmarked skin. Would he find her pheromones soothing? The thought scythed through his synapses unbidden. Her omega calm perhaps gentling what his alpha presence provoked in this raw state? His gut twisted as he imagined Naruto’s clawed hand relaxing in hers, violet pupils softening under her cherry-sweet scent – a balm his own jagged edges couldn’t provide.Temari hauled him upright by the elbow. "Come on, walk it off. Astrometrics."He planted his boots. "If he stirs—""—She'll ping you. Move."The corridor lights stabbed Sasuke's sleep-starved retinas. He catalogued the damage as they walked - three cracked ribs (healing), split lip (scabbed), left temple bruise (throbbing). All negligible. All proof he'd weathered Naruto's storm.Shikamaru's yawn greeted them before the astrometrics doors finished cycling open. "Took you long enough." The strategist shoved a steaming mug into Sasuke's hands - black, no sweetener. "Drink. Before Kankurō starts drawing more genitalia on the star maps.""Have to amuse myself somehow," Kankurō drawled from the holo-table, his fingers danced across the projection, sharpening the asteroid field's jagged edges. "Otherwise I’d have slipped into a coma from all of this scintillating conversation."The pad creaked in Neji’s grip. “The Thetis is too large for precise sweeps,” he said after a weighted pause, “but a single shuttle could navigate the field. A manual search may be necessary.” His gaze flickered to the medbay schematics glowing faintly on his screen. “If he’s injured, Ino and I should—”  "Captain." Sasuke leaned forward until their breath fogged the same patch of starmap. "I'll be on that shuttle whether you're there or not."The temperature dropped. Shikamaru's coffee cup froze mid-sip, steam curling like a question mark in the sudden silence.Neji's lavender iris snapped to Sasuke's face. "What did you just say to me?"Sasuke couldn't name the impulse driving him – fatigue sharpening his tongue, recklessness left by the nanite pool's resurrection, or the phantom ache where his bondmark once pulsed. Death changed a man's calculus."Cat got your tongue?" Neji leaned forward, elbows braced on the console. A faint smirk coiled at the corner of his mouth, as if privately flattered by the insubordination.Sasuke threw caution to the stellar winds. "I'll break both your legs if I have to, sir."Neji's laugh was low and sharp. "And I'll enjoy watching you try." He tapped his commbadge, never breaking eye contact. "From the brig.""Enough!" Temari's gauntlet slammed the console, killing the hologram. "You'll both retrieve him." She jabbed a finger at the shuttle bay schematics. "If you can share a cockpit without murdering each other for three hours, it'll spare the crew your relentless bullshit."Neji turned with algid intent, lips parting for a retort that died beneath Temari's withering glare. "Don't pretend," she cut through his unspoken protest like monofilament wire, "you wouldn't burn sectors to cinders if Hanabi's life hung in that field."Something fractured in Neji's marble composure - a tic beneath his bandaged eye, fingers curling against polished nails. Sasuke watched, transfixed, as the captain examined his own manicured cuticles like they held encrypted battle plans. When his lavender eye finally lifted, it carried new weight."Fine." The word emerged clipped and bloodless. "Lieutenant - shuttlebay in two hours." His gaze sharpened on Sasuke. "Lateness forfeits your seat." The door vanished his retreating form with a crisp ‘scchp’.Kankurō's whistle sliced the tension. "He'll have you polishing filters for a decade after that sister jab.""Siblings?" Sasuke's brow furrowed. The concept clashed with his image of Neji as some carved monument to military austerity - a being forged without childhood squabbles or shared toys. "He... shares DNA with actual humans?""Two sisters." Temari scrubbed Kankurō's obscene constellation doodles from the display. "Decent ones, surprisingly. Hanabi once broke his nose during sparring drills." A rare grin flickered. "Best day of my service."Sasuke stared at the vacant doorway where military perfection had vanished. Somewhere beneath starched uniforms and protocols, Hyūgas apparently bled like mortals. The revelation settled like unstable ordnance in his gut as shuttle prep sequences blinked accusingly on abandoned consoles.  The shuttle’s engines hummed at a frequency that made Sasuke’s molars ache. He input another set of coordinates, the hologrid painting CX-23’s jagged silhouette across his retinas. Neji’s hands moved over the pilot console with no wasted motion, no flare. Competence distilled to its barest essence.  Naruto would’ve barrel-rolled through that debris field just to prove he could, Sasuke thought, watching Neji thread the shuttle between two colliding asteroids. Showboat.  “You look like hell.” Neji didn’t glance up from his readouts.  Sasuke snorted. “Feel like it.”  “Will that make you more reasonable?”  “Doubt it.” He stabbed the final equation into the grid. Radiation signatures bloomed crimson across the projection.  Neji turned. The motion brought them nose-to-nose, the shuttle’s cramped cockpit shrinking further. Sasuke froze – suddenly aware of the scent clinging to Neji’s uniform. Not alpha musk, but something clean and arctic. Frost on durasteel.  Memory ambushed him:  
  Neji’s fingers in his hair, gentle as a lover’s. Salt on his lips from Sasuke’s tears. A kiss that wasn’t cruel, wasn’t kind – just inevitable.  
 Heat crawled up Sasuke’s neck. He jerked back, shoulder slamming into the bulkhead.   “Don’t act rashly with Uzumaki,” Neji said, as if their proximity hadn’t shifted tectonic plates between them.  “He’s hurting.”  “So you’ll chain yourself to a sinking ship?”  Sasuke’s glared at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”  “Have you consulted Ino? About his… condition?”  “Need-to-know basis.” The words tasted bitter. Ino’s report burned behind his eyes – psychotic episodes, temporal lobe degradation, bond withdrawal. “He slips. In and out.”  Neji’s sigh fogged the viewport. “It’s called bondmate psychosis. Documented in pairs where one is…” He paused, lavender iris flicking to Sasuke’s throat. “...violently severed.”  Another memory detonated:  
  Kabuto’s lab. The laser cutter’s kiss. Naruto’s scream resonating through the bondmark’s death throes – a feedback loop of agony. Clawing at his own neck as Sasuke’s carotid ruptured.  
 Sasuke’s hand rose to his unmarked throat. Neji tracked the motion, expression softening in a way that felt more dangerous than any weapon.  “Whatever you choose,” Neji murmured, “choose for yourself. Not guilt. Not ghosts.”  Sasuke startled. The shuttle’s ambient lights caught the silver threading Neji’s hair – a detail he’d never noticed. “Since when do you care about my choices?”  “I’m a patient man.”  “Patient?” Sasuke’s laugh scraped raw. “You?”  Neji’s half-smile was as handsome as it was lethal. “Surprisingly.”  Heat pooled low in Sasuke’s gut, memories overlapping – Neji’s mouth demanding yet careful. His ears burned.  “But why?” Sasuke breathed before he could stop himself.  Neji turned fully now, the shuttle’s controls forgotten. His thumb brushed Sasuke’s split lip – not healing it, just feeling the scar. “Wouldn’t you?”   The proximity alarm screeched.   Both men jerked toward the scanners. The hologrid flashed urgent gold, highlighting a thermal signature deep within CX-23’s shadow – too regular for natural formations.  “There.” Sasuke leaned across Neji to zoom, their cheeks brushing. Frost-durasteel and bergamot. “Scorch patterns match Itachi’s last known shuttle.”  Neji’s hand settled on his lower back to steady them both as turbulence rocked the cabin. A captain’s touch. A lover’s claim. “Prep the tractor beam. I’ll take us in.”  As Sasuke moved to obey, Neji’s voice halted him: “And Uchiha? Your brother’s survived worse.”  The unspoken we all have lingered as the shuttle dove into the asteroid’s maw, jagged rock teeth gleaming in the thrusters’ glow. 
  
  
 The shuttle’s floodlights carved stark shadows across the asteroid’s pockmarked surface. Itachi’s ship crouched in a crater like a wounded beast – hull scorched by plasma fire, sensor arrays sheared off. Neji’s gloved hand hovered over the thermal scan.  “Life support’s dead,” he said, voice crackling through Sasuke’s comms. “Radiation’s scrambling biosigns. Could be a corpse. Could be nothing.”  Sasuke’s rebreather hissed. “We’re boarding.”  Neji didn’t argue. They tethered to the derelict shuttle’s airlock, the polymer cord whipping taut in the void. Sasuke’s magboots clanged against the hull, vibrations thrumming up his shins. He traced the carbon-scored blast marks – fresh, deliberate. Kabuto’s calling card.  The manual override panel sparked under his prybar. “Sealed from the inside.”  Neji unsheathed a plasma torch. “Stand clear.”  Molten metal bloomed in the darkness, droplets freezing instantly into silver pearls that drifted toward Saturn’s rings. The hatch groaned open, exhaling six weeks of stagnant air – or lack thereof. Sasuke’s suit sensors screamed warnings as they breached the corpse-dark interior.  No gravity. No heat. Just the faint blue shimmer of emergency battery lights outlining Itachi’s silhouette slumped over the nav console.  “Aniki.” The word left Sasuke’s lips before he could choke it back. He launched forward, hand smearing frost from Itachi’s visor. The face beneath was skeletal – lips cracked, eyelids bruised from hypoxia. But the faintest fog ghosted the glass.   Alive.   Neji anchored them both, deploying the rescue sling with clinical efficiency. “Pulse 40. Severe dehydration. Get the IV pack.”  Sasuke fumbled the kit, fingers numb through his gloves. Itachi’s suit sensors blinked dire crimson: 2% oxygen reserves, core temp 32°C. The body warmer adhered to his chest with a hiss, its amber glow spreading like liquid sunlight through the thermal blanket.  “Thetis,” Neji barked into his comm, “medical team to bay three. Cryo-foam IVs, cardiac stims, prep nanite dialysis.” A pause. “Negative – patient’s been MIA for six weeks. Prep accordingly.”  The shuttle juddered as Neji fired thrusters. Sasuke clutched his brother’s hand, the skeletal fingers cold even through layered composites. Itachi’s collar readouts flickered – UCHIHA, I. – the characters eroded by acid burns.   Memory ambushed him:  
  Sixteen-year-old Itachi sprawled in Ceres Green’s copper-tinged twilight, Sasuke’s smaller hand clutched in his. Above them, a transport ship clawed through the stratosphere – violet afterburners painting the sky as it docked with the King Minos.  

  “Not just pilot,” Itachi had shouted over the engine roar, his profile gilded by the burn. “Command.”  

  Eight-year-old Sasuke had watched the ship vanish into orbit, his brother’s certainty as unshakable as Ceres’ red soil. Someday, Itachi promised, squeezing his hand. You’ll see. 
 Now Sasuke peeled a nutrient patch from his own thigh kit, adhering it to Itachi’s neck. The monitor spiked – 41 BPM. A emotion clawed up his throat, trapped by the rebreather.  Neji’s hand gripped his shoulder.The medbay team swarmed the moment they docked. Sasuke grimaced, helmet clattering to the deck as they stripped Itachi’s suit. The stench hit him – necrotic flesh mingling with stale urea. Three ribs protruded grotesquely beneath papery skin.  Ino’s team worked in silence, their faces grim.Sasuke stood outside at the observation port, fingers digging into the palms of his hands just shy of drawing blood. “What’s the point?” The words shredded his throat. “Pulling them back just to watch them shatter?”  Neji said nothing. Engine grease swirled down the scrub sink’s drain as he scoured his hands with metronomic movements.  “I should’ve found him sooner.” Sasuke’s voice curdled, eyes darting to Naruto’s still form in the adjacent ward—vitals steady, psyche a time bomb. “If I hadn’t… If he hadn’t—” The mining complex memory detonated: Naruto’s scream as the bondmark imploded, Kabuto’s laughter, Tenten’s name that needled between his ribs. Whole, if he’d let go. Safe, with her.  Sasuke turned, fingers denting his helmet’s alloy rim. The alien station’s memory surged—gelid nanites crawling up his nostrils, Naruto’s claws raking his own throat in mirrored agony. His voice cracked. “For how long? Like this?”  Neji’s lavender eye narrowed as he recalibrated his suit’s oxygen mix. The faint click-click of settings adjusting punctuated the silence. When he looked up, his gaze carried the weight of unspoken protocols.  “Decide.” A command, not counsel. “Anchor yourself to the living, or drown with the ghosts.”  Sasuke’s knuckles whitened around the helmet. “You think it’s that simple?”  “No.” Neji sealed his visor with a hydraulic hiss. “But you’ve burned too many lifelines to linger in maybes.” Neji stared at his own reflection in the helmet’s curved polymer. When he spoke again, his tone carried a fracture Sasuke had never heard. “Your brother sent that distress ping because he knew. Knew you’d scorch the Belt to cinders. Knew you’d claw through every lie, every asteroid—” A pause, brittle as lunar ice. “—even when I barred your way. He gambled on your obsession.”  “And still we failed—” Sasuke jabbed a trembling finger toward the glass, where Itachi’s body lay beneath monitors. Neji’s spine stiffened. “When I sold you out to Kabuto on Europa under Danzo’s orders, I calculated the variables. Knew Uzumaki was tough.” His gauntlet gestured toward Itachi’s ravaged form. “Ceres Green apparently breeds fools who cling to life like fissile mold. Your brother. You. Even that orange-clad idiot.”  Sasuke’s laugh was edged in bitterness. “How comforting, your faith. Truly, it warmed me as Kabuto vivisected my nervous system. ‘They’ll endure,’ you thought? How very Hyūga of you.” Neji’s gaze dropped to his helmet. For the first time, something fractured in his marble composure—a muscle jumping in his jaw, the faintest rasp in his voice. “I don’t expect forgiveness.” Down the corridor, Kankurō’s raucous laughter erupted as he and Lee debated weapon mods, the sound jarring against the medbay’s grim tension. “But know this—I didn’t relish leaving you there.”  “You sabotaged their EMP tower,” Sasuke accused, stepping closer.  Neji tapped his visor, a deliberate stalling tactic. “Perhaps.”  “Well? Which is it?”  “Following orders doesn’t require relish.” Neji leaned against the bulkhead, the movement too casual to be genuine. “Only compliance.”  He turned the helmet over in his hands, the motion deliberate, as if weighing its emptiness. “People think command is easy. Bark orders. Demand results.” A bitter edge crept into his voice. “They don’t see the weight of the decisions . Sacrifice three to save thirty. Let a squad burn to preserve the mission.” His thumb traced the visor’s cracked seal. “Uzumaki… he’s never had to choose.”  Sasuke’s mouth opened—a retort died on his tongue, leaving the metallic tang of shock.  “Recklessness is a luxury.” Neji’s gaze flicked to the medbay, where Itachi’s monitors blipped like a failing heartbeat. “He acts. You act. Consequences?” A dry chuckle. “They land on my reports. My conscience.” The helmet clanged onto a supply crate, its echo ricocheting down the hall. “Morality’s simple when you’re not the one signing death notices.”  The silence stretched, thick with the antiseptic sting of medbay sterilisers. Somewhere down the corridor, a coolant pipe hissed—the same mechanical sigh Sasuke remembered from Kakashi's teahouse on Titan.  Mechanised geisha drones clattered tea trays in the background as Kakashi tapped Neji's holographic psych eval. "Control fixation: extreme." The projection glitched across Yumi's weathered faceplate. "Hyūga's a bureaucrat with a hero complex. Dangle high stakes, he'll salivate to command."  Neji's voice yanked him to the present, sharper than the memory. "Why didn't you stay on Ceres-Green, Lieutenant?"  The question hung writhing between them. Sasuke's thumb moved to under his collar— suddenly eighteen years old again, signing enlistment papers still warm from Naruto's grip. Itachi's shuttle streaking Marsward. When he spoke, the words tasted of reactor dust and adolescent defiance. "Same reason you left Titan's marble halls. To prove the gilded cage wasn't locked."  Neji adjusted his gloves, a calculated motion. "And Uzumaki?"  "Was never part of the equation." The lie singed his throat.  Neji's smile held no mirth. "Funny. He said the same about you during his psych eval." His parents had never rebuked him. Fugaku's silence spoke in curt grunts over breakfasts, while Mikoto's anxiety simmered through increasingly elaborate dinners - teriyaki glazes caramelising on the grill, miso broth clouds blooming with dumplings, her knuckles whitening on serving spoons whenever Naruto joked about asteroid-hopping.  On departure day, she'd crushed them both against her starched apron, smelling of lavender oil and crisp fresh pears. A human shield against the void. Her palm cradled Naruto's sun-bright hair three seconds too long, betraying nothing but the tremor in her fingertips - the only crack in her ceramic smile.  The memory dissolved into another:  
  Ceres-Green’s rice paddies stretched like liquid obsidian under a nebula-streaked sky. Naruto straightened, rubbing the small of his back, sweat gluing his orange tank-top to his spine. “Never thought I’d say it, but…” His gaze swept the flooded fields, fireflies stitching gold through the stalks. “This place is peaceful. No monsters. No commanders screeching about protocols. Just frogs. And rice.” 
 Neji’s cough sliced through the past, dragging him back to the medbay’s sterile now.“I didn’t want to be left behind.” Sasuke said eventually, “I didn’t want to be Itachi’s shadow, his farmer brother, stuck on a provencal agricultural colony.”A pause, Neji’s slim mouth curving slightly, his gaze curious. “Was it worth it? To escape your pastoral roots?”Sasuke’s eyes slid again to the shape of Itachi’s pale hand, the monitor pulsing Naruto’s vitals. “I used to think—” he began and then became unsure of how to finish the sentence. How to articulate a lifetime of shared bunks and synchronized deployments? The cadet years where Naruto’s laughter drowned out drill sergeants, their twin bunks a sanctuary of stolen rations and whispered jokes. Separation had been an abstract threat, like oxygen depletion or hull breaches—terrifying precisely because it felt impossible. “Your motives are probably purer than mine,” Neji said, his voice filling the silence. “I did it to see the sneer on my father’s face.”Sasuke glanced up, startled. Across the medbay, Ino hovered over Itachi’s prone form, her usual sharpness softened as she adjusted his IV—a rare vulnerability in her posture.  “You think purity matters out here?” Sasuke muttered, flexing his hand.  Neji followed his gaze to Naruto’s still form. “No. But delusions do.” He turned with that infuriating aristocratic air—shoulders squared like a warship’s prow, braid behind his back. “Mess hall. Now. Lurk here like a spectre and you’ll fray the medics’ nerves along with your own.”  “But I’m not—”  Neji’s glare severed the protest mid-air, sharper than any blade. “Wasn’t your quip about my... enthusiasm for command?”  Sasuke studied him—the military starch in his posture, the loose strand of hair defying its plait. Camaraderie? Mockery? Neji’s tells were encrypted better than Blackwatch intel. His gaze snagged on the alpha’s broad shoulders straining against his undershirt seam, the sweat-damp hollow of his throat.  One final look at Itachi’s monitors, Naruto’s steady respiration. Then—against every instinct—he fell into step behind Neji, their shadows merging briefly in the corridor’s flickering lumen-strips.   Sasuke stood shirtless before his quarters’ mirror, fingertips pressed to unmarked skin.  Press harder.   Nothing. No residual heat, no phantom pulse. Just smooth flesh where the mark had once scarred over his clavicle. He’d traced it a thousand times in the dark—Naruto’s anchor during missions, his tether when the nightmares came. Now, only cold.  The nightmare clung like nanite residue:  
  Water choked his scream as he kicked deeper, bondmark’s pull guiding him through the pool’s gelid dark. The pod loomed—tendrils coiling around Naruto’s throat, wrists, ankles. A translucent tube snaked into his mouth, pumping viscous black fluid. Eyes open. Pupils blown. Irises bleeding violet.  
 
  Alive.  
 
  Plasma cutter flared cobalt, severing a wrist-thick tendril. The pod shrieked. Regenerated instantly—thorns sprouting, lashing his forearm. Nanites swarmed the wound, boiling, retreating. Skin pristine.  

  “Sasuke—status!” Neji’s voice crackled through waterlogged comms.  

  Pressure crushed his ribs. Nanites invaded—nostrils, ears, tear ducts. Vision fractured: Kabuto’s lab, Naruto screaming; Mikoto’s greenhouse, roses rotting mid-bloom; artifact’s violet light.  
 
  CONFLUENCE.  
 
  YOU WILL BE PERFECTED.  
 Naruto floated beside him, tendrils caressing his face. Serene. Compliant.   Sasuke gagged, bracing against the sink. His reflection wavered—pale, hollow-eyed, the ghost of Naruto’s teeth still burning where no mark remained.   
  What do you want?  
 Memory ambushed him, sweet as venom:  
  Ceres-Green’s hayloft at dawn. Naruto’s laughter vibrating against his clavicle as calloused fingers skimmed the bondmark. “S’perfect,” he’d mumbled against sweat-damp skin. “Like it’s mine.”  

  Safety. Anchor. Home. 
 Sasuke dressed mechanically. The ship’s night-cycle hummed as he overrode the medlab lock.  Ino’s voice cut through the antiseptic gloom. “Looking for something lethal or just self-destructive?”  He didn’t turn. “Where is he?”  “Quarters. Antipsychotics adjusted.” She leaned against the pharma cabinet, arms folded. “Still unstable. Kept demanding we check the pool for your corpse.”  Sasuke’s hand froze over vials.  “Bite adjuvant,” he said finally.  Ino snorted. “Rebonding psychotics get neural suppressants. Unless—” Her gaze sharpened. “Alpha pair?”  The hypospray hissed as she mixed compounds—cobalt and silver swirling into toxicity. “Standard protocol’s contraindicated for dual presentations. Biology too volatile.” She slapped the injector into his palm. A-Ω-X7 glinted crimson.  Sasuke’s thumb traced the label. Mating bite adjunct. He’d memorised the risks once, drunk on Naruto’s scent after a near-miss mission.  “Why this?”  “Spikes adrenal response.” Ino’s smile lacked warmth. “Makes Alphas… receptive. Even hybrid ones.”  The metal warmed in his grip.  “And if the recipient’s unstable? Psychotic?”  “Then pray.” She began sterilising bone-saws, tone casual. Brutal. “His hallucinations still have you drowning.”  Sasuke’s fist clenched. The injector’s edge bit his palm.  “He’ll fight it.”  “He’ll fight you.” Ino didn’t look up. “Bond or no bond, that boy’s instincts are knives right now. This—” She nodded at the injector. “—is just the spark. You’ll be the tinder.”  The injector weighed heavier.  
  Naruto’s teeth at his clavicle. Hay prickling bare skin. Dawn light gilding their laughter.  
Sasuke pocketed it. “Is he lucid?”  “More than yesterday.” She began sterilizing instruments, voice casual. Brutal. “He kept reliving your death. Screaming for someone to check the pool.”   The hall to Naruto’s quarters stretched endless. Sasuke counted his steps to drown out the memory.   Twenty-seven. Twenty-eight.   He palmed the door code. It beeped red.   Twenty-nine.   Naruto had changed it. Of course he had.  Sasuke overrode the lock.  The air in Naruto’s quarters hung thick with the acrid tang of sweat and the ozone crackle of unsaid things. Sasuke stood just inside the doorway, the hypospray cold in his palm, as Naruto glared up at him from the floor. Maps of dead missions glowed around him like ghostly sentinels, casting his face in fractured blue light.  “Get out,” Naruto growled, but his hands trembled where they gripped his knees.  Sasuke didn’t move. He thumbed the hypospray’s activation switch, the soft hiss cutting through the silence. Naruto’s nostrils flared—he could already smell the drug, sharp and metallic.  “What are you doing?” Naruto warned, canines glinting as his lips peeled back. “I’m not—hngh—I’m not your fucking experiment.”  “You’re going mad.” Sasuke stepped closer, boots scuffing the grated floor. “You’re losing your grip on reality, Ino said—”  “Ino doesn’t know shit!” Naruto surged to his feet, tactical maps scattering. His pupils were blown wide, violet energy flickering at his fingertips. “You think a bite fixes this? After everything?”  Sasuke caught his wrist, pressing the hypospray to his own neck before Naruto could react. The injector hissed.  “What the fuck are you—?!”  “Alpha pairs need higher stimulus.” Sasuke’s voice stayed low, deliberate. The drug hit his bloodstream like liquid fire, scorching through veins. His scent shifted—pear, mint and amber, amped to a frequency that made Naruto’s knees buckle. “You know what this does.”  Naruto recoiled, back hitting the wall. “Stop it. Stop—!”  Sasuke followed, crowding him. “Bite me.”  “No.”  “You want to.”  “I want to rip your throat out.”  “Then do so.”  Naruto’s fist lashed out. Sasuke caught it, slamming it back against the wall. The impact shuddered through them both.  “Coward,” Sasuke whispered.  Naruto snarled, surging forward. Their mouths crashed together—a clash of teeth and fury. Sasuke let him take, let him bite his lip bloody, before gentling the kiss. A hand slid up Naruto’s neck, thumb pressing the frantic pulse beneath his jaw.  “It’s alright,” Sasuke murmured against his mouth. “I’m here. I’m real.”  Naruto shuddered, the fight leaching out of him. “Why… why are you doing this?”  “Because you’re mine.”  The words unraveled something. Naruto’s breath hitched, forehead dropping to Sasuke’s shoulder. “Can’t… can’t trust myself. What if I—?”  Sasuke carded fingers through his hair. “You won’t.”  “You don’t know that.”  “I do.”  Slowly, deliberately, Sasuke peeled off his shirt. His skin gleamed pale over his collarbone—a indent where the bondmark had been. Naruto’s gaze locked on it, hunger and revulsion warring in his face.  “Touch me,” Sasuke said.  “Sasuke—”  “Touch me.”  A trembling hand hovered over where the mark had been. Sasuke caught it, pressed it flat to his skin. Naruto’s breath stuttered.  “Feel that?” Sasuke guided his palm lower, over the hammer of his heart. “Yours. Always yours.”  Naruto’s resolve seemed to waver. His mouth found Sasuke’s throat—not a bite, but a tremor of lips against racing pulse.  “There you go,” Sasuke coaxed. He unclipped the armour weave Naruto had obviously refused to take off, letting it clatter to the floor. “Let me feel you.”  Skin met skin. Naruto’s canines grazed his shoulder, a warning prick.  “Please,” Sasuke breathed.  Naruto recoiled. “No Sasuke—!”  Sasuke kissed him again, deep and slow. He slid Naruto’s fingers into his mouth, one by one, pressing down on his tongue.“You can. I’m giving you everything.”  The drug sang between them. Sasuke’s scent thickened, primal—the drug seemed to enhance everything about him, every sense, every thought. Naruto groaned, hips jerking forward involuntarily.  “That’s it,” Sasuke murmured. He backed toward the cot, pulling Naruto with him. “Take what you need.”  They sank to the mattress. Sasuke lay back, neck bared in deliberate submission. The old scar seemed to pulse, a phantom ache calling to Naruto’s teeth.  “Bite me.”  “Stop saying that—”  “Bite. Me.”  He took Naruto’s hand and ran his fingers slowly over the site of the now erased bond mark, he arched into the touch. Eyes fluttering closed, mouth slightly open, lips flushed and slightly wet. An invitation.Naruto’s voice was husky and frayed as his fingers dug into the hardness of Sasuke’s collarbone. “S’uke, you’re killing me.”Sasuke, opened his eyes, staring into the endless cornflower blue depths before him. Naruto’s chest heaved like a cornered animal. The drug’s pheromones thickened the air—sharpened mint, pear and amber—but Naruto’s eyes remained wild, resisting the pull. “You want this,” Sasuke pressed, his fingers carding through Naruto’s hair. “I can smell it on you.”Naruto bared his teeth, canines gleaming under the ship’s sterile lights. “What I want doesn’t matter. Not when you’re—hngh—not when you’re drugged—” “This isn’t the drug.” Sasuke caught his wrist, guiding Naruto’s trembling hand to his own racing pulse. “This is us. Always has been.” For a heartbeat, Naruto’s fingers curled against his throat—warm, possessive—before wrenching away. “Don’t. Don’t Sasuke, please, please.”Sasuke leaned over, fingers digging mercilessly into Naruto’s shoulders. “Stop pretending you’re noble. You’ve always taken what you needed from me.”A flinch. Naruto’s gaze dropped to the place of the old mark on Sasuke’s collarbone, the skin there pricking with phantom heat. “That was different.” “How?”  “Because I—” Naruto’s voice cracked. “Because I had no control that time. But it’s not like that now, you don’t want to bonded to me in this state—” Sasuke seized his face, forcing their eyes to meet. “You think I don’t know what I’m asking? You think I’d let anyone else see me like this? Begging?” The word hung between them, raw and unfamiliar. Sasuke never begged.Naruto’s resolve wavered. His thumb brushed Sasuke’s lower lip, a ghost of the boy who’d once traced his smiles in the dark. “You hated me for it last time. You fought me every step of the way, you wanted time, you needed space. I can’t—I don’t know if I have the strength to do that again.” Sasuke felt a pull of his own vulnerability, the prickle of anticipation as the words fought their way out of him. “I have wanted, needed and ached for you since Ceres Green. You think there was an hour when I didn’t think of you? When the bond shut off and I was alone in the dark I thought I was going to lose my mind. I don’t want to be alone in the dark anymore.”A shuddering breath. Naruto’s claws pricked Sasuke’s hips, drawing blood in crescent moons. “Well I guess it only took a death experience to hear you admit to that.”A slight smile wound its way up the corner of Sasuke’s mouth. “Yeah, so make the most of it now. Make me yours.”He could see the moment in Naruto’s eyes when his resolve snapped, the way he lowered his head to Sasuke’s neck, teeth grazing lightly over the junction of his shoulder. “Mine.” The words came out less like syllables, a rumbling, feral groan.A smirk cracked Sasuke’s composure. He moved back, legs swinging off the bed as he stood up. “Is that so?”  Naruto’s pupils dilated, canines elongating under the drug’s influence. “Don’t—hngh—don’t play games.” “Or what?” Sasuke taunted, sidestepping as Naruto lunged. His shoulder slammed the bulkhead, pain sparking like static. “You’ll chase me?”  A growl rumbled deep in Naruto’s chest—predatory, wild. His movements sharpened, joints cracking as he crouched low. The drug’s pheromones thickened, pepper and pear clashing with the burnt-metal stench of his aggression.Sasuke darted left. Naruto’s claws shredded the sleeve of his undershirt, grazing skin. Blood welled, metallic and sweet.  “Too slow,” Sasuke hissed, exhilaration threading his veins. He feigned right, then twisted toward the empty weapon rack. Naruto’s snarl vibrated through the floor grates as he pivoted, cornering him against the coolant pipes. Their chests heaved in sync. Sasuke’s grin was all teeth. “Is that it?”Naruto’s restraint snapped.  He surged, pinning Sasuke’s wrists above his head. The impact rattled the pipes, frost scattering like diamond dust. Sasuke bucked, knee glancing off Naruto’s ribs—a mock resistance that earned him a warning bite to the jugular.  “You’re mine,” Naruto rasped, saliva slicking Sasuke’s throat.  “Then take.”  The struggle turned frenetic—Sasuke’s nails scoring red welts down Naruto’s back, Naruto’s claws shredding fabric to reach skin. They crashed to the floor, limbs tangled, breath ragged. Sasuke’s body stilled—a sudden, deliberate stillness that cut through the chaos. His spine curved, throat exposed in a pale, unguarded arc, the pulse beneath his skin flickering like a trapped moth. Naruto’s breath hitched above him, uneven and hot against his throat. Sasuke didn’t blink. Let him see it: the deliberate slackening of muscle.His lips parted, not in defiance, but in silent invitation, the words “Bite me” escaping as a breathless command, stripped of armor. Every line of him—the trembling lashes, the slackened jaw, the fingers uncurling from fists—spoke surrender. Not defeat, but offering.Naruto’s pupils swallowed every shred of blue, black bleeding outward until his eyes were voids—beautiful, Sasuke thought, distantly, as fangs grazed his Adam’s apple. He let his knee drop open. Let his hips go pliant. Watched Naruto’s throat convulse like the man was the one being devoured. His fangs struck deep—canines piercing tissue, venomous heat flooding Sasuke’s bloodstream. Pain came first—white-hot, perfect—as teeth split skin. Then the burn of venom, molten and sweet, searing through veins until his ribs felt like glass. Sasuke arched, not to escape, but to deepen it.Euphoria detonated, bondmark searing back into existence in violent violet spirals. Sasuke’s back bowed, a choked gasp escaping as the connection reignited—synapses blazing, cells singing in recognition.  “Yes,” he gasped. “God—yes, like that—”  Naruto’s growl vibrated against his throat, low and desperate, hands trembling where they pinned Sasuke’s wrists. You see? He wanted to taunt, but all that escaped was a broken noise—half laugh, half sob—as Naruto’s claws drew blood neither of them would regret. Naruto withdrew, lips glistening crimson. His eyes were fully black now, primal hunger eroding reason. Sasuke stared up at the wild thing he’d unmasked. No sunlight in those eyes now. Just hunger, vast and yawning.“S’uke—"  “I know.” Sasuke kissed him, tasting his own blood in Naruto’s mouth, a sensation which drove him mad with want. “I feel it too.” Sasuke’s hands shook as he ripped Naruto’s shirt free, the fabric tearing like tissue under the drug’s adrenal surge. Their bondmark burned—a twin helix now throbbing in sync across both their chests—as Naruto’s claws raked down his back, leaving welts that bloomed into heat. “Inside,” Sasuke demanded, clawing at Naruto’s belt. “Now.”  Armourweave tore. Naruto’s cock slid against his thigh, scorching hot. Sasuke hooked a leg around his waist, angling hips upward. No preparation—just the brutal stretch of penetration, pain melting into blinding rapture as Naruto sheathed himself. “Fuck—!” Sasuke’s curse dissolved into a moan. The bondmark pulsed with each thrust, their shared rhythm fracturing into chaos. Naruto’s teeth found his shoulder, blood-slicked kisses smearing across his jaw.  Naruto’s hips pistoned, each thrust a violent claim that rattled Sasuke’s teeth. The floor grated his spine raw, pain sparking like burning electricity under his skin. Sasuke welcomed it—arched into it—digging his heels into the small of Naruto’s back to drag him deeper.  “Harder,” he snarled, bloodied nails carving crescents into Naruto’s shoulders. “Or are you still holding back?”  A growl ripped from Naruto’s throat. He seized Sasuke’s hips, blunt fingers bruising bone as he yanked him onto his cock. Sasuke’s head snapped back, a fractured moan escaping—every brutal snap of Naruto’s pelvis lit the bondmark brighter, violet tendrils crawling up his ribs like living chains.  Naruto’s teeth found his collarbone, worrying the fresh mark. “Mine,” he slurred against sweat-slick skin, canines pricking until blood welled. “All fucking mine—”  “Stop talking,” Sasuke gasped, clawing at his scalp. “And show me.” The command shattered Naruto’s tenuous control. His rhythm fractured—erratic, punishing—knot swelling obscenely with each drive inward. Sasuke’s thighs trembled, stretched taut around Naruto’s waist, every nerve alight with the drug’s electric burn.  “Gonna—hngh—breed you—” Naruto’s voice was animalistic, words slurred by fangs. His claws raked Sasuke’s chest, reopening half-healed scars. “Fill you ’til it takes—”  Sasuke laughed—a breathless, broken sound—as Naruto’s knot caught his rim. “Try,” he taunted, back bowing off the floor. “Make me feel it—”  Naruto roared. The final thrust buried his knot fully, venom-hot release flooding Sasuke. Ecstasy detonated—bondmark blazing white as synapses fused. Sasuke’s climax tore through him like a solar flare, vision whiting out as Naruto’s teeth locked on his jugular, anchoring them together.  Blood pooled beneath them, metallic and sweet. Naruto’s growls vibrated through Sasuke’s bones, hips jerking erratically as he pumped every last drop into him. Sasuke clawed at his back, mind fracturing—pain and pleasure indistinguishable, necessary, as Naruto’s essence burned through his veins. When the spasms eased, Naruto collapsed atop him, knot still lodged deep. His breath came in ragged bursts, lips still pressed to Sasuke’s bleeding throat.  “...mine,” he mumbled, possessive even in exhaustion. 
  Alive. Connected. His. 
This was unusual Sasuke thought as he drifted back into his own head, some clinical part of him noted. Alphas didn’t usually knot other Alphas, it did happen but it wasn’t the norm. Sasuke’s fingers tangled in his sweat-damp hair. “Yes,” he agreed hoarsely, tracing the bondmark’s fresh ridges. The words tasted like surrender. Like victory. Naruto mouth traced his clavicle—his mark, his claim—as Sasuke nuzzled his collar bone, smelling the comforting pheromones emanating from Naruto’s body.  “...love you.”  The words slipped out, quiet, a little more than a murmur.  Naruto stilled.  Sasuke froze, eyes snapping open. Idiot. The words had left his mouth before he could fully process them. Blue eyes lifted, primal black receding to reveal the man beneath. Naruto cupped his face, calloused thumb brushing his cheekbone. Studying him like a star chart, memorising every fracture.  “You’re home to me,” Naruto rasped. “It’s always been you.”  The admission hung between them—greater than love, deeper than want. Sasuke’s throat tightened. He kissed him, slow and filthy, pouring every unsaid word into it.  Naruto’s fingers tightened around his. “I’m never losing you again.”   A threat or a vow he wasn’t sure.Sasuke’s lips curved against his. “You’re all talk.”  The knot had barely softened before Naruto flipped him onto his knees.     The ship’s night-cycle hummed on, its oscillating drone vibrating through the floor grates. Sasuke woke to Naruto moulded against the curve of his spine – so close their boundaries blurred, the alpha’s nose pressed to his neck as if trying to breathe him into permanence. Arms locked around Sasuke’s waist betrayed sleeping desperation, a string drawn tight with even in repose. Pins and needles swarmed his trapped hand. Sasuke shifted minutely, wincing as Naruto’s brows furrowed in immediate response. Moonlight from the viewport caught the rust-brown blood crusting Naruto’s mouth, the coagulated aftermath of their fevered reconnection. Each throb a catechism. Mine. Yours. Ours. The bondmark throbbed in sync with his pulse – a viscous ache pooling where teeth had breached flesh. Euphoria and agony braided like twin serpents beneath his skin. Rebinding had felt inevitable, tidal, that suffocating silence without Naruto more unnatural than vacuum exposure. He inhaled the combined scent of their mixed pheromones, sun scorched hay, pepper, pear and amber, the deep musk of two alphas lying in each other's arms. Sasuke stared at the ceiling, cataloging aches:   
Lower back: Bruised from Naruto’s relentless grip.  
Hips: Finger-shaped contusions blooming plum-dark.  
Throat: Puncture wounds glazed with coagulant.  
Each twinge a scripture written in bite-marks and split knuckles. Naruto nuzzled his nape, sleep-slurred growl reverberating through Sasuke’s spine. “...stay.”  “I’m here,” Sasuke muttered, though Naruto hadn’t truly woken. The drug’s adrenal crash left them both hollowed, synapses misfiring.He shifted again—pins and needles clawing up his arm—and Naruto’s arm locked like a hydraulic press.  “Stay.”  A command this time, edged with panic. Sasuke stilled. Naruto’s heartbeat galloped against his back, frantic as a cornered animal’s.  “Breathe, idiot,” Sasuke snapped, but his hand found Naruto’s forearm—callouses catching on scars older than their enlistment. The contact grounded them both. Naruto’s pulse slowed, lips pressing absently to Sasuke’s bondmark.  Home, it sang between them. Homehomehome. As if escape were possible now—bodies fused, minds tangled, DNA rewritten into quantum entanglement. Sunrise on Ceres-Green had smelled like this once—pear orchards sweating dew, Naruto’s sweat-damp skin as they tangled in the hayloft. Now, the room reeked of sterilization gel and blood. Naruto stirred fully at dawn, grip loosening just enough for Sasuke to twist and face him.   Bad idea.   Cornflower eyes gone murky with residual hunger. A fleck of dried blood still clung to Naruto’s lower lip. Sasuke’s thumb swiped it away before he could stop himself. Naruto caught his wrist. “No.”  “Why not?”  “Because I’ll—” His throat bobbed. “—I’ll believe you’re real.”  Sasuke went very still. “Look at me.” Naruto obeyed. His pupils dilated—black swallowing blue—as his free hand rose to Sasuke’s cheek. A touch so tentative it burned.  “Real,” Naruto whispered, thumb tracing the hollow beneath his eye. “You’re real.”  The raw wonder in his voice carved through Sasuke’s ribs. He kissed him—slow, filthy—letting Naruto taste the truth on his tongue.When they parted, clarity sharpened Naruto’s gaze—fractured sanity bleeding back. “I’ve hurt you.” His palm hovered over Sasuke’s ravaged shoulder. “It must hurt.” Sasuke tilted his head, assessing. The bondmark throbbed—not pain, but an electrical current hum flaring when he rolled his shoulders. Naruto’s brows furrowed over ocean-deep eyes, concern sharpening his scent to burnt hay. The mark pulsed in response, molten heat cascading down Sasuke’s spine.  “Why did you let me hurt you?”  Sasuke stole the question with another kiss. His hands charted Naruto’s terrain—ridged scar tissue, fresh welts—as he dragged him closer. Fingers fisted in sun-bright hair, he pressed Naruto’s mouth to his jugular. Teeth met pulse.  Yes. He arched into the bite, nerve endings screaming hymns. Yesyesyes.  Their bodies slipped into the oldest argument, a debate only settled by shared breath and split skin.   Sasuke dreamed again in Naruto’s arms, he dreamt of drowning.  Nanites filled his lungs, black and viscous. Naruto floated beside him, tendrils caressing his face.  Stay, the pod crooned. Perfect. Eternal.  He woke gasping, bondmark searing. Naruto was already upright, claws out, snarling at shadows. “S’uke?”  “Here.”  They collided mid-reach—Naruto’s mouth desperate on his, hands mapping Sasuke’s ribs as if counting them. The sheets tangled around their waists. No finesse. No grace. Just two predators seeking shelter in each other’s teeth.  After, Naruto pressed their foreheads together. “Don’t leave.”  A plea this time, not a command.  Sasuke said nothing. Let his fingers curl around Naruto’s wrist—pulse rabbiting against his thumb—and held on.  Sasuke’s heels thudded rhythmically against the medbay cot as Ino swept her scanner over him again. Her sea-green eyes narrowed, clinical yet soft, as she tilted his face toward the light. The bite glared back—mottled plum and jet, stark against his pallor.  “Dermal regenerator?” She gestured to the imprint. “This’ll scar without intervention.”  He glanced at the monitor flickering with his vitals, then back to her. “Leave it.”  Ino’s expression flattened into neutrality, stylus tapping her datapad.  “Do they go on the record?” he asked, finally.  She hesitated. Stylus stilled. “Not under regulation 7-C. You’re… functional.” Her gaze snagged on the nanite schematic glowing ominously in his ribcage. “Though functional stretches definitions.” A faint grimace betrayed her distaste. “As your physician, I’m obliged to inform the captain. But Neji’s discretion depends on how generously he interprets ‘crew welfare’ this week.”  Sasuke shut his eyes. Ceres-Green’s rice paddies loomed in his mind—exile’s embrace, heavy with his father’s silent expression and his mother handing him a rake. Ino’s voice gentled. “For what it’s worth? I assumed you two were bonded from the start.”  He slid lower against the wall, the cold metal leaching warmth from his spine. Typical. Even the universe had bet on them before he’d grasped the stakes. His gaze drifted to the observation bay down the corridor. Neji emerged from Itachi’s quarantined chamber—posture rigid, gloved hands flexing as if scrubbing away confessions.  “Will you brief the captain today?” Sasuke kept his tone frost-lake calm.  “Most likely.” Ino flipped through holographic charts, the light painting her frown cerulean. “Mars Station’s three days out. Protocol demands transparency.”  Sasuke nodded. A traitorous flush warmed his ear tips—childish, infuriating.  Ino’s stylus stilled. “You can see your brother now.” Her smile softened the clinical glare of medbay lumens. “Neji’s debriefed him. He’s… persistent. Kept asking for you.”  Sasuke straightened, spine snapping taut. His eyes—dull moments earlier—brightened.   Itachi’s room hummed with the brittle silence of a man who’d counted seconds in the dark for too long. Sasuke sat across from his brother, noting the new gauntness of Itachi’s face—cheekbones sharp enough to draw blood, uniform hanging slack where muscle had wasted. The only flourish left was the Uchiha crest pinned crookedly to his collar, its edges singed.  “Kabuto?” Sasuke asked.  “Gone.” Itachi tapped a star chart, brown eyes flinty. “Detonated his lab, collapsed the station’s core. Typical exit strategy for a rat.”  “How?” Sasuke’s fingers drifted to the nutrient line snaking into Itachi’s wrist, adjusting the drip rate with unconscious precision. Too fast and his heart fails. Too slow and the starvation wins.  Itachi’s eyelids shuttered. “Ambushed us mid-orbit. Kuiper belt’s debris field masked his signature until—” A tremor rippled through his wasted frame.  “Kakashi said you’d been on Titan.” Sasuke leaned forward. “Digging into the vanished ships.”  Itachi’s eyes snapped open. For a heartbeat, their father’s ghost stared out—that same flinty disdain, the razor-slash of a mouth. Sasuke blinked. The illusion fractured, leaving only his brother’s exhaustion. “Mr. Hatake should consider politics,” Itachi rasped, a thread of dark amusement in his smile. “Though Titan’s smuggling rings pay better. Annoying—I’d thought I’d buried my tracks.”  “How long?” Sasuke’s voice sharpened. “You told me you were surveying Jovian ice.”  Itachi inhaled—a rattling sound, like pebbles in a tin. “Remember the Acheron?”  The memory flashed back, vivid:
  Sasuke jerked back. A young woman's face filled the glass, her features obliterated by vacuum's wrath. Her eyes were frosted marbles, capillaries burst into crimson welts. Skin stretched taut over bloated flesh, cheeks splitting where frozen fluids had expanded beneath. A plasma burn cratered her chest, edges fused with melted uniform fibers, the Acheron's engineering patch half-scorched away. Her mouth gaped in a soundless scream, tongue swollen and blackened, teeth shattered by rapid decompression.

  Naruto's breath caught. "Shit," he whispered, the word raw. His hand hovered near the glass, fingers trembling before curling into a fist. "She's been spaced… what the fuck happened here?"

  Sasuke didn't move. His hands locked on the controls, knuckles bloodless. The woman's milky eyes stared back, unseeing.

  Sasuke's stomach lurched. He knew the science—how vacuum boiled saliva, how lungs ruptured in seconds, how the body ballooned until skin split—but seeing it… Her fingers splayed against the glass, tips ruptured into grotesque blossoms of ice and clotted blood.

  Naruto's datapad chimed. "Scanners show the hold's empty. No lifesigns. No heat." His voice softened, curling at the edges with a familiar tone. "Sasuke… there's nothing left. Just ghosts."
 Sasuke dragged himself back to the present. “I thought… Kabuto. The nanites.”  Itachi’s gaze sharpened. “So did we.” “The two are certainly intertwined,” Itachi said, his face pale. “But I found more ships like the Archeron, not many more but a few. Before they were ‘cleansed’.”The memory bubbled clear in his mind:
  "What the fuck is that ship?" Neji asked. Kankurō leaned over his shoulder, gaze fixed on the monitor with unnerving intensity.

  The salvaged video feed from the Acheron lasted three seconds—just long enough to glimpse the blurred outline of a vessel that curved in ways no human design should.
 Sasuke’s nails bit his palms. “Why investigate yourself? Why not delegate—”  Itachi cut through the question like a blade. “To Neji? To you?”  Sasuke’s jaw tightened. “There’s more. You’re omitting something.”  Itachi’s hand trembled as he adjusted the IV line, the Uchiha crest glinting. His gaze swept the room—lingering on ventilation grilles, door seams—before snagging on the corridor where Neji’s shadow had lingered moments prior.  “The ships showed evidence of… extrasolar contact.”  Silence pooled between them, thick as orbital debris. Sasuke blinked.  Itachi leaned forward, sudden intensity bleaching the exhaustion from his face. “Remember when Naruto’s father vanished? I combed the archives. Minato’s ship disappeared in the Kuiper Belt—” A rattling cough interrupted him. “—near your relay coordinates.”  Sasuke stiffened. “You think Kabuto was involved somehow?”  Itachi's gaze slid to the humming air recycler. "Or something else but it’s conjecture. Not worth ripping open old wounds unless..." He trailed off, fingers worrying the IV tube. "But I need Mother's recollections of Kushina. Certain details... chafe."  Sasuke edged forward, hunger sharpening his tone. "Were they close?"  "Close enough she left Naruto on our doorstep without explanation." Itachi's eyes narrowed, catching the violet bruise peeking above Sasuke's collar. "Speaking of family—what is that?"  Sasuke recoiled, ears flushing garnet. "Nothing." He yanked the fabric higher, knuckles white.  Amusement flickered through Itachi's pallor. "You'll need better lies for Mother. She'll demand grandchildren before you've docked." “We’re both alphas,” Sasuke snapped, collar hiking higher. “What’s she going to insist on? Magic?”  “Surrogacy registries,” Itachi mused, tapping his IV drip like a chess master contemplating a gambit. “Require six months’ couple counselling pre-approval. Unless you’re opting for adoption? The Titan IX orphanage does exquisite gene scrubs. Very… streamlined aesthetics.”  Sasuke’s jaw tightened. “We’ve not discussed—”  “Pity.” Itachi’s smile hung. “She’ll blame me, then. I’ve grown accustomed to disappointment.”  “She’ll blame me,” Sasuke corrected, rolling his eyes. “For ‘tempting Naruto from that lovely omega she spent years vetting.’”  Itachi’s laugh burst forth—bright, surprising, the sound of their childhood summers chasing fireflies through Ceres-Green’s rice paddies. Sasuke’s traitorous lips twitched in response.  “She will,” Itachi conceded, leaning back with a wince. The motion exposed the skeletal hollows beneath his clavicle. “But it’ll distract her. I’ll be trapped planetside for months anyway—” He gestured to his ravaged frame, the movement brittle. “—playing patient.”  Sasuke’s smirk faded. The medbay’s sterility pressed in, sharpening the scent of antiseptic and decay. “There are worse prisons, Aniki.”  For a heartbeat, their gazes locked—shared understanding, unsaid fears. Then Itachi’s lashes lowered, the moment dissolving into the hum of life-support systems. “I’ll leave you to sleep,” Sasuke said rising to his feet, his hand moved to Itachi’s shoulder, his face held and expression of a thousand unspoken words as his brother’s fingers briefly gripped his. For a moment he was a child again, clinging onto Itachi’s back as the ATV roared through fields of soy beans.Itachi’s eyelids fluttered closed and Sasuke silently left the room. Neji’s voice crackled through the comms like ice fracturing. “Lieutenant Uchiha. My office.”  Sasuke froze mid-calibration, gloved hands hovering over the sensor array. Temari’s palm landed between his shoulder blades—an anchor point.  “Breathe,” she ordered, teal eyes narrowing at his stiff posture. “It’ll be fine.”  He almost believed her.  Sasuke’s boots magnetized to the deck as the door sealed, his gut roiling at the sight of Naruto standing rigidly at attention—posture perfect, cornflower eyes clear. Sunlight speared through the observation window, gilding dust motes around Neji’s bandaged face. The captain’s remaining lavender iris tracked Sasuke’s pulse-point like a targeting laser. Clone graft or stem cells? The clinical thought surfaced automatically, Sasuke’s gaze snagging on the angry red lines creeping past Neji’s eye patch. Kabuto’s parting gift.  “Sit, Lieutenant.”  “Standing’s acceptable… sir.” The honorific tasted like bitter lemon.  Naruto’s shoulders tensed imperceptibly. Sasuke indexed the changes—steady breathing, clean uniform, pupils no longer blown black with psychosis. The bondmark between his collarbones throbbed in silent counterpoint to Naruto’s calm.  Neji steepled unblemished fingers. “We’ve discussed Sergeant Uzumaki’s condition at length.” The datapad between them displayed neural scans Sasuke recognized too well—violet tendrils of bond withdrawal retreating from Naruto’s temporal lobe. “His lucidity confirms what Ino’s reports suggest. Your… intervention stabilised him.”  Sasuke’s jaw tightened. Intervention. Such a sterile word for teeth splitting skin and venom scorching veins.  “Blackwatch protocol mandates disclosure of dual-Alpha bonds between soldiers, especially part of the same crew.” Neji tapped the screen, summoning regulation codes that glowed like prison bars. “Command would deem you compromised. Ground one or both.” His gaze flicked to Naruto. “Likely him first.”  Naruto’s scent spiked—sun scorched hay sharpening into something acidic. Sasuke’s nails bit his palms.  “However.” Neji deactivated the display with a flick. “Given your actions prevented the Sergeant’s psychotic break from escalating…” A pause weighted with unspoken calculations. “I’m exercising discretionary privilege.”  The airlock silence stretched. Naruto broke first. “Sir, does that mean—?”  “It means,” Neji cut across him, “if I hear so much as a whisper of insubordination—” His gaze locked on Sasuke, “—or find genitalia scribbled on my star maps again, I’ll space you both personally.”  Sasuke stared at the starfield beyond the viewport. Saturn’s rings blurred as relief crashed through him—a dangerous, buoyant thing. He ground his molars until the urge to laugh dissolved into something survivable.  “Something amusing, Lieutenant?”  “No, sir.”  Neji’s chair hissed as he leaned forward. “Let me be clear. This isn’t absolution. It’s pragmatism.” The lavender iris narrowed. “Uzumaki’s useful sane. You’re marginally less insufferable when not dismantling bulkheads over him.”  Naruto’s boot scuffed the deck. Sasuke kept his face stone, even as the bondmark burned with shared indignation.  “Dismissed.”  They turned in unison, Sasuke’s peripheral vision catching the minute tremor in Naruto’s salute. The corridor’s sterile lights stabbed his eyes as the door sealed behind them. Six regulation-approved paces apart, they navigated the ship’s arteries in charged silence.  Naruto’s voice cracked first. “Sasuke—”  “Mess hall.” He pivoted sharply into an auxiliary corridor, Naruto’s footsteps quickening behind him.  The service alcove smelled of lubricant and stale protein packs. Sasuke crowded Naruto against the tool rack, hands braced on either side of his head. Up close, he could see the fading violet threads in Naruto’s irises—the last scars of psychosis.  “You’re certain?” The question escaped before he could cage it.  Naruto’s laugh shook against his chest. “Which part? That I’m not gonna rip your throat out? Or that Neji’s actually got a functioning—”  Sasuke kissed him quiet. Naruto’s fingers tangled in his hair, pulling until his scalp burned. The taste of relief—sharp and metallic—flooded his mouth as the bondmark sang between them.  Footsteps echoed in the main corridor. They broke apart, foreheads touching.  “Ceres-Green after Mars?” Naruto whispered. His thumb brushed the fresh bite mark beneath Sasuke’s collar. “Your mum’s gonna skin me alive.”  Sasuke stared at the observation portal where Saturn’s rings arced like a noose. Mikoto’s face flashed behind his eyelids—teriyaki glaze dripping from her serving spoon as she asked about grandchildren.  “Only if you handle Mother.”  Naruto’s laughter bounced off the alloy walls, bright enough to draw Kankurō’s obscene gestures from the mezzanine. Sasuke allowed himself a smirk, the future’s weight momentarily eclipsed by the warmth of Naruto’s hand in his. Sasuke straightened his uniform with trembling hands. “Play wounded. It’ll help.”  Naruto’s grin flashed, bright and reckless. “Wounded, huh? Think I can sell a limp?”  “Idiot.”  The insult hung tender between them as they fell into step, shoulders brushing. Somewhere beneath the ship’s steel bones, the engines hummed a familiar refrain—alive, alive, alive.           
  Preview
   Sasuke woke to the creak of his bedroom door, his abdomen clenched in a dull, persistent ache. Every muscle throbbed as if he’d been crushed beneath Martian bedrock. A headache gnawed at his molars, sharp and insistent. He didn’t need to look up to know it was Naruto silhouetted in the doorway—the alpha’s presence buzzed through their bond, warm and intrusive as sunlight. Of course he didn’t knock. Bondmates didn’t bother with formalities, even when one of them was sprawled in a nest of sweat-damp sheets, fighting the urge to vomit.  The mattress dipped near Sasuke’s head. He curled tighter, knees pressing to his chest, as Naruto’s scent—spiced pepper, pear and sun scorched hay—flooded the room. A calloused palm settled on his forehead.  “You’re roasting,” Naruto muttered, his voice gravel-rough. “Medics cleared you too soon. We’re going back.”  “Don’t.” Sasuke batted the hand away, though the contact left his skin craving more. He rolled over, meeting narrowed blue eyes. “I’m fine. Just tired.”  Naruto’s nose twitched. He leaned closer, strands of blond hair brushing Sasuke’s jaw. “You smell… different.”  “Charming.” Sasuke shoved at his shoulder, but the movement lacked bite. His own scent—usually crisp peppermint and pear—now carried a bitter undertone, like oversteeped tea. It clung to him, wrong and cloying.  “Not bad.” Naruto’s throat bobbed as he inhaled deeply, pupils dilating. “Sweet. Like…”  “Stop.” Sasuke recoiled, nausea surging. His body felt alien, wrong, every nerve alight with static. Since that cursed alien device had flared on that away mission, his bones hummed with a restless energy that defied his alpha instincts.  Undeterred, Naruto slid onto the bed, arms encircling Sasuke’s waist. “Idiot—”  “Shut up.” Naruto pressed his face to the juncture of Sasuke’s neck, breath scorching the bond mark above his clavicle. A traitorous shiver raced down Sasuke’s spine. “If it’s contagious, you’ll regret it,” he hissed, even as his pulse stuttered at the contact.  Naruto huffed a laugh, the vibration loosening the knots in Sasuke’s shoulders. “Since when do I care?” His hips slotted against Sasuke’s back, legs tangling possessively. Heat radiated from him, soothing the ache in Sasuke’s muscles, yet the embrace felt… different. Not the easy camaraderie of alphas, but something tauter, hungrier.  The bond mark flared, a lick of fire beneath skin. Sasuke gritted his teeth as Naruto nuzzled deeper, a rumble building in the blond’s chest.  “Creep,” Sasuke muttered, but the insult dissolved into a shaky exhale.  Naruto’s arms tightened. “You’re mine. Sick or not.”  A protest rose—alpha pride, habit, fear—but Sasuke’s traitorous body sagged into the hold. The fever-dream warmth, Naruto’s scent wrapping around him… For once, the chaos in his veins stilled.Sasuke’s eyelids drooped as Naruto nuzzled the curve of his neck, the alpha’s stubble grazing his bond mark in slow, deliberate strokes. A warmth pooled low in his stomach, his muscles unwinding despite himself. Then it came—a deep, resonant rumble vibrating through Naruto’s chest, rhythmic as a heartbeat. Sasuke’s breath hitched. The sound seeped into his marrow, primal and disarming, loosening knots he hadn’t acknowledged. Safe. Protected.   His traitorous body slumped further into the embrace, fingers curling into Naruto’s sleeve—falling deeper into the haze.Naruto’s palm slid from Sasuke’s waist to the dip of his spine, pressing until their chests fused. The rumble deepened, reverberating through Sasuke’s ribs like a struck tuning fork. His head lolled back, throat bared—a reflex so instinctive he didn’t recognise it until Naruto’s teeth grazed his pulse point.   
  No.  
 But the protest died as Naruto’s free hand fisted in his hair, not yanking, cradling, tilting Sasuke’s face towards his own. The alpha’s breaths came harsh now, pupils swallowing cobalt irises. A thumb brushed Sasuke’s lower lip, rough and insistent.  “Naru—mmph—”  The kiss wasn’t gentle. It was claiming, all heat and teeth, and Sasuke’s hands flew up to shove at Naruto’s shoulders—  —only to clutch him closer.  The noise he made was omega-soft, omega-weak. Naruto growled approval, the hand on Sasuke’s spine slipping lower, palming the swell of his backside. Sasuke arched into the touch, blood singing, every nerve alight. It was euphoria, this surrender—a narcotic haze smothering his alpha instincts. His hips rocked forward of their own accord, seeking friction, needing—   Naruto broke the kiss with a wet gasp, forehead pressed to Sasuke’s. “Fuck. You’re—fuck—”   Sasuke barely heard him. His entire world narrowed to the calloused thumb circling his hipbone, to Naruto’s scent-marking lips roaming his collarbones. The alpha’s knee nudged his thighs apart, and Sasuke obeyed without thought, legs spreading—   Wait….wait . His brain rebooted in jagged fragments.   Sprawled in Naruto’s lap. Whimpering. Slick with sweat—or worse?   He stilled. Naruto’s growl stuttered into a concerned hum, nosing at his jaw. “S’uke…?”   Reality crashed in.   Sasuke recoiled so violently he near tumbled off the bed. His body ached, oversensitised and trembling, his bond mark searing as if branded. Across the rumpled sheets, Naruto stared at him, lips kiss-swollen, chest heaving. A possessive hand still reached for him, half-curled as though clutching phantom flesh.  “What the hell was that?” Sasuke rasped.  Naruto blinked, dazed. “I… you were… you wanted—” “Were you rumbling at me!?”  The alpha froze, palm still hovering where Sasuke’s shoulder had been. “I… didn’t realise I—”  “What are you doing?” Sasuke scrambled towards the door, the bond mark burning like a brand. His own voice sounded foreign—sharper, reedier. “You only do that for omegas.”  Naruto’s throat worked, gaze darting to the rumpled sheets. “Your scent’s just… different. Sweeter. Like burnt caramel or—”  “Dessert?” Sasuke spat the word, acid on his tongue. Humiliation scalded him. He stormed towards the bathroom, Naruto’s stricken expression seared into his periphery. The alpha hadn’t moved, pupils blown wide as if drowning in a pheromone fog.  Impossible. I’m not—   The subsonic shower’s hum drowned his thoughts. Sasuke scrubbed at his neck until the skin rawed, but Naruto’s scent lingered—pepper and longing, clinging to his pores.  
  
  

    
      
        
        
          So it turns out this isn’t the last story in the series, after spending a few months significantly stuck on some crucial scenes I realised that actually there was at least another story before the ending I had envisioned (and written) for the series.Drop a comment if you’re interested in me posting up the next one. I was just so desperate to get this story finished after seeing it sit neglected in my drafts.❤️❤️❤️'
User: Summarize the chapter based on the content provided, ensuring to follow the set format and emphasize key aspects within the specified length.
User: Summarize the chapter based on the content provided, ensuring to follow the set format and emphasize key aspects within the specified length.
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