Understanding Sasuke
Warnings: implied sasunaru, some gore, rated T maybe
Diclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor do I make money off of this fic
A/N: I've always wanted to do a short story on a case where Naruto understands Sasuke's need for vengeance. Let me know what you think!
Sasuke was back on his own accord surprisingly, but for who knows how long. Akatsuki had unexpectedly pulled back after the fall of the legendary Toad Sannin. With that move, Itachi had disappeared along with the other cloak wearing criminals.
The now grown boy was as secluded as ever. He was hardly ever seen around but the Godaime always had a set of ANBU trailing him. His intentions were unclear and she hadn't been able to wrangle an answer out of him as to why he was back except for the obvious disappearance of Itachi.
One thing was for sure though, was that he had made no promises of staying. The Godaime could only surmise that he was bidding his time and waiting for the older brother to come out of hiding.
The only one who had ever gotten a reaction out of the stoic boy was Konoha's most surprising knuckle-head ninja, also known simply as Uzumaki Naruto. The blond was the first that Tsunade asked for Sasuke's whereabouts. The blonde's powers of influence were great enough that every now and then the two could be seen together at Ichariku's ramen stand. Naruto would be gesturing wildly while eating ramen and Sasuke would merely eat from his bowl at a more sedate pace either ignoring the blond or just listening, I can't be sure.
The thing was Sasuke had come back with Team 7 and company. The details were incomplete as to what happened but the Godaime's surprise of having the Uchiha coming back to Konoha was quickly replaced by irritation as Naruto had stubbornly taken the raven haired boy's side and refused to let anyone question him.
Looking back now I chuckle mentally at how Sasuke had just stood to the side while Naruto went head to head with Tsunade. At the end of the shouting match the older woman was panting with fury but Naruto had on his determined face. It was expected that Naruto got what he wanted.
The problem was that Sasuke had deserted the village and he couldn't just waltz back in without any consequences. Naruto had shouted that the council simply needed an excuse; he told her to tell them anything she wanted, tell them that he was under Orochimaru's influence, that was true to a point. Naruto wouldn't hear of any imprisonment.
With the most serious look in his eyes he quietly told the Godaime that he would take full responsibility for Sasuke and his actions. I raised a brow but didn't say anything to that statement. A glance at Sasuke had showed nothing; the raven haired boy showed no outward reaction to being talked over.
It pricked my curiosity, this bond that these two had. It had been a normal hour on a normal day of their almost desperate search. Suddenly Naruto had turned and dashed off. Confused, Sakura had shouted after him before taking off as well to follow her blond team mate. Sai glanced at me for instructions and I nodded to him and we took off after the other two.
Minutes passed before Sai and I could catch up. Sakura had fallen behind as well as we overtook her and pulled even as we all continued to chase after Naruto. His chakra wasn't hard to follow; he wasn't trying to hide at all.
After ten minutes of hard running, we come upon Naruto who had stopped in no particular place at all, or so we thought. He was standing on a tree branch not too high off the ground staring up into the branches of the trees before him.
Sakura was the first to break the silence as she walked over to him, intending to be close enough to hit him if his reason for dashing off was even close to being lame.
"What's going on?" she asked, "Naruto!" she said sharply after no response. The blond continued to stare intently at the branches. Impatient for his lack of acknowledgement, Sakura raised her fist, ready to bash it into the blond spikes.
It was then that Naruto grinned widely; the smile nearly splitting his face. Although the smile didn't stop Sakura's fist, the figure that dropped out of the trees certainly did. Instantly Sakura went into a defensive stance but froze when she saw who it was.
Indeed, even I admit that I froze for a little bit too. The surprise at seeing our quarry drop out of the trees before us nearly did Sakura in. Sai remained impassive while I studied the fourth person.
"Sasuke?" she stammered out. The raven haired man was staring at Naruto's grin. If it annoyed him, he didn't show it. But then again, if anything annoyed the man, he would never show it, unless it was Naruto and even then he'd only frown when the irritation became too much.
"Hn," was his reply to Sakura along with a sideways glance before he scanned Sai and me. To Sai he said nothing and did nothing but he offered the barest of nods to me, his teacher.
His eyes returned to Naruto and some understanding must have passed on between the two as Naruto turned around to me and yelled out, "Alright, let's go!"
"Go where?" Sakura asked, she didn't bother to hide her confusion at the sudden turn of events.
"To Konoha, of course! Have you forgotten?" Naruto asked her, his face screwed up with a how-could-you-forget-look. As soon as he asked that, the fist that never made it quickly rectified itself and smashed into his head. The blond nearly fell over holding his head almost comically.
"I know we're going to Konoha. I meant to say what's going on!" she corrected herself huffily. Naruto recovered with a whining cry, "Why didn't you say that in the first place?"
"Well?," she just glared at him. As suddenly as he had grinned before, he did so again as he straightened himself and pointed to the still quiet Uchiha, "He's coming home with us!"
We all stared the raven haired man, expecting some sort of elaboration on his decision or a scathing reply to the blonde's intelligence. Much to our disappointment, he said nothing so Sakura asked for us all, meaning Sai and myself, "Why the sudden change-"
"It doesn't matter! He's coming home right?" Naruto interrupted her question. Her fist connected with his head again. I inwardly winced; no wonder Naruto had problems thinking sometimes with that fist of iron crashing into it all the time. I had forgotten how often she did that.
"Of course it matters idiot!" she gave the blond one last glare and turned to face Sasuke again. He however didn't deign to answer. He merely looked at Naruto who returned his stare with a sour face, his hand still holding his abused head.
"I said, it doesn't matter, Sakura," Naruto said again, this time his face was serious and his tone was grave. The sudden change in personality made her reconsider her response. Rarely did they ever see this side of him outside of life threatening fights.
After that, no more words were exchanged as it was obvious that Sasuke refused to say anything and had appointed Naruto as he representative, so to speak. And Naruto wasn't talking either.
To this day I still wonder what happened between them that day before we caught up to them. They must have exchanged some words and taken the best course of action; to not talk.
Well, speaking of the devil, or devils in this case, thoughts of my two former students are interrupted as I see both of them running and jumping over the rooftops towards the Hokage monument. From my place on a certain rooftop, I can only see them jump and land for a flicker on top of the tower before I lose sight of them. I assume though that the monument is where they are going. It's one of Naruto's favorite places to whittle away time.
Without missions outside of the village due to his guard duty over the Uchiha, the blond filled his time with training with this rival and small D rank missions to feed himself and his house guest. Two weeks without any serious missions were slowly getting to the blond if the shouting that I could pick up on were any indications of his restlessness.
No doubt Naruto wasn't the only one who was restless. Sasuke didn't even have missions to fall back on; that is if he could get any. Although I believe he wouldn't take on any D rank missions. So that made me wonder what the he was up to on the days that he didn't accompany Naruto on the D rank missions.
For sure he was still training, even by himself, but he was secretive and hard to find. Even the ANBU couldn't follow him to his private training. Not much could be done though until Naruto went to find him, which wasn't long as the blonde's lack of patience had him looking around for Sasuke before too much time had passed.
Hmm, well, time to go. As hard as it is to believe sometimes, I do have things to do. I'm not always reading my book or at the Memorial Stone.
"Hey, Sasuke," I mumble, still looking out over the village. It had gotten quiet after my recent outburst at one of Sasuke's usual comments that went straight to my temper. He didn't answer me but I knew that he could hear me; it was another matter if he was going to respond or not, and that always depended on my question.
I turn my head away from the village for a second, just to sneak a glance at the man that is my best friend. To my surprise he was actually looking at me; his intense gaze always made me feel like he could see into my soul, and thinking about it, he could. He can read me so easily, I'm not sure if I can read him very well at all though. But I try and he sees that so he reacts accordingly.
I suppose I know which actions of mine can get a certain reaction out of him. And I admit that I exploit that as much as I can, but then again, why shouldn't I? He doesn't mind, unless it's for what he would consider a stupid reason, then it'd annoy him. But he does it anyway for the most part.
I sound like I've known him for so long. And I guess I have. I have a secret that no one besides Sasuke and I know. I've been keeping in touch with him for the past year; about a third of the last year I spent with Jiraiya I had found Sasuke not too far from my camp. I asked him once how he found me and he had merely smirked and said that I could never hide from him.
From then on, we met up randomly. If he wanted to meet up, he would find me. If I wanted to see him, well then, I had to wait until he came as I had no way of contacting him. Whether Jiraiya noticed Sasuke or not, I didn't care; he never said anything to me about it so I assumed he didn't know.
The meetings weren't too often, maybe once a month, maybe less. One month though, he stayed with me for more than a day. We spent the night in the northern part of Fire Country in the forests simply enjoying each other's company. He didn't talk much, but he told me once that I talked enough for the two of them. Then jokingly he said that if he talked as much as I did, then I wouldn't have any time to talk and I would explode from holding my tongue.
I promptly proceeded to make him pay for his teasing, and ah, yeah, it turned into something else. I guess I could say that I showed him that my tongue wasn't just for talking.
"You're blushing," he stated bluntly but his eyes shone with the knowledge of what I was thinking about. I sputter and whip my head around to stare at him in horror. I couldn't just let him say that!
"N-No I'm not! It's just hot up here and the way we ran over here made…is making my face…blu-red," I finished my protest rather lamely. He smirks in that way of his and my face flames up even more, I can feel it.
Neither of us say anything after that for a few moments. As my face cools down, I let out a tiny breath and start talking.
"I was thinking about that night…that's all." He didn't say anything to that; he didn't have to say anything. We had gone further than that since then, but we were so careful about it that no one even suspected the depth of our relationship. As eccentric as most shinobi were, our kind of relationship was something to be kept hidden.
Sasuke looked away to the village when I said that. No doubt he remembered it from time to time as well but right now, I didn't know what he was thinking, but I trust him completely. Many shinobi find it hard, impossible even to completely trust someone the way that I trust him. It's not a matter of thought or anything, it can't even be categorized as a feeling; it just is. I don't question it and maybe he does but I believe that he's come to realize that and accept it.
I look out over the village as well but I have long forgotten what I was about to say. It's no problem though, I pretty sure I'll remember later. It's only a matter of time.
Speaking of time, Sasuke's getting pretty antsy. You can hardly tell but when we train, there's an undercurrent of tension and frustration that he doesn't show any other time. Akatsuki has yet to show any sign of activity and Sasuke hasn't received any news about anything significant. Otherwise he would have left already.
I wouldn't be able to hold him back from his quest for vengeance. No one can. I've come to accept that. I didn't reach this attitude from simply thinking about it. It was actually in my second year with Jiraiya that I came to understand what drove him.
It was a gruesome sight.
The splatter of blood reached everywhere; the walls, floor, furniture and windows didn't escape the thick red fluid. The murderer hadn't bothered to be nea;, in fact, it seemed as if he had made it as messy as possible.
Guts and chunks of flesh were scattered by the three bodies. I knew that there was a lot of blood in a body but this looked excessive. He must have severed multiple arteries before he started butchering the people.
What remained of the five person family was the middle child, an eight year old boy. The boy stood outside with the local neighbors, being comforted by an older woman. The parents were littered all over the living room, literally, while the youngest girl was centered more towards the front door, like she could have escaped the carnage in the living room.
The boy had run screaming from the back door. The older brother must have let him go in favor of slicing the others. What would push someone to do that was beyond me. But as I stared into that man's eye as I landed the final blows; a face not too much older than mine, I saw green eyes swirl into red and brown hair grow into black.
I saw the man that Sasuke chased to this day. Thinking back on him, the man himself was nothing like Itachi, but that day that I saw him in that man, I finally understood a little bit more about Sasuke.
The kid himself had been shaken and traumatized. Anyone would be if it had been them. But once the woman had calmed him down, he had stepped up to his fallen brother and I could have sworn someone had replaced the kid with my best friend as Sasuke stood there staring down at the man he wanted to kill.
Those eyes and that look that he had haunts me still. Every now and then I'll see that look in Sasuke's eyes and I'll know why it's there.
A rather hard knock on my head draws me back to the present. I cry out in surprise and indignation. Sasuke is standing much closer to me now with annoyance in his eyes.
"Stop thinking so much, you might hurt yourself," he said dryly. I open my mouth with the intention to get back at him for the barb, but I realize he had probably said something and I hadn't paid attention. My anger was quickly diverted as I instead changed my reply, slightly, "Whatever, I'm not an idiot. What did you say?"
"Hn, if you had been paying attention, you wouldn't have to ask," the other man said. He's probably really annoyed with me to not answer me right away. I try again because that's how you win, you keep pushing and persevering and-hold on, I have to ask him.
"Come on, what did you say? I was thinking about stuff," I whined to him.
"Forget it," he replies stiffly, he's no longer looking at me. It looks like he's about to leave. For that split second, my heart clenches and panic seizes me as the thought of him leaving takes hold of my mind. I also take a hold of his arm and he turns to glare at me in even greater annoyance only to see my face and pause.
I must have looked pretty scared because the moment he saw my face his glare lightened and if I squinted hard enough, I could even detect a bit of concern mixed in with his annoyance.
I'm not leaving you; he doesn't say it but that's what he meant when he took my hand off his arm and held it before he tugged me into a tight, brief hug. Just as quickly as it happened, he pulled away and gave me a look before he sprinted off.
I stare at his retreating back, stunned for a moment as he's never done that before where we weren't protected by trees or walls. But my moment of awe doesn't last long as I know what that look he gave me means.
A grin splits my face and I race off after him heart pumping. Sasuke's never one for waiting and he can get quite rough when he's annoyed. Then again, sometimes I like it that way.