DISCLAIMER: This story is purely mine. Period. The characters though, are someone else's. I've no plans in claiming them as my own.

TITLE: In This Empty Room

SUMMARY: The lost gap sometime after the hospital battle and before the Valley of End. There was the most deafening silence between Sasuke and Naruto before Sasuke left Konoha. What happened back then? And where is Sasuke now? SASUNARU.

PAIRING: NaruSasu/SasuNaru

Warning: Yaoi.

A/N: I'm not sure if I should continue this. But in a way, this could pass up for a oneshot. Depends on how many people would want to have a second serving. So let me know what you think, alright? You want a prologue or a backgrounder? A sequel perhaps? Come on and speak your mind. ) Thanks!


(Sasuke POV)

The room was uncomfortable enough as it is. The yellow wallpaper of the room was starting to chip off; the asphalt cement it covered was clearly visible. The dusty draperies that hung from the window locked the sunlight out so effectively that I can barely make out the corners of the rooms anymore. There also seemed to be a smell of abandon in the place.

We were alone. This is the perfect chance for me to tell you… yet I cannot. Not now and not ever.

Still, we were there, facing each other as if waiting for one of us to make a move. Your eyes that roamed around the room settled on me. I studied your face carefully… I can see the anguish somewhere inside.

"Oi, say something," said your raspy voice. It echoed in the room, and I shivered. It was so painfully familiar.

"I hate you, dobe," said I. Why I did that, I will never know for sure. It felt right to say it and it actually felt good even… Or so I thought. In nearly a second or two that seemingly flashed like an eternity of watching you, did I regret saying the exact opposite of the three words I wanted to say.

Your eyebrow twitched, the glow in your eyes gone and replaced by the unmistakable sign of anger wash through you. I wanted to cry then. I wanted to fall on my knees and cry until the room fills with tears. I wanted to tell you that I cannot live without the fresh air and sunlight that you bring, that air and sunlight that give me life and make me want to go on living just to breathe.

But being the Uchiha that I am, I did nothing.

I didn't cry and I didn't find my peace, I didn't tell you how much I so loved to breathe you in. I just stood there, emotionless, like the god before Parthenon.

Like a stab through my heart, like a thin wisp of wind zooming through your skin, you turned to the old mahogany door and left. I can never forget the creaking sound that it made. It was the most fitting music I could ever give that room.

I breathed in and found myself gasping. It felt like drawing in sand instead of air.

Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours, hours to day until days turn to years. Every day seemed to pass by like a bird, though, soaring through the air, flying to the South. It didn't stay for long. It just passed me by.

The difference between days and I is that days have a direction. Days possess something; the past, the present, and the future. Me? Who knows?

Here I am, standing in the room where I ended the life of the evil that's been looming over me all my life. I lean my back on the rough, cement walls.

What now? I snickered.

Maybe Kakashi was right all along. After Itachi, there is nothing.

I watch as the wind tries to blow the heavy curtains from the window. It didn't make much progress, though, and it faltered. It only left a little rip open and a ray of divine light entered the room.

Maybe, someday, I'll tie the draperies up.


Done! Now go and review, let me know what you think.