Log: Complete

[relimited.livejournal.com]

When; December 23rd
Rating; PG
Characters; Naruto and Sasuke
Summary; Both boys are hit by the truth curse. Need I say more?
Log;
Ever since his brother left earlier, and Naruto just came back with the curse he was under today, Sasuke wasn't sure how to approach the other, almost afraid of what he would tell him. However, he needed to know what Naruto meant when he was referring to his brother and he didn't like that they wouldn't tell him things because of how he'd react.

Sasuke walked over to the sofa and sat down beside Naruto, "Hey. Did you just get back?"

The past week had been bad enough, but the previous day, and this morning, hadn't been much better. He'd tried as well as he could, to try and do as his father had done. But something in him had prevented it all morning. Once Itachi had left, things hadn't gotten much better. A conversation with the Shinigami's main enemy and his father. Telling the truth for an entire day wasn't helping much either.

He felt Sasuke approach, his relief clear as he opened his eyes to see the other, back to normal, taking a seat beside him. "...yeah." Looking up from his slouched position, Naruto gave a lazy smile. "You been up to much?"

"Nothing much" Sasuke shrugged, "You seemed to have been busy though,...you know, you still haven't explained any of that to me yet though, even though you said you were a few days before those curses hit..."

Sighing lightly, Naruto sat himself up properly, pivoting in his seat as he pulled his feet up to cross in front of him. "Fine. What did you want to know?" He knew that today of all days wouldn't be the best to tell Sasuke anything. But if he wanted to know, Naruto wasn't going to deny him that.

"Everything. I don't know...where ever you want to start I guess" Sasuke said, slowly.

Well, in truth... "...I don't wanna start at all. There's...too much to say, and I don't wanna say something that'll hurt you in the long run." This truth curse didn't help matters much at all.

"I'm going to find out sooner or later, so if anything, it would be better coming from you...wait. How would it hurt me?" Sasuke said, confused.

"'cause it might involve Itachi." Something that he never enjoyed having to talk to the other about. Especially after what'd recently happened. But no only that, he didn't know what Sasuke already knew about and what he didn't. There were some things he'd really rather keep to himself, if he could.

Sasuke sighed, "What about him? If it involves him...I need to know, no matter how much it does hurt me"

As much as he hated to admit it, Sasuke was right. "...what do you know so far?" He already knew he had to tell him about his father and Itachi's eyes. But other than that...

"Nothing really, other than what I saw you mention about his eyes..." Sasuke said, slowly, "So what exactly happened?"

"After what happened with us and Itachi, dad wanted to stop him from being able to do something like that again. So him and Tayuya fought Itachi and the others. Dad managed to destroy Itachi's eyes. But now, a girl called Hotaru has fixed them. But he doesn't know that we know."

Sasuke clenched his fist, not sure what to say in response, and with this truth curse, it really wasn't helping things "I...he....they had no right to do that to interfere, no matter what my brother did to me"

"It wasn't just 'cause of you." This truth curse was going to end up getting him killed...by his own best friend. "Dad went after him 'cause of what happened when I saw Itachi."

"What do you mean? What happened when you saw him Naruto?" Sasuke asked the other.

"Lots of things," he answered vaguely. There was the talking, the fighting, ...the marking. "He said and did things that dad got angry about when I told him. He wanted to try and make things better."

"Such as...?"Sasuke said, looking at Naruto suspiciously. "Naruto. I'm serious. What did my brother do to you?"

A sigh. "...we made a deal. Your safety, in exchange for me keeping out of the way." A hand lifted to the collar of his shirt, tugging the back down a little to show a red marking; a blood seal. "...he knows where I am at all times."

Sasuke flinched, as he saw the marking on Naruto's skin. "So that's how you got him to let me go back then? ...You're an idiot, you know that? You let him do that, put yourself at risk, just to have him let me go?"

His arms dropped back to his lap, a weak smile on his face. "...it was worth it." At the time, it'd been the only offer that'd been made available to him. Well, other than simple cooperating by handing over Kyuubi when the time came. At least this way, Sasuke was safe, and Akatsuki couldn't get their hands on Kyuubi without a fight. Though after what Arashi had said... "I had to do it," he muttered quietly.

"I...no, it wasn't, you didn't have to do anything. You can't just do something like that, not like this..." Sasuke shook his head, "I didn't want you to get involved, or anything to happen to you. I told you that before I left to go see him, so no matter what he did or will do to me...it doesn't matter"

He shook his head, a little amused at Sasuke's words. He was wrong. Very wrong. He had to go and see Itachi, regardless of Sasuke seeing his brother or not. Once he found out that Sasuke had been captured though, the 'had' had changed to 'want'. He wanted to do whatever he had to in order to get the younger Uchiha back and safe. "It matters to me."

Sasuke looked down, avoiding eye contact with the other "I...I know that it matters to you. He's my brother, I'm supposed to fight him, so things like what just happened a week ago, will probably happen again. You shouldn't get involved and put yourself at risk just because of me"

"He wont attack you, but he will defend himself." It was the other half of the deal. "If you leave him alone, you'll...be safe." A request that he doubted the other would be able to keep to for long. But he'd made the deal on the grounds that Sasuke would be safe from attack. "As long as you put yourself into danger, I'm gonna be right there too." Because he refused to sit back and let the other get hurt.

"Shouldn't you know by now that'll always be going after him? What you did to get him to release me was pointless, what happened when I went to him was my own fault," Sasuke said, the anger rising in his voice, "Don't you get it? That's exactly the thing I don't want you to do if he's going to hurt you too. You really need to stop caring about me so much. I'm not worth it, and I certainly don't deserve any of it."

He scowled in response, eyes narrowing. "You really are an idiot, yanno!" It didn't matter how many times he said it, Sasuke never seemed to understand him. "I don't care if you keep going after him. But you wont be alone." It seemed that no matter where Sasuke went, he'd always be stalked by the blond. "As long as Kyuubi's inside me, he's going to come after me eventually. So I don't care about that. What I do care about is that you're willing to throw away everything that's ever happened in order to get the power to beat this guy. Is it really that important that you do it on your own? You've got friends who want to help. I want to help. You just have to give us a chance." His voices quietened, completely serious as he finished. "I care about all of my friends, but there's aonly a few people I care about this much. I'm not going to let you die for something like this."

He was speechless for a few moments, before he found the words to say.

"...You knew that when we were put on a team together that that was my goal and I'll do whatever I need to because it was my family he killed that's why I'm the one who has to kill him," he sighed, "....I know he's going to come after you too, he told me. I didn't tell you this before but...when I talked to him before I agreed to meet up with him, he also told me something about you making a deal you were going to make with him, and not wanting his information about why he killed my clan. I get what he meant by it now, but I...told him to leave you out of it, that if he was to tell anyone why, it should be me. He said he'd leave you out of it, as long as I met him alone and he'd tell me why...I didn't believe him, but I had to go because of that"

He shook his head, "I...care about you too, Naruto. I know perfectly well that you do care about me, it's the fact you put yourself in danger because of me....maybe that's why I'm thinking about listening to what you said about--"

He paused, stopping him before he said anymore. This truth curse was really getting to be annoying.

"I told him that I didn't want to know from him. If you wanted me to know, then you would be the one I'd want to tell me." What little he'd known about the massacre of the Uchiha clan, he'd learnt the same way as all of the other students from the academy. Admittedly, he'd found out a few extra details from some of the adults too. But most of the information, the reliable information, had come straight from Sasuke himself. And he was glad of that. "Did he even give you the information you wanted?" Because if Sasuke had gone through everything he had, he damn well have better been offered the information he'd gone there for.

His expression softened as Sasuke's admission, a small smile appearing. "Then just give me a chance to help you." The cut off sentence however... "About what?"

"No, not exactly..." Sasuke cursed under his breath, as he realizing something "He...was planning this all along, I can't believe I didn't realize it. What he did to me...he was using me to get to you, because he knew that if he was meeting after that you'd want to get me back..."

He sighed. "I will...I'm still not used to the fact that you do care about me" He paused again, at Naruto's question, before speaking, in a quieter voice "...About not leaving"

It seemed as though Sasuke had finally reached the same conclusion as the rest of them. Itachi was only after the Kyuubi, and Sasuke was the perfect leverage to get to it. "You wont...go back to him again for it...will you?" As much as he wished the deal meant Sasuke would be safe from his brother, he knew it didn't. But if it gave him some immunity from attack, it was worth it. Just as long as he didn't go searching for trouble himself, all would be alright.

"I guess you wouldn't be." The time difference hadn't really been much of an issue so far. But things like this were enough to remind him of it. "You'll...stay?"

"I...don't need to. He won't tell me anything anyway," Sasuke shook his head, "From finding about all this stuff with you, and my brother coming after of you because of it...well, it's all still new to me, so I guess that's probably why I didn't realize it before"

Sasuke nodded in response, "Yeah, I will... "

"If there's stuff you want to know about it all, you've only gotta ask. Even if this curse wasn't around today, I'd still tell you." Just for the fact it was him asking. The others had tried to warn him to not tell the other anything about his own future, but there was only so much he could keep to himself.

And a grin, growing bigger by the second. "You really mean it?"

"Yeah, I know. I don't really know what exactly to ask though..."Sasuke smiled at the other, "Yeah, of course I mean it, with this curse today, I can't exactly lie, you know"

"When you do though, m'not gonna lie about it." It took all he had from pouncing on the other in happiness. So instead, he resolved himself by just grinning widely, happy at the news Sasuke had given him. "It'll be great!"

"Yeah, I know,....I'll let you know, if I do have any questions," Sasuke nodded.

Leaning his side against the sofa, Naruto turned silent for a few moments, taking the opportunity to just...enjoy the calm. Eventually however, Naruto spoke again, keeping his voice fairly quiet so the mood wouldn't be broken. "...I missed this." Simply being able to just sit with Sasuke without having to worry about being attacked.

Sasuke stretched his arms, sighing softly as shifting slightly to get more comfortable on the sofa. "Hmm. I guess that's kind of what made me want to stay..."

A lazy smile and Naruto reached a hand out to tug at the material of Sasuke's shirt. "You have to promise me though. You wont go off and put yourself in danger. I don't...it hurts to see you get hurt."

Sasuke looked out of the corner of his eye as Naruto reached out to tug on his shirt, "Okay. I promise...just as long as you don't either"

"I can't anyway." A grin. "Dad and me have a deal too. I'm not allowed to go off and start anything without talking to him first." He shook his head. This curse seemed to stop him from being able to shut himself up over certain things. "But I wont start anything either."

Sasuke laughed, "Oh...right. Well, I don't want you to get hurt either, so I like I said, I won't do anything to put myself in danger"

His hand still didn't release it's grip on Sasuke's shirt, almost as though he was...afraid...to let go right then. "I'm gonna hold you to that, yanno." Although he cared about all his friends here, there were two people in particular that he worried about more than others; his father, and his best friend. One had been taken care of, but now matter what Sasuke said, Naruto still felt as though he'd failed him by not being there when he should've been. So now, all his concern would shift to the younger Uchiha alone.

"Yeah, yeah. I told you I won't, and I'll keep that promise" Sasuke said, "Why do you still think I would, if it's going to hurt you too?"

"...'cause the Sasuke from my time wouldn't care. He'd do whatever he had to to get what he wanted." And as much as he tried to think of the two as different people, they were still the same. If this Sasuke decided to follow the same path as the other...

Sasuke shook his head, "Well...I'm do care. I don't know, I think that's what I would have done, but I guess from everything that's happened here with me after coming here, and what I know now...maybe that's what changed my mind, even though I was kind of telling you otherwise when we talked before I left to go see Itachi"

Which was the reason why he wanted to do all he could to keep him safe. This Sasuke was still...normal. Despite everything that'd happened, he was still the same boy that Naruto had grown so attached to since they'd first been forced into their three-man team. Not a twisted version of himself, corrupted by his own want for power.

Sliding forward onto his knees, Naruto found himself moving without his permission. Arms slid around Sasuke as he pulled him into a tight hug. "I...want things to stay like this, for as long as they can."

The sudden movement from Naruto as the other moved closer and pulled him into a hug, it surprised him. Sasuke didn't really like being hugged or even touched for that matter, but given the situation he just let Naruto hug him, and subconsciously found himself hugging him the other back, "Yeah, so do I..."

Naruto was very much a tactile person, as could be seen in many of the things he did. And as such, it only felt natural for him to seek comfort from the other by means of a hug. Keeping his hold on the other, Naruto sighed to himself. "s'long as you'll let me, m'not gonna go anywhere."

Sasuke nodded, moving back a bit from the hug, but still holding onto the other as well "Yeah, I know. If I wasn't going to, I would told you already..."

"...I know." Smiling gently at the other, Naruto found relief in the admission. Sasuke knew that Naruto would be there, no matter what. And he wasn't going to let him down in that respect. He'd do whatever it took. He was his best friend after all.