Broken and Forgotten [DISCONTINUED]

2.

〜サスケ〜

Naruto appeared puzzled at his words. "How do I put this..." his voice trailed off to think of the right words to say. "I'm sorry but... I'm afraid I have no idea who you are."

Sasuke couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"You really are an usaratonkachi." he stated weakly. Sasuke didn't mean for his voice to sound like this of course. Why was this affecting him so much anyway? "First you do no matter what it takes for me to return to that rotten village, but now you decide to forget me entirely." He mumbled bitterly.

Taken aback by the raven's strange behaviour, Naruto replied, "Were we that close...?"

Sasuke's heart ached. They were, indeed close, but he threw that all away. Barely able to get the words out of his mouth, he said, "No, not close. More like... distant."

The raven's teammates were shocked at his words. They had never seen this side of Sasuke before as he never really did talk about his past to them. Apart from the time he learnt the truth about Itachi, of course.

"Oh. You just seem pretty upset about it. Are you sure you're okay?"

Damn it! What was with all the questions? Nobody ever asked him about his feelings. So, Sasuke decided not to answer.

"Sasuke. Naruto had no choice in this." Kakashi's voice brought him back to reality. "Somebody cast a jutsu on him."

"A jutsu?" Sasuke repeated.

"That's right. We believe the caster to be a member of the Akatsuki." Kakashi's onyx eyes observed Taka's red clouded cloaks and furrowed his brows. "I see you've joined them. If you had anything to do with this then we must harm you to protect Naruto."

"Relax. I have no interest in Naruto. Besides, we're not even official members. I'm just doing them a favour." The raven explained to him.

"Good. However, we cannot let our guard down. We'll leave you alone for now. Anyway, all of Naruto's memories have been erased."

Sakura cut in. "So that means Naruto has lost all his memories of you as well. He won't go chasing you anymore. It leaves some weight off of your shoulders... I guess from now on we'll stop bothering you anyway."

Sasuke's eyes softened at his usually positive former teammate talking so negatively. Although, he quickly reverted back to his usual self. "Fine by me."

Kakashi smiled underneath his navy mask, "Hey, you know Naruto would never want to forget you, right? You were very precious to him."

Sasuke glared at him. Why was his old sensei being so friendly toward him like they were still close anyway? He muttered a 'whatever' before turning to Taka. "We should leave now before the sun sets."

They all nodded in return, passing the ninja from Konoha without saying goodbye. The four rogue ninja wearing Akatsuki cloaks soon continued their search for abandoned homes.

"Maybe we're searching in the wrong area..." Juugo thought aloud, letting himself bounce off of the upcoming tree branch.

Karin rolled her ruby eyes. "Way to change the subject, Juugo." She was between him and Sasuke, with Suigetsu on her far right.