The quiet of Konoha was unlike any silence Naruto had ever known.
After the war, the streets seemed to hum with a different kind of stillness — one that felt distant, too vast, as though the village was holding its breath. The dust had settled, the rubble cleared, and yet there was a gaping hole inside Naruto that he couldn’t quite fill.
The village was quiet now, as the night deepened, but his thoughts were anything but still. His mind kept wandering back to Sasuke, the one person he couldn’t shake off, even after all these years.
Sasuke had come back, yes, even if only for a short while. He would occasionally visit the village, always with an itch to leave almost immediately. Each time, Naruto would try to find him, at least catch-up. But Sasuke was different now. He was here, but not in the way Naruto had hoped. He had always carried that feeling – a yearning that burned just beneath the surface, a desire to reach Sasuke, to hold him, to make him stay.
There were days when Sasuke’s presence felt like a distant echo, brief flashes when their eyes would meet, and in that glance, there would be something — something unspoken, heavy with all the things they couldn’t express. But those moments were fleeting like a storm passing before either of them could reach out.
Naruto had thought the war would be the end of it. After everything — after the bloodshed, the violence, the pain — he’d convinced himself things would finally settle. Sasuke would be back. They would be back. The team, the bond, the partnership. But now… now, he wasn’t so sure.
The rumors were the worst part. He heard them, whispered among the villagers, but he could never quite ignore them. Sasuke had found someone. Someone to share his journey. Someone who could take the space beside him — the space Naruto had always wanted to fill. That he wasn’t alone anymore. Naruto knew he had no right to feel this way — Sasuke was free to do whatever he wanted, and the distance between them had always been a barrier. Still, the idea of Sasuke with someone else gnawed at him.
And it’s confusing Naruto. He should be happy. Sasuke was his best friend , and he should be glad that Sasuke had finally found someone — a companion, a partner, someone who could care for him in ways he couldn’t.
It hurt more than he could put into words, and he tried not to think about it. He told himself that he didn’t have the right to feel jealous , that he had no claim over Sasuke. But the idea that someone else might be by his side — it felt like something sharp, something that cut deeper than anything Naruto had faced in battle.
What if he found someone better? Someone who could truly understand him? Naruto squeezed his eyes shut. He didn’t know why this thought bothered him so much. Maybe it was because he had always believed Sasuke needed him in some way. And maybe… just maybe, he had begun to believe that he needed Sasuke more than he ever realized.
Later that night, when the silence felt too loud, Naruto sat on the edge of his bed, eyes drifting to the bedside table. There, nestled between the clutter of papers and the lamp, was a small picture frame — one of Team 7. He hadn’t looked at it in weeks, maybe months. But tonight, the image felt heavy in his chest, as if it was holding something he wasn’t ready to face.
The photo was old, taken long before Sasuke left the village the first time. There they were — Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, and himself, standing together, smiles that now felt like memories of a time they couldn’t go back to. The weight of it hit him, the weight of everything they had been, of everything they lost . That was when they were whole, when they were a team. It was just the three of them, bound by the same goal. But now… Sasuke had moved on. And Naruto wasn’t sure what he had left.
He reached out, fingers brushing the glass, feeling the cold edge of it against his skin. The image of them all together felt like something he could never touch again. A simple moment captured in time, but one that now seemed impossible to return to. The space beside Sasuke felt emptier than it ever had.
His thumb brushed over Sasuke’s face, lingering for a moment longer than it should have. There was a warmth there, a memory of a time when Sasuke had been there, right beside him, when nothing had felt impossible. But now… now it was just a ghost. He let out a breath, staring at the picture, wishing he could somehow turn back time — to be the one beside Sasuke, to be the one who was always there.
But in the quiet of his room, Naruto allowed himself to imagine. What if he had been the one walking beside Sasuke all this time? What if the person Sasuke had chosen was him? He closed his eyes, letting himself picture the two of them, side by side, like they once were — a team again, the way they were meant to be. And for that brief moment, it almost felt real. Almost.
He imagines Sasuke’s face – his dark eyes, still as mysterious as ever, the way they would soften when they were alone. Would Sasuke finally let his guard down, finally let him in? Or was that a fantasy, one that belonged only in the dark corners of his mind, where hope lingered and he could pretend if only for a moment, that Sasuke had always wanted the same thing?
But even as the thought lingered, Naruto knew it was just that — a thought, a dream, something that existed only in his mind.
And as he stared at the picture, he could almost feel Sasuke slipping further away, no matter how hard he tried to hold on.
Sasuke was still trying to make sense of everything. The war had left him with a sense of emptiness he wasn’t used to. For so long, he had been driven by a single goal — revenge , redemption. But now that the war was over, he found himself adrift, no longer knowing where to go or what to do.
He had returned to Konoha, but only for a short time. The village had changed, and so had he. The people there seemed so different, so content with their peace. But Sasuke… he couldn’t let himself feel that way, not yet . He couldn’t settle down. He didn’t know how.
And then there was Naruto.
Naruto had changed too, in ways Sasuke couldn’t entirely understand. He was still loud, still stubborn, still the same Naruto. But there was something else now — something that seemed more mature, more burdened by the weight of everything they’d been through. Sasuke knew that Naruto had always been by his side, but now, in this post-war silence, it felt like there was something between them that neither could acknowledge.
But one thing hadn’t changed.
Sasuke still loved Naruto. He always had, and he always would.
The bond between them had frayed, snapped, and been stitched back together in ways that twisted and burned. But it was still there. Still alive, in some broken, imperfect way; in a way that was so… them.
It was the one thing he couldn’t escape, no matter how far he ran, no matter how many walls he built. Despite being away from him for so long, blinded by revenge, his feelings never left. Sasuke had tried to push Naruto away, even tried to kill him at one point — thinking the distance would dull the ache, would silence the voice pulling him back. But it never worked. No matter how hard he tried, Naruto’s eyes always found their way into his thoughts. Those eyes — always waiting, always reaching. Sasuke had tried to bury it, but it was like trying to smother a fire with his own hands. It wouldn’t go out.
And now, he’s restless. He tries not to think about it, tries not to feel, tries not to love, but he just can’t.
So Sasuke leaves, again, and again, and again.
Still, he keeps hearing about Naruto — even if he doesn’t want to. He’s the savior of the shinobi world, a hero. He hears the praise, but Sasuke also hears the rumors — whispers that Naruto had moved on, that he was seeing someone. The girl from the Hyuga clan. It wasn’t that Sasuke didn’t think Naruto deserved it. No, Naruto deserved happiness. He deserves someone who could be with him in ways Sasuke never could.
But the thought of Naruto with someone else… twisted something in Sasuke’s chest. He couldn’t ignore the ache it left behind.
Would Naruto be happy with someone else? Sasuke wondered late at night, when the silence pressed in around him. Someone who could be there for him in ways I can’t?
But the more Sasuke thought about it, the more he couldn’t imagine Naruto truly being with anyone else. The idea of Naruto sharing his heart with someone, of laughing with someone else in the way he once did with Sasuke… It left a bitter taste in Sasuke’s mouth, a feeling he didn’t want to face.
And in the quiet distance between them, Sasuke allows himself to imagine what it would be like if it were him. If he could be the one to hold Naruto’s heart, to laugh with him in those quiet moments. But as much as he longs for it, Sasuke knows it’s a dream, one he’ll never reach. A dream that only fades in the daylight.
Sasuke shuts his eyes, allowing himself to drift into a fleeting thought—what if he stopped running, just for a moment? What if he let himself exist with Naruto, not as comrades, not as rivals, but as something more, something deeper than lovers—something undefinable, yet undeniable. Still, always, Naruto and Sasuke.
He would give anything to be that person for Naruto, to be the one loved by him in ways that went beyond words, beyond battles, beyond everything that had kept them apart. But beneath that yearning, Sasuke knew the truth: Naruto already loved him. Not in the way he longed for, but in a way that mattered. A way that was, perhaps, enough.
Sasuke didn’t want to beg for it, but the ache inside him refused to fade. He hoped, even now, that Naruto could feel the weight of his longing, the hunger for something more. Naruto wasn’t his — not truly. But in the quiet moments between them, there was a sense of belonging, a quiet companionship that felt as though they were already intertwined. Naruto and Sasuke. Sasuke and Naruto. It had always been this way, this unspoken bond between them. And Sasuke? He was learning to be content with that.
So, he lets himself hold on to it in the silence of the night. When the world sleeps, and it’s just him, Sasuke allows himself to picture Naruto there, just out of reach, but still somehow close. At least, in his dreams, he can have him. At least there, the distance between them doesn’t matter.
And maybe that’s enough for now — to have him in his dreams, when the world is quiet and the ache doesn’t feel so sharp. Because in his dreams, Naruto is still there, still his . Even if only for a moment.