A/N:
Hello my sweet darlings, yes I'm being mean. So there are only two more chapters with a total of 48 chapters. I might make an epilogue? But I am not sure if it something I want to do right now.
Anyways there is a song on this chapter and I hope you enjoy it as well as this chapter. I am working extra to make the ending you guys want. Still introducing changes here and there!
Love you all!
- Homura
🍙🍥🍙🍥🍙
Before we continue on with the story, we need to go back to that night on the Hokage mountain, where the star-crossed lovers sat side by side. There was a chance, their life would have turned entirely differently. This would be that story:
That night, Naruto was adamant on telling the truth but he did not know how to start it. He was having the strongest Ramen craving of his life. Next to him Sasuke was eaten away by the silence.
"I heard your Gala was the last one you are holding. you're gonna stick to teaching?" The raven asked breaking the silence.
"No" Naruto tried to gather his courage to say the words.
"What? Gonna become a mangaka?"
"No" the blond took a deep breath in. 'there are five stages of grief'
"Write a book? Travel the world? Teach Kendo-..."
"Sasuke, I'm sick"
"You're not feeling well? I can take you home and-..."
"No, no...Sasuke, I'm sick" he reaffirmed changing his tone.
"You got a new heart...and it's working just fine...you're twenty...you're healthy...we're gonna get married...and...settle down...and grow old together-..."
'The first is denial. Your brain can't process the information. It's inconceivable. It couldn't possibly be true. You look at them and laugh, it's a bad joke. The worst nightmare. It's one or the other. And you tell yourself if you deny it long enough it won't be true'
Naruto looked down breaking as he heard him say all of that "I lied about the heart. I was pulled from the list...about a year ago. I suffered an unlikely side affect from the treatment I had."
"You're getting back on the list once you're better right?"
"Sasuke, I was diagnosed with cancer. I can't get treatment for it, my heart can't handle it. And I can't get a new heart, having cancer disqualifies me immediately."
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?! Why did you keep lying to me?!" He shouted.
'This brings us to the second stage: anger. Someone needs to take the blame for this unideal situation. You need to vent, to let it all out. Words fly out your mouth, cursing at whomever is in front of you. It is their fault, had they told you earlier everything would have been better or so you try to convince yourself.'
Naruto let his fiancé rage in his face. He had been mentally preparing himself for it for months. Though it was still hard to deal with it he was better equipped.
"I was scared of having you throw away your life for me. I was scared of losing you. They told me to just live my life best I could. To just be happy and thankful for every day...I was until you walked back in to my life...then you made me want more."
Naruto flinched as Sasuke hit the car hood with his bare hands and slid down on the harsh cold ground.
"We can have you treated abroad...there has to be someone out there...we can try other types of therapy"
'Bargaining; you start to think that you can make a deal to change the reality. The facts are all laid on the table for you but you nitpick what you want to believe. As long as the outcome isn't a reality yet, you think you can change it. But you can't, Sasuke. I can't. No one can'
"Sasuke, there is nothing you can do.. I tried everything. I've made insane proposals...it's set"
'he cried. I watch him cry for hours. I couldn't touch him, if I got close he'd just push me away. I was the main source of his pain. If he keeps me away he could protect himself. Shutting me off is the fourth stage: depression. Everyone faces this stage differently. Some even skip it entirely to acceptance. But I could tell. This was the stage Sasuke was in: Depression'
Naruto stayed by his lover's side. The Uchiha sat on the icy cold ground emotionless. In one night all his dreams of happy ever after had come crashing down on top of him.
It didn't matter what Naruto said, it didn't bring any consolation to the man that was told he could lose it all at any moment.
"Sasuke, we really need to go. It's cold"
"Then just go, I don't care. You're leaving me either ways" Sasuke was broken, he wanted to go back in time to when he didn't know about this.
"That's not fair..." He mumbled to himself and just got up walking away.
'Shikamaru can you come pick me up? I told Sasuke, it didn't go well... I'm walking down the Hokage mountain'
'come again? Walking down the mountain? Just stay there for fuck's sake' he send the text and called Sasuke. When the asshole idiot refused to answer he sent him a text.
'I told you to stop being stupid. I swear to god if anything happens to Naruto because of you, I'll fucking kill you'
Then it sank. It wasn't the threat that got him to stand up but the idea that something could happen to Naruto and more because of him.
He called his fiancé not knowing what road he had taken down.
"What?"
"Where are you?"
"Down the road. Shikamaru's coming to pick me up"
Sasuke just hung up and drove down the car road until he saw Naruto's silhouette. They exchanged no words as the blond got in and buckled up.
It was an awkward drive home with Naruto on his phone all the way there. The car came to a halt, neither men moved from their seats.
"You want to come inside?" Naruto wondered already knowing the answer.
"I don't think I should."
"Are we still together?" He turned to face him.
"I'm not breaking up with you. I just-..."
"I understand." Naruto unbuckled the seatbelt. "I'm sorry about it all" he got out and closed the door.
The blond heard the car door close and turned around seeing Sasuke come to him. His fiancé held his hands.
"I'm scared of losing you...I can't imagine living without you. I...did...and it was just me pretending to be happy for the sake of other people...I don't want to accept this"
"I shouldn't have said yes...I shouldn't have taken you back...I shouldn't have told you" Naruto hated himself for causing his soulmate so much pain.
"You don't mean that."
"I do...it was selfish of me to want all of that...I knew and I still dragged you into it....I'd rather have you hate me than love me like this..." Naruto got inside, Sasuke on his heel trying to stop him.
"Naruto open the door" Sasuke hit it since his fiancé locked himself in the bedroom. "Just open the door...please" he desperately begged.
He could hear Naruto pacing back and forth as he continued begging him to open the door until he heard him collapse.
"Naruto!" That's when he started banging louder, bumping his body against the locked door trying to force it open.
Kitsune by his side barking at the door obviously distressed.
When he broke it open, he found him unconscious on the floor.
"Naruto....please..don't leave me" he silently cried fumbling around to get his phone and call 119.
He checked his breathing and pulse as ordered and reported back to them.
"Hold on...help is on the way.." he held his hand close, not sure Naruto could even hear him but he didn't want to leave him alone.
Kitsune was sitting on top of Naruto to better help his blood pressure going back to normal.
The operator had asked if he was waking up or showing any response to which Sasuke gave a negative response. He checked the heartbeats again and his breathing, feeling frightened.
When the paramedics finally arrived, he kept holding his hand. Everything was hazy, the sound of the sirens was distant to the broken Uchiha.
He was held back by security at the hospital as they took his sunshine away. The screams of a man about to lose his most precious sent shivers down the spine of those who heard it.
"Naruto!! please don't leave me!! Please I need you!" he watched as the doctor was literally on top of Naruto in the stretcher, pressing on his chest trying to bring him back. Sasuke wanted to hold him no matter what but soon he was out of his line of sight. No one could comfort him, he was hysteric.
🍙🍥🍙🍥🍙
He sat on the floor, Naruto's red scarf in his hand. He was lost in space and time , a doctor approached him. He knew her, she was Naruto's doctor.
"Uchiha-san" she took a deep breath. "It's unfortunate that we see each other again in these circumstances. Let's go talk in my office. Naruto's stable. He's in the ICU"
"It's my fault...it's my fault" Sasuke covered his face.
"...please" she rubbed his forearm to comfort him, helped him stand and took him to her office. She sat down across from him. "You know about Naruto's situation, he told you?"
"About his cancer....he told me everything...tonight" he took the tissue she had offered him.
"I see.." she sighed. "It's been a tough journey. Naruto-kun is strong. We estimated he would survive six months. It's been a year and a half now. I don't know how long he still has. He had heart failure just yesterday....all we can do is try to manage the symptoms and the pain. His wrist monitor had shown increased stress levels tonight...if he had just told you about his condition then that would explain-..."
"I'm losing him...I'm losing him right?"
"It could be minutes... hours.. days... weeks... months or years... His cancer isn't developing at an alarming rate. Naruto will most likely pass away from his heart disease"
"If...there is a heart...that no one wants-..."
"No one will operate on him, he had already made a similar proposal. There was a brain dead patient a while ago. She was a donor but she wasn't fit. Naruto asked if they could allow him to have it. Not an entire heart transplant but a second heart to support his damaged one. I was with him when he made the proposal to every hospital, every clinic here in Konoha. They all refused, it's too risky. When he was making the proposal you could read the desperation on his face...I wished one of them was crazy enough to do it but it didn't matter how much he put on the table. His case is too complicated and the risk of him dying on the table is too high. Some even brought up his depression into it and said he was just trying to have them off him. Medically speaking, his offer was very achievable just not for someone in his exact situation."
"What do you do...when you know the man you love will die any moment?"
"I've lost him already." She had a soft sad smile on her face. Her eyes glistened "I loved him with all my heart...and I made sure to love him extra in his final days."
"I'm sorry...I thought-.."
"We were married. I still wear the ring because...it makes me feel like he is still here with me. In a way I think he is... It's not easy. Accepting there is nothing you can do is never easy. But you cannot keep wasting time specially when you don't have much of it." She cut him off and paused for a while before she continued. "My advice is to live in the moment. Don't think of what's ahead just live every day with him and enjoy it. Not like it is his last day but your last day on earth together. Do all the things you wanted to do, it'll be worth it."
Those words, Sasuke took to heart. If she had lost the person she loved most and still made it then he surely can, for Naruto and for his son. At least, that was what he told himself.
🍙🍥🍙🍥🍙
When Naruto opened his eyes for the first time that week, he saw Sasuke's long black hair. The man was sitting on a chair and sleeping on the bed. But the softest touch from Naruto woke him up.
"Didn't mean to wake you" he confessed looking at how Sasuke held his hand with both his.
"If you didn't wouldn't have known you're up" Sasuke kissed his fiancé's hand. "How are you feeling?"
"Bad about worrying you" Naruto's tears threatened to fall.
"What are you talking about Usuratonkachi, I wasn't worried at all"
Naruto chuckled crying.
"Are you laughing or crying?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"Both" the blond couldn't help that weird mood he was in.
"Usuratonkachi"
"Mhm?"
"Naruto, Marry me-..."
"I already said yes"
"Let me finish..." He poked Naruto's forehead and chuckled as his fiancé pouted cutely "marry me this weekend."
"I-..."
"I'll get all the permissions needed...I'll organize everything..."
"You still want to marry me?"
"You're supposed to be the smart one in this relationship. I just asked you haven't I?"
"No...I mean...even after what happened?"
"Same answer" Sasuke replied "I'd be a fool to make the same mistake twice. And I'd be scum to give you up again. We may not grow old together but I wanna be with you...who knows...maybe in another life you and I will get to grow old together. I have to say 80 year old Naruto is surprisingly sexy.." he winked.
"Pervert!" He hit him playfully and covered his face.
"I can't believe you still feel shy around me"
"I think even 80 year old me would still be shy, Teme" Naruto cleared his throat.
Sasuke smirked and got closer kissing him. "I'd have teased the hell out of you"
Naruto looked in his lover's eyes.
"Teme, Thank you"
"What for?"
"Being beside me" Naruto smiled and closed his eyes "get in bed I wanna cuddle"
"Yes, sir" Sasuke got next to him bringing him close. "Comfy?"
"Mhm, perfect" he rested his head on Sasuke's chest. "As for your question. I'd marry you wherever and whenever...."
Sasuke kissed his forehead and kept him close as he felt his breathing steady and fall right back to sleep.
Having had little rest in the past week, Sasuke too closed his eyes falling asleep a bit reassured since Naruto was right in his arms.
🍙🍜🍙🍜🍙
Due to Naruto's bad health, even the wedding Sasuke has been planning to hold in the weekend ended up being postponed. He's been stuck in his bedroom. Karin would bring his paintings to shortly work on. He would have his IV meds in the morning, eat a bit, sleep, lunch and meds, sleep. She would help him move around a bit. A few steps around the room, casually changing to few steps around the living room.
And that's where he stagnated, he couldn't climb stairs anymore and even the slightest effort made just made him too breathless.
That morning when he got out of his bedroom, he saw the whole living room was redecorated.
He didn't know what was going on, why there were seats and a make shift alter out of red and white roses? Who's getting married and why wasn't he told?
"Usuratonkachi, you're not supposed to see this yet..." He caught his frail fiancé "don't faint before you say I do" he joked.
"Sorry" Naruto held onto his arm "you really want to marry me?"
"I think that question should have been asked before the wedding day, you're not getting cold feet are you?" He teased
"The slowest attempt to run from the alter will be witnessed today" he chuckled "I did not know you were preparing all of this" he blushed when Sasuke picked him up.
"Hence why it was a surprise" they left to his bedroom. "Wait here" he kissed him.
"Isn't it bad luck or something?"
"I don't believe in those things" he walked away and came back a few minutes later "here we go" he was holding a tux.
Naruto just smiled as his soon to be husband dressed him up in his tux. He was a bit embarrassed that he couldn't do it himself but happy at the same time.
"Well now I'm gonna go, bad luck to see the groom-..."
"We're both grooms and you said you don't believe in those things" the blond pointed out.
"Right...Okaasan does and I don't want to get on her bad side so early in the morning" Sasuke kissed his fiancée and left unnoticed.
Naruto raised an eyebrow as Sasuke refered to his mom as Okaasan especially that he had always called her Kushina-san. Karin walked in seeing him all dressed and she smiled "I'm so excited. You look handsome Naruto-kun"
"Thank you, Karin. I have to admit I'm a bit nervous"
"Where's my delicious fishcake?!" Her voice filled the place before she even came in.
"Kaasan!" He stood up and hugged her.
"Oh look at you, handsome." Her eyes watered.
"Kaasan" Naruto knew who she was thinking of, he hugged her again.
"He'd have been so proud of you, dattebane?" She pulled and wiped her tears. "I'm proud of you too" she kissed his forehead.
"Papa!!"
"Doesn't Papa look so good, Soso-chan?" Kushina fixed the toddler's tux.
"Hai" Sora looked at him with sparkly eyes.
Naruto blushed at all the compliments.
"Sunshine is getting married, at last"
"Sakura-chan" Naruto stuttered a bit. She looked marvelous in a lacey black dress, revealing her not so flat chest, her smooth skin and amazing physique "Lee is a lucky guy"
"Today's not about me, Naruto-kun." She smiled. She glanced at her son, he was oblivious to the fact she was his mother. She didn't want him to know at all. Part of her wondered if something was wrong with her because she didn't care for her son the way a mother would.
She almost...resented him even for being conceived. He was a constant reminder of the mistake she had made, she was thankful he didn't look like her. She can go on her life convincing herself Sora was never her son. She never got pregnant and she never gave birth.
"Sora..." Sasuke's voice boomed from outside the bedroom.
"Ha Chichi!!" Sora ran out of the room not a care in the world.
"Chichi? Since when did Sora call Sasuke dad?" Sakura wondered, it surprisingly hurt her feelings.
"Since he was one. I tried to tell him off, he stopped for a while and he just started again by himself" Naruto smiled. "He's my pride and joy".
"Baka-niisan" Menma cleared his throat walking in the bedroom "congratulations"
"Thank you, Menma" he hugged his brother. "Maybe in a few years I'd see your wedding with Hanabi-chan"
"What...no..." His face was as red a beetroot, he started sweating and then just made a quick exit.
"Soon baby brother!" Naruto shouted.
The ceremony started. Naruto got out, his mother by his side holding his arm. Kurama by his left, a hand on Naruto's back showing support. The only person that Naruto knew opposed the relationship was Tsunade. But even she cared not anymore about whom he wanted to spend his life with. He was happy to see her sitting amongst the invited.
Even Gaara was there, he pulled on his tie a little bit. He felt slightly suffocated, more from the fact that Naruto was about to wed.
His eyes watered, he wanted to leave but remained seated. This was what Naruto wanted, it was what he really wanted. But it was torture seeing the one you want getting married to someone else. That truly was it, Naruto was Gaara's one and only but the redhead knew it was not the same. Seeing those smiles on their faces was a testament. Naruto had never looked at him that way.
Naruto felt Sasuke's arm around him, it helped him stay strong. The priest said the opening words. Words that neither men really heard. They were lost in each other's eyes. Sasuke was the definition of perfection to Naruto.
When it was time for the vows Sasuke was saying his own vows to Naruto.
"Usuratonkachi, I've loved you for almost nine years now. You have taught me the real meaning of friendship, patience and kindness. There's no one I want to spend the rest of my life with other than you" he put the ring on Naruto's left hand. "Naruto Uchiha-Namikaze, will you share this life with me? Be my partner and I'll be yours"
"I do" Naruto spoke softly, Sasuke even compromised about the last name. Last time they had an argument about whether it would Namikaze-Uchiha or Uchiha-Namikaze.
Sasuke took the black gold band and placed it on Naruto's ring finger. It didn't even fit him as well anymore but Naruto didn't care about that detail.
"I want to say my own vows too" Naruto held Sasuke's hand that was around his waist. "Sasuke-teme" Naruto took the golden band, similar to the black gold ring Sasuke put on his. They were symbols of each other "I want to spend every minute of every day with you" he closed his eyes "Sasuke, それがあなたの腕の中にあれば死ぬことを恐れていません" (I'm not afraid to die if it's in your arms)
"Naruto..." Sasuke felt a lump in his throat, resisting the urge to cry.
"まだその準備ができていません。" (But I am not ready for that yet) he cried silently, feeling Sasuke's thumb under his eye wiping his tears "あなたとやりたいことがたくさんあります" (There's so much I want to do with you) "そして、私はあなたと一緒に体験したい非常に多くのもの" (and so many things I want to experience with you) "だから私は死なない。" (That's why I won't die) "あなたと私の人生を生きる前ではない。" (Not before living my life with you).
"私を愛してくれてありがとう。 私の世話をしてくれてありがとう。 私はあなたを愛し、尊敬し、あなたを敬うことを約束します。" (Thank you for loving me. Thank you for taking care of me. I promise to love, honour and respect you.)
"I truly love you, Naruto" Sasuke rested his forehead against his beloved.
"I love you too, Sasuke"
"By the power invested in me-.." he stopped as they both just kissed each other "I now pronounce you man and husband" he chuckled "young love"
Naruto smiled wide "Namikaze Sasuke, suits you" he wrapped arms around him and received many more kisses from his new husband.
Naruto was carried by Sasuke. "What are you doing?"
"Reception is on the rooftop and I wanna carry my lovely husband upstairs" he kissed his neck and took him up the two flights of stairs.
Sasuke put him down and hugged him from behind. "I'll give you the world"
"You've given me something greater" Naruto turned around "you" he rested his forehead against Sasuke.