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Leaving the compound to train was a freedom that Sasuke never took for granted. It took hard work, training, proof of loyalty and, to an extent, proof of a shared philosophy that let Orochimaru give him such leniency. He was pretty sure that the old snake knew that they didn't see eye-to-eye on most things, that he and his cold-blooded assistant knew that Sasuke's intention was to use them just as their intention was to use him in turn and, eventually, take his body for themselves. Orochimaru coveted his Uchiha blood, his Sharingan, and since the only other living clan member was far beyond his reach in terms of power and ability, Sasuke was really his only other option. And so, the trio learned to tolerate one another, demand only as much as was reasonable, delineate up to what the other would tolerate, and then back off. Orochimaru had gotten in his way plenty, and gotten out of his way more often than that.
When Sasuke analyzed the situation early on, the only real conclusion he could come was that he ought to learn whatever he could and kill Orochimaru when he no longer needed him. Orochimaru couldn't kill Itachi, so he didn't have any time to waste once he'd eclipsed him in strength and ability.
As the shrill chittering of Sasuke's chidori echoed in the chasm of the waterfall's basin, electricity riding the falling water like a current as he tried to control the branches and reach and reach until they dissipated, Sasuke found that he'd been have a more difficult time emptying his mind as of late. It wasn't always easy, but after three years of surveillance and training, resigning himself to his choices and planning for when he could make his own, a time that was rapidly approaching, like the morning sun over the horizon, he'd become very good at corralling his thoughts, herding anything not useful to be locked up in the back of his mind. Revenge would have to wait. It could serve as fuel, but not as a distraction, because distraction hindered progress. He hated when he needed to, and coldly calculated when he didn't.
Until that damned ROOT member showed up and mentioned his name. Spoke about him like he knew him. He hadn't felt like a serious threat, so easily captured in a genjutsu that Sasuke barely had to flex to cast, but he'd brought more to offer than a scroll and offered allegiance. He'd brought betrayal, something that hadn't terribly surprised him, especially from a Leaf SpecOps member, but he'd also brought...
Sasuke took a breath, big and suffused with cool droplets of water coming off the waterfall, then sighed it back out in a rush. He squared his stance on the water's surface, painted warm hues of pink and orange as the sun set in the distance, and lept into the air, his body breaking the deluge of fresh water before landing on the lip of a small hidden cave just behind it. A few metres in, the mouth was covered by a reed curtain to help keep out the water and the light, which he pushed aside. He'd hung up his kimono before he started his afternoon training, so he went through the process of disrobing at the entrance, trading his damp clothes for dry ones.
He'd long since broken up the flooring inside the hollowed out cliffside. Obliterated it, really. He'd avoided the slab in the back that he used as a meditation platform, a training stage, and a cot, and the floor was still fine to walk across, despite the tipped up, upturned chunks of swirled tile. The carved red pieces squeaked under his shoes, something he felt more than he heard, given his proximity to the rushing waterfall, and, once his clothes were splayed out along one side of the cave to dry out, he went through the motions of stretching to cool down and eating the food he'd carried with him to refuel. The sun was low in the sky, so it would be time to sleep before long. Practicing lightning in the middle of the night was asking for attention he didn't really want.
...he needed to meditate more, actually clear his mind. The kanpan rations crunched between his teeth.
Orochimaru was bed-ridden again, and this time, it was because the time limit he had left in that body he was using was drawing nearer. Soon, he'd want to take Sasuke's body for himself, but he had not intention of just handing his life over, abandoning his goals and his plans. Kabuto knew that. Orochimaru knew that. They would have to fight. ...could he win against them?
The biscuit snapped under the pressure of his molars.
He would. He wasn't particularly worried about that. Orochimaru would have tricks to pull, ones Sasuke didn't know about and if he had to guess, it probably related to his true form, whatever twisted beast he'd turned into long ago to facility hopping from body to body the way he does. As long as he made his move without Kabuto in the room, it would be quick and easy. If Kabuto was there, it would be a little bit more of a pain, but his confidence didn't shrink at the possibility.
He pushed another biscuit between his lips, letting his saliva soften the hardtack.
He had to stay vigilant and, once he'd taken care of Orochimaru and left, he'd create his own team for his own ends. He would finally get to take another step toward that ultimate goal, the goal of finally coming face to face with his brother. It was the only goal that mattered, would be the only goal that mattered. If he died killing Itachi...as long as Itachi died with him, it wouldn't be what he'd wanted, but, it would be good enough to straighten the scale, to avenge his fallen clan.
Those shocked baby blue eyes flashed across his mind's eye again, from the vantage point of the crater he'd stood on the edge of. The golden color of his chakra, the aura coming from him, and, when he'd gotten close, wrapped one arm around his neck as he'd gripped his sword with his other hand, the boy's scent, familiar, and...
Naruto had been...he'd felt so weak. He was wasting all this time, and for what? Some stupid, impossible dream of everything going back to normal? Like chasing after him for years was going to get him any closer to anything he said he wanted? Will that loser ever learn??
KRCK! The biscuit gave under his teeth once more.
Sasuke sighed, tossing the bag of rations to the side, fitting snugly between two upturned tiles.
Seeing Naruto again shouldn't have this kind of affect on him. That despondent look he wore as Orochimaru burned their images and teleported them away, it had been both the same and somehow different than it had been before...back in the Valley of the End. He'd felt that weakness, the gulf between their powers. It had forced him to his knees. Now, they'd flipped, and without that monster inside him, Naruto wouldn't stand a chance. Yet...Sasuke wasn't satisfied by that, at all.
He clapped his hands together, felt the pain in his hands zip him to alertness. No more of this. He needed to get his head back on straight. He'd had plenty of downtime. He'd meditate, sleep, then get up and go back to the compound to check in with that bed-ridden reptilian.
The deafening sound of the waterfall served as an incredible focus for meditation. It's why he liked this spot. The water could carry and absorb the impact of chidori without immediately destroying the lake at the bottom, and the fall itself presented a challenge of leaping it like a conduit through unexpected breaks of water, both with and against gravity. He found multiple ways to use it, the water, as well as the surrounding cliffs, for warming up and outright practice, but when he needed calm, he could listen to the water splashing down, rushing the ground overhead to plummet down below. As he slipped further into himself, reached outside the bounds of his body. The water could show him the way, buffeting back his thoughts, concerns, dreams, plans, regrets... Any idea that could take shape, the falls buried under its deluge into the waiting lake, and he opened up to let it all disappear, submerge so deeply that nothing could escape.
It was grounding, tremendous and cold. In this place, sheltered by damp stone and reeds, then water, violent and constant, the forest full of trees, creeping vines and shaking leaves, he was alone. Under the blanket he used to shelter his belongings, all wrapped in broad leaves to protect it all from rain, Sasuke slept. He slept, dreamless and dark. He was nowhere and felt nothing, the void began and ended with him, melting into oblivion. He was free and...and he was alone. He swallowed...and he felt that sharp piercing sting of senbon through his throat.
The rhythm of the water broke.
Brought back to the heavy awareness of his body, Sasuke's breathing shifted just slightly as he listened.
The thin reed curtain was too soft to hear against the roar beyond it, but the broken tiles and upturned stone were impossible to nimble across without making a sound. Even the lightest of foot, in this darkness, would make a mistake.
He listened for it.
The bottom of a sandal skidded against a flat, inclined surface.
Sasuke was up in a flash, sword in hand, and shoved the intruder up against the stone wall, blade poised against their throat.
In the dark he could barely see, but the hint of chakra on their skin, and the smell of...of...miso...?
He activated his sharingan.
"Hey hey! Whoa!" Naruto cautioned, the lay of his chainmail rustling as he raised his hands in surrender, "Take it easy, Sasuke. It's me!"
Sasuke did not take it easy, and instead leaned further in, feeling the pressure of Naruto's throat resist his blade.
He didn't detect any genjutsu of any kind, which implied this was indeed, Naruto, both because he should see any illusion jutsu that would hide someone's appearance or otherwise cast the illusion on him, but also because Naruto had zero affinity for genjutsu whatsoever.
Naruto's next plea was more urgent, a little choked. "Hey hey hey c'mon! S-sasuke!"
"What are you doing here?" he demanded, angling his sword blade up so talking wouldn't cut into his throat too much.
"I'm on a mission, and I just...!" He huffed, "I was just... Look, bastard, you think I wouldn't realize you were here?"
Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about?"
"I...it was like... Listen, I was just here, and I knew, okay?? So...so I checked it out! Obviously!"
"And what makes you think I wouldn't cut you down the second I saw you?" Sasuke pressed.
Naruto's breath caught, and Sasuke could feel his pulse press up rhythmically against his steel.
"Well...you haven't yet...right?"
Moron.
Naruto was probably armed, but his hands were free. No weapon strap on his thigh, at least, and no jacket to hide anything in. Sasuke let a breath out through his nose and stepped back, letting the idiot go.
The other ninja let out a comical sigh of relief and hissed a moment later as he reached toward himself. "Hey...! Asshole, you cut me..."
"Leave," Sasuke demanded, taking a few steps back to gain a little distance to move if he had to. "Were you followed?"
Naruto clicked his tongue at him. "Do you think I'm such a crappy ninja that I can't sneak around without being followed??"
"Wouldn't be the first time," he fired back.
"Hmph!" Naruto grumbled. "I'm not a kid anymore, you know..."
"Whatever you say," Sasuke returned, suppressing his sharingan. His eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness, and with the sharingan off it made that a little easier. Naruto wasn't dressed entirely like he had been before. Same pants, but he only had the kusari on this time, no jacket. He was almost broad, a word no one would have used for him back when they were on Team 7 together. He'd gotten physical stronger, sharper, thanks to puberty and constantly having to expend all the pent up energy he had.
Naruto muttered under his breath as Sasuke wedged his sword into his kimono belt. The belt tied in the back and he didn't use it often, mainly to sleep with when he was out of the compound and his pants were wet or otherwise dirty, but his sword was heavy. It wasn't a comfortable weight, but he wouldn't stand against Naruto unarmed.
"Do you um...train here a lot?" Naruto asked, a little too wrong-footed to sound completely casual.
Sasuke didn't answer, his question, his arms hanging by his sides.
"Are you done?" he returned instead. "Leave, or I'll make you leave. Or are you going to try and drag me back to the village in the middle of a mission?"
Naruto huffed, annoyed. "...can't do that, gotta go somewhere else." Sasuke could finally make out the pinched expression on his face as he pointed at him. "So, you got off easy, y'hear? But next time, you better be ready for me!"
Sasuke scoffed, and that only made Naruto further irritated.
"I've been training a lot, you know! Like hell I'd let you get so far ahead I'd be a push-over!"
"Yeah? Prove it."
Naruto gritted his teeth. "Bastard...!"
Sasuke hated that getting under Naruto's skin brought a thin flicker of a smirk across his lips. The moment of levity snapped when he noticed it, but before he could get too caught up in his own thoughts about it, Naruto charged him.
"Graaah!"
Naruto feinted his first hit, but Sasuke saw through it, even without the Sharingan. He ignored the side kick, guided the punch behind him, and sent Naruto's weight right into the worn, broken tatami on the training stage. The idiot rolled over on to the blanket he'd left, the perfect position for Sasuke to pin him under his knee, his weight digging right into his sternum.
"You haven't changed at all," Sasuke sighed, leaning his other knee down against the edge of the stage to better center his gravity. He drew his sword and stabbed it into the tatami on Naruto's other side, not far from his neck again. The metal struggled to shine, tried to reflect the meager light trapped in the cave. "Are you gonna keep being a weak dumbass forever? How disappointing."
Naruto was short on breath thanks to Sasuke's weight, but he grabbed at his kimono anyway, right above the belt, fisting the two halves between his fingers.
"So is that why you didn't kill me? So I can fight you again?" he demanded, referring to their conversation when they first met after three years, about Naruto's failed attempt to stop him at the Valley of the End, and Sasuke's failure to kill him, despite the opportunity to take it.
"Were you not listening before? I already told you..." Sasuke paused as he leaned down, closer to Naruto's face. He could feel his breath wash over his chin and his throat, barely reaching below his clavicle before dissipating. "I spared you on a whim, and nothing more."
That hurt look came back to his eyes, like hearing it confirmed a second time was just as impactful as hearing it the first time, just as demoralizing.
Sasuke knew what to tell Naruto to hurt him, and he knew how to tell him to try to keep him away. It was the point. He knew how to lie to Naruto. He'd known how he'd felt back then, how hollow his chest had been, staring up at the rain, knowing he was choosing to fail this time, choosing not to take that path to power. He prioritized Naruto's life over his vengeance, just that one moment, because the idea of taking him out of realty for good back then had been too much for him. He wasn't foolish enough to not remember that pain; pain was the best teaching tool he understood.
But, he wasn't a child anymore. If Naruto got in the way, he should damn well understand the wrath he's invoking. Even if that meant lying, even if it meant breaking his heart, shattering the idea of Sasuke that Naruto still clung to. Fantasizing about a person that didn't exist anymore served neither of them well. Sasuke had learned this a long, long time ago. The caring, troubled older brother that loved him ceased to exist, just as the friendly rival Naruto once knew back then. Naruto simply had to accept it.
If Naruto was going to continue to try and be a fixture in his life, on the outskirts of his awareness, and an occasional obstacle, at the very least, he could do Sasuke the favor of actually being worth his time. Right now, he wasn't, no matter what new jutsu he'd learned, they weren't even close. Sasuke had eclipsed him and then some. The fox was the only thing that could really pack a punch, but he had little interest in that. A jinchuuriki was a container; he had no desire to fight the thing inside Naruto, regardless of its strength. It was Naruto, or it was nothing.
"You're lying," Naruto asserted, his voice wobbly, pulling down on Sasuke's clothes.
Sasuke blinked down at him, at the wrinkle over his nose, his own expression perfectly placid. "Keep telling yourself that."
Naruto took a breath, let him go, and made the sign for his Shadow Clones.
Sasuke brought up his free hand and smacked his hands apart, breaking the seal.
Naruto rolled, and it put Sasuke off-balance for a moment, leaning too much weight on his sword, and Naruto kicked out at his knee.
Shifting his leg back across the tatami, Sasuke planted one foot on the ground, angling to push back, but Naruto grabbed him by the sleeve, then the collar across from it, and pulled him back, flinging him further down the mat.
"I know you're lying!" Naruto asserted, his anger echoing against the blasted out walls around them as he pursued, stomping over the bamboo to throw a kick that collided with the wall as Sasuke dodged. "'A whim!?' Do you think I'd buy that??" He withdrew his leg, pushing his weight off to avoid Sasuke's answering strike to his knee, and shoved Sasuke right up into the rock, practically pinning him with his whole body. His forearm came up to press into Sasuke's throat, and the Uchiha grabbed a firm hold of his elbow to keep the pressure off his windpipe.
In the cool expanse of the space, Naruto's body was like a campfire.
Naruto's eyes glared, deep and hard into his. "You think I can't tell when you're full of it? Think I wanna stop you from killing your brother? Dumbass! I just hate the way that creep looks at you, that you stand next to him like he's not waiting to kill you and swallow you up! How can you stand it??"
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
Naruto pressed down harder with little result, his gaze trying desperately to unravel him. "You--!"
Sasuke didn't have a lot of room to cock his arm back, but he could still use it. He punched Naruto in the liver, and Naruto staggered, the force not enough to really hurt him, but enough to push him off balance.
"Sas--!"
Grabbing his wrist along with his elbow, Sasuke shoved, then put his foot behind his heel and tripped him backward. Naruto stumbled and fell by Sasuke's sword, and when he reached to grab it, Sasuke took it before he could get a good hold on it and stood over him, feet on either side of his torso, just above his hips, and pointed the curved blade under his jaw again.
Neither of them were winded, but Naruto was wary, once again at the business end of Sasuke's sword.
"What I do is none of your concern anymore," Sasuke told him as Naruto's eyes wandered, skittering over him, looking for something to take advantage of, "so, what you should do right now is leave, and make sure to stay out of my way."
Naruto's eyes settled high on his right leg a few times, near the edge of his kimono, as he tried to find a way to get out, but something about his expression was weird. Sasuke frowned. He tightened the grip on his hilt.
"What?"
Naruto's gaze snapped to Sasuke's face and he swallowed. "N-nothing...so...you gonna let me up?"
Sasuke blinked down at him, surmising him a moment. Where the hell did all that bravado go from before?
Retrieving his leg, he gave Naruto the space to get up, and watched as he looked at the edge of his kimono again, blinked twice up at the ceiling, then forced himself up to his feet.
What the hell...? A creeping, hot feeling, like goosebumps, prickled between his shoulder blades.
For a brief second, he felt sluggish as he watched Naruto stand. He ignored it. The moron had woken him up, after all.
Naruto brushed at the chainmail shirt, the metal clinking softly as he it patted it down. He didn't look at him immediately, instead, he looked at the tatami under their feet, keeping the point of Sasuke's sword in his periphery.
"Neh... Sasuke. You know how...sometimes you get the feeling you're in a dream, but you're not really sure if you are?"
Sasuke canted his head, observing him as he lowered his sword. His face had really matured in the last three years. The whisker marks on his cheeks had always emphasized how round they were, gave definition, almost, to the baby fat he'd still had. Not anymore. He was sharpening all over. Both of them were.
"Kinda...kinda feel like that right now," he continued.
Why am I staring at his face?
He didn't sense anything, but Sasuke couldn't entirely deny that he didn't feel like that, too, somehow. The slight delay between his thoughts and his body, how his thoughts kept straying to topics that didn't make sense. He blinked and turned his sharingan back on, looking around the cave and at the curtain for any sign of a spell that he might have missed before, or something new.
Naruto jumped when he looked at him again and cursed. "Sheesh! Scared me..."
Sasuke ignored him, stepping off of the platform and across the rubble toward the reed curtain. "I don't sense anything," he told him, pulling the curtain back to look out at the waterfall with his free hand. "Even if you couldn't sense genjutsu, I can. No one's done anything since you showed up."
He could feel Naruto's eyes on him, could hear his footsteps approaching. He didn't bite back at the jab at his abilities. That unsettling feeling pulled at him again.
"Do you think...we're dreaming?" Naruto asked.
He knew what being put to sleep felt like, and this wasn't like that. A waking nightmare, he knew that, too. This wasn't that either. Maybe he was just dreaming, and Naruto wasn't real.
How could he know if Naruto wasn't real? Even if he himself wasn't an illusion, could someone fake him that well with such a strong technique that he couldn't see it? During the Chuunin Exams, that copycat had been so sloppy it was basically a joke to fall for it. No, even after three years, he'd know, he could--
"Then prove to me that you're real," Sasuke suggested, turning to look back at his old rival.
Naruto had made it to the end of the major pieces of rubble, back to ground that was mostly solid, though still cracked and uneven. With the curtain partially moved for observation, the moonlight reached through the falling waterfall, trying desperately to reach as far as it could into their little hideaway, into this place meant for solitude.
"This is my dream, right? So isn't that something you should do?" Naruto challenged.
Sasuke watched him, the scant moonbeams breaking in from around the waterfall playing off the ringlets of metal protecting his torso, painting stark relief on the blunt end of his chin, the sharp line of his jaw. "Is that what you think?"
"Yeah, so, do something only you would do," Naruto suggested, finally settling his eyes on his face again as he got close, his irises reflecting the light of night. "Or something crazy, something you'd never--"
Sasuke's sword dropped against the stone, emitting a loud clang, startling Naruto, and Sasuke grabbed the front of his shirt again, pulling him up close. The blonde stumbled over his own surprise, cerulean eyes wide as his eyebrows rose, shocked at their proximity, and Sasuke leaned in, grabbed the waist of his pants by the front...
...and pivoted his right foot, hauling Naruto off the ground to fling him out into the mouth of the cave. He turned off his sharingan and shook out his right hand, clawing his fingers into the air to concentrate his chakra in his palm.
Naruto's face was beet red when he looked up at him from the cave floor, close enough to the fall to be pelted by drops of stray water. Sasuke's chakra ignited, bright, jagged electric energy thrashing the interior with white light. It blinded Naruto, forcing him to shield his eyes with his arm as Sasuke stalked toward him, closing the distance in a matter of seconds.
"Naruto!" he hollered, and felt a sickening sense of deja vu that almost made him stumble.
Get up! Get up and get out of here, right now!
The ninja scrambled to his feet and Sasuke was close enough to reach. He took a wide step forward and pulled his hand back. Something scraped desperately against the soft muscle of his esophagus.
Fight me! Either fight me or get the hell away from me! If you're Naruto, defend yourself or run!
The muscles of his biceps tightened, and he slammed his hand forward, aiming for Naruto's chest. It caved, vessels and muscle incinerating against the heat of his chakra, bone breaking against its force, and that familiar feeling of blood swirling around his hand and his arm took him right back there, the sound of the waterfall, the water on his skin, Naruto's bright eyes, frightened and disbelieving, rolling back as his hot blood fanned out, splattering up his arm and across his face.
A gasp ripped out of him as he bolted upright, shivering and full of adrenaline.
No...Naruto, not again... I...!
He looked at his right arm. Clean. So was the rest of him. He was under the blanket, back on the tatami, so he surveyed the cave. It was just as it'd been when he'd gone to bed.
His sword was in its place, no new stab marks in the mat underneath him.
A great, relieved sigh escaped him as he finally centered himself, felt grounded again. It was still dark, so he cupped his hands and hid his face inside them, just for a moment. He felt a little sick, all over again...
It wasn't real. It was just a dream. As stupid as Naruto is...he's not so weak to be hit with something like that, and...
He was reassured by that, reassured by Naruto's resilience. Then, he was irritated that it reassured him. He was being reassured by something that all but guaranteed that Naruto wasn't going to leave him be in the future, that he was going to be a thorn in his side for however long it takes for Sasuke to...get his revenge, and then...whatever else followed after that.
That irritation coiled up in his gut and he hissed, flinging his hands away from his face, almost jumping to his feet. The blanket clung to him before he shoved it back to crumple on the tatami. His legs were cold and he glanced down at his kimono a moment. It was short, not meant to be worn by itself...
Naruto's big blue eyes, catching on the hem like... He'd looked up his leg like--
It was a dream!
Divesting of his kimono top, Sasuke stalked across the cave to pull his damp clothes back on, eager to rid himself of this...frustration in his chest, for however long it lasted. Then, he'd rest again, and at dawn, he'd leave to head back to the compound.
Sasuke didn't get anymore sleep that night.
Gasp!
Naruto jerked awake on his cot, his hand immediately flying to the hole in--wait...
The sky was dark, dotted by brilliant stars and a full moon overhead, and his chest was intact. No hole, nor the indention of a healing one.
Letting out a sigh of relief, he settled back down against his bedroll in the grass, staring up at the nighttime sky. He was exactly where he'd laid down before, not too far away from Konoha.
A dream about Sasuke, huh...? Even if he tried to kill me at the end, it...was nice to see him again.
His throat shivered around a lump trying to make its way up to the back of his mouth, so he swallowed it back down.
He'd seen his sharingan glow like that plenty on missions in the dark back when they were Team 7, and he saw it in the forest during the Chuunin Exams, but wow, they really felt scary now. Maybe...it's because they're pointed at him now, as an enemy.
Sasuke had had the upperhand almost the entire time, too! Damn, were his dreams really so messed up that he couldn't even win against that bastard when it wasn't even real??
When he was on the ground and Sasuke had his feet on either side of him, his sword under his chin, he'd...he'd...! He'd tried not to look but, but...! His leg was so pale and long and--and the shape of it, and--!
Even worse, when Sasuke had grabbed him and leaned in, eyelids all low, cheekbones all high, and then grabbed his pants!
Smack! Naruto's hands flung up from his sides, covering his hands, trying to quash the humiliation darkening his cheeks. Noooo! No way!! Sasuke??!! What the hell was dream me thinking!? Ew ew ew! We were fighting!! Just 'cause he's a pretty guy doesn't--!!
"Gaaahhh!!" he groaned out loud, kicking his feet as he rolled to either side, totally and completely beside himself. There was no way! There was no way at all! Nu-uh!
"Shut up!" Sakura complained from her bedroll, and Naruto instantly quieted down, fearful of her wrath if she didn't get enough sleep. She was a monster when he woke her up at the wrong time of night. Team 7 had found that out together. One time even Sasuke woke her and the strain of not yelling at him had been evident even to him. Naruto always got the full force of it no matter what.
Settling down, Naruto let out a sigh and scrubbed his face one more time, trying to banish the vision from behind his eyelids of his old teammate hovering over him, the warmth of his body from when he'd draped himself over him after seeing him again for the first time in three years.
Damn, cocky asshole had to go and lean on him back then when they'd finally tracked him down... He'd been so surprised he couldn't move, until he'd drawn his sword.
It had been...embarrassing.
Naruto frowned, rolling back on to his back again. If even Sasuke could beat him so easily in his dreams...then that just meant he had to hit training extra hard! When they got back to the village, maybe Kakashi and Yamato could put something else together for him to work on, for sure!
Settled with that idea, Naruto tried to fall back asleep again, only to be plagued by glowing red eyes, pale limbs, and the ghost of Sasuke's body heat against him, the figment of an attempted kiss. He was wide awake even when the sun began to creep back up into the sky, bringing twilight with it.
A few hours after they got back to the village, he had other problems to deal with.