slowly waves Ohayoooo minna!

Gomen, I didn't realize chapter ten was so short! So, to add a bit of shonen-ai spice to the fic, I'm already posting chapter eleven for you to read. (yeah, its chapter 11, remember that 6 was a double? ;;)

So, no answering the reviews this time.. no time to do that. But I do wish to thank you all for reading and liking it and even have the time to send me a review! That's just awesome and I cant thank you enough for it :3

Now then..

Pairings: sasunaru. Kinda. Gimme time ;;

Warnings: none. Fluff.. And I hope I didn't go very OOC here..

Disclaimer: ma na… boku wa own de nai. Dont own them. Kuso.

Have fun!

Chapter eleven: Confront

Waking the next day felt like waking from a nightmare. The same confusion if it had all been real, the relief that it wasnt even though the dark feeling lingered like a bad smell.

He still wore the same clothes. The same sounds were still coming from outside. The same color of light that seeped through the windows and the same smell of summer in Konoha. The same voices, the same surroundings.

Like any other day in Konoha. As if history had stopped itself, stopping time in its tracks so the peace and purity of this village would never change.

Change.

Change dammit, back to what you were.

Naruto fumbled the drawers in Kakashi's house. He yanked the doors in the kitchen open and searched through every single cabinet. He rummaged through the heap of medical bottles and discarded wrappings in the bathroom. Back to his clothes and the drawers and pulled out every piece of clothing he had worn over the past week. He jerked the large cloak from the floor and shook it, but he couldnt find anything.

No dye. No wallet. No money to buy a new bottle.

He felt weak and sighed. He had woken up that morning all alone, Kakashi gone having left only a note that he'd be back soon. And he left something else as well. Naruto groaned and rubbed his right shoulder.

He looked in a life-size mirror on the wall, studying the huge seal on his stomach that was a burning black against his tanned skin. No matter how tanned he got, it still burned as if it was alive and there hadn't been a way to erase it, no matter how much he wanted it. He had succeeded into hiding it, but it had been just hiding and even that had left a small scar-like mark looking like small whirl. He could never completely erase it.

And now, since this morning, there had been a similair seal on his right and left shoulder as well. Like a small version, a whirl with spiky brush-like marks on the side of it. Kakashi's doing. Naruto tried to summon as much chakra as he could muster to darken his hair or change the color in his eyes, but no matter how hard he tried, nothing happened and he only felt extremely tired afterwards.

It didnt take him long to figure out what had happened. Kakashi had placed a seal on him while he had been sleeping so deeply this night, so exhausted from the day before. And that seal was simple but very effective apparently for it had left him with a minimal amount of chakra. It was a restricting seal. He couldnt use the power of the kyuubi nor his own massive strength or chakra control.

It simply meant, he would be as strong as a normal man and whatever happened, he posed as much of a threat as the baker around the corner. Inside he wished that the baker was an Anbu..

And it also meant that he couldnt disguise himself anymore. And somehow, the damn jounin had taken his money with him as well, knowing that naruto would resort to anything to keep his cover.

Naruto sighed. No matter.. He shouldnt have to worry that much for now. He had dyed his hair for the third time that week just yesterday morning. He looked in the mirror. His hair was a slightly lighter shade of brown than the dark coffee-like color he had used to cover his identity with. It would take at least another two weeks before it all washed out.

Damn it. With this low power there was no way in hell he could reverse the small seals. Maybe Tsunade could take them away but she was probably part of the plot so he kissed that idea goodbye.

Ah damn.

What the heck then, he thought as he slipped in his usual baggy black pants and black shirt and fumbled a bit in his travelling bag. Good for him, kakashi hadn't completely taken everything away as he pulled out a small box that opened in a small puff of dusty smoke. He took it with him to the bathroom and began to dot his cheeks with the powdery stuff. It took him only a few whipes to completely cover the six scars on his cheek. Good thing he still kept that stuff just in case he wanted to change his appearance again without using chakra, though it almost felt like being a girl using make-up.

After that he fished a bottle of black ink from a drawer in the living room. Normally it would have been used as ink to write letters or reports, now it would serve as a way to hide the scars even more as he drew long lines across his face with a brush. A quick glance in the mirror made him remind that he looked like Kankuro, but now in black. Grinning, he noticed that they were so apparent that they drew away every single bit of attention the scars could have. Spraying a whiff of fix over it would keep the marks there even if it rained or made him sweat. The alcoholic sharp stench of the spray lingered and again he thought of himself as looking like a girl using way too much make-up.

He shivered at that last thought as he put the box in his pocket in case they would fade anyway. Just in case. Everything was just in case.

With his hand on the doorknob he took a deep breath. Now came the toughest part. For one, the heat of the summer day and even worse, apologize. To sasuke. Today. And right now or he would never do it.

It even felt more terrifying as he noticed that quite an amount of people were staring at him. It was almost like old times.. His own fault this time. And perhaps like the first time he had noticed people staring after him in such a menacing way when he was just a small kid, the road to the hospital seemed to be a thousand miles long and only got longer with every glare he got.

"Uchiha Sasuke.. Let me look for a minute." The nurse at the desk said to him as he finally got there. Well.. finally.. it was just a five minute walk away but it seemed like ages. Lucky for him, the nurse hadn't heard anything or knew him by face so he was glad he didnt have to resort to some stealthing around untill he found the right room.

"Ah, here it is.. 17H. Thats down the hall, up the stairs and then its somewhere on your right."

"Thank you." He said in a sullen voice.

He didnt like being here at all, this chemical smell of pure alcohol that couldnt hide the bad smell of disease anyway. He had forgotten that the hospital had been so large. He guessed Tsunade left the minor cases to her students or to normal medical people instead of healing everyone on her own. Maybe because she wanted to provide a chance for them to learn, maybe because she didnt have the time to heal everyone or maybe just because she was too lazy to take care of every cough and sneeze.

He slowly walked up the stairs and down the large white and teal colored hall.

17A

17B

17D..

17H, the last room in the hallway. He stopped walking and looked at the door, open at a small crack and he felt a mellow warm breeze coming out of it.

His mind was revolting against his reason. What was the big deal anyway? He had made a mistake and he had to make up for it now. But on the other side was the fear of facing sasuke again. The boy had seemed to be willing to build up a possible friendship again like he had when he was still just naruto and he had destroyed it. And for a large part, he simply didnt want to deal with that kind of pain again. Not only facing his doing, but also facing him in this state with all that had happened yesterday and in the past.

Coward! His mind screamed out at a certain point, just when he was about to turn around and walk away. That set him on fire. He was all but a coward and he would prove it too.

He tiptoed to the door and slightly pushed it open, peeking his head around the corner, expecting a kunai to bore into his forehead at any moment.

Instead, he heard nothing, just a steady rythem of someone breathing and the sound of the wind coming through one of the open windows in the small room. He twitched at the huge amount of flowers around him. Flowers on the windowledge, flowers on small sidetables near the wall, flowers on the floor, flowers in vases next to the door even. They hadn't even know where to put them anymore.

He looked up again, focusing on the person in the bed by the window.

Sasuke.. He was sleeping, his features completely relaxed, laying there like a doll in its standars pose with his arms by his side, legs next to eachother as he slept on his back. Naruto smiled for a second, the comparison to a doll not quite ending there. The color of his skin and the flawless deep black hair was almost artificial.

He carefully stepped between the vases and after some wiggling and bending he finally got the side of the bed. Sasuke still hadn't woken up.

Naruto discovered a chair with even more flowers on it and moved them aside, picking up the chair and setting it next to the bed as silently as he could. Anything to prevent sasuke from waking up. It would buy him time to reconsider, to rethink his words and to organise the many panicked thoughts that were raging through his mind, ranging from 'get the hell out of here' to 'I cant wake him up looking like this'.

He studied the form underneath the light blanket in front of him. So relaxed. Sleeping like nothing ever happened, sleeping like an innocent child that had played too long. His slender pale face was unscratched, flawless in every way.

Naruto tore himself away from that face. Sleeping like this had an unusual effect on him. He wanted to lie there beside him and fall asleep as well, taking over the same peace as sasuke's face had and calming down all the doubts in his head. He wanted to keep the silence in the room so there would never be a fight like this again. He wanted to stop the time and pretend nothing had ever happened, not yesterday, not all those years they had spend together and not all the fight they had. He groaned as his worst wish slowly came bubbling up in his mind like a pure tone amidst chaos. He never wanted to stop looking at the peace that radiated from this beautiful face again.

He slid his hands through his hair, once again tied in a small tail on the back of his neck as that realisation struck him. Sasuke really did look beautiful like this. Asleep, calm, breakable, pure, innocent, his face a perfect symmetry accented by the dark lashes and soft pink lips. Like a fragile porcelain doll that shouldnt need anything more than love and soft touches.

Not having his stomach ripped open by an idiot who got taken over by fury and instinct.. He thought, his face red with shame for having done just that.

He should never be hurt. That face should never be twisted in pain again.