Old/Bad/Abandoned SasuNaru Fic Dump
So since it appears I am returning to the fanfic-writing world, I thought I would finally dig up two old not-quite-good-enough NaruSasu fics and get them out of my way. They're both pretty bad, but if at least one person enjoys them then I've done my job.
A. I wanted this one to be majorly epic back when I had the idea, but I ran out of steam, and now that it doesn't match canon anymore I've lost interest. Someone who wants to adopt it and make it better is totally welcome to.
Title: Lights Will Guide You Home
Characters: Sasuke-centric, NaruSasu, barely there ItaSasu
Genre: AU / Departure from canon around Chapter 345. Angst, with a dollop of fluff on top
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Implied yaoi. Possibly cheesy and OOC.
Words:
Summary: Sasuke has defeated Orochimaru, but has paid a heavy price - his memory.
1. Kabuto stared at the figure in the middle of the room. He asked anyway, even though he already knew.
“Which one are you?”
The young man looked at him with black sorrowful eyes. Kabuto’s throat went dry. He had never seen such an expression on that boy’s face before. This was not the face of a victor.
“Who are you?” he asked again.
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
2.
It was not the first time he had stood on this hill. He was sure of it. Below him, tiny storybook buildings sprawled out. There was a huge cliff face with five faces carved into it. They were strangers’ faces.
He kept walking, down into the town. Children played in the road. Occasionally the feeling of suspicious eyes on him made his skin prickle. A woman came out of a shop carrying a heavy bag. She saw him and the bag fell to the ground, its contents rolling into the road. Not knowing what else to do, he began to gather up the vegetables, but when he handed one to the woman she backed away and fled.
He wanted to chase her down and ask her who he was, why she feared him, but that would only alarm her more. He obviously wasn’t welcome here. He’d be careful not to let his guard down now, just in case the woman sent someone after him. But he was fairly confident he could take most anyone out. He’d easily disposed of the few poorly-dressed shinobi who had tried to stop him from breaking out of that creepy place he had left behind.
He came to a dim part of town and stopped suddenly. The air had changed, he noticed, stale-smelling and silent. Emblazoned on the walls were the faded ghosts of red-and-white fans. Something terrible had happened here.
He kept walking deeper into the abandoned compound until he came to a large house. The front window was broken, and the lightless interior stared out at him like a jet-black pupil from the dirty frame. He went to the window and peered inside. A musty smell wafted up from within, and in the single beam of light that spilled over his head, he could see blood staining the tatami mats. He remembered the woman’s reaction to him in the street and the thought stuck him that he himself might have been responsible for the blood. A strange wind whipped through the windows and made his hair stand on end.
He heard footsteps. A young man was running towards him. His sharingan blazed, and his hand rested poised on his sword. “Sasuke!” the boy yelled. He had hair like bright gold.
“SASUKE!” The boy stopped several yards away, and stared at him.
“Who are you?” Sasuke asked.
It was the last thing Naruto expected, and the last thing he wanted to hear.
3.
(Three months later.)
“With all due respect, Hokage-sama, are you sure it’s a good idea to send my team on this mission?”
“It’s only a B-rank assignment. Yours is one of the strongest teams available.”
“But Ayako-sama is from Bird Country. I’m sure you’ve heard the reports of recent Akatsuki activity in those parts.”
“Exactly. Naruto and Sakura have both proven themselves against Akatsuki before. And Sasuke…Sasuke is strong.”
“Sasuke must not encounter Itachi,” Kakashi replied, a firm edge to his quiet voice.
“We’re underestimating him if we think he won’t recognize his own brother.”
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. “When he returned, he didn’t even remember the name of this village.”
“But he knew how to get here.”
The Hokage looked pensive.
“Sharingan is a powerful thing,” Kakashi continued. “He remembers more than we think. His memories aren’t in his mind. They’re in his body. If his body remembers Itachi, he will.” And, he thought, he will know we have lied to him.
Tsunade sighed. “He does seem so happy now. Especially when he’s with his teammates. I hate to say this, but that attempted jutsu of Orochimaru’s may have been the best thing that could have happened to him.”
Kakashi said nothing.
4.
“Wake up sleepyhead,” Sasuke said, nudging the blond beside him.
Naruto stirred, batting away the interfering hand. Sasuke decided on another tactic. He leaned over the other boy’s face and kissed his lips lightly, parting them with his tongue. Clear blue eyes fluttered open, and Sasuke smirked. “Works every time.”
“Sasuke…” Naruto said, gazing up at him. “Sasuke. You’re here.”
“Of course I’m here, idiot.”
Naruto paused, smiling, almost embarrassed. “It’s just that…every day when I wake up, and I see you’re there next to me, I still can’t believe how lucky I am. I almost stopped believing I would ever have you back with me. Sometimes at night I freak out, thinking you’ll be gone again, and that this was all just a dream, and then I feel you, and hear you breathing, and…”
“You don’t shut up, do you?” Sasuke said, and kissed him again. He tried to stand up, but was stopped by the other’s firm, almost desperate grip on his hand. It always puzzled him, the intense thirst and even latent fear in his lover’s touch, as if Sasuke could disappear any minute into thin air. He didn’t know why he ever would. His captors were defeated, and he was home, where he belonged.
“Hey, hey, we don’t have time for this now, you idiot,” he said, smiling as he fought off the playful hands that were already moving lower on his body. “We have to report for a mission today.”
“Oh crap, the mission! I forgot!” Naruto exclaimed. “Damn, and I was all ready for breakfast in bed!”
“What, ramen?” Sasuke rolled his eyes.
“No, stupid, you!” He tackled Sasuke, who quickly got the upper hand and smothered him with a pillow, but not before the blond had landed a suggestive smack to his butt.
“Mmmf, Sasuke? Can ya let me up now? Mission, remember?”
Sasuke released Naruto from the pillow’s death grip. He sat back on the bed and watched the other boy as he searched through disorderly drawers for a clean T-shirt.
“Naruto,” Sasuke asked. “Is this what things were like before?”
Something behind Naruto’s smile changed. “This is even better.”
“I do wish I still had those memories, though,” he said regretfully.
Naruto’s eyes softened. “We’ll make lots of new ones.”
5.
“I’ve got this bunch,” Naruto yelled over his shoulder as Sasuke dodged the onslaught of oncoming blades with lightning speed.
The mission had gone horribly wrong. Naruto and Sasuke had become separated from Kakashi and Sakura, who were taking Ayako-sama north as fast as they could go. Sakura guarded the noble closely and Kakashi fended off the group of attackers that pursued them. Naruto and Sasuke each hung back to engage the rest of the enemies and slow them down. The pesky things weren’t that strong, but they were amazingly resilient. Kakashi, Sakura and Ayako had disappeared over the hills when the two boys suddenly, heard the eerie chime of bells.
Out of the shadows two dark-cloaked forms had appeared. One tall, one slight, both silent. Akatsuki. Just what they needed.
Naruto’s face went stone white. “Sasuke,” his voice quavered, “Get out of here now.”
Sasuke’s heart stopped when he looked at Naruto. He had never seen the blue eyes so filled with panic and terror, and he remembered the warnings. His boyfriend was being targeted, and the last thing Sasuke would do was abandon him. Was the moron insane?
“Sasuke, go! Go find the others and help guard Ayako-sama. Remember our mission!”
“No way, dumbass! I know these are the guys who are after you. And I’m going to take them out.”
They were coming closer.
“Sasuke, you don’t - ”
But now Sasuke wasn’t listening. He was staring, it seemed, into his own eyes.
“I was wondering whether we would ever meet again, little brother.”
Sasuke was frozen. It couldn’t be. His brother was dead, with the rest of his family. Wiped out, long ago. He never knew them. But he did know this face, like a haunted and cracked mirror. The ground spun.
“Sasuke, don’t listen to him!” Naruto’s voice broke. “He’s not on our side! He’s - “
“Don’t let your guard down, kid!” Kisame growled, swinging his huge sword at Naruto. He couldn’t fend off both Akatsuki by himself, but Sasuke was paralyzed.
“Sasuke, he’s a monster! He killed your family!”
“Is this true? Naruto, why are you saying this?” But he was looking at Itachi, not Naruto. Naruto…Sakura…Kakashi… why did you lie to me?
Itachi ignored him and trapped Naruto in what looked like a powerful genjutsu that Sasuke recognized from his own repertoire. His blood boiled as the powerful blond was rendered nearly helpless. He didn’t care who his doppelganger was - he couldn’t take Naruto that easily. Sasuke conjured a screaming blaze of blue lightning. He attacked Itachi, still staring into the cold fire of his eyes, still hoping, perhaps, for some reflection of brotherhood. It was the last thing he saw before being thrust into the most familiar nightmare of all.
6.
Sasuke woke up in the dark. He was bound.
“Where am I?”
“Akatsuki does not reveal its location,” replied the dark silken voice, the voice that had surrounded him like black water as he had witnessed…his stomach turned.
“Where is Naruto?”
“Rid yourself of concern for that creature. He is only a burden to you.”
“Where is he?” he demanded, gritting his teeth.
“He is not here.”
Sasuke’s head ached. His whole body ached. He felt hot tears streaming down his face, as if his eyes were trying to cleanse themselves of the past 72 hours.
“That thing I just saw…it really happened.”
“Yes.”
“Then…those are my memories.”
Silent assent.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“It appears they found you were more…useful if kept in the dark.”
“I can’t believe it…”
“Sasuke, do you remember your family?”
Did he? He remembered blood, thick cascades of it, and vacant dead faces, but no smiles, no embraces, no voices save for the echoes of screams. Nothing beyond what Itachi’s eyes had stirred in his consciousness. Nothing that felt like a family.
“The Uchiha were a diseased bloodline,” Itachi said. “They prided themselves on ‘genius,’ and yet when a true genius emerged they only isolated him. They feared change. They knew I did not share their view of the world.”
“So you killed them, then? Because you disagreed with their ideals?”
Itachi shook his head. “I did not kill the Uchiha clan. It was already dead. Like a tree that has rotted, except for a tiny sprig at the very extremity that is still green. Snap off that untainted branch, replant it in new soil, and in time, it will grow again.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“It is natural for you to believe that. Your friends in Konoha probably told you all about the illustrious house of Uchiha, the fountainhead of prodigies.”
In fact they had told him no such thing. They had told him nothing about his family. Now, he understood why.
“Konoha suffers the same disease as our clan did. You could be better than that, Sasuke. You do not belong there.”
“My friends are there.”
He could almost hear the smile in his older brother’s voice. “At the time when you lost your memory, you were no longer a friend of Konoha.”
But that’s…Naruto…I found my way there. That’s not possible. All the love he had received from Naruto, from Sakura, from Kakashi…they had welcomed him home from afar, even when he didn’t know the way. And yet…
“You had deserted and betrayed them because you saw, correctly, that they were holding you back. Unfortunately, you chose an even more worthless master.”
“I never betrayed Naruto,” Sasuke spat. Of course he hadn’t. Naruto loved him.
“The last time you saw Naruto, you were prepared to kill him.”
“Stop! Stop! You’re wrong!” He felt a hollow, tearless sob rising from his gut.
“They would have killed you too, Sasuke.”
“Naruto would never kill me.” A glimmer of confidence returned to him. “You know that. That’s why you’re holding me here, because you know he will come for me.”
“I am holding you here because you have proven yourself incapable of developing your strength by sensible means. Do you know you almost surrendered possession of your own body in exchange for power? Unfathomably foolish. Did you not once desire to revive your clan?” A thin edge of genuine disappointment had crept into his words. “I told you to live life in an unsightly way, and yet I never predicted the depths to which you would sink.”
Sasuke thought he would be sick. His own body? Yes, he remembered now. He had risked that.
“I do not want you to destroy yourself, Sasuke.”
Sasuke squirmed against his bonds, to no avail. “I wouldn’t have destroyed myself if you’d stayed out of this. And I was getting stronger! Kakashi - ”
“Kakashi is weak,” Itachi cut him off, though the mention of the jounin’s name seemed to affect Itachi somehow. “You were not progressing; you were relearning things you already knew.”
Sasuke choked. “I was happy.”
“Of course. You were living in ignorance. Playing your ninja games with Kakashi and Naruto and never wondering why the other shinobi in your Academy class never truly accepted you after your return. Pathetic.”
“And being miserably is somehow less pathetic? Being your prisoner?”
“Were you not a prisoner in Konoha as well? “
Sasuke did not reply. He felt completely lost; though he was chained to the wall with chakra wires that cut into his wrists, he felt like he was falling through the dark, with nothing substantial to hold onto. He had the nauseating feeling that Itachi’s words were true, because only the truth could sting so badly.
“Understand this. I am the only person who has been honest with you.”
“All I know about you,” said Sasuke, slowly and firmly, “is that you intend to kill the most important person in my life. And that is all I need to know.”
Itachi laughed darkly and took a step closer to him, tracing a thin cold finger over Sasuke’s damp cheek.
“The most important person in your life,” he said, “was never Uzumaki Naruto.”
7.
“Sasuke!”
Sasuke shivered in his cell. He knew that voice. It was just like Naruto to come too late. His frantic footsteps echoing down the long dark hall, Naruto broke through the bars of Sasuke’s prison with the most powerful Rasengan Sasuke had ever seen. As the ball of blue fire dimmed, the blond came running through the cloud of smoke and rubble towards his captured lover, teammate, and friend.
“Sasuke, let’s get you out of here.”
But Naruto’s outstretched hand was met with a sharp kick. Naruto stepped backwards, dodging the weight of the blow, eyes Rasengan blue and trebling with terror and realization. “Shit, Sasuke, what did he do to you?”
“Fucking bastard!” Sasuke growled, shoving Naruto away. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Sasuke, please…”
“You lied to me! You all did!”
“It’s not the way you think it is!”
“Did you think I was stupid? Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
“Please, listen -“ Naruto was pleading now, guilt-stricken, practically quivering. But Sasuke continued to rail at him, blistering with rage and disbelief.
“None of you people cared if I lived or died when Orochimaru had me, and then when I lived, when I survived, you saw how powerful I was and thought it would be convenient to have me on your side again, did you?”
A new fire appeared in Naruto’s eyes. “How dare you say that to me, bastard!” He grit his sharp teeth together and grabbed the dark haired boy’s shoulders. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, do you? How dare you say I didn’t care? Care? Care? That’s all I did, Sasuke. All I fucking did was care about you. For three whole years!”
“And yet you didn’t care enough to tell me about my family? About what mattered to me more than anything in the world? What defined me? What I lived for?”
“Sasuke…” Naruto couldn’t hold back his sob any longer. “We wanted to help you.”
“Way to go.”
“You were miserable before, just miserable, and we wanted to give you another chance. At first I begged them - I didn’t want to lie to you, I really didn’t - but then I saw how happy you were, and thought that this was how it would be if I could’ve saved you, if I could’ve fixed you -“
“So you lied to me to cope with your own failure? You wanted to have your own little happy version of Sasuke so you could pretend you were the one who changed his life, when really all you did was get a lucky break? That Orochimaru just happened to fail, and I just happened to lose my memory, is enough for you to feel like you fucking saved me?”
“Shut up and listen to yourself!” Naruto screamed. “Of course I wanted you to be happy. Yeah, maybe I did fail back then, but I’m not gonna fail now. We haven’t got time to fight; we have to get out now and get you back home. ”
“I’m not coming back to Konoha.”
“What?”
“I don’t belong there anymore. If I ever did.”
Naruto’s eyes shone with tears. “We live there, Sasuke.”
“I’m done with that village.”
“What, are you listening to your brother? That’s…that’s stupid!” He was sobbing now, screaming and sobbing. “For years all you wanted was to kill him! You turned your back on everything for that. You almost destroyed yourself.” And me, he thought darkly.
“Well I see no sense in repeating past mistakes, then,” Sasuke replied.
“Look, I don’t know what Itachi told you, or what he showed you, but it wasn’t the truth.”
“You sure talk a lot about truth, for a liar.”
Naruto grabbed Sasuke again and slammed him into the wall. “You want truth, Sasuke?” Before he could move, he kissed him long and deep. Sasuke felt again the desperation in the other boy’s kiss, the constant, pressing fear of loss he had noticed in Naruto every morning, and for the first time, he understood its origins. He felt a tiny tremor inside him, like a melting and a shattering at the same time.
Naruto’s lips held his for a few seconds, and pulled back. “That’s truth. If you can’t believe in that…”
His voice trailed off as he noticed the tears in the dark averted eyes. Sasuke couldn’t fight him anymore. Naruto held his shaking shoulders and pulled him close.
“Sasuke…it’s going to be okay.”
Sasuke just held onto him, feeling small and ashamed. “You can’t make it okay, Naruto. You can’t.”
“Maybe not. But can I at least try to make it better?”
Sasuke couldn’t speak. He didn’t know what he would say if he could have.
“I lost you once. I can’t lose you again.” Naruto held his bowed head. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
As they fled from the unnamed hideout, Naruto planned to lead the way back to Konoha. But Sasuke found, to his surprise, that he already knew the way. The road was wide, and it was morning.
***
B. And here's the second one, which is even worse, but mercifully short.
Title: “Names”
Pairing: NaruSasuNaru
Rating: PG for implications
Words: 927
Warnings: Mpreg. Even though I hate mpreg. And some angsty fluffy cheese. And a cliché, turned on its head. Possibly OOC. >>
Disclaimer: Do not own.
A/N: Let me just say that I absolutely hated mpreg until I dreamed about Sasuke and Naruto’s daughter. Then all day in class I was drawing her obsessively. Then I had to write about her. And the fic just came out. I don’t even know which boy is pregnant, nor how it happened; nor do I care. That’s not the point. And I wrote this a year and a half ago.
“What are we going to call the baby?” Sasuke asked, looking up from his tea.
“Jeez, I don’t know if I’m ready to think about this yet,” Naruto groaned. “I think it’d be easier to wait until we can find out if it’s a boy or a girl.”
“It will probably be male,” said Sasuke. “Biologically speaking.”
Naruto laughed. “Biologically speaking, you and me have no business having a baby,” He laughed. “Forget male or female; with a couple of freaks like us, I just hope it’s human. For all I know it could turn out to be a fox or a snake or something.”
Sasuke didn’t seem to find that as amusing as Naruto did. “I meant, are we going to call him Uzumaki, or Uchiha?”
Naruto looked stunned. “Uchiha, of course!”
“Are we?”
“Aren’t we?” Naruto frowned. “I mean, that’s what I’d always assumed, or…understood, anyway.”
Silence. Sasuke’s eyes were on his tea again.
“I swear I don’t mind, Sasuke, really I don’t.”
“Actually…I’d prefer it if we used your name.”
For a split-second Naruto wondered if the bastard was mocking him, but everything about Sasuke’s face was serious.
“What?” Naruto blinked. “Oh come on! You, who always used to talk so big about the amazing Uchiha bloodline of specialer-than-special geniusfreaks, want to name your kid Uzumaki?”
Sasuke shrugged. “It’s your kid too.”
“What happened to reviving your clan? That was what you wanted, wasn’t it? Besides revenge, I mean. That was your dream!”
“I was twelve when I said that.”
“Yeah, and when I was twelve I wanted to be Hokage. And look at me!” He stood up in his chair and swished the white-and-red robes - which he still hadn’t gotten over the thrill of wearing around the house - beaming all the while.
“That’s my point,” said Sasuke.
Naruto’s face was all incomprehension. Sasuke sighed. “That’s why the child should have your name.”
“But…” Naruto hesitated, for lack of a comeback. Sasuke had a point; no one could call the Rokudaime Hokage undeserving. But still…
“But Sasuke…even my father’s name wasn’t Uzumaki. Your name’s not like mine. It’s special…it’s got history. Real history.”
Sasuke raised an eyebrow darkly.
“History that we can fix! Hell, we have to fix it. You know, make it clean again.”
The silent eyes were focused on a crack in the table.
“Don’t you remember, during the chuunin exam when you fought Gaara, how everyone was waiting there in the stands for you, all quiet? Well, of course not, ‘cuz you hadn’t arrived yet. But they were all antsy and impatient to see ‘the Uchiha.’ And don’t think it was ‘cuz they wanted to stare at your gorgeous ass either. Most of those people didn’t even know the first thing about you. But your name...”
“The name is cursed,” Sasuke said quietly.
Naruto’s face dropped into his hands. “Stop it, you damn bastard! Don’t you get like this on me.” He looked up at Sasuke earnestly. “You’ve been back here for five years now. You proved yourself, Sasuke. Even Neji and Chouji have forgiven you, and they - ”
“Oh, of course, everyone’s forgiven me. How could they not, when you’re the goddamn Hokage?” Sasuke said bitterly.
Naruto shook his head. “Even when you were with the Sound, you wore your family’s emblem. You had pride, even then.” He scoffed. “Tons of it! Where did that go?”
Sasuke’s face took on that cold, defiant look that Naruto knew too well. It was the look that said, of course he was proud, why shouldn’t he be; he was a goddamn Uchiha after all. Mission accomplished, thought Naruto happily. Then, a trace of softness rippled over the pale features. Naruto knew that look too. It meant Sasuke wanted to say something, but wouldn’t unless Naruto waited, silently, for the words to come.
So he waited.
“It was no accident that my brother did what he did,” Sasuke said finally.
“Of course not -- it was because he was completely insane!”
“Do you know what drove him there?” Sasuke snapped. The dark eyes that shot up to lock with Naruto’s were bottomless. His voice softened in the pause that followed. “If I can stop that from someday happening again…”
“Sasuke…”
Naruto understood now, and yet he didn’t understand. He wanted to put his arms around him, but he knew Sasuke could be violently unpredictable when got like this. He kept his distance, just watching him across the table.
Sasuke sighed. “If I’ve redeemed myself, as you insist I have, then I’ve redeemed the Uchiha name.”
“Exactly!” Naruto said, before he realized that, no, that was exactly the opposite of what Sasuke meant.
“So that’s how it should end.”
“Sasuke, no, your logic is all wrong - this is your only chance.”
“It’s yours too!” Sasuke said, a strain in his voice. “And…” he added with a sad half-smile, “…you deserve it more than I do.”
“No,” Naruto shook his head. “I don’t really.” He looked at his lover across the table. “But,” he sighed, “you deserve what will make you happy.”
Sasuke met his eyes. “Being an Uchiha is about more than a name anyway,” he said, and by the usual haughtiness that had returned to his voice, Naruto knew things had been set right.
He grinned like a twelve-year-old. “Hell, it’s not like I mind getting to pass my name down!”
Eight months later, when the last of the snow was melting, Uzumaki Mikoto was born. Dark hair that wouldn’t lie flat framed her round pale face, but all anyone noticed were her enormous eyes, the brightest summer blue.
“Her eyes,” Naruto said, concern creeping into his voice. “Are they…they won’t…”
“They’re beautiful,” Sasuke said.
And they were.
***
One final A/N: For those who might have forgotten, Mikoto was Sasuke’s mother’s name. ^_^
A. I wanted this one to be majorly epic back when I had the idea, but I ran out of steam, and now that it doesn't match canon anymore I've lost interest. Someone who wants to adopt it and make it better is totally welcome to.
Title: Lights Will Guide You Home
Characters: Sasuke-centric, NaruSasu, barely there ItaSasu
Genre: AU / Departure from canon around Chapter 345. Angst, with a dollop of fluff on top
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Implied yaoi. Possibly cheesy and OOC.
Words:
Summary: Sasuke has defeated Orochimaru, but has paid a heavy price - his memory.
1. Kabuto stared at the figure in the middle of the room. He asked anyway, even though he already knew.
“Which one are you?”
The young man looked at him with black sorrowful eyes. Kabuto’s throat went dry. He had never seen such an expression on that boy’s face before. This was not the face of a victor.
“Who are you?” he asked again.
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
2.
It was not the first time he had stood on this hill. He was sure of it. Below him, tiny storybook buildings sprawled out. There was a huge cliff face with five faces carved into it. They were strangers’ faces.
He kept walking, down into the town. Children played in the road. Occasionally the feeling of suspicious eyes on him made his skin prickle. A woman came out of a shop carrying a heavy bag. She saw him and the bag fell to the ground, its contents rolling into the road. Not knowing what else to do, he began to gather up the vegetables, but when he handed one to the woman she backed away and fled.
He wanted to chase her down and ask her who he was, why she feared him, but that would only alarm her more. He obviously wasn’t welcome here. He’d be careful not to let his guard down now, just in case the woman sent someone after him. But he was fairly confident he could take most anyone out. He’d easily disposed of the few poorly-dressed shinobi who had tried to stop him from breaking out of that creepy place he had left behind.
He came to a dim part of town and stopped suddenly. The air had changed, he noticed, stale-smelling and silent. Emblazoned on the walls were the faded ghosts of red-and-white fans. Something terrible had happened here.
He kept walking deeper into the abandoned compound until he came to a large house. The front window was broken, and the lightless interior stared out at him like a jet-black pupil from the dirty frame. He went to the window and peered inside. A musty smell wafted up from within, and in the single beam of light that spilled over his head, he could see blood staining the tatami mats. He remembered the woman’s reaction to him in the street and the thought stuck him that he himself might have been responsible for the blood. A strange wind whipped through the windows and made his hair stand on end.
He heard footsteps. A young man was running towards him. His sharingan blazed, and his hand rested poised on his sword. “Sasuke!” the boy yelled. He had hair like bright gold.
“SASUKE!” The boy stopped several yards away, and stared at him.
“Who are you?” Sasuke asked.
It was the last thing Naruto expected, and the last thing he wanted to hear.
3.
(Three months later.)
“With all due respect, Hokage-sama, are you sure it’s a good idea to send my team on this mission?”
“It’s only a B-rank assignment. Yours is one of the strongest teams available.”
“But Ayako-sama is from Bird Country. I’m sure you’ve heard the reports of recent Akatsuki activity in those parts.”
“Exactly. Naruto and Sakura have both proven themselves against Akatsuki before. And Sasuke…Sasuke is strong.”
“Sasuke must not encounter Itachi,” Kakashi replied, a firm edge to his quiet voice.
“We’re underestimating him if we think he won’t recognize his own brother.”
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. “When he returned, he didn’t even remember the name of this village.”
“But he knew how to get here.”
The Hokage looked pensive.
“Sharingan is a powerful thing,” Kakashi continued. “He remembers more than we think. His memories aren’t in his mind. They’re in his body. If his body remembers Itachi, he will.” And, he thought, he will know we have lied to him.
Tsunade sighed. “He does seem so happy now. Especially when he’s with his teammates. I hate to say this, but that attempted jutsu of Orochimaru’s may have been the best thing that could have happened to him.”
Kakashi said nothing.
4.
“Wake up sleepyhead,” Sasuke said, nudging the blond beside him.
Naruto stirred, batting away the interfering hand. Sasuke decided on another tactic. He leaned over the other boy’s face and kissed his lips lightly, parting them with his tongue. Clear blue eyes fluttered open, and Sasuke smirked. “Works every time.”
“Sasuke…” Naruto said, gazing up at him. “Sasuke. You’re here.”
“Of course I’m here, idiot.”
Naruto paused, smiling, almost embarrassed. “It’s just that…every day when I wake up, and I see you’re there next to me, I still can’t believe how lucky I am. I almost stopped believing I would ever have you back with me. Sometimes at night I freak out, thinking you’ll be gone again, and that this was all just a dream, and then I feel you, and hear you breathing, and…”
“You don’t shut up, do you?” Sasuke said, and kissed him again. He tried to stand up, but was stopped by the other’s firm, almost desperate grip on his hand. It always puzzled him, the intense thirst and even latent fear in his lover’s touch, as if Sasuke could disappear any minute into thin air. He didn’t know why he ever would. His captors were defeated, and he was home, where he belonged.
“Hey, hey, we don’t have time for this now, you idiot,” he said, smiling as he fought off the playful hands that were already moving lower on his body. “We have to report for a mission today.”
“Oh crap, the mission! I forgot!” Naruto exclaimed. “Damn, and I was all ready for breakfast in bed!”
“What, ramen?” Sasuke rolled his eyes.
“No, stupid, you!” He tackled Sasuke, who quickly got the upper hand and smothered him with a pillow, but not before the blond had landed a suggestive smack to his butt.
“Mmmf, Sasuke? Can ya let me up now? Mission, remember?”
Sasuke released Naruto from the pillow’s death grip. He sat back on the bed and watched the other boy as he searched through disorderly drawers for a clean T-shirt.
“Naruto,” Sasuke asked. “Is this what things were like before?”
Something behind Naruto’s smile changed. “This is even better.”
“I do wish I still had those memories, though,” he said regretfully.
Naruto’s eyes softened. “We’ll make lots of new ones.”
5.
“I’ve got this bunch,” Naruto yelled over his shoulder as Sasuke dodged the onslaught of oncoming blades with lightning speed.
The mission had gone horribly wrong. Naruto and Sasuke had become separated from Kakashi and Sakura, who were taking Ayako-sama north as fast as they could go. Sakura guarded the noble closely and Kakashi fended off the group of attackers that pursued them. Naruto and Sasuke each hung back to engage the rest of the enemies and slow them down. The pesky things weren’t that strong, but they were amazingly resilient. Kakashi, Sakura and Ayako had disappeared over the hills when the two boys suddenly, heard the eerie chime of bells.
Out of the shadows two dark-cloaked forms had appeared. One tall, one slight, both silent. Akatsuki. Just what they needed.
Naruto’s face went stone white. “Sasuke,” his voice quavered, “Get out of here now.”
Sasuke’s heart stopped when he looked at Naruto. He had never seen the blue eyes so filled with panic and terror, and he remembered the warnings. His boyfriend was being targeted, and the last thing Sasuke would do was abandon him. Was the moron insane?
“Sasuke, go! Go find the others and help guard Ayako-sama. Remember our mission!”
“No way, dumbass! I know these are the guys who are after you. And I’m going to take them out.”
They were coming closer.
“Sasuke, you don’t - ”
But now Sasuke wasn’t listening. He was staring, it seemed, into his own eyes.
“I was wondering whether we would ever meet again, little brother.”
Sasuke was frozen. It couldn’t be. His brother was dead, with the rest of his family. Wiped out, long ago. He never knew them. But he did know this face, like a haunted and cracked mirror. The ground spun.
“Sasuke, don’t listen to him!” Naruto’s voice broke. “He’s not on our side! He’s - “
“Don’t let your guard down, kid!” Kisame growled, swinging his huge sword at Naruto. He couldn’t fend off both Akatsuki by himself, but Sasuke was paralyzed.
“Sasuke, he’s a monster! He killed your family!”
“Is this true? Naruto, why are you saying this?” But he was looking at Itachi, not Naruto. Naruto…Sakura…Kakashi… why did you lie to me?
Itachi ignored him and trapped Naruto in what looked like a powerful genjutsu that Sasuke recognized from his own repertoire. His blood boiled as the powerful blond was rendered nearly helpless. He didn’t care who his doppelganger was - he couldn’t take Naruto that easily. Sasuke conjured a screaming blaze of blue lightning. He attacked Itachi, still staring into the cold fire of his eyes, still hoping, perhaps, for some reflection of brotherhood. It was the last thing he saw before being thrust into the most familiar nightmare of all.
6.
Sasuke woke up in the dark. He was bound.
“Where am I?”
“Akatsuki does not reveal its location,” replied the dark silken voice, the voice that had surrounded him like black water as he had witnessed…his stomach turned.
“Where is Naruto?”
“Rid yourself of concern for that creature. He is only a burden to you.”
“Where is he?” he demanded, gritting his teeth.
“He is not here.”
Sasuke’s head ached. His whole body ached. He felt hot tears streaming down his face, as if his eyes were trying to cleanse themselves of the past 72 hours.
“That thing I just saw…it really happened.”
“Yes.”
“Then…those are my memories.”
Silent assent.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“It appears they found you were more…useful if kept in the dark.”
“I can’t believe it…”
“Sasuke, do you remember your family?”
Did he? He remembered blood, thick cascades of it, and vacant dead faces, but no smiles, no embraces, no voices save for the echoes of screams. Nothing beyond what Itachi’s eyes had stirred in his consciousness. Nothing that felt like a family.
“The Uchiha were a diseased bloodline,” Itachi said. “They prided themselves on ‘genius,’ and yet when a true genius emerged they only isolated him. They feared change. They knew I did not share their view of the world.”
“So you killed them, then? Because you disagreed with their ideals?”
Itachi shook his head. “I did not kill the Uchiha clan. It was already dead. Like a tree that has rotted, except for a tiny sprig at the very extremity that is still green. Snap off that untainted branch, replant it in new soil, and in time, it will grow again.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“It is natural for you to believe that. Your friends in Konoha probably told you all about the illustrious house of Uchiha, the fountainhead of prodigies.”
In fact they had told him no such thing. They had told him nothing about his family. Now, he understood why.
“Konoha suffers the same disease as our clan did. You could be better than that, Sasuke. You do not belong there.”
“My friends are there.”
He could almost hear the smile in his older brother’s voice. “At the time when you lost your memory, you were no longer a friend of Konoha.”
But that’s…Naruto…I found my way there. That’s not possible. All the love he had received from Naruto, from Sakura, from Kakashi…they had welcomed him home from afar, even when he didn’t know the way. And yet…
“You had deserted and betrayed them because you saw, correctly, that they were holding you back. Unfortunately, you chose an even more worthless master.”
“I never betrayed Naruto,” Sasuke spat. Of course he hadn’t. Naruto loved him.
“The last time you saw Naruto, you were prepared to kill him.”
“Stop! Stop! You’re wrong!” He felt a hollow, tearless sob rising from his gut.
“They would have killed you too, Sasuke.”
“Naruto would never kill me.” A glimmer of confidence returned to him. “You know that. That’s why you’re holding me here, because you know he will come for me.”
“I am holding you here because you have proven yourself incapable of developing your strength by sensible means. Do you know you almost surrendered possession of your own body in exchange for power? Unfathomably foolish. Did you not once desire to revive your clan?” A thin edge of genuine disappointment had crept into his words. “I told you to live life in an unsightly way, and yet I never predicted the depths to which you would sink.”
Sasuke thought he would be sick. His own body? Yes, he remembered now. He had risked that.
“I do not want you to destroy yourself, Sasuke.”
Sasuke squirmed against his bonds, to no avail. “I wouldn’t have destroyed myself if you’d stayed out of this. And I was getting stronger! Kakashi - ”
“Kakashi is weak,” Itachi cut him off, though the mention of the jounin’s name seemed to affect Itachi somehow. “You were not progressing; you were relearning things you already knew.”
Sasuke choked. “I was happy.”
“Of course. You were living in ignorance. Playing your ninja games with Kakashi and Naruto and never wondering why the other shinobi in your Academy class never truly accepted you after your return. Pathetic.”
“And being miserably is somehow less pathetic? Being your prisoner?”
“Were you not a prisoner in Konoha as well? “
Sasuke did not reply. He felt completely lost; though he was chained to the wall with chakra wires that cut into his wrists, he felt like he was falling through the dark, with nothing substantial to hold onto. He had the nauseating feeling that Itachi’s words were true, because only the truth could sting so badly.
“Understand this. I am the only person who has been honest with you.”
“All I know about you,” said Sasuke, slowly and firmly, “is that you intend to kill the most important person in my life. And that is all I need to know.”
Itachi laughed darkly and took a step closer to him, tracing a thin cold finger over Sasuke’s damp cheek.
“The most important person in your life,” he said, “was never Uzumaki Naruto.”
7.
“Sasuke!”
Sasuke shivered in his cell. He knew that voice. It was just like Naruto to come too late. His frantic footsteps echoing down the long dark hall, Naruto broke through the bars of Sasuke’s prison with the most powerful Rasengan Sasuke had ever seen. As the ball of blue fire dimmed, the blond came running through the cloud of smoke and rubble towards his captured lover, teammate, and friend.
“Sasuke, let’s get you out of here.”
But Naruto’s outstretched hand was met with a sharp kick. Naruto stepped backwards, dodging the weight of the blow, eyes Rasengan blue and trebling with terror and realization. “Shit, Sasuke, what did he do to you?”
“Fucking bastard!” Sasuke growled, shoving Naruto away. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Sasuke, please…”
“You lied to me! You all did!”
“It’s not the way you think it is!”
“Did you think I was stupid? Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
“Please, listen -“ Naruto was pleading now, guilt-stricken, practically quivering. But Sasuke continued to rail at him, blistering with rage and disbelief.
“None of you people cared if I lived or died when Orochimaru had me, and then when I lived, when I survived, you saw how powerful I was and thought it would be convenient to have me on your side again, did you?”
A new fire appeared in Naruto’s eyes. “How dare you say that to me, bastard!” He grit his sharp teeth together and grabbed the dark haired boy’s shoulders. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, do you? How dare you say I didn’t care? Care? Care? That’s all I did, Sasuke. All I fucking did was care about you. For three whole years!”
“And yet you didn’t care enough to tell me about my family? About what mattered to me more than anything in the world? What defined me? What I lived for?”
“Sasuke…” Naruto couldn’t hold back his sob any longer. “We wanted to help you.”
“Way to go.”
“You were miserable before, just miserable, and we wanted to give you another chance. At first I begged them - I didn’t want to lie to you, I really didn’t - but then I saw how happy you were, and thought that this was how it would be if I could’ve saved you, if I could’ve fixed you -“
“So you lied to me to cope with your own failure? You wanted to have your own little happy version of Sasuke so you could pretend you were the one who changed his life, when really all you did was get a lucky break? That Orochimaru just happened to fail, and I just happened to lose my memory, is enough for you to feel like you fucking saved me?”
“Shut up and listen to yourself!” Naruto screamed. “Of course I wanted you to be happy. Yeah, maybe I did fail back then, but I’m not gonna fail now. We haven’t got time to fight; we have to get out now and get you back home. ”
“I’m not coming back to Konoha.”
“What?”
“I don’t belong there anymore. If I ever did.”
Naruto’s eyes shone with tears. “We live there, Sasuke.”
“I’m done with that village.”
“What, are you listening to your brother? That’s…that’s stupid!” He was sobbing now, screaming and sobbing. “For years all you wanted was to kill him! You turned your back on everything for that. You almost destroyed yourself.” And me, he thought darkly.
“Well I see no sense in repeating past mistakes, then,” Sasuke replied.
“Look, I don’t know what Itachi told you, or what he showed you, but it wasn’t the truth.”
“You sure talk a lot about truth, for a liar.”
Naruto grabbed Sasuke again and slammed him into the wall. “You want truth, Sasuke?” Before he could move, he kissed him long and deep. Sasuke felt again the desperation in the other boy’s kiss, the constant, pressing fear of loss he had noticed in Naruto every morning, and for the first time, he understood its origins. He felt a tiny tremor inside him, like a melting and a shattering at the same time.
Naruto’s lips held his for a few seconds, and pulled back. “That’s truth. If you can’t believe in that…”
His voice trailed off as he noticed the tears in the dark averted eyes. Sasuke couldn’t fight him anymore. Naruto held his shaking shoulders and pulled him close.
“Sasuke…it’s going to be okay.”
Sasuke just held onto him, feeling small and ashamed. “You can’t make it okay, Naruto. You can’t.”
“Maybe not. But can I at least try to make it better?”
Sasuke couldn’t speak. He didn’t know what he would say if he could have.
“I lost you once. I can’t lose you again.” Naruto held his bowed head. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
As they fled from the unnamed hideout, Naruto planned to lead the way back to Konoha. But Sasuke found, to his surprise, that he already knew the way. The road was wide, and it was morning.
***
B. And here's the second one, which is even worse, but mercifully short.
Title: “Names”
Pairing: NaruSasuNaru
Rating: PG for implications
Words: 927
Warnings: Mpreg. Even though I hate mpreg. And some angsty fluffy cheese. And a cliché, turned on its head. Possibly OOC. >>
Disclaimer: Do not own.
A/N: Let me just say that I absolutely hated mpreg until I dreamed about Sasuke and Naruto’s daughter. Then all day in class I was drawing her obsessively. Then I had to write about her. And the fic just came out. I don’t even know which boy is pregnant, nor how it happened; nor do I care. That’s not the point. And I wrote this a year and a half ago.
“What are we going to call the baby?” Sasuke asked, looking up from his tea.
“Jeez, I don’t know if I’m ready to think about this yet,” Naruto groaned. “I think it’d be easier to wait until we can find out if it’s a boy or a girl.”
“It will probably be male,” said Sasuke. “Biologically speaking.”
Naruto laughed. “Biologically speaking, you and me have no business having a baby,” He laughed. “Forget male or female; with a couple of freaks like us, I just hope it’s human. For all I know it could turn out to be a fox or a snake or something.”
Sasuke didn’t seem to find that as amusing as Naruto did. “I meant, are we going to call him Uzumaki, or Uchiha?”
Naruto looked stunned. “Uchiha, of course!”
“Are we?”
“Aren’t we?” Naruto frowned. “I mean, that’s what I’d always assumed, or…understood, anyway.”
Silence. Sasuke’s eyes were on his tea again.
“I swear I don’t mind, Sasuke, really I don’t.”
“Actually…I’d prefer it if we used your name.”
For a split-second Naruto wondered if the bastard was mocking him, but everything about Sasuke’s face was serious.
“What?” Naruto blinked. “Oh come on! You, who always used to talk so big about the amazing Uchiha bloodline of specialer-than-special geniusfreaks, want to name your kid Uzumaki?”
Sasuke shrugged. “It’s your kid too.”
“What happened to reviving your clan? That was what you wanted, wasn’t it? Besides revenge, I mean. That was your dream!”
“I was twelve when I said that.”
“Yeah, and when I was twelve I wanted to be Hokage. And look at me!” He stood up in his chair and swished the white-and-red robes - which he still hadn’t gotten over the thrill of wearing around the house - beaming all the while.
“That’s my point,” said Sasuke.
Naruto’s face was all incomprehension. Sasuke sighed. “That’s why the child should have your name.”
“But…” Naruto hesitated, for lack of a comeback. Sasuke had a point; no one could call the Rokudaime Hokage undeserving. But still…
“But Sasuke…even my father’s name wasn’t Uzumaki. Your name’s not like mine. It’s special…it’s got history. Real history.”
Sasuke raised an eyebrow darkly.
“History that we can fix! Hell, we have to fix it. You know, make it clean again.”
The silent eyes were focused on a crack in the table.
“Don’t you remember, during the chuunin exam when you fought Gaara, how everyone was waiting there in the stands for you, all quiet? Well, of course not, ‘cuz you hadn’t arrived yet. But they were all antsy and impatient to see ‘the Uchiha.’ And don’t think it was ‘cuz they wanted to stare at your gorgeous ass either. Most of those people didn’t even know the first thing about you. But your name...”
“The name is cursed,” Sasuke said quietly.
Naruto’s face dropped into his hands. “Stop it, you damn bastard! Don’t you get like this on me.” He looked up at Sasuke earnestly. “You’ve been back here for five years now. You proved yourself, Sasuke. Even Neji and Chouji have forgiven you, and they - ”
“Oh, of course, everyone’s forgiven me. How could they not, when you’re the goddamn Hokage?” Sasuke said bitterly.
Naruto shook his head. “Even when you were with the Sound, you wore your family’s emblem. You had pride, even then.” He scoffed. “Tons of it! Where did that go?”
Sasuke’s face took on that cold, defiant look that Naruto knew too well. It was the look that said, of course he was proud, why shouldn’t he be; he was a goddamn Uchiha after all. Mission accomplished, thought Naruto happily. Then, a trace of softness rippled over the pale features. Naruto knew that look too. It meant Sasuke wanted to say something, but wouldn’t unless Naruto waited, silently, for the words to come.
So he waited.
“It was no accident that my brother did what he did,” Sasuke said finally.
“Of course not -- it was because he was completely insane!”
“Do you know what drove him there?” Sasuke snapped. The dark eyes that shot up to lock with Naruto’s were bottomless. His voice softened in the pause that followed. “If I can stop that from someday happening again…”
“Sasuke…”
Naruto understood now, and yet he didn’t understand. He wanted to put his arms around him, but he knew Sasuke could be violently unpredictable when got like this. He kept his distance, just watching him across the table.
Sasuke sighed. “If I’ve redeemed myself, as you insist I have, then I’ve redeemed the Uchiha name.”
“Exactly!” Naruto said, before he realized that, no, that was exactly the opposite of what Sasuke meant.
“So that’s how it should end.”
“Sasuke, no, your logic is all wrong - this is your only chance.”
“It’s yours too!” Sasuke said, a strain in his voice. “And…” he added with a sad half-smile, “…you deserve it more than I do.”
“No,” Naruto shook his head. “I don’t really.” He looked at his lover across the table. “But,” he sighed, “you deserve what will make you happy.”
Sasuke met his eyes. “Being an Uchiha is about more than a name anyway,” he said, and by the usual haughtiness that had returned to his voice, Naruto knew things had been set right.
He grinned like a twelve-year-old. “Hell, it’s not like I mind getting to pass my name down!”
Eight months later, when the last of the snow was melting, Uzumaki Mikoto was born. Dark hair that wouldn’t lie flat framed her round pale face, but all anyone noticed were her enormous eyes, the brightest summer blue.
“Her eyes,” Naruto said, concern creeping into his voice. “Are they…they won’t…”
“They’re beautiful,” Sasuke said.
And they were.
***
One final A/N: For those who might have forgotten, Mikoto was Sasuke’s mother’s name. ^_^