Author's Note: I have too many feelings, but most of them centre around the fact that my baby is alive and well, and that he is 193821028385736263529304920372927293729839 times hotter as an adult hot fucking damn son I'm crey-
His Hotness is mine forever, but while we're at it, how about a celebration for all the canon ships that set sail this last week? I'll be sure to hop on that bandwagon after I splurge out my bromance feels~~
Disclaimer: IDNON, BIDHTOS! That is all.
Categories: Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Family
Rating: K
Genre: Oneshot
Characters: Uchiha Sasuke x Uzumaki Naruto
Summary: Fractured spectres, so tattered and torn. Their souls, once at odds and trapped in the obscurity of misplaced intention, can finally call out into the void of prospering hope. At last, the silence is shattered. At last, they are no longer completely broken. Canon to 698/9.
-.-x-.-x-.-x-.-x-.-x-.-
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From the moment we are born, we begin to die. It is as inherent in the teachings of the philosophical world, as well as within the biological and metaphysical.
Sasuke had come to know this well. The prospect of death was of no concern to him; having long since grown accustomed to living in a perpetual state of bereft indifference, death and dying held no true substance or weight in his mind.
For he had forsaken the very life he had been given, the second chance at happiness left behind in the wake of Itachi's tormented demise, in the hopes of achieving some semblance of peace from the turmoil eating away at him from within.
He sacrificed the memory of his family, his friends and team mates, and the bonds that tied them together; sacrificed the innate potential of his abilities as they once were when he still valued these aspects, for the pretence of power.
How blind he had been. Lying in the desolate, crumbling ruins of his blood and despair, he had found a bizarre sense of hope, however fleeting, as he gazed unseeing into the crystalline dark of dawn breaking over the distant horizon, and he clung to it desperately.
A young man starved of love, yet bursting at the seams with it. There was so much he had yet to give. A nod of terse acknowledgement to those who had believed in the person beneath the warped and disparate disposition he had adopted over the last four years.
A glance towards those of whom he had once thought inept that did not drip with disdain and contempt. His full, undivided attention fixed to anyone who needed a helping hand—or even a shoulder to lean on in times of need.
A polite greeting into the void of the unknown. A smile. A laugh. An approachable demeanour. Friendship. Affection. Blood, he mused, a strange smile quirking the edges of his cracked, bloodstained lips.
He most certainly could offer a lot of blood, but they'd have to be quick, for the earth was a greedy soul and quick to suck his gushing wounds dry.
He feared that it would all be taken from him before any real use could come from its loss.
His head, throbbing with the impending promise of a killer migraine, should he survive this harrowing ordeal, lolled to his left, taking in the form lying prone beside him. Naruto.
We really are blood brothers now. Your blood is my blood, as mine is yours. Sasuke watched in morbid fascination as the converging puddles of red melded as one, stared in bemused silence at the fleshy stubs that once had limbs fixed to them.
The lack of physical extension did not disturb him as much as he thought it should have.
In fact, there was something about it that helped to complete the puzzle of his existence that he had not been aware was missing anything in the first place.
He didn't need a hand to know that Naruto was reaching out to his own, to him, and he did not need the phantom pain of a fractured arm to know that he was doing the same.
In this one truth, Sasuke found absolute contentment, and there wasn't anything that could change this revelation.
Yes, he thought with a soft smile that was quickly mirrored on the face of the boy beside him.
I'm finally home.
-.-x-.-x-.-x-.-x-.-x-.-
They had been born into a world where they were destined to die by the hands of one another. But as people have changes of heart, so too does the world alter its plans for those within it.
It was not by fate that they were born to die.
It was through the tireless perseverance of their clashing wills that they found that they were born to live, and as they held onto the headband that was once a symbol of desertion and severance with their remaining hands, they found themselves bound once more to the promise of a bond that could never again be shaken.
Naruto smiled.
And for once, Sasuke felt no shame in returning the gesture with pride.
-.-x-.-x-.-x-.-x-.-x-.-
Ending Remarks: I am admittedly shaken and a little more than despairing at the thought that this beautiful story, with all of its weird, wacky and plainly wonderful characters, has finally come to an end.
Eleven years of love has been carefully invested into this series, and I shall never forget the appreciation I have gained from its existence. Rest assured there will be plenty of stories from me for this, my most beloved fandom, in the near future, so hold on to your hats, coz Sasuke-sama's waifu for laifu is back. *^*
I'll be posting some ficlets regarding our ever so lovely officially canon couples ASAP, because let's face it, we're so not getting over the official status anytime soon. C;
As for this oneshot? Well, I wrote it in less than an hour, so if it sucks, sue me.
Mata ne!
-x-Rin-x-