Wait for Me
Love is blind.
I knew that.
Love makes the world go round.
I once believed that.
Love hurts.
I felt that.
Love was never enough.
I realized that...
"There's a chance he won't make it tonight."
Sakura sobbed quietly as Lee held her. The news had been expected, but still terrified the occupants of the room. There was a hushed silence as Tsunade calmly told them the details.
"It's impossible!" Sakura cried, "It's just too impossible... Naruto... Naruto... He won't..." She remembered how Naruto looked when he was found, already in the hospital. He was heavily wounded, unconscious, and barely alive. No one even knew who brought him there.
Everyone understood what Sakura had been feeling at the moment. They too, felt the same thing. It was impossible. Naruto won't leave them. He had been fighting for 10 months, damn it. He couldn't give up now. He shouldn't give up.
Everything was Orochimaru's fault...
And Sasuke's...
Kakashi sighed. "Let's just hope for the best, Sakura."
Naruto struggled to open his eyes. God... His body ached all over. He couldn't even move an inch. He closed his eyes again.
It was always the same dream... The same pain... Slowly choking him...
He opened his eyes once again. Blur light flooded his senses. Everything was white. The cold and silence was numbing his whole body.... But not his pain...
It hurt... It hurt too damn much...
Naruto smiled bitterly as flashbacks ran through his mind. The beautiful lake... All those dreams... Those promises...
"I love you, and I don't care..."
If only he was given the chance... If only he could change everything...
Then perhaps, it wouldn't have to end this way...
His fight with Orochimaru entered his mind...
His supposed to be last fight.
Blood...
Naruto knew he was losing. He didn't expect to win, but he did. That bastard. Naruto was supposed to die. Orochimaru was supposed to kill him, or die with him, but the bastard failed him. He was still alive, barely, but still breathing. He should have faced Itachi instead.
He slowly closed his eyes. He felt his body relax, as if the pain had left him. He slowly succumbed to nothingness...
Because right now, all he wanted to do was die.
"Naruto, don't..."
He barely heard those words... Those words, spoken with familiarity, eagerness, calling him...
"Naruto, please..."
Those words... Pleading... Hopelessly asking him...
Naruto felt someone took his hand. Warmth filled his senses as the familiar touch slowly took him away from nothingness... Making him feel... Making him alive....
No! He wanted to scream... Just let me.... Let me die... I might as well die... I can't take this pain anymore....
"Naruto..."
Naruto slowly opened his eyes. He felt the pain return... Damn it. He looked at the person who had dared take away his chance... His chance to feel no more pain...
A vision of Uchiha Sasuke filled his eyes...
Naruto was always waiting. Waiting. Maybe he shouldn't have believed what Sasuke had told him right from the start.
That he loved him.
You wouldn't disappear just like that without telling someone you love right? You were supposed to tell everything... Everything...
Then, why? Why was Sasuke doing this to him?
Was he just using him?
But Naruto always forgave him... Always gave him chances... He wasn't angry. He always smiled at him, didn't ask for explanations... That's what love was all about, right?
Just because of the white lily Sasuke would leave in his dining table before he disappeared to nowhere....
"Wait for me...."
But he had enough...
"You don't understand, Naruto... You don't... My parents... He... He killed them... Itachi.... I have to go..."
He had looked at the Uchiha right through his eyes. He saw anger, and determination.... But he couldn't.... There was still another way. "Because you won't explain, please Sasuke... Don't..." Naruto begged him. "For me, if you... Really love me... Don't go..."
The sound of the closing door answered him.
Everything was in chaos. News that Sasuke ran away and had joined Orochimaru spread throughout the village. The villagers were scared. Then there was the threat of Akatsuki...
Naruto had come up with the best solution. Three months later, he confronted Orochimaru...
Naruto felt the pain returning to him full blast. What the hell was a vision of Sasuke doing here in his deathbed? God... Wouldn't he let him die in peace?
"Naruto... Don't go... Please..." The voice called out to him...
He tried to open his mouth to speak. He couldn't. A finger brushed softly against his cheeks. "Naruto, don't go... I need you, Naruto...."
Those eyes... Looking at him... So hopelessly... So lost...
"Naruto... I'm sorry..."
"Sasuke..."
He closed his eyes as he felt Sasuke leaning to kiss him
The kiss was soft... gentle... Then it became harsher... desperate... hungry.... Giving Naruto back his life... His being...
Sasuke ran his fingers through the messy blonde locks. "Don't do this to me, again, do you hear me?" He gently whispered.
He was scared... All those 10 months... He was scared that he wouldn't be able to see those clear blue eyes again... That bright smile... He thought, that for real, he had lost Naruto... He had lost the person who made him lived again.
Sasuke thought he was too late. The moment he saw Naruto lying lifeless on the ground... He knew he was too late. He had enough sense to rush the blonde to the hospital... To ask him to hold on... To tell him that everything would be all right... He too, had a hard time convincing himself.
Naruto would live. Sasuke would do anything for that.
Sasuke had witnessed Sakura crying... He knew that Sakura was always there, talking to the blonde, trying hard not to break down. He saw Sakura just snapped, and shook the blonde, screaming at him to wake up. Sasuke was there, hiding amidst the shadows... He knew he had hurt everyone, especially the blonde, lying so cold and lifeless, against the sheets.
It was just so wrong.
But Sasuke continued to hope... He knew how Naruto fought for 10 months... Once in a while, the boy would move, as if telling everyone that he was still alive, and would wake up in no time. Yet as the months passed, Sasuke noticed the decline on the boy's responses, to the point that the boy hardly moved at all. He just lay there, immobile.
Tonight, he heard all that Tsunade-sama had to say. There was a chance that Naruto would not survive the night. Naruto had simply lost the will to live. He wasn't cooperating.
It scared Sasuke. When he noticed that Naruto faintly stirred, he knew that was the time, the time when Naruto was trapped between two realms... Life or death... Sasuke held his hand, firmly, asking Naruto, not to go... He begged... He pleaded...
Funny, Naruto had said the same things nearly a year ago, but he still stubbornly left.
But this time, no matter what, Sasuke wouldn't let Naruto go.
It came as a surprise when Naruto muttered his name. What was even more surprising was when he kissed Naruto, and he swore that Naruto had responded... Had kissed him back...
Sasuke smiled. Somehow, he knew that from now on, the blonde would be all right... Sasuke felt at peace. The same feeling every time Naruto was snuggled close to him...
The blonde was sleeping ever so peacefully, with a small smile noticeably tainted in his lips. His breathing was shallow, and his heartbeat, normal.
Sasuke smiled once more as he kissed Naruto on the forehead for the last time. The sun would rise in no time. Naruto had made it.
"Happy Birthday, Naruto... Wait for me..."
He called, as he disappeared from the shadows.
Naruto woke up and stretched his arms. The blind light hurt his eyes. Somehow he felt free and alive. He looked around for the familiar face of the person who had visited him last night. He sighed.
It was only a dream...
"Naruto!!!!!!" Sakura cried out, tears in her eyes, as she plunge on the boy for a hug. "You're awake!!"
"Sensei, Tsunade-sama, everyone, Naruto's all right!"
"I can't believe it... You're actually all right... No damages whatsoever." Tsunade said, shaking her head. "You worried us all, brat. 10 months in coma!"
Naruto grinned. "I didn't know old hags actually cared."
"I told you not to call me that, brat!" Tsunade screeched.
"A rather quick recovery." Kakashi glanced from his book. "I wonder why... or rather who..." He whispered, such that only Naruto heard him. Naruto blushed. Kakashi grinned once more. They thought they could fool him. Duh! He was still their teacher... Next time, he had to remind Sasuke to hide his chakra very well.
"It's time to celebrate! Happy Birthday Naruto!" Iruka said, handing Naruto his last-minute-packed present.
"Thanks Iruka-sensei." Naruto smiled. Just then Sakura appeared holding a bouquet of white lilies.
"It's another lily, Naruto. Everyday, for the last ten months, you receive one... But I don't know who had been sending them..."
Kakashi coughed. Naruto glared at him, as he took the bouquet from Sakura.
"And don't worry about the lilies, Ino and I preserved them... She said white lilies meant hope or something, and it was touching, how someone would send you one each day, without leaving her name..."
Her? Kakashi coughed once again.
Sakura frowned. "Are you sick, Kakashi-sensei?"
Naruto had been staring at the bouquet when he noticed the note tucked in one of its stems. Apparently, Sakura didn't notice. He opened the note.
Happy Birthday... dobe... If I only knew that a kiss would wake you up, then I should have kissed you ten months ago... You're getting old, dobe... Only sixteen and sleeping for ten months... I left your gift in your kitchen, and I don't want to hear about you getting sick because of food indigestion. Take it easy, dobe, and only one ramen at a time...
Wait for me...
That arrogant jerk, making him wait as always. Naruto smiled.
Thanks... Sasuke...
Naruto turned to Sakura and gave her a fox-like grin. "Eh... Sakura, could you cook me some ramen? Please, please, please! I have many in my house, please, please!!"
End
Yep... This is my birthday fic to Naruto... Gosh... This one was rushed... Yep... I'm having my finals this week, so I'll just update my stories, next week, okay!!! It's already the semester break!!! Yes!!
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