Chapter 11: Naruto

It was no secret that there had been many times when Naruto couldn't believe what an idiot his teammate was. In the beginning, Uchiha Sasuke had been everything he had wanted to be. Genius. Most chased after guy in Konoha. Sasuke had had everything he had ever wanted to have. Talent. Recognition. Sakura-chan.

Then the idiot had thrown it all away for a chance to kill someone whose death required time. His teammate was just too damn impatient and that meant something coming from a boy who couldn't stand the five minutes it took to prepare ramen.

It wasn't that Naruto didn't sympathize with Sasuke for his loss. Sometimes, watching the other boy suffer made him want to rip his own heart out of his chest. That's how much it hurt.

But that didn't excuse Sasuke's past association with Orochimaru or his willingness to betray Konoha for power. In Naruto's mind, two wrongs didn't make a right and leaving one's village, betraying your friends, and making the girl who loved you cry were all definitely wrongs.

As for Itachi… well, Itachi was a bastard. A strong bastard, too. There was no denying that. But with enough training, Sasuke could beat him. Naruto knew it, even if it was hard for him to admit that his rival could be so strong. Kakashi had known it. That's why he had shared the Chidori. Hell, it seemed everyone but the avenger himself had believed it possible.

But even if Naruto acknowledged the strengths of his rival, he never really understood the weaknesses. Thus, when the solution to Sasuke's dilemma had appeared to him, which required years of dedication and effort, he took it for granted that the other could be just as patient in carrying it out.

To Naruto, the solution was not to run off and trade your soul to an evil, snake-like demon. It had always been much more simpler. Stay in Konoha and train with your comrades until you were strong enough to secure your vengeance.

Should have. There was so many things that the other boy should have done instead of what he did do that Naruto could not count them all.

Comrades. Another word for friends. It was funny how sometimes, both words could mean so much and then mean nothing to Uchiha Sasuke.

Naruto was not used to being bitter, but he had never been able to fully forgive Sasuke for leaving. He had always felt it had been an act of pure selfishness, especially when one took into account the heart of a certain, pink-haired girl.

Maybe that was why he now stared at his teammate's face with unyielding seriousness. If there was anyone that Sasuke owed anything to, it was her. Sasuke owed it to her and he owed it to all of them to bring her back.

"Let me talk to him."

"Tch. Go away," The Fifth Hokage was busily examining the immobile figure. His chakra had decreased to a new low and worry was written plainly on her face, "There's nothing you can do."

"How do you know, you old hag, if you don't let me talk to him?!"

"Baka!" Tsunade snapped, "I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with him! There's no time for you to have a friendly chit-chat with someone who's not even awake to listen!"

"There's nothing wrong with him! He's just being a selfish bastard again!" Naruto retorted angrily for he had an unexplainable instinct for this sort of thing.

"Go away!"

"Let me do something!"

"Your job is to sit in the corner and hope for the best! Now leave!"

"Hokage-sama…"

Kakashi's clear voice cut through the hostility. There was amusement in the way he addressed his superior but none behind the mask.

"Please let Naruto talk."

There was an air of fatigue to his request that increased as he continued for he, too, shared Naruto's instinct. Too many times had he seen his best student become within inches of happiness only to let it slip through his fingers, or rather, only to throw it away. "It may be that Sasuke's condition is not a result of something physical, but of something else that is going on in whatever place he may be at right now."

"What are you saying, Kakashi?"

"He may just need someone to reach him and to set him back on the right path and for that, there's noone better than Naruto."

For a moment, it looked as if the Fifth Hokage still wanted to argue. Her blue eyes flared with protest and then, she acquired the gaze of a gambler willing to take a chance on a random, crazy bet. "Fine. What you're suggesting sounds completely stupid since there's no indication whatsoever that Sasuke can hear us at all. But it looks as if that's our last resort. His chakra has grown too low. If it continues to fall, in less than thirty minutes, he may die."

Naruto swallowed and nodded, fox-like face more desperately determined than ever.

Kneeling by his fallen teammate, he grasped for words of inspiration. "S-sasuke… I really don't know how to say this… But…"

Tsunade felt her heart clench at the look on the blonde's face.

"…YOU'RE BEING A COMPLETE IDIOT AGAIN!"

Kakashi grinned as Tsunade blinked and then sighed.

"STOP WASTING TIME, BAKA! I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON WITH YOU, BUT DON'T YOU DARE FORGET ABOUT HER!"

"Sasuke's near death and you thought this would be helpful?" Tsunade asked wryly, gesturing at the yelling boy.

"DON'T YOU DARE FORGET ABOUT SAKURA, YOU BASTARD!"

"…Yes," Kakashi replied, carefully studying the Uchiha genius. A sense of relief, deeper than he had expected, swept over him.

Sasuke's left eyebrow had twitched.

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STOP WASTING TIME, BAKA!

It sounded like Naruto. For a moment, Sasuke was horrified at the thought of Naruto's voice in his head.

Then the shock passed and his logic took over. He shook his head, reassuring himself that he not hearing things.

Tch, that was impossible. First of all, how would Naruto reach him? To breach a distance that was not even physical, surely, that was beyond his teammate's abilities. Naruto was strong, but not even he could cross the line dividing the living and the dead.

Secondly, what gave that dobe the right to call him baka?

Sasuke closed his eyes, letting the silence of his room dominate. He had been lying down for hours now. Yet, he didn't mind it. Somehow, the longer he stayed, the less sharp his vengeance became until he could no longer detect or remember it… Instead, in its place, filling his heart, was a sense of peace. He would stay. Here. He would stay with his father and mother where no one could never hurt them, where he would never feel alo--

DON'T YOU DARE FORGET ABOUT HER!

His eyebrow twitched and a second later, his eyes snapped open. He sat up, scowling. It was Naruto. Somehow, the idiot had managed to contact him.

DON'T YOU DARE FORGET ABOUT SAKURA, YOU BASTARD!

It was too loud not to be Naruto.

Sakura…

All of a sudden, the peace he had felt disappeared. He thought of her in the field of flowers, humming in solitude. Could he really leave her there?

The selfish part of him said, Of course. He had left her before, hadn't he? Hadn't he condemned her to loneliness over and over again with his actions?

This should be no different.

After all, he owed her nothing, absolutely nothing. Countless of times, he had saved her life in battle. She was weak, a burden, a hindrance who did nothing but cry.

There was a break in his thoughts as he suddenly wondered if he was lying to himself.

SASUKE, YOU OWE HER! YOU OWE HER!

Sasuke grimaced as Naruto's voice pounded once again into his mind. With a growl, he buried his head under a pillow in an attempt to block out the fox boy. Couldn't that dobe shut up and give him some quiet to think?

Besides, what could he possibly owe her? That was ridiculous. If anything, she should be grateful to him for being alive… except… he remembered it with a sinking feeling in his stomach and a wrenching tug on his heart… except she wasn't.

He imagined her, solitary, in that artificial field. She was singing and he knew without looking at her face that she was not smiling.

He remembered her, vibrant with life. She was yelling at Naruto for stealing her ramen.

Something within him yearned for the second image and Sasuke clenched his fists, torn and cursing at the cruelty of being made to choose.

Why would I leave this for her? he asked himself and his hand reached to tightly grasp the family behind glass.

He had lived without them for so long! All those years of being afraid of the darkness without anyone to go to for comfort, all those years of silence and wanting the voice of a loved one… He had lost them before—

He froze, abruptly recalling Itachi's emotionless face. That was twice in the same day that he had forgotten his brother.

Aniki…

Itachi was still alive. The unfairness of it all made him want to scream. There were so many people he would give his life for so that they could be live again and they were dead. Dead while Itachi, the only person he would sacrifice his soul for to kill, was still breathing.

"Damn…" he said and his voice was hoarse, a whisper filled with bitterness because the familiar burden had returned and it would never leave now that he had remembered it, "Damn… damn… damn…"

He could never stay, not when his brother was still roaming free. Itachi was a danger to the world, a threat to all those he cared for that were still alive, and above all, his responsibility to get rid of.

Sasuke knew he shouldn't feel as angry as he did now because it had been this way for eight years now. For eight years, he had stayed alive and committed sins solely for the sake of shedding Itachi's blood and during that time, he had always faced that duty instead of running away from it.

Destroying Itachi was what he defined as justice. But for some reason, in this moment, the fact that he was his brother's keeper never seemed so unfair.

But there was nothing he could do about it, was there? This was who he was, who he had been made into. Itachi would always be a shadow in his soul that, try as he might, he could never escape.

He left his rest and his bed to stand up. With a gentle but firm hand, he placed the frame of his family on the nearby desk. For the longest time, he looked at it. As was usual for Uchiha Sasuke, he remained silent and the only sign of emotion was a small, bittersweet smile that said more than words ever could about how he felt.

At least I got to see them again…

Even if he felt cheated, that would have to be enough. Life had never been kind to him anyway.

The door seemed to lose its pleasant air of nostalgia as he left for it went without saying that he was not going to return.

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"His chakra's rising…"

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Author's Note: Gah, I know, sorry I'm dragging this part out so long. But this story is more focused on character development/exploration rather than action.

For instance, THIS chapter is the one where Sasuke finally makes the decision to leave. It may seem sort of late since in the chapter titled Rude Awakening, Sasuke realizes that the home before him is just an illusion. But by staying longer, the point was that he still wanted a family and that sacrificing his life to stay with them was not an obstacle. Rather, the only things holding him back from staying forever with his dead loved ones are the lives of other - that of Sakura and, ironically, Itachi.

Next Chapter: Reasons