A/N: Another one-shot fic saying hi again! You're probably thinking if I'm obsessed with angst fics... well not really... I think... so yeah... just read!


The Lost and Undying Love


Sasuke eyed Tsunade suspiciously as he ended his tale of how he had already destroyed Orochimaru and his plans of attacking Konoha. He saw that Tsunade was relieved to hear the news but there was some sort of sadness and anger in there. Why?

"Tsunade-sama, how is Naruto?" Sasuke asked, only to receive a glare, though weak as it is.

"That gaki is..." Tsunade started in a shaking voice when a voice suddenly interrupted.

"It's okay, Tsunade-sama. I'll explain to him." Sasuke turned and saw pink, red and black. It was his former teammate, Haruno Sakura.

Tsunade nodded. "Okay. You're dismissed, Sasuke."

Sakura left off first as Sasuke followed, making him shut the door. But before he was able to close it, he swore he saw a lone tear drop on the Hokage's face.


"Sakura, what's going on? Is this about Naruto? Did something happen to him?" Sasuke asked, demanding answers.

Sakura just kept on walking and the raven had no choice but to follow her. He was anxious about Sakura's actions. She wasn't ever the quiet type.

"Sasuke? Who is Naruto to you?" Sakura suddenly said in a low voice.

The raven was taken aback by the question. Should he answer honestly? No maybe later. "He's my team mate. A childhood rival..."

"Really?"

Sasuke sighed. "He's my best friend."

Sakura eyed the Uchiha, giving him an analytic look, as if it was trying to pierce into his soul. "You're not telling the truth."

Wha? How did she-? Had she always been this observant? What was going on with her? Sasuke sighed and jus decided to let out what he felt. "He's my most important person. I chose to come back because of him. I just... really... love him." Sasuke ended with a gentle smirk.

The pink-haired girl in turn gave her a sad smile. "He would have loved to hear that."

Fear wrenched Sasuke's gut. What's with the past tense? "Sakura-"

She ignored him as they continued to walk towards a what seemed to be a hill. Sasuke still didn't understand where exactly they were but just by being here, he felt a sense of peace and calm.

"Naruto joined the ANBU when he was already given a chance," Sakura said quietly. "As an ANBU, well... you're suppose to receive lots of missions but, in Naruto's case, he refused most of them while he only demanded from Tsunade-sama the mission to find you." Shock ran through Sasuke at the information and when suddenly, a tear fell below Sakura's eye. "At first, Tsunade-sama said that it was up to the others to do that," the kunoichi continued with a weak chuckle. "He was stubborn. You could always hear the shouts they countered at each other. But in the end, Naruto won. The mission was given to him and only him."

Sasuke gave a chuckle. "Stubborn dobe..."

The girl just nodded, still with the same sad smile and went on. "He'd usually come back when he was already badly hurt. People from other villages were against him, wanting to kill you themselves. Naruto always stood up to them though but only ended up getting more injuries in the process." Sasuke felt a pang in his heart as Sakura continued."They'd find openings usually when he's asleep. At first, it had been the reason why he never got any. But soon enough, he had honed his skills to perfection when it came to sensing an enemy. Even when he was unconscious, you could say he was still alert.

"We did our best to tell him that he could stop already coz no matter what, he still received some horrible injuries. But he just refused, even that one time when he almost lost an arm. No!" Sakura hurriedly reassured Sasuke, "He didn't lose it. Thankfully, he and Kyuubi were on good terms. The demon was his own personal nurse so who knew how badly he'd be hurt when we're not around."

Sakura suddenly turned away to hide something but with the sniffs he could hear, Sasuke knew that the bubblegum haired girl was crying. "Sakura... I don't know why you're telling me all this but if it hurts you-"

He was stopped short with a shake of a head. "As much as it does, Sasuke, I have to..."

Sasuke complied, though still a bit concerned for the girl. What was the point of all this? He simply nodded to let her continue.

"One day, he didn't show up to begin his search. We were worried about him since he was nowhere to be found. We used Akamaru to search for his scent and well... we found him here. You could feel it, right, Sasuke? The peace in this place? It was... refreshing to have seen Naruto at one with it and yet... there was still some sort of worry in his face. At first we didn't want to disturb him but he already sensed us. He told us to stay while he talked all about this favorite place of his. Then, after some time, he just left."

Sakura's shaking began to worsen along with Sasuke's concern. "He came back after 2 months with 3 Jounins..." And with that, the girl's knees had finally given up and fell on the lush grass. "They said they found him in the woods waiting for d-death. H-he was all c-covered with b-blood, c-coming from extremely v-vital points. The worst thing was... one came from K-Kyuubi's seal."

Sasuke's eyes widened as he realized just where Sakura's story was heading and just why she was acting like this. Then that could mean... NO! It can't be...!

"Y-you're smart, right, Sasuke?" She got up to the hill and Sasuke's fears had been realized. There, as if leaning by the tree, was an engraved headstone with a name that... NO! Though an Uchiha, emotion-filled tears had started falling from Sasuke's eyes as he dropped to the ground, his body trembling badly.

"N-Nobody blames you, Sasuke. Even if everyone knows that Naruto... d-died searching for you... h-his last words said that he ch-chose that path. H-he wished for us not to t-treat you badly or-" Sakura chuckled very weakly, "-he'll haunt us once he's gone."

Sasuke, for a little nanosecond, found the humor in those words until he realized something else she had said. "Last words?"

Sakura did her best to continue despite her severely shaking voice. "H-He already told us that the Kyuubi himself was w-weak so he already knew there was n-nothing that could b-be done. He didn't t-tell us what caused his injuries though. H-he just kept saying about th-the little time he had. So h-he made us p-promise that thing a-about you and started telling us wh-why he kept visiting th-this place. H-he contemplated here and came out with s-some sort of conclusion. He said:

"I've always thought I wanted to search for Sasuke because he was important to me and of course that was true. But he was important to me... because... he's the one I love. Please, Sakura, make everyone promise not to hate Sasuke. I know how it feels to be hated so let them know that I did this out of love, okay?"

"H-He was smiling when he said that.. and h-he was s-still smiling when he l-left us." Sakura ended everything with more continuous sobs.

Sasuke's heart twisted in agony at the last words that were suppose to benefit him. He just knew that his love was gone. The tears simply kept falling from his dull eyes, his gaze fixated on the words engraved on Naruto's tombstone.

"Naruto Uzumaki, a shinobi who never gave up on acknowledgement and his undying devotion of love"


3 years later...

Everyone gathered up the hill to commemorate a death. A certain raven-hair was not with them at that time since... it was his own anniversary as well.

The day that Sakura told him the news, Sasuke chose to stay with Naruto's buried body as he just leaned against the tree, eyes dull and emotionless. When someone would visit Naruto, they would see the Uchiha reaching towards someone unseen as tears began to fall. They tried taking him away but it was useless. Eyes still filled with nothing, Sasuke would attack. The last one to see him was Neji. He was just lying across the grass, threatening to lose unconsciousness as he murmured, "I saw him. Now, we'll be reunited..." And just like that, his heart stopped beating.

The two tombstones stood side by side on top of the hill. But one certain tombstone stood, about 15 inches higher, behind the two others, with the words:

"Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha. Two different worlds, one heart. Lovers even in death."


-Owari-

A/N: Please Review!