[fic] The Difference Between Then and Now, Epilogue
Coda
*
Afterwards, there was only the future, after.
This thought flitted through Naruto’s mind as he moved among the treetops, Sasuke’s limp form draped across his back. His wounds were taking longer than usual for Kyuubi to heal, but if he could maintain this speed, Naruto calculated that he would arrive at Konoha’s gate by sundown.
Once he got there, it would only be a matter of subtly dropping off his burden with the guards without being detected. And after that…
He wouldn’t return to the Akatsuki, that was for damn sure. Now that he had finished what he’d set out to do (and now that Itachi was dead-but that was very much besides the point, wasn’t it?), what was there to go back to? He was almost certain that the Akatsuki, still reeling from their unanticipated losses, would not be able to come after him for some time. And by the time they did, he would be far out of their reach.
In the end, he would always be alone. With mortal eyes, Naruto could already see the long years of the Nine-Tails’s lifespan stretching before him like an endless, shining thread. Every now and then, it might cross paths with a different thread, and for awhile, it would not be so bad to have a companion.
But the bottom line had to be understood. That in the end, he would always be alone.
Something shifted against his back. A moment later, he heard Sasuke let out a mumbled groan.
“Hang on for a bit, bastard. We’re almost there,” Naruto said to the boy he was carrying. “And when we get there, Sakura-chan will patch you up, and if I’m lucky, they’ll completely chew you out for your enormous stupidity.”
His words were met with silence. Sasuke had fallen back into unconsciousness.
“Yes,” Naruto whispered. “You’re almost home.”
Home.
The word sent something unraveling within him. To be home was to feel that you belonged somewhere. For a second, he wondered if he’d ever find such a place.
But that was a thought for another day. For now, there was the world before his feet. From the Nine-Tails’s memories, Naruto knew that there was much more out there than hidden villages and shinobi wars. Somewhere in the world there existed deep, hidden places that no living man had seen. There, perhaps he could bury the remnants of his past and create memories of his own.
And maybe, just maybe, one day he would return. And if by that time, Sasuke had wised up a bit, had tamed his wild nature into something finer-colder-then perhaps Naruto would take him away as well, and show him all the secret places in the world that he had discovered.
It wouldn’t really be so bad to have a companion again.
But for the time being, Naruto thought he could deal with the quiet of his solitude. And if someday, while wandering through the shadows of some ancient woods, he should perchance to glimpse a flash of black and red among the gnarled and wizened trees, he would simply disregard it as his mind playing tricks on him.
Smiling to himself a little, Naruto lifted his head to gaze at the heavens, and through the grey winter clouds, he thought he could see blue skies.
Once upon a time, he was a boy…
-fin