Title: "Les Saisons: Printemps"
Author: Shaitanah
Rating: PG-13
Timeline: Post-canon
Summary: Four seasons; four unrelated stories of love, hate, hope, obsession and lust. Spring: There is nothing that holds Sasuke in Konoha. Nothing but one very persistent person who calls himself a friend. Sasuke/Naruto Please R&R!
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto Masashi.
A/N: Inspired by Four Seasons by fatelesskitten. Go read it now! The stories aren't connected to each other; these are just different takes on Sasuke and Naruto's relationship, set in different seasons.
LES SAISONS
Printemps
Got to ask yourself the question:
Where are you now?
James Blunt. 'Wiseman'
Sasuke is like a carcrash. A feast of destruction over the ashes of something beautiful, something vivid, something whole. It crosses Naruto's mind that he doesn't know that man in the black cloak with red clouds splashed like stains of blood all over it. Doesn't want to know him.
He has a chance to know him again when it is Sasuke who is destroyed. He walks into the lonely yard of the deserted Uchiha Compound. Dust covers the blackened ground. Numerous battles have rolled through this place, sweeping all the history, all the tears, all the blood up, and leaving shattered ruins. Amidst the ruins a pillar rises. Black cobalt with names, names, names going down all over it.
Sasuke is leaning against it, his eyes closed and his face pale like a posthumous mask. Motionless. Frozen.
It's spring. New grass is shining through the rubble, dripping juice which sparkles boldly in the sparse sunlight.
"Sasuke…" Naruto whispers softly.
This man… he's not his rival, not his friend, not his brother. Naruto shudders to think about it: this man is a stranger.
Sasuke lifts his hands and sweeps them briskly over his face. Freezes in this position, his long fringe laced through his fingers, and finally draws out in an expressionless voice:
"Why don't you just…" Naruto takes an uncertain step forth, "leave me?"
"Never."
Sasuke lowers his hands and opens his eyes. They blaze fiercely with the kind of passionate hate that Naruto hasn't seen since the Valley of the End. Finally, some emotion. Just not the one Naruto was secretly hoping for.
"Don't you see?" Sasuke spits venomously. "This is it! The finish line! Drop-curtain! The end of an era! Time to move on." He advances all of a sudden and pushes at Naruto with both of his hands. Naruto staggers backwards, surprised. "Well, move! Evolve! Just leave me here."
He spins around, intending to ignore any further indication of Naruto's presence. Naruto growls quietly in frustration, grips him by the shoulder and pushes him on the ground angrily. He collapses on top of him, surprised that he barely meets any resistance, and hits Sasuke in the face again and again. The other doesn't wince, taking all the punches steadily. His fingers claw at Naruto's forearm, digging harder, not pleading, but compelling. Asking to go on.
"I'd never give up on you, bastard!" Naruto hisses vehemently. "Though you fucking don't deserve it! If you have no will to go on, I have enough for both of us!"
Sasuke makes a small sound which Naruto finds hard to identify at first. It sounds like sobbing, but hell, Sasuke wouldn't cry! Indeed, Naruto soon realizes, dumbstruck, that Uchiha is laughing. Choking on some insane form of laughter that Naruto would never expect to come out of his mouth.
"I wish he were still alive. Here. Now."
"What?" Naruto's voice is barely even a whisper. "Who?"
"Itachi. Want him back. But he's gone."
Naruto buries his face on Sasuke's shoulder and exhales softly against his skin, "Why?"
"He…"
Sasuke continues laughing, swallowing words; Naruto wishes he would stop because it's freakily out of character. Sasuke loosens his grip on Naruto's forearm, and his laughter melts away. He can only breathe in and out quietly.
"He did it all for me. Everything. Died for me."
Naruto's heart skips a bit. He doesn't like that cold dark pit in his stomach and he doesn't like that Itachi is the reason – but he's grown so accustomed to the feeling of Itachi being with him – what with the raven and all – that he doesn't even need any proof: Itachi did it all for him. For Sasuke. Just like Naruto was doing.
"What have I given to people that they keep doing such things for me?" Sasuke exclaims. "Never asked anyone to… never…"
Naruto smiles. He can't hold it back; Sasuke is being so stupid, so Sasuke.
"You don't always have to give, jerk," he murmurs. "Sometimes people just do it, that's all."
He think about the Will of Fire, something the Third, or maybe Iruka-sensei, would have given as an example. It is a strange analogy when you mean Itachi, but right now it works.
"Maybe you shouldn't ask 'why me?' It just… happened." Naruto chews on his lips thoughtfully. "It's good to know someone loved you that much."
Sasuke doesn't move for a while, just lying there underneath Naruto. Slowly, his hands move, stroking Naruto's back almost timidly. He cups his neck and forces Naruto to look at him – and then brushes his lips with his own tentatively. Naruto freezes for a moment.
He's never kissed anyone before. Well, except that time.
He parts his lips and starts to respond timidly. The mechanics of the kiss is unfamiliar, but it comes naturally through faltering strokes and soft sighs.
"Wow," Naruto murmurs ever so childishly once Sasuke breaks off the kiss.
Uchiha's lips tremble. The corner of his mouth curves upwards. Could it be–? Yes! Naruto laughs quietly in triumph. A smile!
"Shut up," Sasuke exhales against his cheek.
Their hands travel along each other's bodies, caressing, studying, teasing. Tongues lapping at the exposed flesh. Skin on skin, heated, trembling, every touch sending tingles through their bodies. Naruto rubs himself against Sasuke, unable to overcome the strange pulsing sensation in his groin.
There's the new spring grass all around them, so much of it, a delicate green carpet amidst the dusty remnants of yore. Maybe this house will rise again, reborn from the ashes of the merciless massacre that has ground it into oblivion.
Maybe one day…
Everything is quiet. They breathe softly, trying to control themselves, and move again, and the world explodes before them in a flash of ecstasy that flows out of their mouths in a mingled scream of pleasure.
"I sort of made a promise," Naruto says eternity after. Sasuke squints at him lazily. "To your brother."
"Hn?"
"That I'll get you back. No matter what."
"Oh."
Naruto turns to looks at him. Sunlight glides shyly by his face, giving it more colour than Uchiha's skin has in fact.
"You're annoying," Sasuke mutters. "Your countless promises and all…"
Naruto snorts and closes his eyes.
"Yeah… Maybe…"
Sasuke's voice is distant and somehow uncertain. "Never break them."
"I don't intend to," whispers Naruto.
August 14–15, 2008