Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Life Moves On: Back to Life	By : SoapMaster Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 1407 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters mentioned in the story. I make no money from this fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
The breeze was nice and refreshing as Tsunade stood at the gate to Konoha, awaiting the return of one of her strongest ninja from a dangerous mission to the Land of Lightning. There was a bandit who was posing as a Konoha ninja and ambushing travelers entering the country from the southern border with the Land of Hot Water. Tsunade knew this bandit had to be handled before an international incident started, so she dispatched her most successful ANBU agent.
Suddenly, a figure appeared on the horizon, and even though Tsunade couldn’t see his face, she could tell who that raven black hair belonged to any day. She waited patiently for Sasuke to re-enter the village, and she didn’t have to wait long. All that was shared between them was a simple nod of the head and she knew that the issue was taken care of.
She turned to walk back into the village with Sasuke, leaving the shinobi on guard duty alone at the gate. At first, they were silent as they walked down the path, but soon, he removed his hawk-shaped mask from his face and brushed his hair from his eyes.
“Any problems come up?” Tsunade asked as the buildings in the main business district came into view.
“The bandit was taken down with relative ease, considering the wide breadth of his attacks,” Sasuke summed up. “But there is some troubling information that I gathered inside the Land of Lightning about the Cloud Village.”
“Unless it’s of the utmost importance, you can return to Sakura and give me the full report tomorrow,” Tsunade said, receiving a nod from the ANBU. “Oh, and Sasuke?” she asked as the black-haired man began to walk away. He turned around to face her and she smiled. “I have a guest coming to the village later today. We have a few things to talk over, but I want you and Sakura to be there to see him.”
“Who is it?” Sasuke asked. “Should we bring the kids or leave them?”
“I don’t think you’ll want your kids here for this,” Tsunade said. “Oh, and if you see Kakashi, tell him that he must be there as well. I want you there at about 5:00. So maybe tell him to be there at 4:30 and he’ll show up on time.” With a nod, Sasuke disappeared from her view, and Tsunade turned towards the Hokage mansion.
When she returned to her office, she slid open her drawer and pulled out the letter that she’d received a few days ago from the Sand village. Naruto would be returning to the Leaf, and if he was going to take her offer, then he would have to reveal himself to the ninja of the village. At first, she wanted to invite everyone, but Shizune thought better. They didn’t want to overwhelm Naruto, did they? So they decided to just invite the people who needed to hear this most: Jiraya, Kakashi, Iruka, Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto could see the others later, on his own time.
She was so deep in thought that she hadn’t even noticed that the very person she was thinking about had been sitting in her office since before she walked in.
“Baa-chan?” Naruto asked, breaking Tsunade from her thoughts.
“Naruto!” Tsunade exclaimed, surprised. “You’re here! How did you slip past the village’s security?”
“A man has his secrets,” Naruto said with a grin. “Now, I’m pretty sure we have to talk a few things over.”
“So does this mean you’ve accepted my deal?” Tsunade asked hopefully. “I admit I was a little surprised to get your letter.”
“I will be happy to accept your offer,” Naruto said with a bow of his head. “It was a hard decision to make, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the Leaf since our meeting. I know this is the right thing to do.”
“Good,” Tsunade said. “When do you plan on moving back into the village?”
“I’m ready to move in today if that’s fine by you,” Naruto replied. “I brought a bag of things that I’ll need before Gaara comes with the rest of my things.”
“Gaara?” Tsunade asked, surprised. “Gaara’s coming here?”
Naruto nodded. “A couple of days ago he told me he was going to retire, and he had already spoken to the elders about it before I had even told him of your offer. So he’s going to stay in Suna for another month or so to help transition the Sixth Kazekage into power before coming here.”
“That changes things,” Tsunade said. “I was going to invite you to stay here until you take over for me officially, but if your husband is going to be joining you, I’m sure you’ll want a place of your own.”
“We can talk about that later,” Naruto said with a shrug. “He’s still in Suna for the time being.”
“Have you given any thought to how you want to tell people you’re alive?” Tsunade asked. Silence fell over the room as Naruto looked at the ground, thinking this over. How exactly could he tell people? Did he want everyone to know at once, or did he want to see them individually? Should he let Tsunade tell them the entire story behind his “death”, or should he do it himself? “I invited Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, Jiraya, and Iruka to come over here this evening. I was thinking you’d like to tell them first, and you could speak to the others later or tomorrow.”
Naruto nodded, still pondering his decision in his head. “I’m going to find something to eat,” he said, standing up. “I can’t wait until I can walk out on the streets and get some Ichiraku.” Tsunade smiled and nodded, allowing her soon-to-be successor to leave her office.
~~~~
No one was surprised in the least when it was Kakashi who arrived last, strolling into the Hokage’s office a half hour late. He figured that if it was really important that he be there, they’d wait for him.
It was odd, standing in the same room as Jiraya, Tsunade, Iruka, Sasuke and Sakura. He immediately drifted over to Iruka, but couldn’t help but wonder what would prompt Tsunade to summon them all to her office.
“I have some very important news to share with the five of you,” Tsunade said seriously. She was hunched forward, leaning her chin on her hands, whose fingers were intertwined. She looked from Jiraya to Sasuke to Kakashi, and then finally to Shizune, who was standing at the door, waiting to allow the guest of honor to enter.
Taking her cue, Shizune knocked twice on the door and stepped to the side. The door clicked and opened slowly, revealing the figure of the blond shinobi who had not seen any of these faces in twenty years. All eyes turned towards the doorway, and Naruto watched as five sets of eyes went from showing looks of confusion to looks of shock.
“H-Hey guys,” Naruto said after a long silence, scratching his cheek nervously with an impish grin on his face, as if he had just been caught trying to prank somebody. “Uh…what’s up?”
To his credit, it was Iruka who had managed to speak first. “What is this?” he asked. Naruto fidgeted under the gaze of the five guests who had not once taken their eyes off him. He was pretty sure that Sakura hadn’t even allowed herself to blink yet.
“What kind of trick is this?” Sasuke snapped, turning his head towards Tsunade with an angry glare in place. “It’s not funny.”
“This isn’t a trick, Sasuke,” Naruto said. His voice seemed to magically snap Sasuke out of his anger. His expression was one of awe and confusion mixed together as he slowly turned his head back towards the blond. “I’m alive.” Cue another tense silence.
“How?” Sakura asked finally, her voice sounding hoarse. She cleared her throat and repeated her question.
“It’s a long story,” he replied. “But then again, I guess I owe it to all of you to tell you guys, huh?”
“This isn’t a trick?” Kakashi asked. “You’re for real?” Naruto nodded seriously.
“I was never dead,” Naruto said, looking down at the floor. “I faked my death.” Another couple moments of silence before Sakura spoke up once more.
“Why?”
“I think I should explain,” Tsunade said, redirecting most of the room’s attention on her. Only one pair of obsidian eyes lingered in his direction before finally turning to face the Hokage with the rest. “You all remember the attack on the village twenty years ago by Harame Mogiko, correct?”
“How could we forget?” Sakura asked, her fingers brushing the scar that lingered on her throat after the attack. It was a day that few would ever forget.
“Naruto found out exactly why Harame decided to attack the village,” Tsunade continued. “That led us to the decision that ultimately, Naruto should fake his death.”
“What did he find out?” Jiraya asked before having a small coughing fit. Naruto was going to ask if he was alright, but he saw that no one else was reacting to this except for Tsunade, who was giving her former teammate a look of utter concern.
“Harame Mogiko attacked the Leaf and destroyed so much for one simple reason,” Tsunade said quietly. “He wanted to kill Naruto.” She allowed her listeners to absorb this before continuing with her story. “Naruto didn’t take him as a serious threat until his squad was ambushed on a mission to Iwa.”
“I remember,” Kakashi said. “Naruto was the only one on the squad to survive the ambush.” All eyes turned to him. “But I didn’t know that it was Harame who was behind it.”
Tsunade nodded grimly. “Naruto came to me immediately after the mission, and we’d decided on a plan. He would be assigned a mission with an ANBU squad, who would escort him to Killer B’s home in an outlying village near Kumo,” she said. “The squad would leave him there, and the word would spread that Naruto was killed on this mission. This would give Harame no reason to attack the Leaf village or undermine our missions. It would be temporary while I dispatched an ANBU team to find and assassinate Harame, and then Naruto would return. We expected it to take a week or two. A month, tops.”
Tsunade paused, waiting for someone to ask a question. Like ‘Why couldn’t you tell the people closest to him?’, or ‘Why did you resort to such drastic measures so soon?’. When no such question came, Tsunade decided to continue.
“But it took much longer,” she admitted. “Our first squad finally found him after a month and a half, but they were annihilated. One arm of one of the squad members was sent back to the village as a message that he wouldn’t be killed. I sent three more squads after him, but all three ended up being killed.
“Then he attacked Killer B,” Tsunade said, shocking the others. “Naruto was nowhere nearby when it happened, so his cover was safe, but Harame had a bone to pick with B as well, it seems. B survived the battle, but the entire village he lived in was destroyed, and most of the villagers were killed. When B moved back to the Cloud Village, Naruto decided he’d relocate to the Sand village. Gaara took him in, and he has been living there ever since.”
“Why would Harame attack B?” Kakashi asked. “I thought he only attacked us here because he had a beef with Naruto. If he didn’t know Naruto was staying with B, what was the point?”
“He hated B for the same reason he hated me,” Naruto said, commanding the attention of everyone in the room once more. “We were the ones who defeated his master, Tobi.” Silence fell over the room as the statement was absorbed. “Tobi had been training Harame before the war, and stopped the training when war broke out. When we had defeated Tobi and stopped the Eye of the Moon Plan, Harame decided to take revenge on B and I.”
“So why are you back now?” Iruka asked Naruto. “If you have been living in Suna all this time, why come back now?”
“Harame is finally dead,” Tsunade said. “We don’t know how or why, but we were anonymously sent some pretty concrete evidence that he was killed.”
“So that’s the story,” Naruto said. “I’m alive, and I’m going to be living here again.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Naruto found himself trapped in a bear hug from Iruka. Kakashi and Jiraya also approached him to hug him after Iruka let go, and then Sakura hugged him as well. Everyone seemed to be talking at once, saying things like “I’m so glad you’re here” and “This is so surreal” and “If you ever fake your death again, I’ll kill you”. As he was bombarded by questions about how life had been for the last twenty years, he looked up to see the back of a black-haired head as it left the room, slamming the door behind it. A hush fell over the room.
“Don’t mind him, Naruto,” Sakura said soothingly. “He’s just in shock. We all are. It’s a lot to take in.” Naruto nodded as he continued answering questions about his life in Suna. Iruka was so proud when Naruto told him that he was an academy instructor there, which led him to reveal that he’d be leading a genin team in the future.
But it seemed like the one thing that everyone was avoiding asking was the state of Naruto’s love life. Naruto had dropped hints about living in the Kazekage mansion with Gaara and having a comfortable relationship, but it seemed no one really wanted to bring that up at the moment. And he sort of understood why. Sasuke was now married to Sakura; he knew that. It would be very awkward to talk about love lives while his friend was married to his ex.
About ten minutes later, Tsunade decided to kick them all out of her office so that she could actually do some work. Naruto walked with them until they were standing outside the guest quarters of the mansion where he was going to be staying.
“We have to get together and really talk soon,” Sakura said, kissing Naruto on the cheek before leaving. “And I promise, Sasuke will come around. He’s happy; I know it.”
“Thanks,” Naruto said as she left the hallway. He turned to the others.
“It’s good to see you back, kid,” Jiraya said with a smile, suppressing a cough. “I’ll take you out to Ichiraku’s tomorrow. I’m sure Ayame will love to see you. That poor ramen shop lost most of its business when you left.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Naruto said with a smile before returning his gaze to Iruka and Kakashi. “I guess I’ll see you guys soon too, huh?” he asked.
“You’re damn right,” Iruka said. “I still can’t believe you’re here. A part of me still thinks I’m going to wake up tomorrow and this will all be a dream.” Suddenly, Iruka yelped, and Kakashi removed his fingers from his ass. “I didn’t tell you to pinch me,” he muttered to Kakashi.
“I just wanted to reassure you that you’re not dreaming,” Kakashi said with a smile. “We’ll see you soon, Naruto.” With that, Kakashi and Iruka left Naruto alone, standing outside of his room. As he pulled out the key to his room, he thought over the people he’d have to see tomorrow and tell the story of his “death” to. There was Shikamaru and Ino, he knew. And Choji. Then there was Hinata and Kiba, Neji and Tenten, Lee and Konohamaru…a bunch of people.
He slowly opened his door and turned on the light, surprised to see that someone was already sitting on his bed. He had been dreading this moment since the second he’d decided that he’d return to the Leaf, and a part of him was relieved when Sasuke left the office earlier. It just meant the confrontation would be put off for a while.
“Sasuke,” Naruto whispered, his eyes closing. He really didn’t want to do this right now. But it didn’t matter, because Naruto knew it was going to happen. And he knew exactly how it would happen, too. Sasuke would get really mad and pissed off, Naruto would defend his actions, Sasuke would leave, and Naruto would follow. It was like it was already predetermined, and Naruto was too tired to actually go through the motions. “Can we go for a walk?” he asked. He was answered by silence, two black eyes staring at him emotionlessly. “I know we have a lot to talk about, and I know you’re probably really pissed off at me, but if we go out for a walk, I promise I’ll explain everything. I just…I don’t want to do this here.”
Sasuke didn’t respond. Instead, he stood up and turned away from Naruto, walking towards the window. He stood in front of it for a moment looking up at the full moon before opening the window and leaving the bedroom. Naruto crossed to the window as well, just in time to see Sasuke jump onto the roof of a nearby building, and then to the next.
Naruto climbed out of the window and followed Sasuke down the familiar path to the old training grounds that they used to spar at. The same training grounds where they’d first kissed. The same training grounds where Sasuke proposed to him. He didn’t need to follow Sasuke anymore; he knew exactly where he was going. After a few minutes, he finally arrived. Three posts stood, and Naruto could clearly remember when he was a kid and Kakashi tied him to the post. The very same post Sasuke was leaning against now.
“I’m sorry I left,” Naruto said. Sasuke was still silent. “Actually, I’m not sorry I left. That means that I wish it never happened, and I don’t wish that. If I never left, things would be very different. I’m happy with my life now. But I’m sorry I hurt you.”
“Was it all just a joke?” Sasuke asked, addressing Naruto for the first time all night. And Naruto felt like he’d just been slapped across the cheek.
“W-What?” Naruto asked.
“The promises, the plans, the wedding, the relationship?” Sasuke clarified. “Was it all just some sick joke to you?”
“Of course it wasn’t!” Naruto exclaimed. “I loved you.”
“Loved?” Sasuke asked, closing his eyes. His face looked contorted in pain. Then, suddenly, he took a deep breath and opened his eyes, glaring at Naruto. “You left me! You let me think you were dead! You didn’t just talk to me about any of this. I grieved for you! If that’s what you call love, then I’d hate to see how you treat the people you hate!”
The wind picked up, but the two remained silent, just looking at each other as the sun set behind them. Finally Naruto lowered his head and nodded.
“You’re right,” Naruto said. “I shouldn’t have let you think I was dead. But even if I told you, you wouldn’t have been able to move on. You would have stopped living for twenty years waiting for this to end. Isn’t it better this way?”
“No,” Sasuke spat. “It’s not better. If you had told me, I would have run away with you. We could have gone into hiding together.”
“That would have been too suspicious,” Naruto said, shaking his head. “You saw what happened when he came here. He nearly killed Hinata and Sakura! He did kill Shino. If we’d both died, he’d have known something was up. He’d have attacked the village again to lure us out of hiding.”
“Why are you so scared of him?” Sasuke asked. “You’re Naruto Uzumaki. You’re a sage! The reincarnation of the Sage of Six Paths! You could have killed him.”
“Not before he killed someone I care about,” Naruto said. “But that’s not the point. The point is that I hurt you, and I’m sorry about it. Despite all that’s happened, I hope that we can be friends.”
“I don’t want to be friends with you!” Sasuke exclaimed angrily. “I don’t want that at all! I could never pretend to just want friendship with you. You claim that you ‘loved’ me, but the same can’t be said for me, because I’m still in love with you. And the only thing worse than thinking you’re dead is having to pretend that we’re just friends and go back to how things were before. I don’t want that at all!”
Naruto couldn’t hear a thing over the sound of the blood rushing in his ears. His heart felt heavy, and his head was threatening to explode. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he re-opened them, Sasuke was standing less than a foot away from him.
“I still love you, Naruto,” Sasuke whispered, cupping Naruto’s cheek. Naruto looked into Sasuke’s eyes and saw such raw emotion that he hadn’t seen in a long, long time. “Please, tell me you still love me.”
Naruto couldn’t speak. He was starting to feel dizzy, and he was wondering how he could just escape this entire situation right now. He didn’t want to hurt Sasuke, and he didn’t want to string him along. He didn’t want to tell Sasuke that he loved him, but at the same time, he couldn’t deny that he still felt such strong feelings for the Uchiha. He didn’t think they were that strong, but now that he was standing inches away from Sasuke, Naruto couldn’t deny it.
He felt the minty breath on his lips just moments before he could feel the slight pressure of Sasuke’s on them. Naruto was frozen by the familiar feeling of Sasuke’s lips, and it seemed like Sasuke took that as permission to wrap his arms around the blond and press their lips together harder.
A war waged in Naruto’s mind. He wanted to pull away. He should pull away. He was married to Gaara. He loved Gaara. But he still couldn’t find the strength to pull away. It was as if he and Sasuke were 17 again and just falling in love, not 39 and reconnecting after decades apart. And suddenly, thinking of that moment over twenty years ago when they’d shared their first (er, actually you could call it their second, but only if we were counting that little mistake back at the academy) kiss, Naruto felt like he was suddenly back in time. In fact, he wanted to open his mouth…
But when he felt Sasuke’s tongue request access to his mouth, the sirens went off in Naruto’s mind, and he jumped back as if a bucket of ice was just dropped on his head. He stumbled back and fell to the ground, but quickly picked himself back up.
“Sasuke,” he whispered. “This can’t happen. You’re married to Sakura; I’m married to –” Naruto cut himself off, realizing just what he was about to reveal, and hoping Sasuke hadn’t heard that last part. But one look at Sasuke’s eyes showed that Sasuke had indeed heard that last part.
“You’re married?” Sasuke asked in an obviously forcibly even voice.
Naruto nodded. “To Gaara,” he confirmed.
“Gaara?” Sasuke asked incredulously. “Gaara of the Desert? The Fifth Kazekage? You married Gaara?!”
“It was after I relocated to Suna,” Naruto said, sounding defensive. “We fell in love. I don’t see what the big deal is. You married Sakura.”
“I thought you were dead!” Sasuke exclaimed.
“So? You love her now, don’t you?” Naruto accused.
“Not the same way I love you,” Sasuke said, surprising Naruto. “I could never love anyone the way I love you.” Silence followed Sasuke’s declaration until Naruto walked forward and embraced Sasuke.
“I’m so sorry things ended up like this,” Naruto said. “I don’t regret falling in love with Gaara, but I never would have done what I did if I knew you’d be hurt like this. I guess I kind of just figured that you’d move on after a while and fall in love with someone else.”
“A love like ours comes along once in a lifetime,” Sasuke said quietly, refusing to hug Naruto back. “I could never truly fall in love with anyone else. I don’t think you can, either.” The entire field went quiet as the final rays of sunlight fell below the horizon, draping the entire world in darkness.
“Please, Sasuke,” Naruto said. “I know this sounds selfish, but if you really love me like you say you do, then just try to be my friend. I just want us to be best friends again like we used to be. I want to get to know you, hear about your family. Please, just…let’s try to be friends.” He pulled back to look up at Sasuke as rain began to fall. It started as a small drizzle, but in second became a downpour.
“Let me walk you home,” Sasuke said emotionlessly. “I’ll tell you about my family.” Naruto smiled widely, and Sasuke’s heart jumped a beat. If he could see that smile more often, then he would pretend like he wasn’t dying to kiss him again and again and never stop.
By the time they made it back to town, the rain was almost torrential, so nobody was out. That suited them just fine – they didn’t have to take a huge detour to avoid anyone this way.
“So you have kids now, huh?” Naruto as they passed the closed Bar-be-que place.
“Yeah,” Sasuke confirmed. “There’s Ako, who’s 17 and was promoted to jonin a couple of weeks ago. Then there’s Saki, who is going to be taking the genin exam in a couple of days, and finally Fushiki, who’s going to be starting the academy later this year.”
“Wow,” Naruto said, absorbing this. “That’s great. I know how much you wanted to revive your clan.”
“Yeah, they’re great kids,” Sasuke said. “Saki’s been obsessed with trying to awaken her Sharingan lately. I keep telling her that every ninja awakens it at a different time, but she refuses to listen. Ako’s been training very hard with Kakashi. He sort of took Ako under his wing a while ago. Now they tend to go on missions together often. As for Fushiki, he’s still a mama’s boy.”
“That’s sweet,” Naruto said with a smile as the Hokage mansion fell into their field of vision. “I’m sure Sakura’s a great mother.”
“She is,” Sasuke agreed. He paused, and they continued to walk, the rain continuing to fall harder and harder. “So what about you? Do you and…Gaara...have a family?” Naruto couldn’t help but feel like the question was forced.
“No,” he said sadly. “I mean, there’s Kankuro and Temari and her daughter, but we never adopted or anything, if that’s your question.”
“That’s a shame,” Sasuke said as they finally approached the large building. “I always thought you’d make a great father.”
“Thanks,” Naruto said, climbing up the stairs with Sasuke to the door to the building. “It really is nice being back. I hope things won’t be…awkward between us.”
Sasuke didn’t answer; instead, he turned to leave, walking down the couple of steps back onto the street before turning his head back towards Naruto. “Are you happy? With him, I mean.”
He didn’t want to say it. He really didn’t want to say it. He felt bad enough shutting Sasuke down back at the training grounds. He really didn’t want to tell Sasuke the truth – that yes, he and Gaara were very happy together. He looked away from Sasuke, hoping he could come up with a suitable answer, but it seemed like body language gave the truth away. Sasuke nodded to himself and continued to walk away. A couple of seconds later, Naruto decided it was time to enter his temporary home.
~~~~
Sakura Uchiha wasn’t always the most perceptive when it came to Sasuke; oftentimes, it was her feelings for him that clouded common sense, and the usually sharp-as-a-tack kunoichi ended up seeming like one tool short of a kit, at least wherever Sasuke was concerned. Nevertheless, she knew to be worried for Sasuke.
Not really knowing much more than the fact that Naruto was back and he had a happy life back in Suna, she couldn’t really tell what this meant. Was Naruto still single? If he wasn’t, did he want Sasuke back? Would Sasuke leave her for him?
She’d love to say that it wasn’t really worrying. She’d be lying. She knew that if Naruto really wanted to get back together with Sasuke, Sasuke would dump her in a moment. It was just the truth. She knew that a part of Sasuke – a pretty big part of him – had never gotten over Naruto’s “death”, and she knew that her husband was still in love with Naruto.
But further than the romantic implications of Naruto’s return laid other complications. How would this affect their family? None of their kids knew about their father’s sexuality or his previous relationship with Naruto. If Sasuke and Naruto decided they wanted to be together, how would that affect their children? If Naruto decided he didn’t want to get back together with Sasuke for some reason, how would that affect her husband? And then, how would that effect impact their children.
The worst part was the feeling Sakura had that told her that if Naruto and Sasuke decided they wanted to reunite, a part of her – she didn’t know how big that part was – would want to cling to Sasuke. That was probably the worst thought to go through her mind. She’d become such great friends with both Sasuke and Naruto after the war was over. She helped Sasuke through Naruto’s “death”, and agreed when he asked her to help him revive his clan (not that it was really an imposition).
Even though they married without any romantic implications, Sakura couldn’t help but fall further in love with her husband. They never really got very romantic, but he was a very shy person when it came to feelings. She knew that he was very comfortable with being with her, and that’s something that not many people would be able to have provided him. And despite the fact that they never got very romantic, he treated her well.
When the rain began to pound on the ceiling, she sighed and shook her head. No, there was always time to worry about romantic and familial implications of Naruto’s return. Romantically, she knew that they’d be able to settle things like adults. Well, at least she thought she could. Then again, Naruto and Sasuke weren’t always known for being the most sane and rational people when it came to each other.
But all that could and would wait. Because right now, she had her friend back. Although Ino would probably always hold the title of her best friend, Naruto had been very high up there for a while. After the war, it had been hard to adjust to the new life they all had, but it wasn’t terrible. And when Sasuke came back, it changed the dynamic even further. She didn’t know when, but at some point, Naruto had gotten over his feelings for her, and they were able to truly become great friends. Those unspoken, one-sided feelings were no longer an obstacle.
And now, he was back. She almost hit herself on the head as that thought returned. How could she have just left? Naruto was back! She should have taken him to Ichiraku and stayed out all night with him catching up on the last twenty years! She sat up from her lounging position on the sofa, ready to leave and find Naruto, before realizing that going out in the rain wasn’t smart.
Speaking of rain, where was Sasuke? She had no doubt that he had probably gone off somewhere to deal with whatever resurgent feelings arose when he saw Naruto, but it was getting late, and the weather was really getting disgusting. It was almost unfathomable how hard the rain was falling.
As that thought entered her mind, the door opened to reveal a drenched Sasuke standing outside. He slowly walked inside as Sakura stood up, moving to close the door behind him.
“Go upstairs and change before you get a cold,” she scolded softly. He wordlessly went upstairs to presumably do just that, but Sakura followed. They passed the doors to Saki and Ako’s bedroom before ending up at the master bedroom. Sasuke undressed and redress in nightwear robotically, so much that it scared Sakura. He seemed to be lifeless. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said quietly, sitting down on their bed. “I guess it really hasn’t sunk in yet.”
Sakura nodded. “Where did you go?”
“I waited for him so we could talk alone,” Sasuke admitted.
“…And?” Sakura urged.
Sasuke didn’t respond. Instead, he moved across the bed so that he was laying down. “It’s been a long day, Sakura,” he said. “Let’s just go to sleep.”
Despite the fact that she wanted to get more details about the encounter that Naruto and Sasuke had, she knew that Sasuke wasn’t the type to respond much to prying. She sighed and began to get changed for bed, deciding that she’d find Naruto tomorrow and they could have a nice, long talk.
Authors Note: If you read this story, even anonymously, please review. Reviews are what give me the inspiration to keep writing, otherwise it’s like not having an audience. There are a few of you out there who reviewed my last two chapters, but I’m hoping for more. I don’t know what you guys want, like, or dislike about this story. So please tell me what you think in a review. It’s really appreciated.
I also have a Twitter, if you want to follow me and hear more about my writing. You can follow me at SMFanfics. I also have a blog at http :// fanfics-sm . blogspot . com, which I update frequently. Both are updated when I update this story. Thanks for reading and reviewing!
- 2
- 3
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Life Moves On: Back to Life