Three years, two months and fourteen days.
That's how long it had been that Sasuke Uchiha had gone to his mission. The hokage office had received a total of seven letters, and three scrolls till now. Two of which had still yet to be decrypted. Every letter started with 'To the hokage' and ended with 'Sasuke Uchiha' . Each of them consisted of three paragraphs. All of them handwritten on a neat, white paper. Nothing more nothing less. Nothing to give away his location, of how was he holding up, or how much longer the mission was expected to be.
By now, the hokage had remembered every word of every letter by heart. He had visited the Uchiha's residence quite a few times till now, keeping it tidy and presentable for the Uchiha to use whenever was he to come back. He could sometimes be found in the Uchiha's bed on some nights, sleeping while hugging the owner's pillow.
But noone ever knew what was going on in his head, to the world he was still the happy go lucky Naruto, their kind, sweet hokage. Noone could tell what was he going through, noone but his trusted advisor, who empathized with him but that was all he could do for his friend, much to the Nara's dismay.
By now all of their friends were either married or had kids, except Sakura, who had decided to focus on her career for the time being. Naruto was glad that his whole gang knew about him and Sasuke and that everyone supported them whole heartedly.
Naruto couldn't wait to tell this to Sasuke. He could've written a book by now if he wanted to, that would contain all the things that he wanted to share with him.
My life, that's what I want to share with him, he thought. Where are you Sas?
At the moment he was sitting on the roof of the Uchiha's residence. Looking at the vast night sky, the stars were abundant but the moon could not be seen.
Why wouldn't the moon come out? Nothing seems complete without it. The stars seem undone and even the sun feels lonely. Come home Sasuke.
He sat there, knees bended while his head rested on them. All of a sudden he heard a flapping sound of wings, upon lifting his head he was surprised to be met with no ordinary bird, but was met with Garuda, Sasuke Uchiha's hawk summon. The blonde's eyed widened as he saw a letter attached to the bird's foot. It had been seven months since the last letter had arrived so he was nervous to say the least. All of the letters were delivered directly to the office and never to him personally, until now. Naruto instantly wiped away the stray tears that had been falling down his cheeks and grabbed the paper, hoping that everything was alright with the raven, while lightly petting the hawk.
"Good work Garuda", he said as he took a deep breath and opened the letter.
To Naruto
Currently I am residing at a small village in the land of stone, I plan to remain here for a few more days to pack up on supplies before I head out again.
You are welcome to reply to this letter. I hope I remain here by the time your reply comes.
Sasuke.
The blonde was spellbound. He had never received such a letter from the raven, a letter that was meant for him, not for the hokage, but him. And to top it all off, he could send a reply back! He could never before. He was so excited that he could cry. Jumping up he grabbed a paper and pen from the Uchiha's house and sat back down to write down the letter. Being the hokage, he got to write a number of letters on daily basis but this was something else. This was something completely different.
Sasuke Uchiha came out of the shower the third time that day. Showers are underrated, he thought. Celestial wastelands were sure to make anyone miss long showers. He wore a grey full sleeved shirt and black pants, to remain as comfortable as possible before he had to wear his mission gear again the next day for who knows how long.
He headed out to the markets, his supplies had already been restocked, now all he needed was a hot dinner. The markets were busy that night, people were getting everything ready for an upcoming festival. Lights were being put up, stalls were being placed. Sasuke smiled a little, seeing people roaming around in groups, some families, a few couples holding hands, children running in the streets.
The young ladies of the village however, kept their eyes on the new treat out and about in the village that night. The raven received seductive looks as well as quite a few lustful advances. Women were throwing themselves on the young, raven haired, muscular man. Everyone wanted to be the one that the mysterious looking man would bed that night. The raven on the other hand didn't care neither noticed anything, he had other things on mind. His mission, his dinner and a certain blonde human.
Coming back to the land of humans from another dimension always felt like he was so very close to his blonde. He had to fight the urge to teleport to him even for a minute, just to see him, many times. But he couldn't jeopardize the mission like that, this mission had shaped up to become above all of them. An extraterrestrial threat would be disastrous, and he wanted to diminish the possibility of that happening as much as he could. So distractions were unacceptable.
The raven eventually found a little eatery around the corner of the market street. He sat down and ordered some rice balls and tomato soup to go with it. Just when he was done ordering, he saw a child, no more than twelve, relishing onto a bowl of ramen. The raven smiled, it reminded him of only one person, him. Everything reminded of him. Sasuke ended up getting a serving of ramen as well, to celebrate the memories of his blonde man, who however old or strong might be, still had a child within him.
He enjoyed his meal, payed for it and made his way back to the inn he was staying at for the night before he resumed the mission. While walking he was interrupted by someone running into him, literally running into him and was about to fall when the Uchiha grabbed them and helped them on their feet. It was a woman, a young, beautiful woman.
"Are you alright?", the raven asked politely.
"O-Oh I'm a-alright thankyou mister", the woman said blushing hard.
The raven satisfied by her reply was about to walk again when two delicate, polished hands going around his arms stopped him.
"You look lonely mister. Why don't you allow me to thank you properly by letting me join you tonight?", the woman said as seductively as she possibly could.
The raven gave her an irritated look. "There's no need for that".
The woman instantly put her hands on the raven's chest, as she flaunted her slender body, "Oh do you not want to see whats beneath these clothes mister?", she tried sounding very innocent as she pressed her breasts between her arms.
"I actually don't. Now if you'll excus-", the raven's speech drifted away by recognizing something far away in the sky behind the woman. A bird.
Garuda...Naruto.
Sasuke forgot about the woman and what she was saying, he started walking briskly towards the direction of the bird arriving. He only slowed down when Garuda had reached him, as it sat on his shoulder.
"Good work Garuda", he said as he grabbed the piece of paper that was tied to the hawk's feet. Sasuke immediately jumped to the roof of a tall building and sat down, as he took a deep breath and opened the letter.
To Sasuke.
I am proud of you and the work you're doing. Just know that warm arms await you whenever you decide to come home.
I love you always.
Naruto.
That was it. Sasuke didn't know what to expect from the letter before he opened it. But he had predicted long verses, with words of all sorts. But this, he did not expect.
When did he start acting like a grownup?, he thought smiling.
I am proud of you. Such a simple sentence, that carried so much weight to it. He loved every single word in the small, intimate writing. He brought the letter to his chest and closed his eyes. Then he brought it to his nose and took a deep breath.
Naru...
How long had it been since he saw him? Three years. Three fucking years. He had deprived himself and the blonde of love for three whole years.
Something in the raven stirred, he felt something he hadn't felt in a very long time...sadness. His heart was aching all of a sudden. He didn't expect that a mere letter from his blonde would bring up so many emotions within him. Emotions that he had buried deep, deep down after he took up the mission.
I can't think...like that. I can't. I shouldn't..
He folded the paper and put it inside his pocket, got up and made his way to the inn, where he spent a sleepless sort of a night. His mind consumed by the sun itself. Warm arms await you, it had read. Warm arms. His arms. Home. Naruto..
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Six months later, a portal was opened somewhere in the Land of Fire. A certain Uchiha rolled out of it frantically and instantly closed the portal.
Phew! That was close!
The disoriented, dusty raven stood up and checked up on himself for any serious injuries. A dislocated shoulder and a few broken limbs, he noticed, not counting the multiple bruises throughout his whole body.
I need a medic...fucking great, he thought.