A/N: Well here you go, some of you have been asking about this for a long time. The long awaited meeting between Naruto and Sasuke is finally here with Chapter 45. Dang, 45 chapters already. It doesn't seem like it could be possible that so much has come and gone since the idea for this story popped in my head as I was sitting in my car one morning. Some ideas I had have changed since that fall morning, but this encounter is one of those things that I can say has not changed since the original outline.

As soon as the name escapes his lips Naruto can feel the heat from Kurama's anger begin to stir within his body. 'Not now Kurama, there is something odd about Sasuke's aura, and I do not want to start a fight with him inside the village. I learned my lesson after that fight with Rock Lee, and my previous fights with Sasuke. He and I could easily destroy half of this village before either of us breaks a sweat.' He tries to turn away, but the strange sensation of his former teammate's chakra peaks his curiosity and draws him closer, as if he were nothing but a moth being drawn in closer by a light. Naruto just hopes that it is not a flame, and he ends up getting burnt tonight.

Sasuke had stopped suppressing his chakra and activated his sharingan once he was sure Konohamaru was sufficiently out of range and would not interfere. He watches out of the corner of his right eye as Naruto draws closer but tries to look as though his whole attention is on the water. He speaks when Naruto steps loudly onto the first plank of the small pier. "You are out kind of late, aren't you dobe?"

Naruto knew that Sasuke would be aware of his presence, but it seemed appropriate to do something to announce himself anyways. In the past he would have just started talking in a loud voice, trying to be as unavoidable as possible, but things have changed since those times and he has learned that being avoidable at times can be a blessing. "Not really teme, the Hokage has been keeping me working so late recently that I swear that the sun is going to rise before I make it home. Tonight I finished early for a change." He crosses his arms behind his head. "I expect that once I am Hokage I will be spending a lot of evenings working late on… Hokage... stuff."

Sasuke chuckles derisively at the expected, clueless response from Naruto. "That will most likely be caused by the fact that there will be large words written down on what you will be required to read. It will take you a long time to verbally sound out every syllable before you can even ask somebody what the word means." He turns around and gives Naruto a slight smirk. "Either that or you will be too busy goofing off, eating ramen most likely. I hope whoever they hire as your office assistant will be a masochist who will enjoy making your days extremely miserable with plenty of paperwork."

"I guess I should just hire you for the job. I can't think of anybody more annoying than you, Sasuke." Naruto chuckles as he sits down beside his old friend. 'Man, I have forgotten just how much I missed arguing with Sasuke. It's like we are just continuing our last conversation like it was just a moment ago, and not over two years since we last spoke.'

Sasuke's smirk broadens into almost a smile as he turns his head back towards the water. 'It's like we just saw each other yesterday and have picked up where we left off.' He reaches over and holds out the sake bottle he had been drinking from to Naruto.

Naruto looks down at the bottle for a moment and almost takes it from Sasuke before he holds up a trembling hand and shakes his head. "No thanks, I climbed my way out of one of those last year and I don't want to shake hands with that particular demon ever again."

Sasuke nods and puts the bottle down out of Naruto's sight with a slightly smug look on his face.

Seeing that smug look, Naruto immediately begins to wonder why Sasuke had offered him the bottle in the first place. It not like his drinking problem had been a secret. 'Was he testing me just now, or just teasing? There is no way that was just an accident.' Naruto turns his head and glares out towards the undulating darkness of the river. 'I should punch the smug look right off his face for doing that to me, what the hell is he thinking?' Naruto's sneer changes to a smirk as he feels Kurama stirring inside him, ready to join in the fight against the last member of the Uchiha clan. 'Nope, I am leaving in the morning with Hinata and I haven't finished packing yet. So I don't need to spend the rest of the night in the jail.'

They sit there in awkward silence for several minutes before the quiet finally gets to Naruto and he speaks. "So, how have you been? We haven't talked since…"

"Just before I was jailed for my crimes." He looks sideways over at Naruto. "I was surprised that you weren't outside waiting for me when I was released."

Naruto scratches his forehead, suddenly thinking that sitting down may have been a bad idea. "Yeah, I was… kind of… busy… you know." Maybe it would be best if he was to just leave now before things go badly. He does have a lot of packing left to do, and if there is enough time left he might even do some baking.

"So I heard." Sasuke says almost accusingly before he lifts up the sake bottle and takes a sip.

Naruto's face becomes flush at hearing the subtle jab Sasuke is obviously making. "What the hell are you hinting at, teme?"

'Now there is the Naruto I remember.' Sasuke turns towards Naruto and holds the sake bottle to his lips as he takes a long slow sip. When he lowers the bottle to set it back down, his eyes never leave Naruto's while his lips part into another smirk. "Nothing really, I just heard that you were busy drinking, doing missions, and… other stuff until recently."

In Naruto's mind the way Sasuke said 'other stuff', and the way he arched an eyebrow at the same time, means that Sasuke was hinting at only one thing. "I don't know what sort of crap you heard, or think that you have heard, but nothing happened with those fangirls. I swear that the next person who makes a comment about that, I am going to make them eat a rasengan." Naruto stands up and holds out a fist at Sasuke, daring him to say it again. "You, of all people, should know what it is like to be hounded by a bunch of girls who have no idea who the real you is, they just see you as something to possess."

"Yet, one of those girls did actually dig deep enough to find out about the real me Naruto. She is also the one who has become my girlfriend." Sasuke takes another sip while looking sideways at Naruto to gauge his friend's reaction to the mention of the word girlfriend. Seeing that Naruto did not take the bait, Sasuke decides to push just a little harder. "Sakura has always been very single-minded when she sets her green eyes on a goal. Sometimes she neglects to look around till after she has obtained what she wanted, to see the collateral damage she has caused in the process."

Naruto stands up and glares down at Sasuke. "Don't say that name around me, okay." His right hand clenches into a fist for a moment before he calms himself and starts flexing his fingers anxiously.

Sasuke turns and looks up directly into Naruto's eyes. "I don't care if you like to hear her name spoken out loud or not, I'll say my girlfriend's name if I want to Uzumaki. You and I have been through far too much together for me to coddle you like everyone else seems to do for some reason. If you don't want to hear me say SA-KU-RA when I damn well want to, then…" Sasuke gestures with his chin to let Naruto know that he is welcome to walk away anytime.

Naruto angrily turns his back to Sasuke and starts walking back up the pier with his hands in his jacket pockets. "Fine, I have better things to do tonight than listen to you talk. I really don't know why I came down here in the first place."

Just as Naruto is about to step off of the pier and make his way back up the hill, Sasuke speaks. "I believe her when she says that she is innocent." Now that should be enough to get Naruto's attention again.

Naruto stops and turns to look back at Sasuke in astonishment. "What the hell do you mean by that, Sasuke? How would you know if she is innocent, you were in the prison at the time? Unless she came up with some sort of story to hide the truth from you about what happened that night, or do you really not give a damn about the truth." Naruto is breathing through his nose with such angry force that his nostrils flare with each breath.

Sasuke shakes his head as he suppresses a victorious smirk. "She won't talk about what happened between the two of you, and gets mad every time I bring up the subject." He nods as Naruto looks at him in confusion. "What I am actually referring to is the charges laid against her for breaking into the secure medical archives to look at and change the medical records of some of the hospital's patients.

Naruto takes a few steps back down the dock towards Sasuke. "Sa…She… would never do something that would jeopardize her job. Her career as a medical ninja has been her passion for a long time. Hell, she even stopped looking for you, at least for a while, once she started studying medical ninjutsu. As far as I know she didn't try looking for you till she had fully completed her training. She… cares… about that job more than almost anything else."

Sasuke just shrugs at the obvious omission of what one of those things might be that would be higher on the short list of things Sakura holds dearer than her job at the hospital. "Nevertheless, some medical charts were recently found to have had their original information altered, some others had additional false information added. Some of these looked to be in her handwriting, others look as if she had tried to imitate someone else's handwriting."

All Naruto can do is stare at Sasuke in disbelief. Has she changed so much since they had their fight that she would do something like that to people's records? 'I guess it is possible, I mean look at what I let myself become after she and I had our fight. Tenten tried to tell me once that SHE had been different ever since I left the village. Maybe this is what Tenten was meaning when she said that that my old teammate is not the same girl I knew when we were younger.'

Sasuke, seeing Naruto's skepticism beginning to waver, adds more to the story. "Once word had reached his ears, Hyuga Hiashi came forth and made a complaint directly against Sakura, because Hinata's recent visit to the hospital was one of the records that had been altered. Something about Hinata requesting a pregnancy test during her physical exam caused quite a stir." The stupid confused look on Naruto's face pretty much confirms that Hiashi's indignation was actually justified.

Before Naruto can form any words of refusal, Sasuke quickly hits him with the real bombshell. "I think the Hyuga leader was more upset about what happened during a recent face-to-face talk between the two girls."

Seeing Naruto's surprise at this revelation confirms to Sasuke that certain information has been hidden from his friend to protect Sakura, Naruto, or quite possibly Hinata is trying to protect herself. "Yes, it seems that while you were away on your last mission, Sakura had gone to talk with Hinata at her home. I am guessing that she went to ask for Hinata's assistance, since you have been avoiding any contact with her for months now. I knew earlier that day that Sakura was up to something by the agitated way she was acting during breakfast." Sasuke gives a little shrug. "So I kept an eye on her for the rest of the day. When I saw her leaving the Hyuga compound, angry and crying, it was not very hard to figure out why she had gone in Hinata's home, or the results of her plea." Fortunately he had gotten ahead of her and was able to not look like he was waiting on her and instead look surprised.

Naruto walks over to stand beside where Sasuke is sitting, his mind now filled with questions. "Hinata never said anything about this to me, I wonder why."

Sasuke takes a deep breath, knowing what he is about divulge will most likely anger Naruto, probably to a dangerously reckless level, but he has never been one to shy away from being blunt when it comes to Naruto. "Probably because of what her father was complaining about, at least from what I was able to lip-read with my Sharingan from the roof of a nearby building. It seems as though Sakura made some sort of threat to Hinata when her request for help was denied, and..."

Naruto, oblivious to hearing Sakura's name being repeated over and over by what else he just heard; reaches down, grabs Sasuke's collar and pulls their faces within an inch of each other. "She what, what the hell did she say to Hinata?" Naruto's skin begins to tingle as an angry chakra starts to percolate to the surface, and his canine teeth begin to elongate. "Why didn't Hinata tell me that she was threatened? I would have…"

Sasuke puts his hand firmly on top of Naruto's and calmly gazes back into those bright blue eyes. "It should be obvious why she has not said anything. Hinata is probably afraid that you will immediately go after Sakura and try to do, or say something completely stupid and make matters only worse for everyone." Sasuke's face cracks into another one of his smug smirks. "Hinata is wisely protecting you… from yourself. I have no doubt that she is probably scared that you will be angry with her when you do find out that she has been withholding this information.." He gives Naruto a slight apologetic shrug as he offers the most likely scenario, one that will keep Naruto calm until he can get the answers he is seeking.

Seeing that the use of Hinata's name has damped Naruto's anger and hopefully has made him capable of listening, Sasuke continues relating what he knows of the incident. "To be honest I don't know exactly what she threatened, but that incident along with the medical records charge, was enough to have Sakura reprimanded until an investigation is completed. She admitted to being guilty to the charge of threatening Hinata and formally apologized to the Hyuga leader. That her words were carelessly spoken and she would never do such a thing to anyone. Sakura offered to personally apologize to Hinata, if and when the Hyuga heiress would be willing to talk to her again." He gives Naruto a cold look to remind him of the reason why Hinata might be unwilling to talk with Sakura, and who is the cause of the rift between the two kunoichi.

Naruto says nothing, but he does let go of Sasuke's collar before turning his head to glare once again at the river. He takes a deep breath and suppresses the angry chakra that was trying to come to the surface, at least until Sasuke has told him what he knows, but afterwards…

"She denies the charges of falsifying medical records, but the fact that Hinata's record was one of them that was altered does not help her case. That is what I was referring to when I spoke of her being innocent." He looks over at Naruto and is grateful to see at least a flicker of something other than anger in his friend's face. He can see that Hinata's influence does not just extend to when she is around anymore, and that Naruto has truly grown up a lot since the last they spoke.

"That is why we are leaving the village for a while." Sasuke watches the stunned Naruto for a moment before turning to gaze at the river. "Instead of publically suspending Sakura from her job, which would probably cause an irreparable harm to her reputation, the Hokage is sending her to help with a recent disease outbreak in the Land of Lightning. The medical staff in the Hidden Cloud Village is having a difficult time isolating the cause or even a cure for the affliction, and they have asked for help. This will give her something to do while the investigation takes place here in the village."

Sasuke reaches down and takes another sip from the sake bottle. "I think that the Hokage also believes Sakura is telling the truth, and is concerned about why somebody would do this to her best student. Was who did this very inept, or purposefully inept in what they did to those files to cause confusion?" He turns his head back towards the center of the village as if his kekkei genkai would somehow be able to find the culprit this time. If only they would allow him to look at the evidence, maybe he could see something that the investigators are obviously missing. Sadly he decided against breaking in and looking at in anyways, because if he were somehow caught this could be seen as him trying to tamper with the evidence, making Sakura's case even more difficult.

"Also, The Hidden Cloud Village has recently discovered what may be one of Orochimaru's old labs, and they have lost a few shinobi trying to get inside. So the Hokage offered to send me to see if I can help them to disable the traps and get them safely get inside. This way Sakura and I can travel together, just in case the perpetrator is dumb enough to try and attack her on the open road. That is if their plan is to get her out of the village." Sasuke's hand absently rests on his sword to emphasize just how poor of a decision attacking Sakura would be to somebody's health. "It would be nice if they did and I could end this quickly for her, and she can return here to the village where she is needed and belongs."

Sasuke looks over at a now brooding Naruto. "It would help me find out the answer to why Sakura would threaten Hinata if I were to know why she even needed to ask for help to speak with you in the first place."

Naruto's face contorts into a scowl as he looks back at Sasuke. "Why don't you just ask your girlfriend about what happened?"

Sasuke sighs in frustration and looks towards the river as if seeking the strength not to reach out and strike Naruto for being so dense. "I already told you, she refuses to tell me anything about what occurred between the two of you, and gets very agitated when I press the issue. It's like she is afraid for me to know the truth."

Sasuke looks back towards Naruto and glares at him accusingly. "I know that I am the cause of what happened, because I was always at the heart of any rift between the two of you when we were a team. From what she has told me about herself during the time I was gone, it was my absence and your subsequent pursuit of me that strengthened the bond between the two of you, Naruto."

Sasuke's face saddens a little as he continues his speech. "It seems only appropriate that my return would cause problems between the two of you again. It might have been best if they had executed me, then the two of you would have sought each other out and probably ended up together."

Naruto blinks a few times, trying to process everything that Sasuke has just said. He is not sure what surprised him more to hear; that Sasuke knows about the execution order, or that he thought his two teammates could have ended up together. "Wait, you knew that the Kages had voted to have you executed? Well, not all, but enough of them had voted to have it done."

Sasuke, his long believed theory now confirmed, looks up into the starry night at the waning half-moon making its way across the sky. "Yes, I thought I knew what my fate was going to be when I surrendered, but I didn't care. I had to pay for my sins, and all of the sins committed by the Uchiha clan. With all of the blood on the hands of my clan, it only seemed appropriate for me to finish what my brother had started, and let the name of Uchiha fade away into the past."

Naruto kicks Sasuke with the heel of his foot, nearly knocking the dark haired shinobi into the dark flowing waters of the river. "Don't you dare say that teme. Your brother wanted you to live because he saw in you the chance for the Uchiha clan to clear its name. He wanted you to have a future, and giving up is an insult to everything he sacrificed. Your future is with her, and it always has been." Naruto tries to kick him again, but his foot is caught and then twisted by Sasuke knocking Naruto off balance and throwing him to the ground.

The moment Naruto's body hits the ground he launches himself at Sasuke, and the two grapple with each other on the edge of the dock. "She has always been yours dammit. All you ever had to do was hold out your hand, but instead you were too caught up in yourself to see how much you were hurting her all that time." As Naruto shoves, Sasuke counters and maintains the stalemate as the two of them glare deeply into the other's eyes. "You were not trying to protect her by acting like that, you did it because you were afraid that if you allowed yourself to care about someone other than yourself, then you might not be strong enough to die fighting your brother. You were terrified that trying to survive and come home to her would make you hold back and fail to get your stupid revenge." Frustrated that Sasuke has his hands locked up where he cannot strike his friend, Naruto instead head-butts Sasuke in the face. "All that is over and you are free now. So why are you still acting like an idiot?"

With a growl Sasuke knees Naruto in the groin and shoves him away so that he can check and see if his nose is broken. Thankfully it is not, or there would have been hell to pay later when he explained how his nose got broken to Sakura. "We can't move forward because she is still hung up on what happened between the two of you Naruto. She has already sacrificed so much just becoming my girlfriend, and she has done it without any regrets, except for one. Since you have been running around like a spoiled brat you probably don't know or even care what she has been going through these last few years. From the moment I was let out of the prison and we started dating, she has been treated like she had contracted some sort of infectious disease. Why, because she is dating me, the last member of the traitorous Uchiha Clan. She rarely even talks to her own parents anymore because we are together." He holds up a shaking fist and then points at Naruto. "My one hope while in prison, if I somehow managed to live, was that her association with the Leaf Village's big damn hero would overshadow everything else. It would give her a chance to be happy even with me, but you two manage to screw that up completely."

As Naruto rolls over onto his hands and knees, trying to catch his breath and not vomit, Sasuke backhands Naruto in the face. "I can't stand seeing the regret in her eyes, even when she thinks that she has me fooled with that perfect smile of hers, but I know different." Sasuke, his blood now boiling, stands up and prepares himself for Naruto's obvious next move, a head-on attack. "I deserve to know the truth of why she cries and apologizes to you in her sleep."

Naruto, his head and crotch now throbbing from the recent assault, rolls onto his finger tips and the balls of his feet with an almost smiling snarl on his face. "Do you really think you can handle the truth of what she confessed to me, and then asked me to do? I couldn't!" Naruto launches himself at Sasuke and as soon as their body's come into contact, Naruto and Sasuke disappear from the bank of the river and reappear at the old Team Seven training grounds.

Sasuke, unprepared for this new form of travel, is momentarily disoriented by the Flying Thunder God Technique. Before he can get his bearings Naruto punches him in the ribs, which launches him into a nearby tree. Without thinking, Sasuke activates his mangekyō sharingan and prepares to summon Susanoo for Naruto to continue his attack. This is an escalation in the fight that he wanted to avoid, but he will be damned if he is going to just let Naruto gain the upper hand.

Instead of creating a rasengan and feeding it to Sasuke for that cheap backhand, Naruto just stands there glaring angrily with both of his hands balled up in fist. The truth will cause far more damage and spare the village as well. "You want to know the truth, well I'll tell you, but I had planned to not say anything in hopes that she would just move on after everything that happened. If she wanted others to know, then she could tell and answer all of the obvious questions that would follow."

Naruto points to the spot where Sasuke is now standing. "The night the Hokage came back from the conference with the news that you were to be executed SHE went hysterical after overhearing the Hokage talking to Kakashi-sensei. I stopped her from beating the hell out of some ANBU and busting into the prison. I brought her here to explain her actions, hoping that it would give me a chance to calm her down before she hurt somebody. As usual, the only person she hurt that night was me Sasuke." Naruto lets out an angry breath and holds up a clenched fist. "Did she ever tell you about the time that she said me that she loved me, Sasuke?"

All Sasuke can do is stare at Naruto in shock and confusion at hearing this unexpected information. Unsure that his voice wouldn't betray just how hurt he is to hear this news, Sasuke only shakes his head slowly side to side.

Naruto almost feels victorious at seeing how this news has wounded his usually stoic friend. "Don't be too hurt by what I just revealed, because it was a lie. She said it to stop me from trying to save you anymore. This happened just before she tried to kill you herself." He lets out an indignant laugh at the irony of the truth. "Our friends forced her to say that she was releasing me from the promise I made to get you back, and lying to me was her first choice of action. If they had not, she would have never thought of trying to stop me, even if I died in the process. Just like you said, sometimes she is too focused on what she wants to stop and see the damage she is causing to everything and everyone around her." Naruto cannot suppress the angry sneer at thinking of her in the context of him dying. "Until the night of our fight, when she had told me the truth, I had assumed that she had done it because she really cared for my well-being, not because Ino and the others had shamed her into trying to get me to stop."

Naruto and Sasuke both swallow hard as the bile rises up into their throats. "You have been her everything since we were little kids, and I would have gave anything back then to see her smile at me in the same way. I grew up without a family and when we were made into a team I finally got the family I had so desperately wanted. I was willing to do anything to keep my little family together and happy. I didn't care what it took, because you guys were all I had at the time." Naruto slightly shakes his head to the side as he blinks at the moisture gathering in the corner of his eyes. "When we were a team I never wanted that feeling of belonging to ever end, and after you left all I ever dreamed of was having my family back together again."

He shakes his head to focus his thoughts back on his friend's problem and points directly at Sasuke's chest. "Ironically, you need her more than she needs you, but I don't know if either of you have ever figured that out, she hadn't by the last time we talked. She's strong, like her sensei Lady Tsunade, but her heart has always belonged too you Sasuke, and in a way that is her greatest weakness. Just like Lady Tsunade, her heart can never let go once it has found the one it wants, not even when that person is gone. It took experiencing it myself for me to understand why Master Jiraiya had never settled down with somebody. I think he was truly in love with Tsunade and spent his whole life waiting for his chance to finally express his true feelings. Unfortunately, it didn't help that Dan died while his relationship with Lady Tsunade was still new and exciting. She only has memories of young love with Dan, that and his tragic death. So Master Jiraiya never stood a chance of being anything other than an old teammate that she could rely on when needed. I think he focused on acting like a pervert to use it as an excuse to why they were not together. It was easier than trying to fight a ghost."

Naruto gives a wry smile as he looks off towards a specific region of the Leaf Village. "The difference between me and him was that I never intended to try and hold onto to the girl's heart, because it was never mine to have, and you need her more than Dan needed Lady Tsunade, at least from what I have come to understand. She can give you back something that you lost, a family. Back then I just wanted to finally be a part of that family, but three's a crowd and I was not wanted. She made that perfectly clear many times before, but none more succinctly than that night."

He reaches up and grasps the pendant hanging from his neck and chuckles a little. "Like an idiot I was too busy trying to be accepted by you guys, and everyone else, that I couldn't see that I had already been accepted by somebody who would welcome me into her own family. Thankfully Hinata has more strength and patience than I will ever be capable of having, even if I do live to be an old man like the Third Hokage."

Sasuke stands there and listens, knowing that Naruto is telling the truth. Sakura always acted like she needed him so badly, but in truth she became strong without him and might never have reached her own true potential if she had stayed in his shadow. She had stood there letting him shine, hoping that it would heal his heart, but in reality she had become like a buttress to him back then. That was part of the reason he had to leave the village, because he knew he was starting to rely on that unwavering emotional support. He had to cut those bonds, because he was never going to become strong enough to defeat his brother if he couldn't stand alone. 'Naruto can be pretty perceptive sometimes, for an idiot.'

Without his old teammates there to lean on and cloud his mind, Sasuke had become strong, strong enough to finally defeat his brother. Though his lust to grow stronger had left him blind actually, and vulnerable to manipulation in his unending thirst for revenge. If he had stayed behind he probably would never have reached his true potential, but he would have been more emotionally stable and hopefully not have been manipulated into compounding one mistake with another.

Now that Sakura is back in his life he can feel the walls he had built around himself during his time with Orochimaru beginning to falter. He has started to allow himself to be supported, physically and emotionally by her ever persistent devotion. 'I shouldn't allow her to take on the burdens that should be only mine to bear, but it's like she reaches over and takes away some of those burdens as if they were a physical object and places it on her own slender shoulders.' Part of him wants to run away before he becomes too dependent on Sakura and is unable to bear the weight of being the last Uchiha on his own anymore. 'Is it already too late? Would I succumb and fall to my knees if were to try and resume a solitary life?'

Sasuke has to stop thinking for the moment about his own situation with Sakura because it was leading him someplace that he is finding unsettling. "You said that she made it finally clear enough, even for you to understand. So tell me exactly what happened?"

"Fine, you still want to know, then I'll tell you…" Naruto explains from the moment he saw Sakura running down the street up to just before she asks him to sacrifice himself. "You see, it was all a lie. Once you were gone I was only good for getting you back, and then I was to be discarded like an old dog once I performed my last trick."

Naruto holds up his hand as Sasuke is about to speak, because he can see the obvious question in his friend's eyes. "Don't give me that crap about her being upset that night and she said it out of pain. Don't you think that I have stared at my reflection dozens of times or more, saying the exact same thing to that guy in the mirror? I have had drunken arguments with myself, literally I have argued with my own shadow clones about this very thing over bottles of sake. I even…" He turns his head and looks down at the ground as he stops himself from saying something truly personal.

Naruto shakes his head and then looks back up at Sasuke. "I saw the look in her eyes, and while the intensity of what she said was driven by the pain of losing you, the words came from deep within." His face scrunches up as if he is trying not to be sick. "Some part of her really meant what she said that night. That is why I can't let go and I guess that is why the guilt is eating her up as well."

Sasuke can see that whatever Naruto is trying to say, is really tearing him up to relive. He takes a step forward, to reach out and tell Naruto that it is okay, that maybe he really doesn't want to know the truth anymore. Seeking the truth about why his clan was nearly wiped out caused him nothing but pain, and maybe this will only do the same between him and Sakura. At least now he knows why Naruto get upset every time Sakura's name is mentioned in his presence. A stupid promise asked for and given by two people that should have known better.

Naruto takes a step back away from Sasuke as the emotions of remembering that night coil their fiery tendrils around his heart. "I nearly died several times trying to get strong enough to save you, but I never dreamed that SHE would ever actually ask me to sacrifice my life for yours." Naruto stumbles backwards into the center of the three posts, and slides down to the ground as his body loses all of its strength. "That is the part that hurts the most. I had put my life at risk so many times for you guys, not just because we were teammates, but also because you were my family." He looks over at Sasuke with watery eyes as his friend comes and sits down against the post to his right. "I went and challenged the Fourth Raikage to a duel for your life. I even told the old guy that I would only lose the fight if he killed me; so in a way I did go and offer my life in exchange for yours, just like she asked." He elbows a somber-faced Sasuke in the arm and gives him a half-hearted smile. "I would have made that challenge anyways for your life, but it just hurts to have been asked to die, as if it was expected of me, you know."

"I'm sorry, I know that it could not have been easy for you to tell me about what happened." Sasuke leans back to look up at the sky and thinks about all that he has been told tonight. Being the one in the middle, trying to bring his old teammates back together, is a very strange situation. Sakura had always been the one standing between him and Naruto as their rivalry went from one-sided to a head-on fight between the two of them, and trying to keep their team together as his need for revenge was tearing them all apart.

Naruto shrugs and absently looks about as if trying to locate that bottle of sake that Sasuke had earlier and then realizes that it is most likely still at the dock. "I told Hinata recently about what happened, and it was a lot harder for me to admit the truth to my girlfriend than telling you about being asked to die in your place. In the end I found out that she had been hiding nearby and witnessed the whole thing that night. Man do I feel guilty that she had held onto that knowledge for so long." Naruto puts his hand over his face in shame.

Sasuke closes his eyes and curses himself for letting himself go soft in the head. Of course Hinata would know the truth, she has always been there in the wings ready to help Naruto whenever it was needed, and hasn't Naruto done the same for her as well. The idiot almost lost the war because his feelings for Hinata made him reckless when he tried to go and save Hinata from being captured in the Infinite Tsukuyomi. 'I should have went and talked with her as soon as I knew something had happened between Naruto and Sakura, even if they were not romantically involved. With her help I could have put everything back to order easily, even if the dobe was up to his ears in sake. I bet seeing Hinata's reaction to the sad state he was in would have sobered him up immediately, that and me kicking his ass for being a fool.'

Sasuke is so caught up in thinking about what happened, and what could have been, that he doesn't notice Naruto's fist until it is almost too late. After Naruto punches the post right where his head used to be, Sasuke shakes the splinters out of his hair and then glares at a sneering Naruto. "What the hell was that for you idiot?"

Naruto flexes his fingers to ensure that he has not broken any bones in his hand as he glares at Sasuke with a disgusted look. "What gives, I'll tell you what gives, I spent years of my life trying to get you to come back home, then I nearly sacrificed my life to keep you from getting executed after you did come home." He throws his arms out, as if asking where the hell is his thanks for all that work. "Now after everything is done and I am out of the way, like she has always said she wanted, you do nothing. Hello, did you not hear what I said earlier about the two of you being perfect for each other you idiot?"

Sasuke doesn't like being chastised for his behavior, especially by Naruto of all people, and decides to strike back where it would have the most impact. "Oh, I wouldn't say that Sakura and I haven't done anything." He gives a smug, almost perverted sneer and a little nod to make sure that even Naruto can understand that he and Sakura are very intimately involved.

Naruto cannot help but visibly shiver as he waves his hands back and forth. He turns his head and closes his eyes tightly, trying his best to not let that mental image invade his brain and leave an indelible mark. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, too much information. I do not want to know about your sex life with her, okay." Naruto's body shudders again as the image of his two former teammates grappling naked continues to try and coalesce in his mind. 'Damn, I had to say sex life didn't I, and don't you dare make any comments Kurama. I am not in the mood for any of your remarks right now.'

Naruto swallows to try and purge the sour taste from his mouth as he looks back towards Sasuke's smug-looking face. "Listen, I'm done. If the two of you screw up… ew… I mean fool around… dammit… you know what I mean." Naruto grits his teeth and takes a deep breath before trying to speak again. "If she dumps your ass, or you go all moody again and run away, don't either one of you come to me for help, believe it."

Naruto leans forward slams his palms on the ground between them, and stares directly into Sasuke's eyes. "I am happier now than I have been my entire life. Being with Hinata is more wonderful than I can describe, and hanging out with her and her family is amazing. It can really be unnerving by the way her dad stares at me sometimes when I say something that could be taken inappropriately, but that has made me stop and consider my words more before I speak. It's not because I am afraid of Hiashi. It is because I don't want people to think badly about my girlfriend. Hinata deserves a lot more respect than a lot of people have given her all these years."

Naruto stands up and looks down at his friend sadly. "I am sorry Sasuke, but right now I can't have the kind of drama that the two of you bring into my life. I am now with someone who deserves all of my attention." He presses a fist tightly to his heart as tears begin to form in his eyes. "I am not going to let anyone harm Hinata, or what she and I have together. I need you to make sure that your girlfriend understands what I just said and leave us alone."

Sasuke slowly stands up and brushes the dirt from his clothes as Naruto begins to walk away. "I need to know just how much longer you intend to punish her, and yourself for what happened; because you are the reason that I have not proposed to Sakura already." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small leather clad box, and stares at Naruto coldly as his friend stops dead in his tracks.

Naruto's mind immediately goes back to earlier tonight and the happy smiles he saw on Iruka-sensei and Ayame's faces as they told him of their engagement. Being married to Sasuke was HER ultimate goal back when they were a team, and even before that once he pauses to think on the subject. Is all of this…

"Do you have any idea what it is like to see your girlfriend wilt like a dying flower every time a certain man's name is mentioned?" He holds up a finger to stop Naruto's immediate reply. "I said girlfriend, not female teammate you had a crush on, okay." Sasuke cocks his head to the side and raises his eyebrows. "You said that you have known she was mine all this time, so where you just pursuing Sakura all that time as just another way to compete with me, Naruto." Sasuke's face contorts into a sneer of disgust. "Was she really only a trophy for you wave in my face?"

When Naruto's face goes red, Sasuke smirks as he knows the momentum of the conversation is once more his own. "I held her the night news of your stupid fight with Gaara reached the village. At first all she did was lay in my lap, curled up in a ball, but finally the initial shock wore off and she cried. I know what absolute heartbreak looks like, and that is what I saw in her eyes that night. To be honest if word had come that you had died I think she might have killed herself, to join you in the afterlife and seek your forgiveness, in hopes that it would ease the burden on her soul." His eyes narrow angrily at Naruto for putting Sakura's life at risk.

Sasuke can see that his words are having some effect on his old friend, but he does not let the relief show on his face. Instead he keeps pushing, hoping that he can somehow finally bring some closure to the rift between the people closest to his heart. "Now that you have told me exactly what happened between you and her, I understand why she has been so obsessed with you all this time." Sasuke cannot hide the slight jealous tone in his voice as he continues trying to talk with Naruto.

"If you had told me what happened right after I got out of prison, I am not sure that I would not have believed your story at first. I might have thought that you were trying to pull some sort of stupid prank. I can honestly say that my reaction then, once I believed you, would not be any different from what it is tonight." Sasuke just shrugs matter-of-factly as he looks up into the night sky. "Do I really have any right to condemn someone for their actions when they are under emotional strain? I did try to kill you myself as a way to further my own goals of revenge. So, she and I are not really that different if you stop and think about it for a moment."

Sasuke turns and stares deeply into Naruto's eyes. "Now that she and I have been together all these months, and I have seen the pain of regret in her eyes when she thinks that I am not looking. I know that to the very core of her soul she regrets everything that happened that night, and her recent desperate actions at Hinata's home." The look in his eyes shows the regret he feels for his own actions towards both of them in the past, and his part in being the catalyst of their rift.

Just as it looks like there is a crack in his resolve, Naruto inhales sharply and his mood darkens again. When Sasuke looks closer with his Rinnegan, he can see the faint glow of some sort of seal on Naruto's left side, just under his armpit. 'What the hell is that thing that just pulsed with chakra? I can see a mixture of his and Kurama's chakra along with something else. My gut tells me Sakura, but that doesn't make any sense.' His focus is interrupted by the sound of Naruto laughing dryly.

"What's wrong, you aren't scared are you Sasuke?" Naruto's face splits into an obnoxious smile. "I can't believe I am witnessing, the great Uchiha Sasuke using me as an excuse for his own failure." Naruto's arms folds across his stomach, pretending to hold in a fit of derisive laughter. "You are not afraid that she might tell you no because things are not resolved between me and her, you are terrified that she will say YES. Once she does you will no longer be responsible for just your own selfish desires, and you will have to share everything with her, not because you have to, but because deep down that is what you have always really wanted. You will not be able to go all Lone Avenger again, because you will not want to be that lonely guy anymore."

"I hate to break it to you buddy, but you should read you history books more." Naruto, laughing at the irony of his own words, points up to the Hokage Monument as he starts to walk away. He leaves a stunned Sasuke in his wake. "Look up at that monument up there and you will see some great leaders, but none them really did it all alone. Even the Second Hokage, who was never married as far as I know, still had people he trusted to lean upon for help. Hell, Lady Tsunade leans upon Shizune as a friend, a confidant and much more."

Naruto looks back and sees that even though Sasuke's eyes are pointed in his direction, their gaze is focused completely inward. "You need to get that stupid looking head of yours out of your ass and do what you should have done a long time ago. Kurama is right, the lives of shinobi tend to be very short, and we both have wasted too much time focused on the wrong things to make us happy." Just before he vanishes Naruto flashes Sasuke a smirk. "You need to grow up and stop using other people as an excuse for you own weakness. As a kid I didn't blame people for treating me like crap, I just worked harder to become accepted. You have somebody waiting for you that knew what she was getting a long time ago, and is willing to sacrifice everything to be part of your life. You need to accept that truth and do what you have tried to deny yourself most of your life. Go home to her and let yourself finally be happy."

As Naruto vanishes Sasuke begins to wonder if he was wrong about accusing Naruto of pursing Sakura as another way to compete with him and not really caring about what she wanted. Had Naruto pursued her, probably unknowingly, to make him jealous enough to see the truth about his own feelings for Sakura? It would be just like that idiot to sense this fact and stumble his way into trying to fix it without even knowing why he was doing it in the first place, or he may be giving Naruto too much credit. Who knows, even he will admit that Naruto's nickname as the number one unpredictable ninja is a well-earned moniker.

Sasuke opens his left hand and looks down at the little box. Does he dare take the chance that Naruto is actually right and propose to Sakura, hoping that her feelings for him are stronger than her regrets over Naruto? Is it his turn to be the healer for a change and sooth the emotional turmoil that she is feeling?

Sasuke looks down at his feet, his heart heavier and in far more turmoil that when this night had begun. It had seemed like such an easy plan, do whatever it took to get Naruto to open up and then beat some sense into his thick skull. Instead, Naruto opened him up like a fresh caught trout and showed him everything he had been hiding or denying in his heart. His life had been so much simpler when he was younger and the only thing that had mattered was his revenge. Now that he has to not only plan for his own long term future, but one that may include Sakura, things are so much more complex. "I miss being a kid."