high_seas | [06] boy don't try to front (ah ah)

Entry tags:

[06] boy don't try to front (ah ah)

Who: Naruto and Sasuke
Where: Murderess
When: Backdated to February 17th, after the candies fly away
What: The coast is finally clear for interrogation
Warnings: Probably assholatry
Status: Closed

After all of that, watching the candies just fly away had been like a slap in the face. Sasuke had watched the first bowl go, then the others as soon as he'd looked for them -- of course things would end up like this, after spending the week avoiding almost everyone on board and trying to figure out exactly how to deal with the issue with Sakura. It was almost more annoying to watch them whirl away into the wind than to have them lingering around; at least they could have made progress on something.

Still, it was only almost. And one of the reasons was the person Sasuke was tracking down now. Naruto had proven as unable to control himself as ever, and after watching his former teammate get handsy with unsuspecting and unhappy crewmates once, Sasuke had made certain to keep his distance.

Now that they were gone, though, there was nothing barring him from cornering Naruto to find exactly what it was he claimed to know, first of all, and why he hadn't told Sakura of all people. So it was that Sasuke spent the morning after the candies left looming more ominously in the rigging than usual, waiting for his target to present himself.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yes, it had been an awkward time for Naruto. How was he supposed to know what that candy would do? Maybe it was just karma for downing an entire bowl and thinking he'd gotten some candy all to himself without everybody else knowing. Of course, that just meant he spent a long time apologizing every time he licked someone or accidentally groped them.

He was miserable, but at least the black eye that Sakura gave him had healed up.

Considering he didn't have those urges anymore, he thought the salty air would be refreshing. The sun made him squint as he came on deck, stretching and lacing his fingers together behind his head. Yeah, he already felt immensely better just being out of that dank, dark cabin. With none of the crew in sight, Naruto had a free pass to not worry about any of the awkward moments from before.

If asked, Sasuke would have absolutely called it karma for sheer idiocy. Fortunately, Sasuke wasn't asked, and had instead had the distinct pleasure of watching Naruto go sailing from well-landed punches a few times; they had been enough that he felt no particular compulsion to point out that level of idiocy at this point.

Instead, he dropped to the deck when Naruto was close enough, starting in without any preamble:

"We need to talk."

Naruto was only slightly startled when Sasuke dropped from above. Even with his short time aboard the ship, Naruto had pretty much figured out that the rigging was Sasuke's territory. He was usually perched up there like some sort of animal about to swoop in on unaware prey, quite like he did with Naruto.

And though Sasuke look as cheerful as ever, Naruto was glad to see him since he hadn't seen him much during the whole candy debacle. Of course, that was a good thing since Naruto didn't want to unwillingly reenact that day in the Academy years ago...

"Yeah, sure. What's up?" he replied, picking his ear unceremoniously.

As elegant as ever, Naruto was, but that was to be expected. Sasuke had no intention of letting it distract him from the seriousness of the topic at hand -- and it was plenty serious, because he needed to know exactly how information was getting spread around and how much of it. And just how Naruto had decided Itachi was a friend, of all things.

"What do you know about Itachi?" He asked, folding his arms and delivering as demanding a glare as he could. "And how did you find out?"

Naruto, as dense as he was, was expecting the conversation sooner or later. He didn't get why it was such a big deal what he knew. Itachi was an ally in Naruto's opinion, so why did Sasuke care so much why Naruto thought like that? Working together and getting along seemed to be more important in Naruto's mind in the long run than anything else.

He wasn't going to make things easy though. "Well, he's your brother, y'know. And I've known that for a long time."

For the love of -- even Naruto couldn't be so dumb as to not understand what Sasuke was asking, which meant he was being deliberately obtuse for no reason Sasuke could see. Expression darkening, Sasuke's voice deepened into an irritated growl:

"You know what I mean. Unless you're eager to claim him as a friend because he killed our clan."

That response made Naruto frown.

"Don't be an asshole," he growled back, folding his arms across his chest. Sasuke could think Naruto was as dumb as dirt and Naruto wouldn't really care too much, but he wouldn't ever be fine with having Sasuke think he'd consider Itachi a friend for having to murder an entire clan. Whatever Naruto was, he wasn't that type of person.

"You're the one that said we wouldn't be able to go anywhere safe if we tried to hurt him, so why are you so pissed that I think of him as an ally?"

Edited 2014-03-21 00:24 (UTC)

"Don't be stupider than you can help, then," Sasuke snapped back, folding his own arms in turn. The fact that Naruto was stalling -- seemingly on purpose, here -- was enough to raise his already hair-trigger temper on the subject. He'd wanted to approach this with a degree of calmness given how his conversation with Sakura had gone, but clearly his former team still had their way of disrupting any plans laid around them.

"Only a handful of people know the truth about my brother and Konoha, and most of them are dead," he said. "I wasn't joking when I said I'd hunt you down if you hurt him, but I also wasn't joking when I said I need to know how you came to start considering Itachi a friend, of all things."

There was probably no other way around it. The last time Naruto and Itachi had spoke, Itachi had asked Naruto to make sure nobody else found out the truth so that the honor of the Uchiha clan would remain. The truth of the massacre was a dark secret, but at least the clan remained pure for the most part in the eyes of the villager. Naruto could understand wanting to keep it that way for a lot of reasons, and the immense amount of respect he had for Itachi meant that Naruto took that request very seriously.

Sasuke knew the truth though, so it wasn't like Naruto would go back on his word by telling him how he knew. He couldn't tell Sakura or pretty much anybody else though. The only reason Naruto put up any resistance with Sasuke was out of some hope that Sasuke could just let go and be glad that everybody was working together.

"Itachi helped me and Octopops while we were on our way to the front. Before the war started, Obito showed up and told me what really happened with Itachi and Konoha, and when I met him again, he said it was true but he told me to make sure nobody else found out." He also said he'd leave Sasuke to Naruto because he believed Naruto was the only one that could truly reach Sasuke, but Naruto decided it was best to leave that part out.

"There. Happy now?"

Obito.

The same man who had told Sasuke, but what had he hoped to gain by telling Naruto? If he'd truly intended to take over the world in any case, working with Madara to set them all under the same illusion, what was the purpose of telling someone who was undoubtedly an enemy information that didn't directly affect them? Unless it had been some kind of ploy to gain sympathy for the Uchiha and make it seem like the insanity of the Moon's Eye plan was justified ...

That was doubtless it. Obito, even when playing the role of Madara, had seen himself as some kind of visionary leading the world. Sasuke had ignored most of what he'd had to say beyond what had been immediately pertinent to his own goals, but that the man thought he was actually doing the right thing was clear enough by now.

When Sasuke spoke again, his tone was far from happy.

"Who else knows?" He asked. "Were you alone when Obito spoke to you? And when you made Itachi confirm it?"

Any hope Naruto had that Sasuke would be okay with that explanation started to fade when the Uchiha spoke once more, tone still sharp. Though quite the talker, Naruto wasn't a fan of being barraged by question after question, especially when he didn't really see the necessity of those questions. What was done was done, and the important thing to do was to look ahead.

Of course, the situation just served to show another of the fundamental contrasts between Naruto and Sasuke's beliefs. While Naruto did whatever he could to continue forward and keep looking ahead, Sasuke still sometimes got stuck in the past.

"Kakashi-sensei was there the first time, and Bee was with me when we spoke to Itachi."

Kakashi was one thing, but the eight-tails -- someone Sasuke didn't know except as an opponent and had no reason to love the Uchiha knowing the story of their ultimate demise rankled. That they'd heard from Itachi before Sasuke had was something else, something Sasuke might have taken up with an Itachi who was from his own time.

But the Itachi he had here was as much younger brother as older, and Sasuke's job was to protect more than anything else. It was a new-old role, strangely easy to settle into, something he'd expected at six years old to grow into as a matter of absolute certainty. Konoha had changed all that. Their own clan had destroyed that. Itachi had made a choice, and the way Obito told it ...

"The way Obito tells it makes us all victims," he said, turning away from Naruto finally. "Pathetic, as if we didn't all choose the paths we walk.

"My brother ..." he trailed off, tone bitter. "I suppose you think he's a hero for what he did."

"No," Naruto replied after a short pause. He shook his head for a moment before continuing, tone somber and serious. "But I can't see him as an enemy either." Itachi's solution wasn't what Naruto would have done. Naruto was the one person always choosing option C when presented with either A or B. No matter what situation he found himself in, he was too stubborn to go with the paths already laid out.

A Hokage always forged his own path, going ahead of others so that they could walk behind. That was why he was always making his own solutions no matter how crazy he sounded, and every time almost without fail, people would look at him skeptically at first. It was only recently that people put their faith in him. Really, the entire world had done that... except for Sasuke.

He couldn't see Itachi as a hero, but he wasn't an enemy either. He was a...

"He was a victim of the cycle of pain and hatred, Sasuke. The whole clan was, y'know. It's because of the ninja system the way it is, and that's why I'll shatter that system and that cycle."

A victim of the cycle, yes, and another cog in it. They'd turned themselves around and around for so many years, so many generations, that in the end when they'd finally looked up it had been too late. What was left? A dead man walking and a pitiful, desperate dreamer. Their clan had rivalled the Senju once.

And where were the Senju, who had fought back with such power? Sasuke had left Hawk to reassemble the pieces of Tsunade, torn apart by the fruits of her clan's victory.

"That makes the first time in a long time we've shared a goal," he said, voice low, gaze trained out over the ocean. "What is your plan for achieving it? How do you intend to stop people from repeating the same useless pattern?"

Naruto smiled a little when Sasuke said they shared a goal. It had been a very long time since they had been on the same path, and even if there were still big differences in philosophy, Naruto was glad they were on the same side once more. Even if they still bickered and fought, it was good to have Sasuke back to a point where he wasn't openly hostile.

"Ero-sennin once told me that when people truly understand one another, there will be peace," the blond replied, turning to look out over the endless horizon. Being out at sea and far from land was a good metaphor for Naruto's goals. Sometimes they seemed out of sight, but he knew if he kept going, he'd reach them eventually just like the ship would keep sailing until land was in sight.

"Maybe back home we've already taken a big step with the entire ninja alliance working together, but we can't just stop once Obito and Madara are defeated. We have to keep working together and understanding one another, the happiness and pain we've all gone through. That's how people understand one another, and then we can all break that cycle together."

When people understood each other. It was true the shinobi world had built an alliance for the first time since -- well, maybe since the mythical princess had eaten the fruit of the god tree. Even then, it had been created out of sheer desperation against an enemy that couldn't be defeated by any one nation and had no sympathies for a particular village, either. Whether this alliance could last longer than that one had was a question.

But that it was a question at all was testament to something Sasuke had never suspected, the same kind of twisted shock that he'd felt on the battlefield, watching Naruto shape sennin chakra like it was nothing. Like being much younger, watching water trickle from a ruined tank.

His hands tightened on the edge of the ship before he forced them to relax, forced his voice to be even when he spoke.

"You think you understand me, now," he said, choosing his words with more care than he had in a long time with Naruto. "It's because you know what happened to me. Why I made the choices I did."

Not viscerally, not in a way that would know the kind of gut-wrenching fear that still woke Sasuke sometimes, old nightmares tangling with the new, sleep elusive since the night his brother killed the clan for peace and for him.

"Then you should understand that what happened to the Uchiha has to be told. Itachi wanted to keep it a secret. He thought it would keep our clan from being tarnished in history, that it would preserve the peace." But Uchiha before and after Itachi had made that dream impossible.

"That won't solve anything. I need people to see what happened to us and understand what that cycle does. The insanity of trying again and again to create peace through hatred and revenge -- people have to see what comes of that, in the end."

A madman and his acolyte. And Sasuke, the last desperate remnants of a proud and powerful clan.

Knowing the truth of the Uchiha massacre was part of the reason Naruto felt he understood Sasuke. Everything else that had happened to him, his lonely childhood up to the death of Jiraiya and beyond and that need for revenge that burned so bright for a short amount of time, was the other part. Up to that point Jiraiya had been the closest thing to a father Naruto had ever had. Naruto's path could have been the same as Sasuke's when he confronted Nagato.

He listened to Sasuke's reasoning for why the truth of the Uchiha massacre had to be told and knew Sasuke had a point about it. People couldn't change if they didn't know the truth, and sometimes being shocked into action was the best way for that change to come about. Naruto also knew that he couldn't be the one to tell it.

"I gave my word to Itachi, and I can't break my word, y'know," he finally replied after a bit of silence and looking out over the ocean, "but it's your family anyways. If anybody's gonna make people understand it, it should be you. Besides, you know I've got always got your back."

Edited 2014-03-30 16:03 (UTC)

No, if there was one thing to be said about Naruto (and there were many things, but if it had to be one), it was that he stuck to his promises with the tenacity of an insane and maybe rabid animal. It worked for Sasuke in this case, for once; he hadn't wanted anyone else to tell the story, not when it cut this close to the bone, not when it was so easy to warp into something else. Obito was proof enough of that.

That last made Sasuke turn, finally, giving Naruto a complicated look -- a mixture of exasperation and a deep-rooted inability to comprehend just what drove this idiot to be the person he was. Naruto might think he understood Sasuke, now, but Sasuke would probably never understand Naruto's thoughts.

Then again, thoughts had always been something like second fiddle when they tried to communicate with each other.

"You and Sakura," he said, finally. "What exactly do you expect me to be to you?

"After all this time, surely you don't expect the same teammate back."

Sasuke's question made Naruto look back at his friend once more, as serious as before for a bit before slowly grinning and snickering a little. "What sorta question is that!? Man, you're always so serious..." Ironic considering Naruto was being pretty serious himself over the situation since, well, even the dumbass knew it was a situation that was more somber than usual.

Of course it didn't last long since Sasuke was good at being himself, and being himself was a good way to make Naruto think he was ridiculous. Everybody was too serious -- the entire crew, Sakura-chan, and especially Sasuke. It never really crossed his mind that he was really the ridiculous one considering the way he acted.

"Of course I don't expect the same! You're a lot stronger than you used to be, y'know? You're still a grumpy ass, but you're not the same. Sakura-chan's not the same either, and I'm not the same." That last statement could probably be argued against, but he didn't stop long enough to let Sasuke try.

"We just expect our friend back."

Always so serious, always taking things too seriously -- if Naruto could just take things more seriously, maybe they could have met on the same level before this. Then again, given Sasuke's state of mind for some time before this, he had to admit to himself that it would have taken several leaps of judgment before he could have met Naruto in any way that wasn't blood-soaked and rage-fuelled.

But it seemed as if the idiot was actually taking the time to think his answer through, even if what he came up with in the end was something that an Academy trainee could have mustered in a state of desperation. Sasuke gave him a disbelieving sort of look, waiting a beat to see if there might be something more sensible forthcoming.

When there wasn't, though, his mouth tightened, exasperated. Tired. Naruto's element should have been water. His empty-brained stubbornness could wear away a mountain if he decided it wasn't supposed to be there.

"I've also tried to kill you since then," he pointed out. "Sakura's tried to kill me. It's not just about strength, and it's not anything as simple-minded as friendship."

He paused, then sighed: "I need allies now and when we go back to our own world, though. I'm not unwilling to work with you."

There was a point to Sasuke's words if Naruto was anybody other than himself. All he could do was roll his eyes a bit as he leaned closer to Sasuke as if he were about to reveal the secret to life. Indeed, he looked like he was about to give life-changing advice or something.

"If I said I wanted to stop that cycle and then fought against you because of what you did, I'd just be talking out of my ass. Somebody had to stop it and be the mature one." Though he didn't look too mature as he smirked at the comment that he was more mature than Sasuke.

Still grinning, he turned as if to leave.

"So yeah, allies and friends. Got it? Anyways, I think it's my turn for watch or somethin'."

"I know that," Sasuke said, making an impatient movement with one hand. "I'm just reminding you that people change in more ways than one. You've changed."

Not in the way Sakura and Sasuke had, either. If anything, Sakura and Sasuke had grown more alike; the suspicion that shinobi their age tended to wear like second skin long settled into the bone, life something that could be calculated as much as lived. Death a factor more than something to be felt. Sakura believed in Naruto with complete confidence, but she hadn't made it through with unscathed faith the way Naruto somehow had.

No: Naruto had somehow grown more trusting than he'd started out. It didn't make any sense.

Sasuke nearly let the idiot just walk away (how often did he have the luxury of letting Naruto walk away instead of getting stalked?), but he called out after a moment, tone sharp at first.

"Naruto --" and he paused again, expression complicated, frustration in his voice. "I don't know what you think a friend is supposed to be.

"I've never -- before that day, everyone I had was the clan. And after that I've been alone. Don't expect me to play games with you or whatever it is you do."

Edited (whoops unnecessarily alarming icon) 2014-04-04 03:40 (UTC)

Despite Naruto's usual denseness, he knew exactly what Sasuke had meant. Naruto just found it was easier to ignore Sasuke's stubbornness sometimes and counter with a seemingly innocent reply that showed just how simplified Naruto's view of everything was. Really, people made everything too complicated, Sasuke especially. Things didn't have to be that way, and Naruto tried his best to remind everyone of that fact.

That was also part of the reason Naruto tried to cut conversations short sometimes. He's reminded of the confrontation with his peers after the Kage summit and how they berated him for not beating Sasuke then. Instead of explain how he planned to take care of Sasuke and handle the situation, he told them he was hungry and walked off. He'd almost been able to do the same thing with Sasuke, but he was stopped by Sasuke's admission about friends and such.

Glancing over his shoulder, he snickered back at his teammate.

"You'd be the worst person to play games with, so don't worry about that." Turning, he took another step to leave but stopped once more, this time not bothering to glance behind him.

"And you've never been alone no matter how hard you tried, y'know."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[06] boy don't try to front (ah ah)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject