Side fics to Drafted: Forgiveness

Pairing: Naru/Sasu

Rating: NC-17

Disclaimer: "Naruto', don't own it; not mine. I just borrow Masashi's characters and replace them in naughty positions, and I mean really naughty positions.

Summary: Little one-shots depicting Naruto and Sasuke's life after "Drafted."

Forgiveness: Sasuke works out his anger towards his father.

Sasuke Uchiha had been through a lot of painful experiences in his eighteen years of life that many people would think short, but to Sasuke Uchiha, it felt like an eternity.

He has suffered his sadistic father's abuse, the crippling loss of his mother and Neil's duplicity. He'd lived with agony inside his head, suffered through insomnia, paranoia, isolation and unresolved anger. He'd been poisoned, shot at, and had teetered on death's door, all which caused him pain, but what Sasuke Uchiha was about to face now topped them all.

He was going to visit his parents' graves…but more importantly, his father's. It was a month after the mission in Kyushu had finished and they- all the operatives of the mission, he, Naruto, Kiba, Neji, TenTen, Gaara and Shikamaru were slated to go back to their respective academies soon. They had two more days to do whatever they wanted and Sasuke had opted to make peace with himself.

The car had stopped at the entrance of the ceremonial graveyard for over twenty minutes and Sasuke still couldn't find it within him to get out. The blonde man beside him was mercifully silent, knowing that his raven-haired counterpart needed to gather his thoughts.

With his fists rhythmically contracting and releasing on his lap, the raven-haired man was seriously considering leaving until a tanned hand covered his.

He looked up to meet cerulean eyes that were unimaginably steady. Sasuke sorely wished he has that kind of calm inside him.

"You can do this Uchiha," Naruto said calmly, "You can face him. He's dead Sasuke, you can yell, scream or curse him all you want; he can't come back at you."

Sasuke tried to find the humor in the words but he couldn't. Instead, he twisted his head to look outside the window with a slight grimace only to feel a hand softly turn him back.

"Do you want me to come?"

Silently, Sasuke shook his head- he had to do this on his own.

Blue eyes looked deeply into his dull onyx before a pair of familiar lips pressed on his. The kiss was soft, calm, stabilizing and most importantly, strengthening.

"Go, baby," Naruto whispered in his ear then kissed his neck, "I'll be here."

Sasuke felt a mix of fear and cold sick settle in his chest before he pressed his lips together and popped the indoor handle. The graveyard was silent with nearly imperceptible wind and the warm glow of the sun overhead. His steps slowed when he came to the torii gates but forced himself forward. A few steps later he came upon the large basalt headstones where his mother and father rested- probably not in peace.

Standing there Sasuke felt a deep hollowness carve a pit out of his stomach. He did not have the strength to speak to his father yet so he turned to his mother. Crouching down, he brushed his fingertips over her name on the slab of stone.

"Mother…I… looking back our lives now I cannot think of what you had to deal with." he swallowed, "I know about Shisui Mother, and I know that you wanted him to know us but Father wasn't going to allow it… and I know of his mother too. She was the one who killed you Mother, but not by herself. She was under the control of Orochimaru who, I must gladly say, is dead. He poisoned her, just like he got her to poison Father."

Swallowing, Sasuke laughed hollowly, "I didn't start from the beginning, did I? Mother, I hate to tell you this but I was a fuck-up. I hated everything and everyone around me, well, except Itachi, but I hated it all. I did not understand why my life -was so messed up, and I used my anger to hurt a lot of people. I burned down the chemistry lab of my old high-school Mother and I was sent to a reform camp."

The memory of the first day there came back easily, "But there…I met someone Mother and I think you would like him. First of all, he's blond, I know right, heresy for a Japanese person. Big blue eyes, tan skin and this dopey smile that makes me want to smack him sometimes… but he is…" the words Sasuke knew he needed to say to describe Naruto did not come even as they were swirling in his head, "…he's my soul Mother. He's my conscience, my life, my heart, my everything. I know you probably did not expect me to turn out this way but I am what I am and more importantly, I know what love is. He saved my life Mother, four times, and I am so in love with him it hurts."

Swallowing, Sasuke sighed, "I cannot think of anyone who had made me feel this way, I just wish you were here to see him. I know you would love him as a son because he loves me and I know that is what you wanted for me overall things."

His throat was dry but he continued, "I miss you Mother, and I wish I could go back in time to fix it all but I can't. Just like I wish I was more… normal Mother but I am not and…I don't think I would change that. it's funny now that I think of it, I met the best person I could even be with in the worst part and stage of my life…talk about irony."

His dark eyes lifted up to trace the edge of a cloud, "But to let your mind at ease… Orochimaru is dead, and so are his people. I have avenged you Mother…"

His chest then felt cold as he turned to the other marker and his voice stuck in his throat, "Father… for the longest time in my life, I held you as the worst insane, sub-psychotic sonofabitch this world ever produced. I hated you with every cell in my body. There was a time I wanted to dig you up and kill you all again just to tell you how I hated you. I wanted to scream in your face that I hope you would rot in hell."

The air went still as eleven years of pain, hatred and agony flared up in second. "I hated you for how you abused us, I hated you for how you treated Mother, I hated you not seeing us as your flesh and blood but rather test subjects, worthless mice you could discard off when you were done! I hated you for how you looked at me as if I was nothing, just the lesser version of your first son! I HATED YOU!"

Sasuke ripped up his sleeve to bare the three bands of blue there. "Remember this Father? Do you remember when you strapped me to a chair and used those prongs on me? Do you remember how I screamed, do you remember how I thrashed? Do you remember how I begged and pleaded to be let go? Do you remember the tears I cried so hard that I felt as if I was crying blood? Do you remember that?"

His fist loosed and it struck the headstone hard, once, twice, three times… over and over again until his battered knuckled went numb and his grunts grew to screams. Then when with the last punch, his Dutch energy disappeared and he sagged. The warm salty tears he was hoping to never come ran dripped down his face.

"But…I understand now Father…" he sighed, "I know you didn't have a choice… I know you were poisoned, and I know that it affected you for so long, over ten years. I want to feel that you did not mean it…I want to feel that you are sorry for hurting me. I want to hear you say it but I can't."

His voice had slipped to a whisper, "I want to believe that you would ask me to forgive you but you are not here. I know what made you become you Father and though it had taken me a long time to swallow it… I want to know that you did not mean it…"

His battered fist clenched and released. His hand then rested on the engraved name, in English and Kanji.

"I…forgive you Father…" the words felt like he was regurgitating broken glass but he repeated them, "I forgive you, Father…I forgive you…"

He leaned forward and rested his forehead on the stone, with his eyes closed he said for the last time, "I forgive you, Father…and I hope you will forgive me."

Standing up was a chore and his limbs felt dead but he managed to. Walking away, Sasuke felt like he was imagining it but the deadness in his chest was lessening with every step. When he got to the car the youngest Uchiha gently pulled out the handle and sank into the seat, boneless.

Sasuke hunched over and framed his head with his hands. Had he done it? Had he really gone and forgave his father? Had he managed to let go of all is pain and hurt? Had he done it?

Lifting up his head Sasuke saw the red, raw, and battered knuckled and clenched them. Yes, he had… and though he didn't feel happy the numbness in his soul was gone.

"Is this how it works?" he asked, "Shouldn't I be feeling happy now?"

Naruto reached over and ran his knuckles down his face, right over the tear marks. "It'll come."

Turning, Sasuke took in the deep blue eyes inches away from his and remembered the words he had told his mother and knew he did not regret a word. "Take us home, Naruto. Take us home."