Trap With No Prey
"Hokage-sama, I have come back to take my punishment." The room was filled with silence as the chair started to turn around. Sasuke's eyes widened. "I wasn't expecting to see you for a while, Sasuke."
The blue-eyed, blonde Rokudaime looked into the missing-nin's dark onyx ones. Then just as quickly broke away to look at the ANBU that stood just a yard away. "Please go summon the council for me, Iwashi." Said ANBU bowed and was gone in a flash.
Naruto leaned back into his chair and began to look over some paperwork on his desk. The room was silent except for the occasional ruffle of paper. Sasuke observed the young Hokage who wore a calm expression on his matured face. He felt awkward just standing there, being ignored. "Sit," Naruto quietly ordered, indicating the chair in front of the desk.
Sasuke obliged silently, feeling slightly annoyed. A few more minutes and he finally snapped. "Well, are you going to give me a punishment or what?"
Naruto looked up from his work and smiled charmingly. "No, I am going to leave that to the council." Sasuke frowned, but his retort was cut off by a knock. Sasuke's gaze stayed on his past-friend, while Naruto's one sky blue ones looked over to the door. "Come in."
The door creaked open and Sasuke heard a few clicks of glass hitting up against each other. "Naruto-kun, I'm here with your afternoon tea and some cookies for a snack!"
Sasuke instantly recognized the voice, having heard it quite a few times in his adolescence. He tensed in his high-backed chair, steeling himself for some reaction, of what kind was unknown to him. "Thank you very much, Ino-chan. I really appreciate it," Naruto said pleasantly, as if nothing had happened.
Sasuke could feel the female blonde's eyes shift towards the chair, could hear her footstep coming nearer to Naruto's desk. "Are you in a meeting, Naruto-kun? I didn't mean to interrupt."
Naruto smiled and shifted a few papers on his desk. "No, it's alright."
Crash, crack, splat. The peaceful atmosphere was broken by the loud breaking of glass. The floor was covered with shards of varied sizes of glass from a plate and teacup and the crumbled remains of a once cookie.
Ino stood across from Naruto, her eyes wide and hands positioned as if she still had the plate in her shaking hands. Sasuke trained his eyes stubbornly where Naruto's face had been a second ago.
Naruto stooped down and began to pick up the glass, piling it on top of the biggest piece of the broken plate. He then calmly stood up with it and turned to Ino. "Ino-chan, could you go put this in the trash and get me an other cup of tea, please."
Ino turned to look at him, the shock melting off her features, and her hands now clasped in tight fists. "Yes, of course Naruto-kun. I'm sorry about the mess, I'll get it cleaned as soon as possible," Ino said in a cheery voice, a happy smile plastered onto her lips. Their eyes locked for a few moments before he handed her the glass, and she turned, closing the door quietly behind her.
Naruto seated himself back into his chair and yawned quietly before picking up his pen again. "So, did you get it?"
Sasuke refocused on Naruto from the window in back of him. Naruto waited patiently, eyes cast down on his paperwork. "Get what?" Sasuke asked quietly. Naruto looked up sharply and gave him an intense blue stare before looking back down.
"The power you seeked." Sasuke stared for a moment before answering. "Yes, and I left the Sound as soon as I was confident in it to look for Itachi."
Naruto put the last paper in the out box and folded his hands on his now clear desk. "Did you find him?" Naruto asked quietly.
Sasuke looked down at his feet. "He was already dead." Silence filled the room. Sasuke slowly looked up, making certain to avoid Naruto's eyes. "You did it then?" Naruto nodded and his appearance did not change.
"I'll admit. I waited a bit before finally doing it. But he was becoming more of a threat to Konoha, so after a while I couldn't wait for you anymore. Believe me I really did want you to be the one to do the job." Sasuke studied his blue pools. They were completely iced over to show absolutely no emotion.
"Do you hate me?" Sasuke asked quietly, staring into his eyes for any reaction. Naruto's eye's stayed the same while he grinned weakly, but as he began to speak the ice seemed to crack.
"I hate no one. People haven't always been exactly nice to me, but I learned to forgive them." His eyes filled with an emotion Sasuke couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it was so familiar. "But I feel far from happy to see you. The only thing I feel towards you is pity."
'Yes, that's the one.' Sasuke thought. 'That stupid emotion that I hate so much…' And yet seeing it in Naruto's eyes and hearing him say it, it didn't anger Sasuke at all.
Lately he hadn't been feeling much but angry, calm and annoyance. Maybe it was from the final realization that he had sold his life away for power only to be unable to use it for his goal.
"Sasuke," Naruto called to him, snapping him out of his thoughts. "The council members are here." Sasuke looked over at the door.
There stood a tall, sturdy man with spiky silver hair and red markings under his eyes. He looked uninterested at the Uchiha and then turned to Naruto. "Why did you call us, you could have decided on your own."
Sasuke looked back at Naruto. His lips were stretched into a peaceful smile and his eyes twinkled. "I thought it would only be fair for him, my punishment would have been far overblown."
Jiraiya nodded in agreement and turned motioning for Sasuke to follow. He was lead down the hall. Along the way he saw two familiar people talking in the doorway of one of the weapon storage rooms.
"Yea, so I planned on seeing Hinata-chan at lunchtime, but then I figured, why not go during class time? Those kids do need a break occasionally. Don't you think?" the dog specialist ninja clothed in ANBU uniform talked loudly to his raven haired Jounin companion.
Said Jounin wore loose black pants and green shirt with his vest over it. He had what seemed to be a missions report in his hand, and must have been going to drop it off for the Rokudaime to read.
"I agree, everyone deserves a rest once in a while. Sakura-chan should be coming back from her mission soon; I plan to take her out. I-" Lee stopped to stare at the passing Sasuke. Kiba, confused by Lee's pause, turned around and his face twisted into disgust.
"I should go now, I have guard duty soon," Kiba said quietly. Lee nodded. "And I have to get this report to Naruto-kun." They quickly separated, each going opposite ways. 'Well, looks like word will be getting out…' Sasuke thought bitterly as he entered the conference room after Jiraiya.
Sasuke silently entered the Hokage's office without knocking. He quietly positioned himself in front of Naruto, who was waiting for him with a emotionless face, his eyes once more iced over.
"Six months in prison, then a private execution."
Naruto nodded silently and stood. He stared at Sasuke, and vice versa. "You do know they went easy on you." Sasuke silently nodded.
Naruto's face fell into a frown and he sighed softly. "I'm sorry, Sasuke." Sasuke looked up in surprise. "Sorry?" Naruto regarded him with a simple smile.
"I wish I had been able to save you. But I suppose by the time we last fought, the hatred for your brother had taken over." Naruto locked Sasuke into an intense gaze, his expression completely serious.
"It's really sad to look into your eyes and see nothing but empty, cold black. You really aren't the Sasuke that was my best friend." Sasuke smirked. "That Sasuke's long dead, just like I'll be in six months."
Naruto nodded and his face was devoid of emotion once again. "Shikamaru, Neji, escort Sasuke to the prison cells."
In a split second the two afore mentioned ANBU officers appeared. One led the Uchiha, while the other walked behind him.
When they had turned around Ino had appeared at the open door with a tray of steaming tea and cookies. She silently walked in, giving Sasuke a cold sideways glare as she passed.
"Here you go, Naruto-kun. I'm sorry it took so long, we ran out of your favorite tea, so I had to go to the store to buy it." Sasuke could just imagine Naruto's appreciative smile.
"You didn't have to do that. Anyway, I have a special mission for you." Ino let out a let out a small sound of joy. "An other spying mission right? My specialty."
Naruto chuckled softly. "Of course, you are our best ANBU spy after all." The rest of the conversation was lost to Sasuke's ears as Neji shut the wooden door behind them.
Six months to mourn over his sins. Six months to drown in self-loathing. Six months seemed oh so fair when he thought about how long Naruto might of given him.
A/N: Kinda lame, I'll admit (I was too lazy to add any detail), but I just felt this urge to write. That's the good thing about one-shots, you can write them to your hearts content and not have to later drag yourself into writing an other chapter or else have to look behind your back for the next eighteen months so you don't get shot in the head by an angry reviewer…
I know what you're all thinking; the title's really weird. But sorry, I'm absolutely horrible with titles, so I just made it up. Oh well…
Anyway, I hoped you liked it. I might add if I feel up to writing a next chappie, so don't expect anything…
Review, no flames, have a cookie on your way to that button.