Hello!

This is my first yaoi fanfic. It is a collaboration, though, with a friend I rp with. Her username on FanFiction is thesurreal.

This fan fic was initially intended for roleplay purposes, so the format might now seem a bit off to you. Well, that's why. I tried making it a bit more clear and easier to read by adding Naruto and Sasuke POVS.

I am writting as Sasuke and she is writting as Naruto. Please, bear with us and with any mistakes in the flow of the plot or any OOCness, because as I said it was written having it in mind as a rp. I am sorry for any inconvenience.

So,...:

thesurreal: Naruto

TrueHeartsGlow: Sasuke

The rp hasn't been completed yet so updates' frequency may vary from time to time. Please, tell us what you think, we'd appreciate it greatly!

Plot: It starts off with Sasuke aiming to kill Naruto in order to revenge Konoha.

(We started the rp long before the current events in the manga, so it wasn't bound to follow the manga plot.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, credit for characters goes to Masashi Kishimoto.

Naruto's POV

Time was like a film reel in his mind.

He'd stand at the window in some stiff outfit for hours, feeling uncomfortable and exposed as people blabbered on, smiling but shaking from their nerves. The missions would start, and he'd be the only one to remember the names, the only one who really paid attention. All eyes were on what was beyond that window, except him.

He'd be watching someone's reflection, trying to gauge how much they looked like him, how much they differed. His consultants would drone on and he'd tune out the words and the old people would start sniffling into their handkerchiefs. It was all a game, really. Bundles of temporary worries, tied in a neat little bow.

Finally, the words he wanted to hear: ''It seems to be getting late, Naruto. Shouldn't you be heading home?'''

But inside he would be screaming

"No! We can't! The works not done yet! He's not back!''

but the words wouldn't come out and he'd watch everyone walk out the door, to their families. And then he'd follow the crowd as a second wave, wishing he wasn't so tired or lonely. His apartment was but a short walk away, to the point he knew exactly how many footsteps it took to get there from the gravel road.

Maybe I shouldn't go, he told himself as people blurred past, barely able to even nod at their comments, a blank smile drawn on his face. How much would it bother them if he just took a break?

Naruto sighed, stuffing his hands into his pockets. A number of lights illuminated up ahead, prying a set of blue optics to stumble that way. Like a moth to it's flame. He fell into a routine here, greeting shop owners and buying the same groceries. But none of it felt right... none of it felt safe.

''Yo, Lee!'' Raising his hand in mock wave, Naruto plopped aside the ninja with a grunt, shaking his head.

''Ramen, please.''

The tiny woman flitted before him, just on the other side of the counter. She nodded then, scuttling off to get his order in record time. She seemed scared, frightened... almost. And that made him even more tired, because she was thinking the same thing they all were.

'He's going to fall over dead one of these days.'

''Hey, Naruto. Glad to see you're finally relaxing.''

The blond blinks, looking at Lee. Naruto shrugs, laying an elbow on the counter. He props his cheek against his hand, grinning that trademark smile of his. Hokage or not, he'd never lost that goofy spark.

''Yea, no kidding. I was beginning to think they'd lock me up for good with all that paperwork!''

Sasuke's POV

Sasuke was sitting on a sharp cold rock, his head leaning downwards, his mind lost in old memories, back when he, Sakura and Naruto were all 3 together, in team 7, struggling to make a difference among the other ambitious little genins of Konoha.

And there they were now, him being a missing nin with a goal of killing the current hokage, Naruto being the said hokage and Sakura somewhere lost in her ambition to become a common but good medic nin.

With a bit of frustratingly tiring effort, he pushed his emotions away, locking them in a part of his heart he didn't know, as always. A small part, like a small wooden dusty box, where everything unecessary-like emotions and feelings- was kept in.

He had a goal, to kill Naruto and to take over Konoha. It was mostly a revenge plan: To avenge his family's and Itachi's death. Konoha had to pay. And the ones rulling it ought to suffer most of everyone else.

Once the blonde ninja was dead, there went also the only person that could compare to his strength in the whole existing ninja world.

This time he was alone in this mission. Sure, team taka would accompany his every step till he reached Konoha but then he was alone: just him and Naruto.

And knowing Naruto, he wasn't a coward. In the end, he had no other choice than facing him himself with all the consequences, good or bad, that might bring.

As he polished the stealth of his katana, he stood up in a superficially calm motion, recognizing the familiar sound of his female teammate's footsteps, Karin's.

''Sasuke-kun, the rest of us are ready. We are to part for Konoha whenever you give command.' 'the red head said, eyeing Sasuke with a dreamy obedient expression in her eyes.

''Hn.'' Sasuke looked over at the horizon hesitantly, momentarily losing focus on Karin and on what she was blubbering at the moment.

Did he have it in him to kill Naruto? He knew he felt nothing for him but sometimes he felt doubts torturing him. Was it his long lost conscience nagging to him for having let himself get lost so much in the darkness in order to waste his childhood friend for his revengeful aim?

Karin noticing the hesitant motion that had taken over Sasuke's stance, she broke the silence.

''We can always wait , if you need some more time alone.'' she said remembering how he had wished to stay alone since early this morning and it was near noon now.

''No. I am fine. Let's get going.'' Sasuke answered rather sharply to her, snapping out of his delirium. He didn't need to come out as a hesitant coward.

It was a rather simple-yet dangerous plan. But he had to appear confident about it to his team…because inside him he wasn't.

The girl, intimidated, nodded and turned around to alert the rest of the team.

Sasuke looked at her rather annoyed for her girlish assumptions-which still held some truth, not that he'd ever admit it out loud, and set off after her, taking his time.

Doubts still torturing him, he decided to turn his conscience off, taking on his path serious and silent.

Naruto's POV

''Hey, I've been meaning to ask you, Hokage,'' Naruto closed his eyes. That word. God, how he hated that word. ''What do you plan to do about the-'' Words blotted themselves from his mind, and he tried his best to seem remotely interested in what his companion said.

Lee was a trusted ally, he reminded himself. Anything he asked should hold unmentionable value. Unfortunatly, Naruto was starting to find that a number of his friends had been slipping through the cracks lately, and the ones that remained.. well..

''Do you agree?''

''Huh? Yeah, sure.''

Lee didn't look so convinced. After a moment though, the green-clad man sighed. One had to be patient when dealing with Naruto. It was part of the game, after all. Just like everything else.

''Look. Perhaps it's time to...'' there was a pregnant pause, and it confused the blond. He hadn't even touched his meal yet, simply let his fingers graze over the edge of it's lip. It was getting hard to feel hungry anymore, when he knew that at that moment, he could be doing something more valuable. ''..Stop searching for Sasuke.''

It was over now.

He wanted to go home. No, he did not know what he would do when he made it there or how he was going to even manage a decent nap. But he needed to leave. Sneaking money to pay for both their meals (though Lee was probably more than aware) out of his pocket, he spoke charmingly in correspondence, as if he didn't intend to start walking away without looking back.

In other words, Lee had questioned him about the one thing he did not want to approach. And he even had his mouth open to say no when Lee decided to butt in for him, spotting the blanks with red.

He was a good friend, and would not reveal to Lee that something was wrong. Cus' god forbid, the almighty Hokage be anything short of the perfection he must ensue. Searching for him had been a waste of money and resources for a long time, and it was understandable that Lee broach the subject now: when the economy was in such a crisis.

But still, he would not answer him.

The walk back had given him time to formulate what he needed to do for tomorrow. Yes, he hadn't slept in the past three days and he should have gone home earlier but he did not in any way want to fall behind in paperwork.

He was really trying, hell, he had been trying for years to make things better and he could try harder now. But he just needed some time away to get over Sasuke's betrayal and make himself happy for the village.

Because that's how their lives were destined to be. Uchiha was just an old stain that needed to be washed out. Then, everything would be pristine again. If only he could take things back and if only Naruto would forget and if only he didn't feel that all that was left inside of him was a hardened, blackened lump of a heart. This. This thing Naruto held onto had changed everything.

And he was afraid that despite his perfect little role, where he could not stutter or choke on his emotions, he could not fufill his promises.

''Heh.'' Tilting his head to view the moon overhead, Naruto frowned in the caressing light.

It was surreal, how much that lonely figure reminded him of the Uchiha... and how much it hurt to simply breathe the night air. But still, he walked on, entering the small apartment he knew so well, and falling back on his bed.

Sasuke's POV

Once reaching the rest of his teammates, following after Karin's narrow path, Sasuke's eyes lifted for a moment from the suddenly so interesting ground and fell on the people that surrounded him.

Karin, Suigetsu and Jugo. Each with their own personality, in which he too very little interest in but he had come by time to learn and appreciate their good points and correct their negative ones.

After all, they were serving his own purposes and they were well aware of that. That was his ninja way, doing everything for his own reasons and in his own way, faithful to his path of hatred and darkness.

What did it matter if people hated him, admired him, feared him, disrespected him for that? He couldn't bring himself to care a single bit for the rest of the world resting outside his goal...

And his aim now was the fifth hokage, his ex teammate and childhood friend. The one he so despised and cared for in the same time, back then…When the innocence hadn't left completely his childish soul.

He pushed the melancholy that was threatening to paralyze his determination away from his tired soul and he nodded to the people that were looking at him with a familiar unconditional devotion, he so rarely took appreciation in, being so drawn in his own aims and dark reasons.

''Let's set off. We need to be by Konoha early tomorrow morning.'' he said in a low but commanding voice, to let them know once again he was the one pulling the strings in the team. Not that it was needed, seeing as no one in particular felt like rebelling to him, but Sasuke enjoyed a subtle demonstration of power every now and then.

''Whatever, let's just start.'' Suigetsu said.

''At your commands, Sasuke-sama.' 'Jugo said with his kind eyes taking in Sasuke's depressed dark figure.

''Hai, Sasuke-kun.'' Karin exclaimed, with something like a worried expression on her face that she couldn't manage to hide that well.

Sasuke felt annoyed that he had her worrying over him in her own girly obsessed way but he ignored her, as he always did and took on walking slowly, leading the road in a false determination for his companions to follow.

It had been many hours that they had been walking now and the sky was dark, with small sparkling shivering stars decorating the nightly veil.

Karin was the first, as typical of her womanly sensitivity- to notice that they needed to take a break or even perhaps a rest as they had been walking for 7 hours non stop till now.

She had tried but failed to initiate a conversation with Sasuke numerous times during the journey.

Her teammate seemed to be lost in deep thoughts- of course, it was typical of him to be always distant like that-but something about his overall stance told her that he was having a sort of an inner struggle about his up coming effort on claiming the hokage's life.

Of course, she couldn't understand how he could feel, she had never been in the need to kill an ex teammate of hers for any reason, but she was a woman-even if ruthless at times- and a woman's heart can reach to great depths of compassion when she loves someone the way she loved him.

Sasuke spared her a tired glance, noticing the pensive look on her face and thought he'd try to ease her down.

''Ok, we can rest for the night. We are only 5 hours away. We can resume our road first thing in the dawn.'' he said calm but coldly as he turned around to look at all of them looking back at him.

''Hai, Sasuke-kun.''Karin said, glad he had noticed their need for rest, too.

''I will go bring some woods for the fire.'' Jugo suggested and Sasuke nodded in comprehension.

''And I will just rest my tired a** on this nice soft grass.'' Suigetsu spat out rudely ignoring Karin's death glares, as he sat down on the ground, letting out a sigh of fatigue.

Sasuke motioned to Karin to get some rest , too, as he sat down on a round rock, waiting for Jugo to come back.

Naruto's POV

''Lee's right.''

He stopped as if to think this over, deciding that it might be taken the wrong way (well, the right way, but he didn't want to comprehend it in such a manner).

''I mean, come on Naruto. How stupid can you be?'' he joked, trying to the voice screaming in his head that he couldn't give up yet.

How he had to stay focused.

Naruto stretched blandly, his back arching from the stuffy mattress in a tremoring manner. To be honest, he'd offer his own soul if it meant getting over this ex-teammate of his. The images of their battles cycled in his head, making his heart knock painfully against his ribs in a constant manner.

Naruto had hoped lingering on the bad memories would give him a bit of courage, a bit of sense to just be pissed at the other and leave him behind. But he couldn't. And it seemed as though the world around him had made the boy masochistic with time.

Naruto naruto naruto naruto naruto! The harsh sentiments broke in his mind, disrupting the dilluted reflection of his personal torture. Everyone needed him for something. Everyone wanted his answers.

''Just do what needs to be done.'' he whispered, trying to reason with himself. As if it would make things better, albeit the fact remained no one would care if the Uchiha remained lost.

In fact, no one else even cared about the number of people who had died since he took over as Hokage.

Naruto wasn't well versed in which mathematic problem could help answer a situation or what limit of chakra was required to accomplish a task, but he did know that he would always be the one who looked back on life because of what he'd lost.

The one who remembered, the one who was to blame.

It's only when he accepts this fact, that he sleeps.

R&R, plox?

*puppy eyes*