Scarred Hearts

They'd won the war; He and Sasuke. Once they finally began to work as one, Madara didn't stand a chance.

And for all that war had bought some terrible things, it had bought some wonderful things too.

Many had died, pain felt and shared by all, but as his final act, Obito had used the rinnegan to return those lost souls to life. For all the destruction the war had wrought, it had also allowed for peace to fall between the villages-there was new found respect between every ninja and past grievances were forgiven as enemy became comrade.

Yes, the people's hearts were scarred, but they were healing, and a new age had begun.

An age of peace.

It made Naruto smile, on this day a year later, as he watched his precious village begin to prepare for a celebratory festival. Both civilians and ninja worked together to decorate and set-up, a joyful atmosphere all around. Almost permanent smiles were plastered upon the faces of the people, all high on their happiness as this day reminded them so much of how good things were now.

And it was good now.

Naruto had even begun training under Tsunade for the post of Hokage.

Currently Naruto was helping, the village people having beckoned him over when they saw him watching, bright smiles lighting their faces as they saw him. The people really loved him now, had for a long time, even before Pein. The fact of the matter was that he had changed them, through his perseverance had showed them his heart; and they had loved the purity of his heart. They hadn't gathered after Pein because he was their hero, they had gathered because every single one of them was praying for his safety, and wanted to know that he was okay.

It made his heart feel warm and he wondered if this was what it meant to be truly happy,

In fact, the village was now so protective of him, that when Sasuke returned, instead of doting of the last Uchiha, they had been defensive. Defensive of Naruto. They knew how much Sasuke's leaving had affected the young fox man and, regardless of how instrumental Sasuke was in stopping Madara, they would not tolerate anyone hurting their precious Naruto.

Speaking of Sasuke, he was Naruto's only sore spot in all of this.

It had been good at first, they had returned effortlessly to what they once were-and they were so strong together. But then, old, suppressed and denied emotions had begun to surface within Naruto, and it hurt just as much as it had the first time.

When he saw Sasuke his heart would stutter, his palms would sweat, his stomach would flip-it was undeniable, it was indescribable, and it hurt.

It hurt because for all that had changed, Naruto could not forget how Sasuke had thrust that chidori through his heart.

His heart was irreparably scarred.

At first, Naruto had been able to ignore this, but then it got worse, and Naruto began to distance himself. He distanced himself to the point that he was using every means possible to avoid Sasuke. He'd been doing it for the last few months-and Sasuke had noticed.

Late afternoon that day Naruto found himself (now living in his father's old house which just happened to have its own personal training ground) training, sweat glistening on his skin as he pounded a training dummy with his fists. He was 'in the zone', breath only just harsher than normal, and wasn't expecting anyone to come looking for him-wasn't aware that anyone knew he was there actually.

Which is why, despite his trained sensory abilities, he was still surprised when a voice interrupted his training.

'You've been avoiding me." Sasuke's deep voice rang out, startling Naruto and causing him to hit the wooden dummy wrong and cause it to splinter, slicing into his skin.

Naruto turned, cursing under his breath, to see Sasuke at the edge of the treeline. He was leaning casually against a tree, arms crossed, and staring intensely at Naruto.

Calming down, Naruto plastered a smile on his face and responded to Sasuke's statement, "Avoiding you? Don't be ridiculous, Teme. Why on earth would I be avoiding you?"

"That's what I would like to know," answered Sasuke, "And don't give me that fake smile, Dobe, I can see right through it."

For a moment Naruto considered keeping the smile and facade, but then he sighed, almost in defeat, and let it drop.

Dropping his eyes to his bleeding hand, Naruto began to pull at the splinters, "I've just been busy."

"For months?" asked Sasuke, tone hovering on angry. There was a moment of silence and then, "Tell me the truth. I thought we were fine, that you'd forgiven me? So why is it that you've started going out of your way to avoid me?"

Naruto's head snapped back up to look at Sasuke, eyes blazing and even brighter than normal. When he spoke, despite the quiet intensity to his words, his tone was unmistakeably angry, "Forgiven doesn't mean forgotten!"

Sasuke's eyes widened at the evident hurt shining in Naruto's eyes. His breath caught in his throat, his heart stuttering slightly as an almost overwhelming urge to move over to Naruto and wrap the man in his arms overcame him. Unconsciously, he dropped his arms from their position and took a step toward Naruto.

"What do you mean? Why do you look so…" Sasuke said quietly, left hand gesturing slightly as he searched for a word, "…hurt." He finished, voice barely more than a whisper.

Naruto squared his jaw, "Because you left."

"Yeah, and you forgave me." Said Sasuke, voice almost distressed as he stated the obvious.

"Yeah, for leaving. But you didn't just leave, did you, Sasuke?" Naruto's voice was tight as he spoke.

Sasuke took another step closer, "What do you mean?"

"You betrayed me!" Naruto suddenly shouted, constraints on his emotions suddenly snapping and his full anger and pain boiling to the surface, "You are the one person that I trusted unconditionally, and you betrayed me!"

Sasuke uncharacteristically gaped for a moment, shocked at Naruto's outburst, and then asked very quietly, "…the one person?"

Naruto sighed again, a weary tiredness falling over him as a said smile crossed his face. Turning slightly away from the man that made him feel so much, Naruto spoke, laying his heart bare, "When I was a child, I had nothing. Nothing and no-one. In this entire village, there were three people who didn't wish me dead," he laughed humorously, eyes downcast, "You know, I don't think I even knew what happiness was until my chance at a childhood was long gone. Even Iruka, even he treated me like scum at first. There was this one point, this one point where for the briefest of moments he considered killing me. Funny thing is, he didn't even realise he was doing it, didn't realise he was treating me any different than other kids. This one night, I just snapped. I remember shouting at him, asking, begging him to tell me why, why they all looked at me with that hatred in their eyes. I didn't understand."

Naruto paused, his voice choked and all together unbearably sad. Sasuke took another step closer, only a few paced away now.

"When I was young," Naruto continued, "I was so annoyingly positive, always so happy, because if I stopped I knew I'd drown. Every day I felt like I was drowning in this unending despair. No one cared about me, they just wanted to see me hurt. Every night I would cry myself to sleep, and then every morning I would wake up, put that smile on my face, and forgive them again. Give them another chance. Keep on hoping it could change. It's not even that ridiculous hope that was sad. What was sad was that I didn't sob. I would sit on my bed, and these silent tears would fall from my eyes. They weren't a cry for help because I knew no one would come, there would be no comfort. They were just this silent way to let all the pain come out, because it had to be let out some way. Because it hurt." A few tears escaped down his cheeks, "It hurt more than I would let anyone know, more than I could ever describe or begin to explain."

Sasuke's eyes were unbearably soft as he took another step towards Naruto, almost within touching distance. His heart ached for the man and his throat felt constricted.

Naruto then looked up at Sasuke, making eye contact with the black haired man. He held the saddest smile on his face as he spoke, "When we were given our teams it was like this brilliant new chance for me. And you, Sasuke, you were the first person to acknowledge me for everything I am and not turn me away. You would argue with me, and fight with me, and work with me, and spur me on. For the first time I had someone who saw me, and actually kinda liked what they saw. You knew nothing of what I held, it was refreshing, like a clean slate. And more than that, despite how much you denied it, you cared." A few more heart-breaking tears slipped down his scarred cheeks, "At the time you became my rival and my friend I was beginning to lose hope. I was dangling on this precipice, unending darkness below me, and I wasn't strong enough to pull myself out anymore. I couldn't keep pretending that everything would be okay. I was hurting, more than I ever had before, and I didn't know how to keep smiling every day. And then you were there, and you were extending your hand, and you were pulling me out and pushing the darkness away. When I couldn't breathe, you were the one that bought me air. You saved me. Out of everyone, every friend, every bond that I made afterwards, you were the most important. You were the person that I put both my trust and my faith in. And then you left. And put a chidori through my heart."

Sasuke, now a hare's breadth away from Naruto, closed his eyes in both regret and sadness.

"I betrayed you," he said, voice unbearably soft to Naruto, "I didn't just betray the village. I betrayed you personally."

Unable to keep looking at this man who could cause so much emotion within his tattered heart, Naruto turned and began to walk back to his house.

Sasuke's pale hand, catching his wrist tightly, stopped him.

Sasuke couldn't stand to see Naruto walk away, not after that revelation, not leaving things as they were. Not really knowing what he was doing, Sasuke grabbed Naruto's wrist and spun the blonde haired man away, causing them to end up even closer than they were before.

Their breaths mingled, Sasuke slightly towering over Naruto.

"That doesn't explain why you acted like everything was fine for a few months and then suddenly stopped. For all the pain I caused you, that's not why you're avoiding me." Sasuke breathed, words ghosting over Naruto's wet face and causing the younger man to shiver involuntarily.

Naruto closed his eyes, wanting to pull away from Sasuke but not quite having the willpower too. His small smile was bittersweet when he replied, voice just as soft, "Some things are best not shared."

"I don't believe that," said Sasuke, his tone implying that this revelation had just come over him, "If I had spoken when I was younger then maybe someone could have shown me why I should have never left. And if you had spoken, perhaps you wouldn't have had to hurt for so long."

"I was afraid to show them weakness. And would you have really listened, so intent on revenge as you were?" asked Naruto, eyes downcast.

"I don't know. I was young and stupid back then," Sasuke conceded.

Neither moved away, in fact, they almost moved closer, the warmth of the other relaxing and soothing.

A moment of silence passed, not quite awkward, but tense, almost afraid.

Sasuke stared at Naruto's downturned head and then slowly moved his hand to grip the man's chin, gently turning the face up and forcing Naruto's beautiful blue eyes to connect with his own obsidian ones.

The emotion in them astounded him.

"Why have you been avoiding me?" he asked, voice strong despite it being a whisper.

Naruto's eyes flickered between Sasuke's searching. Before he felt afraid, but here, blanketed by this calm atmosphere, he felt nothing but relaxed.

"Before you were gone," he began, "I didn't realise just how important you were to me. And when you came back, everything was great. But then, as I saw you each day, my heart began to flutter in my chest. You make me feel things Sasuke, things I don't, I can't understand." Suddenly, he broke away from Sasuke, turning his back to the man and taking a step to distance himself, "As a child I never knew what love was. I still don't fully understand it now. But I think, this happiness you make swell in my chest, I think this might be love. And that terrifies me. It terrifies me because being in love implies that I am willing to give the entirety of my heart and my soul to a person. It means I'm willing to lay myself bare and trust that they'll protect what I show them. I trusted you once, I trusted you more than anyone. And that just left me with a literal hole in my heart. It's not just the idea of giving that much of myself to anyone that scares me, scares me after hiding it all away in my childhood. It's the idea of giving it to you, you who has thrown everything away before. How can I trust that you won't just break this heart I have spent so many years building walls around to protect?"

Sasuke, despite the sadness and seriousness of the situation, could feel warmth spreading through him at the admission, a strange happiness making him feel as if he could melt. Slowly, but not hesitantly, he broached the gap between he and Naruto and spun the man around, pulling him into a tight embrace that expressed everything he was feeling.

"I've never been very good with emotions," he said, pulling away very slightly and raising a hand to brush a tear away from Naruto's cheek, "I hurt you, and now I know my importance to you, I regret it even more that I did before. I can't promise I'm good for you, I can't promise I won't hurt you, because, I am emotionally inept. But I can promise, that with all my heart, battered as it is, I want you. I don't know what I'm feeling. I don't know if it will last. But when you avoided me, I hurt. Seeing you hurt, hurts me. When you cry I want to hold you close, and all the time I want you by my side. Forgiven doesn't mean forgotten, and I don't want you to forget because that would be like forgetting everything that has led us to here. Just, promise me, promise me you'll never leave my side."

That said, Sasuke leaned in and capture Naruto's lips with his own, the kiss soft and loving and emotional.

Quickly, it became heated. The men still young and the pent up emotion and years of denial causing them to feel everything at once. Not separating for even a moment, they stumbled towards the house. Clumsily, lips still attached, they opened the garden door. As they manoeuvred their way towards the sofa they tore at each other's clothes, their need hot and insatiable. Collapsing on the sofa, Sasuke hovering over Naruto as he kissed hotly down the man's chest, both felt the passion overload their senses.

Nothing else mattered, because this, long in the waiting as it had been, felt right.

Not really sure if I like this...didn't quite turn out as I was planning.

But, whatever, I guess...Now I really should finish those chapters on my two unfinished stories :P