A/N: Hey everyone! Wow, it really has been a while since I've posted anything here because of my increasingly busy life -.- I've had this written for a while now but I haven't yet gotten through with the second chapter so I really can't make any promises about my updating plans. Anyway, here is the first installment of Fantasy ;)
Disclaimer: No I don't own Naruto, if that wasn't already obvious.
Warnings: Eventual homoerotic scenes that will very likely get graphic and detailed, cursing, and a bit of violence.
Naruto drew in a particularity harsh breath as he took another look at the battlefield before him.
Surrounding him in his immediate vicinity were the tattered forms of his former team members, including a heavily panting Sasuke and an unconscious Obito. He could just make out the outlines of the rest of the shinobi alliance gathered at the far ends of the battlefield.
"Sasuke, what's our next move?" Naruto asked, carefully eyeing Madara's malevolent face as he prepared to make the next offensive attack.
His raven haired comrade momentarily flicked his Sharingan-enhanced gaze over to him, eyes lingering on Naruto for all of two seconds before warily returning to their enemy. "Give me a few moments to formulate a proper plan first, dobe," Sasuke responded, slight irritation cutting into his voice while he struggled to maintain acute awareness of Madara's every move.
Naruto swallowed the urge to retaliate Sasuke's use of the insulting name he'd made a habit of calling him whenever the desire befell him, realizing that he must be breaking both his and the Uchiha's concentration on the enemy. Mentally punching himself for allowing his mind to wander in the midst of such a deadly environment, the blonde turned back to Madara, almost missing Sasuke's condescending 'tch' in the process. Almost.
"Would you just tell me what to do already!" he hissed, this time his voice sounding a lot louder than before.
Sasuke opened his mouth, surely in an attempt to berate him somehow, but the words died in his throat when a much deeper baritone beat him to it.
"Impatient, are we? In that case you won't be disappointed to hear that I've finally completed all of the preparations to launch my Infinite Tsukoyomi!" Madara declared with a malicious smile, arms raising up above him, bringing Naruto's ocean blue eyes to attention.
"Naruto, don't!"
By the time he heard Sasuke's warning voice beside him, Naruto had already fixated his gaze on the looming moon above his head.
Naruto awoke to the sound of birds chirping peacefully and the ambrosial scent of spring flowers all around him. Forgetting about where he was supposed to be at the moment and basking in what was surely some wonderful dream, the blonde kept his eyes closed, allowing a tranquil smile to overtake half of his face.
It took him a full minute to remember about the war, smile instantly dissipating and limbs tensing up almost painfully by his sides. Why was he lying in some kind of heavenly meadow and not viciously fighting the strongest enemy he'd ever confronted? The last thing he recalled before waking up again was looking up at the moon... Wait a minute, am I dead? Is this the afterlife?
He experienced what most certainly would've been the most horrifying experience of his life (or maybe afterlife) in his moment of overwhelming panic, until something swift and solid knocked him into complete consciousness, the embarrassingly high-pitched yelp that ensued not helping matters at all as he sprang up in terror. However, as his new and vengeful stroke of bad luck would have it, the top of his head once again collided painfully with something quite hard on his way up, knocking him down all over again and producing yet another, if slightly more controlled, yelp of pain.
When he was able, Naruto cracked his eyelids open only to be blinded by an immense amount of sunlight, unable to see much of anything for a few seconds. He moved his hand up to his forehead tentatively, wincing when he applied a slight pressure to the welt that was already forming there. Judging by the amount of pain he was in, he definitely wasn't dead. But if not, then where the hell was he?
"Usuratonkachi!"
Naruto snapped his head toward the ever-familiar voice, and after a few bleary tries, was finally able to zero in on a head full of silky, obsidian hair.
"Sasuke? What the hell just happened?" he demanded, once again springing up to full stature and hurrying over to his crouched comrade. He felt relief wash over him as his mind took into account the Uchiha's presence in this strange place, feeling some of the tension seep out of his muscles in spite of himself. Naruto had no idea to what extent Sasuke's terms with him were, the blonde slowly realized, momentary doubt stopping him just before he was within arm's length of the raven.
Sasuke may have come back to help him fight Madara, but for all he knew the raven had no intention of becoming friends again and still hated him for whatever reason. In the time they had spent cooperating on the battlefield, Naruto had been too elated that Team 7 was once again fighting together to really think about what would happen after the fighting ceased and he and Sasuke no longer had a common enemy that would keep them working together. In fact, now that he did have the time to ponder such a thing Naruto was almost compelled to take a step backward. Sasuke had always been touchy about his personal space, and he was pretty sure that he had gotten a little too close, especially since he didn't know where exactly he stood with him.
However, stubborn person he was, Naruto remained rooted to his spot, watching with now wary eyes as the Uchiha lifted himself off the ground and stood a few centimeters taller than him. Naruto found this tiny fact of life incredibly irritating at that moment, almost growling because he hadn't quite caught up to his old teammate in that area either.
Sure, Sasuke was a few months older than him, but it was still kind of infuriating that he had to add something else to the list of things Sasuke had beat him at. Which made no sense at all because height wasn't something either of them could control; although in Naruto's mind everything in his life had turned into a competition with the raven since the day they'd met.
He was pretty sure Sasuke himself hadn't been aware of his mostly one-sided rivalry with him until they had been put into Team 7 together as genin.
That part of his life seemed so far away now with midnight eyes staring into his deep blues, his inner self sighing in defeat. He was over being unreasonably immature about anything that had to do with Sasuke now, and he almost smiled when he thought back to all the times he had fought to retrieve his friend and bring him back to Konoha. He had reached a conclusion about the bond he had with the Uchiha a long time ago, and not even Sasuke blatantly telling him that he wanted to kill him had convinced him otherwise. Besides, after being so persistent before, how could he stop now? Sooner or later Sasuke would have to accept the fact that they were friends, Naruto would make sure of it.
"Funny, I was about to ask you the same question," Sasuke muttered, a slender hand cupping his nose after what seemed like minutes to Naruto because of all the thinking he'd done (when in reality only about three seconds had gone by).
"What do you mean? Hey wait a second, were you the one that punched me awake just now, teme?" he asked, pointing an accusing finger at the pale teen.
Sasuke eyed him and seemed to settle for an annoyed scowl before answering him. "I'd been awake for about an hour before that, but I figured it was time to wake you up when you started making a bunch of moronic faces in your sleep, and seeing how you wouldn't wake up with a simple shake I figured punching you would do the trick. It did." Sasuke's scowl then looked more like a smug smirk, although the hand still holding his nose did a good job of hiding the majority of the expression.
Naruto glared at him. "Teme, there are plenty of other non-painful ways of waking people up. Why do you always have to be so violent?" he informed the still smirking Uchiha. Gods he hated that smirk.
"Says the idiot that head-butted my face afterwards."
"That was your fault for startling me... Uh, Sasuke, are you bleeding?"
Naruto decided it would be best if he investigated, eliminating what could've been a response from his friend and closing the original gap between them, batting away the obstructing hand that was covering Sasuke's face. He observed the steady flow of blood trickling down Sasuke's nose and was about to wipe some of it away with his own hand when the raven's voice stopped him.
"What the hell are you doing usuratonkachi?" he asked, clearly uneasy with the hand that still held onto his wrist and the one that was just about to further invade his personal space by touching his face.
Naruto gave him an unimpressed look, letting go of the other's arm and backing up a step. "Ya know, for being an S-class shinobi you sure are one delicate piece of work. I was only trying to get rid of some of the blood. By the looks of it, that nosebleed won't be stopping anytime soon unless we deal with it properly. I wonder if there are any medical ninja that would be willing to help us out here?" Naruto wondered out loud, his eyes moving to scan the area around them. He could just make out the edge of some kind of forest, the green tops of the trees made visible by the bright sunlight.
"Calm down dobe. My nose isn't even broken and for all we know there isn't a village near here for miles," Sasuke rationalized, turning to scope out the area as well since he trusted his eyes more than Naruto's.
"It's still bleeding a lot though," Naruto pointed out. "Besides, we can't stay in this field forever. We'll have to find civilization sooner or later unless we want to survive by eating flowers and drinking water straight from the creek."
After a few strained moments of nothing but silence, Sasuke finally nodded in agreement. "It wouldn't be smart to stick around this area for too long when we could be searching for some kind of settlement elsewhere. We should get moving and hope we find a place to stay before nightfall." The Uchiha didn't look happy that he was acknowledging Naruto's plan as a good one, but as far as Naruto was concerned, this was a win-win situation. If they found a village then maybe the local residents could shed some light on what had happened to them; and Sasuke was still being relatively civil with him, which was a miracle in itself considering recent circumstances.
"Alright then! Let's get going," Naruto said cheerfully, patting some stray dirt from his sleeve and taking a step forward before being stopped again by a hand on his shoulder.
"What now teme?"
"It's in both of our interests for you to stay alive, so I suggest you walk behind me unless you want to trigger any potential traps that might be surrounding this field."
"Why should it make any difference who takes the front? I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm a ninja too, Sasuke," Naruto frowned, annoyed. Even after all their fighting together Sasuke still seemed to think he was somehow incompetent. What a bastard.
"That's not what I meant, moron. My Sharingan will alert us of any enemies that might be lurking in our vicinity before they have a chance to ambush us," Sasuke scoffed, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at Naruto's apparent offense.
Naruto blinked. "Oh yeah. Well I guess you do have a point," he conceded, the puzzle pieces finally clicking into place in his mind. It was actually kind of embarrassing that he'd forgotten about Sasuke's unique eye power.
"Hn." Sasuke moved past him and strode ahead at a steady pace, gait as agile as ever as his legs moved swiftly without waiting for the blonde to catch up.
"I forgot how much of a jerk you can be," Naruto muttered to himself, folding his arms tightly across his chest and jogging slightly in order to catch up to the Uchiha.
They kept up their calculated pace until they reached the end of the meadow, stopping just outside the thick array of trees.
"Well I guess it's safe to say we weren't in any danger over there," Naruto said, shoving his hands into his pockets while he talked beside his friend.
"Don't be so naïve, there could be a countless amount of enemies hiding further into the woods," Sasuke said, never moving his spinning red eyes from the tall trees.
"You're being way too over-cautious, I think if someone had deliberately thrown us here they would've shown themselves by now or at least attacked already. We should just keep moving and see what we can find," Naruto said.
He supposed it was only natural for Sasuke, a previously wanted missing-nin, to be on high alert all of the time. Naruto was pretty sure Sasuke hadn't had a permanent domicile or safe place to rest since he'd left Konoha. Sure, he'd lived with Orochimaru for the majority of that time, but Naruto would hardly call the snake's hideout a 'safe place'.
"Whatever. If you want to die that's your problem," Sasuke muttered disdainfully, jumping up onto a tree branch and turning around to face him. "Are you coming or what?"
Naruto smiled, a mischievous gleam in his eye. "I bet I can outrun you on the tree-tops," he gloated, jumping up to land beside Sasuke and giving him a smirk of his own. "Whoever finds a village first has to buy the other lunch."
With that Naruto took off into the forest, taking advantage of the Uchiha's momentary consternation and not looking back as he jumped. Okay, so maybe he wasn't completely over his rivalry with Sasuke; but he wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to both show the Uchiha up and earn some free ramen in the process as well.
"Tch, idiot," Sasuke muttered to himself as he watched Naruto disappear into the woods. The blonde hadn't changed at all.
Sasuke noticed that many of Naruto's old habits from their childhood had remained intact while fighting alongside him, and being an idiot was certainly among them, as he had just witnessed. Truth be told, he hadn't expected so many similarities between the Uzumaki's older and younger self. Sasuke knew for a fact that he himself had gone through many changes since his days in Konoha, which is what had led him to believe that his once friend had gone through a similar metamorphosis.
But ever since the day he had seen him at Orochimaru's hideout, the realization that the cruel world they both lived in hadn't been able to dampen Naruto's spirits or fiery personality really rubbed him the wrong way. Somehow, the only person that had ever understood his pain of being alone had been able to attain a kind of peace and joy that Sasuke had no way of accessing. He had been too focused on his goal at the time to really see anything for what it was.
Now that the Uchiha had decided to relieve himself from such a pointless burden, he began to see how truly blind he had been. After learning the truth about Itachi and Konoha from Obito, he had been so lost that all he could see was rage; dark, consuming black rage. And yet, even through all the paralyzing and seemingly perpetual darkness, Naruto had been the only perceptible light he had come across. It hadn't mattered that Sasuke's mind had only been capable of seeing the blonde as an obstacle that needed to be obliterated; his light was so resonating and absolute that it blocked Sasuke's thoughts completely, not allowing a single logical idea to resurface itself.
Despite his better knowledge, Sasuke went after Naruto anyway, shutting his eyes and reveling in the quietness that came whenever the dobe wasn't around. He didn't really know where he was going since he couldn't quite place where exactly he and Naruto had ended up.
Strangely enough, Sasuke knew he should be feeling something akin to panic because of what he last remembered during their fight with Madara, but the feeling never came and he was left feeling somewhat empty instead. He wasn't used to being able to run around freely without having to concern himself about being seen by the wrong people; although he supposed that even after his large contribution to the war, some people would still be uneasy or apprehensive about letting him live. He had done some irreparable things in the past, and he knew better than anyone that some things just couldn't be erased, no matter how hard you tried.
Not that he cared. Sasuke didn't regret a single thing he'd done other than going after his brother; not even after all that had happened after speaking with the previous Hokages and coming to the conclusion that he'd rather protect Konoha than destroy it.
Not only that, but he still had yet to face the toughest consequence of that very decision: returning to Konoha and settling there. He knew perfectly well just how embittered some of his past comrades felt towards him-not to mention how the rest of the village must feel. He'd done a good amount of damage during his violent past, after all. But Sasuke really had no intention to make it up to anyone. He'd never been one to care what others thought of him, why should he start now?
At the muffled sound of rustling below him, Sasuke stopped in his tracks, instincts quickly taking over as he pressed his back against the trunk of the tree he'd just landed on and peered down between the branches.
He had just been about to skewer whoever it was on the ground with a kunai when he caught sight of a peek of unmistakably blonde hair beneath the thick leaves of the trees.
"Oi! Sasuke! Where the hell are you? I spotted what looked like buildings just north of here!"
Sasuke resisted the urge to throw the kunai anyway and pushed himself off the tree, landing agilely beside his new companion without so much as a sound.
"Why would I be traveling on the ground when there are clearly enough trees around here to last a lifetime?" he asked when Naruto finally noticed him standing there, the slightly alarmed look in the blonde's eyes vanishing at the sight of him.
"Well you were taking forever, so I figured you were just walking or something," Naruto shrugged, not looking particularity bothered by Sasuke's somewhat sarcastic tone of voice.
He raised an eyebrow. "Just what are you talking about? I've been moving through the trees this whole time."
"Are you serious? I think an old lady could have passed you at the pace you were going. Were you daydreaming or something?" Naruto snorted, apparently finding great amusement in his new speculation.
Sasuke thought about the blonde's question, frowning when he realized Naruto hadn't been all that far from the truth. "Just thinking," was Sasuke's noncommittal reply, the raven taking care to keep his face stoic and indifferent. Sometimes he swore Naruto could read him like an open book, even when the Uchiha made an honest effort to conceal any and all emotions from his profile.
On a list of bad things, Sasuke was sure this fact definitely took the cake.
"I thought so. Anyway, I think I saw a village not too far-off from here, and, unless my memory went haywire because of whatever happened that landed us in that weird meadow, the buildings looked somewhat familiar," Naruto went on to say, pointing in the general direction of what Sasuke now assumed was a village or a settlement of some sort as well.
"Okay. So if you're familiar with the buildings then which village is it?" Sasuke asked. He felt somewhat uneasy at the thought that they might be forced to enter a village in which he was still not welcome. After all, none of the terrain seemed even remotely familiar to him, which meant they couldn't have been near Konohagakure (not to mention Naruto would have recognized the area right away if that had been the case).
Walking in without properly assessing their situation would only make things worse. Sasuke had never been one to take large risks without a very good reason, and despite their somewhat precarious circumstances he didn't consider his or Naruto's life to be in any imminent peril.
"That's the thing actually. It looks a lot like Konoha, although there are some significant differences between them."
After taking a pause to ponder this, a crease appeared between Naruto's brows and a tan hand came up to scratch at his head. "Shit. Sasuke, do you think that maybe whatever happened to us with Madara happened a long time ago and for some inexplicable reason we only just now woke up from it?"
"It could be a possibility," Sasuke nodded after a long period of mutual silence, eyeing his companion thoughtfully.
Naruto's eyes grew wide at his response, his entire face lighting up with something not unlike panic. "What! How... How is something like that even possible?"
"Relax dobe, it's only a theory. Besides, when it comes to Madara, I don't think we should rule anything out as a possible situation. It would explain the changes in the village and the surrounding area, but we don't have enough evidence to start jumping to conclusions yet. Perhaps when we go in we can gather more information from the inhabitants and explore our options from there."
Even with two strong points supporting the idea, there were too many things he and Naruto didn't know yet to start panicking. Sasuke himself knew better than anyone the vast power the Sharingan could hold; especially when handled by extremely skilled warriors such as the great Uchiha Madara. Each pair of eyes usually possessed a unique power of some sort, and somehow Sasuke doubted that Madara's were any different. Perhaps he had the ability to warp people through time and that was how he and Naruto had gotten here. One way or another, Sasuke knew that the cause would only present more bad news for them.
"So that's it then. We have no time to waste, Konoha is just a few miles from here. Let's go Sasuke." Naruto waved his arm forward in a gesture to follow him, his newfound vigor quite literally appearing out of nowhere.
"I see you're as spontaneous as ever," Sasuke muttered, not meaning for Naruto to hear his almost inaudible remark and completely missing the small smile the blonde was now sporting as he turned around and sped off into the trees.
Sasuke followed him with a huff, finding himself inexplicably irritated with the fact that he kept having to run after Naruto like he was some kind of lost puppy scrambling after its mother.
Sasuke was sure five minutes hadn't gone by yet when he nearly collided with Naruto's back because of how suddenly he halted in front of a very distinct dirt path. Both Naruto's body and a few thick trees obstructed his line of sight and prevented him from seeing whatever it was that had made his companion stop so abruptly.
"What the hell is it Naruto?" Sasuke practically growled.
Just when he was about to get violent, Naruto finally moved out of the way, albeit slowly and in a bit of a daze, but once the blonde was completely out of the way, Sasuke was finally able to understand why he'd reacted in such a way.
Right there, in giant bold kanji, read the words: 'Welcome to Konohagakure'. Sasuke stared at the large, imposing gates silently, momentarily ignoring Naruto's presence beside him and taking his time to incorporate this new load of information into his assessment of their situation.
In terms of proving Naruto's earlier theory correct, this was definitely a step in the right direction. There were still alternative possibilities, but the chance they would be correct had gone from likely to very slim in a matter of minutes. The way Sasuke saw it, there was really nothing else that could plausibly explain the recent series of events that had transpired.
"This can't be true. This isn't true. We can't have been gone for this long, it just isn't possible!" Naruto was slowly losing his cool on the road beside him, his usually steady hands shakily clutching at his yellow hair while his oceanic eyes bulged with incredulity.
Overall, it wasn't a pretty sight. And certainly not an expression that belonged on the perpetually positive face Sasuke had come to subconsciously memorize over the years.
So naturally, instead of voicing his concerns-no, not concerns, Sasuke refused to believe such a feeling was possible for him to exude- he went for his usual physical form of communication, smacking the blonde dobe upside the head without an ounce of hesitance or remorse.
When that didn't work he growled, shifting his legs into a wider position and taking a swift step forward to wedge his right leg between the shaking pair before him as he roughly tackled Naruto to the ground; barley noticing the harsh cracking of the Uzumaki's head against the dirt as they went down. Blue eyes widened suddenly at the impact, a spasmodic jolt running through Naruto's body underneath him as his nervous system finally registered that he was in pain.
"S-Sasuke? I think I may have just had another panic attack... AND FUCKING OUCH! Where the hell did you get the idea that trying to beat my brains out through the back of my skull would make me feel any better!" Naruto spluttered, hands flying up to gingerly feel at his damaged cranium while simultaneously giving Sasuke a piercing glare.
There was the Naruto he knew. Now this, he could deal with.
Sasuke partially relieved Naruto from his body weight as he pushed himself up with his arms and got into a sitting position, knees straddling either side of the other's midsection. "Hn, I think you need to have brains first in order for anybody to be able to beat them out of you, dobe," he smirked snidely. Then, he raised a black eyebrow as something Naruto had said sprang into mind. "Another panic attack? You mean you've experienced one before?"
Sasuke could tell Naruto was about to say something nasty in return, until he heard his last question, that is. "You seem to have that effect on me," he muttered almost unintelligibly, a solemn pout turning up his lips as he refused to make eye contact with him.
Sasuke decided it would be better for both of them if he didn't allow his mind to linger on that particular sentence for a while, so instead of further questioning the blonde he simply grunted and slid off the other teen's squirming frame. With a look that clearly said 'I'll chidori you if you say anything', he offered his hand, not really knowing why he was doing it since the idiot deserved what he'd gotten for allowing his emotions to take over. He supposed it was out of pity for the Naruto's reaction to what must've been a crushing revelation. 'Or maybe it's because you still care about him as a friend and a teammate.'
Sasuke blanched at the unwarranted voice in his head, his already half-scowling face going completely rigid when he realized what those words actually meant in the grand scheme of things. He noticed his mistake when Naruto gave him a strange look as he pulled him up, the blonde apparently having felt Sasuke's entire arm stiffen as a result of his internal shock.
"If you're that grumpy about helping me you shouldn't have bothered in the first place, teme," Naruto scoffed once he was up on his feet again, thankfully not picking up on the real reason behind Sasuke's sudden acerbity and brushing off his change in demeanor as part of his usual astringent character.
"We should get inside," Sasuke said sternly, ignoring the other's words and turning back to send a contemplative glance at the proudly standing gates of Konoha. Now was not the time for him to be dwelling on scattered thoughts; for all he knew they were both still in danger from whatever jutsu had been responsible for landing them here, making it just that much more imperative for them to find out new information as soon as possible.
"Yeah... Right." A small amount of Naruto's previous panic notably returned at the reminder; his once slack fingers wounding up into taut fists by his sides and a slight tremor running down his frame before he steeled himself. Along with a calming intake of breath, Naruto squared his shoulders and resolutely began walking towards the front of the gates where Sasuke waited patiently. "We have to face this sooner or later, so why not sooner?" he murmured almost to himself, clenching and unclenching his fists the whole way to the gates.
At the sight of Naruto struggling to come to terms with their situation, Sasuke felt that same pang of need to do something to fix the usually optimistic dobe; to relieve him of whatever emotional turmoil was burdening him.
What. The fuck.
Wearenotfriendswearenotfriendswearenotfriendswearenotfriendswearenotfriendswearenotfriends
Sasuke repeated the phrase over in his mind for what seemed like a million times before a small tap on his left shoulder alerted him of his withdrawn state of mind.
If he had been anyone but an Uchiha, he most certainly would have jumped, or-gods forbid- even made some sort of involuntary squeak. But he was an Uchiha, and Uchiha's did not show emotions unless deliberately done so. Much less squeak in unmanly manners.
"Earth to Sasuke. Why do you keep spacing out like that? It's creeping me out teme," Naruto said, waving a hand in front of his midnight eyes.
"Hn." There was no way in hell Sasuke was going to tell him about his rebellious thoughts. Especially since the blonde idiot was the main reason they were even surfacing in the first place.
"Shoulda known that stick up your ass wouldn't let you give me a real answer for once," Naruto pouted. "You really need to get laid or something."
Sasuke snapped his eyes over to the still rambling blonde, warning him to not go any further with his imposing death glare. "The last thing I need is for you of all people to be giving me advice on my love life," he sneered.
"Don't you need to have one first teme? You haven't even looked at any girls since the day you were born!"
"And what the hell would you know about sex if you can't even get a girl to look at you?" Sasuke snapped back at him, annoyance starting to boil itself over and take ahold of him.
Naruto opened and closed his mouth without forming any actual words, his jaw flexing indignantly as he sent his own piercing glare at the brooding raven. "As if you would know! Three entire years passed before you stepped foot in the village again after you left; you have no idea how much has changed about me in that time, so just shut up Sasuke!" he snarled, a tan hand shooting out to clutch Sasuke's gray shirt, pools of angry blue suddenly dangerously close to his face.
Meanwhile, Sasuke was probably in the midst of setting some sort of record when he waited for the seething wave of anger to come only to be hit with a wave of clarity in its stead (despite the fact that his shirt was being roughly handled by the person that was literally getting in his face and invading his precious personal space). Although he had pretended everything was fine again, Naruto still held three years' worth of remorse towards him, and he was having a hard time trying to suppress it. Most likely his original plan had been to hold off any reproachfulness until he was sure Sasuke wouldn't just up an leave again.
At first, Sasuke thought the blonde's thought process to be ridiculous, but as Naruto continued to pour his heart out about just how abandoned Sasuke had left him feeling, the Uchiha realized that there might have been some logical reasoning behind it after all. He would be the first person to agree that back then he had been in a very precarious mental state, having had so many lies thrown at him only to be identified as false later on. In all honesty, he hadn't been all that sure about his decision to aid and protect the village until fighting with Naruto again and realizing just how much he missed his old life.
Along with realizing just how far Naruto was willing to sacrifice his own conflicting feelings in order to insure that Sasuke would stay this time around, the raven came to understand some of the magnitude in which his actions had damaged said blonde ninja.
Sasuke wasn't an idiot, he had both been aware of and felt the deep connection that had run through him and Naruto when they'd had their battle in the Valley of the End all those years ago. He knew just how important that connection had been for the both of them, and yet, in his pursuit of the strength that would enable him to carry out a vendetta that he later would find out was unjustly placed, he had decided to sever it completely.
But decisions didn't always work out the way he wanted, as he had found out when the new Team 7 had infiltrated Orochimaru's hideout in order to retrieve him. In reality he'd felt the emotional emptiness calmly wash over him at the sight of Sakura, not the slightest ounce of regret or guilt entering him in any which way. But the moment he'd watched Naruto burst into the crater his explosion had created, that calm was promptly pulverized and flung out the window and had been replaced with a harsh beating in his chest that refused to slow down or even lessen it's intensity.
Sasuke had written it off as his own failure to completely cut off all emotion associated with the blonde at the time, but the real reason for that feeling had slowly begun to dawn on him as time progressed. Their bond wasn't something either one of them could just forget about by sheer force of will; and once Sasuke thought it over he grudgingly realized he could live with possessing such a vulnerable bond.
The reason? That was simple. Naruto was the most trustworthy person Sasuke had ever met in his entire lifetime, and if there was anyone he could trust to never betray their friendship, it was him. It greatly pained him to admit it, but he highly doubted that he would ever have another friendship that was so deeply rooted and potent.
"I know. And I'm..." Sasuke paused mid-sentence to shiver at the feeling of his pride being flushed down a toilet,"I'm sorry for that."
At first he thought the idiot hadn't heard him correctly, but after a few very long seconds of frozen nothingness, Sasuke almost wanted to swallow his previous words and wish that he'd never opened his mouth in the first place. He watched with baited breath as Naruto's crystalline eyes grew wide; letting out a swift curse when the tan hand that had been previously holding him up by his shirt suddenly let go and allowed gravity to pull the raven down again, making him stumble a couple of inches backwards in order to regain his equilibrium.
"You just-you just apologized to me." Naruto said this as if it were the most miraculous thing he had ever seen or heard of, his jaw now joining his eyes in an attempt to grow inhumanly wider by the second.
Sasuke's eyebrow twitched slightly at the sight, a definite frown now adorning his face. Was it really such a surprise that he possessed the capability of muttering a quick 'sorry'?
"HOLY FUCKING RAMEN NOODLES UCHIHA SASUKE JUST APOLOGIZED TO ME!" Sasuke was sure he'd felt his ears explode when Naruto snapped out of his daze and let out a jovial cry to the heavens, arms raised high above his head and the most idiotic grin stretched wide across his face.
'This is the person whose friendship I value the most? What the hell is wrong me?!'
All Sasuke could think about in that moment was how misfortunate and fucked up his life was-not to mention how badly he wanted to take back his words. But then the rambunctious dobe calmed down a bit, taking deep intakes of breath while he tried to sort things out in that tiny brain of his.
"Thank you Sasuke. You literally just made me forgive you with those four simple words," Naruto said in an unexpectedly placid and sincere tone. The stupid grin was replaced with a more convicted upturning of his full lips, a small chuckle slipping past his throat and out into the air for Sasuke to hear.
The raven shut his eyes for a moment before reopening them, his own semblance of a smile (if it could even be called that) now forming. "Stop spouting so much nonsense, of course you haven't forgiven me yet, dobe."
"Hehe, I suppose you're right, teme. But I do forgive you for now at least. Getting you to apologize is just the first step in restoring your side of the friendship," Naruto grinned, fingers lacing themselves behind his head in a relaxed posture.
"Hn, who said we were friends?"
"Bastard. Hence the word 'restoring'. And it's only your side of the friendship that needs work, since I never stopped considering you as my best friend and you are still having your bastard-like issues with admitting the same."
The fact that Naruto seemed to have convinced himself that Sasuke had never actually lost hold of their bond only miffed him a little bit.
Okay, so it pissed him off, but his pride had already taken a huge blow just a few moments ago and he wasn't exactly eager to receive another hit just yet.
"Whatever."
"Che, you're as bipolar as ever I see. So shall we enter now, or are you in the mood for some more drama?"
"Not funny Naruto, considering you were the one making all the ruckus while I had to resist getting my ears blown off," Sasuke muttered, but his words fell upon deaf ears as Naruto took a step forward and started walking to the gate entrance.
"Dobe," he murmured under his breath.
Sasuke followed after him, cooly striding ahead to fall into place beside Naruto, who snuck a not-so discreet glance at him and smiled to himself, apparently content with what he saw.
They both came to a stop once they were an arm's length away from the tall gates. Naruto raised his hand to knock on the wooden surface, but his enclosed fist never got a chance to make contact with the gate as it burst open, effectively knocking the blonde off his feet and launching him a few yards away to land painfully on his ass.
Sasuke almost couldn't help the sadistic smirk that threatened to take over his face, his left eyebrow twitching with amusement as his friend sprung up from his undignified heap on the ground and proceeded to curse loudly at whomever it was that had smacked open the gates.
The only reason the many vulgar variations of 'fuck you' and 'you'd better hope your ass runs away' ceased was because of the sight both elite ninja were presented with once the dust kicked about by Naruto's landing finally settled into the dirt again and revealed two spandex-clad forms standing in the gateway.
"Lee? Gai-sensei?!"
So, what did you guys think? I know it's a bit confusing but I promise all shall be resolved in the end! I'll admit it took me a while to edit this on my own but I'm really satisfied with the result (and I do apologize for any typos) and hope I crafted this story to your tastes. Reviews are my fuel and motivation, so don't hesitate to drop any thoughts this chapter left you with! As always, much love for you all :)