I do not own Naruto!

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were floating peacefully amongst thick, white clouds. The air around them felt crisp, easy to breathe and the sky was bluer than the ocean of a photo shopped screensaver.

Both of his friends were feeding him ramen, with huge smiles plastered on their faces. Sasuke told him how perfect he was, Sakura just gave him food. Just as it should be. They would smile at him until the end of time. Life was pretty good.

"HEY! DOBE!"

Naruto watched in mortification as the blue sky and the fluffy clouds began to crumble around him. His friend's faces turned distant and distorted.

"WAKE UP YOU IDIOT!"

"ugghhh..."

Naruto groaned as consciousness slowly made its way back into his body. The last stripe of clear blue left his mind, but entered his eyes as he opened them and blinked up at the stars.

"DOBE!"

Suddenly annoyed at the voice that had interrupted his very pleasant and reasonable dream, he turned his head to glare in the direction of the teme. But his sleeping bag was empty.

"Stupid dobe. I'm over here." Sasuke hissed from a different direction. Naruto turned and narrowed his eyes to see into the dark forest. Shit. There he was, dangling up side down in a tree.

Naruto cursed and crawled out of his warm sleeping bag, then ran towards the furious, trapped boy. He brought out his kunai and cut the rope that kept him up in the air. Sasuke crashed to the ground but quickly got up on his feet and stared at the blond with a disbelieving look. Naruto tensed uncomfortably.

"Did this trap set up itself or something? I checked the trees and grounds yesterday. There were no traps!" Sasuke seemed to focus and then scanned the area for any unknown chakra sources, but there were none. "Who could have put this here?"

Naruto couldn't bring himself to look the black haired boy in the eyes. So instead, he stared intently at the trees behind him. It was nice to look at trees. Also very normal and calm and innocent and settled.

"Maybe someone put it up there while we were sleeping." Naruto mumbled. He began fiddling with his hands. He had always found it difficult to act normal in situations like these. Lying had never been one of his best abilities.

"No way, I would have sensed their chakra." Sasuke retorted and gave Naruto a calculating look. Naruto turned his gaze downward quickly and felt the panic rise inside him. Why was he looking at him like that? Maybe he knew. It felt like he was looking right through him and he could probably see how pathetically possessive and weird he was. Shitshitshit.

"Whatever." Sasuke said after a few seconds of silence. Relieved, Naruto looked up to see the other boys back as he walked deeper into the forest. "Where are you going?" Naruto asked as another wave of panicky feelings rushed over him.

Sasuke turned around and finally, they stared right into each other's eyes. "Where the fuck do you think?"

Naruto winced and he could feel the emotions intensify and suddenly showing in his eyes, he couldn't hide it. Panic, sadness, betrayal.

Sasuke kept his look indifferent as he walked up to Naruto, he stopped a mere meter in front of him and kept his gaze focused on the blond.

"Where the fuck do you think?" He asked again. Something flickered in Sasukes eyes. Like lightning suddenly shooting out of a dark cloud. Naruto looked down once more.

"How would I know?" He mumbled to the ground.

"You wouldn't, obviously. But where would you think?" Sasuke asked calmly. Naruto tried to come up with a clever response to that question, but all he could think of was 'somewhere far away where there is a really bad guy you have to kill? Can I please come with you?'

"Are y-" Was all Naruto could get out before the words got stuck in his throat, he coughed and then laughed nervously. Sasuke looked a little inpatient.

"What?"

The blonde lowered his head and began to fiddle with his fingers again. He tried to brace himself. Finally, Naruto looked up into the dark unreadable eyes.

"Are you leaving?"

At first, Sasuke looked confused. He eyebrows knitted together and he stared at his friend in a disbelieving way. But then, after a while – his expression changed. He seemed to relax and suddenly his face lighted up in a smirk. Naruto felt shocked and mortified and … what the fuck? He had no right to smirk at him in a moment like this!

"You built that trap, didn't you?" Sasuke asked in a teasing way. He looked down expectantly at the smaller boy, obviously enjoying the devastation suddenly showing in his eyes.

Naruto immediately blushed and seriously considered running away in a random direction. Oh crap. Sasuke had realized. He pointed towards the trap for some reason.

"That one? No!" He said and snorted artificially. He noticed that his hand was trembling and quickly put it down to cover any signs of weakness.

"Sakura probably did it! To catch … animals … you know … to eat!" Naruto blurted and kept a fake smile up.

"Why would we need animals to eat?" Sasuke was looking cocky and superior like he already had it all figured out. "-When we have plenty of food left, and we're leaving first thing in the morning?"

"Yeah but what if …" Naruto began. But after a few seconds of thinking about some way to to explain the unexplainable, all he could get out was "ngghh"

He slumped his shoulders and began pouting at the ground, feeling humiliated and defeated.

"Did you actually set that up in case I were to leave?" Sasuke asked with a curious tone to his voice. Naruto expected him to mock him or laugh evilly at his pathetic attempt of keeping him close. But he was just smirking and looking amused. Naruto felt small and a bit scared looking up into those dark eyes.

"Erm ... no! I mean ... why would I- ..." Naruto tried, scanning through his brain for a good response. He opened his mouth a few times with another lame excuse at the tip of his tongue before coming to the conclusion that there was no way to cover this up. Hopefully Sasuke had already found out the truth in his guilty-looking eyes and wouldn't be too shocked about it.

"Fine. Yeah ... I guess I did, but- but only because you already left once, bastard!" He finished, feeling that same betrayal he did the day when he searched every nook and cranny of the village for a Sasuke who wasn't there.

"Dobe, I just had to take a piss." He said, frowning down at the slightly angry-looking blonde. "I'm not going anywhere. No more traps."

Naruto felt his cheeks redden again before he "hmph-ed" and diverted his gaze back to his sleeping bag and Sakura sleeping peacefully by the campfire.

"Sure, teme. I'll just- I'll go back to the camp." He said, pouting a bit before beginning to walk the shameful way back to his orange sleeping bag. He could make out the dull sound of footsteps as Sasuke walked deeper into the forest. He watched the stars twinkle, not being able to fall sleep until after he picked up the sound of him returning.