Territory Which None Trod
folder
Naruto › Yaoi - Male/Male
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
8
Views:
1,049
Reviews:
19
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Naruto › Yaoi - Male/Male
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
8
Views:
1,049
Reviews:
19
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Drinking Partners
Territory Which None Trod
Pairing(s): ItaSasu; OroKabu; KakaSasu
Warnings: Slight non-con, violence, gore, angst
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters from it! (I would if I could!)
Updates: Whoa...serious WAFF in this chapter! But can you blame me? I was listening to Dir En Grey's Ain't Afraid To Die when writing this! Also, alot of drinking in this one, too! Oh, for further knowldge: 'Kanpai' is a Japanese toast said before drinking. And I think everyone knows this, but I'll post it just in case: 'Bonzai' is 'congradulations' or 'you did it!' or 'finally!'. Always, thanks so much for the reviews, and sorry for taking so long to update! On with the story!:
Chapter IV: Drinking Partners
Tsunade looked as though she might laugh. But, being mature in her years, she did not. She turned around and did.
Sasuke stood there, looking like a sack of very misplaced potatoes. Hair in disarray as was the rest of him. He even wore the same, unchanged clothes he had come from Otogakure with. That same black garb with a large, ridiculous fisher’s rope tied around it all at the waist. She had to admit, Orochimaru had no taste for fashion, then again, you just had to wonder about him enough—it’d be very strange if he just started wearing pink and blue.
He’d look like cotton candy, she realized. Without provocation, she began her second fit of laughter at the image of the Snake Lord dressed as a big tuft of cotton candy.
Sasuke frowned; this was going to cause wrinkles on of these days… “What?” He said, a bit edgily. He’d been irritable the whole day thanks in no small part to his neck and everything that happened because of it. Sure, it probably wasn’t even because of his neck, but Sasuke didn’t want thoughts of Itachi again.
She stopped laughing, and her smile faded—just a little. “Na, Sasuke-kun, what’s been bothering you lately?” she said, pouring him a cup of sake, handing it to him across the table. Then she sat down to see him better; he looked worse at eye level.
“I’ve been experiencing a lot of discomfort lately.”
She laughed, “Oh Sasuke, don’t worry! The people of Konoha are quick to forgive!” She couldn’t believe he actually cared what people thought of him.
“It’s not that.”
“What is it, then?”
He shifted in his chair, pulling down the high collar of his shirt, and revealed the bite mark on his neck. She gasped, “My…what did that to you? Was it Itachi?” She whispered the last part.
He nodded, “It was a…parting gift.” Adding it bitterly, he sat back in his chair. Of all things, that was the last thing he wanted from Itachi. It caused so much trouble. Kakashi even gave it a strange glance two nights ago, taking his shirt off. Big deal, the man’s groin was overriding his brain, so concern wasn’t on the checklist.
She constantly tapped her fingers together as she thought, elbows resting on the desk. She was afraid their poor Sasuke-kun was getting bitten one too many times. That bite mark was given by the only person besides Naruto who could alter the curse seal. Itachi—that creep…he probably was…
“Tsunade?”
She looked up, surprised that she still held his presence, “Oh, yes, sorry. And I would appreciate if you added the honorary, I still rank above you no matter how old you get.” She chided lightly with a smile. But she wasn’t smiling inside, this worried her very much. How could this bite be affecting him? She looked at him seriously, “Is the bite showing any…side effects?” She asked.
He grimaced, “Plenty. Tsunade…sama, I’ve been seeing things. I think I’m going crazy.”
She nodded, face showing no emotion, as to not worry the teen of his symptoms. “Anything else?”
Sasuke leaned forward. He met her glance, but then lost it; unsure of whether to tell her or not. “Sasuke?” she asked, testily. He looked back at her again, “I’ve also been throwing up a lot, and I don’t feel too good.” He said, then added: “I wouldn’t have told you, but I’m sure it has something to do with him.”
She leant back from listening close, feigning a look of ease—she was very good at that. “Now, now; let’s not jump to conclusions, what makes you so sure of that? He’s dead, by your owns hands. Are you so insecure about your marksmanship?”
He shifted uncomfortably again, “But I saw him.”
She cringed, if not visibly. Now that was disturbing, it made her wonder whether Itachi really was dead. She smiled for his sake, hand pouring him another cup of rice wine, “Relax, we’ve got ANBU watching you. No worries, nothing gets past them.”
His eyes narrowed, “You’ve got those dogs following me…?” He couldn’t believe she ordered ANBU to watch him! He bolted up from his chair, fists clenching.
The old woman sat back in her chair, tapping her fingers together again. “We have no other choice, Sasuke-kun, you know that. Konoha won’t accept you in until you prove yourself trustwor—“
“I know.” Sasuke said wearily, squeezing the bridge of his nose as to not receive the oncoming headache. He looked at her when the pain slightly subsided, “Is there anything you do about my neck?”
She shook her head slowly, “Your neck just needs a bit of disinfecting. Other than that, you just might be experiencing the infection.” She opened one of the many draws of her desk, dipping her hand in and searching about, “The nausea might not even be because of your neck at all. Maybe you’re making yourself sick.”
He grimaced, “You’re saying it’s something mental that’s wrong with me?”
She laughed, and threw him a bottle of something. He caught it, stepping back a little, it was heavy. He looked at it, and snorted. “Drink, Sasuke-kun. Drink your sorrows away, find a drinking partner and take a load off. It helps sometimes.”
Sasuke turned, heading for the door, “I have no friends.”
She spun her chair to face the wall behind her, looking at the pictures of all the Hokages who had been in office. “Naruto and Sakura have come back from training with Jiraiya today. They’re staying for a week before heading back.”
“Naruto’s…alive…?” He choked, clutching the sake bottle tighter.
***
That afternoon, Sasuke trudged to his apartment only to find someone leaning against wall by the door when he got there.
His head was down as if he was waiting for him, eyes probably closed under the drooping hair, listening for footsteps. Sasuke stopped a couple of feet away, hand holding the glass bottle of sake dropping to his side. It was as if a ghost from the past had came to haunt him. But here he was, and very much alive, aquamarine eyes sparkling with rekindled hope in the afternoon light.
“I seem to be having many surprises left at my door lately.” Sasuke said, taking his keys out of his pocket.
“Sasuke.” He whispered. He hadn’t said that name in a while, and it was so good to see him again after three years of miserable searching. They stood there for a moment in silence before the blonde made the first move. He closed the distance between them, hugging him fiercely.
Sasuke allowed himself a smile, his old friend had grown much stronger since they had last met. “Naruto.” He kissed the top of his golden head, parting the strangling hold. He held up the bottle to the teen, liquid swishing around and glimmering in the last rays of daylight. “I have good sake, and a good friend. Would you like to come in and drink?”
The blonde grinned and nodded, running a hand through his fair locks. “Here she comes.”
Sasuke blinked and opened his mouth before hearing a shrilly, “Naruto! Where’d you go?!” He turned and saw a pink, short-haired girl running down the hallway towards them. “Sasuke-kun!” She called, waving ecstatically.
She was holding another bottle of sake in hand and a bag from a take-out restaurant, she laughed merrily as she saw Sasuke’s bottle and stopped in front of both of them, and both the blonde and the rose-haired girl burst out laughing. Sasuke gave a small smile and chuckled, letting the girl catch her breath before allowing her to jump him with a girly squeal and a big hug. “Oh Sasuke-kun! We missed you so much!”
“Oi! Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go in and drink to reunion!” The blonde yelled, punching his fist through the air. “I’ll second that!” Sakura called, stepping inside as Sasuke closed the door.
Sasuke shuffled to the unused kitchen, looking around in his draws for a bottle cap opener, as Sakura and Naruto removed their shoes and scarves. They breathed on their cold fingers, laughing and smiling.
Sasuke watched them silently from the kitchen, cold heart slightly warming from the sight of his old teammates. They had greeted him so affectionately, without a trace of resentment or annoyance—they were elated to see him. It made him feel a slight pang of guilt at the years they had spent looking for him. He brushed it off, shaking his head. There was no point in spending feelings over the past, they were all together now, with an untainted atmosphere to their gathering, and bottles of sake waiting to be soon consumed.
“Ne, Sasuke-kun, is the Kuro-ushi kind okay?” Sakura called from the dining room, taking out the food from the bag.
Naruto walked into the kitchen, searching for plates, calling back to her, “Wow, Sakura-chan! That stuff’s expensive sake!” And he laughed as Sasuke got tired of watching the man poke through the kitchen, handing him the plates, chopsticks and sake cups.
She laughed, “But it’s good, no? Besides, Tsunade let me go splurging a little with my money when we came back. I thought if we’re celebrating, we should do it right!” Sakura set out the plates and things, and soon they were overflowing the cups with sake.
“KANPAI!!!” Naruto toasted loudly and Sasuke wondered if his neighbors had heard as well. He threw his glass up in salute, precious sake sloshing over the rim of his cup. Sasuke and Sakura did the same, holding their cups up to show respect for the gift of drink.
“Kanpai.”
“Kanpai!”
Hours went by with reminiscing, downing cups at a times, boisterous laughing and Naruto doing drunken impressions of all of the Rookie Nine and then some. They laughed, they cried—well mostly just Sakura for that—and they laughed some more. Spending the irreplaceable minutes and hours with his closest friends did hold dear in his heart. And for a time…Sasuke felt the empty chasm of his heart close for these mad people…
They were singing once they reached their second bottle, this one stronger than the last, with Naruto standing on the table singing a foreign song from faraway:
“Here’s to it:
Who is a friend but someone to toast,
Someone to gibe, someone to roast.
My friends are the best friends
Loyal, willing and able.
Now let's get to drinking!
Glasses off the table!
Pour deep the rosy wine
and drink a toast with me;
Here's to three: Thee, wine and camaraderie!” And soon Sakura joined in with her lovely voice, slurred with rice wine and tears of happiness,
“Here's to our friendship;
May it be reckoned
Long as a lifetime,
Close as a second.
Here's to cold nights, warm friends, a good drink, so take them all--and be forever my friend!”
They fell against each other, in another one of their fits of smashed giggles, and Sasuke smirked, feeling a heat in his chest and in his cheeks, throat burning with a sweet, dry elixir of giddiness. His head swam with old memories of their genin years, as he watched them sing another drinking song, this one slow and drawn out. It was about old things gone by and they cried, for who knows why, but they cried, smiled and sang their hearts out, holding onto one another to stand.
***
It was over even before Sasuke knew it. Or wanted it to end. He’d never been sentimental, but something about this night told him to hold onto it—cherish it like it was the last.
They sat in the living room, all was quiet save for Sakura’s drunken mumblings in her sleep. Naruto was sitting in a chair across from Sasuke, Sakura’s head in his lap. She was long passed out, blush crossing her sleeping features as she grumbled something incoherent, pulling at the orange fabric over his knees. The blonde was petting her hair softly, looking down at her lovingly, watching so she slept soundly.
He looked up and over at Sasuke, who was slumped in a chair across the dark wood coffee table from him. Their eyes met and Naruto could already tell Sasuke had been through a lot. Never had his coal eyes held so much exhaustion and emptiness. Stroke, stroke, softly patting and smoothing the unruly pink hair in his lap.
But Sasuke was grateful. So grateful. Naruto didn’t even think to ask any questions, he never did. He accepted people as they were, and not what had happened. He loved him for that, loved him like the brother he had never had. Or maybe to replace the one who had failed at exactly that. And yet, he had convinced himself that he couldn't love, and the blonde bombshell had proved him slightly wrong again. Slightly. It was a different kind of love. Brotherly love between comrades, a bond that could not be broken with petty feelings and not even death could come between them it seemed!
Sasuke closed his heavy eyes for a moment, only to find when he opened them again, Naruto’s mild gaze had left him to check the sleeping mass in his lap again. “Naruto…I…” But he, Uchiha Sasuke could not bring himself to thank the man.
His eyes flickered over him momentarily, and then he nodded. “There’s no need. I’m just glad your back. We’ll be leaving tomorrow again to go and train. But we’ll be back in a month to visit again.” He said peacefully as not to wake the girl.
“You’ve changed a lot, Naruto.” Sasuke said, sitting back in his chair to admire the drastic transformation the blonde boy had gone through. He was now a man. His golden rays of hair had grown longer, and they now drooped slightly over his bright, lucid blue eyes. They had become narrower and lost their childish touch, as did his cheekbones and chin. His skin had also become darker, and was now complimenting the drunken flush on his cheeks. But there was one thing that hadn’t changed, and that was his million-volt smile.
The same smile that he was showing off right at this moment, “I haven’t changed at all, Sasuke, just matured. I would say the same to you. You’ve gotten paler.” He commented quietly.
Sasuke snorted, “Of course you would notice, Usuratontatchi…”
Naruto laughed slightly at the old name. “Banzai…Sasuke, you’ve succeeded in all you’ve wanted your whole life. What will you do now?”
Somewhere outside Sasuke’s window, a pair of red eyes glowered and then showed elation at the comment. The figure in the shadow of the rising sun laughed, “Yes, Sasuke-kun, what will you do now?” And in a flash of black and red, it was gone.
*****
Well…there was no lemon in this chapter…gah! Bad authoress! *smacks self with wiffle ball bat* Itai…>,< Well anyways, I lied! I’M SO SORRY!!! I’ll get to it, though, promise! But what did you think of this one, though? I kinda felt bad that Naruto was being left out and stuff. It IS his show, after all. Also, the drinking ballad that Naruto and Sakura sing is all drinking toasts from all different countries that I threw togetther. I think they fit together quite nicely. ^^ You can use it, if you want, just give me a little bit of credit, first! Hahah…well anywho, oh yeah, keep an eye out for this quote:
“Here's hoping you live forever, and mine is the last voice you hear.” See you later!
With Love,
Kaz
Pairing(s): ItaSasu; OroKabu; KakaSasu
Warnings: Slight non-con, violence, gore, angst
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters from it! (I would if I could!)
Updates: Whoa...serious WAFF in this chapter! But can you blame me? I was listening to Dir En Grey's Ain't Afraid To Die when writing this! Also, alot of drinking in this one, too! Oh, for further knowldge: 'Kanpai' is a Japanese toast said before drinking. And I think everyone knows this, but I'll post it just in case: 'Bonzai' is 'congradulations' or 'you did it!' or 'finally!'. Always, thanks so much for the reviews, and sorry for taking so long to update! On with the story!:
Chapter IV: Drinking Partners
Tsunade looked as though she might laugh. But, being mature in her years, she did not. She turned around and did.
Sasuke stood there, looking like a sack of very misplaced potatoes. Hair in disarray as was the rest of him. He even wore the same, unchanged clothes he had come from Otogakure with. That same black garb with a large, ridiculous fisher’s rope tied around it all at the waist. She had to admit, Orochimaru had no taste for fashion, then again, you just had to wonder about him enough—it’d be very strange if he just started wearing pink and blue.
He’d look like cotton candy, she realized. Without provocation, she began her second fit of laughter at the image of the Snake Lord dressed as a big tuft of cotton candy.
Sasuke frowned; this was going to cause wrinkles on of these days… “What?” He said, a bit edgily. He’d been irritable the whole day thanks in no small part to his neck and everything that happened because of it. Sure, it probably wasn’t even because of his neck, but Sasuke didn’t want thoughts of Itachi again.
She stopped laughing, and her smile faded—just a little. “Na, Sasuke-kun, what’s been bothering you lately?” she said, pouring him a cup of sake, handing it to him across the table. Then she sat down to see him better; he looked worse at eye level.
“I’ve been experiencing a lot of discomfort lately.”
She laughed, “Oh Sasuke, don’t worry! The people of Konoha are quick to forgive!” She couldn’t believe he actually cared what people thought of him.
“It’s not that.”
“What is it, then?”
He shifted in his chair, pulling down the high collar of his shirt, and revealed the bite mark on his neck. She gasped, “My…what did that to you? Was it Itachi?” She whispered the last part.
He nodded, “It was a…parting gift.” Adding it bitterly, he sat back in his chair. Of all things, that was the last thing he wanted from Itachi. It caused so much trouble. Kakashi even gave it a strange glance two nights ago, taking his shirt off. Big deal, the man’s groin was overriding his brain, so concern wasn’t on the checklist.
She constantly tapped her fingers together as she thought, elbows resting on the desk. She was afraid their poor Sasuke-kun was getting bitten one too many times. That bite mark was given by the only person besides Naruto who could alter the curse seal. Itachi—that creep…he probably was…
“Tsunade?”
She looked up, surprised that she still held his presence, “Oh, yes, sorry. And I would appreciate if you added the honorary, I still rank above you no matter how old you get.” She chided lightly with a smile. But she wasn’t smiling inside, this worried her very much. How could this bite be affecting him? She looked at him seriously, “Is the bite showing any…side effects?” She asked.
He grimaced, “Plenty. Tsunade…sama, I’ve been seeing things. I think I’m going crazy.”
She nodded, face showing no emotion, as to not worry the teen of his symptoms. “Anything else?”
Sasuke leaned forward. He met her glance, but then lost it; unsure of whether to tell her or not. “Sasuke?” she asked, testily. He looked back at her again, “I’ve also been throwing up a lot, and I don’t feel too good.” He said, then added: “I wouldn’t have told you, but I’m sure it has something to do with him.”
She leant back from listening close, feigning a look of ease—she was very good at that. “Now, now; let’s not jump to conclusions, what makes you so sure of that? He’s dead, by your owns hands. Are you so insecure about your marksmanship?”
He shifted uncomfortably again, “But I saw him.”
She cringed, if not visibly. Now that was disturbing, it made her wonder whether Itachi really was dead. She smiled for his sake, hand pouring him another cup of rice wine, “Relax, we’ve got ANBU watching you. No worries, nothing gets past them.”
His eyes narrowed, “You’ve got those dogs following me…?” He couldn’t believe she ordered ANBU to watch him! He bolted up from his chair, fists clenching.
The old woman sat back in her chair, tapping her fingers together again. “We have no other choice, Sasuke-kun, you know that. Konoha won’t accept you in until you prove yourself trustwor—“
“I know.” Sasuke said wearily, squeezing the bridge of his nose as to not receive the oncoming headache. He looked at her when the pain slightly subsided, “Is there anything you do about my neck?”
She shook her head slowly, “Your neck just needs a bit of disinfecting. Other than that, you just might be experiencing the infection.” She opened one of the many draws of her desk, dipping her hand in and searching about, “The nausea might not even be because of your neck at all. Maybe you’re making yourself sick.”
He grimaced, “You’re saying it’s something mental that’s wrong with me?”
She laughed, and threw him a bottle of something. He caught it, stepping back a little, it was heavy. He looked at it, and snorted. “Drink, Sasuke-kun. Drink your sorrows away, find a drinking partner and take a load off. It helps sometimes.”
Sasuke turned, heading for the door, “I have no friends.”
She spun her chair to face the wall behind her, looking at the pictures of all the Hokages who had been in office. “Naruto and Sakura have come back from training with Jiraiya today. They’re staying for a week before heading back.”
“Naruto’s…alive…?” He choked, clutching the sake bottle tighter.
***
That afternoon, Sasuke trudged to his apartment only to find someone leaning against wall by the door when he got there.
His head was down as if he was waiting for him, eyes probably closed under the drooping hair, listening for footsteps. Sasuke stopped a couple of feet away, hand holding the glass bottle of sake dropping to his side. It was as if a ghost from the past had came to haunt him. But here he was, and very much alive, aquamarine eyes sparkling with rekindled hope in the afternoon light.
“I seem to be having many surprises left at my door lately.” Sasuke said, taking his keys out of his pocket.
“Sasuke.” He whispered. He hadn’t said that name in a while, and it was so good to see him again after three years of miserable searching. They stood there for a moment in silence before the blonde made the first move. He closed the distance between them, hugging him fiercely.
Sasuke allowed himself a smile, his old friend had grown much stronger since they had last met. “Naruto.” He kissed the top of his golden head, parting the strangling hold. He held up the bottle to the teen, liquid swishing around and glimmering in the last rays of daylight. “I have good sake, and a good friend. Would you like to come in and drink?”
The blonde grinned and nodded, running a hand through his fair locks. “Here she comes.”
Sasuke blinked and opened his mouth before hearing a shrilly, “Naruto! Where’d you go?!” He turned and saw a pink, short-haired girl running down the hallway towards them. “Sasuke-kun!” She called, waving ecstatically.
She was holding another bottle of sake in hand and a bag from a take-out restaurant, she laughed merrily as she saw Sasuke’s bottle and stopped in front of both of them, and both the blonde and the rose-haired girl burst out laughing. Sasuke gave a small smile and chuckled, letting the girl catch her breath before allowing her to jump him with a girly squeal and a big hug. “Oh Sasuke-kun! We missed you so much!”
“Oi! Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go in and drink to reunion!” The blonde yelled, punching his fist through the air. “I’ll second that!” Sakura called, stepping inside as Sasuke closed the door.
Sasuke shuffled to the unused kitchen, looking around in his draws for a bottle cap opener, as Sakura and Naruto removed their shoes and scarves. They breathed on their cold fingers, laughing and smiling.
Sasuke watched them silently from the kitchen, cold heart slightly warming from the sight of his old teammates. They had greeted him so affectionately, without a trace of resentment or annoyance—they were elated to see him. It made him feel a slight pang of guilt at the years they had spent looking for him. He brushed it off, shaking his head. There was no point in spending feelings over the past, they were all together now, with an untainted atmosphere to their gathering, and bottles of sake waiting to be soon consumed.
“Ne, Sasuke-kun, is the Kuro-ushi kind okay?” Sakura called from the dining room, taking out the food from the bag.
Naruto walked into the kitchen, searching for plates, calling back to her, “Wow, Sakura-chan! That stuff’s expensive sake!” And he laughed as Sasuke got tired of watching the man poke through the kitchen, handing him the plates, chopsticks and sake cups.
She laughed, “But it’s good, no? Besides, Tsunade let me go splurging a little with my money when we came back. I thought if we’re celebrating, we should do it right!” Sakura set out the plates and things, and soon they were overflowing the cups with sake.
“KANPAI!!!” Naruto toasted loudly and Sasuke wondered if his neighbors had heard as well. He threw his glass up in salute, precious sake sloshing over the rim of his cup. Sasuke and Sakura did the same, holding their cups up to show respect for the gift of drink.
“Kanpai.”
“Kanpai!”
Hours went by with reminiscing, downing cups at a times, boisterous laughing and Naruto doing drunken impressions of all of the Rookie Nine and then some. They laughed, they cried—well mostly just Sakura for that—and they laughed some more. Spending the irreplaceable minutes and hours with his closest friends did hold dear in his heart. And for a time…Sasuke felt the empty chasm of his heart close for these mad people…
They were singing once they reached their second bottle, this one stronger than the last, with Naruto standing on the table singing a foreign song from faraway:
“Here’s to it:
Who is a friend but someone to toast,
Someone to gibe, someone to roast.
My friends are the best friends
Loyal, willing and able.
Now let's get to drinking!
Glasses off the table!
Pour deep the rosy wine
and drink a toast with me;
Here's to three: Thee, wine and camaraderie!” And soon Sakura joined in with her lovely voice, slurred with rice wine and tears of happiness,
“Here's to our friendship;
May it be reckoned
Long as a lifetime,
Close as a second.
Here's to cold nights, warm friends, a good drink, so take them all--and be forever my friend!”
They fell against each other, in another one of their fits of smashed giggles, and Sasuke smirked, feeling a heat in his chest and in his cheeks, throat burning with a sweet, dry elixir of giddiness. His head swam with old memories of their genin years, as he watched them sing another drinking song, this one slow and drawn out. It was about old things gone by and they cried, for who knows why, but they cried, smiled and sang their hearts out, holding onto one another to stand.
***
It was over even before Sasuke knew it. Or wanted it to end. He’d never been sentimental, but something about this night told him to hold onto it—cherish it like it was the last.
They sat in the living room, all was quiet save for Sakura’s drunken mumblings in her sleep. Naruto was sitting in a chair across from Sasuke, Sakura’s head in his lap. She was long passed out, blush crossing her sleeping features as she grumbled something incoherent, pulling at the orange fabric over his knees. The blonde was petting her hair softly, looking down at her lovingly, watching so she slept soundly.
He looked up and over at Sasuke, who was slumped in a chair across the dark wood coffee table from him. Their eyes met and Naruto could already tell Sasuke had been through a lot. Never had his coal eyes held so much exhaustion and emptiness. Stroke, stroke, softly patting and smoothing the unruly pink hair in his lap.
But Sasuke was grateful. So grateful. Naruto didn’t even think to ask any questions, he never did. He accepted people as they were, and not what had happened. He loved him for that, loved him like the brother he had never had. Or maybe to replace the one who had failed at exactly that. And yet, he had convinced himself that he couldn't love, and the blonde bombshell had proved him slightly wrong again. Slightly. It was a different kind of love. Brotherly love between comrades, a bond that could not be broken with petty feelings and not even death could come between them it seemed!
Sasuke closed his heavy eyes for a moment, only to find when he opened them again, Naruto’s mild gaze had left him to check the sleeping mass in his lap again. “Naruto…I…” But he, Uchiha Sasuke could not bring himself to thank the man.
His eyes flickered over him momentarily, and then he nodded. “There’s no need. I’m just glad your back. We’ll be leaving tomorrow again to go and train. But we’ll be back in a month to visit again.” He said peacefully as not to wake the girl.
“You’ve changed a lot, Naruto.” Sasuke said, sitting back in his chair to admire the drastic transformation the blonde boy had gone through. He was now a man. His golden rays of hair had grown longer, and they now drooped slightly over his bright, lucid blue eyes. They had become narrower and lost their childish touch, as did his cheekbones and chin. His skin had also become darker, and was now complimenting the drunken flush on his cheeks. But there was one thing that hadn’t changed, and that was his million-volt smile.
The same smile that he was showing off right at this moment, “I haven’t changed at all, Sasuke, just matured. I would say the same to you. You’ve gotten paler.” He commented quietly.
Sasuke snorted, “Of course you would notice, Usuratontatchi…”
Naruto laughed slightly at the old name. “Banzai…Sasuke, you’ve succeeded in all you’ve wanted your whole life. What will you do now?”
Somewhere outside Sasuke’s window, a pair of red eyes glowered and then showed elation at the comment. The figure in the shadow of the rising sun laughed, “Yes, Sasuke-kun, what will you do now?” And in a flash of black and red, it was gone.
*****
Well…there was no lemon in this chapter…gah! Bad authoress! *smacks self with wiffle ball bat* Itai…>,< Well anyways, I lied! I’M SO SORRY!!! I’ll get to it, though, promise! But what did you think of this one, though? I kinda felt bad that Naruto was being left out and stuff. It IS his show, after all. Also, the drinking ballad that Naruto and Sakura sing is all drinking toasts from all different countries that I threw togetther. I think they fit together quite nicely. ^^ You can use it, if you want, just give me a little bit of credit, first! Hahah…well anywho, oh yeah, keep an eye out for this quote:
“Here's hoping you live forever, and mine is the last voice you hear.” See you later!
With Love,
Kaz