One Lonely Star
by splica
Summary: A young Naruto stargazes. A young Sasuke thinks he's an idiot. And there's a lonely star in the sky... NaruSasu, pre-slash, fluff.
Disclaimer: Nope, I do not own Naruto et al.
Rating: PG-13
Author's note: Another of what I'm re-titling 'The Innocent Hearts' series because the Sasuke-and-Naruto-as-Children series just sounded ridiculous...Warning for, ah, 'baby' talk, I know, I caved XD; And shortness—again. I'll make the next one longer I swear! ):
They were both laid out on their backs, staring up at the dark night sky. Naruto had almost had to beg his parents to let him come out; Sasuke had just sneaked out the back door when no one was looking but he was sure no one would miss him anyway.
So they'd both come here, to a little grassy hill in the middle of a large field. Naruto had brought the blankets and Sasuke had brought some food and they'd lain down to stare at the sky. They'd been like that for a while—just staring up quietly at the stars above them.
Naruto began to fidget though and then he turned to his friend with a sad look. "Hey Sas'ke?" He asked.
Sasuke tilted his head slightly to look the blond in the eye, "Yeah?" He kept his voice quiet—even though no one was around it just seemed wrong to be loud—to be speaking out in the darkness around them. Like this, quietly, with just the two of them it was like they were only the two in the world.
It made Sasuke smile—him and his Naruto, the only two in the world. He smile turned to a frown though when he saw Naruto fidget some more and sigh.
"D'you see it?" The blond asked him.
Sasuke just shook his head, confused when his friend sighed again in frustration. "Why can't you see it?" He said, stressing the world, seeming to get more and more wound up when Sasuke just shook his head in bewilderment.
"You're being all confusing," he told the blond boy. "Making no sense."
"Nu-uh! You're just being dumb!" The blond denied, sticking his tongue out.
"I am not!" Sasuke replied, slightly hurt at the blonds' words.
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Shut up! You're the one being dumb!"
Naruto scowled at him before huffing and turning his back on the dark-haired boy, pulling his arms over his head and effectively blocking the other boy out.
Sasuke sat up, steaming for a bit, and then feeling guilty before going back to steaming. Why should he feel guilty? The blond had started it! Just because he was being confusing and how was Sasuke supposed to know what he was talking about? He wasn't psychic!
"Hey," he said, before repeating it louder when the blond didn't reply. "Hey!"
"Am not talking to you," the blond replied, his voice muffled from within his arms.
"I'm sorry, 'kay? What d'you want me to see?" He tugged on Naruto's arm, pulling on him until the blond turned to glare at him.
"The star! Why can't ya see it? You should see it Sas'ke."
The dark-haired boy crossed his arms over his chest defensively. "Maybe if you told me idiot."
"Am not an idiot!"
"Are too!"
"Am—hey!"
Sasuke smirked when the blond broke out into a grin at last. Naruto laughed, pushing on Sasuke's arm before leaning against him.
The warmth of the other boy against him was nice in the cold weather and Sasuke let it seep into him, not wanting to move, just wanting to stay with his Naruto forever and forever. If only he didn't have to go home to bed—and he had to go to school in the morning, although that wasn't so bad because Naruto would be there.
Quiet fell then, the only sound coming from the two boys breathing in sync.
It was broken when Naruto moved, his arm reaching out and pointing at the sky. "There t'is, can you see it?"
Sasuke looked up, following the blonds' arm into the sky. He could see the little pinpricks of light—he even knew what they were, Iruka-sensei had told them just the other day. Massive balls of gas in the air, millions of years away, just floating in space. Sasuke wanted to float too, he'd told so Naruto after Iruka-sensei had stopped speaking and Naruto had nodded at him seriously.
"I pwomise," Naruto had told him, "I pwomise that one day we'll go to the sky! And we'll become as'tonauts and see the stars! Just you and me Sas'ke."
Just you and me. The words echoed in Sasuke's mind as he finally found what Naruto was pointing at.
There was one lone star above them, away from all the others. Sasuke knew why Naruto had connected with it even when the thought caused a tug of—of something inside of him. It made his heart hurt and he didn't know why.
Instead he just wrapped his arm around Naruto's shoulders, pulling him closer and reaching out with his own hand, his finger pointing straight up.
"Na'to," he told the boy, "the star's not just one lonely star. It's one star in a hund'ed stars—there are a bazillion stars all round it!"
Naruto looked at him confused, "No it s'not!" He insisted, shaking his head.
Sasuke gave the boy a small superior smirk, "You're so dumb sometimes," he told his friend. "And you only see one thing—that's why you're dumb. You need to see everything –" he thought for a moment before adding something he'd heard his brother Itachi say once. "You need to look at the bigger picture!" He finished importantly, proud of himself for remembering something so smart-sounding.
Naruto looked at him in amazement. "Bigger pic'ture?" He repeated, turning back to look at the stars. He laughed then, pointing upwards.
"Hey, hey Sas'ke!" He said excitedly. "The moon's there too!"
Sasuke gave him a small grin, "Yeah, the moon's there too."
The blond turned to his friend, "So the star's not lonely?"
Sasuke shook his head, feeling the blond relax against him. He smiled. "Nope, definitely not lonely."
"Good," Naruto replied. "'Cuz I'm not lonely either."
Sasuke just smiled.
'Course not, dumb-Naruto. I'm here—and while I'm here you'll never be lonely.
And one day...we're going to see the stars together.
The end.
a/n: just a cute little ficlet, because I seem intent on writing multi-parters recently ::Haha::