A Walk in His Shoes

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or make any money from this story.

Naruto stopped in a grassy clearing near a rock wall that curved like a natural amphitheater. The sounds of water cascaded off the rock wall and filled a sizeable pool before continuing on past flowering plants that lined the steams edges going unnoticed as Naruto paced aimlessly.

Sasuke stopped at the edge of the clearing and watched Naruto through the dense foliage. He listened intently as Naruto started to ramble to himself angrily. The natural amphitheater bounced each and every word back at Naruto then passed him where they could be heard by Sasuke as if he was talking to him directly.

“Why can’t I keep it together?”

Sasuke sat down and wrapped his arms around his legs and rested his chin on his knees. A dark midnight gaze trained on his agitated team mate.

“I sounded so stupid and immature back there…….and for what? Getting worked up over nothing like it was the worst thing imaginable. It’s not like I haven’t been told I was pathetic before.”

“I guess…it just reminded me of those jerks at the store today…”

“Sasuke…he’s nothing like them…”

 He challenges me like another person…”

“He never treats me like a …”

“A monster.” Naruto whispered. But his whispernever reached Sasuke and this left the pale young man irritated.

“He speaks loud enough to wake people in the next town over when he’s standing and talking right there directly next to me and doesn’t need to be so loud because he knows I can hear him fine. Yet now, on his own, with no one to make deaf with his loudness, now he decides to have moments of speaking softly?”

“What’s up with that?”

“Who would have thought that that was even possible?”

“I Never would have thought him capable of it if I hadn’t just, NOT heard him myself. Figures, I come waste my time to see what’s eating at him and he makes it harder by not being his normal loud annoying self.”

“Is is really a waste of my time?” Dark eyes narrow in irritation at the stray thought.

“Why?”

“Is there anyone that can tell me….”

“How….”

“Just spit it out already, dobe!”

 “How can I love this village so much that it hurts?”

“You are an idiot!”

“You seem to love everyone and everything around you with no distinction. With how impulsive, hyperactive, and exuberant you are how could you not be hurt by it all?”

“You just keep putting yourself out there for everyone of course you’ll get hurt.”

“Maybe if you calmed down and actually talked in a normal tone of voice to people you would finally get that date with Sakura that you keep bugging her about.”

For some reason, Sasuke felt irritated at his own line of thinking.

“What is he doing to me?”

“Feels like my mind, my thoughts are not my own anymore.”

“The majority of the people in this village won’t even look at me or acknowledge my very existence. While those that do bother to look at me only look at me with eyes that are cold, cold as ice.”

“I can see the hate, the hate that distorts their faces.”

 “I can hear, when they call me a …monster.”

 “I’m getting….. so sick….. and tired….of being called an IT or a THING!” Naruto screamed.

 “Huh?”

“What the hell is he talking about?”

“They don’t care about my feelings at all.”

“Why do you care what people think anyways, Naruto?” Dry laugh.

“Do you think I care what people think?”

“They all act like they are the ones made to suffer and that they have the right to treat me how ever they want to.”

“How do people treat you?”

“Don’t they usually treat you how you deserve, dobe, with how you act out and cause trouble all the time?”

“They seem to think that they are the only ones with the rights to be treated like a human being.”

“Well if you didn’t act so squirrely all the time, and jacked up on whatever it is that keeps you going as you do, then maybe people would treat you like everyone else.”

“I really do need to look into it myself, actually, what is it, that keeps you pushing so hard and trying to catch up to me.”

“Not that you have a chance in hell beating me in this lifetime.”

“Smirk”

“Maybe in your next life!”

“Smirk”

“To be treated with respect, and given the freedom to be happy, and to feel safe. What I wouldn’t give to feel safe…..what a joke…as if that’s even possible for me. I have to look out for myself because …huff….grinds teeth who else is there that would ever stand up for me? Who would want to protect me?”

Naruto, pauses in his angry steps and stops talking for a moment. A blond head cocks to the side as if in thought. Trembling lips whisper, too low for Sasuke to hear, HE would. Actually He has stood up for me many times without a thought at the danger to his own life and dreams. Naruto gives a dry laugh. Teme tells me his body just moves on its own. What’s that supposed to mean anyways? How can you’re body just move on its own? Don’t you have to think about whom the person is or what it is you’re fighting for? I just don’t understand him sometimes. Just when I think I’ve figured him out he does something new to surprise me.”

“I wish he would speak UP so I could hear him.” Black pools widen in shock.

“I can believe I just said that.”

 

“Sasuke, why do you keep fighting for me?”

“YOUR LIFE…. is worth….. so much MORE….. Then mine.” Naruto’s voice starts out loud and ends softly….too softly for Sasuke to hear it completely which irritates him to no end. Sasuke feels like he’s missing important information that would help him understand what has, Naruto so agitated but doesn’t want to risk alerting him to his presence and loose this chance to hear from Naruto himself how he really feels.

“Ha…ha..”

“Must be why I enjoy watching him so much and trying to be like him.”

“Really?”

“MMMmmm….”

“I’m the reason you push yourself so hard?”

“ I admire him so much and desire to be like him that he is always in my thoughts. Thoughts of him weighs on my heart like a constant pressure. It’s so depressing how great his is and how far I have to go to even try to compete with him. He who is PERFECT at everything he does and me who screws up EVERYTHING I try to do.”

“Why do I have to screw up all the time in front of him?” Naruto screams to the heavens.

“Why am I such an idiot?” Naruto yells and shakes his fist at nothing in particular and more to himself.

“Baka” Sasuke thinks to himself. A half smile passes over the pale face and a warmth invades his chest at the words of praise. For some reason hearing it from his best friend had a deeper impact on him that the river of words of devotion he received from the many girls in the village.

 

 “Good thing I heal so quickly or I really would look like a monster from the way people treat me.”

“I’m so tired of being alone.”

“We are both alone you dobe.”

“But are we really alone?”

“I know he’s an idiot but I know…..I know….Naruto is ALWAYS there for me and that he always will BE there for me, weather I want him to or not.”

“Huff….”

“I know I’ve always got his back when he’s needed it when we’ve been out on a mission.”

“Will I always be there to get his back though?”

“I can’t promise that.”

“I have things I have to do and being his babysitter for the rest of his life isn’t one of them.”

For some reason this thought left Sasuke feeling empty and hallow inside. 

Sasuke was getting more confused and irritated the more he listened to Naruto. Most of the things he talked about didn’t make any sense. Yes, Naruto was annoying most of the time and as a rule was always loud. But he trained hard and never gave up. Any challenge just had him pushing harder. Better yet tell him he couldn’t do something that Sasuke could do then sit back and watch the hyperactive body just take off in endless motion. Naruto would work himself till he was out cold from exhaustion just to prove he could compete with Sasuke.

The Dobe beating me, Sasuke thought with a smirk? Not a chance but its good getting challenged by him all the time since Naruto seemed to be the only one that could keep up with him. Sasuke would never admit it but he envied Naruto for his endless amount of energy. Naruto was like the sun, burning in the sky, giving life to everything he touched. Because Naruto himself brought life to any room he walked into.

Now where did that thought come from? Sasuke shrugged and refused to analyze his feelings or thoughts.

Instead Sasuke wondered.

How do people treat Naruto? Who calls him a monster? Who calls him an IT? Who calls him a Thing? What’s going on with Naruto to have him so worked up like this? This was the first time Sasuke had ever heard Naruto complain about other people. Usually he complained about falling short of Sasuke’s skills and wanting to grow stronger. Naruto would talk about his desire to have people respect him and stop looking down on him. Sasuke always figured that was due to Naruto being and idiot.

“Smirk”

 But this sounded completely different. This sounded deeper and more serious then Sasuke had always believed.

“Hn”

Naruto had said something about healing. Healing from what? How could he say he healed quickly when he always showed up for training bruised and cut from the previous days training just as Sasuke did? What he said just didn’t make sense.

“SASUKE…!” Naruto yelled making Sasuke jump slightly. He thought that maybe Naruto had spotted him…but no…Naruto’s conversation with himself now seemed to have changed to a conversation with Sasuke.

“Dobe” Sasuke thought to himself and arched a dark eyebrow up in question.

“Everyone loves you…”

If Sasuke could have a look on his pale face it would be one of pure shock, then one of irritation. Irritation at the thought of all his rabid fan girls that made his life a living hell filled with hours of sexual harassment and embarrassment for the serious, stoic Uchiha.

Do you think I want them too? They annoy the hell out of me dobe and piss me off to no end with their attention, Sasuke thought.

“Everyone praises you because you’re so great and a genius!”

Sasuke responded to that comment with just a smirk.

“The perfect awesome Uchiha!” Naruto shouted.

So……. you think I’m awesome?

Dark eyes twinkled and lifted up a little at the corners. Sasuke was beginning to enjoy Naruto’s rant to himself. These moments were priceless.

“Girls trip over themselves just to be near you and they never even acknowledge my presence.”

No, Sasuke thought…girls trip over themselves because they are stupid, selfish and clueless dobe. They don’t even know me yet think they’re in love with me? It’s the Uchiha name and power that they love. Families want to align themselves with me only to gain the blood limit that I was born with. They want the power one gets from the sharingan. Basically they don’t see me as a man; they only see me as a stud to breed their daughters with. They don’t know me like you do idiot.

“Girls treat me like the plague while they line up to bear your children.”

“DOBE”

“Maybe I need to beat some sense into his thick skull when we train tomorrow!”

“No”

“That won’t work at all.”

“How can you beat sense into someone who never had any common sense to begin with?”

Sasuke’s teeth clenched over Naruto’s words. No girls are going to get into my pants so don’t worry about it. Not happening in this life time till I finish the things I have to do. I’ve got too much to do and mindless, giggling, clinging, whiny, catty girls are the last thing on my mind. Besides Dobe, Sasuke thought with a smirk, you’re not a plague; you’re just a walking disaster waiting to happen.

“I’m surprised you haven’t killed yourself  from all the stunts you pull.”

If not for me saving your ass every time you’re in trouble you would have been dead a dozen times by now. You freeze up so many times; I have to wonder how you even graduated in the first place. I know you failed the clone test during the exam so it was a shock when you attacked me that one time during our lunch break and then turned yourself into me. Hmm….you never did explain to me what that was all about? 

“I even lost my FIRST KISS to you!”

“Oh please don’t go there.”

“Some things are best forgotten dobe!”

“You talking about it sure isn’t helping me any.”

“The only female to kiss me now is grandma Tsunade on my forehead.””

”Damn, My life is going to suck if the only kisses I get in this life are from her. Man that’s depressing to think about. I’ll remain a virgin for the rest of my life if things don’t change.”

 At this point Naruto flopped down on the ground and stretched out while looking up and into the  sky.

Dobe, Sasuke thought irritated….that was my first kiss as well….thank you very much. I almost choked from the overpowering taste of ramen from your lips touching mine. It’s a moment I’ll never forget no matter how much time passes or how hard I try to suppress it.

Sasuke’s body shivers in distaste at the memories Naruto is unknowingly forcing him to relive once again.

“Was the kiss really that bad or the memory that terrible to recall?” Sasuke brutally stomps that thought into the ground!

Hell dobe…. I’m a virgin too dumbass and you don’t hear me complaining about it. What a whiner baby. We’re ninja now, training everyday or going out on missions and you’ve got time to worry about getting laid? Always knew you were a pervert dobe!

“Sasuke….”

“I really wish he could stop doing that.”

“Sasuke you’re right….”

“And just what is it you think I’m right about?”

 “I’m an idiot”

Sasuke smirked at that comment. I keep telling you that dobe, glad you finally admitted it. Black eyes twinkled in humor. A smile pulled at the muscles that were unused to smiling.

“I’m stupid and a failure! No-one is ever going to respect me other then Konahamaru. No-one will ever think I’m important.”

“If they locked me away would anyone even miss me?”

“With the things you do I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. But it’s not like it would be forever even if they did.”

 And with a humorless laugh and pain filled smile, Naruto continued. “Ok, I know Grandma Tsunade, pervy Sage, pervy Kakashi and Iruka sensei would miss me.”

I know I should be thankful for them and I am....but…why isn’t it enough? How can my heart long so desperately for something more when it knows that such feeling aren’t destined for someone like me to ever receive in this lifetime from another? It’s a truth I have always known and been aware of. No matter how much I fight against it and try to tell myself that if I believe it enough then maybe just maybe I’ll find the one out there that’s meant for me. Could there really be someone out there looking for me? Someone who needs me? Someone who would……want me…. in their life?  Why can’t I be satisfied with what I have? I finally have friends now…..ya….finally….better late than never right?



“WHY ISN’T IT ENOUGH?” Naruto shouts into the wind and then quiets.

For some reason it bothered Sasuke that Naruto didn’t mention him. Then his next thought was to wonder why it would bother him. Why should he care?

 TBC