"You seem so… free."

" 'Free'?"

"What the fuck do you mean by free?"

All Hearts

Part 14:

No doubt there was anger filled within those pale, icy blue eyes.
The fists at the sides become tight as if holding tight onto the reigns that hold the emotions so that it won't lose control.

Sasuke just feels himself rooted to the ground, pinned by the glare of the blond's.
His eyes are widened at the sudden change of Naruto's and is just completely lost as to why there is so much anger directed towards him.
The fierce features that engraves Naruto's face makes Sasuke feel a chill run down his spine as multiple unrefined solutions cross Sasuke's smart mind as to why he's in this situation and how he must've angered Naruto.
So in the end, Sasuke thinks of the best solution at that certain moment, which is to apologise because he must have been in the wrong to have made Naruto mad.

"…sorry."

"For what?" comes a cold reply.

It somehow seems like the personalities reversed between the two.
But Sasuke is asked "For what?"
Exactly for what is he apologising for?
He didn't have the slightest idea.
Naruto does have extreme changes to his mood, but it had always been from a negative one to a positive one, never the other way round… until now.
And so Sasuke had no idea how to deal with this situation.

"…for saying that you seem so free?" Sasuke makes an automated guess.
The completely-at-loss expression that Sasuke puts on infuriates Naruto even more that he can't bear to look at Sasuke in the face.
He slowly becomes downcast and keep his tightened fists strongly at his sides.
And then after a strong, steamy exhale from the blond, he opens his mouth.

"Yeah… we're free alright," Naruto states with a tense voice.

We were born differently and lived differently…

"We're so "free" that we don't have a home or hell, even parents. We can do anything we want without getting scolded by anyone. We don't have to go to school every day and just do anything we want every day, if that's the kind of "free" you're talking about," Naruto growls.

What Naruto can't stand is that Sasuke's careless words are of a bystander's point of view, feeling jealousy over something he doesn't have when he doesn't even bother to care what the price for that is.
Such a high price that anyone who Sasuke refers to "free" as, would do anything to get.
To get "unfree", but to have something else in exchange…

A family.

There's no way Sasuke, who lived a normal life, would ever come to fully understand Naruto's feelings. Ever.
Maybe Naruto had known this all along, deep inside.
Maybe this had been why Naruto had been reluctant to give up the previous way of how he lived before he had met Sasuke, and stick to being outside most of the time.

"We're so fuckin free, unbound to anyone and don't own a single piece of shit! Not even money! Or a house! Or a family! Having all of that, you won't have any fuckin idea how much we struggle to survive every single day! Without ever having to deal with starvation, diseases, drugs and all the other bullshit that we'd come across!" Naruto continued to scream, dunking his emotions down onto Sasuke from head to toe.

Ragged breathing just amplifies loudly into both pair of ears while the two stare hard into each other.

"…Well, You've got a point there," Sasuke sighs after realising Naruto is done with the shouting, and awkwardly scratches his back hair, "and I'm sorry that I thoughtlessly blurted out insensitive words…"

Naruto's glare doesn't faze as Sasuke's attitude doesn't show much of an apology and Sasuke notices that too, feeling slightly more awkward.

"Look, I don't know why you're so heated up all of a sudden, and I'm not going to say that none of the stuff didn't matter to me, because it did and it should," Sasuke pressed on before Naruto could bail out at him again, "but I was referring to your personality, which is a personal individual gift that someone has from the second they're born, regardless of when, where and how you were born and have lived."

Sasuke raises a brow, with that awkward expression still stuck to his face, as if asking Naruto if they've come to understand each other.
Slowly but evidently, Naruto's face expression softens and the balled fists become undone as it dawns upon Naruto, that he just had made a terrible mistake, an assumption that is wrong, yet he couldn't notice quite that quickly due his past experience.

Sasuke isn't like them… He's not the same as them… yet I doubted him…

"…Sorry," Naruto mumbles, suddenly feeling stupid as if he needs anger management or have a mental problem.
To think this way, Naruto realises that it's just him who isn't giving in and opening his heart out to Sasuke, trusting him.

I'm such a loser…

"Like hell you are," Sasuke mutters as picks Naruto at the scruff of his neck like a puppy and drags Naruto back to their home.
Naruto snaps his head up towards the back of Sasuke's, utterly surprised and raises his hand to his mouth, his ears and his head, to see if he had leaked those words that he had in mind in confusion.

"H-hhow did you know what I was thinking!?" Naruto exclaims in shock, after confirming 3,4 times that it's not him who had spoken his thoughts aloud.

"It was written all over your face," Sasuke says over his shoulder with a smirk.
Naruto pouts at that.

"Well I'm so sorry that my face is so easily readable unlike your expressionless ghost face!" Naruto retorts.

"What do you mean ghost!?" Sasuke growls.

"Well you're so fuckin pale you look like a dead person!"

"If you keep that up, you're going to have no dinner tonight!"

"NooooooOOOOOoooooOOOOOO!"

The two continue arguing like that, both with pissed faces, but feeling that warm nostalgic feeling as if they had been friends from childhood.

When the pair had returned home, Kakashi had prepared dinner for them as well before leaving, so Naruto grins at Sasuke while he receives a playful glare in return.
The dinner set up for them is meat ball spaghetti to which Naruto jumps in delight with those starry eyes that you see from time to time when a meal is set before Naruto.
Sasuke sighs and sits in front of a dish while he mutters a word of thanks to Kakashi.
Kakashi's eyes grow wide and doubts his ears when he hears that, since he had never heard Sasuke thank him before.
It seems that Naruto's words had pierced deep into Sasuke's heart and he had come to realise how true Naruto's words had been.
Too peaceful that you don't realise how thankful everything is that surrounds you…
Sasuke thinks such things as he silently eats his food, until he sees Naruto hesitantly put a meat ball onto Sasuke's plate.

"…what's this?" Sasuke asks with a wry smile, not understanding the situation.
Naruto turns away and blushes as he seems to be pouting at Sasuke for a reason Sasuke can't understand.

"Just…sorry before!" Naruto growls quickly before gobbling up his own plate.
Sasuke stares at the blond's action, dumbstruck, before realising this is his way of apologising and it makes Sasuke chuckle before appreciating the meat ball given to him.

Just like a kid… Sasuke thinks as he shakes his head with a smile.

But Sasuke had yet to know that this childish personality is not Naruto's original personality, and the past burden he carries, is nothing some child can carry...