#shinaru

Chapter 114: ShisuiNaruto

Shisui had always been a fan of the dawn hours, even if he didn’t know who his soulmate was yet. In his opinion there was no greater beauty in nature than the slow breaking of the sun over the horizon, the gradual lightening as the dark of night peacefully gave way to the morning. The colors were always pretty and the first sweet notes of birdsong never failed to start his day off in a wonderful mood.

If there was one thing he thought could have made dawn any better it would have been the presence of the person he’d been wanting to spend all of his time with lately. Unfortunately Naruto was the opposite of a morning person and remained largely oblivious to Shisui’s flourishing crush. Actually, he seemed oblivious to any and all crushes on him despite the fact that nowadays one would be hard pressed to find a young girl or boy who didn’t at least flash him a look of admiration every time he passed by. Being the village hero should have been great for Naruto’s dating life and yet as far as anyone knew he never accepted any of the numerous offers he received.

Leaning back on his palms and settling himself more comfortably atop the village water tower, Shisui allowed himself a wistful sigh. As much as he hated to be predictable, he had definitely been just as caught up as everyone else, crushing on the great Uzumaki Naruto from afar without a hope in hell of those feelings ever being return.

At the very least he didn’t have to crush from all that far away since they happened to be friends with a great many of the same people. In fact, he would have gone so far as to say they were friends themselves by this point, although he definitely wouldn’t have presumed to say that he was one of Naruto’s closest, most precious people. That honor stayed firmly with those of the group colloquially known as The Konoha Eleven, all from the same graduating class and most of whom had made jōnin after the war was over.

Tilting his head back, Shisui grinned widely upon spotting the first hint of light in the sky above him. He was so lost in his own head, content and at ease in his morning rituals, that he almost didn’t notice the chakra signature slowly ambling its way up the side of the tower. When a head of blond hair peeked over the side he only just barely managed not to start with fright.

“Naruto?” He examined the shambling beast in front of him with a great deal of surprise. “It’s, like, five in the morning; what are you doing up at this time?” The young man in question cracked his jaw on a yawn and flopped down on the top of the reservoir.

“You’re always going on about how great this is, ‘ttebayo. Wanted to come see for myself. Better be good or else I got out of bed for nothing.”

Shisui watched his friend slowly melt in to his position where he had sprawled on his belly, smiling to himself and resisting the urge to brush his fingers through blond spiky hair. “It’s great, I promise.”

He got no more than a grumble in reply but didn’t let it bother him. Naruto was notoriously not a morning person, preferring to stay up late and sleep until almost noon. Shisui had always been aware that he was sort of an outlier for getting up so early voluntarily but it never bothered him much. It was amusing to watch all the hopeful couples dotting the village, hands linked as they waited for the first rays of the sun to touch them and show them if they were as meant to be together as they hoped. His favorites were the couples that leapt in to each other’s arms and celebrated loud enough to wake the neighbors.

A sudden snort gave him a little start and Shisui realized that while he’d been thinking about couples in love his hand, the naughty thing, had wandered over to stroke Naruto’s cheek. He bit his lip as the blond fought his way out of the lingering clutches of sleep, looking over at him with an adorably confused expression.

“You had something on your face,” he lied. Naruto grunted.

“Where’s the sun?” Petulant whining shouldn’t sound so adorable but by Kami he somehow managed it.

“It’s there,” Shisui answered, pointing to the east where a strip of gold was showing above the tree line. “Give it a few more minutes and it should reach us soon.”

Mumbling under his breath about possibly outlawing mornings when he eventually became Hokage, Naruto managed to sit up with only a medium amount of effort. Considering how tired he looked Shisui mentally applauded him for the grace he was exhibiting. At least he wasn’t drooling. Then all that effort went out the window as he fell backwards and had to take a quick grip on Shisui’s arm keep himself from plummeting down to the ground below.

Once settled, the two of them sat calmly together, eyes on the sky to watch the dawn as it heralded the beginning of another day. Shisui pointed out the color gradients to a tired Naruto, who grumbled reluctantly that they were indeed very pretty.

As the sun peeked its head up to greet the world, the shadows rolled back inch by inch and Shisui closed his eyes to greet the light when it fell upon him at last. He hummed with satisfaction in the back of his throat, another daily ritual successfully completed. Then he turned his head to peek over at Naruto, lips parting with the intention of asking him what he thought of the sunrise he’d gone to so much trouble just to wake up and see.

He froze before the question could ever leave his mouth. Naruto’s cheek was glowing.

It looked as though diamonds were hidden under his skin, giving the sun-darkened cheek a tiny strip of silvery overlay that glittered distractingly, standing out quite obviously from the rest of him. When Naruto realized he was being stared at, he looked back at Shisui with a questioning face and a grunt of confusion.

“Wassamatter?” he asked, words slurring together. “I got something on my face?”

“Yes,” Shisui replied honestly. He lifted an arm to point but Naruto never followed his finger, gaze stuck on his forearm instead.

“Holy shit your arm is all spakly!”

Shisui looked down to see that Naruto was correct: the spot on his arm where the younger had gripped him was lit up with the same silvery gleam he had just been gaping at. The two of them stared at each other’s spots for a few moments, dumbfounded, until finally the shine began to fade. Only the very first rays of sunlight each day revealed the place your soulmate last touched you and already the moment was quickly passing. Neither of them were able to pull their eyes away until both of their skin had returned to normal. Then they met each other’s gazes as the silence stretched.

It was Naruto who broke it first.

“Does that make you like my soulmate or something?”

“Yes,” Shisui breathed. “We’re…we’re soulmates.” He could hardly believe it even as the words left his mouth.

Silence fell back in to the miniscule amount of space between them, filling it up and leaving Shisui to grow more and more tense as the seconds ticked by. Doubt trickled in to his mind until he began to question if maybe Naruto was disappointed to find out they were matched. Could he have had his eye on someone else already?

“Is that okay?” When he finally spoke up, Naruto’s voice was impossibly small. Shisui blinked in surprise.

“What do you mean ‘okay’?”

“Just that I’ve got a demon fox inside me and I’m pretty loud and I know I’m not the smartest guy. Like, I’m not stupid. I know I’m pretty popular right now but that’s fake stuff that they like me for and they’re all the same people that hated me before they even knew me, anyway. You’re a really cool guy and – okay don’t laugh but I sort of have a crush on you? So I would totally get if you were disappointed that it’s just me who ends up being your soulmate.”

“Naruto!” Shisui had to call over his companion’s voice to get him to stop talking. “That was…wow. I’m not disappointed, okay? I think you’re amazing.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Nodding slowly, Naruto suddenly broke out in to a wide grin. “Cool.”

“And, uh, I sort of have a crush on you too.”

“Whaaaaat!? But! You–! Does that mean I can kiss you!?”

Shisui blinked rapidly a few times and hoped he never woke up from this amazing fever dream. A wild laugh escape him before he could manage to whisper, “Yes please.”

Naruto launched himself in to Shisui’s arms, who caught him and held him tightly as their mouth slotted together for an incredibly uncoordinated first kiss. It was messy and a bit wet and Shisui nearly swooned when he realized that it didn’t seem like Naruto had ever kissed anyone before. Was this why he was never seen out on any dates before? Could he have been waiting until he found his soulmate? It was a sappy idea yet it sounded just like him.

Above their heads the sun continued to rise, illuminating another day and waking the birds in the forests to rise and sing out in joyous chorus. None of them, however, could match the joy in Shisui’s heart as he clung tightly to his newly discovered perfect other half.

“This was definitely worth waking up for, dattebayo!”