Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, sadly, it belongs to Kishimoto Masashi, that lucky, genius man.

Warnings: Ummm…none really. This story might have a bit of violence in it near the end, so there's that.

Author's Note: I haven't really written too much fanfic. I wrote a prologue which can be viewed on my page, but never went anywhere with it. I'm working really hard on this story, and so I hope it turns out well. This story is just a two-shot, so it's pretty slow in this first chapter, but in the second chapter things pick up. I hope that you'll review as I'd like to know what you think. I wonder if you can figure out what's up with Naruto. XD

Dust In the Wind

"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been."
― John Greenleaf Whittier, Maud Muller - Pamphlet

"Fuck!" Sasuke exclaimed, jerking back in his seat as he brought his hand down on the steering wheel of his car angrily. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," he slammed his fist down on to the wheel a couple of more times before closing his eyes and forcing himself to take a couple of deep breaths.

When he felt like he had collected himself, Sasuke opened his eyes and calmly reached for the key in the ignition. He turned it once more, hoping to hear the engine roar to life, but was disappointed once again when the car simply sputtered and died. "This…is not happening…" he mumbled to himself under his breath, his hand slipping from the key to rub over his face tiredly.

He gazed out of his windshield, unable to really see anything as it was pitch black outside and raining heavily. He leaned over into the passenger seat and blindly felt around for his cell phone until he found it. The screen lit up and he began to type his brother's number, stopping only when he realized that he had no signal. He sighed heavily and dropped the phone into his lap as he ran a hand through his dark hair.

"Okay…", he said, "its eleven o'clock at night, it's storming outside, I have no cell phone service, and I'm broken down on some country back road in the middle of nowhere," lightning flashed outside, momentarily lighting up the heavily wooded area around him, "What the hell am I going to do now?

He tilted his head backward and stared, unseeingly, at the ceiling, listening to the thud of the raindrops as they hit the roof of the car. "…I should have never agreed to come all the way out here." His hands found his phone again, and he used it to light up the inside of the car while he thought about how he had gotten into this situation in the first place.

Before his car had broken down, Sasuke had been driving to a resort in the country, one that was hours away from where he lived and went to school. He was originally going to drive to the resort with his family, hours earlier, but as he had classes to attend his parents had decided that it would be better if he took his car up at a later time.

He hadn't wanted to go at all, but his father had set up some sort of a retreat at the resort with a potential business partner and, as he expected Sasuke to take over the family company with his brother one day, it was presumed that Sasuke would be there, without complaint. His father would be extremely disappointed in him if he didn't arrive until the morning; he would see it as Sasuke failing to take his future role in the company seriously.

Right when he had begun to feel sorry for himself, Sasuke was pulled out of his reverie as a pale yellow light shot through his back windshield and gradually began to fill his car. Confused, he looked over his right shoulder and flinched, shielding his eyes with his hand, as he was immediately blinded by a pair of bright headlights coming up behind him. Aware of the fact that the driver of the car probably couldn't tell that he was broken down, as his hazard lights weren't working, he opened his car door slightly and stuck out his arm, motioning for the person to drive around him. He then shut his door quickly and locked it, keeping his eyes on the car behind his via his side mirror.

'What the hell is this guy doing…?' Sasuke thought to himself, as he saw the car slow down and then come to a full stop. He unlocked his door once more and slowly opened it, sticking his arm out and motioning to the driver again to go around him. He shut his door, relocked it, and watched the car, this time through his rearview mirror, expecting it to pass by him at any moment.

When the car remained still Sasuke began to feel nervous. His brows knit together in irritation, and he whipped his head around to stare in the direction of the headlights. Then, assuming that the driver could see him, he turned in his seat and gestured wildly at them. "Go around me, dumbass!" he said loudly, though he knew the person couldn't hear him.

Thunder rattled the car as Sasuke's head jerked back in shock when he saw a figure emerge from the darkness and begin to walk toward him. The figure looked almost ethereal, its features covered in shadow, its form surrounded by an outline of light and mist, due to the headlights behind it and the rain that pummeled down on to its frame.

As the figure got closer, Sasuke shifted in his seat until he faced the front again and looked down at his cell phone. When he saw that he still had no signal and that the low battery notification was beginning to flash he cursed under his breath in frustration. Before he had time to think about what he was going to do next there was a rapping at his window, causing him to jump in surprise.

A man, dressed in what seemed to be some sort of coat, a raincoat maybe, stood outside of the car, looking back at Sasuke through squinted eyes. His arms were crossed over his chest, as if he were trying to protect himself from the rain, and when he saw that he had gotten Sasuke's attention he raised one of his hands in greeting. "Hey there!" he yelled, trying to make sure that he was audible to Sasuke over the rain and through the glass of the window, "Uh…Are you okay? Is your car broken down or something?"

Sasuke stared at him for a moment, dumbfounded, unsure of how to respond. He didn't really feel comfortable telling a stranger, miles away from any form of civilization, that his car was broken down, but he really did need help. He had no idea where he was, as he had been using his car's GPS as a map, and his cell phone was useless. He also didn't know anything about fixing cars.

When Sasuke didn't respond, the man continued, "I saw that your lights were out, that's why I figured you were broken down…I wouldn't think that you'd just park out here in the middle of the road, unless you're waiting for the storm to pass. It is kinda hard to see out here," the man mused loudly, talking more to himself now than to Sasuke as he looked down at his feet, fidgeting a bit, "though, if that's the case, I'd pull over a bit more to the side cause it's a little dangerous to be out in the road like this without any lights on…" he said, lifting his eyes from the ground to stare at Sasuke once again.

"Um…I'm not a psycho or anything, ya know," the man blurted out suddenly, crouching down a bit so that he could be seen by Sasuke better.

"Comforting," Sasuke said loudly in response, almost mechanically. His eyes widened when he realized that he had spoken out loud and not simply kept the sarcastic remark to himself as he thought he had. He relaxed slightly, though, when the man began to laugh.

"Yeah, I guess it's hard to trust people these days" he said, smile lighting up his face, "Hell, you could be a psycho for all I know! You're the one that's sitting in a dark car in the middle of the road during a thunderstorm! That's pretty creepy if ya ask me! I just wanted to see if you needed help."

Sasuke took in the man's appearance as he spoke, attempting to size him up. The man was about as tall as he was, with a similar build. He seemed genuine enough in what he was saying and Sasuke couldn't seem to find anything threatening about him. The only thing that struck him as odd about the guy was his determination to help a person that he didn't even know.

After looking directly into the man's eyes for a few seconds and deciding that he could probably kick the his ass if he tried anything funny, Sasuke carefully inched open his car door. He watched as the now drenched stranger backed up a bit and then moved around to the side of the door to stand directly in front of him.

"I was on my way to the MeridianResort and Lodge to meet up with my family, but my car broke down," Sasuke said tentatively, "…I don't know this area very well, and I don't have a way to get a hold of anyone."

"Well…" the man responded, looking over Sasuke's car briefly, "If your car was older I could probably be more useful in that department. I don't know much about these newer kinds of cars, mine's just a beaten down old station wagon. But since your lights don't seem to be working I'd say that it might be the battery. It wouldn't be smart to take a look at it though when it's storming, ya know?

"I can give you a ride, if you want," the man offered, "to the resort? I'm heading that way anyway and I take this road a lot so I know how to get there."

"No thanks," Sasuke answered bluntly, "I'll take a ride to the nearest gas station, though, if you don't mind."

"There's nothing around this area until you hit the resort, that's why I offered to just take you there. I can tell the idea of gettin' a ride with some random dude bothers you, and I don't blame you, but it's only about an hour and a half away if that makes you feel any better."

Sasuke glanced at his surroundings. It was dark, and even when the lightning lit up the sky all he could see on both sides of the road was dense, weather-beaten forest. The trees stood so tall that when the wind howled they bent over the road, casting shaky shadows across the pavement.

Sasuke sighed to himself. He couldn't walk an hour and a half to the resort this late at night and there was no way he could stay here for much longer. His father was sure to be expecting him soon and the later he was the longer he would have to endure a lecture about responsibility and the importance of always being prepared for the worst.

"Don't you have a cell phone I could borrow?" Sasuke asked, trying to exhaust all of his options in the hopes of finding another solution to his problem, one that did not involve getting in a car with someone he didn't know.

"No, I've never had one of those," the man responded with an apologetic look on his face, "Call me old-fashioned, I guess. But, um, I'm getting soaked now, so…" he trailed off, looking expectantly at Sasuke, who noticed that he had begun trembling.

"…I'll take that ride to the resort then," Sasuke said unenthusiastically, as he leaned over and fished his wallet out of his glove compartment. He would call his insurance's towing and roadside service as soon as he got to the resort so that they could pick his car up.

"Alright," the man replied cheerfully, backing up from the car as Sasuke swung his legs onto the road, "My name's Naruto, by the way. What's yours?"

Sasuke placed his phone in his pocket, praying, to whatever deity that would listen, that it would stay dry on the walk to the other man's car, and lifted himself out of his seat and into the freezing rain. "Sasuke," he stated, his back turned toward Naruto as he shut his car door and locked it.

"Sasuke..." Naruto grinned, "Well, alright then, Sasuke, let's go," Naruto grinned, as he began to jog back to his car with an anxious Sasuke following close behind.