Sometimes, Naruto forgot why he was trying to get the bastard to go back to Konoha. Sometimes, he even thought that he tried to suppress his own memories, somewhat like what Menma did.
Deep inside, he was suffering from a turmoil. He had so many reasons why he wanted Sasuke to go back to Konoha where he truly belonged. There was the promise to Sakura-chan and it was Naruto's nin-do to always do what he said or something like that. There was also the fact that... Sasuke was the first real family bond he had. He really did feel like he'd lost a brother when the bastard went to Orochimaru for power.
Why Orochimaru anyway? Konoha could give Sasuke the power he wanted. It was like with Naruto. Or something like that. Sasuke just had to believe himself a bit more and make his mind wander even for a small bit away from killing Itachi and all that stuff. Although after losing Sasuke, Naruto could feel an inkling of what Sasuke felt. He, too, would go avenge and stuff if someone close to him got killed, or would do everything just to get that special person back. So then, this feeling would be tripled if it concerned Sasuke because he lost everyone and in just one night with the person that he adored the most, or so it seemed because, really, if he hated Itachi that much that must mean that he really did love him... because that was how their, meaning Naruto and Sasuke, best friend – rivalry thing was like.
Then that would mean that their fraternal relationship would be twisted. Although that didn't mean that the notion was weird in Naruto's ears. He learned to show love through insults and stuff. Sasuke taught him. Then Itachi must've been the one to teach Sasuke. For some reason, Naruto was much better off with showing love through doing the opposite. That idea was much more common to him. It was obvious why. The villagers saw ill of him and he was a shinobi. He lived in a cruel world. But he struggled.
And perhaps, that fact differentiated him from Sasuke. Sasuke gave up to the darkness. Allowed the darkness to claim his soul. And Naruto... Naruto was determined to get him to see the world in more than just black, white, and gray. And he didn't even know why he wanted to. He had a feeling that Sasuke knew. And Kakashi and baachan and ero-sennin. Because they knew a lot of things. They were smart. Smarter than Shikamaru and Sakura-chan in ways they could never be. These ways ensured that they would always be smarter than the latter two.
Naruto didn't know why he was trying to save Sasuke. The real reason. He just knew that there was more to it. More than his promise, more than brotherhood. He just couldn't grasp what it was. But he had a feeling that he was near the truth. He just needed Sasuke to be really there with him and then maybe he would know. Maybe. But there was a certain sort of certainty there.
It was raining and raining and raining. The stench of blood was heavy in the air. Naruto was wet and muddy. So were Sakura, Sai, Kakashi, Shikamaru, Neji, Lee, TenTen, Hinata, Shino, Ino, Chouji, Kiba, and Akamaru. Itachi was wet, too, but he didn't matter since he was already dead.
"Naa..."
Sasuke was wet, too. And he was broken and lying on the muddy grass with his feet apart and Naruto lying right beside him. Everyone else was somewhere on the trees that circled the clearing they were lying on.
Naruto looked at Sasuke who was staring at the sky, at the rain, blinking every now and then, but not really minding the rain.
"Nnn?" Naruto grunted softly, not wanting to ruin the... moment. If one could even call it like that.
Sasuke murmured something, but then closed his eyes, seemingly not agreeing with what he said. He opened them again a few seconds later, still not looking at Naruto. Both of them knew that Naruto heard that, too. But that wasn't important. Because I won't leave you, too, and we both already know that, Naruto thought.
"Train with me today, won't you?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto knew that this was a part of Sasuke that he'd never shown to anyone. None of them had ever thought of it before... what would happen if Itachi died? But, perhaps, they would all be much better of with things this way.
Naruto himself was secretly glad when Sasuke didn't add any niisan or aniki at the end of his seemingly childish inquiry. That would mean that Sasuke was seeing him, right? That Sasuke wasn't seeing Itachi. That Sasuke was starting to heal.
Naruto had never had a real family, but he always knew that it was more than just shitty if you lost all of them, especially if another family member killed them. He never had a real family so he could never really know what was the feeling of killing your own flesh and blood, killing your homicidal brother. Although he could understand that deep inside, it must hurt doing that. Despite everything, Sasuke and Itachi were still brothers. Somewhere in Sasuke still resided that little boy that adored and loved this brother.
It was sometime during his time with Jiraiya that he came up of a hypothesis as to why Sasuke was so intent on killing his brother, apart from the fact that said brother did kill every living relative of theirs with Uchiha as their surname. It was, perhaps, because of love. Sasuke was just... following orders. He never made up any of the decisions he made. He never killed Naruto because his father said not to grow up the way Itachi did. He left Konoha for Orochimaru because Itachi told him to seek for power and cling to life. He wanted to kill Itachi because Itachi said so himself. Or implied.
And now... now that Itachi was gone... what did that mean for Sasuke? So, Naruto was going to be the best friend that he was and try to give Sasuke more initiative to live. Sure, he wasn't going to spoil the guy, because Sasuke might maim him if he did that. He was just going to comply to certain demands. Demands that he knew wouldn't be bad for Sasuke.
But really, now that Itachi was gone, what would that mean for Sasuke? What would that mean for all of them? Naruto had never been as smart as Sakura or as intuitive-when-not-gambling as Tsunade. He liked to think that they knew the answer, or perhaps answers. Not that that was important. It was just nice to know or, in Naruto's case, to believe, because neither of the two really did know the answer to that question since they didn't know Sasuke before the massacre happened, that someone out there had the answers to your questions.
Although sometimes, without any thinking done at all, things could be done. Sometimes, all that one needed to do was just go with the flow. Sometimes, one just needed to be open, to be understanding. Sometimes, all that he needed to do was just accept and not object or reject.
"Sure," Naruto said, looking at the sky, too.
He wasn't surprised, not in the least bit, when he found Sasuke's hand in front of his face with the pinky outstretched.
"Promise?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto could've sworn that that voice was hoarse. But that didn't matter right now. Nothing did. He linked his pinky with Sasuke's and slightly smiled.
"Promise."
He never really did find out the reason why he wanted to save Sasuke, but he knew it was there. That was enough for him. At least he could feel it. They both closed their eyes and laid their hands with the interlocked pinkies, interlocking more fingers along the way, on the ground. And Naruto could swear that Sasuke was crying. But that didn't matter right now. Nothing did. Nothing ever would. The only important thing was that Sasuke was actually there right beside him. Living, breathing.
Naruto always thought that Sasuke partially knew the reason why he tried to return him to Konoha. He was fine with only Sasuke. As long as one of the two of them knew, that was fine. It was better than no one not knowing, because that would mean that it would've never had happened.
He didn't have some bad-ass jutsu that could turn back time or to stop things from happening. What he could do was just live and make others want to live, too. And perhaps... perhaps he could also make them love. He was no miracle worker nor was he patient. Sasuke wasn't, too. Maybe it would work out then because they didn't want to wait for things, he didn't like being uncomfortable, and Sasuke didn't want to beat around the bush.
Perhpas, someday, he'd find out what his bonds were with Sasuke really. Maybe Sasuke would tell him. Maybe the bastard wouldn't be mean about it. Maybe he would show him how intense it was.
This can be taken as either shounen-ai or gen. There's really no pairings there... Just hints, maybe, but there aren't any "real" pairings.