A/N: I AM EXTREMELY SORRY THAT THIS WAS LATE! I'm going through finals week, everyone. Please accept my apology! TT~TT We've got a filler guys. This chapter's pretty short compared to the last few ones. I thought this chapter was necessary though. Didn't want you guys to forget that Sasuke has issues that haven't really been resolved.
You know. Although this story is primarily motivated by the song Before The Worst, I've never actually tried to listen to the song while writing the story at the same time. I SHOULD HAVE DONE IT AGES AGO! It really fired me up and I was typing so fast! O_e Ugh. Imagining these two along with the song just breaks my heart. Countless nights have been spent with heart-clenching pain TT_TT
To alesfan, Kwiky, NoodleRhythm, SweetHunniiBunnii, and Little-Snow-Fox: I'd love to say thank you! All such flattering words! I'm very very happy that I was able to make you smile :D
And to Kwiky: It's awesome that you've been with this story from the very start! Gah! Could just kiss you right now. Thanks for not being lazy! Hehe. I'm so happy that I was able to let this story worm itself into your heart (even if it's femNaru). Again, thank you thank you thank you! :D
NOTE: The next chapter might take a while. Finals are still happening and the surge of papers are starting to pile up on me. I apologize in advance! D:
LAST CHAPTER: I reread the last chapter and noticed that there was an unforgivable grammatical mistake. Hehe. I needed to fix that. Other than that, everything remains unchanged ^_^
Reminding everyone again that this is self-proofread. :3 I apologize if there are still cringe-worthy errors in there.
*DISCLAIMER APPLIES*
BEFORE THE WORST
There Were Days
He was getting better.
Really. He was.
No one could deny that Uchiha Sasuke had started to return to his former self when Naruto came back from Iwa; more so when they'd gotten together. The change was almost immediate, like it was fated to happen. Although true that Sasuke was still more or less uncaring and mean to acquaintances, he was still very much tolerating of people he considered friends. Sometimes, he would even humour said strange group of friends. The special case was Naruto. With the blonde, he was tender, kind, and dare I say loving.
With Naruto, the potential for Sasuke to get past the revenge he still sought out for was very promising. Naruto was the key for Sasuke's acceptance. She was the only one who could vanquish the deep embedded hatred in the Uchiha's heart.
So it was with this knowledge that everyone concluded that Uchiha Sasuke was on his way to redemption from his bitterness.
But then there were days such as this, when even Naruto feared for Sasuke's so called redemption.
"Naruto. He hasn't spoken all week..." Sakura, who'd been fretting over the matter since the beginning of the occurrence, restated what Naruto was fully aware of. The boy had become a walking corpse. It was as if all form of life seemed to have drained away from him. As if his mind and soul were completely elsewhere.
"Don't worry too much, Sakura. I'll cheer him up. It's just... it's that time of the year, y'know." Of course, Sakura was very much mindful of that fact as well. Unlike Naruto, she'd braved through the event last year. In hindsight, last year was much worse because of Naruto's absence; but still, the pinkette continued to fuss about the situation.
"Are you going with him to the cemetery?" Sakura wondered why she even asked that question when the answer was just too obvious.
"Yeah. He needs me. Aaand I need to visit his mom too. Aunt Mikoto might spite me for not visiting all this time." There was a bitter smile on her face after she'd said her affirmation to Sakura's question. Words could not describe how much she missed the Light of the Uchiha family. What she'd be willing to do so she could see the gorgeous mother again.
Just then, the two girls noticed Sasuke pass by, completely ignoring their presence. The boy went straight to the exit without even thinking to look back. Naruto surmised that if she didn't follow him soon, he'd forget to let her tag along to the memorial grounds. So with a sigh and a bid goodbye to her pink-haired friend, she set out to follow Sasuke.
The very nice thing about Konoha was that everything was well within walking distance. Granted that the memorial grounds were relatively farther than everything else, but not significantly far to consider it a feat; although that may be the case, Naruto would have preferred to catch the bus to get to the place. However, Sasuke appeared to have walking in mind.
There were attempts to get Sasuke to talk on the casual tread to their destination. To Naruto's disappointment, Sasuke was only ever capable of responding with grunts and hums, and more often opting to not respond at all. At some point, Naruto stopped trying and simply let Sasuke be.
In just less than an hour, they arrived to the Uchiha couple's resting ground. If Naruto thought the air was thick before, she'd sorely misjudged the extent, because now the atmosphere was nearly suffocating. She could see that Sasuke was physically tense, with shoulders rigid and palms fisted shut. If it weren't for the fact that she was standing behind her boyfriend, she was almost sure that she would have seen Sasuke grinding his teeth together out of pure spite and agony.
Two years and Sasuke was still as disturbingly haunted as he was the day his parents were both proclaimed dead.
In another effort to relax him, Naruto gently placed a comforting hand on Sasuke's back. His reaction to the touch was not what she expected. The young Uchiha lowly growled and flinched away from the contact.
In her surprise, she took a step back.
Well, that was the last time she'd try that.
They stood there for what felt like hours upon hours with the tense ambience not dissipating in the least. In all that time, Naruto chose to remain silent, respecting the solemnity of the occasion. She looked to the Uchiha anxiously. He looked like a statue; unmoving, cold, lifeless.
The tension was broken when Sasuke suddenly decided to move. He walked past her with dead eyes and icily stated an order, "Let's go."
She chose not to abide.
Instead, she decided to step towards the two classily placed headstones in memorial ground prime location.
"Naruto." His voice was frigidly stern and acerbically vicious as he called out to her. She'd never heard him use that tone on her before and it alarmed her. Naruto would be lying if she said his voice didn't intimidate her in the slightest but her concern for her best friend overpowered the fear of consequences. She wanted to show Sasuke that he could escape from the vicious cycle of resentment he placed himself into.
And she would do so by doing this.
"Hey Aunt Mikoto." She greeted the mother while she crouched low on the ground to have a better view of the stone etchings. Thankfully, Sasuke let up and decided to let Naruto have her way.
"...Uncle Fugaku." Naruto acknowledged Mikoto's husband despite not having been too acquainted with the man. The blonde faced the late mother's headstone once more and smiled. "I miss you, Aunt Mik. Hope you're not too mad at me for not visiting until now. Blame your stubborn son. He takes too much of my time." The girl chuckled and shifted her position somewhat to be more comfortable.
"Hey Auntie. Sasuke misses you and Uncle a lot too. Like a looooot. I know you don't want him forgetting about the two of you but I doubt you guys want him being lonely forever." Sasuke was silently listening to the monologue when suddenly the sight of Naruto abruptly standing up rather startled him.
"... so I took it upon myself to keep him happy in your absence! Ah! I forgot to tell you! Sasuke and I are going out now so yeah. Auntie, I promise to take good care of him!"
The raven-haired male stood dumbfounded as he continued to listen to his girlfriend's words.
"I'll try to get him to be less of an assho—errr, I mean, grouch. Ahehe. And I'll be really supportive of him! I'll go to every one of his games, violin recitals, and everything else he likes to do. I'll cheer him on for the both of us, okay Aunt Mikoto?"
By this time, Sasuke allowed himself an upward twitch of his lips; the first small sign of happiness in days.
"And I'll get him to come visit you and Uncle Fugaku more. I heard from Sakura-chan that the last time he visited you was a year ago. What is up with that, right?! I'll get him to visit more even if I have to drag him down here. " Naruto then gave a thumbs up directed at the headstones.
The next few minutes were filled with the sound of Naruto animatedly chatting one-sidedly with Sasuke's mother, and momentarily with the father. The blonde told them of stories about Iwa, about Jiraiya, and how the previous school years had been so far, how her and Sasuke's relationship progressed, even telling on the boy to his parents every so often, and many other light jibber jabber. At some point through it all, the dark mood Sasuke had possessed throughout the week had gone and all that was left was this weightless feeling in his chest as he watched Naruto bring an end to her tales.
"It's getting pretty late. I think Sasuke and I should be heading out. It was nice talking to you again." She gently placed her palm onto Mikoto's headstone and looked fondly at it. "Aunt Mikoto, don't worry about Sasuke. I'll be really good to him. I care about your son so you two rest easy, k? We'll be back before you know it!" She reassured them. "Talk to you soon!" She adoringly waved goodbye and then turned, only to be surprised by the soft expression on Sasuke's face.
"You're such an idiot." He lightly teased before gesturing for her to step closer. "Come here."
She tilted her head curiously but followed nonetheless. Shockingly, she found herself in the arms of her best friend.
"Did you mean everything you said to my parents?" He whispered into her hair as he tightened his hold on her.
Then Naruto smiled, putting her arms around Sasuke's waist and embraced him with equal the amount of tenderness as Sasuke had. "Yeah. Every word, Sasuke." At those words, Sasuke lovingly nuzzled the top of Naruto's soft spiky head. They stood that way for a handful of moments, perfectly content in each other's arms. For the blonde, the surge of emotions began to peak, like water threatening to boil over. The words were unexpectedly out of her mouth before she could even comprehend what was going on.
"I love you, Sasuke."
She internally panicked once the words she uttered reached her own ears. In the intense feeling of the moment, Naruto declared her sentiments. What a way to drop the bomb on someone! She didn't mean to say it yet but it had managed to slip out. Hopefully, Sasuke wasn't too shocked about the unplanned reveal.
Sasuke responded with a nod of his head. Naruto didn't know how to feel about that but she guessed that she could let it go for now. After all, no one was expecting the 'L' word to pop out of someone's mouth yet.
Thankfully, the somewhat awkward situation was erased by the sound of someone's stomach growling.
"Uhh. S'uke. Can you let go now? I'm getting kind of hungry."
"Hn. Idiot." Sasuke released Naruto then amiably ruffled the top of her head. "Let's go to Ichiraku's. My treat."
Gosh darn. Who was Naruto to argue with that kind of proposal?
"Race you there, slowpoke!"
It was pathetic really. How Naruto, although getting the head start, ended up struggling to catch up to her significant other. Conversely, the endearing thing about them was no matter how far ahead Sasuke was, he would always always stop to let Naruto catch up. True it was detrimental because what was the point of getting ahead if you'd let the other draw close in the end? It was because that was how it should be and it was proof that the world was back to normal again. To think that any such deviations from this phenomenon, well, it was unheard of. But this was natural and it felt right. Although there were days when everything in his world would seem out of control, she would bring order to that chaos.
It was because she loved him to the stars and back.
And as long as Sasuke let Naruto catch up, as long as Uchiha Sasuke let Uzumaki Naruto in, he would be fine.
