title: breathe slow
pairing: eventual SasuSaku.
dedication: To Sonya for cheating with me! To my wonderful batch of reviewers; where have you guys been? Also, to those same reviewers that got me to five hundred reviews; I've never gotten to five hundred~ And to Emily for looking this over for me!
notes: Ew, I hate beer. Annoyedfayce. Also, I have this poppy-seed and sherry cake. And a two litter bottle of Dr. Pepper. Where the party at? ;D
x
breatheslow
The night before he and his teammates had to go back to their camp, Sasuke woke up in the middle of the night after having a bizarre dream.
Or, maybe it wasn't even a dream. Maybe it was something like a flashback.
It involved him and it involved Naruto and it involved words Sasuke hadn't wanted to hear. Words that stung and burned and sizzled when they made contact with his skin. It involved Chidoris and it involved Rasengans and it involved a lot of blood and...
It also involved one final attempt to kill.
But he hadn't killed, Sasuke mildly placated himself. He hadn't killed because Naruto was still being loud and annoying, somewhere, and he was still alive and free of being executed for murder.
And yet, there Sasuke was, sitting up from a makeshift sleeping-bag, in the middle of the night, staring into the darkness as if he were an owl. And thoroughly displeased.
Of course, being that he was Sasuke, he was never going to admit that. And if he never admitted, no one but himself would know.
(At least you knowww—)
Sasuke didn't really notice how long he sat there; maybe until his breathing resumed to normal. Breathe slow, breathe slow.
It wasn't until he woke up to a clear six o'clock in the morning sky, that he realized he'd fallen asleep somewhere in between counting the intervals between his breathing. Mildly glaring in annoyance with himself, Sasuke sat up, again, and stared around the renewed campsite.
There was something stuck in Sasuke's head; the kind of stuck that wouldn't leave until something was done about it. Which usually involved speaking to someone and getting answers. Only, Sasuke wasn't really into talking to anyone, let alone anyone that made him feel awkward.
And sadly, Ino wouldn't happen to have the answers to this. Actually, Ino was probably kept in the dark about this, just like everyone else. Just like him.
(Temper, temper—)
Standing up and sliding his nin-shirt and his flak jacket back over his torso, Sasuke ran a hand through his hair and searched the grounds for any source of tanned skin and bright hair. But when he found the idiot, he was sprawled and all over the place next to a tiny, curled up body with a head full of pink.
Sasuke didn't want to deal with anything that would bring up, so he settled into preparing for his departure. Which, he soon realized, didn't require much, if anything; just the tattered clothes on his back and his teammates. Sasuke glowered at the lack of anything to do.
It wasn't until around ten in the morning that he was approached by the ever clueless and aggravating Sai.
He had that stupid smile on his face; the same one that offended people, rather than loosened them up. Sasuke decided it made Sai look like he had smelt something disgusting.
"Shall we go," Sai asked in a tone that would have come off amicably on anyone else.
Sasuke eyed him from under his forelocks. "No."
"Oh?"
"I have something to do," Sasuke drawled, vaguely. "Wait until then."
Sai blinked for a couple of seconds, as if running by what Sasuke said, in his head, until it clicked. "Well, then. Would you... Like some breakfast?"
"No."
Not that Sasuke was trying to be rude - which he completely was - but he just wasn't hungry. And Sai still annoyed him with his blunt cluelessness. To his horror, Sai sat down next to him, legs crossed and hands quickly busying themselves on his art.
Sasuke glared.
"I read," Sai began, head bowed as he looked at the white page of his sketchbook, "that friends should spend quality time together."
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Then go spend time with Ino, Kiba and Shikamaru." He paused, his eyes glued onto Sai, subconsciously, as he added, "Or Naruto and Sakura. Go be with them."
Sai looked up, slowly, brow furrowed. "Excuse me?"
"They're your friends, aren't they," Sasuke sneered.
And so a thoughtful look came across Sai's facial expression as he pondered. "Perhaps... But they are your friends, too."
"Don't," Sasuke growled. Because Sasuke really didn't want to go there, this early.
"Hm?"
Sighing and standing up, Sasuke shook his head and walked away.
His feet dragged him towards a very disgruntled and disheveled looking Naruto who was half asleep, as he stood in place. Sasuke fought the urge to roll his eyes as the thing that kept bothering him resurfaced over the annoyance Sai had brought to him in such little time. Sasuke paused in front of Naruto, shoving his hands inside the pockets of his nin-pants.
"Dobe."
Naruto's blue eyes slowly slid to him and Sasuke watched with slight amusement as they refocused and became alert.
"Wah! Sasuke-teme!"
"Shut up," Sasuke hissed, glaring.
Naruto stared at him, obviously confused at the fact that Sasuke sought him out, rather than isolating himself as best to his abilities. "Whattaya want? You okay?"
Sasuke paused from his strategy of just bluntly asking what he had to ask and get everything over with. He pondered and observed as Naruto eyed him almost worryingly, as if something was wrong with Sasuke and he was in dire need of the idiot's help. Like...
He shook his head.
"That day," he began, slowly and lowly in a hushed murmur that only Naruto could hear. "By Madara's hideout. Where we fought."
At this, Naruto's furrowed brow relaxed and a nod replaced it.
"Everything you were saying," Sasuke went on, a pool of something like anxiety bubbling in the pit of his empty stomach. "How did... You know about all that?"
Because Sasuke needed to know; because maybe with knowing, it'd satisfy the stirring and the voices in his head. Because maybe, maybe, just maybe Madara's choice of words had been carefully selected to play with Sasuke's head enough to torment him forever and do stupid things. Because maybe what Sasuke was told did happen but... Maybe there was something more.
Perhaps this was something like closure.
He caught Naruto's jaw twitching in strain, as he clenched it, his blue eyes glued to the ground.
"Y'mean... About your family," Naruto finally asked, carefully. Almost delicately, had it not been Naruto the one speaking; that ruled the possibility out. Naruto was never delicate.
Sasuke gave a stiff nod.
It went quiet again and Sasuke's pool of anxiety continued to grow.
"Oh," Naruto muttered, lifting a hand and scratching at the back of his head. "Well... Believe it or not, but... The same person that told you, told me."
And the pool shriveled and dissipated and was forever gone. Madara had told Naruto. And knowing the bastard, he'd probably said things raunchier to Naruto, than he'd done so to Sasuke. His shoulders squared and rising with that anxiety, slowly began to lower down into a slouch.
(That wasn't anxiety, stupid.
That was hope.)
"I see," Sasuke murmured, taking a step back and deciding it to be the perfect time to retreat and leave with his teammates.
"Wait, Sasuke-teme," Naruto shot a hand up, towards him. "Look... We can do something about this!"
"Shut up," Sasuke said, monotonous.
"No, you shut up, I'm serious," Naruto stressed. "It's not fair! What the elders did to your family—"
"Shut up, Naruto—"
Naruto snarled, "No, you shut up! Shutting up isn't going to make things better; and it's not gonna make you better. Actually, shutting up for so fucking long is what got you like this. So accept my fucking help and let's do something about this. Tsunade-baa-chan said she'd do something without causing problems. Just... Stop being such a dick."
And really, that'd been the first time Sasuke'd seen Naruto so serious.
Actually, it was the second time. But the first time Sasuke actually listened.
"Tch," Sasuke scoffed, shaking his head and looking away before his facial expression gave anything away. "You're so stupid."