AN: Well, writing is slow a s h I t but hey, I'm getting chappies out there ;) LOL Cheers!
When Naruto returned to the apartment, he found Sasuke deep into a book. His nose was almost in it. "Sounds like that book isn't that bad kit." He smirked when all he got was a soft humph from behind the cover. Nevertheless, Sasuke finished up and closing the book, stood, pointing to two bags by the couch. "I think it's all we need, do you want to do a check scan?"
"I think we're good.' Naruto smiled and grabbed both. "let's get out into the great outdoors!...what?" he chuckled when he caught Sasuke's rolling eyes. "Your enthusiasm is creepy." Sasuke drawled, walking out after him and locking the door.
"I like camping." Naruto shrugged. "I'm actually excited."
"Do you do this a lot? Sasuke was curious. Thy had stepped into the elevator and Naruto's eyes were glued to the jumping numbers. Somehow the raven knew that Naruto was far from the little elevator they were occupying. He wanted to keep the conversation minimal and pleasant, easy for Naruto to not think too much.
"When I was a kid Jiraiya used to take me camping every weekend he had free. He taught me a lot about the great outdoors. He taught me to find peace in nature, and to be comfortable being alone with myself… being comfortable with yourself is important kit, though I think lately I've been shitty at it."
"So this will be practice then? To regain that level of peace." Sauske nodded. He felt easier about not taking Naruto's pills now. He'd been apprehensive but the speech Naruto had given him assured him it was partly the pills he was talking about when he talked of being shitty at being with himself. This then, would truly mean that Naruto would have to relearn. He'd have no drugs to fall back on.
"What about yourself?" Naruto asked. They'd gotten to the car and while Sauske slipped in the blonde walked around to the back and popped the trunk. They made eye contact through the mirror. "How are you at being comfy?"
Sasuke didn't have to think. "I'd say I'm better at it than you."
Naruto tsked as he got into the front. "No shit, I've noticed. Have you always been like that?"
"Like what?" Sasuke sniffed. He could feel Naruto wanting to poke fun at him.
"Dark, gloomy and mysterious…" This was said with a considerable drop of tone and Sasuke promptly punched the arm closest to him.
"I've always been quiet asshole, even as a kid we-" Sasuke bit his tongue. "we're going far?" WHAT a shitty save that was. Even Sasuke himself flinched at what came out of his mouth. He'd been on the brink of telling Naruto about him and his brother. The save what crap, but it was that necessary.
For his part, Naruto didn't say anything, eyes glued to the road. "I guess it's just who you are." He smiled and glanced at him quickly. "It's cool." Those two words were all it took to make Sasuke feel like absolute shit.
"I was a horrible kid, sounds like the exact opposite of you."
Sasuke perked at that, despite not wanting to reveal himself, he was dying to know more about the blonde. He didn't know if he should prompt after so an obvious duck form himself. "I'm sure you weren't that bad."
"Duuuude, you've no idea." Naruto smirked. "I was a street kid with a vengeance. The terror of my neighborhood and gang leader numba one!"
"You were a gang leader?" Sasuke was truly surprised by this. "You don't look the type."
That got a laugh out of the blonde. "I know right? Not what you expect at all but there was a time…" he looked away, face grown serious. "Homeless kids have that tendency to stick together and I… I was no different."
Sasuke looked at Naruto, wanting to comfort. No good idea came. "Will you tell me?"
Naruto looked at him up and down, stopping on his eyes. "What will you tell me?"
It was Sasuke's turn to look away.
"My house burned down when I was about 2… maybe 3? Anyways, both my parents died in that fire and just like that, I was on the streets. No one really cares for kid who has nothing, no family, connections, no money… I ran from my home before the police started sniffing around and met up with my only friend, this kid.. Gaara I think his name was. He had no family too but with the weirdness of that kid, he might have killed them himself." Naruto chuckled… "I was a bouncy, happy go lucky kid until then, but a life with no adults is hard, Gaara was only about two years older than me but he was ruthless to anyone it seemed, who wasn't me. We stole anything we could, that included food and weapons… I had to take my energy and use it to survive. Gaara taught me everything I knew. He was my only friend, my first friend. The only person who held me at night when we slept. When we were older, he took a bullet for me.. yeah, we began dealing in those when we were older…" he looked to Sasuke nervously but found the raven in rapt attention, no hint of condemnation whatsoever. "Anyways, he was my first kids, first lover… damn, that kid was my first everything."
"Your first love?" Sasuke had to ask. He was beginning to feel pangs of jealousy, overrun with sorrow and shame. His life looked peachy compared to this…
Naruto didn't answer this and the look he gave him said it all. There was no love for him since. Sasuke had a nasty feeling that Naruto loved this Gaara still. "Is Gaara alive?" he had to know. The way Naruto was going on, it sounded like he was dead.
"I don't know."
"?" Sasuke had to just look.
"We were in a tight mess this one time. Got involved with a real gang I guess… before there were just the two of us, dealing, smuggling and stealing. Then we were surrounded by about six, maybe more… I don't remember, but we both knew this was some hardcore shit. They noticed us, and that was never good. Well, they attacked us and I gotta say we held our end up pretty well… Then the cops arrived. The gang split, but this guy that was trying to beat me up pulled a gun." Sasuke's eyes got big, even he could tell. This was indeed, some scary shit.
"He shot me twice at close range. I didn't even feel the pain, but I couldn't hear sound. It was like someone turned off the sound. I saw three cars skid to a stop before me and cops ran out. I fell, and saw Gaara running in the opposite direction, not looking back. I guess he was scared too… I remember I was relieved they hadn't hurt him… the gang had split before I hit the ground. They had bikes and the police were no contestant. They decided to take me to the hospital and made that their priority. That's all I remember. I woke up bandaged a month later."
Sasuke had to take a gaping breath because he hadn't realized he'd been holding his. "God, what torture." He shook his head.
"When I came to and began healing I met Jiraiya. He just turned up one night when I woke up and introduced himself to me. He'd ran a check and discovered I was a kid missing for about ten years. He wanted to know everything and I told him all. I insisted he go back to check up for Gaara. That was my priority. I rent and raged and pleaded with him and he went. I even gave him the instructions to our hideout, a hole we'd dug by some abandoned train tracks, cliché I know… But he came back with nothing. The place was abandoned, no traces of use… nothing. My heart died that night. Then it turned out that Jiraiya knew my Dad briefly sand he decided to adopt me, sort of… He made me promise to change, and not smuggle, steal.. I did, I promised him and haven't looked back since."
"Except for Gaara." This wasn't a question. Sasuke knew that Naruto hadn't forgotten. The blonde nodded . "After I got better I looked for him myself. It was hard, because we didn't have contacts or friends, at least none that I knew of so I had to look by myself. Well, trust me, I looked… Looked for about three years. God, that was an awful time…"
"Then you finally gave up."
"It took my failing high school and almost killing a kid in my class to figure out that something was wrong, but since then, I think I'm on better tracks."
"Yeah, you really are." Sasuke smiled. "So is that what the experiment was? I reminded you of yourself?"
"I guess a small part was that, but you are different Sasuke, you are yourself."
The raven thought about that for a minute. The car was silent. It was sunny out, not a cloud in the sky and they were speeding on a white, relatively empty highway. There were trees on both sides of the way – a sort of valley. The brilliant colours of the changing trees had Sasuke in a bittersweet mood. "I'm kind of glad this is how it turned out, you know… We'd have never met."
Naruto looked at him, face very serious, eyes thankful. "Yeah, I agree with ya kit."
AN: Enjoy dearies!