Disclaimer: No legal claim to Naruto, not making profit through this.
Basics: PG13/T, General/Drama/Angst, Canon, 6/100
Warnings: Profanity, mature themes (notes: mentions of alcohol)
Word count: 391
Theme: disappear (195)

Author's note: 1000!theme challenge from Mint Pizza Queen. Organized into 10 fics, 100 ch each. They're loosely related, held together by an umbrella theme of love and life.

x. disappear

Though he had ordered it, Naruto couldn't bring himself to eat the crap-they-called-food that had been plunked down unceremoniously in front of him. The blond chuunin was eighty miles from Konoha, dead tired, half-starving even- but he looked at the way the gelatinous grayish sauce dribbled over the side of the scratched-up cheap plate and Naruto figured he could postpone satisfying his hunger.

The blond teenager abruptly stood up and looked for a place to dispose of the supposedly-edible stuff quivering on his plate, blue eyes scanning through the bar's mostly-intoxicated population. Instead, Naruto felt a presence that made him forget about the awful food, his exhaustion, his being far from home.

He knew who exuded that power.

Turning slightly, eyes narrowed as his expression tightened and the chuunin stiffened.

Sasuke Uchiha was standing in the bar doorway.

Konoha's former favorite and current traitor, Naruto's best friend- ex best friend?- cut a stark figure against the black sky behind him, with his crisp white garments and violet sash, the pale complexion and the fiercely dark hair and even darker eyes, the mostly-sheathed sword gleaming at his hip… It was clear that Sasuke didn't belong here, no more than Naruto belonged here. No, Sasuke was too dark and Naruto was too bright for this mass of hopeless drunks and ragtag workingmen who were trying too hard.

And yet they were both here, so galactically apart from the other men in this dingy room, so galactically far away from each other.

Naruto's breath hitched even as he made himself slide out of sight with practiced ease, nerves crackling, power suddenly infused in his veins.

Naruto watched the Uchiha tense and even hiding, Naruto could see a small frown playing on Sasuke's lips. 'Shit, the bastard knows I'm here.'

Naruto's hands were halfway to his kunai when Sasuke disappeared from the doorway.

Naruto cursed again. He hurtled through the dense packet of intoxicated people, his own ears vaguely registering the sounds of his rapidly falling steps and the outraged protests of people being shoved out of the way.

Naruto knew it was too late even before he reached the doorway, before he thrust his body through the frame. He knew it was too late even before he made it outside and was met only with the desperate silence of the black night.