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“You’re such a loser,” Sasuke mumbled as the painstakingly familiar blonde shoved his foot through the closing elevator doors, causing the metal to come to a screeching halt, only for the boy to pry open the doors and step into the elevator. “I can’t even get away from you for one second, can I?”
Naruto huffed, crossing his arms in an exaggerated tone. “Yeah, well, I don’t exactly feel like being in the same room as you either! I just have a really important meeting with Grandma Tsunade to get to!”
The elevator slowly started to lift soon after Naruto pressed a floor button - he was headed to the very top where Lady Tsunade’s office overlooked the entirety of the Leaf Village. Sasuke sighed once more once he realized that he was getting off just one floor before Naruto, meaning the two were in the small space for far longer than either of them cared to be.
Naruto, in all his ingenuity, decided to start making large swaying movements in the elevator, causing the metal to scrape against its tracks as it lifted. Sasuke glared at his annoying friend, but stayed silent. It was easier to let Naruto do his thing instead of engaging in a fight. Especially since Sasuke had better things to do at the moment. He was headed to meet someone in the Department of Konohagakure Education to officially acquire a mentor, which would further his skill and take his status to a new level entirely. It was an important task that needed to get done, and Sasuke had no intentions of letting Naruto drag him into an argument that would ultimately end in punches being thrown.
That plan, however, quickly fell apart once Naruto began jumping up and down in the elevator and causing a considerable sway in the elevator, which made Sasuke even more agitated than before. When the elevator gears began making a loud grinding noise and Naruto failed to stop creating more problems, the boy finally spoke up.
“Could you quit it?!” Sasuke snapped, sending a deadly glare toward the boy standing across from him. “You’re going to break the damn elevator!”
Naruto paused his shenanigans for a moment, giggled, and pointed at Sasuke dramatically. “You’re scared!” He cried, “you’re scared of the elevator breaking!” His laughing got louder as he began jumping with all his might, sending the elevator into an even more concerning sway.
“N-No I’m not!” Sasuke stammered out, trying to defend himself, “I just don’t want to be stuck here with you when you inevitably break it!”
Naruto laughed. “It’s not gonna break, believe it!”
Sasuke rushed at Naruto, slamming the boy against the wall. The force of the impact caused the elevator to sway even more than it did before - the gears created a sickeningly sharp sound that sent a wave of pain through both Sasuke and Naruto’s ears as the elevator slowed to a stop. Sasuke glanced at the glowing red number on the screen, which read floor 7. Just barely halfway to the top of the building. When the doors did not open to let on another passenger, Naruto shoved Sasuke off of him with a reddening face.
“Nice going Sasuke, you broke it!” Naruto taunted, sticking his tongue out at the boy. Sasuke scoffed at the childish remark and crossed his arms, leaning against the wall of the metal container. “It’s not broken, idiot, it’s just stuck.”
The sentence struck an idea into Naruto’s small brain, who then presented his idea to Sasuke. “I know!” He beamed, “if we just jump some more, surely it’ll start again!”
Before Sasuke could even begin to protest the terrible idea, Naruto leaped into the air and slammed onto the floor with a powerful force.
The elevator grinded against the tracks and, before either of the boys could even blink, began to fall rapidly.
The two were lucky that the elevator only fell two floors - any more and they surely would have sustained some pretty bad injuries. Instead, the boys were tossed into the air and then forced to the ground with a painful thud. Naruto groaned, gripping his own knee that had unfortunately broken the fall of the rest of him, and whined at Sasuke. Sasuke fell silently and became very aware of how his body had become entangled with Naruto’s during the fall, a blush creeping on his cheeks as he pulled himself away and back to a standing position. He kicked Naruto’s side with just enough force for Naruto to grunt in annoyance.
“You’re such a loser,” Sasuke complained, “now I’m going to miss my one shot at a mentorship. Thanks for nothing.”
“It’s not my fault!” Naruto tried to say through the pain as he shoved himself off the ground, “you were totally scared of the elevator!”
“Yeah, and because you just can’t stop being a damn child for
one damn minute
, we’re now stuck in here for god-knows how long!” Sasuke barked, a flame of rage igniting inside of his chest. “This is all your fault!”
Naruto felt his own anger ignite as he stood up. “Well maybe if you weren’t such a
jerk
, we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with!”
“That makes no sense, idiot! This started because you always have to cause problems!” Sasuke raised his voice at Naruto, who was only determined to be louder than his enemy.
“You’re the one always causing problems!” Naruto cried, “I haven’t done a single thing to deserve your insults and complaining!”
“ YOU JUST JUMPED ON THE ELEVATOR AND BROKE IT!” Sasuke screamed, lunging at Naruto. The two collided and pushed into the wall as they continued screaming at each other, voices becoming an incomprehensible mess and throwing insults at each other in desperation. Naruto pushed back against Sasuke and was able to get the upper hand, allowing him to push his opponent across the elevator and slam him into the wall.
The force of the push caused the elevator to once again grind against the tracks, which made both boys come to an instant, silent halt.
After a few seconds of silence, Sasuke spoke up gently.
“We can fight later, we just need to get out of here first. Fighting is clearly only making things worse,” Sasuke said with the smallest hint of superiority in his voice. Naruto furrowed his brow and stepped back, grumbling to himself.
Sasuke slowly pushed himself off of the wall and turned to the buttons. He spotted an emergency call button and pushed it, which summoned a loud ringing into the elevator along with a quick flashing light. It ceased after a few seconds, making Sasuke believe that someone had been notified of the broken elevator.
“This building has tons of people in it and there’s only like, two elevators,” Naruto said as he watched the emergency call button glow gently after Sasuke’s finger left it, “so we shouldn’t be here for too long before someone finds us.”
“Finding us will be no problem,” Sasuke sighed, “it’s getting us out of here that will be an issue.”
Almost 45 minutes later, the two were still stuck in the elevator.
A lady had come by after Naruto pressed the emergency call button a third time, yelling down the shaft that she had notified the police and that they were sending some ninja to come assist them. Thirty minutes later, both Naruto and Sasuke had lost faith in the rescue mission.
“They totally forgot about us,” Naruto whined, pushing his head against the wall. He was sitting down with his back resting against the elevator wall and legs spread out as far as he could - Sasuke, on the other hand, was sitting with his knees to his chest in the corner. He was mindlessly drawing designs with his fingernail into his skin, watching the pressure of his nail create the faintest trail across his flesh.
“Now I’ll never get a mentorship,” Sasuke said under his breath, resting his head against the wall. “Great.”
“Oh come on,” Naruto groaned, “you’re like, the best ninja ever. There’s tons of mentors out there for you.” Ignoring the compliment entirely, Sasuke scoffed.
“I don’t need just anyone, I need the best mentor. If I’m going to succeed in my goal, I’m going to need the best help I can get.” The dark-haired boy pressed his fingernail into his skin deeper, creating a redder mark that stung with the smallest point of pain.
“Your goal?” Naruto questioned before the memory came back to him, “Oh! You mean your brother, right?”
Sasuke nodded lightly.
“I dunno what your deal with him is but I think you’ll beat him,” Naruto beamed, “you’re pretty damn good, Sasuke!”
“Not as good as Itachi,” Sasuke responded with a chill in his voice. Naruto furrowed his brow quizzically and tilted his head. “You mean Itachi is better than you? He’s gotta be really good, then, huh?”
Sasuke scoffed again. “Itachi murdered our family in cold blood. He took away everything from me in the blink of an eye. He is far superior than me. He was able to take down every member of our clan without a fight.” Memories of the unfortunate night came flooding back to Sasuke’s mind, which were then pushed back forcefully. “He’s likely one of the strongest ninja alive.”
“Oh.” Naruto looked at the floor, feet tapping against the carpet mindlessly.
“Well, if it’s any help, Sasuke,” Naruto looked back up with a smile, “I think you’ll totally kick his ass!”
Sasuke chuckled, the faintest indication of a smile appearing on his lips.
“The reason I fight you is because you are a talented ninja, Naruto,” Sasuke said, making eye contact with the boy. “I respect you as a fighter. I learn from our fights.”
“Of course! We’re teammates!” Naruto grinned, unaware that Sasuke was referring to the many emotional fights that the two had shared over the years. The fights that ended in screaming and shed tears, the ones that sent Sasuke home to his empty estate with a heart aching for familial consolement.
“You’re so ridiculous,” he sighed, resting his head against his knee. Naruto was about to respond with an insult, but was cut off with a surprisingly emotional question from his counterpart. “How are you always so positive? So… encouraged?”
Naruto pondered the question for a moment before answering.
“I don’t really have any other option, y’know?”
Sasuke furrowed his brow.
“Like,” Naruto sighed in thought, “I would just be so mad at the world all the time if I didn’t find reasons to be motivated. I think it’s gotta be exhausting to be so full of hate all the time, right?”
“But… what… what motivates you, then?”
Naruto shrugged, fidgeting with the string on his jacket. “I dunno, it changes a lot. I want to help people and be like, someone people can turn to when they need it, y’know? And if I can be that person, even for an hour while I complete their mission, then it’s enough, I guess.” He pulled his knees to his chest, subconsciously mirroring the boy across from him. “Enough to get me to the next mission, at least.”
Sasuke hummed in response. “You don’t have any parents,” he said lightly.
“Thanks for the reminder,” Naruto grumbled and rubbed the back of his neck.
“You don’t get what it’s like to have your entire family ripped from you the way I did.”
Naruto shook his head. “I don’t, you’re right.”
Sasuke pulled his head up off his knees and leaned it against the wall, gazing up to the ceiling and looking into the light. “Until that day, my motivation for life was living up to the Uchiha name and making my family proud.” He looked down. “I don’t have that any longer. There is no family to be proud of me, and there is no Uchiha name to live up to.”
“Just ‘cause they’re not alive anymore doesn’t mean there’s no reputation, though,” Naruto commented. “The Uchiha are really well known for being some of the best ninja ever, right?”
Sasuke shrugged. “Could they really be the best ninja ever if they were massacred by one man in a single night?”
They both fell silent after that, taking in the conversation. Naruto continued thinking about what Sasuke was going through - he always knew that the boy struggled with relationships because of his determination to kill Itachi. He was only focused on that one thing, never bothering to stop for a single second and consider any other possibility. Naruto didn’t know what that felt like, to lose something so important to him, but he knew what loneliness felt like. It was heartbreaking, depressing, and deadly. Feeling isolated from everyone around you was a surefire way to make you hate the world in its entirety.
“I think you gotta stop focusing so hard on the whole Itachi thing,” Naruto spoke truthfully. “After all, even if you do kill him, there’s still a whole lifetime after that.”
Sasuke shrugged. “There’s nothing else to focus on.”
Naruto smiled lightly, stretching his legs out and touching the tip of Sasuke’s shoe with his own. “You could just focus on helping others! Rebuild the Uchiha name, y’know?”
Sasuke looked up and met Naruto’s eye. A faint blush rose to his cheeks as he nodded slowly.
“Yeah. Maybe.”