for those who might have seen this on ao3 as well and have noticed a slight chapter discrepancy, i bunched 1+2 together here when i first uploaded it, then subsequently forgot to update it at the same time as when i was on ao3 as u can all see. so IRL this is chapter 4 but its chapter 3 here bc im dumb. kbye
Naruto gazed at Sasuke as they walked along one the dusty street. It had been so long since he'd laid eyes on his old friend and frankly since yesterday, he felt as though he were stuck in a dream world. And though Sasuke's exterior was showing that of annoyance at the current situation, he knew that the man was content enough to not run back to his shop. Naruto also suspected that Sasuke's actual demeanor had changed in the past five years. He seemed to be more of a dreamer, sighing a lot and staring wistfully in the distance. And he could see the faintest hint of a smile on Sasuke's face. Naruto was so happy he was sure nothing could bring him down from this high.
The two walked along in silence, feeling the morning sun slowly heat the earth. The shops around them slowly began to wake up and soon the streets began to fill with people going about their daily errands.
Sasuke was currently concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, only casting the occasional glance at Naruto but otherwise facing the ground. He wasn't used to walking around this part of town with his normal clothes on. He wasn't used to being so exposed and recognizable. But oddly, he felt less uncomfortable than he initially expected to, so there was that.
And it was in this moment that a most unlikely trio (plus a dog) happened upon the two young men. Having just arrived from a mission, Shikamaru, Ino, and Kiba chalked up their tired and weary dispositions to creatng the passing image of Sasuke. Surely their senses were deceiving all three of them at the same exact time, right? Probably a weird henge Naruto made using his shadow clones…perhaps he'd finally gone off the deep end.
However after several seconds of closer examination, the three shinobi realized this wasn't a shadow clone, and quite possibly the actual Uchiha Sasuke that had suddenly stepped out of the shinobi ranks to do fuck all. Akamaru yipped.
"YO!" Kiba was the first to say something, back tracking his steps to Naruto and Sasuke. Ino and Shikamaru exchanged glances, or rather Ino looked to Shikamaru and he rolled his eyes and sighed in resignation, and walked after Kiba. There was no way they were going to miss this, however troublesome Shikamaru found it. Ino could only hope Sakura had not yet run into the two men yet, although later that day she would end up sorely disappointed to find that Team 7 had briefly reunited on the very same streets not too long before her.
Sasuke couldn't believe his luck. It was not even 10am and they had managed to run into more than half of the Rookie 9. Didn't they have things to do besides loiter around Konoha? What kind of hidden village was Kakashi running? Although he couldn't say he was surprised. He'd have to ask Naruto about the current affairs of the village later on. He only kept up with the petty gossip of the town, and usually could care less about the political rumor mill, but seeing his old peers brought about burning curiousities within the young Uchiha.
"Oh, Kiba, hey! Just got back from your mission, neh?" Naruto bent slightly to ruffle Akamaru's fur and scratch behind his ears. Sasuke stayed aloof.
"Yeah, literally just got back. Dead tired to be honest but not tired enough to meet your new friend." Kiba went to give a chummy punch to Sasuke's shoulder, who promptly dodged, rolling his eyes in the process.
"It's a pleasure, Dog Breath."
"This is so troublesome…"
"Oh shut up, don't pretend like you're not dying to know the details, too!"
"Ino, Shikamaru! Wow, this has been a day of reunions. I couldn't have planned it better myself. First Sakura-chan and Sensei, (at that Ino deflated considerably) and now you three. Hehe, aren't you guys impressed? I finally managed to track him down, and by a chance encounter too! And now he's stuck with me for the day! Well, forever actually. No way I'm letting him out of my sight AGAIN."
Naruto emphasized the last word with a pointed look at Sasuke, who merely turned his head away in response.
"Moron, can we just get a move on? We don't have all day to fuck around."
"Unlike your appearance, it seems your nasty attitude has stayed the same." Kiba crossed his arms, giving Sasuke several once overs. He felt an inkling of deja-vu. Hadn't he seen that hair before…? It wasn't Madara…
Kiba head snapped up in recognition. "OI!"
Shikamaru frowned. "Quit being so loud. This is giving me such a headache."
"Uchiha! I've seen you before!"
Naruto looked puzzled. "Uh, Kiba of course you've seen him before, he went to the academy with us and participated in the Chuunin exams and…well, you know the story." He scratched his nose in confusion as Kiba waved his arms about.
"No, no, no, that's not what I mean! Like, I've SEEN SASUKE since FIVE YEARS AGO, SERIOU-"
Sasuke's eyes widened and a ringing started in his ears as he felt the onset of a slight panic. Oh no. He suddenly remembered! How could he be so careless? He thought he'd disquised himself pretty well that one time when he'd…
"—TOTALLY MADE A TABLE FOR MY MOM AND HE EVEN HELPED BRING IT INTO THE HOUSE DUDE! ON MY OWN TURF! WE SHARED SAKE!"
A stray tumbleweed rolled by. Silence. Akamaru growled in his throat at the tension.
Sasuke's palms were collecting a nice reservoir of sweat. Enough that he'd soon start thinking about donating to Suna, who were in something of a drought currently. He stifled a chuckle at his own joke. No, Sasuke, now was not the time to be laughing. He made a cursory glance towards Naruto, whose face was hidden from view as the young man stared silently at the ground. So much for nothing being able to bring him down from his cloud nine.
At this point Sasuke was growing concer-
CRUNCH!
Everything went black and a few seconds later, Sasuke blearily awoke to Naruto straddling and shaking him back and forth by the collar of his shirt, who was red faced and shouting something that sounded very, very angry. The other three crowded around behind Naruto, looking slightly concerned for the violent scene unfolding before them, but mostly bemused. Their mouths were moving too…or was that just because he was being shaken so violently.
As his senses slowly came back to him, he began to hear what was being said around him.
"-STUPID BASTARD I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'VE PLAYED US ALL FOR FOOLS FOR YEARS I SWEAR I AM GOING TO KILL YOU—YOU INGRATEFUL GOOD FOR NOTHING—"
"Logically it just doesn't make sense. How can you disappear that well for five years anyway without being noticed? Konoha is not that big and it's one of the most elite shinobi villages. It's as if we are living in some poorly thought out plot for some television drama. Either that or a sign we need to step up our recon and investigative programs. More than anything, this concerns me. I'll have to mention this to Kakashi-sama."
"Dude, I can't believe my mom had a table made by you and we didn't even know like what the fuck?"
"How did you not deduce a pale, dark-haired male named Uchiha Sasuke making you a table over a considerable period of time MIGHT be the same Uchiha Sasuke that just up and left the ninja ranks one day? Like Kiba, are you that dumb? Maybe YOU should take a break from being a shinobi. Shikamaru's right, we should've been able to see through him."
"Hey, blondie, shut the fuck up. First of all, he didn't give his last name, and I'm fairly certain Sasuke is a common name amongst civilians and the area he came from is ALL CIVILIAN. It's not like I was actively searching for the bastard. I'm not Uzumaki."
"Sasuke, how long did it take you to suppress your chakra coils enough to pass as a civilian amongst the elitest of ninja? I know you didn't get it medically done, or there'd be records. More, how did you test that out? This could very well be valuable information as it's somewhat unprecedented."
Akamaru was barking up a storm, and people on the street began to gather around.
Meanwhile Sasuke was still being pummeled to the ground by Naruto, who was conveniently ignoring Sasuke's strangled protests. It wasn't that Sasuke was weak, far from it actually, but being at such a disadvantaged position, using just his physical force would only prove to be futile. He shut his eyes and decided since none of the three watching the scene were going to do much except discuss Sasuke's mastery of disguise and ask him questions he wasn't in any position to answer at the moment, he would have to resort to extreme measures.
He breathed in and thanked the Gods that his arms were free and Naruto was too distracted from his incessant yells and screams. His hands made a few familiar signs, going unnoticed by all except for Shikamaru, who's eyes narrowed in alarm.
Chi chi chi…
Naruto stopped immediately at the familiar sound. He hadn't heard that in…
He looked down and saw one of Sasuke's hands glowing bright and powerful with a blue force.
"CHIDORI!" and "SON OF A BITCH!" rang through the air. Naruto lept off and moved away just in time for Sasuke to kick himself off the ground and plunge his fist forward into the air, deliberatly missing Naruto by a lock of hair. He hadn't been planning on hitting his friend in the first place, just only to alarm the man enough to stop beating the crap out of him.
The air around the five young adults crackled with the residual intensity of the jutsu. Sasuke was winded. He hadn't expended that much chakra since the war. He swayed in his place and sat down on his haunches, putting his palms up to his eyes to try and stay focused as Shikamaru tried to disperse the growing crowd of onlookers.
"Nothing to see here," he lazily waved away a group of young women. "Please keep walking," he rolled his eyes and shooed a bunch of school children. "Carry on," he sighed.
"Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn," whistled Kiba.
"Sasuke, you're looking a little pale. Are you ok?" He felt two arms help him up and guide him to a cooler location. He briefly opened his eyes and saw past Ino's slim figure Naruto gazing at him with furrowed brows, feeling the area of his hair that had just been singed off by Sasuke's Chidori.
After a couple minutes of silence, Sasuke had somewhat recovered enough to stand. His nose was dribbling blood, and he had a gash on his left temple. All in all, it could've been worse, he thought to himself, though he was surprised at Naruto's violent outburst. He'd have to tread carefully until further notice.
"Jeez, dobe, with that temper it's no wonder they didn't make you Hokage."
Okaaaay, not exactly what he'd call 'treading carefully' but it was a start, maybe.
Naruto's eyes snapped up to pin a glare on Sasuke, who was using the bottom of his shirt to soak up his bloody nose. It was a sight to behold: a very dusty and bloody Sasuke holding up his now bloody t-shirt and exposing his toned stomach to the world. Naruto swallowed the lump forming in his throat.
"Ugh…" was all he could muster up. He had a nasty retort ready, but of course Sasuke had to distract him with his stupid body and his stupid face.
"Duuuuuuude, that was crazy. Sasuke, was that the first jutsu you'd done since before? Fuck, man. Can't believe I was a witness to that."
"Yeah. And it'll be the last. I hope you're honored Naruto," Sasuke smirked, briefly grimacing as small twitches of pain traveled down his arm. He'd way over-extended his chakra, considering he'd all but suppressed a fraction of what he used to carry in his reserves.
Inwardly, Ino was pleased. So what if Sakura saw Sasuke first today? She was SO going to one-up her tonight after seeing this!
Shikamaru groaned at the dysfunctionality of the company he kept, absolutely hating that he got caught up in this mess in the first place. He was tired and hungry and dirty and all he wanted was to go home.
"Guys, as much as I'd love to stay here and chat, which I don't, I'm gonna have to call it a day. I'm going home. Good to see you Sasuke. Don't be a stranger. Or do, I really don't care." As he walking off in the direction of his home, he briefly put up his hand in goodbye.
While their curiousities were definitely more piqued than Shikamaru's, Ino and Kiba were in the same tired boat as the lazy genius. Having been on the same mission together and just getting back to Konoha that morning, they were exhausted. The momentary chaos had effectively distracted them of their low energy levels, but now that everything was back to normal (so to speak), they were hit with a wall of lethargy.
"I think Shikamaru's got the right idea. But that doesn't mean we won't drag your story out of you one of these days, Sasuke! I got my eyes on you!" Ino smiled cheekily at her old crush, having moved on from him years ago, but still keeping a soft spot for him. He was too cute not to, she figured. Kiba shrugged in agreement, clapping Naruto on the shoulder in goodbye and giving a brief wave to Sasuke. The two walked on, Akamaru following after, discussing the events that had unfolded before their eyes. Such a crazy morning.
When the three were finally out of their sight, Naruto and Sasuke were left in silence, standing in the shade of a small building. Suffice to say things were pretty awkward.
Sasuke pinched his lips together in frustration, glancing at Naruto, who seemed lost in his thoughts. Both of them felt bad for their actions. Sasuke, for being a little twat for the past five years, and Naruto, for beating up his best friend and causing him to overspend his low chakra reserves, possibly causing him injury. The two sighed and caught each others eyes.
"Listen—" "Sasuke, I—" They both began and stopped at the same time, realizing the other had something to say.
"You go," said Naruto, scratching the back of his head.
Sasuke grimaced. "Listen, ahh, I just wanted to…apologize…for being, you know, so unwilling to be amongst you guys even though I was so close. It was a personal decision obviously and I had my reasons, but I didn't take your feelings into account, you in particular, and I feel bad. I guess."
Naruto smiled and felt his mood rise with Sasuke's words. "Hehe, never thought I'd ever hear you apologize to the likes of me. Or anyone! Hehehe, I should've brought a tape recorder."
"Dobe, enjoy the moment because it's never going to happen again."
"Uh huh. It seems with your newly reflective personality, you've gotten softer."
"Try me you piece of trash."
But Sasuke smiled as he crossed his arms. The air had finally cleared and whatever previous misgivings Naruto had with Sasuke were all but forgotten, for the most part. He was still probably going to get his ear chewed out later today, but for now, he was going to enjoy the friendly banter. Perhaps he had gotten softer with time…but no one had to know…
Naruto grabbed Sasuke's forearm, effectively taking him from his thoughts. "Hey, let's go get those supplies already! We've been hanging around long enough!"