A/N: hi bitches, Thanks for all the gorgeous reviews
PLEASE NOTE!! You have to read the last author note.
It's some ungodly hour of the morning/ night and I just got home from a Fall out Boy concert –squeals like the little fan girl she is- Ok I had to get that out of my system.
So if we are all ready then let's get reading.
Naruto POV
I ran through the streets of Konoha, pushing people roughly out of my way with complete disregard. Tears streamed down my cheeks and my lungs were burning for the lack of oxygen. I skidded to a halt, panting, outside Sakura's. I slammed on the door as hard and as fast as I could. Just when cracks were showing in the wood, Sakura tore the door open with a look of pure fury on her face. Shock filled her eyes and I threw myself in her arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Naruto, Naruto, shhhh…..don't cry, what's wrong." She cooed gently.
"He's gone." I choked out. "He left, He left me, what am I going to do?"
She pushed me back and looked straight into my eyes. "Naruto, what happened." She asked with a force in her voice I hadn't heard before.
I thrust the note into her hands and she quickly scanned it, her face darkening. Finally, with her eyes widened in shock and she looked back at me and moved closer cautiously. She put her arms around me slowly and let me cry into her chest, stroking my hair gently. After a while I pulled away from the comfort of her arms.
"What are we going to do?" I asked in despair.
"We are going to go talk to Kakashi." She said fiercely. "Then we are going to find some way to get him back."
--
Kakashi had spent the better part of the last ten minutes looking at Sasuke's note in absolute silence. Finally, without looking up, her spoke.
"When did you get this Naruto?" he asked carefully.
"When I woke up."
"Was he acting weird yesterday at all?" I thought for a second and then nodded grimly. "And what was the last thing he said to you yesterday."
I carefully pondered this. "He asked me for a goodbye kiss." I felt tears well up in my eyes and Sakura squeezed my hand. "I told him 'don't you mean a good night kiss' and he didn't answer, he just kissed me and it was different you know? He wasn't Sasuke when he kissed me. Then he wrapped his arms around me and said. 'I'm so in love with you, never forget that' just before I fell asleep." I was crying again but I didn't care anymore. Kakashi began re-reading the note and Sakura wiped the tears from my eyes.
Kakashi look up at me. "Give me a minute guys, i'll be right back." With a poof of smoke he vanished.
Sakura and I sat in silence, her hand still clutching mine tightly. After what felt like an eternity, but was in reality not likely more than 15 minutes, Kakashi returned. He handed me back the note. "I'd cherish that if I were you."
I frowned at him in confusion. "Why?"
"I was just talking to Tsunade…." He trailed off slightly. "I talked to her and that is the last thing you are going to get from him for a while because we agreed we aren't going to look for him." I glared at him, anger mixing with disbelief. "He made it clear that he doesn't want people following him. You just need to give him a chance to come back when he was ready."
I knew before I even tried I was fighting a lost battle. I opened my mouth and shut it again. I couldn't believe they were giving up on Sasuke so easily. Before I could stop myself I fell to the ground, crying into my hands.
Sakura POV
"I just don't know what to do." I said shaking my head.
"Where is he?" Gaara asked angrily.
"He locked himself in his room and said he doesn't want to see or talk to anyone."
"I don't care." He growled and stood to walk to his house.
Akira grabbed his arm and wrenched him back to the ground. "If he wants to be alone you need to respect that." She told him harshly. "We just need to give him time to clam down." She stood and continued. "Look, this is a really personal thing and I don't know Naruto that well so i'm going to let you guys handle it ok?" she lifted Gaara's chin so he faced her and kissed him lightly.
"Are you sure you will be alright?" Gaara asked sounding slightly concerned.
"I will be fine!" she told him before turning to walk away, raising her hand to wave goodbye to everyone else.
Naruto POV
I pulled my door closed, with a bag slung over my shoulder. I slowly carried myself to Ichiraku and slid into my usual seat. "Naruto! What can I get you?"
"Just some of the miso old man." I said with next to no enthusiasm.
He frowned at me in confusion and set the bowl in front of me. "On the house." I muttered a thank you and started to fiddle with my noodles.
I looked longingly at the seat beside me, normally occupied by Sasuke. I felt a stab of pain and tried to shake the thought of him from my head, but to no avail.
Leaving my bowl of ramen behind, I started to walk away. Adjusting the strap on my backpack I decided then and there I didn't care what Kakashi or Tsunade said. All that mattered was Sasuke. Finding him, and bringing him back.
For once, as I walked through the streets, I was glad I didn't run into anyone. As I approached the gates I stopped to think properly for the first time. We both knew he wasn't powerful enough to beat Itachi which meant he would need power. I screwed up my face in concentration and my heart sank. Orochimaru. So he had gone to the sound village. I sighed, since I had no idea where I had to go. Figuring I could just walk through the country of field until I eventually found them I started walking.
"Bloody Orochimaru." I muttered under my breath. "If he didn't-"
"Naruto?"
I snapped my head up and found myself looking at Akira. She jumped down from the tree she was sitting in and stood face to face with me. "Pocky?" she offered.
I shook my head and she shrugged her shoulders and continued eating it herself. I could see she was observing me carefully. I didn't cay anything, choosing to wait for her to spark up a conversation.
It was obvious when she spoke she was picking her words carefully. "Where are you headed?" she inquired.
"I- It's… Well- I'm." I lowered my head and watched the ground.
"Don't do it." She said softly, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"What else am I going to do?" I asked desperately. "I can't live without him." I said, tears falling thickly down my cheeks.
She enveloped me in a hug and I felt strangely relaxed in her arms. "You won't have to." She whispered to me. "He will be back." She pulled away gently and ruffled my hair affectionately and I smiled. The was something about her and the way she spoke that made me feel like everything was going to be ok. "He just needs time, but eventually, Sasuke will return. Believe it!"
I twitched in anger. "You stole my line bitch!" Smirking, she ran away with me in hot pursuit.
--
I finally tackled her to the ground and she lay beneath me, laughing hysterically. "Cool off hot stuff." She rolled me onto the ground beside her with surprising strength, and then helped me to my feet. We walked together in silence but it was comfortable. She knew she hadn't fixed the problem, but knew just as well that she had done enough that it didn't hurt so much until someone could.
"Come on." She grabbed my hand and ran. I didn't know where she was taking me, but she seemed to know what she was doing and that was all that mattered.
Finally we stopped and I saw everyone sitting in a tight knit circle, muttering quietly to each other. Shoving Lee to the side, she sat next to Gaara and pulled me down between herself and Lee.
There was a stunned silence around everyone. It seemed no one really knew what to say or do. Just then Temari threw herself at me and latched onto me. Following suit, Sakura and Ino leapt at me and the 3 girls tightly embraced me. For some reason this made me feel worse and tears started to leak from my eyes. I forced them back and half heartedly returned the hug. Temari and Ino returned to their seats but Sakura stayed, sitting in my lap facing me. To anyone on the outside, it would seem there was something between us. Her sitting in my lap, my arms wrapped around her waist, hers around my neck, but my affections for her would never again stretch to more than sisterly ever again. " Are you ok?" She asked genuine concern in her voice.
"No, but Ill get over it." I said with a shrug of my shoulders. I didn't know why I was pretending this had ceased to bother me. I wasn't fooling anyone, but I think they got the hint that I didn't want to talk about it, and consequently, didn't push the issue.
"Are these two together yet?' I asked gesturing to Kiba and Kankuro as Sakura climbed off me and kissed my head before sitting back next to Ino.
Kiba yelled out in a mixture of fury and embarrassment.
"WE ARE NOT TOGETHER, WE NEVER HAVE BEEN AND NEVER WILL BE!"
"Yeah do you honestly think my standards are that low?" Kankuro asked rolling his eyes.
"Like you can talk, I would never go out with some dude with shit like that all over his face." Kiba snarled.
"Yeah, at least they aren't as bad as those weird red things on yours." He spat back indignantly.
"Yeah well at least I don't screw my puppets."
"No you screw around with your dog."
"WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP?" screeched Temari. They both lapsed into silence and she pointed away. "I am sick of both of you, go away now. Go screw each other, anything, the sexual tension between you guys is killing me."
"AS IF WE WOULD-" they both began in unison
"Go!" Akira told them and they both grimaced and the pair stood and walked away, refusing to look at each other, muttering incomprehensible strings of curses and denials.
We all looked at one and other. "Well that was strange." Drawled Shikamaru.
--
"BUT TSUNADE!" I screamed.
"No listen here brat," she whispered, voice dangerously low, standing and slamming her hands on the table which splintered slightly. "He made it perfectly clear he didn't want you following and I won't let you. I don't care if I have to have you under lock and key. You can't go after him and that's FINAL!"
I fell back into a seat, silence by her outburst. "I just miss him so much." I breathed.
Her face softened and she walked around to me, leaning down and hugging my from behind. "He will come back, just give him time."
"I can't just give him time." I screamed throwing her off me and rising back to my feet. "How much time am I supposed to give him? I can't just wait around forever. He could fucking die Tsunade. Itachi could fucking well kill him. He might never be able to come back." I sank to the ground, wrapping my arms around myself and shaking my head to rid the thought from my head.
"You just have to trust him." She said softly falling to the ground beside me and wrapping her arms around my in a motherly hug. She sighed as I moved closer to her. "You don't have to just sit around and wait for him." I looked up and she smiled at me. "Move on, when he returned if you still want him then you can have him."
I shook my head. "Its not that simple, I can't just fall out of love with him."
"I never said that." She said and I pulled away to eye her curiously. "Just don't waste away being in love with him."
-Three Years Later-
Naruto POV
I laughed and ran my fingers through his soft black hair, TV still flickering in the corner completely forgotten.
"How did I survive so long without you?" I asked laying my head on his chest. He didn't answer, but winced slightly just as he always did when I asked. He wrapped his arms around me and we just lay there. I don't know how long we lay there, but I could have done it forever. I felt so safe laying on his chest and listening to his rhythmic heart beat. After awhile he pressed his lips against my forehead and gently pushed me off him.
"I have to go to the bathroom, i'm going to take a shower." He began and started walking through the house, but I got up and ran after him.
Sasuke POV
I stood at the door and took a deep shuddering breath. Apprehension was pulsing through my veins and I lifted a shaking hand to knock, stopping when I heard a crash, followed by an eruption of laughter.
"I'M SO SORRY! Are you ok?" I smiled at the sound of Naruto's familiar,yet slightly different yelling and presumable clumsiness.
"I told you to warn me before you do that. I'm really bad at spontaneous piggy backs."
I frowned at the unknown voice. I had earlier guessed he was with Sakura or someone, but who on earth was this person?
"I told you that i'm sorry." Naruto said again, pout evident in his voice.
"I know Naruto, I love you."
"I love you too Sai."
A/N: MUST READ!! Yes, this is the last chapter of A Little something between friends. I'm finally finished. And yes, if you haven't already guessed, I am doing a sequel.
Sorry about the cliffhanger, but you know. And sorry about the inevitable gap between the two, but i need to collect myself and recover from this first :)
Thank you everyone who read this, it means so much to me.
Until next time,
Stephi
xxx