A/N: God, another one shot. I'm really pathetic, after telling myself I wouldn't post any one shots, I post three… And I have the feeling I'm not stopping anytime soon! I'm doing something I haven't done yet, not leaving an A/N at the end… So please review! (I don't know how those two are connected…)
Anyway, this one's about Naruto.
PLEASE READ! This is kind of a different ending after Orochimaru, since I haven't seen past Blaze Away Byakugan: This Is My Ninja Way except for some random Uchiha-less episodes. So yeah, I don't really know what happens! No spoily spoily! Basically, Sasuke left Konoha to join Orochimaru, Naruto tried everything in his power to stop him but failed and Sasuke stayed with Orochimaru for three years. He then went back to Konoha, regreting everything he had done. No one really trusted him, but he was slowly winning their trust back. The only one to treat him completely normal is Naruto. Kakashi treats Sasuke as normal, but doesn't completely trust him. That is the gist of whats happened before this!
Oh and I upped their ages a little. Nothing major, don't worry!
And I'm not too sure what Sasuke calls Kakashi, so let me know!
Warning: Yaoi, slash, shonen-ai, whatever you call it!
Disclaimer: Nothing, I say, NOTHING!
He got the girl.
I knew he would eventually; all it took was my leaving.
I'd overshadowed him since day one, we all knew it. It frustrated him to no end, not being able to beat me. I guess we developed a mutual friendship eventually. But when we fought… When he beat me…
I couldn't take it. I now know what he endured for years, the feeling of being second best to someone. I knew the feeling, having always been compared to Itachi, but it hit me harder this time. Something about that fact that it was Naruto who beat me hurt. It made me try harder to be the best, just to prove I could.
It was that damn water tower that finally opened my eyes. I barely made an impact on mine yet he blasted through the entire tower! He completely destroyed it! It opened my eyes. I wasn't the best anymore, and nothing I did mattered, because I could never catch up to him.
So I left, ran away hoping to never see him again. But he followed me, as I sub-consciously knew he would. He wouldn't let a friend leave his life.
That got me thinking. As I jumped from tree to tree, trying to find a plain to fight him in, I wondered, if the roles were reversed, would I do the same? I think it was near the end of the fight, I looked at him and I knew I would. I knew that I would never let Naruto become anything like what I'm trying to achieve. But… it's different for me. I had to, I needed to…
God, it sounds feeble even in my head. One time, I told Naruto that he didn't understand the pain of losing everyone you love, because he never had anyone to begin with. But he understood pain probably better than I did. He'd never had anyone, yet he still came out of it as a super happy kid who tried to be friends with anything that moved. I knew that if I had been through what he had, I'd be even worse than I was now.
It took a while for me to realise, but I like… like him more than a friend. Great, I fall in love and I become a ball of clichés. So I came back. Only to find her in his arms. I pretended to be happy for them, and they pretended to be happy I was back. Well, Sakura pretended. Naruto couldn't lie for the life of him and he seemed genuinely sincere. That made me feel better. But I can tell Sakura doesn't like me being here, still doesn't trust me. I can understand that.
What does annoy me is that Naruto trusts me without question. I feel horrible for the things I did, and if he instantly forgives me, how can I make up for them?
So here I am, sitting in a tree on the outskirts of town, trying to avoid life all together. It's worked so far, I haven't been disturbed by anyone. But I know eventually someone will either wonder where I am (doubtful) or stumble across me (also doubtful since I'm in a tree).
"Thinking, are we?" The voice of Kakashi Sensei penetrates my thoughts. For once, I'm grateful for his presence. He stopped the depressing cycle of thoughts that simply repeated itself over and over again, as if I was searching for a moment in the past when I could have acted and changed things. "Sasuke?" Oh, right, Kakashi Sensei was still here.
"Yeah." A short, clipped reply. Not really what I was intending, but I think he knew me well enough to understand the meaning behind the word. Talk to me. Please.
"You know, Naruto was wondering where you were." NO! Don't talk to me about that!
"Meh." I shrugged, pretending to be indifferent. I know he'd see right through it, but old habits die hard.
"Just because he has Sakura doesn't mean he no longer cares for you."And just like that, he opened the bottle of repressed feelings and pent up words.
"What do you mean, it doesn't? Sakura's all he can think about! He has no time for someone like me, and even if he did, I don't deserve it! Not after what I did! I tried to kill him! I actually wanted him to die, I wanted to see him take his last breath of air, wanted to be the one to end his life… I can't live with myself, but what makes it worse is that it doesn't even seem like he cares. He's over it, it's in the past and it makes me sick that no matter what I'll do, he'll always want to be my friend…" Panting, I realised I'd stood up. Sliding back down onto the thick branch, I looked back over to Kakashi Sensei. Funny how I still call him sensei…
"Done?" His one visible eye was studying me, so I gave him a curt nod. "Okay, well I'm going to give you a hint. Naruto will always want to be your friend, because he'll never give up on you. He's always hoping you'll pull through." And with that, Kakashi Sensei stood up and started to leave. Of course, being a natural jackass, I couldn't help the words that escaped my lips next.
"Going to meet Iruka-san?"
"At least I had the courage to tell the one I love how I feel." And with that, he was gone, leaving me feeling sorrier for myself than I did to start with.
When I first got back from my escapades, Naruto spent many hours telling me about his and Sakura's romantic discovery of love. I rolled my eyes and said I had no interest in his and Sakura's love life, which was half true. He simply laughed and proceeded to tell me anyway. I must say it was torture listening to Naruto explain the happiness he felt when he was around Sakura. It made me feel like I was being torn apart. But I listened, with a look of general apathy on my face.
When he was done, I think the over enthusiastic blond was expecting some sort of reaction. Instead, I got up and attempted to leave the room. Naruto jumped in front of the door, blocking my path. I saw him coming, could have stopped him. But I wanted to hear him yell at me, no, I needed to hear him yell at me.
"What is your problem Sasuke? Couldn't you at least be happy for me! Couldn't you care about something other than yourself for TWO SECONDS?" Naruto threw his hands up and left the room, yelling out other obscenities as he went. I stopped listening after he left, my head down, tears running down my cheeks. I hadn't cried about this for ages, and I prayed no one would come in at this point.
Sakura had confided in me a while ago, telling me how she knows I don't care for these things, but she thought I'd like to know that, according to her and her rabid fan girl friends, Naruto would propose to her soon. Lots of thoughts were running through my head then. We're only nineteen and already they're thinking of marriage? She didn't see my hurt, didn't notice as I stopped listening, didn't even notice when I cringed in physical pain. She was too caught up in planning what they'd name their third child.
Maybe Kakashi Sensei was right, and I needed to take action and tell Naruto. But I didn't want to ruin his life or put it on his conscience.
He was a hero. And the hero always gets the girl.