Naruto
Sasuke did wake up after Itachi’s attack on him, though he had thought he’d be back at his home, not at a hospital with a teary eyed Naruto pouncing on him the moment he woke up, “You’re alive!”
“…Did you think I was dead?”
Wrong thing to ask because Naruto is hugging him tighter now, “Well yeah I did, idiot! You just…I mean, you passed out for no reason right in front of me! Okay maybe not for no reason, but…dammit, I was worried enough to get that old lady here to cure you, don’t take that for granted now.”
Sasuke didn’t say a thing as he allowed his future mate to hug him as tightly as he possibly could. Though when Naruto did end the hug, the sensation of being special faded quickly when he remembered something important, “You were this worried over me—didn’t you think I’d be the same over you when you just left without saying a word to me?”
“What?”
“Naruto, you know what I’m talking about.” he begins with a pointed look at him, his anger and frustration seeping out as he spoke, “You left with that old man without ever saying a word to me before you left! What if I hadn’t arrived in time to save you from my brother? You could’ve been mated to him if he had used his alpha voice on you! You could’ve wound up like Deidara had I not shown up in time—did you know how I found out about my brother trying to find you?”
He shook his head, to which Sasuke tells him, “I had to find out from overhearing Iruka sensei and Kakashi sensei speak about it when I came back to give you something I forgot to give when we were out on our date. Don’t you know how worried I was? How willing I was to kill him in that moment to make up for not doing enough to stop him from ruining another person’s life even if it meant I would die myself?”
“You were…willing to die to keep me safe from him?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? I’d rather die than have you mated to him by force like Deidara was.” he relaxes somewhat when confessing, “Seeing you freeze up at the presence of him had me so mad and terrified for you because what if I hadn’t found out about it? What if I had never arrived or arrived too late? You would’ve been gone and he would have taken one more person away from me that I deeply care about.”
Naruto instantly experiences guilt about the way he left, apologizing on the spot because he was being so dumb about it, “I’m sorry, Sasuke. I got too excited over the training and I forgot to tell you…but I figured when we left the village that Iruka sensei or Kakashi sensei would’ve said something to you about it! At least, that’s what the pervy sage said to me anyway when my forgetting to tell you about it hit me.”
It’s just like Naruto to get that excited over training—and seeing that the omega was genuinely sorry, he figured he could let it go on one condition only: “…I should’ve seen that coming. I figured you didn’t know why you really were taken out of the village by that man when I saw how frozen you were by Itachi… Okay, I’ll let this slide for now if you promise me from now on that you will never leave without telling me first again.”
“I’ll promise that if you promise to never leave with that Orochimaru guy."
Sasuke raises a brow to this and Naruto sighs, “I know about it…I heard the guy talking about you when I went to get granny Tsunade to come back here, be the new Hokage, and save you from whatever it was he did to you. I don’t wanna lose you to that creep ever, so promise me you won’t ever leave me for him.”
“Naruto, that is the dumbest thing you could ask of me.”
Right when Naruto was about to rip into him for saying a such thing, Sasuke tells him, “I would never leave you for that guy. I would never leave you at all—not when I know leaving you means you could be swept off your feet by someone new.”
His future mate blinks a bit to this, leaving Sasuke to growl, “Like hell will I ever allow Itachi to steal you away like he did with Deidara…and yeah, I won’t allow that bastard Kiba to have a shot with you either.”
“What?” Naruto blinks with wide eyes, “Wait—did you overhear that? I don’t think he actually meant it.”
Before Sasuke woke up, Naruto had been waiting nervously in his room for him to open his eyes and join the land of the living. However, it was taking a while and before that could happen, he was met with Kiba entering the room with a calm, “How’s he doing?”
“What’re you even doing here? I didn’t think you were close with Sasuke!”
“Eh, I’m not but I saw you coming here, looking all worried, and decided to see what’s up.”
Naruto had been grateful for this…at first, that is, “That’s cool… thanks for coming then.”
He then shot a glance at the blonde omega a bit too suggestive in nature, giving him a proposition he figured he couldn’t refuse, “You know…if Sasuke doesn’t wake up, or if he does join the traitor so hell bent on getting him to his side—my clan has the best homemade ramen recipe in the entire village and I can promise you a good time too if you want it.”
“Why would you want to do any of that with me?”
“I dunno…I guess I like strong omegas who can kick my ass and you were pretty tough in battle—”
“He will.” Naruto insisted, “I know he will…Sasuke isn’t the type to make a commitment without following through on it. I know he won’t give up on me or leave me, no matter how stupid I am. I don’t know where you got this idea from, but I will not give up on Sasuke, not as long as he’s here and with me!”
Kiba didn’t say much outside of, “Well…if he ever leaves…I’ll be right here with the best homemade ramen in the village and the promise of a good time.”
“He meant it, Naruto. I could tell he did—and like hell am I leaving you here to be taken by someone else.”
Knowing he doesn’t have to worry about Sasuke ever leaving him, Naruto is able to give him what he wanted, “Great! Now, I can make you that promise then.” he releases him from his hug and gives him a big smile, “I promise I won’t ever leave again or do anything big without telling you first!”
“Good. I don’t ever want to go through what I did again if I don’t have to.”
Things are silent between them before he asks him, “What day is it, anyway?”
“Friday, why?” Naruto explains as a look of shock graces his features, “You were out for almost a whole week…but thanks to granny, you’re awake now so that’s good, right?”
“Yeah, I guess…” he thinks it over for a moment, wondering, “What has gone on since then?”
“I don’t know really, I haven’t been around much lately.” he casually admits, his eyes now on the ceiling, “Now that I think of it, I should check on Lee and Ino to be sure nothing too crazy has happened to them while I was gone. You wouldn’t mind if I do that today, right?”
“No, not at all. You can go now if you want, just be sure to come by again when you’re done so I can get filled in on what’s been going on lately too.” Sasuke is rather serious when saying this, “I want to know if my brother has tried to do anything to the village while I was out. Try to find that out if you can, okay?”
“I’ll be sure to.” Naruto said, getting off the bed as he did so, and headed towards the door, “See you later, Sasuke! I’ll be sure to bring you some good food to eat when I come back.”
“Better not be—”
“The finest ramen around should do then! Goodbye!” Naruto cheered when exiting the hospital room, while Sasuke tries to be mad or annoyed only to fail in the end when a smile comes on his face instead.
When Naruto found Lee, he was rather excited to see him for a good reason, “Hey, Lee! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Oh, hi Naruto! How have you been?” he greets him kindly with a gentle wave in his direction, “How’s Sasuke doing, by the way? I heard about him being injured from Guy sensei and I was worried for you two.”
“He’s awake and he’s doing fine now. How about you? How have you been doing lately?”
Lee’s smile fades when telling him what has happened, “I don’t know, really… My clan was killed in the attack on the village, but my mother survived. My last interaction with her was at the hospital—it didn’t really go well, but Guy sensei made things better for me, a lot better actually.”
He lets his friend explain more, hoping things have started to improve more for him, “You see, I’ve been living with him this entire time while my mother lives elsewhere and it’s been great, actually. He’s so nice and supportive of me and I never have to be afraid of anything when I’m with him! It’s so great and yet I always feel like a bad person because I should be missing my clan more, I should be more upset, but I’m not and I don’t know why.”
“Maybe it’s because they were awful to you and you don’t owe them your tears?”
Lee is taken aback by the words his friend just said and yet, Naruto continues on, “Look Lee, I know you think you probably have to feel bad about their loss, but you don’t have to feel upset about losing people who wouldn’t care if they lost you forever. I don’t know if this is some proper or improper thing, but maybe you should try setting that aside to focus on what kind of person you want to be and what would make you happy.”
He gives a small upward tilt of his lips (hardly enough to call a smile, but with the way he’s acting to what was said, he’s happy with it), “I suppose you’re right there…Guy sensei said the new hokage is willing to listen to him sometime in the upcoming week or so to talk about the rules and laws concerning omega rights and adoption. He said if things go well, I could be adopted by him and never have to see my mother again…but I know better than to get my hopes up. I know I will probably go back to her long before I’ll be taken away, but it doesn’t mean I can’t make the most of the time I have with my sensei.”
Here Naruto had been wanting to tell him about the granny too! Oh well, nothing he can do about it now, “Yeah, when I got her here, I actually told her about your situation and she promised me she would do something for you and other omegas in your situation. I hope it happens, but like Iruka sensei says, things won’t really change until someone who really gives a damn about omega rights gets in power.”
Lee nods to this, not having much to say about it, but he does change the subject rather quickly, “Oh, that reminds me! Have you spoken to Ino lately?”
“No, why?”
“Because Guy sensei said she did something very irresponsible.” he looks around before continuing on, finding the market place to be a bit too crowded for them to talk about it so openly, “…We should talk somewhere more private about it. He said it was for the best if few people knew of it.”
“Alright.” Naruto didn’t know what happened or what was going on, but he didn’t like where this was going.
Whatever happened with Ino, he’s not positive it was anything good if the reaction from Lee was anything to go by.
Sasuke had expected Kakashi sensei to come and visit him. What he didn’t see coming was Sakura visiting him before their sensei could, “Sakura? What are you doing here?”
“Came in to check on you and ask you for advice on something.”
Sasuke looked at her oddly because she never ever did such a thing before in the entire time they’ve known each other, “What’s going on?”
She lets out an irritated sigh, “You had Naruto leaving without telling you, right?”
He nods and she can barely suppress her growl, “Well, guess what Ino did after I thought we had reached an agreement that we would work together to get Deidara back?”
Now Sasuke’s interested in what is going on, “She did something stupid without telling you, did she?”
“Yeah, she did!” Sakura was seething, “Itachi came to our village a week ago and what did she do? She ran off and fought him unarmed without telling me anything of it, while dragging Hinata along with her!”
Sasuke’s eyes were glued onto her, allowing his fellow alpha to rant because he knew she’d be more open and honest this way, “Ugh, she was being so dumb about it too—she smelled his scent in the air, then she ran after him instead of seeing Hinata at her place, and to top it all off, she took over his body with her jutsu only to be kicked out of it by him! She could’ve gotten killed, she could’ve been kidnapped—but no, she set that all aside to put her horrible brother first.”
He now gets it…why Itachi had said Ino’s hatred of him was far stronger than his own. Something had to have been said about Deidara to make her that angry to do something so irrational, “Did he hurt her? What of Deidara, was he ever brought up?”
“No, he said he promised Deidara he would never hurt her or use his Sharingan on her. He also said Deidara and him are mated consensually—which to be fair, I can believe—”
“That has to be a lie…Deidara hated him too much to ever willingly, let alone mate him.” Sasuke clarifies, “I know my brother better than you do. I know he’s got to be lying about this to make Deidara look bad in front of everyone in the village to make them look away from his actions.”
Sakura scoffed in response, “And you don’t know Deidara as well as I do either, so you have no reason to doubt me when I say I can believe it happened consensually like Itachi said it did. Deidara isn’t one to be forced or manipulated into anything that easily—for all we know, he could’ve been working with Itachi this entire time—”
“My brother wouldn’t have ever allowed that. He was too prideful to drag Deidara into a such a scheme.”
Things were tense between them for a brief moment before she rolled her eyes, “Whatever, I don’t care about being right. What I care about is getting some advice from you because she’s not talking to me and you’re the only one I can turn to for this.”
This allows Sasuke to drop his own competitiveness in order to figure out what could be going on and whether it has anything to do with Itachi or not, “Ino didn’t tell me a thing about it until a good few hours after it happened and I got mad, naturally, because I thought we were on good enough terms to be partners on this. She took it as me trying to control her or being jealous of Hinata and okay, I am a bit because she turned to her first—but still…I don’t like the fact she didn’t tell me right away.”
“Were you anywhere near the area Itachi was first spotted in by her?”
“No.”
“Was Hinata the only one close by?”
“Yeah…what’s your point?”
Sasuke doesn’t sugarcoat it for her because she needs to hear it, “Naruto left the village without telling me anything… You know how Ino is regarding Deidara and bringing him home—everyone knows how she is about that. Her going after my brother upon first sight despite being unarmed shouldn’t shock anyone; what should shock people is that she allowed Hinata to come along in the first place.”
“What’re you trying to get at?” Sakura asks curiously, to which Sasuke answers her, “You shouldn’t be jealous of Hinata; you should be grateful to her for coming along with Ino. She may be the only reason why she’s still alive or not kidnapped now… Also, in my eyes, you have no right to be as mad as I was when Naruto left with saying a word to me. Ino told you what happened when she could, Ino didn’t leave without telling you, and Ino probably told you more that she didn’t tell others.”
She was about to argue with him on it when he pointed out, “How was she supposed to find you when you were nowhere near the area she found my brother in? How was she supposed to set aside her years worth of hatred and rage in a calm, rational manner to find you without risking losing him in the crowd? She was being stupid, but she hates him as much as I do, Sakura…possibly more than I do if my brother was right in what he said to me about it…you couldn’t have really expected her to act rationally, not when she lost someone important to her because of him.”
“I guess…” she runs a hand through her hair, owning up to it then, “I wish she wouldn’t put him first all the time. The Deidara I knew wasn’t worth it—he’s definitely not worth it if he could mate someone like Itachi consensually…all I wish is for her to put herself first for once instead of him. Isn’t that really too much to ask for?”
Sasuke cannot blame her for thinking this. However, he doesn’t agree on the idea of Deidara and Itachi being consensually mated. He knows his brother had to have done something to trick or make him agree to it—there’s no way the Deidara he knew would have ever been okay with mating Itachi Uchiha, “I don’t think so, but at the same time, I know Deidara was her only friend for the longest time and despite what you say, his being a good brother to her was part of what drew my brother to him. I cannot really blame her for wanting to bring back someone that special to her, especially after hearing years’ worth of slander and criticism about him from people who barely knew him.”
She thinks about it from this perspective, ultimately groaning, “Okay…I guess you’re right about that. I may not have liked the guy, but he was important to her and I should do more to remember that than I do.” she was about to leave the room with a gentle, “Thanks for advice, Sasuke—I’ll go try to make things better with Ino.”
“Wait, Sakura, before you go…can you tell me right away if Ino tells you anything about my brother possibly coming back?”
“Yeah, I’ll be sure to do that, but I doubt that will happen.” Sakura admits honestly, “See you around, Sasuke.”
He lets her leave after this, hoping she will keep him up to date regarding anything to do with his brother, but knowing that if she doesn’t, it’s alright because Naruto definitely will.