IC: CONTACT

[findpeace]

Yo, you've reached Uzumaki Naruto,
Sorry ya missed me but I had to go!
Leave a message at the beep,
To let me know where to meet.
Your concerns are extremely precious,
So let Naruto handle your stresses.
I'm here to save the day.
Then you will want to say
That I'm the best around,
Will never let you down
Because that is my ninja way.
And now that I am here to stay,
Just look for the orange glow!
Hell yeah, dattebayo!

Comments

[findpeace]

[It probably wouldn't help to know that the pain from the hit is already fading, that it won't leave a bruise as Kurama's healing regeneration takes hold to heal this minor injury. Naruto doesn't move right away.]

I have never wanted anything as much as I want this. Even more than being Hokage. [Which is saying something considering how long he's proclaimed he's going to become the Hokage one day.

Naruto and Sasuke understand a lot about each other but what he feels for their bond... maybe Sasuke doesn't understand that. Not in its entirety. Sasuke has never known what its like to feel as though he never had a bond to start with - he had his parents and Itachi growing up even if they were taken from him. But for Naruto, Sasuke had been the first.

Two kids who could understand what it was like to be alone even in a crowd of people. Two kids who were angry at the world because none of them knew what it was like. Two kids who would go home at the end of the day to an empty apartment that would never truly be home because it was empty. As time has passed, they've come to have more understanding.

And they're fighting because it's them and they've always fought, even when they were on the same team. They cannot possibly be in the same room without some kind of fight... or in the same vicinity as they are now. This is just one of the times when they're using their fists.

Unlike Sasuke, Naruto doesn't care about the volume of his voice - doesn't care if other people can hear them. His feelings on this matter cannot be contained.]

Because you're too stupid to realize that you do need to be saved! That's what friends are for! I know exactly what you want me to do but do you think that I could just give up? This isn't just about you, you know. This is about the both of us! And I can't give up on that. You're my friend. My best friend, my first friend. You were the first person I bonded with, the first person who I knew understood what it was like and I have the right to fight for that.

[Honestly, there aren't any words that he can possibly use that would describe just how much Sasuke matters to him. It isn't something he can say.

He rushes forward, ready to knock some sense into the other.]

[vindicavi]

[ In a way, he does understand what Naruto is saying. After he'd lost everything, he'd actually been rather glad to know there was someone else just like him - someone else who had nothing, who went home to nobody, who was just as trapped as he was. But then Naruto started forming bonds with others and began to have something... where he didn't. Naruto had never had anything to lose, so he didn't understand what it was to have those bonds torn away. Suddenly, Naruto wasn't like him anymore. He became like everyone else and even though a part of Sasuke had wanted to try again, he was still afraid of it all going away again. He'd been left to stare at Naruto's back, just like he'd always trailed behind Itachi.

And he hated it.

They'd become as close to best friends as Sasuke would allow himself to have, but all the while, he'd been incredibly jealous of him.

To him, this fight is meaningless, because as far as Sasuke is concerned, there's nothing to be fighting for. ]

Maybe you need to start getting used to disappointment!

[ At home -and the last time Naruto had been there- he'd wanted him dead. A final sacrifice and the beginning of a new world order. But then Naruto had disappeared, and suddenly everything he'd been wanting so badly seemed so out of reach. He'd questioned whether or not Lee's memories were real. He'd put together every possible theory he could think of for how things worked and why Lee would remember something beyond his own memories -which had clearly meant he'd died, or else why wouldn't he remember any of that?-, he'd questioned Sakura, he'd come so close to making Sarada cry, he'd even ripped down everything Boruto had suggested about the man the kid called 'sensei'.

...but Naruto was different too. His story about the missing arm thing fell more in line with Sarada and Sakura. And he hates it.

Even as the blond rushes at him, Sasuke can see him move, can follow and predict with practiced ease.

Naruto, Sakura, Sarada, Boruto, even Lee... Every single one of them remembered things he didn't.

Blocking is second-nature. Counterattacking, as well.

They'd all passed him up, leaving him to watch their backs as they went on ahead.

...but he's not in the right emotional state to focus on this fight. He's angry, he's hurt, he's frustrated. This fight doesn't matter... and that knowledge is slowly bleeding into his actions. He's never lost his cool like this before -except for when he fought alongside Itachi, and when he was a child- and it's making things a bit sloppy, taking swings that are just shy of their mark (getting to punch him had felt really good, though) and taking hits he should've been able to guard against easily. ]

Friends? You expect me to believe that?! You left me behind!

[ ...Not that it was actually Naruto's fault he'd left, but that doesn't make it hurt any less. ]