Chapter 4: Truth
Sasuke and Naruto were walking down the street, to the young man's home. He hadn't offered them his name, but that wasn't a big deal. He hadn't asked theirs.
On occasion, they were followed by whispers. It didn't take long to figure out that these were the people who had seen their performance on the balcony.
Sasuke was staring down the fourth person to approach them. Naruto shook his head and nudged him.
"Just ignore them. I know you do that well."
The boy made a sour expression, but did as advised. They walked down the street to the last house.
"Is this it?"
Sasuke looked at the house number and nodded. As they approached, the fair haired man stepped out of his front door.
"Good evening," he said. He immediately handed them the scroll. "I thought you'd like to be on your way."
"Aha!" Came a cry from behind them.
Naruto and Sasuke turned around. A small boy stood before them. There was an unmistakable resemblance between the child and the young man.
"Shuna! Son, go back to what you were doing."
The boy pouted.
"But father…" he whined. He turned his head to the older boys. "Are you ninja?"
Naruto grinned, nodding. He almost wanted to laugh at the awed look on the child's face.
"Can you…can you teach me something? Anything!" He looked at them, pleading.
They looked at the boys father, who just shrugged.
"Okay," Naruto said.
He looked at Sasuke, who had a look in his eyes that said 'why me?'
"Come on!" The boy grabbed Naruto's wrist, starting to drag him away. Sasuke looked like he wasn't going to follow, so Naruto grabbed the front of his shirt, jerking him forward, just before the two were out of each others reach.
The boy, Shuna, had led them to a small area, cleared for 'training'. As the excitable child had been babbling, Naruto learned that he wanted to be a ninja, someday. Other than that, it was just a lot of unintelligible chatter.
Naruto turned to Sasuke, smiling as he placed two fingers on the side of his head in a vague gesture which said he would have a headache later. Sasuke snorted, shaking his head.
"Shuna," Naruto said, kneeling down so he was at the child's level. "How old are you?"
"Seven," the child said.
Naruto looked like he was in deep thought.
"I can't remember. What's something we learned when we were seven?"
"Shuriken throwing." Sasuke answered without thought.
Naruto tilted his head.
"Hey. You're right. Thanks. How'd you remember that so quickly? Sasuke?"
The other boy turned without answering, walking to a tree. He sat against it, fingers clasped. Naruto frowned.
Brooding? What did I say? He hasn't done that for a while. Not since we ended our rivalry.
Naruto quickly told Shuna the basics, demonstrating how the boy should hold and throw the shuriken. After a few tries Naruto guided, the boy said he wanted to try by himself. Naruto sat down beside Sasuke, watching the young child throwing shuriken, then the brooding teen.
I wonder what he's thinking. This was a reoccurring theme to him. He frowned. I don't really care what he's thinking. This thought startled him. I guess now what I really want to know is how he's feeling. After an hour of watching the child throwing shuriken, Naruto called to him.
"Do you think your parents want you home yet?"
Shuna looked at him.
"I guess." He walked toward the older boys. He handed Naruto the shuriken. He then looked at Sasuke. "What is his name? He hasn't said anything all day."
Naruto frowned, reaching out and pushing his friend, lightly. The dark haired boy blinked, looking around.
"His name is Sasuke." Naruto stood, offering his hand to the other boy. Sasuke seemed to be considering whether or not to take his hand, just for a second. Then, he took it, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet by the blonde. Shuna turned his gaze up, looking at Sasuke's nearly unreadable face.
"He looks mean."
Sasuke scowled.
That probably doesn't make him look so nice, Naruto thought with a sigh.
"He isn't that bad, once you get to know him."
Shuna looked doubtful, but shrugged.
"Whatever you say," Shuna started to walk home, making sure the two boys followed.
"Goodbye, Sasuke," Shuna said formally with a slight nod of his head. "Goodbye Naruto!" He said, smiling, waving over his shoulder as he walked to his front door.
"Goodbye, Shuna!" Naruto called cheerfully. "Tell your father we are grateful for his services."
The boy nodded.
As they walked, Naruto thought, Okay. Here's a good opening.
"What happened before? You totally spaced out for an hour."
Sasuke looked straight ahead.
"I've been worse off." He said stiffly. Naruto felt strangely hurt by this comment.
"What happened, Uchiha?" He snapped. "The mission is over, so you have no more use for a friend?"
Sasuke stopped, eyes widening.
"I'm so sorry, Naruto! I wasn't thinking," he closed his eyes, "or, I guess I still was thinking, but…" he opened his eyes, looking at Naruto again. "I'm sorry. It was an automatic response. I guess I've been doing that for a long time. And you know what they say. Old habits die hard…"
Naruto closed his eyes, nodding and smiling.
"It's alright," he said. The truth was, he'd overreacted, allowing himself to become extremely upset and angry too quickly. He should have known better. Why had that happened, though?
"I forgive you. Why don't we just-" Naruto stopped short at the sound of a scream. "Shuna?" He said. Both boys turned, racing back to the house, crashing through the front door.
Naruto hurried to the sound of the now sobbing child. He had a kunai in his hand, unaware as to when exactly he'd drawn it. Sasuke was following him in a similar, menacing fashion. Finally, they arrived in the room the child was in. He stood still, blocking Sasuke's view, shocked by what he saw.
Lying in the middle of the room were two people, the fair haired young man, Shuna's father, and a brown haired woman who must have been his mother. They were surrounded by a pool of blood. Shuna was weeping, on the ground only a few feet from them. Naruto felt his stomach turning.
"What is it?" Sasuke asked, pushing passed him. The dark haired boy seemed to grow paler than usual. Something strange was in his eyes. Naruto closed his eyes himself, steadying his nerves. He approached the weeping child.
"Shuna?" He said softly. The child looked up, then launched himself into Narutos arms. "It's going to be alright." He said, comfortingly stoking the child's hair. "Everything will be fine." Naruto looked at his dark haired friend. "Come on. Let's all go outside." He led the small child out, calling, "Come on Sasuke!"
Five minutes later, Shuna was being taken care of by various friends of the family. Naruto searched the growing crowd for his friend, but couldn't find him. Is he still inside?
Naruto hurried through the rooms to where he had last seen Sasuke. There he is. He hadn't moved. Something is wrong. Naruto approached his friend, resting his hand on his shoulder.
"Sasuke?" He said softly. He peered into his friends face…and recoiled in shock. There was so much pain and fear in his eyes. And yet, they seemed empty and lifeless. Something is very, very wrong…
Later on, Naruto had managed to guide Sasuke back to their hotel room. They sat together, Naruto cradling the nearly catatonic boy. He was almost relieved when, hours later, the boy began sobbing uncontrollably. After that, though, he fell asleep, Naruto still holding him, as he would for the rest of the night.
The soft rays of morning light on his face woke him. He tried to stretch, but stopped before he had even moved. Sasuke's light frame was pressed against him. He remembered last night vividly.
"Sasuke…" The dark haired boy stirred, but didn't wake up. That was fine by him. Naruto just watched him as he slept, a strange protective feeling growing inside him.
That morning, after the two had gotten up, Naruto checked them out of the hotel. They had all the scrolls and Naruto wanted to get Sasuke away from this village. Hopefully, he would get better once they had gone far enough. Naruto wanted to know exactly what had happened, but wasn't willing to force his friend into another breakdown.
As he'd expected, Sasuke became more aware of his surroundings as time went on. Four days later, the two boys returned home.
"Kakashi Sensei!" Naruto called out to the older ninja when he saw him. He was walking the streets alone, having parted ways with Sasuke a few hours ago. All the teams were going to meet later that day, so they'd decided to go their separate ways and regroup at the meeting.
"Naruto?" The silver haired man looked a little confused. "Are you done with your mission already?"
Naruto nodded, smiling.
"Any problems?"
Naruto frowned.
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about."
The sensei nodded.
"Well, to start off, we were caught in a storm. I hit my head, which knocked me out. Sasuke carried me to a cave, where he stayed awake for three days to watch me. Then he had to sleep that off for a day. Some random guy tried to choke him in the cave…"
Kakashi frowned.
"But I scared the guy away, and then we left."
The man nodded.
"Do you want some ramen?" Kakashi was positive he would regret asking that later, but he felt like being nice.
Naruto nodded, but didn't jump around like he would normally have. He was really thinking. They walked to his favorite shop and ordered his food. Kakashi just said he wasn't hungry when asked why he didn't order anything.
"Alright," the man said once they sat down. "What other problems did you have?" There was a mischievous glint in his eye. "Did the signal cause any trouble?"
Naruto looked up.
"Not at all. It was a little later that day that we had trouble."
"What happened?"
"I was hoping you'd be able to explain it to me." The boy looked at his teacher, worry in his eyes. "Everything was fine. We taught Shuna to throw shuriken. He's…I never even learned their name. The family we got the scrolls from. He was the child in the family. A father, a mother, and a child."
Kakashi looked at his student, slightly concerned.
"We'd taught him how to throw shuriken, and we brought him home. We turned around when we heard him screaming and crying." The boy had stopped.
"What happened?" Kakashi prompted.
"His parents were dead, in the middle of the house."
The older mans visible eye widened. Naruto paused, swallowing.
"When…when Sasuke saw…when he saw everything, I don't know. Something happened to him. He couldn't move or talk. He was scared."
Kakashi nodded.
"Was that what it was?" He asked quietly.
"Why…why did Sasuke freeze up like that?"
Kakashi watched as the chef placed Naruto's order in front of him. He considered what to say next.
"You now Sasuke hates his brother? He would love to kill him."
Naruto halfheartedly slurped some of his ramen up.
"Mhm…"
"Do you know why he wants to kill him?"
Naruto stopped eating, looking at him. He shook his head. Kakashi sighed.
"What?"
"When he was seven, he stayed out late. He was throwing shuriken, I think. As he was walking home, he saw the lights were all out, and it was too early for everyone to be sleeping. When he went around the corner…Naruto, what do you think of Sasuke?"
"Are you going to finish telling me what happened to him?"
"Yes. After you answer my question."
Naruto poked his chopsticks into his bowl of ramen.
"When I first met him," he started, "I couldn't stand him. I thought he was mean and stuck up. I hated how cool he always seemed to be." He frowned. "I guess what really got to me was how much attention he always got."
Kakashi nodded.
"How about now?"
Naruto smiled a very tiny smile.
"I don't think he ever had a friend, before me. I think he was about to say that, right to my face, after I asked him if he wanted to be friends." Naruto looked thoughtful. "He isn't mean. There is just a lot going on with him. I don't think I even come close to knowing half of it, too. His being mean and stuck up is just a front. I think he just wants everyone to think he's strong."
"Do you think he's strong?"
"Yes." It was a simple answer.
Kakashi nodded.
"He turned the corner and found all the members of his clan, dead. He ran home, looked from room to room, then found his parents in the center of one, dead. When he was found, sometime later, in another part of the village, he was reported to have said that he saw them being killed. Every single one of them."
The expression on Naruto's face asked the question n his mind.
"I have looked into this. There is a certain type of Sharingan which allows the user to manipulate time."
Naruto stopped him for a moment.
"Did they ever find out exactly who did this?"
Kakashi closed his eyes.
"Itachi. Sasukes older brother."
There was something strange in Narutos blue eyes when he nodded.
"A Sharingan which manipulates time? How does that fit in?"
"The user can make his victim see or feel anything. I am almost positive Itachi used this on Sasuke, made him watch as he killed their entire clan."
There was pure hatred in Narutos eyes.
"Naruto," he said. "What do you think of Sasuke now?"
Kakashi waited for a response, but none came.
The Sasuke Uchiha fan club surrounded their favorite subject.
Sasuke.
He couldn't stand their constant jabbering, and he was pretty sure he'd hurt the next one to compliment him, girl or not. He desperately wanted to get away. Sakura, who was, by far, the absolute worst, hadn't let him get out of her sight since she'd found out he had returned home.
She was also the first to let out the cry that Naruto was coming. He felt immense relief.
Naruto was turning into his little blonde hero.
"Can I talk to Sasuke alone?" Naruto asked the girls. It was the wrong thing to say. Now they'd never leave.
"No way, Uzumaki!" An especially vicious one cried. Many others repeated her words.
"Fine," Naruto said. He approached Sasuke.
"What's he going to do now?" Sakura said, loud enough for everyone to hear. Naruto stopped, standing directly in front of Sasuke, who had his hands in his pockets, as was normal.
"You jerk!" Naruto cried.
Sasuke flinched away from Narutos tone. Naruto seemed to notice this, because he softened his voice.
"After what happened to Shuna's parents, why didn't you tell me what was wrong? Why didn't you tell me what Itachi did to you?" Naruto saw the look of pain in his eyes. "It is true, what Kakashi told me. He did make you watch it, didn't he?" His voice softened further. "It's alright," he said, pulling Sasuke into a tight embrace. "No one will ever do that to you again. I promise."
Sasuke closed his eyes, relaxing slightly, resting his head on the blonde's shoulder.
Abruptly, Naruto pushed him away. He bit his lip, as though fighting back something. He lost.
"Sasuke, you make everything so complicated!" Some girls giggled at this.
Naruto pushed him lightly, speaking softly once more. "I think I'm falling in love with you."
Everyone froze. Naruto seemed surprised at the exact words which had left his mouth.
There was a thump as a girl hit the ground in a dead faint.
Sasuke looked into the other boys blue eyes and did the only thing his body would allow him to do. He carefully bent toward Naruto, their faces centimeters away from each other, and brushed a light kiss across his lips.
"Me too," he said.
"Me too?" A few girls echoed.
"You're so funny! Don't joke about something like that!"
Sakura watched in shock. But then she smiled. They weren't joking.
"He's not trying to be funny. He's serious." She said. Many girls laughed.
"Are you serious?"
In answer to this, Sasuke brushed another kiss onto Naruto's lips. Then, he turned toward them, to the whole world, a slow sweet smile touching his face.
"I love Naruto Uzumaki!" He cried out.
Naruto smiled.
"I love you too, Sasuke Uchiha, I love you."
The End
Here's the last time I'll ask it: What did you think?
This story, so you know, was based off of a handfull of pictures I've seen and a song that shared the same title as the story. I'll put the lyrics on my profile, if you want to see them.
If you liked my writing, I am working on a new story, but it could take a little time for me to get it up. It is going to be called Always There.
So long for now!
