Butterflies and Hurricanes

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine.

Author's Notes: Finally, after days of not being able to upload anything, I can post this!

Inspired by chapter 350 of the manga and Muse's song by the same name. The plot of this story is meant to be set a few years after Sasuke has killed Orochimaru.


When there is knocking on his door in the middle of the night, Naruto is mostly peeved and then surprised to find a wounded, pale ex-teammate outside his door, quietly dripping blood onto the carpet in the hallway.

"You're late." Naruto opens the door wider and steps back to let the other boy in, eyes quickly scanning for major injuries. Years with a medic as a friend had trained him to be acutely aware of such things, and he returns moments later with a first aid kit that Sakura had forced him to take.

Sasuke sits awkwardly on the couch as Naruto administers to the deep cuts and burns.

"Sorry."

Naruto's hands pause slightly at that word, breathed out almost inaudibly on a wheezy exhale. He is pretty sure blood has gotten into Sasuke's lungs, but focuses his efforts on the things he can fix. It is strangely reminiscent, this gathering, but he tries to push his mind away from things that once were or could have been.

"Why did you come back?" Naruto asks finally, because the shaking in his hands is starting to become noticeable and he needs to distract himself from everything. Sasuke closes his eyes, in contemplation or rejection, Naruto can't tell, and it is so long before he speaks again that Naruto is sure he'll never get an answer.

"I missed you," Sasuke admits finally, and Naruto hates how simple those words sound and how much they mean. He has stopped in his attempts to bandage Sasuke completely as pale fingers touch his cheek and it takes all the effort he can muster not to let his tears fall.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke says again, although Naruto isn't quite sure what he's apologizing for. When Sasuke leans in and politely touches their lips together, he cries for the first time in years because it's just too much to take.

Naruto knows that Sasuke has no clue how difficult it was that afternoon in Tsunade's office, being told that Orochimaru is dead and that Sasuke still hasn't come home. It is this fact, Sasuke's second betrayal, that hurts the most. He had secretly been hopeful through those years, thinking that once Orochimaru was out of the picture they could get Sasuke back unharmed and maybe, just maybe, things would go back to normal again.

He had stopped hoping years ago.

Naruto pries himself away from the temptation of Sasuke's embrace and stands abruptly.

"Then you shouldn't have left in the first place." He walks to his bedroom and slams the door shut, because he could have forgiven one betrayal, but not two.

In the morning, Sasuke is gone.


End