What's Left of Us

There were somethings in life that were constant--the sun rising from the east, the new moon, green grass, the crack of bones, the taste of blood, and Uzumaki Naruto never giving up. Sasuke knew he had taken things for granted when he was younger, knew he had been rash and short sighted. He knew coming back to Konoha would be like ripping open a barely healed perviously infected wound. But he also knew he had to do it. He was older, and despite being Konoha's proclaimed prodigy, Sasuke had learned things the hard way. Head first and full speed into every brick wall. Everything was different now, he knew that. But some things never changed. Never in his wildest imagination had he ever thought that Naruto--the stupid, annoying, brash, pig-headed, last place, over reacting, kicked while down, but forever optimistic Naruto-- would change.

"Sasuke. We are not friends"

Sasuke never knew that words could feel so much like a physical slap. He never knew that the blonde haired blue eyes dobe that he had once known was capable of looking at anyone the way that he was now looking at Sasuke. Indifferent. The Naruto Sasuke had known was anything but indifferent. He was passionate about everything. The boy Sasuke had known spoke with vigor and enthusiasm even if the subject matter was of the most mundane things.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch. The last thing he wanted was for this older Naruto to see him stumble. So they stared at each other. Sasuke now more then ever wishing he could activate his Sharingan, if only to inspect the man in front of him more closely. He would never admit it out loud, but relaying so much on his bloodline trait for so much of his life had strained his eyes to the point of needing reading glasses. He felt like such an old man with them on he never used them in public.

"Then what? My bloodline?" The words were more spat then said, impatient. Sasuke was all about composure, but this conversation was starting to grate on his nerves. 'Well at least somethings haven't changed.' He thought with an bitterly acidic humor.

He watched as a small and equally humorless smile fleeted across Naruto's face. Sasuke had the light traces of a smirk on his lips. Twenty years and and about as many smoldering bridges separating the two of them, and in a split second, they were twelve again. It was only for a second, Sasuke was sure they were both seeing the younger pre-teen versions of the other. But then it was gone.

"Do you really think that after everything you and your brother have done to Konoha, and everything or one who has gotten in your way, that anyone in this village would really want to see more ninja's with sharingan walking around?" The intensity of Naruto's blue eyed stare was hard to take, Sasuke fought the urge to turn his head.
He was going to take it, not out of pride of stubbornness, but simply because he dissevered it. He had come back, willingly, to pay for the cost of his actions. He hadn't expected to die, but if that was the final decision he wouldn't fight it. He didn't have to voice that.

"If the fifteen highly trained ANBU weren't any indication to you of the kind of charges you'd be facing, then perhaps I did overestimate you." Sasuke bit back the insult, and instead continued to stare at the blonde Hokage. Naruto watched him react; his eyes not missing even the slightest twitch of one of Sasuke's muscles.

And didn't speak. Sasuke waited, but Naruto seemed content with just piercing Sasuke with his gaze.

Finally,

"For now, you will return to your holding cell and fitted with a better sealing jutsu. As I am sure you have guessed, any title you held before is stripped from you and you are from this point forward, forbidden from using any form of jutsu or chakra manipulation. You haven't been a ninja of Konoha for a very long time, and just for clarity, you never will be again. You will at all times have tails on you, and you will have a visible presence with you at all times until further notice. You are not to step foot outside of Konoha, you will be subject to random searches and seal tests. If any of your guards view you as a threat, they will have full permission to use lethal force. If you try and leave Konoha, try to contact anyone outside of Konoha, or do not comply with orders given to you, you will be locked up. No second chances, no mistakes."

Sasuke blinked as Naruto talked, his head reeling slightly at the suddenness of it. He watched as Naruto began to fill out some sort of form.

"I commit treason, and you put me on parole? Tfft, I would hate to have done something worse like vandalizing, I might have actually had to suffer through a night in a cell" Sasuke said dryly. "What the hell kind of sentence is that? I don't want special treatment, Naruto, we aren't kids anymore, you can't just send me with an unfair--" Naruto cut him off.

"Killing someone who doesn't fear death, but rather like all Shinobi, views it as their inevitability nobel end is not a punishment. It is a reward, and one which you will never deserve." The look in Naruto's eye was deadly, serious, and a word Sasuke had never thought he would use in reference to Naruto...

merciless.
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Naruto watched as Sasuke stiffened. He wouldn't lie and say that seeing Sasuke realize that he wasn't being thrown a bone wasn't satisfying. Naruto was never cruel, there had been a point in the beginning of his career as Hokage that he viewed most suggested forms of sentencing a criminal seemed barbaric to him. But he learned quickly that there were differences between being intentionally cruel, blinded by false just, weak hearted, and fair.

Naruto strove to be fair, from small mistakes to treason. Sometimes fair meant sentencing someone to death, sometimes it meant letting them go.

"Fair does not mean equal, Sasuke, fair means that everyone gets what they deserve" Naruto said, giving Sasuke a look that would take years to describe just how much Naruto knew what he was doing. Years that Sasuke had missed.

No. They were not friends. Naruto found it almost laughable that Sasuke had assumed they were. But, unexpectedly, that same notion also broke his heart. They weren't friends, they hadn't been for a very long time. That didn't bother Naruto, he had excepted it a long time ago. What made the muscle in his chest twinge was the confirmed realization that Sasuke knew nothing at all about Naruto.