I don't care if this fic is so weird, not up to my standard, or what. The evil plot just wouldn't leave me alone, so I couldn't do anything but wrote it down. This is not a crossover with Loveless, I just borrow Loveless' idea of the whole thing with cat's ears and tail.

I'm so lazy at writing dialogues, and I also think that the dialogues will ruin the gloomy and angsty atmosphere that I intended to create, so this fic is full with implied things. To quote Kakashi, "You must look underneath the underneath," to really understand the whole story. If you still don't understand, feel free to ask me ;)

And since I love Uchihacest so much, but couldn't write it myself, you simply must bear with me implying Uchihacest in my (every) SasuNaru fic

Naruto is not mine and Loveless is Yun Kouga's.

Back to Back

Konoha, the hidden village of Fire Country, has many of its hidden secrets, too. And Naruto, one of Konoha's hidden secrets, ironically, knew almost all of them. The ones that most people his age were willing to give their body parts in exchange of knowing, the ones that even people from other villages were dying to know.

Like the whole thing with the cruel massacre of the Uchiha Clan and its survivors.

Like the real story of Uchiha Itachi, the murderer, and his little brother, Uchiha Sasuke.

And especially the reason why Uchiha Sasuke was the only child in the village without the cat's ears and tail that children usually had until they reached their maturity.

00000

Innocent children, their peers, especially the girls, always looked up at Sasuke, thinking that he was so special, so great that at such young age he had matured enough to lost his cat's ears and tail. No one had ever considered that he resented his condition, that he felt more estranged between the "normal" children, that he didn't ever remember how he had lost his cat's ears and tail, and that he wanted to have them back.

But Naruto realized Sasuke's feeling, knew everything about Sasuke, actually.

Because Naruto had been watching Sasuke for so long that fascination had turned into responsibility, and responsibility had quickly turned into love. A forbidden, unrequited love, really, one that would hurt like hell, and maybe even would kill him, but Naruto didn't care.

As long as he had Sasuke by his side, his most important and precious person, Naruto didn't care about anything.

00000

Naruto had lost his cat's ears and tail to Sasuke, in a familiar act that they had done many times when searching from comfort and warmth. Naruto didn't count the numbers they had done it, but it was his first time doing it while being in love with Uchiha Sasuke.

Lying in Sasuke's embrace, Naruto would have been giddy with happiness, if only he couldn't trace the word etched eternally on Sasuke's pale skin, if only he couldn't feel the contradictory word etched eternally as well on his own skin. But this was enough for Naruto.

Because when the time came, no amount of love from Naruto, or Sakura, or Ino, or even the whole people in the village would have been enough to keep Sasuke with him.

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"Take care of my dear Otouto while I'm gone, will you, the unloved one?"

And so long as he could feel the different words tattooed between their shoulder blades, like a pair of clipped wings, and knew that the matching word of Sasuke's was engraved forever on that man who called Sasuke his dear Otouto, Naruto would always remember the night Sasuke had lost his cat's ears and tail a long, long time ago, and to whom he had lost it.

Back to back they would always stand.

One a Beloved.

One a Loveless.

And Naruto would always remember that Sasuke would never be his.

Fin.

PS 1: Nadramon, I just can't resist the angst temptation. Forgive me? puppy eyes
PS 2: Anyone keeping the score of Naruto and Sasuke torture? FYI, they're even now