A/N: As promised, it's been a week and I got inspired again after reading the latest chapter of Naruto so I am updating this story. I really don't expect this story or my other one to be popular but I'm at least glad that some people like them. I'm just getting a little tired of keeping all of my emotions inside of me every time I read a next chapter of Naruto. Though actually, I bought the latest volume of Naruto and I'm really close to unleashing a new story dedicated to Sasuke's hate. That's not a good thing…

I do NOT OWN ANY of the Naruto characters or the story itself. If I did, I have two chapters to show what I would want to happen or what I would want to happen afterwards just so I could feel better about it. Thank you all to those who have reviewed, even though it's only a little. But hey. All new stories usually start off slow. Thanks and enjoy!

Ch. 1: What Will You Do Now?

When Sasuke woke up, it was to the blinding light of the sun leaking in from the outside. His vision was hazy and he couldn't really comprehend what was all around him. His mind was a total blank and all he could see before his eyes is a dark brown ceiling.

'Where am I?' he wonders, staring at the long board pattern.

After his sense of sight had been restored, other senses came back as well. Feel, smell, and hearing. He can feel the wounds on his body ache with pain and the feel of bandages around them as well as well as the soft mattress below him and the softer comforter over his body. He can also hear birds chirping and nature all around him. Finally he can smell the faint scent of the forest and smell of something cooking. Someone must be here but at the time, that wasn't what Sasuke was concerned about.

The Uchiha boy pushes himself up, despite the aching warnings of his body telling him to stop, and he sits there with a scattered mind and observing eyes. With the comforter now resting on his lap, he can see that his chest is bandaged up and clean. Someone not only bandaged him up but also cleaned him from the dirt and sweat of battle.

Battle… the battle between him and his brother…

'What is this…I'm lacking?' he wonders, thinking about the sight of the man who took everything from him dead at his feet. Why does he not feel remorse or even a sense of joy that his life goal, his purpose in life, is fulfilled? Why does he feel so…so…

…empty…

He only had a moment to pounder that question when he senses someone right outside the door of the room he's resting in.

"Here, let me open the door for you since your hands are full."

"I'm fine, Naruto. Why not go back to the others and wait? I'll let you know when Sasuke wakes up."

Naruto and Sakura, his old teammates from Konoha, are right outside the door of his room? What Sasuke usually do was feel a sense of annoyance and suspicion that they're here. He knows that they want to take him back to Konoha when he has no desire to do so and they keep persisting on it. However, with this dead emotion the young Uchiha feels right now, he feels nothing – only acknowledging the fact that those two are here. Even thinking of the possibility that those two are the ones who cleaned him up, patched up his wounds, and is giving him generous hospitality doesn't affect him. He just feels empty.

Then the door opens.

"Asleep, awake; I just wanna see him." But as he keeps talking, Sakura sees Sasuke awake and her eyes and her mouth become wide open with surprise. "And I want to help him get better. Opening a door is simple enough for me to do, right?" Then he notices Sakura's gaping shock face as her hands that are carrying a tray of food shake. "Uh? Sakura-chan, what's wrong?" Finally, he turns his head to look inside and he sees the same thing as she does. Sasuke thought his jaw was going to fall to the ground. "S-Sasuke…?"

And there became silence.

Why are they so silent now that he's awake? Was he supposed to remain unconscious? Or are they so shock that he's awake that they don't know what to say or do? For all he knows, up until a few hours ago or a few days ago, they were hunting him down – desperate to bring him back. Now that they have him, they are at a loss for words? Though it's not like Sasuke is willing to start up conversation with them, he has nothing to say to these people.

After a long silence, someone finally did something besides staring in either gaping surprise or with blank eyes. Naruto closes his mouth and it curls up into a very warm and relieved smile. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Sasuke."

The Uchiha only stares at him, but his unresponsive behavior doesn't seem to bother either of them as Sakura finally snaps out of her trance and approaches him. Naruto follows and both of them sit besides Sasuke's bed as Sakura places the tray of food besides her. "How are you feeling?" she asks. "Does anything still hurt? Or does anything feel uncomfortable at all?"

That's right. She's a medical ninja so she has to ask those questions. Only problem is Sasuke really doesn't feel like answering them. It's not like they're going to understand his answer.

Even if he wanted to answer, Naruto doesn't give him the chance. He puts on that stupid grin of his and he starts acting like everything is perfectly fine. Like them being together again is normal. "Boy, did you give us the scare of a life time, teme! You were only unconscious for a day but you looked half dead when Sakura-chan started to work on you. We thought you were going to die for sure! Good thing we have the village's number one medical ninja specialist with us or you would have been screwed!"

"Hey, Naruto! Stop saying such unnecessary things," she tells him, blushing.

"But it's the truth, right?" he asks. "We all would have been dead if it weren't for you."

"I thought I told you to stop it!"

"You shouldn't have bothered."

Naruto and Sakura didn't expect to hear that. Both of them turn to Sasuke to give him their full attention and they see him with his head facing the ground and his hands clenching the comforter over his lower half. He would have been dead if Sakura didn't heal his wounds? If neither of them saved him, he would have been dead and maybe things would have been better like that. Cause right now he's feeling these feelings he's not supposed to feel after finally obtaining revenge. He's not supposed to feel this way. He's supposed to be dead and yet these people…

"You haven't changed at all, Naruto. You're still that same persistent moron who just doesn't know when to leave things alone. I don't need your hospitality and I didn't need you to save my life."

Now that surely wasn't something that neither of the two other members of Team 7 expected to hear. It was like he was telling them to abandon him. Leave him out to suffer alone when they know that he's already suffered enough. He's their friend and he's telling them to have left him to die? That angered Naruto greatly. So much so that he blew off at him moments after those words were spoken. "So what? You just wanted me to leave you where I found you? If I didn't get you when I did, that guy with the weird orange mask would have gotten you!"

A guy with a weird orange mask, Sasuke slightly wondered when he heard that. He even looked up at him slightly to show that the spiky hair blonde has caught a bit of his attention. Naruto couldn't possibly mean the guy that was with that one Akatsuki member who blew himself up, did he? Deidara must have been his name if the young raven hair could remember clearly, and that other guy…Tobi, was it?

Naruto continues, "It was either him or me and I know for a fact that he wasn't going to let you die either!"

Gosh he's annoying. Sasuke slightly narrows his eyes at his formal comrade. Still blasting out nonsense when he clearly still does not know anything.

Trying to stop this quarreling from continuing any longer, Sakura turns to the teenager across from her and commands, "Naruto, stop it."

"No, he needs to hear this." Of course he wasn't going to listen, Sakura or not. Now that his mind is set on making Sasuke understand, he's not going to back down till his words reach his stubborn friend. "You wanna know something? The person who hasn't changed at all is you, teme! You may be stronger now, strong enough to have finally obtained your revenge, but that crappy attitude of yours hasn't changed at all! You're still that stuck-up showoff who thinks that whatever the world has to offer should be served on a silver platter because you think you're so great!"

Sasuke narrows his eyes a little more into a 'back off' glare and he reminds, "I told you before, Naruto. You don't know what it's like. You have been alone from the beginning so you don't know what it's like to lose everything," and then he pauses. He paused because he began to remember. Remember what it was like that day when he did lose everything. And yet even with that memory still fresh in his mind, he still feels unsatisfied with his brother's blood now on his hands. "…and you don't know what it's like to do everything in your power to make that person who made you lose everything suffer the way you have suffered."

"And how do you feel now, Sasuke?"

Neither of the three expected to hear that. Not even Sasuke who would have sensed him coming instantly, Great Copy-Cat Ninja or not. His argument with Naruto must have distracted him. The blonde always did that kind of effect on him. All three of them look up at the door and leaning on the door frame is their sensei, or formal sensei – depending on who's being mentioned.

"Kakashi sensei!" Sakura exclaims, seeing him. The look of confusion or curiosity on all three of their faces speaks to the spiky white hair man their question.

"We can hear you all the way from the front. You two are as noisy as always." Then his attention turns to the second most stubborn teenager in this room. "But back to my earlier question, how do you feel now that you've obtained your revenge, Sasuke? Do you by chance feel…empty?"

As soon as he said that last word, Sasuke's once irritated and annoyed expression instantly changes to pure shock. His eyes widen to the point of the white of his eyes surrounding his pupils, his mouth slightly opened, and his form still. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights. When he didn't say anything or move, his formal teammates look at him to see him like that. Then when Kakashi spoke again, they turn to him.

"You forget, Sasuke. Naruto may not know what it's like to take revenge on someone but I do. I've lived longer than you and I've seen and experienced a lot more than you. Taking revenge on someone doesn't make things better. It makes things worst. You believed that after losing everything that you loved, revenge is all that's left. There is nothing more you can lose, but that's a lie. Once you've obtain revenge, all there is left is emptiness. You've based your whole life on revenge, treated it as your purpose in your life. Now that it's over, what's left? Absolutely nothing."

He's right and Sasuke knows that. Kakashi told him something like this before after he nearly killed Naruto on top of the hospital roof but back then, he didn't listen and went to Orochimaru. It may have been because those Sound Ninja Four came in and spoke to him about something he understood. What his sensei told him long ago was something he didn't understand and it left him in deep turmoil. But now that he does have some sense to what the older ninja is talking about, he's listening – a little.

"So maybe you do know what it's like," he mutters. His formal comrades look back at him and they see that he no longer has that dumbstruck look on his face. In fact, it's slowly starting to turn purely anger and frustration for having to explain himself to these people. "But that doesn't change the fact that you should have left me to die! I'm a rogue ninja and you people insist I return to Konoha! What's waiting for me there, HUH?"

"That's us, teme."

This time, Naruto has grasps Sasuke's full attention. He looks at the spiky haired blonde and his sky blue eyes show how dead serious he is and how serious he's going to be when he says his next words. All Sasuke could do is sit there and listen. "You may not believe it but Konoha has us. Your comrades, your friends. We're a family, Sasuke. Maybe not a normal one with a mother and a father and maybe we're not all blood related but we're still a family. You don't have to accept it now, but know that we are here for you and we are more than welcomed to accept you back."

What is it with these people? What does Sasuke have to do to make them leave him alone? Do they want him to kill everything that they loved just so they can hate him? No, because that everything would be the entire Konoha village and he's not a cold-blooded murderer. He's not going to kill innocent people just for the hell of it but what does he have to do to be left alone so he can shrivel up and die?

"You people…" he mumbles, lowering his face and letting his bangs hideaway half of it. He grips the covers even more and his next words sound more like he's spiting them through his clench teeth. "…truly are…pathetic."

At least he's actually hearing their words and is sort of taking them in. It's like talking to a child that goes in and out of focus. But in this situation, they're willing to be patient with him. Kakashi asks him, "Well what else can you do? You've completed your life's purpose and dying is definitely not something we're all going to allow you to do. Rather it's us or them, we both want you alive."

By 'them' he means the rest of the Akatsuki, right? That's where that man with the whirly mask came from. Thinking about this rationally, rather Sasuke likes it or not dying now is not an option anyone is going to accept from him. The only thing they probably would accept is which people to go with. Yes, he's already with Naruto and his little gang but Sasuke could easily escape them and go to the Akatsuki. But what do they have to offer him?

Seeing his reaction to all of this, Sakura tries to say to him, "And I'm sure Tsunade-sama will think of something to help you start a new life back in the village. She is the fifth Hokage after all." Then she starts pleading. All this time, she's trained and looked for him just so she can be this close to him without a blade pointing at her or her fist coming for him. She never wants something like that to happen again. "Please, Sasuke-kun. We just got you back. We don't want to lose you again."

And Naruto adds in, proclaiming, "And if you try to run away, you know I will just chase after you again. I'll keep running after you no matter what. Even if you cut my legs off or try to kill me, I ain't giving up on ya, teme!"

Yep, dying is certainly not an option. The Akatsuki don't want him dead and Konoha doesn't want him dead. If Sasuke stays with these people, then the Akatsuki are sure to come after him, but that's the same actions Naruto will make if he goes with Akatsuki.

"So Sasuke, what will you do now?"

Indeed, what will he do now?

There you guys go! The talk I think Naruto would have had with Sasuke if he got him before Madara. Or at least the discussion I think they would have if Naruto defeats Sasuke, takes him back home, and tries to talk some sense into him without trying to send a Rasengan at his way.

Was it bad? Good? Let me know. Till next time!