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“Well, I still believe in it.”
Naruto looks up at his best friend in surprise. Sasuke is grabbing pebbles and throwing them into the river, barely even trying to skip them over the surface. Maybe he’s just… trying not to look at him.
“C’mon, Sasuke—” He doesn’t quite know what he’s trying to say.
That Sasuke has never believed in the future of Konoha, has never spoken positively about him wanting to change the world. Maybe Naruto was kidding himself too, thinking he could.
His Hokage cloak weighs heavily. Perhaps, while it’s lying on the grass to keep them from sitting on the ground, it can finally be something simpler. He can finally be something simpler.
He has spent his entire life believing in a different future. Has spent years convincing Sasuke to believe in the same; without success. They never agreed. Sasuke quietly accepted defeat and let himself be taken in, but Naruto— until this day, he was sure that he’d never been able to convince him.
Maybe that’s what he wants to say. He doesn’t.
“What?” Sasuke asks him.
He shrugs.
“You think too big,” Sasuke tells him.
“Yeah, yeah, everything I do is stu—”
“Shut up,” he tells him.
Naruto does.
Sasuke glances at him. He’s got his knees up to his chin, his arm resting on them, so he can only see his eyes above his shoulder. Naruto has always loved his eyes. The black of them. The red of them. The newly found purple. It’s the way Sasuke looks at him, more than anything.
At some point, the way Sasuke looked at him was the only thing he’d had to convince himself that Sasuke still, in some way, cared about him. They gave it away, in spite of what Sasuke would have liked him to believe.
Now, Sasuke tells him: “How many orphans are living on their own now?”
“None.”
“Any massacre planned?”
Naruto looks at him in horror. “What the fuck. No. No there’s not. Sasuke—“
“Well, that was the past. So.”
Naruto blinks at him. It’s not often that Sasuke tries to convince him of a hopeful future; that he’s the one spreading optimism. Perhaps, it’s the first time. And don’t get him wrong; he knows Sasuke to be kind hearted. He wouldn’t have gone against the entire world for him if he wasn’t.
Now, it’s Naruto’s turn to grab a pebble and skip it over the water. He can feel he’s red in the neck. It’s overwhelming. Sasuke’s words are a compliment if he’s ever heard one.
“Changed my future too.”
Naruto kind of wants to cry. Sasuke has never really said that out loud; though they both know it to be true. Perhaps Naruto has never doubted himself like this either.
“I know I wouldn’t be here, if it wasn’t for you. I’m just one person— but one person at a time y—“
“You’re not.”
Sasuke raises an eyebrow. “Not a person?”
“Asshole,” he laughs. “Not just a person. You were— you are everything. I would have destroyed the future of the world, if it meant saving yours.”
Now, Sasuke seems taken aback. He must have known that, right? Hadn’t he made that clear?
“Sasuke, c’mon— You knew that already—”
“Yeah,” Sasuke’s voice sounds hoarse.
There’s more to it.
Naruto scoots closer to him and lays his hand on Sasuke’s. He half expects him to pull back, but Sasuke doesn’t. “I’d do it again. Ten times over.”
“Please don’t.”
“It’s worth it. Being here with you, it’s worth it.”
Sasuke huffs. “Welcome back, you optimistic fuck.”
Naruto laughs with him, pinching Sasuke’s hand. He wants to say that he’s only optimistic because of him. He wants to say thank you. Instead, he lets his head fall to the side and allows himself to lean on Sasuke’s shoulder.
Sasuke’s breath catches but he doesn’t pull away.
He’s been allowing a lot, today, recently. He’s been trying to give Naruto soft words and time and food and attention— not out of guilt but… who knows… maybe just because it’s them. Maybe he just wants to. It’s been helping. It’s been everything.
Naruto quietly lies on his shoulder, for a while. He tries to focus on the river and the rustling leaves, but instead he hears Sasuke’s words ringing through his head and his heartbeat overpowering it all.
Perhaps he does believe in a different future.
Maybe he should start small.
Maybe he should start with them.
Sasuke has always been his lifeline, so why not.
Naruto turns his head and — perhaps too slowly or clumsily, yet finally — and brings his lips to Sasuke’s skin. Half on his cheek, half on his jawbone, he kisses Sasuke’s soft face. It’s simple, yet his heart skyrockets.
It takes one or two seconds for Sasuke to move, maybe even for him to realise what just happened. It takes everything for Naruto not to look away. To excuse himself or to run. Instead, he waits, lying with his face towards the person he cares about most.
And eventually, Sasuke turns to him.
They’re close, their noses almost touching. Sasuke just looks at him, for a second, unsure of what to say.
The thing is, Sasuke's eyes have always given him away. Maybe they’re the reason that Naruto has never given up on a future. Never given up on them.
It’s his eyes that have Naruto assured now too, before Sasuke even replies. The look Sasuke gives him has him warm, giddy. So much, that when — finally, for the first time of many — Sasuke kisses him, he has to kiss the smile off his face.