Sorry about the short chapter. I hope you like it though. Thanks for all the wonderfull reviews you guys wrote in the previous chapter! Should I aim for the 100 reviews? Anyway, here it is!

Tragedy

悲劇 (Higeki)

Naruto watched the rain falling through the window. He had rented a small wooden house that had belonged to a farmer until his ninety-six years of life. When he finally died, his daughter started to rent the house and went to live more comfortably in the village.

The young ninja looked dejected and worried, next to him were a bowl of instant ramen only half eaten. Naruto had lost his appetite.

He had sent a letter to Fukasaku through a frog but he couldn't bring himself to write neither Gaara nor Tsunade. How could he tell them? He didn't even know what to do!

Sasuke was taking a nap in the next room. Instead of sleeping together as they had done in recent weeks, Naruto decided that it might be better for them to be apart for a while. He couldn't think straight! It had happened so much! How could he be Sasuke's father? Why were they imposing that bond with him?

Sasuke was his friend, his best friend. He could not be his father! Damn, Naruto was only seventeen-years-old. Never crossed his mind to have children, let alone have Sasuke as his son. He was not a father!

Also, he couldn't help thinking about the Sasuke that he had met when they were friends on Team 7... when it all made sense. That pain he felt when Sasuke attempted to kill him in the Valley of the End; all the sadness, betrayal, anger, helplessness... those feelings were still so fresh as if they had just happened yesterday.

"You can break the jutsu" said a voice in his subconscious. "If you don't want to be his father, take the kunai and cut the chakra string! Your problems will be over! You'll be free!"

The red kunai was in his orange pants' pocket. While sitting, he felt the weapon touching his flesh as if to remind him that he could end the jutsu if he wanted to. He even had picked the kunai and got closer to Sasuke, but for some reason, he was unable to do it and hid the kunai back as if it hurt his eyes.

Sasuke began to cry in the next room. Naruto tried to ignore the crying baby, frightened by the feelings that Sasuke had for him, and also by his own feelings. Sasuke continued to cry, probably hungry. Naruto eventually got up and dragged himself up to the next room. Sasuke saw him and hastened to raise his arms for Naruto to grab him. Naruto held the child against his chest, feeling that weird feeling again who he knew it wasn't friendship. When Sasuke saw the bottle of milk, Naruto realized he was right; the boy was starving.

When the meal ended, Naruto landed him against his shoulder and made him burp, eventually the baby smiled. Sasuke placed his hands on Naruto's chest and looked into his eyes.

"Baahh... Gaahh ..." the child babbled.

"Look at you, all happy! I think your life will be very simple in the coming years, huh? Just eat, sleep and play, you lucky teme!"

Sasuke continued to look at him with a smile. The baby looked so happy and so cute that Naruto also smiled as he stroked his raven hair.

"Daah... Gaahhh... Paahh... Paah... Papa!"

Naruto stopped stroking his hair and loosened his hug greatly.

"Sasuke...? What did you say? "

"Pa... Pa-pa... Papa... Papa!"

Naruto felt his whole body tense and his heart pounding with panic.

"This is the bond that baby wants to establish with you"

The blond landed Sasuke on the futon and stood up, moving away from the baby.

"Papa?"

"No, Sasuke... I'm not ..."

"But he wants you to be his father; this is the feeling that he nourishes for you."

Sasuke continued to stare at Naruto with a confused expression on his face. The blond continued to move away. Sasuke had said his first word, he called him... called him father.

"Papa?"

Naruto opened the bedroom door and ran out. Sasuke was alone in the dark room; the confusion he felt was replaced by fear. He began to yell for Naruto, he wanted him to come back... But the blond came out of the old house into the rain, and asked a frog to take him to Mount Myōboku.

Sasuke continued shouting long after Naruto was gone. He felt fear, despair, sorrow... he felt abandoned. Unlike what had happened four years ago at the Valley of the End, this time it was Naruto who turned his back and fled while Sasuke yelled for him to return.

The baby cried and cried, but without success. The heavy rains triggered a landslide just above the old shack. The mud swept all before it, when it went inside the hut and it collapsed with a deafening bang, Sasuke was still screaming.

Fukasaku was home alone when they Naruto burst in. The boy was pale and out of breath; his clothes were soaking wet and his hair messy.

"Naruto-chan... What's wrong?" the old toad asked.

Naruto approached his mentor and knelt on the floor, his heart beating furiously against his ribs.

"What's wrong?" Fukasaku asked again. "You look awful!"

"I... I don't know what to do..."

"Do what?"

"Sasuke... he... he called me Papa."

Fukasaku blinked. He had read Naruto's letter, so he knew everything that had happened in the Shiraha clan. The old Toad knew Naruto had to make an important decision, he also understood his student's feelings of panic and confusion.

"When?"

"Right now... He called me Papa. Sasuke called me Papa! Me! His rival! Not long ago we fought against each other. We were enemies... we were best friends! And now Uchiha Sasuke wants me to be his father!"

"Naruto-chan..."

"I cannot be his father, Jii-chan sennin. I can't! "

"Naruto-chan... why are you running away?"

Naruto almost coughed with the shock from the words.

"Running away? What are you talking about? I didn't run away! "

Fukasaku sighed and looked his pupil in the eye.

"You are running away from yourself. You are hiding your own feelings for Sasuke-chan."

"What? I don't...! "

"Let me finish!" the old toad interrupted. "You are using the memories you have of your friendship with Sasuke-chan to deny how you really feel about him now."

Naruto was speechless.

"I already knew that Sasuke-chan sees you as his father for months! We've all seen it... And if you stopped lying to yourself and looked at your heart, you would realize the truth. You cannot live in the past, Naruto-chan."

"I don't live in the past!"

"Yes, you do. You grab desperately at your memories of the Sasuke-chan you knew so you can close your eyes to this. That was Sasuke-chan's big mistake, those who live in the past have no future."

Naruto sat down and buried his face in his hands.

"Was it true? I'm running away? "

"I can't change my bond with Sasuke" Naruto said finally. "I can't go from friend to father!"

"Why? Why are you afraid that your friendship will end if you considered Sasuke-chan something else besides your friend? "

Naruto blinked in surprise. It was exactly what he felt.

"Naruto-chan... what do you feel at this moment for Sasuke-chan?"

"He... he is so small... I like to be with him. When I'm not, I'm too worried. I want him to be happy; I want to protect him... "

Fukasaku rested a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"That is a father's love, Naruto-chan..."

Naruto looked at his old mentor open-mouthed.

"A father's love...?"

"You love him, Naruto-chan. It's so obvious that it even hurts... You love him like a father loves his son."

"But... I'm not his father..."

"Yes, you are! You have been his father since you brought him to this house almost eight months ago. The bond that binds you is as real as if he was your biological child. "

"But ... how can I take care of Sasuke and pretend that he is my son?"

Fukasaku forced Naruto to look him in the eye.

"Because you're not pretending and you know it. Sasuke-chan is your son and you are his father!"

Naruto rested a hand on his chest. A son... he loved Sasuke as his son? Why did his heart tell him that was true? Was that the feeling he had for Sasuke? That strange feeling that he could not name?

"I'm his father?"

"But... even if I do love him, even if I'm his father... what if he ends up unhappy again? What if I raise him badly? I am not a responsible adult! I have no idea how to be a father! I will eventually mess up everything! If Sasuke grows up miserably because of me ... how can I live with that? "

"You have been a wonderful father in the last months. As long as you love your son, I am sure it will be okay. By the way, who did you leave Sasuke-chan with?"

Naruto stood up with a leap, horrified by what he had done. He had left Sasuke alone in an abandoned house!

Naruto shot out of Fukasaku's house and made a frog summon him to the Land of Trees. When he arrived, he immediately thought he was in the wrong place, he couldn't see the hut anywhere, just mud...

It was then that Naruto felt his blood freeze in his veins. The chimney of the hut was buried beneath tons of mud and completely demolished.

"SASUKE!"

So, there! This time, it was Naruto who betrayed Sasuke and defected. And yeah, Naruto is in denial!

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