Do you Remember When We Were Just Kids?
The young blond sat in the sandbox playing quietly by himself. He was making something that vaugely resembled a sandcastle; the child's artistic skill needed some work. At some point during that time, the blond child's work had come to the attention of another boy. The two boys looks were as different as night and day; the blond with tanned skin and bright blue eyes and the other boy much paler with dark, nearly black, hair and eyes. The darker haired boy walked over to the blond and promptly demanded to know what it was that the child was trying to make with the sand. The blond's indignant reply was, " A sandcastle stupid! Can't you tell? Who are you anyway?" this last question was spoken more curiously than indignantly.
"My name is Sasuke, duh. And for your information, that wreck looks nothing like a sandcastle. It looks kinda like a mountain though," the boy, Sasuke, said frankly. Sasuke debated to himself as to whether it would be worth his time to find out who this dork was and if he should try to show him what a real sandcastle looked like. "So, who are you then?" Sasuke had decided to ask. The blond sputtered when Sasuke insulted his sandcastle, how rude of this boy to just pop out of nowhere and insult my artwork, he thought. His face got red from sputtering and he bit his tounge to keep from yelling at Sasuke. Yelling would only attract more attention that he didn't want.
" I think it looks like a perfectly fine sandcastle, so if you don't like it then just go away! What's my sandcastle matter to you anyway?" He glared at the Sasuke kid. Sasuke didn't seem particularly flustered, more like amused.
" I just saw it and thought maybe that you didn't know how to do it right so I was going to show you." With this, Sasuke crouched in the sandbox opposite the blond, who still had not told him his name. " What's your name anyway?" Sasuke asked again as he began to form a sandcastle to show the other boy what it should look like.
"Naruto," the blond huffed, still seething over having his sandcastle critsized. Sasuke's sandcastle was already taking shape as Naruto watched curiously from his corner of the sandbox. Both boys were silent as Sasuke completed his picturesque sandcastle, Sasuke concentrating on getting everything right and Naruto watching raptly. Naruto felt so jealous, why couldn't my sandcastles ever turn out that well, he wondered. He almost didn't realize when Sasuke was finished with it. "How do you do that?" wondered Naruto, impressed in spite of himself.
"It's easy," Sasuke smirked," I could teach you if you want, but you have to do what I say." Naruto thought that it sounded easy enough to do. He agreed without a second thought. Sasuke smirked again. " All right, first you want to shape up a pile like this," he showed Naruto what the pile needed to look like. The lesson went for about an hour, Sasuke gently correcting Naruto when he did things wrong. That in itself was surprising, seeing as how Sasuke was rarely patient with anyone or anything. Sasuke lliked teaching things to people when they wanted to learn them, it was fun. He thought that Naruto was a good student, at least he managed to fix his mistakes within two or three tries. Much better than some of the others that he'd tried to teach things to. After all, Mama still couldn't learn how to use her eyes the way he and Itachi could.
By the end of the hour, Naruto had become quite adept at making pretty sandcastles. Both boys were proud of that achievement. "You're a good student, Naruto. Do you want to make sandcastles or something with me again?" Sasuke wanted to know. He had to leave soon, it was getting late and his parents would worry about him. He told Naruto that he had to leave now and then started to say that he'd be back again the next day but stopped short. The blond's smile and the twinkle in his eyes had vanished so quickly that it startled Sasuke. Naruto's dull blue eyes looked at him as though he had commited some terrible crime. Sasuke blurted " I'll be back tomorrow, I promise!" as quickly as he could to make the blond boy stop looking at him like that. Naruto looked at him in surprise. He'd been so happy in that past hour, learning to make sandcastles with Sasuke. It had been the best moment in his life so far and he wanted to make this one hour last for the rest of his life. Nobody had ever been so nice to him before, teaching him something instead of spitting on it and walking away. His heart had fallen when Sasuke had said that he had to leave, it hurt him to think about his one happy moment being taken away and replaced with nothing but a memory. And then, when Sasuke told him he'd be back tomorrow, it was too good to be true!
"Really, you promise?" Naruto asked, almost pleading. When Sasuke comfirmed the promise, his face broke out in a gigantic grin, a real one. An infectious one as it would seem when Sasuke smiled back. Sasuke wanted to make sure the promise stuck, mostly to reassure Naruto.
" Now we have to seal the promise somehow. We could do it with a kiss, like Mama does." Sasuke suggested. Both boys agreed that it would be the proper way to seal a promise. It was a brief, childlike and slightly sticky kiss and then they grinned at each other once more. " I'll see you tomorrow Naruto", Sasuke said as he turned to leave.
"Bye Sasuke, see you tomorrow," replied Naruto. He was sad to see his friend go, but he was happy because he would get to see him again tomorrow. The blond watched as his friend walked home, only turning to leave when he could no longer see Sasuke's back. He went back to the orphanage with a smile as he crept into his room to sleep for the night.
The next day, Naruto returned to the sandbox around midmorning. He hummed to himself as he sat and played in the sand, waiting for Sasuke to return as promised. Naruto practiced making his sandcastles and even added a moat to it. Noon passed and Naruto had begun yet another sandcastle, still waiting for Sasuke to show up. As the hours went by Naruto's humming grew fainter and less cheerful, he made fewer sandcastles and more mounds of sand, absently piled around him. It grew dark and still Naruto waited for Sasuke to come, he did promise to after all. Finally, when it was almost too dark to see, Naruto returned to the orphanage dispirited. The next day and every day after that for two weeks Naruto went to the sandbox and waited from midmorning until late in the evening for Sasuke to be at the sandbox to make sandcastles with him. Sasuke never came and Naruto became bitter about it, he was hurt very badly when Sasuke broke his promise to come play in the sandbox with him. Naruto did not see Sasuke again for many years, not until they met during class at the ninja academy when they were twelve. He didn't recognize his old childhood friend at first. He later learned that the day that Sasuke was supposed to come see him at the sandbox had been the day when Itachi, Sasuke's older brother had killed every member of the Uchiha clan save himself and Sasuke. Naruto was not angry or bitter after he heard that, he understood why Sasuke had forgotten his promise. He also understood how Sasuke could have forgotten about him, he was insignificant in comparison to all that happened and Sasuke was young. He would just have to begin again with Sasuke. In the end, it was a memory that Naruto would always have to cherish for the rest of his life.
I would like to end with two things
1.
Thank you so much my dearest beta, silver-kin
2.
I forgot earlier but: DISCLAIMER - I do not own Naruto. If I did I would be filthy rich, the series would be way weirder, and I wouldn't be writing fanfiction anyways.