Green, Warm, Windy.
The light shines in through the canopy and the clouds roll past revealing bright blue skies. The woods are quiet, apart from the rustle of leaves as the wind blows, it rushes lazily along the undergrowth tickling the plant life as it winds it’s way between branches and tree trunks.
It brushes against shoes dangling above the ground and curls up over two legs and a torso. The wind blows again and brushes against shoulders and a neck gripped tightly in what appears to be an orange noose. The face of a man is revealed, peaceful and at rest. His eyes are closed and dark lashes lay delicately against his pale cheeks.
A bolt of lightening strikes down before the man feet burning the grass and instantly disrupting the scene, barely a second passes before bleary black eyes open, the thunderous boom of the strike resounding several moments later.
Sasuke sits straight up.
The dark haired teen takes a deep breath and lays his hands down securely beside him, the grass pricks gently against his palms and exhales.
The warm mid-May breeze of Fire country brushing against his shoulders smells of static. He takes another deep breath and holds it as he counts.
‘One, three, nine, twelve, fifteen.’
He exhales as he rolls his shoulders once, twice, three times and slowly stands.
The grass beneath his feet is warm and a lush green that spreads up and around his grandmother’s last remaining property, (which was left basically undisturbed following Pein’s attack on Konoha, situated safely on the east side of the Hokage monument and the paths leading out to the Forrest of Death.
Sasuke comes out here whenever he needs an escape from his new apartment to feel as if he is among his family again. The home possess nothing that stands out as inherently “Uchiha”, but he knows and that’s all that matters.)
He feels a distant, quiet kind of security while lounging on family property- even after everything he’s known of life since the massacre, after every good thing he’d had was set ablaze, mistakes made in part from his own misguided revenge and others acts of self serving influence...
While this house stands as a monument, a symbol of support, recovery, and remembrance. His family’s foundation kept sturdy and upright in a village willing to reform. It is also a precious treasure he hopes to appreciate properly and have for the rest of his life.
He looks down at his hands, hands which had been soaked in blood and lightening countless times before, hands used by others to end lives and used of his own volition to try and snuff out the flames brought forth by tainted wills of fire, were now soft, scarred and barely blemished.
The few callouses left were from maintenance work done to his apartment and this few acres of peace. He’d spent countless hours fixing this place up and turning it from an abandoned memory, into a solution, an aspiration.
He knows he can’t make up for the dishonor brought forth by his clan, it’s a constant residual shame that Sasuke harbors; alongside the fear instilled by Itachi and Orochimaru, fear that he will never be able to run from. No matter how evidently manipulated, and corrupted they both had been. That being said, for all his regrets and hopes for redemption, he has no desire to forgive or forget what the elders, Danzō, and the Sandaime Hokage had ordered to transpire.
He can however, accept that what had been done is done.
Sasuke’s own mistakes and the choices of everyone else who had been involved, those actions have been hung out for all of the world to see, as clear as this mid-May day and hopefully, history will never be repeated.
A yawn escapes him as he stands, stretching his arms up over his head.
“Naruto.” Sasuke acknowledges as he turns and faces the blond leaning against the porch, casual and relaxed. Naruto’s blue eyes are half lidded as he stares at Sasuke, a gentle smile tugging at his lips.
Naruto’s eyes track up from his exposed stomach when he lowers his arms to cross in front of his chest.
Naruto licks his lips and opens his mouth to question in that careful way he started using only with him, (and when had that become the new normal? Sasuke wonders absentmindedly.)
“Have you eaten yet?”
Sasuke marvels (and not for the first time since his return) how deep the others voice had gotten, distinctly Naruto with an edge of maturity only war can bring, rich and full of bass. Loud enough as always to still be heard over any other noise, and travel directly into Sasuke’s ears with ease.
Sasuke lifts his shoulders, barely and starts making his way toward the porch pausing before his blond teammate, his dark eyes never straying from the amused blue ones watching his every movement.
He lifts his hands from across his chest and places them flat against the blonde chest, right below his collar bones.
Naruto raises an eyebrow, as his lips stretch into a softer version of his classic shit-eating grin, a flash of teeth. Yes? His eye seem to say.
His body language remains calm- the muscles under Sasuke’s hands relaxed, the opposite of the challenge swimming in darkening blue orbs, not taking or pushing, just patiently waiting.
Sasuke stares back, Naruto’s heartbeat steady beneath his right hand, the stretch of skin beneath his black civilian shirt pulled taught where a scar shouldn’t lay.
The Kyuubi’s constant littlereminder tha-
Naruto abruptly grabbed his wrists in both hands and Sasuke came back to awareness, shifting his attention from his hands to Naruto’s face. Gone was his soft playful expression, instead replaced with a muted look of concern.
Sasuke felt his chest hitch as he inhaled through his nose, he pulled his hands back and softly sighed. He sidestepped Naruto before walking up onto the porch.
He slid open the door, and threw a look back over his shoulder at Naruto before continuing inside. He left the door open, toed off his shoes and made his way down the hallway into the kitchen on the right side.
“No, I haven’t eaten yet, I was waiting.“
“Waiting for what.” Naruto says, seizing the opportunity to get him to talk.
Sasuke frowned slightly, rolling his eyes reflexively. “You already know, moron.” He whispered.
Naruto laughed unexpectedly, a loud short kind of sound that had his ears ringing slightly after.
“Bastard!”