A/N: Yay! Yet another sucky oneshot written in math class! I like how I use math class to write stories, and then there not even that good… Please review, I could use the moral support from some certain people, whose names I can't out here…you know who are, bitches…

Warnings: Major character death (you people should be expecting this by now, do I really have to tell you?), and shonen-ai, oh and super depressed Sasuke, but what's new?

Disclaimer: You just have to keep reminding me that I do not in fact own Naruto or Sasuke, or any of the other character, don't you?

Long Gone

Sasuke opened his eyes slowly to reveal a blurry Sakura sitting beside the white bed he was lying in. They had found him bloody and barely alive, collapsed outside the gates of his old home, Konoha. With his avenger's dream fulfilled, he had come back, he had finally come home. He knew there was no way for everything to return to how it had been before, but Sasuke merely wanted to fix the broken ties, most importantly the one he had treasured most, that he still held above all other's. Returning from his thoughts of a certain teammate left behind, he suddenly realized people standing behind Sakura, the entirety of the rookie teams, along with Guy's team. Everyone's face mirrored the same expression, something was wrong, very wrong, and Sasuke could not guess what it could be.

They had all grown up, and as Sasuke studied them, he felt out of place. They had matured, changed, and he was still the same, they had left him behind. But he knew he deserved this abandonment, he had left them behind first. He did not know what had happened during the past three years, and he would never truly know, merely because he had not been there, merely because he had not stayed. But he noticed something that unnerved him, no one would look at him, not one person would meet his questioning gaze. Why were they all here? Why were they not yelling at him, or telling him how much they hated him for abandoning them, for betraying them? But most of all, what was wrong, because they was something obviously amiss that he did not know about, that they were not telling him. Chouji and Shikamaru stood side by side as always, but on Shikamaru's other side was Ino. Sasuke was confused by this, they had never gotten along as far as he knew, but their intertwined hands told differently as Ino held onto Shikamaru's hand as if for a life line. Shino and Kiba stood beside them with a tearful Hinata held in Kiba's arms, Sasuke was shocked that Hinata seemed to be over her infatuation with a certain blonde and had instead moved onto her fellow teammate. TenTen stood further to the back of the room, almost at the door, she appeared out of place, not standing with anyone, and refusing to look at anywhere but the closed door. Sasuke turned his head away from the large group and to his other side, where he found his old sensei and Iruka by his bed. Kakashi stood straight, but his head was lowered as he stared at the ground, he was half holding a sullen Iruka who was leaning against the masked jounin for support. Neji stood further away from the group than even TenTen was, he stood by the window, staring out at the twilight, a far away look in his pale eyes, as if thinking of a time long past away, the memories were drowning him. Confused by the behavior of the people surrounding him, Sasuke finally turned back to where Sakura was seated for an answer. Lee stood behind her, for once no smile on his face, a hand resting on her sagging shoulders. Sakura looked different, as if while Sasuke had been gone, the short years had taken their toll on the usually bright girl. As if the tragedy she had seen had forced her to grown up too soon , too fast. In fact everyone looked that way, as if stretched thin, as if they had seen something, experienced something that shoved them unprepared into adulthood. As if they had suffered through something together, and each other was all they had left. Then Sasuke realized the missing part of his return, the most important part of his return, the only reason he had really come back here instead of staying out there, his loved one.

"Where's Naruto?" he asked, trying to look behind the crowd, waiting for the loud boy to burst through the doors, yelling. Sakura flinched, her face portraying the pain of unhealed wounds.

"Where's Naruto?!" Sasuke asked again as he sat up, a feeling of lightheadedness washing over him from the quick movement, worry and apprehension now etched into his darkened angelic face.

Sakura whispered, her eyes closed, "I knew you would come back, I just never though you would be so late…", she trailed off. Sasuke looked up at his forgotten friends, still no one would look him in the eyes. Now, they all had a renewed look of distress on their faces. He turned to Iruka who had tears glistening in his brown eyes, and then too Kakashi, who was the only one so far to look the Uchiha in the eyes. But the jounin revealed nothing through their eye contact, he had no expression, that was how he had been trained, emotions are useless, leave them be, his eyed were dead. Sasuke looked to the Hyuuga standing by the window, he too kept Sasuke's gaze, and hidden in the brown haired boy's blank white eyes was a deep hate, and an unforgiving blame. Looking back to the pink haired girl who was struggling to keep tears back he growled.

"Where is Naruto?" he said in a low, dangerous voice.

Sakura's broken voice cut through his ice heart, "He's gone…he left long ago."

The words didn't make sense to the lone Uchiha, he couldn't understand them, he wouldn't…

Live to die…

He had been gone for too long, for him the years had passed in a blur, vengeance driving him to live, not truly caring if he died as long as he completed his task.

Survive to fall…

Surviving only on the need to kill his brother, not caring what was to happen after his vengeance was achieved.

Sacrifice for nothing at all…

He had sacrificed everything, his home, his friends, Naruto and all he had received in return was a life of emptiness and blind hate.

"He's gone…he left long ago." The words echoed in his head without mercy. He loved the boy, Naruto had been his only reason for returning home, Naruto was his hope that everything would be alright. No one else mattered to the avenger, no one. Love, now the feeling of unconditional love was gone, only a shadow of it remained in his cold heart, because now, now all Sasuke could only know of misery and loneliness. Abandonment. He was all alone again. The dark haired boy turned to see Iruka crying hysterically into Kakashi's chest, screaming as he slid limply to his knees, crying like a mother who had lost her only child. Sasuke looked away, and numbly slid out of the hospital bed and, as if walking through water, slowly and gracefully pushed past everyone until he reached the window and stood beside a silently hateful Neji. The raven haired avenger looked out at the orange sunset, it reminded his of a certain lost friend, love. He watched the sun leave the sky, and as the sun disappeared, the night swallowing it, he felt his only connection with Naruto die. Sasuke allowed himself the indulgence of a lone tear streaking down his flawless face. But the expression of pain was addicting and soon he was sobbing. Neji looked at the fallen boy before him, broken now. He knew that the avenger would never get better. This was too much, the boy was fated to be haunted by regret for the rest of his life.

"He's gone…he left long ago."

He was right, years past and Sasuke never was the same. He became numb, moving as if he was only doing it out of habit, speaking only when asked a direct question and even then it was as if his response was pre recorded. The only emotion he expressed was that of unimaginable pain. Regret tore at him, you could see it in his faded black eyes. His wounds would never heal, they weren't allowed to. When asked if was alright his answer was a response said so many times that all it was now nothing more than a well delivered line.

"He's gone…he left long ago."

"…I'm fine."

No one believed him.

End

mfs

A/N: Bwhahahahaha! Naruto committed suicide and its all Sasuke's fault! Not very original, I know. And, and Neji loved Naruto, if you didn't caught that. He just strikes me as the perverted gay type that would molest Naruto if they were left alone… Anyways, leave me a review please.