Chapter 2

Sasuke and Naruto lay sprawled amongst the craters their attempts had gouged into the earth. Wincing, groaning with pain, Naruto tried to sit up. He failed, tried again and finally managed it. He crawled haltingly to where Sasuke lay panting with his eyes screwed tightly shut.

"This isn't working," Naruto gasped.

"Obviously. You'd think we'd have known Chidori and Rasengan couldn't be combined like that."

"I'm not giving up just yet. I think we can combine our chakra and come up with something new…just not how we originally thought."

"Maybe." Sasuke heaved himself to a sitting position. "Let's go back to your place. Mom'll just nag if she sees me like this." They used each other as leverage to stand up.

The walk back to Naruto's apartment was made in silence, each trying not to betray too much weakness by groaning aloud. Once there, Naruto claimed a shower would revive him and headed to the bathroom. Sasuke flopped on Naruto's bed and immediately regretted it as his body flared up in agony. Biting back a scream, he eased himself to a sitting position and waited for the pain to subside.

His eyes fell on the photo Naruto kept on his bedside table. Just like brothers, he thought. He and Naruto were grinning like idiots in the picture, Sakura looking annoyed and left out. He smiled, remembering the day it was taken. Inevitably, he thought of his own brother, Itachi.


"Sasuke," his brother had taken him aside in his room shortly after the elders had left their blood-splattered home. He whispered urgently. "Sasuke, I need you to promise me something before I leave."

"Itachi, what's going on?" Sasuke whimpered. "I'm scared!"

"Sh! There's no time." Itachi glanced out the bedroom door, but their mother was still wailing out in the front yard. Sasuke had gazed in petrified awe as the moonlight made a nightmare of his brother's blood-streaked face. He listened carefully to what his brother had to say.

"One day I'll come back for you. I swear it. But right now you have to promise me something. Will you do it?"

"Y-yes." Sasuke stammered.

"Good, Little Brother. Now, listen."

Sasuke had listened while his brother told of someone named Madara and how eventually Sasuke would be a target. Unbeknownst to the elders, Itachi had struck a bargain with him, too.

"He is evil, insane and has extraordinary powers." Itachi said. "I will kill him, once I am finished with him. But I don't think I can do it alone. And I may not live to see him dead. Either way, the protection and survival of the Uchiha clan is up to you and me. Now, here is what you must promise me, Little Brother."

Sasuke was trembling but alert.

"Promise me you'll become strong. Stronger than you think it's possible for you to become. Let the attainment of strength be your food, air and drink. And when you think you can become no stronger, push yourself and obtain even greater strength. Obtain it by any means available to you. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Big Brother."

"Do you promise?"

"I do. Yes."

"I love you, Sasuke. You're the most important thing in the world to me. I'll come back for you when I can, but it won't be soon." Itachi had stooped and hugged his brother then, a fierce rib-cracking hug that had Sasuke clutching his brother just as tightly.

Itachi left. At the door, he'd turned back to Sasuke. "Remember your promise." He was gone.



Naruto came back into the room, toweling his hair dry. "Whatcha doing?"

"I wonder if Itachi thinks about me. Seeing him after all these years was kind of weird." Sasuke was referring to when Itachi had been forced to fight Team 7 when they'd gone to rescue Gaara. Once the shock of seeing him had passed, Sasuke had fought his brother eagerly, desperate to show him how strong he'd become. Though no words were spoken between them, he'd seen his brother's imperceptible nod of approval before he'd disappeared.

"I bet it was. And I think he thinks about you all the time."

Sasuke put the picture back and gingerly stood up. "I think we're going to have to hit up Sakura for some healing. At least I will, anyway. Looks like you're healing already," he commented jealously. "Wish I had a Bijuu."

"No, you don't."

"You're right, I don't." They headed out the door.

"Besides, Orochimaru gave you a ton of power. Or did you forget?" Naruto asked.

"Don't mention the son of a bitch's name to me. After Sakura's let's head over to the library."

"Aww! What for? To look up combination jutsus again?" Naruto hated the library.

"Yeah. I also want to see if there are any lightning or wind jutsus we've overlooked."

***

Naruto scowled in the fading light of the day. The setting sun set his hair aflame and Sasuke was visited by an urge to touch it and see if it would burn him. Stupid thought. "What is it?" Sasuke asked.

"I kinda wanted to ask Sakura-chan if she would have dinner with me," he mumbled.

They rounded a corner, entering a busier section of the village on their way to her apartment. Sasuke said nothing for a few moments as they continued on their way to Sakura's house. Finally, he had to ask.

"What do you see in her, anyway?"

"Who, Sakura? I don't know…she's…um…"

Naruto started to blush and Sasuke, sensing a way to end his friend's heinous obsession at last, pressed on.

"Well, why do you love her?"

"Love her? I never said-"

"Don't you?"

"No! I mean, yes. I mean…I don't know."

"What do you think love is? Seriously, be honest."

"I…well…" Naruto was becoming very uncomfortable with this sudden line of questioning from Sasuke.

"And I'm talking about love for a woman, not a relative or a friend."

Naruto thought hard. "I don't know." It seemed to be all he was capable of saying in response to Sasuke's probing questions and it annoyed him further.

Sasuke did not let up, pressing his advantage the way he would in a fight against any opponent. In this case, the opponent was Naruto's blindness where Sakura was concerned. "You don't know what love is or you don't know what it feels like? What??"

"I don't know how to tell if I'm in love. And I guess I don't really know what it means to love a woman or to have one love me." Self-analysis did not come easy to Naruto. By now he was sweating from the effort of finding these truths within himself.

"I see." Not by the flicker of an eyelash did Sasuke betray his growing elation. "Well, at least you'll agree that you know what love is not, right? It's not insulting someone, belittling their deeds or punching their lights out over nothing every chance you get."

"Of course not."

"Yet that's how Sakura treats you all the time."

"No, she doe-" but as he thought about it, Naruto had to admit that ole Sasuke boy was right. Still…

"Maybe she does it out of friendly love?" Sasuke said, reading his friend's mind.

"I was just about to say that. But, no. Actually, it's kind of like the closer you and I have gotten, the worse she's treated me."

"Exactly."

"I thought I could eventually win her over if I just persisted long enough. God. I guess I never really stopped to think about why I liked her. I just did. It was sort of a habit. I guess the whole village thinks I'm pathetic for chasing her." Naruto's head drooped.

Sasuke happened to know the whole village considered Naruto to be the strongest Chuunin in Konoha, with himself as a close second, but he kept that tidbit to himself. Back to the matter at hand.

"So…do you love her?"

Naruto felt like he was seeing Sakura for the first time. "No, I guess I don't."

Sasuke noted the tension in Naruto's shoulders, the brooding expression and the quickened pace his friend set. He correctly deduced that Naruto was reliving years of abuse he'd received from Sakura and wasted affection on his part. He kept pace with Naruto's ground-eating strides as he dared another question.

"Are you going to keep chasing her?"

"Sasuke-"

"Well, are you?"

"No. I don't know why I ever did."

"I see." Sasuke thought his soul would burst from his chest and soar into the heavens, so violently happy was he. He kept a straight face, though, in order to ask the next, most important question.

"Is your heart broken?" He knew for some reason that people experienced this phenomenon when they lost someone close to them. Sasuke wasn't even sure what it meant, but felt he should ask anyway.

Naruto glanced over to see if Sasuke was smirking. It was odd for him to be this chatty, even with Naruto. The dark-haired boy seemed somber. "No," he said. "I feel mad, is all. And stupid. I hate feeling stupid."

Sasuke breathed an inward sigh of relief. He decided to cheer Naruto up by having a little fun with him. "Good. Because there's someone who actually does love you. They've been in love with you since you were a loud, talentless, noobish cretin of a ninja. You've changed that someone's life, Naruto."

Naruto felt as if he'd been gut-punched. "WHAT?!?!? WHO???"

"That's for me to know and you to figure out."

Naruto knew better than to pry further. Sasuke couldn't be forced to anything. His mind blazed with the possibilities, though. A thought occurred to him as they neared Sakura's house. "What about you?"

Sasuke looked at him in question. Naruto elaborated.

"Is there someone special?"

Still having fun with him, Sasuke decided on the answer most likely to peak Naruto's interest. "Me? It's very private, but yes there is someone." He had to duck his head and bite his lips to keep from laughing at the pole axed look on Naruto's face.

Naruto stopped walking. He had expected a flat 'no way' from Sasuke. The punk even had his head bowed in embarrassment! Ignoring the sudden stab of jealousy he felt, he decided that this unexpected turn of events was one thing he would not let Sasuke keep to himself.

"Tell me," Naruto demanded. Sasuke, who'd walked a few steps ahead of him when Naruto had stopped, turned to look at him. His face was red, his eyes glassy from the effort of keeping a straight face. Naruto misinterpreted the look as one of shame.

"I can't. You'd laugh."

"I promise, I won't." Naruto was practically frothing at the mouth as he closed the distance between them.

"Look, we're only a block from Sakura's house. Let's just-"

"No. I have to know. We're buds, man. I don't even know how you could keep something like this from me. You have to tell me."

"No."

"Why not?"

"I just can't."

"Is it Sakura?"

Sasuke went still. He spoke in a deadly soft voice that went unnoticed by Naruto, who was caught in the grip of sudden realization. "What?"

"Yeah, man! You've always been weird about my crush for Sakura-chan. Today you go and point out how she'll never love me, make me admit I don't really love her myself and now, out of nowhere, you have someone you're sweet on? Admit it! You like her yourself!" He shook his friend's shoulders in his agitation.

Sasuke remained motionless and silent. There was such rage in his head that he thought it might explode.

Naruto took a closer look at Sasuke when he didn't immediately reply, and noticed with a sick jolt that his eyes had gone Sharingan. There was a blankness to Sasuke's face, a set to his body that Naruto associated with sudden, devastating violence from the other boy. Slowly, body tense with dread, Naruto took his hands off Sasuke's shoulders and backed away a few steps. He waited, hardly daring to breathe. A small breeze ruffled Sasuke's hair. A street lamp illuminated his eyes so that they seemed to glow like hot coals in the twilight. Finally, Sasuke spoke.

"Let's get something straight. If it weren't for the fact that you'd go Kyuubi on my ass, I'd have ki…kicked Sakura's head in a long time ago." He had almost said 'killed'. He had to be careful here or Naruto really would turn on him. In his present battered condition he wouldn't be any match for him. He took a deep breath. "Look. I'm as civil as I can be to her. If she were in trouble I'd save her, and I have lots of times. You know that. She's my team mate and I'd never let a team mate down. But none of that means I have to like her. I never will. End of discussion. Now, let's get there already. I think I'm bleeding internally."

He turned to continue walking. Naruto followed after a few moments of relief; he'd thought Sasuke was going to kill him.

He caught up to him and they reached Sakura's house a minute later. Naruto's mind clamored with questions. Who was in love with him? Why did Sasuke hate Sakura so much? And, most importantly of all, who the living hell did Sasuke have feelings for??