"Pray tell, what would I gain in attacking you?"
His eyes narrowed. The masked shinobi standing a few meters before him held his body in a relaxed manner, as if he wasn't planning on launching an offensive anytime soon. He snorted to himself. He won't be fooled. The masked figure was a Hunter Nin, a special brand of shinobi from his former village trained to capture the likes of him. And with the highest bounty on his head in his village, he knew he was worth more than three villages whether he was brought alive or dead.
"Well? I don't have all day. You know the drill. Missing nin to crush and maim. All in a day's work."
His muscles tensed in readiness. This man had to be bluffing. He had announced his intention already. He knew the attack would come.
The other man sighed. "Can I pass now? You're blocking my path."
"Do you know who I am?" he finally asked in a toneless voice, his irritation perfectly concealed.
He could sense the other man rolling his eyes from underneath his mask. "Everyone does. Pleased, oh Great Path Blocker?"
If the man didn't stop being annoying, he would snap that scrawny neck in three. He simply raised an elegant dark eyebrow, however, maintaining his cool, unaffected exterior.
Waiting.
"Well?" the other man asked, impatient. "Can I pass now? I hadn't exactly fought back. I gave you no reason to attack me. While I could have happily killed you, I'm bound by oath not to attack anyone who isn't my prey."
The man wasn't making any sense at all.
"I'll take your silence as affirmation," the hunter nin finally said. He began to run forward in the same pace as he had been running before. Before he was attacked by flying shuriken from the man now blocking his way.
The dark-haired man tensed himself, preparing for any shift that would indicate the masked man's intention. When only a blast of wind passed his side, his obsidian eyes slightly widened and he abruptly turned around, in time to see the back of the hunter nin fast disappearing into the forest.
"Oi."
The masked nin suddenly froze and threw his hands up in the air. "Now you want to talk? Fuck, you're so annoying!"
He ignored the comment. "Why aren't you attacking me?"
A harsh exhalation of air. "Again, what would I gain in attacking you?"
He wasn't hiding his annoyance and confusion anymore. "I'm a missing nin." He snorted. "Or do Konoha hunter nin never do their homework anymore?"
"Apparently, Konoha missing nin never did theirs," the other man retorted.
That was an odd statement.
The hunter nin turned around, looking at the powerful nuke nin standing meters before him. "You've been removed from the Bingo Book three years ago, Uchiha Sasuke. You're not useful to me anymore."
With that, the hunter nin vanished, leaving a stunned shinobi standing in his wake.
It had been 13 years since he entered the gates of Konoha.
He half-expected ANBU to accost him but not a shadow even touched him. The chuunin guards asked for his name and his passport and, upon learning of his identity, glanced at each other before reluctantly letting him pass. He never imagined that it would be this easy for him to return.
No, not return. He wasn't returning.
He just wanted answers.
His eyes roamed around. There were changes inside the village though the overall atmosphere remained the same. Children ran about in abandon, men and women went about their business with friendly chatter and exclamations. He tried to stay as unobtrusive as possible—however, as was in the past, he attracted the attention of everyone he passed by.
There were inquiring murmurs and whispered questions, and while his ears could easily pick up the softest possible sound, he instinctively ignored the noises around him. It was, after all, how he protected himself in the past from fan girl squeals of eternal devotion.
At the back of his mind, though, he found it disconcerting to realize that he could quickly fall back to an old, long-forgotten pattern.
He took a long glance at a familiar establishment, hoping that whoever he sought was there as per usual in the past. In his mind's eye, he could see a shock of yellow hair partially hidden by the overhang, the loud orange jumpsuit proclaiming to the world the identity of the stand's number one customer. But there were only young shinobi exchanging conversation, though they paused when they spotted him before continuing with their talks. These were the new generations of Konoha's finest, and they had no idea who the uncannily beautiful man in white hakamashita and dark blue hakama was. He could be a wandering samurai for all they knew, with his attire and the sheathed sword beside him. And as he was allowed entry unguarded, he wasn't a threat to be wary of.
He sneered at the carelessness of these shinobi. A ninja must look underneath the underneath, and these shinobi simply touched the surface and accepted. He had more pressing concerns in his mind, however, so he went on.
Soon he reached his destination. Shinobi in the immediate area paused upon seeing him, then went on with their activities as if nothing had happened. He was getting more perplexed as he continued—not one had deigned to attack him, and he had to finally admit to himself that the hunter nin wasn't lying after all. His face was in its usual expressionless mask when he approached a kunoichi, a woman who seemed to hold herself with more authority than the others.
"I wish an audience with the Hokage," he said, his voice deliberately impersonal.
The woman blinked twice before pushing her glasses up to her nose. "Please state your name, occupation, and purpose."
"Uchiha Sasuke," he paused for a second before answering again. "Shinobi. I wish to inquire about my status."
The kunoichi nodded. She pressed a button in her earpiece. "Konohamaru-sama, is Hokage-sama available?"
A pause as she waited for the answer before she continued. "Hai. A shinobi named Uchiha Sasuke-san wishes to inquire about his current status."
A longer pause and she nodded. "Hai. I'll send him up." Another pause and she pressed a button once more before giving the last Uchiha a smile. "Please wait until an escort arrives."
An almost inaudible 'poofing' sound was heard mere seconds later and the woman turned to the ANBU.
"Please escort Uchiha Sasuke-san to Hokage-sama, ANBU-san."
The dragon-masked ANBU nodded once and stepped beside the silent Uchiha. When the dark-haired man stepped forward, the ANBU began to walk an inch ahead to show the way.
The walk to the Hokage's office was silent and, to him, stretched into infinity. Against himself, Sasuke could feel his heartbeat increasing. It was ten years since they last saw him, eight years since he heard that his rival had finally achieved his dream. His former teammate had become the youngest Hokage in the history of Konohagakure no Sato, and however much he denied it, in the deepest, farthest, most shadowy corner of his heart, Sasuke—
Sasuke was proud of him.
And now—after years of wandering, years of running, years of never looking back—he would see him again.
A strange coldness gripped his heart.
He would see him again.
The two ANBU guarding the doors of the Hokage's office stepped aside and made way for his ANBU escort. The dragon ANBU opened the door and stepped inside. Sasuke moved to follow him but the two ANBU blocked his path. They never uttered a word—ANBU had an oath of silence, except during missions or when addressing their Hokage—but it was clear to him that he had to wait. Sasuke was annoyed but he couldn't do anything—not if he wanted to have a chance to talk to their leader.
The door opened again and the two ANBU stepped aside, finally allowing him entry. Sasuke's heartbeat, already returned to its normal rhythm, accelerated once more—he would have snorted if he wasn't so nervous. Here he was, an Uchiha, getting anxious over meeting his best friend (he had always been his best friend, despite the battles they had seen through together and years they had seen through apart), feeling as if he wanted to throw up or turn around or ask for some other time instead. His eyes were cold, his features blank, but his insides were burning and he was suffocating.
He stepped inside the spacious office, immediately catching sight of the triangular hat with the kanji of fire in its center. The Hokage's head was bowed, obstructing his features from any wandering visitor. Sasuke wanted him to look up—he felt a sudden crushing need to (needtoneedtoneedto) see endless blue eyes and bright sunny smiles in familiar whiskered features that never left his mind.
"Uchiha Sasuke-san requests for an audience, Nanadaime-sama."
And then the ANBU was gone. It took a moment for the dark-haired former avenger to replay the words of his escort, asking himself if he had heard what he thought he did.
... Nanadaime?
The triangular hat lifted.
(indifferent dark brown eyes so unlike his laughing blue)
Sasuke felt his heartbeat stop.
The fading light of the afternoon sun glinted a deep molten gold in the park.
Dark eyes watched the man leaning on the swing, the shadows obscuring blue blue eyes that haunted his memories. He couldn't remember how many minutes—hours—he had stood, watching the man as he stared out the distance into a faraway sight. A tanned hand would occasionally rise up and catch a falling leaf, bringing it to his eyes and pressing it gently to his lips. A breeze would gently touch his flaxen hair, filling his orange haori with cool air before letting it fall back on his black kimono.
And he could feel it again, with the way his heart clenched at the sight of the most precious bond he couldn't (wouldn't) break himself away from.
He missed him. Kami, he missed him so much.
He hid himself further when a familiar pink hair appeared around the corner, making its way to the park. Blond head looked up and Sasuke could finally see a side of the dear, familiar face. He could see a slight smile and he watched as the pink-haired woman leaned down and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
He was surprised. And while a part of him felt an odd pang in his chest, a part of him felt quite glad to see her again too.
He watched as she whispered in his ear and the blond head nodded. Slowly, the man on the swing stood up, and he watched as they held hands and left the park together.
And Sasuke felt so cold, standing under the shadows of the trees, as watching Naruto and Sakura walk away from him.
It had been five days since he arrived at Konoha and still, Sasuke couldn't find the courage to approach Naruto.
Uchiha Compound had been demolished and rebuilt into a beautiful new area. The house where he used to live remained, however, and it was as beautiful as the day it was built. He knew that Naruto had made sure that it was well-kept, ready anytime its owner decided to live there again.
He was so thankful it hurt.
(it hurt so much)
The village had been abuzz with the rumor that the Uchiha heir had returned to Konoha, though few only ever saw him bar the first day he came. He had run into Kakashi and his former sensei merely waved at him, not even lifting his head from his favorite book. Sakura simply smiled the one time his guard was lowered, before continuing her journey up the Hokage mountain where her other teammate was. Sai just gave him a strange smile before following Sakura.
Everything was far from what he expected.
It was in the afternoon of the sixth day of his arrival when he appeared behind his best friend.
"Took you long enough to come."
His voice was more mellow than he last heard, and for a moment Sasuke was filled with shouts and yells and screams from the past.
(Why'd you make me wait so long, you bastard?!)
He mentally shook his head.
"Hn."
Laughter suddenly rang inside the silent apartment, lighter and freer than any he had ever heard in a long, long time. He blinked back sudden heat that blurred his vision (like the sound of chimes announcing you're home). He was reminded of a past when it always surrounded him, embraced him even into the coldness of the night. He could vividly remember squinted eyes and wide grins, and he could suddenly remember how the vision of a smile and the echo of a laugh kept his cold, empty heart warmer than it had been.
Warmer since the day he was wrenched away from the life he had known forever.
"Still the same, still the same. Trust your first word to be that. So what d'you want to talk about?" The voice was curious—there were no hints of accusation, no undercurrent of negative emotions whatsoever. Sasuke wanted him to turn around, to turn away from the afternoon sky he had been watching and turn to look at him.
He wanted to see forever in those passionate blue eyes.
"Nara told me it was you."
"Aa."
"Why?"
His question had come out as an accusation. And it all came crashing into him.
(Don't you want me to come back anymore? Don't you want to see me anymore? Have you tired of chasing me? Have you finally decided to move on? Did you finally decide to go back on your promise?)
Have you given up on me?
His breathing was shallow and loud. Sasuke knew he could hear it but he couldn't bring himself to care because there's only the want to have to need to (needtoneedtoneedto) know why why why.
His eyes closed.
(why?)
Have you given up on me, dobe?
"I want to make sure you're safe."
He couldn't breathe.
(why?)
The front door opened and a person went in, carrying a bag of groceries.
"I bought your ramen, Naru—"
Words died down as Sakura opened the door and saw Sasuke standing behind Naruto. And time stood still for the three former teammates, Sakura behind Sasuke and Sasuke behind Naruto, Naruto looking up to the endless afternoon sky. It was poignant and familiar and searing and new, a bittersweet moment caught in eternity.
Sakura was the first to move when she glimpsed a slight shiver from the seated blond by the window. Stepping forward, she grabbed the orange haori on the bed and placed it on Naruto's shoulders.
"What did I say about sitting by the window, ne, Naruto?" she chided gently. She dropped a light kiss on his whiskered cheek before leaning back again. "Do you want to eat ramen?"
"It's okay," Naruto said, shaking his head. "I just want to take a nap here."
She gently squeezed his arm and moved to his bed, gathering the thick blanket and covering him. "Here. Just rest. I won't be going anywhere."
"Thanks, Sakura-chan," he said in a tired, sleepy voice. Soon, dark golden lashes fluttered down his cheeks and Naruto drifted off into sleep.
Sasuke watched their interaction with a painful ache in his chest. He couldn't even ignore the pang in his heart when Naruto went to sleep without even talking to him again.
"Sasuke-kun, would you like some tea?" Sakura asked.
He wanted to leave but the silent plea in her eyes stopped him. He nodded and followed Sakura into the kitchen, pulling up a chair and waiting as she boiled water for tea.
A silence wrought of years far apart stretched between them. He had many questions in his mind that he couldn't let out, and she had many questions in her mind that she couldn't voice out. Maybe a cup of tea could give them the words they needed.
He was sipping his tea when Sakura found the courage to ask, ask what she had wanted to since the first time she saw him by the foot of the mountain.
"Sasuke-kun, why are you here?"
Silence. She hadn't expected him to answer, at least verbally. He hardly spoke to her even when they were teammates, why would he do so now? The only times she heard his true voice were when he spoke to Naruto. She didn't expect his lips to speak, but she expected his body would.
It was slight, so slight it wasn't even a second but she caught it. She was intimate with the human body and she could discern any subtle shifting of muscles and organs. She had no Sharingan but she had knowledge and experience, and sharp green eyes used both to her advantage.
Sasuke had glanced past the open bedroom door to the window.
Another silence as Sakura contemplated the unvoiced answer. She had always believed (faithfully, unwaveringly) that only Naruto could bring Sasuke back to Konoha. She just didn't expect it—like this.
"Nara told me."
A pink eyebrow rose. "You met with Nanadaime-sama?"
Sasuke's gaze was fastened on his cup. "I've been removed from the Bingo Book."
It was old news to her but not to him, apparently. "What did he tell you?" she asked, honestly curious.
Sasuke slightly tilted his head to the panoramic window. "That he asked him to do it as a favor."
Sakura twirled her cup, in a way similar to her deceased mentor when holding a saucer of sake. "And you came to ask him why."
His silence to her stated question was answer enough, and she took another sip from her green tea. Sasuke's eyes wandered around the simple apartment, noting how immaculately clean and homey it was. This wasn't Naruto's former apartment, he knew. It was wider and better and farther from the village proper. As it had for the past half hour, his dark eyes traveled once again to the seated figure by the window.
"What did he tell you?" Sakura asked, almost in a whisper.
Sasuke turned away, looking into the kunoichi's soft green eyes. "He wanted to make sure I was safe."
Sakura broke into a sad smile. "That's his reason for choosing Nanadaime-sama too."
A thick silence wrapped them again before Sasuke broke it harshly.
"Why?"
Sakura wrapped her hands tighter around her cup as her head leaned forward, her pink hair obscuring her features and her eyes.
"He wanted to keep all of us safe," she replied, her voice light and carefree.
"Why?"
"He wanted to keep all of us safe," she repeated, her voice with a hint of a smile.
"Why?"
"He wanted to keep all of us safe."
Sasuke wouldn't hear of it anymore. He suddenly appeared beside her and forced her chin up.
"Wh—"
Tears were streaming down her closed eyes as she smiled, her lips opening once more as her voice came out cheerful and certain and completely broken.
"He wanted to keep all of us safe, Sasuke-kun."
He didn't know what to do.
It was night.
Sasuke watched as Sakura used her chakra-enhanced strength to carry Naruto to his bed. He didn't even move when she tucked him in and kissed him on the forehead, didn't even budge when she sat down and stretched beside him. Naruto didn't even stir when Sasuke sat down and stretched on his other side.
The cold fear was suffocating him.
The two lay unmoving in the dark as they retreated into their own world, their slumbering friend their only anchor to this world (it is the sun that pulls everything together). Sakura wrapped a hand around Naruto's waist, pressing herself closer with a silent desperation. Sasuke pressed an ear to Naruto's heart, listening with silent, nearly tangible fear (whywhywhy) as it pumped and beat in perfect rhythm with his.
His rival. His best friend. His everything.
His Naruto.
"He's still here."
The whisper echoed in the silent apartment and he pressed himself closer to the sleeping figure. He wanted (needed) to feel him, assure himself that Naruto was still there and not slipping away from him as he was ordained to. He wanted to be near him, needed to be near him. Feel his heart. Grasp his soul. Hold him and never let him go.
He's still here.
It was the first time since he was a child that Uchiha Sasuke willingly touched someone with only the want (the need) to get close. At the back of his mind, though, he'd always thought that if he were to reach out to someone again, it would be to Uzumaki Naruto.
He's still here.
Always, always Naruto.
"This is a nice way to wake up."
He drowsily opened his heavy eyes, blinking as a clothed chest met his sight. He yawned and closed his eyes, his face burrowing deeper to the source of warmth before him. It was so comfortable, so warm and familiar, and he wanted this familiar, warm comfort to embrace him once more. As he drifted off to sleep once again, his mind suddenly clicked and his eyes flew open.
He was awake.
Sasuke quickly shot up, a light color touching his cheeks as he remembered who he had been snuggling into. He turned to the man beside him, ready to snarl incendiary comments in answer to the mischievous grin he knew was there.
But words wouldn't form when he turned to meet a pair of achingly blue, blue eyes.
Naruto was looking at him in contemplative silence, clad in the white yukata he had been wearing when his late afternoon nap extended into a full sleep. There were still traces of sleep in his eyes, though it was fast disappearing as he regarded the Uchiha sitting so close before him on his bed.
It was the first time that Sasuke saw his face again in ten long lonely years.
They were looking into each other's eyes, as if seeking every inch, every detail, of the secrets lurking within. Their noses were almost touching, their warm breaths ghosting over each other's faces as they tried to breathe.
(breathe)
Breathe in each other.
They were so near but he could feel how they were getting farther and farther apart with every second of eternity.
"Good morning, Sasuke."
And there it was, that smile. That smile that could hurt him and heal him in the same heartbeat.
"Naruto."
Naruto inched to his right and Sasuke felt suddenly cold at the lost of the precious inches.
"Slept well?"
He didn't need to answer with words or actions. He knew that Naruto understood him enough to see the answer in his eyes.
"That's good," Naruto said, his eyes squinting shut as he broke into a wide smile. "Sakura-chan is making breakfast in the kitchen. She had to go home after."
Sasuke's eyebrow raised. "Home?"
Naruto nodded, stretching his arms above him. "I don't want to deprive her from Gejimayu." He chuckled sheepishly when his stomach made a grumbling sound.
At Sasuke's continued silence, Naruto went on. "Besides, Sai's coming by later." He turned to the other man who had been quieter than the usual quietness he had known.
"C'mon, let's eat."
Sasuke returned when the sun was almost down. Naruto was asleep on the bed this time, his head on Sai's lap as the artist leisurely sketched on his notebook.
The pale shinobi looked up and gave him a pleasant smile.
"Uchiha."
He merely lifted a head then turned away, the sight somehow twisting his chest. He headed to the kitchen and fixed himself a cup of tea, refilling his cup again and again as he waited for his pale replacement to leave Naruto's room. He headed to the bathroom to clean himself and change, then went back to the kitchen for another round of tea.
It was past dinnertime when he stood up and went in.
Naruto was lying alone on the bed, Sai sitting on the chair by the window and sketching under the light of the moon. The room was unlit as was the previous night, something that he learned to be Naruto's preference.
He thought it was unusual.
As he stood by the door, Sasuke wished nothing in that moment than to lie beside Naruto and assure himself that he was still there.
Sai didn't even look up when he entered the room, his full attention on his art. Once in a while he'd lean back, glancing at the sleeping figure as he continued. As time dragged on, Sasuke had a sinking, resentful feeling that Sai was planning to stay the night.
He stiffened when the other man stood up. Sasuke watched, tense, as Sai neared the bed and knelt on the floor. He swallowed the demand he wanted to hiss, and instead watched with restrained, irrational anger as Sai gazed into the blond's sleeping features and leaned forward to plant a kiss on smooth, tanned forehead.
Sasuke's control would have snapped if Sai hadn't stood up and passed him, shutting the door behind him quietly as he left.
He exhaled a ragged breath when the chakra signature disappeared. Silently, he slipped beside Naruto and drifted to sleep.
Sasuke woke up to Naruto's lingering warmth and scent, the latter's voice drifting from the kitchen as he chatted with Sai. He waited until the other dark-haired man left, and only then did he join Naruto in the kitchen for breakfast.
They chatted and argued about mundane topics, pausing for a moment to see who could eat the most tamagoyaki. Sasuke hid his surprise when he won, noticing suddenly that Naruto's appetite wasn't as hearty as it used to be. Naruto sulked and accused him of cheating, to which he retorted that unlike a certain dead last, his own genius was enough to defeat him anytime and at any game.
When Naruto jabbed him with his chopstick, Sasuke had to bite back the choked sound that almost escaped his lips.
It was the closest to a spar that they would ever have again.
He returned in the afternoon again. Naruto was lying on the bed, Kakashi sitting on the chair by the window as he read his novel. His former sensei gave him a cheerful "Yo" before returning to his important reading.
Minutes later and they were in the kitchen, sipping on the Gyokuro tea that Sasuke had bought earlier. Kakashi would sneak in sips even when the younger man was scrutinizing him intently, and Sasuke was reminded of a time when they tried to see what was underneath the mask.
"How is he?" Sasuke asked, almost hesitant. His voice was low and even, but he couldn't hide the slight tremor that broke through his tight control at the last uttered word.
Kakashi's gray eye showed only understanding. "You've seen for yourself, haven't you?" A pause. "What do you think?"
The dark-haired man took a long sip, urging the heat in his throat to go down. He looked down at his cup, the knot in his throat getting tighter and tighter as his sight blurred and his eyes burned from a foreign, unwelcome heat.
"C-Can't—we do anything?" he finally asked in a raw whisper.
The silence was suffocating. Sasuke looked up, obsidian eyes whirling with ill-concealed emotions as his eyes searched his former teacher's for hope.
Commanded.
Demanded.
Pleaded.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke."
Kakashi patted bright blond head and left.
Sasuke climbed on the bed beside Naruto and stared up at the ceiling. And now, now he couldn't fight it. He couldn't stop tears of anguish and self-loathing from falling, furious with himself for being so weak and useless in this situation. For being so weak and useless after all this years. After all this time.
(after everything)
He was losing his best friend with every breath he took.
It was only when a gentle hand wiped away his tears that Sasuke realized he had been weeping out loud.
"What's the problem?"
Naruto's eyes widened in surprise when Sasuke threw himself on his chest, sobbing and crying like he had never seen before. He had always known that underneath the icy exterior was a deeply emotional soul, but Naruto hadn't known the depths of Sasuke's emotion until the latter was weeping in his arms.
Uchiha had always been emotionally fragile creatures, keeping their vulnerabilities under layers and layers of tight, cold control. Emotions burned under frozen walls and icy blockades, and only the most stubborn light endured in the darkness they hid themselves with. Only a patient touch can crack those defenses created for self-preservation, and it could take years or a lifetime (or never at all) before they ever come tumbling down. Uchiha were fire—their passions were consuming, their affections suffocating (they burnburnburn)—they were also glass (fragile and solid-liquid)—a right push and they would fall to pieces, and once they lay in shards they had nothing left to protect, and broken and unshielded were when they were the truest.
A wellspring of bottled emotions burst inside the last—broken—Uchiha, and he wept for his parents and his brother and his goals and his life. He wept for the years he wasted, wasted hating and running and merely existing, years he could have spent with the one he couldn't really live without. He wept for the knowledge that came too late, and he could only watch helpless as time slipped away because there was nothing he could do. Not the wealth he was born with. Not the genius he inherited. Not the powers he had spent a lifetime to possess.
Not the emotions he had finally accepted.
(not him, not him)
In the end Sasuke was human, and in the end Naruto was too.
And so Naruto let him cry, wrapping his arms around his precious person and rocking back and forth, back and forth as he soothed with whispered promises and hopes and wishes and dreams. Sasuke's lips were moving, and there may have been words like please and I'm sorry and precious and love, but he couldn't hear over the breaking of his heart and Naruto couldn't hear over the breaking of his own.
In that moment, the passage of time was nothing but a faraway memory, hidden within the cobwebs of a dusty old library. The night was void of its usual nocturne, and the sounds of their breathing were pauses to the orchestra of silence. Sasuke's racking sobs gradually slowed into quiet hiccups, and Naruto would have smiled at how child-like Sasuke was if he didn't feel as affected as his best friend had been, in that moment when time was meaningless and all that mattered was the person in his arms.
In that moment, Naruto not only held Sasuke—he held a dream come true.
"Sasuke..."
White hands that were tightly clutching the front of his yukata let go, and Naruto felt strong arms move to wrap around his waist and press him closer to the other. He could sense Sasuke's desperation as the arms tightened, as if he could break physical barriers by force and actually touch and drink in his soul. Naruto squeezed back in assurance, and Sasuke began to relax, assured that he was still there and his heart was still beating, that they were still breathing the same air and that this wasn't a dream.
(this isn't a dream)
Naruto gently lowered themselves on the bed and finally, he could see Sasuke's features. His eyes were closed and tear tracks marred his ivory cheeks, and Naruto lifted a hand to wipe the remnants of the still-warm liquid. Sasuke was still as his eyes remained close, and his heartbeat slowed when he felt that tender hand on his face rise up and raise the long fringes of his dark hair.
When he felt the light pressure of lips on his forehead, his eyes slowly opened.
Deep pools of blue looked into his eyes.
Naruto leaned forward, his tanned forehead pressing against Sasuke's white brows. He could see his reflection in mirrors of blue, and finally Sasuke saw himself through Naruto's eyes.
Could Naruto see himself through Sasuke's eyes as well? Because if he could see himself the way Sasuke did, the way he had before denied to himself, the way he had finally accepted to himself, the way he always, always had—
—Naruto would understand how precious he truly was.
A gentle whisper broke the silence.
"Good night, Sasuke."
He gave a soft, small smile.
"Good night, Naruto."
Sasuke woke up with heavy, bloodshot eyes.
He burrowed his nose deeper into Naruto's pillow, savoring the warmth and scent still present in the soft cushion. He could hear muffled voices coming from the kitchen, and after a short time of debate, he stretched languidly and slowly sat up.
He could sense Naruto in the kitchen, along with Iruka and a trace of Kakashi's chakra. He quickly deduced that Kakashi had left the moment Iruka arrived to fix breakfast. The Academy teacher and his former student were chatting as they did in the past, and while Sasuke's stomach was complaining, he didn't want to intrude in their moment.
He decided to sit by the door that was slightly ajar, waiting for audible signs of the chuunin's impending departure.
"—aru's training?"
"It's coming along well," Iruka's voice answered. "He had become more mature and serious too."
"That's good to know, Iruka-sensei," Naruto said in a cheerful voice. "I knew he'd learn a lot from Shikamaru. The man's a genius, after all."
Sasuke's ears perked up. He pressed himself closer to the bedroom door. A brief silence, which he took as the older man nodding, before the blond's voice echoed once more.
"How are the treaties with Ame and Iwa?"
"Nanadaime-sama confirmed a new alliance with Ame two days ago. Iwa is still holding out but we're sure the Tsuchikage would agree."
Sasuke knew that Naruto was nodding. "I knew he could do it. If there's a man who can make the perfect peacemaking strategy, Shikamaru's the perfect choice. By the time he steps down, Konohamaru can bring Konoha to its golden age."
"Peace began in your reign, Naruto."
"Saa, Iruka-sensei. I just bullied the shinobi nations into submission."
"You shouldn't undermine your achievements," Iruka gently chided. "Peace became possible because of you."
There was a sudden slight coughing sound and the scraping of a chair.
"There, there," Iruka murmured after a long pause.
A mischievous voice answered. "Here, here." Naruto began to laugh before another cough stopped him, followed by the sound of liquid hitting a solid object.
Sasuke silently shifted, moving until his eyes could take a glimpse from where he sat. Iruka was rubbing Naruto's back in comforting circles, the latter bracing himself on the sink. Sasuke could see that he wasn't just throwing up the contents of his stomach.
He was throwing up blood.
Sasuke's heart stopped and he would have sprung up from where he sat if not for what happened next. Iruka reached forward to close the faucet, and then wrapped his arms around his brother and son leaning weakly on the sink.
"Why you, Naruto? Why you?"
He thought he had already wept all the tears that he could, but Sasuke could feel prickling heat at the back of his eyes once more.
"Better me than anyone, Iruka-sensei," Naruto finally answered, voice scratchy. "Oyaji must've known that I could handle this."
"It's not fair, it's not fair... You suffered so much already..."
"And it's been great too. Plus I had all of you. Even—even the bastard's here."
His heartbeat sped up.
"I didn't even wanted to hope but maybe, Iruka-sensei, maybe out of a lot of things I fucked up, I finally did something right, na?"
"Naruto—"
"Hey sensei, can you whip up some rice and misoshiru again? Sasuke might wake up soon to have breakfast with me."
You—you idiot.
"Don't eat too much, okay? Sai told me what happened."
He squeezed his eyes shut.
You stupid, stupid idiot.
Sasuke crept back to the bed. He lay on his back, red-rimmed dark eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. He didn't know for how long he stayed there—he only moved again when Iruka's chakra traces disappeared.
He strode to the bathroom and splashed water on his flushed face. He didn't have to look at his reflection to see how terrible he appeared—he could feel the weight in his eyes and the strain in his facial muscles.
"Morning, sunshine."
Sasuke grunted his greeting and settled across the blond smiling serenely from where he sat. He picked up his chopsticks and began to eat.
They ate in silence, Sasuke eating faster and more than he ever did before. Whenever Naruto would make a move to get another cup of rice or misoshiru, Sasuke would take it from him with a smirk. The third time it happened, Naruto rolled his eyes and gave up.
"Do you know that there are a lot of hungry kids in Kusa?" Naruto asked dryly.
"You only say that when the person isn't eating," Sasuke pointed out.
"There's such a thing called sarcasm, Uchiha."
"And there's such a thing called feigning ignorance, Uzumaki."
Naruto grinned widely and Sasuke's lips lifted at the corner.
"So that's how it feels to be a dobe, usuratonkachi," Sasuke remarked in a light, teasing voice.
"And that's how it feels to be a bastard, teme," Naruto playfully shot back.
"Redundant."
Naruto stuck his tongue out. "See? A bastard through and through."
It was like the old times, though they were mellower and more subdued with their banter. There was a deeper understanding of each other, a more profound regard for each other. There were changes but the familiarity remained the same. Strange, so strange how they could be at ease with each other, after only a few days from an absence of years.
It was like the old times.
Sasuke would have been content, truly content, if he could ignore the paleness of what used to be a healthy tan, if he could ignore the slight shaking of what used to be a firm grip, if he could ignore the controlled voice of what used to be unbridled shouts and yells.
If he could only ignore the changes he didn't want to be there.
He reached forward and swallowed a cup of tea.
"Naruto?"
The apartment was silent.
He quickly went to Naruto's room, his heart pounding furiously
He wasn't there.
Calm down.
"Naruto?"
He extended his chakra to try to sense the younger man's presence, but he couldn't detect anything. Not a flicker. Not a trace.
Naruto—
He ran out of the apartment.
Not yet, not yet. Please, not yet—
The waters shone like glowing drops of flame under the late afternoon sun.
The sun glinted on his hair as the wind played with the strands. Orange haori would flap every now and then, revealing the blue hakamashita covering his broad torso. Dark orange hakama was folded to his knees as he sat on the dock, cool water lapping gently at his ankles with his hands behind him bracing his weight. The lean face was turned to the heavens, ignorant of the world that continued to turn with its millions of nameless faces.
In this world under this heaven, only one face and one name mattered to the prodigal of Konoha.
Sasuke crouched behind the faithful audience of the sky, forcing himself to wrap his arms around the blond. Because he knew, it's the only way he could stop himself from grabbing his friend's shoulders in a tight, painful hold.
"Dobe."
He's still here.
"Teme."
He's still here.
His head dropped on an orange-clothed shoulder as they both watched the setting sun. He pressed closer when he felt the blond slightly shiver.
Light footsteps sounded behind them. A figure knelt on Naruto's other side, and creamy-white arms wrapped around the both of them. Sakura squeezed themselves closer to each other, her cheek pressing on Naruto's right and Sasuke pressing on Naruto's left.
"Oi, you guys..." Naruto murmured. Sasuke could feel warmth on the whiskered cheek, and he knew that the blond was blushing.
He could also feel Naruto's smile.
"Don't spoil me too much," he said, laughing lightly. "I might not be able to let this go."
Sasuke turned his face, his forehead touching Naruto's temple.
"Just—shut up."
Kakashi watched his former students and smiled. Times like these, he was glad for Obito's gift. The Sharingan could capture memories better than any photograph could. Sparing a glance to a tree, he again returned his gaze to the beautiful tableau laid out before him. His former soldiers sat together as lifelong friends by the dock and he wouldn't forget this for as long as he breathed. He placed his hitai'ate back over his eye and rubbed the other. With a last smile, he left.
Above a tree, Sai was intent on his oeuvre. Finally—after a long, long time—he could capture the three of them in his canvas the way they were meant to be—
Together.
It had taken years but it was well worth the wait. Sai drew as he never had in his life, understanding the moment for what it is. No book could explain the ties that bind these three souls, but maybe with his art he could at least try.
Maybe with his hands he could try to honor the bond that changed his life.
Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura sat together in their embrace, not one willing to end the moment where time stood still for all of them. Finally, stars began to appear one by one in the darkening skies, and Sasuke uttered the three words that Naruto had so longed to hear from his lips.
"Let's go home."
He was by the window again, this time looking up at the pale moon in the sky. A silvery shaft of light made a halo around him, bathing him in a misty, otherworldly glow and giving him a translucent, mystical aura. He shone like a mirage—beautiful, transient, ephemeral.
Unreal.
Sasuke's heart seized in his throat.
He's fading!
Sasuke suddenly pulled him harshly from the chair, far from the enchantment of the moon and into the comforting darkness of the room. He didn't need truth—what good was truth in the dead of the night, what good was a truth that made him feel fear and cold and helpless and dead? What good was a truth that broke him? Hurt him?
He needed a lie. He needed the calming, soothing comfort of a lie.
Naruto didn't even voice any protest when Sasuke pushed him down his bed. Maybe this was why he preferred his room to be unlit. Because maybe, in the darkness, he could ignore the truth and lie.
Not yet. Kami, not yet.
"I'm still here."
Please, not yet.
(but he always preferred the hurtful truth from comforting lies)
"Sasuke..."
His voice came out in a choked whisper.
"Why don't you ask me to stay?"
His rising voice shook.
"You used to come after me spouting your ridiculously long speeches about bringing me back to Konoha, fighting with me to force me back here, shouting and yelling with your obnoxious voice to make me come back—and you said you'd chase me until I return and you said you'd do anything to make me come home. Even when your arms and legs are cut off and when all the bones in your body are broken, and you said—you said—you -"
Accusation was ringing in every harshly uttered word, but his voice broke when he asked the question that never left his mind.
"Why don't you ask me to stay?"
Sasuke went to bed, since that night they slept together, hoping to wake up the next day and hear Naruto invite him to stay. Stay with him, stay by his side, stay together for as long as they could. But breakfast would be over and Naruto would simply smile at him, then go back to his room and sleep once again. And Sasuke would leave and come by in the afternoon, and hope that the next morning would be the morning that Naruto would ask. Every second, every minute, he wanted to be asked to stay.
But Naruto never did.
And every second, every minute, every heartbeat he was away—
His fists clenched in his lap as the silence lengthened.
"Answer me."
Sasuke raised thunderous black eyes and met resigned blue eyes.
"I want you to be happy, Sasuke."
He opened his lips—control be damned, he had lost control over himself since the first time he saw Naruto—to shout, yell, scream his fury, his pain (why had he ever allowed things between them to come to this?) but he stilled when a warm hand touched his cheek.
"I don't want to force you into something you don't want. I've tried years before and it didn't work." A sad smile tugged his lips. "If being away from me will make you the happiest—" Naruto placed his hand on Sasuke's nape and gently pushed his head down, his lips planting a heartbreakingly light kiss on his brows.
"—so be it."
As Naruto began to draw away, Sasuke leaned closer (desperately, urgently) to the younger man's forehead. He couldn't get enough of the other's nearness—wasn't it obvious what he wanted? Wasn't it obvious what he needed?
Wasn't it obvious what would make him the happiest?
"Ask me, Naruto. Ask me to stay."
A heartbeat.
Please.
"Will you stay?"
He burrowed his face on silky blond hair. Sasuke inhaled deeply, breathing in his scent.
"I will."
Sasuke's eyes shot up, his gaze leaving the scroll he had been trying to read for the past three hours. Naruto reclined on his bed, a pillow on his lap and an unfurled scroll above as he wrote. They had a light breakfast—Sasuke insisted on eating most of it—and both of them retreated to the former Hokage's room. Naruto had fallen asleep almost immediately after, missing Sakura's visit as he napped for two hours.
He and Sakura hardly exchanged words—she merely fussed over the slumbering figure as her brows furrowed in concentration. Green eyes were bright with unshed tears as she kissed a whiskered cheek, a white hand gently touching the blond's face.
"I'm glad you're back," Sakura murmured as she passed Sasuke. She paused by the door, her back gracefully straight as she spoke with nary a glance back.
"He—never stopped hoping you'd come back, Sasuke-kun. It was—" she paused, before continuing in a whisper. "—it was his last wish."
Sasuke watched Naruto sleep.
He watched as the golden lashes fluttered open, and he felt his heartbeat trip faster when peerless blue eyes looked up. When Naruto gave a little smile, Sasuke couldn't help but breathe deeply and give a small smile back.
Naruto, then and now, always made him feel warm.
"You're spacing out on me. Am I really that boring now?"
Sasuke grunted, a bit embarrassed. He stared blankly at Naruto, trying to remember what they were talking about prior to his mental lapse.
Naruto carefully placed his ink brush on the holder beside him, then placed his hands a few inches next to his scroll.
"Well? Everything's history now and I made sure everything's taken care of before I stepped down. Are you staying here for good?"
Sasuke turned away, looking anywhere but at those blue eyes.
"You should, y'know," Naruto said, picking his brush again to resume his writing. "You still have another goal to fulfill, and the village would be happy if you stay for good. Having you back in the ranks would greatly bolster Konoha's power. No one would ever want an Uchiha for an enemy." Naruto smiled, his eyes on the characters he was writing before continuing. "Of course, that's just my opinion. If I hadn't become a Hokage, I'd probably be roaming the countries like Ero-sennin did and you did. So if you decide to leave again after, I wou—"
A crashing sound interrupted his words. Naruto looked up to see his friend breathing harshly, the fist that punched his wall trembling beside him.
"I said I would stay, didn't I?" Sasuke asked, his voice calm as his fist shook.
"I ask if you would be staying here for good," Naruto said in a quiet tone.
He looked back as Sasuke stared down at him, painfully white hands clutching the front of his yukata. Naruto's blue eyes were unblinking, and he suppressed a gasp when cold, fathomless black eyes suddenly brimmed with raw emotions.
"In what way is this fair, Naruto?" he choked out after a lifetime in a minute, weary as a man who had lived infinity in a year. "In what way is this fair? Why am I here, with you, being tormented by something between us that I couldn't even see?"
"You of all people know that life isn't fair," he whispered back. "But life gives us a chance to make things go our way." Naruto smiled. "I hope you'll choose to stay here for good. Even when—"
"Don't."
"—I'm—"
"Don't!"
"—gone."
Sasuke's dark eyes widened with betrayal as the last word echoed in the sudden silence of the room.
"How—how could you—!"
Naruto's head snapped back from the force, ignoring the throbbing pain in his cheek and his cracked lips. Before him, Sasuke's eyes widened further, his shaking fist uncurling and hovering on the bruised cheek with palpable alarm.
"No! Stop!"
Translucent red covered the bruised cheek and bleeding lips, healing him.
"Stop healing—"
Destroying him.
"Stop—"
(why?)
Why do I always hurt you?
"You can't pretend forever, Sasuke," Naruto murmured, and for the first time since he returned, Sasuke saw how exhausted his friend truly was. "I wouldn't miraculously recover because you're here. That's just stupid."
Against himself, Sasuke felt the corner of his mouth twitch.
Even as another part of him died inside.
"But you know," Naruto continued, releasing the front of his clothes from Sasuke’s grip. "if I only knew that dying is the only way to make you come back, I would've done that long ago."
"That's not funny," Sasuke bit out in barely-controlled anger. "Don't joke about this."
"Why? It's my life." The younger man suddenly snickered. "Or my death."
"Stop it, dobe."
"Strange, isn't it? I've always thought I'd die in a really cool way in the battlefield, or that Kyuubi would take over and I'd go berserk and you and everyone would have to finish me off in some awesome sobfest."
"Stop—"
"But here I am, a retired Hokage at 25 with the stupid fox begging for my forgiveness. Not really the greatness I imagined but at least my dream came true."
"Stop—"
"Anou sa, looks like my boast about my name in the Heroes' Memorial won't happen. My handsome face is carved in the mountain already anyway."
"Stop—"
"I didn't even—"
"Stop it!"
Naruto's face lifted, his eyes squinted shut with a wide smile on his face. Tears glistened at the corner of his eyes as he raised a trembling fist in the air.
"I can still kick your ass, teme, so don't shout in my face. That punch was just a lucky fluke."
"Why—" Sasuke lifted a hand and wiped at the corner of a closed eye, almost awed at the droplet of hot, sparkling liquid. "Why won't you cry?"
"You're just jealous because I can still smile," Naruto replied, his smile wavering before stretching into a foxy grin.
"Look at me."
"Why? You feel neglected?"
"Naruto," Sasuke man sighed. It was such a lonely sound. "Look at me."
Naruto opened his eyes and Sasuke's heart twisted at how dim they appeared.
"I don't want to die," Naruto whispered.
(if I could crawl inside your body, I would)
"Then don't," Sasuke whispered back.
(if I could hold your heart, I would)
"I want to live longer."
(if I could capture your soul, I would)
"Then live."
(if I could reclaim those years from the past, I would)
"I can't."
(if I could add more years to your future, I would)
"You never give up."
(if I could have you in my arms forever and again)
"Sometimes we have to."
(if I could stay with you a lifetime and over)
"Don't die."
(if I could be with you until time runs its course and starts all over again)
"Live for me."
(if I could, if I could, if only I could—)
"Live for me, Sasuke."
(I would)
Swings in the park.
"That's how high you can push, teme?"
Waters by the dock.
"Stop splashing around, dobe."
Winds by the mountain.
"Gah, I left my haori again!"
And smiles all around.
"You'll crick your neck if you look up too much, usuratonkachi."
He was sitting by the window again, staring up at the blanket of blue stretching farther than the eyes could see.
Naruto stuck out a tongue and beamed. "If I want a neck crick for my birthday, you can't stop me, Sasuke-yarou."
"Figures you would give yourself a neck crick as a birthday gift," Sasuke said with a smirk. Naruto rolled his eyes and huffed. He went back to the scroll on his lap, writing once again. Sasuke went back to reading and glancing covertly every now and then.
"Na, Sasuke?"
He grunted.
"Can you come here for a sec?"
Sasuke stood up, carefully masking his concern as he went to the figure by the window. He crouched before his friend—Naruto couldn't look up too long without getting struck with vertigo after looking down—and stared up at eyes that defeated the sky.
Naruto was unclasping his necklace. Dark eyes widened when he leaned forward and, circling his arms around the frozen figure, successfully clasped the Shodaime's necklace around his neck.
He couldn't speak.
"Looks good on you. But everything looks good on you. Bastard."
"Na-Naruto?"
"Wow, you can actually stutter. Fancy that. You fall apart on necklaces?"
Sasuke couldn't even think of a comeback as he lifted the crystallized chakra necklace. He knew it was irrational, but the necklace felt warm.
(he was always warm)
"Like it?"
His head whipped up. "You're giving this to me?"
"No. I just want to see who of us looks better wearing it," Naruto drawled.
Sasuke frowned. "Idiot."
"Yeah, because I'm the one who asked if the necklace I'm wearing was given to me. Smart, very smart."
"Why—" he turned away, "Why are you giving this to me?"
"It's my present, of course."
"It's not my birthday, dobe," he murmured.
"I know. But it's my birthday gift for myself. You know." Naruto laughed. "Sad to say, the neck crick wasn't actually my gift to myself."
Sasuke raised his hands behind his neck, beginning to unclasp the necklace. "Your birthday's not in two days. Give this to me then."
A hand on his arm halted him.
"No, Sasuke," Naruto said in a soft voice. "I'm giving it to you now."
He couldn't control his trembling when he brought his arms down. Sasuke had to swallow before he could speak again.
It was a whisper in the afternoon silence.
"Thank you."
Naruto broke into a breathtaking smile. He nodded happily as a pleased dusting of pink covered his cheeks, pausing when a light touch grazed his right cheek.
Sasuke was leaning up to him, the hand on the whiskered cheek drawing Naruto's head down to him.
Closer to him.
"Teme," Naruto breathed, mere inches separating their lips. Dark eyes were clouding over, watching the movement of the full lips above him. Closer and closer—
He suddenly opened the eyes he didn't know had slid shut, feeling a feathery light pressure of lips on his forehead.
It hurt.
"Look to the future, Sasuke."
His head snapped up.
"Stop looking back, na?"
He released a shuddering breath, the white hand on Naruto's cheek falling down and clenching. "You don't belong to my past, Naruto."
"But I do." The usually husky yet high-pitched voice, too high for a male, was lowered. "I do."
His patience broke.
"You don't!" Sasuke snapped, his eyes livid. "You belong here, with me! In the present! You—"
He never stopped regretting it.
Naruto shook his head. "Sasuke—"
He never stopped regretting how he left Uzumaki Naruto.
"If only I returned sooner—if only I came back sooner—"
He never stopped regretting how he didn't come back to Naruto.
If only I—If only I didn't leave—
"Look to the future. You've lived in the past far too long already. C'mon Sasuke, I know you can do it." Naruto smiled. "You've been my goal before. I looked forward to you. I waited for—"
"I don't have anything to look forward to!" he shouted, his eyes squeezing shut. He couldn't look at Naruto. Fuck, it hurt to look and he couldn't anymore. "You took it away from me! What do I have to look forward to when you won't be there anymore?"
In the silence, their harsh breaths were in rhythm with their racing heartbeats.
"I never—I never wanted to kill you," Sasuke said, his voice a mere whisper. "All those times—I really didn't want you dead—"
I don't want you to die.
"Kyuubi wanted to give me a new life."
Sasuke's eyes flew open.
"And I said—" Blue flooded his vision. "I said I like the life I already have. We made a deal, see? At the last second, I'm giving him control of my body so he can escape and continue to live. In exchange, he'll grant me my last wish."
"—it was his last wish."
"So look to the future, na?"
It was his punishment, Sasuke thought, a dull ache throbbing in his heart. But no, even in his punishment, it had to be someone else who suffered. Because as Sasuke suffered with every breath that took Naruto away from him, Naruto would be the one to truly suffer in the end.
In what way... in what way is this fair at all?
"I hate you."
Blue eyes looked at him with something he had always seen in those eyes. Something only now he had come to understand.
"I fucking hate you so much."
Blue eyes squinted shut, a telltale liquid on the corner of his eyes.
"I'm glad."
Everything was surreal. Sasuke kept hoping—praying—that he'd wake up, that everything was a bad dream or that he was simply under a particularly intricate illusion. But he couldn't deny the reality of that painfully bright smile, couldn't deny the reality of that achingly light laugh. He couldn't ignore the warmth that both broke him and built him, couldn't ignore the touch that both destroyed him and healed him. And however much he needed those things he had vehemently denied, refused to acknowledge to himself all those years, Sasuke wanted everything to be a dream.
It wasn't hard to believe, what with the strangeness of the situation. He never was an expressive person, but every time his eyes or his thoughts strayed to his best friend, he had to fight for control over overwhelming emotions he suddenly had no grasp over. The great Uchiha Sasuke had been reduced into an emotion-ridden mass of pathetic humanity, and he despised himself for it with every core of his being. Naruto was the emotional one, the expressive one, yet suddenly there was a reversal of roles that Sasuke never saw coming. Not that Naruto had become a stoic man with a tight lid on control. Naruto wouldn't be Naruto without his burning emotion, his expressive passion. But perhaps it was maturity, perhaps it was the circumstances—
Naruto had changed.
He knew that the dobe had changed because of him. And he knew that he had changed because of the idiot.
Naruto—Naruto had been changing him even through the years they were apart.
"A ryo for your thoughts?"
"I'm still richer than you are, dobe," he answered smoothly, a smirk playing on his lips.
Naruto rolled his eyes and huffed. He glanced at the man on the other swing, before returning his gaze to the sky as a frown etched on his features. "You're awfully quiet, even for you."
He leaned on a metal chain.
"Hn."
"You talk so fast, you know," Naruto remarked, sarcasm urging his eyes to roll again. "Slow down and maybe I can understand you. You see, us dobe are kinda slow for tensai like you. Stupid talkative bastard."
Sasuke couldn't quite control the chuckle that escaped his lips. Beside him, Naruto grinned, his pleasure evident over his friend's reaction.
"So what are your plans, Uchiha?" Naruto asked after a moment.
After the completion of his goal, after the bitterness of tainted victory had ebbed, Sasuke had almost lost the will to live. He still didn't understand what made him go on, but in the years that came and went—outside of survival—Sasuke never made any plans.
Maybe it's not too late to make plans again.
"What are your plans, Uzumaki?"
Naruto stared hard at him. Finally, after what seemed like ages, he replied. Sasuke exhaled the breath he didn't know he was holding.
"I plan to go to the Hokage Mountain."
Sometimes making plans were really that simple.
"Wanna join?"
Sasuke stood up. From his periphery, he could see Naruto gingerly standing up beside him, stretching his arms above his head and smiling at everything and nothing in particular.
I never wanted it any other way.
"Watch it. Here it comes!"
As the younger man clapped his hands beside him, Sasuke rolled his eyes. "It's just a sunset."
"Just a sunset?!?" Naruto echoed with shock. "Just a sunset?!?"
Sasuke snorted. "It happens everyday, dobe."
"But it's never the same, teme," Naruto’s voice lowered in a murmur.
Sasuke turned his dark eyes, surprised at the sudden softness in the other man's voice. Naruto was gazing ahead, watching the setting sun from their perch above the stone head of Yondaime. The autumn wind played at long and spiky honey-yellow hair, the fading light dancing over the silky strands of gold. There was a different gentleness in those peerless blue eyes, a kind of gentleness Sasuke had never seen in them before.
"Sometimes, I think," Naruto said, his voice faraway, "I can live forever and ever and never see the same sunset. There will always be new sunsets with new discoveries and new treasures in the sky. But the strange thing is, even if the sunset is always new, it's always... there. It's old. You know there'll be a sunset tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. But each sunset is not like the sunset of the other day. So when you think about it, at the end of the day, the sunset is something old but something new at the same time."
Naruto raised a hand to rub his nape, laughing lightly as a slight pink tint colored his cheeks. "I know I sound dumb again. But I really like the sunset. It—assures me. However long it takes for the day to end, the sunset will always be there and it will always be worth the wait."
"And—" Naruto's shining blue eyes looked into Sasuke's midnight black eyes. "—and it's like you. I—I always knew you'd be back, however long it takes. And it's worth it. And-And-And sometimes I think that—"
"I could know you forever," Sasuke murmured. "And there will always be something new to know."
Naruto nodded vigorously, tears starting to spill from his eyes. "H-Hai. And the best part about the sunset... is that it means you..." he took a deep breath, "you can finally rest because the moon will be there to watch over you. You won't have to work or strain or any crap like that. You can just sleep and just—be."
He raised a fist and vigorously rubbed his eyes. Then he looked ahead again, a grin on his face. "It's not just a sunset. It's never just a sunset." Naruto turned to his friend, eyes squinted shut and teeth flashing brightly. "Got that, bastard? There won't be another lesson."
"Hn."
It's about you and me, dobe.
He closed his eyes against the warmth of the dying sun and the coolness of the rising moon.
(in the end, it's all about them)
It was past midnight and he was still sitting by the window.
"I'm not tired, Sasuke," Naruto said, sensing the restless movement behind him. Sasuke propped his chin atop the blond head, the moonlight spilling over him as well.
Sasuke didn't like seeing the silver haze of the moon glowing over his best friend. Naruto looked so transient, so transparent under its light. Like he wasn't real. Like he was only an illusion, a figment of his imagination. Like he wasn't a part of this world.
His world.
So tonight, he joined his best friend in watching the stars. He would be transient. He would be transparent. He would be unreal, an illusion, a figment of imagination. He would be a part of another world.
Sasuke would be a part of Naruto's world.
He didn't know how long they remained that way, Naruto sitting on his chair and Sasuke standing behind him. Their breathing were in sync with each other as his arms hang loosely over the blond's shoulders, their silence connecting them deeper than any words could. Naruto began to rub his arms with such gentleness, such tenderness, and Sasuke was startled to realize that he was comforting him.
And his fears
his pain
his sorrow
his ache—
"Teme..."
—vanished like snow under the embrace of the sun.
"Dobe."
He shifted to stand in front of the reclining figure, his hands still touching shoulders that had carried burdens that should have never been carried alone. He knelt before his friend, looking up to eyes that he could never tire of seeing.
Sasuke could never tire of looking up to the skies.
"Care to fix me a glass of milk?"
His throat burned and there was heat behind his eyes. Their foreheads touched and Sasuke smiled, closing his dark eyes to stop himself from falling apart. It was too soon. So damned soon. So damned, fucking soon.
There was no milk.
He opened them again, eyes as dark as the starless night, memorizing every nuance, every shadow, every detail of blue, blue eyes that never lost its smile.
And this once, just this once—
"Wait for me, Naruto."
—Uchiha Sasuke will show Uzumaki Naruto what he really feels through his eyes.
Naruto nodded, lips breaking into a contented, peaceful smile.
"You're worth the wait, Sasuke."
He closed his eyes, just feeling, remembering. The warmth in his arms. The lips on his brow. The peace in his heart.
And that smile, that smile—that smile in Naruto's eyes.
Slowly, painfully, longingly, Sasuke pulled away and deliberately stood up—stepping away from the light of the moon, stepping away from Naruto and his world. Such a sweet smile was on his best friend's face that Sasuke almost lost control, almost rushed into the light of the moon and dragged Naruto back to the darkness of the room.
But Naruto never belonged to the dark.
He belonged—
Sasuke smiled back as he broke inside.
—He belonged to the light.
Naruto nodded, still comforting him even from the light. Sasuke’s smile turned into a confident smirk (remember this, this is only for you) and he headed to the door.
Never pausing.
Never stopping.
Never looking back.
Sasuke shut the door behind him and slid down to the floor.
Minutes later, he felt a powerful burst of burning, hot chakra.
Then.
Nothing.
Peace.
It was Naruto's gift.
As tears fell down his cheeks in the complete silence of the approaching dawn, Sasuke thought he had never seen his most precious person look so beautiful in his eyes.
Dark golden lashes fanned on scarred, golden brown skin. Pink lips curved in a soft smile, hinting of a happy story waiting to be told. A weathered, callused hand clutched a steady chest, the other hand holding a rolled-up scroll. The sun's light slowly bathed the man by the window.
Naruto had always belonged to the light.
Sasuke reached down.
His lips were still warm.
Uchiha "the Bastard" Sasuke,
You're always worth the wait.
Always yours,
the handsomest, coolest Hokage in the history of Konoha, Rokudaime Uzumaki "the Awesome" Naruto
Eyes shot open as the sound of a car braked with an earsplitting shriek.
His brows furrowed with irritation as he tried to close them again, grumbling to himself as he tried to reclaim his nap. It was a cool autumn afternoon and the tree was enticing, so he did what anyone in his place would do and leaned on its trunk to catch a few winks. Besides, school would be starting again two days later and he wanted to enjoy as much time left as he could.
He sighed as a cool breeze ruffled his hair, his nose twitching with contentment as sleep began to claim him once again.
He felt a shadow fall upon him, and he unconsciously burrowed himself deeper. He wanted—whoever that was—to go away. He wanted his nap back! Can that person stop staring at him? It's getting creepy.
"What do you want?!" he suddenly yelled, fed up after feigning sleep for five minutes. Why couldn't he be left alone?!
Annoyed blue eyes clashed with calm dark eyes.
It was a kid who looked like his own age. Unlike him, the kid was wearing a stuffy dark blue suit that set off his enviably smooth white skin, which contrasted beautifully with his black black hair that had strange highlights of blue. Below the other kid, he felt so scruffy with his messy yellow hair and skin that remained brown however much he washed himself.
He tugged at his loose orange shirt. At least, he could try to cover the hole in his favorite pants. He had always thought it looked so good on him before, too.
"Are you just going to stare at me?" he bit out petulantly.
He was surprised when the beautiful—stupid pretty boys!—kid suddenly smiled.
"I'm sorry for making you wait."
His blue eyes widened before narrowing. "I wasn't waiting for you."
The other kid just smiled with amusement. "Hn."
He stood up and stomped his foot. "I wasn't!"
"I didn't think I'd take longer." Amidst yells of "I wasn't!", the quiet voice echoed in the park. "I'm sorry."
He stopped and stared. After a moment, he crossed his arms over his chest, glaring somewhere else. "I wasn't waiting for you."
When he glanced at the other kid, the other boy's lips was tilted at the corner. His blue eyes glared before his own mouth widened into a grin, his eyes squinting shut. "Okay."
"Five more minutes, young master."
"Hn."
He began to jump up, his finger pointing at the other side of the park. "Look, look, it's the sunset!"
The other kid laughed lightly. "So it is, dobe."
"Stop calling me that, teme!" He pulled the white hand, dragging the other kid as he ran to the other side. "There it is!"
As he jumped up and down, clapping his hands as the sunset reflected in the waters by the dock—
I promise…
—Sasuke watched the sunset in Naruto's eyes.
… I won't make you wait anymore.
