[closed] you give me hell but i'll make it

[chokuto]

WHO: Team Seven kakashi who
WHERE: Mainly the Gallows, Shadowlands, misc other areas
WHEN: Early to Mid November
WHAT: Sasuke went to jail (shocking), Naruto and Sakura bust him out; later, Sasuke and Naruto reconvene to have a very necessary conversation
WARNINGS: Event-specific CWs including blood, branding, captivity, violence

Comments

[acknowledgement]

[Sasuke’s argument might not have been so incriminating if not for past conversations. Again and again, his teammates have made it abundantly clear here that returning Naruto to Konoha is the main concern—and not necessarily with them by his side. “You’re needed, Naruto.” Words flung at him as if his two closest friends are not. As if the entirety of his world doesn’t hinge on their continued presence in his life. As if they were expendable—small and petty sacrificial game pieces, awaiting an opportunity to launch themselves into danger’s way for his sake. And the worst part of it all? As a shinobi, he knows their priority is correct. This is the cold, grim reality Naruto is tasked with facing once he accepts the mantle of Hokage: Their worth is not equal, not in the grand scheme of protecting the village. But despite his awareness of that awful fact, a dark fury still creeps over his expression now. When he blinks, eyelids draw upward to reveal irises dyed the color of blood, pupils contracted into tiny, vertical slits.

Maybe he isn’t cut out for Hokage, after all.]

If you think, [he begins, voice trembling with barely suppressed rage around canines grown thick and sharp,] you’re not needed…

[Whisker markings deepen. His self-control is a thin thread unspooling wildly. Kurama urges him to calm down, advice that falls on willfully deaf ears.]

…then you never understood me in the first place.

[A fantasy is all he’s had to keep him going since childhood.

Sasuke has always been part of that fantasy.

Like hell Naruto is going to wake up.]

Bastard!

[Armed with only claws for nails, the blond shinobi hurls himself bodily at Sasuke and throws them both down onto the uneven, dusty rocks. The setting is nostalgic. Fueled by his misplaced anger and doubt, struggling to keep bijū chakra from exploding out of him, Naruto wrestles his best friend as if he can beat understanding into Sasuke with only one arm and a rapidly fraying dream.]

[chokuto]

[In the end, is it his fault? He's agitated his friend to this point of no return; and too, before, it seemed the situation developed because of him. There's little time to agonize further — Naruto's assault is upon him, taking the action of violence that speaks more clearly between them than anything else. Sasuke braces himself to meet it.

He's struck across the arm held out as a barrier, momentum enough to carry them into a hard, sideways roll. To break them apart, Sasuke delivers a hard kick to the other boy's side that intends to throw him off and across the rocky earth. With this breathing space regained, he climbs to knees, expression gritted.]

You know it's different.

[If he's needed, it isn't in the same way Naruto is. It never will be.]

Get a hold of yourself. Or are you going to let that side of you win? It's just more proof you need to accept the bond with someone before it's too late.