Title: El Bimbo

Author: sky75rk

A SasuNaru alternate ending.

Standard disclaimers apply.

---

Nineteenth Channel, Alternate Ending One: Despite of

"No," an adamant reply, clearly stating that he was disobeying the orders of someone more important and stronger than him, but he didn't care. He couldn't care less. No matter how much trouble he'll be in or how hurt he'll be after this confrontation, he could, and would withstand that. He will not let another mistake be created—not when it includes him

Neji stood there, in wide-eyed shock that he soon suppressed. He would've done the same thing, if only the Fifth Hokage hadn't used the voice that promised death to those who defied her instructions. Yet, this traitor did it before him. He suppressed his anger. Does holding back because of fear make him a coward?

"I, too, will be staying," he declared. No, he will not be surpassed by this traitor. He will not be defeated.

"Neji," started the Hokage. "What is an ANBU's duty?"

He was startled by that question, but he knew the answer by heart. "An ANBU is someone who will obey the Hokage's orders, despite of what he thinks. He will not put his emotions in front and place his loyalty as his first priority,"

"Yes, that's correct. Uchiha, do you know or do you not know about the duty of an ANBU?"

Neji saw the dark-haired boy's clench his fist until it bled. Tsunade didn't flinch. "Yes. Hokage-sama. I do know,"

"Good. Then I expect you to be gone the moment I return." Her voice was deathly cold, and her eyes spoke the same volume. There was a moment of stillness and the quiet was deafening. Sasuke released his anger on his fists as the Hyuuga was debating whether he would follow or not.

In the end, neither of them followed the orders, and both didn't give a damn whether they be ejected of the forces or not.

And they waited.

Tsunade did not come back that day. It seemed like she knew their decision beforehand. And they realized that. They sat at each of Naruto's side of the bed. It was calm and lonely, and the breeze wafted slowly in the air, trying to console both of them.

Sakura entered to check up on the blonde's condition a few hours after Tsunade left and she saw them in the position. At first she didn't quite believe the other medic-nins when they told her that they still haven't moved from their first position.

Right now, she did.

She carefully measured the blonde's IV fluid and left soon after to return holding food and placed them on the side table. "Eat, Neji, Sasuke. Naruto would certainly scold both of you if he wakes up only to hear that the two of you collapse due to starvation," she ordered and walked out of the room.

Sasuke just stared at the door she exited and Neji stood up to take the food. He held one of the plates to Sasuke.

Dark eyes stared at Neji's white ones. They clashed and finally, they conveyed their message. Sasuke took the offered plate and started eating.

"It's strange how only one person can affect our lives," Neji started saying. "His coming was unexpected, and so is this,"

"…I hated him," Sasuke confessed. "I hated him to a point that I wanted to kill him for becoming stronger than I am, for being always right, for shining brightly," he didn't know why he was having this conversation to the second person he really had the intention to kill—for a different purpose of course, but at the moment, he felt it was right to do so. "And now, I hate myself for trying to hurt him again—after hurting him the first time,"

Neji's eyes stayed on the blonde's still form. "It couldn't be helped. I was as selfish as you were. Both of us didn't see that this will happen," he sighed and his demeanor became more melancholy. "I was ready to give him back to you. But the other part of me wanted to have him and it was the strongest feeling I had. I never had what I wanted in my life. It was all laid out by the fate of being a branch member. Just this time, I wanted to have the one person I truly wanted and loved,"

"You're stupid to believe in things such as fate and destiny,"

"I was, and then someone told me that I shouldn't and I listened and I laid for myself a new road. Inevitably it led to him,"

"He was someone one just couldn't avoid, nor ignore,"

"He is,"

The conversation ended at that. They had reached an understanding that only the two of them could have, but both were not ready to face the reality that once Naruto wakes up, one would definitely leave forlorn.

---

It was sooner than anybody expected. He was assumed to die from such impact and be buried six feet under afterwards. But he once again proved that he was stronger and unpredictable and no one can ever read him.

It was the morning after the incident and nearly all his injuries were healed. It was one of the greatest quirks of being a demon's vessel and it was the only thing he liked. He started feeling his body by first moving his fingers and then his toes. His blue eyes opened and he recognized that white washed walls of Konoha Hospital.

It was his second home. It was where he was half of his lifetime but that didn't mean that he should be comfortable in here.

The sun filtered through the glass window and he felt two hands enclosed on his arms. He turned his head slowly.

Everything came rushing back.

Everything was now clear.

Everything changed.

He slipped his arms from their grasp and the two were suddenly awakened. He smiled at them with his usual foxy smile and greeted, "Ohayo Sasuke, Neji," he said. "What brings you here?"

Even before he could say something, Neji found Sasuke cradling Naruto in his arms and holding him tightly. Tentatively, Naruto embraced him back, welcoming the feeling of the warm boy near him. Neji could see that this was Naruto. The one he thought he could lock away forever. The one he thought would always stay at his side and push all thoughts of the sharingan wielder away.

The blonde buried his face on Sasuke's neck and was murmuring something he couldn't quite understand. It was unfair that he was watching the scene that he discerned would slash him apart; however, he should accept it. It was what he trained and readied himself to even before this happened.

He was about to leave when he was called.

"Neji?" Naruto's voice was usually filled with happiness and delight, from doing his pranks to watching the victim fall for it. From fighting a battle to actually winning it, although instead of hearing that tone in his voice, there was nothing but sympathy and a poignant accent that threatened to make him collapse.

"Neji?" he heard the voice again. This time he stopped.

"Don't Naruto," he was wavering in his spot, and his arms were trembling from suppressed feelings of sadness and anger. He realized that this happened for the first time. It was actually ironic that he shared a lot of his firsts with the blonde boy. His first defeat, his first near death experience, his first smiles, first laughs, first infatuation, first love and finally, first rejection.

"What?"

"Don't. Don't make this harder than it already is for me," was all he said.

And the Hyuuga left, out of the room and out his life.

---

Naruto never wanted this to happen. How was he supposed to cope and fix things when he doesn't know how to mend the broken?

"It was his decision, Naruto. He never wanted you to choose and he knew his place,"

"What are you talking about Sasuke?"

His azure orbs gazed at black ones and found in them peace and a place he always wanted. "This," said Sasuke, replying to the blonde's question. "This is your place. And he knew that," he gave one of the rarest smiles to him and Naruto smiled back. Not his foxy smile or the one he always wears outside. It was reserved and he knew he will only use it on one person.

"I know, but it doesn't help me feel better. But I do thank Neji for that,"

"I too,"

They were now inside Naruto's apartment, Sasuke seeing it himself to check Naruto out of the hospital. The blonde noticed that the room was clean despite of having left a year. "How come everything's clean?" he asked and the stoic boy shrugged.

"Didn't like dirt," it was a simple admission.

Naruto embraced Sasuke under the covers. "I'm home," he whispered and caught the dark-haired boy's lips to seal the vow of unending devotion.

When they finally broke apart, Sasuke replied, within his voice the softness and tenderness he dared not to show anyone aside the blonde beside him.

"Welcome back,"

-Cue: Harmonia-

-Fin: SasuNaru alternate ending-

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