Chapter Four: Nostalgia
Author's Notes: -cracks knuckles- Yeah, I have been busting my ass on my fictions. Enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars...yeah, I made a reference.
For Jen – Cheers for hilarious nights.
Chapter Four: Nostalgia
"And by chance, what in the fuck do you think me and the teme need to work out?" Naruto crossed his arms angrily.
"Because the dobe and I seem fine." Sasuke growled.
"And you just seem nosey." Naruto hissed.
"Also, like you're plotting something." The raven added.
"Evil, I might add." The blonde drew when he looked around for Ino.
Sakura stood when Sasuke opened his mouth to continue, "I don't want you two leaving till you work something out. I'll be upfront with Ino and Mr. Sarutobi to make sure you two don't leave prematurely. When it boils down to what you need to work through, well, I'd start from trying to get through a conversation without throwing a punch and working your way up."
Naruto turned to follow is friend stomp her way to the front and out of his view before he contemplated risking his life so he could be away from…
The blonde turned to face intense jet black pools that just so happened to be Sasuke's eyes and then he happened to land on a curve of pale pink lips that happened to be the smirk that had etched its way onto the bastards face.
The blonde sighed and stood from his seat and moved to the entryway to the kitchen and disappeared, leaving the raven to lean back into his seat.
Naruto returned a second later and set a mug in front of the bastard and set his own cup down and took his own seat.
"Here, black coffee. Black like your small, evil little heart, and bitter like your personality."
"And let me guess," Sasuke began as he took the coffee gladly, "Something with ten tons of sugar to reflect your future diabetes?"
"It is so good to see that the bastard in you has yet to die, but only blossom like an evil flower straight out of hell itself." Naruto smiled.
The man across from him smirked into his mug, "And it's good to know that you have become dumber by the day, and you're on the brink of-"
"Hi boys." Ino interrupted, seeing the sweet looks on their faces and knowing she needed to swoop in, "What's your order Sasuke?"
"What about the dobe?"
The blonde giggled, "I know his order."
Sasuke snorted, "He's that predictable?"
Ino sighed, looking towards Naruto who had gotten out of his seat without a sound and was looking towards a scowling Sakura and a disapproving Gramps, and mouthing words of help.
"Not in a sense, he just lives for nostalgia."
Naruto made his way back to the table and dumped himself into his seat with a frown – pout – and eyed his cup in hopes it would carry on the conversation for him.
"Well dobe, you seem happy." Sasuke smirked.
"I'd rather do years in the brig than five seconds here with you." Naruto bit.
"Like you could handle-"
Naruto's eyes flicked up and cut off Sasuke's sentence mid way, flashing with unleashed anger, "I've been there, I've done that – less time obviously, and it was damn sure more pleasant. Now…"
Sasuke looked away towards a wall, counting something on the tile while Naruto stared down the hall towards the kitchen counting down the seconds for his food so he could inhale it and leave.
The raven took a very quiet deep breath in, making his decision, and finally speaking.
"Why'd you do time in the brig?" Sasuke asked, still facing the wall.
Naruto looked at the man from the corner of his eyes, and without biting out an irrational reasoning for his questioning, he simply answered. "Young Marine. Played around with a stun gun with a group of guys, and well, they frown upon that. Destroying government property and all."
The other man snorted, "That's good to know."
Naruto rolled his eyes, figuring Sasuke meant some type of snide comment and held back from starting a fight in the middle of this place right here and now.
At least he could jump him in the damn parking lot.
"So, did you ever find him?" The blonde asked after a few minutes of silence.
Naruto figured he asked the wrong question, and a part of him was disappointed that he might have done that, but at the same time he'd rather stay the same person who had supposedly moved on long ago.
"Yeah, I did."
Blue eyes snapped to attention to the dead tone and felt his brow furrow in question. Sasuke always had some type of emotion when he spoke to Naruto, and usually it was subtle to the extreme extent, but the blonde could always pick up on it.
There was nothing, so he decided to ask about it, "What hap-"
"Things. End of story."
Naruto snapped his mouth shut and ignored Ino when she dropped the plates off, usually saying the same thing about 'good food, fast service, and pretty help'.
Ino let her eyes shift in between the two and frowned, "Well, good luck and don't choke."
Sasuke's eyes followed the snappy, fuming blonde as she stomped around the corner before Naruto grabbed his attention with a small, irritated voice. "She likes to be complimented on her service."
The raven turned to his meal, his stomach barely grumbling in hunger while Naruto's roared to full strength. Sasuke grabbed his silver wear, his eyes absently flicking over to Naruto's plate before back to his own, and then right back to Naruto's.
Fucking nostalgia.
"You know something," Naruto began as he and Sasuke walked across the parking lot, "I don't get what's so damn great about being sixteen. We get to drive, big deal."
Sasuke snorted, "If you can ever past the test, dobe."
The blonde crossed his arms childishly with a pout while Sasuke politely opened the door, Naruto throwing over his shoulder, "I had to test out the test. Third time is always the charm."
Sasuke rolled his eyes, breezing by coolly while Naruto loudly ran up to the counter to talk to Grandpa Sarutobi. The raven walked into the back, crossing through the entryway to the nonsmoking section and walking to the back table near the doorway of the kitchen.
Sasuke took his seat that he always took since the dobe began dragging him to the place and waited for whichever waitress to come and take their order that he knew by heart.
He did not, however, expect an admirer from the deepest pits of hell to come forth wearing the customary maroon shirts and latch onto his arm like she was some sort of tick.
"Sasuke!" Said man flinched at the squeal next to his ear, "How did you know I started working here!"
"Hn."
"What?"
"I didn't." He bit out. "I came with the dobe."
She loosened her grip, as if realizing she should be more professional, "Oh! Well, what can I get you to drink?"
"Black coffee, dip shit will have sweet tea with two tons of sugar." Sasuke looked towards the wall, trying to ignore her even though he had to pass along the order.
"Do you know-"
"He'll have the French toast with extra powder sugar, substitute the hash browns for a slice of pie." Onyx eyes flicked towards the ceiling.
"And you?" Ino asked after she scribbled down the order.
"The bastard?" Naruto flopped into his seat, "He's going to want eggs – scrambled – white toast, and fucking turkey bacon."
"Heart attack." Sasuke commented.
"Health nut." Naruto grumbled.
Ino blinked, slowly scribbling down the rest of the order before turning to walk away.
"So, teme, what are your plans for the weekend?" Naruto asked.
The raven sighed, "Going out of town."
Ino came back with the coffee and tea before Naruto could ask, and the blonde turned to the other with a sly smile, "Fast service, good food and pretty help. What more could they ask for?"
Ino giggled and Sasuke rolled his eyes.
How he would miss these moments.
Naruto took his last bite of pie and pushed the plate to the edge of the table and made to get up before Sasuke spoke again.
"In a rush?"
Blue eyes flicked up to the man pacing himself, as in, breathing between bites and chewing before swallowing.
The blonde settled back into his seat, "I was under the impression we both were."
"How long were you in the brig?"
"Excuse me?"
Naruto was under the impression that the man in front of him didn't give one damn about what had been going on in his life, and this question showed an iota of interest and he wasn't sure he wanted that.
"Twenty-four hours."
"Why did you join?"
"Why didn't you come back?" Naruto asked right back snappily.
The two of them looked at each other suddenly, as if Naruto hadn't expected to ask the question and Sasuke damn sure hadn't expected it.
The blonde set forth to clear the air, "I wanted to find my purpose…"
"Naruto, cut the bullshit." Sasuke cut, "Why did you join?"
The blonde stiffened before relaxing, "Maybe I don't know, asshole."
"And maybe I don't know why I didn't come back-"
"God Sasuke, I did it because of you, you dick. Maybe, I thought you didn't want to come back because of me, because your little 'boyfriend' was a fucking weakling. So yeah, I set the fuck out to be something. So, now that you've gotten your jollies off on my embarrassment, and now that Sakura has seen fit that we haven't gotten into a fist fight, I'm going to go back to my base."
"Naru-"
The blonde stood, grabbing the chair that threatened to crash to the floor and snapped at the man across from him, "Oh would you just choke on the damn food!"
Naruto stormed out of the back door without so much of a backwards glance.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Naruto threw the last article of clothing in his duffle bag before throwing up the zipper and roughly grabbing the bag while Tsunade lingered in the door.
"Naruto…"
"Please… Not. Right. Now."
"I want to make sure," The woman began, worry playing her features, "you come back home."
The blonde stopped in the doorway, lingering next to the woman before sighing roughly, "As of right now, we need to find a place to meet, because coming home isn't a damn option."
Naruto rushed down the steps and outside into the cool night air, wondering how long he stayed in his room and ignored the world till he deemed it safe to leave. The blonde eyed his truck and sighed at the thought of freedom, and felt a pang in his chest at the thought of begging Tsunade for forgiveness.
The blonde threw the duffle bag into the bed of his truck and made to turn around to go apologize to his aunt now, try and explain as best as he could with the least amount of details and as much bullshit why he couldn't come back right now.
When he turned around, he didn't exactly expect to see Sasuke sitting against the tree in his front yard patiently waiting for something.
"Did I not embarrass myself enough for you?" Naruto immediately turned around towards his truck, intent on calling Tsunade instead.
"Can I talk to you?"
"No, no you can't. You're just going to do some freak Jedi mind trick bullshit and get me to spill my stupid damn guts again. I'd rather fucking leave." Naruto began rounding the front of his truck before Sasuke grabbed on his shirt sleeve roughly and spun him around. Naruto blinked and tried to grasp on when he had gotten up and next to him so quickly.
"That's good to know. Couldn't you ask what that means when it came out of my mouth?" Sasuke hissed and glared inches away from Naruto's face.
"Amuse me."
"It's good to know that you haven't changed. You weren't weak, idiot. I didn't leave you, jackass. But the thought of coming back here and you were gone-"
"Enough." Naruto shot out weakly. "It took me so long..."
The blonde slid past the raven while admiring the ground, grabbing at the handle and yanking the door open.
Naruto didn't remember reaching the end of the street, reaching the end of town, reaching the highway, or so much as finally getting back to the base.
Naruto only remember the look on Sasuke's face, the usually impassive face, as he drove away.
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Four months later, and the blonde still managed to find reasons not to come back home. He did however apologize to Tsunade, and heard her understanding more than once after Sakura was kind enough to explain everything in full detail.
Tsunade did however promise to beat the two boys to a damn pulp if they didn't get over whatever it was they were going through so she could see her nephew again.
Sakura had texted Naruto the raven's number too many times to count, so many times that the blonde had the number memorized. So many times Naruto had eventually added it to his phone book, just to make Sakura happy of course.
Naruto got to see his friends a few times when they found a place to meet as a halfway point, and the blonde made a clear warning that if Sasuke was invited he wouldn't talk to anyone again.
When Tsunade showed up with Grandpa Sarutobi, he was ecstatic, but when Kakashi showed up two hours late rambling about 'little old ladies and good citizens' he almost called it a day. It was nice, he had to admit, to get hounded by the adults like he was a kid again and not by a bunch of higher ups that were screaming at him like death was going to wash over him.
When his friends visited, well…
He and Kiba were promptly thrown out of a Denny's after promising a waitress the night of her life. He and Shikamaru spent an entire afternoon lying on a hill looking at clouds. He challenged Sai to a fist fight after the man called him 'dickless' for the seventeenth time that one particular day, and before noon.
He ended up getting dragged on a shopping trip with Hinata, Sakura, Ino and Temari and swore to himself that if someone showed him the color pink in the next six months he would die. He spent more time with Gaara, and the three siblings, before the man shipped.
This one particular Thursday afternoon though, finally made him realize that Sasuke Uchiha and their trivial problems were the least of his worries.
"Uzumaki, sir?"
The blonde turned at the question instead of the statement, and tried to think of something clever until he saw the frown on the face of the Marine.
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry sir. I was ordered to tell you sir." The man shifted and handed off an envelope, "Word just came in, Gaara Sabaku was KIA sir."
Then, the world stopped spinning.
Author's Note: So…Jen told me I could kill someone. I know I'm feeding off the impression I don't like Gaara, in fact, he's one of my fav's. Odd, right? Somewhere, there is an awkward method to my over-the-top madness. (In which you all secretly love.)