Encounter

Title: Encounter
Author: Hellagoddess
Pairing: Faint hint of NaruSasu

Note: Before you read this fiction you must watch this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBPyR87q8_U

This is the video that has inspired this short work of fiction. I watched it some 10-15 times and wanted to write out the emotional turmoil that must have been occurring when it happened.

However I’m mostly writing this as a belated wedding present to the two most wonderful cosplayers in all the world, AntiquityDreams and DemonicGaara! Congratulations you two! The wedding was exceptional, only wish I could have joined the horde of screaming fanpeople! Haha! Wish you both well with your endeavours in your lives, I’m sure you’ll do wonderfully! *hugs for you both*


Encounter


Naruto wandered listlessly through the streets of another nameless town, the bustle of the morning traffic falling on deaf ears; his attention held solely by the item dangling from his hand, rising disappointment, and a yearning in his heart.

Here he was, another dead end. Supposedly someone had seen a young man resembling Sasuke and by the time the news had reached Konoha it was months old. But any lead was better than none and Naruto had come, filled with raw, agonizing hope, only to be bitterly let down again.

Absently, he stroked a thumb across the metal plate as he walked, tracing the leaf design, blunt nail catching on the slash etched across the front.

He felt numb.

So much time had gone past since his raven-haired teammate had left, the protector in his hand gone damp and slightly grubby from his endless hours of handling it. It had stopped smelling of Sasuke months ago but he’d kept it regardless.

How long had it been? He tried to call up Sasuke’s face from a time when this endless distance hadn’t weighed them down. From a time when everything had been normal and right and not hollow with this empty, painful feeling.

He bumped shoulders with a man going the other way, too lost inside himself to turn and apologise, his eyes feeling gritty from road dust and not blinking enough. He needed to find somewhere to stay the night. He needed to lie down and forget for a while. Even though the bastard’s smirking face followed him into his dreams, at least there he could see him, talk to him, touch him. Try to yell out some of this frustration at this barren, void existence to that inexpressive face.

He stopped in the middle of the road, bringing the protector up to his face. Sunlight sparkled off the surface, worn smooth by his fingertips, his consuming need to be close to the one person who’d ever really made him feel truly whole.

Suddenly he wanted to cast the thing away. Anger rose up in him, acid-hot and sour on his tongue. Why had Sasuke left him to this? This wandering, this never knowing, this burning, unfilled life? He swallowed heavily, his eyes pricking as his hands clenching, the plate biting into his palm.

He didn’t want to admit it but Sasuke was lost to him. He’d spent years of his life looking for the bastard. Years that he would never regain. He looked up for the first time in hours, realising the street had come to an end. There was some sort of temple ahead of him, its many white pillars standing out against the dusty backdrop.

He wandered through them, head down, the protector now hanging from his hand by one tie, the other almost touching the ground. He didn’t want it anymore. It represented too much pain, too many vanished dreams. He didn’t want this ache in his heart, the purposeless, futile feeling that drowned him every time he looked at it.

He brushed past someone, beyond caring. Suddenly he was stopped short as his hand jerked back behind him. The tie in his hands slid a bit before he grasped it, whipping his head back to see what it had caught on.

His eyes registered the pale hand and slim wrist with shocked familiarity before sliding upwards to meet onyx eyes still full of contempt and pride.

Naruto’s mouth opened slightly, but no words came out. His heart thudded in his chest and even breath seemed like a struggle. The forehead protector still stretched out between them like a link to the past, like a link to so many possible futures.

‘Sasuke…’

Naruto thought he might have spoken but even if he had nothing on the missing ninja’s face changed. His gut twisted slightly and he suddenly wanted to plead, to grasp at Sasuke’s too pale hands, to kiss his stoic face, to make him believe in something other than gaining power. To make him believe in them.

But he did none of these things and the moment, the chance to do so was lost. And had been lost so many years ago.

The Uchiha was his no longer.

Sasuke’s grip was still firm on the tie, his impassive eyes seeming to say ‘you have something that belongs to me’. Naruto let his hold slacken, feeling the material slipping slow at first then quicker as the plate weighed it down. His fingers twitched as the last of it slid through, resisting the urge to grab for it, take it back, scream at the other ninja that it was all he had left.

It swung gently in Sasuke’s grip and Naruto couldn’t bear to look anymore.

‘Sasuke. You’ve taken this but I still have something that belongs to you, even if you never really wanted it.’

He turned away quickly, wanting to forget.

‘My heart.’