Chapter Text
When Naruto told him everything, about the future, about Uchiha, about the Fourth Great War, Sasuke didn't call out on the sheer absurdity, didn't chase Naruto out of his own apartment and call him a liar, didn't lunge for his throat and snap his neck. The temptation was great but he put down his tea and asked with a morbid sort of serenity that he didn't feel. "Why are you telling me this?"
Just yesterday, Naruto could only be described with two words: loud and obnoxious. He was simple and transparent that way. At the end of the day, Naruto was just a lonely kid seeking attention.
Granted, Sasuke suspected that underneath all the serious atmosphere he exuded tonight, the lonely kid was still there somewhere, but there was more to him now. It was especially obvious in the way Naruto regarded him from across the seat with his own tea in hand. Unpredictable and inscrutable—Sasuke couldn't get a read on him even if he tried.
"I gave you a choice," Naruto said. For someone who had just gotten a revelation of the future, he seemed entirely too calm. In the light of what he had just said, the tranquility only seemed eerie.
Sasuke looked down at his tea. His grip on the glass was trembling. It took all of his power to not break down in the face of the 'truth' and it was starting to wear down on him.
"A choice," he scoffed. To be exact, what Naruto gave him was an illusion.
Come to my home after class, Naruto had said. If you want to know the truth about Uchiha.
And here he was, in the rundown apartment that Naruto generously called 'home'.
"You didn't give me any choice," his eyes flicked back from the rippled surface of the tea to the stranger of a boy in front of him. "And you know that."
Naruto shrugged. "We are two important individuals that have been kept under watch by the Third." His eyes narrowed. "I can't come to your house without raising some alarms."
"But I can come to yours?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"They don't care about me. But they pay a lot of attention to you."
"You mean Danzo."
Naruto didn't say anything but it was a confirmation enough. Sasuke snarled, ignoring the cracks forming in his teacup.
Danzo, he repeated the name in his head. The man behind everything. The man who, according to Naruto, had been the one who caused the Uchiha Massacre for his own twisted, perverse agenda. Sasuke had been trying to keep the murderous urge at bay but now that the name was brought to his attention again with no more stories of the future to distract him from it, he couldn't keep it from spilling out.
"I am going to kill him."
Here, Naruto finally set down his tea and lifted his head. The tiny movement was languid but it didn't offset the grave atmosphere he set between the two of them.
"Sasuke," he said. For no reason at all, Sasuke shuddered. "I'll kill him for you."
Sasuke flinched back, the words surprised him enough to drain the rage out of him. Out of all the things Naruto said tonight: the future, the truth, the weight of the world, somehow it was the willingness to commit murder that actually got to him. He couldn't help it.
He laughed.
Naruto didn't say anything, merely took another sip of his tea. By the time the choked-up laughter finally stopped, his cup was empty.
A thought suddenly struck him.
"What's in the tea?" Sasuke asked, suspicious.
When Naruto had first served him the tea, Sasuke had declined but Naruto had insisted, saying, You'll need it.
"Some calming drought," Naruto answered easily. "And something to alleviate headaches."
It was the only admission that this whole thing shook Naruto as much as it did to Sasuke. He looked down on his tea, feeling rueful for breaking the cup.
"I still have some more," Naruto said, reading his mind. He got up and plucked a cup from his dusty shelf. To Sasuke's relief, he wiped it first before pouring some tea on it. He poured it into his own cup too, holding the cup like it was his lifeline.
The tea tasted bitter but that was exactly how Sasuke liked it. He didn't speak until he drank the whole thing in one shot. "Naruto," he said, feeling in more control of himself once more. "Why are you telling me all this? Why did you give me the choice?"
Naruto tapped his fingers against the table. "There are two reasons." He held up a finger. "First, in the future, you are the person I can trust the most." Sasuke took note of the use of the present tense. "The second reason is," he lowered his hand, hesitating. "I have a hypothesis. About the reason why I saw the future. I thought you could see the future too."
Something vulnerable appeared on his face but it quickly disappeared before Sasuke could call out on it. He continued flippantly, as if the slight show of weakness had been an illusion. "But if it's not you, then perhaps there's someone else out there saw the future."
Sasuke couldn't help but lean in. "Who is it?"
"Like I said," Naruto said, dragging his words slowly. "It’s just a hypothesis."
"Indulge me."
"Look at the time," Naruto said, getting up from his seat. He smiled, saccharine. His tone turned childishly petulant and high-pitched, and he rudely pointed a finger. "Aren't you overstaying your welcome?"
In a blink of an eye, he transformed back into the loud obnoxious kid that Sasuke was all too familiar with. The sudden change almost made him staggered back.
He turned to the clock hanging on the wall. Naruto was right, he should be home at this time. But then, something else caught his attention. Or rather, what didn't exist there did.
For a noisy kid with an intense personality, Naruto's apartment was bare. His 'home' only consisted of two small rooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen. Its only noticeable feature was the fridge and the potted plants hanging in the corner. From where he could see, the bedroom at least contained a fraction of Naruto's personality but otherwise, it wasn't a proper place for a kid to live in.
Sitting across him, Naruto's stance was gradually turning defensive. Sasuke stopped his investigation immediately. He already got his answer anyway.
"Come live with me," he said.
He said it straight-forwardly to catch Naruto off guard and he succeeded. He relished the open look of surprise on Naruto's face.
"I'll help you pack," Sasuke said and didn't wait for his answer. Naruto only had a few noteworthy stuff: clothes, a frog-themed toothbrush, an alarming dose of instant ramen, and some posters on the wall. He threw them all into one plastic bag, ignoring Naruto's indignant protest the whole time.
"Will you please stop," Naruto said, the barest hint of frustration seeping into his voice. This was the most expressive of him since he threw out that whole future fiasco to Sasuke's face. "Did you not hear what I said?"
"You keep saying that but what are they going to do to us?" He slung the plastic over his shoulder, determined.
For a worrying minute, Naruto looked like he would fight him on this. If it escalated into something physical, Sasuke didn't have the confidence he could win. But then the moment passed and Naruto's shoulder sagged. He went to the shelf in the kitchen and picked up some more stuff.
"I am going to need more tea," he answered Sasuke's questioning stare.
Sasuke nodded in understanding.
It wasn't until his stuff was settled and the futon was spread that his undiluted mind finally caught up to him and Naruto realized, Oh, I've never been to the Uchiha compound before.
In the future, Sasuke ran away from Konoha to join Orochimaru, leaving his home empty for years, and then the compound was demolished in the fight against Pain along with everything else. Sasuke never mentioned the destruction of his home. He didn't have to. He stayed with Sakura when he occasionally came back to Konoha.
Naruto hadn't explained any of this to Sasuke.
One at a time, he promised himself.
He sat up, feeling too restless to sleep. Something about closing his eyes in a space where a massacre used to take place didn't sit right with him. Next to him, Sasuke was out cold, sprawling in a way that didn't fit his ice prince image. Sakura would love to see this, Naruto thought, and he turned his head to the window.
Outside, there were two ANBU hovering.
What are they going to do to us? Sasuke's words echoed in his mind. Naruto hadn't been worried about the ANBU.
It was embarrassing to admit this himself, but in the future, people adored him to a fanatical degree (Shikamaru's words, not his). The current Konoha was the exact opposite. This fact unfortunately didn't change at least until he passed the genin exam.
Naruto's stomach stirred unpleasantly at the thought. Right, he still had the genin exam to deal with before he could afford to care about Danzo.
One at a time.
Naruto pushed away the blanket and sat up straighter. There was no point in chasing sleep at this point so he might as well cross out one of the tasks in his list.
He closed his eyes.
When he opened them up, Kurama's cage greeted him.
"Brat," Kurama acknowledged.
Naruto exhaled. This was difficult in more ways than one.
"You heard the whole thing," he said, his own voice sounded distant.
Kurama brought his face closer. "Tell me more."