Untitled Intermission

Naruto’s eyes fixed themselves on Sasuke’s face as he reached up to move the hand away from his mouth. The sound of the wind blowing was the only sound playing in the scene between the two best friends before the sound of Naruto’s foot taking a step forward changed the melody. Sasuke stood his ground, allowing Naruto to walk slowly up to him, and Naruto did move especially slowly. He was worried that if he moved too quickly, Sasuke would run away like a cat that didn’t want to be caught. The blonde’s hands went out, reaching for Sasuke’s flapping, white kimono sleeves, getting a good grip on them before pulling himself over. Sasuke let him, looking away idly as Naruto’s forehead came resting on his shoulder. The hands gripping Sasuke’s sleeves remained tight, as Naruto didn’t dare to let go just yet.

“Why?” Naruto asked, nuzzling his face on Sasuke’s neck. Sasuke just shrugged, pretending nothing that was going on right now was a big deal at all. “Blacksmith.” Sasuke’s response threw Naruto off enough for him to remove his face and eye him again. “Blacksmith?” Naruto asked, not understand it at all. “…Are you here to kill a blacksmith?” Sasuke smirked, having to actually smile at his friend’s simplexes. “No”, Sasuke laughed lightly, shaking his head. “I’m here to see a blacksmith…This is the where a lot of artists gather and sell. Smithing is an art form too.” Naruto thought about it for a moment, before deciding to let go of Sasuke, but stayed very close to his side. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Haha, you do have that sword now, don’t ya?” he grinned. Sasuke gave another nod, moving to lean over one the railings of the roof top.

“Mission?” Sasuke asked, just honestly making conversation. Naruto followed him, leaning as well. “Yeah. Boring stuff. Some queer that Sakura is obsessed with or some junk…You sure you’re not here to kill anyone…?” Naruto mumbled, eyeing Sasuke wearily. Sasuke eyed him back for a second before smiling, giving a nod of reassurance. “Positive. Why? You plan on hunting me down again?” he asked softly, trying to make a joke of the harsh reality. Naruto frowned then, looking down at the ants below. “Always…” he muttered, sighing a little in depression. “Unless you plan on making it easy on me and just come home…” Sasuke looked away then, not even trying to respond to that. “Yeah”, Naruto said then, huffing a bit as he forced a laugh. “I figured you say something like that.” Sasuke just shrugged then and they spent another moment together with only the sound of the wind in the trees.

As Sasuke moved to leave, pushing himself up gently from the railing as if he didn’t want to disturb Naruto, the blond turned to him. “Sasuke”, he said, attempting to make Sasuke turn to look at him. The other ninja complied, turning just enough to look at Naruto from the corner of his eyes, but didn’t say anything. Naruto looked tired and hurt as he tried to rack his brain, trying to find the perfect thing to say to him so that Sasuke wouldn’t leave. “…I…Sasuke…I…” he stammered, unable to think of anything clever, strong, or grabbing. Sasuke watched Naruto search for the perfect words, but knew that there wasn’t anything he could possibly say. “Naruto, do you know what ‘unconditionally’ means?” Sasuke asked him, thinking back to what Sai had said. “It means no matter what, you don’t change how you feel about something. You often hear people say it, but no one ever means it…” he repeated Sai’s words to the blond. Naruto looked down then, turning to look away. “Unconditional, huh?” Naruto said, turning back to smile at him. “We are unconditional, aren’t we, Sasuke?” Sasuke had his back turned to Naruto already, but gave a single nod. “Yeah.”

With that, Sasuke jumped, vanishing into the noisy wind. Naruto’s smiled slowly faded as his wavering heart became sad, but he was no longer uncertain. “…I need to get back to Sai. I bet he’s mad at me.”