Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

My inner muse wants me to write this, so write this I shall! I'll warn you now: the beginning is a little slow. Er, a lot slow. But it is like that on purpose, I swear! Things will definitely progress as the story goes on, so hold out with me, kay?

Summary: Naruto had spent his entire adult life in Suna, avoiding the place he had run away from as a teenager. But now, years later, he is told that he is needed back at home. AU. SasuNaru.


Naruto Uzumaki let loose a disgruntled sigh as he heard what sounded like his door being assaulted by rocks. It was quite annoying.

Here he was, trying to do his work—like, actually being productive instead of searching the internet or doodling some picture when his laptop was confiscated from him for not doing his work—while listening to his inspiration playlist, when all of a sudden his poor apartment door was attacked. He even turned down his music to make sure that the noises weren't the drums!

Didn't the person intent on maiming his door know how rude they were being? What kind of respectable person went around assaulting doors in the middle of the afternoon on a Thursday? A Sunday maybe, or even a Monday for kicks, but a Thursday? Blasphemy.

Naruto didn't even order any pizza. So unless this was a surprise bad porno flick—of which he didn't really have a problem participating in—Naruto wasn't expecting any visitors.

Which just made the mysterious door-knocker all the more rude.

Surprise, surprise. The door was being knocked even louder. The rude door-knocker must have been a psychic.

"Alright, ALRIGHT ALREADY! I'm coming!" Naruto shouted across his apartment.

As he stood up from his desk, Naruto made sure to save the document he had been working on before the person beating his door decided that in the middle of the afternoon on a Thursday was just a GRAND time for attacking inanimate objects.

The last time he had forgotten to save after leaving his laptop for an extended period of time, the laptop battery ran out on him and deleted his work! And his roommate and his assistant shouted at him; well, his assistant did…his roommate more of glared than shouted.

After everything was saved, Naruto wandered out of his room. He was wearing his lazy clothes, or more specifically: his roommate's lazy clothes since they were just so damn comfy. Naruto would have invested in the same pair of black sweatpants and black wife beater, but he would have felt too much like a Goth; which was why he spruced up the lazy outfit with his favorite green froggy slippers.

He knew his outfit wasn't the most attractive one around, but it was a Thursday afternoon and he wasn't expecting anyone to visit him!

As he shuffled down the hallway, the noisy knocking just got louder and he groaned.

Naruto yanked the door open as he practically shouted, "You better have a good reason for assaulting my door! I was working, you know, and I was finally getting into the swing of things when—"

Naruto stopped talking as soon as he saw just who he was shouting at and simply let his jaw hang.

The person who was beating his door was Sakura! Sakura Haruno!

Sakura looked surprised to see Naruto as well, though she was not nearly as expressive about it as Naruto was, and she scrunched her face into an apologetic smile as she lowered her fist.

"Sorry, but I, uh," Sakura forced an awkward laugh, "I knocked a little earlier and there was no reply…and I was going to leave but then I heard music and assumed that you couldn't hear me over that. So I knocked just a little bit louder."

Naruto could only stare; thought that a fly could probably zoom into the back of his throat or that Sakura's term for a 'little' louder apparently meant treating his door like a punching bag did not cross his mind.

The only thing that Naruto could think about was that Sakura—SAKURA HARUNO—was in Suna, at his apartment building, standing on his new welcome mat, right in front of him.

Never in his wildest imaginings did he think this would be happening! Now even when one of his co-workers offered him 'special brownies' and he learned that 'special' did not mean 'made with love'.

Then Sakura gave a tired sort of smile and shook her head a little, "You'll swallow a fly if you keep your mouth open like that," she said as she reached up to manually close Naruto's mouth for him.

He could feel that as she closed his mouth for him, Sakura's thumb brushed on three horizontal scars on one of his cheeks. He automatically flinched a little and jerked his head away.

Sakura's gentle hand closing his mouth for him was what finally convinced Naruto that this was real.

That the person in front of him was actually Sakura Haruno; someone he had never thought he would see again, much less in Suna. He thought that the last he had seen of her was back in his old hometown, in Konoha.

The first thing that jumped out at Naruto was Sakura's pink hair. It was long again. The last time Naruto saw Sakura, her hair had been short, at least to her shoulders. That was considered long in Naruto's books, but he still remembered having a bruise on his shoulder for about a week when he voiced that opinion.

There was also no headband in her hair. Naruto was no hair accessories expert, but there was definitely a lack of his pink-haired friend's signature accessory. At least, he assumed that it was still her signature accessory; he had rarely seen her without it. But then again, this was the first time in a very long time that he was seeing her again.

Sakura rolled her green eyes with a smile and asked, "Well aren't you going to invite me in? It's rude to make a lady wait, you know."

Naruto could only nod numbly. He stood aside as he opened the door wider.

Sakura smiled at him and moved to pick up a pink bag next to her while it looked like she was juggling with a jacket in her arms and a pink purse. That was when Naruto noticed the bag's existence, and he wordlessly bent to pick it up for her.

Sakura looked up at him and smiled again as she thanked him. Her eyes lingered on his scars and Naruto reminded himself that this was the first time she—and anyone from back in Konoha—had seen his new cheek accessories.

Again, Naruto could only nod numbly. This time, what occupied his mind was how he had noticed how pale Sakura was in comparison to himself when their arms cross when he picked up the bag for her.

He had always known that Sakura was pale, he even had a bruise on his chest for when he pointed it out one time when they were children playing at the pool. Maybe it was the vast amount of time spent apart, or maybe it was Naruto being used to seeing people as tan if not tanner than he in Suna's warm climate, but Sakura's paleness was definitely more noticeable than it had ever been before.

It didn't help that she was wearing a white button up shirt with a few less buttons doing their job near the chest so Naruto could see a white undershirt and the sleeves were rolled up.

Naruto led her into his apartment to the living room and set her bag next to the couch, which Sakura set her jacket on as well.

The two stood in an awkward silence of sorts. Naruto was still trying to wrap his mind around how someone from Konoha—SAKURA HARUNO—was in his living room, in his apartment, in Suna.

Sakura was looking around Naruto's apartment from where she stood. It was a little obvious that she was restraining herself from staring at Naruto, and his whisker-like scars.

After a considerable amount of time, she faced Naruto again with a small, awkward smile on her face as she said, "Thanks for putting on the air conditioning. I had always heard that Suna was like a desert, but I didn't think it would be that hot, so I just grabbed a light jacket since I also always heard that airplanes and airports are cold."

Not exactly sure what to say to someone he hadn't seen in years after leaving his hometown, Naruto opted for the awkward small talk, "You get used to it. And…er…you're welcome? I always put the air conditioning a little colder than usual whenever I work as a way to force me to be more productive, I guess…"

"Working? From home?" Sakura asked. Naruto was about to answer, but then she spoke again, "Oh that's RIGHT! You're an author now!"

"You knew?" Naruto asked, surprised. He was under the impression that his books were low key, or at least that no one from Konoha would recognize that they were his works since he changed his name.

Sakura shrugged and waved her hand in a vague gesture and said, "Lee told me."

"Lee…" Naruto mumbled as he looked away. Lee was one of the very few people from Konoha that he kept in touch with, or at least, spoke to on rare occasions. The old friend from home had seen Naruto's picture on one of Naruto's books after it had released to book stores and had tracked Naruto down. Ever since then, Lee would call and once in a while Naruto would return the call.

"Yeah…" Sakura agreed as she too looked away from the other. She wrapped one arm around herself; something Naruto recognized as a nervous gesture she always had whenever she had something important to say but didn't know how to bring it up.

In the past, Naruto would immediately jump on whatever subject Sakura needed to talk about, and trying to fix things for her. He would always insist that she could talk about anything to him, since she was one of his most precious people.

But now, Naruto was in no hurry to bring up any heavy subjects. He knew from the very fact that Sakura was in Suna at all meant something serious, since she had made no effort in the past years—ever since Naruto had left Konoha—to even communicate with him.

He knew that it was selfish of him, and that it was probably took a lot for Sakura to come all the way to Suna for Naruto. But it was taking a lot out of Naruto too just to have a large piece of the past he had been successfully—somewhat—avoiding for years.

"Yeah…but…uh…" Naruto rubbed the back of his neck in an effort to waste more time, "I wasn't really working. Well, I was…but it wasn't real work."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, looking at him again.

"Uh…well…I need to start writing a new book soon, so I'm brainstorming for a couple of ideas." Naruto answered.

"Brainstorming?" Sakura looked a little confused.

"Yeah…well…" Naruto rubbed the back of his neck again, "I already wrote about the bigger stories I've had in my head for a while. So now I gotta think of new ones while I expand on little plot bunnies."

Sakura smiled warmly, "You always had multiple story ideas in that blonde head of yours ever since we were kids, so it shouldn't be too hard."

Naruto chuckled nervously as he continued to rub the back of his neck. The conversation was heading into dangerous territory again: he had no desire to talk about 'the good ol' days'.

"Do you want anything to drink?" Naruto hurried to ask.

"What?" Sakura asked, a little thrown off by the sudden change in topic.

"Drink?" Naruto repeated, turning his body to show that he was going to the kitchen.

"Oh…" Sakura nodded as she looked down on the ground, "water would be nice."

Naruto nodded, "Ice? Or no ice?"

Sakura shrugged and said, "Ice," in a vague tone. Her mind was wandering, which was just fine with Naruto as long as it prolonged whatever she came to talk about.

It wasn't as if Naruto was now a cold person who rejected anything and everything from his old hometown. It was just that he had little to no desire to even think about it. And if he did, he wanted it to be on his own terms. But then a large piece of home found him in Suna and he knew that it wasn't because he was being congratulated on leaving.

Naruto took his time preparing Sakura's drink. He got her one of his fancy glasses; not because he wanted to show off how well he had been living since leaving Konoha, but rather because it was in the back of the shelf and took more time to get.

Naruto took his time with the ice, too. He chose the biggest ice cubes from the tray and even refilled it since he only had three fourths of the ice tray full afterwards and that simply would not do.

He also got water from his roommate's water purifier in the refrigerator. He swore that he would never tease his roommate again for not simply drinking tap water because it took more time to get out the purifier than turning the faucet.

He returned to the living room with Sakura's glass of water and with a beer for himself. He could tell that he would need it to take the edge off of whatever Sakura had to say.

When he saw Sakura, he noticed that she was no longer standing but rather sitting on the couch that he had placed her bag next to. She appeared to be studying his living room.

Naruto cleared his throat, making Sakura jump a little bit. He mumbled a small apology and handed her the fancy glass of water and gesturing towards the coaster pile on the coffee table.

Sakura smiled and took a sip of water.

Naruto sat down on a chair on another side of the coffee table and opened his beer before he too took a sip. But the difference was the he didn't stop at just one.

The silence was palpable.

Sakura cleared her throat. "There's, uh," she gestured vaguely at the walls, "there's less pictures than your old apartment."

"My what?" Naruto asked, a little confused. In his last apartment, there wasn't any room for pictures on the wall since his bookshelves took up most of the wall space. Unlike his old mentor, he actually used real research for what he was writing instead of spying on women. Now that he had a roommate and could afford a bigger place, he was able to put about two—roommate approved—pictures of scenery on the walls.

"Your old apartment…" Sakura repeated, "back in—"

"Oh right." Naruto interrupted her and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, well…there's a nice color on the walls this time," he tried to joke.

"Oh…" Sakura said.

Naruto felt a little bad. It was obvious that she was running out of things to say before the important thing was coming up and that was her grasping at small talk topics. Even so, he refused to talk about Konoha freely, even when someone from Konoha was sitting on his couch.

"My roommate," Naruto announced a little suddenly, "didn't want too much clutter on the walls. So he only allowed two big pictures and those were the ones he approved of."

"You have a roommate?" Sakura asked, sounding a surprised.

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah…he took it upon himself to make sure that I worked and the easiest and most reliable way he could think of was to move in together."

"Oh, so you work together," Sakura sounded interested, but still distracted. Probably from whatever big thing she came all the way to Suna to talk about.

"Nah, he works in government. But we've been friends since before that and along the way he took it upon himself to be my manager." Naruto replied, trying to prolong the conversation in safe waters as long as possible.

"So you have a manager who works in government?" Sakura summarized.

Naruto squinted his eyes, "If you want to call it that. I just say that he's a pain in my ass. Even more so than my assistant."

"You have an assistant, too?" Sakura asked; a little more interested than before.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, she's great. She does the tedious stuff like copying down my writing from notebooks to my laptop so I can take my writing with me on the go. But she keeps hounding me to do my work faster or whatever and brings my roommate into things when she feels that I'm not working fast enough."

"Oh really," Sakura said, taking another sip of water.

"Plus she's totally in love with my roommate," Naruto rolled his eyes.

"She is?" Sakura asked.

"Totally. Complete with fawning over him at times and blocking out what I say to agree with him. I feel like a third wheel whenever she's in one of her love fits. It was almost as bad as when y—" Naruto cut himself off abruptly.

He refused to look anywhere near Sakura. He was dangerously close to talking about when they were children in Konoha.

Sakura must have picked up on what he almost spoke about, because she cupped her fancy glass of water in her lap and stared down at it.

"Naruto…"she paused, "I didn't come to Suna just to catch up."

Naruto almost rolled his eyes. It was pretty obvious that Sakura did not come for an idle chat with an old estranged friend. But he didn't and allowed her to continue and took another swig of beer.

"I came…to ask you to come back to Konoha," Sakura said looking back up at Naruto.

Naruto paused mid-sip.

Sure, he was expecting something along those lines from the moment Sakura had wrapped an arm around herself—either that or to announce someone had died, he wasn't sure which one he was dreading more—but to hear it out loud was something else entirely.

Naruto lowered his beer, "Sakura…" he said gingerly, trying to figure out the most polite way of saying 'no way in hell'.

But Sakura cut him off, "Please? I wouldn't ask if it wasn't for an important reason!"

Naruto sighed and stared at the ceiling for a moment. He supposed what she was saying was true; especially since she made no effort to just chat with him ever since he left Konoha.

"So what's the important reason?" Naruto asked, still staring at the ceiling.

There was a pause, so Naruto faced her once again. Sakura was biting her lip before she hesitantly said, "…It's Sasuke—"

Naruto physically cut her off by abruptly standing.

The hand that was not holding his beer flew to his head.

If he wasn't sure when Sakura asked him to come back then he was sure as hell now: he'd rather hear that someone had died.

"No," Naruto stated as he turned away from Sakura.

"But Naruto—"

"No!" Naruto said in a firmer voice. Even if he had even considered thinking about coming back if he thought that the reason was truly very important, all of that was out of the window now.

"He really needs you, Naruto!" Sakura tried reasoning.

"I really doubt that, Sakura!" Naruto shot back.

"But it's true!" Sakura paused, and before Naruto could tell her just how wrong her 'truth' was, she said in a quieter voice, "Itachi died a few weeks ago…"

Naruto took a deep breath to calm down. "I know…"

"You knew?!" Sakura asked, sounding genuinely shocked.

Naruto didn't turn to face her, but he nodded confirmation at the wall to the side of them.

"Wha—how?" Sakura asked.

Naruto shrugged and said, "Lee told me."

"Lee!" Sakura sounded angry. Though angry at Lee for telling Naruto before she could or angry at losing a portion of her trump card, Naruto couldn't tell.

Naruto was silent as Sakura composed herself behind him. He knew that he would never return to Konoha and nothing she had to say would change his mind, but he figured that he would let Sakura say her piece so she wouldn't send others to fail as well in case she felt like she hadn't tried hard enough.

He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, but he didn't turn around.

"He's having a really hard time dealing with everything," Sakura informed Naruto quietly.

"He's an Uchiha," Naruto reminded her somewhat coldly, "that means that he'll bury it all inside while outside he remains the friggin' ice prince."

"But what happens when he bottles too much in?" Sakura persisted, probably trying to appeal to the side of Naruto that new Sasuke best.

Naruto threw his hands in the air in exasperation and said, "Then he'll try to remove himself from society where he can snap in isolation or he'll beat the shit outa the person who won't let him since he's an Uchiha!"

"What does being an Uchiha have to do with this, Naruto Namikaze?" Sakura demanded. Naruto immediately noticed that Sakura had called him 'Namikaze' and realized that she had no idea that he had changed his name when he left Konoha.

"It's Uzumaki!" Naruto corrected her.

"Naruto…Sasuke needs you," Sakura said, ignoring what Naruto had told her about his name change.

"Again, I seriously doubt that. He made it VERY clear that he never wanted to see me again," Naruto told her as he crossed his arms and glared at the wall in front of him.

The hand on his shoulder squeezed before Sakura whispered, "He…he asked for you…"

That made Naruto pause again.

He took a step away from Sakura and turned around to face her. "What did you say?" he asked her incredulously.

Sakura paused and her eyes darted to everywhere but Naruto as she repeated hesitantly, "He asked for you…"

Naruto glared at her—without malice as he frustrated but did not want to aim it at Sakura specifically—and said, "You're lying to me."

"No, I'm not!" Sakura defended, her green eyes widening at the accusation. But Naruto recognized that hey widened in a slight horror that always used to happen whenever Naruto caught Sakura lying when they were children.

"Sakura Haruno, do not forget who you are talking to. I can tell when you are lying to me," Naruto reminded her.

Sakura's eyes darted to different places to avoid Naruto again.

"And you and I both know that Mr. Uchiha would never openly ask for help. Especially for ME," said Naruto.

Sakura nodded and whispered, "You're right."

"Of course I am," Naruto agreed.

"He didn't OPENLY ask for you, but…" Sakura paused and purposefully looked away.

Bitch.

Naruto sighed and took the bait, "But?"

Sakura's green eyes met Naruto's blue eyes as she said, "He mumbled 'idiot' in his sleep."

Naruto paused. Sakura was saying way too many things to make him pause today. Bitch.

There were too many implications in that sentence, each making Naruto regret opening the door in the first place. Why would Sasuke be mumbling what he had always called Naruto in his sleep? And more importantly: why did Sakura know what Sasuke was mumbling? The Sasuke Naruto knew would never, ever tell people whether or not he was mumbling; much less what he mumbled. So that meant that Sakura was there when Sasuke was asleep…but Sasuke didn't let anyone near him when he slept unless he had to, or unless they were sharing a bed…

The implications were a little too much for Naruto to deal with, so he chose for the easiest way and retorted, "How do you even know that he meant me? If you hadn't noticed, Sakura, he considers a LOT of people as idiots."

"He meant you," Sakura insisted, "He always meant you!"

Naruto looked away from her, trying to think of people that Sasuke could have been referring to. Maybe Kiba pissed Sasuke off somehow, probably with Akamaru. That had always left lingering frustration with the Uchiha. Or Neji was getting high-and-mighty with principles and morals that annoyed Sasuke. Or maybe Chouji made a mess of himself while eating way too much, which would grate on Sasuke's nerves. Or maybe Shino's bug collection got loose! Or Shikamaru ignored him in favor of the clouds! Or Lee got too excitable and started to gossip! Fucking Lee…

"Naruto…you know what Sasuke mumbling in his sleep means…" said Sakura as she held her gaze.

Naruto shook his head, even though in all actuality, he knew what she was talking about.

Sasuke would only mumble in his sleep if something was overwhelming him. It used to be the source of much teasing from Naruto, one of the only people who would actually hear it—asides from Itachi—but then they quickly learned to identify it as a warning sign that Sasuke was getting close to snapping.

Sakura walked back to the couch and grabbed something from her bag.

"Here," she held out an envelope, "it's a ticket back to Konoha."

Naruto immediately shook his head and backed away from her, "I already told you, I'm not going back."

"But he needs you, Naruto Namikaze! Itachi is dead," Sakura reminded Naruto, using his former last name to show how serious she was.

He felt bad about that, he truly did, but Naruto still shook his head 'no' and whispered, "Uzumaki…"

"It's his brother…" Sakura choked out as she pressed the envelope to her chest.

Naruto sighed, frustrated. He hated it when Sakura cried, always had, but he wouldn't let that sway him. He swore years ago that he would never go back to Konoha. Especially if he knew that Sasuke Uchiha was still there.

He didn't want to be the bad guy, but going back to Konoha was NOT an option.

He walked forwards and pulled Sakura into a comforting embrace and let her cry into his shirt. Er, his roommate's shirt…he should wash it before his roommate finds out about it. Or worse…his assistant discovering that another woman had cried into his roommate's shirt!

Naruto ran his hand over Sakura's pink hair and hoped that she would be finished crying soon. He really couldn't stand it when people cried, especially women, and especially Sakura.

Sakura started to mumble stuff into his chest as she cried. Naruto missed the first part because of how garbled the words were and how she was talking into his chest, but soon enough he heard what she was saying, "…and I don't know what to do! He wasn't even like this when his parents died!"

A pang of guilt hit Naruto. He had heard that Mr. and Mrs. Uchiha had died a couple of years after he had left. He had wanted to return then when Lee had told him about it, but the memory of Sasuke telling him to never return kept running through his mind…so he stayed away.

"…He's grown even more distant!" Sakura continued, but this time looking up at Naruto as tears fell from her eyes, "He barely acknowledges anybody, and even when he does it is only a grunt if they are lucky!"

Naruto had the urge to roll his eyes. It didn't take much to make Sasuke go uber-emo like that. But this was serious, as was indicated by Sakura's tears.

"So when he started calling for you, I jumped at the opportunity. I took the day off from work so that I could book a flight, and spent a lot of my savings for the tickets plus the return ticket for you! But it'll be worth it because I know you'll know what to do! When you come back, everything will get better! It'll be just like they used to be!" Sakura sounded somewhat hysterical in Naruto's opinion.

Naruto could only give her a sad, somewhat pitying look, full of apologies.

Sakura's smile from when she was describing how everything would be 'just like they used to be' faded as she searched Naruto's eyes. "No…" she whispered.

Naruto paused a moment, before saying, "I'm sorry, Sakura."

"No!" Sakura repeated, grabbing onto Naruto's shirt.

Naruto closed his eyes and shook his head sadly.

"NO! But you HAVE to come back! Sasuke was calling for you!" Sakura pleaded, shaking the shirt she had grasped in her fists.

"Sakura…" Naruto grabbed hold of her hands and held them in place, "even if we pretended that Sasuke actually was calling for me, it wouldn't matter. Even if I came back, which I'm not, I can guarantee you that he wouldn't appreciate it in the slightest. He'd just send me back within a minute and demand to know who even thought about bringing me back there. Then we wouldn't have to worry about him snapping and beating some random person, because he'd just go after whoever thought it was a great idea to bring me back to Konoha. Which would be you."

Sakura shook her head, "But you'd be back, and you would knock him back into place! You know you were the only person to ever be able to do that!"

Naruto looked away and shook his head. While it was true that Naruto was the only peer who stood up to Sasuke, it was not true that Naruto was the only one that could. But it wasn't a valid argument anymore because the other people were Itachi, and Sasuke's parents.

Naruto took a little longer than before, but he shook his head again and whispered, "I can't go back there."

Sakura backed away from him and turned around.

Then she walked over the couch and grabbed her bag, purse, and jacket.

Without turning around, she announced, "The ticket is for a flight back to Konoha at eight A.M. At least consider coming back, you owe us that much." She placed the ticket on the coffee table and walked out of the door.

Naruto wanted to scream in frustration at her words.

HE owed THEM?! How the hell did Sakura assume that in that pink head of hers?

Naruto had been gone for YEARS! TEN YEARS! Ten years since he had been in Konoha, and not ONE of his friends went out to search for him! Not even Lee, who only called!

He was only seven-friggin'-TEEN when he was told to leave! He was still technically a CHILD! But Naruto was only an orphan, so who would care if the parent-less child left?

When he left, everyone was either glad that he was gone or hadn't even noticed at all! Only three people in all of Konoha bothered to contact him after he left! And two of them understood completely why he was never going to return! The other was Lee.

But other than that, NO ONE bothered to contact him!

Naruto knew that he had changed his name from Naruto Namikaze to Naruto Uzumaki, but he also knew that it wasn't that big of a stretch. Anyone who truly wanted to contact him could have easily found out that the orphan was using his mother's maiden name instead of his father's last name. Even LEE could do it! His parents may have died before Naruto could remember much about them, but he knew that they were influential people in Konoha and it would not have been hard to guess what name Naruto was using.

So how the hell was that 'owing' anybody anything? If anything, THEY owed NARUTO an APOLOGY!

No one was on his side when he had left! No one called Sasuke out when he let it known that he decided that Naruto wasn't welcome in Konoha anymore!

So what if the bastard was having a rough couple of weeks without his brother? Naruto had been having a rough couple of YEARS without ANYBODY!

It was infuriating how Sakura assumed that she could just barge into Naruto's life after ten years and assume that he'd follow her wherever she told him to go all willy-nilly. And how she thought that the way to appeal to Naruto was to bring up SASUKE?

No. Not in a million years.

He had sworn—sworn—that he would never return to Konoha. Not after what had happened. Naruto could never forget what had happened on that day. He couldn't forget. He had a physical reminder of that day that he had to see when he looked in the mirror every day!

It wasn't fair of Sakura to ask something like this of Naruto! If she needed money, then he might have been willing. After all, he was doing pretty well for himself being a published author of four books. The only reason, really, that Naruto was still living with a roommate was because of his roommate's insistence and because Naruto knew he'd be too lonely without someone nearby, like he was in Konoha.

She could of asked for practically anything in the world, but nooooooooooo, she had to choose the ONE thing Naruto refused to do! Then she had the audacity to say that he 'owed' it to her?!

In the middle of attempting to not rip his hair out of his head, Naruto heard the door opening.

He looked up, dreading to see Sakura, when instead he was relieved to see his roommate!

Gaara Sabaku was placing the keys on their keys rack before he glared at Naruto with his green eyes lined in black eye-liner.

"You forgot to lock the door again," Gaara accused. His glare intensified as he commented, "And you are wearing my clothes again."

Normally, Naruto would have insisted that it wasn't his fault, and that he needed to be surrounded in comfort if he wanted to get any real work done. But he wasn't in the mood. It was taking a lot to not explode from all the pent up frustration Sakura left him with.

Gaara must have picked up on that, because he demanded to know, "What?"

Such a nice guy, that Gaara. Always sugar-coating his questions. Naruto was lucky to have a friend like him.

"Don't make me beat it out of you," Gaara warned. Naruto should have been flattered. Normally, Gaara would ask once—if at all—and leave it alone if he wasn't answered immediately.

Then Gaara appeared, magically, like sand in the wind and all that jazzy stuff, in front of Naruto. Then he glared again.

"You weren't avoiding work again, have you?" he accused.

Naruto looked down and shook his head. He wasn't sure if he could tell Gaara…he never went into specifics about why he left Konoha, ever. All he would really say was that he wasn't going back and that he didn't want to talk about it.

"Then what is it?" Gaara practically growled. Naruto almost forgot how protective over him that Gaara got sometimes. It was sweet, really, once he stopped Gaara from committing a mass murder and kicked his ass, the two had become inseparable.

"It's just that…" Naruto bit his lip, he wasn't sure if he wanted to say anything.

Gaara continued to glare. A silent indication that he was not going to let this go until Naruto spilled the beans.

Naruto sighed and said, "An old friend came to visit me…from Konoha."

Gaara's eyes widened a little bit, but that was just because he was not glaring as much anymore. He was still glaring anyway, so Naruto knew that he needed to continue.

"She…she wanted me to go back," Naruto looked away and his eyes landed on the envelope on the coffee table.

Gaara's eyes followed Naruto's, then asked, "Are you?"

"No!" Naruto answered immediately, "Yes…maybe…I don't know…it's complicated!"

"So un-complicate it," Gaara challenged as he picked up the envelope to inspect it.

"You don't get it!" Naruto insisted as he reached for the envelope in Gaara's hands.

"Because you won't talk about it," Gaara retorted as he walked to the couch.

Naruto stayed where he was, "Because it's too hard!"

"Bullshit." Gaara glared again, "Are you not the one who got into a community college by passing a high school equivalency exam because someone couldn't finish their senior year?"

"Yeah, but—"

"And are you not the same someone who signed on with a publishing company while you were still in that community college just two years after coming here?"

"You helped—"

"And are you not the same person who has published a new book every two years since then?"

"YES! But this is completely different!" Naruto insisted, using both hands to grab onto his head.

"Why?" Gaara demanded.

"Because I knew I had to make a new life here! Because I can't ever go back to that place!" Naruto insisted.

"Why?" Gaara repeated as he opened the envelope.

"Because…because…" Naruto couldn't say the real reason he had left.

He hadn't old anybody, and he was sure that neither did Sasuke. No matter how much he hated Sasuke, Naruto trusted that not even the bastard would tell people the real reason why they had fought, or the true extent to which it had extended.

Gaara glared at Naruto…or stared…it was hard to tell with Gaara and his lack of eyebrows. It wasn't a frown, though, because the red tattoo of the kanji of 'love' on his forehead wasn't furrowed.

Naruto sighed. He would tell the truth, but just a portion, "I told my best friend about how I'm…"

"Gay," Gaara supplied.

Naruto nodded, "And they weren't happy about it. So we fought; fists and all. And after he beat me, he told me to leave and never come back."

Gaara raised a nonexistent eyebrow, seemingly unimpressed. "Sounds melodramatic."

Naruto sighed, "I told you, you wouldn't understand."

"Oh, I understand," Gaara said, "I understand that you were given a choice to stay and fight or leave as a coward."

Naruto groaned in frustration, "There's more to it than that!"

"Such as?" Gaara asked as he examined the plane ticket.

Naruto slumped into a chair and held his head, "It wasn't just my best friend, but it was everyone!"

"I highly doubt that," Gaara deadpanned.

Naruto needed Gaara to understand, so he asked, "Remember before I met you, and how the entire city was against you?"

Gaara paused, much like Naruto did while Sakura was over, and nodded once darkly.

Naruto looked up at Gaara and said, "It was like that, except it was only rumors so I couldn't fight back. And the one person I thought I could rely on kicked my ass for even asking."

Gaara nodded again. After a moment, he asked, "Then why are you considering going back?"

"Wait—what?" Naruto asked, surprised by what Gaara had said.

Gaara stared at him for a moment before saying, "When I first asked you if you were going back, you said 'maybe'."

"I also said no!" Naruto defended, sticking his nose in the air in indignation.

Gaara was again unimpressed and asked, "So?"

Naruto sighed, "It's just…he was my best friend for years before everything happened. I wasn't there for him when his parents died, but now it's his brother…all that was left of his family…"

Gaara was silent.

Naruto cleared his throat, "Anyway, uh, my friend who came over said that he was close to his breaking point and she said that I'm the only one who can get through to him anymore."

Gaara asked, "And that's it? You stayed away from your hometown for ten years because of the guy and the minute he gets in trouble you come running back?"

"Hey! First you call me a coward for leaving, and now you're calling me a pussy for considering going back? Make up your damn mind, man!"

Gaara shrugged and said, "I just want to make sure you know what you're getting yourself into."

"Yeah, well, thanks but no thanks," Naruto rolled his eyes and flopped further into the chair he was in.

"But is that the only reason you are considering going back?" Gaara persisted.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Naruto exploded, "I mean no! I mean…" he collapsed a little into himself, "maybe…maybe he'll accept me like he did in the past…and…and we can be friends like we used to be…we could be like brothers again…"

Naruto sighed and looked up at Gaara, "What do you think I should do?"

Gaara shook his head, "This is a decision you must make yourself." He placed the ticket back on the coffee table and started to sit up.

"Wait!" Naruto shouted and reached out his hand. Then he retracted it and said in a quieter voice, "Wait…can you…can you stay with me tonight?"

Gaara paused a moment, then rolled his eyes. "I suppose you can use my knees as a pillow until you fall asleep."

Naruto beamed. Gaara was an insomniac, so he was expecting Gaara to remind him of the fact and say he was going out on his usual walk. "And then you'll tuck me in reeeal tight into bed?"

Gaara rolled his eyes as Naruto set a pillow against Gaara's legs.

Coming Back

Sakura's grin was a little too smug for Naruto's liking when she spotted him at the airport early the next morning.

She had waved to him with that self-satisfied smile of hers to which Naruto only half-heartedly returned, for many reasons.

The first being because he was not happy about returning. Gaara had woken Naruto up earlier and demanded to know Naruto's answer after 'sleeping on it'.

Naruto may have lived in Suna for ten years, he still liven seventeen years of his life in Konoha and its normal sun schedule. He still lived by the rule that if the Sun was not up, then he should not be up; weird Suna Sun schedule be damned!

He couldn't eat any breakfast this morning because he was forced to awaken so early so that he could pack for a trip that he barely even wanted to go on.

He didn't want to go…he really didn't want to go back to Konoha. Naruto would rather go to jail for a year for each time his mentor had been caught spying on women than go back to Konoha!

But yet he was going back…he could barely believe it, but it was the truth.

Naruto kept telling himself that he just needed to remind himself that Sasuke had called for him; had mumbled in his sleep for Naruto. He just needed to tell himself that maybe Sasuke wanted to turn over a new leaf.

Naruto was willing to forgive if Sasuke was willing to apologize.

"Naruto!" Sakura called out to him, waving at him a little too cheerily. He could imagine Sakura cheering to herself that she just knew that Naruto would be coming back and was congratulating herself. She probably believed that she was the real reason that Naruto was coming back.

"Sakura…" Naruto greeted back to her, a lot less cheery than Sakura.

"Aw, c'mon! Don't be like that!" Sakura smiled at him, somewhat smugly. "You're coming home!"

"Sakura." Naruto said firmly, "I'm not going back home."

The smile faded, "But—"

"I am going to visit Konoha for a few days, but it is not my home. Suna is my home." Naruto was serious about making this point. He wouldn't allow Sakura to go around telling people that he was coming back 'home'.

The smile was less smug, and was obviously forced, but Naruto was in too bad of a mood to really care.

Naruto sighed, and said, "Let's get going, then."

Sakura nodded and hurried to get her bags checked.

Naruto breathed in deeply. He was going back…he was really going. After ten years, he was going back to Konoha…

He was scared.


And that was the chapter.

I know, I started another story: I'm terrible. But I just got the incredible urge to write this…so I wrote this chapter in about a day, and usually it takes me about a week! But my inner muse is demanding, and I heed to her whim.

So please let me know what you think of this new story!