FRAME OF THE HEART

II
Frame of the heart

Trailer: Naruto doesn’t have the time to gain and accept Sasuke’s love anymore, distance sets them apart but… Sasuke?

My friend once asked me why I was dating a model, or why I was dating at all when I used to like being alone. Up till now I still haven’t figured the answer, one by one as I met the people that had surrounded you I became aware of the one thing that made us similar and dissimilar at the same time. Perhaps it was because of my envy for you that though you cannot express yourself to other people you are able to communicate through the glass frame surrounding the different emotions of your heart. I sometimes wonder how you can act so expressive towards me when you can’t to other people except Neji.

I now realize that you weren’t acting at all.

And I wished that I had the talent to show my feelings even if not through words, because the frame of your heart had never lied to me, I could only wish for my own to be the same.

+++

“… ke, Sasuke!” A deafening shriek of his name startled the slumping brunette back to reality, puzzled eyes turning on the frowning red-haired woman sitting beside him on the couch, but her hair were a bit too light it almost appeared pink.

“You’re not listening.” Sakura pouted, turning off the television through the remote control and fake-glaring at her step-brother.

“I was… I was just tired.” To emphasize this Sasuke massaged the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb, groaning a little.

“Well I am too, I just got back from God-knows-where’s medical mission and here you are, dozing out on me.”

“Mmn… sorry.”

“Anyway, where’s your boyfriend? I’m getting the feeling he doesn’t want to meet me at all. I mean every time I drop by here he’s either on a pictorial or a fitting. Is he that famous?”

“Do you doubt my tastes?” The man arched a slender eyebrow, but the woman failed his attempt for a change of subject.

“Come on, why don’t you tell me his name at least?” She demanded, tugging his arm with a pleading look on her face.

“You know him… I saw you talking to him one time.”

“Eh? You did?” She blinked in surprise, her brows scrunching up in question of that limited information. “Is he perhaps one of the hospital’s patients?”

“I don’t know… maybe one of their relatives or something.”

She remained silent for a while, looking as if she was trying to forget something that she knew she shouldn’t have forgotten; she blamed it all on the monkeys that ransacked her tent in her latest medical mission somewhere in India. Then something dawned on her, but the thought instead of congratulating herself for remembering made her face twist into an expression like she was denying something.

“Sasuke?”

“Hmm?”

“What’s his name?”

“Uzumaki… Uzumaki… something, I forgot his real name. I think his nickname is Arashi.”

A short light gasp of air invaded Sakura’s lungs, it took her a long period of time to recover from what seemed like a dreadful shock to her before she was able to turn her emerald green eyes which was hurting from getting too wide towards Sasuke who was already asleep.

“Naruto?”

+++

“Coming!!!!!” Sakura scampered from the bathroom, her hair still in a towel-turban style, her feet left water prints all the way to the door and panting she forced a poised smile on her face and greeted the unexpected guest.

“Hi! Sorry I took so lo...” She froze in her place, the smile dropping on her almost immediately and the already loose towel on her head dropped on the floor with a soft flop leaving her hair to stick down on her shocked face.

“Naruto…” The blonde stared back at her in the self-same expression, so many emotions switched rapidly on both faces that if Neji didn’t pay his respects with his seasoned voice the both of them would have stayed there for a long time.

“Sorry for intruding.” Naruto’s eyes blinked back to realization that they were at the entrance of the door and that the person standing in front of him was a very dear friend of his, and so he imitated Neji’s gesture and bowed, muttering the same words.

“Naruto?” It was because of the fact that the name ‘Sakura’ was so common that Naruto refused to entertain the thought of them ever being related.

“I… didn’t know Haruno-sensei.” Naruto averted from looking her straight in the eye, she was pretty, intelligent and a shapely woman in her thirties everything about him was no match for her.

“I just knew yesterday. Sasuke’s not here.”

“It’s fine, I’m not looking for him any way.”

“Eh?”

“Oh, I forgot, sorry Neji. Neji, this is Dr. Haruno Sakura, she’s been my doctor for three years, she’s a good friend. Her aunt was my late parents’ family doctor too so we go way back. Haruno-sensei, this is my good friend Hyuga Neji.” Neji nodded in reply and the woman smiled back in return.

“Naruto often mentions you. Come in… I’m sorry for taking so long. You can wait here for Sasuke… um… I’ll go straighten up first.” Sakura at the back of her head secretly thanked that she was already fully dressed, save for the hair. But aside from worrying about her appearance in front of Naruto’s cute friend, the knots on her stomach came back stronger than last night which gave her a rough night, she never thought she’d have to take a pill because of it.

Sakura served them tea and cookies that were left over from his baking spree yesterday, the air tense around her as she broke the uncomfortable silence between the three of them.

“Naruto… about-”

“Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom.”

“Go ahead, second door in the kitchen.” A moment of silence again before she finally got to put into words into what had been playing in her mind ever since she knew their situation.

“About Sasuke… How long have you known each other?”

“More like, how long have we been together, right? Six months.” Her eyes widened as her mind started to connect the timetables, only for the answer to be told by him.

“The day I got out the hospital.”

“Naruto! Why now? You knew about your condition right? I… I’m sorry if I sound cruel but he’s still my brother… I don’t want to hurt him, you’re his first lover did you know that?” Naruto closed his eyes in thought.

“I know that. That’s why I’m going abroad Sakura.”

“What?”

“I’m going to have an operation there, Tsunade-sensei has a friend that can help me. The success rate is just twenty percent, but even if it’s just five percent, or just zero point one, I’m willing to take that chance Sakura.” The cubes of ice stacked together inside the slim transparent glass created a clinking sound as it melted under the warm rays of the sun outside the window on their side.

“Sasuke… does he know that you’re leaving?”

“I’m thinking today’s the right time for that. Neji’s going to come with me, it saves me the time of thinking up an excuse, since I’m not very good at it.”

“And what if it… I’m sorry I don’t want to sound pessimistic but-”

“Sakura, stop trying to sound like you care for me more than him, I know.” His words caught her by surprise, rendering her speechless for a while. Naruto didn’t apologize for the rude-sounding sentence, but his face told her that he understood what she meant, that saved her from thinking that he was holding her in contempt for it.

“Worrying for him is natural, you’re his elder sister right? Don’t worry about Sasuke… I believe he’ll be able to move on when I die.”

“Naruto don’t say that!”

“Sakura, our relationship isn’t as deep as you think it is. Yes, I’m in love with him… he’s the most important person for me. But I doubt he feels the same, I can say that he’s just spoiling me, he doesn’t even remember my name.”

“No you’re wrong, he’s just like that, it’s just really hard for him to express his feelings but I’m sure… that he likes you, if he didn’t he wouldn’t have been together with you right?”

If you only knew…

The door in the entrance way creaked open to make way for the groaning brunette slowly removing his shoes.

“I’m ba-” And the same reaction that displayed on both Sakura and Naruto’s face earlier showed in his own, only it was a little more tensed than the original.

“What… are you doing here?” Sasuke grumbled, dark eyes glaring towards Naruto in full force enough to bore holes into the receiver’s body. Had it been daggers Naruto would have died with multiple wounds.

“Sasuke, I thought I’d pay her a visit. She’s a good friend of mine too.” Naruto acted indifferent, standing up and fearlessly dragging Sasuke to sit beside him on the couch with a cheerfully smile and ignoring on how tensed the muscles on the brunette’s arm in his hold was.

“I came to tell you that I’m going to America for a shoot. I’ve been meaning to tell you that I’ve signed a one year modeling contract there with my agency, Neji’s coming with me of course.” As if on cue, Neji emerged from the direction to where he walked earlier and went to sit on the single couch opposite Sakura.

“Good afternoon, I see you’ve been doing… rather well Uchiha.” Neji said coolly, the pupils of his eyes looking down on Sasuke’s feet while his brows did the opposite.

The long-haired brunette’s presence fueled Sasuke’s anger even more, he didn’t even know that his hands were already clutching so hard that his nails were already forming reddish crescents on his palms.

He didn’t know what was it about the Hyuga that would tick him every time they would see each other, they weren’t really familiar and they planned on letting it stay that way, just that his cousin used to be an intern on the hospital Sasuke was working at and they met that way.

“Hey Neji, what did you do in there? You took like forever.”

“Jerking off.” Neji said nonchalantly, earning a blush from Sakura, a huff from the flaming nostrils of the Uchiha and a mild chuckle from his friend.

“Should’ve known, to whom?” Naruto indulged.

“You?” That answer made Sakura blush even harder and Naruto laugh, Sasuke remained in his self-same I-hate-you-with-a-passion look.

“Well any way. We’ll be going now. Flight’s going to be two days from now, don’t bother taking me to the airport, you guys’re already busy as it is.” By saying that Naruto and Neji took their leave, the blonde paused midway from leaving the apartment.

“Sakura.” He turned around, smiling to his friend.

“Yes?” Sakura was taken aback when the blonde suddenly gave her a friendly hug, whispering something audible only to her.

“Take care of Sasuke will you? He loves you very much.”

Letting go as soon as he said them to her, Naruto pulled Sasuke by the arm who was standing curtly behind her, putting his weight on his toes he pulled Sasuke’s head down by holding his neck and the back of his head to give the man a chaste kiss.

It didn’t last long for more than a second or two, but the shocked expression on Sasuke’s face was enough to make the blonde smile.

“My first kiss.” He said before turning around towards Neji who was already waiting for him in the corridor, a strained look on his face.

++++

Sakura stared with thoughtfulness in her eyes at the handwriting on two American postcards in her hands. It had been more than a year, which meant that the operation was a success she thought with relief. Very soon now and everything would go back to normal she thought hopefully, Sasuke would just have to wait a little more for Naruto to recuperate and be able to be healthy enough to travel.

“Sasuke look, Naruto sent us a postcard!” Sakura waved the hand who was holding the card towards the dark figure sitting on his swivel chair in his office, his back to her as he continued to stare into the view of flickering lights out of the glass window spanning almost the entire north wall.

The figure of his head moved a little, but made no more movement and just continued to stare at the view outside. She sighed in frustration, again, she would have to read it to him.

{To Sakura and my dearest Sasuke, hey how’re ya? Sorry if work got kind of extended, it looks like the atelier here extended my stay, damn I should’ve read that contract. Anyway spring is so cool here, there’re no cherry blossoms here but we get to see some beautiful cosmos and hydrangeas in the greenery.} Her voice overlapped with the voice of the talk show host on the television, she thought she’d turn it off since Sasuke’s wasn’t even watching. But the silence would just depress her brother even more.

{Hey guys, this is pretty long huh? Bet you’re having trouble reading kanji so small! The place where I’m staying is beside a garden, every night the air would smell so sweet, I wish the two of you are here with me. It’s a great place, I have many friends here, most where I can actually relate. I get along here fine how about you? Write back soon. Love you Sasuke! Bye!}

“Sasuke…” Sakura sighed heavily as she sat on the edge of the table beside Sasuke, the lights outside the window enabling her to catch a glimpse of his dark orbs hard with concentration, like he was thinking something.

“Naruto must be pretty busy, every time I answer Neji’s always the one doing the talking. Well it’s not like I hate it since I get to talk to famous models, like Sai.” She said amused, she actually spent more than a half-hour talking on the phone she was feeling guilty of using Naruto as an excuse just to get to talk to Neji’s other friend who was a famous model too.

“Ah, hey, wanna eat yakiniku today? My treat…” The mention of Neji’s name on the television made Sakura snap her attention to the television hanging on wall behind her.

A stubby woman in her forties welcomed the subject of the world renowned media for the press conference, what happened later she just watched in silence.

In a long horizontal table Neji sat on the center, his manager which was to his right and an empty seat on his left, the name put in a triangular white paper flashing Naruto’s nickname before it.

Neji was asked to say his opening remarks and he did so in his usual cool manner.

|Good morning everyone, I am Neji Hyuga, the photographer for the recently released photography book collection: Frame of the heart. Considering that it had just been a week since the first release and there was no promotion whatsoever I am thrilled that the critics and the first-time buyers alike loved that book. I am very grateful.|

|Mr. Hyuga, can you describe what this sensational and as I’ve been told emotional collection is all about?|

|Ah, yes. The photography book is a collection of collaborative efforts from me and my friend, the model. As many of you have already seen, the first five pages were of the same poses but taken in different angles, I want to show the changes of emotions partaking in each image.|

|You are actually a landscape and nature photographer, what made you switch subjects?|

|Naruto was my only model, he’d been modeling for me since middle school in our photography club. And for me the only person that my viewfinder can ever capture with perfection was him.|

|E-excuse me sir, I think we’ve heard that incorrectly.|

|I believe I have said that well.|

|Then are you saying that the model…|

|You will know the truth when you buy the book. The title of the collection is called frame of the heart. The model Uzumaki Naruto was a leukemia patient, he was an orphan and had found difficulty expressing himself to others. My viewfinder… acted as his medium towards the people.|

Amidst the flashing of the camera lights was a chorus of sympathizing people.

|He told me once, that what he wanted was for the people not to cry for him, but for the people to not forget him. By modeling for this collection, he had made the proof of his existence here.|

|Mr. Hyuga, any last remarks for the promotion of the Frame of the heart photography book?|

|Many people had asked me, how I was able to draw such emotions from him. I didn’t, these were all true, nothing was scripted… I’ll only reveal the last page of the photography book for all of you, it is also being displayed in my gallery Burn right now.|

Neji signaled someone from the right and immediately a large poster spanning the whole area of the wall rolled down behind him.

The image was Naruto lying naked to his side on a hospital bed, his blonde hair was tousled to the direction to which side he was lying, the other strands covering his neck and the brightness of his eyes looking like brilliant liquid blue. The poster only reveals from his head to his torso, but you could see that he’s in a reclining position, his head was being pillowed by a folded arm and the other one resting freely on the space before his torso and a content cheerful smile on his face.

|This concludes this press conference, thank you for coming to…|

“Sasuke…” Her back was hunched facing the television, feeling her energy drain at the finality of something she thought was impossible to believe. She could feel herself tremble, she soon felt her eyes painfully hot from tears and as if something was blocking the passage of air in her throat she found it hard to breath, wheezing as she called out to him with a broken voice.

“You knew…”

The man whose back remained fastened on the chair didn’t move an inch.

“Oh my God… all this time…” She altogether collapsed to her knees crying, her hands holding each other tightly against a heavily heaving chest and the postcards already torn in her shaking hands from the way she was gripping it earlier when it had already gotten wet from her tears.

“But the letters… and the e-mails… the videos he sent… were they all a lie!?” Her quivering voice reverberated inside the dark room, many times it would echo the last word she said.

“Naruto you idiot…”

Only her broken sobs were what consisted of that night in the dark office of the department head.

+++

Pruned pallid hands clutched at the damp cloth tightly as he padded his bare feet back and forth in a numbing hunched position the wide wooden floored part of a traditional thatched Japanese house. Dark hair plastered against the pale complexion of his sweat glistened skin, drops of sweat dampening the shiny lacquered floor.

“Sasuke?” Sakura peeked from the sliding door, he stopped for a while but continued in his chore.

“I brought you some tea and mochi, rest for a while and eat.” She tried, putting the round tray of food by the door. From a distance she eyed him with pity and a sense of sadness.

Two days after the press conference in Miami, Neji went back to Japan to put Naruto’s ashes together with his ancestors in the family altar of his ancestral house. The closest akin to a relative, Tsunade gave Naruto the proper Shinto funeral expecting it to be a quiet gathering of the ones he had left behind.

But she was surprised by the seemingly endless knots of people she didn’t even know to give her their condolences. Friends from the modeling agency, his boss and manager, his former classmates, the family he used to work for as a baby sitter, his bosses from various jobs he took as a senior high student, even the grandmother who said he helped her get to her home and made him late for some contract signing.

Sasuke in his own way told them he wanted to clean the huge ancestral home himself; he snatched a neighbor’s broom and started cleaning the front yard as if he had been doing it for so long. He didn’t allow anyone to help him, which Tsunade got through Sakura’s own persuading of the elderly woman to understand him and his place as Naruto’s lover.

Sakura thought it was his own way of mourning. She believed he was able to do that because of what Neji had given him the moment they met again inside the house.

+++

“Sasuke, do you know the last thing that he had dreamed of?” Neji didn’t wait for Sasuke to receive the folded paper in his hand, instead he just slid it in the man’s chest pocket and gave him one last sidelong look before going inside the house.

{Sasuke, I had a dream, did you know what? Hey, when I get back will you get mad if I ask you to come visit me in my house? In the dream I had, you and I are together, you would come home and say ‘I’m back’ and I would ask you if you want dinner or a bath… it’s stupid, I know… but I want you to like me no matter what… I want you to know and see the people and things that I grew up with… Sasuke, let me be selfish even for a while… spoil me a little bit more, I just really want you to be a part of who I am.}

Sasuke wandered why in all of the letters that he sent, nothing said of something of a goodbye. Naruto in all his stubbornness didn’t want for anything to end between the two of them, no matter what that ‘anything’ had consisted of.

+++

Sasuke lay exhausted on the shiny wooden floor of the dojo, his wet back flat against the wall and hands lying on the space between his thighs evenly separated. His dark hair was damp from sweat, the heaving of his chest and the slightly opened mouth suggested of tiredness as he stared blankly at the ceiling above him.

“Ha…” The corner of his separated lips quirked to a smirk, “Ha… ha ha ha…” He was laughing, but not a cheerful laugh, it was uncharacteristic, almost as if it was empty and without life.

“Since when have I…”

Fallen for you?

Conflicts of emotions crossed his face as he brought it to his hands, smooth lines of tears falling down his eyes that remained hidden under the unruly bangs shadowing the half of his face.

+++

“Alright, down you go.” The small child jumped down the medical examination table on a small roomed clinic, beaming towards the handsome smiling doctor sitting on the stool beside the bed who was methodically putting his stethoscope on its case.

“Thank you very much Uchiha-sensei. The community’s really very thankful for a doctor like you. The nearest clinic here is two villages away so having you here is such a relief.” A woman in her late twenties said, putting her payment on the table along with picking up the prescription Sasuke had given the blonde boy.

“It’s my duty.” He said humbly, bidding the earlier patients farewell when the setting sun had already sunk down.

“Ne, ne, nii-chan, who’s this?” He found the boy flipping through a certain book she found on the tiny book shelf inside.

“Naruto, what are you doing that’s not yours.” His mother snatched the book away, eyes widening on the naked images inside but instead of being offended she found herself concentrating her eyes on it.

“There’s a naked man inside mama. Mama likes to see naked men?” The innocent question made the woman snap at her son, socking him upside the head.

“Idiot. You’re a kid, how can you understand?” Saying this with adult sternness she turned to the smirking doctor with a smile.

“Right sensei?”

“Are you a fan? You even named him after Naruto.”

“Oh, yes well, when I first bought the book I cried nonstop. It’s like watching a movie, or much better than that. It created such an impact on me. Doesn’t he look like him too? O-ho-ho-ho…”

“I agree…” Sasuke muttered, going back to sitting in his swivel chair to organize some files.

“But I really admire sensei.”

“Eh?”

“Sakura-chan said you were chosen to be the next head director of a famous hospital in Tokyo. But you chose to stay here in your lover’s house. You must really love Uzumaki-san ne?” The doctor only answered this with a longing smile and the mother and son bid their farewell to Sasuke.

“Yeah… I wish I’d realized that sooner.” Reclining back to his chair he turned to the window behind him, following the pair of mother and son walking towards the main road of the village.

+++

The floors where you have once walked in, the bed you have once slept on, the people you had cared for. Through them I am meeting you again, every passing day my heart would love you even greater than it was yesterday, the view finder that was a witness to your love and heartbreak. Perhaps if I had not hesitated to sacrifice myself to love you, you wouldn’t have to show those feelings to Neji’s viewfinder but to me. The steps that you took in every part of this house, I am treading them everyday as if I am you. Being Uzumaki Naruto I wonder what it would feel like? To love unconditionally that you would embrace even the pain.

[Sasuke, when I die, are you going to cry for me?]

I’m sorry if I cried, it seemed I wasn’t able to follow with what I said that day. But don’t worry, because your smiling face that day … and all the other expressions that consists of your intense emotions remained burned in my heart forever… Naruto.

[Sasuke!]

END