Strangers
Disclaimer: I have yet to own anything relating or belonging to Naruto. Darn.
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"It's amazing when two strangers become the best of friends, but it's sad when the best of friends become two strangers."-Anonymous
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If they heard of each other, they were whispers on the wind. Neither was given a name, but people would know who they were talking about.
"Look, it's that boy."
"It's his brother."
They caught snatches of each other, a blonde head or a pale hand passing papers up. On those many days when the atmosphere was warm and kids would all leave with their hands in the larger ones of their parents, the two were the only ones left to walk alone, or sit silently on the steps, waiting in vain for a family that wouldn't come.
The day they found out the other's names was when they were both late leaving on one such a day and a sensei ran out, calling both their names.
"Sasuke, Naruto, you should be at home."
Neither replied, because this sensei (and they knew this for a fact) had a family and a kid with someone waiting at home for him. He didn't know that awful silence of an empty house or the terrible loneliness of eating dinner alone. They both simply nodded and left, not glancing at the other.
The day the two actually met was not a particularly special day. There were no festivals and no events. It was a normal day by all means. Sasuke sat at the dock, his feet swinging just above the water. His onyx eyes bore into the liquid, as though seeking the world's knowledge in their depths. There were no footsteps to announce Naruto's arrival. The blonde sat beside him, not saying a word. He took out an orange (where had he gotten that? They were rare in Konoha) and peeled it. He split it in half and offered the slightly larger half to the brunette. Sasuke looked at him in slight surprise before taking it with a quiet "Thanks.", before offering some of his tomato slices.
The two ate in silence and didn't mention it at school. But, every few days, Naruto would find him eating lunch wherever he was in the village and they would eat, no longer in silence. Naruto soon began to tell him of everything he could possibly think of-his many plants at home, which explained the orange(he had an orange tree) and his dreams and hopes. He would sometimes mention the girls in their class, at how the shy Hyuuga was kind of cute, and the strange pink-haired girl(neither could remember her name). And, after he had exhausted his supply of things to talk about, he would look at Sasuke with a small smile and ask how he was.
Sasuke would only say a few things at first, before he began to feel truly comfortable around the younger blonde. There were two topics that were strictly taboo under unspoken agreement: their pasts and family. Sasuke soon came to look forward to the lunches, and didn't realize how used to the blonde's presence he had become until Naruto didn't show up for an entire two weeks. He grew worried, but had no idea where he lived. Naruto returned a few days later, fading bruises on his face and when Sasuke asked where he was, Naruto simply replied, "I was sick."
"Men talk of killing time while time quietly kills them."-Dion Baucicault
It was many years later that Naruto saw Sasuke, strapped to a hospital bed, pale (far too pale) and the once lively eyes hollow and empty. It scared him to see the dark circles under said eyes, only emphasizing the sickly effect. Needles and tubes were everywhere, and Naruto had to steady himself slightly at the stench of medicine that filled the room. It made him sick if he smelled the slightest bit of it, but this room was closed off, so there was no room for the smell to escape.
Sasuke regarded Naruto carefully. It had been at least six years since they'd seen each other and it was both easy and hard to believe that the tall man in front of him was someone he used to know. The blonde hair was messier than ever and the whisker lines had darkened and were a sharp contrast to the golden-brown skin. The cobalt eyes were darker than he remembered and crammed with shadows and secrets. There was no orange on him anywhere, the bone-white armor slightly worse for the wear with old bloodstains and scratches and the black clothes underneath had certainly seen better days. The animal mask was clutched tightly in one large fist. The bottle green jewel necklace he had worn almost religiously was gone and was replaced with a pair of dog tags and he could just barely make out the information on it: Uzumaki Naruto, 514-337,Unknown. Sasuke frowned mentally. His blood type was unknown? That couldn't be possible The serial number glared at him from the silver metal. Sasuke had no tags, no one to identify him when he died. He would just be another body.
They stared at each other for a long time, neither recognizing the other. One was so empty, the other too full. When had they stopped eating together, stopped sharing the little, trivial things that made up their day? When had they stopped seeing each other's faces in the streets or hearing the whispers on the street? Neither knew, and there was no familiarity on their eyes as Naruto slipped the mask back on.
"Come on, Uchiha Sasuke." the voice was gruff and Sasuke didn't have to ask where as they walked the worn steps of the dungeons that few had come out of.
-I'm not sure of Naruto's blood type and I figure that maybe Kyuubi might have made some kind of mutation to his blood, hence the Unknown blood status on his tags.
Author's Note: Wow, that was…kinda weird. I actually didn't plan that dark an ending.shrugs