Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, etc.
Summary: One word can do a lot. He stops running. ( Sasuke )
It's been awhile since he's entered Konoha.
The war between the Hidden Leaf and Sound had come to an end. Now villages all over were rebuilding what they once had and honoring the lives that were taken.
It's been awhile…
Awhile since he's seen them.
The man thinks – he knows that they would welcome him back. They would say that he was just being stupid for the time being (Naruto) and that it was ok (Sakura). And yet… he still doesn't enter the big gates of the village. When he thinks that, he's telling himself he's got to do stuff first – that he's just not ready yet. He's not ready to face them.
Not ready to tell them sorry.
Sasuke has spent time traveling. He travels a lot… even if he doesn't know where he's going or where he's going to end up. He just keeps on walking – just keeps on running.
Not like he knows what he's running from.
But one day he ends up in a village.
It's a rundown village. One that he recognizes as a miniscule village compared to Konoha. It's calm, though, he thinks. It's been awhile since he's felt this calm – this serene. It was a moment for him to just move away from his revenge. But… he knows he wouldn't be able to even if he tried.
So he plants himself under the branches of a tree near the village. He looks up at the sky for awhile, just thinking like he always does. It's a hot day today. He's glad that there are a few cool breezes every now and then. He shifts a bit, making himself comfortable. He leans back on the bark of the tree.
Then, just when he gets comfortable… a ball hits him square on the head.
His eyes snap open immediately, his instincts quickly shifting his regular black, and onyx eyes to the piercing red of the Sharingan. After a few moments they revert back to their original appearance, him staring quite curiously and stupidly at a dusty, brown colored ball.
"Shiro you… you idiot!"
A girl with light brown hair hit another boy, Shiro, on the noggin forcefully. "Look what you've done!" she chastises. She turns to where the ball went and froze. "Great," she mutters. "Now look! You've probably hit that poor man on the head!"
Shiro is rubbing his head. "Ne, Ren-chan –"
"She's right you know."
The young boy turns red. "Shut up you –"
Ren rolls her eyes. "Don't blame this all on Haru-kun again…"
The boy, Haru, looks away. He makes a sound on the click of his tongue.
"Tch. Moron."
Sasuke watches them from afar, placid and emotionless, still holding the ball in his palm of his right hand. He says nothing and makes no move to return the ball to them. He doesn't roll it, but he does place it in front of him, and then leans back into the tree once more.
The exchange of words mesmerizes him in a strange way.
He watches as the three argue a lot. They argue and argue and he lifts an eyebrow. Sasuke can tell that they're arguing about who should retrieve the ball. The first kid is waving his arms around like crazy. The girl is standing between them so that the first kid won't slug the other kid. He looks at the ball in front of him. Was it really so worth it to get back?
Moments later, he lifts his head up, hearing one kid approach him.
Haru goes over to the ball and lifts it in his hands, annoyed, recently, from his teammates' constant arguing. He lifts his head up. He looks into the strange man's eyes.
They're dark, he thinks. Really dark.
But they look familiar. For once, he feels as if his cold guard has dropped down in front of that strange man.
He thinks he's just seen the whole world through that man's eyes.
"You look tired."
Sasuke takes that in and narrows his eyes. This kid had a blunt air around him. He chooses to ignore what he just said, and, instead, respond with his trademark answer:
"Hn."
The kid responds the same way too. "Hn."
"…"
"…"
The man's eyes narrow even more, thinking that the kid was mocking him and wondering why he was still here. "Shouldn't you be getting back to your friends?" The last word tastes a little exotic in his mouth… yet… the flavor is unique in its own right.
The boy parries the question with his own. "Shouldn't you?"
Sasuke's mouth falls in a stern, thin line. "I have no friends," he spat.
The kid just stares at him for awhile, the ball still in his hands. That answer sounded familiar to the young boy's ears. It sounded like something he had said before… But that was a long time ago. Things were different now. He brushes off what the man said.
"Tired?"
He stares at the kid. "What?"
"Are you?"
Sasuke looks down, unsure of how to respond to this kid's sentiments.
"You look it."
His mouth opens slightly in disarm at the judgment, and he's silent for a moment. He thinks things through for a minute, and then he shuts his eyes. He's tired from the conversation already – hoping that it might end soon. "I run a lot," he answers lamely in a dead-pan voice. Now back off, kid.
The kid stands there and then, slowly, he begins to make his way back.
Sasuke's thankful when the boy begins to walk away – no pity is shown on his small face. However, his eyes narrow once more as he witnesses the child stop and turn back around to face him. The boy opens his mouth to say something, and then closes it again, turning back to the front.
He watches and wonders if the little boy will leave. Instead, the child is still looking at the ball and then back to his two companions that were waving at him from a distance – as if he was deciding what to do next. In decision, he faces Sasuke once more. Then he says one word:
"Sorry."
Sasuke's eyes widen. That word was so simple, yet the echo through his ear lasted for awhile.
"For what?"
The child stands there and Sasuke witnesses a moment of his childhood flash before his eyes. A small boy long ago that was just standing there to be forgiven. A little boy of twelve-years hoping to become stronger than anyone else.
He wonders if that's the same little boy standing there in front of his eyes. But…
"It sounded like you needed to hear it."
Sasuke soon realizes that the two boys are different. And yet… It was a reflection of another life that he might have led a long time ago. An age that had withered and died, yet reborn in the heart of an innocent soul with tattered clothing and dust smudged on his nose.
A small silence passes between them. Then, a small voice speaks up once more. It was a voice… a small voice that Sasuke thinks that he might've had once upon a time.
"Don't you ever get tired of running?"
The man is caught off guard again. He lets that question sink into him, like the sun's warmth seeping into cold flesh, and he gives an honest answer.
"Sometimes," he says.
The boy takes in that answer – a twin of how Sasuke had taken in that question. He shrugs a little, a bit ok with it, and Sasuke watches him as he jogs off to meet up with the two other children far away. That simple word – sorry – comes back into his mind once more as he watches the three argue still, the kid in the middle holding the ball with the two others by his side.
And soon, the man stands up. He walks toward to where he had entered the small village and he walks toward his home in the distance.
Maybe I've stopped running.
A/N. Hum… This didn't really come out like I originally thought it would. But I guess it's ok. :)