In The Leaves | A 'Naruto' fan story | SasuNaru

I can't love you

Training for Naruto and Sasuke continued, and eventually the two were able to climb to the very tops of their trees, though Naruto was exhausted as a result.

They sat on their trunks to catch their breath, and Naruto looked at Sasuke. "Um Sasuke?" 

Sasuke's eyes looked at Naruto but his eyes read no emotion. "What?" 

"I like you." Naruto said with no hesitation. 

Sasuke didn't answer at first but then said. "I don't need friends to like me." 

"No...like." Naruto averted his gaze to the tree above him. "Like you, like you." 

"I can't accept your confession." Sasuke said bluntly. 

"Wha-why?" 

Sasuke sighed and looked away. "My entire life has been a lie, and to just allow myself to trust someone else is pitiful. I lost people close to me, and I rather not deal with meaningless emotions and let them fool me again. Sorry but I can't return your feelings." 

"So you don't...like me back?" 

"I never say I didn't." Sasuke looked at Naruto, who kept his eyes up the entire time. "But i'm not going to submit to those feelings, and as much as you want to see me do that. I can't. Sorry." 

Naruto was silent for a moment and scuffed. "It's fine, it's fine." Naruto waved his hand and looked at Sasuke with a fake smile planted on his lips. "I'll just fall for Sakura again to erase my attraction towards you." 

"That would be better for the both of us." 

"Yeah...it will..." 

~

The next morning, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura escorted Tazuna to the bridge, leaving Naruto behind to rest, and to mentally cope with the hard rejection by Sasuke. Upon arriving at the bridge, however, they found Tazuna's workers to have been attacked, and the area quickly became covered with a veil of mist.

After a quick defeat of Zabuza's water clones at the hands of Sasuke, Zabuza and a masked Haku revealed themselves, confirming Kakashi's suspicions. 

Back at the house, where Naruto laid around hoping to wake up to a reality that he's still hopelessly in love with Sakura, he had a bad feeling of a sudden. 

A few seconds later, he heard loud noises and sprung up into action. He went to where the kitchen was to find Inari and Inari's mother missing, he searched the whole house and decided to go outside to look for them. 

Heartbreak can wait a while till he could save Inari and his mom. 

Just as Inari was about to be cut down by the thugs, Naruto appeared and defeated the two single-handedly. Naruto congratulated Inari for finally standing up for himself, and left to join the rest of his team.

And by team, he would have to see Sasuke again, and face him as a comrade instead of what he'd hoped to be-a significant other. A soulmate. 

Back at the bridge, Sasuke battled with Haku, and Zabuza was amazed to find that Sasuke could keep up with Haku's speed. Haku, also noticing Sasuke's potential skills, decided to use his trump card, Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals, which trapped Sasuke in a cage of ice. Haku proceeded to strike Sasuke with wave after wave of senbon barrages, which were made effectively undodgeable as a result of Haku's technique. 

Eventually, Naruto arrived and managed a sneak attack on Haku. Just as Zabuza was about to attack Naruto, Haku asked to be the one to fight him, to which Zabuza agreed. Sasuke began to come up with a plan, thinking that it would be easier to defeat Haku with Naruto attacking from the outside. To his consternation, Naruto entered the cage of ice to see how Sasuke was doing, and he too became a prisoner of Haku's technique.

Naruto ignored the feeling of worry that filled his stomach, it turned in dismay and Naruto knew he couldn't treat Sasuke differently because of rejection. So he decided to fight beside him to not burden the whole battle on Sasuke, who was about to be down for the count soon. 

Naruto and Sasuke both attempted to destroy the ice mirrors, but were unsuccessful.

The fight between Haku and Naruto and Sasuke continued, with the two genin having sustained heavy wounds. Sasuke, however, was starting to dodge Haku's attacks. Haku, noticing this, attempted to attack an exhausted Naruto instead, but Sasuke managed to pull Naruto out of way.

Sasuke didn't want to see what face Naruto was making from his sudden action, and kept his focus on the opponent in front of him. 

A shocked Haku noticed Sasuke's eyes, and it was revealed that, as a member of the Uchiha Clan , Sasuke had finally awoken his own kekkei genkai, the Sharingan, which enabled him to see Haku's movements with ease. Haku, fearing for his success at winning the battle, goes for a finishing blow upon Naruto, but Sasuke rushes to Naruto's side to stop the attack with his own body. 

Naruto's eyes widen. "Sas...uke...w-why did you save me?"

Sasuke replied. "It was merely instinct."

Before Naruto could respond, Sasuke fell into Naruto's arms and spoke in low soft voice. "I had promised not to die before killing my brother...I guess I failed that too..." 

After Sasuke fell unconscious, and Haku asked Naruto if he felt pain seeing the one he cared for dying in his arms. That angered Naruto, Haku claiming Sasuke was dying, it angered him inside. All he felt was anger and wanted to avenge him like the comrade he was.

The rest of the fight went by in blur for Naruto, thus all he could remember was that the person he viewed as a soulmate-was injured by someone he almost called a friend. 

It didn't matter if Sasuke loved him or merely saw him as a comrade, he couldn't let no one die no matter what. 

Because that was his Ninja Way.