Something Like Hope

The alarm clock sounded, alerting the stirring raven that yet another day of life wa about to begin. To him, it wasn't necessarily a good thing. Why? Well, he hated people, and he happened to work somewhere where people were, all the time.

He raised himself up off of the bed, making it after completely rising (It always had to be perfect; he was wuite the perfectionist) and then dragged his feet while he walked to the bathroom.

Shower.

Brush teeth.

Fix hair.

Get dressed.

Walking over to the door he hesitated, his hand on the freashly leaned knob. He reassured himself that today was not the day he was going to kill one of those overly-cheery co-workers, as was in his daily morning ritual, but something was... off. He really didn't want to go to work that day, which was pretty usual except for the fact that he felt like he was going to claw off his own face before doing so.

Eh, just go to work.

He opened the door without a second thought and closed it, locked it, and checked three times (He was paranoid of break-ins; he had quite the fanbase.). Then it was down to the subway, because if he had to drive through New York traffic one more time it would become the day that he killed someone.

Then again, the subway was no better. It was crowded, stuffy, and he just hated being around people in general, though he absolutely dispised the sound of them. And how he could never find a seat, being forced to wedge in between people...

...anyways, enough with the 'I'm-still-an-emo-teenager-who-kicks-puppies-for-a-living' rant. He just sucked it up and made due with the subway. Though he almost lost it when the person sitting next to him farted rather loudly then gave him a grotesque smile, he shouldered it and everyone lived when he got off on his stop.

Now to just get to work. All of this contact with strangers was getting on his nerves. Honestly, he was new to this, just moving to New York a short three months ago, claiming a job at the World Trade Center. It was hard, but it was worth it.

But thinking about all of those people made his skin crawl. He just didn't like being near people. Why? It might of had something to do with the fact that he had witnessed his parents' deaths and he didn't like to be in close quaters with others in case of a relationship of any kind, but, of course, he was a non-sociable person to begin with.

And then, of course, to add to his daily dose of 'oh-my-god-I'm-going-to-kill-someone', he entered the spacious lobby of his work. As he pushed past some people they looked around the place, awestruck. Honestly, what was so good about this place? Sure, it was gorgeous, but it was filled with people.

Alright, Sasuke decided, since I'm early today, I should be able to finish my project. Ah, that was just like him, getting things done early.

Now that a plan was formulating in his head, he knew exactly how this day would play out.

Naruto got up extra early that morning. He shot up in bed, his body had broken out in a cold sweat, and he had this... feeling. He didn't know exactly what is was, but whatever it was, it wasn't good.

He got up and dressed (Using the ancient Grab-and-Sniff technique) and then headed over to Kiba's, his best friend's, house. He knocked on the door, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Something wasn't right, something was off, something was seriously wrong...

"What possesed you to come over to my house at-" The brunett checked his wrist-watch, "-Six in the morning."

"I... Kiba, I'm not quite sure."

"Oh. It's one of those." Kiba rolled his eyes.

"Kiba, I'm serious. Today something bad is going to happen."

"Like what, your cat is going to be run over? Again?"

"Dude, that was yesterday, too soon, man, too soon."

"Naruto, it's six in the morning, it's too soon for this con-ver-sa-tion." Naruto stopped the door with his foot.

"No, seriously, Kiba, hear me out. Look, if nothing happens today, I'll... uh... make you dinner. For a month. Every night. No exceptions. Okay?" Kiba rolled his eyes once again.

"Alright, Naruto." Pointing his right index finger at the blond, he added, "But you better get your cooking skills up to date, because I want real food."

"It doesn't matter, I won't have to cook for you, anyways."

"That means no instant ramen."

"...wait, what? WHY? THAT'S REAL FOOD!" Naruto flailed his arms.

"Shut up and good. Night." Kiba slammed the door in Naruto's face.

Naruto's hands fell to his sides as he sighed. Great, even Kiba wouldn't believe him. Naruto made the long journey (Five blocks) back to his house with a sagging head. If only Kiba didn't have a night shift, he would've heard the blond out. Yeah, like the old times.

Just like the old times, right?

Suddenly, he didn't know what was going on. The noise of whatever the hell that was startled Sasuke out of his workaholic mode. Then the lights flickered out, causing people to scream in panic. Sauske looked around frantically. Why did the lights go out? What the hell happened? Being on the 70th floor, it was a long way down, and seeing as the electricity was out, the elevators were out. Great.

That was the least of his worries, he figured, as he looked at the broken windows and the fire slowly enveloping the room in light. His eyes widened as his heart picked up speed. What the hell? What was going on?

"Hey! What happened?" Sasuke called out, standing up out of his seat. He swallowed deeply, coughing as he inhaled the smoke.

Of course, there was no answer to his call, causing him to panic more. He was on the 70th floor, the place was on fire, and he had to take the stairs. Not to mention everyone was flying in every direction at the same exact time.

Sasuke made a break for the stairwell, wedging into the river of people trying to use the route also. As he could clearly see, they couldn't all make it in there at once, but his brain was telling him to get the fuck out of that place, so he did the logical thing; getting pushed towards the exit. But, the exit now blocked by a swarming mass of people, they couldn't really get in, and progress was slow.

The slowness of their progress was intensified by the fire raging behind them.

Saskue began to sweat, breathing from his mouth. Panic overwhelmed him so badly he almost couldn't see. That was about the point when people started pushing and shoving, all making way toward the stairwell entrance. Sasuke got knocked back by some people, and he ended up hitting his head on the wall.

He watched the debris falling from outside fade to black.

"Naruto, check the news." Naruto gave his telephone a look.

"What channel?"

"Any channel, every channel! This is big, Naruto, BIG!"

"Whoa, whoa, what's going on?" Naruto turned to the news on his television.

"-and it crashed into the World Trade Center. Now, for those of you joining us, a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center within last five minutes."

"What?!"

"Yeah, Naruto, looks like you were right after all."

Naruto couldn't believe his eyes as the camera zoomed into the World Trade Center, gigantic flames rising from it, smoke everywhere.

"But, dude, there are people in there!" Naruto exclaimed.

"-officials are saying this is a terrorist attack, they say that the-"

"Yeah, there are, Naruto."

"-this was not an accident. This was an act of terrorism, an attack against our very-" Naruto turned the television off, unable to bear looking at the scene.

"Kiba, we're close to there."

"Yeah, and? What do you plan to do?"

"Dude, Kiba, we could take your boat and help people get out of there!" Naruto exclaimed.

"To where? It's not like the World Trade Center is a fucking isl-"

"TO MANHATTEN, you idiot!"

"...oh..."

"Kiba, come on. I'm not sitting around my house all day with people over there doing, god, what the hell are they doing? What the hell is it like over there?"

"I don't know, Naruto, I don't know."

He first registered heat, then a pain, then a growing pain. It stung, it burned, oh, god, how it burned...

Burned...

Fire! There was fire in there! Sasuke opened his eyes to the fire to his right. With a screech he scrambled up, then remembered to stop, drop, and roll. Funny how kindergarden things incorperated into... whatever the hell was going on.

Sasuke brought his hands up to his burned face, wailing in pain. He looked to his right to see practically the whole place on fire. He wasn't getting out of here anytime soon, and this was... this was...

Someone jumped. Sasuke's eyes widened as he watched them leave the window, and then... nothing. He couldn't hear anything but the fucking fire and his wails just kept getting louder. There was nothing, nothing anyone could do to get them out of there. They were going to die, they were going to die...

...but it was such a long way down, and he couldn't endure that! Sasuke dodged the fire, backing up into the wall. Well, the stairwell wasn't as blocked anymore. How long had he been out? Where were they supposed to go? What happened? What had happened to their everyday life? What the fuck was going on?!

Sasuke clutched his face in his right hand, feeling along the wall for the stairwell. He entered it and began down, almost tripping along the way.

Alright now, only... how many flights of stairs? He couldn't think about that right now, not with the fire and the people jumping and the people running all around him and the pain and oh god he was so dizzy, so nauseous...

He stumbled down about five steps and just sat there and sobbed. They were going to die, they were going to die. he found himself praying to God, to any god, actually. Just please, please, let him make it out alive.

He heard everyone screaming, their frantic footsteps, all of everything and he just wanted to wake up! This couldn't be real, this couldn't be actually happening! Not to him, not to him, why, he was just an average guy!

...but that's what everybody tells themselves, right? That it'll never happen to them? That they'll be nice and safe while everyone goes through everything bad? What makes them so special that nothing will ever happen to them? It's not for them to chose!

And, right now, it wasn't Sasuke's choice whether or not he would live. His sobs grew louder, ore frantic. He pulled his hand off of his face, some of the skin from his face sticking to his hand. He screamed at the sight, sobbed some more.

By now everyone from that level had cleared out. There wasn't the frantic footsteps anymore but he could hear the screaming. Oh, yes, he could hear it clearly. As he sat there and sobbed, he realized that he should probably be running, too. And that was exactly what he did, he got up and ran.

He didn't only have to survive this for himself, he had to survive for all of those people who had given up, who had jumped, who couldn't make it. He also had to survive for everyone who was risking their lives to save them. Now, all that was left was counting the floors.

70th floor, huh?

That's a long way down.

"Naruto, look at all of these other boats..."

"Yeah, Kiba, because most people want to save people rather than just watch the news all day!"

"Are you sure we're really going to help? We can hold maybe... twenty people for each load."

"Why twenty?"

"Why twenty? That's the maximum capac-"

"Screw maximum capacity. We have to save lives. No maximum capacity is going to decide whether someone lives or dies, Kiba. We need to save as many people as we can! We're not going to stop loading this damned boat until we can't fit anymore, Kiba!"

"...alright, Naruto, let's do it you way."

It was hard to find a place to get the boat up to the shore, which actually made Naruto happy. It brought tears to his eyes, seeing how humans, with how conflict inducing they are, coming to the aid of others, regardless of if they know them or not. People from anywhere, everywhere, coming to help those in need.

Why weren't people like this all the time? Why did it have to take a crisis of this proportion to get people to get along?

A good sized tug boat pulled away from the harbor, Kiba pulling into the spot immediately. As soon as they were there, people were pushing to get on.

"Alright, alright, stay calm, we'll help you." Naruto said, pulling a child onto the boat. He cringed at the thought of children going through this.

"I'll help you, one at a time. Come on, now."

Sasuke stepped out into the lobby. Firefighters were... god, they were everywhere! Sasuke pushed his way out with some of the people going out, jumping at a loud crash. He didn't want to look, he didn't want to know, but he knew; someone had jumped, and they weren't able to be saved.

It was scary how many crashes of this nature were heard as he left the World Trade Center. He passed by many shops, many people, and even debris from airplanes. As the raven pushed through the crowds, he heard clips and phrases from the millions of conversations around him.

"-yeah, that's right, a fucking airplane!"

"-down and it just... BOOM!"

"There's fire everywhere! I'm not kidding, everywhere!"

Then came the deafening sound. You know, one of those sounds and images that scar you for life? As Sasuke turned around, he was suddenly just another face in a fearful crowd.

The first Twin Tower came down.

It was... unimaginable. It was there, and then it was... nothing. There wasn't a single fucking thing there. There was smoke, debris, everything everywhere, but not the building.

What... what had happened?

He looked up and saw the other tower on fire, to. Was this an attack? Like, a planned, pre-meitaded attack?

That's when he ran. That's when everyone ran. Everyone was scared for their lives, running, screaming, crying.

The bridge was closed, at least that's what people kept screaming. The only way out was boat, so, by instinct, people went to the water. There were boats there, but they all looked pretty filled up. Sasuke looked from left to right, standing on tip-toes, jumping, craning his neck, trying to find a boat that would take him.

There was none that he could see. There was none that any of these people could see. And there was the screaming, the crying, the running...

He was going to die. For the nth time that day, he knew he was going to die. How did this day turn out so wrong? What had he done to deserve this? What did he do?

He his hands up to his face and sobbed. He wasn't going to survive this; none of these people would. There was just... just no possible way! None of these was real, it was all a dream, it was all a dream, oh, god, he had never been this scared for his life, ever!

"Hey." He felt a slight tug at his arm. When he looked up, he was greeted by a tanned blond.

"Come on in, hurry. You're safe now."

Sasuke stared at him in disbelief. What? Safe? That's preposterous, he wasn't safe.

Nevertheless, he boarded the boat, and it departed quickly. A tanned hand came to rest on his arm once again.

"Hey, it's alright, you made it."

Sasuke had never sobbed harder in his life. He clung to the blond, crying into his chest. Strong, protective arms came around the raven, making everything melt away.

"It's alright, you're alright." Naruto rubbed soothing circles onto the raven's back.

"I-I- I don't know what ha-happened! I was just- and then it just- and they- they- they-" Sasuke wailed, burying his face deeper into the blond's shirt.

"I know it's confusing. I'll explain what happened later. The name is Naruto, by the way. What's your name?"

"Sa-Sasuke..."

"Sasuke? That's a beautiful name." Naruto leaned in close to the raven, whispered:

"Almost as beautiful as you."

Sasuke's breath got caught in his throat. He looked up into the kind, caring blue eyes. No, he told himself not to do this, he wasn't alowed to, he wasn't alowed to...

He smiled, a small smile.

Somehow, he knew everything was going to be alright.

Naruto and Sasuke ended up staying together, got married, and lived their life on peacefully.

THE END.

A/N: I hate it when in school they show you the 9/11 videos. They always make me cry. I actually came up with this last year on 9/11, but never got around to writing it. Well, here it is!

I had to refrain myself from writing '...they lived their life on until the present, because they DIED.' I'm not that mean.

I hope you liked it. No research really went into this, so it's not the best. And, you know the drill, no spell check/ Beta Reader/ any of that shit.

Hope you enjoyed!

REVIEWS?

~Sasuke Uzumaki 83