This is the first fanfic I've ever written, hope you like it!

His ear twitched as he barely heard light footsteps getting closer and closer until they stopped on the other side of the heavy brown door of his office. After a few seconds of silence, there was a loud knocking on the door.

The blonde haired, blue eyed man directed his gaze towards the door and cautiously invited his visitor into his office. Not many could mask their presence so well that he couldn't sense them. Most of them were dead. He had to rely on his enhanced sense of smell and hearing to know that his visitor was coming. "Come in," he said.

His paperwork was temporarily halted as he held his unwavering gaze with slight curiosity. It could be an enemy, an attacker. It could also be his top ANBUs, coming to report their mission and forgetting to release the pressure on their chakra that kept them hidden, though that rarely, if ever, happened. He held his guards up.

Cerulean eyes widened with shock as the door opened to reveal a strikingly handsome man six foot two inches tall. The man had messy black hair that strangely resembled a duck butt, his fringe at a centre parting hanging like feelers on either side of his pale face. He wore a white blouse that bore his chest with sleeves that ended in his mid-upper arm, and loose black pants that covered three quarters of his legs, with a tube-like purple belt tied in a knot as his hip and a sword in its sheath tucked into the belt. His feet wore samurai-like sandals. The man had blood red eyes, each with three tomoes spinning wildly around his pupil.

"Sasuke." the blonde growled out, waiting for confirmation, though he knew he clearly needed none. When no answer came, he felt a rush of anger slowly surge through him. The thoughts of 'He's back' and 'why is he here?' filled his mind.

The blonde removed the pyramid shaped hat with the kanji of the word 'fire' on it from his head, placing it on the table, beside the photo he considered so precious. The photo was of four people; his three men cell when he was younger, and his white-haired sensei behind them. He now had long, unkempt blond hair which he grew over the years. His cheeks adorned with three whisker-like scars each.

The blonde stood up so quickly that the chair he was previously sitting on toppled over. Keeping the intense eye contact, he strode over to the crimson-eyed man, causing his red and white robes, with the kanji of 'Hokage' sewn on it, to flutter.

He gritted his teeth and clenched his hands tightly into fists, before landing a punch on the other man's cheek, sending him flying and hitting the wall. The blonde subconsciously wondered why Sasuke didn't dodge it.

Even after the hit, Sasuke's face remained emotionless as though nothing had happened, even as a drop of blood trickled from his mouth down his chin, staining his pale skin.

"Bastard! Why are you here?!" The blonde had expected unexpected visitors, but he hadn't quite expected his ex-teammate, who refused so adamantly to come back with him, to return on his own. The blonde had his guards up. There was no reason for his ninja-turned-missing-nin ex-friend to come find him; unless he wanted to attack, or worse kill, the blonde. But part of him still wanted to keep his faith and hope that the missing-nin would decide to return to the village, Konohagakure, on his own will. To return to his friends, the now adult rookie nine, to return to Team 7, and to return to him. But as long as the sharingan user's intentions remained unknown or unconfirmed, then it is his duty as the Hokage of Konohagakure to keep his guards up.

Sasuke slowly got up from the floor, wiping the blood off with the back of his hand. Making eye-contact with cerulean eyes, his sharingan slowly faded out into onyx orbs, as the prideful man voiced out two words he let leave his lips not once before in the presence of others, "I'm sorry." The apology was voiced in a soft but clear voice, one that could not be missed.

The blonde was frozen at his spot, hands slowly unclenching, mouth slightly agape, eyes widened with shock. His blue eyes displayed many emotions, of which were hope, worry, anger, but mostly of shock and confusion. "Wha-? You…what?" the blonde stuttered. In all his years of living, the raven had been the most stuck up, arrogant prick he had ever met. And that was saying something. And yet that very same man was letting go of his pride and apologizing to him, something very rare and unseemly of ninjas from the prideful Uchiha clan.

Sasuke let out a frustrated sigh while running a hand through his hair, before repeating himself, this time louder and more impatient, "I said I'm sorry, Naruto."

The blonde, now known as Naruto, furrowed his brows together and asked, "Why?"

Silence.

After waiting a while for an answer that did not come, Naruto repeated his question, this time more specific. "Why are you apologizing?" 'For the past? Or for what's to come?'he mentally added.

As if reading Naruto's mind, he answered softly, almost in a whisper, "I'm sorry for everything I've done."

Naruto felt his anger rise again and tried to calm himself down and regain his composure by taking deep breaths. After his anger subsided a little, he stated calmly, "After all this time?" His anger rose again, but he couldn't be bothered to try to calm down. "After…after all this?" He half shouted, roughly pointing to the window of his office that granted a nice view of the whole of Konoha.

Sasuke's expression softened a little, as if showing guilt. The scene of Konoha depicted buildings still being restored and rebuilt, the mountain carvings of all the previous Hokages had been destroyed, and had to be re-carved. What could not be seen from the view of the window, were the numerous names added onto the gravestone, and the large increase in the number of orphans. Though it was mostly caused by the Fourth Shinobi World War, mainly Tobi and Madara.

Although Naruto was furious at Sasuke for being on the enemy's side during the war, he wasn't blaming him. The blonde was blaming himself more than anything or anyone. Blaming himself for not being able to protect and prevent all the lives that were lost from being lost, blaming himself for being incapable of keeping his promises; his promise to himself that he would protect Konoha, and his promise to Sakura that he would bring Sasuke back. He was happy that most of his friends managed to stay alive. At least he had kept his promise of not letting his friends die. The Rookie nine and Team Gai managed to stay alive, and now made up the strongest force of Konohagakure. All of them managed to make it into the A-ranks and S-ranks.

"Why now? Why after…all this?" Naruto asked in a slight accusing tone, with his hands waving around and gesturing randomly around him. Although he was happy that Sasuke had returned, he also felt the betrayal, and felt the need to know the reason. He wanted, no, needed to know. As the Hokage, he had to confirm Sasuke's intentions before deciding on what to do, so as to not endanger the safety of Konoha. Though deep down, he knew that he, himself, Naruto, friend of Sasuke, wanted to know the answer himself.

"I…" the raven sighed, "I don't know. I just…" he was unsure of what to say. He wanted Naruto to believe him, so he told the truth, no matter how weird it sounded. "It just…it became unbearable for me. After I killed him…after I killed Itachi and after I found out the truth…I was set on destroying Konoha." He stumbled backwards and leaned against the wall, before sliding downwards to sit on the floor. He stared down onto the ground.

"I believed…that it would, in a way, avenge Itachi. After all…" he sighed once again, now staring at his hands, before continuing, "I am an avenger. After finding out what they made Itachi do…after finding out that Itachi loved me too much to kill me…how could I not avenge him? I was driven by revenge and hatred for Konoha…and yet at the same time, I was slowly but surely…losing myself."

With arms crossed on his chest while leaning on the opposite wall, Naruto just stared at Sasuke, waiting patiently for him to continue. He knew it was selfish of him, but he still hoped Sasuke would want to return to the village.

"During the Fourth Shinobi World War, I had a talk with Itachi. It was then that I learnt his true intentions…that I knew he wouldn't have wanted me to be like this. But at that time…I couldn't afford to let it affect me. Being in the middle of the war…all I could do was to finish what I set out to do…to destroy Konoha.

But as time slowly passed…dreams of Itachi became dreams of the past. I had dreams of our missions together…dreams of our first C-ranked mission which turned out to be A-rank…dreams of the days spent training. The dreams made Itachi's words start to sink in. His speech of letting comrades make up for what you don't have, of accepting imperfection. Altogether, it slowly affected my ambition and drive. It was then that I realized that it wasn't the shinobi and citizens that I hate, they had nothing to do with it. My hate was directed at the elders of the village, the ones behind the massacre." At this point, Sasuke looked up and gazed into azure orbs, which widened slightly upon hearing that Sasuke didn't hate any of them all this time.

He continued, "I then came to a realization that the person who ordered the massacre was Danzo, and that I had already killed him. And then I thought, then what was all these years for, if the person I am supposed to take revenge against had already been killed by me? If I, an avenger, lost my hatred, what would become of me? At that time, I become lost. What would I do from then on? After a few days of thinking over those same questions, I then realized that the other elders also had part in it, that they were still alive. I knew it might just be an excuse, an escape from my lost situation, but it was still a reason. When I started heading out, to plan on how I would kill the elders, I heard news, that all the elders of the council were dead. All gone—replaced. For a moment, I almost went crazy. But after a period of time spent thinking over it, I decided to give up on revenge. If there were no one for me to take out my hatred on, then it was pointless. Then it was that time that I disappeared; that you stopped hearing news of me."

The raven then got up from the ground, making the blonde stand up straight instead of leaning against the wall. It's been seven years since Sasuke betrayed the Leaf, five years since the Akatsuki started attacking, four years since the war started, two years since the war ended and…

"Why after two years?"

Sasuke remained silent for a few seconds before sighing and continuing his story, "I wandered around after disappearing. Thinking about what I would do from then on. After giving up everything for the sake of avenging, and then giving up on revenge, I had nothing left. I travelling around here and there, thinking about what I was to do. After that particular realization, I started thinking more and more about Konoha. I missed Konoha, and yet it wasn't like I could just return to Konoha. I'm a missing-nin for God's sake. An S-class one at that. Furthermore, my pride wouldn't allow me to return just like that.

Every day, I wandered around, trained a little, and lived my life pointlessly. I kept myself updated on the bingo books and recent news and rumors of Konoha. It's not like I could ever return after I betrayed Konoha like that. It's not only just a matter of pride; I wouldn't think anyone would believe me even if I had returned."

At that moment, Naruto interrupted the story by shouting, "I would've! All this time I've been chasing you down! Even if Sakura's already gotten over you, I bet she would've too! I wouldn't have chased after you for so long if I didn't believe in you!"

Before Naruto could continue about who else would believe him, he interrupted, "That's why. After the hatred was gone, all I could think about was what if I had returned, what could happen. All I could think about was the fellow leaf shinobis, and you."

At this point, a very slight and almost unnoticeable blush graced Naruto's whiskered cheeks for a second before it was gone. What went through his mind was, 'He didn't mean it that way.'

Sasuke felt like smirking, but it wasn't appropriate at the time, so he continued as if he didn't notice the blush, "Because of all the thinking and missing, I unconsciously travelled too close to the Konoha borders for my liking. I started feeling like just walking in there and letting the Konoha-nin arrest me and bring me to the Hokage before I started explaining, just so I could return to Konoha again.

That was when I remembered ever hearing news that you become the Rokudaime Hokage. Then it struck me that you would believe me. I believed you would. And you, who somehow makes people believe you, could get them to believe me. And then if everything went well, I could live in Konoha again, no matter the terms and conditions."

"And after that is when you decide to barge right into my office?" the blonde questioned in faked anger, though he was really happy that Sasuke had believed him. Then his eyes widened as he hit a realization, "What about all those shinobi outside, the guards and everything?"

"I knocked them out cold with my sharingan. I wouldn't want to get caught before I could explain everything to you in private. Don't worry, I didn't kill them. There weren't much people out there anyways." This time, he couldn't hold back a smirk at how worried Naruto was of the other shinobis.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief, before he walked to his chair, pick it up and sit back down since the serious talk was already over. "Why in private?" He casually asked as he rested his head on his palm, with his elbow resting on the table.

Sasuke then slowly stood up and looked directly into azure orbs and replied, "Because…well…I knew that I would have to be supervised after I returned so I had to say something to you without anyone listening in."

At this, Naruto tensed. Was it something really important and private to Sasuke to have only him hear?

"Well…Naruto…" he sighed and averted his eyes and turned his head to the side, "I think….I love you."

Naruto eyes were widened while his mouth opened and closed while his brain was searching for something to say. He was shocked speechless. Was this real? Or were his ears playing tricks on him? Then he saw Sasuke blushing till his ears were red, then he noticed that it was, indeed real, and that Sasuke really had confessed to him. He then blushed a shade of tomato red.

"Wha…I mean…Wait…Since when?" He fumbled for words to say.

Sasuke cleared his throat and forced his blush down before answering, "I don't know. I realized my feelings after all the hatred and drive for revenge was gone. And I somehow managed to have time to think about you with all the revenge going on in my head. With the avenger thing gone, you mainly dominated my mind."

Naruto sported a blush of an even darker shade of red. Now he questioned himself, does he love him back, or not? He was confused. Does he treat him as a best friend, or does he love him?

"You don't have to answer now. I'll wait till the end of my punishment, if I ever come out alive, that is." He eyes were filled with bits of sorrow and regret.

"You'll definitely get out of this alive Sasuke, believe it!" Naruto smiled cheekily, his previous embarrassment forgotten.

Sasuke smiled, before it turned into a smirk as he commented, "It looks like you finally achieved your dream of being Hokage," he hesitated a moment, after all, it had been years since he last used the nickname for the blonde. But he said it anyways, "Dobe."

"Wha-! Teme! I am totally capable!" Now his anger and embarrassment was mixed as he searched for a retort before taunting, "Ha! That was the longest speech I have ever heard you say! With what I remembered, all you ever said were at most one sentence long! Or full of insults!"

"It was necessary to clear up anything between us and to get you to trust me. I wouldn't want the person I love to hate me, now would I?" The raven smirked again, struggling not to smile. He was happy that his nickname of 'Teme' came out so easily, happy that things were more comfortable between them.

Naruto blushed again. But before he could retort, the door burst open.

"Hokage-sama!" a voice oh-so-familiar to the blonde shouted, with worry laced in his voice.

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