Author's note: Okay so this is the 'last chapter' however there will be a 9th that serves as the epilogue. I did not want to rush the last part (I mean i built Sasuke's death up so i have to tell you guys what happened right?), and i felt it really needed it's own chapter to be done proper. Oh and FYI- i am going to do a prequel set for this. (Obvs it won't be tons of smut since the first time the boys get together is chapter 1 in this- however i think you guys will dig it/ it's going to explore the Konoha 12 all the way up to the war) So subscribe if you're interested in that. I'll prob go back and edit this some before undertaking that though. This chapter i listened to faith Paloma's only love can hurt like this. This chapter had no beta! Thank you, thank you all who have followed this one since it's start. You're wonderful comments are so sweet!

Xoxo

Catstclaire

Chapter. 8 Just a spark

~During~

They shared an apartment for 3 whole years.

Every remembrance day in between, and they went to them together. Arm in arm. Shoulder to shoulder.

Kakashi liked that. For those ceremonies he got to trot out his 5 remaining members of the Konoha 12, the ones who still served the village all these years later. It made the village look strong, Naruto knew.

The five of them as one united front made for an excellent headline those years he, and Sasuke were together.

He still had alot to learn before he took the hat from his sensei, but now Naruto understood some of the political decisions that fell to the Hokage.

Naruto hated being made a spectacle of at the remembrance days before Sasuke came home. With Sasuke by his side though. He reveled in them. Taking a few pictures and chatting up reporters, if that's all it took to keep the peace, then Naruto could do that. He was glad to do that.

You didn't hear Naruto's name in the village during that time without Sasuke's immediately being said after.

It was good. Happy times.

It wasn't that Naruto forgot his friends nor the war, not really. It was however, that he had come to a point he had healed from what happened. He wasn't moping, and regretful anymore. He had things he wanted to live for now. Things he wanted to do with his life.

The war laid less heavy on Naruto in those days.

Eventually Sasuke and Naruto did quit drinking. Together.

There was a calm that followed, or perhaps it wasn't from staying sober but it was from having Sasuke by his side- either way Naruto was the happiest he had ever been since before the war.

The village was enjoying a bit of stability, and suddenly missions weren't coming in nearly as much anymore.

Sakura even told him casualties were down 50% from the villages yearly average.

That didn't mean of course there weren't any missions to be had, but it was clear Kakashi was making a difference in the village. Naruto could see that. He and Kakashi, they were after the same thing. They wanted a Konoha where no one lost their teammates. A safe place to grow up for everyone, and Konoha seemed to be well on it's way to achieving that.

Naruto felt a renewed sense of love for the village. He had remembered his dream. To be Hokage, and why it was ever so important to him in the first place.

Naruto stepped back into his role as the Hokage's apprentice easily. Afterall Kakashi never even told most people he had quit.

Now as a Jonin Naruto felt elated. His team was whole. Sasuke, and Sakura were at his side. Sakura had been right it was what they always wanted. To be together as a team and go on missions. Everything was so perfect.

On his time off Naruto got to get to know Sakura again. Her new habits, and things he had missed in all the time he wasted ignoring her.

They made up for all their lost time.

After missions her hair even started to make a subtle reappearance in his life. He'd be showering and find cotton candy strands stuck in between his cheeks, and once he heard Sasuke complain her hair got caught around his medallion when they had sparred.

Sasuke and Naruto often hung out with Sakura and Shikamaru. Dinners, and coffee dates. It was good to watch Sakura fall in love. She deserved it.

Ichiraku was of course still Naruto's favorite haunt. They always knew his order and in time Sasuke's as well.

Living with Sasuke was like a dream, allthough there were somedays that were more difficult than others to navigate. It wasn't a complete fairytale.

Naruto would find cigarettes stashed all over the house, in every nook and cranny. Sasuke often forgot to put the cap back on his hair gel and Naruto would have to wipe it off the counter before it hardened. Sasuke would leave kunai scattered across the table after he polished them. Naruto didn't mind the messes. He liked cleaning up after Sasuke, he hoped Sasuke understood it was Naruto's way of expressing love.

A give and take. That's what they had.

Even when Naruto was in his worst moments Sasuke had a way of knowing just what to do or say to pull him out of it.

It was October again while they were living together, Naruto was in a particularly foul mood. He'd had a nightmare about the war the night before and it had set him off.

Naruto spent the morning cursing at anything and everything in the apartment. Yelling at Sasuke to clean up hair gel on the counter, and when he found a pack of cigs in a coat pocket he had thrown them in the trash with a scowl.

"Are these little dramatics, because it's October?" Sasuke asked, eyebrows raised, and he winked.

Dammit. Sasuke knew him to well.

"No." Naruto lied.

"Liar."

"There's nothing good about October."

"Really? The first time i fucked you was in October." Sasuke winked again. "I think that was good."

Naruto scoffed.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. He was eating a bowl of cereal with the one Sai gifted to Naruto.

"I hate that thing." Naruto scowled at his nude counterpart on the bowl.

That made Sasuke smile.

"I'll have this Naruto for now- then i think a different Naruto for dessert." Sasuke winked at him again over the bowl, and Naruto scowled at him next. Normally Naruto would laugh but he didn't then.

"Good luck with that." Naruto grumbled. He was set on heading for the training grounds, and venting his frustrations out there.

Sasuke laughed and set his bowl down, he glided across the room, and stopped Naruto from opening the front door. Naruto tried to push past.

"Dead last," Sasuke pulled him against him, and breathed into his ear until Naruto felt dizzy. "just come here for a second." Then he was palming Naruto through his jeans, and Naruto melted.

He could never say no to Sasuke.

Sasuke just always had that effect on him. A touch. A kiss. And then somehow- Naruto barely remembered his own name let alone any of the awful things that had ever happened to him.

Sasuke knew him better than anyone. He knew what Naruto needed before Naruto even knew.

Sasuke pulled him to their bed, and laid Naruto down. Then Sasuke was pulling his jeans off. When Sasuke finally closed his mouth around Naruto's hard on, Naruto almost came right then.

Naruto screamed out in pleasure.

"Shhh-" Sasuke mumbled out. "I've got you. Let me take care of you."

Naruto threaded his fingers in Sasuke's scalp as Sasuke worked his mouth on him. "So good- ahh- Sasuke you're so good."

And that was their last encounter. There in their shared apartment. It was exactly as most of their encounters were before. Searing hot, and it left them both panting. Nothing about it alerted Naruto into thinking it was the last time he'd ever touch Sasuke in the most intimate way there was.

If Naruto had known- then perhaps probably he would have taken more time in that final encounter. He would have reminded Sasuke of all the ways he loved him, and he would have whispered to him all of the sweet and conjoling things he often held back.

The couple of years they got to live together were magic- not a fairytale but they had magic to them.

Naruto was on track to be Hokage. Sasuke would be right there with him every step of the way and it made it that much sweeter. As far as Naruto was concerned he only needed one pillar to run the village, and that was Sasuke.

The other villages wouldn't dream of attacking Konoha anytime soon, Kakashi had told Naruto in confidence. "Not with team 7 back in full force. Not with Sasuke back supporting the village, and Naruto. " Kakashi said no other village would dare to try anything for a long time, and Naruto believed it.

Naruto ignored Lee alot during this time. As much as he could, but Kakashi had them working together often. Even on what would be their last mission.

After they had fooled around, Sasuke had pulled out his kunai. He was cleaning them up, polishing them until they shined.

Naruto was busy making them both some lunch, and then there was Pakkun. He was outside the window, and Sasuke let him in. Kakashi had a mission for them.

Sasuke and Naruto were to report to the village gates immediately. Lee, Sakura, and Shikamaru were being notified at the same time, and it was urgent they get going quick.

Sasuke went to the bathroom and started brushing his teeth, and Naruto read off some of the details they'd been given on the scroll.

Sasuke spat into the sink. "What are we looking for exactly?"

"Some sort of illegal book of catalogues." Naruto said while wrapping Hinata's scarf on his shoulders. "Some shady group of rogue's has been running an mercenary business- and apparently they've kept a pretty decent record of it all, if this report is to be believed." Naruto hummed to himself. "The book's locked up in some tower or whatever, and so they need us to bust in and get it."

Sasuke grabbed the end of the scarf, and pulled Naruto up against him.

"Hey, come on Pakkun said-"

"Pakkun, smakkun." Sasuke singsonged, and Naruto grinned into the kiss when Sasuke pulled him closer.

Naruto tasted spearmint, and the heady scent of ash under it. Naruto might have let Sasuke keep kissing him if he hadn't ruined the coiling warmth for Naruto when he brought up his birthday.

"Your birthdays coming up you know."

"Ugh-" Naruto spluttered and shoved Sasuke's mouth back. "Don't remind me."

"Settle down." Sasuke pulled him back by the scarf, and Naruto watched him run his fingers over it. He could see it in Sasuke's head, but Sasuke verbalized it. "I'm going to torch this thing someday." He said it with a smile like a joke, but Naruto knew Sasuke was partly jealous of Hinata even though she hadn't so much as been within 5 feet of Naruto in years.

"You could make me a scarf i guess." Naruto teased with a shrug.

Sasuke sat the red toothbrush down on the counter, instead of in the holder.

Then Sasuke's eyes softened when he looked at Naruto again. "I've got something better than a ratty old scarf." He kissed Naruto fiercely than smacked his behind. "But that'll be later. Let's get going dead last."

Naruto packed up some clothes, and rations. Sasuke gelled up his hair and Naruto rolled his eyes when he forgot the cap, there wasn't time to clean up. He could do that all later. So Naruto left all the plates, and the cutlery where he had had them when he was cooking. No one cleaned the hair gel up, or put Sasuke's toothbrush back in it's holder. The ugly ass bowl from Sai stayed put to.

"We can grab some takeout on the way." Naruto said.

Sasuke was about to start packing up some extra kunai (the special ones from his family) from the table where he'd left them but Naruto stopped him.

"Already packed plenty. Come on."

Sasuke slid the key under the stone frog, and they left their apartment to meet the rest of their group.

Sasuke lit up a cigarette as they walked, and he smoked it all the way up until they met everyone at the gate. He flicked it into a trash bin, and Naruto saw it's cinders catch on some of the discarded paper already inside.

Shikamaru passed out the comms to everyone.

By the time their group zipped out of Konoha the whole trash can had gone up in flames. All it took was that one little spark, that one little mistake, and then everything was covered in fire.

How could one tiny spark, ruin everything?

Was everything always meant to end up in flames?

Naruto would ask himself these questions for the first time after their last mission ended. He would also ask those questions for the rest of his life.

He'd never get any answers of course. That was grief. It was aching, and open ended. Loving someone who died was like having a wound that would never heal.

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~After~

"Hey, Lee!" Naruto cupped his hands together to amplify the sound.

Kakashi had told him where he could find Lee this time of day. He was working with the academy kids now.

After Sasuke died on that last mission none of the Konoha 12 had been put on another together, and Kakashi said he'd never let any of them again so long as his reign was.

There were only 5 of them left afterall.

Lee from the looks of it had gotten his own team of kids. Naruto laughed at the way they looked like 3 little ducklings behind Lee, and his buzz cut.

The kid right behind Lee ran into his back, when Lee looked up to see Naruto standing on the building top above them all.

Naruto held a hand up in greeting, and Lee grimaced back.

Lee turned to say something to his team, and the kids dispersed a second later. Lee climbed up the side of the building, and Naruto noted how he took his time.

"Didn't know you were back home." Lee said when they were face to face.

"Haven't been long to tell you the truth." Naruto threw one arm back to support his head.

Lee looked him over, and then seemed to find something of interest. "Is that a new scarf?"

Naruto felt his cheeks flush. "I- yeah, i stopped to see Hinata before i came home."

Lee grimaced once more.

"Not like that." Naruto amended quickly. "Just to see how she was- i've missed her a-lot all things considered."

"Yeah. I'm sure. How was she?" Naruto couldn't tell if Lee believed him or not and it really didn't matter.

"Good. She's really good. Happier than i think i've seen her since before Shino."

Lee cleared his throat but didn't say anything.

Awkward.

Lee nodded a couple times, but still he didn't really meet Naruto in the eye. That was all Naruto's fault.

Lee wasn't the bad guy.

Naruto had pegged him that way though.

Naruto used Lee as the thing he could blame every time something went wrong in his life.

Hinata left Konoha? Blame Lee.

Sasuke gets hurt? Blame Lee.

Sasuke dies? Blame Lee of course.

"Not that it isn't a pleasure to see you, and all-" Lee scuffed his boot on the tar of the roof. "I'm just wondering what this is about, i guess. After all this time. Especially the way the last time we saw each other went. I mean- what are you doing here Naruto?"

"About that." Naruto had been loosely practicing what he would say to Lee. How exactly he would have to explain to him that Naruto had been an asshole of cosmic proportions. "I have a-lot to say, but let me just start off with an apology."

Lee stared at him like Naruto had just grown another head.

"An apology?" Lee sounded it out, like it was the most foreign concept he could fathom. "From you?"

Naruto gave a tight smile. Eating crow sucked.

"I talked to Hinata. She told me it was her, in the end that wanted to leave. I think i knew that anyways, but it was easier to blame you."

"She had to leave. It was killing her being here." Lee said. "She's like my sister I couldn't keep watching that."

Naruto didn't understand that back when Hinata first left. But after losing Sasuke he understood. Walking the same paths, seeing the same places she used to go with Shino everyday right after she lost him- it would have felt unbearable. Now Naruto knew first hand. It really was unbearable and terribly so. Naruto had to get the hell out of dodge after Sasuke, for a while at least. When Sasuke first died it was like Naruto was suffocating being in Konoha. That's what Hinata felt, and Naruto had been so selfish he never saw how she was drowning.

"Yeah. You were right to tell her to go Lee. Thank you for that. Hinata was so busy trying to keep me together all the time she was letting herself get run into the ground in the process, and i never would have even noticed."

Lee had a sour look on his face briefly like he'd swallowed something gone bad. "About Sasuke-"

Naruto held up his palm. "I know it wasn't your fault. When he got hurt that time, and when he died to." Naruto swallowed. "When that brothel blew up, and i saw him laying there- you were just there Lee and it was convenient to blame you- to be angry at you- instead of thinking what life might be like without him. I had no right taking everything out on you the way i did. You saved my life Lee."

"Naruto when Sasuke died i swear i never meant for it. If there was anything i could have done- fuck i mean even now i would do anything to change it all for you if i could. He didn't deserve what happened i hope you know I didn't hate him."

Naruto swallowed again. The longer their conversation went the harder it was. There was just so much.

"I know you didn't hate him Lee. I know you didn't want him dead. It was an accident, no one could have stopped it from happening. That's the life we signed up for right?"

Lee shrugged. "It shouldn't be. Kakashi's changing things to be sure- but my team- my gennin- i worry for them. Things aren't changing quick enough, you know. One day it'll be my kids out on missions dying for each other."

Naruto bit his lip. "I'm not going to let it happen again. No more wars. No more kids dying for the village. The second the hat is on my head i swear Lee i will make this village what Itachi Uchiha wanted it to be."

Lee opened his mouth to comment then he closed it again.

"To many kids died for Konoha already."

Lee stuck his hands deep in his pockets, and got a fond dreamy sort of look to him. "Back to that old Hokage dream eh?"

Naruto sighed. "For good. This time."

"Well i guess we will see, huh?"

"There is something else." Naruto added when it got to quiet between hem for to long. "Part of me gunning for Hokage again. You know I can't do that alone. That was never the plan to do it alone. My friends i always knew would be there to help guide me, and you've heard Kakashi talk about the pillars of the village right?"

Naruto began to feel nervous, and when Lee laughed it only added to it.

"Friend? Me? You want me to be one of your pillars-" Lee leaned his back against the buildings wall. "You still drinking?"

"No. This time i'll stay sober."

"Just words. You've sworn to help the village 2 times before, how can i take you seriously this time?" Lee swore under his breath. "You're lazy, selfish, and maybe you don't outright lie, but you sure as hell omit-I'm not trying to waste my time on something just so you can throw it away again."

Omit. Naruto knew exactly what he was referencing and it was the another part of why Naruto came to see him.

Naruto gulped. "This time is different because i'm going to be brutally honest with you, and everyone else from here on out. No more cop outs no more half assed attempts- i want to put everything into my friends, and into this village Lee."

Lee was listening attentively, and Naruto knew it was finally time to tell him.

"I can't force you to stand by me, or help me with the village in fact i'm going to tell you something that might even make you hate me forever." Naruto stepped forward some. "I have to hope though, that even if you despise me, you will love this village so much you'll still want to help make it what it should be. You're right i have omitted in the past. I never told you, at any point, what i knew about Neji and Tenten dying."

Lee took a deep breath and from where he was Naruto could see the veins in his arms bulge.

"I didn't always know the whole story. Some people were omitting to me as well. It's still no excuse because when i did find out i still never told you. At Sasuke's burial when i saw you i acted like you had given me some great awful wound...like you had done me some great disservice when in actuality it was i, who disserviced you."

"What the hell are you saying, Naruto?" Lee's voice was feral.

"I was supposed to die there at the end of the war, and if i had Neji and Tenten would have made it. Your team was supposed to be the one that came back whole not mine."

Naruto's chest felt lighter for a fraction of a second. Right until Lee started punching the wall. Naruto cringed, and watched him go.

He didn't stop until his knuckles were bloody.

"I'm so sick of this shit." Lee cried out, and Naruto took care to stand absolutely still. His face turned contemplative for a few beats. "You and me- we were friends before...during the war, and then all this other shit just- i mean what the fuck? I'm so sick of it, this mess between us. Aren't you sick of it?"

"Yeah." Naruto admitted.

"Good. Then this is what we do. From the second our feet hit the bottom of this building, it's a new start. Neither of us will hold a grudge for any of the shit that's happened. It'll be a fresh start. In time we can be friends once more, and i'll help you with whatever Konoha needs, it's what Neji and Tenten would want me to do. Does that sound fair?" He ground out.

Naruto nodded still half in shock, and half expecting for Lee to take a surprise swing at him.

"Fresh start." Naruto agreed. And he knew wherever it was that Sasuke went, he was out there smiling like the smuggest bastard who ever lived.

'You and Lee will make peace even if it kills me to do it.'

Something occurred to Narutowatching Lee go in the opposite direction. "That time you made that pass at me, what was that really about?" Now that Naruto thought on it, it had been such an odd occurrence. Before Lee hit on him Naruto never felt like Lee had any interest in him like that, and since it had happened Lee had never shown any interest since.

Lee rolled his shoulders, and briefly walked backwards to face Naruto. "-thoughtif Hinata knew someone was taking care of you, it'd make it easier for her to go."

Naruto laughed. So much of their grievances didn't even have anything to do with Naruto, Naruto was just to self centered to see it all clearly.

The Konoha 12. What a bunch of self sacrificing dummies Naruto thought to himself as he walked. Always trying to save each other, at the cost of themselves.

After clearing the air with Lee, Naruto knew it was well overdue that he finally go back to their apartment. Naruto hadn't stepped foot in it in months, he wondered if it was exactly as he left it.

Naruto lingered on the doorstep for far to long. He couldn't help it.

He stared at it. Thinking of all the moments he had heard Sasuke's boots at the door. All the times he had heard the crinkling of a fresh packet of cigarettes here. This apartment was supposed to be their forever. Naruto thought of it as his sanctuary- now he regarded it like the tomb he had turned it into. With trepidation he pulled the key from it's hiding spot, and pushed in.

It was dark. The air smelled of must, and dirt. It never used to smell like that here. Other than the scent, it was exactly as Naruto left it.

Naruto set the duffle he had been living out of for months down on the ground. He had told Sakura he'd be fine, he could live here again, but he knew what needed to happen first.

He couldn't leave it like this. Leave their apartment the way Sasuke left it, as if he were coming home to it. It couldn't continue to be a tomb like Naruto made it- Sasuke wasn't coming back for anything, and Naruto couldn't keep it frozen in time forever.

Grief had sunken into every nook and cranny of the room, it was saturated even into the carpets. It was all of the bad memories that came to him first- it was the bad that were the freshest.

Naruto recalled the nights of being unable to eat- his ramen growing cold on the table. He recalled the nights he laid anguishing himself and his life, with a bottle in his hand. He recalled the sobbing fountain of tears he had cried here- desperately calling out for a man that could never come back.

It impressed upon Naruto then, that he'd practically shut out all the good memories. He'd rounded them all up, bundled them and tossed them into the back of his subconscious. They hurt to much. For a year Naruto had dwelled so terribly over losing Sasuke he forgot what it had been like to have Sasuke for as long as he did. He let the bad outweigh the good for that year- but no more.

Naruto unwrapped his scarf and hung it on the stand. Then he set to work. He mopped. He scrubbed. He gathered up the discarded dishes round the place. Any clothes he found went to the washing machine. He made up their bed. Fluffed the pillows, and put clean sheets on them.

Naruto ripped open the curtains, and a stream of light flooded in.

Sasuke's belongings were all still there. Right where they were before. Naruto hadn't touched any of them yet. He cleaned around them.

His toothbrush on the sink, the hair gel that had crystallized, his note about picking the cake up was still there on the fridge, and of course the kunai were still laid out on the table.

Naruto shook himself when he felt he might cry at the prospect of throwing any of Sasuke's stuff in the trash. Then a thought occurred to him. He could do something else with it all. Something better.

It never sat right with Naruto that the casket had been empty.

Naruto went to his abandoned duffle and dumped the contents of it out into the bed. Then he walked through the apartment gathering each and everything he came across that had been Sasuke's.

One final scavenger hunt.

He started with the bowl Sai had made.

He grabbed the toothbrush by the sink. The hair gel. The note on the fridge. He came across packs and packs of cigarettes and scooped them each up and tossed them into his duffle bag. He pulled the fan off the wall that Sasuke got in the land of tea. Naruto even pulled out all the stuff he found in the back of Sasuke's closet after he first died. The picture of the Konoha 12, and the letter he wrote to Naruto for his birthday. Then Naruto pulled Sasuke's clothes from the closet, and shoved them into the duffle.

The last thing Naruto did was to slide the abandoned kunai off the table and into the bag. They clanked, and a made a hell of a ruckus. The bag hung heavy on his shoulder with the strain of weight that was Sasuke's belongings.

Naruto headed for the door, but before he left he turned around to inspect his work. It was clean save for the pile of his own shit he put on the bed. There wasn't a single trace of anything of Sasuke's left. If it weren't for the medallion around Naruto's neck it would be like Sasuke had never even been here in the first place.

"Can't forget." Naruto murmured to himself.

Then he pulled Sasuke's favorite hoodie from the pile on his bed, and added it to the duffle.

He set his sights on the Hokage's office.

As he leapt from building to building Naruto savored the wind in his hair, he enjoyed being alive in that moment in a way he had not in months.

He paused harshly as he came to that bench. The one from all that time ago, that Sasuke had been sitting on when Naruto finally decided to try his luck with him. When Sasuke agreed to keep sleeping together, Naruto didn't know back then that he would regard it as one of the happiest memories of his life. A tide of unhappiness threatened to break over him but-

Naruto let out a slow breath, and then continued onward.

"Kakashi." Naruto declared when he finally had the Hokage in front of him. "I need a favor."

Naruto shouldered the heavy ass bag down onto the Hokage's desk and grinned.

Sasuke had wanted the kunai buried with him, and even though there wasn't a body Naruto should have buried them back then. Now though Naruto was sort of glad he hadn't done it. There were other things Naruto now felt Sasuke also should have been buried with a year ago.

It was well overtime to lay Sasuke's things to rest.

The coffin should never have been empty.

Now though Naruto was ready to part with it all. Well maybe not all...

The only thing Naruto held onto was Sasuke's medallion and that Naruto planned to return once he himself died. He'd be buried with the medallion.

The kunai were melted down. Kakashi had them turned into a new headstone for Sasuke.

Then the empty casket was pulled up. Naruto got to fill it with all things Sasuke, on a sunny Konoha day. Sakura came to. Only team 7 were present for the reburial of Sasuke Uchiha.

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To be continued...