Disclaimer: The anime/manga series Naruto belongs to Kishimoto Masashi, Shueisha, TV Tokyo, GAINAX, etc. The author of this specific fiction claims no connection to neither the creation nor the sales of the said work of animation.

Note: It is assumed that Naruto-tachi are 19 in this fan fiction. This fan fiction is not an A.U.; rather, it is a parallel world to the real Naruto storyline. “Ano Toki no Boku-ra wa” means something along the lines of “at that time, we were...”

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Chapter One: - Selfishness-

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Sasuke stepped around the ice-coated side walk. His feet trod upon the grass, which was also caked with snow. The snow and grass crunched underneath his feet. Sasuke frowned as another gust of dry and chilling wind ruffled through his hair. He buttoned up his coat.

“Come on, Sasuke! You’re so slow!”

Sasuke lifted his head to glare at Naruto. Naruto was good three meters ahead of him, and was still recklessly running on top of the ice. He looked delighted with the freezing weather. The old saying must be true-- that fools do not catch cold. Naruto had turned around to expectantly look back at Sasuke, huge smile pasted on his face.

“I thought you had something you wanted to tell me,” Sasuke quietly said, stepping around a frozen puddle. Naruto waved his hands carelessly.

“Right, but it’s been such a long time since the last time I met you! I thought we could take a nice, long walk together, you know? Brush up on our friendship and stuff. Doing guy stuff.” Naruto anxiously watched Sasuke’s face. “You don’t want to?”

“That’s besides the point. We’ll freeze to death out here. Did you not notice we’re the only ones outside?” Sasuke asked, neither his expression nor the tone of his voice changing. But Naruto knew Sasuke enough to know that the other boy was mildly annoyed. Naruto finally troubled himself enough to looked around, and sheepishly laughed.

“Hey, what do you know! You’re right!”

“I’m always right,” Sasuke retorted. Naruto gave him an annoyed look, but he still smiled. Naruto waited for Sasuke to catch up to him, using the time to study the sky. The winter sky seemed very close to the ground. It was metallic gray, even though there wasn’t a cloud in sight. Sasuke wordlessly gazed at the sky with Naruto. Naruto suddenly spun around to face Sasuke, his hands clasped above his head.

“Actually, I have a favor to ask of you!”

Sasuke looked slightly taken back. “What is it?” He asked. Even he couldn’t hide the curiosity seeping in his voice.

“Well, you know next week Monday will mark exactly ten years since I’ve known Sakura-chan, right?” Naruto asked. Sasuke nodded, still at a loss as to what Naruto might want from him. Naruto looked embarrassed and avoided Sasuke’s eyes as he rushed out, “Um, well, I want to get her something, but I don’t know what to get her. So... Will you please help me choose the gift? I’m sure your tastes are a lot more sophisticated than mine.”

Sasuke sighed. “Ask someone else.”

“Please, Sasuke! You’re the only one that I can ask this kind of favor! Please!” Naruto begged, tugging at Sasuke’s shirt sleeve. “Shikamaru will say it’s too troublesome! Gaara will cut off my head! Please!”

Sasuke bit down on his lower lip. Something flashed in his eyes, but it was quickly extinguished. “Fine...”

“All right! Thanks, Sasuke!” Naruto cried, his eyes lighting up. As Naruto started to run ahead, Sasuke gazed at his turned back, his eyes containing overflowing emotions that he could not quite suppress. He lowered his head.

“Naruto,” he whispered. “That’s also the anniversary of our ten years together, you know...”

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Ino looked startled. “You give up?!”

Sakura nodded, her head resting on her hands. She stared at the tree outside the window. The tree had icicles hanging down from the branch. The branches have been stripped of leaves, but the icicles caught the sunlight and gave a hallow beauty to the tree.

“I’m tired now,” Sakura said. “I’m tired of chasing after Sasuke-kun. He never looks at me, never talks to me-- never acknowledges me. I’m going to wake up from my dreams and face the reality. I’ll stop trying to catch a daydream.”

“What makes Naruto a reality and Sasuke a dream?” Ino questioned, frowning. Sakura lightly laughed.

“Well... Naruto can be reached. He really might love me. I want to be loved, that’s all.” Sakura’s voice softened to volume only slightly louder then a whisper. “even if I’m lying to both myself and Naruto... Even though I know it’s a cruel thing to do... I don’t want to feel like I don’t exist anymore.”

Ino shook her head. “You’ll be cursed, you know. To toy with people’s feelings like that. That selfish wish of yours will bring pain to many people.”

Sakura looked at Ino. She was on the verge of tears. Her eyes were bright. “Even so, I want to love and be loved in return at least once in my lifetime. Even if I’m hated later for being cruel like this.” Sakura tried to smile. “Even if I end up hating myself later...”

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“Look, this one is cute, too!” Naruto said, holding up a small brown teddy bear. Sasuke stared at it.

“It looks pissed.”

Naruto turned the bear around to stare at its expression. “Hey, it does! Reminds me of you!”

Sasuke scoffed and lightly smacked Naruto with the bear he himself had been examining. Sasuke’s bear was tan-colored, and was happily smiling. “Why does that automatically make you think of me? I don’t look pissed off all the time.”

“Apparently, you haven’t had a trip to a mirror for quite a while,” Naruto retorted. Sasuke raised the bear to hit Naruto again, but Naruto dodged this time and stuck his tongue out at Sasuke.

“Missed!” Naruto teased. Sasuke tossed the bear down and swung his left hand, managing to smack Naruto’s blind side. “Aw!”

“Serves you right,” Sasuke said, smirking. A teddy bear hit him right on the face before he had a chance to wipe the smirk off his face.

“Loser,” Naruto said, chuckling. He squeaked as Sasuke advanced on him with murderous eyes.

“Why you...”

“You started it!” Naruto protested. Sasuke got him in a headlock anyway. The two laughed and playfully wrestled until Sasuke finally noticed that the shopkeeper was staring at them. He abruptly let go of Naruto. Naruto landed on his behind and started to complain, but Sasuke thrust a teddy bear at his face.

“Let’s just buy one and get the hell out of here. It’s embarrassing enough that nearly grown boys are at doll shop without us making fool of ourselves even more.”

Naruto took the teddy bear and stared at it. It was fluffy and light pink in color. There was a cherry blossom pendant tied to the ribbon around its neck. “Oh, wow,” Naruto breathed. “This is perfect!”

Naruto leaped up from his seat, holding the bear at an arm’s length. “But are you sure that girls like dolls?”
“I don’t know. I heard rumors that they do,” Sasuke said. Naruto shrugged in return and wandered off to pay for the bear. Sasuke intently stared down at the bear with a frown on its face. He picked it up and placed it next to the smiling tan-colored teddy bear. Then he walked away to join Naruto at the cash register.

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Sakura tapped the frozen ground with the hell of her shoes. The ice chipped away until the heel of her shoes tapped against the ground underneath the thin ice layer. She gathered her hands together and gently blew on them to warm them up. She looked up when a shadow loomed over her.

“Naruto,” She said, managing a small smile. Naruto broadly grinned back. Sakura moved over on the bench, and Naruto gratefully plopped down into the vacant seat. “You wanted to see me?”

Naruto nodded, blushing. “Um, I just wanted to give you something.”

“Why?” Sakura curiously asked. “Is today a special day?”

Naruto looked slightly disappointed, but he slapped a smile back on his face. “It’s been exactly ten years that we’ve known each other!”

“Oh,” Sakura said, embarrassed. “Sorry, I--”

“That’s okay.” Naruto said. He handed her a crudely rapped gift. Sakura carefully took the strange-shaped entity from him and pulled the wrapping papers apart. Inside was a teddy bear who regarded her with solemn red eyes. Sakura couldn’t help the bright smile that rose to her lips.

“Oh, Naruto... It’s adorable! Thank you!”

Naruto, who was hopefully looking at Sakura, looked absolutely delighted. Had he been a puppy, he would have wagged his tail furiously. “You like it?”

“I really like it,” Sakura replied, hugging the bear’s soft body. She smiled at Naruto. “Naruto.”

“Yeah?” Naruto asked, looking pleased with himself at being smart enough to ask Sasuke for help.

“You’ve asked me out few times, right?”

“...yeah?” Naruto asked, his face clouding a bit when he was reminded of the rejections. Sakura had always been cold to him. But she was smiling this time.

“Is the offer still valid?”

Naruto gawked at Sakura. “Then, then....” he stammered, his face getting redder by the minute. Sakura nodded.

“Please go out with me, Naruto.”

“Sakura-chan!” Naruto happily cried. He suddenly stood up to pick Sakura up and swing her around in the air. Sakura shrieked with laughter. And she convinced herself that she had made the right decision.

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Sasuke stared at the sky. Naruto and Sakura’s laughing voices hurt him, yet he continued to listen. His hands clutched at the trunk of the tree that he was hiding behind, because Sasuke was sure that his legs will fail on him.

“I like you so much, Naruto,” Sasuke softly said. His words rose in the air with his breath as thick white vapor, then quickly dispersed into the air. It was a while before Sasuke opened his lips again. “It’s all right even if I’m left in winter forever. It’s all right even if I get buried in the snow and freeze to death. So God, please let Naruto always be in spring. Let him have even my share of happiness. Let him find his true happiness with his beloved cherry blossom...”

Sasuke stared up into the empty sky.

“Please let him be happy...”

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Babble

The first fan fiction of the year 2004! It‘s exactly 11:48 PM of December of 2003 right now! ^.^ I really hope “Ano Toki no Boku-ra wa” becomes a good story. It’ll be a lot more angsty and romantic then the last Naruto fan fiction I wrote, I think.

“Manazashi wa Eien ni” just finished and I’m already starting a new fan fiction... I really am a freak! ^^;; This story is actually the fan comic I did of Gundam Wing quite a while back named “Kizu” . I never got to finish the fan comic for various reasons, so I want to finish this storyline using Naruto characters this time. The stories are quite similar, but of course they have their differences. After all, Uchiha Sasuke and Duo Maxwell are very, very different people. ^^;; And of course, Gundam Wing and Naruto are completely different works of animations...

You can read the doujinshi(fan comic) that this fan fiction is based on, but it’ll probably be a spoiler as to what would happen.

http:// www .geocities .com /hiirowing3 /kizu1_00 .html

Have a happy, prosperous, and healthy new year, everyone! ^_^