Fire: Hello everyone! (waves) This is my first fanfic. I just want to establish that point. And since it was October the 10th when I first posted this... Happy birthday, Naruto!

Sasuke: Yeah...whatever.

Naruto: (singing to the tune of Happy Birthday) Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me—e. Happy birthday to me.

Fire: Now...on with the story!

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Disclaimer: Does owning Naruto stock count as owning Naruto? I don't think so… I'm just not good enough to own any part of Naruto. :(

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Warning: All Japanese terms were used for artistic reasons. If you need a glossary of all the terms, it's in my user profile. Go there!

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Wait for Me: Leaving

A Fire Project

Chapter 1: Restlessness

There was a great uneasiness on his arm as he tried to enjoy himself, even though he didn't really want to enjoy himself; after all, it wasn't really his idea. After a great many years of avoiding her, he had finally given in and allowed himself the slow, mind numbing torture of a date with Haruno Sakura. But, that didn't mean that she was going to stop hanging off of his arm. In fact, she seemed even more glued to him than she was before.

From somewhere behind them–not too far away otherwise he was sure that he wouldn't have sensed her masked chakra–Uchiha Sasuke could feel Yamanaka Ino glaring daggers into their backs. He knew that it was a bad idea as soon as he heard the rumours flying through the streets of Konoha as easily as the sound of birds in the sky. Sakura had–indirectly, because she knew that Sasuke would probably call off the date if she proclaimed it boldly to everyone without his permission–announced to everyone that she was dating him.

It was mortifying. But it wasn't nearly as bad as when he saw the look on his blond teammate's face, on Uzumaki Naruto's face. There was a face that the dark-haired boy had never seen before. Was that...pain?

But, he hardly had any time to analyse it as the blond quickly covered it up with a huge smile. "You're going out with Sakura-chan?" He said with forced amicability. "That's...nice." Sasuke was sure that the blond chuunin had no idea what he was supposed to say.

He had wanted to explain that it was only ONE date. It didn't mean that Sakura was his girlfriend or anything even remotely along the lines of a girlfriend. She had just pestered him for so long that he had to throw her a bone to ease his conscience. But, he somehow couldn't bring himself to say it to the blond boy who stood before him with a big, fake smile on his face and sorrowful torment behind his bright eyes.

'Why am I hesitating like this? Just tell him!' His mind screamed at him to tell Naruto the truth, but secretly, he wanted to know what the blond's reaction would be. For all those years that Sakura had chased him, Naruto had chased Sakura. Would Naruto be jealous? Would he back down now that he knew that he had taken Sakura away from him?

"Hn." Sasuke gave his usual answer before turning away. He didn't want to answer Naruto's question. Let him think what he wanted.

"Hey! Sasuke-teme, I asked you a question!" Naruto yelled as he ran after the dark-haired boy. "Are you deaf or just stupid!" Naruto raised a hand to smack Sasuke in the head, but the dark-haired boy quickly avoided it, leaving the blond to fume about his missed attack. "You're going out with Sakura-chan, aren't you?"

Naruto knew the answer before Sasuke even told him. He had already assumed it. It was nice...right? That was what he had said.

There was really no point in following him after that, and he left the dark-haired boy to walk to his big empty home on the Uchiha estate. If he had followed him, Naruto knew that the Uchiha would just slam the gate in his face as easily as he had done it to his many fangirls many times before.

"Sasuke-kun! SASUKE-KUN!"

Sakura was calling his name. Sasuke turned to her slightly worried, slightly flustered face. It seemed that she has been calling him for quite some time now. "Hmm?" He hadn't heard what she was saying, but he was sure that she would repeat herself. And he was right...

"I was saying," she said slowly as she gave him an annoyed glance before continuing forward to sit down on a bench of many that lined the roads of Konoha, "that the Sakura trees are beautiful around this time of year. Don't you agree?" She smiled at him, the same sweet smile that Sakura and all his other fangirls gave him, constantly without rest.

It was then that Sasuke noticed the trees on both sides of the road. "Hn," he said as he looked at them.

It was the peak of spring, and the Sakura trees were at their prettiest around this time of year, so he couldn't really say that they weren't. They were pretty–he had to admit that–but...there was something missing. He felt empty.

"I'm leaving." He turned away from the pink-haired kunoichi and the trees which bore the girl's name, and began to walk away. More than anything, he knew that he didn't want to be here, looking at such beautiful cherry trees...with her.

"Nani! Sasuke-kun!" The girl jumped to her feet. "You can't leave yet! We just began our date!" They've only just begun their 'date' about fifteen minutes ago.

Sasuke waved his hand at her, almost as if sweeping the girl and her words as far from him as it possibly could. If she wanted to be on a date so much, she could just finish it herself.

He hadn't gone far before Ino jumped out of her hiding place to ambush him, but he didn't hear a thing she had said. He wanted to go home, or somewhere else secluded...so that he could train. He didn't have time for this. He needed to get stronger faster, so that he could defeat his brother. Girls...love...dates...all those things were the last thing on his mind. Itachi was the only goal he hand, and Itachi was the only goal he needed.

And when he finally reached his home, he slammed the gates in Ino's face and shut himself from the rest of the world. No distractions. He needed to focus.

On the secluded road lined on both sides with Sakura trees, a blond boy in a blindingly bright orange jacket and matching pants hid. He had sensed Ino nearby, somewhere behind him, but he was sure that he was much better at hiding his chakra than the long-haired blond girl.

"I'm leaving." The words were cold and empty, but somehow, Sasuke's words sent a ripple of irrational relief through his body.

Naruto sank down on the secure branch covered in Sakura blossoms. He was sure that he stuck out like Itachi in a class of kindergarteners, but luckily for him, no one had thought to look up into the trees too closely.

There was a sense of emptiness about him as he looked down the deserted road toward where Sasuke was headed–now with Ino on his arm, but the blond boy didn't see her. The path to the Uchiha estate was rarely walked upon by the people of Konoha, so he wasn't too worried that someone would see him. He just didn't understand this hollow sensation in his chest. He had thought that he would want to run over to Sakura by now so that he could enjoy the Sakura with her, or some other excuse just so that he could be around her. But, he was strangely at peace.

"Damn Sasuke," he said under his breath as he jumped down from the tree and turned back toward the village and his apartment. "Dammit all!" He didn't even think about going to Sakura who was still sitting on that rarely used road.

He slammed the door closed soon as he was inside his apartment, striding almost angrily to his room. He threw himself onto his bed and ignored the fluffs of hair that fell over his eyes. Naruto clutched his chest as he stared at the ceiling of his bedroom. It has been a long time since their last mission, and the shinobi inside him was beginning to grow restless. There wasn't even a D-ranked mission to take up his time. Now, he was just left with his thoughts, and his thoughts weren't too entertaining.

Hey, Kit!

'Yeah, what is it, damn kitsune?'

I'm bored.

'Yeah, well, how do you think I feel?'

Naruto was beginning to irritate himself. He ignored the further pleas from the Kyuubi to go out and do something more interesting, and sank further into his bed.

'Fine,' Naruto finally gave in to boredom even though he was sure that the Kyuubi's idea of something more interesting would include pools of blood, 'I'll go."

The blond-haired boy rolled out of bed, grabbed his jacket and headed out the door. He needed a mission–any mission–if only to get his mind out of this thick cloud of boredom. And there was just one way that the boy could think of in order to achieve that goal. He went to Hokage tower. Godaime Hokage, Tsunade-obaachan owed him a few favours. He was sure that he would be able to squeeze a few missions out of her.

"Hey, Tsunade-obaachan!" He yelled as he slammed the door to her office open.

The seemingly young woman quickly lifted her head from atop her desk and looked groggily around. "N...Nani?" She said as she looked around the room before her eyes settled on the form of Naruto standing in front of her desk. She peeled a piece of paper from her face as she sat up straighter. "Naruto? What are you doing here?"

"I'm bored. Give me a mission!" He held his hand forward as if she would hand him the mission right then and there.

"Brat!" She smacked his hand away. "Go home and leave me alone. I have important work to do. Besides, all the missions are done for now. We don't have any left for you."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at her. "Yeah, right..." he drawled as he focussed in on a few dark ink marks on her face, leftover from the many times that she has fallen asleep at her desk. He doubted that she would be able to wash that off, even if she scrubbed it hard with lots and lots of soap. "There's always D-rank missions."

Tsunade stared at the boy. She wasn't sure if she had heard him correctly. "D...ranked...missions?" She said slowly, not believing her ears. Naruto–a boy who has come running into her office thousands of times before, complaining about the low-ranked missions that she assigned to him–was asking for a D-ranked mission. She immediately jumped up from her desk and rushed to his side, setting him down in a chair and feeling his forehead for signs of a fever. "Naruto, daijoubu!" She was practically panicking over his condition. 'D-ranked mission! He must have a fever! Or a disease? Yeah! He probably has some kind of illness...I have to–'

"Tsunade-obaachan, what are you doing?" Naruto pulled away forcefully and stumbled out of his chair, away from her. "I'm not sick. I'm just bored!" He wiped his forehead with his hands to get rid of the feeling of Tsunade's hands on it.

Tsunade sighed a breath of relief before walking back to her chair. It was true that she was a little overprotective of him, but then, it was only natural to be overprotective of a boy who reminded her so much of Nawaki, own little brother. "Gomen...Naruto, but there really aren't any missions, not even a D-rank mission," she said with another sigh as she sat down. She still couldn't shake the thought that he might be sick, that she should at least run a few simple tests on him. "You should find something else to take up your time and stop coming here to annoy me. You've been here every day for the last few weeks."

Naruto frowned at her. "Fine," he said with the same air that Sasuke gave off every time he grunted an expression. "Demo..." he turned back at her before he left to say the same thing that he had said every day for the past few weeks, "I want the first mission that passes over your desk." And he stormed out of Hokage tower, back toward his empty home with only his houseplants and his scrolls to keep him company. (That and the Kyuubi, but no one knew about that.)

Tsunade smiled with suppressed annoyance at the boy before waving goodbye to him–her eyebrow was twitching already from the short time that she was with the young chuunin. She didn't feel as if she needed to tell him that that was exactly what she was going to do. She had already said it before. But no doubt even if she had repeated herself, the blond would still be back the next day...and the day after that...and the day after that until she actually handed him a mission.

The woman sank back onto her desk. If she actually had a mission, she would have sent an entire team of ANBU to find Naruto and give it to him. Then, maybe she could get some peace and quiet around here.

Sasuke wandered around his house aimlessly. Sure, he had said that he was going to train, and he had tried that, but it only left him feeling empty. He had stopped not long after he realized how useless it was. It was futile to think that he could defeat his brother just because he was good at throwing a shuriken at a straw training dummy, or at an unmoving log. Itachi wasn't that stupid. He wasn't just going to stand there and let Sasuke cover his body with a mass of shuriken.

He needed a sparring partner.

And the only one he could think of was Naruto.

But he wasn't going to go looking for Naruto. He couldn't look for Naruto!

"Kuso!" He slammed his fist into the side of a wall–effectively producing a tiny crack–as he made his way into the living room, then out onto the walkway that lined the gardens inside walls surrounding the compound of buildings that made up his personal home. The rest of the Uchiha estate, where his extended family once lived, was deserted.

He didn't have any destination in mind. He was just walking around, trying to work off some of this boredom, this emptiness, this restlessness within him. Slowly, he was beginning to regret leaving Sakura all alone out there. At least he wouldn't be bored if he was with her...

"Kuso!" He uttered again under his breath as he glared out at the garden. Now he was beginning to feel guilty, and that guilt was irking him to no ends.

'Dammit all to bloody hell!' He thought as he stormed toward the front door. He slammed it closed, ignoring the sound of ripping paper doors and falling frames as he stalked toward the gates to the estate. Now, he was feeling guilty about hurting Sakura's feelings. He might not love her, but she was still his friend. 'If I can't be with Naruto, why not settle for the next best thing?'

The dark-haired boy found the pink-haired kunoichi still sitting where he had left her. It seemed as if she really did intend to finish their date without him, and it only made him feel more guilty about leaving her all alone.

"Sasuke-kun!" She screamed as she jumped to her feet, all ecstatic when she saw him. "You came back!" She was waving hysterically to him now.

"Oi, Sakura," he said slowly, not even daring to meet her eyes. He felt too guilty about leaving her all alone to look her in the eye. "Gomen."

End Chapter 1

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