This is my very first completed Naruto fanfiction. It is a SasuNaru, though there isn't really much concerning a romantic relationship, so it could go either way. I really hope you enjoy!

Make sure to leave me some feedback concerning how the story flowed, and what you thought of it. I'm really feeling good with my stories and ideas at the moment.

This is a songfic, based on a country song I heard on the radio while in the car with my mom! The song is 'Warm Safe Place' by Aaron Pritchett. Lyrics will be bolded and italicized.

[Story]

I told myself I would never go back to that place. I told myself that I was better than anything that village had to offer. I was above being a ninja. I was so much better.

Now, six years after first making that decision, here I was on the familiar forest path, limping towards the one place I vowed I would overcome. I had indeed overcome it, so why was I going back?

I wasn't entirely sure. Something changed in me. After all of the searching, trying to find some salvation in what I had done to my brother's life and to my own, it became clear to me that the only place left was right back where I had started. I needed to go back. There was nothing left for me out there in the world, surviving in hiding and being a renegade. Over the years I had been perfecting my abilities, up until a point where there was no more perfecting that could be done. I had mastered what could be mastered, and taken my body to its limits. When I came to this realization, it was a haunting thought. I had never felt so lost. When you push away all that is good in your life to better yourself, what do you have when you've become the best? Where do you turn? Destroying myself indeed crossed my mind. However, I snuffed the idea when I thought of my brother. In the beginning I had not followed through with his dream of me remaining loyal to Konoha. I was too overcome with rage towards Danzo to listen to my brother's dying wish. I suppose now would be my chance to make things right.

I feel like an old guitar

Looking for some brand new strings

I realized somewhere in the back of my mind that it wouldn't be as easy as walking right in. I wouldn't be greeted with open arms by anyone. I was a fugitive. However, I knew that the Hokage was quite the pushover. That didn't make the current moment any less awkward.

There I was, surrounded by Anbu guards in the Hokage's office, under the intense glare of a half-sauced Tsunade.

"What makes you think that you have any right waltzing in here like you didn't commit multiple crimes against humanity?" She snapped, twirling her sake bottle. Her glare worsened when I remained silent. "Well? You're a rogue ninja! I could have you executed on the spot, you know." She mused.

"But you wouldn't," I said quietly. She arched an eyebrow.

"Oh? And why is that? 'Don't think I have the guts because I'm a woman?" She asked challengingly.

"No. You have loyalties towards people whom I am important to. You wouldn't dare," I shot back, knowing I had gotten her. When I saw her proud expression drop and her dismissal of the Anbu guards, I claimed my victory.

"Fine. You know what? I don't want to deal with this. Leave it to you to show up in the middle of the night. I'm going to sleep on this, and we'll deal with things tomorrow. Don't think this means you're getting off easy, because you aren't. I'm just too worn out to think properly and I don't want you manipulating me because my head hurts." She then stood up and marched towards the door to her office. "It's not like you're going to blow the place up. You don't have the stamina."

It was true. I was certain that I must have looked worse than I was, but not by much. The previous months were spent just surviving. My team was gone, their loyalties having swayed after the years we had spent as a unit. They became tired, and I just kept pushing forward. Even Karin left, and I was sure she would never let me go. I stopped sleeping regularly, no longer having multiple people to keep watch in shifts, which gradually took its toll. My clothes were worn and ripped, covered in dirt and grime, and hung off of my weakened frame... I was everything an Uchiha wasn't at that moment.

I followed Tsunade to the door, and she stepped back as I walked through the doorway and set off down the hall. She cleared her throat and I stopped.

"Where do you think you're going to stay?" She asked.

I let a small smirk slip past my lips. "I've got a pretty good idea."

I continued walking as proudly as my damaged body would let me.

Never thought I'd get this far
Without saving anything
For me

---

As I climbed the worn steps of the building, it occurred to me that perhaps I should have considered some things. Was he still here? What if someone was living with him now? What if he didn't want to see me?

As I made it to the solid wooden door, I pushed all of my thoughts aside. I was tired, and I wasn't in the mood to entertain any of the above ideas. Lifting my hand, I gave a sharp knock on the door, a dog in the distance beginning to bark.

I should have also considered that it was around two o'clock in the morning.

With an unceremonious thump, my prayers were answered. The grumbles and curses that followed only increased my adrenaline.

The Dobe was home.

The door was wrenched open, and from the darkness immerged a less than impressed man, sans the brown gaudy nightcap I remembered from childhood. Dawning only shorts, he squinted and stepped closer, attempting to use the moonlight to unmask me. When he finally deciphered whom it was that was standing at his door after waking him up in the early hours of the morning, his expression changed drastically.

"Sasuke?"

"Naruto."

Just saying his name again lifted some of the burden from my shoulders. I felt a sense of comfort come over me once I acknowledged that I was there, in the moment, right back where I knew I wanted to be all along. What happened from then on didn't matter. All that mattered was that I was back and that he knew I had come back.

Without a word he grabbed my pitiful shirt and tugged me through the door, shutting it behind him. I was blinded as lights were turned on above me, and I lifted a hand to my eyes to shield them. I peered out from between my fingers after a moment to see him standing directly in front of me and I lowered my hand. The stare down that followed was anything but friendly.

This is the part I was dreading. My first step was getting in, and the second was to be accepted. For all I knew he could have asked me in to beat the life out of me, to avoid arousing any attention from neighbors. There was no way of knowing what he would do. I didn't know where his mind was.

Do you still have that smile for me?
And could I stay here for a while?

By the end of my internal battle with myself, the last thing I expected him to do was throw his arms around me. I grunted slightly from the impact of his chest against mine. His chin dug in to my shoulder. Hesitantly, I placed my own arms around his lean frame and returned the embrace.

"Naruto, I-"

"No. I don't want to know. Well, not yet, anyways. I just-"

He left it at that, and instead took a deep breath and nuzzled my neck more. With the warmth radiating from him and the extremely close contact, I felt a wave of dizziness come over me. My knees weakened, and I held on to Naruto tighter in order to keep myself up.

"Sasuke?" He called, his voice sounding distant to me. I blinked a few times, my sense of coordination coming back. Sadly, my strength didn't.

"Can I… sit?" I murmured; my voice strained.

"Yes!" He carefully guided me to his bed against the far wall and I fell upon it gratefully. As I sat and regained my bearings, Naruto stood and looked at me, a tortured expression on his face.

"You're not well," he said, trying to appear calm and failing.

"I'm fine. It's been a long couple of months." I chuckled, attempting to get him to relax. My vague humor seemed to work and some of his muscles uncoiled. He headed in to his small kitchenette and began to fumble around with some things. I then heard the water run.

When he came back he was carrying a large bowl filled with what I assumed was water. There was a soft odor in the air, however, leading me to believe that it was something else.

"Sakura gave me something a while ago that you mix with water and it's supposed to relax you. But, seeing as I only have a stand up shower, I've never gotten the chance to use it. Now we can tell her whether it works or not," he said as he set it beside me and began to pull at my shredded once-white shirt.

We can tell her. The way he said it, so casually, surprised me. Already he was growing used to the thought of me being a part of everyone's lives again. He didn't even leave room for doubt in that head of his. The thought was comforting, though I didn't get used to it. I still had to face Tsunade once more, when she was less drunk and more hung over. There was no telling what my punishment would be. There was still a possibility I would be-

"Do you not take care of yourself at all?" Naruto snapped, now behind me on the bed, having totally removed my top. He gently placed the washcloth against the small cut on my right shoulder.

"Dobe, it's a scrape!" I grumbled, not liking the demeaning way in which he spoke.

"Still!" He countered, pressing on it just for spite. I hissed and shut up. I hated being at someone else's mercy.

I'm looking for a warm safe place
To feel your hand on my face
Let the past roll off of my back
Baby let's not talk about that

Regardless of whether I wanted him to or not, Naruto cleaned me up. He then proceeded to toss me a t-shirt, pulling one on to cover himself up as well.

"I… Just came back from a mission and haven't been able to get any food yet. The only thing I have is-"

"Ramen?" I finished his sentence as I eased my head through the neck of the t-shirt. "That sounds good."

He gave me a surprised look, clearly confused at my acceptance of his favorite food. He then rushed over to the stove and began to boil some water, retrieving two cups of instant ramen out of the cupboard. I shook my head at his simplicity and maneuvered myself so that I was leaning back against the pillows on his bed. I sighed, feeling more knotted muscles come undone. I looked down at the pale blue t-shirt that I was swimming in, noting the fire country's emblem emblazoned on the front. Still so proud of where he comes from…

Why were we so comfortable? Why were we interacting so casually? I had been gone for five years. Five years ago I had turned my back on him, severing all of my ties with him and this village. It broke him. I broke him. And I continued to break him every time we crossed paths after that. I refused to listen to him, to acknowledge him… I was so un-accepting of him; therefore it was a shock at how accepting he was of me. I entertained the idea that I would be more comfortable at the moment if he had beaten the crap out of me.

I had treated him so terribly…

But he had kept his word. He had truly never given up on me.

I just wanna make it through the night
Lock the door and hide away
I'm looking for a warm safe place

We ate our ramen in relative silence. I tried not to look like I had not seen real food in months. I ate slowly and properly, like I should. Naruto, on the other hand, inhaled his like it was his last meal. I felt a smirk trace its way across my face. Same old Dobe.

He took my bowl from me and went to rinse the dishes. I sat back and surveyed the small apartment. I had been there a few times, but had never been past the front door. There were occasions when I was sent to retrieve Naruto when we had a mission, or when he decided to sleep in. He always slammed the door in my face while he got ready, never very welcoming back then. I grinned at the thought. We were both so stubborn…

It was then that my eyes landed on the small frame sitting beside his alarm clock. I squinted in the dim light, reaching out to grab it. I brought it to my lap and gazed down at the faded picture under the scratched glass.

Four people stared back at me, one older than the rest. A smile adorned the face of the young girl, who had her fists clenched excitedly. Above her, another face that was harder to read due to the black fabric mask covering the majority of it. You could tell that he was indeed smiling, though, due to his squinting right eye. On the right of the girl stood a young boy clad in orange. His face was far less impressed than the other two. His arms were folded as he glared daggers at-

Who was that?

I stared down at my 12-year-old self; my face far more round, my hair better kept. I stared in to my already cold eyes, not nearly as cold back then as they were now. I studied my posture, very solid and tense. Despite the disgusted look on my face, I vaguely remember what I was feeling at that moment. I was happy back then. Sure, Naruto was acting completely juvenile, but that had been the first picture taken of me since…

I remember the excitement I kept inside of me that there would finally be proof that I grew up and that I succeeded. The last surviving Uchiha would be documented in history as a respectable Shinobi - One who overcame it all and avenged his fallen clan.

I had avenged them, though I was nowhere near a respectable Shinobi.

I looked up at Naruto, who had begun to whistle a tune while scrubbing the ramen residue from the bowls we had used. He was so content, so at ease… He had me back, but did he? Which me did he want? I looked back at the picture and grew angry. My blood boiled. Why was I doing this to him? I was not the twelve-year-old Genin that he remembered. This was only going to hurt him even more! I couldn't put him through this. I couldn't expect to fit back in to this perfect little world that had continued on without me.

Without reasonable thought, I lifted the frame and slammed it face down on to the floor, the sound of the glass shattering filling the small one-room apartment. Naruto jumped.

"Sasuke-"

I stalked towards the door, ripping his t-shirt from my torso. I heard a bowl crash to the floor and the sound of his feet slapping the floor behind me as he hurried after me. He grabbed me by the arm and pulled hard, stopping me just as my hand made contact with the doorknob.

"Teme! What are you doing?" He yelled, using all of his body weight to keep me in place.

"Let me go!" I growled, trying to wrestle out of his grip.

"I've let you go one too many times, bastard! There is no way you are walking out of this door tonight. I'm not going to fail again!" He maneuvered himself between the door and me; staring up at me with those blue eyes that held nothing back. "What is your problem?"

I stared at the floor, feeling a disturbing amount of emotions course through me.

"I don't… I don't want to do this. I can't. I'm not him," I glanced at the broken frame on the floor. Naruto followed my gaze. "I'm not just going to fall right back in step beside you! There's no place for me. I can't be who everyone expects me to be." I let my long bangs fall and shield my face.

"Sasuke-"

I didn't hold back as I grabbed his upper arms and wrenched him sideways, shoving him to the floor. He hit with a loud thud, groaning. Once again I headed for the door, intent on succeeding in crossing the threshold. However, before I made it, I felt Naruto's entire weight slam in to my back. His legs wrapped around my waist and his arms around my neck, causing me to twist sideways under the pressure.

"You little-" He grumbled, breathing heavily. "Thinking you can just do whatever the hell you want because you're a fucking Uchiha! I don't honestly see this big change that you were talking about. You're the same bastard you've always been!" I finally collapsed under his weight, laying face down on his rough wooden floor. As he pinned me, I felt a tingling sensation in my throat. This feeling was familiar, yet foreign at the same time. I remembered it, but couldn't place exactly what it was. All at once, though, it hit me. As the tears gushed from my eyes, I realized I was crying. I hadn't cried since Itachi's death. It was both shameful and liberating.

Naruto's weight disappeared as I trembled, and I supported myself on my elbows as a sob wracked my body. I felt a cry force its way out of my throat as the large, salty tears continued.

"Sasuke…" Naruto cooed as his hand rubbed my back. I moved myself on to his lap, gripping his shorts and pulling myself towards him. As I felt his arms encircle me, I let myself fall against him, in to his warmth that I never knew I craved until now. I felt his quiet tears fall on to my bare shoulder as we huddled on the cold floor.

"I don't like this feeling," I mumbled in to the fabric of his grey shirt.

"It's okay to fall apart," he whispered back.

I'm too young to pack it in
I'm too damn old to weather this wind
The rain it just won't stop it seems
And I'm too stubborn to quit these dreams
With you

As I sat there in his arms, I felt myself come down from whatever metaphorical cliff I had been teetering on. I relaxed against him, inhaling his sent deeply. He never once moved over the course of the fifteen minutes we sat. He was waiting for me to make the first move. Surrounded by his still familiar sent and his body heat, though, I was sort of reluctant. My senses became sharper, and my nerve ends tingled. A strong heat boiled up in to my stomach. I closed my eyes.

Without giving a second thought, I carefully let my lips graze the smooth skin where his neck met his shoulder, feeling his body go rigid against mine. Within seconds he was pushing me away, holding me at arms length. He stared at me, an unsure look in his eyes. I looked away.

"Sasuke-"

"I'm sorry-"

"I know. It's just… It isn't a good time." He wiped the tear trails from my cheeks in an overly maternal way. "One emotion at a time, okay?" He said cheerfully and I nodded, the embarrassment still lingering at what I had just done. Where had that urge come from? It had been so long since I had experienced such intimate physical contact. It had been so long since arms had been around me… I was unable to control my body. My lack of control was more troublesome than the fact that it was Naruto who I had lost control with. For a reason that I told myself I would later look in to, being that close to him… wasn't bad.

He helped me off of the floor and gave me back the t-shirt I had discarded. As I put it back on, he organized the sheets on his bed that had been tossed around by his restless sleeping before I showed up. I sat myself down on the bedspread when he was done, while he went to sweep the shards of glass off of the floor. I wondered why I was being so useless, letting him flit around and clean up the messes I had made.

I laid myself down; one arm sliding under the pillow my head was resting against. Naruto came over to replace the now glass-less picture frame on to his bedside table. He handled it with such care. It was plain to see how much he treasured it. Much like I used to treasure my own copy. Naruto turned and stared down at me. I stared back.

"You're going to have to shove over or something, Teme," he said matter-of-factly. I snorted.

"Go around me."

Naruto, while grumbling profanities, leaned over to flick off the overhead light, casting the room in to complete darkness. I felt his presence pass over me as he moved to crawl in behind me.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry!"

I can finally find some peace with you
Wont you lay down next to me?

We were both settled in to his small one-person bed. I could tell he was trying to lie as far away from me as possible to give us both some space. A good two inches was all he was going to achieve between us. Regardless, I was far too tired to worry myself over whether or not his elbow was crossing over in to my personal space.

I fell in to a memory as Naruto wiggled around behind me, attempting to achieve as much comfort as possible. From past experiences, I knew that he was most comfortable when covering as much surface area of the bed as possible. On our many missions when I was forced to place my futon next to his, I would fall victim to the wrath of Naruto's restlessness. I grew accustomed to being elbowed and kicked during the night.

"Goodnight, Sasuke," Naruto slurred, sleep already coating his voice.

I paused for a second.

"Goodnight."

There was silence between us and I felt Naruto's back relax against mine. I shivered slightly at the contact. I relaxed my own body and got ready to welcome a much-needed sleep.

"Tadaima," I whispered in to the darkness as I closed my eyes, feeling that it suited the moment.

"Okaeri, Sasuke." I jumped when I heard Naruto's muffled voice behind me, not expecting him to still be awake.

A smile painted itself on my face.

Whatever came tomorrow was no concern of mine. I would cross that bridge when I arrived at it. For now…

I was home.

With you
There is shelter from the storm

End.