Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ An Understanding ❯ Last Words ( Prologue )

Title: An Understanding

Author: OrangeFlips

Pairings: Ultimately NejiSasu, but NaruSasu rather pronounced. Others TBA.

Rating: R. Maybe more.

Summary: It's always hard to understand the quiet ones, but sometimes, maybe words aren't necessary.

Comments: Hm, my first NejiSasu fic, and my first venture in the Naruto fandom for quite some time. Feel free to critique though, I'm not necessarily a writer that's wet behind the ears and needs support, okay? ^^ This is more of a story about the relationship between two (barely) men than a romance.

Warnings: Unbetaed. My beta doesn't know much about Naruto. Beta, anyone? Leave me a review and your email address and I'll contact you, love.

Standard disclaimers apply.

 

Prologue: Last Words

 

Sometimes, Sasuke was moody. You know, those cranky feelings you get when you just want to damn the whole world to a very, very uncomfortable place. And sometimes, Sasuke was spiteful, his heart filled with rage and an injustice of a sort, when the world wasn't cooperating, and everything was just going wrong. Then, he simply wanted to take a kunai from the little pouch on his hip and stab it in something. Or someone.

 

And sometimes, he just felt like nothing. Blah, who cares if Sakura was giving him the goo-goo eyes again, a girlish squeal just barely concealed under her quivering lip. Who cares if Kakashi was late again, and was probably out hiding somewhere reading his little book of porn while the rest of Team 7 baked out here under the sun. And never mind the warm body that had just crushed him to the ground.

 

Wait, what?

 

A set of grinning canine teeth first swim in to view, followed by a tuff of blond hair, whiskers, and sparkling blue eyes. Oh. It was just Naruto.

 

He blinked back at the figure looming above him. And then blinked again. Naruto was giving him a strange look, grin having flitted from his face, and he thought he heard Sakura gasp. “Sasuke?” Naruto sounded, voice a mixture of curiosity and slight anxiety. Sasuke blinked. Again. And Sasuke wasn't much of a blinker to begin with.

 

Ah, yes, Sasuke was in a blank mood indeed. And he was rather enjoying himself as well. The sun was warm, maybe he'd even get a tan... he closed his eyes.

 

“Sakura!” Naruto cried, running over to aid his friend. Hmm. The pink-haired girl had fainted. Oh well.

 

“Team 7,” a deep voice announced, oddly mature for their age, and the three of them looked up; Sasuke, in a daze, Naruto, crouched beside Sakura, and Sakura, who had just revived herself. It was Neji. Sasuke could feel himself hardening over, a mask sliding in place. What in the Hokage's name had he been doing, dazing off like that?

 

Back in gear. Back in trying to kill Itachi. Back to reality.

 

Neji cleared his throat, before continuing, taking their stares as an indication that he should speak on. “Kakashi-sensei has asked me to excuse him for his absence today. Naruto, take Sakura to the infirmary and make them check her blood pressure. It is detrimental to her health if she were to faint on a mission. Uchiha, come with me.”

 

“What? I don't need to be taken to the infirmary!” Sakura shouted, green eyes blazing as she suddenly jumped away from Naruto's side, “And if I do, why can't Sasuke take me?”

 

Sasuke scowled, glaring at the girl, and could feel Neji sigh. “Because you fainted. On a normal day, with absolutely no pressure at all. It would be unwise to faint on a mission. Uchiha cannot bring you because he must come with me to see Kakashi-sensei.”

 

Sakura frowned, ashamed, staring at her shoes idly. Naruto glanced at her hopefully, probably wanting to touch her pretty face or something of that content, before muttering, “Damned Sasuke getting in extra training again.” Sakura instantly flew at Naruto for disrespecting her blessed Sasuke-kun, so he did not notice Sasuke's hard glare as he left, a few steps behind Neji.

 

“Kakashi-sensei did not actually need to speak to you today, Uchiha, pardon me for my little white lie there,” Neji announced as they walked on the road. He paused for a moment in his speech, and receiving no response from Sasuke, added, “Would you be obliged to show me to your apartment so we could discuss a few issues?”

 

Sasuke nodded minutely, walking a few steps up to lead the way. Neji wasn't one to simply ask for a nice, gossipy afternoon chat, let alone a chat at all for no reason at all. When Neji spoke, it was always something important, something that may change the outcome of the future. And Sasuke was willing to respect that.

 

Still, he hesitated at the door as he unlocked it, fumbling with the key. It seemed awkward for Neji to suddenly be asking to speak to him, not that he and Neji were on bad terms in any way. It was simply because he rarely saw the long haired boy to being with, and the fact that Neji seemed to want to initiate a conversation that confused him, but he pushed that to the back of his mind.

 

“What did you want to talk about?” Sasuke asked, after closing the door and moving to make two cups of tea for his guest and himself.

 

Neji sat on the hard dining chair, back straight, hands folded before him. “It has to do with your mental state of health, I'm afraid.” Sasuke froze, a scowl covering his face, but motioned Neji to continue with a wave of his left hand, the other balancing two cups of hot tea and a teapot.

 

But Neji waited until Sasuke had sat down himself before explaining himself. “You've been blanking out lately.” It was a statement, but Sasuke shook his head to deny it.

 

“The regular you would not allow Naruto to jump him and do nothing about it, Uchiha.”

 

Sasuke blushed, red tinting his pale cheeks. “I was tired.” And he was tired, so tired of training, so fed up with Sakura's idolization of him, so annoyed with Naruto's attempts of proving he was not a monster by attempting to beat the younger of the two remaining Uchiha's up whenever possible, and even this conversation, with its formal air, too formal for two barely-out-of-preteen child ninjas to speak.

 

“Going to Orochimaru will not solve the problem, Sasuke,” Neji breathed, hard words softened slightly with emotion, honest concern evident in his speech, and his words.

 

Sasuke visibly stiffened, eyes suddenly slit, but this time, he did not try denying the statement. “He will give me the power I need.”

 

“He will fondle you, break you, use you...” Neji replied, voice like the dripping of blood from an open wound. Sasuke trembled, fear evident in the way his lip quivered, the way he needed to take a few breaths before speaking again.

 

“If he gives me power, I will do anything except give my soul to him.” Though young, Sasuke knew the rules of life, knew how cruel life and sex could be. Physically, he was a virgin in every way, but mentally, he had torn himself in so many ways he could not possibly be pure.

 

Not like Naruto.

 

He shivered, gripping the side of the table unconsciously as thoughts of his bright eyed companion flew across his mind.

 

“Be careful not to accidentally slip your soul to him, Uchiha,” Neji replied, “For he is a snake, and may be too hard for even you to resist.” Sasuke shivered again, clutching his cup of tea tightly, but did not know what to say. Neji stared at him for a while, blank, white eyes focused on Sasuke's glossy obsidian ones. His mouth twitched, perhaps out of annoyance, or hesitation, Sasuke did not know, but a few moments after Neji was biding him farewell and good luck.

 

There was nothing more Neji could say. Once Neji looked at Sasuke, he understood that the leave was inevitable, and had not persisted. And when Sasuke left for Orochimaru anyways, despite Kakashi's disapproval, despite Sakura's tears, despite Naruto's persistence, it was Neji's words that burned in his mind.