Author's note: I woke up at five A.M. to write this chapter because I couldn't stop thinking about it all night… *bows* enjoy.

Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me… whatever… blech.

Sleepless Nights

Chapter 12

Confession

"Can I really go home? Or are you just saying that?" Sasuke glared critically past the nurse who changed his bandages at Tsunade and Naruto. His eyes narrowed and he frowned, "Because that would be a cruel joke, even for you hag." Tsunade flipped him the bird and a steady stream of expletives before Naruto cut her off.

"Sasuke, don't get worked up like that! You're going to wear yourself out." He whined, Naruto shoved the nurse aside and pressed a hand to Sasuke's forehead looking for a fever. When he didn't find what he was looking for he sat down on the edge of the bed and slipped his hand into Sasuke's, "Are you feeling alright?"

The Uchiha nodded, "So can I go home or not?"

"Well, since you're still sick you could stay here as long as you need but I'd prefer you get the hell out of my hospital. My best nurse has trouble even coming in to work with you around." A grim sentiment came over each party at the thought of Sakura who'd come in to see Sasuke and Naruto a few times but mostly kept to the midwife's ward on the other side of the building.

"Don't worry, she'll come around." Naruto assured, smiling at Sasuke who still had a sour frown on his face. He'd been worrying about Sakura since he woke up; in the three weeks that followed his awakening the girl had only shown up at lunch time to bring Naruto a bento before leaving right back to work.

Sure, Sasuke had broken and re-broken her heart over the years but wasn't she over that? Hadn't Naruto told him that she was getting ready to ask Lee out? Then perhaps her problem was that Sasuke'd left such dark scars that she couldn't help but to remember them when she saw him, maybe his brutal mistreatment of her feelings had a permanent effect on the way she saw him. At the thought of such a thing Sasuke shivered.

"I'm only clearing you to live on your own because I know you function better in your own atmosphere. Of course there will still be Anbu watching your every move and I'll have a shinobi over every week to check your progress, or, how you've been dealing with society up until that point." Said Tsunade, "If you want to go I will assign some shinobi that don't have a problem with you to help you move and make the house suitable for human life…"

Wow, I'm actually getting to go home, Sasuke thought in wonderment. He was under the impression that when he returned to the village the Hokage would have her thumb on him the rest of his life. He shot a glance at Naruto who grinned at him from the edge of the bed. I wonder who persuaded her to change her mind.

Sasuke had seen what he'd done to Naruto by injuring himself firsthand, for at least a week it was Sasuke playing doctor for Naruto. It had been a challenge to get him to eat again and to leave Sasuke's side for a second to take a damn shower but Sasuke'd done it, and was pretty proud of himself for it.

I know I can't leave him again, for all I know he'll jump off the same cliff I jump off of when the time comes. Sasuke couldn't help but be overjoyed with the fact that Naruto would follow him anywhere if it meant the best friends being together there. If I actually did go back to my own home I would still be able to see Naruto whenever he wanted and I wouldn't be close enough to be able to hurt him at all… alright, then it's decided.

Sasuke stuck out his bottom lip for a mock pout and crossed his arms over his chest, "Well it's about damn time you let me go home, that's all I wanted from the very beginning." He glared at Tsunade for a moment, surprised that hers was a face of disbelief rather than one of relief. He saw that she wasn't even looking at him and followed her line of sight to Naruto and immediately regretted opening his mouth at all.

The blonde had frozen stiff, halted completely in the act of reaching for Sasuke's hand. His blue eyes were bright but the light that could usually be found in them was clouded over with a plethora of emotions Sasuke could not identify. Naruto looked as though he were about to burst into tears, his mouth hung half open and he stared straight into Sasuke's eyes but there was no way to tell if he was actually seeing anything.

With a broken voice that Naruto struggled to keep a calm hold on he said, "Didn't you want to stay?"

Sasuke's mouth dropped open immediately in an attempt to explain himself but no words would come out. Had he given Naruto abandonment issues as well? Oh, why did he have to open his stupid ass mouth without thinking of what he said would do to him? All Sasuke could do was just sit there fumbling for the words he wanted to say but still unable to actually say a thing, he did want to stay, he wanted to stay at Naruto's house because it was warm and comfortable and familiar and that place… that place was home.

Dear God, Sasuke thought, what have I done?

X

Geeziz! How many boxes were there in that storage unit? Naruto thought begrudgingly as he carried in a particularly heavy one filled with weapons no doubt. He set it down on the kitchen bar and whipped the sweat off of his face with the back of his hand and sleeve, sitting down for a well earned rest.

They'd been moving all of Sasuke's things back into his home all day, and there was still over half of the storage unit left to go as well as cleaning the house!

Well, maybe if Sasuke would let anyone else help this whole process would go by faster. Naruto thought. That's right, it was just him and Sasuke moving everything back into the ancient compound. And addition to having to move all the heavy boxes to their respective rooms Sasuke insisted that they clean the house from top to bottom as well. And maybe if he wasn't so allergic to dust this would go faster, and if he didn't have so much stuff, and if he didn't need to move at all…

Naruto sighed, breaking his careful train of thought and layed back on the couch, closing his eyes. He'd pretty much come to terms with the fact that Sasuke was moving out, it was just that the first time he'd heard it had shocked him. He sincerely thought that Sasuke was comfortable where he was, "If it's what he wants it's what he'll get, whether I approve or not."

Despite the idiotic front he always put up Naruto would have been a brilliant actor in any other place or time. He'd shown Sasuke ten times over that he supported his decision to move out of his house and even went so far as to seem like he was happy about the change even though his feelings were quite the opposite. He just didn't want Sasuke thinking he'd hurt him again by doing what he wanted, honestly, Naruto didn't know why Sasuke worried so much about that now. No one's feelings had ever stopped him from doing what he wanted before.

No! Stop that, he wasn't right back then. Everything's alright now, Sasuke's home and that's all that matters. Naruto rolled onto his side and closed his eyes. I shouldn't think about things that would suggest otherwise.

But he did know of something else that mattered, something that was so horribly important that thinking of it had consumed more than enough of Naruto's time until then.

The blonde shook his head and pressed his hands over his eyes trying to banish the thought from his mind. They'd talk about it later, later! There's no reason to bring it up now it'll just make him mad! Naruto found himself tossing and turning so violently that he rolled right onto the floor.

For a moment Naruto lay still as a grin spread slowly across his face and he burst into a sudden fit of rapturous laughter. He rolled onto his stomach and put his hands in his face again to keep down a blush.

"He said he loved me!"

Sasuke had said it just before Naruto woke up from his nap, it wasn't a dream and he definitely wasn't hearing any voices other than the one he always heard. The only reason Naruto hadn't called Sasuke out for pretending to regain consciousness a few minutes later was because there were other people around and Naruto had forgotten everything about it as soon as the raven opened his angelic eyes.

Body still racked with laughter, Naruto got up and back to work. Now all he had yet to do, other than finish getting all of Sasuke's things inside, was to confess to him as well and they would live happily ever after as the underdogs. The lucky ones. Forever together in bliss.

Or as long as forever would last.

Another heavy box went to its own dusty room again and again, so on and so forth until Naruto was completely finished.

Now, Naruto, hoping to at the least take Sasuke out for a celebratory dinner to commemorate his getting his house back hurried back into the house after sending the driver away.

This occasion calls for something a bit more special than Ichiraku, maybe he'll let me take him to a high class restaurant. Of course then if we do go we'll have to go shopping first, I don't think I saw a single suit in all of those boxes… Sasuke in a suit… Naruto grinned as his eyes glazed over with fantasies of Sasuke's perfect body packed perfectly into the black package of a suit just for him, how Sasuke would look in formal gear, and how he would look taking it off at the end of the night.

The blonde stepped into the living room and looked around, nope, no Sasuke here. Same went for the dining room the family room and seven of the innumerable amount of bedrooms and bathrooms dotting the house. He finally stopped in what he'd assumed was Sasuke's room and cupped his hands to his mouth.

"Sasuke? Where are you? You're gonna have to tell me, your house is too big!" he paused and listened for a moment but didn't get an answer. He called again and again with no avail, wherever he was Sasuke couldn't hear him.

Suddenly, Naruto panicked. The last time Sasuke hadn't answered him… he'd been dying that time. What if Sasuke was in trouble again, how was Naruto to ever find him in such a house with so many rooms and wrong ways to go.

The blonde became frantic and took off in a dead sprint into the hallway upon hearing the echo of glass shattering in some distant room.

"Sasuke? Sasuke where are you? Answer me!" it was only the sound of the crashes one after another that finally led Naruto outside and down the wraparound porch until he'd made it to a pair of large wooden double doors. He didn't waste any time wondering what he would see but shoved them right open.

"Sasuke?" he gasped and immediately rushed forward to where the raven sat on the ground in a pile of glass shards. Blood seeped out of his feet as he strode over the bed of glass, but Naruto approached the raven regardless. Sasuke was facing the wall away from him with his knees pulled up to his chest and his hands pressed over his ears as though to block out half of a conversation he didn't want to hear.

"Sasuke are you alright?" he placed a hand softly on his shoulder and tightened his grip when Sasuke tried to jerk away.

Sasuke removed his hands and looked up at the worried look on Naruto's face. "I – I wanted to put the vases on the shelf but I… I dropped them."

It looks more like you threw them to me. Naruto thought, he crouched down next to the Uchiha and wrapped his arms around him.

"Why don't you tell me what's wrong, I'll know if you lie to me." He said that last part quietly, not wanting to offend the raven, but instead of getting mad Sasuke buried his face in Naruto's shirt to hide the fact that he was already crying.

"I can't be here anymore, I – I just can't!" he wailed, "Every step I take I can hear them, my parents… my brother… I can't live in this place, Naruto; I think I'll go insane! It's like they're still here, every one of them, my brother telling me he'll be there for me, my parents telling me to do better. Even that night! I can hear them, Naruto, I can…"

Sasuke turned to look behind them at a black spot in the center of the room that had been long since stained into the wooden floor before shoving his face back into Naruto's chest, nearly knocking them both to the ground.

This is his parents' room? Why the hell would he come back here, didn't he think this would happen? How was Sasuke going to get over this one?

The raven laughed a sickly laugh and hugged himself tightly, "What was I thinking coming back here? Did I really think they wouldn't haunt me even now? It was me; I killed them, all of them…"

No way, he can't blame himself for the deaths of his parents. And why the hell should he care if Itachi died? That bastard deserved it! No, this needs to stop now, stop blaming yourself for everything; it's not your fault!

Naruto lashed out, capturing the raven's face in his hands and before either of them really knew what was going on his lips crashed recklessly into Sasuke's. This was the most pleasurable way Naruto could think of to get Sasuke to shut up and listen to him.

"Stop it." He ordered, "I don't want to hear you say anything like that ever again! You have no idea how much it hurts to hear you hating yourself like that! I forbid you from ever saying anything bad about yourself again."

"But why –"

"Because I love you Sasuke! I've always loved you and I'm pissed that it's taken this long for me to be able to tell you, but you have to understand Sasuke. I haven't left your side and I won't ever because I can't live without you there, I love you… so much, and I know you love me too. I heard you say you loved me in the hospital." The blonde's eyes searched Sasuke's desperately for some sign that he'd finally gotten through to him that there was someone who was there for him, someone who cared, one person who would never leave him.

"Sasuke… say you love me, please, I need to hear you say it." Naruto reached out and took both of Sasuke's hands in his and kissed the lightening scars on his wrists, "Please."

Sasuke had been stunned and afraid at first. Naruto had heard him confess in the hospital? What the hell.

Well, cat's out of the bag, there's no going back now.

Suddenly Naruto gasped as he was thrown onto his back on the glass shards and the floor. Sasuke tackled him to the ground in a kiss that held every last shred of loneliness and need the raven had held behind the scenes since he recognized what Naruto really was to him. He kissed Naruto's face and mouth with finality, the blonde was his now. Naruto belonged to Sasuke now and forever, there wasn't anything better he could possibly ask for.

"I love you too, Naruto!"

Author's note: There, I managed to make this one a bit longer but it's still short in my eyes, sorry. Anyway, for some reason this chapter was very hard to write for me, I had to hold back pretty far to keep from spilling everything for the rest of the story right here, haha.

Reviews por favor? Me gusta mucho los reviews!