Chapter Six: Epilogue – Reality

Author's Notes: I wasn't going to do one. But…It's became a damnable trend with me. Oops.
Why did I do all the chapters with 'R's'?…Because…I don't know. But it worked beautifully.

Chapter Six: Epilogue – Reality

For Taylor – In the End, I hope you liked it.
Thank you for all the inspiration, putting up with me (and my zombie-mode).

-0- Two Years Later -0-

"Teme~!"

"Music to my bleeding ears, dobe." Sasuke replied dully.

Naruto pursed his lips and crossed his arms in a huff, "Don't be such a bastard."

Sasuke looked up from his book, his reading glasses on the end of his nose before he peaked over the edge of the paperback novel, "Oh the impossibilities."

"Everyone is waiting." Naruto shuffled his way to the couch and unceremoniously flopped down onto Sasuke's lap, making the raven drop his book.

Naruto fiddled with Sasuke's undone tie that was hanging carelessly around his neck, while Sasuke corrected Naruto's statement.

"Everyone is not waiting for us. I can bet my ridiculous salary that Kiba is late….like usual."

Naruto shrugged as he fell back against the couch and left his legs to dangle over Sasuke's lap, "Of course he's late. But the best part is driving off when he's driving up to meet us, watching him scramble out of the car and try to run and catch up."

Sasuke rested his head back and let his glasses slide up his nose to blur the room, "Car pooling is a damn hassle."

"Bitch, bitch, bitch…" Naruto complained while he studied a random spot on his palm.

Sasuke looked like he had begun to message Naruto's kneecap, but the blonde had smacked his hand over his face to try and cover the obvious laughter as he squirmed and shuffled around on the couch.

The raven looked bored when he used his other hand to tickle at the blonde's stomach making Naruto's fidget and try to fend off the evil hands even more, "You are the most ticklish man in history."

Sasuke let his hands recede with a smirk while Naruto was trying to calm his giggles and wiping at his eyes to rid them of tears, "Bastard."

The raven grabbed at Naruto's legs with a smirk that was growing into a smile before rolling the still giggling blonde onto the floor with a laugh. The raven got up, stepping over the blonde who was in a downright laughing fit, and swooped down to grabb his book while removing his glasses.

Sasuke walked in the kitchen and towards the fridge, swinging the door open and eyeing the water.

Sasuke heard Naruto rustling around on the floor and staggering around to get up before he heard Naruto's feet shuffling towards the kitchen where he was grabbing bottles of water out to take with them.

Naruto leaned against the entryway to the kitchen with a warm smile, "I can't believe I didn't even have to ask you this year."

Sasuke looked over the refrigerator door, "Why?"

"I had to drag you last year so we could see the lighting ceremony." The blonde shrugged with an eye roll.

Sasuke straightened up and folded his arms on the door, "Naruto, if I had to listen to Sakura, Karin, or Ino utter one more thing about us kissing, I was going to hurt the closest thing that was next to me."

"I'm always that closest thing next to you."

"Hmm… next time stand a little further away." Sasuke shrugged.

Naruto rolled his eyes with an inaudible chuckle that had his shoulders shaking while Sasuke shut the door to the refrigerator. "Is anyone driving with us?"

The blonde opened his mouth to speak, halfway opened and the breath taken to get his full sentence out before Sasuke's front door was thrown open like hell itself broke through.

Or Kiba.

Sasuke blinked a few extra times at the ruffled looking man in his entry way, while at the same time, was peeling off a certain blonde who had been scared to the point of latching on like a girl.

"Is something wrong, Kiba?" Sasuke grinded out while glaring.

The brunette turned his head sharply and caught site of the two, "I knew someone would wait!"

Sasuke sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose while he listened to the blonde behind him snort, "Well…I guess that answers my question."

Kiba cocked an eyebrow before shaking it off and waving them to hurry along, "Let's move it!"

The brunette boldly took a large stride into the small strip of cramped kitchen and grabbed a fist full of both Naruto's and Sasuke's shirt as the pair stood squished side by side, and yanked them roughly along.

Sasuke jabbed at Kiba while Naruto wondered if he could get away with biting his friend's hand without the two of them ending up in a grappling match that usually had one of them getting hurt and Sasuke badly hurting someone based on stupidity.

"What's the damn rush?" Sasuke snapped when he reached back to grab the water.

Kiba huffed as if it were obvious while Naruto slid on his shoes that he had abandoned carelessly by the door, "The parade is today and we want to get somewhat good spots."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and glared at the man, "Kiba…over a million people go to watch the damn parade. You think leaving early will help?"

Naruto paused – somewhat – hopping around trying to shove a stubborn shoe on his left foot before stumbling in to a wall, "How many?"

Sasuke looked around Kiba, "Yeah, not so fun now, is it dobe?"

The blonde straightened himself up, his shoe half on while grimacing, "Well…I think I have a stomach ache."

Sasuke snorted while tugging Naruto out the door that Kiba held open, the brunette mumbling about time wasting assholes, "Nice try dobe, but I suppose it's my turn to drag you there."

The raven gripped the back of Naruto's shirt harder as the blonde tried to make a daring dash to the bathroom and barricade himself in there.

The blonde grumbled while Sasuke dragged him out the door, Kiba grabbing the raven's keys, "Teme…I'm going to beat the living hell out of you for the next eight years."

Sasuke snorted, "I think I can deal with that."

As expected, and what Naruto was struggling to avoid, chaos would be a calm word to describe the morning. The metro station was more like packing sardines in an open can before transferring them into a moving one. Sasuke was pretty sure he lost Naruto nine times, and the group which they met up with, a countless amount more.

The ride on the way there in the car was bad enough with Naruto tugging on his shirt yelling 'Mush!' and Kiba bitching about needing to urinate. Not to mention, the ever present, early morning, every day, bumper to bumper traffic that just so happened to start as soon as the tires touched I-66.

Once they got to the Vienna Metro station, Sasuke finally convinced Kiba to just pee in some secluded part of the back of the parking lot in the trees solely so he didn't have to hear him complain on the train along with Naruto, who he just knew was going to bitch about having to stand.

Sure enough, two stops later, Naruto was complaining about his aching feet and cramped places, and knew the blonde was going to be dragging his so called aching feet as soon as they reached their stop. So, once the raven finished dragging Naruto to where they were going to watch the parade, the blonde suddenly utter words that would condemn anyone else to death.

"Teme…" Naruto's eyes flicked to large pink balloons of the blossoms as they floated by, "I'm bored."

Sasuke's eyes lingered on the bright balloons for a second longer before letting them flick over to the man who had the smallest attention span in known existence.

"You're bored?" Sasuke asked loudly over the crowd in an irritable voice, "What in hell would you like to do, dobe?"

Naruto smacked Neji upside the head for stepping on the tip of his toe when helping Tenten get a better view for a picture, who in turn, simply shook his head.

Everyone was used to Naruto.

The blonde turned back to Sasuke with bright eyes, "Let's go look at the trees instead of a dumb parade!"

The raven groaned, "Naruto…do you know how far the Tidal Basin is from here?"

"Who cares!?" Naruto shouted over the applause of the crowd, "Let's go!"

Kiba turned around towards the pair with hopeful eyes, "Please tell me you're going somewhere with less fucking people?"

"Kiba, everywhere is full of people."

The man turned around with some struggle, shouting over another round of applause, "Not as full as right here at this moment! Let's move!"

Kiba reached over a grabbed Hinata's hand, the woman immersed in the presentation of the parade, and dragged her through the crowd behind Sasuke and Naruto.

"ONWARD MY TRUSTY STEED!" Naruto bellowed from Sasuke's back, his right hand pointing in a random direction, and a bright smile on his lips.

"DAMNIT DOBE!" Sasuke yelled, his ear ringing.

Naruto ignored Sasuke as the raven made threat of dumping him in the middle of a busy street and looked over to Hinata, who was on Kiba's back, the man looking as if he was struggling more and more with each step.

"Hinata!" Naruto thrust his palm towards the suddenly giggling woman who tapped it lightly.

Naruto rested a tan chin on Sasuke's shoulder, "Say pack mule…?"

The raven let out a rough sigh, "What, dobe?"

"Aside you taking me somewhere to kill me, where else are we going?" Naruto asked sweetly.

Sasuke grumbled his promises of death, refusing to mention his feet were aching, "Wherever you want to go."

The blonde planted a gentle kiss on a powder pale cheek, "Come on, teme, you know where I want to go."

"Hell it is."

Naruto snorted, "Asshole."

"Idiot." Sasuke replied in a bored tone.

"Love you too, bastard."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Naruto flopped down on the grass underneath the Akebono Cherry Blossom tree next to Sasuke who was already leaning up against the twisting base of, and the bright blue eyes followed Kiba and Hinata as they continued up the path around the Tidal Basin hand in hand.

"One year, dobe, we might want to look around." Sasuke commented after following the path of sparking blue eyes.

Naruto looked over at feeling Sasuke's hand rake through his hair that had taken to fluttering in the breeze, "Why would we want to do that, teme?"

Sasuke sighed as his hand retreated, leaning forward and gently kissing Naruto's lips, mumbling against them, "I have no idea…"

The blonde smiled, his eyes crinkling closed as Sasuke pulled back; the raven having no time to blink as Naruto yanked him down to have him lie on his lap.

The raven blinked rapidly against the cloud dotted sky, the sun bright and harsh against his eyes that tried to fight against them until a sun bright head and a tan face leaned over him and blocked the harsh light.

Naruto smiled down a heavenly smile as the wind blew and played with his hair, ruffling it gently, and shaking the tree branches to have petals shower down upon the pair in joyous celebration.

Sasuke smiled gently up at the blonde before he leaned up on his elbows to brush noses with the blonde, "I love you, Naruto."

And finally, from this spot that hunted him - lying under this tree with Naruto after uttering those words - still made his stomach clench even though they were together, but Naruto erased the memory and simply created a new one.

Naruto smiled gently, lovingly in return, "I love you too, Sasuke."

And there they sat, enjoying each other, relishing in the moment, and enveloped in the loving atmosphere; all within the falling petals.

Author's Notes: 'Zombie mode' (Taylor and Jen understand…) has been killing my writing anything lately. From e-mails to fanfictions…but this being a gift I wanted to sit down and concentrate on it.
So now, I need to concentrate on AEOY.