Yamato had nearly fallen asleep when he heard someone kneel by his side.
"Yamato taichou… you still awake?"
He turned and looked up. The sky was clear but the moon had been reduced to thin crescent, so he could barely make out the face in the dark, but the hoarse whisper clearly belonged to Naruto.
"What is it?"
"Taichou, I can't sleep."
His head already foggy with sleep, Yamato needed a moment to figure out what this had to do with him.
"Because of my story?" he guessed.
The boy took a while to answer.
"Yeah…" he then said, hardly audible.
"Ah... I'm sorry about that."
Yamato didn't really know what Naruto was expecting of him, but it became clear when, after another moment of silence, Naruto said: "Will you watch over me Taichou?"
"Wha-" Yamato began incredulously
"You started it!" Naruto interrupted him out loud so that his taichou hurriedly shushed him, "Take responsibility for your actions, you know.." the boy added in a low voice, in which a pout could clearly be heard.
"Fine…" Yamato sighed and sat up languidly, "But only until you fall asleep."
"Great, thanks!" Naruto whispered loudly as he jumped up and ran away, to return a second later with his blanket and pillow. He made his bed right next to Yamato's and stretched out on it. It didn't take long for him to start snoring.
"Oh god…" Yamato muttered exasperatedly, as he realized his sleep probably wouldn't come around as long as that noise held on and he suspected that it wouldn't stop until the moment they had to wake. He would attempt to sleep anyway and he lay himself down, his back toward the boy.
The day had been warm, but the night had gotten quite chilly, especially now that the abundant fire had gone out. Yamato shivered and curled himself up under his blanket to get warm. Soon enough he had gotten a bit warmer, but sleep still eluded him, as his feet wouldn't follow the example of the rest of his body and remained stone cold.
He started to feel quite miserable by now, because on top of snoring, Naruto had started rolling around restlessly as well. The last time Yamato had been a witness of that, he'd fallen victim to surprisingly accurate attacks with increasing intensity from the boy.
Suddenly he felt Naruto's arm land heavily on his hip. He sighed and started to get up, intending to move himself to someplace more safe, but the arm locked around his waist and dragged him back roughly. Naruto squeezed his Taichou to his chest with such force, that for a moment Yamato had the air knocked out of him.
When he could breathe again, he tried to free himself without waking Naruto, but the boy's strength was unbelievable. Yamato kept up the struggle for a bit, until he heard Naruto make a faint purring noise in his sleep and suddenly noticed that the snoring had stopped. Naruto had altogether become rather calm. Yamato felt his body pressed warm against his back, and his soft, slow breaths in his neck. It felt strangely soothing.
The arm that was secured around his belly loosened a little, but Yamato became aware of his, by now comfortably heated up feet and felt reluctant to move. Enveloped by Naruto's warmth he drowsily decided that he'd let his subordinate have his way this time.
Note: this is only a fragment of what I've written so far, but without the foregoing, this bit seemed complete already. Let me know if you like it and the story will be finished this summer. :)