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Sasuke was 8 when he first dreamed of his hero. It was after a conversation of prince charming and fairy tales with Sakura in school, and they had parted on the way home with the disagreement of what the ideal heroes should be like. Sakura had insisted that they should be cold and unapproachable, the kind that only appeared when needed but was away from the spotlight when the world was at peace.
Sasuke thought she was basically describing his older brother, who Sasuke would rather see drown than be anyone’s hero. He had argued that a hero should be someone with warm presence. More cheerful and energetic than dark and mysterious. When his mom sent him to his room for an after school nap, he dreamed of exactly that. In his dreams, he was living in a strange world with strange people wearing strange clothes. He met his hero at an academy of some sort, and their friendship started as rocky but became strengthened later.
In the dream, they part ways as both rivals and best friend, and Sasuke woke up with an odd, yearning ache in his heart for reasons he cannot begin to understand.
(Later, he found a small, dark crescent-like moon mark in the center of his palm that felt out of place but seemed to fit just right at the same time).
He turned 13, and his hero was no longer just a nameless hero. He was called Uzumaki Naruto from Konohagakure. He looked into the map and couldn’t find the village, no matter how hard he tried. Naruto had one annoying white-haired teacher that Sasuke took a liking to and one perverted godfather who seemed to take good care of him when Sasuke couldn’t. He would have meals with Naruto, walk to school with him, and play basketball together after, even though Naruto wasn’t any good at it.
Sakura called him delusional because Naruto seemed to refuse to meet her when they’re together, and his mother had agreed that perhaps he should seek therapy after catching him smiling to, in her words, empty space. Sasuke told them it wasn’t his fault that Naruto was uncomfortable showing up when they’re around, and he retreated back to his room with a cup of ramen for Naruto to eat.
15 hit, and things started to get rocky. His father had found out of Naruto, and he tried everything he could think of to get rid of him. His father told him this Naruto and Konoha didn't exist, that everything was just a mere imagination. His father said his obsession with Naruto was becoming unhealthy and even his doctors believed Sasuke should have grown out of the ‘imaginary friend’ phase by now.
Sasuke stared right through his father’s eyes and turned to leave. He made an enemy out of his father, but he couldn’t care any less.
He started feeling restless at the age of 18.
For some reason, it became harder for him to see Naruto. He didn't know what it was, but it seemed as though Naruto was leaving him, and it left him suffocating most days. His boyfriend whispered by his side to get back to bed, and Sasuke thought perhaps it was because of this man lying next to him that Naruto couldn’t visit him. Perhaps Naruto was jealous.
Sasuke broke up with him the morning after, and braced himself for a visit from Naruto. He poured hot water to the cup ramen he kept stored in his shitty apartment, and left it on his table to cook.
Naruto didn’t show up.
Sasuke dumped the ramen away.
He was roped into an arranged marriage at the age of 24 because it was his duty as his father’s son. He told him he’d marry, only if it was with Sakura. While she did not come from a prestigious lineage and family background, she was brilliant and is the top med student in the top university in the country. His father couldn’t find a good reason to refuse, and Sakura simply jumped at the opportunity of spending the rest of her life with her best friend, despite his baggage and all.
Romantic love not withstanding, they made a good pair. Sasuke couldn’t think to settle with anyone else, perhaps except for—
Sasuke clenched his hand into a fist and buried that thought away. He was going to marry Sakura, all dolled up in her pretty, white, traditional kimono, and he would not for a second wish that the person he’d be sharing vows with were wearing ugly, bright orange jumpsuit instead.
30. He kissed Sarada goodnight. The five year old bundle of joy (and great pain in the ass) inherited his black lock and not the blonde he kept seeing in his dreams. Naruto was long gone, and Sasuke was making a great progress of forgetting thanks to Ino, the psychologist that Sakura had recommended him to.
50. Sasuke was attending Sarada’s graduation from law school. He and Sakura were given a special spot for esteemed guests, and his mind, though as trained as it was to brush off unnecessary thoughts, could not help but wander into thinking, what would she be like if his other parent had been a different person? Throwing riots all over the place, his subconscious told him. His son would not think attending law school would make a difference in the world. His son would be making movements down in the streets, holding up banners and protesting against injustice with burning passion. Sasuke felt a gentle touch on his hand, and he wiped the thought away with practiced ease. He was eternally grateful for Sakura, who continued to pull him back from the edge of insanity.
70. Sakura passed away. Really, trust her to fall sick due to overwork. He shed no tears as he laid one last rose at her funeral because Sakura would have beat him to crap if he so much as express sorrow on the day she was to be buried six feet under. He felt a hand as light as breeze on his shoulder, and he brushed it off as the ‘mind game’ that his brain liked to play. He didn’t need the comfort. If anything, it was Sarada and Ino who needed it more. He straightened, exhaled, and made his way to his daughter. A little more, and he’d see her again really soon.
75. Strolling down the park in his wheelchair near where he lived was one thing he did quite often these days when he was not with his grandchildren. It was relaxing to see all the children laugh so freely, the innocence and naivety never failing to remind him of — no one, his tells himself at the last second. As he rolled around, he felt himself suddenly bumping into a boy with familiar lock of blonde hair. He was ready to apologize because Sakura would come back to haunt him if he so much as glare in the wrong direction, but the words were lost the moment he boy looked up with bright, achingly familiar pair of sapphire eyes and stole his breath completely.
Sasuke thought this must be a cruel fate. His hands tightened around the wheels of his wheelchairs and he could not help himself but ask for the boy’s name.
"Naruto. I'm sorry for bumping into you!”
There was not hint of recognition in his voice, only childish innocence.
Sasuke hated that there was a strong burn in the back of his throat, after all these years.
He must have stared for too long, for the boy — Naruto — tilted his head sideways with a questioning look. Sasuke wondered if he knew who Sasuke was, or if it had all been, at the end of the day, nothing but his wild imagination.
(But it can’t be).
Sasuke lifted one hand and ruffled Naruto’s hair, because this might be the last time he would ever see him and Sasuke had craved for so, so long. “Be careful next time,” Sasuke told him, voice rough around clenched throat.
Naruto’s unsure expression changed in a flash, face lighting up like he owned the sun. “Sure, old man! Sorry again!”
He took to run off, but he turned to check on Sasuke one last time, searching.
Meeting his eyes, Sasuke’s heart thrummed hard against his ribcage. Could he — ?
Naruto seemed to shake off whatever it was that came across his mind, for he broke into an even bigger grin than humanly possible and waved at him while yelling, “Bye, old man!”
Sasuke was old, but he knew this much.
There was a small, circular mark at the center of Naruto’s palm, not unlike his own.
Sasuke didn’t know how long he stayed there, contemplating on what this might mean. He gritted his teeth to numb the familiarity that came rushing all too suddenly. He pressed his lips together and wondered if Naruto had known, if only for a second. He broke into another sob as he woke the next day, eyes swollen with stinging pain that reached all the way to his heart.
80. He was nearing his death, and it was only natural, except Naruto was next to his sickbed, holding his cold, wrinkly hands in his smaller one. He was thirteen now. Ever since that day when they met for the first time (in this lifetime, his thought supplied), he kept on visiting Sasuke in his nursing home, and then later at the hospital. Naruto had come back day after day after they bumped into each other in the park that one late afternoon.
He expressed he didn’t know why his feet seemed to insist to take him there, just that he knew he should be with Sasuke.
Sasuke had tried to avoid him, unwilling for Naruto to be attached to him in such frail state only to lose him forever in a few years, but Naruto had found him, again and again, and the hatred that he had reserved for Naruto for never coming wilted away.
Naruto had wanted to come, he just wasn’t there - here - yet. He had been making up for the lost years, though he probably would not realize until much later that making up was what he had been doing for these past five years.
Sasuke had begun to feel at peace again for the first time in who knows how long, and felt content knowing his time is coming to an end if it means he would meet Naruto again when he woke the next time, in the next life.
“Dobe,” Sasuke tried to say. His voice came out as just above whisper. “Idiot, stop thinking too hard.”
Naruto looked miserable. He tightened his grip on Sasuke’s hand as though it could keep him here a little longer. He seemed to hold back his tears as he said, "I wish I had found you sooner.”
Sasuke turned to see him properly. His eyesight had gotten to the worst point that he could not see clearly anymore, but he had known Naruto his whole life to know what his face looked like in that moment. "Some things are not meant to be."
Then, he broke into a violent cough and knew his heart was giving away.
“I promise I will find you sooner in the next life.” Naruto choked between his tears.
Sasuke knew he would.
He felt like he could smile, and so he did as he caressed Naruto’s hand with one thumb, telling him he was slipping away.
He exhaled one last breath.
Darkness took his sight.
—
Sasuke was back to 8 years old.
He was breathless from playing hide and seek with Itachi. He knew he ran too far away from the park, but he had wanted to win just this once against Itachi and he knew this one spot by the river that Itachi probably did not know about.
He panted from all the running and lied down on the grass to collect his breath.
Suddenly, he felt a shadow covering his eyes, and Sasuke dreadfully peeked with one eye to see if Itachi had, in fact, found him.
Sasuke’s eyes widened when he realized it was someone else entirely — someone else he’d just now realized he’d been longing for.
He recognized those blonde locks, those whiskers. A flash of memories came crushing down, and he just knew he would recognize this boy in any lifetime.
He got to his feet in hurry, for reasons that he was sure he’d figure out soon. “I — “
The other boy, who seemed to be a few years older, dropped into eye level and laid a hand on his head to give it a gentle ruffle. “I found you!”
Sasuke felt overwhelmingly full, and a name came to him.
He exclaims, “Naruto!” before throwing himself into the much older Naruto’s arms.
It was only a matter of time.