All Hearts

Part 12:

A pair of eyes snaps open and leans slightly back before throwing himself forward and jump off the couch he had been sleeping on with a single jump.
The room is dark and the moonlight slips between the gap of the curtains but isn't enough to lighten up the room and the objects that lie around, although this doesn't seem to be a problem for the just-woken blond who casually walks over, slips to the side, and grabs the jacket he had thrown to the side earlier in the afternoon.
He quietly walks towards the front door when a voice comes from behind.

"Going off again this late?"

Turning around, with a sigh, the blond forces himself to stare back into those coal black eyes that only he would be able to see with his ability to visualise in this darkness.

"...yes," he replies truthfully.

"Why?"

"Sasuke, you know I can't tell you that," he sighs as he looks away to the side.
And when he receives no reply, he takes a step towards the door again.

"You have a choice," Sasuke states as Naruto puts a hand on the doorknob.
Naruto hesitates in his movements at these words before muttering back a reply.

"Yeah... and this is what I'm choosing."

Once the door closes and only leaves silence behind, Sasuke leans against the wall and sighs. The cold wall sends his back shivers just like the feeling he gets when he sees Naruto off.
He just can't help but feel the same kind of feeling he had felt when he had once woken up much past midnight as a child, seeing his older brother sneak out of the house at that hour.

"Where are you going?"

It's what he had asked after watching his brother do this for months.
His attitude had started becoming slightly off and Sasuke had slowly started to feel the neglect.

"Nowhere. Now go back to bed, Sasuke."

It hadn't been nowhere and Sasuke had known that it's a place where they slowly changed who his brother was and he had tried to prevent his older brother from going numerous times.

Failing each time.

"Don't go tonight. Stay with me, nii-san."

Always the same words came back at him. The words Sasuke hated hearing the most.

"Sorry, Sasuke.

I don't have a choice."

"At least Naruto's being more honest than that idiot of a brother..." Sasuke mutters under his breath after sliding down to the floor.
What haven't changed are the failing attempts that Sasuke keeps making.

Why couldn't he prevent anyone from leaving?
Why is it so hard to keep a person at ones side all the time?

Why doesn't anyone listen to his words?

"Sasu nii...?" A drowsy adolescent voice comes from the door and Sasuke turns his head around as one of the twin rubs his eye sleepily, "it's cold for you to fall asleep there."

It makes Sasuke let out a quiet laugh, seeing that this little kiddo worrying about a fully grown guy like himself. Wonders of why and how incredulously little kids can make one grown man's lips crack into a smile, even those who hadn't smiled in years.

"What're you doing yourself, Nao?" Sasuke asks with a smile as he beckons Nao to his side.
Nao patters over to Sasuke with caution as he tries not to trip over the over-sized t-shirt of Sasuke's that works as a nightie for him.

"I woke up and saw that Sao wasn't there..." Nao mumbles over Sasuke's shoulder when he gets pulled into a hug, but gets pulled back immediately.

"What!?"

Sasuke's eyes widen and he dashes towards their room, only to sigh in relief, and then start shaking his head with a smile playing upon his lips.

"Where are you looking at, Nao. Sao's right here," Sasuke tells Nao who comes in seconds later, to find Sasuke picking up the duvet all bunched in the corner of the bed where Sao is revealed from underneath.

"...uuh.. cold..." Sao mutters in his sleep as he feels the warmth of the blankets leave him.
Sasuke picks him up and places back at the head of the bed where Nao climbs up and lies next to his brother before Sasuke covers the duvet back onto them neatly.

"Go back to sleep, Nao," Sasuke tells the one with eyes following Sasuke's movements.
He receives a nod and smirks before closing the door behind him and heads to his own bedroom.
For now, he tries to forget where Naruto is at and tries to get some sleep.
Naruto had been living all his life like this. It shouldn't change and there's no reason why it should be the same as where his brother had been going and what he had been doing.

When Sasuke wakes up the next morning, he sees the usual blond sleeping in an idiotic manner on the couch and smirks, but the frowns when he notices traces of blood on Naruto's clothes.
Sasuke pulls Naruto's sleeve up and find the small grazing wound and sighs at how careless the blond can be as to leaving an open wound untreated.
He disinfects it making Naruto jump in alert but stopped short when with his arm held by Sasuke, stopping him half-way through the air.

"Oww fuck! That fuckin stings! What the hell are you doing to me!?" Naruto screams, while Sasuke growls at him to stop fidgeting.

The identicals patter their way over from their beds at Naruto's voice and stares at the blond in fear and worry.

"Are you trying to kill me!?" Naruto hollers with his eyes watering.

"The opposite actually," Sasuke replies with an exasperated sigh as he slaps a bandaid on the wound to complete his task, "because it may happen if you leave it untreated."

"I could have lived fine without the death sting!" Naruto scowled staring down at the treated arm, seeing if there's any damage done to it as equivalent as to how he had felt it. He won't be surprised if he sees a few huge needles sticking out of the wound because that's what it had felt like.

"If you don't want to feel that pain again, then I suggest you don't make that kind of injury," Sasuke demands and then turns his head around to the two shaken boys, "so don't try and make any injury. Got it?"

The two boys nod their heads vigorously in fear as a satisfied raven-head walks over towards the kitchen to make breakfast.

"No wrist wounds or needle wounds either," Sasuke adds in a quiet murmur as he passes by Naruto.

"I wouldn't do anything to deliberately hurt myself!" Naruto growls back defensively, which earns a surprised look from the stoic raven as if he hadn't expected a comeback for that. But a relief somewhat washes down and drains some of his worries away.

"Good boy. Then you deserve ramen," Sasuke smirks at Naruto who's eyes lighten up at his words and jumps off the couch to sit on the counter seat.

"Mean!"

Seeing Naruto excited like that, makes the two little imps overcome with jealousy and they rush to Naruto's side pulling at his sleeves demanding ramen for them too.

"Nah, man. You little midgets need to eat more healthy food to grow up," Naruto replies as he pulls each of them up with one arm that they cling on to and place them on the counter seats beside him.

"But, but, but..." the twins chorus with puppy eyes at Naruto, making him waver with his decision.

"No 'buts'. You guys are having toast and milk," Sasuke demands as he stares hard into both of their eyes.

"Y-yes sir!" the twins reply in unison, relieving Naruto from the pressure of the two puppy eyes.
Truth be told, they are smart enough to know that Naruto can easily be wavered while Sasuke is strict and will not bend with his decisions, ever.

Sasuke nods in satisfaction as he turns his back on them to continue making their breakfast while he thinks, if only Naruto can be this obedient like the twins...

...just like how obedient he had been with his brother.

"Sasuke. Never follow me.
Never follow my path."