Rating: T

Title: Sound Off

Date Written: 10 April 2011

Date Published:14 April 2011

Theme: Sound Off by Trapt

Pairing(s): Sasuke to Naruto

Genre: Friendship, Angst, Hurt/Comfort

Fanfiction Idea: 816 ~~ Sound Off

Word Count: 1797

Dedication: PROM!

AN:/: bold text means Sasuke's anger. Italics mean that words are stressed with emotions. Underlined means Naruto is pissed.I own nothing by either person!

Blue eyes tear as he tries to tell the world about the truths he has seen. They ignore him, calling him the son of a demon, a monster's whore, and so much more. I can see how much it hurts him that no one cares to listen, to understand, to even fucking notice that he is standing there breathing. As the darkness he has always feared encloses him and stifles his voice, the vibrant eyes that I spent so much of my childhood staring at, wishing that the others could see what I saw.

Now they fade along with his faith in the village. The boy once so proud to be of Konoha can only stay mute as the village hurtles towards its own destruction. Eyes as clear and easy to read as the summer sky cloud with storms of self doubt as he chokes over his own "stupidity."

What fools the village that I as well once called home could be. Had they learned nothing about what my own brother had done that had driven him to destroying our clan? Do they not see that they are doing the same to him? Are they too blind to see that playing him, using him, and then discarding him will only hurt themselves? How can they not see what it means to him to be heard?

I watch as he shivers from the cold and despair. I want to scream at him to get his attention. I want to scream at him. Hit him...hold him...until he is enraged enough to sound off. I miss the days where no one save the old knew what he was. I wish beyond anything any higher power can offer that no one plays him as they once did. When the damnable Hokage is not destroying his self esteem by denying him his birthright, he is sending the unheard child of the sun into depths of danger that he himself would never survive.

I want to tell him that they do not think he will survive, but that would break him further. I want the boy born so close to me to understand that he could have the entire world dangling from his elegant fingers if he wanted.

I want to know what he has to say. I need to know that he is whole and unbroken. I do not think that I can survive if he never spoke again. As it is, he tries to only speak when spoken to...

I follow him from the middle of town where he stood quietly trying to tell his comrades of the danger. He is right. I know he is, because I am the one he is warning about.

He shudders again and begins to hurry. I follow him through the twining alleys of the poor district of the village. He lives at the back still...I had not known that. I had presumed that by becoming a Jounin he could afford something better. I guess not. He clears the two stories to the miniscule apartment where he lived his entire life.

I watch with eyes nearly too strong for any mortal as he destroys an old sack filled with straw. I can see the tears trailing like diamonds down tanned, scarred cheeks. Honeyed hair falls limp and sickly about skin that begun to sink awhile back.

I cannot take anymore. I cannot stomach his tears.

Like the shadow I have become, I slink to his building before I silently enter through the still open window. He does not hear me, though I know I stepped upon shattered glass.

I breathe deeply before I grapple him from behind. He snarls as his elbow connects with my jaw before I can secure him in my arms. His hands fly through the motions for Shadow Clones, and I am surrounded. I remember when he could barely transform himself into anything other than a beautiful girl to match his personality.

"Is that all you can do? Hah, you really are too pathetic to listen to anything you say." My words, meant to goad, fall upon silence only disrupted by harsh breathing. He recognizes me as danger, but his eyes do not see what his ears tell him. "What's wrong Naru-Chan? Are you too afraid to speak?" Suddenly I am glad that he cannot see me. I feel hot tears of fury rain down. I haven't cried since the night I had thought ruined my life. I am crying...and not even for my own depression and agony. Mine seem sooo weak against his.

My voice wavers. "Please Naruto...say something." I light the candle I always carry inside my sleeve, trapped against my wrist. "Tell me you hate me. Scream at me about what you've endured since my defection. Just please, please tell me that you are still capable of feeling something."

The weak light flickers across his face as shadows chase one another about the enviable features. He says nothing still. My anger snaps and I feel the curses across my skin begin to slither and swirl.

"Damn you baka! What the fuck is wrong with you that you've become so unwilling to speak?" My fists crackle with sparks that beg to be released.

The sound ignites his own famous temper and he growls low in his throat, much the same as a fox could when provoked. I love the rough, guttural sound more than I ever loved the voice of my mother. He means so much more to me.

"Shut the fuck up." His voice sends shivers across my skin. I wish to hear him sound off all of the things that have been bothering him. I want him to tell me everything that is on his mind. He needs to understand that I want him. I want him as the friend we once were... "It's not like you give a fuck anymore than the others." I wince, but say nothing. "Please just go away."

"And why would I do that? You obviously need someone to tell you what to do." The smirk burns my skin, does not reach my eyes, and refuses to achieve the desired result.

"Yeah, because you did such a good job of that. If it were up to you, Sasuke, I would have been dead long before this." Pain shelters hurt inside of him. I hate that I have caused so much of it, but—actually, I refuse to say anything more. There is no reason that I should have hurt him.

I want to tell him that I see what I've done wrong so many times. I want to tell him that I want nothing more than to tell him to fuck me and leave me with bruises that I know I deserve. I want to tell him that nothing I could ever say would ever be truer than "I love you, Naruto."

I want to tell him all these things but I can't; so I will settle for protecting him from the bastards bent on snuffing out his bright flame of life.

"Grow the fuck up Naruto and get the damned message. Say something! Scream at the fucking BASTARDS until you are out of breath and panting. You've been walking around in silence, pretending that they give a damn about you and your dreams. THEY DON'T!"

I'm the one panting...from more than just my desperate screams. The sight of the candlelight upon his skin wreaks havoc upon my body. Every contour of his lips are shadowed, which brings the fullness into attention.

Dammit...when had my focus changed from ending his life to having him moaning under me after proving to him that this hell is not worthy of him?

I hear a hitch in his breath, but I refuse to look at him. "Naruto...please, just...please don't let them force you to be silent. I promise that I'll leave the country as soon as you tell them...Just please, Naruto, don't let them use you. You've always known when I lie, tell me if I am. Go ahead, fucking look and you will see." I turn to leave, but his large hand upon my slender wrist keeps me in place. "Let go. I told you I would leave, so I am."

His grip tightens, and I have no will to break the hold. My body refuses to respond to any of my urgings. "We really are fools, aren't we?"

I laugh. "Yeah, at least the leaders of the hypocrisy seem to believe so..." I still refuse to look, afraid of what I might see swimming in those fatal oceans. "but we've never been to good at the whole 'do as I say not as I do' thing."

He laughs, and my strength leaves my body. "Teme, that was you. I always behaved."

"If you say so, dobe." I wonder how we sank back to the old terms we used to have. How could my search for understanding and truth about my clan end with my interest in someone else? "...Please let me go."

"I can't do that, Sasuke."

I swallow the groan in my throat. "Yes, you can. You have to tell them the truth. Not just about my intents towards Konoha...You have to tell them that you're the one who saved their asses numerous times. If you don't tell them soon, you'll die and then they will go about their ignorant ways. What happened to the dream of becoming Hokage? What the fucking hell happened to the boy who would never settle for anything less than that?"

"Drop it."

"No."

"Dammit Sasuke, look at me or I swear that you'll regret it." The wind picks up as his anger becomes more and more evident as the out-pouring of violent chakra threatens to choke us both. I hate the taste of it. It's nothing like what is should be.

"I already do." He winces, but I am closer to the verge of apathy than I have ever been. I yank away before I finally look to him. The chakra is draining away. Blue eyes begin to steel themselves.

"They fear me, is all."

"As they should, Naruto. The world will belong to you. You only have to ask. Get the message already."

He grins slyly before his lips plaster themselves to mine. The rough motions begin to stroke the already present burning in my groin. I'm slammed against the wall behind him—when the hell had he become strong enough to do that?

"Naruto...you have to—AH!" Teeth sink into my neck, I feel blood beginning to pool before his tongue laps it slowly.

"I will...tomorrow."