Fate's Garden

Part 3 - Inked

Chapter 7 - All the worlds

"…what?"

"You…are…an…idiot," Sasuke ground out, his face contorted into a scowl.

Naruto sighed, maybe showing him the argument wasn't a good idea. Now he couldn't be objective about it, could he? He'd probably just ruined his chances of getting his 'second opinion' not that he really wanted it in the first place.

"What more do you want?!" Sasuke shouted, his voice slicing through the air and causing Naruto to jump a little in his seat.

"What do you mean…?" he replied tentatively.

"What more can he say? What more can he do?"

"Um…I don't…" Naruto shrank back into the couch a little at Sasuke's rage.

Sasuke leapt to his feet and paced the length of the room. Naruto watched on fearfully. It felt like Sasuke had dragged him into the ninja academy naked and pointed it out to everyone. He felt exposed and stupid and embarrassed. Those were feelings he was accustomed to in childhood, sure, but he'd outgrown them and learned to ignore them. He became smarter, more confident, and more secure with himself. But Sasuke, in all his glory, had yanked the rug out from under him and smacked him in the face with reality. In fact, he wasn't even sure where Sasuke was going with this, but already Naruto felt horrible and defensive.

"Do you want him to go back in time and magically not fuck up? Is that it?" Sasuke demanded, "Because that's not going to happen!"

"You keep going on about trust and how he's tricking you and all this shit, what could he possibly gain by tricking you at this point? The lives you're in mean nothing, seeing as you're going to end up in this eternal garden or whatever it is!" Sasuke had never been as ineloquent before as he was now.

"Don't you think that if he didn't care that maybe he wouldn't try so hard to make you happy?!"

Finally Naruto snapped to his senses, having been lulled into a stupor by Sasuke's indignant shouting.

"Alright, alright! Fine, just give me a second to breathe! Jeez!"

Naruto's head fell numbly into his hands, his fingers tangling in his hair. Hate wasn't the opposite of love, apathy was. If Sasuke truly didn't care, as he said, he wouldn't try at all. What would be the point of tricking him? Really? Naruto had been so certain he was, he was hell-bent on believing it was all a ruse; that his one wish really couldn't come true that he had created for himself this elaborate scheme that didn't even exist. He couldn't just accept that maybe things were okay. It all seemed to good to be true…but Sasuke had never really been one to go to such lengths to manipulate people anyways. He was always more for the subtle mind-raping than not. He was an idiot.

"Don't think too hard, your mind might overheat," Sasuke snapped.

"God damnit, teme! I'm sorry alright?!"

Naruto's head lifted out of his hands to stare at Sasuke, scowling. Without thinking he cried, "Ya know what, I'm not sorry! I don't have to apologize to you, you're not my Sasuke!"

Naruto didn't realize how terrible that sounded until he noticed the look on Sasuke's face. His eyes were wide and his jaw trembled. Naruto opened his mouth and then closed it. Not really sure what to say. He should apologize for that.

"Sasuke I'm-"

"Fuck you," Sasuke disappeared down the hall into Naruto's bedroom, judging by the slam of that door.

Naruto sat there, prepared to wallow in self-pity. But then, a moment later he decided he wasn't going to. He was going to fix this; he was going to 'learn' as his father told him. Sasuke wasn't going to stay mad at him. Naruto pushed himself up off of the couch and strode purposefully down the hallway. He threw the door open so hard that the doorknob embedded into the wall with a loud crunching of wood. Sasuke glared at him from where he'd been pacing in the center of the small room. Naruto moved towards him, causing Sasuke to back away, shuffle to the side, and weave and dodge away from him. Finally Naruto growled and used what little ounce of his god powers he had left to force Sasuke into his arms how kicked and struggled against him.

"You're not my Naruto either, and unlike you, I don't get mine back, so f-fuck you, you and your Sasuke, for taking away from me…for…" Naruto stopped as he realized the horrible truth of what this Sasuke was saying.

As soon as Sasuke and he reached the garden, this version would cease to exist. Just like how by being there, Naruto had erased this world's version from existence. When he died, this Sasuke would be alone. This Sasuke that was so much like his, almost exactly the same, would be all alone and probably killed within the month with no one left to stand up for him. Naruto's hold on Sasuke didn't loosen, he wasn't about to let him go, but it did soften, just a little.

"I'm sorry," Naruto murmured, pressing his face against Sasuke's neck.

"Is that to me, or him?"

"Mm, you," Naruto pulled away just enough to slid his lips on top of Sasuke's.

At first Sasuke tensed, but then he melted so completely he was almost deadweight in Naruto's arms. He pressed himself closer and wrapped his arms around Naruto's neck, quivering like a leaf in the wind. Their kisses conflicted in tone; Sasuke's were desperate, hungry, and filled with heartache. Naruto's were comforting and forgiving. While Sasuke clung to him, shaking, Naruto held him loosely, rubbing circles up and down his back.

Sasuke kissed him again and again before moving away, looking anywhere but Naruto's face, "How…how long do you have before you leave?"

"I don't know, it's not my decision."

"It's your father's?"

"My grandfather's, actually," Naruto chuckled.

"Who's your grandfather, if your father's god?" Sasuke laughed, he couldn't help it.

"I don't…really know, actually," Naruto answered, feeling silly, "I think…wait…"

Sasuke leaned away from him, arching his back as he laughed out loud. It wasn't even a mocking laugh, or a smirking 'I win' laugh. Naruto tried to cherish it, he did, but he was suddenly confused. Who was his grandfather exactly? The little old man that tottered around, with nine gods for children, what exactly was he? Was he the ultimate god then? The creator of the universe and so on?

"Whatever, it's not important, what do you want to do with your time left here?"

"Hmm, now that you mention it," Naruto tried to force his thoughts away from his grandfather and onto the man in his arms. He leered, a smirk overtaking his face.

Hardly batting an eye Naruto stooped down and jerked Sasuke up and over his shoulder. The avenger growled at him, Naruto, put me down. Of course, he only protested for so long, after Naruto had thrown him down onto the bed and clambered on top of him, he simply smirked and kissed him.

Sasuke was certainly enjoying himself. This whole 'learning' life was shaping up to be pretty worthwhile. School wasn't…that bad. It was even interesting sometimes, the things they learned. In the science classes especially Sasuke was intrigued. All of the chemical reactions were things that he would never have had to learn as a ninja, the experiments they did were always mind boggling as to why they would do them of course. But that didn't keep him from being at least the slightest bit entertained.

Then again, this all could just be a side effect of him having a boyfriend. He was seeing through rose-colored glasses, he was sure of it. Sasuke had never been this happy before. Ever since that day of their awkwardly amazing make-out, they'd settled into a sort of dating, not dating arrangement. Tala somehow had known without them even telling him. Sasuke had thought they weren't being obvious at all, seeing as they weren't doing couple-ish things or hanging out frequently by themselves. He'd just known, the day after they'd kissed. But, it was Tala, so Sasuke just put it off to him knowing his best friend so well. His Naruto knew him that well. It was downright creepy sometimes.

Their relationship remained relatively the same, disregarding those afternoons where Naruto would decide they should hang out and take away Sasuke's ability to walk right for a few days. Other than that and the gruff kisses, there were no outward signs of them 'dating'. Sasuke knew that even if he actually wanted to show affection in public, that Naruto would be strictly against it. He was strangely cautious towards the notion, in fact, Sasuke was sure that this Naruto was straight and this was a fluke. Wherever they were, whatever realm, universe, or timeline, they always seemed to end up together, despite whatever circumstances. Sasuke was sure that if he'd stayed in that life where he'd been a toddler, if he'd grown up, he would have miraculously turned Naruto into a pedophile. Sasuke found this all both disturbing and incredibly…heartwarming. Their relationship was so strong that it spanned across all of the worlds in existence.

TBC...