A Bright Future {Naruto x Reader}

Chapter 18

Sasuke's POV:

Itachi is being ridiculous. I'm not stressed, and I don't need to rest. Even though I hated what (Y/N) said about his sickness, I still agree that he needs the rest more than anyone in this group. If I had my way, I would have left him in the village... But that is just as a ridiculous thought as the one about me being stressed.

I get up from my sleeping position and look around our camp. Suigetsu, who was supposed to be on guard is slowly falling asleep... And they ask me why I always take the night watch...

I thought at first I would catch (Y/N) trying to do something other than sleep, kind of hoping we could stand together against Itachi one more time. When I peeked at her side, she was snoring. We've been traveling together for a couple of nights now, and this is the first time I hear her snore... I look over her again and realize how deeply asleep she is.

I guess she is as tired as Itachi says she is.

"Let her sleep." I spin around, ready to attack when I suddenly hear a voice behind me. I let out a breath of relief when I recognized them. "You shouldn't sneak up on people in the middle of the night." I scowl at him. He chuckles, "You would have sensed me if you were in top shape."

"I am in top shape, Itachi. I was just concentrating on checking on BlabberMouth." I walk away from him. "Where are you going, Sasuke?" he asks but doesn't move from his place. "There's a town nearby; I'm going to check if I can get anything useful from there." I wrap my coat around me and hide my Katana.

"Don't take too long. I really mean it, Sasuke, you need to rest." his voice was stern, he won't take my denial as an answer anymore. "I will when I come back." I slip into the darkness of the night and make my way to town.

Thankfully, there weren't many people around this time of night. Mostly drunk men or late-night food stalls and the like. With such a small town, they wouldn't be too suspicious of a wandering traveler.

I keep my eyes and ears open for any kind of information on what's going on around the area or the battlefields. Sakura told me a bit about how they planned to win the war; she wanted us to have a better chance of finding Kabuto without being distracted by the big fights.

That girl... I'd like to say she hasn't changed since we were kids, but a lot of factors prove me wrong. She always had Naruto's and Kakashi's trust in the past and mine, of course, but now it shows how they rely on her a lot more.

(Y/N) talks about her as well, about all the skills she learned and the strength she gained. She practically shivered when she mentioned the power of her punch... 

And yet, she still acts the same way around me. I won't admit it out loud, but that confuses me. It's pretty obvious that she still has a thing for me, but how is that even possible? I abandoned her, abandoned all of them to gain more power. 

That night she tried to stop me from leaving and I did that to her to stop her from following me and she is still siding with me and keeping her feelings as they are. How can she still love someone who left her and almost tried to not only kill his best friend but also kill her?

I wonder if things would change that much from now if I didn't accept Orochimaru's offer. Would I have still found Itachi and tried to kill him? Would I have gained enough power to even do that?

Would meeting (Y/N) as part of Team 7 change anything? Would my reaction to her being part of the Uchiha clan have been less aggressive?

What am I even doing?! Dwelling on the past and all sorts of 'What ifs' won't change anything, and it especially wouldn't solve our issue of finding Kabuto or defeating Madara. This isn't like me, I made my choices, and stuck by them; now I have to live with the consequences and move on.