Dare Chapter 3, a naruto fanfic

Well here I am for the third and final chapter!

Bout time, hm?

I'm happy to hear so many kind reviews, and such positive feed-back from you all!

There are some things you all might be confused about, like why Naruto lives with Kakashi if he was told his boyfriend was Sai. Well, I looked at it as this:

If Naruto lost his memories becuase of Sasuke, would you really want him remembering everything and the first person he sees is someone who looks almost just like Sasuke?

NO.

So this is the last chapter, I hope you liked this three shot of mine, and please be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster.

DISCLAIMER: i don't own Naruto. tch.

QUOTES: excerpts from various SasuNaru doujinshi and the manga Loveless

ATTENTION: You know what your getting into.

My arms hurt. My hands hurt. They burn. From hurting the one I love most. But I can't stop myself...!

Naruto wrapped his thin hand around a larger pale one. His tan fingers applied gental pressure, but the other hand did not reciprocate equally.

"Sai?"

Naruto's big blue eyes searched the older boy's face, yet Sai remained expressionless. Naruto frowned. He could -and would on variouse occasions- recall a face; a face with Sai's features, but this blurred visage always had a flurry of emotion flashing back and forth.

"Yes, Naruto-kun?" Sai spoke up. Naruto bit his lip and took in a deep breath.

"Well... Sai... I was wondering... would you... would you k-ki...kiss me?" the blond's face flushed a deep red, and he wouldn't meet the other's blank stare. Sai arched an eyebrow.

"If that is what you would like." was his simple reply as he bent down and pressed his lips to Naruto's.

It was almost desperately that Naruto leaned into the kiss, and yet he fell short when Sai pulled away almost immeadiately. Scared cheeks were blushed red, but Naruto stared at the other boy with a look akin to puzzelment.

"Kakashi-sensei is coming back tonight, isn't that right? If you'd like, I can intercept him on his return and have him pick you up some groceries. I recall you mentioning that you were running low." Sai said, looking away from Naruto, staring instead straight ahead. Naruto didn't say anything, just giving a small nod.

It was often like this, with Sai being so emotionless and frigid. Naurto would often wonder how exactly they had been together, as a couple, for so long. Since the blond was twelve even!

So then why did Naruto feel as though there was such distance between them.

"You know, Sai. I met someone knew today. Well, last night, but I didn't really know what was going on then." Naruto began, touching a finger to his lips in a thoughtful manner.

"Oh." Sai responded uninterestedly. Naruto continued on either way.

"A boy. He was around my age I think. His name was Uchiha Sasuke, and Sakura-chan said that I used to know him, that he was her old teammate. Hes a shinobi like you, you know!" he said. Sai turned around, suddenly looking more interested.

"So you met that guy, huh?" he asked. Naruto nodded.

"Mhm. Have I met him before Sai? I felt... I felt like I have." he answered, touching his cheek slightly. Sai studied the boy.

To be honest he held no affection for Uzumaki Naruto. He was only with him as a mission from the Hokage, and she only chose him due to his physical features that resembled Uchiha Sasuke. Sai knew ful well via a mission outline that Naruto lost his memories due to mental stress caused by Sasuke, and so he had to make sure Naruto was not caused to suffer from any recovered image of the Uchiha.

However, he had no concern for Naruto's feelings, being as he had none of his own. He had question Tsunade's decision at the time he was appointed, whether or not she really wanted him to act as though he had been with the blond for such a long term relationship, but the Hokage had stuck firm to her decision.

"It seems like he'll never remember himself, but he is showing signs of remembering someone that fits Sasuke's appearance. It would be easier to just replace Sasuke's faint image in his mind with someone who looks as close to that damn Uchiha brat as possible."

Sai hadn't really questioned the mission. As a shinobi, he couldn't really. He didn't know how to act like a 'boyfriend', so he pretty much treated Naruto like a younger sibling, and followed the orders of the blond boy as though he were his superior. However, he was frequently reprimed by Sakura to treat Naruto more tenderly, like a close friend or lover.

Like Sai could even begin to know how he'd go about doing that.

He looked sideways at his companion on the streets of konoha. Naruto was staring at the ground as they walked, his finger tugging at his lip and his eyes lost in thought. Momentarily, Sai hoped that whatever he was thinking of, did not reveal the secrets that veiled who the blond was, and would cause him the thing that would be unexcusable for the Root Anbu member.

If Sasuke's arrival caused Naruto to remember everything, then he would cause Sai to have a black mark on his record. A failed mission.

'I just wanted to see you'. Isn't that enough? Right now, thats enough for me as well.'

Sasuke felt the cold stone bite into his fingertips in the usual roughness that was to be expected of stone. He walked slowly, using measured steps through the old Uchiha complex. The buildings that were once alive with the people of Uchiha blood.

Blood that was now just a small spot upon fallen snow. Small, true, but stood out harshly among the vast uniformity. The only thing that could melt that snow, undoubtedly, was the sun.

Sasuke's sun.

So they had told Naruto that he belonged to some man named 'Sai'. Sasuke assumed this man must have been that boy that had taken his place on team 7, the one who he had been so close to killing after the far paler boy barged into his room back when he had been with Orochimaru. That 'Sai' looked enough like him, so it was fitting. A fitting lie that covered up Naruto's ignorance of the truth.

The truth that Sasuke had ever been in his life at all.

"Nngh..." The sole surrivior of the Uchiha massacre gripped his chest. Sasuke's chest ached horribly.

He needed Naruto. He came back for him.

For him, nothing else. His life was directed solely at Naruto, now. No Itachi, no Uchiha prophecies, no Snake Sanin.

He now lived for Naruto, and would continue to do as such.

Naruto would have to understand that, memories or not.

Even if you should betray me, I will forgive you. Thats what knowing is. Thats what it means to believe.

Naruto sat at the table, the food in front of him cooling rapidly. There was a soft thud of a chair as it slid away to have Kakashi drop into it. He studied the quiet boy.

That 'Naruto'.

"Oi, you should eat that before it gets cold!" Kakashi said with cheer, nudging the young teen's plate. Naruto looked up, bewildered, before smiling and looking down at his plate. He stared at it, blinking several times. Kakashi felt his heart rate quicken.

He'd never made Naruto the dish they were eating before, though, he had seen the boy eat it several times in the years back.

"Ne, Kakashi-san. Did Na--... did he like this?" Naruto asked, smiling a little in question.

Kakashi's eyes flinched away, guilt swallowing up his mind. He couldn't meet the boy's big blue eyes.

"... yeah, he liked it, so you should eat it too." he said in a quiet voice. Naruto stared for a few seconds, before nodding a bit, and begining his meal. Kakashi didn't feel very hungry anymore.

The guilt in his chest was tearing him apart. Guilt for so many things.But most of all, above all the other reasons...

Guilt because he despised the small blond teenager in front of him.

He hated the persona that had taken over for Naruto. The real Uzumaki Naruto's murderer for as far as he was concerned.

And Kakashi had nothing but contempt for himself for hating the boy who had done nothing wrong.

He hated himself for resenting his most tortured student's last effort to save himself. Yet even still, Kakashi would often wonder, if Naruto had never dissapeared, if 'Naruto' had never taken his place...

How would he feel toward the old Naruto?

The one who had failed to make Sasuke stay?

The Naruto that just wasn't strong enough to keep the promise had made... how would Kakashi, everyone, how would the old Naruto feel looked upon by his own comrades with hidden malice.

"Kakashi-san? I'm done, are you not going to eat?" a soft voice broke through the silver haired man's thoughts, and he nodded at the teenager. Naruto looked concerned, giving a slight nod before taking up his full plates to wash in the sink. Kakashi stayed at the table, staring into space with his mismatched eyes.

"Ne, Kakashi-san, you never told me you had another student along with Sakura-chan. Uchiha Sasuke, right?" Naruto spoke up, looking over his shoulder with a smile.Kakashi felt his heart frost over, anger, shame, sadness tearing through his veins. He turned his head slowly to meet the smiling face of the blond who continues on with the dishes.

"...How did you know that name...?" he inquired slowly, his voice thick and heavy. His fingers gripped the edge of the table, digging into the wood. Naruto turned around and leaned against the sink, wiping his hands dry on a dish towel.

"I met him today. The other night too, he had broken into this apartment! I thought he was going to kill me, but I guess he had came to visit you maybe? It might have been my fault though, I had left the window unlocked and-..."

While Naruto continued to speak, Kakashi was far beyond him, the sound of his own blood rushing in his ears.

Sasuke was back?

Kakashi shot up from his chair, knocking it over and startling the younger of the two. Naruto's big blue eyes stared questioningly at Kakashi, and the man found he had to look at the other's forehead to keep away from those eyes.

"What did he tell you? Does the Hokage know he's here?! Did he tell you anything?!" he interrogated, finding that his anger was flickering past his control. as he strode closer to the blond. Naruto took a step back, but found himself trapped against the sink, so he instead braced his hands onto the counter top, his body tensing.

"Kakashi-san... wh-whats... whats wrong? You're mad..." he whispered. Kakashi closed his eyes tightly, his body hovering over the smaller frame.

Naruto's eyes widened and a red flush consumed his scared cheeks. He couldn't remember a time when anyone came this close to him. People always kept their distance, even the people he was told were his friends. Even Sai, who he was told was his lover of three years, even he never got so close to him, and this position wasn't even intimate in that way.

"...Didn't you remember anything...? When you saw him..." Kakashi's voice was low, and gave off a dangerous feeling. Naruto shivered, but tilted his head down.

"...No." he answered. And it was the truth.

He had met Uchiha Sasuke, and the only thing he could say about the older boy was that he resembled that blurry image of who he was told was Sai. And the two young men did look the same, albeit just the standard traits. Uchiha Sasuke seemed a bit more prone to fits of emotion then Sai, and he had a certian... quality about him.

Uchiha Sasuke...

Kakashi's breathing was ragged, his face tilted down and away from Naruto's eyes.

"Don't go near him... he'll only hurt you more... ..." he whispered. The young teen's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Kakashi-san... what do you mean?" he prodded gently. Kakashi suddenly gripped his shoulders.

"He's the one.. Sasuke... the one that took you away from us...Naruto..." the silver haired man said solemly, almost as if he wasn't talking to Naruto at all. And then, of course, Naruto realized this was because, he wasn't.

... He was talking to forgotten memories that made up 'Naruto'.

The blond felt his heart sear in agony. The pain he felt because he was 'Uzumaki Naruto', and not, ''Uzumaki Naruto'. And so, he suffered, for being the person he is and not the one he was.

But he wanted to be Naruto. He liked Naruto. He felt that, he and Naruto were very much similar, they had so much in common. And so, he wanted to know. He wanted to be Naruto, he wanted to be that person again.

And for that he needed answers.

"Kakashi-san..."

Kakashi looked up from the floor as tan hands cupped his cheeks, bringing his eyes to meet half-lidded blue.

"Who was Uchiha Sasuke to me?" Naruto asked. The older man shut his tired eyes.

" You and he were... You meant... nothing to him." he said, and Kakashi could already feel the ache in his chest grow. Was the answer he had given Naruto true? Had Sasuke really never seen Naruto in the way Naruto had seen him?

Of course he hadn't.

Sasuke had left him to die. He'd tried to kill him several times. So it could only be true that he held no emotional investment in the boy who could only gaze at him from the rift between the rivals.

Naruto studied the older man's face, visually tracing the long scar down his pale cheek. He could do nothing but believe that what Kakashi had said was true.

"Okay Kakashi-san. I think I'll go to bed now." the blond said. Kakashi could only give a slight nod, feeling his face released from the small warm hands.

The Jounin remained staring at the floor, even after he heard Naruto's bedroom door open and close gently. Then he was left in the apartment, smelling the cold winter air from the open window.

'He acts like nothings wrong and may look like he does it easily, but... in a world where one can easily sway off another's path...'

Naruto stared up at the ceiling, willing his eyes to close.

He was tired, but couldn't get his body to relax into slumber. It was an irritating feeling, yet not unfamiliar. He had many nights like this where his mind was too busy to rest. He hated it, true, but he was also enraptured by his own thoughts; thoughts that seemed to come from other places he never really dwelled on during the day or around his friends.

Though now they were on Uchiha Sasuke.

Ever since that man showed up, people had suddenly become uneasy around him. They always held him in some fashion of fragility, but now it seemed rather severe.

The others wouldn't tell him, of course, anything about Sasukes ties with him, and he woulnd't want to ask them to. The group of his close friends would often grow quiet and dismissive if the subject of Naruto's memories or past life had ever been brought up.

"Sasuke..." Naruto voiced the name aloud, testing it on his tongue. He couldn't tell anything from it. It didn't spark anything, he didn't receive a flood of images, save the blurry one of Sai he'd been having a while back.

And so, why did people walk on eggshells around him when this Sasuke was concerned?

'Hes the one who took you away from us...Naruto...'

But Naruto wasn't sure if he should account this to anything between he and Sasuke. After all, Kakashi had used the name 'Naruto'. That much alone surprised the blond.

Kakashi never called him 'Naruto', always finding ways of not using it, or not saying it in conversation. Because, after all, in the Jounin's mind, he wasn't Naruto. And the boy supposed he had a point.

With the idea of these things, it suddenly occured to Naruto who exactly could provide all the information he needed. He didn't really know where to find this person, but was going to trust on his luck, and maybe he'd run into someone who knew where the man was.

After all, how hard would it be to find Uchiha Sasuke?

If you really want to protect a secret, you can't even say 'I've got a secret'. A real secret doesn't exist.

Sasuke wound his way through the off-road trails, the ones thick with trees growing on either side of the path. These paths that were usually used by either ninja who felt like walking on ground rather then jump roof-tops, and a few farmers from the fields back a ways.

Fortunately, one of the paths that lead directly to the huge gates that surrounded the Uchiha complex was still there (albeit overgrown and hard to see this time of night). And so Sasuke walked back to one of the smaller houses he had chosen to reside in, his steps slow and measured. He was tired, after all, not used to having his chakra sealed away for extended time.

As he approached the main gates, he froze.

Naruto stood staring at the Uchiha name written above the painted clan symbol, his big blue eyes narrowed as he frowned. He was wearing a thick scarf around his neck, his chin covered just a bit to make it look as though he was being swallowed up. The hakama he seemed to suddenly prefer wearing was covered with a thick black haori jacket.

There was no more orange.

"Oi." Sasuke stepped forward, startling the blond boy badly as he whipped around, his breath escaping in clouds of white mist. He blinked at Sasuke, before giving a sheepish sort of smile.

"Ah, Uchiha-san! I'm glad I found you!" he said, walking closer to the raven haired boy, giving a polite bow. Sasule frowned a bit, moving to walk back into the complex, waving his hand to signal it was okay for Naruto to follow.

"Was there something you needed?" he inquired coldly, though he hadn't really known any other tone to use in this situation. Having the object of his thoughts just feet away from him, alone, no one keeping a watchful eye on him.

Naruto was quiet as he walked behind the taller boy, and he fumbled with his gloved hands.

"Well, Uchiha-san, I was wondering if you and I could talk about something..." he said, as though he wasn't quite certian how tophrase his answer. Sasuke gave a nod, turning a small fork in the road and walking up to the porch of his residence. Naruto paused at the foyer, unsure if he should go in or not.

"We can talk, come in." Sasuke said as he removed his sandals.

"Ah, thanks." Naruto muttered as he removed his zori from his tabi socked feet.

The blond made no move to go any further into the house then he already had, and so Sasuke leaned against the doorway. There was a deep silence between them, and Sasuke was growing uncomfortable.

"Well? What is it." he said. Naruto looked up and met eyes with the older boy.

"Uchiha-san... have we really met before?"

Internally, Sasuke would have chosen then to start smirking. He knew that Naruto would gradualy gain back the knowlage of him. The memories just needed his face to be triggered.

"We have. We were team mates." the Uchiha supplied. Naruto's eyebrows furrowed.

"Team mates? I don't understand..." he said, shaking his head a bit. Sasuke huffed. Naruto was going to remember all this anyway, there was no harm in explaining everything to him. Then, Naruto would be back. His Naruto

Not Sai's. Not Kakashi's. Not the villages. Not anyone else's.

He could give a fuck if the whole ninja community was trying to protect the secret that was Naruto's right to know. The secret of who he really is.

"Ninja Naruto. We were on the same team under Kakashi. Sakura knows too." he said, frowning a bit at the look of shock that twisted onto the blond's face. Naruto's eyes were wide, his mouth open a sliver.

"Nnn... no, thats not right..." he said. Sasuke sighed.

"No, its how things really are. You and I were on team 7, with Haruno Sakura and Hatake Kakashi. You're specialty technique was Kage bunshin no jutsu. You always wore that bright orange jumpsuit, and was really annoying." he said blankly. Naruto's clasped hands fell to either side of his body. He stared at the calm boy before him.

"...'Naruto' was... a shinobi...?" he whispered in shock. Sasuke glared.

"You were a shinobi, yes. I guess when you misplaced your memories, the hokage and everyone else you used to know made a new life for you, so living could be easier." he spat out begrudgenly. Naruto whipped his head up.

"Why...? Why would they need to... to make my life different?! Why weren't things okay the way they were before?!" he was slowly becoming irrational now; hysterical. Sasuke felt a tightening in his chest.

Why had they all decided to change Naruto's life? Shikamaru had said that it was because of the pain he had caused his younger counterpart. That it was all due to the mental suffering Sasuke himself caused Naruto to go through; the torture.

"I'm... not sure. But it was probably because of... me." Sasuke said quietly, looking down at his feet. Naruto said nothing, just stared quizzically.

"...Because... of you?" he repeated. Sasuke looked to the side.

"We were best friends... but I needed to get revenge on my br--... on a certian man. So I left." he said. Naruto took a step forward.

"Left?"

"You tried to stop me, more then once... " Sasuke felt his voice getting quieter, more hesitant. He hated telling the truth, esspecially when it would be so easy to lie to Naruto in his condition. But of course, this state was just temporary, and if he lied, then Naruto would find out once he got his memories back.

Naruto had a sort of glazed over look in his eyes, and his hand searched for a wall to brace himself against.

"But I don't understand... you were his friend...Had Naruto done something to make you hate him?" he asked. Sasuke flinched.

"No."

Confused blue eyes just couldn't comprehend.

"Then... why leave if we were friends? Was being friends not enough?"

Sasuke froze at Naruto's words. They were obviously meant in innocence, but for Sasuke, who had been obsessed over that perfect body writhing around under him for more then he cared to recall back to, the words were dangerous invitations.

"No, Naruto, being friends was not enough. I wanted more then that. We both wanted more." While he was saying this, Sasuke was stepping foreward, closer and closer to the confused boy.

"I still want more." he shispered into the shell of Naruto's ear, tilting his tan chin up with his finger. Naruto tried to pull away, but the wall of the foyer prevented his retreat.

"Uchiha-san...!" his voice was as panicked as the heart beating in his chest. Sasuke glared.

"You call me 'Sasuke'." he ordered, and loved the rush it gave him to do so. Naruto gulped and shook his head.

"We only just met, it impoli-

"Shut up!" Sasuke's harsh bark cut the blond off, and he gasped in surprise. Sasuke simmered down, his glare turning slowly into a smirk once more as he slithered his body closer against his old teammates.

"Now Naruto, if you wont listen to me, then I'll have to make you feel it, wont I?" he murmered, relishing in the feel of his body pressed so perfectly against the smaller physique. Naruto shuddered, his face heating up in a bright blush.

Naruto had to say, that Sasuke was the most beautiful man he'd ever seen. His body was so strong, and he seemed to abhor lying. Yet maybe it was because he was giving Naruto an intimacy he'd never felt before, and had secretly yearned for, that he was more eager to allow this to continue.

Sasuke leaned in and pressed his lips against Naruto's quivering ones, meshing them together firmly. Naruto's entire body heated up, and his nails scratched the wall for something to hold on to as Sasuke kissed him passionately. He, being inexperienced about this sort of thing, tried his best to respond, but it seemed too embarrassing for him. Sasuke pulled away, smirking, and then attacking Naruto's neck with equal fervor.

And, truth be told, despite how horribly embarrassed and still mildly confused by the whole situation was, Naruto wanted this to carry on. That was, untill he heard Sasuke's heated mutter against his abused neck.

"...Naruto..."

The blood that had been pumping so fast through the blond's veins seemed to almost still. Right then, more then any other time...

Naruto wished he was 'Naruto'

He wished that he and the boy who's name had slipped so beautifully out of such a man's most talented mouth could be his name. But Uchiha Sasuke was not refering to him. He was refering to a broken memory. And, apparently, the very memory Sasuke himself was responsible for breaking in the first place.

Tan hands pushed against Sasuke in a bout of strength that Naruto hadn't known he could possess. The Uchiha stumbled backwards, baffled at the sudden rejection. Naruto panted, his face turned down to the floor.

"Naruto...?" Sasuke began, but said boy shook his head.

"The Naruto you want... is gone. You know that..." he said in a sad, tiny voice. Sasuke frowned.

"You're right here, right in front of me. Our ages may have changed, but we're still the same people." he said. Naruto paused and slowly turned his shaded blue eyes on the taller boy a few feet away from him. His slim shoulders went back and he stood up a little straighter.

"You could say as much for yourself, but if that was the case... you'd just end up hurting 'Naruto' again, wouldn't you?"

Sasuke's eyes widened a fraction, and he stood with his mouth agape.

'Please don't forget. Any day, we'll cherish each other. Our hearts are connected even when we are absent from each other's side. Always, always.'

Sasuke's heart thudded in his ears.

This wasn't how this meeting was supposed to go. Naruto wasn't supposed to be thinking along these lines. He wasn't supposed to take into account the hurt Sasuke had put the old Naruto through.

"I wouldn't..." he said, giving his head a small twist that would be taken as shaking it in a negative response.

Naruto seemed to be gathering more and more intrepidity (albeit in a resigned, sad sort of way). The younger boy pulled away from the wall, his eyes never leaving Sasuke. The raven haired young man really wished they would too, because they were far too intense for him.

"But you would. You can even hurt the memory of that person. You would have me, even though I am not the one you love." he said. Sasuke stood up stock straight.

Love... Did he love Naruto?

Of course.

Why else would he go through so much just ot come back to him. Why else did it hurt so deeply when the blue eyes he had imagined had filled with tears after having not seen him in so long, and hurt even deeper then that when the one he longed for had denied knowing of his existance.

"You are. Naruto... I do love you." he said, surprised at how sure his voice was. But unfortunately, his words only caused a pained look in large blue eyes.

"You may love Naruto, but that person you love is gone. He's gone because he loved you so much!" Naruto shouted, closing his eyes tightly. Sasuke felt yet another pang in his chest.

"Damnit, you're Naruto! It doesn't matter if you've forgotten it, I know who you are!" he shouted right back, rushing foreward and slamming his palms on either side of the younger boy's head, trapping him against the wall. Naruto glared.

"So thats it? You think, 'as long as the body looks the same', huh?'" the blond's voice was quite, but laced with accusation. Sasuke glared right back.

"You just wanted to touch this body, right? You didn't care about how much 'Naruto' must have loved you. How much he must have thought about you every day after you left him all alone. You didn't care that being without you caused him to suffer so greatly that the only way to escape the pain and still live was to forget everything!!"

Tears prickled at the corners of his eyes as Naruto ended his rant. Yet even still, he held a strong face and wouldnt let them fall. Sasuke's glare softened, and he looked away.

There it was again.

He had always known that he was being selfish. That his whole strive for revenge was self-certered, and he saw the people he met along the way as nothing more then dissposable. Yet out of all those he had met, in th end he supposed that in his mind, no one was more like a toy to him then Naruto.

Naruto would be his friend.

Naruto would be the one he could kill to get the Mangekyo.

Naruto he could leave and treat like trash, but it wouldn't matter, becuase Naruto would always be around.

"What happened back then doesn't matter. All that matters now is that we're together again. Naruto... did you really love me? Do you still love me now? You remembered me, didn't you?" Sasuke closed his eyes, leaning down, he pressed his brow against Naruto's. Naruto's eyebrows furrowed. he gently shook his head.

"We've gone over this before..." he whispered. Sasuke pulled away and placed his hands on Naruto's scarred cheeks.

"But you did. You remembered me. Sakura and the others told you that it was Sai, that he was your... your lover or whatever. But it was me. You remember me. You do. And you'll remember how much you love me too." the grip Sasuke had on the tan face in front on him tightened. Naruto winced, his eyes glazed over.

"But... all this time... Sai has been with me.. why would he go along with it, why would he kiss me, be with me, if it was never him?" he pleaded aloud to himself. Sasuke grinted his teeth at the mention of a shared kiss.

"Sai is a shinobi. He does what he is ordered to do. They ordered him to go along with the lie that kept you from remembering me. But now we can be together... I'm here Naruto. I'm here now." Sasuke breathed into the tense air. Naruto's eyes slackened, and turned downward. Sasuke released his palms from scarred cheeks, and he backed away to give the blond space.

Naruto slowly met the wanting stare of those dark eyes.

"So..."

Blue eyes looked away, and pale pink lips formed a small smile.

"You can now be with the one you love, because it is at your conveniance...?"

Sasuke stilled. His body tingled, and his heart was tight in his chest.

"Because you finaly realized your love for him, you think now you and he can be together. But what about when he loved you? What about when he was suffering for you? What about when he was in so much agony over the memory of you, that he destroyed himself just to live. Why couldn't you be with him when it was possible? Why couldn't you save him? "

And Sasuke was so still, he could only stare straight ahead as Naruto moved away from him, bent down to pull on his zori, and then paused at the door.

The foyer was dark, the moon outside illuminated things with a silver glow. The air was cold, the beginings of snow falling here and there. Naruto stood, smiling while looking away.

"For the suffering you caused, now you get to suffer too, Sasuke. Except, your punishment was of your own creation. You came back to this village for him, right? But look, Sasuke, he doesn't even know who you are anymore. He forgot. Everything. Even you."

Because Naruto knew. He knew that Sasuke could be satisfied with just him. But Sasuke was not Naruto's to have. Sasuke belonged to Naruto. Not him.

"I will live my life, Uchiha-san, this life that your Naruto gave me. And you will live yours." The blond said, moving to step onto the dark proch. Sasuke watched at his door step, still so frozen. Naruto turned a bit, his smile suddenly looking too familiar on that face.

"Naruto...?" Sasuke whispered pleadingly. Naruto shook his head.

"Naruto had to be alone with his love for you. I think... as an Avenger, you would understand that I shall now return the favor." he said, before begining to walk back, the silver light of the moon illuminating the hallo of gold around his head, the folds of his hakama pants flowing with each step he took through the lightly falling snow.

Sasuke was left gripping his door frame, his breathing deep and frantic. There was a solid thud as he fell to his knees. His hands shook, and slowly he raised them to his face, hiding it as his shoulders begining to shake.

Now, more then any time before...

He wished that had been Naruto.

And he wished he had realized what he had when it was staring at him longingly so long ago... those eyes that would live only in his memories..

Hey... I really love you.

Owari

-Rae-chan