A.N.: Hello minna-san! Here is chappie 2! Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own it. I wish I did, though… T.T

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Everything the Crimson Tears Took Away

By Yoru no Tsuyu

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Chapter II: Promise almost long forgotten　あの遠く約束…

He didn't know exactly the reason, but he felt melancholic, somehow. As he made his way towards wherever his feet were taking him (he honestly wasn't paying attention where he was going), Naruto began having glimpses of years already passed, moments that had forever marked him. The villagers' dislike. Iruka-sensei's comfort… His Academy's graduation failure day… His fight against Mizuki… His assignment to Team Seven… His first kiss…

His face heated considerably at that precise memory. His first kiss, evilly stole by the teme. Dammit, most of his life seemed to be revolved around Sasuke-teme, wasn't it? His seemingly hatred towards him at the beginning… Then, their mutual rivalry, their mutual acknowledgment… Their constant bickering… And—heavens forbid—their constant saving of each other's asses. Their friendship… Their bond.

And Sasuke's attempt of cutting that bond.

And that memory stopped him on his tracks.

He was on the old training grounds, the place where former Team Seven was tested with the bell-thingy. The place where their bonds were first created.

His tanned hands touched the place where he was tied to when he tried to steal the bento box that time. A small bittersweet smile crossed his face; that was the first time when somebody –other than Iruka-sensei—had risked something for his sake. Even when he didn't want to admit it that time, that time…he'd felt really…happy.

And that was the place where he had learnt of the word 'teammate', of 'team', of the prospect that he didn't have to fight alone, that he was not alone. No any longer.

He had sure grown up since that time.

But still, some part of him didn't change, not completely. Some part of him still—

Some part of him still… still believed—

He looked up at the starless black-ink-like sky. And still looking into that sky, up that sky, and at that moon up there, he let his feet take him by their will—that sky, that full moon, reminded him, too much even, of that person so, so much…

He didn't understand it quite well, but lately…all he could think of was him—not that he had his mind on anything else since that day almost three years ago, but now—now it was simply overwhelming.

He sighed. Oh well… he would find that bastard, and beat his sorry ass for leaving them and made them worry. And then he would drag his sorry ass home—but not before beating some sense into him—both figuratively and literally.

He actually snickered at the idea—the bastard wouldn't even know what had hit him—

And then he stopped before falling on the water, with the possibility of getting at least a good soak, and a pneumonia at the most—didn't want to risk the damn Kyuubi over healing that—wait a minute; water?

Had he been so obliviously distracted on his own thoughts of how to get that prissy bastard back that he didn't actually realize that he was almost walking into the water—or what was more specifically, a dock? What good of a Hokage he'd make then, he thought wryly. …Dock… A sense of…sentimentality? came over him…

That was the place, when in a time when they both—he and the teme—had been—or should have been—innocent, and yet they both knew the meaning of loneliness, too early for their short age…

That was the place when he saw Sasuke, about eight years old at the time, his back to him, his front towards the water, and he was looking so incredibly sad and fragile and open and…even at that time he had already claimed that he hated the boy with all his soul and—for that second, for that fragment in time he genuinely thought that, that he could connect with him, that he could understand him somehow—and he just didn't want that look on the teme's face, on his eyes—it just didn't suit him. And, as his rival, that look would only make it so lame and boring and—well, his young mind reasoned and decided that that wrenching and lonely look absolutely didn't suit him. Yeah.

And then, when he felt, when he realized that he was caught looking—after all, he did pause on his way home in order to do so—he quickly and stubbornly looked away, a distasteful look on his face, and glaring for a good measure. The other, then, glared back. But as the blond boy continued on his way, he couldn't help but to grin triumphantly at the fact that he'd just succeeded on making the other wipe that depressing look off his face—he had glared, fire lighting those eyes again.

'This place…' Naruto thought, before crouching on the dock and bending so he could make contact with the water, which was cold he noted. He hadn't come here since those days, and he had honestly forgotten entirely about its existence, but—those sentiments that he had since that time hadn't changed one bit. If anything, they'd only gotten stronger with the passing of days, with the passing of time.

And sometimes, he himself didn't understand the reason of his feelings, of his unyielding determination. The only thing he was sure of was the fact that he was unable to cut those feelings, not mattering if the other adamantly already had tried to do so.

It was unbelievable just how much power the bastard had over him, even after all those years. And for once, for a strange reason, he didn't mind at all.

Wait, he didn't…? Since when he—

"Are you going to stand there all night, dobe?"

続く・・・

To Be Continued…

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Vocabulary

Nothing new, ne?

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A.N.: So, this was chappie 2. Hope you liked it. :D Comments, questions, corrections, are always welcomed.

So, ja na!

.: Tsuyu :.