Princess

Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever own Naruto or any of its characters. If I did, why would I write fanfiction? I also do not own the cover image of this fanfic nor do I take any credit for it. All credit goes to the wonderful artist themselves.

A/N: This was my submission for tumblr's snsweek, and I decided to share it here too, even though snsweek has already ended. I apologise for any grammar or spelling mistakes, as English is not my native language and I currently do not have a bèta-reader. If you see any mistakes, please feel free to point them out to me and I will fix them.

All was quiet in the white halls of Konoha Hospital, except for the occasional cough and the turning of pages coming from the waiting room. But then the doors of the main entrance opened and the click-clack of shoes on the floor. A young man made his way towards the receptionist's desk. The woman at the desk looked up at his arrival and asked the question she asked about 50 times every day: "Good morning, can I help you?"

"I'm here to see Uchiha Itachi."

"What's your name?" The receptionist asked in a particularily bored tone of voice.

The man huffed. "Uchiha Sasuke," was his short response. This man didn't seem very fond of unnecessary conversation.

"That's a very nice name." Sasuke turned around, coming face to face with a blond man with sky-blue eyes. The man smiled, probably the brightest smile he had ever seen, said something about his previous statement being a compliment and that he'd better thank him because 'that is the polite thing to do and more people will like you if you're nice to them.' He then extended his hand towards Sasuke. "Nice to meet you, my name is Naruto."

Sasuke looked at his hand for a while, contemplating wether he would shake this strange man's hand and maybe be able to see his smile again, or if he should just mumble 'excuse me' and move on with his day. He ended up choosing the first option. "Sasuke. And thank you."

Naruto smiled again, that stunning, shining smile, and said: "I knew you could do it!"

"Hn. Usuratonkachi."

"You really aren't very talkative, are you, teme?"

"Who are you here for?"

"Well," Naruto scratched his head, "everyone, basically."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke was confused, to say the least.

"You see, when I was a very small kid I was in the hospital pretty often and I uses to be very lonely, 'cause I never had any family," Naruto explained, "But one day, a boy, about 5 years older than me, came to visit me together with another kid about my age. He always brought me dango and sat beside me to talk about his day, and he'd tell the most amazing stories ever. One time, he even got me a kunai for my birthday, and it was the most amazing birthday I had ever had, because nobody had ever given me a present before! And now I want to pass that kind gesture on to others, so I come here every day to talk to some people here, and I bring them books and games so they have something to do. It gets pretty boring here, especially after visiting hours." He smiled his bright smile again.

Sasuke was awestruck by this stranger's kindness, and of course by his beautiful smile. "That… that's amazing…"

"But anyway, you said you were visiting Uchiha Itachi. Is he your brother or somethin'? Why is he in here?"

Once again, Sasuke was speechless. This guy… no, Naruto was the first person who ever asked him why he always visited this hospital. He was the first one who seemed to care. "Yes, my brother has been in this hospital for a few months, he contracted a mysterious illness that will kill him if he doesn't get a cure, but it's only available in Switzerland, and it's very expensive, way too expensive for me." Naruto seemed shocked about it, then sad, but suddenly his eyes lit up again and he said: "I'll help you pay for it, I'll find a way, I swear!"

"But… it's impossible…" Sasuke stammered, clearly taken aback by Naruto's determination.

"Nothing is, and saying it is 's not gonna make it possible! And by the way, visitor hours are almost over, go see your brother, I'll come with you." Leaving no room for an answer, Naruto took Sasuke by the arm and dragged him towards the elevator. Upon arriving at Itachi's room, Sasuke opened his door, stepped inside and mentioned for Naruto to follow him. Itachi looked up from his book. "Hello, otouto, it's nice to see you, I was just reading the book you brought me, it's very nice. And who's the young man over there?"

"This is…"

"I'm Sasuke's friend," Naruto said. Sasuke looked at him in shock. Nobody had ever called him a friend before… he had a friend!

"It's very pleasant to hear that Sasuke has a friend, he's always had a tough time making friends, though he used to have a friend when he was very young, he must have been five or six…"

"Yes, aniki, that's enough! I think visiting hour is over anyway, so we have to go, bye!" Sasuke ushered Naruto out of the room. He didn't want to hear any more embarassing stories about his childhood, and he certainly didn't want Naruto to hear them. Naruto poked his head back through the door to say goodbye to Itachi, and then they left. Sasuke wanted to get back home, but Naruto insisted on treating him to some ramen. They ate and they talked, they talked about all kinds of things, about their hobbies, their studies and a lot of other stuff. And Sasuke found himself enjoying Naruto's company more than he would anyone else's.

Don't play with that kid, Sasuke, don't come near him!

This went on for weeks, they'd meet up in the waiting room of the hospital, go to Itachi's room, talk about their days and play games, leave when the nurses told them to and eat ramen. A few times Sasuke would come with Naruto to his apartment and they'd play video games and drink hot chocolate. Eventually Sasuke would visit the hospital more often to spend time with Naruto, and he even started coming along with him to the other patients. He saw how much they adored him and his funny jokes and silly stories. And that made him even happier to be his friend, no, he had to stop lying to himself, it made him want to be… something more. But he would rather die than admit that to Naruto, because of course he wouldn't feel the same way, why would he love Sasuke when there were so many better people to love, who would certainly love him back, Naruto couldn't possibly love him.

But Naruto did, he knew from the beginning that he would fall in love with Sasuke, because he saw the kind heart underneath the icy 'I don't care' attitude, and he was going to try his hardest to melt that exterior and show him that he was worth being loved. And that wasn't going to work if he just kept his mouth shut, so he should just assemble all the courage he had and say it. It couldn't possibly be that hard, could it? But it was.

Sasuke remembered something. What are you doing,Sasuke? Get away from him before father sees us!

It took them two more weeks to admit their feelings, two weeks sound like a very short time, but remember that they became friends in two minutes, fell in love somewhere between one second and two weeks and technically had their first date an hour after meeting each other for the first time. So they weren't exactly the most 'normal' people when it came to time. And in those two weeks a lot happened, the most important of which being that Itachi's condition worsened. Sasuke got upset, which was to be expected, but Naruto told him that everything was going to be alright because he already had a plan. This caused Sasuke to blurt out an unexpected "I love you."

Naruto couldn't have been happier. Sasuke loved him! "I love you too, so much," he said, wearing maybe the biggest smile he had ever smiled in his life. And what do you think happened next? Yes, they kissed, so clichè for two people who defied all clichès together, but still cute so shhh. And they decided not to tell Itachi, because he would, without a doubt, come up with more stories about Sasuke's childhood or he'd ask very embarassing questions. So no thank you. But they had completely forgotten about Itachi's briliant mind, he had probably known about their feelings from the start. So the next time they saw him, he said: "so you've finally admitted your feelings for eachother, I'm happy for you, otouto."

"B-but… we… never… t-told... you…" Naruto stammered, obviously very confused.

"I may not look like it, but I'm smarter than you think. What kind of brother am I if I can't even see it when Sasuke is in love? Do you know about Sasuke's first crush, it was on a little b…." Sasuke interrupted him, his face a bright red, saying: "Yes, he does, love you, see you, bye!" And he left, taking Naruto's hand and pulling him along. Itachi just smiled and whispered: "I love you too, brother," before he started coughing again. Pulling his hand away from his mouth, he saw that it was red. He was coughing blood.

But Otou-sama, he is lonely, and I like him. Why can't I play with him?

Sasuke frowned when Naruto told him that he shouldn't come with him to the patients that week, but he complied anyway, because he trusted Naruto. He gave him as much as he could give when Naruto asked him for his donation for Itachi's cure, wondering why Naruto needed it. He cried when the doctors told him that Itachi was going to die within this month, knowing that he would never be able to get him his cure. And he laughed, cried, screamed and hugged Naruto when the latter gave him a piece of paper. And not just a piece of paper, it was a cheque for 250.000 dollars, the price of Itachi's only hope at survival.

"How did you do this?! It was impossible!"

"What did I tell you about saying something is impossible? I asked every patient wether they had some money that they could miss for a very important cause and almost all of them agreed. I also took up an extra job from the moment you told me about your brother and put all that money together with whatever I had that I didn't absolutely need, your share, Itachi's own share and the patients' donations, donations from other people I knew and the money I earned by selling stuff in my house and it was just enough!" Sasuke was reduced to tears by Naruto's kindness, by how much he was willing to do to save a life and by the kindness of the other patients. If he hadn't met this amazing man, his wonderful boyfriend, then Itachi would have died, because he never would have thought of all this himself.

"So, shall we tell Itachi? He'll want to hear this as fast as possible!" And together they ran up the stairs of the hospital, not even bothering with the elevator, and they ran into Itachi's room. Itachi, who was startled by their sudden appearance, looked up. "Why were you in such a hurry to get to me?"

Naruto literally yelled the next statement, even his childhood habit slipped back into the sentence, out of sheer excitement. "We have the money for your cure, you're not gonna die 'ttebayo!"

Itachi smiled, happiness at getting to live radiating from his eyes, to be replaced with recognition moments later. "Naru-kun?" he said, looking at Naruto. Upon hearing that, it all came back to him.

"Ita-niisan?" he replied, his eyes filled with hope and wonder, as if he was that little kid again, the little kid in the hospital who ended almost every sentence with 'ttebayo'.

Because he is different, Sasuke, don't you see it? His hair, his eyes, he doesn't belong here.

And Sasuke remembered. He remembered seeing the little boy in the playground, sitting on a swing, all alone. He remembered his father getting mad at him for saying 'hello' to the kid, telling him not to come near him. But he did, secretly. He would play games with the boy, he'd play pretend with him and they would be pirates and the slide was their ship, or they'd lay down in the grass and tell each other what the clouds looked like. At first, when Itachi saw them, he'd tell him not to play with the boy, because father would get mad. Later, he would cover for him, and he'd smile when Sasuke told him about his friend.

Onii-chan, I love him, I want to be a prince on a horse and Naru-chan can be my princess so I can rescue him from all the mean people!

His brother laughed when he told him this and said that he should train hard to become very strong to protect his 'Naru-chan'. And from that day, Sasuke ran 10 laps around their house every day, and he would hold a stick and pretend it was his sword. And Itachi would play along and they would hold matches in the woods, slamming the sticks together as they would with real swords. And when his 'princess' was in the hospital because the mean people hit him or pushed him off his swing they would visit him and talk to him and onii-chan would bring him presents and he would tell stories about princes and princesses and dragons. But then otou-sama found out and he had to stay home all the time, but Itachi would keep telling him the stories, so he knew that one day he would rescue him. And then okaa-sama and otou-sama had an accident and everything was dark and black, but he got to live with onii-san and he let him go to the playground again but his boy wasn't there. And he cried for days because he thought the mean people had taken him away and he would never see his precious friend again. He never made another friend after that, everyone was boring and stupid compared to Naru-chan. He loved Naru-chan!

But now, he had found his princess again, and in a way fitting a true fairytale, they lived happily ever after.