Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Sorrow ❯ Truth and Love ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Sasuke cried, not caring that someone could see, not caring that he was supposed to be the ice king Uchiha Sasuke.
Naruto was gone.
Neither of the medical nins had said anything. he had to be dead. Sasuke let the tears flow freely, letting himself lay down on Naruto's chest. He was soaking the bandages, but who cared? Nothing mattered.
"Sasuke?" Tsuande asked. He didn't look at her.
"Go away." he said. She nodded, walking out of the room, shoulders slumped. The other nin did the same. It wasn't their place to interfere.
"Dobe..." Sasuke said thickly, trying to swallow the lump in his throat. "Why did you have to go? Why did you say that no one cared? I care. I always have. I didn't know that you loved me until you wrote it in your note. I didn't know what you were going through." Sasuke swallowed again, feeling tears come to his eyes. He closed them.
"I didn't know. I'm so sorry. I didn't even know what my feelings for you were until..." Sasuke stopped suddenly, feeling a slight movement beneath him. A hand came up to weakly wipe the tears away from his eyes. He opened his eyes to reveal possibly the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
Uzumaki Naruto's blue eyes, open and sparkling with life as the man weakly wiped away his tears.
"Naruto!" Sasuke exclaimed, sitting up. His tears stopped from shock. "Wha... how...?"
"Sasuke..." Naruto said softly, his voice so weak it was hard to hear. "Thank you... ai.. aishite..."
"Shh." Sasuke said, putting a finger to Naruto's lips. "I know. Rest. Get better."
"Will you... stay?" he asked. Sasuke nodded.
"Right here, right by you, koi."
Naruto smiled once before closing his eyes and going to sleep, needing to restore his energy and heal. Sasuke stayed right by his side, a small smile gracing his lips as his eyes filled up with tears of a different sort.
Naruto was alive! He smiled as he watched the sleeping blond.
"When you wake up, you have some explaining to do. I'll be right here." Sasuke said. He placed a gentle kiss on Naruto's lips before leaning back in his chair and falling asleep.
He never let go of Naruto's hand.

*The Next Morning*

Tsuande walked into her office, bags under hers eyes in addition to them being puffy.
Naruto was dead. Why she didn't know. How was easy. Why was another matter.
The first thing she noticed was that Naruto was still on her desk. The second thing she noticed was that Sasuke was holding his hand with a small smile on his face. Tsuande sighed.
'I hate to wake him up to reality, but...' She put the stack of papers she was carrying down and walked over to Sasuke. She gentley shook him awake.
"Sasuke, it's time to wake up." He blinked and opened his eyes. He glanced at her, blinking again to focus his eyes.
"Hokage-sama..." he said, nodding his head in a slight bow. She smiled at him, eyes still a bit sad.
"Did you stay here all night?"
"He asked me to." Sasuke said, motioning towards Naruto. Tsuande's look saddened as she hugged Sasuke.
"He's gone. He couldn't have-"
"Who's gone?" A loud, obnoxious voice that she knew so well asked. She slowly turned around.
There sat Uzumaki Naruto, looking confused. It was obvious from his posture that he was still favoring those wounds, but...
"Naruto?" She glanced at Sasuke, who just smirked. His face clearly said 'I told you so.' He didn't have to say a word.
"Yeah, Tsuande-baba?" She stood up and turned, hugging him close.
"I was so worried about you! Don't you ever DARE do that again, you brat!" Naruto's look softened from a brillient smile into an accepting, true smile, the first in years.
"Okay. I won't, Tsuande-baba." It was almost affectionate, not disrespectful, the way he used -baba this time.
Tsuande was crying again, and she knew it. She could feel the tears roll down her cheeks.
"Why did you do it, Naruto? Why didn't you come to me for help? Why didn't you ask someone?"
"I didn't want to be a burden... you already have too much to do, I hear you complaining about all the paperwork all the time-"
"That's different! If you ever have a problem again, you come and tell me, you hear? Stupid brat..." Naruto nodded, finally hugging back.
"Tsuande-sama, what happened to Naruto?" A hysterical, brown-hiared chuunin came in the door. "I can't find him anywhere and Kakashi said that neither he nor Uchiha Sasuke came in for practice-"
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto said, pulling out of the hug. Iruka looked steamed.
"Naruto, what happened to you? What's with all those bandages?"
"Naruto almost died last night, Iruka." Tsuande said. Iruka could not have been more surprised if you had just run him over with a steamroller and then blew him up like a balloon.
"Died? How? Are you okay?" Iruka asked, walking right up to Naruto and generally fussing. Naruto looked down at the ground.
"It's my fault. I didn't want to bother anyone any-"
"You tried to kill yourself?" Iruka asked, shock evident in his voice. Naruto nodded mutely.
"Oh Naruto... why couldn't you talk to me about this?" Iruka asked him, hugging the man that was like a son to him close and smoothing his hair down, just like his mother had done to him when he was young and in need of comfort. Naruto hugged him back, crying into his chuunin vest.
"I didn't mean to make you worry. You have so much to worry about and you put up with me even though it's Kyuubi's fault that you're an orphan..." Iruka's eyes got wide as he glanced at Sasuke. Tsuande mouthed him the words 'He knows.' Iruka made a questioning face, but he turned back to the more important matter of Naruto.
"I'm never too busy to worry about you. You're like the son I never had, Naruto. You are my family. Just because you contain the Kyuubi doesn't mean that you are Kyuubi. It's okay to tell me about these things. Don't just hold it all inside, okay? It's okay..." Iruka said, trying to calm Naruto down. Naruto nodded, feeling more tears come to his eyes.
'They all love me. They care about me. They don't hate me...' A loud pop interrupted his thoughts. He glanced up.
Kakashi and Sakura had just teleported into the office.
"Yo." Kakashi said.
"Hokage-sama, do you know where Naruto is? Or Sasuke? We haven't seen either of them but there was this huge pool of blood at Naruto's house and Sasuke's door was open and I'm really worried-" Sakura started, but Tsuande held up a hand. Sakura quieted down instantly.
"Naruto's right here. He's okay." Iruka stepped aside to reveal Naruto, bandages and all. Naruto laughed nervously.
"You idiot! What happened to you and why is there all that blood in your house?" Sakura demanded, stomping right up to him. He shied away, laughing nervoualy again.
"Sorry to make you so mad Sakura- cha-"
"MAD? I'm not mad, I'm furious! You could have died, you could have been killed, anything could have happened and we had no clue what was going on!" Naruto looked at her in surprise.
"You were worried?"
"Yeah!" she said, like it was obvious. "You're my friend! Of COURSE I'm worried!"
"Don't do that again." Kakashi told him, in his own way telling Naruto how worried he had been. Kakashi took out his book as Naruto let a slow smile spread across his face.
"Thanks, guys..."
"Why did you try to kill yourself? You owe us an explaination." Sasuke said softly, coming up to Naruto's side. "You owe us that much at least." Naruto looked down, hearing Sakura's shocked gasp and a dull thunk as Kakashi's book fell to the floor.
"I... I..." he started, not sure what to say.
"Suicide? Naruto?" Sakura said, dazed.
"Very bad joke." Kakashi muttered, scratching the back of his head. "It's not funny- and it must be true."
"I didn't think anyone needed me. I was just in everyone's way. Kyuubi killed so many people and I felt like it was my fault, just like I thought it was my fault that there were so many orphans, or that everyone would like me if I smiled all the time. I thought that people would forgive me for existing if I smiled and helped out enough. I was just bothering everyone if I tried to talk about my problems. I was just a burden and I didn't want to be a burden. I was trying so hard to make sure that people didn't hate me..."
"You're not a burden!" Sakura protested, but then a confused look flittered across her face. "What did you mean... what about Kyuubi? Isn't he dead?" The adults in the room looked at each other, unsure of what to say.
"The adults back then used him as a human sacrifice to seal Kyuubi, then hated him for something he had no control over and never volunteered for." Sasuke said, sounding disgusted at the thought of those shallow people. "It's not his fault but they blame him for every single death that Kyuubi caused."
"That... that's..." Sakura seemed at a loss for words.
"Awful." Tsuande said softly. Sakura nodded. She walked slowly up and hugged Naruto close. He hugged back, stroking her hair.
"It's okay Sakura-chan. I'm used to it by now-"
"That doesn't excuse it. You should never have 'gotten used to it' because it should never have existed. We're the reason you tried to kill yourself. I should have known... should have done something..." Sakura started crying, thinking of how horrible everyone had been to Naruto, and how close they had all been to losing him.
"None of us knew." Iruka said. "We were lucky he was brought in on time to save his life."
"Yes. We were very lucky." Tsuande said. She glanced at Sasuke, turning a grateful smile on the Uchiha. "Thank you so much for bringing him in." Kakashi looked at Sasuke with interest, as did Sakura and Iruka.
"You brought him in? How did you find him?" he asked.
"He wrote me a note. He accidently woke me up as he was leaving, and I found it just as he left." Sasuke said. "Scared teh shit out of me when I read it too."
"I scared you?" Naruto asked. He smiled sheepishly, though the smile didn't reach his eyes. "Sumima-"
"Don't apologize. I'm sorry for not realizing." Sasuke said. He walked up to Naruto as the blond let go of Sakura. Sasuke grabbed his hand, looking into his eyes. "I don't know if you remember what I said last night, so I'm going to say it again. I never realized what you meant to me until I read your note. I have never cried since my parents died, but I cried when I thought you were dead. I'm so sorry for not telling you this earlier- it would have saved me the heart attack." Sasuke said, smiling. He seemed to forget that there were other people in the room as he bent down to kiss Naruto. As their lips touched, he heard a light gasp of surprise from Sakura and Kakashi's book meet the floor again, but he didn't care. He pulled back reluctantly, seeing the shocked but joyful expression on Naruto's face.
"I love you too, and I'll kill you if you ever do that to me again." Sasuke said, hugging Naruto close. Naruto hugged him just as tightly. Over Naruto's shoulder, he saw Iruka's and Tsuande's shocked and surprised expressions. Frankly, he was surprised that Iruka hadn't passed out from the shock.
"Well... like father like son, wouldn't you say Iruka?" Kakashi said dryly. Iruka blushed- though it may have been a trick of the light- and muttered something about stupid jonins that couldn't keep secrets.
"Sa-Sasuke-kun...?" Sakura's voice asked. Sasuke didn't bother to face her, hearing the surprise in her voice.
"Yes?" he asked, not really caring what she thought of him now. Naruto was still hurting and would need their full support to recover. His reputation was not that important.
"Why... why did it have to be Naruto?" she asked, a surprisingly mature question for someone who had just found out that their crush for years liked another boy.
"I don't know. It just is." Sasuke said. Sakura nodded, though he couldn't see, he understood.
"Naruto, I want you to take a break. A good, long break." Tsuande said. "Spend your time how you want- at least until you recover. Please?" Naruto looked at her and shook his head.
"I should help out more."
"You've done more than enough. I've run out of missions for the time being, and you have to let that heal." Naruto looked down, almost as if ashamed.
"Well... the rent's due soon on my apartment and I don't have the money for that... besides, I still have to work. I have to help out just a bit more so-" He never got a chance to finish.
"Forget the apartment, stay over at my house." offered three people in the room simotaneously. Naruto glanced at Iruka, Sasuke, and Sakura in surprise.
"What?" he asked dumbly. "Wouldn't that be too much of a strain on you? I mean, to have to pick up after a freeloader every day-" Kakashi sighed.
"Well, let's decide this like adults now shall we? He can't stay over at Iruka's house, it would be inappropriate for him to stay with Sakura so he stays with Sasuke. See? No problems there." Kakashi smiled under his mask widely. "Besides, Sasuke's easily able to take a kunai or other sharp object from him again should he decide to be so stupid as to think that he's not needed." Kakashi winked lecherously at the two men. "Besides, I'm sure Sasuke won't have a problem proving to Naruto that he's needed-"
"That's enough, we get your point." Sakura said, glaring at the perverted jonin. She turned to Naruto with a smile. "I'll visit more often, but Kakashi's right. My parents won't like the fact that a boy's staying with us. As much as I hate to admit it, they'd especially hate it if that boy was you. Give them some time- I know that I can get them to come around, okay?" Naruto nodded, smiling his thankfullness to the pink-haired girl.
"Thank you."
"I'll never be too busy to see my favorite troublemaker- stop by, okay? I'll try to see you when I have some free time." Tsuande said. She smiled, tears threatening to fall in her eyes again as she looked into Naruto's eyes. "You remind me so much of my little brother... never forget that, okay?" Naruto nodded, his eyes moistening at her words.
"Never scare me like that again, got it? I was worried sick." Iruka said. "You are my family. Come and see me anytime you want to talk."
"But what if you have a class, or you have important paperwork, or it's the middle of the ni-?" Naruto asked.
"Anytime, Naruto."
"I'd be very disappointed in you if you did anything this stupid again. A ninja must always protect his comrades- those who don't are worse than trash. That's a rule of life- on and off duty." Kakashi said. Naruto nodded.
"Thank you."
"Let's go home now." Sasuke said, pulling out of the embrace but holding Naruto's hand. Naruto nodded.
"Yeah, let's go." One by one, the shinobi filed out of the Hokage's office, leaving only the Hokage herself. She smiled at the blond's retreating back.
'You really gave us all a scare, Naruto. But now, things are looking up for you.' Tsuande thought, before sitting down to her mountain of paperwork.

End Chap. 4 One to the end of the fic!