Author's Note :
I just finished another minor rotation of my clinical program, since I did good and the experience was excellent, here's an update as self-reward xD.
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…If it is already morning, his mother should have started shaking his shoulder gently to wake him. If she hasn't, then the sun hasn't quite risen past the horizon, meaning his day hasn't needed to start just yet. Yet, he can already smell the familiar astringency of his favorite brew, a complex aroma with clean and refreshing quality, bold enough for him to acknowledge easily, yet delicate in a way it doesn't interrupt his sleep.
He remembers he has fallen asleep in the living room, the usual three seater couch he doesn't remember having in his old house. But in this dream it exists and he should take it as it is. The thing about dreams, they can be molded to your needs, yet some things are just left to be untouched. It should be left as it is otherwise that one frivolous detail can be the source of a progressive distortion. He should just be grateful; it's been so long since meeting his mother.
"Sasuke, it's time to wake up," a woman's voice coaxed. In his mind, he doesn't recognize the voice as his mother's, but he is quite surprised to find the woman's voice familiar. They both have the same gentle and demure quality, but the distinction is tangible to him. Sasuke has always regarded his mother's voice as motherly, since he has none to compare. But the way this voice called him, it wasn't motherly, it was… something else. But then again, the thing about dreams, some details should be left as they are.
His eyes flutters open easily since there is no eye crust to begin with. Sasuke in real life, isn't the type of person to easily obey someone, let alone a woman that is foolish enough emitting false alarm to fool him into believing her to be his mother. But Sasuke in this dream is curious, one could say compliant, even, because this type of dream is the only place for him to meet his family again. He has long trained himself to regard dream as harmless otherwise he wouldn't survive sleeping when everytime he closed his eyes, all he had been able to see was endless rerun of that night. Still, he can't predict which kind of dream to appear, so initiating sleep is still a difficult task.
What lies before him is a kitchen, separated from the living room by a granite countertop. He can see someone's back as she, from the look of it, is stirring something on a saucepan. Long dark hair is folded on one dainty shoulder, revealing a thin line of pale skin, a tease of what is usually covered beneath the silky hair. On her back his clan's insignia is embroidered over the dark gray cotton of the house dress she is wearing.
Someone of his clan. If not his mother, who else?
Some movement on his chest alerts him of another presence. A child, couldn't be more than three years old, with his chest flushed to his own is stirring seemingly disrupted from his sleep. By then, Sasuke only just realizes both his arms are holding him safely. He thought he was the son in this dream, so why is he looking at a child with nearly identical features as him; raven hair that is sticking up stubbornly on the back, ever frowning brow even if he is still a child, slightly pointed ears just like his, and pale complexion the shade of his skin only warmer. The child opens his eyes partially, his gaze is fixated to a spot on Sasuke's chest that the older man fails to determine the color of his eyes, but it is just enough to classify the set as heavy-lidded, something Sasuke isn't granted with. His lips are fuller and pink, suitable for his fairly round face, which again, Sasuke doesn't have. These characteristics complement his bleak features, forming the child to look softer in his overall appearance.
After momentarily occupied in watching his tiny arms struggle about, Sasuke finally catches himself to look at the child's face in curiosity as he stirs again.
Staring at him sleepily is a set of child-appropriate wider obsidian eyes mirroring his own…
Sasuke woke up with a start.
His dream felt like a dream, it didn't feel at all real. But why did all he feel was emptiness after putting a halt to it by waking up?
He had thought he was going to see his mother. He had missed his family, that could explain it. But what about the woman with the Uchiha Clan emblem on her back? And the child that was definitely identical to him in some way but not quite?
Bleary obsidian eyes searched for the table clock atop the nightstand within line of sight on his right, past the bed he hadn't touched in weeks. The clock displayed it was one in the afternoon, confirming his suspicions since the sun had reached its peak on the sky with its beams piercing through the blinds he didn't bother to shut last night from behind him, flickering on his naked arms in ever shifting stripes and warming the back of his head.
The off duty captain lay longer on the three seater couch—different color and material from the one he remembered in his dream—not making any unnecessary movement, and still very much feeling empty inside as the memories of his recent dream started to distort just like any other dreams he had had.
He and Kakashi had… exchanged a lot of understanding, more so from the Hokage's end. Way exceeded his expectation even, if he were to be honest. His head was a jumbling mess on the way to his apartment after exiting Kakashi's office at a time in which too late to call it night but too early to call it dawn, still was while he was taking long shower to clean his body off of grime and dirt, even more so when he opted to settle on his couch not with the intention to sleep of course, since he never made himself sleep with intention, but his plan was to tire his body out by reading something and with it came the sleep. He had failed reading the book obviously as he only read the words before him without absorbing the meaning and perceiving what it was he was reading. He completely forgot the content of the book as he glanced its way offhandedly to find the book to be sage covered and lying upside down and forgotten on the carpeted floor.
What finally coaxed him to move was the alarming signal directly transported from his stomach to his brain. He was beyond famished since he had skipped the last two meals. Not one to really care about intakes, he still is a human. He had no reason not to continue living, after all. So off he went to fetch something quick to eat.
It was almost three in the afternoon when he stepped inside his office.
His legs easily brought him to the office instead of his apartment without knowing if he even had works left undone before his mission. Even if he hadn't made any significant changes to his office by only two months, he had felt more belonging to it than to his studio apartment of nine years. At least here, he would have something to focus on—just anything.
He made himself comfortable sitting on his chair, eyes completely focused to piles of neatly stacked papers and rolls before him. At the very top the paper was already signed and stamped with his official signature. Eventhough he believed the same was done to the files below, he made himself skim through the files just because.
In the end, he wasted a generous ten minutes alone to check what wasn't supposed to be checked, all only to have something to work on.
A series of familiar sturdy knocks was heard, the door was opened next before he had a say first.
The exact thing he had ordered his secretary to do on his first day claiming the office.
"I heard you signing in, Sir," his associate said, bringing with him new stacks of importance that the captain had covertly been looking for. Sasuke had liked the guy from his first day in the office. From the look of it, he knew just how to assimilate with his new superior's work of flow. "Here are the reports from the borders this month. Freshly arrived yesterday."
"Excellent." Sasuke nodded, outwardly nonchalant but inwardly savoring the adrenaline rush with a mental smirk of his own.
The brown haired Beta-Anbu placed the reports in order on his desk while his eyes was already locked to the old ones. "Are these all finished, Sir?"
Sasuke nodded offhandedly, already immersed with a new scroll. The secretary smiled subtly as he excused himself and bringing with him the already signed reports.
It was only six when he decided he didn't have enough mental capacity to finish his work in one go. He had overestimated himself, or underestimated the reports because they all had been more complicated than he might have already calculated.
It had taken more time than it usually did to finish a report with the new one finished even longer than the last.
He didn't know if it was just his inadequacies at the moment or the situation in the borders that were trickier than usual.
Still, he opened the next one when he finished one.
He barely touched the fourth one when his door suddenly burst open.
Only one person who dared to come into his office unannounced.
"Yo, Sasuke," said man exclaimed once he shut the door behind him.
Sasuke sucked his teeth, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Aren't you supposed to be off duty?" The man asked in his deep raspy voice. The one Sasuke would recognize easily anywhere.
He sighed before opening his eyes to regard the uninvited guest. Uninvited, but not unwanted, even he had to admit it.
Standing with a light tilt to his left, one hand lightly kept inside the pocket of his orange trousers, was his sworn foreperson ever since he was inaugurated as Anbu Captain five years ago. His equal and rival for even much longer, Uzumaki Naruto, the next Hokage in training.
"Why are you here?" Sasuke finally voiced with a slight lift of an eyebrow. Eventhough it was as true as how the sun rises in the east that Naruto was his sworn foreperson, Sasuke never ditched the impudent way he addressed him.
Because they were Naruto and Sasuke of Team 7 first before they were the promised next Hokage and Anbu Captain of Konoha.
It was what made things stay comfortable between them after so long.
The signature full grin appeared easily. "Let's have a drink," Naruto said, stepping closer to his desk, "I'm beat, man."
The answer was easily uttered too. "No."
"Why?"
"I'm working."
"Oh come on! You don't have to. I need to forget all about Konoha for a moment lest I go nuts."
To forget something for a moment… Sasuke was intrigued. Slightly.
Naruto sighed. "It's on me," he said, evidently reluctant. But it was the ultimatum Sasuke needed.
"Sake, no beers," he said, standing up and immediately walking past the blonde head who followed easily, shaking his head as he scoffed.
Naruto invited him to the bar to forget things about Konoha, to put his mind to rest temporarily.
Sasuke agreed because he had his own things to forget.
But, something about alcohol is the fact that someone can't really control what is happening when they are under the influence. So, on their fourth bottle, Naruto ended up spouting what Sasuke believed to be the general conviction of what had been bothering him in the first place.
Surprisingly, or not at all, Sasuke didn't mind.
"I want to end this… I want to put an end to this stratification bullshit." Naruto chugged down another shot. "Alphas don't have to exceed expectations, a Beta can be the ruler—the captain if he is deemed worth, an Omega should become whatever she wants, be it a shinobi, a medic, or even an Anbu."
Sasuke was silent. Naruto had grown as an Alpha who had been lacking in a wide range of values though he ended up way exceeding expectations everyone might have borne to an Alpha. Still, he had to survive hell first before gaining the acknowledgement he deserved. They both knew of a person who was a Beta but granted the highest title as someone of importance in this village.
But he knew it better than anyone of the possibility since he was the only one who had met an Anbu who was apparently an Omega.
She had become what she wanted. She had proven herself worth the considerations.
Sasuke contemplated whether he should disclose to Naruto of what he knew, but decided against it and kept it to himself. Instead, he poured another shot to his and Naruto's cup, then swirled his first as he eyed the spiralling liquid deeply before downing it.
He'd make sure Naruto know in time, just not now.
Naruto eyed his cup, his focus distorting but otherwise the way he voiced his conviction sounded like he was still very much sober. "I've been having these talks with Kakashi-sensei, y'know. But the more I dive into it, the more complicated it become. Somehow the concept has rooted deep to this… village, this… world. One solution I propose, it comes with consequences. New prospects always come with consequences which are even more dangerous than the last."
With slightly quivering hand Naruto brought his cup to his lips, downing the whole content, and finishing as he closed his eyes and made a deep khu sound from the back of his throat. He never really got used to the intensity of the alcohol beverage. "Funny is whenever I met a dead end," he continued, pouring both his cup and Sasuke's. "I'd always recall of our team, of how … accurate and valid this stratification has been, had it been used appropriately. I mean I have to admit, three Alphas in a team was a disaster, wasn't it?" He finished with a chortle as he raised his cup, waiting for Sasuke to do the same.
Sasuke scoffed, in his mind another member of his team making an appearance. "Indeed," he agreed, clacking Naruto's cup with his own.
The two staring at each other as they downed their shots.
"I met Sakura yesterday," Naruto added, placing the cup down the wooden table.
Sasuke, mimicking the blonde head only with more grace, couldn't help to wonder how the medic Alpha had been doing. The last time they talked had been when he made a visit to the hospital three missions ago, approximately two months ago. He always passed the mandatory post-mission hospital visit if he could help it. At the time she had looked like the Alpha woman he had always seen in her; headstrong and vivacious.
But still involuntarily reluctant to him—personally to him.
He had buried deep the reason to it down the inaccessible core of his mind and refuse to acknowledge it since.
"She is in track to become head of Konoha Hospital. She'll back me up with researches… researches about traits. How they really work and why it shouldn't define you or why it shouldn't be used like the current system."
There was a pause as Naruto took a long-drawn sigh.
"In time, Sasuke," he then said, "you'll back me up with your men as well." Another pause. "I just hope it isn't in the way we always fear."
Both could feel the rise of their hair as the tension between them grew. Naruto, hoping to pour another shot as a way to alleviate the tension, held the bottle only to find it empty.
Obsidian eyes lowered to the empty bottle, his companion ordering a new one in a loud voice was subdued by his own rivaling loud thoughts.
To be the supreme commander of Anbu… was that what he really wanted?
Author's Note :
This story centres around our titular fated pair, but you'll discover more about the universe our characters live in as we go.
Also, thank you for the birthday wishes! I was glad to be able to present last chapter as a gift to fellow April-borns, I wish you all a (very late) Happy Birthday :D