Ch. 8

Tsunade was currently meeting with Kakashi and Shikamaru to discuss what to do about the Sound and the Rain. Kakashi was sitting in a relaxed position while Shikamaru was standing, as usual. Shikamaru was about to say something when the Hokage office door flew open. There stood Naruto and Sasuke. Shikamaru turned around in shock as Kakashi and Tsunade left their seats. Naruto looked at the shocked faces all around and stated, "We need to talk."

After an uncomfortable silence had passed, Naruto looked at the three and said, "We intercepted this communication on our mission." He handed the scroll to Tsunade. Tsunade slowly grabbed it and read it aloud. After she finished reading, Kakashi immediately asked, "So why are you here?" looking at Sasuke.

"We ran into him on our way back." Before Naruto could say anything else Sasuke immediately interjected, "I've come here to clear my name in connection with the Sound."

Shikamaru grabbed a cigarette, Tsunade looked at Kakashi, and Kakashi seemed to have no reaction. Or maybe the mask hid his reaction. Before anyone could say anything else, Sasuke immediately said all he needed to say, "I was on my way here to clear my name on my own, but then I ran into Naruto's team. I was promised a crack at the sound. I expect this promise to be kept."

Shikamaru dropped his head at how troublesome the situation was becoming while Kakashi and Tsunade looked at each other. It looked as if they might have been mentally communicating. Suddenly the door to the Hokage's office flew open again. This time it was Shizune with some urgent news.

"The council has called for a meeting to discuss the return of Sasuke Uchiha." She said it in a voice that showed she understood the delicacy of the situation but Tsunade was still annoyed. She looked over to Kakashi and said, "We have to handle this very carefully."

"I know."

Tsunade turned to Shikamaru and said, "Take Naruto and Sasuke somewhere they won't be seen until this meeting is over." Shikamaru nodded then Tsunade and Kakashi left.

"Follow me." Shikamaru said, not even attempting to hide the annoyance in his voice.

Naruto and Sasuke followed him until they reached a small empty room with nothing but a table and a few chairs. It had a window that overlooked the whole village and it looked like it had picked up some dust from not being used in a long time.

Shikamaru simply stated, "I have to listen in on these meetings due to my position. You guys stay here until I get back." He quietly left the room and thought to himself, 'This is gonna be a major drag…'

Sasuke looked over at Naruto and noticed that, on the outside, he looked cool, calm and collected. However, he could see in his eyes that he was broken, hurting, and suffering.

He thought Naruto had it all, but now that he was right in front of him, he could see that Naruto wasn't anywhere near what he pictured he would be. Intrigued, he asked, "What do you want, Naruto?"

"Some peace and quiet."

Sasuke showed an amused grin at Naruto's attempt to shut down conversation.

"You know, I thought you had it all. You were the hero in the war, you're one of the most powerful shinobi to ever exist, you're respected all over the shinobi world, but somehow, you've found a way not to be happy. How are you doing that?"

Naruto slightly lifted his head and said in a monotone voice, "You know, you didn't used to be the talkative type."

"I usually didn't have to talk to you to know what you were thinking."

"Why do you care what I'm thinking?"

Sasuke looked at Naruto for a few seconds before answering. "We may have gone down different paths, but we're far from enemies."

Naruto didn't answer. He just walked over to the small window looking over the village and stood there.

"Don't make me use my Sharingan again."

"Good idea. It helped you out so much last time."

Sasuke could see he wasn't getting anywhere. He needed something that would help him get the information he wanted from Naruto. After a few seconds of thinking he turned to Naruto. "Do you remember that time you pranked Kakashi with that eraser?"

Naruto sighed and replied, "Yeah, what about it?" He was trying to hide the interest in his voice but Sasuke noticed it anyway.

"Did you know he didn't actually fall for it?"

Naruto did a 180 as he turned to Sasuke. "WHAT?!"

Naruto looked a little bit like that young Genin he used to be for two seconds before regaining his composure. Then he looked slightly suspicious and scrunched his eyes together. "How do you know?"

"I asked him."

"When?"

"When I was younger. I thought it was strange that a Jonin would fall for a prank like that, so sometime after the Chuunin exams I asked him about it. He basically said it was his way of analyzing us."

Naruto put his hand on his chin as he was thinking. Then a slight frown crept up to his face as he realized Sasuke was probably telling the truth.

"Oh well, I shouldn't be surprised. He was a Jonin after all." And just like that he was back to being that apathetic ANBU once again.

Sasuke decided to finally go for a straight up confrontation. "Naruto, do you know why what Sakura did hurt you so much?"

Naruto turned and in a sarcastic but monotone voice replied, "Please enlighten me."

"Did you ever think that maybe it was because of how much you loved her?"

Naruto was silent. He had tried not to think too much about Sakura but now Sasuke was directly confronting him on the subject.

"Think about it, Naruto. I betrayed you as well but you can still talk to me. You can still look at me and I didn't even come back to the village."

"That's different."

"Not really. I tried to kill you and failed."

Naruto turned around and in a sarcastic voice said, "Are your meditations in the mountains the cause for this outpouring of wisdom?"

Sasuke looked at him and said in a plain voice, "No, it's experience."

Sasuke noticed he now had Naruto's full attention. "You know about the slaughtering of the Uchiha. You also know that it was my own brother, Itachi, who was responsible. I had to watch my parents die at the hands of my brother. I lived with that hate for Itachi almost my whole life. You saw it." Naruto's head dropped slightly. "Now that we know why he did what he did, all that hatred, all that rage, all that anger, was for nothing." Naruto looked at Sasuke and noticed that for once the Uchiha was opening up to somebody.

Naruto looked at Sasuke with a seriousness in his eyes and said, "Why are you telling me this?"

Sasuke simply replied, "Because I think you're about to do something similar. What Sakura did was wrong, but you're the one stuck living with your hatred. I could tell just by looking at her that she was remorseful for what she had done, but I'm guessing you haven't really given her a chance to mend things." Naruto kept his head bowed feeling a little guilty.

"Look Naruto, I'm not saying to just forget what happened and act like everything is fine between you guys. I'm just saying to at least try. You obviously still care about her because you remembered the promise you made her when you were kids." Naruto raised his eyebrows in slight shock. He knew Sasuke was by him when he whispered at Sakura, but he thought he had whispered low enough for him not to hear. "I just don't want you to end up fixing things with Sakura 10 years from now and then get stuck thinking about all the time you lost."

"Like you…"

Sasuke looked at Naruto and noticed that he wasn't trying to hurt him but was instead empathizing with him and understood what he was going through.

After a few minutes of silence, Naruto looked back at Sasuke. He spoke in a soft voice, "You know, I'm pretty sure Konoha would love to have you back…" sounding slightly hopeful.

Sasuke let out a slight grin, "At least you're starting to sound like yourself again." Naruto let out a slight grin.

As he stood at the window, he noticed the training grounds then turned to Sasuke. "All this waiting is getting boring; I'm heading to the training grounds." Then Naruto looked at Sasuke and with a very visible grin held out his hand towards Sasuke showing one half of the unison sign. "You in?"

Sasuke turned and looked at the outstretched arm. He was curious to see how strong Naruto had gotten so there was no way he was turning down the offer. Without breathing a word, he accepted the unison sign with a slight grin since he knew Naruto wanted to see how strong he had gotten as well. The two left the room and headed for the training grounds.

Author's Note

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