Hello. I know the update's a little short, but I'm a busy person lately. No worries, though, I will still make time to write. Right now I'm working on Mimesis, Red Haze and Kage's Bunshin. So my next update will be one of those three. Enjoy. ; )

Disclaimed.

The next day Sasuke woke up to a loud pounding on his front door. He was already in a foul mood from having to live in his clan house again, being woken up at damn near dawn was not improving things.

You'd think that he would be glad to be back in his home, but a lot of time had past since he really thought of it that way and now mostly bad memories remained. Not to say that he didn't have good memories of his family here, but looking back he could see that those memories were overshadowed by presages of doom that he'd merely been too young to understand.

His entire family had been fated to die and he'd been the only one to not accept that inevitability even after it was too late to do change anything. No, there was one other. Naruto had never accepted that anything was fated. He'd been fated to bear the brunt of an entire nation's hatred from the day he was born, but he never accepted it. He changed it instead.

Which was why Sasuke had been so jealous of him. For Naruto there was hope, no matter how foolish. For Sasuke there was none, nothing he could do would ever change things. Which was true even now.

But that didn't mean there was no hope for him. Naruto was his hope and always had been. Not hope to change the past, but hope to change the future instead. He'd just been too bitter to acknowledge it.

None of that made him any happier to be woken up early though. Sasuke was not a morning person by nature.

He opened the door to be greeted with the sight of a bright blonde head of hair that reflected the sun into his eyes. Naruto stood in front of him wearing a pair of black slacks and an orange t-shirt and looking at him with a determined expression on his face.

Sasuke fought back the wave of memories that threatened to engulf him at the sight of the shirt and instead focused on the boy's face. It was there that the difference was apparent. This Naruto had had his cheerful mask stripped away when he realized he was a jinchuuriki. Since he had no one to reassure him, he bore the harsh truth himself and it changed him.

This Naruto was more like Sasuke than he was comfortable with. He hadn't had the same luck that the other Naruto had been gifted with and for the first time Sasuke could understand a little why Naruto had chased after him for so long. He must have realized just how little differentiated them from each other.

Despite that though, this Naruto had the same determination that he'd seen in his Naruto's eyes and Sasuke knew he had some explaining to do. This Naruto was more observant and wouldn't just trust the intentions of others.

He silently motioned the other boy inside and wondered how he was going to convince Naruto to trust him. He was understandably wary of others and Sasuke could see nothing of the powerful faith Naruto had had. It was that power to believe in himself and others that had caused people to question even their most strongly held beliefs in the face of his conviction.

Sasuke realized that there was no way to convince Naruto to trust him. If he was honest and this Naruto had the same potential as the other, then he would, and if not...well, then Sasuke would beat his hopelessness out of him. It had always worked in the past.

Mind made up, Sasuke looked at Naruto askance, silently inquiring about the other boy's presence.

Naruto glared and huffed, before speaking a bit reluctantly.

"Why? You were keeping an eye on me all that day, even though you always ignored everyone. What changed?"

Sasuke tried to think of a reasonable explanation and shrugged, "That's sort of what I'd been wondering for awhile myself. You changed. I didn't notice at first, but I'm not as blind as some of the other students. I wondered why you would take the exam when it was obvious you were going to fail. You didn't seem worried and I wanted to know why. Now I do."

Naruto stared at him silently for awhile before frowning lightly, "But why did you..."

He didn't finish, but Sasuke knew he was referring to Sasuke protecting his clone from Mizuki's Fuuma Shuriken.

Sasuke smirked a little before responding, "My body moved on its own."

Naruto continued staring at him dubiously for a moment before relenting,

"Fine, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. Just...keep in mind that I'm not anyone's pawn. If you were planning on using me for your revenge, it wont work."

Sasuke cocked an eyebrow, "Do you think that the only reason someone would accept what you are is because they intend to use you?"

Naruto imitated Sasuke's look and replied, "You haven't given me a better explanation."

Sasuke felt his annoyance at being woken up so early return with a vengeance and he rubbed his right temple in irritation.

"Follow me." He said abruptly and turned to leave without another word.

After a moment, Naruto followed, looking distinctly disgruntled.

Sasuke led the way to training ground three and then turned to look at Naruto with his arms crossed.

"Attack me."

Naruto looked confused briefly before covering it up with annoyance,

"What's your problem, teme?"

"You wanted an explanation. So, attack me. A good ninja doesn't need words to communicate."

Naruto hesitated for a moment before creating two shadow clones and sending them to attack Sasuke. He followed after clearly hoping to get a hit in while Sasuke was dealing with his clones.

Sasuke smirked; Naruto had already thought out the rudiments of fighting a stronger opponent. But his smirk faded when he realized that that also indicated that Naruto was reluctant to attack an opponent directly.

He couldn't ever remember a time when his Naruto had implicitly recognized Sasuke as stronger. He frowned, wondering what he could do to restore the other boy's confidence.

Then Naruto's clones were upon him and he reacted instinctively. He activated his Sharingan, destroyed the two clones with a couple of sharp jabs and then kicked the real Naruto in the stomach.

Naruto flew away and landed with an oomph.

"It's good to have a plan, but it wont work if you don't have the courage to face your opponent." Sasuke said almost lazily.

Naruto looked stricken before his face took on a familiar look of offended rage.

"Teme!"

With a growl the other boy attacked him with taijutsu only, then summoned clones whenever Sasuke knocked him back with a solid kick or punch. Sasuke noted the look of concentration on Naruto's face and how he was slowly edging his way closer to Sasuke with the aid of his clones.

Sasuke smirked; this was more like it.

A moment later, a barrage of kunai came at Sasuke and landed around him as he blocked some and dodged others. He pulled out several shuriken from his equipment pouch and waited.

Sure enough all of the kunai turned into clones and attacked him simultaneously. He spun in a circle throwing shuriken with precision at each of the clones, dispelling them all.

He had just a moment to react as Naruto came flying through the smoke created by his clones with his fist cocked back to knock Sasuke out. Sasuke quickly dropped to the ground and rolled back in order to kick Naruto as he flew over him.

Naruto flew upside down through the air and hit his back against a tree, knocking the air from his lungs before he promptly fell on his head. Sasuke winced a little as he heard a distinct crack come from Naruto's head and wondered briefly if he'd been a little hard on the boy.

As Naruto struggled to rise, Sasuke walked towards him and offered the other boy his hand. Naruto looked at it in surprise and shock before grinning a bit and grabbing Sasuke's hand.

The next thing Sasuke knew he was on the ground in a pile with his elbow sticking into Naruto's side. He elbowed Naruto to make him stop laughing before pulling away and righting himself.

"Dobe." Sasuke muttered as he settled himself against the tree, knowing it might be awhile before Naruto calmed down.

Naruto continued laughing despite the pain in his side. He may have gotten his ass kicked, but that was the most fun he'd had in a long time. It was nearly impossible for someone like him to find someone to spar with and the exhilaration of a good fight was making him a little high.

He finally got himself under control and shot a glance at the mysterious boy lounging next to him with his eyes closed. The fight hadn't revealed much to Naruto about Sasuke's motives, but Naruto was already starting to trust him. There was no malice in Sasuke's punches and kicks, just a sense of friendly competition; if anything about the surly Uchiha could be called friendly, that is.

Sasuke was leaning back against the tree in relaxation, and Naruto was sure that he'd never seen him this relaxed in front of anyone before. At least since his clan was massacred.

But there was still something about Sasuke that didn't sit right with Naruto. He was so strong and self-confident that it was unreal. Not cocky and careless like he usually was, just...certain.

Naruto couldn't help but be envious of the other boy's calm certainty that he knew very well he lacked.

Still, Naruto thought with a smirk of his own, Sasuke had shown him that people could change. Maybe he wasn't such a bastard after all.

A moment later Sasuke opened his eyes.

"Why would I want to use you when with enough time and training I can get revenge on my own? Besides, it's my clan that was murdered; no one can take revenge in my place."

Naruto's eyes widened in understanding before narrowing in thought.

"What are you going to do? Leave the village?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"You say that like you've thought of it yourself."

Naruto squirmed a little under Sasuke's gaze.

"Why would I leave the village? The man responsible for the deaths of my clansmen will one day target Konoha. By staying here, I guarantee that I will get the chance to keep him from getting what he wants."

Sasuke idly wondered how Naruto would react if he knew that the 'thing' he was talking about was Naruto himself. He watched as Naruto fell quiet while he considered his words. It was unnerving seeing Naruto think things through so carefully.

"I have thought of leaving the village." Naruto confessed abruptly.

Sasuke kept his face blank to hide his shock. Exactly how much of the Naruto he'd known was in the boy's nature and how much due to circumstance? He never thought he'd see the day where he'd be the one trying to talk the other out of leaving the village. But the way the boy was now, that was a definite possibility.

Sasuke, though, was a stubborn person and wouldn't accept the situation easily. He refused to believe that this confused and beaten boy was all there was left in this world of the Naruto he'd known. His Naruto or not, he knew there would always be more than that to the only person he'd ever acknowledged as a rival.

"What would you gain from that?"

Naruto frowned and asked angrily, "What do you mean?"

Sasuke smirked, "People are the same everywhere. It's true that many of the villagers bear particular hatred towards you as opposed to other Jinchuuriki, but that doesn't mean there are other places where you'd be accepted despite what you hold within you.

On the contrary, because of the Sandaime, ninja in Konoha are more likely to be accepting of what you are than ninja in other villages would be. Most villages would treat you as nothing more than a weapon, but Konoha has always valued its ninja highly in comparison to other villages.

If you leave Konoha, then you would become either the tool of another village to wage war on Konoha, or a missing-nin. And missing nin are reviled everywhere. If you think such a life would be easier than the one you have now, you're wrong.

All the villages and even other missing-nin would hunt you down under you were captured. Then you would be either locked up or have the Kyuubi extracted so it could be sealed into someone else. You, of course, would die in the process."

Sasuke knew he was being harsh, but didn't particularly care. He didn't mind the dobe being a fool in many things, but he wouldn't permit him to believe that leaving the village would end well for him. How Naruto reacted to that information depended on him, but as far as Sasuke was concerned, Naruto had to be capable of accepting and overcoming it. He had no other choice if he wanted things to change for the better.

Sasuke watched as emotions cascaded over Naruto's face. His face held anguish before his eyes dulled to a defeated dark blue for awhile. Finally he pulled himself together and glared at Sasuke defiantly.

"If I really wanted to leave and start a new life, I would find a way."

Naruto bit out furiously, and once again Sasuke was reminded of his younger self uncomfortably.

Sasuke inclined his head slightly in acknowledgment.

"But there are already people here who know what you are and accept you. You can either choose to fight the villagers' hatred of you or decide it's not worth it and run away, hoping you can make a better life elsewhere. And maybe you can." Sasuke said with a shrug. "But either way it depends on you."

Sasuke got up and turned his back on Naruto, heading to the market to get fresh tomatoes to add to an omelet. He hadn't eaten before their spar and was starving now.

Before he made it to the treeline, however, he heard Naruto inhale sharply and stopped, waiting.

Behind him, Naruto's head was down as he gathered his courage.

"That man will have comrades. There's no way you can face them all alone, no matter how strong you are. You'll need backup. Besides, I was planning to become a hunter-nin anyway."

At this, Sasuke turned his head to look at Naruto, but didn't answer, still waiting for something.

Naruto's eyes shone fiercely as he continued, "Then one day I'll be stronger than you and will be made Hokage. And I will make certain there is never another Jinchuuriki made in this village. Ever."

And Sasuke believed him. This Naruto wasn't so different after all. He missed the smile that haunted his dreams, but at least this one would be less likely to throw away his life on a whim.

Sasuke smirked and merely nodded his head before leaving the clearing.

In doing so, though, he missed the familiar smile that graced Naruto's face.

R&R