The Necklace: Chapter 4

Summary: It was a joke, that's all it really was. Until it became serious, then everyone was heartbroken. Especially Sasuke. NaruSasu, AU, Yaoi, and enough cusses to feed the starving penguins in Artantica.

Warnings: Yaoi (As in boy X boy), OOC-ness, cross-dressing, cussing (And lots of it), explosive farts, cuddling, OC retards, sucky writing, non-sense, and enough pie to go 'round.

They walked. They talked. They saw people they had to call 'guy' or 'girl' because of the lack of knowledge of a name. Max tried and tried, but the only thing to reward them was an old and retired jeweler. Max tried to look on the bright side, but Naruto only thought of Sasuke. It was all for Sasuke.

Did they fail?

…Did he fail?

"So, young 'uns, what you want?" The old man asked in a raspy voice.

"We need you to… fix something. Right, Naruto?" Max asked, nudging Naruto with his elbow. Naruto continued to look down at the ground, once no reply was given for a good minute, Max spoke again.

"He's upset."

"I can see that. Now, what did you young men want me to fix?"

"Naruto?" Max asked, Naruto looked up only slightly. The old man was balding still, was wearing a white dress shirt, pants and suspenders to finish it off. (A/N: 0.0 I'm so weird.) Naruto held out his hand, the necklace dangling from it.

"Th-this." Naruto spoke softly.

"This old thing?" The man asked, looking at Naruto.

"It's- don't insult it!" Naruto yelled. The old man chuckled.

"Do you like Sasuke?" He asked, walking around with the necklace, looking for something.

"Wha-what? You know Sasuke?" Naruto asked.

"Isn't Sasuke just your friend?" Max asked, confused about what the hell was unraveling right before his eyes. "Naruto?" The old man looked at Max, and asked a single question in that raspy voice of his.

"He doesn't know?" He asked, looking at Naruto.

"No… but, that's beside the point. How do you know Sasuke?"

"He's always getting into trouble. His owners were always abusive." He looked over at Naruto. "You're not abusive, are you?"

"N-no! Of course not!" Naruto spat out.

"Good. He is such a nice boy." The old man said, still looking around. "…Now, where did my glasses go?" He asked.

"They're… on your head?" Max asked.

"Oh." He said, pulling them off of his head. "There they are." He put them on correctly, then started to look over the necklace. "You snapped him?" He asked incredulously, looking over at Naruto.

"I-I did." Max said. "It wasn't Naruto's fault."

"Hm." The old man said, looking Max up and down. "I thought I made this necklace stronger than that." He mumbled.

"You-you made Sasuke?" Naruto asked, wide eyed.

"Yes. But not intentionally." He added.

"Okay, what do you mean, 'made Sasuke'? You guys have to fill me in." Max said, and they both looked at Max. "What?"

They told Max everything, which did not help Max's guilt for breaking the necklace. Max was stunned into silence, and then he looked up.

"Hey, Naruto."

"What…?" Naruto asked quietly.

"So. You spent some time with Sasuke. Shared some words with him."

"…And?" Naruto asked, not getting what Max meant. (A/N: Don't feel bad if you don't, I'm not a clear person. Neither is Max… "o.o)

"Maybe you shared your heart with him?" Max asked.

"What?"

"Sasuke saw it too. He knew you fell in love with him." The old man said, patting Naruto's shoulder. "Looks like everyone knew except for you." Naruto was shocked, he was in love with him? Now that it was pointed out, it seemed so obvious. Then again, when something is pointed out, what isn't obvious?

Naruto and Max bid the man farewell. They walked off in silence.

…More silence…

…And maybe some more silence…

Max was getting annoyed, Naruto wasn't saying anything.

"It's okay Naruto. Just a few day's wait and then you can have Sasuke back." Max reassured him, breaking the ice.

…But soon the ice froze back to one piece…

Max was pissed. Naruto did not seem grateful that they went through all that and Naruto was still being all moody.

"You know, you remind me of my wife when she's PMSing. Never happy, are you, Naruto?" Max asked.

"Shut up, Max." Naruto said.

"Finally, the man gets back his tongue!" Max exclaimed, striking a dramatic pose, his arms extended, his hands reaching toward the sky.

"Stop it Max."

"Why?" Max asked, standing up straight again.

"Because you're annoying me."

"There's the Naruto I know!" Max said.

"Shut up."

"Okay." Max said, trudging on, hanging his head.

…Silence…

"Stop hanging your head. It's annoying." Naruto said.

"WHY? You're always going to be pissed off at me. Why?" Max asked, holding out his hands in a gesture in hunger for knowledge. Naruto glared at him for a good minute, then continued to walk. Max was silent, his arms dropping to his sides.

"Oh."

The walked in silence until they reached Naruto's house. Naruto opened the door and began to close it, but Max blocked it with his foot.

"Hey, it's okay. He'll take care of it, okay?" Max said, trying to raise Naruto's spirits.

Naruto just shut the door.

"Okay, old man-"

"The name is Russell."

"Okay, Russell," Max emphasized the 'Russell', "so you can fix Sasuke."

"Yes, I can."

"Sasuke can feel what happens to the necklace, right?"

"Correct." Russell looked at Max. "What are you getting at?"

"Sasuke's going to still be dead when you fix him." Max said, Russell's eye twitched slightly at the mention of Sasuke's death.

"Sorry, but it's true." They were silent for a while, the only sound in the worn down jeweler's workshop was the equipment Russell was using to restore the necklace.

"…It's true." Russell finally said.

"How do we bring him back?" Max asked. He was concerned about Naruto, Max was his friend, after all.

"…someone has to give their life up for him." Russell said. Max was shocked into silence.

"You're kidding, right?"

"No. I'm serious." Russell said. "I'm too old to 'kid' around."

"Oh my god…" Max said, hands in his hair as he started to walk around in a circle of thought.

"So," Max said as he stopped walking. "I'm not going to like this."

"No, you're not." Russell said.

"How do you bring him back?" Max asked, bracing for the answer.

"Like waking up a princess." Russell said.

"…What? How does that make sense?" Max asked.

"Haven't you ever read fairytales?" Russell asked, concentrating on repairing the necklace.

"No." Max said. Russell turned to look at him, a serious look on the retired man's face.

"True love's first kiss." Max told Naruto.

"What? Is that what he said?" Naruto asked, panicking.

"Yes." Max said matter-of-factly. Naruto looked at the restored necklace in his hand.

"So… I have to give up my life… for him?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto! It's not worth it!"

"THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK!" Naruto yelled at him. Max remained silent, and Naruto spoke softly, "You don't know him."

"I know I don't."

"Sasuke… come out." Naruto ordered, and the boy's body came, resting on the bed in Naruto's room.

"Don't do this, Naruto." Max tried to talk some sense into him. Naruto turned to face Sasuke, the lifeless body lay there on his bed. Naruto softly brushed some of Sasuke's hair off of his still beautiful face as he sat down next to him.

"Naruto, it isn't worth it." Naruto looked over at Max, glaring at him.

"Take care of him." Naruto said, leaning down to kiss Sasuke.

"Naruto! Don't! It's not fucking worth it!" Max yelled at him, but, nevertheless, Naruto kissed Sasuke.

"You didn't." Max said, watching Sasuke's eyes flutter open. Sasuke's eyes grew wide at the weakening Naruto.

"You didn't." Sasuke breathed out. "Naruto." Sasuke's eyes filled with tears.

"Sasuke… you're free."

"But-"

"That's an order." Naruto said, falling on the bed.

"Naruto!" Sasuke cried out.

"I love you." Naruto said. Sasuke rested his forehead on Naruto's, his tears falling on Naruto's face.

"I love you too." Sasuke chocked out.

Sasuke sobbed onto Naruto's chest, listening to his last heartbeats.

"God, I love you too." Sasuke screamed out. Max sat down, placing his arm around Sasuke's shaking shoulders.

"It's going to be okay." Max spoke softly to the sobbing boy. The thing was…

…Max didn't have an ounce of truth behind the words.

"I hope."

A/N: DON DON DOOOOOONNNNN! Haha, I think this was better. Yayz! I finished! Yup, it's the end. If you look at the very bottom, there's a part of the story. The very VERY end! READ IT! Okay, so this is the end of the story. Sorry it took so long! "0.e I really liked this story, I did. I'm even sad that it ended.

They were all strangers. Every single one of them. Besides Max, that is. Sasuke knew not one of them, but they all knew Naruto. And some even knew Max. One was a blonde, just barely shorter than himself. His name was 'Ivan', or that's what they all called him. Then there was 'Izak', 'Mia', and 'Nathan'. They would all say something to Max, Max would reply, and then they would look at Sasuke. 'Who's that?' most of them asked, and Max would just say, 'Sasuke'.

They somehow understood.

Well, mostly.

They didn't know the story.

But he did.

Sasuke remained silent the whole time, besides the little sobs that would escape his mouth. Yes, he was crying. He would never stop missing Naruto. No one else was crying though. Why not? They carried flowers, all of them, just like Sasuke. They all carried white roses, all of them in black; they were almost black and white figures.

But Sasuke carried a red rose.

He loved Naruto too much to give him a plain white flower. He clutched the flower and brought it close to his heart, his sobs getting the slightest bit louder. Max glanced at Sasuke.

"It's okay."

"How do you know?" Sasuke asked, looking up at Max.

"Well… you're alive, which is exactly what Naruto wanted. And you're free. Which begs the question, why do you have the necklace?" Max asked, noticing the silver heart and chain dangling from his grasp.

"I'm going to give it to him." Sasuke said.

"I think that he'd like that." Russell said, setting a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke looked up at him, and Russell looked down, grinning.

"It's been a while since I've seen you."

"…I know." Sasuke said with his quavering voice.

"He was a good kid." Russell said, patting Sasuke's shoulder in reassurance.

"Yeah… he was." Max said, placing his hand on Sasuke's other shoulder. Sasuke looked at Max, and Max smiled back. Why was he smiling? How could he, when Sasuke himself was crying so much?

They started to place their flowers on the casket, all of the white roses so dull together on the shining black casket. Sasuke, being the last one, placed the rose in his hand on the casket, standing out from all of them. A single red rose on white. Sasuke placed the necklace on tops, leaning down and whispering a simple 'I love you', he stepped back as they started to lower the casket into the ground. And Sasuke knew that, somewhere out there…

…Naruto was saying "I love you too."

~ Sasuke Uzumaki 83