Chapter Text
“Time of death, eleven-thirty-two AM.”
Sasuke’s death had been painless.
That’s what Tsunade’s report is to Naruto on that bitter spring afternoon.
Their fight in the Valley of the End had been bloody and interminable. Hours slowly bled into days as Naruto slowly felt the life ooze out of him with every punch he threw. The numbing pain in his left arm was slowly disappearing after the hours passed under the falling sun. His vision blurred into a patina of pink and orange hues in the sky.
After Sakura found the two of them, Naruto healed slowly. Sasuke’s healing process is even more so.
Within three months, Naruto is out of the hospital and feeling mostly fine. He sometimes has to go in for checkups with his new arm under Tsunade’s strict orders and maintenance, but it’s nothing he can’t handle. If anything, it makes it more convenient to visit Sasuke between sessions, so it works out well.
“Still faking?” Naruto greets one afternoon, clawing away the worry wrapped tautly in his abdomen. Sasuke despises pity, so he swallows it whole and greets Sasuke with a grin.
“Idiot,” Sasuke mutters with a tinge of affection; he mutters it in the same tone he admits to Naruto that he lost their battle. Naruto’s heart lurches, but once again he pushes it down. He notices that Sasuke’s haughty smirk is barely there when he answers. His voice is thick and heavy from a mixture of medication and lassitude.
“I’ve brought you some goodies,” Naruto points out, swinging the basket from behind his back. Laden with Sasuke’s favourites, like the tomatoes Naruto has recently been growing on his terrace, or the onigiri which have been messily assembled with bonito flakes.
Dark purple pillows sit heavily under Sasuke’s eyes and have only been growing worse through the passing weeks, Naruto notices. He doesn’t dare say it to Sasuke, as it would probably only annoy him. Naruto bites his tongue as he always does and approaches politely and with caution. Looking at Sasuke now, he’s like a wounded, scared dog who could bark with his teeth bared at any moment. Naruto knows how Sasuke works. Pushing him out of him comfort zone with overt sentimentality just makes him push Naruto away, his walls towering higher than Naruto can reach some days.
Naruto observes Sasuke scoff and roll his eyes. “Haven’t you got Hokage-in-the-making duties to be doing?” he asks flatly.
“I’m just here after a check-up,” Naruto says honestly, flexing his bandaged arm.
Sasuke lifts himself up in the bed with effort and cocks a brow. “With tomatoes?”
“I’ve been known to plan my visits,” he says with a shrug, marching and pulling up a stool next to Sasuke’s bed. “Now stop being a bastard and eat.”
“I haven’t known you to plan anything,” Sasuke quips. “You’re the most impulsive man I know.”
“Okay Mr I’m going to be the next Hokage,” Naruto jibes back, passing Sasuke a piece of onigiri. “Eat up.”
Sasuke stares at the food, and Naruto watches him carefully. He’s like a stray black cat. Acutely aware of his surroundings, hackles up, quick to run.
“You need to eat to keep your strength up,” Naruto instructs.
“They’re weirdly shaped,” Sasuke comments. His voice isn’t snide or judgemental, but a simple observation.
“Well, you don’t like ramen, and I’ve never made ‘em before so you’ll just have to settle!” Naruto barks back with a small humph in his voice as he slowly starts cutting the tomatoes into bite-sized portions. “I also brought salt for your tomatoes. I don’t know how you just eat ‘em plain.”
“The sodium from all the ramen you’re eating is rotting your brain. Tomatoes don’t need salt,” Sasuke says.
Naruto notices Sasuke still hasn’t touched his food. “It’s got bonito flakes. I know you like ‘em that way.”
Something softer graces Sasuke’s features, but he doesn’t say anything else. They sit in silence for another moment. Slowly, Sasuke takes a small bite of the onigiri and swallows. “Thank you,” he says eventually.
“Sure, whatever,” Naruto grumbles without any real bite.
Meeting Sasuke becomes routine for Naruto in the coming year. His condition doesn’t improve too much, but Tsunade says nothing is wrong with him and his vitals are fine. She can’t quite place what’s wrong with Sasuke, but there’s no need to worry at this stage.
Their meetings have become more frequent. Sometimes Sasuke is feeling fine. Others, not so much. Some days, Naruto feeds him the small number of tomatoes he can consume. At first, Sasuke protestes, but the objections alowly die down as Naruto worms his way back in. Their times together falls into an easy routine that Sasuke doesn’t protest.
Tomato juice slowly runs down Naruto’s fingers as he feeds Sasuke and pushes the plump tomatoes past his dry lips. His hands are sticky, but if it means Sasuke eats, it’s welcome enough where Sasuke doesn’t fight. Feeling the soft brush of Sasuke’s lips makes his skin hum, but Naruto quashes it down. It’s nothing. Sure, it’s a bit embarrassing, but if it means Sasuke’s okay and eating , a small bit of embarrassment is infinitesimal in the grand scheme of things.
One day, Naruto turns up with some more onigiri on hand. Sasuke’s had a good week according to Kakashi, so he can probably go back to eating something a bit more complex. For the past few days, Sakura has been feeding him miso broth and Naruto hasn’t been allowed to see him. Naruto worries and paces outside Sasuke’s room some days, but he’s more mature now and listens to Tsunade’s placitudes.
Sasuke’s fine.
Naruto’s about to open the door, but it slides open before he can touch it.
Standing in front of him is a flushed Sakura, her watery eyes fixed on the floor. She jumps when she runs into Naruto and quickly wipes her eyes.
“Oh, Naruto! Are you here to see Sasuke?” she asks with a watery enthusiasm.
Naruto can’t notice how small and frail she looks. Smaller than usual, and her skin has a pallor that doesn’t look healthy. He knows Sakura is someone who can protect herself. She is strong, but he can’t help but feel protective seeing her look like a leaf in the wind. He’s aware of Sakura’s long shifts in the hospital, exacerbated by her time trying to look after Sasuke.
He places his hands on her shoulders. She’s trembling.
“Is everything alright?” He asks, immediately assuming it’s because of Sasuke. It always is.
Sakura shakes her head. “I’m fine Naruto, really,” she says placatingly. “It’s just been a long day.”
“Did that bastard say something to you?” he pries, his voice serious.
Sakura shakes her head again and places her hand on Naruto’s arm to mollify him. “He really didn’t—Naruto, please, leave it,” she pleads.
Naruto looks at her seriously. One thing about Sakura is that she’s learned how to hide behind a smile well. Ever since Sasuke had been declared a rogue ninja, a shrewd politeness has veiled over the two of them whenever it comes to Sasuke. Naruto knows Sakura feels a sense of responsibility about their promise they made when they were twelve—when he promised Sakura that he would drag Sasuke back to the village—but she shouldn’t.
Naruto knows, when it comes to Sasuke, he is inherently and innately selfish.
Despite the promise they made when he was twelve, he needed Sasuke back in Konoha for his own selfishness – it’s nothing to do with Sakura anymore.
Though, she doesn’t believe that.
Naruto decides to leave it for now. Arguing outside Sasuke’s hospital room isn’t going to help anything. Maybe he can coax it out of her over drinks on the weekend.
“Look after yourself,” he says warmly, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
“You too,” she mutters with a smile that doesn’t meet her eyes.
Sasuke’s hospital room reminds Naruto of Sasuke’s tenebrous eyes. Shrouded in darkness, a small melancholy hanging in the air – something which is almost tangible but just not yet. His curtains are drawn past the windows, and he has a damp towel placed across his head.
“D’you wanna go for a walk?” Naruto asks when he sits beside Sasuke. “We always used to when we were in here together.”
“Not in the mood,” Sasuke grumbles.
“When was the last time you went outside?”
“Yesterday,” Sasuke quips back.
“Liar. Granny says you haven’t gone outside at all this month.”
“Headache,” Sasuke supplies.
“You’re just being a dramatic cos I kicked your ass,” Naruto grumbles, trying to ease some of the awkwardness.
“I kicked yours too.”
“And I’m all better. Not moping around like you.”
“Maybe you’ve kicked my ass beyond repair,” he says sardonically. “I could die.”
A heavy silence follows. Something in the room shifts. Unpleasant—desperate.
Sasuke’s about to speak when he feels something heavy rest against him. The cold metal of Naruto’s forehead protector chills against his hand. It’s meticulously looked after and unmarred unlike his own. “Oi, don’t joke about stuff like that,” Naruto mutters quietly. “Granny says you’ll be fine.”
“Don’t put your head on me. I’m fine, just feverish. You might catch it.”
“Kurama’ll take care of it if I get ill,” Naruto mumbles, his cheek hot against Sasuke’s hand.
If being this close to Sasuke meant he would catch his illness, Naruto welcomes it. Any ailments are worth being in this proximity. After so many years of being apart it makes something archaic and old and ugly inside of Naruto viscerally ache, but just as he always does, Naruto swallows the feeling and brushes it off as bitter gratification.
The two of them don’t speak for a while, but they’re comfortable like this and the silence spills between them easily. Normally, Sasuke hates physical touch, but he didn’t seem to mind it so much with Naruto these days. Letting Naruto feed him, touch him, carry him—it’s something they had easily fallen into over these past few months.
“So, what did you say to Sakura?” Naruto asks finally, his breath warm against Sasuke’s skin.
“She’s meddlesome,” Sasuke says flatly; there’s not a hint of distain in his voice, but there’s an air of finality about it.
“She really liked you, y’know.”
“I think a blind person could have made that assumption, dumbass.”
Something twists in Naruto’s chest. “Wouldn’t you wanna? Sakura’s really cute y’know.”
Sasuke huffs. “You date her then,” he says a bit too sharply. “You used to follow her around like a lovesick puppy.”
“I’m over that now!” Naruto exclaims indignantly, lifting his head from the Sasuke. “I don’t have time for a love life, between you and training to become the Hokage, I’m a mess. Kakashi-sensei is a lot stricter than he used to be y’know!”
“Don’t blame me for your lack of love life,” Sasuke drawls, but the mood in the room becomes slightly colder.
“You’re basically rotting in here.”
“It’s not your concern.”
“You make it my concern cos you don’t even look after yourself, bastard,” Naruto says with a huff. “Honestly, I told ya didn’t I? If I can’t even save one friend, how am I meant to become the Hokage?”
“I’m back in the village and have found salvation, if that’s what you want to hear,” Sasuke drones like it’s a poorly-practiced script.
“Stop being like that,” Naruto scolds. “You’re not being cute at all.”
“Sorry I’m not being the star metric you put in place for yourself so you can guiltlessly become the Hokage.”
Sasuke doesn’t see it, but he hears a chair scrape sharply and topple over. Before he can even protest a loud rattle from the door opening rings out throughout the room.
Once again, Sasuke finds himself alone.
“He’s just—ugh—so infuriating, y’know?!” Naruto complains, chugging down another glass of sake. “It’s like he doesn’t even want to make any effort to get better!”
“We need to start banning Sasuke talk out of office hours,” Choji murmurs to Shikamaru, his cheeks flushed from sake.
Naruto points an accusatory finger at Choji. “That is censorship, which my father made illegal, I’ll have you know.”
“Happy you’ve finally picked up basic Konoha politics you goddamn nepo baby,” Choji says as Shikamaru skilfully parries another glass of sake far from Naruto’s reach.
“Where’s Ino?” Naruto asks with a slur. Ino’s usually the nicest when Naruto’s feeling rather pathetic. Weirdly, Sakura, Ino and Naruto have a weird connection when it comes to being pathetic over Sasuke. Nobody else coddles or sympathises, so they find comfort in each other. Ino is more of a third-party in the situation now, but she does empathise.
“She’s outside with Sakura,” Shikamaru says with a sigh laced in his words, pointing to the smoking area.
On wobbly knees and feeling more lightheaded than he should, Shikamaru and Choji watch Naruto slowly follow the direction of Shikamaru’s thumb outside.
When Naruto’s out of earshot, Choji whispers quietly, “I thought with Sasuke back, Naruto’d be alright now but . . . he’s more obsessed than ever.”
Shikamaru watches Naruto’s retreating back and ponders Choji’s words.
“Troublesome.”
Outside, the winter air is crisp and cold, a complete juxtaposition to the warmth of the grills and the booze inside. Naruto feels the frosty air nip at his nose and ears until they’re red. In summer, the nights in Konoha are warm and lively. Winter has never been Naruto’s favourite season. He suspects that it has to do with his cold dingy apartment which had him huddling under the blankets from the age of five.
He finds Sakura and Ino sitting outside. Ino’s offering a pitying look to Sakura whose head is in her hands. From what Naruto remembers, they’ve probably drank the same amount tonight, trying to drown their sorrows in booze, but it’s only to their own detriment.
When Ino sees Naruto approach, she subtly kicks Sakura’s foot. “Hi Naruto,” she offers loudly, wearing a sympathetic smile addled with worry.
Sakura sniffs and looks up, her eyes watery.
Naruto’s by her side in an instant.
She’s probably crying about being rejected again, Naruto thinks, so he doesn’t ask her what’s wrong. He doesn’t need to bring up those memories again.
For a moment, Sakura just lets herself be cuddled and cries into Naruto’s shoulder until they turn into a soft sob. Ino doesn’t leave their side either and places her hand on Sakura’s clenched fist.
“That bastard doesn’t deserve you,” Naruto says. He doesn’t really like the words that come out of his mouth and they taste like ash, but it’s been routine since their youth. Sasuke rejects Sakura, Naruto insults him in retaliation to defend Sakura’s honour, and then he receives a bruise of some sort.
“What?” Sakura blubbers.
“Sasuke—that guy’s impossible sometimes,” Naruto says in a small voice. “I spoke to him about it, well. . . sorta anyway. We just ended up arguing as well.”
Sakura slowly rises from her position; her watery eyes are blinking owlishly at him, but her nose is running, and her face is flushed. “You spoke to him about it?”
Naruto uses his sleeve to wipe her nose. It’s Sakura, so it’s not gross. “Yeah, I told him to try dating you but he just—”
Sakura lets out a small, rueful laugh. “Really Naruto, I am over that part of my life.”
Naruto thought so too. True, they never really speak about these things anymore. Sasuke’s a sore subject for them both. Noticeably, even Kakashi finds him a sensitive subject to bring up in their one-to-one sessions. Still, Naruto assumes that Sakura still likes him because she hasn’t said otherwise. She’s matured and doesn’t force her affection on him anymore, but it doesn’t mean that she loves him any less.
“Then . . . why are you crying?”
Sakura shakes her head and removes herself from Naruto’s grip. “It’s. . . complicated,” she offers weakly. “As you said, he’s complicated.”
Something shrieks at him to press her more, to shake it out of her until he has answers, but it’s Sakura. Seeing her in such an inconsolable state, Naruto can’t bring himself to.
“What’s complicated?”
Sakura stares at him with a trembling lower lip. She opens her mouth, closes it again, and tries to speak until Ino interrupts.
“I think, Sakura’s had a bit too much alcohol and is reminiscing ugly memories,” Ino says vaguely, slowly taking Sakura’s hand and giving it a comforting squeeze. “I think it’s good that we’re all looking out for each other and putting each other first.”
Sakura’s eyes become cloudy with sorrow again, but she seems to mentally acquiesce before nodding. “I-Ino’s right Naruto,” she sobs, her voice cracking with something Naruto quite can’t place. “Everything just sucks so hard right now, y’know.”
Naruto feels his own eyes sting, and he’s not sure if it’s just from the cold. He nods resolutely. “It does, but everything gets better eventually. We got him back in the village—we just gotta get past this roadblock and it’ll be like old times.”
Something dark flashes across Sakura’s face for a moment. Naruto doesn’t even know if he registers it correctly, his brain unsharpened by his inebriation. It’s gone before Naruto can confirm it was even there.
“I’m . . . going to take Sakura home, alright Naruto?” Ino says softly, her voice sounding slightly hollow.
“Heeeeeeyyyy, Sasukeeeee,” Naruto whispers loudly, perched on icy window five floors high. It’s thin and small but thank the Gods for chakra control. “It’s meeee, Naruto.”
He knocks on the window a few times, but there’s no answer. Knowing how Sasuke is, he’s probably heard Naruto, or if not him, his loud knocking. Sasuke is always on high alert and only sleeps for a few hours a night—one of the many gifts of staying under Orochimaru’s tutelage for a large chunk of his childhood.
“Oiiii, bastard, I know we left things on a really bad note earlier, but I could fall from this window and die. Then you really would’ve defeated me,” he whisper-shouts from outside. “I just wanna be friends again!”
There’s no answer again.
So Naruto acts.
Now, of all times, is the perfect time for rational decision-making. His eyes are hazy, and his judgement is hanging on by less than a thread. Sasuke’s words echo in his head, as they always do nowadays: you’re the most impulsive man I know.
The air in Naruto’s palm twists unnaturally, warping with a hiss that makes even the cold air flinch. A sphere of seething orange light pulses in the palm of his hand. It hums with power that Naruto’s more than acquainted with, bright and saliently reckless with raw power. The hospital window shudders in anticipation. Fragile glass versus Naruto’s idea of subtlety.
Then, the window quickly slides open.
“What the hell are you doing, dumbass?” Sasuke hisses, grabbing Naruto’s wrist. The rasengan quickly dissipates with the touch of Sasuke’s warmth, and Naruto stares at him in what is short of adoration.
Even with the residual hum of chakra from the rasengan blossoming against his fingetips, Naruto’s skin flares even more intensely from Sasuke’s touch.
There is no denying he is the most beautiful person Naruto has ever seen.
Moonlight catches Sasuke’s beauty like an artist painting the perfect sculpture, but Sasuke’s countenance is something not even Sai would be able to replicate with mere tools. His marmoreal skin reflects against the silvery wash of the moon and glows with a level of beauty the sun would never be able to reach. Sasuke looks divine in this light.
Naruto believes that he is divine, sometimes.
The wind stirs his hair slightly. Dark strands fall with deliberate grace across his cheeks. It’s grown so long over his tenure in the hospital. Sasuke doesn’t try to move the wisps of hair that delicately caress his face, but Naruto’s hand twitches when he realises, in the midst of his alcohol-induced mania, he wants to be the one to move the strands away and tuck them behind his air. Cold air bites the tip of Sasuke’s nose and nibbles it red; Sasuke’s pale skin has always been susceptible of reddening in the chill of winter. Part of Naruto almost wants to offer him his mother’s scarf, but he knows Sasuke would scoff and kick him off the ledge anyway.
“I want to punch you for looking so good when you’re bedridden,” Naruto blurts out.
The cold must have become more severe, because Sasuke’s cheeks now match his nose with a pink tinge.
“What are you even talking about?” Sasuke mutters, but it seems mostly rhetorical.
“Can I come in?”
Sasuke seems to ponder his words for a moment before letting out a sigh and moving slightly to the side. “I fear for my hospital window if I say no.”
Naruto grins at him before scrambling in through the window and tottering ungracefully on Sasuke’s hospital bed. The warmth in Sasuke’s room covers him nicely, and Naruto cuddles up in Sasuke’s covers.
“If you’re going to sleep in my bed, take off your shoes moron.”
Naruto grins and throws off his shoes and shirt. “So, I’m allowed to stay?”
“I don’t know any ninja capable of stopping you when you’ve already put your mind to it.”
“Was that a compliment?” Naruto goads. “You think I’m strong?”
Sasuke scoffs. “If you’ve taken it like that.”
“Well, I’m sure you could put a resistance against me if it came to it.”
Sasuke’s slow with his response this time around. His voice is barely audible, as if it’s almost an admission to himself. “I don’t think I could.”
Naruto ignores the weight in Sasuke’s words and aggressively slams his palm on the empty space next to him. “M’cold Sasuke, come to bed already.”
You’re the one who took of your shirt, Sasuke thinks. He doesn’t voice it though. “Move up then. You’re hogging the bed.”
Naruto moves a small amount, but it’s still a tight squeeze. Sasuke rigidly lays beside Naruto, facing the ceiling. Naruto’s splayed on his side, his chin slightly touching Sasuke’s shoulder.
“You stink of booze,” Sasuke says after a lapse of silence.
“Was drinkin’,” Naruto mumbles, feeling oddly content. “Was fun.”
Sasuke hums in response.
“I wish you were there though,” Naruto continues.
“You don’t need me for stuff like that.”
Naruto indignantly presses his body up and peers over at Sasuke who barely moves. His dark eyes glance from the hospital ceiling over to Naruto.
This is where Sasuke is always wrong. Naruto always needs him.
“What d’you mean by that?”
“Don’t hurt yourself thinking, moron,” Sasuke huffs as he smacks Naruto’s forehead away. “All your other friends were there. Just focusing on enjoying your time with them and stop you thinking about me so often. I’m fine.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Naruto quips sulkily. “Sai missed you is all—not me.”
Sasuke cocks a brow. “Really.”
“Yep. I didn’t think of you at all.”
“Then why did you come here?”
Naruto’s bottom lip pokes out and he ponders his response. “Didn’t want you feeling left out is all.”
“I didn’t even know it was happening,” Sasuke says. “Did you just come here to gloat because I can’t leave the hospital?”
“W-well—!” Naruto splutters, sitting upright in bed. He quickly grabs Sasuke’s side of the covers and wraps it around himself, turning his back and plonking himself on the other side. “Gah, you’re impossible! And infuriating! Don’t speak to me!”
“Oi, don’t be a baby—”
“Says the Hokage of babies!”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” Sasuke grumbles. He lurches over and tries to grab the covers back from Naruto. It’s the most exertion he’s done in weeks. “Naruto, give me some of the covers back—”
“Nope, can’t hear you over all that baby wailing.”
Realistically, Sasuke is strong enough to level mountains if he feels like it. If he really wants to, he would be able to get the covers back from a drunken Naruto in an instant. However, could a mere blanket, the only thing protecting Sasuke from the winter chill, realistically survive a squabble between arguably the two strongest ninjas in the world?
Sasuke sighs and acquiesces to his position. Sometimes you have to let go and lose. Something he knows crushingly well.
“Look, I’m sorry about earlier, okay? It was wrong of me to take my frustrations out of you when you spoke to me about Sakura.”
Naruto winces and slowly turns around, his blond spikes peaking out from the covers. “And?”
“I’m sorry for saying you think I’m just a metric.”
Naruto’s facing him now, his bright blue eyes boring into Sasuke’s own. “And?”
“For calling you a baby.”
“And?”
“Naruto.”
Naruto grins and releases his grip on the covers. “Sorry, I just wanted to see how far you’d go,” he says with a laugh laced into his words. “You look pretty stupid right now.”
Sasuke snatches the covers from Naruto and flashes him a glare, but Naruto’s grown to immune to surface-level things such as that. He turns his back to Naruto.
“Goodnight, Naruto,” he says with some finality.
Sasuke feels something warm press against his back. Naruto isn’t hugging him per say, but he is unnecessarily close. Warmth presses flush against his back, and Sasuke tries not to lean into it too much. Surprisingly, Sasuke is more than comfortable with this distance. With anyone else, he would have pushed them away in an instant. Even Sakura keeps herself at a respectable distance during his tests.
Naruto, on the other hand, tears Sasuke’s defences down brick by brick. The one thing Sasuke can never defend himself against is lying right next to him. To most shinobi, it’s a death sentence.
To Sasuke, it’s a comfort.
A moment of silence passes before Naruto speaks again, because of course he does.
“Hey, Sasuke?”
Sasuke contemplates answering, before he inevitably does. “What?”
“I think I’d be okay if we could be like this forever.”
Sasuke swallows; he realises his throat is uncharacteristically dry all of a sudden. “What are you talking about now?”
“I mean, yeah sure, becoming Hokage is nice and all, but if that never happens, as long as you’re here, I think it’ll be okay.”
“You’re obviously going to become Hokage, idiot.”
“I know—well, uh, I mean Kakashi’s helping me and all but . . . do you think you’ll stick around?”
Sasuke’s heart jerks. “Who knows.”
Naruto’s hands softly clench around the back of Sasuke’s hospital gown. It reminds Sasuke of a child’s prayer. It’s something he’d do to Itachi before he’d go on a mission, or whenever he felt his brother getting further away. “I mean, if you don’t want to stay here, I’d come with you.”
Sasuke snaps around, almost angrily. He always thought Naruto was stupid, but this admission is a mixture of pathetic and cruel.
“What are you talking about? Don’t even dream of throwing everything you’ve worked so hard for away.”
Don’t put it on me, he wants to say, but doesn’t.
There’s something painfully real in Naruto’s voice which makes him ache. Guilt cradles itself deeply inside of Sasuke, and it makes his palms clammy. He’s staring at Naruto now, but there’s no hesitation or uncertainty in his gaze, only a steely determination that is almost terrifying. It makes Sasuke realise how far he’s made Naruto fall into this fixation of keeping him around, even to his own detriment.
This is Sasuke’s burden too.
“I know it sounds stupid, but I think if you were away from the village . . .” Naruto trails off and bites his lips in contemplation, trying to find the right words. “I don’t think I can go through it again. Even tonight . . . if you’re not there, it’s all pointless to me Sasuke.”
“You’re starting to sound like Sai,” Sasuke quips.
“I’m being serious.”
Getting out of the village has always been Sasuke’s plan. Framing it as a path of redemption to appease the Konoha elders or something if he ever walks out of this hospital.
If Naruto’s unhappy with that decision, however, then Sasuke doesn’t think he can bring himself to do it. Despite it all, Sasuke doesn’t think he could live with himself if a decision he makes purposely hurts Naruto. Not again.
Likewise, Naruto couldn’t do the same to Sasuke.
They’re dangerously aware that the other is the main part of their downfall.
Sasuke lets his fingers whisper against Naruto’s marked cheek. His eyes are blazing blue in the dingy room; they’re scarily pellucid with a feral determination.
“Then I’ll stay here after I’m better, if that’s what you want,” he offers softly.
Naruto leans into Sasuke’s touch. It’s magnetic and intoxicating, and it feels just right. They’re like magnets; always finding their way back to each other.
“I would never make you stay here against your will if you want to leave,” Naruto confesses.
“Too late for that,” Sasuke says wryly.
“You needed somewhere to recuperate.”
Sasuke lets out an amused huff. “What were the last few years about then?”
“Getting you back,” Naruto says easily. “And if we have to leave here after you’re better, then that’s okay too.”
Relief washes over Sasuke at Naruto’s admission. He has a choice once Tsunade gives him the okay to leave the hospital. There may be some sacrifice on either side – there is always going to be – but there’s a choice.
Sasuke doesn’t know when they fall asleep after that.
Naruto wakes up with a harsh jolt the next morning. His head feels like Nagato has flicked him into a building all over again. The room is too bright and lurid. Cold light peaks in through the window, magnifying the clinical white of the hospital room—
Hospital room.
“Brat.”
Naruto gulps.
His head pounds from the remnants of alcohol pressing against his skull.
A chill runs down his spine.
Beside him, Sasuke wakes up bleary-eyed, and his hair still—obviously—looks perfect.
Standing beside Sasuke’s bed is an irate-looking Tsunade with a blushing Shizune and a few other medical staff looking a mixture between scandalised and amused.
“H-hey Granny Tsunade—”
The cracking of Tsunade’s knuckles reverberates around the room. “Didn’t I make it implicitly clear that Sasuke should have no after-hours guests?”
“Y-you did granny, but y-you see—”
“And what did I say about strenuous exercise?” She bites out.
“S-strenuous exercise?” Naruto repeats, feeling a cold sweat form on the back of his neck.
“Congratulations, you two,” Shizune offers meekly, hiding her face behind a clipboard.
Naruto looks between the team of medical staff, Sasuke, the bed, his lack of shirt and back to Granny Tsunade. “L-look, I know it looks bad, but I think you guys have the wrong idea about this!”
The pen Tsunade’s holding snaps in her iron grip. It’s a small glimpse into Naruto’s short future.
“I’ll give you to the count of three.”
“Listen! I am a virtuous—”
“One.”
“U-uh, s-see you later Sasuke. She’s really pissed,” Naruto stammers, grabbing his shoes. “We’ll catch up later.”
“Two.”
Naruto shakily puts his sandals on and grabs his shirt.
“Three.”
Naruto’s already disappeared out of the window by the time Tsunade counts that far.
Silence washes over the room in lieu of Naruto’s departure. Sasuke lets out a painful sigh as he buries his head in his hands. He knew letting that knucklehead into his room could only end in disaster.
Lady Tsunade’s steely gaze measures Sasuke up.
“You’re going to break his heart if you two keep continuing like this, you know.”