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When Naruto was finally able to bring Sasuke back to the village, he felt he had triumphed. He felt that all the pain, suffering, and loneliness he had endured for years had not been in vain. Finally, his efforts had borne fruit, and he would no longer be alone. He would fulfill his goals with Sasuke by his side, supporting him as an eternal pillar in his life.
Now, waiting for him with his back against a tree in the middle of the forest, he felt himself crumbling, yet he put all his will into staying composed. Now, he felt like a great failure.
For the first time, he wondered if he had confused bringing him back with holding him back. Sasuke was there, in the village. Breathing the same air, and yet, Naruto felt him as distant as he had ever felt him.
Naruto held the hard, scratched metal of Sasuke's headband that he had left behind the first time he fled the village after that brutal fight. Back when Naruto was so weak he couldn't do anything to stop him. His hand trembled, as if he had been holding a weight all day that was too much for his exhausted body.
He naively believed that this time he would be strong enough to make Sasuke stay, but he was still the same weak boy who kept losing Sasuke over and over again.
He had learned to endure pain; he had been forced to do so since he was a child. But this pain was different. It wasn't the pain of absence; it was the pain of having him close, just inches away, able to reach him by simply stretching out his hand, and yet still being unable to truly have him.
He heard footsteps approaching lightly, as silent as a stealthy predator. Naruto closed his eyes for a moment, breathing deeply, trying to calm his mind and, more importantly, his aching heart. When he opened them, Sasuke's sublime face appeared in his field of vision, trapping him like a spider traps a fly in its web.
“I didn't think you’d come to say goodbye,” Sasuke said then, breaking the silence that was suffocating Naruto.
'Goodbye' was a heavy word; deep down, Naruto thought about how he didn't want to say goodbye to Sasuke. Farewells were painful, they always had been. Although every time, Naruto never actually said the words, the goodbye was always there, like a thick shadow in his heart. He never said goodbye to his parents, he never said goodbye to his master, but the farewell had been there nonetheless.
Naruto didn't trust his own words, so he didn't speak. He reached out his hand, handing Sasuke his headband. It took a great effort to say goodbye to that as well, but it didn't belong to him. It didn't belong to him despite having been with him for years.
Sasuke looked at him with surprise.
“You still have it?” he asked, his voice unable to hide his astonishment.
Perhaps he was surprised by the tenacity with which Naruto had clung to that single memory Sasuke left behind. Perhaps he was surprised by how Naruto had depended on it to find the strength to continue when he had none left. Or perhaps he simply thought it was ridiculous. Naruto would never know.
Naruto carefully watched Sasuke's expression, which didn't reveal much. It didn't seem as though leaving affected him that much; Naruto might even say he looked relieved.
“When I saw you suffer, it hurt me too,” Sasuke had said in their last battle; Naruto remembered it perfectly. Those words still lingered, resonating in his mind like a prayer.
So, Sasuke, don't you see it now? Don't you feel my pain? Doesn't it hurt you?
It seemed not.
“I’m giving this back to you,” Naruto said, forcing a faint smile that tugged at his lips.
“I’ll hang on to it until we have our real fight,” Sasuke replied, like a vow.
And Naruto would wait for it. He would remember those words as a purpose.
When Sasuke left, the sun shone intensely, but all that heat could not melt the fragile frost spreading across Naruto's heart.