This is my first try at Naruto fanfiction! I always liked the idea of seeing what happened if the roles were to be reversed between Naruto and Sasuke. I wanted to play with this idea, and here it is. I hope you enjoy!
I do not own Naruto.
A Single Act of Kindness
"Loneliness"
Sasuke Uchiha had always been a quiet child.
That had not changed.
When he had been out with his family in the village, his fellow clan members had commented on how well behaved he was. He would bow his head and express his gratitude when given these kind remarks.
If his father was present, he would give a single nod and a polite thanks. When it was his mother with him, she would bow her head at the speaker, and respond with another compliment towards their children or family.
When Itachi was there, he looked down at him with the brightest smile, one that could rival the sun.
All that had disappeared after that night.
No one had commented on his politeness or his well-behaved nature. There were no clan members to smile down at him, no family to receive any praise in his upbringing.
There was no one now.
The Hokage has organized for him to live in one bedroom apartment near the Academy. He had asked quietly if he could remain in the Uchiha Clan sector of the village, in the outskirts of the village, but the Hokage had simply shook his head.
No one would be permitted to enter those grounds again.
He had simply bowed his head at the Hokage and gave his thanks for the apartment anyway.
Sandamie Hokage had given him a sad smile, "I know your parents were proud to have such a respectful child such as yourself, Sasuke."
He no longer had a father to nod, a mother to bow her head, or a brother to smile. He could only stare at the Hokage, not sure to respond to such a comment.
The Hokage had coughed lightly, realizing the subject of family was too sensitive, and excused himself.
No one had mentioned his behavior again.
Instead, the boy withdrew himself from society. He had seen the look in people's eyes after all. That look of pity the villagers gave him, his senseis gave him, and sometimes, even his own classmates. News of the Uchiha Massacre spread like wild fire, and for the first few moments he was unable to escape their glares.
Soon, he realized that if he had ignored their looks, they would stop giving them.
And that had somewhat worked.
Instead, he threw himself into his studies and training. He had no time to look at others as they looked down at him. He didn't need their concern, he didn't need their pity, and he didn't need their compliments.
Toning on his skills, their eyes quickly turned from pity to admiration.
A part of him couldn't help it when his teachers and the other students praised him on his abilities, it was the acknowledgment that all his hard work was paying off. He was getting stronger, he was quickly becoming the best.
Just how Ita-
He would be greater then his brother. He would surpass him and kill him.
Avenge.
How perfectly that word described him. He would become strong, he would be the best, he would avenge the Uchiha Clan by killing Itachi Uchiha.
It was the only thing that mattered.
Yet, there was that small little part of him, the one he tried so desperately to ignore...
Loneliness.
His eyes darted over to Uzumaki.
The boy was sitting outside on the metal bars, staring up at the Hokage Stone Faces.
He couldn't see Uzuamki's face from the table he as sitting at by the window that looked out into the training field where Uzuamki was at. He couldn't see his face but he knew what the boy was thinking out there.
Being alone and being lonely were two different things after all.
"Sasuke-kun, why are you sitting here by yourself?"
Sasuke's eyes glanced up as a girl with long blonde hair walked up to him, lunch box in hand, and sat down next to him. She gave him a warm smile, "I have been wanting to talk to you for the longest time Sasuke-kun, and I wanted to know... Is there anyone that you like?"
"Like?" Sasuke blinked at the question.
"You know, who do you like, like?"
"INO, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"
Both children turned their head towards a pink haired, large forehead girl stomping up to the both of them.
"Just because I got here first, doesn't mean you have to have a cow about it, Sakura."
"WHY YOU, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!"
"Just a girl having lunch with Sasuke-kun. Maybe you should take some lessons on how to get a man, Sakura."
Their banter towards him was annoying, and if he wanted the trouble he would tell both of them to shove off. He had no time to think about girls, he had more important things to do with his time.
While they were distracted the lone Uchiha gathered the remaining of his lunch, he would slip away while they were talking and find another place to finish his meal.
Eyes were watching him. He could feel them. He had become accustomed to it for so long that he knew what it felt to have eyes glaring at him. He looked up, and through the window he saw Uzumaki staring back at him.
It had felt like a glare, but the look within his blue eyes didn't look at him with pity or admiration.
No one had ever looked at him the way Uzumaki was looking at him.
It felt like a challenge.
His stomach growled, again.
It was one of the reasons he had decided to sit outside during lunch hour. If he was indoors while everyone was eating, his stomach would growl, and he would not be able to think of anything but food for the rest of the day.
He couldn't afford to eat during the day.
Naruto Uzumaki had a daily routine he could not venture from when it came to meals. At home, right before heading to the Academy he would heat up his instant ramen for breakfast. The three minutes while he waited for the ramen to heat up he would distract himself by going to take a piss or brush his teeth. Sometimes, he didn't have enough time to brush his teeth after eating his ramen, and so to save himself some time he would do it beforehand, even though the ramen had a strange taste after brushing his teeth.
During the day however, he could not afford the outrages prices of the shops around him charged for instant ramen or any other kind of food. They all knew his face and his name, and he was certain that was why instant ramen costed him triple as much as it did, but when someone like Choji or Shikamaru had instant ramen they were greeted with a smile and a discounted rate.
After school hours, Naruto made sure to run home as quickly as he could and heat up another instant ramen. In the three minutes he had to wait, he would distract himself by taking a piss or doing some light stretches. After the three minutes, he would take his time eating the ramen. He couldn't help himself but to savior the taste of instant ramen. It was the cheap stuff, but that didn't matter. Ramen was ramen and it was good.
He didn't want the others to hear his tummy as it craved for food, not that they cared anyway.
Whistling to himself did help when his stomach was craving food more then normal, like today, and it took all of his will power not to clench his empty stomach and curl up into a ball.
He felt for his wallet in his pocket, and thought about his finances.
Hokage-jiji was going to give him his monthly allowance at the end of the month, which was still twenty-two days away. He had brought his month's worth of instant ramen, a sixty pack (he hated the months where there were thirty-one days and loved the one month where there was only twenty-eight days). After food, he would spend money on cleaning supplies (which he tried as often as he could not to get, he could live in a mess if he needed too). A little bit of the money went into a savings he kept under the floorboard in his bedroom. He had learned about the importance of saving a few years ago when he was robbed of all the money given to him by Hokage-jiji, and had no money to buy food for a month (luckily that was the month he meet Teuchi-san and Ayame-chan, and they had offered him the sweetest, tastiest, and biggest bowl of ramen he had ever seen in his life). Any spare money he had went to his favorite place in the world- Ichiraku Ramen, which he was able to go to about five times a month.
He had already eaten at Ichiraku Ramen this week, and there was no way he could afford to eat there today. He did, however have enough to get one rice ball, since he opted out of buying cleaning supplies this month. He knew the lady at the counter would charge him twice as much for it, but, today felt like a day that he needed a rice ball despite the price.
Sasuke was looking at him, again. He didn't have to turn around to know that it was his eyes that fell on him. That guy looked at him like everyone looked at him, but, if he looked hard enough, it was slightly different.
It was like he wasn't looking at him at all.
And that bugged the blonde, more then it should have. Why was he looking at him with those eyes if that look wasn't even for him?
He already had enough of that from everyone else.
If he was going to look at him for no reason then he was just going to stare right back at him until that jerk learned not to look at him again.
Their eyes connected, Naruto would not be the one to look away first. He'd win.
Sasuke didn't know what his problem was, that guy was always glaring at him for one reason or another. Yet, he didn't turn away either. For some reason he knew the outcast would never let him live it down if he did.
That would be unacceptable.
Soon, the voices of the girls near him stopped, but he paid no attention to them.
"Hey, what is he doing?" Ino spat out with hint of disgust in her voice.
"Hey! Don't look at Sasuke-kun like that you freak!"
The pink haired one stepped in front of Saskue, blocking his view from the window. He pushed her off to the side in an instant.
"Get out of my way," Saskue hissed.
"Sasuke-kun..." She whispered back at him.
When Sasuke looked back towards Uzumaki, he was on the ground rubbing the side of his head. He had clearly fallen from the metal bar.
"He is such a loser," Ino commented, "Pay no attention to that guy Sasuke-kun."
"I wasn't." Sasuke turned his back to the window, picked up his lunch, and walked away.
He'd find another place to eat.
"I can't spend that much money, I know that's not how much it costs! I see the price right there, its only ten ryō!"
"The price went up."
"When did that happen?"
"Just now."
Everyone in the shop was staring at him now.
Naruto didn't like causing a scene when it came buying food in a store he had never visited before, but he had over heard Choji talking about the rice balls here, and he had hoped that the shop owner would not recognize him.
That was wishful thinking.
"Its him," someone whispered behind him.
"Lets go somewhere else," another person whispered.
Now people were leaving the shop, Naruto didn't want to turn around to see how many people were leaving, but the bell at the door had rung four times.
"I am losing customers because of you," the shop owner snapped at him, "Sixty ryō to make up for the lost business or I'm calling the Shinobi over."
He wanted to shout about how unfair that was, that all he did was come into the shop and ask for one rice ball, only one, and he was being charged six times as much as a normal customer. He knew if the Shinobis were called on him, either one of two things would happen.
If the Shinobis that came did not like him, they would yell at him and throw him out. There would be an accidental shove or a slap across the face for misbehaving around the village. They would not ask the shop owner what happened, but simply see him there and handle it themselves.
If the Shinobis that came were "good" Shinobi, they would ask the shop owner what happened, maybe even ask him what happened, before kicking him out of the shop anyway and report the event to Hokage-jiji. People did not take it so kindly when the Hokage interfered.
He had learned that the hard way.
Hissing to himself, Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out his frog wallet. He had the money, but now he wouldn't be able to afford any snacks for the rest of the month.
He slammed the ryō onto the counter and snatched the rice ball out of the shop owner's hand.
"Get out of here you rotten child!"
With the rice ball in his hand, he stuck out his tongue to the shop owner, "I don't want to be in your stupid shop anyway!"
"If I EVER-"
Naruto ran out the door before the shop owner could finish.
After the Academy was when Sasuke felt unbelievably lonely.
He would try not to think about walking home into his Clan's section at the end of the village and be greeted by everyone as he walked by. His mother giving him a warm smile at the door as he took off his shoes and helped her prepare dinner. His father would walk in twenty minutes after him, and would ask him about his day. Sasuke would tell his father about school, but their conversations were always short lived. Someone would always seek his father's attention, but it didn't matter because at least he had those few moments with his father.
If he was extremely lucky then Itachi would be back from a mission and they could have a family meal together.
Now, he had no where to go after the Academy. Most of the time he would go to his apartment and study, but today he didn't feel like heading straight home. Sasuke didn't have a direction he was heading towards, but his feet kept going forward and he did nothing but to follow them.
If this had been a few months ago, they would have been whispering and pointing as he walked by. His brother left quite an impression on the village, killing his whole entire clan was something he could never escape, and there were times in the beginning he wish could escape it.
Now he had a goal, and their pointing and their whispering would not detour him from killing Itachi.
He still could feel their eyes on him, if only they looked for a moment. Most of the villages would stop to look at him for three seconds before turning away. To one person that was not a lot of time, three seconds is barely a blink after all.
Yet, to the one person who were to receive these looks, it felt like a lifetime.
He walked until he was away from the looks and by the edge of the water. When he just needed some time to himself, he always found himself here at the edge of the water.
Walking down towards the water, Sasuke found a log that was placed at the edge of the water and sat down on it. The sun was setting, a mixture of yellow, orange, red, and purple filled the sky, the lights from the sky calmly reflecting on the water.
Sasuke stared down at his reflection, the water was still, it was peaceful.
He could lose himself here.
Naruto didn't feel like going home when the sky looked this beautiful.
He pushed the earlier event with the rice ball from his mind, as he did with most things that happened to him.
The blonde never went to the water front. He had no idea why, it was so peaceful here and it was away from people. He had ran until he reached this point, and decided to take off his shoes and walk along the water. The water was cold at first, but after a few minutes his feet adjusted to the temperature.
Whistling to himself, Naruto skipped along the water, watching as his feet caused the water around him to ripple. Enjoying himself, he made bigger splashes in the water just to see the ripples get larger and expand from under him.
He didn't know why but it made him laugh.
"Bigger, bigger, bigger," he sung to himself as he whistled, creating his own melody, "More, more, more."
He jumped into the water, causing a large splash, it made him laugh. He watched as the ripples became more violent in the water around him and it caused him to laugh louder. He couldn't be still, he ran through the water, jumped up in it, kicked it, danced in it. He made sure to keep the rice ball up in the air and away from the water. He wanted to find the prefect place to eat it. He had almost dropped it a few times, and was able to save it before it hit the water.
He gave the water a massive kick, losing his footing he began to fall backwards into the water. Holding the rice ball up, he landed butt first into the water, drenching himself in water.
"Safe," Naruto smiled, looking up at his rice ball undamaged by the water. Standing up in the water, Naruto looked up and saw someone sitting on the log at the edge of the water.
It was Sasuke.
Naruto frowned, he looked so lonely sitting there alone.
It made him feel lonely.
He wasn't really thinking of anything, he was only staring at himself through the water. Little ripples had distorted his image, but he tried to see past that and continued to stare at himself.
The weight of the sunset seem to fall on his shoulders, he felt as if the sun was setting down on top of him. He felt the pressure on him as his image in the water began to become violent. Loud splashing could be heard from his left side, Sasuke tried to ignore it, tried to look at himself but the noises and the ripples became louder.
He heard someone walk out of the water, their wet feet slapping onto the ground until they stopped at the other end of the log. He felt the weight of the log shift as they sat on the other end.
Sasuke didn't bother to look up from the water, but he did hear the person breathing next to him. He didn't feel any eyes on him. Sitting next to someone and not having to talk to them, it felt nice. He had felt the lingering feeling of loneliness for so long that he had forgotten how it felt to have someone to sit next too. It didn't even matter who it was, he didn't feel any pressure from this person, no need for small talk, no apologizes or praise or pity.
He knew that he was alone in the world, but for the first time he didn't feel lonely.
Sasuke saw a small smile in his refection, and it took him a moment to realize that it was really him who was smiling.
A loud growl from his stomach interrupted the silence between them, followed by a soft laugh. He had heard that voice before but not the laugh.
Sasuke turned towards the laugh, eyes widen at who he saw sitting next to him. Out of everyone in the whole village, the last person he would have ever expected to see was Naruto Uzumaki.
Uzumaki stopped laughing and quickly turned away from him.
"Sorry," Uzumaki mumbled, beginning to stand up.
He didn't know why, but suddenly he heard his voice say, "Its okay."
The boy was staring at him, not like before during their lunch hour, but it was still as intense. He could feel something within his classmate that he was not able to feel from anyone else before. It was almost as if he was looking into a mirror.
He could see his own loneliness within Uzumaki.
And he guessed the blonde could see it too, as he took his seat back down on the log.
Uzumaki looked down at his hand, he was holding something that Sasuke could not make out. Sasuke tried to look, but before he could figure it out Uzumaki looked up at him, offering the item in his hand to him.
A rice ball.
Years later, Sasuke would think back on this moment when Naruto offered him the rice ball during the setting sun. If he could have gone back in time to that moment, he would have taken that rice ball and thrown it into the water.
Unaware of the future, the lone Uchiha reached out and accepted the rice ball from the Jinchūriki of the Nine Tailed Fox.
A single act of kindness that would forever change the Shinobi World.