The Little Things

Chapter 1

“Kill him.” The intensity in Gaara’s voice, his entire demeanour would scare him if he didn’t know he was mad and simply couldn’t help it.

“Gaara, no matter how many times you repeat it, we are not going to kill Sasuke.” The patience in his voice was running out. Gaara seemed intent on replacing his shadow, and just as his shadow was lousy company.

“…”

“Your pauses are really fucking irritating.” Naruto leant back in the chair. A chair that had been used by the Hokages. A chair that he had always wanted to sit in. And now that he was, he wondered why. Perhaps Gaara wasn't a very good subject.

“What’s the point of keeping him alive?”

“My village is gone, and you want me to kill one of the guys who was a part of it?” Naruto shouted at him, annoyed at the way he was taking this all in his stride, leaning against the wall idly, as if nothing had changed. He slumped back into the chair, frustration spent for a moment. It didn’t do to bait the boy too much, he was unpredictable, and they both didn’t quite understand their own power. He could subdue Gaara, but now with Sasuke nearly back to full health, he’d be vulnerable. He was paranoid. Something about this entire thing was wrong.

“Mother can’t smell blood.” Gaara reflected darkly. Naruto was sure the Gourd on the redhead's back twitched slightly, or was this the value of time spent closeted with a psycho? He buried his head in his hands, unsure of how to deal with this. He was right, that is what irked Naruto. Everything irked, annoyed, irritated Naruto right now. But he couldn’t be blamed for that, could he? How was he supposed to explain the absence of an entire village. No bodies. No blood. No sign of a struggle. Just everyone gone. Wandering around the academy, around the offices, he got the feeling that it had been a surprise to everyone. Things were left mid-sentence. And there were no clues, no traces to follow. When he had come back from the year-long mission, Gaara in tow mumbling to himself, he’d nearly joined him. He had no one to blame, no one to kill.

He resented Sasuke’s return, three days after theirs. Hated how his hair was tied back, wearing the forehead protector, the leaf hardly visible. Testament to the fights he had endured while seeking power to kill his brother. He’d been angry, and then furious when he attacked them, seeing the empty village and thinking it must have been either of them. He’d decided in that very moment to hate Sasuke for it, to blame the entire affair on him. If he hadn’t left, this wouldn’t have happened. He was sure of it. One of them could have protected Konoha.

He pushed himself away from the desk, ignoring the papers scattered over the desk. He’d already poured over them, with no success. It shocked him to think that no one had left a clue. That they could all be dead, fellow ninjas, Kakashi, Iruka, Tsunade, Sakura, Neji…. Some of the most talented ninjas ever.

“I’m going to see Sasuke.” It was clear, even to Gaara that tagging along would not be tolerated. “Find me some Ramen?” he asked, softly. Don’t play with snakes.

But he was a born prankster.

+++

It was nice to see another person, even if it was Sasuke. But for his black hair, he nearly faded into the hospital bed, white bandages covering a multitude of shallow wounds and more. He stood next to the bed, knowing that the boy didn’t sleep, was merely biding his time. The talk was overdue. He’d been unconscious for a few days, but now that he was nearly back to full health he could be a problem.

“I know you’re awake. We need to talk.” A grim smile appeared on Sasuke’s lips. He opened his eyes, Naruto’s narrowing at what he saw, the Sharingan alive and well. “Stop that.” Sasuke laughed, and Naruto was surprised at how the sound came up out of his lungs unimpeded. He healed faster than he had expected.

“I can’t, dobe. Get used to it.” He couldn’t stop the shock at those words from flickering across his face. He itched to punch to smug face in front of him. “What’s with the tails, demon.”

“They come with the job description.”

“I see.” There’s a dark glint in his eyes that Naruto knows instinctively he doesn’t like. His tails twitch nervously, instinct at work. It may have been years since they last saw each other, years in which they have both changed, but body language is the same wherever you go and he just knew Sasuke could taste the anxiety on him.

“We need to talk.”

“About how you and sand boy killed them all without leaving a trace?” Sasuke ground out. He felt his fists tighten in the bandages. He had endured worse pain than this. He could fight long enough to secure an escape route, especially without Gaara here.

“First things first,” Naruto snarled, “Don’t even think about running because I will catch you and if necessary tie you up with steel rope. Secondly, we didn’t do it. We came back from a year long mission and found Konoha like this.”

“You’re kidding me, right. Why the hell would you and Gaara go on a mission together? I may have been absent, but I’m not stupid.”

“Absent? You call five years absent? You left. Had it been me, they would have had Hunter nins after me in a heartbeat. But you, from the great Uchiha clan just get sympathy. Never declared as a missing nin. No matter how much I grew in power, I was feared. I’m tired of it, and to be honest this has been a welcome relief from constant suspicion. But I didn’t do it. I couldn’t have.” He pulled up a seat from by the window, drawing the curtains shut. It didn’t make any difference, it was as if Konoha was permanently in a depression, characterised by low dark clouds that threatened rain.

“As for Gaara’s presence…. It was the Hokage’s doing. Demons sealed into people have the strangest effects sometimes, she sent us out to kill someone who had gone mad. She hadn’t been brought up with it in her, so she had no control. She couldn’t bend the monster in her to her will. She was rampaging across most of Mist Country, who had been stupid enough to plant a damn Squid in her. It wasn’t old, young by the usual standards of demons. But it still took the two of us to subdue her.”

“It took a year?” No reaction other than pure disbelief.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Look, the point is that it took a year, and in that year something happened here. Now you can get better, attack me and have me put you back into this bed, or you can hate me and help us search for clues.”

“You’ve changed." He paused. "Still run your mouth off, though.”

“Fuck you too, Sasuke.”

“I can’t make promises I won’t keep.” A dark look passed over Naruto’s face.

“So you did learn something out there. That’s okay though, your promises are worth shit with me.” Naruto pushed his hair behind his ear, irritated that tendrils had escaped the braid again. He strolled to the door, turning around to give Sasuke another assessing look before disappearing out into the corridors of the hospital. Sasuke fell back into his pillow, contemplating murder.