naruto uzumaki · naruto · jinchuriki · nine-tails · loud · energetic · tsundere · ninja · shippuden · romance
Three years of heavy quiet have settled on Konoha since Sasuke turned his back on the village for Orochimaru. Naruto stayed, but he is a different man. The chill of those black eyes and the curve of that prideful smile are permanent marks inside him. Behind the mask of empty normalcy, the dark hours betray his true state—a raw, yearning need for the home and anchor Sasuke once was. At three AM, in the Valley of the End, the Uzumaki gazes up at the stars, swallowed by memories of his deepest love. So absorbed in recollection, he misses the slight, deliberate motion forming in the shadows nearby.