For Love: Hyacinth

This is a story about them at the age of twenty-six.

Most people may not know their story from before. Even Naruto, who claims to know them best, may not have understood them. They themselves have even forgotten how they first met.

To other people, the two of them might as well have had nothing to do with each other. The only thing anyone could connect them through was a single name: Naruto.

As Naruto's friends, they never interacted much. One traveled far from home, while the other stayed in Sunagakure. They were like parallel lines.

But who could have known that when they first met as boys, they were the two who understood each other best?

"What's your name?"

"Gaara of the Sand Waterfall. I'm very interested in you. What's your name?"

"Uchiha Sasuke."

When did they stop being a presence in each other's lives?

Perhaps it was when...

They stood at the same starting point, yet headed in opposite directions.

And so, in a farcical twist, Gaara chased the light while Sasuke ran toward the darkness.

Yet once those reckless boys grew into adults, everything in the past brought them back to understanding each other.

Maybe they were simply too alike!

Sasuke once wondered: if he hadn't chosen darkness but had pursued the light instead, would he now be Hokage, living in Konoha? Or if Gaara hadn't chosen forgiveness and had instead destroyed Sunagakure, would he be wandering the world just like Sasuke?

There are no answers to any of it...