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

His home to return to

So many missions, so days without Sasuke, so much training-so draining.

Naruto kept his mouth shut about Sasuke, and their unrequited love since that day. His heart ached with intense agony like if a phantom hand was squeezing his apex, chambers, and atriums with the intention of killing him from the inside.

The void that used to be empty because of his lack of parental love, it was now empty because of the lack of love he wasn't getting in general.

His mind was filled with images of Sasuke and Sasuke only, the days that seemed to pass by was a blur. He thought he would fall in love with Sakura again, but here he was two years later with Sasuke in his heart still.

He wanted to say stupid, Naruto, you think Sasuke will love you back?

But his lips could only mutter a low whisper that was strained from his late night cries and painful blaming.

He'll love you when the world disappears, so his problems go away along with it.

That's what he said every time he cried, every time he was alone, every time he was at his breaking point by the end of the day, every time he was thinking of doing what Sasuke told him-to flee the village to fight him to the death.

Naruto didn't want to kill him, his existence was worth more than his parents that seemed to be dead from his life.

He admit his parents should be worth more than Sasuke, but him and Sasuke built a bond and connection that his parents couldn't do, because they are dead. Dead from the world, dead from his life.

Dead from his future.

Till his decision is final about fleeing or not, he fights along his comrades, and suffer in his own heartbreak that he should've known was meant for him.

~

He saved a boy named Yuukimaru from his own pain, his fate, his own heartbreak-his loneliness.

Why? Why did he?

He remembers the boy appearing so many times with a question about where home was.

Then there was the red rose.

He never knew why the rose was red until he heard the story of his mother. His mother was murdered, and her blood stained the flowers nearby red.

Yuukimaru was doomed to loneliness for years, but one day he met that woman that took care of him despite her quest. To summon the Three-Tails from the bottom of the water, but she fought for him.

Naruto assisted her to make sure Yuukimaru didn't end up like him. Alone, broken, in pain-fragile.

He had the Nine-Tails inside of him, and that made his own village hate him to their core. They hated him for being a vessel for the demon fox, they hated him for being born, and they feared him for existing in the village.

He didn't want the boy to feel neglected like Naruto felt in his own home, he didn't want the boy to feel broken from lack of love-he didn't want the boy to feel hurt.

But why? Is it because they shared the same pain? Background? Thoughts?

Maybe...because he saw himself in Yuukimaru's eyes. He saw the fragile boy that spent days crying, breaking down, slacking in his own training to be alone-he saw a disaster.

He wanted to help Yuukimaru to stop the circle of pain from circulating.

Which he knew was continue by letting the boy die or be without his home. That woman.

That woman was his home.

He did what he wished for himself-to be saved from his overwhelming suffering.

The smile on Yuukimaru's face told Naruto, he can't be saved if he doesn't try.

If he doesn't try to bring Sasuke back with all of his strength.

Words might not work, but his actions will.

"Sasuke, i'm coming." Naruto mumbled, the night surrounded him like a blanket. For the first time in days, he felt good in the middle of the night. "I'm coming to strip away your pain, and i'll give you what you desire too. Love."

Because Sasuke's home was Konoha.

His home to return to.