Passion and Tears
Juugo's POV: Part 1
I watched Sasuke from my peripheral vision and could feel the waves of depression and pain emanate from him. The leader of Team Hebi was spread out down on the grass a few feet away from me his eyes glued to the afternoon sky. He hadn't moved from his spot since he fell asleep last night. Sasuke's face appeared to be in its normal stoic front, but his eyes looked as depressed as shit. It wasn't that hard to decipher what or rather who was on his mind.
Not this again…Maybe I can just ignore it.
Without any warning, Suigetsu walked into the clearing with a blank expression and sat next to me. He didn't even spare Sasuke a glance. I couldn't say the same for Sasuke, who subtly followed Suigetsu's form. Out of the corner of my eye, Suigetsu was fiddling his thumbs.
Before I could ask his well-being, Karin burst into the clearing clearly livid. She was toting Suigetsu's sword on her back. The red-head stalked over to the quiet Suigetsu who had yet to look up or even move. In one fluid motion, she removed the weapon from her back and stuck the sword into the ground dangerously close to Suigetsu's leg, but he didn't even flinch.
"I got your sword for you, you forgetful idiot. I wanted to leave it behind so you could learn your lesson, but Sasuke wanted me to retrieve it," Karin spat.
Suigetsu didn't move a muscle.
"Well?" she goaded, "Don't I get some appreciation?"
"…Thanks," he mumbled.
I took a sharp glance towards the shark boy only my eyes revealing the shock I felt. Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed Karin not even attempting to hide her astonishment. Suigetsu was NEVER polite to Karin. At least he somewhat faked his normalcy the last time he and Sasuke had a fight.
This is serious. What did you do Sasuke?
I couldn't leave him like this…this numb, soulless person.
Fucking hate soap operas
SxS
I quickly realized two things when I embarked on my mission: 1. it wasn't going to be easy
I knew that I had to figure out the root problem in order to help Suigetsu and Sasuke reconcile. Casually questioning the dark-haired young man ended in failure. He didn't say a word, but continued to watch the sky. I had to give the boy credit. He was stubborn. Extracting information from Suigetsu didn't work either. After I'd found Suigetsu alone near the river, I questioned the status of their relationship, but all he gave me was a weak "it's none of your business." Slightly irritated, I gave up after he didn't utter a word after his short phrase and decided to leave him. When I'd reach the edge of the forest, I could faintly hear choked sobs. My aggravation melted away only to be replaced by a smidgen of guilt. I was giving up far too easily. I was going to have to work harder on this task.
This is when I came upon my 2nd realization: I wasn't going to be able to do this alone
I need a woman's touch…
I found Karin in our usual campsite combing her red locks with her fingers. Interestingly enough, Sasuke was not in his customary spot. His bladder must've finally taken hold of him. Karin gave me a curious glance as I casually strolled up to her. I decided the best way to handle the situation was to break this to her as gently as possible.
"Sasuke doesn't love you, he never has. He and Suigetsu have been in a relationship for quite a while. I'm surprised you've never noticed. Their fucking is pretty loud and obvious too, but currently they've reached a rough patch in their relationship. You've probably detected that they're acting a bit strange, well that's because they've been in some kind of fight. I need your help getting them back together, so they'll stop acting like dumbasses."
"…What?"
I sighed. "What part did you not understand? The fact that Sasuke will never love you or that Sasuke and Suiget-"
"I heard you the first time, Juugo," Karin said forcefully, "And frankly I don't believe you."
With that said she turned away from me and continued to comb her hair. A growl emerged from my throat and I grabbed her arm and compelled her to her feet. I ignored her cries to let her go and dragged her towards Suigetsu's position next to the river. When we were close to his location, I shushed her and wordlessly told her to listen. Just as I'd hope, Suigetsu's lament was still going on. Taking a glimpse at Karin's face, I wasn't surprised to see the shock on her face. I led her back to the campsite.
"Suigetsu never cries. It's a sign of weakness to him. I've only ever seen him cry for Sasuke. And I'm pretty sure Sasuke would be in the same exact state if we knew where he was," I said softly.
"But…this can't…be true...I..." Karin stammered.
My patience was running thin. I lifted her chin up so she was staring into my unsympathetic eyes. "Karin, get it through your thick skull, before I do it for you via my fist. I'm certain that you won't be able to comprehend anything by then. Sasuke. Loves. Suigetsu. Not you. You're gonna help me get them back together because I am sick of this shit. Okay?"
She audibly gulped before nodding her head quickly.
It pays to be psychotic
Where is he?
Currently, I was searching for Sasuke.
"If you want to get them back together It's best to know the basic problem," Karin stated.
"Already tried that. Neither of them would speak, but I'm positive it's Sasuke's fault. He's always screwing things up."
"In that case, we change up the plan. You need to somehow get yourself in a position where you're advising Sasuke and he's actually taking your advice."
This is going to be difficult.
I finally caught onto a spike of Sasuke's chakra. Following the unique signature, I came across Sasuke sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree, which from the looks of it he sliced through with his sword. His hunched back was towards me. A stream of muttered words fell from his lips, but I couldn't understand them because I was a bit far and his face was being muffled by his hands. As I drew closer, I could hear snippets of his rambling.
"How could I do…. everything to me…betrayed him…hates me—"
I figured he would stop his ramblings when he heard me approaching, but he continued speaking to himself. I inched around then knelt in front of the shaking boy.
"…Sasuke?" I softly called.
His hands fell from his face and clenched his knees fiercely. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, yet he made no sound.
"Juugo," he asked, "What do you want?"
"I'm here to help." I sound like a fucking psychiatrist. Well, at least he's talking.
"Help me with what? Suigetsu?" he asked voice laced with heartache, "There's no help there. He doesn't want anything to do with me. I screwed up Juugo. I've single-handedly caused the one thing I love to despise me. There's—"
And I promptly zoned out.
I could see Sasuke's lips moving and the tears flowing and I knew I should give a damn ( this was going to be great blackmail in the future), but I was tired of listening to his complaints, especially when he could be doing something about his situation instead of whining.
Time to help him focus. Haven't used my backhand in a while
The slap echoed across the clearing and the birds, the wind, and the bugs quieted as if in shock: Had Juugo just slapped Sasuke?
I could see the faint form of my hand-print on his right cheek. Sasuke raised his hand to cover the pink mark, and his astonished face turned back towards me.
Before he could comprehend that he'd just been bitch-slapped, I stared into his eyes sternly. "Do you want to get back together with Suigetsu?"
He slowly nodded his head.
"Good. You'll need to listen to everything I say."
A/N: Words cannot express how sorry I am for this long wait. Unfortunately, part 2 is gonna take a long time too. I'm studying abroad in Spain this semester! I wanted to give you something though, since I'm still getting reviews (thank you for those btw). I WILL EVENTUALLY FINISH THIS STORY! Thank you for the love guys/gals! :)