Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of the million spin-offs. I'm definitely considering owning Yours For An Hour though...
Summary: Uchiha Sasuke left his friends behind to follow in his father's footsteps. 7 years later, he finds himself in an elevator with the last person he wanted to see. Will he walk away again? Will Naruto let him? Rating may change!
A/N: It's been a while! Boy, do I have some stuff for you. As of now, I have two fics that are pretty much ready to go, I just need to edit them down & decide if the endings are good enough. I've had this extra in the works for a while - it's part 1 out of 3. I'll upload one every day after this one goes up :)
Strictly Professional Extras
Therapy
They found out later that Itachi's caveat on being part of the family was that his father went to see someone about his lingering grief, among other things. Despite Fugaku's misgivings, he agreed—they got the sense that Itachi hadn't given him much of a choice.
Itachi had gone with him for the first session, and now the therapist had requested to meet Fugaku's second son. Sasuke had agreed easily.
"Are you sure you don't want me to go there with you?" Naruto asked nervously, "I can wait outside."
"Relax, Naruto," Sasuke reassured him. "It'll be fine. And I'll be fine."
He kissed Naruto's forehead and clasped his hand for a moment, before he left for the session.
Naruto rolled his eyes, waited for a good ten minutes, and then left for his own appointment.
"Naruto."
"Hey Kakashi-sensei!"
"I'm not your teacher, Naruto. In fact, I never really was," Kakashi chuckled a little.
"Ah—well," Naruto blushed, scratching the back of his head.
"It's nice to see you after so long."
"Yeah! I—uh," Naruto understood the hidden 'What made you come here again?' question, "I kind of…wanted to update you on what's going on in my life."
Naruto scrunched up his forehead in worry. "Is that okay?"
Kakashi laughed. "Of course it is! Please, go ahead and update me."
Naruto smiled, and began to talk.
"Well, it seems like a fantastic point in your life," Kakashi said as they walked to the door. "I have to say, it's a nice change from the norm."
Naruto laughed.
"I know the office isn't the cheapest of places—" Kakashi started.
"I'll visit you again, don't worry," Naruto waved a hand. "I can afford it."
"You've grown into an incredible man," Kakashi said after a moment.
Naruto grinned sheepishly. "Aw, shucks."
They opened the door and waved goodbye, only for Naruto to pause at Kakashi staring at something past his shoulder.
Naruto turned around, and blinked in surprise.
"S-Sasuke!" A bit nervous, but not altogether upset, Naruto gave him a smile. Sasuke looked hesitant.
"Naruto…" he blinked for a moment, "and…Kakashi-sensei?"
"Sasuke!" Kakashi smiled happily, reaching out a hand for him to shake.
Sasuke returned it, but muttered to himself "…the school therapist…?"
Naruto laughed and rubbed the back of his head.
"Not anymore," Kakashi smiled calmly, "as much as I enjoyed the job, I didn't enjoy being unable to follow up with my clients."
"Kakashi went back to school," Naruto said, "and we met in a psych research project I did for bonus marks."
"We did." Kakashi nodded. "Well! It was great to see you two again." Kakashi seemed to understand the two needed a little time alone, and promptly left the conversation.
"I didn't know we were going to the same office," Naruto said sheepishly.
"I didn't know you went to any office at all," Sasuke returned, a little disturbed.
Naruto blinked at him. "You didn't know I saw the school therapist in high school? Some of the guys had a field day with that one…"
"I meant now," Sasuke said meaningfully.
Naruto smiled. "It wasn't anything important about me, I think, but I'll tell you more about it if you like. Where's your dad?"
"Still in there for another half an hour. I was only in for the first half of the session."
"You wanna take a walk?"
"Yeah," Sasuke said, after a moment.
"So is this gonna be our thing?" Naruto grinned, "walking around random parks whenever we need to have a deep conversation?"
Sasuke snorted. "Apparently."
Naruto shook his head. "So..."
"So…" Sasuke replied, raising an eyebrow.
"So, I actually went to see Kakashi to just update him on my life. A lot's happened recently," he eyed Sasuke meaningfully, "and…I dunno. I've know him for awhile. He helped me through some stuff. I just wanted to talk to him again, I felt like it was a good point." Naruto was rambling a bit, and looked a little embarrassed as he talked.
"Why didn't you tell me about it?" Sasuke asked quietly.
Naruto frowned a little. "Because I didn't feel like it was important. I didn't really think about it until the whole thing with your dad, to be honest, and it didn't feel worth bringing up."
"Okay…but what about after high school? Before this appointment," Sasuke specified.
"You mean why didn't I tell you I had therapy before? It didn't really come up," Naruto shrugged. "It's not really important anyways, y'know? I went there to…get to a certain point; I'm at that point now. So I don't really need it anymore. It's not really relevant. I dunno."
Sasuke watched Naruto for a moment.
"Your past is relevant, Naruto," Sasuke said quietly.
Naruto waved a hand. "Bah, not really. In the grand perspective of things…"
"It's relevant to me," Sasuke insisted.
Naruto looked at him, eyebrows furrowed. "Why?"
Sasuke shrugged, and looked away uncomfortably. Naruto strained to her him speak. "Because I want to know more about you."
Naruto smiled a soft, slow smile that stayed on his face for the rest of their time outside.
Before Sasuke met his father, they said goodbye and Naruto promised to meet Sasuke later. On his way from the office, however, Sasuke took a detour.
The pink-haired girl sighed, sipping her milkshake. "Are you sure you want to go there, Sasuke?"
"Of course I'm—"
"No," her green eyes felt like they pierced right through him. "Sasuke, listen. Naruto pretty much informed Ino and I on stuff. I don't think he told us everything, but he had to convince us not to kill you somehow." She shrugged.
"Sakura—"
"No, it doesn't matter anyway. What matters is you'll be going to a point where Naruto didn't know your reasons. Where Naruto thought his best friend, easily the most important person in his life, had walked away without a second thought—he was a mess, Sasuke. Are you ready for that Naruto?"
"I—"
"Because that's the Naruto you'll get if he's totally honest with you," she twirled her straw around, "which he won't be, because he's Naruto, and he hates making people feel bad for him."
Sasuke looked at her in surprise.
"You're not telling me not to—"
"No, I'm not telling you not to ask. By all means, ask away," she dabbed at a sticky spot in her drink with her straw, "I'm just warning you that it will take some prodding, if you really want to know what it was like back then. I mean, I could tell you, but you don't really want that, do you?"
Sasuke shook his head.
"Yeah, I figured. So, you can push him, if you want to go there. He won't appreciate it, obviously, but that's Naruto for you."
Sasuke sighed quietly, and looked out the window. "He doesn't really let people get to know him, does he?"
Sakura looked at him meaningfully. "I think he's worried they will leave if they do."
Sasuke's head jerked around so fast his neck ached, but Sakura was already standing.
"Always nice to see you Sasuke. Thanks for the milkshake." And she was gone.
But Sasuke didn't follow. He sat at the table, lost in thought, until the waitress broke him out of his daze.
A/N: And there we go! The next part will be up tomorrow.
Side note, the fics I've been working on a far more mature than these have been-one in particular. With that in mind, I've started uploading my work on archiveofourown - and also Wattpad, but that one's far more difficult to navigate & I probably won't continue with it. In regards to the more explicit stuff - I've got a poll up on my profile as to your preferences. Please let me know what you would like me to do!
See you tomorrow!
- Kinomi
