First Off: This is my first "Rated M" and "Yaoi" story, and I'm glad to post it so soon! I hope you people like it. Maybe even love it. Enjoy!

Warning: This is a Fanfiction, which means a story written by fans. I can do anything, like make bizarre couples. (i.e. Neji/Kiba, which will NOT come up). One of my couples are questionable, but I fit it in in a way that makes sense, unlike starting the story like it.

Disclaimer: I, like almost everyone on this sight, do not own Naruto. Or any other anime, for that matter. I just own several Naruto items, the ideas, and the computer.

--- June 17 ---

Everything was black. All around him, he was consumed with darkness. Then, a white flash lit everything up, causing him to cover his eyes. The light left as suddenly as it had come. He pulled his arm down and looked at his surroundings. The darkness was gone, replaced by the trees from the middle of a forest. In every direction, the trees seemed to swallow him up. The flash came again, lighting up the trees, causing him to cover his eyes again. But it flashed away. The still and silent trees turned darker. Soft rain hit the leaves with a pitter-patter noise. It started softly, but soon started pouring. The flash lit up again, hurting his eyes. When it went away, he could see the silhouette of a figure.

The figure was kneeling on the ground, one hand supporting the figure by clutching a nearby tree trunk. The figure looked similar to him, he observed. Another flash and another silhouette appeared beside the first. This one was standing, and by his position, he was looking triumphant. Quickly, another flash came, revealing yet another figure. Just by its looks he knew who it was. The figure's hair was pulled back in a single ponytail, and big glasses covered his face. It was Kabuto, which meant the tall figure was Orochimaru, and most likely the kneeling figure was he.

Another flash, another figure. This figure was farther away from the first three; it was angry and didn't quite fit in. This one was shorter than the rest, and it had hair poking out in every direction.

Another flash came to light everything up again. This time, everything seemed to move. The Orochimaru figure struck something into the silhouette that he thought was himself in the first few seconds. His figure's hand slipped from the tree trunk and landed head-first onto the ground.

Kabuto and Orochimaru laughed. He could hear the boom of their laughter over the rain. The fourth figure, the newest one, caught his attention. A bright red color was expelling from its body. The figure lunged at Kabuto, who fell to the ground. It did the same to Orochimaru. He, too, fell to the ground.

As soon as Orochimaru hit the ground, red stopped expelling from the new figure. It picked up the first silhouette, and seemed to be mourning.

The first silhouette spoke. "I'm sorry… Dobe." He was right. It was himself. It was his body, his voice, his blood.

When the other figure talked, its voice had an angry tone. "You will not die, Sasuke!" He knew right away who the voice belonged to. Naruto.

Suddenly, he felt something in his hands. It was a tingle, not of pain or pleasure. He looked down at his hands. There was enough light to see them out of the little light there was, since it was raining and in the middle of a forest. To his surprise, both of his hands were slowly fading away. He could also feel it in his feet. He tore his eyes away from his hands, which were completely gone and now his arms were starting to fade, to his feet. They were faded and gone up to his knees.

Summoning up his remaining strength, he shouted to the figures in the distance. "Naruto! Help me!" He got no response. His shoulders were starting to fade away now. "Naruto!" he screamed. Still no reply. His neck was slowly fading. "Naruto! Save me! Help! Naruto!" Nothing. Tears were pouring out of his shocked eyes. "NARUTOOOOOOOO!" he cried out, only to have his mouth fade away. In seconds, there was nothing left of him in the now pitch-black area.

---

"Naruto!" he cried, abruptly sitting up from his resting place. He was panting and drenched in sweat.

As soon as he realized what he had said, he cupped his mouth. 'Orochimaru will be upset with me for thinking of him again,' he told himself. His eyes darted to the door. Or at least where the door was supposed to be. Instead, he was looking through a window facing a mountain with five faces on it.

Behind him, he heard a door knob twisting. "Did you call?" asked a boy no older than Sasuke entering the room. He had spiky blond hair and the most captivating, most breathtaking electric blue eyes. He was very skinny and had long appendages, and almost as tall as Sasuke.

Sasuke was taken aback by the boy's beauty. Then, he shook the thought out of his head. "Why am I here?" he demanded, pulling his legs out from under the blanket in which he had been sleeping under and flung them over the bed.

The boy leaned his shoulder against the door, his arms folded across his chest. "Isn't it obvious?" he said in a "duh" voice. "I promised I would bring you back. It wasn't easy, but I pulled it off.

Sasuke scowled at the blond. "That's not what I meant, Naruto-dobe! I mean, why did you bring me back," he growled. "I had my reasons for leaving."

"And I had my reasons for bringing you back!" angrily snapped Naruto. He was getting fed-up with Sasuke. 'Man, if I knew he was going to bitch about it, I would have never brought the teme back!' he silently protested.

"You idiot! You didn't ever know why I left. I left for your own-" Sasuke started, but Naruto cut him off. "You're the idiot, Sasuke! To think you could leave Konoha behind! Heck, to believe no one would ever find out why!" Naruto retorted. Sasuke was a little taken aback by Naruto's anger and abruptness. "Sasuke, I know why you left! You left because you didn't want to use your seal to tap into unknown powers that could overcome you. Sasuke, if you thought I was blind and stupid for even a second, you're wrong!"

Sasuke was silent for a few minutes. Naruto's usual kind and sweet face was full of anger, while Sasuke showed no expression but surprise. 'D-Did Naruto actually figure that out?' Sasuke pondered.

With all expression wiped off his face, Sasuke looked Naruto in the eyes. "What was your reason for bringing me back here?" he inquired. It was so hard for him to keep a straight face while looking into Naruto's eyes. They almost seemed to be priceless sapphire. They had always been.

"Sasuke," Naruto's eyes shifted to the floor, but he pulled them back up to his friend. "Konoha hasn't been the same since you left. Plus I promised to bring you back, which I did. All the training I did was to bring you back. Besides, training for ten years with Orochimaru is a little too long. Some of us felt as if you should return. It's hard to live without you, so we decided to not to."

"You realize Orochimaru will come back to take me away," snapped Sasuke.

Naruto scowled at Sasuke. "I am aware. The second you figure that out, maybe I'll treat you like a real friend." He turned around and started out the door, but stopped and faced Sasuke one last time. "Oh, and if you were trying so hard to forget Konoha and us, you wouldn't wake up from your nightmares screaming my name as if I'm the last person on Earth." He stepped out and closed the door, leaving Sasuke alone and staring blankly where he had just been standing.

'He deserved that' Naruto thought, but somehow, somewhere inside him, he disagreed.

---

Sasuke was shocked. 'How could he… how could he know about that? I mean, this is Naruto we're talking about! How did he know?!'

Sasuke lay back and stared at the ceiling, still trying to unsuccessfully find the answers he was looking for. Instead of finding answers, he found his stomach growling in hunger. He sat up and stretched, looking at the clock. It was a few minutes past noon.

He stood up and walked to the door, but paused. 'Would Naruto let me?' he asked himself. Then he rolled his eyes. 'Of course he would. I'm not a stranger.'

The raven-haired boy opened the door slowly and quietly. He left it open and walked down the short hallway. In one of the rooms he passed by was Naruto on a dark green couch, reading a book. He looked up when Sasuke walked by and asked, "Sasuke, what're you doing?"

Sasuke stopped, rolled his eyes, and turned around. "I'm hungry, so I was going to make some lunch. Want me to get you something?" He was facing Naruto, a smile on his face. If he was going to earn trust, he had better start out kind. 'But just to Naruto,' he swore.

Naruto looked at Sasuke, confused for a minute, but shrugged. "Sure," he answered. "I'll have whatever you're eating. Kitchen's down the hall, last room on the right." He smiled pleasantly at Sasuke.

Sasuke turned the direction to the kitchen, smirking. Earning Naruto's trust was easy, since it was already there from the start. 'Now to get something off my shoulders…' Sasuke planned his next move as he entered the kitchen.

Naruto had a truly beautiful kitchen. It was a smaller kitchen and was mostly closed in. Parallel to the door was a window over the sink, facing the side-yard. On the back-wall was a countertop with the oven, microwave, and cabinets and cupboards full of pots, pans, and spices. To Sasuke's immediate left was the refrigerator, parallel to the microwave oven. Then, the countertop was made into a bar with cabinets above his head. There was a small space between the bar and the dishwasher on the wall with the sink that lead to the dining room with a dinner table seated for four.

"Now let's see what Naruto has to eat…" Sasuke declared to him, half-hoping there was enough ingredients for the both of them.

---

There were enough ingredients in Naruto's fridge for four bowls of ramen. Although ramen never had been Sasuke's favorite, he decided he would eat it anyway. After all, he hadn't had ramen for about ten years.

Sasuke poured a little bit of ramen into a bowl and tasted it. "Well," he sighed, "it's pretty good for someone who hasn't made it in ten years." He quickly slurped down the rest of the ramen in the bowl.

Stomach satisfied, he walked to the room Naruto was in. He was still reading his book on his couch in the same position. "Naruto, lunch is ready," he informed.

Naruto looked up from his book and smiled. "Thanks Sasuke," he replied. He stood up and walked through the door, brushing against Sasuke accidentally. Sasuke didn't seem to notice. But looks can be deceiving…

It was Naruto's nose to figure out what Sasuke made. He burst into the kitchen, eyes locked onto the table. For Naruto were three bowls of Sasuke's homemade hot, steamy ramen. He looked over his to his guest, grinning.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, smiling. "It doesn't take a genus to figure out what you wanted," he said, mostly to himself.

Naruto quickly sat down and grabbed his chopsticks off the table, digging into the concoction of broth, noodles, meat, and vegetables. He slurped up his first bowl quickly. "These are delicious!" he exclaimed as he started on his second bowl.

He paused as Sasuke sat down opposite of him, but continued on eating his bowl. The ramen in that bowl was gone in about two minutes. As he inserted his chopsticks into the third one, he looked up at Sasuke and asked, "Aren't you going to eat any?"

Sasuke smiled and shook his head. "I already had mine," he said lazily. Naruto stared at him. Sasuke saw the little confusion in his eyes. "What?"

"But aren't you hungry? I know I barely had any food in the fridge, and for three bowls, that's an awful lot."

Sasuke sighed. He shook his head. "Naruto," he said slowly, "I've grown used to eating very little. I ate my fill."

But Naruto wouldn't take this as an answer. "Sasuke, for there to be this much, you mustn't have even eaten half a bowl." He slid the bowl across the table. "Have this."

Sasuke didn't find the bowl of food inviting. "I'm not hungry, Naruto," he protested sharply.

"Sasuke, please eat the ramen. You won't be with Orochimaru ever again, and I don't want you an anorexic. So eat." It was a cross between an invite and a demand, and Sasuke didn't want to push Naruto any more.

He grabbed the chopsticks, picked up some noodles, blew on them to cool them off, and stuffed them in his mouth. He did the same until he got used to the taste, then dug in, but not as excited as Naruto had been. 'Naruto's right,' he thought, 'I am hungry. Maybe all those years of being with Orochimaru do ware off.' When the bowl was empty, Sasuke looked up at Naruto. "Happy?" he asked. It came out kind of rude, but he didn't care.

"Yes. Yes I am," Naruto replied, folding his arms across his chest. He had a slight grin. Or was it a smirk? Sasuke couldn't tell.

Sasuke put his right elbow on the table, the back of his hand supporting his chin. His left hand was lying on the table horizontally in front of his right elbow. He looked at Naruto with a serious look in his eyes. This made Naruto somewhat uncomfortable. "Naruto," he said slowly, sounding out each syllable. It was almost like he was saying something he was uncomfortable saying, but it had to be said, "when I was with Orochimaru, I realized something. Out of everything that happened in Konoha ten years ago, the only thing that really meant anything to me was you."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Sasuke, that's because I was the last one you saw when you left," Naruto pointed out.

"But Naruto, that's not the point. Every dream I had, you were there for me, sometimes in ways I didn't even imagine possible. Naruto, it only took me about a year to figure this out, but I love you." Sasuke almost seemed to hold his breath when he was done. He wasn't sure if Naruto would accept him, but at least he said it. It felt like a thousand pounds were lifted off his shoulders.

Naruto smiled. "I love you too, Sasuke," he replied simply.

Sasuke pounded his fist on the table. "That's not the way I meant, Naruto." Sasuke had caught the tone in Naruto's voice that didn't think the way Sasuke was. "I mean, I love you," he said it softly. In a second, he was behind Naruto, his arms wrapped around Naruto. "Not like, love." There was a smile of true happiness on his face.

Naruto stared straight ahead. Sasuke's words were still ringing in his head. "L-l-l-love?" he repeated. This was hurting his head. He broke away from Sasuke's grasp. He grabbed his jacket off the hook and opened the door. "I'll be back in a few hours," he said, almost zombie-like.