Binding Souls

My Hero

So Suki had done what any smart woman would. She had stalled. Tenten was a good excuse to put off the inevitable conversation.

"You're going to want to put a steak on that eye," she mutters as they walk inside their home.

Their home. The word home had lost all meaning to Suki until recently. It was just where she lived. After the massacre, her "home" was nothing but a reminder of what she had lost. While she was in the Sound Village, she wasn't home. She just happened to occasionally have a roof over her head. During her travels, it was the same.

Now, she had a home. She had someone to come home to. That scared her. As powerful as Naruto was, he wasn't immortal. He could die. Then she'd be alone again.

"Yeah probably. Do we have any," he asks.

"Yes, we have some steaks," she answers reaching into the freezer to get them out, trying to ignore the panic that was quickly spreading in her mind.

She was in love. Being in love wasn't a good thing. When you loved someone, when you had a strong bond, it just hurt more when it was finally severed. Suki had tried again and again to sever their connection. But Naruto was the most stubborn person, she'd ever met.

"Here you go," she says, handing him one of the steaks for his eyes.

Naruto didn't get it. One moment everything was fine. Suki felt a bit smug that Tenten had socked it to him good. The next moment he felt waves of panic coming from the aloof Uchiha. He could feel her distress. The blonde just wasn't sure what the reason was.

"Forget the steaks. What's wrong," he asks.

What really pissed him off though was the fact if it wasn't for the bond, he wouldn't have noticed. Something was terrifying Suki. But on the outside, she gave no indication that she was practically in the midst of a panic attack.

She was STILL shutting him out. Just like always. Even after they gave themselves to each other, she refused to open up to him.

"Nothing's wrong. Your eye will be alright in a day or two. Actually, I take that back. You have Kyubbi. He'll probably heal you up in a few minutes if he's in a good mood," she says with what Naruto knew to be a fake smile.

"Don't lie to me. You can't get away with it anymore," he growls.

"...," Suki wisely chooses to keep her mouth shut at this point and starts to slowly back away from the very much furious Naruto.

"I mean it. You're scared of something. What is it," the blonde demands to know.

"Can we talk about it later," Suki asks, biting her lower lip.

"No. We are talking about it NOW," he answers and picks up the brunette, setting her on the counter.

"Fine," she mutters, looking away from him, and crossing her arms defensively.

Naruto wasn't going to have any of that. He grabs her chin and forces her to look at him. He wasn't going to budge on this one.

"Naruto, everyone that I love DIES. I'm fucking cursed. Don't you get it," Suki hisses at him.

"Oh, so that's it. You love me, but you're afraid that I'll leave you," the blonde says.

"Not by choice. But look at the trail of bodies that follows me, wherever I go. I'm not safe. That's why I tried to shove you away. So it wouldn't hurt as much. For your own SAFETY," she growls at him.

"Suki, you aren't cursed. Nothing that happened was your fault. If you don't want to be with me, that's one thing. But I'm NOT letting you run away because you are afraid about something that might happen." he states firmly.