Title: "Reconize
me?"
Series: Naruto
Author: Snow Tigra
Pairings:
SasuNaruSasu
Warnings: After timejump, possibly AU
Summary
Sasuke's finally back in Konoha after everything that's happened...
Written for the teacher/student challenge on sasunaru100
It's so strange being back.
I never thought it would be like this, not in all my wildest ideas of revenge did I ever think we'd be in this position. Maybe somewhere along the line, if I'd really thought of it, I could have figured out that this is the path things would go, but then I really wasn't thinking back then, was I?
You're standing up there, taller now, more mature looking. The chunnin vest is large on you, like it's trying to swallow you whole when you least expect it, but the bagginess fits you and reminds me of orange and white sweat suits that always seemed to make it through any situation with barely a scratch... much like you.
Your hair is longer, and I've heard the whispers that you look like the fourth Hokage. You're not Hokage yet, even after all these years, and as you give a small tired smile to the trickster in class I wonder if you're still chasing that dream. Or do I hold you back from that still?
The sweat suits are gone and the smile you wear is wilted, never quite reaching the heights it used to when we were teammates and you annoyed the hell out of me. When you laughed and yelled and made a general pain of yourself. When she was standing next to us and desperately trying to keep up with us fighting back and forth. I heard whispers that she will be named Hokage in the next year or so, that she's Tsunade's apprentice and is quite strong now. I wonder how you feel about the fact that all those dreams you were so boisterous about were so swiftly snatched from beneath you from the least likely people.
Even me? Can I really count myself as one of those dreams? Maybe if I'd noticed, between the snakes and hatred and everything else that placed itself in front of me, maybe I would have noticed the way you felt about me. Hell, we managed to have that one really heated moment together and I still somehow ignored it... I was so blind back then.
What would you think of me now?
I know you don't recognize me. Your eyes have passed over me in this class of hopeful genins, teaching your lessons to them. I've watched your eyes pass me quite a few times in the last couple of days; to you I'm just another student.
My hair is longer and I'm shorter now, not nearly the same as I was, or would have been. My eyes probably look young, and innocent, since this body isn't tainted with the blood of the snake, or the hatred of my brother who died of his own foolishness. I'm currently the height you were when we were first put in teams. My hair is getting darker, slowly changing back to the color you remember, even if I'll be younger then you and shorter then you for at least two more years.
I can't help but smirk as I remember the last thing that stupid overzealous snake taught me before I killed him. I have his jutsu now, Naruto, what will you think of that? I'm different now. Will you care?
Will you care that I no longer am chasing after my brother? Will you care that I'm ready to take the test again, and put on that leaf headband, without a scratch? Will you care that I no longer have the Sharingan and will never get it back? Will you care that I took the body of another so I could come back to this village and live near you again, without seeing the hatred in everyone else's eyes? Will you care that we can't ever be the same?
Will you even believe that I'm still me?
The books close and the doors open, students filing out as they laugh and joke about how Shikamaru's class is the best because half the time he's never there to teach it. Some students are rushing out to study. A girl resembling Hinata leaves something on your desk, telling you it's from her mom then rushes off with a talent for blushing that has to be hereditary.
And then we're alone in the room.
And your eyes pass to mine again.
Do you recognize me?
"... Sasuke?"
I smile then. Because you do.