My favorite comment from the reviews for last chapter...was probably the one about me getting attacked by the muffin army. -big grin-
Chapter 7 - Coping
'Thoughts' "...Memories..."
"Speech"
-
-
"Naruto...Do you want to know where Sasuke's been for the past two years?" Kakashi asked solemnly.
Naruto nodded his head slowly. Sasuke was glaring at the silver haired Jounin. Tsunade sighed.
"It doesn't matter." Sasuke said, barely above a whisper. Something inside of him didn't...didn't want Naruto to know. He wanted things the way they'd been before!
"He's been living on a farm with a married couple in a village far north of here." Kakashi ignored him. Sasuke hoped he would stop there. "He came back yesterday through the north gate, after I spoke with him, he went to you."
Naruto still seemed confused. Kakashi knew he'd have to spell it out for him. Sasuke was burning a hole in the floor with his eyes.
"I received a letter from a woman named Marry, from Sasuke when he met up with me. She was the wife to the farmer who saved him."
"Marry fou-" Kakashi stopped Sasuke when he spoke again.
"It told me where Sasuke had been for the past 2 years, and the shape he'd been in when they'd found him." Sasuke flinched, and Kakashi had the impression the Sasuke remembered to well how he'd been hurt. "It also explained...why he didn't come back."
Naruto looked hopelessly from Sasuke to Kakashi and Tsunade. He felt fear rising within him. Tsunade decided it was her turn to speak.
"He didn't know he had to." she said, convincing herself as well. Her eyes were serious, and Naruto's were scared and confused. "He has amnesia...Naruto." she said bluntly.
Naruto's eyes widened in shock.
'Amnesia? But...but then...He doesn't remember anything? He...He...He doesn't remember all the stuff we've been through, or anything!'
Naruto turned his eyes to Sasuke, who was staring sadly yet angrily at the floor and away from Naruto. Then suddenly, Naruto couldn't take it anymore. The sadness that had festered like a deep gash within him, the fear that had been growing ever since Kakashi arrived that morning, the shock of learning what kept Sasuke away so long...It was too much.
"Naruto!" Tsunade and Kakashi yelled as the blonde ran out of the room.
They took off after him and Sasuke fell to his knees.
"Nothing will ever be the same again...will it?" he asked in a whispered breath before tears began leaking from his eyes.
Meanwhile, Tsunade and Kakashi were running past Anbu, Jonin, Chunin, everybody as they chased Naruto. About on the 4th floor, Naruto turned and jumped out of the window to lose them. He grabbed a tree branch, which bent until it broke, and then landed lightly on the ground, taking off after touch-down.
Kakashi went to go after him still, but Tsunade stopped him. She sighed.
"Hokage-sama?" he asked, getting off the windowsill.
"Maybe we shouldn't have told him." she mused aloud.
"He would've figured out anyway." Kakashi reasoned. "As soon as Sasuke didn't know something, Naruto would have found out."
"I suppose you're right." she perked a bit. "Besides, Naruto's not one to give up so easily. Now that Sasuke's back and mostly ok, he should see the bright side of things again...soon." it sounded like she had almost said 'I hope.' at the end of her sentence.
They walked back to Tsunade's office to find Sasuke right where they'd left him, but sitting down.
He sat against the wall next to the door, with his knees to his chest and his arms wrapped protectively around them. He had hidden his face in his knees and something told the Hokage that he'd been crying...but she didn't know what...
"Sasuke?" she called gently.
His head snapped up and he looked at her, but there were no signs that he'd cried. She supposed it was something only a true Uchiha could do...hiding nearly every weakness when need be.
-
Naruto looked up from his knees, curled tightly to his chest, and at the city. The sun was setting, and everyone was heading home. He had no idea that Sasuke had stood here and done the same thing, had had a memory of Naruto in this exact position.
'After everything, he just...He promised not to forget!' he cried silently. 'I've been studying so hard! For what? For a dead man...that's what.'
"Naruto..."
'Shut up!'
"I'll miss you..."
Naruto unwrapped his arms from around his knees and placed his hands over his ears. Tears still sliding down his face.
'No! Why am I tormented? I was so sad when he was gone, but now it's worse when he's here! I wish I'd never learned what was wrong!'
The Hokage Mountain that he sat upon held some of the greatest men to ever live in this village. For some reason, if he sat on top of the Fourth's head, he felt calmer, safer. Now, he needed comfort, but this monument gave none.
His life felt like a horrid nightmare that he couldn't wake up from. Sasuke left, and he had lost the ability to speak because a friend of his said she couldn't stand him. Then Sasuke came back, but he didn't remember anything!
-
Sasuke was standing at Naruto's front door. Tsunade and Kakashi had told him that Naruto had gotten away from them, obviously. Tsunade told him to wait for Naruto at his house, and try to console him. Kakashi told him to search his heart, not his mind, to find the place Naruto would go, and then to go to him.
Now he had to decide not only what he wanted to do, but what was best for Naruto.
-
Naruto sighed. The stars were out now. He figured that if he went home, Sasuke would be there. But he wondered if he even wanted to see the raven haired boy right now. He wasn't sure he could handle it...not right now...
He was sitting on the Fourth's face now, perfectly balanced on his forehead. He was barely visible in his dark clothing in the night. He heard a footstep and his eyes turned red.
This was his spot. His spot of mourning and self. Who would come here at this time of night anyways? Even though he was mad, Naruto didn't move to go find out who it was. He really didn't have the will to do so.
"He's not here...But I thought..." a sad voice caught his ears.
His eyes widened a slight bit and his head turned upwards.
'No! I don't want to see him right now...He's a liar...And I don't need him!' Naruto thought indignantly.
He shivered as the wind caught him, but he made no move to go up and talk to the other boy. A few minutes later, the footsteps started to walk away and Naruto relaxed, without realizing how tense he'd been.
It was a minute or too after Sasuke left the mountain, that Naruto felt himself dozing in this crevice of the face, the only place he could sit without using chakra.
-
Naruto woke up to find a blanket covering him from the wind. The sun was rising slowly in the east, and he could feel the air warming.
He yawned and pulled th cover closer to him.
'Wait. This is my cover. From my house. Who?' he asked in confusion.
-
Sasuke sat at the kitchen table, head laying face down on it and arms hanging loosely towards the ground. If there had been blood, you would've thought him dead.
He didn't feel like moving. It just didn't seem worth the effort. His stomach growled, but for some reason, he didn't want to eat. It seemed like he was waiting for something...
Sasuke was sure he needed a bath. He probably should find his house and change his clothes. He needed to eat. He should move from the table or it'd be hard to move later. But he didn't want to.
They say life is made up of choices. And right now, his choice was not to move. His mind thought of doing farmwork, but this wasn't a farm. Everything was different here.
The door clicked open and his head snapped up. He heard a small crack, and felt it, and winced.
'Ouch...that can't be good.' he thought as he stretched.
A blonde kitsune boy walked silently into the kitchen and paused at the sight of Sasuke. Sasuke just stared right back. Naruto then held up a cover with a questioning look. Sasuke blinked at it and then gave an almost sheepish grin.
He gasped when Naruto suddenly crossed the room and engulfed him in a hug. Cautiously, he wrapped his arms around the shorter boy. And somehow, it felt right. To hold Naruto like this felt right.
"I'm sorry." he whispered. "I'm sorry I don't remember. But I'm trying. That's why I came back. Because I want to try for my old life."
'I'm making a try for you...' he thought. And this thought confused him.
Silent tears hit Sasuke's back and he pat and rubbed Naruto's back in comfort. They stayed like that for awhile, until Sasuke's stomach growled. Naruto smiled and wiped his eyes clear of tears, then began to make them both breakfast.
"Naruto. I'd like...to see my old house." Sasuke said suddenly, causing Naruto to nearly flip around. "And...the town."
Naruto stared at him for a long while before turning around to finish breakfast. He put some eggs and bacon on each of their plates and smiled warmly at Sasuke.
"Thanks." Sasuke felt weird. Naruto hadn't fully forgiven him for forgetting, and he knew that. There was a lie in his eyes that betrayed his happy smile for the mask of sadness.
-
Chapter 8 - Memoirs
His eyes flashed and widened. He saw the pond, water flowing out of the cracks in the sides and empty of fish. The bushes were out of control and the wall surrounding the house covered in ugly vines. The back gate, leading to the forest, was bent off it's hinges.
He blinked and turned his head. No one was there. But there was someone there!
Naruto gently took hold of Sasuke's hand, causing the taller boy to blink in surprise. The blonde lead Sasuke to the door at the end of the hall and quietly pushed the door open.
(Confusing?)
