The cold night air swept silently across Konoha. Everything was still save for the dancing trees and the murmuring leaves. Nothing else moved, not even the blonde-haired boy sitting on the academy rooftop.
He sat still as a statue until the harsh wind forced him to hug his knees tighter and make his teeth chatter against each other for a brief moment. The moon wasn't even out that night.
He looked up at the sky, his eyes squinting when his face met the cold. Stars were sprinkled across the midnight canvas. Some were large, some dim, some clustered around each other, some away in their own dark corner. The boy felt like the deep spots of nothingness in between the stars. Or rather, his heart felt like the deep nothingness in between the stars. He painfully remembered a moment from years ago.
"Not even you could count every star, dobe. And every tree. And every blade of grass."
"Says you, teme! You just wait until I show up at your door and tell you just how many stars there are! Then I'll be laughing over you!"
The boy remembered the wide, toothy grin he had given when he said that. He could never smile like that anymore. Whenever he tried to his mouth would crack; It was all too hollow. Too fake. Ever since he left, ever since the boy's ears stopped hearing his voice.
Oh, how he would kill to hear just one more insult from that voice.
He shivered, his hands becoming slightly numb from the icy air. Try to count the stars, he told himself silently, so when he comes back I'll be prepared. One, two, three, four… but he stopped as his common sense told him he would probably never get the chance to tell him anyway.
His shoulders shook uncontrollably, once more.
Suddenly, a strong hand placed itself on his arm, and the boy slowly turned his head. "Kakashi-sensei? What are you doing here so late?"
The same reason you are, the new figure wanted to say, but he didn't bother in answering the question. "You're thinking about Sasuke again." He stated emotionlessly, despite his hand gripping the boy's arm a little tighter.
The boy sighed and looked away, only muttering about a certain damned Sharingan. Kakashi eyed his companion's arms still wrapped around his knees; one of the boy's thumbs was rubbing the other wrist in circles. Ever since his teammate had left, it had become a sort of habit for the boy, he had noticed.
"I don't need the Sharingan to know what you're thinking, Naruto." Kakashi said. He was only rewarded with silence as Naruto re-attempted to count the stars. The sensei could tell that he was trying not to concentrate on his emotions.
Then, in a gentler tone, he said, "I miss him too. However…" He rubbed his hand slowly against his old student's stiff arm. "I'm still here if you need someone to fall back to. Or at least, I would like to think so."
Naruto's face twitched, emotion slipping back into his conscious thoughts; escaping the barrier he had tried to set up. He tried to ignore it. Thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six…
"Naruto." Kakashi said firmly, gaining more of the boy's attention, although said boy still refused to give him eye contact. "You don't have to hold in everything all the time. That's why I'm here."
That damned Kakashi always knew just where to hit, didn't he? Naruto finally found his thoughts stumbling over each other at forty-seven, hung his head low, and choked out a small, "I can't."
Kakashi kept listening, his hand still rubbing Naruto's arm. "I can't tell you," the blonde quietly continued. "I…" For some reason he found his throat closing up and his eyes squeezing shut.
The gray-haired jounin lightly stroked the boy's back. "You loved him, huh?"
Naruto's eyes shot open in surprise at the words, but were only filled with tears a second later. That damned Kakashi ALWAYS knew just where to hit.
After a while he spoke up. "He left. And I never told him. And he'll never know… Because he's never coming back..."
"He knew." Kakashi cut in softly. Uchiha Sasuke was arrogant, power-hungry, and occasionally in denial, but he wasn't oblivious. He was just all too used to breaking hearts.
"Then why?!" Naruto sobbed, burying his head in his arms. It was then that Kakashi realized how vulnerable the usually-rowdy boy looked at that moment - here, clutching his knees to his chest, curled up into a ball. It was almost as if he was trying his best to cover his heart, saying: No, no one will ever hurt it again.
Kakashi felt more than pity; he felt Naruto's sorrow. "Because he didn't appreciate you," he said after a long time, "It was his mistake." Naruto curled himself tighter.
"Yeah, I bet you miss him more than I do, seeing as how he was always your precious student," Naruto spat out bitterly. "Always spending your time with him, training him..."
Naruto, if you only knew how much more precious you are to me, Kakashi wanted to say, but instead said, "It was only because I had to. He most respected me, and I was the only one who could teach him the way of the Sharingan."
Naruto did not reply, only started crying into his knees.
Wrapping his arm around Naruto tightly, Kakashi continued in a low voice, "Even if you can't let go of someone, it's still best to try and move on."
Naruto sobbed louder into his knees. "How?! I don't want to be alone again! I don't! I can't take it!"
It pained Kakashi not only to hear how broken Naruto had become, but to know that he himself could not replace Sasuke no matter how hard he tried. But he had already decided to stay by Naruto's side no matter what.
He carefully wrapped his arms around the boy and rested his chin on Naruto's head. "You don't have to be," he whispered so that the wind could carry his words away. Naruto still heard them, and turned around to cry into Kakashi's chest. How stupid, he scolded himself, letting yourself cry without shame.
"I'll make sure of it."
When those reassuring words were spoken, Naruto's crying ceased and he felt, in Kakashi's arms, for once, relaxed. Relieved. At peace.
After a few minutes of soaking in the warmth he felt, Naruto turned his head to the sky and commented softly, "It's a beautiful night." Kakashi met the boy's eyes.
"Yeah."
A large, dark cloud drifted by and masked the bright stars, so not even they could see the soft kiss the two shared.
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A/N: I'm actually not a particular fan of this pairing, but I needed something to lift my writer's block so I could continue writing Killing Flowers. So here you have it. :) What do you guys think? I need to know if my writing skills haven't gotten too rusty.