We Three

Chapter 1: The Stain

We Three

I am a sinner.

Drag me to hell.

...

Namikaze Naruto, an insightful and playful type- who loves easily and trusts a bit too easily-, has many friends. He cherishes them equally, for each bond had been so quickly birthed. But as many things, these bonds need careful and sincere diligence. Naruto cherishes his friendships because he works on them, maintains them, adores them. And he is sure his feelings are returned.

There is an exception however- two exceptions- and they are called Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. Unlike Naruto's other relationships, the one he has with his two best friends is effortless- seamless. They meshed from the moments they all first met. The elementary *1- perhaps a year before the promotion to the Genin grade level- Sasuke stumbled upon a crying Naruto during recess, scratched up from another round of bullying. It was no secret that Naruto was often the target of animosity, after all. Naruto expected ridicule, mockery from the perpetually grumpy-looking boy when he approached his little hidey-hole underneath the slides of the jungle gym.

"They'll never stop if you don't fight back, you know," Sasuke said instead, crouching down to the blonde's level. Naruto remembers flinching when Sasuke reached out to wipe away a smudge of dirt from his red nose- a bit embarrassing, now that he can reflect on it.

Naruto had tearfully nodded, "But I'm too small to beat all of them."

Sasuke just puffed his chest out arrogantly- a lot more expressive then than he would ever be once he got older- and plopped down in the rocks next to the sniffling Naruto.

"I'll scare them away. If you're always with me, they won't be able to hurt you. They know my daddy is really rich and mean," and then he smacked a kiss to the scratch on Naruto's arm because that was what Sasuke's mom always did for him when he got all cut up. They were inseparable ever since, a constant in each other's lives like no other. Vacations, sword fights, rivalries, petty arguments. They became a power duo of sorts in the beginning of their Genin grades, popular and exciting. It was the first time Sasuke ever had fun; it was the first time Naruto stopped being afraid.

They hadn't met Sakura, the loud and confident andpink haired heartthrob, until their third year as Genin. Naruto always thought what he and Sauske had was incapable of improvement, but Sakura brought a whole different dimension to their crass boyishness. She cooled their tempers with her calm rationale- they were both so short to anger- and leveled out their pig-headedness (Sakura's words). All three were assigned as partners for a science project, and ended up wasting time watching bad horror movies and turned in a paper riddled with text talk and bad language not relating to the assignment at all. Sasuke's first failing grade. But none of them minded, for they discovered that through their unhealthy love of atrocious script and acting, they fit quite well together. Better than quite well.

Perfect, Naruto would say with his silly grin. They fit like a puzzle of one, two, three pieces, and no one would have it any other way.

He would say: we are perfect and beautiful. We are a threesome, a unit- made smooth by years of the practiced synchronization we are so known for. Addressed as "Hey, you three-", "You three had better behave or I'll-", "We're so proud of you three-". They do not know their individual identities- as their personalities and lives are so intricately woven together (Where do I end, and you begin?). Where one is, the other two can be found nearby. They have a dynamic- intimacy, even- that leaves outsiders as mere intruders.

They were happy, they had each other, their whole lives ahead for planning and dreaming and dreading. It was precious, and they deluded themselves into thinking it would never change.