First and foremost, I'd like to apologize for blinding your eyes with the boldness.
This story has been somewhat inspired by NoNoWriter's Recycle and the rest of the reincarnation fics out there.
"Sasuke is such an idiot, isn't he?" Sakura whispered.
Sasuke was a first for many people. First love, first enemy, first family, first special person, first friend, first goal... first mistake. First to betray. First to leave. First to... die.
"I'm supposed to be the idiot, aren't I, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, his voice sounding rather hoarse. "So why did things have to happen this way?"
"Hey mommy, why do the people in black look so sad?" a blond boy asked as he and his mother passed by a cemetery.
"Shush, dear," his mother said, "they're burying someone who died."
The boy, Naruto, looked at the engraved name on the black slab of marble or whatever rock it was.
Uchiha Sasuke.
Sasuke ran through the streets of Konoha. He needed to go. Needed to escape. That was what they had told him to do. He was running blindly. It actually came a surprise that he had yet to get hit by anyone. After all, everyone else was panicking. Konoha was losing the three year war. Oto, their enemy, was plundering the houses of the merchants.
He was only eight. It was normal for him to be afraid of such circumstances.
As he was running, he couldn't fail but notice two gleaming blue eyes in the darkness of an alley that he'd passed by. He could spot bright yellow hair, too. But he couldn't remember much – see much, really – since he was running away.
That was the last Sasuke had seen of eyes like those. Konoha had burned to the ground the day afterwards.
Naruto had been running after a piece of paper – a very important piece of paper, mind you – when a black cat had jumped in his direction. He jumped, too, but in the opposite direction. He had obviously been surprised.
He stared at the cat and it stared at him. The cat, Naruto noted, had definitely had the oddest color of cat irises that he had ever seen. And despite that the cat appeared to be a mere alley cat, it looked rather pretty. Its fur was free of dirt, too.
Naruto didn't know what possessed him to do it, but later that morning, he found himself going to a vet and making sure that the cat was free of any diseases.
And he didn't know why, but he'd called the cat Sasuke, too. Maybe it had something to do with those ninja history re-runs that he'd watched with some friend of his the night before. Yup. It most definitely had something to do with that.
Sasuke's eyes were cloudy. His hands were on his pockets. He was teetering on the edge of the rooftop of his school. The wind blew through him. Some of his hair poked his eyes. It was irritating. But that didn't matter anymore. The world had just become so boring. He didn't need any more of this. He couldn't handle any more of this.
He was going to take a plunge.
With that, he put more weight on the front of his body. He fell all the way to the ground.
The next morning, the spot that he'd fallen was filled with cops and folks that were in the forensics business.
Uzumaki Naruto was one of the people who was on the forensics team. He still couldn't stop the wince that came to his face when he saw the deformed body of the boy that had plummeted to his death. Naruto could never understand why people wanted to waste their lives.
With his gloves on his hands, he closed the eyes of the boy.
The beautiful really weren't meant to live long, weren't they? For some reason, Naruto was a bit happy that he hadn't been able to see the boy age and shrivel.
Naruto had never been more entranced in his life than today. It was so... beautiful. The colors were vivid. The details were exquisite. The shadowing was just perfect. It was as if he was looking at a Renaissance painting.
It was a painting of a park. It looked as if it was hanami season there. The cherry blossom trees were in full bloom. Picnic blankets and other stuff were strewn all over the painting. There were people seated here and there and children frolicking about.
"Hey, Iruka-sensei, who made this?" he asked, obviously still in the stupor that the painting had managed to put him in.
Umino Iruka was the head of the museum. He also happened to be Naruto's foster father.
He smiled softly. Naruto had always had a certain fondness for works of art. It wasn't at all what people would expect from such a boy.
"That's one of Uchiha Sasuke-sensei's works," Iruka said. "It's so sad. He was just here ten minutes ago. I suppose that he's on his way to the airport now."
For some reason, Naruto had thought that he'd always managed to miss this Sasuke-person even though this was the first time that he'd heard of the name. He shrugged it off, thinking that he was most likely just a bit ticked-off for having missed the artist of such a masterpiece.
Sasuke turned off the radio with a scoff. Really, music today. It wasn't as if he was old – he was just twenty, after all – he just preferred that his ears remain intact and usable.
And the band name had sounded very odd, too. Some idiot had obviously come up with the name, no doubt about it.
Ginette Neveu filled the air soon enough. Sasuke made himself comfortable in his favorite chair and began to read The Island of Doctor Moreau.
Somewhere far away, the vocalist for The Ramen Toppings sneezed.
Naruto heard the soft noise of coin falling into the rusty, and most likely tetanus-filled, can he was holding. He looked up into bright, dark-colored eyes.
"Thanks," Naruto said, sounding rather odd since he hadn't talked for a while now.
He didn't do much talking or moving. That required energy and energy required food which he didn't have much of. The poor could only afford so little.
Before the dark-eyed kid could speak, his mother whisked him away. Naruto could hear her tell the boy to never ever approach beggars.
It was most likely the last time he'd ever see that boy.
Sasuke took a sip of the drink that he'd ordered. He looked at the scenery outside the shop with a bored look on his face. An elbow was on the table and his head was resting on a palm that was connected to the said elbow by his arm. He'd been wondering what was taking Kakashi – who was, surprisingly since he was already eighteen, his guardian – so long. The man was only supposed to be washing his hands.
A blond boy with his friends suddenly entered the establishment. Sasuke had only noticed them since they were so noisy. Rather, the blond and some brunet were making some noise.
Sasuke wondered if he had ever been like that when he was thirteen. Probably not.
"Hey, Ino, your kid looks odd," Naruto said as he prodded the cheek of the three-month-old baby.
Ino, his sister, frowned and pulled the baby closer to her.
"My baby doesn't look odd," she said, "he looks handsome to me."
"He's not blond," Naruto pointed out.
Ino rolled her eyes.
"Naruto, you idiot, he could've inherited it from Itachi," she said.
"Oh, right," he said, "forgot about Itachi."
Ino harrumphed.
"You're just jealous that our baby's going to end up cuter than you," she said.
"Yeah, right. What's he called again? Sasu-butt?" he asked.
"It's Sasuke!"
And then the baby began to cry.
Uzumaki Naruto was a famous photographer. There was just something about his pictures that screamed life and art. He truly was talented for he was able to really capture the moment. It was almost as if he was painting the pictures with the souls of his clients.
In fact, he was just that renowned that he was the photographer for the much awaited wedding of two business tycoons and rivals, Hozuki Suigetsu and Tachibana Karin.
The only problem with weddings between the upper class was that... it was rather hard to make the people happy when they all looked bored out of their minds and seemingly as if they had better things to do than to be stuck in the church and, after the wedding, in the reception hall.
That was what Naruto had thought at first. But then the best man appeared on the stage to give his speech.
Naruto's mind was screaming model. His hands were twitching to take a picture. He couldn't let the chance pass by. He might never be able to picture such a person again. Yes, the best man was just that intriguing, just that eye-catching. There was just something about that oddly styled hair, that dark-colored and smothering eyes, and that pale, pale skin.
Naruto didn't believe in love at first sight – he'd learned that lesson years ago – but he just couldn't describe this insane and desperate want to picture the guy. Perhaps he was merely appreciating art? It could possibly be that.
-
-
"Hey, that was a nice speech there," Naruto said as he took a seat beside the aforementioned best man, two glasses of wine on his hands.
He gave a glass to the man who'd graciously accepted it.
"Thank you," the man – whom Naruto seemed to remember was called... Sasuke – said.
"So how'd you first meet, uh, Hozuki-san and the new... Hozuki-san?" Naruto asked.
"They work under me."
"Aren't they from different fields of work or something?" Naruto asked despite the fact that he could feel that the man seemed rather irritated, most likely wanting some peace and quiet.
"Yes, that is right. Suigetsu is the head of Public Relations and Karin works in Accounting. I'm the president of the company they work in."
And here was Naruto thinking that the guy was a model.
Naruto let out a long whistle. He had definitely been blown away by the guy's position. He would've never thought that anyone that looked that young and handsome could be the president of such a large company that seemed to own the business world.
A thought then made its way to Naruto's head. He sat up straight and put on his best grin on his face.
"Say, Uchiha-san, would you let me take a picture of you? After all, taking pictures is what I'm here for," he said.
Sasuke quirked an eyebrow. Then his face returned to its usual impassive state. Oh, he hadn't noticed that he was talking to the photographer. He gave Naruto a curt nod. Of course, this was for the wedding. Though it was a bit awkward that he would be the only one in the picture. Then again, he was the only one sitting on the table aside from the photographer. It wasn't his problem that people often chose not to sit beside him.
In all actuality, a lot of people really did want to sit beside him. The groom and bride, however, had ordered that no one was to sit beside their beloved president.
Really, a lot of people knew that one of the reasons the two married each other was that they knew that they had no chance with their president. Another reason was because now, they could go spy and talk about him from afar. Talk about stalker!love.
Naruto grinned and moved his chair closer to where Sasuke was seated – the man rose his eyebrow at that. He held his camera with one hand and raised it in the air with the lens pointing towards him and Sasuke. That was actually rather dangerous since the camera was a bit heavy and therefore could fall quite easily.
Naruto pressed his cheek against Sasuke's and, with a large grin, said, "Cheese!"
There was soon a flash.
Sasuke blinked. He was most certainly surprised.
He also felt rather warm. But he ignored that.
Naruto was warm. That was Sasuke's second conclusion. He ignored that, too.
"So, what do you say... tomorrow, seven in the evening, at," Naruto paused a bit to think of the fanciest restaurant that he knew, "Franny's?"
Sasuke, who was still thinking about what had actually happened in the past minute, absentmindedly nodded.
Naruto beamed at Sasuke.
"Great!" he said. "Meet you there then!"
Suigetsu and Karin, who had been eavesdropping on the conversation from their place at the front of the reception hall, were devastated.
For the first time in the history of anything and everything, Naruto and Sasuke had managed to meet. And the sad part was that they didn't even know that they'd been striving to meet each other since then. Well, it was either that or the sad part was that Uchiha Sasuke really didn't know that he'd just been coerced into having a date with Uzumaki Naruto.
For those who might not know, Ginette Neveu is a well-known violinist. The Island of Doctor Moreau, I think, is made by H.G. Wells. I might be wrong on that one.