Title: Naruto

Author: Phoenix

lina.inverse@verizon.net

Fandom: Naruto

Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto. I am poor. This fic is for entertainment only.

Pairing: Kind of Sasuke/Naruto

Rating: PG for mentions of violence

Warnings: Mentions violence, yaoi aka m/m slash, AU, people afraid, evil people, and I wrote it. Can’t deal? Don’t read.

Archive: CKoS, WWOMB if they want it. All others please ask.

Summary: Sasuke muses on fear and the only one who isn’t affected.


Naruto
By Phoenix

They all smelled like fear. All of them. Ever since the day he’d used the curse and gone wild. At first, the power scared him. But then it felt so good. To be able to act without worrying? It was addictive. Dangerous. Before he knew it, people died. By his hand. In terrible ways.

Sakura had found a way to reach him, stop the madness. However, afterward, Sasuke could smell the fear. Even the woman giving the test was afraid. The other instructors. The students. Sakura herself. They tried to keep it off their faces. Most of the higher ninjas succeeded. The lower ninjas were a different story.

Eyes tracked him everywhere now. Iruka Sensei had tried to explain it away. He was a good man though the stench of fear hung around him during the entire conversation. At least it wasn’t as bad as some others; Iruka Sensei seemed to think his former pupil wouldn’t hurt him. Strangely, Sasuke knew he was right.

No, the Sensei’s emotion was from knowing how others were treating him and concern that it might hurt Sasuke’s feelings. As with Naruto, Iruka cared deeply for his former students and couldn’t help but try to reach out to the most taciturn of any in memory. The older man was truly a gentle person. He treated Naruto like a little brother despite knowing the young ninja carried the very demon that killed his parents.

Naruto. The only one who never smelled like fear when he faced Sasuke. Kakashi Sensei suppressed it well, but sometimes he slipped up. Naruto, who was disliked, looked down upon, dismissed, and unloved. The dumb blond who always picked fights with him, protected him in battle, and did nothing to treat Sasuke any different than before that fateful day.

True, Naruto had been unconscious at the time his training partner was literally ripping people to pieces. However, the tales quickly spread and it was obvious to any fool how people suddenly started treating him; the once golden boy of the village became an overnight pariah. Clear to anyone. Except the fool who refused to acknowledge anything had changed.

There had been plenty of times when Sasuke showed how terrible his power could be. Even turning it on Naruto a single horrible time. Still, the young man stubbornly would not admit Sasuke was different. How such unshakable faith had developed was beyond the dark haired boy. All he knew was that over the past four years, not once had Naruto treated him like the monster he was.

What did that mean? How could anyone look at him and not cringe from the thing he had become? Why did Naruto still care? Sakura loudly proclaimed a love for him before that day. Her silence afterward was louder than her previous words. Kakashi, one of the more powerful high ninjas, who might just become Hokage someday, never let Sasuke guard his back or out of his sight. Naruto continued to yell challenges, issue threats, and act as if his partner had never been cursed. Why didn’t he change? Was it because of his own demon? A one thousand year old fox which had almost destroyed the clan only to be sealed inside Naruto by his father. Did that mean he understood what Sasuke felt? He was ostracized by the village. Treated like an outcast by everyone but Iruka. So was that why? Did Naruto understand?

Sasuke sighed. It didn’t matter. Naruto treated him like a friend and he returned the feeling even if he worked hard not to show it. Perhaps, in time, they might be more. In the last year, Naruto had ceased pursuing Sakura and begun asking him over for dinner. Maybe he merely wanted friendship. Maybe he wanted more. Maybe those lingering glances when they bathed in a river after battle meant something. Maybe not. Sasuke
could be patient. Many things had changed in the past, with but one constant. Naruto. With a little luck, they would remain side by side forever. The thought warmed Sasuke as he hopped off his perch in a tree, making his way down a well beaten path to a house where homemade dinner
awaited.



END