#also i can’t get over how dead inside both naruto and sasuke look after their fallout. there’s no light in their eyes

[daylighteclipsed]

Very cool how the last chunk of Naruto season 5 got me weeping like a baby

[panharmonium]

THAT is the importance of an adult who Understands.

one of the things that i always come back to when i think about sasuke is that sasuke has virtually everybody in the village fooled.  you couldn’t find a more messed up kid in all the hidden leaf if you tried, but you wouldn’t know it to look at him, because he can’t afford to acknowledge or display weakness - firstly, because weakness means he isn’t strong enough to take on itachi, and secondly, because signs of struggle on sasuke’s part might mean that an authority figure tries to involve themself in his life, and sasuke doesn’t want anyone interfering in something he sees as a personal quest.  he doesn’t see himself as a child who needs to be looked after by adults; he sees himself as an adult in a frustratingly small body, and he wants all the other adults to leave him alone and let him do what he needs to do.  he doesn’t want meddling.  he wants everyone who has the power to potentially keep him from getting what he most desires to remain oblivious to his true state of mind, to not look too closely, to never see a child in distress, because if he ever lets on that he doesn’t have his shit together, it’s possible that one of the leaf’s less negligent grown-ups will swoop down on him and start trying to intervene/“parent” him, which to sasuke’s mind just means “get in the way.”  

sasuke, who has long felt like he’s already an adult dealing with adult problems, won’t tolerate that.  so he masks his issues, to the point where he has virtually everyone around him completely deceived.  his regular schoolteachers don’t worry about him - he’s a high achiever, he gets perfect grades, he’s top of his class in everything, he doesn’t make trouble.  his classmates don’t worry about him - they buy the ‘i’m so cool, nothing fazes me’ act and worship at his feet, even as he demonstrates that he wants nothing to do with them.  the rest of the leaf village doesn’t worry about him, either - they see him as a source of village pride (and a source of entertainment/drama, like when they’re all so excited to watch The Last Uchiha fight for their nation during the chunin exams).  even though sasuke is so messed up on the inside, the exterior facade he presents to people is specifically designed to prevent any wondering about how he’s doing.  as far as the world can see, he’s doing Just Fine (and while everyone is busy not wondering about his health, he can get down to the business of getting his revenge).

sasuke’s strategy for relating to other people is, essentially, the opposite of naruto’s approach.  naruto, in his early childhood, draws as much attention to himself as possible, causing all sorts of mayhem, in the hope that someone, somewhere will see him.  he makes trouble and causes problems precisely because he desperately wants someone to acknowledge his pain, and that’s how he ends up landing iruka as an adult support figure, because iruka notices what’s happening and decides to get involved.  sasuke, in contrast to naruto, doesn’t want anyone to acknowledge or even notice his pain, because if they do notice it, they might try to stop him from pursuing what he thinks is the only way to alleviate it.  that’s not an acceptable outcome for him, so instead of making a scene and calling attention to himself, he hides in plain sight. 

sasuke doesn’t want people to get involved in his life.  he wants to be left to his own devices.  he doesn’t think he needs (read: deserves) anybody’s help, and some tiny part of him knows that a Responsible Adult might raise their eyebrows at what he’s doing to himself, so he uses his “high-achiever, too cool for school” persona to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.  and he almost succeeds - until kakashi enters the picture.  kakashi, who can’t be fooled.  kakashi, who has known from Day One, Minute One exactly what goal is driving all of sasuke’s high achievement, and who knows that sasuke is NOT okay, in either the head or the heart.  kakashi, who in the above gifset can tell that sasuke is having a crisis without even turning around.  kakashi doesn’t need to be shown evidence before he gets concerned.  he’s known from the very start that sasuke is struggling, because he lived through similar pains and tried to cope with them in similarly unhealthy ways (remember: “useless things like emotions only get in the way”/“having too many ties in this world will only lead you astray” + “everyone you’re talking about has already been killed”/“they’re all dead...because i wasn’t strong enough to save them”).

sasuke still tries to put up the front.  a few scenes prior to the above gifset, sasuke is the one who is making fun of naruto for freezing up - you’re not hurt, are you...scaredy-cat.  and he completely fools his peers with his attitude - sakura’s got stars in her eyes, naruto’s super jealous; both of them think sasuke’s So Cool and Super Powerful and Not Afraid of Anything!

but when sasuke himself is confronted with a serious, imminent threat to his life (one against which his supposedly “advanced” skills are useless, one from which he can’t protect himself; aka, one where he’s suddenly reminded that he’s actually a twelve year-old genin and his safety is out of his control, just like it was the night his family was murdered), he’s the one who panics.  the other kids are scared, too - but sasuke completely loses it.  he almost kills himself to get away from the intensity of his fear.  *cough* it’s the ptsd *cough* but anyway -

kakashi is able to sense this without even turning around.  he’s preparing to fight an aggressor under the least ideal circumstances possible - they were supposed to be on a mission where it was four people protecting one man, but because tazuna lied to them, they’re now in a situation where it’s one man protecting four people, including three children - and even with all of that competing for his attention, kakashi is still focusing closely enough on each individual kid to sense that sasuke is going off the rails.  without even turning around, he knows.

we all remember this, right?

it doesn’t matter how much of an act sasuke puts on.  kakashi has been there.  he knows better.  he can’t be fooled.  he calls for sasuke by name and pulls him back from the brink.

kakashi interrupts this crisis so effectively.  not only is he able to snap sasuke out of his panic, but he’s also careful to then extend his reassurance to everyone present, accomplishing the dual purposes of calming everyone else down and also redirecting attention away from sasuke’s more extreme reaction, which the others haven’t noticed yet.  it’s deftly done.  it addresses sasuke’s crisis on an individual level without putting him in the spotlight.  it works.  the way sasuke relaxes in that last gif...man.

calm down.  i’ll protect you with my life.

i’ve already talked a little bit about how much it would mean for somebody with sasuke’s particular history to hear that (especially when those words are spoken by an adult who follows through on the promise every single time), but here i just want to focus on the fact that the only reason sasuke is lucky enough to receive this reassurance in the first place is because kakashi isn’t fooled by sasuke pretending he doesn’t need to hear it.  kakashi and the kids are very new to each other at this point, but even so, kakashi still understands sasuke better than any other adult in the hidden leaf.  he’s the first authority figure who sasuke hasn’t been able to trick into obliviousness - sasuke can’t pretend away his problems in front of someone who used to have all those same problems himself!  kakashi is too savvy to be waved away with the whole ‘i’m super advanced for my age i don’t need any help don’t look behind my mask’ charade.  kakashi invented that game.  he knows it’s one you don’t want to win.  he won it himself, when he played it, and winning just meant that everybody took him at his word when he acted like he was fine and nobody ever gave him the kind of help he needed.  he’s not going to let another kid get away with the same self-destructive shenanigans, not when he’s around to call their bluffs and be the kind of support structure he himself could’ve benefited from when he was younger.   

[hiems-incaelo]

OKAY SO I HAVE MADE A NARUTO FIX IT

In which everyone leaves the village. Like, literally everyone. 

Or: I wanted Gaara and Sasuke to bond over slightly homicidal impulses. I gave them a fucking fix it which includes: woke Naruto, found family, toad sage Sakura, revolution, Taka and some more people including Itachi, Tsunade, Tenzo and someone who might not be as dead as yall thought. 

SO:

Orochimaru knows abt the truth of the uchiha massacre. this changes everything. he decides to go with a different plan: plant curse mark on sasuke, kidnap him after the exams, train him (and his sharingan) for a year, take Suna’s jinchuuriki, train em both for a year maybe two, take over sasuke’s body, use Sasuke’s sharingan to gain control of the ichibi, use the ichibi to destroy Konoha.

Chunin exams happen, Sasuke gets his curse mark. Sasuke, Shikamaru, Neji and Tenten make chunin

Sasuke is manipulated / kidnapped → he leaves the village

1 year passes, sasuke trains with Orochimaru in the meantime, during that Shino also makes chunin and also Orochimaru tells Sasuke the truth abt the massacre

Orochimaru kidnaps Gaara. Sasuke and Gaara share like 2 conversations and they kill / flee from Orochimaru

they start travelling together, and become even closer.

during this time Konoha (thus also Naruto and friends) hears word of what happened. Tenten feels more and more distant from Konoha’s ideals. Neji is with her.

Akatsuki also knows abt Orochimaru’s death. Itachi has an existential crisis. Tenten and Neji manage to convince Lee to leave the village. Naruto goes with them.

They try to find (and hopefully team up with) Sasuke and Gaara. it’s been two years at this point. Naruto finally realizes how badly he was treated by the village.

Kakashi and Gai are wondering why the fuck their teams just. left. Sakura stayed ofc, she’s doing missions w team 8 for now. Guy finds a letter left by his team.

Kakashi wants to send out an anbu team (Genma, Yugao, Hayate, Tenzo) to retreive their lost boys. Gai comes at him, smacks him in the face and tells him to WAKE THE FUCK UP. somehow, Kakashi changes his mind. they also leave Konoha, to try to find their students themselves, not to bring em back but to help em and protect em (they’re still like fifteen now, they hardly know how to count to ten). Tenzo finds em and goes with them.

Gaara and Sasuke are doing pretty ok. Their main goal now is to just. survive and make sure no one finds them. Gaara is still pretty insane ofc (he never got the talk no jutsu) but he finds himself feeling calmer more now. Sasuke trains in genjutsu.

they’re all sixteen now and GOD finally have Neji, Naruto, Tenten and Lee found Sasuke and Gaara. they find them in a cave, Sasuke assumes they’re enemies because ofc he would. they talk, and (tho reluctantly on Sasuke and Gaara’s side) team up. Gaara rll rll rll wants to kill them all but doesn’t becos Sasuke knows these people?? his first friend knows these people?? well then they must be at least a bit good????

Neji, Sasuke and Lee spar. a lot. Tenten also joins in sometimes, but doesn’t rll wanna get involved in those boys’ bullshit. Naruto tries to bond with Gaara (mainly over jinchuuriki stuff), and Gaara realizes he doesn’t rll wanna kill these people.

it doesn’t take long for Gai, Kakashi and Tenzo to find the teenagers ofc (two times jinchuuriki chakra is basically a beacon of light). they meet up, and see the state of their students (and a random red haired insane kid??) and they’re just like. yo. let us join your found family.

the akatsuki is still searching for the jinchuuriki, but Itachi lowkey finds out / discovers / theorizes that Sasuke already knows the truth abt him. he sends out one of his crows to make sure, and yes, Sasuke does know, and Itachi leaves the akatsuki. 

Itachi travels to find Sasuke’s found family now, comes through a village and finds a very suspicious eyeless beggar sitting on the side of the road. and omg- IS THAT SHISUI-

it is shisui. and yo, guess what, Shisui and Itachi come across the northern hideout and they see Juugo and they’re all like omg we’re taking this child with us. They come across another orochimaru hideout. they beat all the guards, find Suigetsu, and say fuck it we’re adopting this one too. they all get to know each other blah blah and sui and juugo find out their saviors are looking for their younger brother so Suigetsu’s just all like ‘bro what if we just get Karin she’s like a hella good chakra sensor’ and so they do

so now Itachi and Shisui (who got his 1 eye back btw) travel with Taka and well it still takes a while to find Sasuke cuz Karin’s never rll sensed him before yk and they wind up in a village and they sense this amazingly huge powerful chakra and suddenly one of the  fucking sannin is standing before them.

Tsunade stops them (she sees S rank Itachi Uchiha, ofc she does), but when she hears abt the truth and what they’re all doing she’s just like ‘sure i’ll come’

during ALL of this Jiraiya is low key dying inside. like  e v e r y o n e  is leaving so he takes Sakura and teaches her jutsu and shit. Sakura is also going thru a crisis, but she has Ino and she has Jiraiya and rll all she’s thinking rn is fuck it i’m bringing them ALL back, even Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei.

back to the Sasuke fam everything’s going good. sasuke teaches kakashi how to properly handle a jinchuuriki using their sharingan, gai continues training pretty much everyone, Sasuke tells em all abt the massacre. they all low key say ‘yo we kinda need to revolution a bit ngl’

Itachi and fam FINALLY find sasuke. they all meet up (that’s Sasuke, Gaara, Naruto, Tenten, Lee, Neji, Kakashi, Gai, Tenzo & Itachi, Shisui, Suigetsu, Juugo, Karin, Tsunade, Shizune.) it’s pretty emotional but GOD they’ve got so much manpower they could actually do the revolution bit now.

and meanwhile Sakura’s all gettin powerful and shit and she’s trying to find- well, everyone but the Akatsuki is still going around and well they did lose one of their most powerful members just now: Itachi left, and Hidan and Kakuzu died the same way they did last time (Ino-Shika-Cho trio is still in Konoha, just instead of Kakashi Sakura went with them to help them get revenge) 

Hinata is not doing great, especially with the Hyuuga being angry that their prodigy has left, but sadly they can’t acivate the seal (somehow)

reason why they can’t activate the seal: Kakashi, Tsunade, Shisui and Itachi are all hella smart. they have already long taken care of it.

gaara and Naruto are doing more jinchuuriki training, Sasuke helps them and kakashi and Tenzo do too. Tenten is learning taijutsu from tsunade with Karin, Neji learns medical jutsu (shizune helps ofc). Suigetsu learns more sword fighting from shisui, Juugo and Itachi and Shisui all bond over birds. 

Gaara realizes…. maybe he doesn’t need to kill people to feel a reason to live anymore. he has a family now; a real one, and he loves Sasuke and he loves Naruto and he loves Lee and Neji and he does meditation with Juugo and he feels alright.

Pain still comes to Konoha, really more to find out about Naruto’s whereabouts than to like… do something. Jiraiya, Sandaime, Sakura, Ino-Shika-Cho, Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Kurenai, Hayate, Genma, all the other anbu and chunin and jonin, all help fight Pain, and they win in the end. Jiraiya and the Sandaime both die.

And that… sort of activates something in missing nin fam. Danzo is left in charge, and well, everyone is not fucking a-okay with it so ya know what time it is

they organize a revolution. During this time, Sasori, Deidara, Hidan, Kakuzu, Pain, Konan, and Orochimaru are already dead; Zetsu and kaguya just don't exist (because I said so) so before they plan their attack on Konoha, Gai and Kakashi set out to defeat the last members of the Akatsuki; Kisame and Tobi.

well it’s pretty obvious who fights who. With Kakashi’s new mindset, and mastery of Kamui and training with his sharingan, eventually he wins the fight. Gai defeats Kisame, almost with ease because Kisame doesn’t really have any reason left to fight anyway. Kakashi takes off Tobi’s mask.

you know how that goes. He suddenly sees his (dead) best friend’s face on the guy he just murdered and GOD he is not okay. Gai comforts him, tries to get him back to his right mind. Kakashi had been healing anyway, especially with his new family, so eventually he does get over it, but just… it's a shock. a very, very heavy one.

they plan their revolution carefully. what they need to do is these things;

Send Tsunade back to the village and let her take the role as Hokage before Danzo can. 

Sasuke, Itachi, Shisui, Kakashi will take care of Danzo. Danzo was never a rll well known person in Konoha anyway, so ppl don't rll notice it when he's gone (at least not civilians and normal shinobi) 

Tsunade clears everyone (the whole found fam. At least the ones from Konoha: Karin, Suigetsu, Juugo, Gaara are out of her hands, but they still find refuge in Konoha) 

Naruto and Team Guy go to Ino-Shika-Cho to convince them to join their revolution. Ino is in. Choji says "hmm okay sure" Shikamaru is lowkey a nationalist in the Manga, so it takes a bit more for him to switch sides, especially after Asuma's death, but eventually he caves in. 

Sakura is fucking depressed and when she finds out her team is back, she is angry. (she should be. They all left her without saying anything, her master just died, the whole village is counting on her now. She has every single right to be angry) it takes Ino, Naruto, Sasuke (who doesn't rll care but he still respects Sakura as a former teammate) and Kakashi to just. Talk. 

And they talk abt everything. A very long, very overdue talk that is very much necessary. 

The village elders suspiciously die of food poisoning right around that time. During the interrogation, a pale guy who says his name is Sai won't say anything, even when the poison is found in his quarters. Sasuke is there during the interrogation, and he looks at Sai's obvious fake smile and he thinks omg I've found a new bestie lemme introduce you to my other two besties Gaara and Naruto-

Ino takes control of T&I. Shikamaru and Sasuke take control of Hokage advisor positioning. Kakashi, Tenzo, Itachi and Shisui all disband ROOT. Snakes of ink suspiciously leave important classified documents near the Hokage's office that had been kept hidden before. 

Neji takes control of the hospital with Shizune. He also confronts the Hyuuga clan, and with the help of Tenten, Lee, Guy, and Hinata (who'd joined the revolution, and apologized to Neji for ignoring the situation and her privilege) he gets the Hokage to ban all kinds of forced labor. 

It is Ino, Sakura and Gaara who spread the truth of the Uchiha clan. Civilians are shocked, shinobi are even more shocked, clan heads can't fucking believe it. Sasuke, Itachi and Shisui rebuild the Uchiha compound (and place a little grave for Obito with Kakashi)

It takes years for everything to cool down. Tsunade tries to do everything in her power to disband the shinobi system bit by bit

In the end it's when Kakashi becomes Hokage the real changes happen. Kakashi creates a new schooling and ranking system, and it looks like this:

The academy is open to anyone. You learn things like medical jutsu, history, culture, transportations and sealing techniques, and chakra control. No harmful jutsu. None. The kids aren't taught how to perfectly throw a kunai through someone's head. They aren't taught how to bury someone alive. They aren't taught how to slice someone's throat in seconds. 

Once you graduate from the academy, you become genin. This includes harmless missions, with no fighting or killing. Transportation, errands, so only D rank or C rank. 

From there, you can decide to work as civilian or in places like the hospital, or you can decide to take the chunin exams WHEN YOU TURN 18. THAT'S RIGHT. YOU CAN ONLY BECOME CHUNIN WHEN YOU'RE OF AGE. No killing unless you're an adult. No violence unless you're an adult. 

All the old bags who could object to this new system are already dead. Haha. 

Gaara gets a letter about 4 years after the revolution (he's twenty now). It says: Gaara pls we heard you were alive and Temari and I don't wanna be Kazekage but dad died three days ago and you're the only one who can rule the village now also I hope you're not still insane and killing anyone to feel alive haha pls come back

So he comes back. And becomes Kazekage. And installs the same shinobi system as there is in Konoha. And he creates and alliance with Konoha. 

And well. Sasuke wants to live with Itachi and Shisui in the Uchiha compound, he does, but. He misses the world. And he hasn't felt at home in Konoha since he was 7, even if it is so much better now. So. He becomes Shadow Hokage. And sort of ambassador of Konoha and Suna. But rll he just travels and visits Taka's new hideout and does outside missions to make sure Konoha doesn't go broke and maybe he works too hard but he lives and he's happy. 

Naruto becomes Hokage when he's twenty six. He misses Sasuke, but now that he's Hokage he can give the official order to make Sasuke check in (in person) once every two weeks. And that's the first thing he does as Hokage. 

Sakura becomes Hokage advisor with Shikamaru. Kakashi finally steps down, and practically launches the hat at Naruto, throws on a kimono and takes Guy and takes a bag and. Leaves. And he spends the rest of his days in the hot springs. 

Lee gets a chunin team he trains. Kiba and Shino do too. 

Tenten handles any chunin exams. 

Neji is doing great at the hospital, and he has several students teaches. 

Hinata is Hyuuga clan head.  She disbands the rules of main and branch family, and she makes sure everyone is treated equally. 

Itachi and Shisui are just chilling in the Uchiha district. They write to Sasuke every two days. They feed their crows, and they plant tomatoes, and they know they're at peace. 

Tenzo and Sai also do outside missions, and they often team up with Sasuke. Naruto calls them the Shadow Squad. 

Iruka still teaches at the academy. He's moved in with Naruto, because Sasuke couldn't, and Kakashi couldn't, and so what maybe he wants to yell "welcome home" at his son

Taka is doing fantastic. Sasuke found a random kid on the side of the road and dropped it off at the Taka hideout with a "idk how to take care of these but I'm sure yall will figure it out" and that's how Mitsuki gets adopted. 

Tsunade is doing whatever the hell she wants. Shizune too. 

There is only one wedding ever. It's Ino and Sakura's. They adopt two cute kids called Inojin and Sarada and they love them, so much.

(there is one more wedding. It's between Sasuke and Gaara and it's purely so that Sasuke doesn't have to pay Konoha taxes. Only Gaara, Sasuke, Itachi, Juugo and Tsunade know.)

And they're all happy. They're all okay. The world is far from perfect, but it's better than it was before, and they'll keep working untill they're satisfied. 

[behindheremeraldeyes]

sasusaku month 2020 days 12 & 15 - gimme shelter // recovery

title: her dear friend

summary: Set after their mission at Redaku – Sasuke and Sakura are finally going back home after their latest discovery when they’re surprised by a storm. She’s worried about her best friend, and he knows he has to do something before she puts herself at risk.

a/n: So, if you’re tired of seeing Sasuke caring for Sakura, this story is definitely not for you. I had this idea a while ago and of course I used it as an excuse to re-read Sasuke Retsuden (everything can be an excuse for that XD). I had initially planned to post this for the SasuSaku Month, but life happened and... Well, enough of me, I hope you enjoy this one, and if you want, I would love to hear your opinion on it!

(also, this is un-beta’d. Please, go easy on me)

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Redaku continued to prove itself as a strange land even now that they were just a couple of miles away from the border with the Fire Country. Dark clouds had been announcing a storm ever since they left the Tataru Astronomy Research Institute— or at least what was left of it—  and even if there were still a couple of hours left of sun-light, the forest where they were had been enveloped by a shady atmosphere. Birds were coiled up inside their nests and squirrels hid in tree-trunks as an ominous wind swept the leaves beneath their feet. 

All the signs around them indicated that Mother nature was about to unleash her fury, and neither of them wanted to be out in the clear when that happened. Even if they were in a hurry to return home with the new info they had gathered regarding Naruto’s condition, they knew better than to defy the natural forces.

For the storm was due to any moment now, they decided that it would be better to deviate from their original route so they could seek shelter in a safe place. It sure took them a while, especially because they didn’t really know the area, but eventually, Sasuke managed to spot an empty cavern. It was damp, cold and filled with bats; but it would have to do for the time.

It was not like they had any better options.

As soon as they verified the cave to make sure it was safe, his wife was the one who used her fists to gather some dry wood, and by the time he had started the fire with his fire jutsu, the downpour began. It had been years since he had last seen a storm so destructive and powerful like that, and for the moment, he was just glad to have found a place where they could stay.

They had fire to keep them warm, enough food and water for the night, and—well— they also each other so they wouldn’t feel lonely. All they had to do now was wait.

However, for his wife, waiting seemed to be a lot harder than facing the storm.

Once they had settled inside the cave, the male Uchiha couldn’t help but notice how restless the pinkette was. While he was calmly sitting by the fire, she was standing up, pacing around and looking outside. Her arms were crossed across her chest, and he had already lost count of how many times she had already sighed or cursed the heavens for the rain outside.

Sakura was pissed, he could tell. Her shoulders looked tense and she had barely said a word ever since they were forced to stop. He knew she wanted to go home as fast as possible, and being stuck inside a cave had certainly not been part of their plans when setting the fastest route home earlier that day. More than anyone, he knows how much she hates the unforeseen, and at that moment, of all times, anything slightly different from their original plan was enough to give her a huge headache. 

They needed her back in Konoha. Naruto was slowly getting worse, and even if they hadn’t really found the cure in their mission, they had found new and relevant information that could lead to something— anything, really. Ever since the blond had fallen ill, she had been on the edge, reading countless medical books and ancient scrolls, looking for a cure or at least a way to slow down its progression. She might have found a thing or two during the many nights she has spent up, but it was still not enough.

Naruto was still sick at the end of each day, and the only difference now was the she wasn’t by his side. And even if she knew that what they had done in Redaku was also very important, he knew better than to believe she wasn’t bothered by the fact that she was miles away from Konoha.

In fact, the guilt of being away was slowly eating her alive, and if she continued to put herself under so much pressure, it would be just a matter of time before she had a mental breakdown.

He had to do something. Just like in the past, he would have to take care of her so she could take care of the others.

“Sakura.” He started, his voice soft as her name rolled out of his tongue. “It's no use. You know the storm won’t just stop because you’re glaring at it. Come sit by the fire.”

“Don’t even try. You and I know I don’t want to sit.”

“So are you just gonna stand there all night?”

“Maybe I will, so what?” She turned to him, her hands balling into annoyed fists as her voice came out an octave louder. She forcefully closed her eyes for a second, then, sighing exasperatedly before her stiffened expression melted into a worried one. ”I’m sorry, Sasuke-kun. I just…I just want to go home.”

He knew she didn’t mean to sound rude. It was just the stress getting the best of her, and even if he hated to see her like that, Sasuke knew there was nothing he could do to solve her problem at that moment. For he was still feeling a bit drained after what had happened at the Astronomy Institute, he knew he didn’t have enough power to use his Susano’o all the way back to the village, and anything other than that would be useless— irresponsible, even.

There was really no way out of that situation.

Still, it was not like their friend was facing an imminent threat at that moment. Even if he really was getting worse, all of his vital parameters were stable and the progression of the disease didn’t seem to be so fast that his condition would suddenly become life-threatening. A day or two wouldn’t make any difference, both Shizune and Shikamaru granted that in a letter they had sent on the previous day.

Naruto would still be okay by the time they got home. And however logical that sounded, it would never be enough to calm her poor heart.

“I know you do.” He said, his voice offering her some sort of comfort. “But we both know we can’t do anything right now. Not with this storm out there.”

“But…but don’t you think we should take the risk?” She spoke, her green eyes now looking at him with a serious expression. “We have experience in field missions, and if we are careful, we can escape the storm. It will save at least a day of journey.”

His eyes widened at her statement, and it worried him to listen to her talking like that. She was actually serious about that— serious about walking aimlessly in search of a new way back home in the middle of the pouring rain. It was possible to see that her thoughts were now clouded by her sense of guilt, as she was clearly considering putting herself at risk out there just so they could try to arrive a day earlier or two.

 Sakura was acting recklessly. And he had to stop her before she did something stupid. 

“We’re not going anywhere in the middle of the storm. It’s not worth the risk.”

“What? Why not?”

“What do you mean why not? Tch, you know very well how hard it is to move in such terrible conditions. It’s dark, we don’t know the area and the storm is too strong.”

“I-I know it’s dangerous, but this is an emergency, right?”

“It's not an emergency yet. They said his condition is stable and we still have time to get back to Konoha.”

“They don’t know for how long it will be stable, Sasuke-kun. It might get worse.”

“You don’t know that, Sakura. This is just speculation.”

“Of course it is. We don’t know anything about this stupid disease.” She started, her voice now growing irritated. “He might as well be better by the time we arrive, but he also might drop dead before we get the chance to use what we’ve discovered in Redaku.”

“Hn.” He nodded in acceptance, closing his eyes. “I guess we will just have to wait and see, then.”

“Wait and see?” She said, turning to face him. He watched as her green eyes were now glaring at him with vivid fire, and at that moment, he suddenly remembered how intimidating his wife could be. “Are you perhaps suggesting that we should just bet on his life? He is the Hokage.”

As he watched the pinkette growing angry at his words, Sasuke realized that, apart from his efforts, she had finally lost it. She was now using their official positions at the village as an excuse to her behavior, and though she has always respected the shinobi hierarchy, that was probably the first time he ever heard her calling Naruto 'Hokage' when they were just the two of them in the room. His words had been completely misunderstood by her, and at that moment, even if she wasn’t really using words to describe it, he knew exactly what was going through her head.

Sakura was angry. Truly and inexorably angry.

Guilt was taking over every fiber of her heart and even if she knew it wasn’t her fault that Naruto was sick, she was blaming herself for not being there by his side. It was not like she didn’t trust the people back in Konoha to take care of him, but she knew she was the only one really capable for a job that has always been hers. 

Whenever one of them needs her, she’s there. Whenever they’re sick, she finds the cure. That has been the ultimate rule of her life as a medical ninja, and even if they’re all grown ups now, it was still hard for her to let go of that motherly part of hers. 

She has always been overprotective towards them. She has always tried her best to make sure they were both safe, and after marrying the Uchiha— much to her husband’s surprise— she grew even more worried about the blond. Perhaps it was the fear of losing her bonds with him or even the fact that they were each other’s closest fraternal connection, but whenever Naruto ended up at the hospital, she wouldn’t sleep until he was feeling better.

They’re too close. They have always been, especially after all of the time that were just the two of them. They’ve shared memories, promises and dreams; and it would be impossible for her to just ignore all that and not worry about him. It was stronger than her, and fighting against that would be useless.

He couldn’t change that part of hers even if he tried to. All he could do was make sure it didn’t hurt her like it was hurting at that moment.

Sasuke stood up, then, his heart beating as calmly as before. He knew better than to be mad at her for letting her feelings rule her thoughts, especially when his own emotions almost made him destroy Konoha. Just like all the times when she has showed him compassion during his times of pure rage, he owed her the same kind of reciprocity. 

His wife deserved to be heard, and for she has always been more technical than him, he knew she would eventually give in to reasoning if he presented it to her in a way she could understand.

His feet slowly took him closer to her until his body was towering over hers. For she has never been the kind to be intimidated by anyone, Sakura kept glaring at him with the same intensity as before. He was holding a serious expression, and his voice didn’t change when he started his speech. “Stop pretending you care about the Hokage.”

His mismatched eyes watched as her expression changed. Her eyes widened, her lips parted, and slowly, she grew even angrier at him. “What did you say?” He could tell she was really mad at him, and if he didn’t choose his words correctly, chances were she would end up beating him to dust.

“I told you to stop pretending you care about the Hokage, Sakura. If you really want to go out there in the storm, at least be a little more honest about your reasons.”

“How dare you say something like that to my face? After everything I did and after leaving my daughter alone so I could help you gather new information, are you really saying I don’t care?”

“Aah.” He confirmed, his voice still as calm as before.

“Screw you, Sasuke.” She said, finally looking away from him. “I'm going. With or without you." At that moment, he realized he had driven her to the edge, and that was the right time to act on their problem.

That was the only way he could ever talk some sense into his wife. And even if he could end up with a broken rib or two, he figured it would be better than letting her get hurt. 

She was fast to take her backpack from the ground, and as she was making her way towards the exit of the cave, Sasuke took a deep breath before giving her a decent answer. “At least admit why you’re leaving.” At his words, she stopped in her tracks, turning one more time to glare at him. Sakura opened her mouth to talk, but before she had the chance, he continued. “At least admit that you’re doing this for your best friend. Admit that him being the Hokage has nothing to do with this.”

Her eyes widened once more, and he watched as she bit her lower lip before balling her hands into fists. “Stop with your silly games. You know it makes absolutely no difference right now.”

“Of course it does.”

“Oh, and do you care to explain how?” She crossed her arms across her chest, her legs now slightly parted as a sign that she was standing her ground.

“You wouldn’t be acting like that if Kakashi was the one sick.”

“Bullshit. You know I would–”

“You wouldn’t.” He said, firmly, and he realized she was taken aback because of his words. At that moment, he used that opportunity to get closer to her. “If the one sick wasn’t that idiot, we both know you would be a lot calmer right now. It has nothing to do with his position as the Hokage. It never had.”

“Tch, and so what, Sasuke-kun?! Am I that wrong for caring?” She started, her eyes now tearing up. At last, his wife was admitting the truth to herself and it was relieving to see the walls she had built around herself crumbling down. If he wanted to help her— and he certainly did— he needed to be able to reach her first. ”What if I really am worried about my best friend? He’s sick, okay!? He’s sick and I have no fucking idea of what’s happening with him! I’m scared that something bad might happen and I won’t even be there by his side. And though I know there are very capable people back home, I don’t know if any of them would go far enough to keep him alive like I would!”

Her arms were now embracing her own body, making her seem smaller than she really is. She was bitting her lower lip, and even if it hurt him to see his wife like that, unfortunately, it was the only way he knew to calm her down. Thanks to that depraved shinobi system they grew up in, it was only natural for her to keep it all to herself. According to that system, her fears, her thoughts and her emotions meant nothing in times of crises, and there was no reason to prioritize them over their mission or their Hokage. She’s a medical ninja, trained to heal and not alarm those around her, even if it meant she would be haunted by her own secrets for the rest of her life.

No wonder why the previous generations of shinobi suffered so much. More than anyone, he knew how destructive emotions can be when they’re kept inside for too long, and he was not going to let her go through that kind of suffering. 

Sakura had to let it all out. That was what Naruto would tell her if he was there. That was what he has always fought to protect.

And now that she did, it was time for her to pull herself together. He has seen her doing it before, and for she is this brave woman, he knew she could do it again. She just needed to be reminded of that.

“Sakura, look at me.”

“Leave me alone, Sasuke-kun.”

“I'm serious.” He said, placing his hand on her shoulder. “Look at me.”

Though she refused to do as he said at first, her worried eyes eventually gave in to her husband’s words. Her cheeks were puffed in anger, her eyes were turning red due to the unshed tears and he could see that her teeth had already left their mark on her rosy lips. His wife was sad, but it was inevitable for him to think about how beautiful she was, as her true colors oozed from her every pore.

“Let me go to him.” She said, her voice low, almost as if she was begging him.

“I can’t do this. I can’t let you risk yourself out there.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re his only hope, Sakura.”

“What?” Her eyes widened in surprise, and her lips went agape. She was certainly not expecting those words, and he knew he had to take advantage of her state of bewilderment to tell her the one thing she needed to hear.

“Just think about it. You are the only one who can actually save Naruto. Shikamaru, Kakashi and I can search for things that are related to his condition, but you are the only one who can actually do something about it. You will put all the pieces together and you will find a cure, I’m sure of it.”

“What if you’re wrong? What if I can’t do anything and he dies before we get the chance to get to him?”

“I'm not wrong.” He said, his voice powerful and with no hint of doubt. “I know you can do it. We all know it, and that includes that idiot. He understands why you had to leave, and right now, he’s also doing his best to make sure you have all the time you need. He’s not going to die, Sakura.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I’m not.” He said, his voice soft and delicate as he spoke to her. “But I trust him. He’s strong and he’s too stubborn to lose before using his best weapon.” His hand moved, then, slowly climbing up to her neck until he was cupping her left cheek. He brushed his thumb against her soft skin, and he offered her a tender smile before continuing. “And right now, his best weapon is you, Sakura.”

At his words, a delicate silence took over them as he simply watched as she made peace with her mind. Knowing his wife like he did, Sasuke knew she was probably thinking about a million ways to refute his arguments, but thankfully, she didn’t seem to be finding any. He felt as she allowed her head to rest against his palm, and she carefully placed her own hands over his as if to indicate she was welcoming the comfort he was offering her. She closed her eyes after that, letting go of all the tension that was taking over her shoulders, and he sighed in relief after that.

“You're right.” She nodded, slowly, as she opened her green eyes to face him. “He's strong and…he’s gonna make it.”

“I’m sure he will.”

“It’s gonna be hard, but I have to trust Naruto on this.” She giggled, finally moving her head away from his hand so she could wipe a tear that had dared to fall. “Shannarou, when did he become such a dependable adult?”

“Hn, he didn’t. Don’t forget that Kurama is the one doing it all for him.”

“Yeah, that’s the only possible explanation.” She blinked, tugging a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Thank you for helping me see things through.”

“No need to thank me. You already knew everything I said.“ He reassured her, their eyes still connected. "You were just a bit confused because of your maternal instincts towards that Dobe.”

A chuckled escaped her lips at his words, and slowly, a smile was decorating her face. It was good to see her like that again. "I guess you’re right. “ She said, scratching the back of her head. “I should probably start worrying more about my husband, don’t you think?”

“I wouldn’t mind that.” He started, turning away so he could walk back to where they had placed their belongings. The night was getting colder because of the storm, he was tired, and after all of that commotion, he just wanted to sit by the fire with his wife. “Now come. It’s been a long day and we need to rest for tomorrow."

“You’re right.” She agreed, instinctively following his steps. “Help me heat the water, then. I’ll make us some tea to keep us warm.”

“Aah.” 

And so, after the raging thunder in her heart dissipated, the Uchiha couple could finally settle down by the fire. The water she had collected from the rain was now boiling inside an old kettle with some herbs, and while they waited for their tea to be ready, both Sasuke and Sakura sat next to each other, finally sharing a moment of peace. Her back was pressed against his chest, her head lingered near his chin and he could feel the way her muscles were relaxed against him. The sound of the rain outside felt like a serene symphony, invading his ears and allowing his heart to beat slower.

In a couple of hours, he knew they would both be up and back on their way back home, and perhaps, they would have to face some challenges. The near future seemed to have a lot of uncertainties that they would have to deal with, but for the moment, he figured he could let himself rest while enjoying his wife company.

He really had missed her, after all.

With that in mind, Sasuke closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath. Her sweet scent invaded his nostrils, and slowly, he could feel his thoughts disappearing one by one, until it was just them, the fire and the rain.

the end

[irukas-son]

Hi 😊, can I request Sai fanfiction, where he has a crysh on reader and he sends her stuff like little notes etc like secret admire thing and reader is stressing to find out who that is and with something Sai gives him away by accident and reader realizes it's him and it is a bit shocked because she likes him too but she thought that he doesn't like her back. If you would like you can add other characters in the fiction like reader beeing close to team 7 or something like that. Sorry if it's too specific 😅

Thank you for your ask, I hope you like it!

(High school AU)

“Hey, I got the mail,” my dad shouted coming through the front door from his trip to the market, “and this time, you got something too.”

“Me? From who?” you asked, walking over to help with his grocery bags.

“I don’t know, there is no return address.”

“Oh, that’s weird.”

*

After helping your father with the groceries, you went up to your room and you opened the enveloped once in your room. Inside was a letter that smelled familiar with very neat handwriting.

“Hey ^^

your eyes are like the stars in the sky, they sparkle endlessly

 xx”

A secret admirer letter, who does that anymore? 

*

The next day, after lunch, you opened your locker at school, a pink flash card fell down. Huh, weird, you thought you removed all of them when the midterm was over. You reached to pick it up and flip it over... oh, this is not yours. “Your dress is pretty today❤️”

You turned around to look around, but you only saw Naruto approaching with the smug face he has and stretching his arms behind his head. This neat handwriting can’t be his and you’ve been friends for years, why would he start having a crush on you now?

“Hey, what’s that?”

“A note from... someone,” you sighed turning it around to show him. 

“You do have a nice dress!”

“Yeah, but who is it? Yesterday, I also got a letter in the same handwriting!”

You walked to class while discussing the potential guy who’s admiring you, but the thing is, you’re eyeing the new guy; Sai. You don’t really care about other guys, like sure, you feel flattered, but you’re not really looking for anyone right now... you already have your eyes locked on the guy drawing in his notebook.

It’s kinda hard to notice him because he’s also sitting in front of you. 

“Hey class, today you’ll correct your classmates essays that you submitted last week. But it won’t be between friends, give your essay to the person behind you and if you are at the end of the row, give it to the one in front,” the teacher instructed. Sai turned around to face you, did his usual “fake” smile (that’s how Naruto calls it, you personally thought it was quite charming) and handed you his essay.

You normally focus on your school work, but with Sai sitting in front of you, it’s kinda hard. You gave your essay to the person behind you and then looked down at Sai’s essay. Wait, this handwriting is... you reached in your dress pocket and compared to the note from your locker... it’s the same ink and handwriting! Wait so that means, Sai is your secret admirer! No, it can’t be, they just have the same handwriting, it’s a very standard handwriting after all. You correct his essay, which was mostly syntax errors and not grammar, gave it back to him.

“Oh, hey, I think this belongs to you,” Sai whispered turning back to you giving you the pink note you accidentally gave him with the essay.

“Oh yeah, thanks,” you giggle shyly, taking it back, “who’s it from?”

So, it’s definitely not from him then, “I don’t know yet...”

The teacher hushed you, so he turned back reviewing your corrections as you were tapped on the back by the other classmate to get your essay back.

You saw Sai holding a similar pink note in his right hand and reaching out to give it to you under the desk. You quickly grabbed it and put it on your desk it was written: “here’s a hint: the answer is right in front of you dear ♡’･ᴗ･’♡”

You looked in front of you, there’s Sasuke in the front row, it can’t be him... wait, OH, you felt my cheeks heat up and my mouth open slightly in shock... is it really Sai? He rarely even speaks to you, why did he reveal this now? 

The teacher started her lecture and you couldn’t focus at all, all you could think about is what will happen when the bell ring. 

*bell rings*

Speaking of the devil... you started collecting your stuff from the desk, but you saw Sai was not moving. Is he dead? You lightly tapped his shoulder, leaning your head slightly left while getting up.

He turned back with a slightly frightened look and a pink tint on his cheeks. Oh, he’s so cute!!! Your cheeks heat up again, and you both looked at each other without muttering a word, you both resumed putting your stuff in your bags after you noticed most the class has already left. Gosh, this is so awkward.

“I like you too,” you said shakily in a hushed voice, picking up your bag from the floor.

“You do?” Sai excitedly exclaimed, matching your quiet voice.

You nodded excitedly. “So what do we do now?” Sai asked walking along you towards the exit of the class, “uh, I’m not sure either, how about we hang out after school, get ice cream?” 

[haruno-sakura-san]

So I have a thought for an ItaSaku AU. Sakura gets some intel on where Sasuke is headed right before his fight with Itachi. She shows up after they've both knocked each other out. She goes to try and help Sasuke, but Tobi gets between them and takes Sasuke away with him. Which leaves Sakura staring down at Itachi. The man who is the reason for Sasuke's anger and hatred. But she's also a medic. She leans down, assuming that he is dead but she finds the faintest of heartbeats (1)

I’VE FINALLY WRITTEN SOMETHING FOR THIS!

Sorry this took so long to respond too. I love this AU idea and was thinking it over for a while. I knew I just had to write something out for it, the potential was too good! We MUST have more soft Itachi moments and this would be full of them.

Anyway, it strays a little from the prompt, its not finished and I’m not completely satisfied with the last bit (I swear I can’t write Itachi correctly anymore), but its something and I hope you like it! Feel free to send me thoughts, more suggestions or things you’d like different!

🌸🍡

Do No Harm - Part 1/2

Word count: 4,682

It happens so fast, within the time she takes to blink. One second she’s rushing toward Sasuke, the next Tobi is standing over him, then one blink – that’s it – and they are both gone.

“Sasuke!” She screams his name into the empty space, but its futile. They're long gone, and she did nothing to stop him from being taken.

She stops running, hand braced against the uchiwa painted into the only wall left intact from the battle. What is she supposed to do now? She has no idea of where to look for them, and if she goes back to her team and the village empty-handed... Either way, Kakashi-sensei will be pissed. She's such a failure.

Hot tears fall from her eyes, mixing with the freezing rain. She's standing over Itachi's body with hate in her eyes. She never thought in her life she'd have the capacity to truly hate someone like she didn't now. It was his fault. All of it. Her being here to save Sasuke, his fault Sasuke had left, his fault Sasuke had been injured enough to be taken, and his fault Sasuke had festered under his own hatred so much he couldn't love her.

Her hot tears drop onto Itachi's cheeks, and he flinches. He's not completely dead.

Her hands find his skin, still warm, feeling for any sign of life and - there - fainter than the brush of a butterfly's wings is his heartbeat fluttering along.

There's a rush to that discovery and the act of beating back death from someone, and in the face of so much uncertainty on what to do next, her hands automatically start to work. This she knows. This is the only thing she knows. The feeling of uselessness starts to fade away as she gains momentum and his heart beats stronger.

Later she rationalizes that he's the only one who might know where Tobi could have gone and the only one strong enough to face him should it come to that, but it's secondary to that intrinsic need to do and fix. She's so exhausted by the end, it's all she can manage to take them to an inn nearby. She collapses at the edge of his bed and sleeps for hours.

When she wakes, she's staring into the eyes of the man she hates most in the world. She stands quickly, and a blanket drops from her shoulders to her surprise.

"Sorry, did I wake you? You were shivering."

She doesn't expect an apology or that he isn't showing any signs of aggression at all. Her response is uncharacteristically rude, just a cold glare.

"You look familiar, but I don't know why." He says with a lost look, unaffected by her glare, and moving to sit up. He winces, and she's at his side again, checking his injuries even as she scowls. "I can't remember anything, actually." He continues without his eyes leaving her face.

"Excuse me if I don't believe you." And why should she? He was smart, and this could be his best chance at preying on her soft side.

"You don't.. like me." He answers slowly, only because it's written all over her face.

"No."

He looks down at her glowing hands, "But you're still helping me."

She clenches her jaw and doesn't answer. He's clearly tired, but he's trying to learn as much as he can by just observing. The room, her expression, her clothes. His eyes snag on her headband.

"You're a leaf Kunoichi." Her eyes meet his for a moment in confirmation. "I...am also a leaf shinobi." He says it carefully like he's tugging the memory loose from his head.

"You were. Not anymore." She corrects, offended he'd put himself in the same category as her. They weren't the same at all.

"Was? Hmm." He considers it some more. "I remember bits and pieces of my home, Konoha, but that's it. Nothing about leaving. Is that normal?"

"Stop talking so I can concentrate." She snaps, and to her surprise, he responds with a soft apology.

"Yes, of course. I apologize."

He’s healing more slowly than she'd like, mostly because of her own exhaustion and shallow chakra reserves. At the close of this checkup, he asks, "May I please have some water?"

Begrudgingly, she gets him a glass and press it into his hand. He winces again at the weight and almost drop it. Sakura catches it quickly and raises it to his lips, silently helping him drink. She removes it before he has his fill with an explanation, "Drink too quickly, and you'll make yourself sick."

He looks up at her, now much closer than before, and stare.

"What?" She barks.

"I can finally see you clearly." He says it without embarrassment. His eyesight was that bad, and he's just admitted it with the same even tone as one would admit the sky was blue. "You're beautiful for a kunoichi. You don't have any scars."

She stands up quickly, feeling a flare of strong emotion in her. Hate. She hated him so much. This all had to be an act. Playing on her softness and vanity. She stalks go the door.

"Where are you going?" He asks with a note of panic in his voice.

"I'm getting dinner." The first excuse that pops in her head, and closes the door behind her. He won't leave in this state, and even if he goes, good riddance.

Again she's faced with why she's doing this at all. She should be reporting back to the village, to Kakashi, but what would she say. She just revived a criminal and aided him in escaping capture instead of reporting back. But more than that, she was scared. What if they told her Sasuke had been killed? How can she face them after being such a failure? Naruto's disappointed face would break her.

There were too many scenarios to think through. Too many what-ifs, and that was paralyzing. But she did know if she left Itachi now, he would die. Maybe that was for the best anyway. He was destined to die anyway, right, so she should just walk out the door -

She stops short at the bottom of the stairs. At the inn's entrance is a giant man who's skin was ice blue and cloak covered in red clouds, darkened by the rain. Kisame, Itachi's partner. She darts back up the stairs before he can see her, hurrying back through the door to their room.

"Did they not have food-"

"We have to leave." She's already gathering her few supplies, shoving anything useful in the room into her pack. "Now."

She pops a soldier pill and helps him to the edge of the bed, threading his arms through the straps of her plack and dropping her traveling cloak around his shoulders.

"What's going on?"

"Just get on my back." She crouches in front of him, waiting to feel his weight leaning against her before she grabs the back of his knees and stands. They flew out the window into the rain as fast as she can manage.

The weather is awful for traveling but gives them lots of cover, beating away their tracks as she runs with no destination in mind other than away from the inn and the battleground to the north.

The longer she runs, the weaker they both feel. He needs rest and at the warm wetness seeping into her back, she knows he's reopened some injury. But she doesn't know where to stop. She has nowhere safe to take him.

"Miss?" She hears in her ear. She hadn't told him her name. She tilts her head, so he knows she heard him. "I think I remember something. A hideout from when I was a child."

Her gut tells her not to trust him, but what choice does she have? If she's walking into a trap, the worst they could do is kill her, and if Sasuke was dead, well...

"Head to the right toward that Maple tree with the twisted branches. There's a hidden door at the base."

She takes his direction and sees it almost immediately. It's been shaped from a sapling or through some Jutsu has a pair of lower branches twisting unnaturally together in a spiral. She inspects for a door but doesn't see one.

Itachi asks to be lowered, and she does, looping a weight bearing arm under his shoulders. On his hands and knees, his hands sink into the muddy grass, and she feels a flare of chakra. A door snaps upward. She doesn't ask any questions yet, just hurries them inside.

Uchiwas cover the room, including a faded tapestry on the far wall "Protect and Serve" in script at the bottom. It looks to be some kind of secret meeting room, but she figures it doubles as a safe house when she finds enough to last a full year in the back. She hopes they won't need them for that long.

Dragging out a dusty futon that smells like mildew, she makes a comfortable place for Itachi to lie back. No chakra left for healing, she has to treat his reopened wounds the old fashioned way, with antiseptic and stitches. After she's finished, she again hand feeds him water and a quick miso soup she found dehydrated in the back.

He thanks her more times than she can count, and not once does she answer.

Only when she's rinsing out bandages in a sink in the tiny bathroom does she finally stop to consider just what she's doing.

Again she had the opportunity to leave. She could have left him for his partner to find, but she took him and ran. Staring at his blood on her hands, she feels nothing but disgust for herself and confusion. She scrubs her skin raw.

Wandering back to the room where Itachi is sleeping, she props herself up against a wall, glaring at him until she loses the battle against her exhaustion.

*

His coughing is what wakes her, wet and deep. She pulls his hand away and sees dark blood. A curse leaves her. She'd check before she left for internal bleeding and broken ribs. There was no reason for blood in his lungs. None. Although it will have consequences, she pops another soldier pill and looks again.

It's a disease.

Her hands drop away, and she leans back on her calves. Another chance to give up and walk away. Another choice.

She stands and begins to pace. It was very advance, and this type was something he'd have been born with. Treatable now, but clearly untreated. She turns her back on him, staring deep into that tapestry with the uchiwa. A chink in the great protege's armor. In the strength of the Uchiha clan. Had they left it untreated to save face? Doesn't matter because she needed to decide whether it would be worth it to hide here and heal a man whose very body was fighting against him. A man she hated. An enemy. Should she stay even when she should already be headed back? When Sasuke could be in trouble?

His wet coughs pull her back, and she can't stay away. Her glare is hot on her face as she does what she can to ease his symptoms for the time being.

Team 7 and 8 would have already found the battle sight and have more information than her. They were a team designed for tracking. What would she even add to that? She'd be a spectator. Here at least, she was doing something. She was making an impact. And if Itachi lived, he could give them information they didn't already have.

She leaves to find tea and rationalizes some more.

The second wave of exhaustion from the soldier pills is worse than the first, as she knew it would be. She doesn't know how much time has passed, but Itachi is thankfully sleeping when she wakes. She'd die if he saw her in this state.

Her empty stomach lurches, bitter saliva filling her mouth. Staggering to the bathroom, her muscles tight from overuse and sleeping against a cold wall, she's sick several times. Nothing is I'm her stomach but yellow acid, and when that's gone, dry heaves for several minutes. The cool tile on her face is a relief. She's exhausted, and the weight of her loneliness hits her in full. Her friends don't know she's here. She can't leave. Even if it makes her the weakest shinobi in the world, she just wants to go home and see her mother's face again. She wants her mom to bring her peppermint tea and rub her back softly until she feels well again.

She's silently crying on the floor, holding her breath through the sobs, so they don't escape. Her moment doesn't last long because Itachi's coughs reach her again. She sits up, wipes her face, and focuses on the only thing she can.

She doesn't have enough chakra right now, but he's not coughing up blood this time, so she opts for traditional methods. A warm mug of tea in her hand, she slides behind him and helps him sit up, leaning his weight back against her smaller frame. His breath is less labored sitting up. She stirs him awake and carefully pours tea into his mouth, it's sharp herbal vapors opening and soothing his airways. Then she rubs circles into his back until he falls asleep again, thinking about her mother and her home.

*

It takes a week before he's well enough to stay away for any length of time. It's restless and agonizing for Sakura, who, left alone with her thoughts, rehashes all her options until she's shredded to pieces. None of it matters. Her life has become a series of reactions and that’s it. The moment he needs her, she's there nursing him without the desire to be. She still hated him with everything in her, and this place was covered with reminders of that. It was inescapable.

His lucidness was as welcome as it was unwelcome. A companion of any kind eased some of the loneliness, but his attempts at conversation left Sakura feeling angry and tired. He maintained that he didn't remember anything when she questioned him about Akatsuki, their base locations, and Tobi. It was very clever given she wanted him only for information at this point. She's sure he's just dragging this out until he was strong enough to run. Another inevitable scenario to worry over.

It's that theory that has her still being uncharacteristically rude to him. She gives one-word answers or none at all whenever possible.

Eventually, he stops asking, taking the hint that she won't answer, and just starts talking out loud, puzzling through any memories he can. It's little things: a particular drill he ran in training as a boy, learning his first Jutsu, the smell his mother had. Most are about training, to her surprise, like he'd spent most of his time doing only that, but his mother began to appear more and more. It didn't matter to her, she told herself. Just the sound of his voice alone grates on her ears, and she grinds her teeth and the monotony of it. She's never hated anyone this much that even that is irksome to her.

But one day, she wakes up, his words are drawn out, sloppy, and stop making sense at all. An infection kept up on them, and it bottoms out her stomach. If she lost him now, none of this was worth anything. She wasn't worth anything!

His words become very important

then because if he was speaking, he was surviving. She asks him as many questions as she can think of as she cares for him, though it's all delivered in a clinical tone.

Can you sit up for me? Yes. What's your favorite color? Pink. Think harder, please. Oh, right, blue. Do you have any persistent chills? Yes. What's your favorite food? Dango. How's your headache? Worse. What’s your birthday? Its in June, I think. Lay back down for me? Okay. Favorite birthday present? Breakfast my brother made me.

She stills at that, pulling the cool, damp cloth from his forehead. He'd never once mentioned Sasuke, and her surprise at him remembering shown was mirrored on his face.

"I had...a brother." He murmurs, his fevered face looking up at hers. "Sasuke."

For the first time, she nods in confirmation at a memory of his. He nods back at her as well.

"For my birthday one year, he made me breakfast. But mother wouldn't let him use the stove, so he took the rice leftover from dinner and pressed it into rice balls for me."

Sakura catches herself staring and dips the cloth in cold water again, wringing it out and dabbing it against his warm forehead.

"He woke me up by jumping on my bed...One of them rolled off the plate and ... onto the floor...We had to split the last one." He’s far away, speech slowing, and that scares her. His eyes slide closed.

"Itachi?" She says a bit too quickly. He doesn't respond. "Itachi."

He looks at her through heavy eyelids, making eye contact for the first time in days—her fault, of course.

"What else happened?" She asks softly, staring for the first time this intently into his depthless eyes. He blinked, and they turned glassy.

"I don't know, but... Suddenly I feel like crying."

Sakura bites her lip, dabbing the cloth at his temple, then over the trail of tears rolling from his eyes.

"I think I love my brother very much." He says, and she sees in his face that he does... or did.

"So did I." She whispers, and his brow furrows. The tense of it is another question she doesn't ask herself. Instead, she cooks the cloth again and asks, "Would you like to hear one of my stories about Sasuke?"

*

It's hard to maintain hate for someone whose wellbeing is the sole purpose of your life, Sakura finds. That or she was just growing to like him after all. The stronger he got, the more of a real personality started to emerge. He was polite and kind in a constant way that was becoming harder and harder to believe was an act. It was little things, really, like when he stopped her from killing a spider, and she had to let it outside instead.

After the night of fevered delirium, their conversation had become less stilted. He still didn't remember much about Akatsuki or his time after the massacre but learning about his childhood made him unavoidably human.

"My father and I didn't get along." He admitted one day in conversation. He couldn't remember details out of thin air, but once he started down a train of thought, things came to him in the same context. His father didn't often come up.

She nodded for him to continue, but his brow furrowed, and he looked away. Sometimes she knew he was holding back, like now, but why was still a mystery.

"Can you not remember?" She offers, adjusting her seat on the bed.

"That's not it." His eyes are trained on the floor. She waits for him to continue if he'd like but doesn't press. "We didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things. He had very high expectations."

"I can imagine. He oversaw your whole clan, so I'm sure the pressure was -"

"You don’t know what you’re talking about." Itachi cuts in, tone steely cold.

She stiffens. He'd never raised his voice at her once in the weeks they'd been here, and for the first time in a while, she feels wary of him.

"He made me kill a man at 7 years old." Rage sizzled in his voice, but Sakura could only see shame in his eyes. She leaned back in surprise. "It was a traitor among the Uchiha, one of my own clansmen. My father wouldn't tell me what he'd done to deserve death but placed the kunai in my had anyway. He said it was my duty to protect the clan at all costs, even from traitors inside of it. I begged him not to make me. Then he beat me until I agreed.”

Sakura felt sick and presses her fingers into her lips, wondering just what kind of man Fugaku really was.

“I was too weak to hold the kunai myself, so he squeezed his hand around mine. It felt so small in his. He'd only ever shown love to me with those hands. Small gestures like a pat on my back or head. But that day, he beat me and held my hand so tight it hurt and forced me to press a kunai into my own relative's neck until it bled, and he died."

His hands curled into fists that shook as the words finished pouring out of him. Sakura hesitates, unsure what to say to him, but her hand reaches out to cover his, giving it a gentle squeeze. He lets out a breath, threading her delicate fingers with his.

She wonders if he’s misremembering or rewriting his memories into something he can live with. He’d killed every one of his clansmen, so what  if he was mixing two memories together? But the emotion in his face, maybe she was too naïve, but it felt too raw to be anything but the truth.

“The more I remember about my life, the less I want to. I’m coming to realize most of it was filled with regret.” His hand clenches hers. “ All I feel is powerlessness. I just want it all to end.”

“Don’t say that.” She commands, scooting closer toward him on the futon. Her purpose had become to keep that from happening, but she wonders if he’d already tried to sending Sasuke after him like he had. She wonders if he’d try again given the chance.

“Why shouldn’t I want to die?” He’s dejected, almost resigned. “I know I’m a murderer. How can someone redeem themselves from what I’ve done? I can’t even remember all of it, but I see the way you look at me and know there are worse things hiding inside my head.”

The pity in her face and the fact that she can’t meet his eyes confirms his suspicions. Itachi recoils from her at the realization, disgust marring his graceful features. This mouth draws tight at the corners, jaw jumping under his skin and he looks away.

"I don't think I deserve to still be breathing. I feel that more every day. I see your face and feel..." He breathes in through his nose and then out in a whoosh. He looks at her again and says, "So undeserving."

If she didn't know the whole story, she might have contradicted him, but she does. Many terrible things had happened because of Itachi Uchiha. But the man capable of doing those things and the man holding her hand now couldn’t be more opposite. She made the decision to be here, so he deserved something from her. The person she knew, or rather the gentle person he was without his memories, deserved to live.

So what if his story was true? What if this is who he was before whatever he had endured as a child made the way he was? Was there more to the story, things out of his control? If he was just a boy who’d suffered abuse until he snapped, Sakura knew she could forgive him for just about anything. She’d forgiven Sasuke for the very similar reasons.

Itachi shrinks a bit more into himself in her contemplative silence. All she can see now is now small and lost he looks, a little boy who just needed someone’s help. Her help. It tugs at her until her fingers curl around his cheek, and he leans into it. Her touch was familiar and comforting now after so much time caring for him. It is quiet for a moment longer.

"You should have left me in that inn and gone home." He finally says into her palm.

She shakes her head but realizes he can’t see it with his eyes screwed shut. "I couldn't do it."

From the way his brows droop, she knows he understands that she had tried. Shame clutches her stomach.

"Why not?" he murmurs, compelled to even if he believes the answer will be unpleasant.

She can't answer, but he gives her plenty of time to. What could she possibly say to that? Even to her, the truth was tangled together with the dozens of rationalizations she’d made so that she could look herself in the mirror every day without hating herself. And those were so impersonal, it would only hurt him more if she did.

He finally speaks again. "We've discussed many things but never how I fit into your life." Her hand drops from his cheek, but he catches it, dark eyes finally opening. This he's not letting this go as easily as the rest. "What are we? Colleagues? Friends?"

There’s an innocence to him believing they could have been friends that again has her stomach in knots. She doesn’t want to think about it or how far she’d gone for him despite what they were.

She tries to lean back. The space between them grown too small to fit his questions and the weight of his stare. He stops that too, hand coming to the back of her neck – firm, but not so hard she can’t break free if she wants. He’s constantly asking her closer so he can actually see her expressions. She tells herself that’s all this was.

"Why are you so invested in me, Sakura?" His eyes jump between her own. When he could see clearly, his eyes never stayed still.

Again, she doesn't have an answer but finds her chest rising and falling quickly, adrenaline tingling inside. It must not be from fear, because she doesn’t feel like running. She’s sure she should feel like running.

Instead she’s drawn forward.

"I can't remember you at all, no matter how hard I try." His eyes trailed her cheek, to the pulse hammering in her neck. His thumb brushes away her hair from the spot. Her cheeks heat. "There must be something, because I...feel something for you. It’s frustrating not remembering why or what you feel for me."

Feel something? What did that mean? She swallows, lips parting after. It catches his attention and his always moving eyes still. Reacting without thinking, her's fall to his now, and even if he hadn’t moved yet, she wondered if they would begin to dip forward. She wondered if with his thumb brushing her neck and his eyes on her lips if he was thinking about kissing her.

Finally, the missing instinct to run hits her full force.

"There's nothing to remember." She says quickly, stopping whatever it was he’d been considering. He finds her eyes again, questioning her. This was too close. She can feel his warm breath on her face, and as she inhaled she could taste the sweet and herbal he’d drank on her tongue. "We never met before I found you."

His forehead creases. "I don't understand. Why would you care for me like this if I was a stranger to you?"

"I don't know." A prickling pressure builds behind her eyes. She doesn’t know anything. Everything she was had spiraled so far out of her control that she was thinking about him without any hate in her heart. With something else in her heart entirely. "It just happened."

"Something like this doesn’t just happen.”

This? There is no this. There is nothing more to this than getting some intel and then going back to her life like it never happened. But she’s faced with the how impossible all that was now and her head spins.

She’d have to tell everyone where she had been. No lie she tried to spin could possibly explain her absence or Itachi’s reappearance for that matter. Sasuke would be furious. He’d never forgive her, let alone love her. And for what? For what was she doing all of this?

“I’m just your brother’s teammate. That’s it.” She breaks away from him, quickly shifting to her knees and springing to her feet. What the hell was she doing?

“I see.” He says in that quiet way he does when he’s sifting through his memories for more information. His hands fall to his lap. “Sasuke’s…”

Sakura turns her back and leaves. She was Sasuke’s, but she’s realizing not once in her life was he ever hers. At this point, she doubted he ever would be.

[bitchiha]

Can you please make HCS for sasuke, madara and hashirama (naruto too but I want to bother yo😢) and how they'll deal with their pregnant s/o? When the bump start to grow and their mood swings, weird food combinations and pregnancy struggles in general? Also when their s/o becomes 10 times more affectionate with them and is just soft and clingy. Thank you!💞💖💗

A/N: thanks for the request! I know I was a little slow getting to it but man I’m so swamped with life rn lol 😔 uhh also I swapped Madara out bc I felt like I didn’t make it accurate enough and so I physically couldn’t bring myself to post w his headcanons so I subbed naruto in

✎ Pregnant s/o!! (Sasuke, Hashirama, Naruto)

Sasuke Uchiha

!!I’ve done some headcanons for Sasuke + a preg s/o over here before, so His will be a bit shorter!!

He’s surprised when the baby bump actually starts showing because he didn’t actually believe he was going to have kid. So it really starts to settle in at that point.

Will make sure to be extra cautious around you to make sure nothing bad will happen to you or the baby. He’s in full force protective mode, of course he’ll play it cool but know that he’s got your back.

He’s used to his own mood swings, but when you start getting them he’s like?? What do I do? He’ll be tolerant asf though like you can call him every name in the book and then hug him five seconds later and he’ll just be there like: it’s apart of the process I guess. He can really keep his cool through a shocking amount of insults.

When he starts seeing you eating the weirdest food combinations he is confused, but he won’t say anything because he’s already experienced your mood swings and is not about to trigger them again by saying anything. If you offer him some he’ll just say no and back out of the kitchen, he doesn’t really need to get a snack.

Oh boy the clinginess. When it starts to happen he’s a bit shocked, but he assumes it’s apart of the process. (He assumes everything’s apart of the pregnancy process tbh.) I know he lowkey likes it, I know deep down he digs that clingy shit. Of course he won’t outwardly admit that, but the fact that he isn’t putting up a fight at you smothering his face is a good enough sign.

He will probably very sneakily get a book from the library about pregnancy instead of asking someone about it. Over his dead body would he ask someone like Hinata or Sakura about this stuff. So he consults a book, it was difficult bc some of the stuff he was shook to read about, but he managed to finish it.

Once the book’s finished he feels like he’s prepared for any pregnancy struggles you may have. Still somehow manages to internally flip his shit when something happens. He’ll try his best to help though.

Hashirama Senju

He’s so excited when he finds out that you’re gonna have a child together. Like a child of your own that you’ll both raise to be an amazing shinobi. Ugh he’ll be daydreaming about his kid until you actually have the child, then he’s in shambles, but that’s another story.

Will flex the fact that he is gonna have a child to anyone and anything in his path, which is kinda not a good idea. He also tightens security for the house just incase. He will be so protective bc he’s the Hokage and that makes you and the baby more vulnerable to possible attacks.

Probably yaps Madara and Tobiramas ear off because of how much he’ll talk about you and the baby. Like every five seconds he’s like “I’m having a kid lol” and tobiramas just like shut the fuck up (he’s happy for him tho.)

When he first sees the little baby bump he’s so fucking hyped. Like he’ll probably come up to you randomly just to place his hands on it. He’s like “that’s my kid in there wow.” Honestly he’s just so excited like that man is a ball of happiness.

He’s gonna be kinda shook about some of the pregnancy struggles. Like when you start getting mood swings he’s like so confused at first. He just figures it’s cause of the baby and so he’ll try and hug it out. You could have just called him a bunch of names and he’s just gonna be like “shut up let’s just hug it out.”

That usually does the trick and when it doesn’t, he’ll sneak out and let you fume for a bit before he comes back and tries again.

Enjoys the clinginess 100%. Like he loves it. Its a nice change from the bad part of the mood swings. While you’re cuddling he’ll play with your hair and have a hand resting on your belly. Then you’ll both talk about what you want to name the baby if it’s a boy or a girl, what you think they’ll be like, if they’ll have his eyes or you hair. (He prays they have his hair bc let’s be real it’s lucious asf.)

Like idk I feel like I need to emphasize the fact that he really does love the soft clingy side you’ll get. If he’s working a lot he will sometimes bring you to work with him, will let you lay on a couch in his office while he does his work.

He will have to refrain so hard from laughing at the weird cravings you’re having. Like if he walks into the kitchen and sees you eating some next level crazy meal he’s gonna need to back out of the kitchen and calm himself down. Then he’ll walk in and be like “hey honey, whatcha doing?”

Just because you knew he was laughing and what you were eating five seconds ago you’ll force him to eat it with you. Then he’ll be all like “I’m the hokage! I can’t get sick! Not like this, anyways.” Then he sees your face and he’s like: shit. So he ends up eating with you. Will pretend it’s good but he’s dying on the inside.

When you’re too tired to get out of bed some days he’ll definitely try his best to make you feel comfortable. Will use an earth style jutsu to put flowers around the room to entertain you while you’re in bed. He will also make your weird pregnancy craving meals for you while you’re in bed. And yes, he will laugh to himself the whole time while he makes it.

The closer to the pregnancy he gets the more he daydreams about your kid. He’ll get so excited and will think about all the things he’s gonna teach them.

Naruto Uzumaki

I feel like him and Hashirama would have similar reactions to a lot of things. Like when he first finds out about your pregnancy he is so hyped and will tell literally anyone. Thinks about his future kid all the time. Will probably suggest to name the kid after some type of ramen.

He’s the most immature about dealing with pregnancy stuff. Like I know I wanna give him the benefit of the doubt but.. let’s be real here he’s freaking out the whole time. That’s not to say he isn’t gonna try and be helpful though, like he will genuinely try his best to help. It just won’t end up the way he wanted it too.

Will ask Sakura about what the heck he’s supposed to do, she’ll probably be super helpful and will try and give you some weird special food pills to help you keep energized. Naruto will burn them when she leaves bc he knows those food pills are so gross, it’s the thought that counts I guess.

He also takes videos and pictures 24/7. He wants to make sure he documents everything. “Look, future baby! Your mom is having another pregnancy mood swing- ach! Did’ya see that? Your mom just tossed a shoe at me!”

When the baby bump starts forming he pokes it. Not harmfully, just like.. he wants to make sure it’s real. Like he’s actually having a kid, Crazy! Anyway, so after he pokes it to make sure it’s not fake, he’ll document the moment. “Hey future baby! Look, this is you. Inside there.” (Cue a vv gentle stomach poke)

The mood swings can entertain him sometimes and other times they can annoy the crap out of him. Like you’re crying one second and the next you’re yelling about the one time he forgot to pick you up for a date like three years ago. He’s really crappy at handling anything that have to do with mood swings. He’ll either be a doof about it or he’ll get offended. Then Sakura has to knock some sense into him.

He means well though, he’s still getting used to everything.

Don’t even get me started on how he reacts to the weird food cravings. Like sometimes he’ll lovingly tease the crap out of you for the weird things you’re eating or he’ll be excited and join in. Like you’re putting a scoop of peanut butter in your ramen? He’s grabbing the chopsticks! Will probably be sick afterwards.

The times when you are clingy are the best, he’ll drop whatever he’s doing so you two can just hang out. If that means you just want to lay in bed and sleep, then he’ll do it! Or if that means you wanna go on a walk, then he’ll do it!

Likes to spend as much time with you as possible. Just wants to make sure you’re okay and if you need him to do anything for you.

Overall 10/10 bc he may be a little bit of a goof, but he always means well <3

[munofsilver]

A New Story

A story I'm writing with my friend @safarichan. Two of her OC with two of mine. Their story along side with the canon one. Kura, Sie and Ocha belong to SafariChan. Calesta and Celeste belong to me. It starts with the Chunin Exams and goes until the end of Shippuden. Ao3 link.

The Chunin Exams are a big moment in every shinobi’s life; rather, it’s watching or entering. It doesn’t matter if it’s their first time or not. The event of the exams will forever hold a place in people’s memories. Not to mention the weight it holds on those taking the exams. It seems that the pressure doesn’t get to them for some, or they don’t show the stress. Then there is Uzumaki Naruto, who is just brushing in the room yelling.

“Who does he think he is?”

“Where does he think he is?”

“Doesn’t he know any manners?”

Are some of the questions being whispered by Kura and Sie. Kura is wearing a grey and black shirt under a red trench coat with black pants. Has short red hair. Sie is wearing a white jacket with sleeves so long they cover her hands and red shorts. Her long brown hair is in twin braids. Next to them is another one wearing an orange, dark yellow dress and white leggings underneath, all tied with a red bow around her waist. Long purple hair up in buns and pigtails. Calesta doesn’t care if this genin is acting like an idiot or not. It seems his team is yelling at him about it anyways. While her teammate stares at the new group walking in and talking, Calesta keeps her eyes forward, waiting for the exams to start.

After a short one-sided fight, the exams started. Kura is sitting in the back behind everyone. Sie is sitting next to her cousin Kiba. Calesta is sitting behind and to the right of the kid, yelling before.

The rules are simple, but the questions on the written test are not. Everyone seems to be freaking out or thinking. After about ten minutes, some figured it out and did what they needed to answer the questions.

Shino sent his bugs to help. Kiba is doing the same thing with Akamaru so is Sie with Ocha. TenTen somehow had mirrors on the ceiling to help her teammate Lee. The two Hyugas use their byakugan. Sasuke with his Sharingan. Desu uses sound to get his answers. Kura might be one of the few to know the answers. He already finished his test and is napping. Gaara uses his third eye while Kankuro asks to use the restroom. Sakura falls like she was hit with a sleeping jutsu. She was hit with a jutsu; it was Ino’s mind transfer jutsu. That’s how Ino and her team got their answers. It seems Sakura knew them like Kura.

While everyone was gathering the information they needed, Calesta was sitting there, arms folded and eyes closed. At least that what it looks like; Calesta’s eyes were open; she was looking down on the person’s paper, to her left then the right. She would look up and around at the ones there to watch for cheaters before writing down the answers. Once done, she would fold her arms and look down again.

Ibiki was true to his words. Around ten minutes left, he asked one final question after adding one more rule. We either give up now or try to answer the question; if you fail, you can’t take the chunin exams ever again.The rule sounds suspicious to Calesta; she stays, her teammate also finding the rule suspicious as well. For a minute there, everyone thought the loud boy in orange was going to quit. Instead, he slams his hand on the table, declaring once again about being Hokage someday. Making others wonder if he ever talks about anything else.

Once the room was emptied a bit due to the people choosing to leave instead of trying to answer the final question, Ibiki speaks again. To everyone’s surprise, there was no question. Everyone in the room passed the first part of the Chunin Exams. Then someone jumps in through the window and makes some flashy moves to put up a banner.

The second half of the Chunin Exams will begin the following day. A test of survival at a nice place called The Forest of Death. The rules are simple: get the other scroll and head to the tower in five days, don’t look at the scrolls until you’re inside the tower. Now everyone except your teammates are enemies. No one knows what scroll each team will have. After signing the release form, the team gets their scroll. Not only does the team get a scroll they also are giving a number. That number tells them what gate entrance they will start.

While waiting for the exams to start, Kura starts to complain, “Five days is way too long. To make it more challenging, they should make it three days.” Sie is petting Ocha. The small little dog is a bit taller than Kiba’s dog Akamaru. White just like him but brown around her ears, eyes, muzzle, paws, and tail tip. No wonder the two dogs look alike; they are from the same litter.

“I just hope I have enough treats for, Ocha,” Sie rubs her dog’s ears.

Ocha gives a little bark of approval, and Sie checks her pockets. She has plenty of treats for her dog. She sighs in relief, making Kura perform his famous eye roll. What Sie likes to call it, ‘The rolling sigh.’ Since he sighs while rolling his eyes.

Like always, Calesta doesn’t speak, staring at the gate, waiting for it to open. She doesn’t care much about anything other than getting this exam done and over with, not even if she becomes a chunin or not; at the same time, she won’t let her teammates down.

The one guarding the gate is looking at his watch. Within a few minutes, he stops looking at his watch, and walks closer to the gate, then looks back at his watch. Not even a minute later, he turns his back towards the team.

“Get ready,” he calls over his shoulder as he unlocks the gate.

With a burst of speed, the three rush through the open gate and into the forest. They don’t slow down even as they take to the trees. While jumping from tree to tree, they make plans for the exam.

“I know it’s a low blow, but I think we should target teams weaker than us,” Kura stated.

“How can we tell if a team is weaker than us?” Sie asks in an acidic tone.

“We find a team and spy on them. Hope they get into a fight,” Kura grins.

He’s quite proud of his plans, even if it’s not the best. He is the type that will go ahead without thinking things through. Once an idea is in his head, he thinks it’s good, and others should join him. Tell him no and he will either complain or throw a tantrum. Good thing his tantrums are short-lived and quiet compared to a child’s.

Sie opens her mouth to speak but is cut off by Kura, “Let’s say we watch them for a bit, like a few hours; if no fight, then we move on.”

“There are parts in your plan that will work, but sadly I don’t agree with everything,” Calesta speaks in a hushed tone.

Both team members look at her. Claesta doesn’t speak much; everyone around her who knows her pays close attention to her words when she does.

“Finding a team we can take would be ideal. You didn’t seem to consider that they may not have the scroll we need. Do you have an idea on how to find out what scroll the other team has?” Calesta’s blank stare is aimed at Kura.

Unlike her teammates, Calesta’s face always remains emotionless. Unless she trusts you, then her face will emote more. Sie is always smiling even when she’s yelling, something that bothers Kura to no end.

“After the fight, if they win, they will have both scrolls. If we think we can take them, we fight. Only take the one we need when we win,” Kura speaks with pride.

Calesta looked forward again. She seems to be satisfied with the answer. For a while, they didn’t talk to each other. Instead scanned the area, keeping an eye out for other teams and anything else the forest may toss at them.

They stopped when Sie and Ocha smelled another team and warned them. Landing on three separate branches of the same tree, the team looks for the other team that was sniffed out. They are right below them, only a few steps to the side with their backs towards them. Ocha whimpered and slid into Sie’s jacket, poking her head out on top. Sie pats the dog’s head.

“According to the headbands, they are from the Hidden Sand Village,” Kura whispers.

“Suna, from Wind country,” Sie also whispers.

Calesta closes her eyes on the team. They aren’t the only ones from Suna, but they stand out more than other Suna teams.

“We should leave. There is no way we can defeat them. If we fight, we shall die,” Calesta whispers.

“I agree,” Sie nods.

“We haven’t even seen them fight. How can you be sure?” Kura whines.

“Suna only cares about strong ninjas. They will only have strong ones here,” Sie answers.

“Then are we to avoid all teams from Suna?” Kura crosses his arms.

“No, only these three,” Calesta opens her eyes.

Outvoted, Kura sighs, and the three move on. Leaving the team below far away behind them. As soon as they took off, one of the sand ninjas looked at the spot they were just at.

“What is it, Gaara?” asked his sister.

“Nothing, let’s go,” Gaara answered.

The other two looked at each other, then the area Gaara was looking at. They shrug and follow their younger brother. Not long until another team was found from Suna again; this time, they watch them for a bit. It seems they have found a team they might be able to beat. They looked tired, maybe they had lost their scroll, or they could have overdone them self. Maybe they were in a fight and won.

“Should we?” Sie asked.

Kura and Sie look at Calesta as she stares at the team that’s currently resting.

“We attack,” Calesta answers.

Both Kura and Sie stare at her with wide eyes.

“I can see an Earth scroll. I hate to attack them while they are in a weakened state. I know how unfair life can be. A lesson all must learn. Today is their turn,” Calesta blinks, “Let’s use the Play Dead technique.”

Sie and Ocha jump down in a bush as Kura jumps across the resting team landing on a tree on the other side. Calesta kneels where she’s at.

“Did you hear that?” One of the team members stands up. He is looking at the bush Sie is now in. The others look at the bush as well.

Out pops Ocha. She is whining and limping, taking a few steps before she collapses on the ground. The only female on the team rushes towards the tiny dog.

“Poor thing is hurt. I didn’t know there were such cute doggies in this forest,” she squeals.

“This dog looks familiar,” said the only sitting team member.

Before he could put his mind on it, Ocha bites the girl petting her. Jumping back, she yelps. That’s the single for the other two to go into action, while Ocha makes a mad dash back to Sie. The team tries to run but is blocked by a wall made of earth. They decided to backtrack to find they couldn’t move and are tied up with thin metal strings. Sie comes out of the bush and casually walks up to them. Searching them all until she finds what they needed.

“Sorry about this. We need this,” she says, taking one of their scrolls.

Checking to make sure it’s the earth one. She smiles and jumps back into the tree with Kura and Calesta. Sie hands Calesta the scroll, and she puts it in her sleeve before they head to the tower.

[jediryssabean]

may death never stop you

hi everyone, i’ve risen from the dead. back on my bullshit with some naruto and some healing. 

happy holidays!

-

Pairing: Naruto/Sasuke Rating: T Summary: (Tea steam condensed on the window, and a thin line of moisture had dragged itself down on a misshapen path, led by a bead of icy water. Through the haze, there were shapes of patrons, shapes of dishware, shapes of shopowners—a figure haloed in light and another swallowed by the shadows of a back room, barely glimpsed in the brief clarity given by the condensation, fogging up again as the steam again sighed against the window.

“did you hear?” the window carried the conversation through its panes, a murmur against wood and glass. The news had traveled slowly here to the Land of Snow, if only because the village was remote enough to miss, and yet even this was delayed by those standards. The snow had known for eons, it seemed—because there were flakes of it born from the Valley of the End. “the uchiha clan is done for good. last one kicked it not too long ago.”

The window’s tone had changed, delivering a different timbre, a different patron rumbling deep from the back of their throat. “jackass,” the window relayed like the shifting of the earth, so low was it spoken. “that news is three fucking years old. you’re late.”)

Or you can [Read on AO3]!

(The windows of the shop had been foggy at the edges, snow sitting on the windowsill with picturesque practice, an almost-constant winter giving it the time it needed to perfect its exact placement on this exact windowsill. Until recently, the shop over which the snow lived had sat empty, because that’s what shops did when there was no one to fill them. But snow had never minded, because the building occupied the same space regardless of whether or not it was occupied.

A door shut and the snow had rustled before settling back into place, the same place it always settles into. The sound of a bell followed a patron in. The snow had ignored it.

The windows hummed with the noise from inside, not disturbing the snow whatsoever, because the snow is older than the people inside the building, older still than the building itself, living a thousand lives and dying a thousand deaths year after year, after year—

A teacup had been placed next to the window to cool. On the outside, the snow had begun to ease itself into a softer shape, going liquid against the steam. A quiet death, like most of them, despite the noise that made the glass tremble when someone laughed particularly loud. Occasionally, the snow can feel whispers through the glass, small vibrations of sound that carry nowhere except into solid things, melting some of the flakes against the windowsill with the force of it, passing along rumors to its kin.

Tea steam condensed on the window, and a thin line of moisture had dragged itself down on a misshapen path, led by a bead of icy water. Through the haze, there were shapes of patrons, shapes of dishware, shapes of shopowners—a figure haloed in light and another swallowed by the shadows of a back room, barely glimpsed in the brief clarity given by the condensation, fogging up again as the steam again sighed against the window.

“did you hear?” the window carried the conversation through its panes, a murmur against wood and glass. The news had traveled slowly here to the Land of Snow, if only because the village was remote enough to miss, and yet even this was delayed by those standards. The snow had known for eons, it seemed—because there were flakes of it born from the Valley of the End. “the uchiha clan is done for good. last one kicked it not too long ago.”

The window’s tone had changed, delivering a different timbre, a different patron rumbling deep from the back of their throat. “jackass,” the window relayed like the shifting of the earth, so low was it spoken. “that news is three fucking years old. you’re late.”

A click of a tongue, sharp against the glass. The snow shifted, startled, before relaxing again. It had waited with bated breath, footsteps and the rumble of snowmobiles falling into the background in the middle of nowhere, swallowed by gossip and the clatter of ceramic plates. An embarrassed cough had fired off, making the window creak. “about fucking time, though, if you ask me, right? three years ago or now, it just means one less thing to start a fucking war over. it’s been so quiet since.”

Another bead of condensation, another glimpse into the tea shop.

A smile, mostly teeth.

Blue eyes, glittering like light refracted off of snow melt.

“can i get you anything else?” the owner had shown a dimple before the fog hid him from sight, obscuring a grin so wide it could’ve swallowed the sun. Whiskered scars folded into the laugh lines beside his mouth.

The window had shivered against the melting snow, straining to listen. 

“no thank you, uzuha-san,” the patrons answered, almost in unison. The weight of it had caused the snow to shift again. “delicious, though, as always.” A little bit out of sync, but genuine, for all the brief-yet-eternal time the shop had been there it its current state, warm, and full, and creaky with people. The snow outside could feel it in the grain of the wood underneath it.

“glad to hear it,” Naruto had replied, beatific and shameless and, reportedly, dead. “always good to have you.”

The shadow in the back of the tea shop had rolled its eyes, a ghost from this distance and inaudible.

The snow had listened anyway, living and dying with the thrill of it.)

“You look like an old man, Uzuha-san,” Sasuke tells him, their fake name rolling off his tongue with the mocking sort of softness that carries the echo of a patron while also doing the warm-and-fuzzy thing in Naruto’s stomach that patron voices do not do. All the while, of course, looking like a gloomy but very hot barista, apron and everything, like they hadn’t decided to open up a traditional tea shop, instead of something like a ramen shop. Both of the things are warm, you know? Both of the things are a dime a dozen in a climate like this! Either one would’ve sold like hotcakes, or—or a hotcakes shop? Or—

“Well, we can’t all look young and hip like you, Uzuha-san,” he mimics back, shifting dirty plates from his good forearm to the one that doesn't feel much, its joints more-or-less responsive to changes in chakra pressure, but hardly precise. It does what it needs to, in a pinch, and, actually, helps him pinch things, so a solid choice for a person that has to grab plates and teacups all day, much less a person that has to grab plates and teacups all day while in very standard and very fashionable hakama, unlike some people, whose idea it was in the first place.

Sasuke rolls his eyes, closing the practically ancient register with his hip, carrying the till to the back to the shop, using his shoulder to part the curtain, as his arm is occupied with other business, and the empty sleeve at his side wouldn’t be much different anyway. As the curtain shuts, Naruto thinks he can see a little dusting of pink on the tips of Sasuke’s ears and a glow partway down his neck; it’s the sure sign of embarrassment, the sign that Naruto had returned the warm-and-fuzzy right back, or whatever Sasuke calls it in his own head when he thinks about these things. 

It’s true, to some degree, Naruto tells himself as he lifts the curtain aside with his left wrist, balancing dishware atop the aluminum plating just above his right wrist joint—Sasuke really does look at least a couple years younger surrounded by brewing supplies and an immaculately kept snack-kitchen. Naruto can’t tell if it’s the well-worn clothes, or the beautifully tied apron, or the work-flat hair, or the lines by his mouth that speak a little less of tension and a little more of relief. It could be anything, a sight or a sound or a feeling, but it’s there somewhere.

Naruto always finds the words for things later than he means to, so this time probably isn’t any different in that respect.

But there is a part of him that acknowledges that Sasuke was right about one thing—he’d be really easy to recognize in hakama, considering how long he’d worn one, and the look he’s working now is something just different enough that he looks everything and nothing like he used to, all at once. The most disarming thing about him now is how comfortable he looks about seventy-five percent of the time. 

“What're you thinking?” Sasuke says, taking Naruto’s expertly designed and not-at-all flawed stack of plates and teacups and dipping bowls. They rattle only slightly when Sasuke puts the dishes in the sink to rinse them, a co-opted drying rack poised under the faucet to hold the dishes in place before they wind up in the dishwasher to his right. “I can smell the smoke from here.”

“Ha ha.” Naruto rotates his right wrist joint, the socket squealing a little between his flesh thumb and forefinger as he loosens the chakra pressure there. The joint pops enough for him to flex his fingers in a semblance of what they used to do. “I was thinking about dinner.” A lie, because something sappy might make Sasuke drop a plate, or might make him cry, or might make his face tighten and obscure the softness there. “I can cook tonight.” The truth, because there are still countless things that they have to catch up on for all the time they spent running toward or hiding from glimpses and reflections and echoes of one another—namely the fact that Naruto can, by a now-less-than-limited margin, cook.

“Oh yeah?” Sasuke’s eyebrow does that thing it’s so good at, a perfect arch above perfect eyelashes above depthless eyes. There’s a smile on his face that is most evident in the hints of lines that’ll be crow’s feet sometime in the future, though there are pieces of it hidden in other places—the corners of his mouth, the tilt of his head, the lift of his shoulder. Even so, there’s something curling slowly around his pupils that doesn’t match; a conversation that could be waiting to happen. 

Naruto lets it wait, his palm ready to grab for it when it comes.

“Oh yeah,” he replies. “I don’t know if you know this, but I can make my own ramen noodles, which, by the way, is why we should’ve opened a ramen shop.”

That eye roll again, caught in the same motion that Sasuke uses to shut the dishwasher with one foot and untie his apron with a tug of his thumb. Sasuke’s eyes are so clear and exactly like Naruto remembers them that it’s easy to forget that he’d had the Rinnegan for less than a day, instead taking back a left eye that could barely make out shapes, much less channel chakra, all in the interest of opening a tea shop as far away from the Land of Fire as possible. 

It sounds almost like a laugh when Sasuke says, “would’ve been super subtle. Three months after you die, a random ramen shop opens up in the middle of nowhere, almost as far away from the Fire Nation as you can get. That doesn’t have the name Uzumaki Naruto written on it anywhere.”

“That’s Uzuha Naruto to you.” The electricity on his tongue pops against his teeth, a sensation that’s contagious in its own right, just like the pink on Sasuke’s ears is contagious, just like the twist of his mouth to hide a wider smile is contagious. 

wow, Naruto can hear himself say on a sigh lost to time, his voice much higher and the crack of it very youthful in its fervor, he’s so fucking pretty. The phantom sensation of a smack to the back of the head, a request to repeat himself, a named-and-unnamed itch at the curve of his shoulders. 

“Dinner it is,” Sasuke says with a voice like snowfall with icepack sitting underneath, tossing his apron across his unarmed shoulder as he heads for the stairs where their home is. “What do you need help with?”

The sun burns at the back of Naruto’s throat when he smiles.

(The rocky earth had been beginning its slow freeze that autumn, beaten by steady, barely-liquid sheets of rain. The shower whispered among itself, relearning the slow shifts in pavement and sediment, memorizing the shape of rainboots that would be snowboots before long. The boots’ soles tickled the dirt-specked puddles that were swallowing information and news and chitchat along their greedy edges, collecting things to hide under the pine needles, drowning in water that was too cold to let them rot.

The squall had been able to feel a relative, tucked inside the shape of a tea shop, tucked further still into the shape of arms and legs and pointed teeth as it sat in a booth, a wave given life in another form. The clouds above the village itself shuddered to shake itself free of the last of its rain before the snow started, straining itself to catch the murmurs in trembling palms.

Birch leaves, stuck to the shop’s floor, passed information to the water droplets, curling themselves around conversations that were familiar and different, the kind that other trees had heard much farther south. Migrating birds had brought their perceptions and conceptions and spins on things, twittering to themselves among seeds before fluttering away again, leaving behind only their gaps in knowledge and the urge to know more, to pass along to seasons forward.

The rain had hissed to and between itself as one birch leaf drip-drip-dripped rainwater into a negligible puddle forming beside a well-loved rainboot. Its edges, browning in the pondering death at the end of a fleeting autumn, trembled out words that would’ve been otherwise lost to the cold, the wet, and what, in a warmer climate, would be the sticky grip of mud.

“what are you doing here?” the shadow had said, for once outside the confines of the payment counter and the kitchen, and the birch leaves and the rainwater had felt a memory, somewhere, seen by them-and-others, passed along on wind streams and river paths—the shadow in a different light, shoulders held differently, its mouth a harder line.

“is that any way to talk to a paying customer?” The person-shaped water system flashed pointed teeth in a smile, the birch leaves peeling away from the floor to land in a warm palm. The rain had found itself caught in Naruto’s palm print, tucked away in his lifeline—somehow shorter and longer than expected.

Red hair had snorted, glasses slipping down the thin bridge of a nose. The shadow’s eyes had glittered, even though one of them was unable to see. “you haven’t paid me yet.”

Naurto had coughed a hidden sound of humor against the birch leaves in his hands before he’d tossed them back into the rain, the cold, the almost winter. The birch leaves shared their sights with the puddles in which they landed.

The rain itself, themself, had reached a cacophony against the glass. listening, it said. listening.

The eddy-that-wasn’t, the person-that-was, had cocked his head, a slightly crooked tooth poking out through his lips. The water in the grooves of the roof, the glass, the steps, the porch could feel his attention, his awareness, and his voice when he replied, “do i need to speak to your manager—sorry, what was your name again?”

Glasses again pushed up a nose, sharp words getting sharper against the woman’s teeth. Naruto, eyebrows arched with something like mischief, from what the rain could see between itself and the foggy chill. 

“none of your business,” the shadow said, and the autumn shower hissed with the sound of laughter.)

Naruto can see the way that Sasuke is looking at the flour in his hair, on his face, on his eyelashes, all evidence of noodles made beautifully, by the way, if messily. There’s a combination of things on his face—no flour, or anything like that, despite being on clean-up duty, that bastard—but, like, feelings. They’re smoothed along the underside of his eyebrows and pulling the skin tight, a little bit, by his eyes. The feelings are probably not about the flour, not with the way that his lips thin a little bit like that, but the words are still hiding somewhere under his tongue—under Naruto’s or Sasuke’s own, well, he isn’t entirely sure.  

“You’re getting good at this,” Sasuke says, which is not what Naruto had expected at all. It doesn’t quite match with the thoughtful tilt of his eyebrows or anything in his posture, but he says it anyway. Unreal. “The old man at Ichiraku would be jealous.”

The hum of something, simmering in Sasuke’s tone—but it doesn’t taste like what Naruto thinks it should taste like. It’s both familiar-and-unfamiliar, the-same-and-different. It’s absolutely not the feeling that Naruto thinks it is, because he would be able to hear it, the way it takes long and heavy steps across a lake that’s barely frozen, the ice cracking beneath it. It’s always been able to rattle windows and shake the earth around them.

Whatever this is, it isn’t that.

(It had been a feeling that all the seasons had remembered in equal detail, so sharp had the sound of it been. The sunlight remembered it as a singular feeling, held tightly by the shadow with both hands. But the seasons knew it had been pulled taut between the both of them.)

“I’d had to learn something,” Naruto tells him, and he can feel the flour in his palm scraping against his chin when he drops it there. “Otherwise, I’d’ve had to start freeloading, which would demolish my ‘vagrant with a heart of gold’ reputation.” 

A smile that touches Sasuke’s mouth like the springtime. “I don’t think that was your reputation.”

“It’s my version of events, so I get to decide what my reputation was.” Naruto grins when Sasuke wrinkles his nose in a silent scoff. He blinks and can see the afterimage of it on the back of his eyelids. “But I guess you got me. Teuchi wouldn’t’ve ever called me a vagrant. He was too nice.”

And oh shit, there’s a laugh, clinging to the surface of the table like dew to a blade of grass. Quiet, singular, and gone in a heartbeat, even still. “Nobody would’ve called you a vagrant, because nobody fucking talks like that.” 

Sasuke shifts his body in his seat, pushing it away from the table, stacking dishes as he goes. There’s a structure there that Naruto has memorized, the way that all the weight has to be stacked to be carried tucked against his chest, but it’s still impressive to see in action. Maybe that’s another thing that keeps him out of sight or behind the register—to watch him move is to catch a glimpse of who he had been, a ripple across a reflection from years before.

Before Naruto can catch himself, he’s half out of his seat, his flesh-and-blood fingertips resting atop Sasuke’s own.

Sasuke blinks. Naruto blinks in kind.

“Uh,” Naruto says, like the buffoon that he’s been called for his entire life. “Do you need help?”

This blink is much slower, reminiscent of the cat that he catches Sasuke feeding in the summer. His eyelashes go on for a hundred thousand years, which Naruto always seems to forget and remember at least as many times a day. They kiss his cheeks when he blinks like that, a lingering touch against his skin, and it’s wild. Something burns in the center of Naruto’s chest, something currently indefinable but familiar, like he’s been holding his breath for too long. 

“Um,” Sasuke replies, but doesn’t move his hand away. His fingertips are freezing, like always. “No? You cooked.”

If Naruto leaves his hand where it is, Sasuke’s fingers will eventually warm up underneath all the calluses and scar tissue, leftover from probably several-too-many fights. His skin will soften infinitesimally, not enough to matter, but Naruto will notice anyway, like always.

Sasuke blinks for the third time, a frown starting to draw itself along the line of his lips. “Are you okay?”

Naruto lets go. 

Sasuke watches him with that enigmatic expression on his face. There are so many different versions of himself that Naruto can see echoing in the arch of his eyebrow, the downward tilt of his lips. It’s a face that could mean anything—literally anything, from ‘I am literally about to leave you behind forever without telling you’ to ‘I cannot believe you feel any kind of affection for me and might cry.’ It’s uninterpretable, hooked into the lining of his guts and tugging, tightening all of his muscles in a panic response.

It isn’t until Sasuke turns around to make his way to their residential dishwasher (fancy) that’s probably older than the both of them (less fancy), that Naruto swallows whatever kind of melancholic bile had been rising in his throat. He coughs against the weight of it, the thickness of it, pushing his chair away from the table with one foot. The rattle of it against the floorboards breaks the almost-silence and background faucet noise. When Naruto walks across the kitchen to stand at Sasuke’s right side, his legs don’t shake.

There’s a pause that lingers between them, Sasuke’s attention apparently focused entirely on the dishes in his hand, transferred between the sink and the dishwasher with a little bit too much care. The skin under his fingernails has gone white with the force of his grip on relatively delicate ceramic bowls, the muscles of his wrists straining with the frustration of it all.

As the dishwasher squeals itself closed and there’s no more dishware to occupy Sasuke’s focus, he does that thing—that thing where he bumps their elbows, his right to Naruto’s left; that thing where he loops an arm around Naruto’s waist and presses their hips together; that thing that’s a lot like a conversation, dropped into Naruto’s open palm.

“Sasuke,” Naruto says, scattering his tone around their shamelessly tiny kitchen like dandelion seeds, light, airy, and a stone’s throw away from relieved-and-hysterical laughter, “are you worried about me?” 

A scoff, and Sasuke shifts his arm from around Naruto’s torso to drape around his shoulders. “How could I not be? You keep staring at me like I’m the one with flour all over my face, or like you’re waiting for me to break your nose or something.” The skin tightens at the corners of his eyes as he narrows them. “But when I ask, all you do is look like I smacked you.”

Their position is a little awkward, what with Sasuke’s arm where it is, and their hips where they are, and the fact that, yes, Naruto still definitely does have flour on his face and probably in his hair. Regardless, Sasuke’s pouting a little (probably shouldn’t say that out loud), and Naruto reminds himself once again that his eyelashes go on forever. It gets more awkward still when Naruto lifts his arm to loop across Sasuke’s shoulders, but that doesn’t matter either.

“Sasuke,” Naruto says, with all the seriousness in the world.

“Naruto,” Sasuke replies, with significantly less seriousness, but he speaks softly enough that it presses embers against the soles of Naruto’s feet.

“Can I kiss you?” A question that isn’t anything like the ones that are on Naruto’s mind, like the way that Sasuke’s been looking at him lately, or the way he can’t possibly tell what’s on Sasuke’s mind most of the time—but it’s close enough, kinda.

Sasuke huffs a breath between his teeth and tilts his head, turning it just enough so that their noses brush. He looks radiant in that singularly intimidating way, you know, like—like sunlight swimming around a void, or something. “Is that supposed to be a response to my statement?”

“Yeah, a little,” Naruto tells him, and he can feel Sasuke’s breath against his lips. It’s warm, warmer than the tip of his nose by a longshot. “It’s supposed to lead into my next question about whether or not you wanna shower with me.”

Sasuke’s eyes are searching his face contemplatively. Naruto watches them draw lines around the shape of Naruto’s eyebrows, down the bridge of his nose, across the curve of his mouth, around the jut of his chin. The space around them is warm, even though the living space itself is more-or-less freezing. The wood stove in the teahouse will need restocking before bed, for sure. Naruto can tell by the pallow of Sasuke’s cheeks.

“Will you let me wash your hair?” Oh, that’s a weakness—Sasuke’s methods of reciprocity hit Naruto right in the chest, grabbing his solar plexus hard enough to pop it out of place and throw it against the closest flat surface with a wet slap. 

“Um, duh.” Naruto meets his eyes with his best solemn face, schooling everything about his expression back into smoothness. “Can I kiss you now?” 

Sasuke laughs and tilts his head just a little bit further—and then Naruto can taste the laugh on his lips, his teeth, his tongue. It’s dry in their apartment and their lips are chapped beyond belief, especially with the way that Naruto’s always chewing on his own, but the kiss is perfect. They’re always perfect in a different way, even if it wouldn’t be perfect with anyone else. It relaxes Naruto’s muscles, drops the tension from his shoulders like too-heavy coat, weakens his knees just enough to remind him why he’s even here in the first place.

Sasuke’s arm shifts from his shoulder, down his back, toward his front, and the knot at the front of Naruto’s hakama is undone, like magic. Sasuke’s dexterity is beyond reproach, like he doesn’t have to think about anything before his body just moves, entirely different than the way that Naruto’s does the same thing: clumsy, graceless, and with unrestrained enthusiasm. 

“You know,” Naruto says, stupefied and delirious with a kiss like that, as usual, “you kiss pretty good for a dead guy.”

Sasuke’s palm is still wet with dishwater when he shoves it against Naruto’s face, smothering his laugh with skin.

(Summer, or what passed for it in the Land of Snow, had been brief, like a sigh, and punctuated by a village with numerous open doors, letting in lukewarm breezes and birdsong. The tea shop is no exception, its single door propped open wide with a wooden sign, the entry bell ringing softly in response to the summer wind’s gentle touches, its fingers leaving nothing behind as it moved through the shop itself. 

An observer had sat near the entryway at a table bathed in sunlight, two birds perched comfortably on the table’s edge, preening their feathers against the warmth. The cushion underneath the watcher’s knees had been limited in decoration, but comfortable, at least as far as the birds themselves could tell. The summertime itself stretched further along the floorboards, traced the graining in the wood with smooth feet, and it listened.

The birds sung to the stranger of the coming autumn, lamented the way in which summer was only a held breath between a chilly spring and an almost freezing autumn. They told stories of where they’d been and who they’d seen. They’d spoken of the shadow behind the tea shop, sitting next to a cat that had been too shapely to be unfed, too lithe to be kept. The stranger nodded, letting the summer shift around his shoulders to pull at the edges of his well-worn cloak.

A ceramic cup of chilled oolong was placed on the table with no fanfare. Its temperature had been such that condensation was beading at the lip of the cup, catching the summer’s eye. 

A mouth, split wide in a smile, sunlight peeking out from behind teeth. “you know,” Naruto had said, and the season listened, the shape of the floorboards becoming a memory on its palms, “this is the most highly recommended tea we have at this time of year.”

The man had looked up, the color of his hair set fire by the light coming in through the window at his back.

“how much?” A whisper. The birds noted that it had been a welcome change—or rather, it had been a return to something softer, for him. 

“on the house.” The summer had felt unasked questions hit the table like torn paper, fluttering against its surface to collect dust. When the stranger-that-wasn’t pulled his hands out from underneath his cloak, one of the questions had caught on the pad of his thumb.

He’d held it there, pressed to the shape of the teacup, and said nothing.

It’d been answer enough.)

-

(“holy shit!” Newborn flora had barely been able to crawl from the thawing earth before the sun startled them with its enthusiasm, their fragile leaves curling against their stems with its energy. Flowers that had already had the sense to bloom had found their petals stuck to the steel plating of a samurai helmet, resting on a table in a tea shop, almost newly opened, in the grand scheme of things. “holy shit!”

The samurai had glanced around the tea shop with pale eyes, his hair tied in a tight tail at the base of his skull. A strip of cloth was tied around his forehead, unaffiliated with anyone that mattered. His affiliations now extended only as far as the helmet did.

As far as the spring had been concerned, it’d been three dead men in a tea shop, out of place, finding new ones.

“thought you were supposed to be dead,” the samurai said to the sun, the only indication of his nerves being the way he picked his mochi into piece, after piece, after piece.

“could say the same about you.” Sasuke had moved like vapor does, as though his feet never really needed to touch the ground in the first place. For the Land of Snow, the spring had found itself something kindred in the tea shop. 

“never had you pegged for a samurai,” the sunlight agreed, catching the attention of flower petals with its motion. Outside the open door, new growth turned its face toward his hands. 

The samurai had looked at them both. There’d been white-pink flower petals in his hair, a sign that he’d taken off his helmet to breathe sometime before he’d gotten there. A risk, with a recognizable face like his. “i figured i was proficient in taijutsu.” His eyes settled on Sasuke, and an eyebrow arched, a little imperiously. “thought maybe i should take up swordsmanship.” 

Sasuke held his gaze only barely. There’d been something heavy on his mind, like a cloud filled with rain. 

A breeze pulled itself into the tea shop, catching the sunshine’s question in its path, said softly, almost secretly, to the empty eyes of the samurai helmet, “are you happier?”

The samurai had blinked, and in his eyes the sunlight glittered. In the space between these two moments, Sasuke’s eyes had dropped to the floor. 

“yeah,” the samurai replied, nodding once. “i think so.” His eyes had been clear when he’d continued, “how about you?”

When the sun grinned, he became so young, much younger than he was only a heartbeat before. Even with the time that had passed, the spring remembered the boyishness with perfect clarity. Perhaps the samurai did too.

“i don’t think i’ve been happier,” he’d said. The flowers had known he’d been telling the truth.

When next the spring breathed in, Sasuke was nowhere to be seen.)

Sasuke startles awake, as usual.

The dream that shoves him upright is always vague, but consistent. The shapes and sounds and sensations are forgettable—the feelings, of course, stick in his throat, hooked into the skin of his tonsils. They burn a path up from his chest to gather behind his teeth, tasting a little bit like bile when they flood onto the flat of his tongue.

Even with as thick as they are, the feelings are hard to distinguish, but Sasuke knows them anyway, just like he knows the shadows that linger at the edge of his periphery, even if his periphery has, obviously, been better. When he works his jaw around them, they bend into familiar shapes: i hate you so fucking much, i’ll kill you; i love you so much i can’t stand it; i love you so much i don’t know what to do with myself. 

He runs a hand down his face, because it’s the middle of the night. His fingertips come away bloody because he’d been startled awake—as usual. The space beside him is empty, because Naruto had woken up first. It’s a routine, almost down to the timestamp, the way this plays out; Naruto’s inability to sleep these days paired with Sasuke’s inherent neuroticism make for an interesting combination after dark, no matter how many bruises Naruto bites into Sasuke’s collarbone, or how tight Sasuke clings onto Naruto’s shoulders when he holds him like that.

No—that’s not a fair way to spin it. It’s getting better, the pattern of things. There are nights where Sasuke startles awake to see Naruto looking at him with that doofy, worried look on his face. Or there are nights where Sasuke wakes up first and gets to hold Naruto’s face or drag his knuckle along his cheek. Occasionally, there are even mornings where they wake up at practically the same time (rare) and Naruto kisses Sasuke’s nose (far less rare) and then shows off the dimples in his cheeks near his scars.  

Sasuke slides his legs out from under the comforter and brings himself to standing. The floorboards are fucking freezing, but not as cold as they could be. Naruto must’ve thrown more wood into the stove downstairs, with the way the air doesn’t bite at Sasuke’s cheeks as he makes his way to the bathroom.

He grabs Naruto’s jacket off of the floor where it always ends up and shrugs it on anyway, before he flicks on the bathroom light and squints against its brightness. The bathroom itself is a half-blurry mixture of surfaces and metallic finish, a combination of failing-and-standard sight. 

The mirror tells him what he pretty much already knew: his left eye is weeping blood, a classic response to a classic behavior. It means he’d tried to open the Sharingan in his sleep, for whatever reason, and this eye hadn’t been doing well before he’d switched them out. It’s hardly surprising that it struggles to function like this.

He splashes cold water on his face, paying special attention to his left eye and the cheek underneath it, clearing out the blood that’s starting to dry in his eyelashes. It’s quick work, the rhythm of all this, and any sleep that had been tying down Sasuke’s joints has slipped to the bathroom floor, left behind when he turns off the light to go find Naruto. It’s the middle of winter in the Land of Snow, so it’s no real guess as to where he’ll be standing—he says that it’ll probably never get old, watching snowfall in the almost-pitch darkness, broken only by streetlights and the glimpse of wood-burning stoves through windows.

Sasuke can smell incense as he cuts through the shoebox of their living room, passing by what passes for a shrine in a living space this size. Naruto’s mother looks like she’s smiling at him, which is uncomfortable. He doesn’t look at his own parents’ photo, framed off to the right; this is more Naruto’s area of expertise and, again, it’s uncomfortable.

His footsteps are silent against the stairs, a reminder about how difficult the death of old habits has been, can be, will be. They don’t creak when he hops the last two, and the tea shop only settles comfortably around him as he walks across the dining room on bare feet. It’s warmer down here, closer to the stove, regardless of the fact that heat rises, or whatever. The stove in the corner crackles softly—definitely refilled, certainly by Naruto.

Sasuke pulls on his boots, left very particularly by the front door, and lets the entry bell announce his exit.

The winter numbs his face almost instantly.

(That second winter had been unsurprising in its ferocity, though the building underneath the snowfall had groaned, a little, with the weight of it—the snow, the ice, and the snow again. The snow had just been relarning what it was like to have interlopers in this space outside its influence, and the murmur-rattle-chime of it all had been disorienting, had been disruptive. 

But some of the winter—some of the snow—had been tucked under the awning of the teashop-in-repair, not yet packed down by boots, or stones, or ice. It hadn’t yet melted and frozen and gathered again. It had only waited, pressed against the windows closest to the shadow of a cash register, fluttering in time with the almost-rusted ring when the register open-and-shut.

The sun’s personification breathed out a curse on a flame-curled tongue and was caught in a headlock by a flowered tree, her forearm tucked under his chin, her bicep pressed to the back-and-side of his throat. They’d been laughing, as far as the wintertime could tell. They’d been too far away to catch their laughter against the glass. 

Sasuke had been watching them almost as closely as the snow had been.

“he seems happy.” The artist spoke like curling paper, dried stiff with ink. The winter air only caught the words through the window itself. The wood around it had swallowed the words whole, refusing to let them go. “i wish i was surprised.”

Sasuke had said nothing. Or if he had, it’d been too quiet for the snow to even catch the memory of.

The pause between them had been frozen, three inches thick. The snow outside hadn’t known what weight it carried, but it was something—and it existed outside the reach of the sunlight’s smile and the flowered tree’s laughter. The floorboards creaked beneath the ice they’d shared.

“he’d’ve hated it,” the artist had spoken again, sharper than the first time, the pull of a brush against old parchment. “being hokage.”

The ice shuddered. It cracked, from the bottom.

“oh yeah?” Sasuke had leaned against the back wall, his bones speaking to the snowfall through the tea shop’s frame. “how do you figure?”

A scoff, the flutter of bristles casting aside excess droplets. “he’d only spend his time thinking about you. what you were doing, if you were hurt or not, if there was something he could’ve done.” The artist pitched his voice up just a little, thinning it out with the edge of a knife. “‘what good is a hokage if—’”

“‘—they can’t even save one friend.’ i’m aware.”

The ice cracked a second time, from the top. Whatever was pressing against it had increased its force.

Sasuke had shifted against the wall. Maybe he’d swallowed. The outside hadn’t been able to tell. “i can’t see why he likes you.”

The artist laughed, pressing an ink-dark thumb against his bottom lip. The shape of it had been unclear against the cold-fogged window, but it’d been clear enough to imagine. “just because he likes you doesn’t make you a good person.”

“case in point.” It might’ve been a laugh, in another life. Even then, it’d been close.

“case in point,” the artist agreed.

There may have been more that would’ve been said in that moment. They could’ve said anything else in that space, with the length of ice between them. The artist may have been about to see if Sasuke knew what Naruto had given up to be out in the middle of nowhere. Sasuke may have asked the artist what he’d known about the time before this, long after Sasuke had decided to bury himself alive, out of the sun’s sight. 

But instead, hair like flower petals had flashed before the window with sunlight to follow. The snow had been unable to feel anything but laughter, anything but shouting, anything but a welcome home said painfully. The tea shop’s frame had settled under the snow, had creaked at its joints, and had sighed out warmth against the cold. 

Behind the cash register, the tea shop had been able to feel the shape of a box of tea leaves tucked away on a shelf. While the tea shop had lived many lives as different things, it had known this—they’d been tea leaves dried for artian’s ink. 

They’d been wrapped in what could’ve been kindness in a different story.

In this one, it had likely been respect.) 

The heartbeat that underlies moments like these guides the teacup from Naruto’s hand into Sasuke’s like clockwork, ticking in the marrow of their bones. The teacup cuts through the chill with absolute impunity, which means that Naruto can’t have been out here that long, and Sasuke presses it to both of his cheeks to soak it up. 

“Smells like beef broth,” he says, and it feels like there’s steam coming out of his mouth with the teacup so close to his face. 

“That’s because it is,” Naruto tells him, sipping on his own teacup, using his prosthetic as a coaster as Sasuke leans against the side of the tea shop next to him. The snow huffs against the soles of his boots. “I was hungry, and this seemed like it would be toasty and satisfy my insatiable hunger.”

Sasuke takes a drink that almost scalds his tongue, but he can feel it warming its way down his throat and into his stomach. “Not a bad idea.”

“Well,” Naruto’s breath is smoky in the cold, his body temperature running too high to smother most of the time, “last time I made tea, you were like ‘this is disgusting’, because I oversteeped it or something, and it was, again, quote, ‘literally unpalatable.’”

“It was,” Sasuke says, taking another sip, “but I didn’t say it like that.”

Naruto snickers, sending clouds of white around his nose and mouth and cheekbones, catching frosted glimmers in his eyelashes. He’s beautiful, painfully so, and Sasuke remembers that at least a million times a day. Naruto will wink at a customer and Sasuke’s heart will quiver in the most unsubtle way, and it will remind him. Over, and over, and over again, it’ll remind him: god, i— 

He touches the shell of Sasuke’s ear, looping almost-too-long hair around his forefinger as he traces down Sasuke’s cheek. “Your hair’s getting long. Want me to cut it for you?” 

The softness is Naruto’s features pulls Sasuke’s stomach out from his body, leaving only a windfall where it ought to have been, and if he hadn’t been propped up against the tea shop, he’d probably go weak at the knees right about now. He takes another drink of molten beef broth to dislodge the stone that has made its home on the back of Sasuke’s tongue, threatening to close off his windpipe. 

Something overwhelming is crawling up, and up, and out of him: god, i— 

“Yeah, actually.” He sounds exactly like he’s supposed to when he speaks, and for that he is infinitely grateful. “It’s been starting to drive me up a wall.”

Naruto lets go, laughing, and brings his teacup back to his mouth, dusting snow from the windowsill behind him as he adjusts his position against the tea shop’s facade. There’s still some tiredness at the edge of his mouth, a little bit of exhaustion painted beneath his eyes, but even then he’s able to look comfortable, out in the freezing cold without a jacket around his shoulders. 

He’s always managed to look comfortable, even when his life had been under fire—maybe especially then. 

Sasuke clears his throat against the stone that’s struggling to move. It’s been there all day. All day, all week, a long time. It’s a thought and a question and every time he looks at Naruto’s face, he thinks about it. If he keeps thinking about it, he’ll run. If he speaks about it, he’ll die.

When he clears his throat a second time, it sounds like a hammer pulling back on a pistol. 

“You remember when I went to the store this week to get more milk?” Sasuke asks, pressing the teacup against the side of his throat for strength, for warmth.

“Sure do,” another laugh, this one more like a wheeze against the chill. “You were pissed about your stocking oversight, and were, like, going to swear yourself blue.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s not the important part.” Maybe the broth idea had been better than tea. He can almost feel its liquid warmth in his toes. “You know that elderly lady that owns the place?” Sasuke breathes and his voice doesn’t tremble. “She wanted me to ask how my husband was doing, since you never get sent on shopping runs.”  

It’s kind of comical, really—or it would be, if Sasuke’s hindbrain wasn’t threatening to throw him out into the street at a dead sprint. But Naruto has spit his beef broth onto the snow, coughing, and Sasuke is rooted to the spot, unable to go anywhere. It’s a feeling so far from panicked that he doesn’t even have a name for it, because the only thing panic has ever done is make him run away. He’s never quite been startled into stillness before.

The beef broth hisses into instant freeze against the snow. It steams into the nighttime.

Naruto’s cheeks are pink when he says, “oh, well, who could blame her, right? We share a last name,” which had been Naruto’s idea (“u-zu-ma-ki, u-chi-ha, so u-zu-ha. perfect, right?”), “we live together, i call you gorgeous all the time. Honestly, who wouldn’t make that assumption? I mean, you know, besides the fact that I think people still try to give you their number—”

If he doesn’t stop him, he’ll never stop talking. It’s his nervous habit, far off on the other end of the spectrum from Sasuke, who will literally shut his mouth for the rest of time, if given the chance. Naruto never gives him the chance; so Sasuke returns the favor, and tries to keep Naruto from talking himself to death.

Sasuke coughs up the stone in his throat and lets it hit the snow like deadweight.

“So,” he says, his breath competing with the beef broth currently still scalding his palms, “do you wanna get married?” 

This time, Naruto has nothing in his mouth to spit-take into the snow. It’s only silence, and the way Naruto is looking at him, and the screaming of his own abject stupidity in his ears. There’s a siren pressing against his eardrums, and he really, honestly, might just drop dead here. Naruto’s blinking, and his eyes are shining, and his jaw has gone slack with a complete lack of brain activity. He’s still breathtaking, even with an expression that could be described as almost vacant, if his eyes weren’t sharp enough to cut glass. 

“What?” The question lays itself atop Sasuke’s own, a snowball dropped from a low height. It barely even whispers when it hits the ground. god, Sasuke thinks, an echo of an echo of a thought, naruto, i—

“Do you want to get married?” Snow has started falling, casting shadows in the street lighting, and they look almost like teardrops on Naruto’s face.

The closest municipality is two hours away by truck, which Sasuke knows better than he knows the standard time to steep jasmine tea, at this point. He’s checked with town visitors, checked maps, checked online. It’s a two-hour drive and the paperwork is relatively simple. They would need their fake IDs, tucked away in a locked drawer upstairs. The municipal clerk could witness, especially if they didn’t ask any questions, like why are you sharing a name already? 

Sasuke’s thoughts run circles around themselves and begin to grow teeth, drawing blood when they get too close to one another.

“Sasuke,” Naruto says his name like a holy thing, and it’s so unbelievably romantic that the only possible option is that he’s going to say no. He’s going to say, he’s going to say— “I love you so fucking much.”

There’s a period after that sentence. It’s i love you so fucking much, not i love you so fucking much that or i love you so fucking much and. It is only itself, a statement of fact. 

god, i love you, says his own voice in his own head, a record set free from its place on a dusty shelf for special occasions, i love you so much, so much, so much. He’s either going to vomit, or—

“Holy shit, are you okay?” Naruto’s hands are on his face and his prosthetic is warmer than he expected, but then again, it was recently still being utilized as a coaster for the hottest beef broth on earth. “Are you okay?”

Or he’s going to cry.

Sasuke drops his teacup and hears it break against the frozen ground as he presses his hand over his eyes. “It’s just really fucking dry.” That’s the worst lie. That is the worst, most obvious, most feeble lie he’s ever told in his entire life, and that is including the whole thing about whims and severing bonds and whatever other shit he’s said in moments where his heart was being smothered with both his hands. “It’s dry and it’s fucking cold.”

Naruto’s hands are disgustingly gentle when he pulls Sasuke’s fingers away from his eyes. There’s no blood on his palms. “Are you okay? You’re acting like the love of your life just asked you to get married.” There’s those dimples, tucked in his cheeks. Sasuke could kiss them, if his nose wasn’t running. Gross.

“Maybe I’m acting like the love of my life didn’t give me a response?” It’s either let his nose run, or sniffle. He’s not really sure that he wants to do either.

“Oh, fuck,” and there it is. Naruto’s cheeks go scarlet, and then it’s all the way down his neck. “I mean, duh, I’ll marry you. I’ll marry you now, if you want. I—of course we can’t invite anyone, or anything, but I think that—what, you thought I wouldn’t marry you? We’re basically—I mean, I just said we’re practically married.”

“You think I’m just going to assume what your answer is?” He has to sniffle, and he does. It doesn’t fix the problem, but it makes it a little less notable. “Like just forego the whole process?”

“I just—” That complicated look that Naruto will wear sometimes comes and goes in a flash, the flicker of a lightbulb that might be on its last legs. It’s the look he gets when Sasuke asks if he’s feeling okay, like he’d just decked him right across the face. “I thought you were going to do that thing where you say, ‘oh, i have robbed you of your youth by dragging you out into the middle of fucking nowhere and forcing you to live with me in this domestic nightmare.’”

Sasuke scoffs. “It’s never sounded like that.”

Naruto’s eyebrows rise. “It started sounding like that the sixth time we fought about it.”

(“i said that when we die, we’d be able to understand each other,” the seasons remembered, the words thrown out wide, shaking limbs free of snow, and flowers, and leaves, “so let me fucking understand you!”)

Naruto holds Sasuke’s face again, drawing his thumbs underneath Sasuke’s eyes. Both of his thumbs are cold. “Let’s get married.” 

Sasuke tilts his head to press a quick kiss to Naruto’s flesh and blood palm. “I love you,” he says there, and it makes his ears feel too warm.

“I love you back,” Naruto tells him, and he doesn’t make mention of Sasuke wearing his jacket when he warms his living hand against Sasuke’s throat, pressing his little finger against the backmost line of his pulse, “Uzuha-san.”

It’s normal, then, when Sasuke rolls his eyes, huffing out a breath of not-quite-warm air through his nose. He opens his mouth to speak, to offer to go inside, to suggest that maybe he go in to get gloves to clean up the broken teacup, but Naruto stops him, casting a glance toward the second floor of the tea shop, right where their living room should be.

“Oh,” Naruto says, and there’s an epiphany happening there. “We have to tell our parents.”

“What?” Sasuke dips his hand against Naruto’s hip for warmth. “No. You talked to them already. I smelled incense. It can wait until tomorrow.”

“We have to tell them now. Can you imagine? I mean, I can’t, but like, I’m pretty sure my folks would wreck my whole week if I didn’t tell them.” Naruto’s smile is small, and earnest, and beautiful. Another one of those reminders. “Your parents might flip! We have to tell them.”

Those stupid, shining eyes. Those stupid dimples. The unfathomable length of his eyelashes. 

“Okay,” Sasuke lets it go, because there’s something sleepy pulling at his body. Authentic tiredness, maybe. He’s so unfamiliar with it that it’s hard to identify. “But after I get the teacup. I’m not leaving shards of ceramic everywhere.”

Naruto’s laugh scatters across the empty street, hitting the silence with the force of a rock through a window. Sasuke’s heart skips. His heart skips, and his arm moves out, and he pulls Naruto forward, just a little. Sasuke’s limited height difference doesn’t mean much when they’re this close, but it never really does when it comes to Naruto’s gravitational pull determines most things anyway.

They kiss, and it’s freezing.

Naruto laces their fingers together.

Sasuke can taste laughter when he opens his mouth.

(It hadn’t been the first autumn that had been aware of itself, but it had been significant nonetheless.

The trees at the topmost edge of the Valley of the End would’ve been an array of burnt colors, if they hadn’t been pulled into the chasm with the ruined statues. There had been stones upon stones stacked against one another, brought low by a cataclysmic force. The air had been electric with discharged chakra, loose leaves scattered by the updraft from the waterfall. 

Water beaded on faces, on bodies, on clothes, all obscured by fallen rock. 

“hey,” the autumn heard a whisper, carried on the waterfall’s mist up and over the lip of the Valley, “i know you can’t go back there.” It’d been akin to the sound of sand against concrete, a familiar murmur of the Land of Wind—but it’d been different: exhausted but jubilant, like it had been trying to be louder than it was currently able to be.

The waterfall whispered a response that had been indistinct. The leaves hadn’t been able to catch it either.

“how about we leave?” The same sand-and-concrete voice. The autumn had known this voice in a different shape, had felt it reverberate through this Valley before, could recognize it, maybe, if the waterfall hadn’t been so loud. 

“what, just… go?” That time, the whispered response had been clearer, had been clinging to the stem of a leaf that fell to the jagged edge where a statue had once been. “with all that… shit you still have to do?”

The waterfall had thundered on, so long that the autumn wondered if the conversation had kept going, out of its influence, out of its sight. But then the waterfall lifted up the sound again, the mist passing it amongst itself until the autumn could pull it from the moisture there: “for all anyone knows, we’re dead,” said the sand. “if we just go, who’s to say we survived in the first place?”

It might’ve been a wheeze the autumn heard, but it hadn’t been sure. It listened anyway.

“where would we go?” The electric pop before a storm. That’s what that voice had been. Static, crawling up the surface of the waterfall, dissipating against the earth above.

“wherever you want.” The rustle of clothes, lost to the roar of the Valley. The groan of battered bodies, swallowed by the stones, the uprooted trees, the season itself. “as far away as you want.” Softer, even, than the first time the voice had spoken. If the autumn hadn’t made itself brittle at the top of the Valley’s mouth, the voice would’ve been lost entirely. It was as if the words had been spoken against another’s mouth.

“it’s probably really late to say this,” the static spoke, dying before it reached the Valley’s edge. The stone had hummed with its timbre instead, “but i’m pretty sure i’m in love with you.”

Rocks had shifted against one another, screaming out a sound that lasted eons, maybe. The autumn hadn’t been sure how to measure time so incrementally. It had never needed to, before. 

By the time stones had settled, only the waterfall’s voice remained.)

[cheshiresense]

More on the Hadrian and Orion in Narutoverse AU please!!!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I don’t actually have that many more ideas for this AU, none that really focuses on the two of them anyway. Like, they found each other again and it was a done deal so there’s not really anything to add to that. But let’s see…

Edit: Ugh I give up, I ran out of inspiration for this one, I just didn’t know what else to write for it, sorry.

1. Ok so first off, Minato makes Hokage and stays that way and nothing terrible happens because I say so, and because I have no patience for the disaster that was the Naruto plotline, and also because lbr no way is Hadrian letting anybody muck shit up in his new home, he’s already lost one village, he isn’t going to let Orion lose his too, plus Danzo is dead which automatically solves like eighty percent of all problems and the world is just a hundred times better without him in it.

Kushina makes it Very Clear that their child will be placed under an Uzushio shinobi. Like, it’s part of their vows. She refuses to marry Minato unless he swears it (for a love match, it also couldn’t be more perfect politically, satisfying clans and elders alike by tying the two villages together, tying an Uzushio Jinchuuriki to Konoha, a union of talent and royalty, right before the Hokage Apparent ascends to the throne). Relations between Konoha and what’s left of Uzushio is a lot better than they were after Uzu was destroyed, but there’s still some tension, some mistrust, some resentment, and it’s not like anyone other than an Uzushio-nin can teach seals properly. It doesn’t help that some Konoha-nin still turn their noses up at Kushina and her people because they’re foreign, and others sneer at her because she’s a Jinchuuriki. She refuses to let someone like that teach her child.

Minato agrees of course, and ten years later, Naruto graduates near the top of his class, bright and cheerful and so very loved. He’s the son of the Hokage but also one of the first children born to the Uzumaki Clan after they’d finally finished picking up the pieces of their lives, and he has Minato’s colouring but Kushina’s determination and creativity and vindictive sense of humour.

In this world too, Naruto gets Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura as his teammates, but he’s known Sasuke since forever - his mom and Sasuke’s mom are best friends, one of his dad’s closest advisors is Sasuke’s dad, and his uncle (technically a cousin) is married to Sasuke’s uncle, so their families are a lot closer than most other clans in their villages. It was a shock to everyone, for the Uchihas of all people to have a close relationship with the Uzumakis, but their bond has stayed strong over the years despite many people’s doubts, and as a result, Naruto and Sasuke have been attached at the hip practically since birth.

As for Sakura, she seems like a nice girl too, a quieter counterpart to her best friend Ino, and they both know she’s upset at not being on the same team as the blonde, but she also beat both their academic scores and she doesn’t fall over herself trying to suck up to either Naruto or Sasuke, so they decide very quickly that they’ve lucked out with their third.

Naruto isn’t at all surprised when their sensei arrives. His mom’s been hinting at Uncle Hadrian for weeks because she is not subtle, and Naruto is absolutely thrilled because Uncle Hadrian is an S-rank Jounin with a flee-on-sight order and one of the strongest shinobi Naruto knows (Uncle Orion is almost as good, and he supposes his dad is okay too). He’s good at everything, better at seals than even Naruto’s mom, and his idea of babysitting is always an adventure - pranking someone mean and framing Kakashi-nii for it, setting up scavanger hunts in the village with a cool prize at the end, and taking him out for ice-cream or extra ramen that Naruto has solemnly sworn to keep secret from his parents. Hadrian is the best, and Naruto just wants to be him, him and Kaa-chan because Uzumaki really are the best, and his mom and uncle are the best of the best. And because he’s a good friend, he tells Sasuke beforehand about who’ll be teaching them and even tells Sakura the day of, so none of them are anything but excited when Hadrian sweeps into the classroom.

Uncle Hadrian just smiles at them, amused, and motions for them to follow. “Come along then, my new minions. Let’s see what chaos we can inflict on the world together.”

If Naruto had looked back, he would’ve seen the utterly horrified expression painted across the other Jounin senseis’ faces.

2. Team Seven gets a two-for-one deal. Orion outright rejects all offers of sticking him into the sensei rotation. The three times Minato tries, Orion fails every team and sends the kids back to the Academy within the hour.

It’s not as if he doesn’t like kids. They’re fine. But he doesn’t want to be solely responsible for them, especially in a world that’s literally out to kill them, and he’s no good with them for extended periods of time anyway.

He doesn’t mind helping Hadrian with his team though, and Fugaku definitely approves of having his brother help keep an eye on his youngest son. So the day after he returns from a courier mission, he tracks down Hadrian in one of the training fields and possibly enjoys it more than he should when he appears in a rush of Shunshin and makes all three kiddies jump or shriek.

Hadrian rolls his eyes at him but also reels him in for a welcome home kiss. “No complications?”

Orion snorts. “Of course not. It was barely B-rank.”

They turn back to the genin. Sasuke is rolling his eyes, more than used to their mostly subtle but easy displays of affection, and Naruto grins and gives Orion a wave because he’s as good as an uncle to the brat as well. The pink one though has her hands clapped over her mouth and is peering at them with big green eyes, like she’s never seen two men kiss. Then again, Orion’s already read the files on them, and she’s from a civilian family. They can be as weird as muggles about this sort of thing. Orion hadn’t cared in his last life, and he isn’t about to start now. At least she only looks surprised and not disgusted.

“This is Orion,” Hadrian tells his new students, for Sakura’s benefit. “My husband, and Sasuke’s uncle. He doesn’t have a team of his own, so when he isn’t busy, he’ll be joining us for training and missions. You’ll be seeing him a lot, and if for whatever reason I can’t meet up with you that day, I’ll probably send him in my place. Understand?”

He gets affirmatives from everyone and an “Awesome, dattebayo, we get two senseis!” from Naruto. Orion rolls his eyes and then smirks. “Twice the number of teachers, twice the amount of training.” He’s gratified when both boys pale a few shades, and Sakura - clever girl - takes her cue from them and has the beginnings of alarm creeping into her expression. He glances at Hadrian. “What’s on the menu for today?”

After they’ve sent Team Seven off for ten laps around the village (to start with of course, the day is still young), Hadrian remarks, “You’re a terrible person, and I never know what Minato is thinking every time he tries to shove a team on you.”

Orion’s smirk only widens.

3. Shortly after they get married, Hadrian and Orion move into a house in a quiet(er) part of Uzushio territory. They like their privacy, and they’re both quiet people by nature. Orion in particular only has so much tolerance for the Uzushio’s collective rambunctiousness and explosive personalities. They still get regular visitors, but at least they also get time to themselves without needing to escape into the surrounding woods.

A decade down the road, and they suddenly have three more children underfoot than either of them ever planned. then again, Naruto was around at least five times a week practically since he was born, and Sasuke had been allowed to drop by for almost as long, accompanied by his parents or Itachi.

Sakura is the last addition to their household, timidly shuffling in one evening when she’d let slip that her parents - merchants - were out of the village and wouldn’t be back for at least another three weeks.

Hadrian had always been a bit of a bleeding heart for strays, and this one is already his, so Orion hadn’t been at all surprised when - after treating everyone to dinner at Ichiraku’s - they ended up escorting all three kids back to Uzushio. Orion sends one of his wolf summons to the Uchiha compound to inform Fugaku that Sasuke would be staying over, and Naruto whirlwinds into the main house to hug his mom before sprinting back out and shouting back that he’d be staying with his uncles that night. Sakura smiles more as the night goes on and she finds herself ushered into a spare bedroom beside the boys’. She chatters more once she got to know her teammates better, and she’s more than a little awed by how much larger the house is on the inside compared to the outside.

“Seals can do all sorts of things, and my style is more versatile than most,” Hadrian tells her, and her eyes light up in a way Orion hadn’t seen in anyone but Hadrian himself.

“Can you teach me?” Sakura asks, flushing at her own gall. “Or- Or is it a clan secret?”

But Hadrian only smiles and promises to pull some reading material for her tomorrow.

“Orion knows some but he prefers kenjutsu,” Hadrian says, and Orion grunts. He likes offing his targets quickly and efficiently with sharp pointy things, so sue him. “Sasuke isn’t interested, and Naruto is but he has his mother to teach him. I’m glad I might have a student of my own if your interest lasts.”

Judging by the way Sakura begs Hadrian for a beginners’ book on sealing right then and there, and then spends the rest of the night - until Hadrian shoos them off to bed - curled up on the sofa in one of Naruto’s spare duck pajamas with her nose between its pages, she won’t be losing interest anytime soon.

Sakura becomes a regular fixture in their lives and in their house. Orion thinks she probably hasn’t realized it yet, but after a month of crashing at their place, the guards don’t even check her at the gates anymore whenever she swings by, even when she’s on her own.

4. Minato has the ANBU for the extra dangerous missions. But he has Hadrian and Orion for the ones that guarantee almost zero chances of survival. In the aftermath of the attempted kidnapping of one Hyuuga Hinata and the subsequent demand for reparations after Hiashi kills the kidnapper, who also happens to be the head ninja of the party sent to sign a peace treaty with Konoha, Minato refuses to hand one of his own over, A sends bolder and bolder threats of war, tensions between Konoha and Kumo haven’t been this high since the Third Great Shinobi War, and the eyes of the rest of the world are focused on them as they too count their numbers and stock up on weapons and supplies.

Three weeks in, after countless failed attempts at diplomatic talks and fairer compromises, Minato summons Hadrian and Orion to his office.

“I do not want war,” He says, features grim and somber, a far cry from his usual easygoing smiles and laidback nature. “It has barely been half a decade since the last one ended. But we are not in the wrong, and I refuse to bow to Kumo’s whims. If I cede ground now, the Hyuuga will never trust me again, and it will make Konoha look weak, not to mention it sets a precedence for Kumo and even other villages to try and pull something like this again. I won’t have it.”

Hadrian hums thoughtfully from where he’s sipping tea in one of the guest chairs. Orion is lounging against the far wall, eyes narrowed, features cold.

“So you want us to go and send a message,” Hadrian surmises. “But quietly.”

“Make sure A knows who it is,” Minato agrees, and nobody who’s seen the ice in his eyes when he’s like this would doubt his capability as Hokage. “But otherwise ensure that it can’t be traced back to us. I’ll deny everything on the public front. The rest, I’ll leave to your discretion.” He smiles thinly. “Let’s see how long it takes to make the Raikage bow.”

It takes six weeks. Six weeks of a plague that sweeps through half the towns along Lightning’s border at a terrifying speed, leaving civilians and border patrols alike puking their guts up for days. Nobody dies, but it’s a miserable, panic-stricken month for all involved when all they can do is ride it out, no cure to be found.

The Raikage does not bow.

Overnight, the guards stationed at various watchtowers all across Lightning fall prey to some invisible enemy, and all are found comatose or on death’s doorstep in the morning. Half of them die within the week, and all attempts at replacing the guards are met with the same result. A chunk of Kumo’s military is crippled in seven days.

The Raikage does not bow.

People within Kumogakure begin to die. No civilians or Genin, and the school and hospital are never hit, but Chuunin and Jounin are all free game, some in their homes, others on the streets or training grounds, and their T&I building blows up one day along with every ninja inside it who hadn’t gone out for lunch. The coup de grâce is the Raikage going in for work and finding a lock of Yugito’s blonde hair, his brother’s sunglasses, and his own vambraces - the ones he’d been looking for since he woke up this morning and found them missing from his bedroom - laid out neatly on his desk. A familiar leaf symbol glows on the wall behind it just long enough for A to get a good eyeful, and then it erases itself as if it were never there, leaving the Raikage bellowing his rage and fear.

The message is clear: no one in your village is safe, not your civilians, not your shinobi, not your Jinchuuriki, not even you. The next move is yours. Choose wisely.

The Raikage bows.

“Good job,” Minato says in way of greeting once Hadrian and Orion are home again, none the worse for wear. “A sends his apologies and has even agreed to a few import and trade concessions.”

“Ooh, make him send over some people from Cloud Confectioneries,” Hadrian pipes up. “Their cakes are divine, and you can’t get them anywhere else.”

Orion rolls his eyes, nods at Minato, and then grabs his husband and Shunshins them home. It’s been a long five weeks and he wants nothing more than to sink into a hot bath with Hadrian.

5. Literally everyone knows Hadrian and Orion are a couple. They’re not particularly over-the-top in their displays of love the way Minato and Kushina can sometimes be, but their marriage was the first one between a Konoha citizen and an Uzushio citizen since Uzushio’s destruction. And it was hard to miss when the two of them went out for meals, side by side, never flaunting what they had but quietly content in each other’s company in that way older people are after spending decades together and still being perfectly in love. Orion was a second son too, with no expectations (at least not too many) for producing children, so as far as a lot of clan elders were concerned, he’d definitely married well by tying another much-needed sealmaster to Konoha, one who actually stayed in the village (or close enough) and had a repertoire of skills that outstripped even Jiraiya’s.

(Orion scoffed when he’d first heard that going around and didn’t bother telling them that if Hadrian up and decided to become a missing-nin tomorrow, he’d be packed and gone with him by morning, no questions asked.)

Over time, some people do wonder - it isn’t normal for two people to fall together so easily, so quickly, comfortable around each other the way only those who’ve known one another their whole lives should be. There’s a level of instinct there that takes time and life to create, and yet Hadrian and Orion had that, from the moment they met. So people do wonder, even if they don’t ask, mostly because what kind of question would one ask anyway?

Still, sometimes, especially in the early days, Kushina sits and watches her cousin and his new husband move around the kitchen as they cook dinner like one soul in two bodies, gracefully in tune together in a way that goes beyond their shinobi training. it’s a dance, and a beautiful one, and she secretly hopes that one day, she’ll be able to have that with Minato.

(Almost twenty years later, Sakura will do the same, more at home in her senseis’ house than her parents’, watching Hadrian laugh at a deadpan joke Orion cracks, or watching Orion let Hadrian reel him onto the makeshift dance floor of their living room when Naruto brings home his latest record of whatever ridiculous tunes he’d found on a mission and insists on inflicting it on them. She’ll watch them and think of Ino and the way they’d been circling each other for months (years, really) and wonder if they might achieve something like this one day.)

Kushina will always remember their wedding vows - “-in this life and the next, and in every life we’ll ever share-” - and it wasn’t particularly profound or intimate, but there had been a weight in them that carried some hidden meaning known only to them, and it had struck a chord in her, especially when she sees them together and once again considers the niggling suspicion at the back of her mind that whispers reincarnation.

The next date she goes on, Minato comes to pick her up, another clumsy bouquet in hand like the ridiculous romantic he is, this time of salvia and mallow and lavender. She sighs and accepts them and doesn’t tell the moron that not all girls are automatically born knowing flower language or even pay much attention to the classes back in the Academy. But she’d bought a book on it after their first date, threatened Inoichi into silence because she knew exactly who Minato was taking flower advice from, and she doesn’t say a word about the album of pressed flowers she’d started ever since Minato started giving them to her.

Hadrian finds out, because of course he does (because Kushina had failed miserably at pressing flowers even with an instruction manual, and Hadrian was the only person she knew who could teach her and wouldn’t laugh at her first, especially when she confesses how she might’ve felt just a little bit guilty for not understanding what Minato was saying with the flowers every time). Hadrian hadn’t laughed, but he’d smiled and told her of the bouquets Orion had given him when they were still courting (that’s another tick in the reincarnation category because Kushina had never once seen either of them give flowers to each other), and how Hadrian had had no idea what they meant either when he’d first received them.

“And I think flowers can just be flowers sometimes,” Hadrian says as they work on Minato’s latest slightly ragged-looking roses. They look like he’d accidentally let an Inuzuka dog chew on the stems. “They smell nice and they look nice, and Minato took the time to get them for you, and you like them. Sometimes, I think that’s enough.”

And if Hadrian can say that and Orion still looks at him like he’s everything he needs in the world, then Kushina thinks he probably knows what he’s talking about. Hadrian usually does.

(Later, on their wedding anniversary, Kushina grins when she spots Hadrian exiting Yamanaka’s Flower Shop with a bouquet of his own, and she makes sure she has a good view of him presenting it to Orion at their favourite restaurant.

The way Orion’s expression goes soft and warm, wrapped in something like wonder - Kushina immortalizes it on camera and makes a mental note to give a copy to Hadrian later.)

[redvoid-40]

Chapter 11: Overcoming the Second Phase

Hello everyone! I know I’m obsessing almost exclusively over the Tales of Arcadia fandom, but I haven’t forgotten this fic yet. Although I do wonder: is anyone still reading/interested in this? Should I keep posting new chapters?

Fanfic title: ??? Word count: 2837 Fandom: Naruto Pairing: eventual Gaara x OC, cannon pairings Genre: Friendship, Adventure, Hurt/Comfort Warnings: None

Previous chapter / Next chapter

It was well into nighttime when Team Rashu found themselves in a secluded spot to rest. The three Genin settled on taking shifts for sleeping, so there would always be someone awake in case of an ambush. After being scolded and throttled by Aoni, Shin was quick to offer to take the first one.

“You sure about this, Shin-chan?” Hajii asked, already lying down, left hand clutching his sister’s.

“Yeah. I have a hard time falling asleep, anyway. You two rest up.”

“Wake me in a couple of hours, okay?” Aoni spoke, lying down by her brother’s side. 

Shin smiled. 

“Okay.”

---

It was still dark, but birds were already chirping when Shin woke Aoni up, gently shaking her shoulder.

“Aoni-chan-” She whispered. “-I’m sorry to wake you, but I’m drifting off now. Would you keep watch?”

Aoni sat up and glared at her. “Shin-chan! It’s almost morning!” She whispered. “You should’ve woken me hours ago.”

“Ahh, I wasn’t sleepy before. I couldn’t stop thinking about that guy… Also, I figured it would be best if Hajii slept through the night. I know how much he hates the dark.”

Aoni glanced at her brother, eyes softening at finding him still fast asleep. “Still, you should’ve woken me earlier. We could’ve split the time evenly between the two of us.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m used to a couple of all-nighters now and then. I only woke you up because I feel my attention is starting to drop now. It wouldn’t be safe for me to keep watch in this state.”

“Of course. Get some shut eye already. We leave for the Tower in an hour.”

---

Morning came, and with it Team Rashu started moving towards the Tower. From branch to branch they jumped as fast as possible while Shin kept reaching out with her chakra, ready to find anyone before they could find them.

“Guys! Wait!” She called, causing the trio to stop. “I can feel some chakras up ahead.”

“How many and how far? Should we take a detour?” Hajii asked.

“They’re a couple dozen meters in front of us. We can avoid them if we want. But…”

“Yes?” He asked.

“There are many chakras there. Over ten.” Shin began, index finger twirling around her hair. “And… my friends are there too.”

Hajii sighed in exasperation. “Not again.”

“Sorry! But couldn’t we just… check on them?” She asked, voice trembling. “We could approach carefully, just to see if they’re okay. They don’t even need to know we’re there!”

“What if they’re in danger?” Hajii asked, one eyebrow raised. “Can you promise you won’t do anything stupid?”

Shin blushed and averted her eyes. Of course she couldn’t promise that. “Hajii, please.”

“Shin-“

“We should go.” Aoni said, causing Shin and Hajii to turn to her with wide eyes. The girl stared back at her brother with serious eyes. “This is not some random guy who attacked us. These are her friends, Hajii.” Aoni pointed out. “Shin wouldn’t hesitate in helping us if it was Kotarou who was in danger.”

Shin’s eyes widened even further. It was uncommon for either sibling to mention their former teammate; his leaving the team was still a sensitive topic. Hajii sighed, kinda shaking, kinda nodding his head.

“Two against one isn’t fair…” He said. “Ugh, fine. Let’s just get this over with. I don’t want to spend another night in this horrible place.”

“Thank you, Hajii-chan!” Shin beamed. “We’ll be done with this real quick, you’ll see. I’m sure they have everything under control!”

---

When they arrived at the scene, Team Seven had things under control. But not in the way Shin had expected at all.

S-Sasuke-kun? From her hiding place at a treetop, Shin watched in shock as Sasuke held down one of the Otogakure Ninjas. His smile was crooked, his body was covered by dark, strange markings. And his chakra- That’s not his chakra. 

Shin swallowed and exchanged a look with her equally surprised teammates. They nodded at her, and the trio jumped to the ground while Shin’s brown eyes took in everything around her. Naruto was on the floor, unconscious, and so was Rock Lee. The other two members of Lee’s team - Shin couldn’t remember their names - were atop a tree branch, with their gazes trained on the leader of the Oto-Nins. Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji were there too, taking cover in a bush a few feet away. And Sakura...

“Shin!”

At the call of her name, Shin at last fixed her gaze on her. The girl was badly hurt, with cuts all over her body and one eye threatening to swallow shut. And her long pink hair...

“Are you alright, Sakura?” Shin asked, running towards her so she could gently comb her pink hair away from her face to examine her bruises. “What happened to you all? What’s wrong with... Sasuke?”

Sakura shook her head, tears in her eyes. “I-I don’t know. It was a man named Orochimaru. He bit Sasuke-kun yesterday and now…” Sakura’s voice trailed off as both girls looked to the boy. He was smiling wickedly down at his foe, pulling both of his arms back at an unnatural angle. Despite the Oto-Nin’s screams, he continued to pull and pull and pull.

The sound of the Ninja’s arms popping out of their sockets made bile rise in Shin’s throat.

That’s not Sasuke…

“Stop!”

Shocked, Shin watched Sakura leap to her feet and run towards the boy to embrace him tightly, as if trying to physically reign in that terrible bloodlust he was emanating. When Sasuke looked back at Sakura, Shin leaped to her feet, fearing he’d hurt her. To her - and everyone’s - relief, Sasuke seemed to come back to his senses. His markings receded and his chakra eased into the controlled thrumming Shin had grown used to.

“You have some pretty interesting friends, Shin-chan.” 

Shin glanced at Hajii and Aoni. Both were staring at Sasuke with wide eyes, muscles tense and weapons in hand. When she looked down at herself, Shin found her right hand wrapped tightly around her kunai as well.

---

After all was said and done and the Oto-Nins took their leave, the remaining Genin savoured a few moments of reprieve and gathered their bearings. There was safety in numbers and at the moment there were twelve of them together; it was a rare chance for all to gather information and tend to any injuries with tranquillity. After waking up Naruto and convincing Hajii to do some first aid on him, Sasuke and Rock Lee, Shin sat down with Sakura and Ino, as the blonde cut the first’s hair. In-between the two’s usual bickering, Sakura explained to them what had happened yesterday and how it all seemed to come back to just one name.

“Orochimaru…” Shin let the syllables roll off her tongue, as her eyes narrowed. “So he’s responsible for all of this. We need to find out who he is and prepare. I doubt this will be the last we hear of him.”

Sakura and Ino gave her a surprised stare, but before either could say anything Hajii had approached them with a first aid satchel and an improvised wooden bowl filled with water in in his hands.

“I patched up that fashion atrocity, Shin-chan-” he said.

Shin pouted. “Don’t talk about Lee-senpai like that Hajii-chan...”

Hearing that, Lee called out to Shin with a big smile on his face and two thumbs up. “Thank you, Shin-kun! I knew I could count on you to understand the fire in my spirit!” 

Hajii looked back at the green-clad boy before turning back to Shin with an eyebrow raised. He didn’t say anything, but that look spoke everything.

Shin chuckled. “You can’t deny his energy is very uplifting.”

Hajii scoffed. “Whatever. Just come so I can look at your arm. I was going to take a second look at it once we got to the Tower, but since we’re all taking a little break, we can get it done now. Come on.”

With a parting smile to the girls, Shin followed Hajii to a more secluded spot in the clearing so he could look at her wound in peace. Shin swallowed as the boy untied the bandages around her shoulder. They were stained with old blood and as the pressure let out, her wound immediately oozed out fresh blood and even a bit of pus, making Shin scowl in distaste. And when Hajii touched the skin surrounding the wound, she couldn’t help but let out a little whine.

Hajii clicked his tongue. “It doesn’t look good. Shin-chan, it might be best if you lay down for this.”

“What are you going to do?” The girl’s voice trembled as she asked, but she followed his orders.

Hajii kneeled close to her left shoulder and pulled out a pair of silicone gloves from his first aid satchel and some antiseptic solution and gauze. “I need to clean the wound well, scrub all the pus and dead tissue out before wrapping it with gauze again. First, I’m going to wash it with water and then with the solution. Unfortunately, I don’t know any healing Ninjutsu, so this will have to do until we get to the Tower.”

Shin was about to say something when Naruto approached them and plopped down at her right side. “Ew! This look terrible, Shin-chan. Believe it!”

“Thank you, Naruto-chan. That’s just what I needed to hear.” Shin said, face pale.

“Hehehe, Sorry.” The boy spoke, rubbing the back of his head. “Want me to hold your hand?”

“... Yes.”

Naruto smiled brightly and grabbed her right hand. “Just focus on me, Shin-chan! I’ll tell you all about how I kicked ass yesterday do you won’t even feel anything, believe it!”

Naruto’s gesture and words were well-intentioned, but the moment Hajii inserted a gloved finger to debride any dead tissue inside her wound, he fainted. Shin was too busy holding back her groans of pain and doing her best to keep still to do anything more than push him away so he didn’t fall on top of her.

“I really hope we have some proper medical attention there.” Hajii commented as he held her wound open and poured water into it. “Or else I’ll have to clean it again and then stitch it.”

At that, Shin whimpered like a kicked dog.

---

It was before noon when Team Rashu arrived at the Tower. After a warm greeting from Iruka, the three Genin made their way inside the Tower, eyes darting back and forth as they looked for the Infirmary.

“Iruka-sensei said it should be just around here.” Shin mused. 

“I hope this doesn’t take too long. I’m dying for a shower.” Aoni spoke, running a hand through her oily hair.

“Ah! Why don’t you guys explore the place while I look for the Infirmary?” Shin suggested. “Maybe find out if there are any rooms for us and get cleaned up?”

The twins exchanged a look, tempted by the offer. “You sure about this, Shin-chan?”

“Of course! There’s no reason for you guys to waste time just waiting for me when you could be resting. I’ll find you once I’m done here.”

“We don’t mind waiting, Shin-chan.” Aoni said.

Shin smiled at her friends and waved them off. “Just go, you two.”

---

“You’re the first to come here looking for medical attention, you know? I’m surprised.” The Medic-Nin at the Infirmary told her. “And there are two teams here already.”

Shin blushed at that comment and looked down as she continued to heal her shoulder. So, not only there were teams who had finished the Second Phase before them, they were also in better shape.

“No need to be embarrassed. You did well in coming here. This cut was pretty deep and without proper care it could give you a lot of trouble.” The Medic-Nin reassured and gave her a smile. "This healing session should be enough, but there’s still a chance of infection, so I need you to pay attention to any signs of inflammation. If you get a fever, notice any exaggerated swelling, pain or drainage, come back for me to take a second look, alright?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

---

Once her shoulder was nice and healed, Shin wandered around the Tower’s hallways, looking for a shower and a bed. Her hour-long nap earlier that morning had fulfilled its mission and got her through the second day in the Forest of Death, but now she needed proper sleep. But just as she reached the first flight of stairs there was a bark behind her.

“Yoohoo! Look who’s here!”

Shin turned around, smiling widely at finding Team Ten standing right in front of her.

“Hinata-chan, Kiba-kun and Shino-kun!” Shin called excitedly. “You guys made it, congratulations!”

Hinata smiled shyly. “Y-You too, Shin-san. Congratulations.”

“Guess you did well in ditching those losers for a new team, huh, Shin?” Kiba teased. “I bet they lost their scroll already.”

“They are not losers, and I didn’t ditch anyone. We made an arrangement so all of us could take part in the Exams.” Shin pouted. “And I’ve met with them less than an hour ago. They’re still going strong. I bet they’ll be here in no time.”

“Heh! If you say so.” Kiba said, with a smirk.

“More importantly…” Shin began, lowering her gaze to the little pup tucked into Kiba’s coat. “Akamaru seems to be shaking. Is he okay?”

The whole Team Ten tensed at her words and Kiba’s smile dropped as he raised a hand to pet Akamaru’s head comfortingly. “It’s not his fault. We met-”

“Oh, great. That brat is here too.”

As one, Team Ten froze in front of her and Shin could almost taste the fear surrounding them. Slowly, she turned around, following their gaze to find none other than the Sand-Nins walking towards them. The girl was smiling confidently, Kankuro had a half-smirk, half-snarl on his lips and Gaara-

Akamaru whimpered behind her and Shin understood immediately who had terrified him so.

-Gaara had the same detached expression on his face as he stared at her.

“Congratulations to you three.” Shin spoke, politely bowing her head. “I can’t say I’m surprised at finding you here already.”

“Well, I am in seeing you here at all.” Kankuro replied. “I didn’t expect a little brat like you to make the cut. Although I see that annoying orange friend of yours isn’t here, so there’s that.”

“There’s still time. I’m sure he’ll be here soon.” Shin chuckled awkwardly, letting her gaze wander over the three Genin before settling on Gaara.

The redhead didn’t have a single scratch or speck of dust on him. Shin knew he was strong - much stronger than she could comprehend - but it still took her by surprise by how unmarred he was. Despite her own team not meeting any others on their way here, there was a slight altercation between them and a giant boar, and even Aoni got herself a few bruises and cuts.

“You look like this was a walk in the park.” Shin commented, raising her brown eyes to Gaara’s sea-foam gaze.

The boy scoffed and everyone - including his teammates - seemed to freeze at his response. Their reaction alone was almost enough to make the girl apologise for her words, fearing they might be seen as some provocation.

“This is nothing.” The boy spoke, lips curling in distaste. “The real deal will come later, when all the weak ones are disposed of, and only the strong remain. That’s when… I’ll prove my existence.”

Shin’s polite smile fell as something dark and unhinged tainted the boy’s chakra. His eyes were blown wide, and he stared at her as if she was some long-awaited event, a main course of sorts, to be carved into and consumed until there was not one bone left that wasn’t licked clean.

“W-We should be going!” The blonde Sand-Nin announced suddenly. “Right, Kankuro?”

“R-Right.” Kankuro answered, a slight tremble in his word. “We should take some time to polish our weapons and check our inventory. Right, Gaara?”

The redhead didn’t respond and Shin was incapable of breaking eye-contact with him. She was terrified of him. And yet- This chakra… what is this? It’s almost like that time at the bridge in the Land of Waves when Naruto’s chakra changed. So much chakra… so powerful. So… mouth-watering. Pupils blown wide, Shin took in a deep breath. Maybe, if she was careful, she could reach out with her own energy, just to brush it against his. If she could just-

“We should get going too!” Kiba spoke loudly, pulling on her shoulder. “Come on, Shin!”

Spell broken, Shin’s chakra contracted back to herself as she suddenly faced Kiba and Akamaru. She blinked and nodded once before following Team Eight up the stairs. When she looked back over her shoulder, she found Gaara staring at her with bloodlust overflowing from his eyes. Mixed with it, she thought she saw some curiosity.

Shin didn’t know which scared, and which excited her most.

[panharmonium]

more scattered naruto thoughts now that we’ve finished season 8 -

[spoiler policy disclaimer first, as always: I am watching naruto for the first time and have only gotten up to the end of season 8 (after pain destroys the hidden leaf village).  i am trying to avoid spoilers, so please don’t interact with this (tags included, because the notifications now show them to me automatically) with any spoilery commentary, including even general things like “oh i love this show but it gets less good after X point” or “X season is better than Y season” or any general assessments of quality/likability/etc re: future seasons.  Thank you! <3 ]

- i like the way S8 ended.  i know that in real life maybe it wouldn’t be so feasible to just talk your enemy back to the light, but honestly, i don’t care.  i love that shit.  i love stories when people refuse to hurt the people who hurt them first, and then their seemingly inconceivable choice to refrain from striking back creates a connection (it’s the ‘return of the jedi’ effect, folks).  i understand that it doesn’t work like that in real life most of the time, and i don’t recommend it for real life people trying to defend themselves, but i do love it in fiction.  i LOVED how naruto went in pursuit of nagato to talk to him, not fight him.  even though naruto says straight-up “i can’t forgive you” / “I want to kill you so badly i can’t stop shaking” - he still recognizes that his enemy is someone who’s been victimized, and he has enough compassion to feel pain on their behalf even when he himself is reeling from having his entire home destroyed and both of his teachers murdered by the person he’s confronting.  his choice to control his (valid) rage and extend a hand in compassion is ultimately what changes the outcome and saves everyone who would have died, reversing the damage that was done, and i love that shit.  

- absolutely adore yamato abandoning his own mission and taking off at a run to try and help naruto when he senses that naruto is losing control over the nine-tails.  this man thought he was just a substitute teacher for a while there, but he’s become part of the family while he wasn’t looking.

- HINATA.  oh my god i couldn’t even enjoy this incredible moment because i was so stressed out (and angry, at the time, because i really thought they were going to kill her, and that would’ve crossed my line).  i want to watch this again knowing that she’s fine, because my anxiety over ‘fuck fuck fuck they’re actually going to kill one of the kids’ precluded me from even appreciating it appropriately.

- there’s been a lot of talk on this show about how sakura doesn’t have as much chakra as naruto or sasuke, but she heals people non-stop the entire time Pain is attacking and doesn’t show any signs of running dry.  SHOW HER SOME RESPECT.

- CHOOOOOOOOJIIIIIIII!  omg.  i was so afraid that his father was actually dead, and SO RELIEVED that he was okay.  you can’t do that to choji!!!

- also relatedly, how much do i adore choji for caring so much about kakashi?  <333 i mean this kid is there sobbing over his dead body, and then he bursts out crying when kakashi comes back to life - i really appreciate these little ties between characters who aren’t always in close quarters but who do have a relationship.  kakashi has been a teacher to ALL of the kids, and team 10 especially feels indebted to him - the respect and affection they all feel for him is very real.

- first time i actually thought ‘ok he’s cool’ with regard to minato was when he talked to the nine-tails so unfazed like “he’s a loudmouth.  let’s go somewhere more quiet.’  i’ve been kind of so-so on his character so far, but i liked this.  

- also later in that scene - the (rare) scenes we’ve seen where naruto totally breaks down absolutely kill me.  it happened once when gaara was dead, and then there’s another moment in this episode when he’s talking to minato - whoever voices him does just incredible work in those moments, and it is SO PAINFUL to me because naruto is always such a happy kid the rest of the time and eternally optimistic and positive and excited and popping back up every time he falls down, and so when he cracks it is just devastating to see.  i hate seeing him cry like that.

- similarly - that shot of sasuke at the end of the itachi arc wrecked me.  naruto’s breakdowns are upsetting, but at least he allows himself to have them - when he gets pushed past a breaking point, he explodes.  he cries and yells and spills every single thought in his head in front of everybody who’s around him, and after it’s done, things get better.  he’s with people who care about him.  he’s venting and making himself understood, and he always finds his equilibrium again.

sasuke, though, has been completely locked down ever since we saw him sneak out of the hospital to wander around the scene of his community’s mass murder, and he’s still locked down now, even crying all alone at the edge of the ocean.  this moment isn’t cathartic.  it isn’t a release.  this is barely even a sliver of what this kid has going on inside him, and it looks like it’s agonizing for him to even let that much out.

- the scene where naruto is about to give up and give in to the nine-tails’s power...that exchange!!!!!!!

i don’t know.  it hurts.  i hate this.  i don’t know.  what should i do.  i don’t know anything anymore.  someone...please help me.  give me...an answer.

destroy everything.  erase anything that causes you pain.  give me your soul, your spirit, your vital essence.  give it to me, and in exchange, i will rescue you from your pain.

this whole exchange is amazing.  the way naruto says ‘it hurts’...this is one of those scenes that expands to cover so much more ground than just what’s onscreen at that moment.  what naruto overcomes here is precisely the trap that sasuke has not been able to escape.  sasuke has never had any framework for dealing with pain that isn’t about pursuing vengeance.  it’s the only way he thinks he can free himself from his pain - by putting all of his energy into destroying the people who hurt him.  

but it becomes an endless cycle, because he never succeeds.  itachi dies and sasuke feels worse than ever, so he turns his attention to the hidden leaf in an attempt to finally kill what’s hurting him.  but even if sasuke were to raze the entire village to the ground, his pain would still be with him, and he’d then have to turn his attention to yet another target, because the alternative would be to recognize that he can’t escape his pain by destroying the things that hurt him, and that’s not something he’s able to accept right now.  he’s spent half his life fixated on the idea that revenge can rescue him from how terrible he feels, and abandoning that idea now would mean that nothing can save him.  it would mean that he’s going to hurt like this no matter what he does.  

kakashi tried to warn him about this.  he tried to tell sasuke that even after getting his revenge, sasuke wouldn’t feel better, that he’d only tear himself apart trying to achieve something that would leave him feeling empty - but sasuke was too entrenched in his own warped thinking to believe it.  and ever since then, sasuke has been in the company of people who are happy to let him dig himself deeper and deeper into a self-destructive hole as long as it benefits their agenda.  they don’t care if he’s hurting himself.  they’re happy to see him suffering.  his pain is a tool they can use.

- a note re: kakashi, when it comes to this topic - 

i think it’s relevant to remember that kakashi never tells sasuke not to pursue revenge because it’s “wrong” or ethically questionable.  he never delivers any moralizing speeches in the vein of “if you kill someone who victimized you, you’re just as bad as they are.”  kakashi doesn’t think it’s wrong if itachi dies, and if sasuke were in a better state of mind, he probably wouldn’t even mind if sasuke were the one to kill him.  that’s why kakashi is comfortable helping team 10 pursue asuma’s killers, after all - because they’re not unbalanced by rage or making self-destructive decisions; they’re acting with clear heads and pursuing a course of action that needs to be taken anyway (asuma’s murderers are on their way to the leaf to capture naruto - they need to be dealt with regardless).  team 10′s kids can handle that mission - they’re thinking straight.  they’re comfortable accepting adult guidance.  they’re grieving, but they’re okay. 

sasuke is not.  sasuke has been deeply traumatized since he was a very young child, and encouraging his quest for vengeance is equivalent to validating all of the fucked-up thought patterns that are hurting him so badly - that it was his responsibility (as a seven year-old child) to protect his clan, that he was weak and cowardly for running away, that he needs to take itachi down as penance for failing to save his family, that killing itachi is the only way for him to justify his childhood survival, that killing itachi will free him from his pain.  for kakashi to encourage any of these false convictions would be irresponsible and, ultimately, harmful to the child he’s supposed to be looking after.  if sasuke gets his revenge on itachi, he’s just going to be left with the horrifying realization that his pain hasn’t lessened even the slightest bit, except that now he also has to deal with the additional trauma of killing someone he used to love. 

kakashi doesn’t discourage sasuke from revenge because Revenge Is Morally Bad and You Are Morally Bad For Pursuing It; he discourages sasuke from revenge because in this particular case, sasuke’s fixation on revenge is hurting him.  it’s unhealthy for him, and it will cause him worse pain in the future if he allows it to continue driving his life.  sasuke is never going to feel better if he doesn’t stop distracting himself from his pain by focusing solely on vengeance.  if he’s ever going to actually be rescued from his pain, he needs to face (and FEEL!!!) his grief, which is precisely what staying fixated on revenge allows him to avoid.

- relatedly: i just.  am SO sick.  of all these horrible people.  getting their hands on sasuke.  and using him for their own ends.  when he has already been manipulated and victimized all his life.  it makes me wanna SCREAM!!!!  and i know that’s the point; we are supposed to be frustrated by this - but - hrnghghgnh

and like - it’s not like sasuke doesn’t know it’s happening!  he’s not stupid!  he knows the people around him are using him, and he just tries to use them back and play them before they play him, and he accepts that this is what his life is going to look like, and because he survives, he thinks he’s in control, but he has NO IDEA how far over his head he’s in now.  and besides, he never stops to think that maybe his life shouldn’t look like this.  he has no conception of ‘someone should be taking care of me.’  he’s never seen himself as a child who needs protection - he’s never seen himself as a child, period.  it’s why he’s such a brat to the other kids, and it’s why he never calls kakashi ‘sensei.’  he thinks of himself as an adult.  he has adult problems.  he can’t connect to children his own age because he can’t connect to the idea of childhood - his childhood was stolen from him, and with it went any conception of refuge or safety or the fact that relentless self-sufficiency and a constant cycle of using/being used by other people isn’t in fact what his life is supposed to look like.

i am continually infuriated by all of these people who have abdicated their responsibility as adults and chosen to exploit an already exploited kid, one who is too messed up to save himself or let anybody else help him.  none of these people care about him.  they all want to use him for something.  they’re happy he’s in pain, because his pain is what enables them to manipulate him.

the people who DO truly want to help him are the same people he’s desperately trying to avoid.  the only adult sasuke ever had a meaningful and non-manipulative relationship with is the same adult he keeps running away from.  and the only two people his own age who ever actually knew anything about him or cared if he was okay are the two people he keeps pushing away. 

there is, perhaps, a lot to be said about how sasuke continually runs away from the people who actually care about him and instead affiliates himself with people he’ll never have to worry about forming a connection with.  “having too many ties in this world just holds you back” - sure, and having no ties protects you, too.  nobody to love you, nobody to know you, nobody you can ever lose.

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ @sasuhinabigflash2020​​ || Day Six: A Grey Coat ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: A Light Amongst Shadows ] [ AO3 Link ]

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This has quickly become one of his favorite places to be.

While the wall around Konoha represents a lot of things he’d rather not think about, it provides a rather unparalleled view of the village as a whole. The Hokage monument may show more at once, but at that height people are little more than specks, and there’s something about watching them at a better distance that Sasuke’s come to enjoy.

Feelings are still mixed about the place he was born. Sasuke knows, now that his anger has cooled and his rationality given time to smother the coals, that there’s still much about Konoha that is innocent of the crimes committed against him and others. Civilians have no part in the politics. Your average shinobi is just trying to get by and protect their home. It’s the roots of the village - literally and figuratively - that contribute most to its rotten core. Those in power that abuse it, and do ugly things to keep their hold on said power.

...but he has a plan for that. It will just take time, and organization. For now, he’s working first on himself before he can confront all that made him the way he is.

It’s been weeks since the war’s end. Much is still in flux. Even reparations from Pein’s attack are still being worked on, supplies still scarce at times as the complete rebuilding of Konoha continues. Ironically, the wall - so useless in keeping out the most potent threat - was one of few things left intact.

It’s here Sasuke sits, and thinks, and watches. While it’s patrolled by Konoha nin and they gave him suspicious looks at first, most have grown accustomed to his harmless perch, and even give him space as he lingers. If anything, they know he’s more than capable of defending it if anything were to happen. Personal opinions aside, he’s still unquestionably strong.

Today, the weather is a bit overcast, threatening rain as thunder rumbles miles in the distance. Even now, the sound brings a strange, tight melancholy to his chest. Flickering pieces of his final battle against his brother are always brought to mind whenever he hears a storm. But as time passes, it fades ever so slightly. He’ll always mourn Itachi, and he still serves as one of the younger brother’s fiercest drives to changing Konoha into something worthy of Itachi’s sacrifice. But Sasuke makes no attempt to find cover as the sky darkens and the winds subtly pick up.

Someone else, however, takes that upon themselves.

With a muffled thwump, something drops across his shoulders, and Sasuke blinks in surprise, caught off-guard enough he doesn’t react violently, instead left a bit stupefied as the figure behind him comes around to a side.

Once he sees them, he manages to relax a hair.

“You’re going to get drenched here in a m-minute,” Hinata offers, lowering herself to sit along the edge with him. Sandaled feet dangle over the several-storey fall to the ground beneath them.

“A little rain never hurt anyone.”

“You still might catch a cold.”

That flattens his expression a few degrees. “I’m not scared of a cold.”

Pale pink lips curl in a smile. “No, but you should fear someone’s reaction if she finds out, right…?”

At that, Sasuke scoffs, a hand pulling at the fabric he’s been cloaked in. A grey coat, seemingly waterproof if the texture tells him anything. Considering it a moment, he then pulls it on completely. “Thanks.”

She doesn’t reply beyond a nod. Her hands grip the edge of the wall, staring out over the village. “...I’ve never actually been up here.”

“Really?”

“No reason to be,” Hinata replies blithely. “But I saw you and thought I’d come up.”

“And bring me a coat?”

That earns a glance, tinged a bit worried. “Well...Naruto-kun let it slip you’re still a bit, um...lacking in supplies.”

“I’m not a charity case,” is his terse counter.

“I know that. It’s called being nice,” is her own rebuke, managing a hint of a smile. “Besides...it’s g-going to be getting cold, soon. They’ll be hard to find.”

He just gives a small sound of indifference, pulling at a cuff. It’s actually pretty nice. “...thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

The pair then fall into companionable silence, which is soon accented with the soft patter of rain upon the stone of the wall. Against his hood, they seem to whisper in his ear.

Hinata draws her own, leaning back slightly on her palms. “At least it’s not cold enough to snow yet…”

“Not a fan?”

“Mm...yes and no.” She goes quiet for a long moment. “...I guess it’s just an odd sign that time is still passing. It’s felt both slow and yet...really fast since the war. I’m not ready for Winter, but...that’s not going to stop it from coming.”

He glances at her, but offers no reply. In a way, he knows what she means. So many things are broken, disjointed, unsettled. The fact that the world itself is offering them no reprieve seems unfair, but that’s an entirely human notion.

“...is it true you might leave?”

The sudden change in conversation pulls his gaze completely. “Who told you that?”

“It’s just the word going around,” Hinata replies softly. “I think...some people are worried about it.”

By ‘some people’, he knows she mostly means his teammates. It’s true, he tossed around the idea of taking time to travel, observe the world, sort out his thoughts. Even now, it feels tempting. “...I don’t think I will.”

“Oh?”

“There’s too much to do here,” he replies, knowing it’s vague. “I don’t want to lose any time.”

It’s then she looks back at him, and Sasuke can’t help but feel ever so slightly unnerved. Even now, Hyūga eyes make him feel looked through rather than looked at. Especially Hinata.

“...I see. Is it...anything to do with the council?”

A slight tick of irritation twinges in his chest. Seems the idea isn’t being made as confidential as he’d have liked. “What makes you think that?”

“Well...given everything that’s come to light -?”

“I don’t know yet. That’s...not exactly a simple situation,” he cuts in, not exactly eager to talk about it...let alone out in the open. “I’ve still got a lot to think about.”

Sensing his spark of temper, Hinata quiets, looking to her lap. “...sorry, I...shouldn’t have assumed.”

“Hn.”

“...but...I-I hope you know that...if you need any help, I’d be happy to give it.”

He gives her a dubious glance. “...why?”

“...a lot of reasons,” she offers, taking her turn to be vague. “Is it n-not enough to want justice to be done?”

“...I’m not exactly someone everyone else is eager to rally around,” he counters. “Just seems odd for anyone to want to do so of their own volition.”

“What Konoha did was a g-gross overstep.” To his surprise, her expression hardens. “Regardless of the politics...killing every single member of a clan - or...nearly - is a horrible way to handle dissatisfaction, and an imbalance of power a-and rights. It just...makes me wonder if something like that could have happened to any of the rest of us. I...I know I don’t have a grasp on the entire history, but...from what I’ve heard, it still seems like the village made the wrong decisions, and for the wrong reasons. I just...want to make sure nothing like it happens again. And that...the ones who did orchestrate it are made to face justice for what they did to you, and...your family.” She turns to him, face still set in stone. “You deserve at least that much.”

For a moment, her vehemence takes him by surprise. “...how much do you know…?”

At that, she hesitates. “...just...bits and pieces, really. I’ve heard some from Naruto-kun, and...others.”

Ah, right...apparently they have their share of overlapped acquaintances. He knows who’s really behind this, now. “...getting involved might get you in serious trouble.”

“Sometimes you need a little trouble to make things right.”

After a short pause, he snorts softly. “...can’t argue that,” he agrees, lips curling just a hair.

By now, the rain is pouring, and despite his coat, the rest of him is quickly growing soaked. And a glance shows her much in the same boat.

“...we should probably get inside. Can’t be catching those colds.”

Hinata lets slip a small laugh. “True...and I should head home.”

To his surprise, Sasuke finds himself disappointed at that. “Yeah, me too. Thanks for the coat.”

“You’re welcome. At least we know it works, ne?” She smiles at him. “Well...for part of you, anyway.”

The pair of them then slip from the wall, each landing safely on the ground below and parting ways. Hinata takes the streets as Sasuke decides to hop to the rooftops, mindful of his chakra to cling to the slick tiles. Once home, he shrugs out of his coat, pleased to find his head and torso completely dry.

Mulling that over, he hangs it outside to finish dripping before deciding to scavenge for some lunch.

     Gonna be brief cuz it’s late, and I have another piece to post right after this :’D As for why I’m late, been having major toothache problems that knocked me on my butt and delayed me, but I managed to grind out two days’ prompts today! Tho as a warning, neither are proofread because I’m in a hurry xD      Anywho, this piece! Mostly just a bit of scene-setting and dialogue between Sasuke and Hinata early on after the war in ALAS. Which, as a matter of fact, is being majorly replotted...not that I’ll ever write it, BUT...yeah. Hence the mention of Itachi still being dead, because in any possible rewrite, he would be.      But yeah! This is mostly just a bit of angst, a bit of fluff, a bit of slice of life. I really love just...writing little moments between them, honestly.      On that note though, I need to work on getting the next part up, so I’ll go for now! Thanks for reading~ (Also, going to get to comments tomorrow, I hope. I'm just too tired atm, apologies for the delays :'D)

[xxlovendreamsxx]

halfway across the world. rated k.

A/N: I was going through my WIPs and this was one I had been doing for a zine that I dropped out of. It was almost finished so I thought why not finish it. It fits the prompt for day 1 of our beloved otp month. Also there was supposed to be more but this is just wholesome in its mood and idk what followed would have been way too dramatic so I just put that plot bunny in the garbage. Who knows, I may revisit in another prompt. But for now, here, have this soldier!au drabble. It’s kinda meh but w/e. I just wanted to get the WIP out lol. 

.

It had been five hours since a messenger soldier had arrived at their location to report the sight of Akatsuki heading towards the village they were stationed at, and Sakura was beginning to doubt the validity of the information. She and Sasuke had been immediately sent on lookout duty at the borders of the town, the latter carrying a sniper in case of trouble, while she settled for bringing two handguns and a radio.

To Shikamaru’s calculations, the Akatsuki troop should have been there three hours ago. Sakura wished she had thought of bringing provisions; her mouth had long grown dry by now, and her stomach had hollowed out as well, gurgling with painful growls and beseeching for any type of sustenance.

Running the back over her hand over her sweat-slicked forehead, Sakura exhaled a heavy sigh and tipped her head back against the much cooler wall, tired gaze set on the build of her dark haired teammate. Occupied with the meticulous cleaning of his gun, Sasuke took a few moments to notice her staring, black eyes sliding to her in question. A lopsided smile tugged at her mouth just for that.

“I’m hungry, Sasuke-kun,” she said simply, the slightest hint of complaint in her tone. “Do you have anything edible by any chance? Like an apple? Some salted peanuts? I’d take anything at this point, seriously. My stomach feels like it’s eating itself.”

Sasuke cocked his head a little, eyes full of mirth as he watched her for a moment. But then he nodded, reaching for a pouch inside his military vest. Sakura practically jumped forward in excitement.

“It’s probably not in good shape,” he said, as he pulled out a protein bar and bent towards her to hand her the snack. Too eager, Sakura snatched it out of his grasp, eyes so wild with hunger that she just barely missed the way his lips twitched in return. “…But then again, it looks like you don’t care about that.”

Fiddling with the wrapping with so-hungry-she-was-clumsy fingers, Sakura giggled and stuck her tongue out at him, giddy from his light teasing.

“Honestly, it could be ten years old right now and I still wouldn’t care,” she said, taking a ravenous bite from the nut-filled bar and finding herself utterly unable to hold back her satisfied moan.

Quickly, she devoured the rest, paying no mind to how Sasuke cleared his throat, focused solely instead on relishing every little bite she could get. She turned to look at him with the most brilliant smile when she was done, eyes gleaming even brighter when she found him there, still cleaning his gun with one hand while the other was outstretched towards her with a half-filled bottle of water.

“You’re my absolute favorite person in the world, did you know that?” Sakura said, grinning as she took the offered drink, taking a few deep swigs. She wasn’t sated in the least, but at least both her hunger and thirst had been quenched a bit now, and that was all she could ask for.

Sasuke’s lips twitched again. He merely nodded in return. “Don’t mention it.”

Letting her head fall back against the wall once more, Sakura let out a long, deep sigh, content. She closed her eyes.

“…I can’t wait to go back home,” she murmured after a moment, grin fading into a small, pleased smile. From the way she was sitting, she could feel some of the sun’s almost-too-hot beams blaring on her skin from one of the two windows in the room. For a moment, she imagined she was back home, and not in a poor village of a mindlessly hot desert halfway across the world, hanging out on her parent’s back porch on a hot summer day. 

Mm, what she wouldn’t do to get a taste of her father’s divine watermelon lemonade right now.

Sasuke would probably like it too since it wasn’t too sweet, she mused, smiling wider as she cracked one eye open to glimpse at him. She sighed contently again and slipped it back shut.

“I haven’t seen mom and dad in so long,” she went on. “It’s been two years—can you believe that? Mom even says she’s got all my presents stacked in the closet so that I can open them when I get home.”

“You still get presents?” Sasuke asked, sounding completely astonished. Or well, as much as Sasuke could sound astonished, anyway.

Blinking her eyes open once more, Sakura met his gaze, straightened up and grinned. “Yup. Probably always will for as long as I live,” she said, brushing away a sweaty lock of her unbelievably bright hair.

Sasuke’s eyes softened, so much it warmed her heart and left it feeling like goo. She felt her stomach flutter as the look he gave her, so full of awe and pride… and dare she say, even a little envy.

She understood exactly why that was when he murmured, “You have good parents.”

Her smile lessened, giving way to something sadder, more bittersweet. It always hurt to think about how Sasuke no longer had an immediate family; when he was only eight, both his parents died in a car crash, and just a few years ago, his brother had gone MIA in the war. The latter is what had made him decide to enlist, full of hopes that he might one day find his brother.

But every year, those hopes were steadily declining, from what Sakura could sadly discern.

Swallowing the tightness in her throat, she flashed him a sweet smile. “Yeah, they are, aren’t they?” she said. “I’m so glad they decided to support me in the end when I wanted to enlist with you and Naruto. I know it’s hard on them, especially in times like these—and dad wanted so much for me to get a medical degree and work in a hospital, so I know it was especially hard on him. It would have been nice, but I don’t know… my place is with you guys. And I’m glad they came to understand that.” She paused, for a beat. A grin split her lips. “But they are counting on you two to look out for me. Because if anything happens to me, mom says she’ll do you two twice as bad.”

A faint smile pulled at Sasuke’s lips, finally, and he shook his head, undeniably amused. Sakura giggled, heart flipping and pounding away, all too delighted with herself. Making Sasuke smile was always an achievement in her book, especially since his smiles were so far and few these days.

She tucked her hair back again, clasping her hands in her lap a little shyly as they stared at each other. Sakura cleared her throat subtly, but still kept smiling. “They asked about you, you know?” she said.

Brows rising slightly, Sasuke blinked once, twice. “…Really,” he replied, sounding a little dubious.

But that didn’t surprise her; in all these years they’d known each other, Sasuke’s interactions with her parents had always been quite limited—especially since none of their hangouts had ever taken place at Sakura’s home. The most her parents had seen of Sasuke had been when he would pick her up beforehand or drop her home afterwards. The last time they had seen each other was two years ago at the airport, right before they were going back to the military base to be deployed, and they had hardly exchanged words.

It was only natural that Sasuke would assume they simply didn’t know each other enough for them to genuinely care about him.

Her smile shifted to something gentler. Silly man.

“Yeah. They did,” she said. “They said they worry about you, sometimes. Said you looked… lonely.”

(“he’s got practically no meat on his bones since he left—honestly, sakura, are you sure he’s even eating? poor boy looks like a lost, famished puppy. do i need to send him one of my care packages?”)

Lip curling at the corner at the memory, she set her attention on Sasuke again, heart buzzing with warmth at the sight of him, jaw slackened and eyes just barely widened. He was clearly stunned.

Eyes crinkling too happily, Sakura grinned at him and shifted to firmly nudge his thigh with her boot. “I told them you’re not, obviously,” she declared, winking teasingly. “Not with us around.”

Sasuke’s lips quirked, gaze melting again; looking so fond, so tender—so impossibly at peace. Gods, how she loved him so.

“Hm. How could I be?” he replied, eyes gleaming, teasing. “Naruto’s a loud idiot, Kakashi won’t stop lecturing me about the road of life, and you never leave my side.”

Her green eyes widened. That little—

Bursting into laughter, Sakura shook her head, throwing the not quite finished water bottle at his head. Sasuke caught it, but she kept laughing, wrapping her arms around herself as she shook and grinned and giggled.

Sasuke was smiling again when she stopped a short minute later, and Sakura heart flopped for the umpteenth time that day. She smiled back, feeling so full. Complete.

She made a silly face. “Oh, you’d be dead without me and you know it, Sasuke-kun,” she teased. And that was true.

Gaze flashing with some playfulness, Sasuke huffed, “So would you.” That was true, too.

Maybe when they would both go back home, she could finally tell him how she felt.

.

.

.

“Hey, Sasuke-kun?”

“What would you do if we were back home right now?”

“….Tomatoes.”

Laugh. “What, really? You’re so weird!”

“Tch. Yeah, whatever.”

[silverfootstepswrites]

Middle Ground [3]

The journey through the desert was slow-going and hot. Which the members of the party complained about daily. Harsh winds whipped through without warning. And Asuma sighed every once in a while about how his dulcimer was filling up with sand. 

They emerged a couple weeks later with varying degrees of tans and sunburns. Naruto had only managed to break his wrist, which he had lied about for a couple days until Sakura had caught him grimacing about it one morning. 

“Hold him down,” Sakura ordered. Naruto howled as Sasuke and Tenten seized him. And then his howl went up an octave as Sakura smacked his wrist with her mace. 

“Uh.... I know you have a lot of pent up anger towards Naruto, but torture seems a little extreme,” Kisame commented. Sasuke looked offended as he looked up. Eyes watering, Naruto managed to also look insulted. 

“This idiot waited too long to tell me. So the bones set wrong,” Sakura replied. She dropped her mace into the sand. One hand grasped Naruto’s hand while the other grasped his forearm. 

“So now I have to-” Sakura twisted hard. Naruto yelped. “-set it.” He sniffled, leaning against Sasuke, who rolled his eyes and knocked his fist into the side of his head. 

“This is your fault,” Sasuke reminded him. 

Seeing that he would get no sympathy from Sasuke, Naruto turned his teary gaze to Sakura. She also rolled her eyes, but held her hands out to him.

“Alright, alright. Come here,” sighed Sakura. Lower lip jutting out, Naruto slowly placed his arm in her waiting hands. 

“Besides, if Sakura smashed Naruto with her mace every time he annoyed her, he’d be dead by now,” added Sasuke. He squeezed Naruto’s shoulder a couple times before he released him. 

Naruto began laughing until the words sunk in. “Yeah, I’d be- wait. What?” 

Kisame got up from his seat, folding up the map. As Sakura placed her hands back on Naruto’s wrist, they began to glow green. Kisame walked up behind them, peering over her head to watch her work. 

“Why couldn’t you just do that in the first place?” he wondered. 

“Healing magic is very different from medicine. Think of it as supporting combat. It’s meant to stop people from dying in the middle of battle. Whereas medicine is supposed to restore balance in the body,” replied Sakura. It was a valid question. In fact, it was one she had heard many times by now. And she didn’t mind explaining it at all. “Healing magic can stop bleeding, but it can’t reposition a bone.”

“I can’t tell you how many times she’s saved my ass,” Naruto bragged. 

“Yeah, like the time a bear almost bit your head off,” sighed Sasuke, shaking his head a little. 

Everyone laughed. And so did Sakura. But the corners of her mouth didn’t turn up enough. And when she glanced up, she saw that Kisame was watching her. He wasn’t laughing either. 

-----

Most aspects of Sakura’s life were simple. And many people knew about her. After all, she was the success story that all the people of the empire hoped for. Raised in a tiny village, dreaming of becoming someone who could help others. Using what little knowledge she could gather from the village elders and her own studies, she had joined up with a ragtag band of adventurers who were on their way to the capital. 

All things considered, things had turned out well. And she kept her story simple whenever people asked what she had done to get to where she was. Everyone laughed at her modesty. Sakura laughed along with them, just so no one would know.

Healing was horrific. Gruesome beyond words. Because pain was a warning to stop. Healing magic shoved those warnings aside and urged the body to go on. It perverted the laws of nature, in some ways. 

The only people who seemed to understand this were the other clerics she had run into on her journeys. And when she pointed out the members of her party, Naruto in particular, they would all give the same sort of sympathetic grimace. Patting her hands and telling her to be strong. Sakura had gotten good at picking out the cleric in a party with just a glance. They were always the ones who looked the most exhausted.

Sakura tried her best not to make her feelings too obvious. Because she liked being able to save her teammates. And despite her nagging and yelling, she loved Naruto’s boldness. His fearlessness that drove him to accomplish the impossible. But each time he brought up his accomplishments, she couldn’t help but remember all the damage that came with it. Severed limbs, ruptured organs. Gouges in the flesh revealing bone and sinew. Blood bubbling up black and slippery as she tried to remember the right spells.

As they camped on the coast just outside the desert, Tenten wandered over. After a heavy dinner, most of the members of their party were already sleeping by the fire. Sakura had cast a light spell near her journal. Little bits of light danced around her like fireflies, glowing just enough to see by. She had darkvision, so she didn’t necessarily need it. But it was nice. 

“You ok?” Tenten asked as she stopped beside her. 

“Yeah. Just unwinding a little,” replied Sakura, smiling. Her journal sat in her lap. She had started off using it to remember all the things she learned during her travels. But somehow it had become more of a running record of all the ways the members of her party managed to hurt themselves. And it was kind of helpful to leave all those thoughts on paper so they wouldn’t have to live in her head as much.

 Tenten peeked at the notes for a moment, squinting at Sakura’s script in the low light. 

“Neji and I’ve been in this area before. We should hit a town tomorrow if we move quickly,” Tenten told her. Sakura let out a sigh of relief. Chuckling, Tenten clapped her on the shoulder. 

“I know. Real food,” Tenten said.

“And real booze,” added Sakura. 

“Feather pillow.”

“A hot bath.”

They both sighed at that. They were quiet for a moment. And then Tenten released her shoulder. 

"You worked hard today, Sak. Try to get some rest,” Tenten said. 

Just on the border of the desert, a pack of angry hyenas had ambushed them.  It had been tiring work purifying the wounds before healing them over. Animal bites almost always festered without the proper treatment. 

“Thanks. Good night,” Sakura replied with a smile. 

She could barely hear Tenten stepping away. But that was only to be expected from a rogue like her. She had a habit of moving so silently that she scared Naruto whenever she popped up in the middle of a conversation. Sakura had a feeling that the halfling did it more on purpose. Naruto’s reactions were hilarious, after all. 

A little while later, someone else approached. And Sakura heard the heavy footfalls this time. 

“Hey,” Sakura acknowledged him, not looking up as Kisame’s huge shadow fell across her. He grunted as he settled on the sand beside her. He stretched his arms over his head, unleashing a huge yawn.

A moment passed. And then Sakura asked, “Is everything alright?”

“Huh? Oh. Yeah. Naruto just snores like hell,” grumbled Kisame. Sakura snickered a little at that. 

“Yeah, he does,” she agreed. 

The ink had finished drying on the pages. She closed her journal, running her palms along the soft leather cover. She dispelled the light spell with a wave of her hand. There was no need for it anymore. When she looked over, Kisame had his eyes closed. So it startled her a little when he spoke again. 

“What’re you doing over here all alone, Doc?”

“I’m not alone,” she replied. That made Kisame open his eyes. He rose on his elbows to follow her pointing finger to Kakashi who leaned against a big piece of driftwood further down the beach.

“Oh. Shit. Hey, Kakashi,” Kisame greeted him. Kakashi opened one eye and nodded his head. After a moment, the rogue closed his eye again. 

“And we’re over here because...” Sakura trailed off, holding a finger up as she listened. After a moment, Naruto let out a snort, followed by a generous smack of his lips. Sakura gave Kisame a pointed look. “Because Naruto snores,” she finished her thought. 

She lowered her hand back in her lap. “But it’s also because... well.... big group. Lots of people. A little peace and quiet feels nice,” Sakura then added. 

“Can’t hate the quiet,” Kisame agreed, nodding his head a little. 

He laid back down in the sand, crossing his hands across his stomach as he closed his eyes. 

“Do you remember anything? Or is it still all fuzzy?” Sakura queried. 

Kisame shook his head. Then realized that she probably couldn’t see from that angle and said, “Fuzzy like a bear’s ass.”

According to Naruto, when they had stumbled upon Kisame, he had no memory of anything. Even his own name had come to him later. 

Sakura thought for a moment. And then she said, “I’m sorry about that. I hope you remember soon.”

“Thanks.”

As Kisame shifted his arm, Sakura spotted the shine of something wet. 

“You’re hurt. Did I miss you before?” Sakura wondered. Pushing her journal to the side, Sakura turned toward him. 

“Must’ve been out of range when you cast your spell or something,” answered Kisame. With her darkvision, she could see the smile on his face when he looked at her too. He pushed her hand down as she reached for his cut.

“Aw, don’t look so worried. You’re tired, Doc. And I heal fast,” he assured her.

“....Alright. I’m gonna nag to check in the morning,” she warned. Kisame’s smile widened. 

“You got it, Doc,” he chuckled. He crossed his arms beneath his head, eyes closing. 

Sakura found her journal and placed it in her lap again. She closed her eyes, too. Soaking in the gentle whoosh of the waves rolling back and forth. White noise that filled her head, pushing out all the thoughts that usually buzzed around inside. 

And then Sakura’s eyes flew open as she realized something.

“...I didn’t know tieflings had darkvision too,” she declared out loud.

There was no response. 

-----

Their journey continued along the coast of the Sleeping Gulf. It was a huge sea teeming with life. Fishermen rose before dawn, casting out their nets. They could tell when someone made a good catch just from the yelling. Little wooden boats swaying back and forth as they struggled to lift the nets. Sometimes, fishermen in nearby boats jumped over to help with the haul. 

“That’s really nice,” Sakura suddenly said as she watched one such instance.

“That they won’t go hungry?” asked Kisame, unsure of what she meant.

“No. That they help each other. That’s nice,” Sakura answered. 

The homesickness washed over her. Sudden and strong. She pinched her lips together as she continued to watch the fishermen struggling in the distance. 

When she stole a glance back at the rest of the party, she smiled a little. Naruto and Asuma were chatting with one of the fishermen who had returned to the shore with his haul already. Neji listened in as he bent over to stare at the fish flopping in the net. Tenten picked up on the fish and shoved it into his hands, cackling when he yelped and dropped it. The back of his neck turned red as she patted his arm in apology. 

A little further away, Sasuke stood talking to Kakashi. He held a set of lockpicks in his hands as he spoke. And then Kakashi raised his own tools to demonstrate something. Sasuke copied his movements.

Sakura turned back to the water. There was no point in being homesick. She tried to remind herself that as she folded her arms across her chest. But as she stole another look over her shoulder, she saw that Naruto was watching her now. He said something to the fisherman and clapped him on the shoulder before he jogged over. He threw his arms around her, knocking the wind out of her. 

“Hey! What’re you doing? You smell like fish!” Sakura griped. Naruto crushed her against his chest, grinning. Ignoring her as she swatted at his arm a few times.

“You just looked like you could use a hug,” Naruto told her. Sakura’s scowl softened a little. She lowered her hand. 

“Was I right?” Naruto inquired. 

“.....kind of,” Sakura muttered as she let him sway her back and forth. She could see his tail swishing in the same rhythm as it knocked against her leg. 

“Don’t worry, Sakura. We’ll kill the stupid demon king and then everything will be alright,” he assured her. 

Because they began to hear stories everywhere they went. Plagues falling on entire towns. Crops turning to ash overnight. And monsters that normally belonged in the darknesses were beginning to creep up in unexpected places. Whatever the demon king was planning, it was hurting people with no power to fight back. 

That wasn’t why Sakura felt the way she did. But it made her smile that Naruto tried to comfort her anyway. She patted his arm. 

“Just stop getting hurt in dumb ways,” she ordered. 

“You know that’s impossible,” was Naruto’s cheerful reply. Sakura heaved a sigh.

They made their way up the coast at a good pace. Little villages littered the shores. And there were even towns big enough to almost be called cities. Unlike in the desert, where they had found struggled to find shelter, there was always an inn with rooms. And if the inns were full, by nightfall, Naruto had always made friends with someone who offered to let them stay in their house. This was one of the few times, Sasuke whispered to her, that he didn’t mind Naruto’s stupidly high charisma score. 

The only real challenge on this leg of the trip were the sea hags that liked to sneak up on them. And a few irate sea lions- one of which dealt Sasuke a full body slam when his attention was elsewhere. (They teased him about that for a day or two afterwards.)

According to the map, and according to Naruto, all they had to do in this area was find a way to retrieve whatever weapon sat at the bottom of the sea. And then it was on to the mountains. However, with Naruto in charge, there was no way things would move so quickly. They had to stop to help a merchant fix his broken cart. Or a woman whose child had gotten lost on an errand. 

“I can’t say I’m saving people and then not save people,” Naruto protested the one time someone brought it up. 

They sat, like many nights before, in a tavern. In a half-circle around the fireplace. Sakura, who had arrived a little later, found an empty seat between Kisame and Sasuke. She patted Sasuke’s knee as she sat down. He lifted his chin in acknowledgement. Kisame pushed an untouched drink over to her.

“....I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but maybe Naruto is right,” Tenten finally responded.

“What’d I miss?” whispered Sakura. 

Kisame tilted his head toward her. “Asuma and his crew are arguing that Naruto’s wasting too much time taking side missions.”

Sakura coughed as she set her drink down. She wiped the foam from her lips. “We can’t just not help people who ask for it,” she protested. 

Shaking his head, Sasuke sighed, “You sound just like him.” He leaned back in his seat. 

“Right, Sakura?” Naruto said, turning to her. 

Sakura, who had missed that part of the conversation, looked into Naruto’s face. At his big blue eyes shining. Sakura only hesitated for a moment before she responded, “Right. What Naruto said.” Naruto beamed at her. Sakura hid her smile as she took another sip of her drink.

The party took a vote. And they decided that stopping to help people with minor quests wasn’t such a bad idea. As a bonus, it earned them a decent amount of gold here and there. Especially as people heard that the Imperial Physician was around and brought their sick children and relatives to be healed. A few monster infestations in the area were also brought to their attention, which Naruto was more than happy to address with his axe in hand.

A few weeks passed on the coast of the Sleeping Gulf. They settled into an old inn that had closed down long ago. After a day of hard scrubbing and dusting, it turned into a halfway decent place for their party to eat and sleep. And the grateful people in the area were more than happy to provide any food and supplies they might need.

“I know we can’t stay forever.... but man, I wish we could stay here forever,” remarked Tenten as she lounged by the fire in the kitchen. Sakura hummed in agreement as she took a sip of herbal tea.

One morning, Naruto left a note tacked to the kitchen table, asking everyone to meet him out on the beach. Neji, who was always the first to rise, went around knocking on doors. Kakashi was nowhere to be seen, as usual, but he would show up. He always did.

About an hour later, they found Naruto pacing the beach.

“So there’s an old man who says he’ll give me a ride on his boat to the middle of the sea. But in exchange he needs help with something,” Naruto informed them, squinting up at the sunlight. He accepted the strip of beef jerky Sasuke handed him. He ripped off a chunk once he finished speaking.

Sakura sat on a rock beneath the shade of a palm tree. Tenten sat beside her, shielding her eyes against the sun. As they listened, they ripped off chunks from a flour-dusted loaf of bread. Passing it back and forth until nothing remained.

“Why not just have Neji cast water breathing on you guys and you can swim down?” Sasuke demanded. 

“I don’t wanna swim all the way from here to the middle of the sea and waste energy. Besides, I can’t just not help the guy now. I said I would,” answered Naruto. Which were some surprisingly logical responses. 

“Okay. Well, what’s the problem?” asked Kakashi, folding his arms across his chest. Sakura jolted when she heard the thief, who she hadn’t noticed sneak up on them. Tenten snickered, knocking into her shoulder. Sakura scowled and nudged her back. 

“He has crabs,” Naruto replied.

Tenten collapsed against Sakura’s arm, shaking with silent giggles. Everyone else in the party exchanged glances. 

Eventually, Neji was the first one to speak: “....I beg your pardon?”

“He’s got crabs. Tons of them. Infesting his whole village,” Naruto went on, oblivious to Kisame struggling not to laugh now. Shaking his head, Sasuke covered his face with his hands.

“He must be... itching... to deal with his problem,” Asuma remarked, rubbing his chin. He smirked when he saw Sakura snort into her fist. She hid her face against her shoulder. 

“You should’ve thought this through first, Naruto. No need to make a rash decision,” Kisame chimed in. Sakura slapped his back a few times, frantically kicking her legs to hold in her laughter. Kisame turned to look at her, grinning as he tried to catch her hand. And he winced when she slapped at him again.

Naruto looked perplexed as Sakura lost the battle and snorted out loud. She, Tenten, and Kisame dissolved into cackles. Sakura fell onto her back on the stone, still slapping at Kisame, her other hand gripping Tenten’s arm. Sasuke’s shoulders shook and it was difficult to tell whether he was laughing or crying. 

“What’s up with them?” Naruto asked. Asuma put an arm around his shoulders. 

“No idea. But you gotta love ‘em.... Warts and all...” the bard sighed. 

Later that day, they took off in the direction of the village the old man had indicated on the map. Although Kisame occasionally snickered about the crab infestation, that died down when they arrived in the village. Indeed, it was covered with crabs. The blue and red creatures scuttled over the wooden sign that welcomed visitors. Every building was covered with the things. And more of the crustaceans scuttled from under doors and through shattered windows.

Flame flickered to life in Sasuke’s left hand as they made their way through the village. Kicking the critters to the side when they scuttled too close. 

“Should’ve brought some butter,” remarked Kisame as they peered into an abandoned building. 

“This doesn’t make sense. Crabs don’t usually live this far inland,” Neji murmured. A curious crab ventured up to the point of his boot. Neji nudged it aside, a touch more gently than the rest of his companions. 

Naruto stopped walking. He turned to look at Neji. “Yeah. That’s right. Do crabs need water to survive?” 

Everyone paused to consider that. 

“Some do and some don’t. These aren’t terrestrial, though. So there has to be a source of water nearby,” Sasuke answered. He knelt down. The same crab that had approached Neji scurried up to Sasuke. 

“Don’t nip me,” warned Sasuke before he grasped the crab by one of its waving claws. 

“What’s he doing?” whispered Naruto. 

“I think.... I think he’s talking to it,” answered Sakura. 

Sasuke closed his eyes as he murmured an incantation. The crab stopped struggling in his grasp. When Sasuke opened his eyes again, he set the crab down on the soil. The creature stood there, like it was waiting. 

“What are you doing here?” asked Sasuke. 

The crab was still for a moment. And then it began gurgling softly as it waved its claws around. Sasuke’s face scrunched up.

“He says.... they all hatched here. These are all his brothers and sisters,” Sasuke tossed over his shoulder. 

There was more gurgling. 

“And there wasn’t enough room where they were so they moved up here.”

When there was no response from his party, Sasuke turned to look at them. 

They all stood together. Staring at him. 

“Sasuke, it’s okay to talk about your feelings with us. You don’t have to pretend to talk to a crab if you want attention,” Naruto was the first to speak. 

Sakura struggled not to laugh.

“Stop joking around. My spell only lasts for a few minutes,” Sasuke growled. 

“Aw, don’t be so crabby, Sasuke,” Tenten teased. 

Sakura lost it again. She broke into giggles, collapsing against Naruto’s side. Naruto held her up, grinning. Grumbling under his breath, Sasuke whipped his head back around to address the little crab. The creature continued gurgling and waving its claws, sometimes clicking them together. Sasuke nodded, occasionally asking questions. And when the spell wore off, the crab wandered away. 

“There’s some kind of mother nesting in the springs under the town. It should be that way,” Sasuke declared, pointing. 

“I’m so glad to see you coming out of your shell and making friends, Sasuke,” Kakashi replied. And Sakura, who had just recovered from her giggle attack, let out a snort and slapped Kakashi’s arm as she walked past. 

With Sasuke’s tracking skills and Neji’s general knowledge of nature, it didn’t take long to find the source of all the crawling critters. There was a spring not too far from the little village, just like the little crab had claimed. Tenten eyed the ooze hanging from the mouth of the cave and cringed. 

“Do we have to go in there?” she groaned. 

“Yep,” Naruto replied. Popping his lips at the end of the word. 

“Seems gross,” Sakura commented, peering into the cave and its damp tunnels. 

“Okay. Let’s come up with strategy. First-” Tenten interrupted Neji by pointing. He turned around just in time to glimpse Naruto running right into the cave with his axe held aloft. He let out a heavy sigh. Sasuke clapped him on the shoulder.

Everyone took off after Naruto, swatting away crabs and strings of goo as they moved. While the smaller crabs just seemed curious, the larger ones were aggressive and fast. They pounced with snaps of their sharp claws. Everyone did their best to wack them aside and rush ahead. But after smashing her tenth crab with her mace, Sakura really did wish they had a vat of boiling butter.

At the very end of the cave, they could hear the sound of flowing water.  And they could feel the water sloshing first at the soles of their feet and then around their ankles as they kept moving. With her darkvision, Sakura spotted something moving in the darkness. Wet and shiny. 

“Duck!” she shouted just as an enormous claw came smashing down on them. 

As Sakura got to her feet, clothes soaking, she heard a strange rattling noise. It took her a second to realize that it was the sound of dozens upon dozens of legs scuttling toward them. 

“Fuck all these crabs,” she heard Tenten snarl from somewhere by her elbow. 

Crabs by themselves were a low-level monster. Not all that challenging. But the unending waves, along with the huge beast smashing its claws down and hissing acid at them, Sakura could hardly catch her breath. As Naruto pounced, the sharpened tips of one of the claws caught him across the thigh. Sakura heard Naruto cry out before he landed with a splash too close to the gigantic crab. 

Out of the corners of her eyes, she could see more crabs advancing. Sasuke held his hand over his bleeding arm as he slashed his sword in great arcs. At her back, she could feel Kakashi firing arrow after arrow until he ran out. He cursed softly as he swapped his bow out for his sword. Neji’s magic missile collided with two crabs. As they sizzled, a delicious smell filled the dank cave. 

“Seriously, FUCK this crab!” Tenten exclaimed again just before she let out a strangled shout. 

“Tenten!” Neji’s panicked voice echoed around the cave. 

Sakura’s head whipped back toward the enormous crab. Naruto lay unmoving in the water. Tenten crouched beside him, both hands pressed to her side. Neji ran to her, hands outstretched. All of them oblivious to the beast watching them with beady eyes. Foam gurgling up at its mouth as it snapped sharp claws together. 

In that instant, Sakura could smell the blood in her memories. Coppery and bitter. Slippery as it coated her hands and wrists. The memory was burned into her brain. Ears ringing as she stooped in the ashes to find the pieces of Naruto to bind him back together again with magic. Throat clogging with bile and tears as she tried to remember the incantations as she placed his hand next to his arm. And his foot next to his leg.

As the giant crab opened its mouth, acid bubbling bright green between the clicking parts, Sakura felt the word, “NO!” rake its way up her throat. Her legs burning as she ran as fast as she could. Hands filling with magic. Knowing that she would never make it in time.

Across the cave, Kisame threw his hand out. Bits of crystal burst from the tips of his fingers with a shattering sound.

And then time froze.

The droplets of water hung in the air. Suspended like tiny crystals dangling from invisible thread. Crabs hovered in the air mid-jump. The debris that swirled around the gigantic monster hung there too. Bits of dirt and dust spraying up in dramatic arcs.

On Kisame’s right palm was a shiny burn. In the shape of her holy symbol. A falcon seared into his skin.

Their gazes met. His eyes were even wider than hers. And in that instant, she understood something that she shouldn’t have. Something so absurd that her brain rejected the idea at first.

But there was no denying it. Some tiefling mercenary could never pull off something like this. This was advanced time magic. Far beyond what even she could understand. And a holy symbol wouldn’t have burned a tiefling.

A single shaky breath puffed out of her mouth. Slowly, Sakura raised her pointer finger to her lips. Kisame copied her.

-----

Naruto let out a groan as he stretched his legs out. 

“That was a good fight!” he declared. And then he groaned again as he strained his thigh. Sakura rapped her knuckles against his skull. She skirted around Asuma, who was busy adding crab legs to the soup bubbling away over the fire.

“I said don’t move,” she scolded. 

“Aw, Sakura,” Naruto grumbled, rubbing the back of his head, “Can’t I just eat some herbs and get better?” 

“That’s not how this works,” Sakura reminded him. She stepped past him to crouch beside the cot set up beside the fireplace.

“How’re you feeling?” she asked in a softer voice. 

“Kind of light-headed. But better,” Tenten replied. Neji sat on the floor beside her, his eyes closed. He held one of Tenten’s hands between both of his. He hadn’t moved at all since their battered party had managed to hobble back to their temporary home. Tenten gave her hand a pointed look. Sakura returned the look with a sly shrug of her shoulders. 

“You’ll need a couple days to recuperate from the blood loss, but you’ll be fine,” Sakura decided. And then she nudged Neji’s foot before adding, “You hear that?”

When he stubbornly kept his eyes closed, Sakura snorted. “Elves don’t sleep. Quit acting.”

As she turned around, she caught Neji slowly opening his eyes. He looked down at Tenten’s hand still held between her own. He gave it a squeeze before he closed his eyes again. 

Naruto healed fairly quickly so she hadn’t bothered with stitches. She gave him one last spoonful of medicine to help with the pain. Asuma promised to keep watch over things in the kitchen before he shooed her out to go take a nap before dinner.

Kakashi had claimed the area behind the bar as his room. She poked her head over to find the thief lounging on his bedroll. Sakura motioned with both her hands until he sat up. He raised his eyepatch and then let his arms fall to his sides. Sakura unwound the red scarf that he wore night and day- no matter the weather. Which she didn’t understand because there was nothing wrong with his face. At least, not usually. His chin definitely wasn’t supposed to stick out like that.

“I knew you were being too quiet. Hang on. This’ll hurt,” Sakura said. She waited for him to give a little nod before she popped his dislocated jaw back into place. She gathered energy, burning her last spell slot to weave the muscle and sinew back together. 

“Don’t open your mouth too wide for the next day or so. If it starts hurting again, tell me,” Sakura scolded as she released Kakashi’s face. 

Because while Kakashi kept a lot of things secret, Sakura knew that he always prioritized everyone else’s healing over his own. That hadn’t changed about him in their years apart. He patted her hand before he redid his scarf and lowered his eyepatch. 

Bone-weary and fresh out of spell slots, Sakura trudged upstairs. She passed the floor where Sasuke would already be fast asleep. Across the hall, for obvious reasons, Neji’s room sat empty. And then she passed the floor where Naruto usually slept alone, due to his thunderous snores. And then the floor where Kisame slept alone, due to his own snores, which he denied even existed in the first place. 

Sakura paused.

And then she backtracked.

The floorboards creaked under her boots. So it was probably no surprise when she knocked on the door. There was no sound from inside, but she entered anyway.

Kisame sat on his bed, facing the door. His enormous weapon was propped up in the corner, still glistening with blood. She thought she saw his eyes flash as he looked up. 

Sakura leaned against the door, letting her weight push it shut. Kisame arched an eyebrow at her.

“Tiefling, huh?” she began.

Her breath caught in her throat as his hand whipped out. She flinched, waiting for the blow. Instead, she heard the door lock under her elbow. A wave of magic washed over her in what she recognized as a silencing spell. No one outside the room would be able to hear them.

She cracked one eye open. Then another.

“Careful, Doc. You can’t take back words,” he warned, lips parting in a toothy grin.

Eyes locking with his, she whispered, “Is that so, Demon King?”

Kisame’s smile widened. He leaned forward a little.

“What do you want?” he demanded.

“Huh?”

“I’ll bite. You’re trying to get me to buy your silence. So... what’ll it be? Money? Power? More life?” Kisame spelled out for her, crossing his arms across his chest. His teeth were sharper, his black eyes sparkling. And she could see the tips of his fingers sharpening into claws as they tapped against his forearms. 

And while these sinister details were alarming, they didn’t overpower her confusion. Which took priority at the moment.

“N-nothing. I just wanted the truth,” she told him.

He scrutinized her, face scrunching up. He loomed over her. And as he shifted, Sakura glimpsed his shadow sprawling across the floorboards. Which somehow had sprouted wings. Her eyes snapped back to Kisame’s face.

“It’s never just the truth. Everyone wants something more,” he insisted.

“You’ve been traveling with Naruto for close to a year. You’ve had plenty of chances to kill him, but you haven’t. So you must have your reasons for being here,” she pointed out. Proud of the way her voice didn’t quiver. 

Kisame’s eyes narrowed. “So.... you just wanted... to know what’s happening?”

“Yes. Oh and to ask a question.”

Kisame looked a little disappointed at that. “And what’s your question?”

Sakura stared square into his face. “Is your intention to hurt people?”

Something flickered in Kisame’s gaze. He let out a heavy breath. The wings in his shadow disappeared. And his claws became fingers again. He turned his head to the side as he said, “You probably won’t believe me, but no.”

The silence that hung about them was heavy. And then Sakura took a deep breath. As her mouth opened, Kisame’s eyes narrowed.

“I believe you,” answered Sakura. 

She felt Kisame’s black eyes bore into her. Like he was digging around in the very depths of her soul. And then he let out a snort of laughter.

“You really are that good, huh,” he remarked.

Sakura shrugged. “I guess.” And then she lifted her finger to her mouth. 

“I’ll keep your secret. As long as it doesn’t hurt anyone,” Sakura promised. Kisame scrutinized her one last time before he slowly raised his finger to mirror her gesture. 

With that, Kisame gestured to the chair tucked under the desk. Sakura pulled it out to take a seat. While she didn’t insult him by dragging it to the opposite end of the room, she didn’t exactly pull up a seat right beside him. Kisame’s lips quirked up at the corners, but he didn’t comment on it.

“So. You said you wanted the truth?” Kisame asked one more time. 

Lips pursing, Sakura nodded. 

Clicking his tongue, Kisame rubbed the side of his head. “Alright, truth is that I seriously can’t remember everything.”

“Well, you remember enough to know that you’re the demon king, right?” Sakura offered. Kisame made a face. 

“Yeah. One of them, anyway. But I’m definitely the one you’re looking for,” he agreed. His face pinched, eyes closing as he thought. 

“What’re you doing here instead of the Abyss?” she inquired. 

Kisame pressed two fingers to his temple. “Uh... so... ruling my hellish realm.... smiting underlings.... hmm.”

Sakura waited, trying to hide the way her hands shook by rubbing them over her thighs. 

“Oh, shit. Yeah.”

Sakura jerked her chin up. 

“I have a greedy little henchman. He probably pulled some shit and threw me up here. And that’d explain why things are so messed up. That idiot was never good at management,” grumbled Kisame. Sakura stared at him. 

“What?” he demanded. 

Sakura gave a nervous laugh. “Never imagined you as the managerial type.”

Kisame looked offended at that. “Look. I’m all for chaos and torment. Just where it belongs. Abyss shit should stay in the Abyss.” 

When he pointed at her, Sakura flinched a little. Eyes widening, Kisame lowered his hand.

“Like you said, I haven’t hurt any of you until now. That’s not gonna change. I need your help getting home,” he explained. Sakura chewed on her lip as she listened.

“...And after you get home?”

Kisame studied her expression for a moment. And then, chuckling to himself, he shook his head. 

“Look, Doc, if it’ll make you feel any better, let’s do this,” Kisame offered. He stretched out his hand. A gleaming length of ethereal parchment appeared. A quill popped into place too. It began writing as Kisame spoke. 

“I, Kisame, also known as Dagon, Prince of the Depths, do hereby swear not to inflict any harm, intentional or unintentional, on the members of this adventuring party. Yadda-yadda- hey, don’t write that part,” Kisame scolded the quill. It jumped away from the page.

Sakura’s forehead wrinkled. “List their names,” she insisted.

Kisame let out another incredulous laugh, but he complied. And then he went on.

“The above listed peoples and entities will be guaranteed safe passage from the Abyss upon return of myself to my rightful place on the throne. They will be free from all curse, torture, or other forms of coercion, harm, or threat upon their return to the Material Plane. Good?” The quill flinched as Kisame shot it another glare. It hurriedly scribbled out the word ‘good’.

Sakura squinted at the glowing parchment for a long time. Going over the words again and again. 

“Put the part where I swear not to reveal your secret,” Sakura prompted. 

Kisame made another face. He shrugged one shoulder. “I mean, do I have to? I know you’ll keep your word.”

“But what if I tell someone?” she insisted.

Kisame barked out a laugh at that. “You won’t. That’s just who you are. But I’ll stick it in if it makes you feel better.”

The quill added those words with a flourish. Kisame seized it to sign his name at the bottom before he handed it over to Sakura. Sakura hesitated, reading over the contract one last time. 

“If something goes wrong, does this mean I’ll get dragged into a pit of torment or something?” she demanded, turning a suspicious glare toward him. Kisame snorted. He pinched her nose between his thumb and pointer finger. 

“There’s no place for a good woman like you in the pit, Doc. Sign the damn contract,” he retorted.

And as soon as Sakura signed, both the scroll and the quill disappeared in a puff of smoke. Her eyes widened as she watched the smoke gather into a serpent. It flew over to Kisame, wrapping around his right forearm. Slowly, the snake flattened, seeping into the surface of his skin. Kisame gave it a cheerful slap. 

“There you go, Doc. Everything’s good,” he declared. When he looked back to Sakura, she was quiet for a while. When she opened her mouth to speak, he raised his eyebrows, ready to listen.

“So the contract says you can’t torture me. Does annoying me count as torture? Because then this feels like it won’t last,” Sakura pointed out.

Kisame stared for a beat. And then, throwing his head back, he burst into raucous laughter. He slapped his hand against his knee as he cackled.

“Man, Doc, I really like you,” he chortled as he wiped a tear from his eye. Sakura smirked in response.

[twinkletoes-rp]

Naruto AU “Surface Breaker” Ch. 1 - Awakening

Fandom: Naruto Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, (Found) Family Rating: T (to be safe) Relationships: Naruto Uzumaki & Shikamaru Nara, Naruto Uzumaki & Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki & Konoha 11, Naruto Uzumaki & Everyone, Naruto Uzumaki & Sasuke Uchiha (mentioned) Characters: Naruto Uzumaki, Shikamaru Nara, Sakura Haruno, Konoha 11, Sasuke Uchiha (mentioned) Words: 4,456

Summary: AU/Canon Divergence post-Shippuden 215. When Naruto nearly dies at Sasuke’s hands for a second time, he makes the heartrending decision to finally heed his dead master’s advice and let the Uchiha go. Healing and moving on are never easy, but luckily, Naruto has a whole village (and even those outside it) to aid and love him along the way.

Canon Divergence start: Different from the actual episode, Naruto and Sasuke's fight goes on a lot longer and is way deadlier. It ends up a fight to the death. The only reason they both survive is because Tobi swoops in to steal Sasuke away, and Naruto passes out a second later. That's where the fic opens.

(Can also be read on FFN | AO3 | Next )

--

“Naruto!”

He remembers coughing up blood, a lot of it, and then…his eyelids were so heavy…

“I can’t… We have to…the village…”

He remembers hands on him. Warm and slick and…shaking…

“Stay awake, Naruto…”

He remembers intense pain shooting through him, coughing up more blood…

“Hold on!”

He remembers rushing paws, so many and so loud it became a roar…

“Just a little farther! You can…”

He remembers being set on something soft and cold, tasting more blood…

“Come on, Naruto… You’re…be Hokage…”

He remembers pounding feet and familiar voices barking orders…

“Don’t you dare… Stay with me, you stubborn…”

He remembers machines screeching and a well of grudgingly-protective rage surging through him…

Don’t give up, brat!

And then…nothing.

---

When Naruto wakes, it’s to sights, sounds, and sensations that are becoming more and more familiar over the years.

Machines beep into an otherwise silent, still room. Sterile floors and walls in dull colors that are supposed to relax and provide a sense of calm. Chemicals most might not be able to smell, the pinch of an IV, a few actually, in his arm. Slightly itchy white sheets and a starchy blue hospital gown that’s too big for his small frame. Bandages cover almost every part of him, and he thinks one of his arms might be in a sling – or at least, bound to his side temporarily. Some seriously strong pain meds must be in his system because, at least for the moment, he doesn’t feel even a fraction of the pain he’s sure he should be in. Sakura or Granny Tsunade, maybe both, must have ordered that for him. He’s grateful.

Giving his body a few minutes to adjust to being awake after…who knows how long, he turns his head slowly to look around. He almost regrets it when his vision swims, but something else he notices almost immediately takes precedence.

Body heat at his elbow. There’s…someone else here…?

For a split second, his heart rate spikes, but it calms just as quickly. His vision might not be clear yet, but he can tell from the steady heartbeat and gentle breathing that whoever it is isn’t here to hurt him. Besides, if the splotches of color he can make out are right, he thinks he knows who it is anyway, and in that case, he’s definitely not worried.

When he can finally see, Naruto can’t help but smile, what little he can manage anyway. He was right. It’s Shikamaru, fast asleep at his side with his face in his arms. Naruto breathes a laugh. It’s the same way he used to sleep in class at the Academy when they were kids. If he’s asleep, though, Naruto wonders how long he’s been here. He hopes not all night. Besides getting him in trouble with the nurses or, worse, Sakura and Granny Tsunade, leaning over on the mattress like that must be really uncomfortable.

All the same, he can’t help but soften. He never thought he’d wake up to find Shikamaru Nara, of all people, at his bedside, but he’s certainly not complaining. On the contrary…he’s happy and touched. Shikamaru’s a great friend, one he’s lucky to have, and he knows better than most that the genius doesn’t put his energy into anything he doesn’t believe in. So for him to be here…

Lifting his good arm experimentally, he finds it doesn’t hurt too much to use. Satisfied, he reaches over to rest a bandaged hand on Shikamaru’s shoulder and shake him gently. “Hey, Shikamaru,” he whispers, not wanting to scare his friend. “Wake up.”

Shikamaru instantly shifts and opens bleary eyes. Blinking a few times, he pushes himself back some and stretches, yawning so long that it leaves tears at the corners of his eyes. Wiping at them with his sleeves, he looks his way and freezes, blinking a few more times and even rubbing his eyes for good measure. “N-Naruto?” When he sees his friend really is up, he perks up instantly, face breaking into a wide smile, maybe his brightest Naruto’s ever seen. “Hey, you’re finally awake!”

His smile is contagious. Naruto’s isn’t nearly as big and bright as it normally is, but Shikamaru wasn’t expecting it to be. Not yet, anyway. “Y-yeah, I guess I—I am!” Naruto cringes and coughs at how raw and croaky his voice sounds from disuse, his throat dry as the Demon Desert. Shikamaru helps him sit up enough to drink some water, and Naruto sighs happily once he’s done. There’s more life to the smile he gives this time. “Thanks, Shikamaru! It’s good to see you, too!”

Shikamaru’s exhale is helplessly fond, the other’s voice and smile the last pieces he needed to know he really is okay – or, you know, going to be. He hangs his head with a heavy sigh, all the tension bleeding from his shoulders as his relief takes all his energy at once. “Thank goodness…”

Naruto, meanwhile, is silent, studying Shikamaru’s face. Now that it’s not hidden in his arms, his friend looks paler and definitely more tired than usual. There are some pretty dark shadows under his eyes, too. The blond’s brow furrows in concern.

“Shikamaru…are you okay? You don’t look so good…”

Shikamaru looks up, startled, and then he laughs, the action helping to further relax him. He can’t help it. He swears Naruto is the most selfless person he’s ever met in his life. “You’re one to talk. You’re practically a walking bandage roll.” Naruto doesn’t let up on his worried stare, though, not swayed by the joke and possible deflection, and Shikamaru sighs a bit, smile sobering along with him. “I’m fine. Just a little tired, is all.” He scrubs his hand down his face and then gives Naruto a semi-scolding look, smirking lightly. “You scared the shit out of us, you knucklehead.”

Naruto has the grace to look sheepish, rubbing the back of his head before he remembers that hurts. “S-sorry… But, uh…what exactly am I apologizing for…? How’d I get here again…?”

Shikamaru huffs a laugh. Honestly, this guy… “With how hard you hit your head, I’m not surprised you need a refresher.” He gets more comfortable in his chair and then fixes Naruto with a serious stare. “Depending on how this goes, this might not be the easiest thing to hear, so fair warning. Frankly, I’m glad you’re already lying down.” Naruto’s caught off guard for a moment, but he nods in the next one. Shikamaru takes that as a signal to start. “Well, for starters, you’ve been out for over a week.”

Naruto’s eyes widen, lips parting in surprise. He doesn’t think he’s ever been in the hospital that long before. “W-wait, really? How long?”

Shikamaru nods, resting his chin between his knuckles. “Eleven days, counting today.”

The blond pales a bit, good hand moving to the Seal on his stomach. He’s a little surprised that his immediate reaction is to worry about the Beast locked up inside him, but hey, stranger things have happened. To him, at least. He wants to try talking to it to make sure it’s okay, but he doesn’t want to freak Shikamaru out. Maybe if he explains it to him, he can try later.

As if reading his mind, Shikamaru offers, working to tread carefully, “I’ll get to the Nine Tails in a minute. But for now…what do you remember about what happened?”

Figuring the Fox is sleeping to regain its energy like he was anyway, Naruto takes a breath and does his best to think back. Everything’s so…hazy… He mostly remembers pain and blood and familiar voices…Kakashi-sensei, Sakura, and Granny Tsunade’s, specifically… Before that…—!

A face appears in his mind’s eye, and he bolts upright, Sasuke’s name on his lips, but the pain chokes it off and Shikamaru’s urgent, careful hands stop him halfway. It takes a moment for him to get his breath back. “Sa-Sasuke…! He was…!” Suddenly distracted by more important things, he doesn’t even register Shikamaru gently pushing him back down on the bed. “S-Shikamaru, is—Kakashi-sensei and Sakura—!” He swallows, blue eyes blazing as he breathes through the pain. He doesn’t want to even entertain the thought of being wrong. “A-are they okay?”

Shikamaru swears, no matter how old they get, Naruto’s insane devotion to his friends will always be one of his favorite things about him. He nods, a reassuring smile on his face. “They’re just fine. They made it back here with barely a scratch.” He pokes Naruto’s forehead gently. “It’s you we’ve all been worried sick about.”

Naruto’s whole body sags with the force of his relieved sigh, spring-coiled tension gone in a second. “Thank goodness…”

Shikamaru’s smile grows before he sobers again. “So, what do you remember? Let’s start there.”

Naruto narrows his eyes in concentration, and as the memories start to come back, he feels his stomach drop. “I-I remember…Kakashi and Sasuke about to fight when…S-Sakura tried to—“ he swallows, “—to take him out h-herself. Sasuke retaliated by—by t-trying to stab her with a—a k-kunai through the—” The last word turns to ash on his tongue, too awful to say, but he gestures to his throat with a trembling hand to finish the thought regardless. His words are shaky, horrified, more so as he goes on, and he swallows again, curling a fist in his sheets for purchase. “That’s—that’s when I jumped in. I-I saved her, and then…t-the three of us, all of Team 7, we…w-we tried to convince him to—to come back with us…b-but…” he breathes a laugh, a bitter, angry, almost scared thing, a like smile on his face, “…h-he was talking crazy… He said he—he killed Danzo and that h-he was—was going to k-kill us and then…d-destroy the Leaf to—to ‘cleanse the Uchiha name’…” His fist in the sheets tightens, though he tries to take a shaky breath to steady himself. “I’ve…I’ve never seen him like that before… It was…” he glances up at Shikamaru, knowing he’ll understand, “…it reminded me of the old Gaara, like he sounded when we stopped him from killing Lee all those years ago… That’s what he sounded like...”

Deranged. Unhinged. Totally unrecognizable from the person they knew. Hell, those are being generous…

Shikamaru swears under his breath, frowning as he glares at the floor. He knew the Uchiha was a little sick in the head, but nothing like this…! Looking back up at Naruto, he asks, “Anything else?”

He thinks, but then shakes his head. “Everything after that is…a blur, really. Bits and pieces, a lot of blood and pain, but that’s it. Mind filling me in?”

Shikamaru’s frown deepens, but he sits up a little straighter nonetheless. He’s always been one to rip off bandages quickly. “You used your clones to stop Kakashi-sensei from interfering and then went after Sasuke yourself. Once you two started fighting, there was nothing Kakashi and Sakura could do but watch. There was no way in hell they were getting between you two.” He can only imagine how hard that must have been for them to watch. “The fight went on for a long time, and it got pretty brutal. Sakura had to look away after a while. She couldn’t stand to see you two hurt each other like that. The only reason it stopped without both of you dying was because some guy in a mask showed up and took Sasuke away. You wanted to go after them, but you ended up coughing up blood and passing out a second later. Kakashi and Sakura got you back here as fast as they could, and then Sakura and Lady Tsunade headed the three surgeries necessary to save your life. According to Lady Tsunade, though, it wasn’t just them who saved you.”

He nods toward Naruto’s Seal. “It was the Nine Tails inside you, too.” Naruto’s eyes widen, and he looks down at where the demon resides. “It used up a lot of its chakra to keep you alive after yours was depleted. That’s also why it’s taking you so long to heal. Since the pair of you are basically out of chakra, the Nine Tails can’t accelerate your healing like it normally would, so your recovery’s pretty much slowed to a crawl.” Taking a sip of his water, he continues, “Anyway, after you got out of surgery, you were still in really bad shape. All the doctors and nurses did their best to take care of you, and Sakura and Lady Tsunade even stepped in and did some special medical ninjutsu stuff where they could, but it was touch and go almost the whole time. Some days were better than others. We were all really afraid you weren’t gonna make it this time.” He rubs the back of his neck and sighs, mostly in relief. “But thankfully, you’re awake now, so that’s over. Thank goodness… I’m getting way too old for this stuff…”

When Naruto doesn’t immediately laugh and spout some quip about Shikamaru only being a few weeks older, the chunin looks up to make sure he’s okay.

He finds Naruto staring up at the ceiling, for once completely silent. His eyes are dull, a shade or two darker than they were a few minutes ago, almost listless. His expression is much the same, but Shikamaru can tell there’s a whole maelstrom of emotions playing behind both.

“Where’s Sasuke now?” Even his voice has lost most of its inflection. He sounds…exhausted, but it’s more than that. Almost...defeated.

Shikamaru swallows, trying to quell the worry starting to turn his stomach. He hopes it’s just the shock and maybe a reaction to the memories coming back. “Hard to say. According to Kakashi-sensei and Sakura’s reports, when that masked man came for Sasuke, it was like they just vanished into thin air. There wasn’t a trace of them left, not even a chakra signature. Kakashi has a theory that it was some kind of jutsu unique to that man. An ANBU team was dispatched to the area to see what clues they could find, if any, and they did find a red-haired woman who claims she was Sasuke’s…assistant or something, but as far as Sasuke goes…” He shrugs, next words riding on a tired sigh as he scratches his head. “For now, it looks like we’re back to square one.”

There’s a long, pregnant silence for several moments. The clock ticks by, but Shikamaru can’t bring himself to break it, waiting instead on bated breath for his friend’s response.

Naruto, for his part, heard everything, it’s just…it’s like there’s white noise playing in the background of his mind. He’s not sure if it has something to do with the Nine Tails’ weakness, his own, or maybe it’s all in his head. He’s trying so hard to process everything he’s just remembered and learned, but…it’s too much. All of it’s too much. He wishes it would stop, especially the static. It’s not helping anything. Maybe…he just needs more sleep. “I see…”

His voice is even more despondent than before, and that combined with the way he rolls over onto his side, his back to Shikamaru, sets the older boy further on edge. “Naruto…are you okay?” he asks softly. He’s well aware how stupid a question like that probably is right now, but he doesn’t care. He needs to know, and more than that, he wants to. This would be a lot to take in for anybody, but especially Naruto, who loves with absolutely everything he has in him, and hell, he basically fought his former teammate to the death (for a second time), so it makes sense that this would negatively affect him. Of course it does. It’s only natural. He remembers the last time Naruto shut down like this, after his first near-death fight with Sasuke in the Valley of the End. But still, this…it feels…different somehow. He can’t quite put his finger on why yet. He just hopes it won’t be worse. God forbid.

Finally, curling into himself a little more, Naruto answers, “Y-yeah…” His voice is so hollow and low that Shikamaru almost has to strain to hear it. The brunette swears he’s the worst liar in the world. He’s not even trying at this point. It only makes him worry more. “Hey…Shikamaru…?”

Said boy leans forward so he can hear better. “Yeah? What’s—?”

Suddenly, there’s a bandaged arm around him, and the next thing Shikamaru knows, Naruto’s hugging him. He couldn’t even sit up before without being in intense pain, but now, through sheer force of will, he’s hugging him. Shikamaru breathes an exasperated laugh. “Thank you, Shikamaru. For staying.”

It’s barely more than a whisper, but Shikamaru hears it like it’s the only thing that matters. Right now, to him, it is. He gets the feeling Naruto isn’t just talking about being here when he woke up either. He can’t help but smile and hug his friend back gently, not wanting to hurt him more than he’s probably hurting himself. He feels Naruto relax in his arms, and he holds him just a little tighter, letting his face tuck just slightly into the blond’s shoulder. He’s so, so glad he’s alive. “Don’t mention it. What else are friends for?”

Naruto actually does manage a chuckle at that, and Shikamaru considers it a personal victory. They stay like that for several seconds more before settling Naruto back in bed.

“H-hey, um…” Shikamaru’s steady, calm gaze never leaves the blue-eyed boy; he wants to help in any way he can, “…don’t leave?” Then, even quieter, “Please?”

The whirlwind in Shikamaru’s gut dies down, if only a little, and even though Naruto’s too embarrassed to look at him, feeling his request childish, he hopes he can feel the way his gaze softens. He leans back in his chair to get a little more comfortable. If the nurses want to throw him out now, they’re going to have to contend with Naruto’s word as well as his own. “I’m not going anywhere,” he promises quietly. “Sleep well, Naruto.”

---

“I’m going to kill all of you…”

“You never had a family! You couldn’t possibly understand!”

“The Hidden Leaf will be destroyed by my own hand!”

Images of the Hidden Leaf in burning ruins pass by, nondescript screams and sobs piercing the air. Bodies everywhere—crushed, burning, impaled, cut in half, dismembered—so many there’s almost no open ground to be seen. Moving closer to the center, all of Naruto’s mentors and friends are lying on the ground, unmoving and unseeing. They’ve been killed, murdered, in chilling, gut-wrenching ways, each worse than the last. Those closest to Naruto were dealt the worst deaths by far.

In the middle of it all, Sasuke holds a dying Naruto by his collar, grinning at him like a lunatic, eyes wild. He leans in close, his Magekyo Sharingan glowing an unsettling red. Naruto can see and smell the blood coating his lips and teeth, gushing from now-blind eyes. “I win…Naruto!”

--

“No! Sasuke!”

Naruto shoots upright instantly, screaming loudly enough to wake the rest of the patients on the floor.

“Whoa, hey!”

His good arm clutches at his chest where a huge hole was a second ago, he’s sure of it.

“Naruto!”

He’s shaking like a leaf, drenched in sweat, breathing and heart rate erratic.

“Damn it! Can’t you hear me?!”

Tears flow freely from blue eyes that can see nothing but the carnage and world-ending in his nightmare. Part of him knows it’s not real, but he can’t—he can’t shake it—!

“Hey, Naruto!”

Naruto snaps his neck to find Shikamaru standing at his side. He has a tight, tremulous grip on his shoulder, and the older boy’s looking at him like he’s afraid he’ll pass out or start screaming again any second. They’re both breathing hard, but for two very different reasons. Shikamaru, seeing the change in him immediately, lets out a shaky breath, worry pinching his brow hard. “Hey, hey…” He squeezes his shoulder a little more to hopefully help ground him in reality. “You with me?”

Naruto takes a minute to catch his breath and slowly ease his white-knuckled fist from his shirt so he can reach up to wipe his eyes and face and then rest it on Shikamaru’s. He nods. “Y-yeah…I-I think so…” Shikamaru doesn’t let up right away, not moving an inch, and Naruto tries to manage a smile for him. It’s pitiful, but it’s something. “S-sorry if I scared you…”

A few more cautious seconds, and like the string holding him up has been cut, Shikamaru’s whole body slumps and he takes a heavy seat on the edge of Naruto’s bed. He sighs wearily and buries his face in his hand, just trying to breathe. He shakes his head. “No, it’s…don’t worry about it…”

He says that, and yet his shoulders are trembling, just slightly. Naruto isn’t sure he’s noticed. He gets the feeling his friend might have had a tougher time waking him up than he wants to tell him. Suddenly worried he might have actually hurt him in his terror, he looks him over for any injuries, but doesn’t find any. He lets out a relieved, silent sigh of his own. Thank goodness… “I’m…I’m sorry…” He winces at the sound of his own voice. It’s even worse than when he first woke up. Probably from all the crying and screaming. “It was…” he looks away, embarrassed and ashamed to have caused all this trouble, voice falling, “…it was just...a nightmare…”

Shikamaru, while listening intently, takes a deep breath before letting it out slowly. He does that a few times before he lets his hand fall. It’s a calming exercise Asuma taught him years ago. It almost always works, and this is no exception. He’s grateful.

Turning back to Naruto, he hesitates a half-second ahead of reaching out to squeeze the blond’s fingers lightly. After so many years of being friends and as observant as he is, the notion that physical affection is something Naruto lives for hasn’t been lost on him. Never mind that he’s not usually especially physically affectionate himself, if he can give Naruto some comfort right now, damn it, he’ll do just about anything. “I know. I heard. About Sasuke attacking the village and killing everyone in horribly brutal ways, right?” Naruto looks at him like he’s grown two heads, and he explains, a tiny, wry smirk coming despite himself. “Unfortunately, your mumbles and screams didn’t leave much to the imagination.”

Paling, Naruto shakes his head roughly to get rid of the resurfaced images. “S-sorry…”

Shikamaru frowns. “Hey, stop that. This is not something you have to apologize for,” he tells him firmly. “After what you’ve been through, I don’t blame you for freaking out, even in your sleep. Any sane person would.”

Naruto breathes a laugh at that, somewhat relieved. Still, something in his expression is almost… haunted. ‘Sane,’ huh…? “So I’m not a drag, then?”

Shikamaru recognizes that look on sight. He used to wear it all the time as a kid, and it comes back once in a while when he’s reminded of back then. Hell, even just a few short years ago. His answering almost-snarl makes Naruto look up at him with wide eyes, but Shikamaru can’t help it. “No, of course not.” He doesn’t care if it’s been years. He still wants to punch all the ignorant bastards in this village who ever made Naruto feel like he was nothing but a worthless demon. He was a child, for God’s sake! “You are not a drag, idiot. You never could be.”

A heartbeat, and something in Naruto’s face and eyes softens, the shadows leaving his eyes, and a more believable, if still small, smile paints his lips. Shikamaru feels himself relax at that alone. “Got it. Thanks, Shikamaru.”

“You’re welcome.” It’s quiet for a good few seconds, and then, quietly, hesitantly, “So…do you wanna talk about it?”

Naruto blinks and then thinks. He could tell him what he’s thinking and feeling, but…right now, it’s all still kind of a mess inside, and that nightmare didn’t help. He might be able to help him figure out a solution, but he also gets the feeling that Shikamaru would tell him this is something he has to figure out for himself. With that in mind, he slowly shakes his head. “Not yet. I…I still need to…sort some things out. In my head and…my heart, too. How I’m feeling…you know?” Blue eyes leisurely move to meet brown. His tiny smile’s grown a bit. “But thank you. I’ll tell you when, okay?”

Shikamaru isn’t so sure he likes letting this lie, but…he trusts Naruto. He trusts that he’ll come to him if he needs someone to confide in. “Sure. Take your time. I’ll be here.”

Naruto softens, tries really hard not to think of the three clean-through sword wounds that traveled the length of Shikamaru’s midsection in his nightmare. He swallows, does his best to remind himself that the blood on his tongue isn’t real. His smile wavers, turns fragile, but then bounces back to be even bigger than before. “T-thanks, Shikamaru. You’re the best.”

Shikamaru’s cheeks color slightly at the compliment, not expecting it. Avoiding his gaze momentarily, he gently pushes Naruto back down on the bed. “Again, you’re welcome. Now…” he moves from the mattress back to his chair so he doesn’t crowd his friend, “…get some sleep. For real this time.” Sensing he’s nervous, he reaches out to squeeze his fingers again, leaving them there. If it’ll help him sleep and avoid any more nightmares for the night, he doesn’t mind. He offers a reassuring smile. “It’ll be fine, you’ll see. If I’m wrong, I’ll eat my words and do something we both know I think is a total drag.”

Naruto laughs, for real this time. It looks like some of his color’s finally coming back, too. That’s good. “A—” a big yawn interrupts him, and his eyelids start to droop; his exhaustion’s rushing back now that he feels warm and safe again, “—all right... Night…Shikamaru…”

He’s out like a light in just a few seconds, and that means Shikamaru can finally relax himself. He doesn’t plan on sleeping just yet, wanting to make sure Naruto really will be okay first, but he’ll get there eventually. Leaning back in his chair, head propped against the wall, he looks out the window at the clear, starry night sky. They might not be clouds, but they’ll do.

Something about all this tells Shikamaru that Naruto’s recovery won’t be as smooth as the last time.

But lucky for him?

This time, he has Shikamaru at his back.