Early morning rain
Summary: An early morning drizzle, alost and found item, a change of affection, an unspoken apology - three years late. When all peace is restored, the only thing left... is a peace of the mind.
Warning: a bit of spoiler for both manga and anime. Vague hints of NaruSasu, blink and miss.
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Through the opened window, shafts of orangey light illuminated the dancing dust in the middle of the house. A figure laid still on the blanketed floor, next to the window; the only visible movement was the up and down motion of his covered chest. The air was hot but humid as summer rain fell in small and sparse specks onto the pavement of the streets outside.
It was a peaceful morning undisturbed by any unwanted noises. The chirping of birds were few and welcomed. The murmurs on the streets were familiar and far out in the background. Even the rain fell in soothing rhythm.
As comfortable as the softness of the blankets wrapped about him felt, the shrieking of the alarm broke every sense of peace that had been accumulated in the morning. Grumpily, he sat up still tangled in his blankets to slam-shut the alarm clock.
With peace regained, the blonde head dropped back down with a soft thud as he burrowed into the warm spot on the blankets. He mumbled a few words before falling back asleep when he shot in an upright position.
How could he forget about it so quickly?
Fully awake now, he rushed to the washroom and out in a few seconds, changed out of his pajamas into his orange jumpsuit and pulled out a packet of instant ramen from his cupboard. With the hot water ready and poured, he dug into his meal as fast as he could without burning his tongue (He learnt his lesson) and was out of the door before a blink of an eye.
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Naruto stretched his sleepy limbs on the huge expanse of grass, slightly wet from the early shower, on the borders of the village of Konoha. The wars had finally come to a truce and peace was restored. Ninja villages formed friendly alliances, since everyone seemed unwilling to fall back into the uneasy and unstable times. Konoha was very settled into the peace times but still alerted to any signs of troubles. This could be told from the few and far but still active Anbu that were called to patrol the borders of Konoha.
The lands were colored in yellow sunlight, a rare sight for Naruto who was usually not a morning person. Raking his blue eyes over the sight of nature that had greeted him, he felt its beauty had long overshadowed the pains he took to wake up at an ungodly hour, namely, seven in the morning.
Well, it was his fault he had to wake up this early. He could have stayed behind after the mission to find what he lost during the mission. If not for Sakura's insistence, that he should get some rest after their energy-draining mission, he would never know how tired he already was. So he decided to do it in the morning before their next mission. Shaking his head resignedly, he began to comb the area for a certain missing item.
The yellow light gradually fade into white, lighting up the cliff, Naruto had reached by then, in true color. He fell, back down, on the green patches of grass dried of the early rain, resting for the first time after a two-hour search. Behind his closed eyelids, he could faintly see a dark figure blocking his path of light. He opened his eyes slowly, surprised to see a raven hair boy standing at the feet of his resting body. An object was held in the fist of his left hand, palm downwards, the same arm stretched outright towards the Naruto.
Naruto crawled up onto his feet and stood upright, an arm's distance away from the newcomer. He was nearly as tall as him nowadays, the difference, most probably, was down to a few centimeters, at most. Chucking inwardly, he pushed his competitive instincts aside and greeted him with a wide grin.
"Sasuke" he said.
Sasuke nodded his head in response; his arm never wavered from its outstretched position. For emphasis, he let a few fingers opened, revealing the object he now held up by his thumb and forefinger. Naruto blinked in recognition.
"You found it!" he cried, then more grumpily, "You should have told him earlier before I searched in vain the whole morning."
The arm started to drop to his side in shame, the bracelet fisted more tightly. Naruto's eyes widened slightly before he shot his right arm out to stop the arm from landing, grabbing the fist and prying the bracelet out of Sasuke's hand. Sasuke flinched at the sudden contact but dared not to withdraw his hand. He winced to look up at Naruto, who, now, was the one with the retrieved bracelet, but was utterly surprised to see a good-natured smile on the fox's face.
"Thanks." he said and proceeded to drop onto the ground in a sitting position, legs spread out, body propped up by his two arms. He shook his head a few times to brush away the fallen strands of blonde hair, which was now nearly long enough to touch his shoulders, from poking his eyes. It was a load off his mind; he had thought he lost the thing for good.
Sasuke, mimicking the position, flopped onto the ground beside Naruto, staring out to the vast scenery below them.
"I am sorry." Sasuke spoke after a while. Naruto raised an eyebrow, unseen by Sasuke but decided to let Sasuke continue before saying anything.
"Not about the bracelet incident. But that mission." He amended at the last minute.
Naruto nodded in acknowledgment. It has been two years since that one-year mission ended. No one mentioned anything about it, believing that those memories would be diluted in time, the pain would fade and the scars would heal.
But time had told otherwise.
The hurt persisted. It dwelled on their young minds, making their stronger and at the same time, more vulnerable.
"I realized I never said that to you or Sakura until last night, when…" Sasuke trailed off. Two fingers plucked idlely at the weeds near his right hand. "When I realized her feelings towards us had changed over the course in time."
"The bracelet." Naruto affirmed.
"Yeah, she gave that to you when both of you rose to Chunin level with that mission." Naruto nodded, even though Sasuke never did glance in his direction. It was not a question anyway. "That was when I realized I have lost more when I blindly pursued my revenge. Lamenting it on my weakness, my inferiority, especially where you were concerned."
Naruto contemplated silently in his head. Somewhere in between getting Sasuke back and finally having Sasuke back, his feelings of rivalry over Sakura died along the way. Sakura was not an object to fight over; they were all important comrades. If Sakura felt strongly for Sasuke, nothing Naruto did would ever change it. He would just have to let his feelings for Sakura go. It did, however, comfort Naruto somewhat that, it was also then, when Sasuke finally noticed his rising powers, to the extend he felt threatened by it. For Sakura to fall for him somewhere along the way was unexpected, especially when he had completely placed his feelings for her behind.
"I never knew it would have caused you pain. I never knew it would have caused you to dirty your hands and scarred you for life. I never knew it would hurt me as much as the rest of you." Sasuke now tugged at the grass near his hands.
By the rest of you, he had meant failure of the Genin team to retrieve Sasuke, Naruto thought. No one died thanks to the timely arrival of Garaa siblings but all were seriously injured. They had all grown a little and learnt a great deal about being a Shinobi that day, especially Shikamaru, who had geared himself emotionally and physically since, to be a better leader to his next team. And the next team, and the next team.
As for Naruto himself, his actual lessons were in the following mission. He held up both his hands up to obverse them. His bloodstained hands. He never thought he would have to kill in that mission; in fact, he had never thought about killing before. But it was unavoidable, between killing and leaving Sasuke to death's hands, the choice was plain and clear. It tore something within him that day. He had not even realized he was crying onto the body of the dead until Sakura cradled his head into her arms. He knew too, on the same day, he had got something through Sasuke's revenge-clouded thick skull.
It was an unavoidable exchange. A rocky path he had to walk through, a process of growing up. A permanent scar to remind him of the limits one has and the sacrifices one does to be a true ninja.
"I never knew the actual consequences of revenge and went blindly for it. In the end, I lost your respect, Sakura's affections, Kakashi's trust and most of all, myself."
Naruto felt a sharp pain at Sasuke's honest words. He shook his head.
"You never lost my respect." Naruto said, "I still chase after your shadow, bettering myself so that I can be your equal."
"That's where you are already not my equal. You believe in your own strength and work hard to better up yourself while I stupidly allow myself to wallow in self-pity, chasing after the wrong shadow, taking the short cut to strengthen myself." Sasuke said with unshed tears. "I am weak. You are already stronger than me."
With Sasuke's last admittance, Naruto's whole body felt lighter than it had in ages. That was what he had always wanted: Sasuke's acknowledgment of his strength…was it not?
"I am sorry." Sasuke repeated upon receiving silence on Naruto's part, though he knew the burden on Naruto's shoulders would not be lifted with those mere words.
Naruto had no reply to it. He covered Sasuke's hand with his, intertwining their fingers together, hoping it was as comforting a touch. They let the silence of the woods soothe their pain and restore the peace in their minds.
"Naruto! Sasuke!" a clear vioce rang from a few trees back.
Naruto and Sasuke stood up slowly, brushing off the grass stuck onto their clothes. Naruto had both arms behind his head while Sasuke rested his hands in his pocket. Facing towards the direction of the voice, they waited patiently for its owner to appear before them.
The owner of that voice, Sakura, came to stand before them, bent slightly down, hands supported on her knees. Some of her pink hair fell onto her face while the rest of the hair was tied into a high ponytail. Naruto mused ironically that it was now, Ino, who had cut her hair to the short style Sakura had, three years ago, He looked over at Sasuke, whose black hair remained in his same old style, just slightly longer than before.
All of them had grown physically. Sakura managed to gain some curves to her maturing body, while gaining same height at the same time. Sasuke and him hit a growth spurt some months back, thus, both of them were nearly a head taller than Sakura. He noticed the faint hints of stubble on Sasuke's face and the dark circles under Sakura's eyes. He felt his own calloused hands, dents in certain areas.
Mentally, they had grown too fast too soon in the three years.
"Finally! I've been looking for you guys the whole morning!" her voice was slightly short of breath.
Naruto held out the woven bracelet on his palm, grinning from ear to ear.
"You found it!" Sakura exclaimed, looking at the white, orange and red accessory in delight.
"Actually Sasuke was the one to find it." Naruto said, shoving Sasuke slightly to the foreground with one hand on his shoulder.
"Thank you, Sasuke-kun." She beamed at him, "Come on, let's go. Kakashi-sensei will be waiting for us. We've never been later than him before."
They walked away from the cliff, towards the woods. Naruto held up the bracelet worn on his left hand towards the noon light while walking, looking at the white worded 'Naruto' in pride. Sakura walked in front of the trio, chattering about the day's events. Sasuke walked between them, when suddenly, he paused. Naruto collided onto his back and bounced a few steps back. He was about to tell Sasuke off when Sasuke beat him to it.
"Oi! Watch where…"
"Sakura." Sasuke said. Sakura stopped and turned back to face them.
"I…I'm sorry." His eyes boring into Sakura's, praying hard she understood his words. Naruto looked up at the back of Sasuke's head in astonishment.
Sakura looked startled for a moment before her lips split into a heart-warming smile. She closed the few steps between them and pulled both Sasuke and the person behind, Naruto, into a hug.
"It's okay now, Sasuke. You're back for good, and that's all that matters."
Sasuke let out the breath he had not know he was holding and crumbled onto the ground as his knees gave way. Naruto and Sakura went down as well, but never once did they release their hold on him. They ended up sitting in an awkward circle.
He was back for good now. That was all that mattered...
And she was right.
.End.
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A/N: Hit me, on my head, for another pointless one-shot.