Title: darkest corners of your mind
Author: pheen
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Angst, hurt/comfort
Word Count: 306
Summary: I like a look of agony, because I know it's true.
Disclaimer: Not mine, all characters and settings belong to Kishimoto.
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Sasuke doesn't know, will never know, that Naruto heard him crying once. It will be kept a secret; for it is one of those weapons that has the potential to sever the fragile threads of a friendship that is already decaying and festering.
It was three days after the massacre and Sasuke was still holed up in the oppressive building. Naruto had gone across to that part of town, purely on the incentive that it was now infamous; a dwelling of disgruntled ghosts. Sasuke's resolve not yet strengthened and hatred not boiling in his stomach, he had failed to notice the chakra of the blond.
Naruto doesn't like to think of that time often. Whenever he does forget to block its persistent attacks on penetrating his mind-fog, it makes him feel hot and cold and sick all over. Because Sasuke was sobbing. So hard, Naruto knew, that he couldn't catch a breath. So painfully, Naruto knew, that he would throw up afterwards. He didn't stop to think that he and the youngest Uchiha might have something in common after all, because he was busy concentrating on staying quiet and still.
Sasuke was having trouble dislodging the fist that had his heart in death grip, removing the deadweight on his diaphragm and silencing the desperate, wet-sounding wail that was in danger of crawling up his throat and bursting into the empty silence of his solitude. Curled up in the darkest corner, shadows looming protectively over his tiny frame, he looked every bit the heart-broken.
Naruto averted his eyes, bit down on the fingers huddled in his mouth to stifle his voice, and moved on. The next day, he glared at the Uchiha as normal, picking fights whenever the situation demanded it and looked away when Sasuke's hands trembled.
Rivalry was one thing but betrayal was another altogether.
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Summary taken from a poem by Emily Dickinson, titled: I like a look of Agony.