Chapter Two: Dare

The sun was just rising over the horizon when a key turned in the front door lock. Sasuke tucked the book in his shirt and hid in the bathroom, listening. Two people entered the living room. They were both adults; one female and one male.

"Kakashi-sensei I really don't like this," Sasuke recognized Sakura's voice.

"I know, Sakura-chan, but we have to."

"No; we don't! Why did Naruto-kun have to look for Sasuke-kun again? I thought we gave up on him years ago."

Sasuke's mind flustered. Naruto went looking for him again? Sakura continued.

"It's not our fault he died!" Sasuke heard the girl slump on the floor, crying. He burst out of the bathroom and his former teammate and mentor stared at him wide-eyed. "You!" Sakura scrambled over to the brunet and punched him in the jaw. Sasuke took it, still stunned.

Eventually Kakashi came over and pulled the sobbing girl off of Sasuke. "That's enough, Sakura-chan," he said quietly. Sakura nodded.

"Naruto…is dead?"

Sakura sobbed harder. "You still have the arrogance to call him only by his name! After you left…it was like he'd left, too. Nothing was the same. You're terrible!" Sasuke couldn't think of anything; he, for once, pulled a blank.

"If only you'd been here a month ago."

"Kakathi-sensei?" Sasuke looked up at the man.

"No one can forgive you,now," Kakashi's eyes held anger and regret. "You're the reason the 7th Hokage is dead."

That startled Sasuke enough that he stood up. "Naruto became Hokage?"

Kakashi nodded. "Six months ago. He was doing a very good job, too. He just…missed you is all. He was disguised as a traveler and a group of ninja from Amegakure wanted to pick a fight. He did his best but they were Anbu-level. The two boys distracted him while the girl snuck up behind him. I don't know how they did it; no one get the details. He went alone, after all. We're currently preparing for war."

"That idiot," Sasuke breathed, "of course he'd do something like that. Never changed, did her?"

"No, and neither did his feelings for you," Kakashi looked out the window, "I wonder if he anticipated this."

"I wouldn't be surprised if he went and got himself killed so recently just to spite me," Sasuke said.

"How could you?" Sakura screeched. "How could you say something like that? Naruto-kun was our friend! You monster!"

"Yeah," Sasuke looked at his toes, "I am, aren't I?" The group fell silent for a moment.

"We're going to have to take you in," Kakashi finally said. "you're in the hit-list. If we don't we'll both be killed for treason." Sasuke nodded. They came towards him but he held his hand out to stop them momentarily.

"May I please have a moment?" He asked. "I won't be long."

Kakashi nodded. "If you run; we'll catch you."

"I know."

Sasuke went into Naruto's room and removed the poetry book from his shirt. He opened it up to the back cover and took out Naruto's dip-pens that he had used to write. Sasuke sat on the bed and looked out the window at the awakening village. He wished that he could run and destroy the Rain Village team that had murdered the best thing that had ever happened to the world. Sasuke ran his hand along the windowsill, chipping some paint off. He looked down at the book, dipped the pen in the ink and wrote.

Chipped pain on the windowsill
represents my soul.

Crying loudly, flaking fast.
No one sees the sadness.
They just chip and chip and chip away
until I'm nothing.

Repainted - a new coat.
Prettier; more attractive to the eye.
But you just covered up my pain:
Trying to start brand new.

The brunet took the pen he'd used and rinsed it out in the sink in the bathroom and dried it before putting it and the book in his shirt and joined his former teammates in the hall again, closing the door behind him.

"You ready to go?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah. Thank you," Sasuke said.

"What for?"

"Everything."

Kakashi nodded and took the boy under one arm. Sakura took him under the other. They dragged the exile out, wishing, despite their contempt, that they could leave him there.

Seeing as he'd finally come home.

END

I just finished my finals for grade 11 this morning! I'm so glad I'm off for the rest of the summer! Grad 2011 here I come!

I have another 1-shot story ready much like "Technical Difficulties". It's a ChronaxMaka from the anime/manga 'Soul Eater'. I wrote it in Physics (which I never have to take again!).

I wrote all of these poems a while ago for this story. Although Naruto and its characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo; I own the poems.