A/N: Here comes the next (first) chapter of The nights before we were. I know it took some time. I can only hope that you haven't lost interest (quite a few have put this story on their alert-list! That makes me happy!). I might as well tell you that it will be some waiting between the chapters. I still have no idea where this is going, and no one has felt the urge to help me with a plot. Not to worry though, I'm sure it will turn out fine… (Yes, I know. I'm pretty good at being overly optimistic.)
I know I wrote in the prologue that you could put them in whichever city you want… That still goes! But I really wanted to name the places and in order to do so without picking a city myself I decided to take some names from the manga…
The first part in italics is one of Sasuke's childhood memories, just as in the prologue.
Warnings: Um. Some foul language. Death. Nothing bloody or graphic in any way. And it's just OCs… or what you want to call it… Future yaoi/shounen-ai (still don't know the difference).
Pairings: There will be narusasunaru. One-sided sakusasu.
Disclaimer: Not mine. And for everyone else's sake; let's hope Naruto never will be.
Chapter 1 – The life in-between and a little underneath
Sasuke ran along the streets. He was a bit late, but if he hurried up he would be home in time for dinner. His mother would most likely scold him for making her worry, but she wouldn't actually mean the harsh words (that would be whispered into his ear by that soft and caring voice while she held him tightly in that surprisingly strong embrace) and afterwards she would kiss him on the cheek and give him a cherry tomato before dinner.
He smiled to himself and sped up a little – eager to get home to his mother's warmth and the safeness of her arms.
He turned around a corner and stopped dead. Their house was dark. He couldn't detect any signs of life in there. He wrinkled his eyebrows and walked up to the house. This was weird. Even if his father and maybe even his brother were out looking for him, at least his mother should still be home cooking.
He groped around in his bag until he found his key and inserted it in the door, trying to unlock it. It didn't work.
The door already was unlocked.
He scowled a little and pushed the door open. Not one noise. The house was completely quiet, completely empty. He was alone in there.
It shouldn't have bothered him so much – because he was 8 years old, after all. He was old enough to be home alone.
What did bother him, though, was the complete lack of explanation as to why he was alone. Where was his family? They should all be here by now; he was late home after all. And if no one was home, why was the door unlocked?
He called out. No answer.
He went through the dark rooms into the kitchen. Nothing. Looking around as if expecting his mother to suddenly jump out from a cupboard, saying "ta-da" in a sing-song voice, he came to the conclusion that they must have went out looking for him – all of them.
He picked up the phone and dialled his mother's cell phone number. He blushed slightly in shame for having them so worried about him.
As the signals connected, he could hear a happy little melody beginning to play somewhere in the house. Sasuke frowned at this, not knowing what to think.
Hesitantly he followed the sound of the happy tunes, still clutching the phone tightly in his now trembling little hand.
The melody came from the master bedroom. The door was closed before him. He hung up. The melody from inside the bedroom went quiet.
Taking a few deep, calming breaths, Sasuke stretched out his hand, gripped the doorknob and turned it, slowly pushing the door open.
The walls were splattered with something dark, and a pool of the same black liquid covered the expensive deeply blue carpet on the floor. Sasuke didn't see this.
Drowning in the pool of blood lay his parents. Sasuke saw this.
Sasuke screamed.
Sasuke sighed, leaned back in his seat and looked out of the window on the world below. The plane went in for landing.
"Almost there now", Sakura smiled at him.
He threw her a glance, and his onyx eyes lingered on her brightly pink hair. He still hadn't gotten used to her having short hair. Seemed as if he would have to, though. He had asked her if she would let it grow out long again, and she had told him no.
"It got in the way all the time. Besides, I kind of like it like this." She flashed him a smile, her green eyes shining happily. "Some change in appearance from time to time is only refreshing, Sasuke-kun."
He hadn't mentioned her hair again. Dammit, it was just hair! Long, glossy, soft-looking hair with possibly the most exotic colour he'd ever seen. It was so totally against every single rule nature had about hair colours, and still she made it look pretty.
He had often thought that Sakura was a beautiful girl, but he couldn't bring himself to fall in love with her. Over the two past years that they had known each other he had developed a feeling of protectiveness toward her. He wanted to keep her safe, but he couldn't love her in the way he knew she loved him.
She was his best friend. Being her boyfriend would only make him feel awkward and out of place. He couldn't even imagine him and her in bed like that together. It was just too strange. It would feel like… sleeping with the sister he never had.
The plane's wheels bumpily connected with the ground and soon the seatbelt-signs were turned off. Sakura and Sasuke pulled out their hand baggage from the lockers above them and then waited patiently for the crew to let them out.
Sasuke hated flying. His ears always hurt days afterwards, and after longer flights his sense of balance would be messed up for several hours as well. This made Sasuke very much Not Happy.
Now, however, he hadn't had much of a choice. He and Sakura couldn't stay in Otogakure after what had happened less than two days earlier.
During Sasuke's whole career under Tsunade, he had only acted in Oto. He had first been paired up with Hatake Kakashi, who was to teach him how things worked now that he actually had to carry out his assassinations in some kind of organized manner.
After a few months Kakashi had declared him ready for the real thing, and after that he had thrown himself wholeheartedly – body, mind and soul – into his new working circumstances. And it had all turned out perfectly. Tsunade had been right at that time at the hospital. Sasuke was designed for the job.
Until Tsunade assigned him for a two-man job, that is.
And so came Sakura. With spiritual, jade eyes, long bubblegum pink hair and creamy skin. She did not look like a hit man… woman… whatever.
But so… He did neither.
In the beginning, it hadn't worked out well. Sasuke had sent Tsunade uncountable requests to let him have one-man jobs only, or – if that was not possible – let him at least change partner.
Tsunade declined.
Sasuke roared.
Almost six months passed where Sasuke was only signed up to duo jobs with Sakura.
And he grew used to it.
He grew used to her.
And soon they were the perfect duo.
And she became his best friend. (He refused to see that her love for him was of a different kind, even though it was painfully clear.)
Soon he wasn't forced to work with Sakura all the time. He got single-jobs more often than not, and occasionally he would have to team up with others than just the pink-haired girl.
Sasuke understood that Tsunade's goal had been to make him used to teamwork. And she had succeeded.
Even though Sasuke still preferred to work alone, he had no longer an issue to work with others. And he and Sakura had just grown closer over time, until she one day openly declared her love for him. He had made it very clear that he did not love her back. His feelings for her were of another kind.
She had accepted this – something he was very grateful for – but told him that if he ever changed his mind, she would be there for him.
They had never talked about it again, even though Sasuke knew that she still felt as strongly for him.
He eyed the girl closely as they went to pick up their luggage. He wondered how much it cost her every passing day to keep her feelings for him inside.
Was he an expensive friend? Wasn't real friendship supposed to be for free?
Did this mean that he failed in being Sakura's friend?
His eyes once again travelled to her now-short hair. He knew that she had been proud of her waist-long hair. She had saved up for it during many years.
And still she hadn't hesitated to cut it off for his sake; less than two days ago, during their last mission.
They had been sent on an ordinary mission; stealing a top-secret document about some kind of machine that Sasuke neither knew anything about nor wanted to know anything about. He knew that the machine's code name was Shiza, however.
He had fucked up. He had been seen. And knocked out.
When he came to his senses, Sakura was in a fight with three guards. One of them had a death grip in Sakura's long hair, preventing the young woman from moving. Sakura held a small knife. He'd seen her killing a guy with it not even two weeks earlier.
Now, however, she used it to cut off her hair in order to be able to continue her fight to protect him.
He got mad.
He killed two of them, but the third escaped.
He cursed loudly.
Sakura dragged him away to fetch the document.
The alarm went off.
They ran. They ran fast.
Sakura placed a bomb in the building.
It was one hell of a bang.
They watched it from a rooftop nearby.
The pressure from the explosion forced them to take several steps back.
Tsunade had been furious. Because they had blown the damn paper up along with the building.
Sasuke didn't care too much about that. They had done the best out of the situation. Tsunade agreed, but she was still pissed.
And she sent them away from Otogakure. They would have to keep away from there for a while. Which was the exact reason why they now, side by side, walked into the pick-up area at Terminal 2, Konohagakure Airport.
Sasuke didn't mind. He had been in Oto for so long now. It would be nice with some change of environment.
"Yo", a lazy voice said from their left, right beside Sakura.
They turned toward the voice, expectantly.
"Ka-? Kakashi", Sakura said, surprised at the sight of the older man.
Sasuke understood why. As far as they knew, they weren't supposed to be picked up by anyone, but were supposed to take a taxi to the Office. And besides, the man had actually been there in time to pick them up. Kakashi was never on time.
The man simply smiled at them, the one dark eye that was the only visible part of his face curving upwards. "Why, you sound so surprised, Sakura. Did you think I'd just leave you youngsters in a new city, all alone and unguided?" He made a sound of mock-accusation. "How can you think so lowly of me, Sakura-chan?"
She just laughed at him. "Don't be stupid, sensei. You know that I know that you're here for another reason. It's not as if I haven't been here before, and I'm perfectly able to guide Sasuke-kun by myself. Why are you here?"
Kakashi gave an exasperated sigh. "I was almost-early to a meeting at Office. So I decided to use that extra time to pick you guys up and drive you there." He smiled brightly.
So… apparently he wasn't on time after all. No need to worry then.
Sakura rolled her eyes.
Sasuke felt like following her example.
He didn't.
Kakashi drove a small, blue Audi. The backseat was filled with porn-magazines and empty coke cans. Sasuke was not surprised. He had after all known Kakashi for some time now.
Therefore, he wasn't surprised when he noticed as Kakashi put on some music by Queen, that the car had loudspeakers that were a bit too… effective for such a small car.
Sakura, who sat in the backseat with all the porn, complained loudly. Sasuke just couldn't understand why.
He had just discovered that he shared seat with a condom that looked suspiciously used.
Honestly, he didn't want to know.
Kakashi ignored Sakura's complaints, turned up the music a little and told Sasuke everything he could possibly want to know about Konohagakure. That included the best strip clubs and where to get the cheapest crack.
Sasuke didn't point out to Kakashi that he didn't do crack. Most likely Kakashi knew, but told him anyway for the simple reason of entertainment. He was strange like that.
Kakashi was another connection between Sasuke and Sakura. They had both been taught by him. Sakura during a longer amount of time than Sasuke (he'd gotten the impression that it was about a year's time, even though Sakura never had told him) and long before Sasuke met Tsunade (Sakura had been a hit man(… woman… whatever!) for almost three years now). And he had the feeling that she had been tutored by Kakashi together with someone else. Sakura had never confirmed this either. And Sasuke had never asked.
As they had gotten to know each other, and realised the fact that they had had the same teacher, they had been able to agree upon one thing: even though Kakashi had weird looks – silver hair defying all the laws of gravity and always covering up his face with black masks (Who did he think he was? Some kind of super hero?) can't be described with another word – and had the bad habit of always being late and throwing bad excuses all around him, Kakashi still knew what he was doing.
The guy was a genius. And an excellent teacher.
And too damn clever for his own good.
Sasuke still remembered the shock he had felt when Kakashi had called him by his full name for the first time. Damn, no one but Tsunade and himself were supposed to know who he was.
Uchiha Sasuke. An Uchiha.
Somehow, during the months Sasuke had spent with Kakashi in the beginning of his career, Kakashi had figured the whole thing out.
Sasuke still wasn't sure how. Kakashi had given him a messy explanation about similarities, not found corpses and age.
Sasuke hadn't really got what he meant, but Kakashi had looked at him as if it was obvious.
He had never taken it up again.
Neither had Kakashi.
And after that Kakashi had been kind enough to call him by his supposed-to-be family name; Sharingan.
The building called Office was bigger than and not as run-down as the Office in Otogakure. It had two floors excluding the possibility of a basement, and white stonewalls which had turned a sickly colour of white-greyish due to the pollution all the cars driving past every day released.
It was located in the 'good' part of town. Sasuke didn't really care in what part it lay, but Sakura seemed to relax a bit at the fact.
Maybe the 'bad' parts of Konoha were even worse than those in Otogakure. He hadn't thought that possible.
Kakashi parked the car in a small parking-area behind a tall building on the other side of the road, and together they then crossed the street and marched up to the entrance.
Sasuke refused to acknowledge the nervous knot in the pit of his stomach.
His life was about to change. He could feel it.
He was about to meet a bunch of new people that he was to work with. And later tonight he was to see the new apartment Tsunade had gotten him. And tomorrow would be his first working day in this new city, Konohagakure, that was to be his home for who knew how long.
He smiled; meaning his dark eyes softened and the corners of his mouth turning upwards so little that it could just as well have been the trickery of the light. It was a Sasuke-smile.
He looked at the other two as they reached the door.
Sakura's green eyes met his. She smiled back. His didn't disappear until she turned her face away as she walked through the door.
He followed her into the building.
Yes, this was the unmistakable beginning of something new.
Naruto groaned as he walked into the lift and pressed the button. He hadn't been able to find Kakashi, and now was the old hag for a boss bound to be angry with him – the great Uzumaki Naruto – for not finding him.
Dammit, Kakashi was always late for meetings, why was this time any different?
He sighed loudly as the lift doors opened and walked out…
… and into a complete chaos.
He frowned at all the noise and at all the people tumbling around the room. What the hell were they doing? Had something big happened that he had missed out?
And that was when he spotted something pink in the mass of bodies moving around the small space.
Sakura.
He felt something – a flutter? – in his stomach as he managed to catch a glimpse of her face in between two bodies. She was on the other side of the room.
And Kakashi was with her.
"KAKASHI-SENSEI!" he called out, furious, as he began to worm his way across the room. "Kakashi-sensei, you bastard, I have been looking for you all over town, and all the time you were hiding your sorry ass here?" He stopped in front of Kakashi and Sakura, glaring angrily at the former.
Kakashi's visible eye curved happily upwards in an oh!-I'm-so-happy-to-see-you smile.
"Hiding? And here I thought anyone looking would be able to see me from any spot in this room. I must have over-estimated you, kiddo. Maybe I missed out some important lessons when it comes to attention, hm?"
Naruto ground his teeth. "The old hag wants to see you", he bit out before he turned to Sakura who looked at him warily.
"Sakura-chan", he sang out with a wide grin, his previous attitude gone without a trace.
She smiled back, even though it looked a bit uncertain. "Hello, Naruto. Long time no see."
"Yeah. I heard you were coming back. Did you get hit by sudden home-sickness? Got tired of Oto?"
Her smile turned more sinister and she shook her head.
"No, I liked it there, even though… Well, I guess Konoha always will be the place closest to my heart." Her green eyes sparkled with affection for her home town. "But Tsunade needed me to come here for some time…" She looked a bit embarrassed for a moment before she turned and grabbed someone's arm, yanking the person forward and into view for Naruto.
"This is Sharingan Sasuke. He is also from Oto, and we have worked together quite a lot in the past two years", she said, still holding a tight grip around the guys arm.
Naruto looked at the guy in front of him. And looked. And looked. Alright then, so maybe more like stared.
But hell, he had never before in his life seen someone like this Sasuke-guy. He looked like something from a dream.
He was short for being a boy, several inches shorter than himself, but still a good two inches taller than Sakura. His body was slim, slender, rather than muscular and strong-looking. His flawless skin was pale, and Naruto could see thin blue veins underneath it, could trace the blood's flow with his eyes. Soft-looking hair, blue-black like the night sky in the end of October framed his pretty, slightly rounded face. Pale pink lips, oh-so alluring, pouted (pouted!) as if just waiting to be kissed (and Naruto was too willing to obey the silent request). The nose was small and feminine-looking and was cutely curved over the bridge. Dark, elegant eyebrows led Naruto's eyes to meet Sasuke's.
Deep, black, bottomless pools stared back at him, and they looked so mysterious as if the boy before him was hiding something. Not 'I was unfaithful to my girlfriend' but some real secret. Something that Naruto really wanted to find out, because in that way he might be able to comfort the other who looked so sad.
As if he had lost something precious which he now never could have back. In the way a fallen angel would miss its lost wings and thereby the ability to fly freely in the sky. Naruto got this sudden overwhelming urge to just wrap his arms around this unknown Sasuke, this fallen angel that he had never seen before, and just hold him and take care of-
"What the fuck are you staring at? You're not in a zoo, you know, but in a civilized room with supposed-to-be civilized people."
The boy – Sasuke – had spoken. He had a point. Naruto had been staring at him, rather than just innocently looking, but what the hell did he expect when he was looking like that?
Naruto scowled at him.
Thinking about it, Sasuke didn't look so great after all. He was way too… short. Yes. Definitely too short. And way too pale. It didn't look healthy. He surely had some kind of unhealthy disease. Better stay away from him, wouldn't want to catch it, Naruto grumpily thought.
Just as he opened his mouth to give him a rude answer Sakura smiled oh-so brightly (nervous and uncomfortable) and began to make her way through the crowd, still not letting go of Sasuke's arm.
"Ah, Kakashi-sensei wants us to come over to him", she said to Naruto over her shoulder. "It was good to see you again, Naruto. We can talk more later."
She disappeared dragging the black-haired boy with her.
Naruto frowned thoughtfully.
He still has a nice ass, though…
A/N: Okay. I really didn't like it. It's all mushy and squishy… and writing Sasuke is a bitch, I tell you. It feels like everyone is OOC… how depressing.
I'm counting on you guys telling me if it sucks so badly you want me to re-write it. I don't mind; just throw everything you've got at me. I'm durable.
His whole chapter is more or less just an introduction of what the hell Sasuke's been up to these two years… Nothing exciting in here…