[naruto] Beginnings

Title: Beginnings

Author: PunkWolf

Rating: PG

Warnings: nothing serious

Disclaimer: Written for fun, not profit. Naruto belongs to Kishimoto.

Summary: Prompt 1 for FanFic100. Implied SasuNaru-ish.

Beginnings

He didn’t know when it started.

Land of Waves maybe?

Perhaps during the battle with Gaara.

He didn’t know or understand why. Hell, he’d been denying it for two and a half goddamn years. But when he looked down into the ruins of Orochimaru’s base, he couldn’t ignore the tightening in his chest when Naruto burst onto the scene.

The dobe was different, yet exactly the same, all at once. But that was Uzumaki Naruto for you- a walking contradiction.

But like he’d been practicing for years now, Sasuke squashed whatever he was feeling back down into the forgotten pit of his soul where it belonged. Useless emotions. That’s all they were. Blips in his Avenger radar that were best left ignored as Sasuke did what Sasuke does best.

But it never was business as usual when Naruto was concerned, was it? The teen had the annoying habit of throwing his rival for a loop every time they came near each other.

Sasuke abandoned whatever plan he’d concocted when he leapt deftly into the pit harboring his ex-teammates. Landing closer to the blond than he’d ever planned to get, he hissed words of promised extermination into an ear he didn’t have to bend so far to reach anymore. It frightened him how much Naruto had grown, and how it excited him that it had happened.

When Naruto spoke back, it took all of his willpower not to ask the blond to clarify. Naruto had never put anyone on par with his Hokage dreams, as far as Sasuke knew. And now he was admitting his inability to achieve that goal… all because he couldn’t save his estranged friend? The sentiment behind the implication was almost enough to choke the Uchiha. So he covered it all up by drawing his katana and declaring now the moment to finish what he had failed to do two and a half years ago.

He hadn’t anticipated the goon, who obviously was meant to replace him, jumping in and saving Naruto’s ass.

But whatever he would have done to rectify this, was halted by the newcomer’s words. Did that curd even know what he was saying? The conviction in those words implied devotion, gratitude and promise all in one blow. Where had Naruto found this… bastard, and… had he really replaced Sasuke?

Somewhere deep down, the sharingan-user had always believed that his absence would leave a hole in Naruto that no one would be able to fill. It only made sense, considering such a hole existed in Sasuke himself. He would acknowledge that before he’d left Konoha, Naruto’d filled in many of the cracks that had begun to envelope him since Itachi’s betrayal. Not enough to overshadow the damage his brother had done, but enough to bring Sasuke to the conclusion that there was no one else in the world who could possibly hold a candle to the light that was Uzumaki Naruto.

And he always been somewhat assured that the place his held with Naruto had been similar.

But apparently he’d been wrong.

… But why did that bother him so much?

… Why did this newcomer’s bond with Naruto make him feel so… threatened?

The rest of the fight didn’t matter and Sasuke was relieved when he was finally able to vanish from the scene with Orochimaru and Kabuto. He didn’t know how much longer he’d have been able to keep face whilst in the midst of the revised Team 7.

But the occasion was far from over, however. Days afterward, the encounter haunted him, never leaving his thoughts.

Whatever trigger Naruto had set off, it was very unproductive.

Sasuke was forced to face just how badly the scene had shaken him when Orochimaru had bested him in training with a move that Sasuke hadn’t succumbed to since he was freshly dubbed Orochimaru’s subordinate. The snake-sennin had promptly lost his temper and banished Sasuke to his quarters for the remainder of the week.

Alone with his thoughts, Sasuke found himself confronted with a very frightening reality- he’d failed.

Whatever bond he’d once had with Naruto had not only survived his years of emotional isolation, but had festered and mutated deep within his subconscious until it was barely recognizable. The friendship he’d once admitted to in the heat of battle had become the beginnings of something so powerful, it scared the Uchiha more than he’d ever imagined. It wasn’t the blinding terror he’d experienced the night of Itachi’s betrayal, nor the gut wrenching fear he’d felt when he’d thought Naruto was dead, but a new panic all its own. Trepidation. Because Sasuke knew, nothing productive would come of this forbidden attachment.

Sasuke knew he’d not seen the end of this new obstacle.