The Pier, a naruto fanfic

Warning: This story if full of sadness. If you don't want to read that, press the 'back' button. If you are averse to reading male-with-male relationships, press the 'back' button. I will not be held accountable if you see something you don't wish to. The characters are OOC, but that's unavoidable I suppose. And this is a songfic, in case that wasn't already apparent.

Disclaimer: Neither the song nor the manga are my possession. This is simply fan-based and has no association with the artist or mangaka.

Lyrics – Bold

Letters – Italics

Note: Nothing in this story is real. The town and school are fictitious. Any resemblance to anything real is unintended by the author and pure coincidence.

--U R Darkest's Pawn--

The Pier

--Year 1965--

It was July 25, a hot summer's day in the small town of Long City, Texas. A blonde boy walked out into the front of the diner and smiled at the new lacquered lettering they'd placed above it. Pa's Café, it read. Despite the arguments between himself and his grandfather, the name of the place had remained the same since they'd first opened ten years ago.

He turned to let himself back in to the café but paused when he caught sight of a pale young man with dark hair. 'How unfortunate', he thought. 'Another one caught by the draft.'

Being sixteen himself, he wouldn't be eligible for another two years. But he planned to run away by then. There'd be no way he'd be caught in that, if he could help it.

"Hey, old perv! It's almost time to open up, you ready?" he called, closing the door behind him. Walked to the farthest wall and slipped under the counter. Before he placed his hand on the door, he heard soft giggling behind it and froze.

He'd walked in on his grandfather 'studying', more like mentally undressing, woman before. His grandmother took none of that so the old man tended to rely on the younger ones for that. But if the old woman caught, oh there would be hell to pay.

With a sigh, he simply walked over to the cash register and checked to make sure the day's stash was prepared.

There was a ding from the front door and a young girl walked. Her hair was bubblegum pink and her eyes jade. "G'mornin', Sakura." the blonde greeted amiably.

The girl smiled back at him while reaching for her apron. "'Mornin', Naruto. Is your grandpa here yet?"

With a knowing smile to the kit's blush, she received her answer.

Two minutes to go before opening. And the two talked of nothingness and joked together.

-----

In those days, it wasn't very common that a small town like theirs would have a busy café. Sure, it was well known and popular amongst the citizens, but with a population of about 1800 people year-round, it was to be expected that days were slow, regardless of the time of year.

As soon as the door's bell dinged, Naruto called, without looking up from the bill he was ringing, "Take a seat! We'll be with you in a sec!"

The person who had just walked in placed himself in the booth closest to the corner of the place. He set his gear down on the seat across from him and sighed, relieved to no longer be carrying such heavy equipment.

He picked up the menu and glanced at it for a second before the blonde behind the counter approached him.

"Can I get you somethin' to drink?" he asked with a serene smile.

Two days past eighteen,
he was waitin' for the bus in his army green,
sat down in a booth at a café there,
gave his order to a girl with a bow in her hair.

Not even realizing he was blushing, so beautifully it made Naruto's heartbeat pick up, he asked for a Coke. When the blonde came back, he asked for a turkey sandwich and let the boy get back to his job.

Once he'd been done, Naruto had returned with the check to find a pensive look on the dark-haired man's face. He was either staring at his reflection or through the window into nothingness; regardless of that, he looked very lonely. It was a dangerous lonely, one that he didn't even realize was there within him.

"Here you are, um..."

Dark eyes flickered to his hesitant expression. "Sasuke."

"Sasuke. Did you like everything?"

He's a little shy so she'll give him a smile,

"Y-Yes... I did. It was very delicious. My regards to the chef."

The blonde laughed softly, like the tinkling of bells, and Sasuke found himself pulled in by it.

He said, "Would you mind sitting down for a while and talking to me? It might be a little forward of me to say this, but I'm feeling a little low."

The smile found its way back to him, and the kit had no intentions of placing it behind bars again. Naruto replied, accepting this friendship for what it possibly could be, "I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go."

He walked away from the booth, with a little wave, and went back to work, happily imagining what their time would be like together.

There weren't many guys in this town who liked him. Too many of them teased him for being such a 'girly-boy' for playing in the school band. And yet this stranger who had just been waiting for the bus, had been waiting to have his future driven by hatred and fear, had suddenly struck up a friendship with him.

Something fluttered within him. Something that caused him to smile so brilliantly the rest of the day.

So they went down and they sat on the pier, staring at the bluish water. The way it crashed against the posts which held it up almost reflected the emotions which crashed against his logic. As Naruto rambled on about nonsense, he couldn't take his eyes away from him.

"How come we never met before this?" the blonde asked, taking another bite of his hamburger.

"Most likely because I've been raised in a very secluded household. My parents had me home-schooled since I was five. I haven't seen much of the town since then..." he trailed off, a pained mood becoming the reflective emotion in his eyes.

Naruto felt like he wanted to ask something, but knew it wasn't his place so smothered that emotion.

Sasuke suggested that they walk on the beach and smiled genuinely when he saw the kit's face light up at the mere thought.

"Hey, Naruto, if you don't mind me asking... what's your life been like?" He didn't know where he planned on going with that question, but something within him had prompted him to just let it go. This would be his last day here anyways.

"Well, I've lived here with my grandpa since I was little. I think my mom and dad were killed by a car accident, though I can't remember. Supposedly, that's where I got these marks on my cheeks from." he traced a finger lightly down the side of his face. "I've been here since then, and I'm uh..."

Dark eyes glanced towards the hesitant kit.

"...I'm in the marchin' band at school. You know, I'm actually the only guy in the high-pitched woodwind section." He laughed sheepishly, rubbing his nape. "And...I'm gay."

Momentarily, he flinched, prepared to have the other man lash out at him and call him a disgrace, a stain on the reputation of their small town. He'd call him a faggot and hit him or something to that effect. Every person was the same. The woman didn't react as strongly, but the disgust was always apparent on their faces.

"Hmm...well, sounds like we've got a lot in common, I guess. My parents were killed too..." he trailed off, capturing the blonde's attention (not only for that, but for the fact that he hadn't responded to his sexuality). "...by my brother."

Naruto gasped, unaware of the complete shock on his face. He apologized profusely. But Sasuke merely laughed at his pole-axed expression.

"It's fine and all...it wouldn't be such a big of a deal if it was left at that. He also killed the rest of my family..."

"What?!" the kit practically screeched.

The raven, straightening out of a flinch, then responded. "That's why I'm leaving. There's nothing and no one left for me in this town." He said "I bet you got a boyfriend, but I don't care. It's not like I'm trying to get in the way of anything, but I feel like if we could have met earlier, we would been good friends and I wouldn't be leaving...I've got no one to send a letter to." A pregnant pause interrupted his emotion and made Naruto strangely nervous. "Would you mind if I sent one back here to you?"

The blonde accepted without a moment's hesitation, something which the Uchiha noted. The younger boy flushed as he realized how eager he'd sounded.

Laughter shook-up the strangely tense atmosphere as they walked back to the bus stop.

It was sad. There were things that the kit wanted desperately to say, things that remained unspoken, but he knew better than to say anything. As quickly as they'd met, Sasuke had boarded the bus and was gone.

I cried, never gonna hold the hand of another guy,
too young for him, they told her, waitin' for the love of the travelin' soldier,
our love will never end, waitin' for the soldier to come back again,
never gonna be alone when the letter said the soldier's comin' home.

--U R Darkest's Pawn--

It wasn't until Sasuke had been gone for two months already that the kit finally told his friend about their encounter.

"I dunno, Naruto. This 'Sasuke' guy seems too good to be true. I mean, if he really was as good lookin' as you been tellin' me, then there's gotta be somethin' else in there. I highly doubt that his whole family got killed by his brother. That's not possible. Or logical." the pink-haired girl stated.

"Well, he's one of them rich kids...family name was Uchiha...or somethin' like that..." the blonde trailed off, his mind once again conjuring up image of his friend.

Sakura gasped, causing the kit's head to jerk back in her direction. "Oh my god! I remember that now! It was all over the newspaper years ago! I remember my mama tellin' me that she felt horrible because the Uchiha family had left their youngest member alone in the world. And what's worse, the older brother ran off to join a gang! They were a bunch of misfit kids from all over town...seems like they've been gettin' along since then..."

Naruto's hand gripped the counter as his heartbeat sped up. So the raven's family had indeed been killed...and his brother was still alive. Of course...he wouldn't feel like he could still remain in the town where he had memories of his family.

The blonde felt his heart clench. It was dumb of him to think that he could keep the Uchiha from the draft. If there was one thing he couldn't fight, it was the military. This organization held the entire world in the palm of its hand. The jeopardy of the youth of their country was slowly being shaped to fit this hatred.

"Hey brat! You got a letter here!" a voice called from the back.

"I'll be right there!"

Naruto skipped back to the office, aside to the kitchen, where his grandfather was wearing a pair of thin-rimmed glasses and going through the mail.

"Here. It's from that same young man who's been sendin' you mail since that while ago. What'd you say his name was? Sammy? Slifer? Filch?"

"Don't strain yourself, gramps." He joked lightly, snatching the letter up in his hands with feigned annoyance. "It's Sasuke, by the way."

"Right, right… so, he told you he loves you yet?" the Jiraiya teased him, looking up from his other mail.

"N-no…" the blonde said after a few seconds of delay. "Mind your own business, ya old perv! It's not like that…"

He trailed off with a sort of confused and doubtful aura.

"Don't worry, kid. He'll say it soon. Knowing what sort of retarded personality you've got, anyone who becomes friends with you is bound to be attached for life." He smiled encouragingly and then gave the boy a playful shove before turning to attend to his work.

There was an hour between the lunch and the dinner shift with which the blonde utilized to read his letter.

The front read TO NARUTO UZUMAKI. It was postmarked Vietnam.

So the letters came from an army camp
in California then Vietnam,

August 17, 1965

Naruto,

We moved again. This time, I've been assigned the kitchen, which I'm sure is a better place than the one out there with the training. It's horrible here. Constantly humid. Constantly angry. Constantly deathly. I feel like there's no other being here than death. My comrades are often tired. The lifelessness that eats away at every one of us doesn't get better. I think the only I've lasted so long is because I can still talk to you back home. So many of these men are single. They haven't had a soul contact them since we first got here, and from what they tell me, there's a good chance that no one ever will.

This might be forward of me…and I feel a bit awkward not saying this in person, but I feel like over this time we've been talking, something has developed. Maybe that's the thing that's been driving me along all this time. That connection the two of us have. I wish I could understand it.

Naruto, I really like you. I don't know the extent of this, but I know that I really want something to happen between us. It's so strange. In such a long time, I haven't been able to recognize these emotions. They've been so nonexistent since my family was killed. I may not have mentioned this yet, but I'd been living on my own after that for two years before the draft finally pulled me in. For two years, I was left with nothingness. I swear that my demeanor was the same as these men who I'm serving the country alongside.

But you...you've thrown me so far off that rutted path. When I thought about how much I missed you, my chest would ache with loneliness. When I heard those few married men talk about their wives and children, I became jealous. Not because they had such items, but because they had a connection with those people which couldn't be broken.

I wanted something like that. I still do. I want it with you.

and he told her of heart, it might be love,
and all of the things that he was so scared of,

I know that this is somewhat blasphemous. Maybe it's all this war that's driven me off the edge...I don't know anymore.

I'm afraid of only two things: one, that you may never respond to me, and, two, that if you do respond, that it will be with aversion and distrust.

Please, if there was any way to say this in person, I would. If I could leave right now, I would ensure that my message would get to you. So that nothing be misinterpreted. Naruto, I truly do love you.

If you didn't feel the same, or worse decided not to write back to me, I can't tell you how much that would hurt me. Even if it's only the slightest amount of emotion you hold for me, let me know your answer.

With love,

Sasuke

Completely flabbergasted by the letter, Naruto couldn't keep the joy within him. Sakura walked around the corner to ask him to set up the silverware for the tables and was dumbstruck by the tears in his eyes.

"What're you cryin' for?" she demanded.

When he didn't answer, her eyes drifted towards the paper in his hands. The rosette ripped it out of his grip and scanned it swiftly.

Her reaction was no better. She screamed.

"You have to write back to him! Now!" she shrieked, gripping his wrist and forcing him to rush to the front counter.

A blinding smile plastered to his face for the remainder of the day. It was hopeless. He was madly and irrevocably in love with Sasuke Uchiha.

--U R Darkest's Pawn--

September 19, 1965

Naruto,

I know that you've been asking me about how it is. It's not as beautiful as Texas, which I can assure. And it's a horrendous thing when one can fall asleep to the lullaby of bombs being set off. I'm not sure how to take this feeling. It's almost regret or disgust; and it's not something that I'm glad I had to find out.

When it's getting kind of rough over here, I think of that day sitting down on the pier and I close my eyes and see your pretty smile. As depressing as that sounds, it's gets better when I hear from you. I miss you so much, Naruto. When I get back, I promise that I'll find a way for us to be together. I'll find a private island for us to live together on. I'll buy us a new house somewhere in the wilderness where we can be alone together. Just the two of us. You're birthday's coming up soon, right? Think of it as my gift to you.

Naruto could imagine how the raven would smile brightly, making his heart race and his senses reel. They would share a kiss, something so tender that it might bring tears to his eyes.

Shaking himself out of the daydream, the blonde rolled onto his stomach and attempted to straighten out the soft yellow comforter on his bed before continuing to read.

It's unfortunate, but there were a group of children in an adoption center who were killed. I can't stand this fighting. But I know I can't escape it. This is what I signed up for. Naruto could imagine him sighing and the half-formed smile falling ungracefully from his face. There's a bit of ribbon which I thought I'd keep from that orphanage. The little girl I rescued handed it to me as thanks. I didn't understand a word that she said, but I could tell that she wanted me to have it. It made me smile a little bit to see her run back to her brothers.

Don't worry, but I won't be able to write for a while. They're sending me into combat soon. I'll be careful. I know that's what you'll want. I love you.

With love eternal,

Sasuke

He clutched the letter against his chest tightly.

I cried, never gonna hold the hand of another guy,
too young for him, they told her, waitin' for the love of the travelin' soldier,

Naruto grasped the small blue ribbon in his hand. Though slightly charred by the flames, he could still feel warmth radiating from it. This heat was Sasuke. The one he loved.

our love will never end, waitin' for the soldier to come back again,
never gonna be alone when the letter said the soldier's comin' home.

--U R Darkest's Pawn--

He was oddly happy today. Maybe it was because of the solo he was going to play for the night's game. Maybe it was that Sasuke's promise to him, that precious pact they'd made to be together forever; but whatever it was, it caused him much distraction. He'd dropped no less than five plates and spilled ice water over one of the customers. In his frantic attempts to apologize, he'd bumped into Sakura and knocked her over. It was fortunate that she wasn't carry anything, but that didn't reduce him embarrassment.

His grandpa had told him to take a break. But even after that, he'd delivered all of his orders to the wrong tables.

The wooden seating was cold. A frosty wind swept over everyone in attendance. The ribbon Sasuke had given him was tied around his wrist, and as he glanced over it a horrible shiver of terror shot down his spine.

The previous elation had been swept away.

One Friday night, at a football game,
the Lord's prayer said and the anthem sang,

He raised his head, prepared to begin with the school's theme...

A man said, "Folks, would you bow your heads for a list of local, Vietnam dead."

The blonde's heart felt his heart skip a beat. Sadness shot through him. He could easily empathize with the people who had lost, and would lose tonight. Just imagining it… no. He sniffled quickly, surprised by his reaction. It was too painful to imaging Sasuke... Dead. No longer of this world. Gone.

"Robinson, Jackson."

No.

"Taylor, Bill."

No...

"Compton, Nigel."

NO.

"Smith, Liam."

NO!

Cryin' all alone under the stands
was the piccolo player in the marchin' band

"Uchiha, Sasuke."

and one name read,

Naruto felt a sob tear from his chest and he launched himself off the bleachers, leaving behind a very confused group of band mates.

but nobody really cared

What would they know? They'd never met the man. They'd never known how wonderful he was. How truly caring he was. They'd never know of the promise he and Sasuke had made to each other...to run away together and be in love forever.

but a pretty, little girl with a bow in her hair

"Sasuke! No, oh please no! I don't want you to leave me!" he screamed. No one heard his cries. No one acknowledged much more than the fact that those men had been killed. To everyone else, they all were just those who had served their purpose and had fulfilled it. They had no place left in this world.

I promise...

"SASUKE!" he yelled again, pulling on his hair, wondering if causing that pain would distract him fro the overwhelming hurt in his chest. "Please! Don't leave me! Don't go away!"

Louder and louder he screamed. He couldn't breathe anymore. No words came out from his hoarse throat.

...that when I get back...

Coughing erupted from him as he grew more ill with the pain. It was attacking him. Like a military tactician would have planned it.

...I'll find a way for us...

First, he would slowly be swallowed up from the outside. Naruto could feel his nails raking over the bare skin of his arms, over his face, the grief trying to relieve itself by directing his attention somewhere else. He ripped the ribbon off his wrist, as though it had begun to burn him.

...to be together...

The tears which refused to stop were burning his cuts. But that only made things worse. He cried more. He screamed more. By this time a few people had found him and attempted to come and comfort him. Every time they did, he would lash out, keeping them away from his broken state.

"Sasuke! No! NO! I love you! DON'T LEAVE ME!!"

...I love you...

This pain in reaction to Sasuke's death only proof now that he had existed. This was the only thing, this ache, which made him real.

Even if he didn't want to admit it, Sasuke was dead.

The stabbing. The tearing. The ripping. The choking.

It made the one he loved real.

A long time ago, some one had said that the town had been nicknamed 'Longing City, Texas' and no one had understood why. But Naruto why.

And the pier knew why, too.

--U R Darkest's Pawn--

I truly hope no one looked too much into this and said, "But they're Japanese! They wouldn't be accepted!" or "Gays were found disgusting! That doesn't make sense!" or even "Naruto's not a girl's name and he's not a girl. Why the hell did you choose this song?"

Realize that I did what I did because I wanted to. That's it. No, I hadn't originally planned for them to have accents, if you noticed that while reading, but it fit and I wanted to try something new. Sasuke didn't have one because he's 'high-class' and all. XP jerk... lol

I wanted to portray their swiftly changing relationship within just a few pages, though I know most people would have done this in a few chapters. I hope that it's as well done as I think it is.

Anyways, please review. And LFA will be updated soon. I'm actually trading off the updating date with Ashes so as to build suspense. Maybe those reviews will help speed up the process. (wiggles eyebrows)