Disclaimer: The user on known as Hookbladeking2012 does not own the rights Naruto or any of its characters. This is purely fan-made. Please support the official release.

With that out of the way this is a retelling of "Lies and Empty Promises" told from Sasuke's point of view. Enjoy!

Keeping Distance

The Uchiha watched as the pink haired kunoichi broke down, he wanted to help her but he knew that it would be futile.

2 long years had passed since he had returned to the village, and they had not been easy. Many of the villagers were now aware of his crimes, and they weren't so quick to forgive. Sasuke had even begun to wonder whether they should or not. Still he was happy that he had been allowed to return to the village his brother fought and died trying to protect. The 5 Kage, especially the Raikage, were hesitant, to say the least, about letting him return to Konoha with just a slap on the wrist, but once Naruto "had a word with them" and by word Sasuke suspected it had been one of his long winded speeches about friendship or something of the like, they changed their minds rather quickly, after all Naruto had helped them win the war. Sasuke didn't want to admit it, but Naruto was quite the orator. After Sasuke's name was officially erased from all the bingo books, he was allowed to return home.

But he knew that life in the Leaf wouldn't be easy. After all people don't forget. Nothing gets forgiven.

Not a whole day passed by where he didn't have strangers spit in his direction or give him the evil eye, but he shouldn't care about what they thought yet he did. He wanted desperately to redeem himself, but he knew that wasn't possible, so he hid. He cut himself off from the world and only left the comfort of his home to go on missions and on occasion to train with Naruto and Sakura.

Naruto and Sakura. The only two people in the world that he should have felt at ease around should have opened up to, yet he couldn't. Maybe it was a lack of effort on his part, being afraid to speak to his two teammates out of some fear that they would turn on him and start giving him the same looks the villagers gave to him. Every time he even thought of the looks the villagers gave him, eyes so full of hate and disgust, he would be on the brink of an anxiety attack. Were these the same eyes he had once looked at people with? Were these the same eyes Naruto was given all his life? He knew it shouldn't bother him, but the pain of their gaze was unbearable.

He thought of Naruto and Sakura once more. He knew Sakura still had some feeling for him left in her, but he knew that she could never truly forgive him, how could she? Naruto. Naruto was much harder to read than Sakura. Everytime Naruto was around him and Sakura, he seemed to be…empty. As if all emotion left him. He wondered if maybe Naruto thought something was going on between him and Sakura. Only Naruto would be foolish enough to think that he and Sakura were in a relationship even though they had virtually no interaction outside of missions and training. He had known for quite some time Naruto had feelings of love for Sakura and at times he thought that maybe Sakura had developed feelings for Naruto as well, so he tried his hardest to stay out of their way, but for whatever reason Sakura was the person whom Naruto talked with the least nowadays. Every now and then Naruto would seek the Uchiha out in his home and just talk with him. Over simple things mostly, like the weather and what kind of jutsu we had learned. It was during these little talks that Sasuke felt happy. Someone still acknowledged him; for once someone didn't stare at him with eyes full of hate.

Soon enough these visits happened less and less frequently and whenever Naruto did stop by Sasuke noted that while his eyes weren't full of hate, they were full of sadness. It seemed Naruto's sadness had begun to rub off on him. A crippling sadness seemed to pervade every waking minute of Sasuke's life. It was only in his dreams that he could feel happy once again.

It had been 7 years now since he had returned to the village. He, Naruto and Sakura had since been promoted to Jounin, marking the official end of Team 7. Naruto's visits had ceased entirely and Sakura herself now seemed to be affected by the same sadness as he and Naruto had. During the last visit Naruto made, he told him something. Sakura had felt that we had all grown apart and suggested that we start getting together more often. Naruto had told her that things would go back to normal eventually. Inside his head Sasuke scoffed at the idea. He knew the instant he returned to the village things wouldn't go back to normal not for Team 7 or anybody else for that matter.

Sasuke nodded and agreed to go out with Naruto and Sakura to eat one day. He arrived at the restaurant and only Sakura was there in the booth that had been reserved for the three of them. It was hard to tell, but he believed she was crying. Silently, but crying nonetheless.

As Sasuke looked at the clock on the nearby wall it read 8:00 p.m. "Shit!" he thought he had been thirty minutes late, and from the look of it so had Naruto. As he sat in front of her and apologized for being late, Sakura looked up and for a moment her tears stopped, only to begin again with much more vigor when he asked where Naruto was. She ran out of the bar crying and the rest of the restaurant's denizens looked at him with those eyes again. He tried his best to ignore them and went home.

At midnight, he woke with a start having had a nightmare. He had decided to have himself some sake. As he sat on the edge of his bed he stared at the picture of the old team 7. Silently he began to cry knowing those days truly would never come back. Naruto was the first to break down, and it was too late to save him, Sasuke was gone from the minute he set foot in the village, and now it seemed Sakura would be the next to go. As time went by he kept an eye on her, always keeping distance between her and him, he watched as she broke down, knowing there wasn't a thing he could do to stop it.

He had kept his distance…but at what cost?

Wow! Honestly that felt better to write than the first one. Please let me know what you think. Oh and if you're clamoring for more this part two in a trilogy. The third and final one will feature Naruto's point of view and will bring everything full circle. I don't know when you can expect it, because it will probably be pretty big but still keep a look out for it in the coming days! Oh and Please R & R.

Cheers

Hookbladeking2012