Golden Hour

The Curse Mark

"So how long should it take for us to reach the tower?" Sakura questioned.

"Well, we have a few more days left of the challenge to complete, so that means that we should reach the tower about tomorrow morning, as we have no idea where it is. It could literally be in any direction. I have no idea where I'm heading now anyway." Naruto confessed.

"And all this time, I thought we were going the right way..." Sakura groaned.

"Nice job, To." Sasuke added a brief groan as well.

Naruto rolled his eyes. They were talking smack about him but they probably couldn't do it better.

"To. Do you want me to help?" Sasuke put a hand on his back.

"No. I can do this just fine." Naruto persisted.

"Naruto." Sasuke forced Naruto to look at him.

"Why aren't you letting me help? I can find the place faster, I'm the better tracker."

"I said NO. Can't you hear me?" 

"Naruto, you don't have to try so hard. If you need some help, just ask." Sakura backed up Sasuke on this 'trifling' matter.

"No."

"Naruto-"

"I SAID NO! WHY CAN'T I GET IT THROUGH TO YOU NUMBSKULLS THAT I DON'T NEED HELP! IT WAS JUST A SIMPLE MISTAKE!" Naruto screamed at them, regretting what he had done two seconds later, he slapped his mouth while staring wide-eyed at them.

Sakura was shocked at him. They were basically siblings, but Sakura had never seen this side of him. She looked at him, feeling guilty, as if she was the one that caused this, as she joined Sasuke in telling Naruto to step down. 

Sasuke just held a plain face. Bland. Regular. Normal. Whatever you want to call it. He didn't flinch at Naruto's outburst.

"Naruto, come with me." Sasuke fingered him and sat down at a nearby tree. Naruto grit his teeth and curled his fists. Sasuke was about to give him one of his 'talks'. His very annoying 'talks'.

"Why are you getting so stressed out over these types of things? You knew that you weren't getting anywhere, but you still continued to try and navigate to help us, so tell me, why? Are you angered about something that I did or have done? Are you thinking about what Sakura said to you, and how I shouted at her a few days before that?"
Sasuke looked at Sakura with an expression on his face saying 'sorry'. Sakura sent one right back. She forgave people way too easily. 

Naruto was shaking his whole body now. His hands, his legs, his feet, his body, it was all shaking. 

"Tell me why, To." Sasuke repeated. 

Every word from Sasuke to Naruto felt like Sasuke had shot him with a gun and reloaded the gun by hit him in vital areas with the second chances.

"I'm jealous of you." He whispered softly enough that Sakura, standing about 50 metres from them couldn't hear, but Sasuke could.

"I see. Well, that's life, Naruto. You win some and you lose some. Jealousy is a hard thing to overcome. You get it at one point in your life, and you start to dislike the person so much that you start to hate them. Tell me Naruto, do you hate me?" Sasuke absurdly questioned.

"No. No matter how jealous I feel about you, I can't hate you. You've done so much for me. You saved me from the villagers. You gave me a home. You gave me a family. I can't hate you." A tear fell out of Naruto's eye.

"So why are you jealous of me? Am I good at a certain subject?" Sasuke asked inciviquolly.

"You're good at everything. You just have to be good at everything, don't you? You get entourage, you get popularity, you get skills, and I get nothing. "