The last shreds of Saturday night clung to the dorm's window, streetlight slicing the darkness into pale bars across the cluttered floor. In that predawn quiet, Naruto moved like a ghost: every step careful, every drawer opened and closed with the delicacy of a thief. On his bed lay a heap of black clothing, each piece selected for maximum stealth and minimum personality—hoodie, track pants, plain T-shirt, battered sneakers. He'd never dressed so deliberately unmemorable in his life.
Sasuke had transformed his desk into a heist command center. A campus map lay open, its margins crawling with his microscopic handwriting. Next to it: a child's lunchbox now housing lock picks and wire cutters, two pairs of medical-grade gloves, and his phone displaying blueprints beside a security guard schedule. Perched at the edge of the desk, Sasuke tightened the laces on combat boots that seemed impossibly worn-in despite their newness. The all-black outfit made him look like a shadow given form, his usually loose hair pulled back to reveal the knife-edge planes of his face.
Naruto muttered, "Are we robbing a bank or just a weird professor?" but his hands shook as he fumbled the hoodie over his head.
Sasuke looked up, eyes cool and flat. "You want to improvise? Be my guest." He gestured at the map with a flick of two fingers. "But I'll be the one who doesn't get caught."
"Yeah, yeah." Naruto hunched on the edge of his bed and pulled the laces tight on his sneakers, the movement jerky. He felt the tremor in his fingers and curled them into fists, hiding them under the fold of his sleeve. "You're sure about the entrance?"
Sasuke uncapped a fine-point pen and stabbed it at a spot on the campus map, the tip scoring the waxy paper. "Back corner of the science building, north side. I left a window unlocked there, but incase that doesn't work," he reached into his pocket and produced a small, battered plastic card, "the staff badge from yesterday should get us in."
Naruto blinked, then glanced at the card. The photo showed a dough-faced Beta, hair slicked back, the lanyard comically crooked. "How the hell did you—"
"He left it on the bench in the locker room." Sasuke's mouth curved, a rare glint of satisfaction. "And he was too busy checking out my abs to notice."
Naruto's stomach twisted with something hot and unfamiliar. He forced a laugh that came out too sharp. "Gross, dude," he said, but his eyes darted away from Sasuke's face to study the floor.
Sasuke's eyes flicked over him, assessing. "You're the one who said not to leave a digital trail. Paper badge, real name. No audit for at least forty-eight hours." He offered the card, and Naruto took it, the plastic warm from Sasuke's hand. The contact lingered half a second longer than necessary. "Try not to lose it."
Naruto shoved the badge in his hoodie's kangaroo pocket, willing his heart to slow. He tried to focus on the checklist they'd made—flashlight, gloves, phone, Band-Aids (just in case), extra hoodie in case the first got blood on it, which was apparently a real concern if you were breaking into the mad scientist's lair. He went through the motions with the fervor of someone assembling body armor.
Sasuke finished tying his boots and stood, crossing the room in two easy strides. He picked up the latex gloves, flexed his fingers in them, then tossed the spare pair to Naruto, who caught them reflexively.
For a moment, the two stood less than an arm's length apart, the hush in the room as tight as the gloves now stretched across their hands.
Naruto looked everywhere but at Sasuke. "You do this often? Breaking and entering?"
"Only when necessary." Sasuke's voice softened, the edge worn off by something Naruto couldn't place. "First time for you?"
Naruto's laugh was short and raw. "I'm more of a 'break and run away' kind of guy." His hands twisted in the hem of his hoodie. "Just… don't let me mess this up, okay?"
Sasuke's eyes lingered on him a beat too long. "Nothing will happen to you," he said, and when Naruto tried to look away, Sasuke reached out and caught his wrist. The grip was gentle, but the intent behind it was iron. "I mean it, Uzumaki. If anyone's getting caught, it'll be me."
Naruto's breath caught in his throat. For a split second, he forgot to move, forgot to even blink. Sasuke's thumb pressed lightly against his pulse, as if reading the flutter there. The touch was electric and completely unexpected—a wire tripped in the dark.
Naruto jerked his hand back, face flushed hot enough to melt latex. "I wasn't worried about it," he lied, voice barely above a mutter. He scrubbed the back of his neck, pretending to study the window.
Sasuke only arched an eyebrow, but a small, private smile played at the corner of his mouth.
Naruto busied himself with the rest of the prep, double-checking the contents of the backpack, snapping the flashlight off and on, rehearsing the badge in and out of his pocket. Each task was a bulwark against the prickling sense of dread that climbed his spine. He watched his own hands and tried to picture them picking locks or rifling through confidential folders, but all he saw was the way they'd trembled.
"You good?" Sasuke's voice, low and close, cut through the spiral.
"Yeah," Naruto said, but the word felt hollow. "It's just—if we screw this up, they'll expel us."
Sasuke shrugged, already half out the door. "Then don't screw up."
Naruto watched him go, the black-on-black figure vanishing down the dim hallway. His own reflection lingered in the darkened window, haunted and determined.
He pulled on the gloves, grabbed the map, and followed, steps silent as guilt.
At the foot of the stairwell, Sasuke waited in the shadows, arms crossed. He nodded once, and Naruto's nerves steadied—not much, but enough.
At two a.m., the world outside the dorm was a museum diorama of itself, drained of all color and sound. The quad was a negative of daytime—moonlight poured over every surface, bleaching the grass silver, rendering the trees as black lattice against the sky. Each building's windows were either unlit tombstones or fluorescent nightmares. Most of the campus slept, but the occasional Beta or Alpha lurched down a sidewalk, their laughter amplified by emptiness, echoing like a threat.
Naruto kept his hood low, hands jammed in the pockets of his jacket. He trailed Sasuke's shadow, who moved like a rumor through the darkness—never quite there when you tried to catch him. Even at a distance, Sasuke's outline was sharp and confident, shoulders squared as if daring the night to try anything.
They cut across the rec field, using the tall hedges as cover. The only interruption came when a group of seniors in Greek-letter windbreakers staggered out of a side street, already lost to the bottle. One saw them and yelled, "Hey, Midnight Mafia!" but Sasuke didn't even twitch; he let the noise roll over him, and Naruto learned to do the same.
They reached the science building just before a cold wind picked up. The structure looked haunted—towering glass, locked doors, and exterior floodlights that left huge blind spots. Sasuke paused at the corner, scanned for patrols, then jerked his chin at Naruto to follow. He led the way along the loading dock, their sneakers soft on the painted concrete.
Sasuke halted at the last window in the row, the one near the back where the geometry labs faced an alley. Naruto stopped beside him, eyes flicking up.
"It's locked," he whispered, already dreading the next part.
"Not anymore," Sasuke replied, then knelt and retrieved a flathead screwdriver from his boot. With a practiced motion, he wedged it between the sill and the glass, applying just enough pressure to pop the latch. He'd done the prep work hours ago, disabling the inner catch so this last push was all that remained.
The window inched up, groaning just loud enough to make Naruto's stomach flip. It was set high in the wall—chest-level for Sasuke, almost chin-height for Naruto.
Sasuke looked over his shoulder, weighing the best method. "You first. I'll push you."
Naruto glared, but the logic was clear. He placed a foot against the ledge, then tried to hop up, arms scrabbling for purchase. He got nowhere; the window offered zero handholds, and the wall's painted brick was slick with condensation.
Sasuke clicked his tongue in annoyance, then crouched behind Naruto. "Here. Step up."
He made a platform with his cupped hands. Naruto balanced a sneaker there, expecting a standard boost. Instead, as he pushed off, Sasuke's hands moved with sudden precision, fingers splaying wide before clamping around the curve of Naruto's ass with an authority that bordered on surgical. The grip was strong, lifting him easily—each finger a point of heat through the denim— but then, as Naruto's center of gravity tipped forward toward the window frame, Sasuke squeezed. Not a gentle nudge, not a passing brush, but a full, deliberate clutch that sent a jolt up Naruto's spine.
Naruto yelped, the sound high and indignant, then lost all dignity as he scrambled through the window with twice the urgency.
He landed on the inside, knees clattering against the cold tile. For a second, he just crouched there, face burning hot in the chill air.
The geometry lab was cold, every surface either glass or steel, the air tinged with a chemical tang that clung to the back of Naruto's throat. He crouched under the window, massaging the sting out of his knee and cursing Sasuke. From his vantage, he could see the entire row of shadowed desks, the whiteboard at the front smeared with ghostly equations, and the narrow band of corridor light seeping under the door.
He peered back through the window. Sasuke was already in motion, muscles tensing as he prepared to pull himself through the narrow opening. Naruto's eyes narrowed at the memory of those hands on him, the deliberate pressure that couldn't possibly have been accidental. When he caught Sasuke's self-satisfied smirk, heat crawled up his neck and into his cheeks. "Asshole," Naruto muttered, backing away to give his roommate space to climb through.
Sasuke pulled his body up, muscles in his forearms straining visibly beneath pale skin. As he hoisted his leg onto the ledge, his boot slipped against the condensation-slick surface. A small grunt escaped him—the first sign of imperfection Naruto had ever witnessed—and without thinking, Naruto lunged forward, fingers closing around Sasuke's wrist. Their eyes met in that suspended moment, surprise mirrored in both faces.
Naruto's grip caught Sasuke off-guard. A momentary loss of balance sent them both tumbling backward, Naruto hitting the tile first with a hollow thud that emptied his lungs. Before he could recover, Sasuke crashed down on top of him. Their bodies collided—chest to chest, hip to hip—with Sasuke's weight pressing him into the cold floor. Naruto froze, suddenly aware of every point of contact between them. Sasuke's face hovered inches above his own, close enough that Naruto could feel warm breath ghosting across his lips, count individual eyelashes, notice the slight dilation of pupils in those dark eyes.
Neither moved. The moment stretched, a thin wire humming between them.
Sasuke's hand slid up, fingers threading briefly through Naruto's hair as if for balance, but the motion was gentle, almost reverent. Their eyes locked, the blue and black catching and holding, and Naruto felt the world tilt beneath him.
He thought, for one irrational second, that Sasuke was going to kiss him.
He didn't. Instead, Sasuke's lips parted just enough to let out a soft, shaky exhale. Then, as if remembering where they were, what they were doing, he pulled back and rose to his feet with the grace of a cat, offering a hand to Naruto.
Naruto took it, electricity shooting up his arm, and let himself be hauled up. He wiped his palms on his pants and cleared his throat.
Naruto's mouth went dry. "So we're even now," he whispered, the words catching in his throat. "First day of school, I crashed into you." His hand made a clumsy gesture between them, fingers trembling slightly. "Now you've returned the favor." The laugh that followed sounded hollow even to his own ears, a thin sound that dissolved in the darkness.
Sasuke snorted, and when Naruto glanced over, he caught something rare—a genuine smile spreading across Sasuke's face, transforming his features into something almost beautiful. The sight made Naruto's chest tighten before Sasuke leaned forward and flicked him on the forehead. "Both crashes were your fault, dobe. Your debt to me just doubled."
Naruto's jaw clenched, the retort dying in his throat. Not now. His skin prickled where Sasuke's fingers had dug into him, heat blooming outward like a stain. The rush of blood in his ears drowned everything—even the electric hum of the building faded to nothing. He forced his gaze to sweep the lab, searching for the telltale red dots of security cameras, but his mind betrayed him, looping back to that suspended moment—Sasuke's face hovering above his, close enough to count eyelashes, the weighted silence between them pulling like gravity.
They crossed the room in a crouch, hugging the shadows, and paused at the door. Sasuke listened, then cracked it open a sliver and peeked into the hallway. The coast was clear—no lights, no security, just the ticking of a wall clock somewhere down the corridor.
Naruto crept up beside him. "Which way?"
Sasuke pointed left. "Basement. Orochimaru's office is below ground. Two floors down."
Naruto nodded, swallowing the taste of adrenaline. He could still feel the imprint of Sasuke's hand in his, the echo of contact refusing to fade.