Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ I'll Fight For You ❯ Trust Me ( Chapter 4 )

I don't own anything.

 

Trust Me

 

Naruto looked up at the sky, smiling widely at the glowing sun and the gentle breeze ruffling his hair.

 

“Oi, Dobe, you're going to fall.”

 

Naruto leaned back far enough to see what was behind him without turning around and smiled smugly at Sasuke.

 

“I never fall anymore. Kyuubi's chakra gave me perfect chakra control, my feet are superglued to this branch.” He gloated proudly.

 

Sasuke sniffed and hopped down off the tree, landing lightly on the ground and walking the remaining few feet to reach the top of the hill the two were resting on.

 

Naruto straightened up, watching Sasuke contently. Everything was perfect, how couldn't he be happy?

 

Sasuke had come back… Naruto had dragged him by his ears, but he had come back on his own decision in the end.

 

ANBU, who would have thought he'd make it to ANBU? Especially with the village so against him because of the Kyuubi. Sasuke was a Jounin, as he was forbidden from ranking higher than Jounin, but Tsunade was working on the council, and Naruto was pretty sure they were about to revoke that rule.

 

Sasuke was undeniably the best ninja in the village, despite his betrayal against it those many years back and the fact that he was only a Jounin, but Naruto was without a doubt right behind him. Naruto had also shot up in the years that Sasuke had been gone, and was now as tall as his friend.

 

Naruto smirked excitedly and climbed down the tree, knowing that jumping would make a tiny sound. Using Kyuubi's extra chakra—which he had mastered complete control over during the time he'd been living merged with the fox—he created the illusion so his chakra was still as far away as the branch he had been on was and crept silently up behind the raven.

 

“Yah!” he shouted, diving for Sasuke.

 

Sasuke reflexes had always been flawless, but Naruto had gotten close enough so that even though the raven jumped out of the way, Naruto caught his foot, tripping him up and sending them both sprawling to the ground.

 

“Usuratonkachi! What was that for?!” Sasuke barked, trying to kick his foot free of Naruto's hold.

 

Naruto smiled and pulled Sasuke towards him by his ankle, dragging Sasuke under him. He straddled Sasuke's hips and leaned down, kissing the raven lightly on his forehead. Sasuke's annoyed face softened lightly, and he reached up and slid his hand around the back of the blonde's neck, pulling him down and pressing their lips together.

 

Naruto exhaled sadly into the kiss before breaking free—ignoring Sasuke's possessive expression—and crawled backwards off Sasuke, lying down lightly on Sasuke's stomach. Naruto fisted the cloth of Sasuke's shirt gently, closing his eyes and nuzzling Sasuke's stomach.

 

“I'm glad you're back.” He whispered.

 

“So I've heard.” Sasuke said dryly. “Every day from you since I came back.”

 

Naruto laughed and adjusted himself to get more comfortable, sighing blissfully as Sasuke combed through his hair with his fingers, as he often did ever since he had learned Naruto's secret.

 

Naruto had two secrets, the deep dark ones that people were always talking about. One, Sasuke already knew and had accepted, the Kyuubi, but the other, Naruto planned to take to the grave. He would be in too much danger if anyone knew, even his friends, or lover.

 

Naruto sighed, nuzzling closer into Sasuke's stomach. Damn, this was one hell of a dream; he could smell Sasuke. It brought back painful memories, but Naruto was going to savor the feelings for as long as he could. Christ, he could practically feel Sasuke's shirt.

 

After a while, as much as he loved the dream, he knew it was going to be excruciating when he woke up.

 

Hey, fuzz-ball, quit giving me these damn dreams already.

 

The just Kyuubi chuckled, a deep, amused laugh.

 

What? Naruto snapped.

 

Sometimes, I doubt that you have anything in that thick head of yours, but it's times like these that prove it. You're as brainless as you look, kit.

 

Why you— Naruto wrenched his eyes open to give the fox the what-for, and saw… white. As in, cloth.

 

“Huh?” Naruto muttered, looking up.

 

His throat snapped shut and his breathing and heartbeat ground to a halt, he felt his skin run cold and his knees start to shake. He desperately wanted to blink, to go back to sleep, or more preferably, to wake up.

 

No, no, no. He is not here, I left him there at the lake, he isn't here, he is not…

 

Naruto opened one eye almost pleadingly, only to be met with the same white cloth.

 

What the hell…?

 

You fell asleep.

 

Well then, you vile, thrice-digestedhairball, what the flying fuck am I doing LYING ON HIM?!

 

Naruto forced his panic from a boil to a low simmer, evaluating the situation. He was lying in Sasuke's lap, Sasuke Uchiha, who was presently asleep. It was dusk, who knows how many days he'd been there, and he was holding Sasuke's shirt like a little kid with a blanket.

 

How, you overgrown orange dust bunny, did I get here, in my sleep, and Sasuke is letting me lie here without taking my head off or dragging me back to his little band of world-dominators? Naruto's eye twitched.

 

Don't ask me, I just live here. Kyuubi laughed mockingly.

 

YOU PUT ME HERE YOU STUPID PIECE OF BURNT FLUFF!!

 

Naruto bit back his snarl when Kyuubi didn't answer, too worried about waking Sasuke. This was bad, really, really bad. Sasuke was a really light sleeper, Naruto was afraid to twitch.

 

Naruto bit his lip and slowly uncurled his fingers one-by-one from Sasuke's shirt, lifting his hand away painfully slowly so as not to even stir up any wind currents, no matter how small. His eyes flicked up, locating a branch above him. Naruto reached his free hand up and pooled his chakra up into his palm, making sure to keep the chakra in his body immensely low to keep the levels of chakra around Sasuke the same.

 

Making sure to keep his body as still as stone, he let his chakra reach up like an arm and wrap around the tree branch. In an extremely time-consuming fashion, he began to retract the chakra, raising himself off of Sasuke's lap micron by micron.

 

Everything was looking good, he was a few inches off Sasuke, about eye level to the raven, and he dared to speed up his raising of himself, beginning to look hopeful when out of nowhere, the Kyuubi cut off his chakra, and the chakra arm holding him up disappeared into thin air, and Naruto fell heavily back into Sasuke's lap.

 

“Damn fox!” Naruto yelled before freezing, and looking up to find Sasuke's onyx eyes staring back into him.

 

Naruto rolled out of Sasuke's lap, and sprang up as far as he could into the tree branches above, securing his feet on a strong enough branch before launching himself through the trees, rocketing himself as far as he could.

 

“Dobe!”

 

Naruto looked back with a gasp at how close Sasuke sounded, finding him only twenty feet behind him, and forced all of his chakra into his feet as he launched himself forward from another branch, wincing as he heard it shatter behind him at the force.

 

Sasuke snarled and used Naruto's tactic, shooting forward until he was neck and neck with the blonde.

 

“Usuratonkachi!” he barked.

 

Naruto whirled and gasped out loud at seeing Sasuke so close to him, his next step on a branch faltering, and he slipped sideways, plummeting 200 feet to the ground. Sasuke dug his heels into the branch to stop and raced for the trunk, sprinting straight down the tree.

 

He skidded to a halt on the ground, reaching up to again play their old catch-the-falling-dobe game when Naruto dematerialized before his eyes, reappearing behind him in a fighting stance. Sasuke turned, spreading his feet apart in preparation for an attack.

 

“Why don't you just go the hell away?!” Naruto roared.

 

After a considerable pause, Sasuke said, “I can't.”

 

“Can't? Why?” Naruto mocked. “Did Akatsuki send you to bring me back? Maybe I'm loosing it, maybe I've already lost it!” he threw his arms up over his head. “Maybe I fizzed out of the real world when I was in the hospital and the Kyuubi has created this perfect little dream world—”

 

“Oi.”

 

“—for me because he's always talking about what a stupid, brainless runt I am! Oh that would be—”

 

“Dobe.”

 

“—the ultimate revenge! Yeah, to take over my body and go annihilate the town I wanted to leave to protect! Taking over bodies, fucking hell, it sounds like Orochimaru all over again!”

 

Sasuke winced, a retort crawling up his throat, when he was chopped off again. Naruto wasn't even talking to him anymore, he was just venting to himself.

 

“Maybe that did happen! The obnoxiously huge wad of orange dandruff is always trying to protect me mentally for god knows what reason! Maybe so he can torture me more without me going over the edge of insanity! He probably locked me up inside my own mind because Orochimaru took over the real Sasuke in the real world and he didn't want me to loose it—”

 

“Usuratonkachi!”

 

“—and our bodies are working collaboratively to destroy the world and Kyuubi doesn't want me becoming a raving lunatic! Akatsuki and their plan to take over the planet can go to hell, because when our bodies are done, there won't be a planet anymore!”

 

“Hey!”

 

“And you!” Naruto jabbed a finger accusingly at him. “You and you goddamn holier-than-thou personality should just get the hell out of my dream world! I'm going to berserk inside my mind! Damn it all Kyuubi!” Naruto roared at the sky.

 

He can talk to the Kyuubi? Sasuke's brow furrowed as he watched Naruto work off his frustration.

 

“Is that him?”

 

Sasuke turned in a confused fashion to the new voice, looking straight into the masks of the entire ANBU clan, back from a recent mission, it looked like. Naruto had been so loud that Sasuke hadn't heard or even sensed them approaching.

 

“The hair and the whiskers, yeah that's him!” another yelled. “Fall out!”

 

The ANBU dispersed, surrounding Sasuke and Naruto, all of their attention focused on the Kyuubi carrier.

 

Naruto bit his lip and jumped into the trees, dodging the kunai and ropes that flew at him. Sasuke snarled and lunged forward, attacking the head ANBU with everything he had, it was always best to take a group of ninja down by their heads, then works toward the lackeys.

 

Sasuke slammed his palm into the ground and summoned his snakes, watching the shock play across the eyes of the ANBU in front of him.

 

He looked up in furry, watching Naruto just dodge the attacks, not wanting to hurt the people from the village.

 

“Dobe! Attack them!” he ordered, punching the head across the face and shattering his mask, using the snakes to hold him against the ground.

 

“I can't! I'll lose control!” Naruto yelled.

 

An ANBU leapt for him and slashed with their kunai, catching him deeply across the shoulder. Naruto cried out in panic as his chakra surged dangerously, and everything around him burst into flame. The ANBU jumped back, keeping a safe distance while Sasuke watched in horror as Naruto seemed to be fighting with himself.

 

“No! Stop it!” he pleaded, pounding on his head. Little by little, his chakra dispersed, leaving just the flaming trees around him. He bolted for the deeper woods the second his chakra was under control, but the ANBU were immediately attacking him again.

 

“Idiot! Don't leave your guard open like—” Sasuke yelled, attacking the next ANBU that ran at him.

 

“Ahh!”

 

Sasuke's head whipped up as a chakra rope wrapped around Naruto's ankle, and the wielder yanked on it harshly, sending Naruto crashing to the ground. The ANBU were on him in a fraction of a second, holding him down by his arms and legs, using all of their chakra to seal his. They bound his wrists together behind him with seals and tied his legs and ankles together, all of them running back to help despite the unstable heat radiating off Naruto.

 

“Tch!” Sasuke lunged for him as the rest of ANBU jumped in front of him, raising their swords in attack as they charged forward.

 

Sasuke growled, his lip pulling back to reveal his teeth as he attacked, slashing, jumping and stabbing to get to Naruto.

 

“No!” Sasuke yelled as the second head of the ANBU stepped up to Naruto and pressed to fingers to Naruto's forehead. In a bright flash of white, Naruto's eyes went wide, and then cloudy as he slumped to the ground.

 

“Naruto!” Sasuke yelled, slitting the throat of the ANBU in front of him as he fought to get to his former teammate.

 

“Just hold him back until we get far enough away!” the second head ordered, throwing Naruto over his shoulder as half of the ANBU disappeared, relocating themselves somewhere deeper into the woods.

 

“Naruto!” Sasuke roared, slicing through the neck of another ANBU and wrapping his snakes dangerously tightly around another. He punched the remaining ANBU out and looked around frantically with the Sharingan for any chakra, snarling when there was nothing close enough for him to see.

 

Konoha. They'll be headed there. Sasuke thought furiously, leaping to the top of the nearest tree to find the direction of Konoha.

 

XXX

 

For the second time in the last two months or so, Sasuke found himself at the edge of Konoha territory, at midnight, waiting for the guard to drop their guard for a second so he could infiltrate the village. Geez, he felt like a pocket-thief, or a petty bank robber. The things one does for lo—

 

No, no, NO! Do not even finish that thought! The things one does for former teammates. Nothing else.

 

Sasuke fell back to reality when he noticed that the guard wasn't paying attention and shot up the tree trunk, jumping from the top branch onto the wall and running along it as far as he could until he saw the next guard in the distance, where he jumped soundlessly to the ground, landing on the balls of his feet and racing off into the dark streets of Konoha.

 

Meanwhile

 

Shikamaru and Kiba, Kiba a new chunin and Shikamaru a new Jounin, thundered down the hallways, jumping over the ninjas who were supposed to be protecting the Hokage yelling for them to stop and barged right into her office, panting from sprinting so far through the practically black Konoha streets.

 

“WHAT IS IT WITH YOU NINJAS AND YOUR NEED TO EITHER COME THROUGH THE WINDOW OR WALK THROUGH THAT DOOR WITHOUT KNOCKING?!” Tsunade yelled.

 

“Is Naruto in here with you?!” Kiba gasped around his labored breathing.

 

Silence.

 

“Naruto's been gone for months, that hasn't changed—” Shizune started for Tsunade.

 

“We felt him.” Shikamaru countered. “His chakra is enormous, and the ANBU are all trashed just from an assassination mission, which none of them ever have trouble with. I'd know his chakra anywhere, even under that new chakra he started using before he left. I know he's here.”

 

Tsunade sighed, scratching her forehead as she sat back in her chair. So the rumors abut Shikamaru being a genius were not even a millimeter off the mark. She'd been hoping to keep this quiet, but if only two of them knew… well, it was better than the whole village.

 

“Maybe he needs his friends.” Shizune suggested, placing her folders down on the desk.

 

Tsunade nodded before rising and placing her hands heavily on her desk. “I have some more paperwork to take care of, and so does Shizune, but—”

 

“Hey!” Shizune barked. “That's your work—”

 

“—but if you two would go talk to him, maybe it would lift his spirits. He needs it.” She sat back down and pulled out a small flask of something, taking a large gulp and ignoring the infuriated Shizune behind her. “Cell block 42, restriction cell 52. Area 64 is clear for inspection, but I still need to check on Area 122, now go. Oh, and keep this between yourselves, no one else is to know, for Naruto's safety. And… just, don't touch him, it'll release the bars.” She covered her eyes in annoyance.

 

Kiba looked at Shikamaru before both of them bolted for the door, slamming it behind them and careening through the ninja working in the Hokage's tower.

 

“What did she mean `for Naruto's safety'?” Kiba asked as they ran.

 

“She's trying to hide it from the council.” Shikamaru explained, having worked it all out back in her office. “Didn't you see the state he left the hospital and his apartment building in? They'd order him dead without a second thought, and wouldn't look back.”

 

They raced past the first cellblocks, blurted the password to the guards with out slowing down and tore through the barrier the second there was an opening, skidding to a stop at the last cell.

 

To say that Naruto was in as bad a situation as Sasuke had been would be a lie, not to mention the understatement of the century.

 

Naruto was chained to a chair bound to the right wall of the cell, and he was wrapped in about fifty feet of chains, leaving only his neck free for movement. The rest of his body was tied down by—it seemed—all of the chakra-suppressing chains in Konoha, and then some.

 

“Naruto!” Kiba yelled, grabbing the bars as Akamaru whined beside him, sensing the threatening aura leaking off of Naruto.

 

Naruto's head rose slowly, and he smiled sadly at Kiba and Shikamaru. “Hey.” He murmured.

 

“You idiot!” Kiba barked. “Why the hell did you leave?!”

 

Naruto looked back down at the ground.

 

“For the same reason he's locked up.” Shikamaru supplied, slipping his hands into his pocket as he fit all the pieces together.

 

“Huh?” Kiba looked up at him.

 

“Naruto, I'm venturing a guess, but your chakra… is it…”

 

“It's not good.” Naruto shook his head. “I nearly set the whole ANBU clan on fire today because I wasn't in enough control.”

 

“Not… in control?” Kiba looked between the two confusedly. “But your chakra control only got good recently, like, a few months ago, right before you left. Did it just get bad again?”

 

“It shouldn't have.” Naruto murmured. “It got good for a reason, and that reason is still with me. It's like a thorn with lemon juice on it in my side, but it's still here. I can't get rid of it.”

 

Shikamaru's brow furrowed. He despised missing all of the information. That had to be one of the most troublesome things in the universe.

 

“Are they at least feeding you?” Kiba demanded.

 

“Not hungry.” Naruto looked away.

 

“But did they at least—”

 

“They asked, I said I didn't want anything.” Naruto cut him off gently.

 

Kiba and Shikamaru shared a glance at the new feeling in the air, the new presence, and Kiba straightened.

 

“We're going to go, but…” Kiba trailed off, unsure what anyone was supposed to say in a situation like that.

 

“Naruto, keep working on it.” Shikamaru encouraged lazily. “The sooner you get control of your chakra, the sooner they let you out.”

 

“Thanks, but that doesn't help much with my chakra sealed.” Naruto sighed, staring blankly at the wall across from him.

 

Shikamaru stayed silent and Kiba lead the way to the exit with one last glance at Naruto, Naruto's head tipped back down to the floor, his hair hanging into his eyes.

 

Shikamaru read the air with Kiba, confirming what they had sensed earlier and knocked on the barrier to let the guards know they were ready to come out. Kiba whispered something to Akamaru before walking out with Shikamaru.

 

“Hey, Inuzuka, you've got to get your dog.” One of the guards said impatiently.

 

Kiba turned back slowly, chuckling deliberately to himself before calling Akamaru forward just as a black blur vanished into the cell while the barrier was still open. Akamaru trudged forward, taking his time. The guards pulled their hands away from the wall the second he was out of the way to reinforce the barrier, clearly exasperated for having to wait so long.

 

“Sorry about that!” Kiba waved and hurried to catch up with Shikamaru, looking back once more when they were out of hearing range.

 

“Did you feel that?”

 

“Yeah.” Shikamaru nodded. “Uchiha.”

 

“He got in right?” Kiba verified.

 

Shikamaru nodded again. “While the guards were distracted with Akamaru.”

 

“Good boy!” Kiba praised quietly, petting the head of the giant dog.

 

“…Should we go tell the Hokage that he's here?” Kiba asked after some time.

 

“No, the Uchiha is what Naruto needs right now… that is, if he doesn't act like the same bastard with an icicle up his ass as usual and screw it up.” Shikamaru sighed in an aggravated fashion.

 

“Ugh, Hinata's going to kill me when I get back.” Kiba's head rolled back.

 

“She wanted to come?”

 

“Yeah, we both felt Naruto, but I didn't want her to come.”

 

“You know, she has the Byakugan and is perfectly capable of protecting herself.” Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

 

“Yeah, but if she left with me, her father would flip his blessed lip.” Kiba scratched his head sheepishly. “I was supposed to be `practicing with Neji', he's covering for us.”

 

“…How are you planning on breaking to her father that you have been secretly going out for six months anyway?” Shikamaru asked as a moment.

 

Kiba paused for a second, thinking. “…In a few years, when we elope and come back with a kid, after it's too late for them to split us up.”

 

Shikamaru had to laugh at that, and looked up at the sky.

 

“Don't wait to long,” he shook his head, humoring Kiba, “rumor has it that her father wants to engage her to someone from the branch family, if that's the case, then you don't have a lot of time.”

 

“We have plenty of time.” Kiba shrugged. “She can be engaged to whoever the hell her father wants her to be and still be seeing me, we just have to make a break for it before she actually gets married to the creep.” He said the word with a shudder.

 

“And if things happen between them?” Shikamaru suggested, a smile tugging at his lips as he waited for Kiba's reaction.

 

Kiba went rigged. “Hinata's not like that, and like hell I'll be anywhere less than fifty feet from them when they're together.”

 

“You're too protective.” Shikamaru accused.

 

“She says that too.” Kiba said with a laugh.

 

“Oh, there she is.”

 

Kiba looked up to the figure jumping toward them over the rooftops. He held out a hand and Hinata grasped it the second she was close enough, holding it close to her chest in worry.

 

“D-Did you see him? Was he ok?” she breathed. She hadn't gotten over her stutter, but it wasn't thought to be because of nerves now. Tsunade had diagnosed her with a speech disorder a few months after Naruto left the village. She'd been tested because Kiba and Shino didn't think it was because she was nervous around Naruto anymore. How could she have been if Naruto was gone?

 

“He's fine.” Kiba smiled sadly. “He didn't want us with him right now, but maybe tomorrow. The thing is, we were kind of forbidden to tell anyone about this… so you'd need to go to the Hokage on your own.” She scratched his head again.

 

Hinata nodded, her face strong despite the quiver in her voice. “I m-miss him, I'll go see him t-tomorrow.” She rubbed Akamaru's head like a therapeutic treatment to calm her down. he rubbed against her leg apologetically.

 

“Yeah, tomorrow.” Kiba agreed half heartedly, putting his arm around her shoulder as they kept walking, both he and Shikamaru knowing full well that Naruto wouldn't still be in the cell tomorrow—or even for another hour if Sasuke had anything to say about it.

 

Meanwhile

 

Sasuke crept quietly through the hallway of cellblock 42, looking into each of the cells in turn, though he knew which one Naruto would be in. Eventually, he reached the last cell looking blankly through the bars.

 

Naruto looked… dead, like an empty shell. It wasn't right to cage up a boy with so much happiness and love for everyone, even the people that had hated him all his life because of the Kyuubi. His head was hanging forward, and his hands were bound behind his back, and his legs to the chair legs, forcing him into total submission, though it didn't really look like Naruto was fighting it at all.

 

“What do you want Uchiha?” Naruto sighed, asking just to get it over with, his lifeless eyes never leaving the floor.

 

Sasuke flinched. Naruto had never used his last name to address him, even through all the times he said he hated Sasuke during their youth.

 

“…Why didn't you fight them?” Sasuke demanded, making sure to keep his voice low enough so the guards wouldn't hear him.

 

The silence was almost unbearable, until Naruto finally spoke up. “Twelve people.”

 

“What?” Sasuke stared critically at the blonde.

 

“…I put twelve people in the hospital that day, when I burned my building down, and I learned later that three of them were in critical condition. I would have killed them, more of them if Kyuubi hadn't held back the explosion, the fox is the only reason why there were no fatalities. I can't hurt anyone else, not because of the Kyuubi, of what they hated me for.”

 

Naruto sighed. “I mastered control of my chakra, and then Kyuubi's when I started using it, but I haven't had anything under control since we merged.”

 

“Since you what?” Sasuke's horror splayed across his face for once, trying to deny what Naruto had said.

 

Naruto smiled sadly. “I suppose it would suck for you. To get the Kyuubi's power back to Akatsuki, you have to deal with me. Sorry I come with the package now.”

 

Sasuke snarled. “Idiot, I already told you that I wasn't going to bring you—”

 

“Then why are you here?” Naruto said harshly, his cold eyes meeting Sasuke's for the first time.

 

Sasuke stayed silent. He didn't have an answer for that, at least, not one that he would admit to himself. His heart was screaming a reason in his ears, and begging him to tell Naruto and to admit it to himself, but his mouth remained firmly closed. His heart was wrenching in ways it never had before, pleading for him to say anything to bring the old Naruto back. The loud, obnoxious, idiot who somehow… had become something even more than Sasuke's best friend.

 

Naruto's eyes drifted back to the floor, looking even emptier than before.

 

“Is it just to torture me?”

 

“What?” Sasuke looked at Naruto accusingly, starting to question his sanity.

 

Naruto smirked again. “You'll have to do better than that, just showing up doesn't hurt me nearly as much as what Kyuubi shows me in my dreams every night. I'm pretty immune to any other form of mental pain now. Waking up is more painful than dying, because the dreams go away, so I can deal with having you stand in front of me. Did you know that my Shadow Clone Jutsu isn't me anymore? It's a giant nine-tailed fox, three times my size, and Kyuubi's mind is in it. I guess it's good that he's out of my head for the time that I use the Shadow Clone, but he can be extremely dangerous if I tick him off, so I can't use it anymore until I get my chakra under control, which is looking like that'll never happen. I'm just glad that he didn't affect the Rasengan, not that I can really use that either without chakra.”

 

“Idiot, you're hurting yourself more than you can comprehend right now—”

 

“Yeah, that's me, just the idiot—”

 

“Shut up!” Sasuke barked, not giving a damn if the guards heard him. Let them come, they would take the heat of his frustration.

 

“You don't get it! I would have dragged you back already if I was sent to get you, and I have more important goals than errands to run—” Shit, wrong thing to say.

 

“Ah yes, speaking of which, you're in Konoha now, why isn't it up in flames?” Naruto challenged darkly. “No one in Konoha is strong enough to stop you, the other village are too far away to get here in time, I'm chained here, so go ahead, burn it into the ground.”

 

Sasuke scowled. “You're here, Dobe—”

 

“Fire doesn't hurt me anymore.” Naruto said disgustedly, glaring at Sasuke. “And why should my being here make any difference?”

 

Sasuke glared back at Naruto a little longer before reaching his hand slowly through the bars. He had to breach the gap, because Naruto was unwilling to anymore. He had to reach out if he wanted anything, he had to be the one to give in.

 

Naruto's glare softened into pained confusion, just like when he was younger, looking between Sasuke's outstretched hand and his face.

 

“I'm not trying to torture you idiot, and I'm not here just to make you suicidal, which is where you look like you're headed. I don't want you hurt by any… I don't want to hurt you anymore.”

 

Sasuke had never seen so much agony and indecision on the blonde's face, and for a moment, Sasuke was terrified that Naruto was going to reject him again, but slowly, Naruto leaned forward and touched his forehead to Sasuke's fingertips, leaning longingly into the touch, and the bars dissolved between them.

 

Sasuke walked forward and kneeled before Naruto, working on the chains with one hand while his other held Naruto's head into his chest, stroking the scars on his cheeks and leaving feather touches over Naruto's eyelids.

 

“When is it going to be my turn?” Naruto whispered into his chest.

 

“For what?” Sasuke asked, freeing Naruto's neck from the same collar with the blade on the inside that he had been put in.

 

“To save you.” Naruto said, anguish lacing his voice.

 

Sasuke smirked down at the golden hair, somehow glowing like the sun even in the gloom of the cell, and dropped the collar to the ground, moving onto the next chains.

 

You already have. I'm not in Konoha, but… with you… I'm home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am a crazy rabid squirrel and I want the next chapter!

TBC!

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