Night of Sorrow

The morning sun had taken residence in the center of the sky by the time Naruto pulled himself together. It was now noon, though he didn't have much of an appetite to eat the sandwiches he'd brought. As he snatched the bag up and began to walk away from the training grounds, he wondered if now it'd be best to find Sasuke. Had he calmed down yet? And what had set him off in the first place?

He left the training grounds and continued walking until he made it back to paved roads. Instead of heading into the heart of the village though, he turned and took a side street. This led to a wide path paved with stones that offered a bench to sit at every twenty yards or so. He'd always enjoyed this area for being quieter. He'd had a lot of memories walking down this path, perhaps the most recent being how he had come here in the middle of the night after hearing what'd happened to Jiraiya.

He remembered how he'd sat on one of the benches and finally, the real weight of his loss hit him and he'd broken down. It'd been Iruka who'd come along to cheer him up, gentle and always understanding. Remembering that made him smile while tightening a fist. He was fortunate to now have people who'd always be there for him. He sped up, hunting just that much harder for Sasuke.

But Sasuke didn't turn up for the rest of the day. He'd gone to Sasuke's home, looked all over inside the village, scrounged around the outside perimeters, and nobody had even seen him. Honestly though, could he really be surprised? Sasuke was a master at hiding; if he didn't want to be found, he knew all the perfect ways to lay low. Still, this seemed pretty excessive over a little comment.

Dusk was settling. He took his dinner at Ichiraku Ramen before heading home for a quick shower and climbing tiredly into bed. He'd try again tomorrow and with luck, Sasuke hopefully hadn't decided to completely skip town.

The sun had only barely risen over the horizon when something woke him up. He stopped moving so he could listen, but he felt there was another presence in the house. His apartment was tiny with nowhere adequate to hide. He didn't have much time. He slept with a kunai under the pillow and quietly gripped it in hand. The person was still in the area near the kitchen, which gave him just a few precious seconds to strike first.

He hopped out of bed on tip-toe and peeked around the corner. It was dark in the room, which only allowed him to see a silhouette. The person wasn't too tall and didn't seem powerfully built. It also seemed their back was turned to him. Instantly he struck before hesitation could cause him to falter. He successfully pushed the person down where they fell on their front. Since he had the kunai in one hand, he could only grab one of their arms, but twisted it back at such an angle that it would break if he applied more pressure. He pressed the weight of his chest down as hard as he could to prevent the usage of the other arm and brought his blade to the person's throat.

"Care to tell me what the hell you're doing in my house?" he whispered in their ear.

"You're still as terrible at sneak attacks as you were the first time you tried it on me," came the reply and the person under him disappeared to be replaced with a shuriken. One of Sasuke's shuriken…

He got back to his feet and whipped around to see another silhouette against the kitchen/bedroom doorway. The light was flipped on to reveal Sasuke dressed with a long black cloak. He pulled it off and placed it over the back of a chair. "Well, what's with that face? Aren't you happy to see me?" he mocked, waiting.

Naruto indeed was happy but that was the problem. Sasuke knew how much he cared about him. He knew he could hold his emotions hostage by going off like that for such a long time, making him worry endlessly. He hated that Sasuke had that power over him but hated it even more that Sasuke knew he had that kind of influence and was exploiting it.

He took two steps forward and swung. He felt the satisfying connection of his fist against skin and bone, knowing this time it wasn't a clone. Sasuke stumbled back half a step before bringing his own arm up to retaliate. Naruto was ready, his blood was boiling. Instead though, Sasuke stopped himself with his arm in the air, dropping his stance altogether. "I'm not going to hit you," he declared, using a thumb to brush away the blood at the corner of his mouth. "You're my boyfriend. It'll look like domestic violence, especially at this hour if someone calls the police for the noise."

"Tch, not like you have to tell them all of that," Naruto huffed. Slowly, he let his rage dissipate, but made sure to hold on to just a bit of the anger. Sasuke wasn't off the hook yet.

Crossing the small room, Sasuke went to the freezer and pulled out an ice tray. He cast around the room looking for something to put it in. "In that drawer, right beside the fridge," Naruto reluctantly supplied. Sasuke did as he said and was rewarded with a box of plastic bags. Filling the bag up and abandoning the tray, he put it to his quickly swelling cheek.

"So are you going to tell me what you're doing here at," Naruto checked his watch, "Five in the morning?"

"Couldn't sleep," Sasuke informed, going back to the fridge to look inside. "Wow, you have next to nothing in here. You make more money than I do, what are you, on a diet?"

With Sasuke being gone so much, it made him unavailable for missions, meaning that indeed he did make more than him right now. However, that wasn't the point and Naruto wasn't going to let him change the subject. "I'm gonna need more than that, Sasuke. You just broke into my house!"

"Oh, and you didn't?"

"That was different! I was concerned! And it turned out that I had a right to be," Naruto said, struggling to keep his voice down.

Sasuke sat back down at the table, looking somewhere to the side. "Well, I was concerned too. We left things on a bad note and I intentionally stayed away. I figured you probably felt guilty, thinking it was your fault so I wanted to address that."

"Yeah, but Sasuke…at five in the morning?" Naruto reminded him.

There was a slight wince as the bruised mouth was turned up in a wicked smile. "No time like the present, right?"

And with that, all of Naruto's anger left him in a sigh. "Stay there," he muttered and went into the next room. He came back a moment later with a first-aid kit, pulling up a chair close to Sasuke. As he worked to clean him up and apply ointment, he asked, "What happened earlier…what was that? Was it worth just abandoning me the entire day?" He hadn't realized he felt that way until the words were out. Now that he'd said it, he realized it explained another reason for this current bitterness.

Sasuke looked at him out the corner of his eye, unable to turn to face him directly. "It was what you said but I didn't have to blow up like that. I'm…" He hated the S word, but Naruto deserved it. "I'm sorry."

Finished, Naruto pushed the kit away, but still continued to lean forward to study Sasuke. "When I said 'we're not guaranteed tomorrow', you said something about us ninja needing people that don't want peace in order for us to stay relevant. I've been thinking about that. You're right. I honestly can't imagine myself doing anything else. Being a ninja is all I've ever wanted. I want peace as well though. But if there was ever true peace, then there would be nothing for us to do."

Sasuke nodded. "Exactly. In a sick way, we want for there to be dissenters. I guess your comment just reminded me of that, the hypocrisy of our shinobi existence." He leaned forward and gave an awkward peck to the corner of Naruto's mouth with the side that wasn't bruised. "Sorry for just leaving you like that."

Even if his anger had faded, Naruto wanted to make sure his message sank home. "It's fine. But next time, just…talk to me, okay? I read somewhere that 'communication is key' or something like that…" he muttered, blushing as he trailed off.

"I'll put that in my back pocket," Sasuke said distractedly, getting up. It was only then that he noticed that Sasuke's shoes were actually already off. He looked over towards the front door and saw them sitting neatly beside his own, which were thrown any which way.

He got up from the table as well to follow him into his room where he saw Sasuke stretch, then sit down on the bed. "Tell me you're not planning on crashing here; I don't have a couch and this bed is too tiny to share. And—" The notion of doing just that made him clam up.

Sasuke had been busy eyeing their old Team 7 picture that was on Naruto's nightstand, but glanced behind him for a moment. "I stopped home sometime in the afternoon thinking I actually would leave town but changed my mind. I haven't been home since and I don't feel like traveling that far. So yes, I guess I am crashing here."

Realizing he wasn't going to win this one, Naruto headed over to his closet. "Well, I have a futon…"

"Those things hurt my back," Sasuke was quick to inform.

Tch, that didn't stop you at the inn! "Alright, I'll take the futon and you can have the bed."

Neither moved though and Sasuke stared at him a while longer. "Naruto…I'm not asking for sex, but I don't think it's too much to ask for a little intimacy."

Still, Naruto stood there. He hated these emotions which made him feel elated one moment and weak the next. Was he being a prude by denying Sasuke's request? What if Sasuke grew fed up with waiting and left him? But would he be satisfied with himself for caving on something he felt so strongly about? But Sasuke was only asking for them to share a bed…just to sleep next to each other. But who the hell was he kidding, nobody asks to share a bed without ulterior motives, especially when they're dating. However, shouldn't he trust Sasuke when he says he's not going to try anything?

He'd defeated adversaries that seemed impossible to beat but right now, he felt powerless and cornered when it came to Sasuke.

Only out the corner of his eye did he see Sasuke get up and come around the bed to him. He felt himself being pulled forward into a hug, but instead of it helping, he only tensed even further. Sasuke's body was not soft and gentle but it was warm and the embrace was tight. "Whatever you want is fine," Sasuke whispered, so low he almost didn't hear him even in the silent apartment. "I never want you to feel like you're being pushed to do something you don't want to do."

Incidentally, that only made Naruto feel worse. Sasuke had needs too, but was trying to put up a brave front all for him. Would it always be like this?

With him still too numb to move, Sasuke took the futon out of his arms and spread it out on the floor. He went back to the closet to pull down his own blanket and crawled in, giving a small smile of content.

So it'd been decided. Forcing himself to move, Naruto shut off the lights and crawled into his own bed. He heard Sasuke shuffle around on the floor, trying to get more comfortable. If he requested again that they should switch, it'd probably be rejected. So, as the least he could do, he grabbed an extra pillow and tossed it on the floor.

"Mmph!" Sasuke grunted as it hit him in the head. Instead of putting it under him, he gripped it against his chest. He didn't miss that the pillow was positioned directly under Sasuke's nose who breathed in a deep breath. Seemingly satisfied to use his arm as a pillow, Sasuke stopped moving, his breathing slowing to become more rhythmic.

Even though he'd gotten several hours of sleep already, Naruto felt exhausted all over again. It wasn't long before he too was pulled under.

~.~.~

Naruto woke up to the sound of a door slamming. He looked over to Sasuke's pallet on the floor but saw that it had been cleared away already. He sat up to rub sleep out of his eyes and looked at his clock. Oh, crap, already it was nearly twelve?! Why hadn't Sasuke woken him up?

He quickly dressed and walked into the kitchen to see that there was a large paper bag on the table full of groceries. "Your lack of food is rather disturbing," Sasuke told him, reaching into the bag to put a half-gallon of milk in the fridge.

"There's actually a reason why I don't buy a lot." Naruto reached into the bag as well, pulling out a small bag filled with oranges and apples. Holding it up as an example, he said, "I'm back and forth with being here. There's no sense in buying a lot of stuff that's just gonna go bad. So, I'm fine with ramen."

Sasuke continued to put everything away but seemed to be thinking that over. "That makes sense. I'm gone for months at a time, but when I'm here, I'm usually back in the village for an extended period. So, that's when I do my bulk shopping. I hate to say this, but I'm actually shocked that you know what fiscal responsibility is."

"What kind of responsibility?" Naruto scratched his head.

"…Don't worry about it." Most of everything had been put away but he'd left out a carton of eggs and a loaf of bread. "Want breakfast? I'm not much in the kitchen but I can cook eggs and toast." Quietly he muttered, "Itachi at least taught me that much."

Considering Naruto honestly hadn't been looking forward to eating ramen both for dinner and breakfast, he welcomed the change. Ten minutes later, Sasuke brought to the table two plates of perfectly formed sunny-side up eggs and lightly toasted toast. As they ate, they planned out their activities for the day. First, both of them would stop by Tsunade's office to ensue nothing was requested of them as they hadn't done so the day before. After that, Naruto planned to help Sasuke train some more. From there, they'd have a late lunch and then—

"Wanna see a movie tonight or something?" Sasuke asked as casually as asking the weather.

"Only a week in and only now you ask me out," Naruto tossed back but on the inside, he was quaking. Their first date. He thought of the near-fight they'd had the night before and swallowed. He certainly didn't want to repeat that. "Fine, I'll go out with you…but I pick the movie!"

"I can live with that, but it better not be a rom-com," Sasuke shuddered.

Naruto shared the sentiment by sticking his tongue out. "Deal!"

Upon seeing Tsunade, they were informed that the only assignments currently in were for D and C ranks. Both politely declined and Naruto was rather relieved that Tsunade wasn't such a stickler for rules. As neither he nor Sasuke were even chunin, they technically should not have been able to accept anything higher than a C rank. However, they'd each already completed assignments of S-rank (and frankly, he put 'saving the world' as higher than even S…if such a thing could exist). Naruto was grateful that Tsunade didn't baby them and she was happy to pass the assignments on to the younger genin who could use the experience.

For today, training ground one was already in use and Naruto was just able to glimpse Konohamaru's long scarf as he battled with his teammates. One of these days, he hoped to convince that kid to take that thing off; it was suicidal to go into a fight with it. However, he stayed quiet in passing, not wanting to disrupt them.

He and Sasuke did their own sparring for most of the time, but Naruto held himself back to an extent. He wanted Sasuke to just get into a flow with his movements and to not push it, but Sasuke caught on quickly to what he was doing. "I'm never going to know how strong I am if you restrain yourself," he said with a high air of disapproval. "I thought we were past all of this."

"The last time we had a practice fight, we were thirteen," Naruto reminded him. "I mean…do you want to go all-out? Like, my Tailed-Beast Mode versus your Susano'o? I have a feeling that might be overkill…" He imagined the panic it'd instill for the villagers to see Sasuke's massive Susano'o or worse, the image of the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Sasuke sighed and shook his head. "No, you idiot, not that. How about…you use your Sage Mode. Since you're a master at it," he goaded him on with a taunt.

Naruto happily obliged and formed two clones. Without being told, the two moved to the sidelines where they sat down, holding their hands in a simple pose with their eyes closed.

"I'm guessing that's the concentration you told me about?" Sasuke asked the real Naruto.

"Yeah…the one drawback with Sage jutsu is that you can't move while gathering the energy. So, the clones do it for me, and they can transfer that energy over." For once, he felt like the answer to something was so simple that anyone should've thought of it, but somehow, neither Jiraiya nor his father, who was capable of rudimentary Sage Art, had thought of it. Maybe one day, he'd find his idea written down in a book on the subject similar to the current one he owned.

After a five-minute interval, both of the clones had obtained the orange markings around their eyes. Naruto dispersed them, feeling their energy transferred to him now. He opened the eyes he had also closed, already feeling his senses heightened way beyond their normal reach.

Sasuke saw the transformation and gave a satisfactory nod. "I actually remember seeing you look like that during the war, but never got around to asking you about it. Feel free to go up a notch though; I'm using the Rinne-Sharingan."

Well, if he insists…Naruto took his advice, instead donning his Six Path's Sage Mode, admiring the nine dark orbs that now circled his back.

Their fighting only lasted three minutes before both realized that they were only puffing out their chests to the other. There was no feasible way they could fight each other as they were without causing serious damage. Both laughing at themselves, they returned to their normal forms, which was more than enough. He saw that Sasuke had again obtained the ability to flip through the air while maintaining accuracy with his weapons and if he was able to use his Rinne-Sharingan in the first place, he must've been pretty much back to normal.

Returning the favor from breakfast, Naruto invited Sasuke out to an early dinner at a place that specialized in burgers, a new joint that'd only recently been built after Pain had destroyed the Leaf. He led the way inside, nodding at a few people he barely knew except by face. However, he noticed that most of their smiles wavered as their eyes trailed to Sasuke and they would quickly turn around to carefully resume their conversations.

He wasn't foolish enough to not notice that most weren't keen on Sasuke's freedom and in a perfect world, Sasuke's part in the war would excuse him for all his previous mistakes. It'd actually been that very tentative platform that he'd based his heartfelt pleas to the court around, but now…he wondered if they'd finally agreed not because they honestly saw it his way but simply because of who he was. People had a tendency to believe in him almost like he was some kind of miracle-worker and maybe they thought he would be the key to Sasuke's reformation.

As he guided Sasuke to a table near the back, his heart sank though realizing that it was actually true. Even after the war, Sasuke had decided to give it one last hurrah by declaring he would kill the Kage. Even after fighting through Obito, Madara and Kaguya, it'd taken them beating each other within an inch of their lives and nearly losing a limb apiece for Sasuke to then, and only then, acquiesce. The village knew this and they had every right to be worried but he could only hope that in time, they would start to see Sasuke the way he saw him, a young man righting his wrongs with a new purpose of atonement.

They sat down, though within seconds, a waiter was at their side. He bowed very briefly to them and was already setting the menus on the table before he'd even straightened up. "Order when ready," he instructed and was gone.

"Far be it for me to criticize anyone's customer service, but what the hell was that?" Sasuke asked, jabbing a thumb behind him in the direction of the waiter.

Naruto was already feeling uneasy but didn't want to ruin what'd so far been a great day. "Aw, nobody likes working fast food, that's not anything unusual." He picked up his menu and pretended to scan the list.

Sasuke grunted under his breath, something along the lines of, "This isn't fast food, everything's made to order," but fell quiet as he too searched the menu.

Naruto had already come here once before and knew what he wanted but he waited until Sasuke had chosen his meal as well before searching the dining room for their waiter. He caught sight of him only four tables away and waited patiently for him to finish talking with a customer before raising a hand slightly. At about the same time Naruto raised his hand, another patron did as well. The boy went to the other customer without so much as acknowledging him.

"So is that part of the usual fast food experience too?" Sasuke asked, beginning to narrow his eyes.

Naruto swallowed. If he didn't do something soon, this could spiral out of hand. "I'll just go get him…" he said, slipping out of his seat. He walked over to the waiter who was a couple years older than him. "Um, excuse me…my…friend and I have already been here nearly ten minutes, nobody ever came back to take our orders."

"Yeah, well, I'm kinda busy here," the guy said and turned back to the other table.

Naruto began to feel an old familiar pang run through him. He hadn't been ignored like this since his childhood, when the entire village had shunned him. Admittedly, he'd gotten a bit spoiled on the feeling of being praised and exalted as a hero so it hurt even deeper to realize that someone didn't appreciate his presence.

He started on a retort but suddenly, Sasuke brushed past him. He had half a second to realize Sasuke had activated his Sharingan before the waiter was snatched by the front of his vest and pulled very close. "I don't give a damn how you treat me," he hissed, causing the other guy to shake, "But you will not treat him like that." He let go of the man with a hard push that made him stumble back a step.

Many of the other patrons turned to look and see what was happening but several screams and gasps were heard as they caught sight of the Sharingan. "Sasuke, your eyes," Naruto mumbled but the red pupils never changed.

The waiter gave a haughty tug on his clothes, smoothing the vest. He stared Sasuke down with eyes so full of hatred, it was a wonder he too didn't produce a Sharingin. "You should've died," he said, not flinching like the others.

A single crackle of lightening twitched on Sasuke's fingers. "What are you talking about?"

"You abandon this village and then threaten its entire safety and you actually expect people to just accept you when you come crawling back? You Uchiha are always nothing but trouble. We lost some very honorable shinobi during the war, but why couldn't it have been you who died?" The waiter took a threatening step forward.

It only took another second for the crackle to become a Chidori. In the next instant, Naruto was grabbing the arm, pulling Sasuke towards the doors. "He's not a shinobi, you'll go to jail if you attack him!" Naruto pleaded. Sasuke allowed himself to be pulled and for his chakra to dissipate but his Sharingan remained.

Just as they were almost outside, he heard the drifting voice of the waiter: "Do us all a favor and kill yourself like you should've done years ago!"

The doors closed behind them, thus those in the restaurant did not see when Sasuke lunged, his Sharingan switching to the Mangekyo. They were also blissfully ignorant to Naruto using his previous Tailed-Beast mode to cloak himself in Kurama's chakra as a means to restrain Sasuke. The people on the street though saw it and many shrieked and ran away.

Wrapping an arm around him, he used his increased strength to move them in a near-flash to several streets away. Naruto took them to the first place he could think of; the quiet park with the cobbled stone path. The moment they landed, he shoved Sasuke hard into a bench, then placed a foot on his chest to keep him there.

"Calm down, Sasuke!" He yelled, pushing back harder as Sasuke struggled. "It's over, alright? He's just…some insensitive asshole. You're better than him and you're better than this! Besides, you're just proving his point the angrier you get!"

Sasuke gripped his foot and twisted it. Naruto wisely snatched it back before he snapped his ankle. "That bastard doesn't know the full story; he doesn't know that my brother saved this village!" He stood up, making to head back to where they'd come from, but Naruto again grabbed him, restraining him by wrapping his arms around him from the back. "If it weren't for Itachi, Konoha would've been plunged into war a long time ago!" he shouted, his voice only filtered by the trees.

Naruto made a note to inquire later for more details but right now, he could only focus on calming Sasuke down. He squeezed that much tighter, until finally, bit by bit, Sasuke's rage drained. His eyes spun counter-clockwise to once again become the usual dark pupils.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Naruto made to let him go, but Sasuke brought up a hand, putting it over Naruto's linked arms across his chest. "Do you want to know the worst part though?" His nails dug into his skin, but Naruto refused to flinch. "He's actually right. I've thought about doing it multiple times."

"Doing what?" he whispered, but then it hit him. Those last words, hurled like stones before they'd left. Sasuke stood there quietly, staring at the ground, but Naruto could easily feel his emotions. Right now, there was no malice, Only a swirling maelstrom that was best described as helplessness.

"Sasuke…" Naruto buried his face into his back and cried for the both of them.