Chapter Text
Naruto was late.
He was late most mornings—a habit Shikamaru called troublesome—but it was only ever ten minutes at the most. Okay. Maybe twenty on a bad morning.
Today was fine, he thought absentmindedly as he shoved the last of his stuff in his pockets and jogged down the stairs of his apartment. It had just taken him longer than he expected to find the right shoes and brush his teeth and also eat something before he headed out the door to the Hokage tower. It was fine, and that was the problem.
For a while now, every day was just…fine.
Naruto dodged a swarm of birds as he sprinted across the rooftops, taking his usual route. He may or may not have stopped to say hello to a friendly neighborhood cat or let himself be dragged to a halt by an elderly woman who pinched his cheeks and gave him a tin of cookies, but that was for him to know and Shikamura to gripe about later.
Though his days were unique and eventful as ever, with missions and his friends getting together two or three times a week (that reminded him, he promised Sakura-chan he’d swing by the hospital for lunch), it was all starting to, well, run together.
He found himself bored and restless most evenings and his only outlet was complaining to Sakura or Shikamaru or training with Kiba and Lee. Recently, he’d taken to wandering around at night, trying to find something to ease the jittery-feeling that he was supposed to be doing something.
There was only one thing he really looked forward to—Ah.
A familiar friend settled on his shoulder as he came to a stop in front of the tower. Yuna nipped playfully at his ear, the burgundy feathered messenger hawk cawing a hello.
“Good morning to you too,” he smiled at her and ruffled the feathers on top of her head. Yuna leaned into the touch, and he laughed. “Yeah, yeah. I do have something for you.”
Naruto pulled a letter from his pocket before undoing the traveling tube on Yuna’s back. He took the letter inside out and stored his own in the compartment. With a few more strokes—her feathers were so soft—he gave her the last bit of his breakfast bar (which was also in his pocket because she always came on Thursdays and was much more likely to deliver his letter by Friday if he gave her a treat) and strapped the tube back onto her back.
“I’ve got to go in,” he said reluctantly when she cocked her head, seemingly asking for another treat. “Shikamaru is going to kill me. I’m already late because I stayed up so late writing that letter!”
Yuna bit at him and he shrugged her off good-naturedly, watching her take to the sky with a wistful expression. She was almost as temperamental as her master. Almost.
Sasuke had been gone from the village for two and a half years now. Journey of atonement and all that.
He wrote, sometimes once a week and sometimes once a month. Naruto sent him letters whenever he felt like it, because he could. Because two weeks after Sasuke had left and Naruto had demanded he at least write, Yuna had shown up at Naruto’s apartment Thursday morning with a three sentence letter.
I’d rather report to you than Kakashi anyway. In Earth country, repairing houses damaged in the war. There are no ramen stands here.
- S
How Sasuke knew that would have been Naruto’s first question (without hesitation, he required any news of good ramen Sasuke found to this day) was beyond him. So Naruto wrote back. His letters were usually much longer than Sasuke’s and sounded like a trip inside his head, which was a terrifying-never-ending place if you were trying to put it down on paper, but Sasuke never complained. Unless Naruto rambled about something stupid for too long. Sasuke knew there was something he wasn’t saying when he did that.
He’d probably think something similar to the last letter Naruto had just sent.
For weeks now, maybe even months, the Sasuke shaped hole in his life had grown more daunting. Bigger, like Naruto was seriously acknowledging the possibility that it might always remain that—a hole.
What if Sasuke didn’t want to come back? What if he didn’t want to stay in one place ever again? It wasn’t like he had a great record to go from, and Naruto understood that. He did. It just got…lonely, sometimes. Even with Sakura-chan and his friends. None of them had ever understood him quite like Sasuke.
“Naruto,” Shikamaru came to stop beside him and stared up at Yuna’s disappearing figure. “You’re lucky Temari had a few extra minutes at breakfast or you would be late.”
“Already thought I was,” he said mindlessly, still thinking about Sasuke, and Shikamaru sighed.
“Read that before you come in, please. I don’t want you staring at it through the whole session.”
“Cool,” Naruto shook his head slightly to snap himself out of it, and then gave Shikamaru a bright grin, “Yes. Yeah. I can do that. See ya in there.”
After a beat passed, he called out to Shikamaru, who was disappearing into the tower, “And tell Hokage-sama that he owes me ramen tonight!”
The sound of Shikamaru’s disgruntled reply was too mumbled for Naruto to hear. He laughed to himself, and then opened Sasuke’s letter.
Naruto,
I am at the edge of Fire Country.
What? Naruto held the paper tighter, and reread the first line. In Fire Country? Was he—was he coming home?
I’ve discovered some interesting intel concerning Amegakure’s new leadership that I’m sure the Hokage will want to act on. As for your question, about living somewhere, I haven’t really given it thought. I’d like somewhere quiet, I think. Somewhere I could see the stars.
See you in two days.
Sasuke.
Naruto blinked, and then promptly jumped onto the side of the building and took off, expelling chakra through his feet excitedly as he flew up the tower and through the Hokage’s window.
“KAKASHI-SENSEI,” he half screamed, half bellowed as he tore through the room.
In his excitement, Naruto missed Kakashi falling out of his chair in bewilderment and Shikamaru jerking backwards so hard at the ball of orange that had burst through the window that he spilled the coffee he had been drinking down his chin and shirt.
“Naruto,” Shikamaru said his name like it was a curse and a sigh at the same time, but didn’t get any further than that because Naruto was literally bouncing up and down.
“Sasuke is coming home! He said he’d be here in two days and that he has information on Amegakure. Man,” Naruto was barely managing not to go into Sage mode, he was radiating so much chakra, he felt like he could burst, “that bastard always has perfect timing. You guys were just complaining about not knowing what was going on in Ame!”
“It’s going to be pointless trying to discuss anything else with him all day now,” Kakashi said offhandedly to Shikamaru, who was now pulling at his shirt in a mixture of distress and annoyance. “Might as well go home and change that shirt.”
“Hey!” Naruto didn’t dispute it any further than that; Kakashi was definitely right. He stopped his bouncing to give Shikamaru a quizzical look. “Gee, Shika, watch where you’re drinking next time.”
The glare he received in return was enough for him to drop it and turn back to Kakashi, who was now firmly back in his chair.
“While that’s wonderful news, I need you to sit down and finalize the Academy teams, Naruto,” Kakashi had that annoyed, knowing look on his face, “at least the first half before you go shouting across the rooftops that Sasuke is returning.”
Naruto had grown enough—he was almost nineteen, ya know!—to realize when people were teasing him about his quote-on-quote obsession with Sasuke. He didn’t think he was obsessed. He just missed his best friend, who he had dedicated years of his life to—
Naruto decided to pause that train of thought, and rolled his eyes at his sensei’s comment instead, ignoring the heat rising on the back of his neck. “I wasn’t going to go shouting it from the rooftops,” he sassed, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Run straight to the hospital and tell everyone you saw on the way to Sakura-chan, is more like it,” Shikamaru muttered under his breath while he dabbed napkins at the stain on his shirt.
Naruto tuned him out, and whined, “Do I really have to finish the first half before I go?”
“Yes,” both Kakashi and Shikamaru said at the same time.
“Fine,” he huffed, and then body flickered away.
“How much do you want to bet that every single one of those reports is illegible?” Shikamaru said to the Hokage, throwing the napkins in the direction of the trash.
“I learned a long time ago not to bet on anything concerning Naruto,” Kakashi replied smartly.
“Maa,” Shikamaru groaned, leaning back in his chair and staring down at his shirt, “so annoying. Temari bought this shirt for me.”
Kakashi made a strange noise behind his mask that almost sounded like laughter. “So I take it you’re not going home to change?”
“Hell no.”
Sakura’s reaction was not what he expected it to be.
“Oh,” she’d said, with her hand glowing green and halfway through a patient’s chest, “okay.”
“Okay?” Naruto had parroted back her, and she had sighed. It was one of her long sighs, which usually meant he stopped pressing unless he wanted to be punched through a few walls. Or a few feet into the ground.
“It will be good to see him.”
She hadn’t said anything else before she was rushed off to another surgery.
Naruto knew that Sasuke was a bit of a taboo subject with her since he had rejected her offer to come with him—once at the gates when Sasuke had first left, and then again, when Sakura had finally worked up the nerve to send him a letter a year ago—but he thought, well, it didn’t really matter what he thought. Sasuke had hurt Sakura just as much as he had Naruto when he left.
The only difference was, Sasuke wrote to Naruto. They had talked about their shit, at the Valley of the End, after they’d taken each other’s arms. He guessed Sakura didn’t have that—what did Ino call it?—right, closure.
At the present, Naruto was laying on the roof of his apartment building, arms crossed behind his head and staring up at the stars. They weren’t very visible, thanks to the swarming lights of Konoha below. After Nagato’s attack, which hadn’t leveled his part of the city because it was so far from the center, what had been left had become the starting point for rebuilding.
He hadn’t been able to sleep, or really do anything other than think about Sasuke, since he’d gotten the letter. His mind wouldn’t shut up. How long would he stay? Would he even stop by Naruto’s apartment? Why would he? Did Naruto want him to? Would he fix things with Sakura-chan?
The last thought left a sour feeling in the bottom of his stomach. He knew he shouldn’t, out of loyalty to Sakura, but he didn’t think they went well together at all. Sasuke had tried to kill her.
Darker still, something he hated but wouldn’t let himself hate her for— she had tried to kill Sasuke.
Surely there were other people out there, that would make them happier? It was not hard to picture Sakura happy with someone else, someone calm and patient and kind. Maybe someone who was not a shinobi. Naruto thought that might be good for her, to have someone normal to come home to, someone that would remind her of the stability of the home she grew up in.
It was harder for Naruto to picture what, or who, would work for Sasuke. He had been alone for so much of his life and was so selective about who he allowed to be there for him that Naruto didn’t have the first idea of what kind of person might make him happy for the rest of his life.
It was even harder when he tried to picture it for himself.
He let out a long breath and watched it fog in the cool air. Konoha was in late winter, so close to early spring he could smell the cherry blossoms on the night wind. Naruto didn’t stop to think about things; that was his trademark. He decided, and did it. He was on track to become Hokage, and it was his dream. To be acknowledged, to make the village better for kids like himself and Sasuke. To show them that he could. But with peace, he had found himself…thinking.
What did happiness look like for him? Sure, he had his plants, but there was only so much space in his two bedroom apartment ( finally, they had upgraded him from that tiny flat). What if he wanted someone to come home to? Or live somewhere—his breath caught in his throat.
It was no use. Naruto was unable to think of anything else once the thought had crossed his mind.
What if he wanted to live somewhere he could see the stars? Somewhere quiet.
Somewhere Sasuke would visit.