Naruto Magazine Issue #18

ツ The Face he Couldn't Forget ツ

By Anonymous (So mysterious o3o )

Kiba looked over at the dark-haired man sitting at his bar and sighed. Back in high school, he had hated Sasuke Uchiha from the first day he'd met him. The boy had been arrogant and good at every fucking thing he tried his hand at. And all the girls had been crazy for him from the moment he set foot in the school until the day he graduated.

But now Sasuke was simply... broken.

Kiba pulled out his phone and called a familiar number.

"Sakura? Yeah, he's here again. He'll need some help finding his way home. Can you come get him? Thanks. Yeah, I know." He ended the call then walked over to where his former classmate was leaning heavily on the bar.

"Almost closing time, Sasuke. You've gotta go home now," Kiba said the last words gently. He knew what Sasuke was avoiding. To be honest, none of them had really gotten over it. But Sasuke had taken the news the worst.

"What do you mean his plane went down?" Sasuke's voice was sharp and angry, but no one was fooled by it. His eyes were dark wells of pure panic. "Go send a team and find him!"

"It's not that simple. Captain Uzumaki was on a recon mission. He was flying over airspace that technically we weren't supposed to -"

"I don't give a FUCK of where you were allowed to fly. You sent him in. You bring him back."

"Mr. Uchiha, I know it is difficult in these circumstances, but you have to understand the delicacy of the situation."

"That's something you should have thought of before you sent him there," Sasuke's voice shook, his finger unconsciously moving over the gold band on his left hand. It was still new... Don't Ask, Don't Tell had only just been repealed that year.

"Mr. Uchiha. I know how difficult this is for you. But you have to understand that the plane was shot down in enemy territory three weeks ago. If there had been any survivors, Captain Uzumaki would have tried to make contact, or we would have been informed about the capture of an American soldier on foreign soil. I'm very sorry for your loss."

Sasuke had stood there numbly as the uniformed man had left.

Sasuke lifted his head from the smooth surface of the bar, feeling the room spin as he looked blearily at the pink-haired woman who was saying his name.

"Sasuke. It's time to go home now. Here, let me help you." Not waiting for his permission, the surprisingly strong female slid her arm around Sasuke's waist and pulled his arm over her shoulder, levering him up and guiding him to the door. It was a routine they'd had a lot of practice on over the past three years.

Sasuke said nothing as she opened the back seat of her car and guided him in. He lay there, staring up at the beige ceiling of her sedan listening to the sound of her heels clicking on the pavement as she walked around to the driver's side and got in. He knew that she was looking at him in the rearview mirror and noting that he didn't bother putting his seatbelt on. But at least she had stopped commenting on it.

They arrived at his apartment building, and he heard the sounds of her heels clicking back around to his side of the car to open the door.

"Come on, Sasuke. We're home."

Except it wasn't really his home. Not since three years ago. Now it was just the apartment that held all his shit. But he couldn't move out and find someplace new. Because it also still had all of Naruto's things as well.

He let Sakura help him to the elevator, and they rode up in silence. Sometimes she would just see him to his door and leave him to sleep it off in peace. Other times, she would come in and give him a piece of her mind. He could already tell that tonight was going to be the second kind and he sighed, leaning back against the wall of the elevator and trying to remember if he had a fresh bottle of ibuprofen because he sure as fuck was going to need it.