A Promise Unbroken

…

.

'I'll be waiting for you.'

Dirty, calloused fingers dug through the sooty debris with fierce determination, shoving away scorched pieces of metal and blackened chunks of concrete and sharp fragments of glass. The dry, dismal air above and around the heap of rubble simmered in the heated wrath of the midday sun, causing droplets of perspiration to materialize on the blond young man's brow as he diligently heaved and shoved and jostled the detritus.

But the man's mind was not on his task at hand – no, it was wandering, up, above, beyond; back to the dim past when he had left in high spirits after being drafted for the minor skirmish that was to take place at the grassy plains of Oto, when he had been so eager to leave to lap up his share of glory dripping from Hi's impassive commanders, when he had said goodbye to Hinata, the fragile, gentle woman she was, so callously. How he regretted his juvenile enthusiasm back then.

He and his comrades had come back tipsy and light-headed a month after, proudly bearing on their shoulders their glorious victory over the more competent troops of Kumo… only to find their hometown, the proud capital of Hi, bombed, ransacked, and burned to the ground. The skirmish had been a decoy. According to Detective Inspector Nara, everyone had fled to the safety of the town hall, which the enemies had mercilessly pelted with aerial bombs – and down went the building, tumbling down on the people he grew up with, the people he considered family, the people he loved.

They were still trapped under the rubble; he could hear their voices calling out to him, her voice, crying out to him – were they really calling for help, or was he just imagining things? – and come hell or high water, he was going to dig them out. Dig her out.

'I'll pray for your safety, Naruto.'

Behind him stood another man, tall and solemn, with dark raven hair and a pale complexion. He watched his companion's futile efforts through dim, hollow eyes, his aviator glasses glinting in the yellow sunlight, his lips pursed into a grim line and his hands behind him tightly gripping each other as if fighting for ineffectual dominance. His brow was furrowed, for he, too, felt the austere paws of Ra mercilessly beating his back.

"Stop it, Naruto." The voice was firm, broken, laced with sorrow. "That's enough."

The young man called Naruto did not pay heed to his companion's plea; his ministrations never ceased and his determination did not waver at all. He swore and hissed in pain as a shard of glass cut through his palm, digging into the flesh deep enough to draw copious amounts of blood, which trickled down from the palm of his hand to the length of his inner forearm, soaking into the rolled-up sleeve of his grimy uniform.

'Just be back soon, okay?'

"It's been a month already," said the pale man, passively eyeing the wound in morbid fascination. "They all would be dead by now."

"Not Hinata," Naruto snapped, wincing as he carefully pulled the shard up and out. "She said she'd be here when I come back."

A sigh.

"She is. Only she's dead."

A furious growl, a swift movement – in mere seconds, their eyes were level: Naruto's sapphires furious and the pale man's onyxes empty.

"She's not."

"Let's be honest, Naruto. None of them survived. The search and rescue party has abandoned all hopes of finding survivors, and chances are –"

"Shut up!"

A grubby fist landed on a delicate cheekbone, causing the man's head to swivel from the impact. The dark-haired man's aviator glasses flew from his face to the rubble, where it lay daintily in contrast to the filth and destruction around it; Naruto stood with his hands fisted and his limbs akimbo, glaring at his companion-cum-adversary, breathing heavily through his nose.

"Stop deluding yourself," said the pale man, a hand on his injured cheek, dark eyes squinting in the glare of the sun. "They're all dead. She's dead."

'And when you come back, we'll be together.'

"Damn it, Sasuke!" Naruto roared, tearing at his hair. "I don't care if you don't give a piss about our friends, but I'm not giving up!"

Sasuke stepped forward, his expression set in stone, and gave the blond a swift slap to the face.

Silence, save heavy breathing.

"Stop acting like you're the only one who lost the people you love," he said venomously, dark eyes cold as ice yet burning with the black fire of his rage. "What about me? I lost my whole family. I lost my father, my mother, my brother… I lost Sakura and our unborn child…"

He trailed off and his eyes became vacant and glassy – perhaps he was wading waist-deep in the waters of his memories, wandering back to the times when he and his older brother were children playing in the dirt and they had incessantly bantered about random things, when he was a lad of fifteen and his ever-smiling mother had gently reprimanded him for working too hard, when his wise father had told him stories from faraway lands when he was still small enough to sit on the sturdy knee, when his beautiful wife had welcomed him home every night with a smile on her face and a hand on the swell of her belly and he had thought that Kami, he was a lucky man…

"…I'm sorry," whispered Naruto, his eyes trailed on the ground.

Sasuke closed his and nodded softly, exhaling through his nose. "I understand."

"Damn it, Sasuke," the blond cried raggedly as he pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes, from where a few drops of salty tears had managed to escape. "First Jiraiya, then Asuma, and now Hinata… I swear, if I ever see Pain, I'll – I'll – I swear I'll break his neck."

He won't, of course he won't and they both knew it – it was impossible. President Pain of the country of Kaminari was never without his bodyguards, and the secret presidential service comprised of the most elite of all, even more so than the national SWAT Team. What would Naruto, a measly senior cadet of Konoha, be able to do when faced with the impenetrable adversaries? Either cower in a dusty corner or wet his trousers, whichever comes first.

'Then we'll live happily ever after, just like in a fairy tale.'

"…I'll make him pay."

The dark-haired man gave Naruto a small, sad ghost of a smile. "Let's go. You need some rest."

And with that, he turned and bent over to pick his glasses up, put them on, and then promptly walked over the slope of the rubble, carefully stepping over the shards of glass and precariously balanced slabs of concrete.

The blond soldier followed him in a lethargic stupor, dimly aware of putting a foot in front of the other, and took one last look at the aftermath of the enemies' surprise bombing behind him, where Hinata's body lay along with the villagers', perhaps scorched, or battered and bruised beyond recognition, the golden band he had given her still on her left ring finger.

'I'll be here when you get back. I promise.'

And she was. Only she was dead.

a/n:

I honestly don't know what to make of this. I know it's not supposed to be funny but I kept snickering to myself as I wrote this: Sasuke wearing aviator glasses? Naruto as a senior cadet? Pain as the president of Lightning Country?

I obviously have no idea what I'm writing about.