So yeah, I apologize to my readers who had been expecting an update on one of my other stories but this idea hit me earlier in the week and this will most likely be a decent sized story. No I'm not totally sure what the pairing is yet, I'm torn between Neji and Sasuke and Shikamaru and Sasuke. We'll see where it goes. Warnings are yaoi, spoilers, and character death.

It had been awhile since he had visited Naruto's grave. A really long while. The exact amount of time was a year and a half, not that Sasuke was counting or anything. It hadn't been some part of a bizarre plan from some equally bizarre people, like Akatsuki or something. It was a simple mission.
Three years ago, Sasuke had returned to the village, thanks only to Naruto's words. A year after that, he was granted permission to once again take on missions. Naruto had been his partner for the first one and everything had been going fine. And then Sasuke screwed up.
While he was now able to go on missions, his Sharingan had been sealed. Unfortunately, due to the amount of time he had used the eye ability, he had grown dependent on it, even though he knew it was a bad idea. When suddenly left without it and placed in a true battle, not just training, he didn't know his own weaknesses.
So Naruto took the three kunais meant for him. One had pierced his heart, another a lung, and yet another his shoulder. There were only three, but it was enough. Naruto had died instantly, no final words, just a blank stare.
Sasuke had massacred the remaining ninjas. His anger had flared so suddenly and so much, that he easily broke Tsunade's seal over his eyes. The ninjas that had killed Naruto died slowly, and painfully.
"Haven't seen you here in a long time," a voice commented.
"I didn't think I was wanted, Neji," Sasuke said quietly, eyes not moving from the tombstone.
"Don't listen to Sakura," Neji said, moving to stand beside Sasuke.
Sasuke crouched before the gravestone and gently brushed his fingers over the engraving of Naruto's name. Naruto Uzumaki. The date of birth and date of death followed after it but nothing else. No fancy saying.
"She only said those things out of anger," Neji continued, brushing chocolate hair out of pale eyes.
"Anger that could put me in the hospital," Sasuke said dryly, standing up. "How've you been, Hyuuga?"
"Not too bad. Yourself?" Neji asked.
"Miserable," Sasuke replied robotically.
"No one has seen you," Neji said, arms folding across his chest. "Not since what Sakura said." He examined the man that stood before him. His coal black eyes were emotionless, just as they had always been but something was different this time. When they were younger, people could tell he was trying to hide his true emotions. Now, he truly didn't feel. A lot had happened to make him that way. Things that no one should've had to go through.
"I've been out," Sasuke said, unable to not defend himself.
"You were seen at the ramen stand. Once," Neji said, raising a fine eyebrow. "Your friends are worried about you."
"I have no friends, Hyuuga," Sasuke said as a small, sadronic smirk touched his lips.
"You do, Sasuke. Why do you think we all risked our lives to bring you back?" Neji demanded.
Sasuke barked a laugh, an ugly brittle sound tainted with lonliness. "You can't be friends with someone you don't know. I don't even know who I am anymore."
Neji's eyes widened and he sensed a waterfall of words in the form of a confession about to crash down upon him.
"I am a shell of my former self! Anyone I could ever become was destroyed by Orochimaru in my training. There is no soul within me. It was eradicated long ago," Sasuke growled. "You can't be friends with a soulless being!"
Neji stared at Sasuke, who was now panting from his outburst but still staring at him wiith dead eyes, for once at a loss of what to say. If Sasuke was going to have a mental breakdown, he thought it woudld be in front of someone he trusted. He knew he and Sasuke had never been on the best of terms, but he cared for the Uchiha, if only because Naruto once had.
"So do something," he finally said, quietly, meeting Sasuke's eyes with a steady and calm gaze. "Become something that you can call yourself. Build a soul."
"You ask the impossible of me," Sasuke whispered.
"You didn't have to whine to me about your problems," Neji said sternly. "But you did, so use it or don't but don't you dare complain."
"I..." For once, Sasuke had no idea how to respond.
"Just let us know you're alive once in awhile. We do worry about you, contrary to popular belief," Neji said, smirking lightly.
"Go...go away." Sasuke crouched down again, head between his knees, fingers fisted in his hair.
"Remember what I said," Neji told him quietly. Then he was gone.

(INSERTBREAKHERE)

Sasuke opened the door to the Uchiha Compound, upset and feeling the need to train or at the very least punch a wall. Having a compound certainly had its advantages. There were at least three training areas which meant he could vent his anger at will without actually hurting anyone. Who did Neji think he was, telling him what to do? The rational part of him argued that Neji wasn't telling him what to do, rather giving him advice on how to help himself. But it didn't matter now.
Sasuke reached one of the training areas but instead of fighting, he dropped to the ground, sitting there in the dirt, thinking. After Naruto had been buried, he had visited the grave almost religiously for several months until Sakura had grown angry. They were eating out, a group of them, Ino, Shikamaru, Sai, Neji, Hinata, himself, and Sakura. He had shown up late and when asked, he told them that he had been visiting Naruto's grave.
Sakura had grown angry almost instantly. She yelled at Sasuke, screaming at how she couldn't understand why he kept going to his grave if he didn't even care. He had left him, had beat him nearly to death at one point, and on the few occasions he met him before he came back to the village, he had talked down to him before once again beating him to near death. Sasuke knew all of this but he couldn't tell her why he did what he did to the blond. It would only serve to enrage her furhter. He knew that she was only saying what she did out of her own grief, wanting to blame him for it so it would seem right.
However, that didn't make it hurt any less.
After that, he had vanished, only going out to buy food and only in the early mornings when no one else was awake. Tsunade had sent him on a few missions, all of them solo. She had trusted him by now. And then today, he had gone to the grave for the first time since then. Now, he didn't know what to do.
He had had to kill his emotions to train under Orochimaru. He became the ultimate fighter, shoving his love away so it wouldn't cloud his judgment. Love for a blond haired teen he could never call his own. Not that it mattered now or something.
He remembered what Neji has said about letting everyone know he was alive once in awhile. Perhaps that was a good idea, a good way to try and reconstruct his soul so he could try being human again. He stood up and left the training area, the fragments of anger he had pieced together shattering and then disappearing. There was no point in only letting the bad feelings come back. If he was going to rebuild his soul, he would change and be a better person, if not for himself then for Naruto.