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A cool morning breeze drifted through the main streets of the Hidden Leaf Village. Sasuke shivered a bit and went to pull his cloak tighter around himself, but faltered when he remembered he only had one arm now.
“Right,” he muttered to himself, using his good hand to push the oily dark hair from his eyes and scowling as it flopped right back.
As villagers and shinobi alike bustled past him on this busy afternoon, Sasuke leaned farther back into the shadows of the side alley. He had been getting stares from strangers lately, which made sense considering he had been a wanted terrorist, what, like two months ago? A lot had happened since then.
His best attempts to brood unseen were crushed when a certain pink-haired kunoichi rounded the corner and spotted him, instantly.
“Sasuke!” Sasuke braced himself as Sakura sped down the street and tackled him in a hug. The hug was awkward not only because of her massively powerful grip, but also because Sasuke lacked both the arms and motivation to hug her back.
She pulled back and beamed at him, adjusting the shopping bag of medical supplies that had shifted in the hug. “What are you doing here? I thought you said you were leaving the village on a... what was it, like a road trip? An angsty road trip?”
“An atonement for my sins,” he corrected flatly.
“So an angsty road trip.” She giggled at the intensity of his glare. “Is that not happening anymore? Did you realize talking to a therapist would probably be more helpful?”
“I’m leaving tomorrow,” said Sasuke, ignoring that last bit. “I’ve already finished packing my things.”
“Did you... wanna maybe hang out before you go?” Sakura asked, her face growing softer. She tilted her head at the bag between her muscled biceps. “I could use some help unpacking all these supplies at the hospital.”
Sasuke shook his head. “I can’t.”
“Why? Too busy to pencil me into your busy schedule of standing around and scowling?”
He scowled at her. But then, his eyes flickered to the side, and he rubbed the back of his neck with an almost sheepish air.
“I’m actually, um... I promised I would help Naruto today.”
“You’re blowing me off to go run around with Naruto?” she exclaimed with a joking tilt, but her eyes were stern. “What, you two didn’t have enough quality time ripping each other’s arms off?”
“He asked for help and I said yes,” snapped Sasuke. “It’s the least I can do.”
“Because of... the arm thing?”
“Yes, because of the arm thing.” Sasuke rubbed the bridge of his nose. His eyes were bothering him again. “And a lot of other things I’ve done, too.”
Sakura pressed her lips together like she wanted to say more (and with Sakura there was always more she could say) but she clearly decided against it. Instead, she placed a gloved hand on Sasuke’s good shoulder, giving a gentle smile.
“Be a little nicer to yourself, Sasuke. Please?” She stepped back, propping her bag up against her hip. “You better not leave this goddamn village without saying goodbye to me first, you understand?”
He smirked and leaned back against the wall. “I’m trying to make a less dramatic exit than usual.”
“If you don’t say goodbye to me, I will punch a hole through your chest,” Sakura declared so bluntly that Sasuke suddenly recalled every time he had ever seen Sakura do that to other people. “And I’ll rip the other arm off too, for good measure.”
“I’ll see you later, then,” agreed Sasuke, nodding with a little bit of fear.
She grinned. “See you later, Sasuke. Try to have some fun.”
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Naruto said he was training out by the forest and would be done by early afternoon. But when he failed to show up in front of the Hokage’s office like he promised, Sasuke ventured out to investigate. It wasn’t hard to find Naruto, of course. With his Sharingan, Sasuke could spot his massive chakra reserves from miles away. But also, Naruto was exceptionally loud.
At first though, all Sasuke could hear was the pounding of a waterfall. Sasuke had been trying to use his Sharingan less these days, considering one was now the ever-present, wildly unpleasant violet Rinnegan. But seeing no other option, he tensed his brow, focusing on the familiar sensation of his dark iris shifting hue to red.
Through the dense bushes, Sasuke’s scarlet eye could see hundreds of Naruto-shaped chakra forms on the lake’s surface, flying through the air and disappearing in clouds of smoke.
Then, finally, the yelling.
“AaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” A powerful surge of chakra burst from a specific Naruto shape. Sasuke pushed aside the bushes and relaxed his Sharingan just in time to see the blonde-haired jinchuriki drive a Rasengan-powered blast through several dozen shadow clones, leaving jets of water and mist in his wake.
Naruto skidded to a halt, panting. He straightened his shoulders, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes; with that, the remaining shadow clones poofed out of existence. The waterfall pounded on his bare shoulders, water and sweat streaming down his whiskered chin. As he turned around, the First Hokage’s crystal necklace shimmered, situated between two twin scars running under his muscled chest.
Sasuke realized he was staring a little too long.
Naruto opened his baby blue eyes and spotted the Uchiha boy standing in the bushes. A massive grin spread across his face.
“Sasuke!” Naruto grabbed his orange jacket off a low hanging branch and jogged over. Sasuke watched him close the jacket over his distractingly damp chest, noting it was a bit of a struggle as Naruto maneuvered the zipper with his bandaged right arm.
“You weren’t where you said you’d be,” said Sasuke with a gruffer tone than he expected. He was still trying to work on that.
“Sorry, sorry,” Naruto laughed, wiping his ears with a spare towel. “Training took a little longer than I thought. I know I can get carried away, haha.”
Sasuke pushed aside his thoughts about the bandaged arm (and a few lingering other things) and asked, “Is this what you needed help with, then? Training?”
“Hm?” Naruto looked up, wide eyed, before laughing again. “What, no! I don’t usually need sparring partners, you know. The whole clone thing?”
“Right.”
“Nah nah, I just lost track of time. I asked for your help ‘cause there’s a few things in the village I wanna do today. Let’s see...” He cocked his head in thought, counting on prosthetic fingers. “Tenten just opened up her new weapons shop, and I wanted to check that out. I promised Shikamaru I’d watch his shogi game. And we gotta get ramen, of course,” he added the last bit with a smile, “before you leave tomorrow.”
“So you needed my help... to run errands?”
“Well, yeah!” Naruto threw his hands up in the air. “Errands are way more fun when you do ‘em with a friend!”
Sasuke sighed, a deep, long sigh. “...Okay. Let’s go... do your errands.”
Naruto grinned a genuine smile that made Sasuke’s chest tight.
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Tenten’s new shop was located just west of the main shopping market. Now that the Fourth Great Ninja War had ended, she finally had the time to open the store of her dreams. Of course, with the war over, there was significantly less demand for ninja weaponry, but Tenten was too excited to think that part through just yet.
“Is there... a specific reason we’re purchasing weapons?” Sasuke inquired as they crossed the street towards the humble storefront.
“It’s not so much about buying stuff,” replied a chipper Naruto. “It’s just about supporting our friends!”
The front door opened with a soft chime of bells, and Naruto marched right in, Sasuke following behind a bit reluctantly. Sasuke barely had time to register the sheer number of blades on the walls before they were both startled by a powerful, reverberating dog bark.
“Akamaru!” Naruto was able to shout before he was tackled to the ground by an enormous and equally elated white dog. “Okay, down buddy, I got you,” he laughed, giving head pats in between giant licks.
Gloved hands yanked Akamaru back, and his owner, Kiba, smiled down at Naruto. “Hey Uzumaki! What brings you here?”
“Just wanted to check out the new place!” Kiba pulled Naruto up from the ground and into a quick but firm bro hug. “What about you?”
“Well,” Kiba began, his eyes gleaming, “I had this sick idea for Tenten to make dog armor. You know, for Akamaru!”
A voice carried out from behind the counter, “And I’ve been telling him all day that it’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.” Two brown hair buns poked behind the register, and with a grunt Tenten popped up, hoisting a giant shuriken over her shoulders.
“It would be great and you know it!” Kiba shouted back, indignant.
“It would be huge! He’d barely be able to move in it.”
“It’s to keep him safe in battle! I wouldn’t bring it on, like, stealth missions.”
“We’re ninja, you moron!” Tenten exclaimed, slamming the shuriken onto the countertop with a clang. “Every mission is a stealth mission!”
Tenten finally glanced up and saw the new customers. “Oh, Naruto! And Sasuke too, welcome in!” She leaned against the counter, clearly excited to be playing shopkeeper. “What can I do for you guys?”
“The new shop looks great, Tenten!” Naruto said genuinely. “I’m really glad you got it up and running! And, also, my gear is looking a little worn.”
“Ooh, Naruto using ninja tools instead of just clobbering people with his head?” Tenten clasped her hands together. “That’s a treat, go check out the kunai over there!”
“Nice!” Naruto clapped Sasuke’s shoulder and said, “They’ve got swords too, if you wanna check those out.” He wandered across the shop, and Sasuke was suddenly acutely aware of how awkward things felt without his presence.
Kiba and Tenten both looked his way, and he realized with simmering dread that he was expected to make small talk with his peers.
“So Sasuke, it’s been a while since we all last saw you!” said Tenten. “I heard you were leaving the village again soon.”
Kiba snorted. “What, already? You found another kinky snake freak to live with?”
Sasuke ignored that retort and turned to Tenten, his brow furrowed. “How did you hear about that?”
“Oh, Sakura told me,” she replied, waving her hand. Goddamn it, Sakura. “We’ll all miss you, you know. I know Naruto was really excited to have you back.”
Sasuke fumbled for a way to explain his journey of penance and self-loathing without sounding ridiculous, but luckily Naruto came to his rescue.
“SASUKE!!” Naruto screeched from the other side of the store, frantically waving his arms. “YOU GOTTA COME SEE THESE, MAN!!”
Tenten gave Sasuke a pitying glance and a sigh. “Don’t you ever get tired of hearing that idiot yell all the time?”
“No,” replied Sasuke, shrugging, “Naruto and I are pretty used to screaming each other’s names.”
Sasuke tensed, his ears burning as he felt Kiba and Tenten’s piercing stares.
“AH no, I mean, uh,” he stammered, “from- you know- all the times we’ve fought, um… and tried to… to kill each other…”
He trailed off, and the stares continued.
“I’m gonna go see what Naruto needs,” he mumbled quickly and shuffled off to join his teammate.
Sasuke approached and immediately flinched back as Naruto whipped around with a kunai blade in hand, glowing steadily blue with Naruto’s wind chakra.
“Check this out!” Naruto exclaimed. “This one has great chakra flow, see? You can just THRUST it!” He made several stabbing motions, each accompanied by a “THRUST. THRUST. THRUST.”
Sasuke’s eye twitched as he valiantly attempted to think of any word other than “thrust.”
“I’m gonna get this one,” Naruto decided. He waved the kunai in the air to grab Tenten’s attention. “Tenten! How much for this one?”
“500 ryō ,” replied Tenten.
“Aw come on.” Naruto grinned. “Don’t I get a savior of the village discount?”
“499.”
He punched the air. “I’ll take it!”
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The Nara Clan shogi tournament was a yearly tradition in which the Hidden Leaf Village gathered to watch its prodigal son, Shikamaru, decimate everyone else at his favorite board game. Crowds convened in the courtyard of Shikamaru’s estate as he effortlessly beat challenger after challenger. The audience cheered with every win, Naruto enthusiastically hooting and hollering, and Sasuke offering polite (if awkward) applause.
In a lull between matches, Naruto flagged down a snack merchant making rounds and bought a stick of dango. Sasuke refused Naruto’s eager offer to buy him one too. Sweets weren’t really his thing anymore.
Naruto eagerly pulled apart the sticky sweet glob with his bandaged hand. The new fingers trembled, as if unsure how to behave.
After weighing on his mind all day, Sasuke couldn’t take it anymore. “Does it hurt?” he blurted out.
“Hm?” Naruto stared blankly, until his eyes darted down. “Oh! You mean... right!” He flexed his fingers, laughing, “Nah, it doesn’t hurt. Just feels a little weird still. Tsunade promised it’d feel like nothing changed, but it’s definitely different.”
Naruto noticed Sasuke’s deep frown remained, and he added kindly, “You know, Tsunade would make you one too, no problem. If you wanted.”
Sasuke’s frown dropped further into a scowl, and he glared at the floor. He couldn’t bring himself to say what he was thinking, what he had been thinking since the fight that stole their limbs in the first place. I don’t deserve it.
All he could offer was a curt, “It’s fine.”
“That’s fair,” Naruto sighed, shrugging. “I guess you only need the one hand to do Chidori.” Naruto spun the dango stick above his prosthetic open palm. “I need two for Rasengan.”
“At least,” Sasuke replied. “Usually more, with the clones.”
Naruto let out a big, hearty laugh, and Sasuke just stared, struggling to understand how his joke was that funny. Another match had begun, and a few nearby spectators gave a harsh shush.
Naruto clasped his bandaged hand around Sasuke’s shoulder, startling him back to reality. With a small squeeze, Naruto whispered, “Guess we gotta be quieter, huh? Hard for me to do.” Even hushed, Naruto’s raspy voice carried straight through to Sasuke’s ears and fogged up his thoughts.
They watched the rest of the match in silence, Naruto munching on his sweets and Sasuke doing his best to look ahead at the game, and not at the boy so close beside him.
After the final win, Naruto jumped up to congratulate Shikamaru on another year. “Please tell me you’re not here as a last minute competitor,” Shikamaru sighed, smiling.
“And take away your hard won victory of sitting on the couch doing nothing?” Naruto laughed. “Forget it!”
Sasuke watched the two friends interacting with a soft, reverent sadness. They joked around so comfortably. Shikamaru had been there for Naruto, by his side to support him as a friend should.
Sasuke had missed so much.
The rest of Shikamaru’s team came up to share congratulations, and Naruto greeted them all with hugs and smiles. He tried to wave Sasuke over, but Sasuke gave a small shake of his head. He’d had enough of struggling to talk with his former classmates when it felt so hard.
But to his surprise, Sasuke watched Naruto disentangle himself from the group and jog back over to the lone Uchiha boy. “C’mon,” he announced, “let’s go grab something to eat.”
“You don’t want to get dinner with them?” asked Sasuke, frowning.
“I’ve already got plans,” Naruto replied. “Getting ramen with you is last on the list!”
Sasuke felt his heart skip a few beats, and he couldn’t help but smile. “Right.” A beat passed, and then, “Wait, but you just ate all that candy.”
“Let’s go!”
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The Ichiraku Ramen stand had essentially raised Naruto, who grew up so ostracized by the village. But Teuchi and his daughter Ayame had always welcomed Naruto into their restaurant, knowing that despite the all-powerful demon fox spirit sealed away in his stomach, there was always extra room in there for food.
Naruto flung aside the entrance drapes, announcing his presence with a deep inhale and a profoundly satisfied, “Bruh!” Ayame was cooking solo today, as she often did lately to prepare for her aging father’s retirement, and she gave Naruto a delighted wave before getting to work on noodles. Naruto never had to order anymore. They always knew.
But as Naruto and Sasuke settled onto barstools, Sasuke noticed Ayame’s eyes flashing him with a cold, harsh glare. He was taken aback at first, but recognized that even with the altruism she showed Naruto, she was a villager just like everyone else, with every reason to distrust him.
Despite her thinly veiled anti-Uchiha hostility, she gently placed a bowl of pork and noodles in front of Naruto and ladled it in soup.
“Can we actually get another bowl, Ayame?” Naruto asked, holding up two bandaged fingers. “I brought Sasuke, too!”
“I noticed,” she replied coolly, but she gave a quick sigh and tightened the bandana around her neat ponytail. “I’ll get another one going.”
“Here,” said Naruto, sliding the bowl over to Sasuke. “You start while we’re waiting.”
“Really?” asked an incredulous Sasuke. “It’s... Naruto, it’s ramen.”
“I know!” Naruto laughed. “It’s just your last day in the village, so you’re the honored guest here. It’d be rude for me to take it.”
“Huh.” Table mannered Naruto, Sasuke thought. Who would’ve guessed? He pushed the bowl back defiantly. “I can’t, I know it’s your favorite.”
Polite and courteous Naruto could only exist for so long, and after an agonizing moment of contemplation, he cracked apart his chopsticks and declared definitively, “We’ll split it then!”
Sasuke scooted the bowl equidistant between the two of them and admitted, “I guess that’s fair.”
They both leaned in close to eat, and Sasuke struggled to keep from choking as Naruto slurped up noodles just inches from his face. The steam billowed up over their faces, Naruto’s eyes closed in a culinary bliss and Sasuke squinting against the heat. Being this close to Naruto, it honestly felt nice. Safe, even.
But Sasuke’s brief comfort dissipated. Sound faded away as blood pounded in his ears, and he realized with overwhelming horror that the moment felt almost... intimate.
He panicked. Panic is a kind word. In reality, he flung himself back upright, nearly falling off his stool and spluttering soup across the counter. Naruto glanced up in surprise, noodles still half-shoved into chipmunk cheeks.
“You good, man?” Naruto asked through a mouthful.
“Fine,” Sasuke gasped, fighting down a blush. “I’m fine.”
“Don’t make a mess!” Ayame cried from across the kitchen, pointing an accusatory spoon. “Unless you wanna pay by cleaning the floors!”
“Sorry, Ayame!” Naruto gave a few pity slaps to Sasuke’s back, but his humiliated companion simply slid the bowl away and glowered.
“Take the rest,” Sasuke mumbled. “I’m not hungry anymore.”
Naruto reluctantly obliged and inhaled the rest of the bowl, as well as gladly accepting the second bowl when it was ready to devour as well. Sasuke looked around at anywhere else, taking in the small ramen stand’s decor with fresh eyes.
The bright posters, the old photographs (Naruto was posed in several), the greasy stains on the walls. Childhood images flashed by, of him and his teammates here after missions, and he suddenly felt like a large man in a child’s room. Everything looked like he remembered it, but he was so far gone from those days that he clawed at the memories like a fading dream, unsure if they really happened at all.
“It’s been a long time,” he muttered, more to himself than anything.
“Right?” Naruto drained the last dregs of soup from the bowl and pounded it down with a belch and a grin. “You know, I always wished you’d come get ramen with me more often. But I’m glad you’re here now.”
“I wasn’t good company back then,” grumbled Sasuke, folding his arms. “Hell, I’m still terrible company now.”
“No way!” Naruto exclaimed. “Sasuke, I love hanging out with you. I always have.”
“Sure you did,” Sasuke sneered, harsher than he expected. He was angry, he realized, but at what he wasn’t sure. “What’s your favorite memory of me, Naruto? Was it when I tried to kill you, or when I tried to kill you? Or how about that one time I tried to kill you?”
“Sasuke.” Naruto’s face dropped into a surprisingly tense glare, and he began gravely, “I wasn’t exactly popular when I was a kid, you know that. People didn’t accept me,” his hand grazed over his chest, and down towards his stomach, “and they were afraid of me. Out of everyone in the village, everyone in school... you were the only person to treat me like I was normal.”
“Naruto, I treated you like shit!” Sasuke cried.
“Sure, you looked at me like I was something you’d scrape off your shoe. But it was no different from how you looked at anyone else. I wasn’t a danger, I wasn’t a freak to you. I was just... Naruto.”
Sasuke leaned back, words catching in his throat like a lump. “I... I don’t...”
“I’ve always wanted to just be Naruto for you. To be a friend, someone loyal who’d never abandon you.”
He stopped for a moment to catch his breath, biting his lip in an attempt to capture racing thoughts, before adding in a softer tone, “Someone who could make you smile.”
A palpable silence fell over them both.
“...am I really your friend?” Sasuke whispered with a slight tremble.
“Of course.” Naruto reached out his real hand and brushed against Sasuke’s remaining wrist. “Sasuke, you’re my best friend. I care about you, no matter what.”
“You care about all your friends,” Sasuke threw back weakly.
“That’s my ninja way.” Naruto smiled, wide and true. “And you’re no exception. Believe it.”
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Night had fallen while they were eating, and they stepped out of the ramen stand into chill evening air. Naruto had opened his froggy wallet to reveal he had spent most of his money at Tenten’s shop and the last of it on dango, so Sasuke covered the cost of the meal. But he figured it was the least he could do.
The sudden boom of an explosion sent them into an acute stress response. Sasuke clutched his sword hilt with white knuckles, his Sharingan reactively swirling. Naruto dropped into a straddle stance and was already forming a hand seal when he looked up... and he chuckled.
“Relax,” he sighed, pointing at the sky. Sasuke followed his gaze, seeing the remnants of an amber firework blast fading into the stars. Two more followed in the shapes of shuriken, each accompanied by a startling boom. “Looks like we got some issues to work through,” Naruto joked with a sheepish grin.
“Just fireworks.” Sasuke blinked his Sharingan away and forced himself to relax. Fighting alien gods in a ninja war will do that sort of thing to you. He scratched his chin idly, wondering aloud, “Why would there be fireworks tonight?”
Naruto said nothing and stared up at the sky.
“Naruto?”
“It’s Jiraiya’s birthday today,” he murmured eventually, his rough voice solemn and distant. “Tsunade petitioned his birthday as a holiday pretty soon after he died.”
“Oh.” Sasuke remembered meeting the old sage, but he hadn’t known him very well. It was Naruto who studied under him for years, in the desperate attempt to keep up with Sasuke’s growing power. “I didn’t know.”
“I told her if we were really honoring Jiraiya, the fireworks should be in the shape of naked ladies,” Naruto joked, but Sasuke could see his jaw was clenched. “But that was a pretty clear no go, so we went with frogs.” On cue, a firework in the shape of a little cartoon frog burst in the air.
“An honor’s still an honor,” Sasuke offered, unsure of how to express condolences for the man he barely knew.
“Yeah.” Naruto wiped his face, and turned to Sasuke with a weak smile. “He’d appreciate that I tried, at least.”
The smile quickly faded, and Naruto rubbed his bandaged wrist. “I... I have something to admit to you. Obviously I wanted to see you before you left, that’s completely true. But aside from that, honestly...”
His voice cracked, vulnerable. “I just didn’t wanna be alone today.”
“Naruto...”
“I know it’s selfish,” Naruto muttered with a rueful bite. “And you’d have every right to think I’m a loser for it, but– oh!”
Naruto let out a gasp as Sasuke cut him off with a fierce hug, as tight as a single arm could hold. “You’re not a loser, Naruto,” Sasuke breathed against Naruto’s ear. After a moment to register that this was really happening, Naruto hugged him back just as tight.
“I don’t want you to leave,” came the sniffled voice buried into Sasuke’s shoulder.
Before he could even think, Sasuke heard himself responding, “I don’t want to go.”
He pulled back, staring into Naruto’s sparkling eyes. He entwined his fingers with Naruto’s right hand, real skin against skin. And Sasuke smiled, a warm, genuine smile.
“I want to stay and be here for you,” said Sasuke. “Thank you, Naruto. For bringing me home.”
Naruto quit holding back and wept openly, beaming as the tears poured down his cheeks. “You’re welcome,” he got out through snot, violently blowing his nose into his jacket sleeve. “Glad to have you back.”
The fireworks soared through the air, a dazzling finale of frogs and shuriken. Naruto and Sasuke watched from the street corner, leaning against each other’s shoulders. Their foreheads brushed together, and Sasuke felt warm and safe.
Sasuke thought briefly about Sakura’s earlier wish, that he be kinder to himself. If Naruto could look him in the eyes and still be this kind, after all that had happened...
...then he wanted to try to.
THE END
Drawing also by Meredith.