Naruto tried hard to hide his hostility toward Sasuke but he knew he'd never been good at hiding his feelings from the other. Sharingan or not, the Uchiha could see right through him.

Silence had fallen between them, none of them able to find the right words for the situation. It was fucked up after all just to think they'd ever sit here like this again. Sasuke had sworn if he ever set foot inside Konoha again it was to destroy it and yet, here he was, in Naruto's apartment and his intentions couldn't be further from it. Finally, after all this time, there was no more intent to kill in him. A strange feeling really.

He finally broke the silence with a quiet laugh and Naruto looked up at him.
"Isn't it strange", the Uchiha said, "to just be here like this?"

"I never thought I'd ever sit with you again", Naruto admitted, his voice carrying a sadness that pierced right through Sasuke's chest like a spear.
"Want a beer?"

"Hell yes."
Alcohol seemed like a good idea to get rid of the awkwardness of the situation.

"Let me just go get some real quick. I'll be back in five minutes", Naruto told him. 'And please be here when I come back' but he didn't dare to say the last part. Sasuke wasn't the only one who was suffering.

While he waited for Naruto to return, he grew nervous. For whatever reason. It felt as if him returning would be like meeting him for the first time after he returned to Konoha and he really wasn't ready for it, never would be.

After minutes that felt like an eternity in the silent apartment he stood up and began looking around the place. He went to the bathroom and he knew he shouldn't look but he couldn't help but look at his own reflection in the mirror. Hard to believe it was him. He'd last had a bath and washed his hair when he left the small hotel he'd stayed in before he returned here, and it really showed.
'Disgusting', he thought. 'Pathetic.'
He turned away before he'd break the mirror in an attempt to distance himself from the person he saw in the reflection. Though he knew he never could. This was the real him after his childhood, finding a new family in Team 7 and then abandoning them in his search for power in order to get revenge on his brother. Now it sounded insane to him, but this was him after Orochimaru's torture, after all the emotional neglect that was supposed to make him less soft and yet, it only ever made him more broken. The person in the mirror was him after repeatedly trying to kill his best friends and more of all, this was him after returning like a beaten stray to exactly those people and hoping for their mercy. He didn't deserve to be welcomed back. He didn't deserve to be here.

Just when the impulse to storm out of the apartment and just run away hit, Naruto came back through the front door.

"Sasuke?"
He heard him call into the seemingly empty apartment.

Sasuke finally stepped out of the bathroom, facing him. The concern of Naruto's face turned into relief.

"You're still here."

"Of course", he said as if he'd not been seconds away from being gone again. "Where would I go?"
That last part was right, though. There was nowhere else he really could go, at least nowhere that would feel better than here. He didn't have a home anywhere, hadn't had the chance to get an apartment before he left Konoha the last time and while he was in prison he'd certainly not needed one. He didn't even have much in terms of belongings. It all fit in a small bag and it was mainly clothes.

"I just-" But Naruto stopped himself before he could say something stupid like, 'I just don't want you to go again. Ever.'
"I got some beer and Sake."

"Perfect."
Sasuke came over to him and took a beer from the bag Naruto held in his direction as if his life depended on the beverage.

They went to sit at the small table and somehow it made him feel claustrophobic all of a sudden. Still, none of them knew what to say or how to behave until after they'd finished almost all the beer Naruto had brought.

"Glad there's still Sake", Naruto pointed out, his cheeks already red from the alcohol.

Sasuke chuckled.
"Don't you have work tomorrow?"

"But that can waiiiiiit", the blonde assured him, but Sasuke wasn't sure if Hokage duties really could wait.

"If you say so."
He caught himself thinking that Naruto was mature enough to know what he was doing.

They joked around for a while as if there was no heavy cloud of untouched topics looming over them, but then Naruto got quiet for a moment.

"Hinata confessed her feelings for me", he sighed.

Sasuke had no idea what to say to that. Why did Naruto sigh? Was this bad news to him? It had really been obvious for all their time training together as Team 7, as Sasuke remembered.

"I could marry her", he went on, "start a family of my own."
His eyes trailed off to the window.

"That's great news", Sasuke forced himself to lie.

"But I don't love her."

"Oh." 'Oh.'
For a short moment he searched his brain for something adequate to say but no words got delivered to his tongue.

"You know, I feel like, as a Hokage, I'm supposed to have a family. And I really like her. But I don't love her." Naruto sounded almost sad as he said it. "I just don't think it would be fair to her. And I don't think that's how things are supposed to be."
He poured himself a glass of Sake and downed it in one go.
"We went on a date, but it didn't feel right. We haven't spoken since."

Sasuke looked at him for a moment, then poured himself a glass.
"I get that." He took a sip. "You should tell her then."

"But how do I?" Naruto swallowed hard.

"I'm not exactly good at such things either", the Uchiha told him. He tried to remember how things were when he was younger. There was Sakura and Ino, but they'd been so young back then, he barely remembered. He barely remembered.
After that there was Karin and a few other women, some men even, but he'd never really had a clear enough head to get into a relationship that was more than just casual encounters.
All these people had only ever been some kind of short release of a pressure he couldn't even name.

"Have you ever dated someone?"
The question was straight forward, maybe fuelled by the alcohol in Naruto's system.

Sasuke shook his head. "No, I wouldn't say that."

"Have you ever loved someone then?"

'I love you.'
Just three words, but he was far from drunk enough to just let them spill, so he shook his head. After all, he couldn't really say that it was really what he was feeling.
"I'm not sure what love even feels like."
It was the sad truth. How could he know? There had never been much love in his life after his childhood.

"I get that", Naruto repeated his own words back at him. 'I get that.'

After that their conversation returned to Naruto filling him in about the things that had happened in the village since the war. They talked about what had been rebuilt and what would forever remain destroyed. They also talked about how Naruto finally became Hokage while Sasuke was gone and Sasuke told him what he'd done while he was gone.

"I think you should catch up with Kakashi sometime", Naruto finally said.

Sasuke's shoulders tensed.
"I don't know if that's a good idea."
There were a lot of people to catch up with, but how can you look someone in the eyes after trying to kill them, after repeatedly shouting abuse at them in battle?
He couldn't afford to run around drunk for the rest of his life.

"What's the worst that can happen?" Naruto shrugged.

'Rejection.'
The thought sent shivers down his spine.
"I just don't think he can forgive me", he finally said. "And I also don't think he should."
He took another big sip of the Sake.
"None of you should. I shouldn't even be here."
His chair fell back as he sprung up, ready to make his escape, but he hadn't taken the alcohol in his system into consideration and almost fell backwards into the chair again, which caused Naruto to get up, half catching him by grabbing his arm, while his own chair fell.

For a moment time seemed to stand still while Naruto pinned him to his position with the stare of an animal getting ready to strike their prey. The grip on Sasuke's arm was unnecessarily firm.
"You're not going anywhere", the blonde warned, suddenly not sounding as drunk as he had minutes before.

Slowly Naruto eventually let go and they both picked up their chairs and sat back down.
"Can you do nothing but run?" There was a renewed anger in him.
"Only cowards run", he added, as if Sasuke had awoken all of the repressed emotions in him.

Sasuke took a deep breath, trying not to let it get to him, to finally start accepting the abuse he deserved. He deserved Naruto's anger and he had to take it.

"At least say something for yourself!"
Naruto didn't take his eyes off him, his face reminding him of the fights they'd had at The Valley of the End.

Sasuke didn't dare to look away. "I can't", he said through clenched teeth. 'Because you're right!'

This didn't seem to calm Naruto down one bit. If anything, it seemed to rile him up even more.
"Look at you", he screamed at him. "Have you seen yourself?"

He didn't even get the chance to tell the blonde that indeed he had seen himself and agreed with him, before he was grabbed bis his shirt and almost pulled over the table.
He didn't fight the attack, it wasn't his place to lay hand on Naruto again in battle.

"Naruto", he said as softly as he could and tried to pull back, so he could sit back down, but Naruto kept pulling and threw him to the side of the table, almost sending the glasses, beer cans and Sake down with him.

When Sasuke collected himself and looked up, the blonde stood over him and picked him up by the shirt again. "Fight!"
The fist that connected with his face felt stronger than it had ever felt before, but Sasuke couldn't pinpoint if it was because Naruto really hit him this hard or if it was because he'd been entirely unprepared for the hit.

He pleaded. "Naruto, please-"
But he didn't dare fight back against the blonde who kept raining hell on him. Sasuke just let him this time, closing his eyes and waiting for it to be over. Part of him didn't want to fight back, because he'd hurt Naruto enough for more than a life time and another part of him was convinced he deserved every single punch Naruto delivered.

When he finally stopped, Sasuke didn't open his eyes at first. He heard Naruto fall to his knees and felt his body by his side. He opened his eyes to Naruto slumped over right in front of him, tears running down his face.
"I'm sorry", the blonde said, not looking at him. Sasuke wanted to shake his head, protest, but his whole body hurt like hell. He'd be bruised all over by tomorrow, he figured as he looked at Naruto's bloody knuckles.

"It's okay", were the only words he could get out.