He knew that it would come to this.
Standing there, facing someone who had been his best friend, his lover, his everything, he felt a smile flicker over his face.
Yes, he had known that, eventually, it would come down to this. A battle between the two of them. The other boy was looking for something… something that Naruto couldn't give. It didn't keep him from hoping, praying, begging, pleading with everything that he had. Wishing that Sasuke would stay, that he wouldn't go away. That he could be enough to keep the black haired boy here, in Konoha, with him.
But he knew that it wouldn't be enough.
Sasuke had an ambition. He had a goal. Not like Naruto's "I'm going to be Hokage, believe it!" goal. It was more of an "I have to kill this man" goal. Naruto knew this.
Naruto knew that the man he was facing was always looking farther ahead. He had never seen Naruto. Not unless it was as an opponent, a stepping stone to help him get stronger. Never what Naruto wanted to be seen as.
Naruto didn't want to be looked past, ignored. Not by this boy-man-boy. Not by Sasuke.
"Move." Sasuke's dark, dark eyes were red as blood, the swirling Sharingan lighting them against his face as he growled what seemed to be an order to somebody who had been his friend.
Naruto's bitter smile widened at the command. Move? As in, get out of the way and let Sasuke, his Sasuke, leave? Never. He stood his ground.
Sasuke tried to walk around him, but Naruto moved just as quick, blocking the only way out that Sasuke had. A tan hand shot out and held Sasuke's wrist when he had went to push the blonde out of the way.
"Out of my way, dobe."
Naruto's grip on Sasuke's arm tightened. "Never." His nails dug in.
Sasuke smirked. "What, do you think you're strong enough to keep me here? Do you really think so?"
Naruto's smile grew bigger still, and he didn't answer. He let Sasuke break out of his hold, let the raven haired boy punch him in the face. He didn't dodge, but he wasn't affected by the blow, either. Not a twitch. He didn't move back even one inch by the force of it.
Sasuke growled and brought the side of his hand to Naruto's throat, as if to strike him and knock him out. Naruto punched the Uchiha in the stomach while he was open, sending the older boy backwards.
"Do I need to answer you?" And Naruto's voice was soft, and his eyes held love and pain for the other as he looked down at him. His stance was firm; he would not be moving away and letting Sasuke leave any time soon.
"I'm not going back." Sasuke stood with some difficulty, charging his once-best-friend. Naruto evaded the attack and twisted Sasuke's arm behind his back.
There was a poof of smoke and then Naruto was dropping the log and ducking as he avoided several shuriken to his head, throwing a kunai into the bush that it came from. It hit flesh and Naruto was sending a clone to hold down the bastard.
"Teme." Sasuke looked up and saw the blonde boy staring at him, blue eyes clouded with something that he didn't want to put a name to, and didn't want to try to understand, because if he did then he would never leave. The tan hand that touched his face was calloused and rough, and made Sasuke want to lean into the touch because they were, above all, warm.
"Teme." Naruto repeated again, making sure that Sasuke was looking into his eyes and saw everything that was there, before speaking again. "I win for today. Lets go home."
And if it had been anyone other than Naruto, if there hadn't been three clones sitting on his back, another three holding down his legs and arms, and if he had really wanted to go so badly, Sasuke would have said 'no' and struggled against all of his captors.
But it was Naruto, and there were three clones on his back, and three more for each leg and arm, and Naruto was looking at him like that and pleading for another day, and another after that, and Sasuke knew that he wasn't strong enough, so trying to leave right now was not going to do him any good, because Itachi would kill him without even glancing at him, anyway. So Sasuke didn't fight as the tan, blonde haired, blue eyed boy dressed in orange lifted him up and brought him home.
And he didn't fight when that same tan, blond haired, blue eyed boy who was no longer dressed in orange, or anything at all, kissed him on the lips and made sure that Sasuke wouldn't be able to walk normally the next day.
And Sasuke didn't fight at all when he was falling asleep in a run down, badly maintained apartment, with ramen cups strewn everywhere and bad milk was in the fridge, and there was no heat so he had to share the bed with Naruto, who was curled around him and he could smell ramen and strawberries and sweat and everything else that personified Naruto.
He closed his eyes and drifted away to another place, where all he could ever need was the orange colored sky above, the blue of the sea below, a kiss that tasted of sunshine, and a boy who turned everything upside down with his fox-like grin and the little smiles that he didn't show many people other than him.
And he smiled.
--END--
Gah. Sap. I think. But, hey, it's my birthday, so I started writing because I couldn't think of much better to do, and I came out with this. This thing with the badly-written-part-of-a-fight-scene and sap and a little bit of angst, and did I mention the sap? And it's only 2 ½ pages long, and 944 words, but hey.
