I can breathe, I can walk, and I can think, the doctors say that I'm alive
But they don't feel what I feel, no bone or vein it's cracked in me,
It's spring but a part of me has died, while everything else it's again, alive.

I can see you smiling at me every time the sun arises
As if it's the summer when we first met,
The nights were many, but the days seemed to be more than ever, too less.

The colored leafs have made a carpet from the pavement
As we walked together, hand in hand,
But I should've known that the wind was my own punishment.

The winter has come here, snowflakes covering the whole earth
But it's like I'm the only one that feels cold and alone,
I often wonder: "Where did you go, my warmth?"

Chapter 9: Lost between snowflakes

One more step and the rain washed me, looking up at the sky with my eyes closed, I felt...

'Cold.' I thought alarmed as I felt one hand on my right shoulder, as I immediately twisted myself to look at the owner.

To see a man standing before me, with his hand still on my shoulder, a smirk embracing his lips, as he spoke to me from under the hood:

"You know if the writer, Uchiha Sasuke lives in this block?"

The question has shot the noise of the rain, of the wind and even of the thunder, making everything numb.

His voice was everything I heard, as if the rest was embraced by silence.

The time seems to have stopped in this very moment, while the drops of water fall all around us on the pavement, the colorless substance eclipses all the other existent colors of this world, she makes copies of them, she camouflages them into her inexistent color, into obscurity.

But in my mind, everything became white, as if the drops of water are camouflaging just one color, white. Thousands, no, even more, of white snowflakes fall from the sky, all around us, the space and time no longer exists, 'cause the whole space has become a colony of snowflakes, one over another one, creating one pure and immaculate white.

Where the sound and time can't perturb, destroy or dirty it.

'It's enough, move.'

I thought but my mouth continued to hang open.

With my eyes wide open, I asked myself why I am so shocked, but somehow, I know and that is what terrifies me.

" "Why did you come back?"

He seemed troubled by my question, even confused, while I waited for him to find his words.

"I left because...of someone from my past who knows of this apartment and who wanted to come back ... I was afraid that he will come back, and without thinking, I just ran away. And I..." "

The memory has appeared in my mind, in the same time when the thunder has broken the sky in two, with its sound and color. The face of the stranger covered in its light just for one second.

"No. He doesn't live here." I heard my sentence in the song of the silence, of my white snowflakes.

"I see..." He said with his smirk gone, and he patted my shoulder once, and then he walked away, like a shadow of the rain.

It must've lasted just some mere seconds in reality.

'Now what?' I asked myself while I've begun to run, back, to his apartment

Drops of water falling from my hair, from my clothes, and from my blue cap.

With my hand in the air, wondering what it's my next move.

'I met the person whom he's running from, I just saved him somehow, but I don't know if he will come back, or maybe that man was just a fan of his books, or something like that, maybe...'

Word after word, and excuses after excuses have appeared in my mind. But my poor hand is still hanging in the air. Wondering if I should enter or not in the back of my mind.

Somehow, after some seconds of fighting with myself, I decided to make order in my mind, to make silence so I can decide, and so, without any thought involved, I've put my hand on the knob of the door.

'Have you forgotten why you've left?'

The thought has appeared from nowhere, but it has made my eyes to open but not alone, my mind has also opened the remembrance, in the same time, as the thunder.

" Still, he also rose up when he understood, and he even put his hands on mine to stop me from taking off my blouse, his blouse, which was pulled just halfway.

"What are you doing?" He asked me with a dead tone, a voice from a tomb.

"Leaving. What? You think you're the only one who's allowed to leave?" I asked in a mocking tone.

"Why?" He asked with his dead voice. He even closed his eyes after.

I can't tell if it's because of anger or worry.

"Why do you even care? I'm a stranger, you're a stranger! I don't want to live with someone like you!" I said, mostly yelled, and his hands have fallen by his sides, slowly but surely.""

As if copying its move, its pain, its color, as if I am the drop of water which is in the storm while I know he is the snowflake, cold and lonely, my hand has fell by my side.

'I have no right to be worried about him, he is the first one to come back after he left me, and instead of being happy about it, I left him.'

I thought quietly as I let my back to slide against the entrance door.

I stood there; I slept there, until the morning has arrived, until the sun woke me up with its rays.

But even if I'm awake, I didn't get up from my place at all.

Until the door has asked me to get up. And I did, and I hid behind the wood of the door, in its shadow, in the dark, and I watched as he made its steps on the sandstone.

'Hey, old man... I've met the person you're hiding from and he was kind of creepy, but I told him that you're not here anymore, even though I don't know if he believed me, be careful...Sasuke...'

The sentence has been told, in my mind, I told him everything as I watched him walking away to nowhere, washed in the rays of the sun until I could no longer see him.

'I'm sorry.' I continued the rest of my sentence as I felt the urge to cry getting stronger and stronger.

And so, I got up and I ran away, away from him, away from me, and away from everything.

…..*…..….

" I said and he moved, I felt him but I dared not to look at him while I've realized that he has sat himself normally on the bank too, at my left, but he doesn't looks in front of him, like me but at me.

"So, you're a cop or something?"

He asked me, but he doesn't seem frightened to ask this, and for a moment, I wanted to say yes, just to see if he would run away from me right now if my answer would be affirmative.

"Do I look like a cop to you?"

Childish, if I could only name him in any other way. He put one leg over the other one that is on the bank, and he kept them there with his two hands while he just balanced his body, back and forward while he still talks to me.

"Well, I don't know, you walk through the park at midnight so maybe you do some shitty night tour."

"Wrong."

I somehow felt like he didn't mean those words but said them just as if to continue our conversation. The same I want after all, too, because I could give all of his answers and our conversation would be long gone, but no. We continue to ask, to taunt, to talk just so we won't be just us and the silence, us and the wind, us and the empty park."

The memory, because it had become a memory, I watched it playing before my eyes, as I stand in the middle of my living room.

How much time has passed since he left?

'I don't know.'

Why do I react like this?

'I don't know.'

Somehow, I realize that the real him has been showed to me just in that park, because since I got him in my apartment, I saw just fragments of the real him. He changed his behavior because of me and I hated it, every single bit.

'The real him…'

" "The smoke from my cigarette has begun dirtying the air of the night while he begun to talk irritated.

"You tell me not to smoke, but you can?"

I knew he will wait for my answer so I inspired the poison from my cigarette to my lungs again while the evidence were left in the air and then, I've turned my head to look at him while I knew he still looks at me and that he won't look somewhere else.

I bowed my head a little closer to him so just I could gain his attention to what I say.

"You're underage, aren't you?"

I asked and he didn't seem to be surprised by my question at all, while he smiled and talked to me while he bowed his head closer to me too, copying my earlier move.

"Sure you're not a cop?"

He asked but none of us moved so I just looked forward and I took a taste from my cigarette again and then, I let it to be blown away by the small breeze that has passed and finished with my smoke in the same time.""

'And …'

" "Wow!"

I was lost in my thoughts when he suddenly exclaimed from my bedroom in which I didn't observed that he entered.

'Quick boy.' I thought while I've realized that he must have opened the door slowly so I wouldn't hear him while smoking my cigarette and maybe I even seemed to think about something else.

'I took my eyes off of him just for a second.'

I ignored almost all that he said because he mostly made useless comments, more to himself, but I quickly ran to my own bedroom when he yelled.

He is now on the bed with Felix in his arms.

I just walked to my table and I thrown the now finished cigarette, and I immediately lit another one and just then I spoke to him:

"Why did you scream if you're not scared of cats?"

I asked him in a monotone voice while I successfully lit another cigarette and I immediately begun to devour it.

"I was just surprised by it."

He said while he still rubs the cat and the cat answered with its purring. "

'…and...'

" But I remained in reality while I watched his face, the rebel blond hair and the closed eyes.

I put the cigarette between my lips again and let it there while with my right hand I begun to slowly pull down the shirt that was up, but I was surprised and my eyes opened wider, as if the thunder has spread and exploded on the sky again, but no.

He caught my hand with his and then he has turned himself on his right side, still holding onto my hand as if he is holding a teddy bear to his chest.

'He doesn't realize.' I thought quickly while I closed my eyes for a second.

I tried to retreat my hand, but at first, he didn't allowed me, but the second time I tried while holding onto his hand, and I tried to retreat the other trapped hand, I succeed but didn't, 'cause he caught the hand with which I tried to free the other one.

I stared at him while I couldn't believe he behaves like this even when he is asleep.

'What was in my head?'

I continued to stare at him while he made a sound which I couldn't identify as anything else than a groan of a man asleep, but still…

'How tired are you?'

I stared at our hands without any real motive, my mind blank and my cigarette continued to burn on its own while I asked nothing from it.

"Sasuke?"

I've quickly looked up at him but I remained the same. But he is with sleepy and confused blue eyes staring back at me.

We both know our positions, and there is nothing to be embarrassed about but I am sure I will soon become a little because without reason, we continue to stare at each other's eyes and none of us will move.

"Good morning."

I said and I've realized that I could hear the water drops on the window of the living room too. I could hear the rain but there was no thunder, just the child that it's still crying.

He stared at me and he closed its eyes as if trying to come back to reality and then he spoke in a low sleepy voice:

"Morning." "

'…and this was the real him for sure…'

""So…"

He began to say while he still walks through the apartment, left and right until he sat down beside me.

"I can pretty much figure out that this couch is my bed, but you will at least give one blanket, no?"

I almost forgot that it's still night and that we must sleep. When I answered him with an affirmative answer some hours ago, I didn't think where he will sleep or things like that. All I knew was that I wanted something new in my life and it seemed that I just did it; I just received the opportunity of a change.

'Even if I am not the spontaneous type, not at all…'

"A blanket comes"

I said as I got up and walked to my bedroom, to the closet and I took out a blanket and one white sheet and then to my bed and I took one pillow from the two that are, then walked back to the living room, but he was gone.

'Why you…"

I've put the things on the couch and right then, I heard something that came from the kitchen.

When I walked in, he was with his head in the fridge. I sat myself against the wall behind him and with my hands at my chest, and I made a small coughing sound to get his attention.

He hit his head to one of the shelf that was above his head of the fridge and then he immediately begun to massage the hurt spot while he turned around and looked at me with a small smile. Felix has run away from his arms after he hit his head.

"I was… I just…" "

'…and then…'

" So he is now standing, leaning into the wall of the theater, and looks at me and after some seconds, he spoke:

"Why don't you smoke inside?"

"It's not allowed."

I answered and just then I realized something.

"It's your first time coming to a theater?"

I asked him and he quickly stopped looking at me. He has closed his eyes, and then he looked at the ground while talking to me.
"Yeah, so what? Anyway, you won't give me one of yours even if I ask you nicely, no?"

I've realized that he has changed the subject with something that would really work, the cigarettes that I don't want him to smoke, but I am not so young to don't know what he does but I just pretend I didn't noticed and I continue his game.

'I won't force him to tell me if he doesn't want to.' I thought and just then I answered him.

"I won't give you one, even if you'll beg me. You're still underage."

I said really relaxed and he didn't stare at the ground anymore but at me, smiling.

'That can't be good.' I thought quickly while I met his gaze.

"If I begin to shout like crazy, you'll give me one, no?"

He said and I responded, with smoking a bit more in his face.

"You can shout all you want. They'll throw you somewhere, not me, and you will have to stay on the streets until the play will end because you don't even have a key."

I said rather calm and he didn't seem to enjoy my answer. His smile has quickly disappeared. "

'…and now…'

I thought and I remembered while I got up from the couch, didn't even realized that I sat myself down and then, to realize that it's already morning.

I begun to walk, barely realizing that I'm at the entrance door, opening it and with unsure steps while my mind was sure about what to think about, what to see instead of reality, I walked at first on the sandstone of the apartment then, on the pavement.

Remembering:

""What are you doing?" I asked him with a dead tone, a voice from a tomb.

"Leaving. What? You think you're the only one who's allowed to leave?" He asked me in a mocking tone.

"Why?" I asked with my dead voice. I even closed my eyes after.

I can't tell if it's because I'm angry or worried.

"Why do you even care? I'm a stranger, you're a stranger! I don't want to live with someone like you!" He said, mostly yelled, and my hands have fallen by my sides, slowly but surely." "

And then, I looked back at the apartment, while I'm several steps ahead of it but not many and I saw a blond boy with bright blue eyes running from the block to the opposite direction of where I am, a blond boy with tears in his eyes.

I watched him with sad eyes, while my feet feel like they are pinned in the pavement, I feel like something in me has broke in two. While I thought, while I feel like I want to talk to him and I do.

"Tell me your name."

I said after I've realized that he won't say any word after some seconds of pure silence.

I looked up at him and he looked down at me while he was surprised by my words.

"Naruto. My name is Naruto."

He said and in that moment, I stood up and I looked him in the eye.

"Well, Naruto, would you like me to tell you to come with me at an empty apartment, with little food in which it's too hot when it's summer and too cold in the winter, with me, a stranger?"

I asked while his smile was so big and so sad that I could not beat an eyelash until he spoke again.

"Yes, I would like this answer very much."

I could tell that no matter the fact that I could be a serial killer and my apartment to have the most despicable conditions; it would be more pleasant than to sleep on a bank in the park, all alone.

After all, I knew those feelings so well, too well.

So I sat down on the bank again, on my spot, and opened my cigarette package and I lit one cigarette,then put everything back and I can enjoy the taste, the smoke is left in the air and then my words have came with the breeze of the late summer in that day.

"Then this is your answer."

He is confused, even more than confused, the possibility that I really want to take him with me, he cannot tell if I'm serious or not. He cannot tell if he is right when he thinks that he has just received an affirmative answer. So, our game with our own words has come to an end when he asked me the final question, while he boils of curiosity.

"You mean that I can go with you, you mean that I live with you now and that…"

He said rather quickly and all that I do is to nod my head in affirmation, up and down while the air is now dirty.

While he almost jumped when he realized and ran towards me and embraced me and after some seconds of silence, he got up and talked again.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable, uh, I …don't know…"

Happy, that is the feeling that he feels in this moment, that feeling alone.

Even the fear that his expectations would be destroyed didn't dare to touch his happiness.

So, all I did was to enjoy my cigarette, while he manifested his nervousness and happiness right in front of my very eyes.

"But…"

He suddenly said and just then, I almost finished my cigarette while he spoke to me once again.

"You didn't tell me what's your name yet…"

He said and I could tell that he tried to resist the urge to say old man again and he just stared at me, waiting. While I thrown the cigarette to my feet while I stood up and crushed it in the same time under my shoe, and then, I responded him.

"Sasuke, Sasuke Uchiha."

And so, as I stopped walking, stopped in one particular spot in time and space, I talked to him, within me:

'Hey, Naruto, you really are a runaway, aren't you?'

I thought, as I continued to walk away in my direction, slowly, moving along with my memories in my mind, walking towards nowhere.

To be continued…

Ta Dam! Long chapter, huh? Well, there are mostly just memories in it so it's not so very long for me even if I thought about the times when I've showed the true character of Naruto, to explain, Naruto is really a brat in my story, well not a bad one, but with a dirty mouth, I mean about the way he talks and all that and these are the parts where he shows a bit of them in each but then, he acts grateful and all that because he wants to, he is really a runaway and this is not his home, yet, so he acts like the owner does, as you can see, he doesn't swears because Sasuke told him not to, and many other things, the only thing he didn't change was the thing with the 'old man' which he uses until the very end, well that's for now.

The action starts after all! I've put many small things in each chapter so they will tell about the character or about the past, but each thing at a time people!

And I hope everybody realized that at the middle or not so, almost at the beginning, the point of view changes, after Naruto runs away and we come back to Sasuke's point of view, as I explained before, 5 chapter each character but I guess I should've done it in chapter 10, not 9 but I did it with the simple reason which is: I'm the writer and I hope I didn't upset you guys because of it but I just couldn't do it differently, I wish I could've keep it like 5 chapter each, I will try to do it from now on, well, it depends even so…

It's a sad chapter…at least for me, I think it is, but anyway, hope everybody liked it!

The next chapter will be up in two weeks, aka 7, 8 or 9 October.

I don't know if I told you guys but I will continue to tell you guys about my poll until I get more votes. Hope I annoy you enough to make you participate (yeah, I am evil but I am not in a good mood right now, I am even sick so…sorry anyway).

See you next time.