Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!
Summary: A second series of ficlet requests - details are on my tumblr. All SNS, only modern AU so far. I'll give a summary and any warnings in the first note above each ficlet!
A/N: Oh boy. Oh my. This one really ran away with me. This one is angsty and long and I hope you enjoy it anyway. Please heed the warnings, it's shippuden Sasuke's POV which is not a wholesome place to be! But I hope you enjoy it nonetheless, I had to take some time to wrap it up in a way I hope is satisfying.
I still have a few ficlets to write, so for now, I'll be calling those my stories for April as well - that way I can keep requests open, too. If you'd like to make a request, please read through the info I have linked on the AO3 version of this story!
This ficlet was requested by Homogenous_Catalyst, who gave me a choice of two prompts - the one I chose was this one, where Boruto time travels back to when Sasuke and Naruto were seventeen to tell Naruto about Itachi, and discovers a secret relationship between them to top it all off. I hope I did you justice!
Ficlet summary: Canonverse, in which Sasuke meets Naruto when they both can't sleep...but tonight, Naruto isn't himself. Warnings - Sasuke's chaotic shippuden POV, so mentions of the murder-suicide he had planned for Itachi and generally that sort of unwell headspace. Mentions of Sasusaku and Naruhina, now (? in this future?) both divorced. Written in present tense.
Ficlet Series 2
7 - Canonverse feat. Time Travelling Boruto
The moon is high.
Sasuke lets out a slow, silent breath, narrowing his eyes. He has to resist the urge to shift until he's struck—this night is too light for even the slightest of movements. Anyone would notice the sudden shift of a shadow. Even someone stupid, and hopeless, and relentless—
But this isn't someone like that.
The figure standing in their clearing is not Naruto. They shift—pace around, looking up at the sky and digging through their pockets—mannerisms that could be so close to a confused familiar if it wasn't for the fact that they aren't. They're wrong in Naruto's body—they clash with it, blare out to the skies that something is wrong, this isn't Naruto, this is someone else—
Sasuke knows what an idiot standing in that clearing looks like, and this isn't it.
A trap, then? Perhaps. It's possible Naruto has finally had enough, finally given up. Finally betrayed him. Sasuke feels the thought with relief, and hope, and a pain he's learned long ago to ignore. Good. Good. Let Naruto betray him—let Naruto give up and leave him alone. It's all Sasuke's been fighting for—
But he reaches his chakra out, and can't seem to catch onto any genjutsu he feels for. Which makes this impossible—because he can still feel Naruto's poorly masked chakra there, in front of him. Bubbling in that strange, slow way it slips past the attempt to hide it before being wrenched back to its borders—Sasuke knows that chakra. No one else's feels that way. Moves that way. Naruto isn't here, but his chakra is.
It's fear, that time, that Sasuke ignores.
He has no use for these emotions. If Naruto is dead, then he is dead. If Naruto has betrayed him, then Naruto has betrayed him. Sasuke will step on those stones no matter how they burn his feet so long as they bring him closer to where he needs to be.
And it's that logic that should turn him around—should leave this trap as it sits, but then...there is a promise of answers, and the part of Sasuke's mind that Cannot. Let. Things. Go. is hammering at him to move. To go, to lash out and pin that thing to the ground and demand how they've taken Naruto's body and where they've put what had once been there instead—
He breathes in, silent and slow, and scans the trees around him. A chidori will give too much warning. His sword would be efficient if not for the thick branches limiting his range...his attack would need to be instant and small. Wires, maybe. A carefully placed kunai or two…
Sasuke feels the rage humming under his blood, and shifts into position.
"Ah!"
Easy.
"Unc—uh, Sas—what are you—what are we—"
"Where is he," Sasuke asks, pressing the blade to the imposter's throat.
"Where is—"
"Naruto," he says, and it's a growl. It's a press forward, it's a blade not yet cutting but pressing, firm and threatening—
"He's—he's—I'm—what are you even doing here?!"
Sasuke doesn't move, but he does scan the face. It's earnest—clear in a way that makes Sasuke think it might only be the effect of it being on Naruto's face. Sasuke can't seem to pick out the lie he knows must be there—this is a trap. Sasuke is in a trap.
…
And yet...it doesn't seem to be springing.
His eyes narrow and his vision sharpens. The Naruto who isn't Naruto breathes in—
But it is too late, and Sasuke opens his eyes in the dark sewer of Naruto's mind.
"I—whoa," says the man, and Sasuke—
"You!"
—moves aside.
"Da—! I mean, I didn't—I'm not—"
He scrambles back, hands raised, as Naruto moves forward—
"I can explain!" he says, and Sasuke stares at him. It's like an artist's rendition—close, incredibly close, and yet so much not Naruto that Sasuke thinks—
"Why do you look like me?" Naruto asks, and it's full of pause. Naruto's hostility is short-lived and easily killed, Sasuke knows, but at least one of them retains a working mind—
"I can explain," the man says again, with his wrong shade of blue eyes and too calm blonde hair and misplaced whiskers on his cheeks. "I'm—I'm your son. From the future."
Sasuke wants to laugh.
"Huh?!"
"I—I know it sounds crazy! I'm—I'm Boruto, and—and this isn't how this was supposed to go, I was just supposed to come here and talk to you, not take over your body and what is he doing here!"
He ends with a yelp, pointing at Sasuke.
Sasuke eyes the motion, but stays in place. He is still ready.
"He—" Naruto starts—
"Isn't he a missing-nin right now? Isn't—isn't he…?" His voice trails off, as if unsure that this past is the one he should be in. It's a piece of evidence, Sasuke supposes, but it ignores the convenient and markedly dangerous explanation of this man being in Naruto's body and mind and therefore accessing all relevant information—
"He—uh—this isn't about us!" Naruto says, and Sasuke supposes that's as quick as he is capable of thinking. "How do we—how do we know you're who you say you are?!"
"I—I—right, okay," 'Boruto' says, breathing in, "um—you—you're on Team Seven with Lor—Kakashi and Auntie Sak—or, um, Sakura and Sai, but Unc—Sasuke used to be on it with you until he left to go train under Orochimaru and he—why aren't you surprised to see him? Why aren't you—"
He pulls back, staring, and Naruto looks over at Sasuke.
He's surprised and nervous and convinced, and Sasuke wants to roll his eyes.
"This is all information you could have gained from Naruto's mind," he points out, and Naruto jerks back at the thought.
"Oh," Boruto says, as if the thought's only come to him, too. "Right, um. Something—something about you, then. Um—"
He breathes in.
Sasuke's eyes narrow.
"He never gives up on you," Boruto says, and Sasuke freezes.
"No," he says, but Sasuke's head isn't here anymore. "Sorry, that's not good, um—you don't know that yet, um...you—you told me about your old, um, new teammates, you called yourselves Hebi but now you're Taka, Karin, and um, Juugo and Sui—Suigetsu, I think, um—"
He continues to talk, but Sasuke is no longer listening. His heart is hammering. His skin is chilled. His mind is ringing—standing in the center of a bell that's being rung, being rung, being rung—
He never gives up on you.
No. No, Naruto would give up. He had to. That was the only way. Sasuke's momentary weakness these nights must have been what had kept his idiocy alive, but once Sasuke abandoned them, he'd abandon Naruto, and one day, finally, Naruto would look at him and realize Sasuke was lost—
And on that day, Sasuke would be free.
He never gives up on you.
But he would. Right? There was no other choice. Either he would or Sasuke would force him to, trembling hands be damned. Once he'd lost all there was to lose, there would be nothing left except for him to finally move forward. Finally be numb. Be nothing. Be his hatred and his strength and pull his family's killer to justice and then join them. That was his plan. That was the plan. It was the only—the only way—
He never gives up on you.
"I don't succeed, then," he says, and they look up. "I don't kill Itachi."
"No," says Boruto, "no, you do."
Sasuke's brow furrows.
"But I am still alive," he says, and it takes Naruto a moment to breathe in. His head snaps up and Sasuke meets the frightened, wide-eyed gaze with nothing. So? Was he really, honestly surprised? Sasuke had never made any attempt to hide himself. Unlike some.
"You—yeah, you are, but um—it's a mistake. Killing Itachi, I mean," Boruto tells him, and Sasuke glares at him. "That's why I'm here. That's why I'm—listen, after you kill Itachi, he tells you the truth, but by then it's too late, so—"
"What," Sasuke growls, "truth?"
The man breathes in.
"Itachi was acting under orders."
Sasuke's mind spirals. Boruto spins a tale of betrayal and deceit and lies and secrecy, and Sasuke hears it and soaks it in. Swallows it. Feels it swirl in his stomach like a poisoned drink, tumbling and twisting and making him sick. Making him sick.
"I'm gonna be sick," Naruto whispers.
Sasuke hardens into stone.
"Fine," he says, nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing. "Is that all?"
The man looks surprised. Sasuke gives him nothing.
"Ye—I mean, I—"
"And you're Naruto's son," Sasuke says, nothing. Another betrayal. Look at him.
He never gives up on you. Sasuke wants to laugh.
"Does he make Hokage?" Sasuke asks, and Boruto gives him a startled look, and a startled nod. He looks over at Naruto as if asking for explanation, but Sasuke's head is relentless, relentless and hot and spinning, he steps forwards and speaks—
"Who is your mother?"
Boruto's mouth closes. Is he afraid? Is he afraid of the look in Sasuke's eyes? Knowing Naruto has his happily little separate life like Sasuke always knew he would—oh, but of course, he never gave up on him. That's what this would be called, right? He turns his gaze onto Naruto and dares him to speak—
"I—" Naruto starts, and Sasuke looks at him.
Sasuke looks at him. Sasuke looks at him and tells him everything, spits it out of his eyes, he knew it. He knew it. He knows this world better than anyone else ever will, the bitterness burns a hole through his tongue and sets his head alight, and oh. Oh! Naruto had tasted oh, so sweet, hadn't he? Hadn't he? One thing to keep Sasuke here. One thing worth being weak for.
Sasuke. Wants to. Laugh.
"They're divorced," Boruto says, and Sasuke's rage stumbles. Naruto's head jerks between them, his breath heavy and panicked— "They're...oh."
He breathes out a laugh.
"They're divorced, Uncle Sasuke," he says, with a laugh that says he may have just realized something. "And you stay at dad's house every night."
Sasuke goes dark.
Boruto shakes his head.
"I knew something was—mom knows. Fuck, mom knows, that's why she—oh I am gonna—" His head jerks up. "Is that why you two were here? Now?"
The lies are gone from his tongue and the burning is back in his eyes. Sasuke swallows and looks down, unblinking, unwilling to give in, not yet—not yet, he—
But there is no rage to protect him anymore, and so Sasuke is forced to feel everything else.
The floor is already wet, at least.
"You were—you got married too, by the way, don't blame dad, you're both—" Boruto laughs again, and Sasuke is so bewildered he forgets he is crying. "I can't believe you both—oh, I am gonna kill my—"
"Sasuke is married?" Naruto asks, and Sasuke stares at him. It's a voice that's almost a whisper, and a familiar, familiar, familiar pain on that face.
Naruto doesn't look at Sasuke.
"Divorced," Boruto corrects, and the relief is palpable. Naruto breathes in with a nod and looks over at Sasuke with eyes that are too nervous to hold—
Too open. Too obvious. Sasuke knows what aching, searing betrayal looks like on Naruto's face, and that had been it.
Sasuke suddenly feels like he might collapse.
His head is a mess. Not that that's new, but Sasuke doesn't even know which thought to latch onto first right now. Itachi's orders, Konoha giving them, the council or Danzo or his family's plan for the coup d'état, years of chasing the wrong goal and then the right one and making mistake after mistake, and...somehow surviving it all. Somehow coming out of it all, messy and divorced and with children with other people, and yet—and yet, still—
He never gives up on you.
"Are we happy?" he asks, and he doesn't look up. He means to whisper it, but it comes out too loud—it feels like it echoes all around him, screams in his ears— "Despite it all?"
"Yeah," Boruto says, and Sasuke meets his eye. "Yeah, you are."
Oh.
Oh.
Sasuke swallows and looks away. That wasn't—this wasn't—the plan. It wasn't supposed to be an option. He'd given that up. He'd given that away. He wasn't supposed to be able to hope—he wasn't supposed to be able to—
"Um," Boruto says, and Sasuke can't look up. "I only have a few—uh, maybe a minute or two, this doesn't—this technique doesn't actually last forever, so—so um, yes—don't kill Itachi. Don't let him kill Itachi. There's a—there's a way to do this that won't—"
"I've got it," Naruto says, and Sasuke's heart trembles. "I won't let him. We'll figure it out."
How? Sasuke wants to snap. How? Perfection doesn't exist. There is no answer to this. There is no way to bring fairness back into the world where it had never existed, Sasuke knew it all firsthand. There is nothing good, nothing right, if you want justice then the only thing to do is take it into your own hands and—
He never gives up on you.
"Is there evidence of Root?" Naruto is asking, and Sasuke...didn't even think to—to ask. He should have, of course he should have— "Or of—of the orders. A hideout or something—"
"Yeah," Boruto says, "yeah, actually, Uncle Sasuke told me about—I should write it—"
"My sharingan is active," Sasuke says, looking at the muddy waters of Naruto's mindscape. "I will not forget anything said today."
He couldn't if he tried.
"Oh," Boruto says, "right."
He fills their last few minutes with scattered facts. Sasuke listens and will make sense of them all later, when he can think again. When he can see again. He's breathing in all of the emotion he thought he'd crushed into dust, and he can't seem to keep ahold of any of it to fix himself again. His head is pounding and his eyes are burning and—
And they are back in the night again.
Boruto is gone, and Sasuke sits in front of a Naruto who never gives up on him. Damn it. Damn it.
He is crying here, too.
"Sasuke," Naruto says, and Sasuke doesn't hold him back. He can't, not yet, but he doesn't have the strength to pull away—doesn't have the strength to tear himself away, it's been getting harder every time, he thought it would have been easier—get Naruto out of his system, that was what he'd told himself, just once, and then twice, and then every night they couldn't sleep they would meet in a clearing without words, only hands and hips and lips and mouths—
But now Naruto is speaking, and there's nothing Sasuke can do.
"We're going to figure it out," he is saying. "We're gonna get there. We'll start with—with Konoha, or Itachi, but I think if we bring the evidence to Itachi he won't be able to—"
"Fight it," Sasuke replies softly. "Yes. I will—"
Naruto looks up.
Sasuke breathes in.
"If you fail to discover anything," he says, pulling away, looking away, away, away, "I will...step in."
Naruto breathes out a small laugh—
"I am not returning to Konoha," Sasuke snaps.
Naruto only laughs again.
"I know," he replies. "I know. I just...it's just nice to be a team again."
Sasuke swallows and looks at him again. Naruto has a small smile on his face, looking at the floor. He looks like he's dreaming of a future that Sasuke—Sasuke—
Sasuke can't even imagine.
"There is," he says, and it stumbles, "there is a long time before...that future. Any of it. And none of it might be true, this world isn't that one—"
"Yeah," Naruto says, pushing himself to his feet. "You're right. That world didn't have a warning."
He turns around, and holds out his hand.
"C'mon," he says, as if they were only pulling each other to their feet after a spar—Sasuke hasn't felt this memory in his head since—
"We've got work to do."
Sasuke breathes out and stares. Somewhere, in the back of his spiralling mind, he knows this is a choice. Naruto may have been relentless before, but if Sasuke agrees to this, that will be it. That will be the end. Naruto will latch onto this forever and Sasuke will never again be able to be alone for as long as they both live—
He never gives up on you.
But then—
Maybe it's already too late.
Sasuke reaches up, and takes Naruto's hand.
A/N: How'd I do? This is the first time I've written Sasuke's POV in a moment like this, but I knew I wanted to show everything he was thinking, no matter how hard he'd try to hide it. For those of you wondering about Sakura & Hinata, they're 100% good and they frequently make fun of themselves and Sasuke and Naruto. There's no hard feelings between any of them, they all were just people trying to find their place in the world, and they've all finally found it.
I hope you liked it, and I hope the ending made up for the angst :)
I'm still taking things slower this week to balance with everything else, but please keep the requests coming if you have read through the info linked on ao3. As long as the requests keep coming, I'll keep this going!
See you soon,
- Kinomi