Naruto crack drabbles.
"I'm too old for you, you know..." Came the quiet voice.
"I can fix that, if you'll let me." Came the response, voice equally quiet.
"You know I can't let you."
"Because it's a Kinjutsu?"
"You know the reasons why, then."
"Tsunade, don't underestimate my abilities."
"It's not your abilities I'm worried about, Sasuke. Even if you did use the jutsu, who would forgive me for letting you? More importantly, who would accept this? Accept 'us'?"
Sasuke's lips turned down into a frown. He'd finally found it. Happiness. All in the love of this woman. But said woman... He turned coldly away, bangs flying as he began to walk. "Since when were you a coward? Does your lack of faith in me spawn from my misdeeds or your own guilt that this is supposedly 'wrong?"
"S-Sasuke...wait," Tsunade whispered, her hand reaching out for him, but the instant her fingers brushed against the fabric of his shoulder, it was gone.
"I can't. I can't wait for a woman whose lack of confidance spawns from the mistakes of the past. Understand, Tsunade, that I put everything on the line just for you. My life, my heart, my entire soul just for you. If you can't accept that I am incomplete with great failures, then..." Sasuke paused at the door, turning his head back. His eyes were dim, the heavy burden of his choices weighing on him as he looked at her. "...Then I have no reason to stay here any longer."
"Sasuke, please..." Tsunade begged, her voice tight with choked emotion.
"Sayonara, Tsunade..."
The door closed behind him, leaving a shaking Tsunade in his wake.
He trudged down the streets of Konoha, hands dangling uselessly at his side, head bowed. There were whispers that followed him wherever he went. That was fine, he decided, they could talk. It had been true, and it would be true again. He would turn traitor once more. He had no more of a reason to stay, when his only reason to live was taken away.
"Sasuke!!" Sakura cried, running to catch up. He ignored her.
"Sasuke-teme!!" Naruto yelled at full force as he jumped down beside him. He passed by them wordlessly, not even giving them a reaction.
He neared the gates and stopped for a moment, looking up at them with dead-like eyes. With a dry smirk he began to make his way to them.
"Sasuke, yamerou!" Cried a new voice. He hesitated, wanting to look back, but didn't and instead kept walking. He was almost at the gate when he found himself staggering forward, eyes widening as arms enveloped around him in a crushing embrace, pulling him back against a woman's body.
"Onegai...don't leave me..." She whispered, hugging tighter. He felt the teardrops hit the back of his neck, felt the whole shaking of her body, heard the desperation in her voice. His eyes closed and he just stood there, with Tsunade's arms around him.
People had stopped walking, Naruto and Sakura stared, and everyone who witnessed the scene was shocked to see their Hokage crying as she held tightly onto the Uchiha as if he were her lifeline. And to her, maybe he was.
"Forgive me," She said brokenly. "Forgive me for my faults, my doubts. Forgive me for being incomplete as well... Sasuke, please..." She turned him around, bringing her shaking hands up to cup his face, bringing his gaze to meet hers. "Take me as I am."
Sasuke gazed into her tear-filled eyes and found himself unable to further break her heart. He raised a hand, noticing it was shaking too and placed it on her cheek, brushing the tears away. "Tsunade... I..."
For a long moment, she feared rejection, waiting for him to shake his head and coldly brush her away. As she was steeling her heart for such things, he spoke again. "I wouldn't love you if you were anyone else."
----------------
"If you want Gaara, you'll have to get through us first." Temari said bravely as she and Kankuro stood between Uchiha Itachi and their brother Gaara.
"Yeah, he's ours!" Kankuro said.
Itachi merely gazed at them calmly. Well, if that was how they were going to be...
Forty-three minutes later found Itachi finally reaching Gaara, said redhead's lips slowly twisting in a small smirk, amusement gleaming in his eyes. "Enjoying yourself playing with my siblings?"
Itachi merely hummed faintly, watching as said siblings groaned in unison as they rolled over on the bed. Perhaps it wasn't what they meant, but he literally did get through them.
He pulled the Kazekage to him, sharingan swirling to life before he murmured softly. "Not as much fun as playing with you,"
That got a snort out of the redhead.