Title: Haunted (One-shot)
Author: Normal
Rating: PG-13 (It's probably PG, but better safe than sorry.)
Pairing: SasuNaru
Genre: A little bit of drama, a smidge of humor and some romance.
A/N: Okay, so I haven't written anything in more than a year. I've started working on a multi-chaptered fic, SasuNaru, Comedy/Romance, but got stuck with a short writer's block, so I wrote this. I could probably use a beta (anyone interested?). I wanted to write something sad, but it seems like I'm just not cut out for actual angst! English is not my native tongue, so my only warning is that there might be some grammatical errors. Sorry in advance! Hope you'll enjoy.
"Hokage."
He groaned. Damn it all, he was seriously starting to hate this job. He hardly had any moment of peace, be it ANBU and Jounins knocking on his door or the infinite pile of files needing to be looked at that only seemed to grow each passing day. He didn't expect it to be so troublesome when he signed up for the post. He only wanted a few hours to himself, to escape the hectic, if not somewhat boring, career of looking after an entire village.
"Yes, Aburame?" He asked and rubbed the heel of his palm against his brow tiredly.
"Team 9 has returned; all members with superficial injuries. The gang of missing-nins at the national boarder has been eliminated. ANBU Hyuuga stayed behind to make sure that the survivors from the secondary sister-gang were escorted to Amegakure for further investigation. Here are the reports from missions assigned to ANBU teams 9, 5 and 4, and the hunter-nins that you sent to Mizu no Kuni," he dropped a new stack of papers onto the desk and the man at the other side of it wanted to growl in annoyance.
The paper-work never ends!
He looked forlornly at the reports. "Thank you for your hard work."
Shino bowed and dismissed himself from the room.
The Hokage let out a long-suffering sigh as the door clicked behind the Jounin. He stared wistfully out of the window and felt worry gnaw at his heart, the way it did since yesterday morning when he last saw his friend.
He couldn't help but agonize over this. He promised. Together till the end. Even if I have to chase you through the afterlife.
Now he was faced with the formidable task of trying to fool himself into feeling unaffected by the whole ordeal so he could look over some of the files he has been stacking since the day he became Hokage.
It worked for two hours until he finally gave up. He clenched his fists, which rested on both sides of the sheet of Export treaty between neighboring lands.
"I swear to Kami, if he doesn't show up within the next hour, I am going to kill him!"
"Kill me? Again?" The amused voice wafted breezily through the room from the direction of the window and seemed to instantly light up the entire space with energy.
With those words, Sasuke felt as if there was a dormant volcano right at his chest which suddenly erupted, ejaculating all of the anxiety from his system and bringing sweet relief in its stead.
He was back. Naruto wasn't gone.
An instant later, his relief was replaced with anger and he glared at the blond who appeared out of nowhere.
"Are you mad? What the hell were you thinking, disappearing like that? It's not enough that I had to deal with all of this crap alone for almost two days, you also had me worried si--"
He wanted to vent. He wanted to be enraged, because that was how he could deal with what he was feeling. But no matter how furious he felt inside, it all seemed to dissipate like steam into the air.
Because the moment he accidentally let it slip out that he was actually worried, Naruto smiled at him. Warmly, tenderly, breathtakingly beautiful, and Sasuke felt like he was suddenly at the top of the highest mountain in the world, for he couldn't seem to breathe.
And then that smile turned into the all-too-familiar infuriating grin. "Aw, you worried about me?" He teased. "I'm not surprised; a day without the presence of the great Uzumaki Naruto can cause anyone to easily trip into raving madness!"
Sasuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes at his no-longer-a-rival-but-a-friend's antics.
"You're an idiot. I began to think that you…" left me, he interjected in his mind, "Disappeared. We're still trying to figure out how to restore you. You cannot simply go off like that."
Naruto made a face at the term "restore". It felt like he was damaged goods. Which, theoretically, he was. Ever since that war last year, he has been somewhere between death and the land of the living. He was able to walk around, but no sound followed his footsteps. He was able to see the world, but he couldn't even grasp chopsticks, because his hands would simply pass through, as if he was trying to hold water or air. He could only speak, and that was the only consolation there was to it.
Naruto was as intangible as an illusion. He was practically a ghost.
After having almost every expert gathered by Tsunade to examine the situation, it was eventually Neji who solved the riddle of why Naruto was still up and about, and not rotting away in some coffin, as terrible as that sounded.
It seemed that while his body was only a projection, very much like an illusionary genjutsu, his chakra seemed to still flow in that form which was Naruto. It was only a small amount of chakra, barely even visible, but it was still there. It linked dots in what used to be his body cells and kept his spiritual energy "alive".
The kinjutsu, the forbidden technique, that hit him was supposed to disintegrate him completely. But it didn't go quite as planned.
Naruto later confessed that right before he sacrificed himself, Kyuubi promised to keep them alive, by any means possible.
Only Naruto didn't expect that "by any means possible" would mean not being able to hug anyone, or to eat Ramen, nor have the children of the village believe that he was a ghost which haunted the Hokage. The Hokage he himself coaxed into the job, and manipulated into living his dream for him.
He had the full intention of dying when he saw Orochimaru aim one of his illegal experimental techniques at Sasuke from behind. He latched himself onto his most precious person's back and wrapped his arms around his midsection, right above the hostler of shuriken, ready to take the hit.
"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry. I plan on haunting you until you die a most boring death at old age."
Sasuke wanted to say 'I don't think I'll survive that long without being able to touch you', but he refrained. It was a painful subject, to the both of them. During the war…During the war, they watched over each other. They've been together in hopeless situations. They changed.
They weren't Naruto and Sasuke anymore, rivals, teammates, best friends, brothers at heart. They were something more. Something that started at those moments when they weren't fighting off Orochimaru's army. Something that started with curiosity and embarrassment and touching surreptitiously and sneaking the single kiss which neither of them will ever forget.
Love. Naruto said it was love. Right before he supposedly died, he tightened his hold on Sasuke and whispered in his ear. "I love you, you bastard."
The raven-haired male shook his head to dispel those thoughts from his mind. Love, who was he kidding? So, he changed the subject. "You've been taking more time to yourself lately. What do you do when you take off?"
"Oh, nothing really. Just want to check my limits, see if I can concentrate enough chakra so I could lift something," he said and inspected his knuckles nonchalantly.
The Hokage's heart was suddenly gripped by the fear that if Naruto fools around like that, he might some day vanish into the air due to over-working his chakra tunnels. But then there was that small hope at Naruto's words…"Did it work?"
"Nope."
He looked casual enough, but Sasuke knew that the other man was disappointed in himself. He could see it in the small crease at the spot where his eyebrow met the edge of his nose.
If only he could just reach across the table and touch his tanned face and his lips which he remembered were so soft and warm…
He would give anything. He would even die, if that meant that he could touch this person that has always been a constant in his life. He may not always believe in the term love like Naruto did, but he knew that they shared something special, maybe even better than love.
Then Naruto pulled him out of his reflections. "Hey hey, Sasuke, let's go to the roof."
"It might be evening by now, but we still have plenty of work to do, and you need to help, like you said you would. We're both Hokage."
The blond waved his hand in the air, dismissing it all like flies. "Come on. Let's ditch work for one day. You always complain anyway. If anyone should be doing any complaining, it should be me!" He jabbed his thumb at the middle of his chest, but grinned nonetheless.
Later, Sasuke found himself sprawled on his back in Hokage attire, on the roof and watching the night sky, with Naruto the friendly ghost, beside him, lying on his side with his head propped by his elbow.
"Otogakure is interested in making peace. Well, it's more interested in the new Export and Import treaties."
"Hmm," The blond responded, "I don't think we should sign them. Orochimaru may be dead, but his minions roll all over the place. You heard that Kabuto was sighted at south of Sound. No, we can't. It will only exacerbate things."
"Quit using big words like you're smart."
Naruto growled somewhere next to his ear and the brunet resisted the urge to smile. "Sasuke-teme, if I could I would kick you ass so hard you wouldn't be able to move for weeks!"
That earned Naruto a small rare chuckle from the other. "Let's not talk about work."
A few seconds passed in silence before Naruto started, "I met Hinata yesterday. They're expecting a little mini-Kiba brat sometime soon. It's so weird, you know? Married with a baby on the way!"
"We're not kids anymore, Naruto."
"I know. But sometimes it feels like all of you keep moving forward, and I'm stuck."
"It's only been a year. And you're not stuck."
The blond made a noncommittal humming sound at the back of his throat. He then unexpectedly lifted his hand and let it hover over Sasuke's, which rested on the Hokage garments at his stomach. The brunet knew it's been a year, but his heart still thudded a little quicker against his chest whenever his partner tried something that was remotely intimate, even if they couldn't really hold hands or hug each other or make any real contact.
The raven-haired man averted his gaze from their hands to those cerulean eyes watching him. The small crease near the blond eyebrow was back, but a second later it went away, as did the insubstantial limb above his. The hand resting on Sasuke's abdomen clenched into a loose fist, as if to catch the solitary butterfly of loneliness that fluttered in his stomach.
Then the blue eyed blond started again, more cheerfully this time, "Ya know, I've been thinking. You need to get laid."
Heavy silence descended on the two for a moment, until, "WHAT?"
"'Cause you're so uptight and still a virgin. Even Kiba is getting some, and that's saying something! I mean, it's not like I want you to, but you gotta do it, or else you'll lose that tenuous grip you had on any pretense of sanity."
"I don't want anyone else." He grunted with a grimace, somewhat like a child would when he wanted something he couldn't get. "Don't ever mention it again."
Naruto responded with a small sad smile and simply watched the man next to him. "Hey, Sasuke."
"What now?"
"I won't leave you. You should know by now that I really like you."
"Hn. I know. Me too."
Those haunting blue eyes seemed to draw closer to him at the admission, and all of a sudden Naruto's face was leaning steadily towards his, stopping barely an inch away. Unpredictably exhausted eyelids closed over charcoal-hued irises, and the brunet subconsciously licked his lips.
He didn't know if it was the moisture on his lips and the touch of the slight breeze that made them tingle. He only knew that something ghosted over his lips in faints whispers, like the soft petals of Sakura dancing in the wind.
And then he submitted to the sticky webs of sleep, feeling more content than he has in months.
"…I love you, you bastard..."
"…I don't know how it happened…I can't feel anything…"
"…Naruto, we'll get you back to normal, I promise. Together till the end. Even if I have to chase you through the afterlife…"
"…I won't give up. I can't. I'll do anything. That's my way of the ninja, even if I'm not one anymore…"
"…I can't stand this…"
"…I miss you, Dobe…"
He awoke some time later. It was still dark out, so he must've slept for only a couple of hours.
Naruto was still by his side, now on his stomach with his legs in the air, his idiotic grin stretching from one ear to the other once again. "You're cute when you sleep, did you know that?"
"You're a moron non-stop, did you know that?" He rasped out, voice still slightly hoarse from the slumber. He kept on lying on his back, too physically tired to move.
"D'you remember the day you went back to Konoha after the war ended and after you finally killed Itachi and saw me? I thought I caused your untimely demise with the way you fainted and all," he snickered.
"I did not faint! I merely passed out from exhaustion, you utter fool."
"Yeah, right! You keep telling yourself that!" The blond then sobered up. "But you were happy to see me, right?" He asked timidly.
"I'm not sure. I didn't want you to die, but after your hold on me vanished like it wasn't even there when that bastard struck, I thought it was the end. I left immediately to find Itachi and rid of him just to give me time to let go of you. Then I find that you were roaming around Konoha all this time, pulling pranks on everyone with your intangibility and your walking through walls."
"Oh, yeah. Good times."
"I always figured that after I kill Itachi, I'll start pursuing my happy ending. Settle down, partially quit shinobi life and do something boring like filing reports, which ironically, is now all I do."
"But you have me weighting down on your shoulders, huh?"
"Naruto…" He wanted to squeeze the sun-kissed hand that was a foot away from his and was now illuminated by the whitish rays of the moon. "I know that we won't have a happy ending. I'm okay with that." He wanted to say more. He wanted to say something meaningful to let the other know that the bond they share is greater than any dream and any stupid young love.
The untouchable being abruptly burst into fits of laughter. His large round sapphire eyes were almost squinted shut in mirth.
That laughter crashed into Sasuke like waves, smoldering him and making it harder to breathe. He loved that sound. But why was he laughing?
The blond's laughter eased at the confused expression on the other male's face and sat on his knees so he could look down at his ex-teammate. "Can I say something completely cliché?"
Sasuke looked up languidly at the other. "Hn. Whatever. Go ahead."
"Love has no happy ending," he said as he slowly lifted his hand and placed it at the junction where Sasuke's ebony locks met his forehead. The digits swept the black bangs, blacker than the darkest winter's night, from his face and cupped the side of the pale cheek, rubbing the palm against it in circular motions.
Coal-black eyes widened and Sasuke's muscles tensed in a state of frozen shock. He could feel that touch. Warmth, and fingers, and comfort and everything else that he missed out on in the past year.
Like a child, he stared lost and bewildered into those sparkling eyes and he knew that it was real, that is was as tangible and solid as it can ever be.
For Naruto's eyes gleamed a secretive blue, and he smiled, almost smugly.
"Because true love has no ending."
Fin
Hope it was tolerable. I made up a lot of crap about the whole chakra and spiritual energy business, but it is fanfiction, so I let my imagination run wild. Sorry if it's a little lame, I'm only just getting reacquainted with writing.
Also – Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto universe. That insanity belongs only to Masashi Kishimoto.