The Demon Within

by Fool4Sasuke33

Naruto finally brings Sasuke back, but the two still seem to argue just as much as ever! Kakashi gets tired of it and sends them off to get over their differences. But what will happen when Sasuke has a secret so terrible, that it drives even Naruto away?

Alrighty, I'm back with the newly rewritten and revised first chapter of The Demon Within! Rejoice! I hope you'll all like it much better (because I certainly do) and don't despise the new style! I worked all through the night and into the wee hours of the morning fixing it up, so it should be at least a little bit better than the sorry first attempt…

The song Crawling by Linkin Park inspired this fic. Listen to it if ever you get the chance! A minor spoiler for what's to come if you know what to look for…

Disclaimer: I regret to inform that I neither own the anime/manga Naruto nor any of the affiliated characters… Though I am meeting with Kishimoto-sama today at Ichiraku's to discuss this matter of ownership thoroughly.

Warnings: Just a bit of foul language from our adorable little Naru-chan. But nothing major for now.

OooOooOThe Demon WithinOooOooO

Chapter 1

I never noticed it really. I'd never even thought of it as a possibility to tell the truth. All the time I'd spent with him these past few weeks offered not even the slightest hint at it—to my eyes at least. I suppose it must have been obvious though, now that I think about it. How could it not have been? Though at this point it hardly matters: I'm about to die regardless of the facts. But I can't help but wonder at it as I stare into his malice-filled eyes for probably the last time in my life. Could I have done anything to prevent this? Somehow I doubted it severely…and yet somehow believed it with every fiber of my being…

OooOooOooO

"Damn that Kakashi…! Sometimes I wonder what the hell goes through his aggravating, silver-haired head!" I angrily snatched up another stick identical to the others in the bundle I carried haphazardly on my shoulder as I ranted on. "You can't be sane if your idea of helping someone is dumping them in a completely unfamiliar forest, without any essential provisions or forms of communication, to work it out! I mean, hell, at least give a guy some warning! Even, "Hey I'm going to leave you in a forest for an unspecified amount of time to work things out with your rival" would've sufficed!" An exasperated sigh leaves my lips. "Jeez, that guy is such a pain in the ass sometimes!"

Another couple of suitable sticks reach my line of vision and I make a beeline toward them. My anger subsides a bit as the mediocre task occupies most of my attention.

Guess I should be grateful he gave me the job of collecting firewood instead of fishing. Not that I mind waiting decades for something to bite, that's actually good training, it's just all my loud venting would probably scare the fish away and ruin any and all hopes of a decent dinner. I suppose he knew, or rather remembered that and planned ahead. Tch, cocky, know-it-all bastard…

Crack

"Dammit…" Without intending to, I snapped a stick in half thinking about the original instigator of my hellish punishment: Sasuke Uchiha.

Now I'm not one to hold a grudge for a long period of time by any means, but this guy… This guy is a whole different story. He tried to kill me on numerous occasions, fought with me constantly when we were assigned to the same squad, always put me down giving me the oh-so-lovely nickname 'dobe', and to top it off, the guy picks fights with me because I saved his sorry butt from almost certain death.

Like I said, I don't hold a grudge for too long, but Sasuke just gets under my skin with that last thing you know? I guess it's understandable though, given his idiotic life goals…

For those of you out of the loop, Sasuke's whole point in life is to gain enough power to kill the person who murdered his entire clan; Itachi Uchiha A.K.A his older brother. To gain said power to one day kill said brother, he went to this despicable snake-bastard Orochimaru.

Now that would have been fine, had Orochimaru not been planning on stealing Sasuke's body to use as his own to further his quest in obtaining immortality and knowledge of all the jutsu in the world. Seeing as how he was planning that though, I made it my mission in life to get him back home and away from the creepy, ex-Konoha sanin.

Well that and the fact that he was something of my best friend. Honestly though, I can't consider what we have, or maybe had now, a friendship. It bordered on a thin line that couldn't and still can't be defined clearly… Heh, you'd think after three and a half years of searching for that idiot I'd have had enough time to sort out what it was, but no. It's still just as hazy as before. I've come up with maybe a hundred different things to call the two of us. A couple of which are rivals, and even brothers, but nothing seems to fit right. Nothing can account for all the things we've said and done to and around each other.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just blowing it out of proportion… I tend to do that when I get pissed off so it's defiantly up there on the list with all the other possibilities.

Another sigh, this one more solemn, leaves my lips. I look up through the scarce openings in the leafy canopy and note with a tad bit of agitation the amount of sunlight--or rather the lack there of.

'Crap. Teme's not gonna be happy about this.' I think to myself while grabbing a few passable chunks of firewood and start sprinting for the clearing we'd been left and decided to make our camp in. 'I don't know why I'm getting so upset that I'm 'letting him down' by not getting there before dusk.' I slowed my pace slightly. 'Not like I care if he gets mad…'

I sped up. 'Though why intentionally fan the flames?'

After a few seconds I slowed down again. 'But it's not like it will matter… He can't really do anything to me of consequence.'

I sped up. 'Sasuke might've- Okay, I'm getting ridiculous! He's a normal human being,' one of the few and far between but still a normal human being, 'I'm sure he'll just be his regular, stoic self and blow it off like he did with the whole 'being drugged and left in a forest' thing.'

I took a deep breath and kept a regular walking pace remembering when we'd found the note Kakashi thoughtfully left for us and his reaction to it.

OooOooOFlashbackOooOooO

"Ugh…what the hell…? My head's spinning like crazy…" I slowly raised a hand to clutch my painfully whiling brain. I didn't dare open my eyes for fear any light would send my head even further off it's axis.

"Kami-sama, whatever happened to me sucks…" Groaning, I turned over on my side and tried to regain some sense of this situation while resting my unreasonably heated skin against the cool ground.

Ground? Funny, I don't remember falling asleep outside… Guess that rules out that possibility. Could I have been kidnapped then? Probable, but from what I can tell my feet aren't bound and neither are my hands. Not kidnapped…

Damn. This is confusing. The last thing I remember is sparring with Sasuke-teme...

That's it then! I must have beaten him so bad I became exhausted and passed out in the training grounds! Yup, that must be it.

Despite my protesting muscles—a good sign I'd fought with Sasuke—I sat up with a groan and slowly opened my azure eyes. Blinking in the dazzling amount of light, I moved the hand that was holding my head steady in front of my eyes to shade them. Trees, and plenty of them, were what I saw after a few seconds more of light-blindness. Okay, yet another good sign that fed into my theory. Now, where's the path out…?

I squinted around the smallish clearing. A tingling feeling in my gut told me I wasn't where I thought I was. Of course I ignored it and continued to look around.

That is, until I heard a groan just behind me.

I spun, my spine popping audibly with the force, toward the noise, preparing to go into complete attack mode, (cough-runawaymode-cough) if there was a threat.

My eyes fell upon a body. Rather, a person. They looked familiar too…

"Sasuke?" I ask, relief flooding my tone though I could still feel the adrenaline running in my veins.

The other only groaned in response. Sasuke—if indeed it was him—probably needed a minute or two to gain his bearings if his head was spinning as much as mine had. I'd wait. What else was I going to occupy my time with?

Predictably, the would-be Sasuke sat up slowly with a hand clutching his head. He looked around until he spotted me. "Naruto…?"

Yup, no mistaking that voice, those icy obsidian eyes, or that funny duck-butt hair of his; it was Sasuke alright.

"Yeah, it's me," I supplied.

He looked away for a few seconds, doing a quick 360 of the area before he asked, "Where are we? And what happened?"

Both very good questions to ask in a situation such as ours. Not that I knew the answer to either but still good questions all the same.

Now I thought I knew the answers, but Sasuke not remembering anything either was just a bit too much to be coincidence. So the big blackboard with all my possible theories was wiped clean of the most probable and self-glorifying answer. Damn.

"Not sure… The last thing I remember was being in the training grounds about to kick your butt."

Sasuke just glared at me in response, the emotion not quite reaching his more subdued eyes though.

That's something about Sasuke. He doesn't like to show emotions the normal way. Well occasionally he'll slip and his mask will crack and a real bit of emotion will file through the tiny fissure and make itself known, but most of the time that doesn't happen. Usually you have to find what he's feeling in his eyes. Yeah I know, they're all icy and black hole-like, but if you train yourself, you can sometimes see a tiny glimmer in those endless depths. That glimmer is what he's really feeling.

I feel like a psychic every time I do it. Insert goofy image of me wearing a matching purple turban and shawl trying to read someone's destiny in their palm here.

I snap out of my reverie when he stands up.

I sluggishly follow his lead and stand up too, but not without regretting it. My head spins dizzyingly and I almost fall back down.

The keyword there being almost.

As you might've guessed, Sasuke was quick to take action and grabbed me before I could fall. My knight in shining armor…yippy freaking skippy…

"Careful, you don't want to hit your head. All that hot air might escape."

Then, his infuriating I'm-better-than-you-and-I-just-proved-it smirk flashes at me. I feel my right eye twitch. "Just let go of me, Teme!!" I quickly remove his hands from my person and right myself without getting dizzy or needing help.

He still smirked at me when I turned away to blush hotly. Damn him and his uncanny ability to embarrass me no matter what the situation! My cheeks wouldn't stop burning and neither would the skin where he'd touched, or more appropriately, grabbed me, which is why I nearly jumped out of my skin when he put a hand on my shoulder.

"W-what are you doing?" I tried to turn to see what he was doing but his arm cemented me to the spot, preventing any movement.

"Reading…"

"Reading? Reading what?"

"A note…from Kakashi…" His tone was a bit less that ecstatic when he said Kakashi's name.

"He left it on my back? Let me see," I reached back to grab the note and Sasuke relinquished his hold on me. Once I'd grabbed it, I turned to face him. My eyes quickly scanned over the scrappy text:

Sasuke and Naruto,

I've enjoyed the past month you've been back Sasuke, but I have to admit you're getting on my last nerve. You too, Naruto. Both of you seem to have some unresolved feelings toward each other that apparently can only be expressed by fighting. Constantly. This is unacceptable in my eyes. I want both of you to relearn a lesson in teamwork. So I've taken it upon myself to drug you and leave you in a forest. The Forest of Chakra can only be navigated out of by using teamwork. Hopefully you'll understand and get out before you die of starvation or dehydration. Kiss and make up now!

Kakashi

"Son of a… 'I've taken it upon myself to drug you and leave you in a forest'? What the hell?!" I almost laugh the sentence is so ludicrous. "He can't be serious!"

"Isn't he always?" Sarcasm dripped from his silky voice. "We're just going to have to figure out how to get out of here…"

My attention turned to Sasuke, "You can't be serious! How are we supposed to do that?? For all you know this could be a completely different country!"

Sasuke seemed distant for a second, his eyes not focused on anything in particular. Then his eyes snapped back into tight focus. "No, it's still Konoha…"

"How-?"

"The scent is the same," he answered my unasked question without batting an eyelash.

The scent is the same? How could he tell the forests' scents apart? I took a whiff and smelled nothing but the earthy openness of any forest. Weird. But that's the least of my worries so I'll save my scrutiny for later.

"So what should we do then?"

"Find food and build a fire first of all."

OooOooOEnd FlashbackOooOooO

I was still in utter shock from how calm and collected Sasuke'd been to really be worried with getting back on time now.

He was just amazing that way. You could find something about his personality to pick at and it would keep you busy for hours. You'd wonder why he'd do something and soon enough the endless list of possibilities would become too much to bother with and you'd realize you'd been thinking about it longer than you'd intended.

Which is exactly what happened...again. I was so busy debating with myself about whether he was in on this with Kakashi or if he was fighting to not loose control behind that icy façade that I didn't even notice I'd already walked within eyesight of our 'campsite'.

"Well, the amazing Uchiha does it again," I mutter rather amusedly to myself.

OooOooOooO

Somewhere, just up ahead of the blond, sat a raven-haired teen. His eyes were closed, hiding endless obsidian orbs behind pale eyelids. Long bangs reached down across his face to caress beautiful porcelain skin. His shirt lay discarded next to him, taken off after feeling too hot and sweaty from carrying firewood and catching fish to keep it on.

Now though, a cool breeze ghosted across his muscular frame and sent shivers through his skin.

Sasuke slowly opened his eyes and looked around the little clearing that was now their camp. He noted with slight concern that the sun had almost set.

'Where's Naruto with the rest of the wood?' He tried to get up to see if he could find the blond goof, but a sudden searing hole in his shoulder froze him to the spot. His eyes were plastered shut with the effort of not crying out. He sucked in a raspy breath and gnashed his teeth in silent agony. 'Damn it…even when I'm free from him I can still feel it…'

After a few seconds of agonized waiting for the white-hot burning to subside, it finally did and he collapsed against the tree he'd been resting against in a cold sweat. 'Tsunade better hurry with that damn antidote…'

Sasuke breathed in and out calmly for a few minutes to stop his body from ringing with the hollow drum of the pain's memory. 'Come on, it's no different from all the times before now… Just think of something cool to wash it away…'

An ocean…a deep, crystal clear, azure ocean… Yeah, that'll soothe it all away… A beautiful, cool ocean…

A small smile graced the Uchiha's lips. He loved the ocean. Ever since his parents took him and his aniki on one of their father's business trips to the Land of Waves and he'd seen the ocean for the first time he'd loved it. The smells, the sights, the sounds; they all intrigued him and gave him a sense of tranquility whenever he envisioned them.

But that once-cherished memory wasn't the only reason he loved the ocean.

Snap

Sasuke sat bolt upright at the noise. Far too miniscule for the normal ear to discern, he recognized the sound easily. It was the first of the many heavy footfalls that could only belong to Naruto Uzumaki. He listened a bit longer and noted he was walking at a brisk pace towards where he, himself, now sat.

'Guess he's finally back. And he hopefully brought the rest of the firewood with him.' The Uchiha stood up and dusted off his white cargo knee-shorts briefly before he picked up his long-sleeved black shirt.

Dead leaves crunched and twigs snapped, now horribly audible, behind Sasuke as he slowly slipped his shirt back on.

OooOooOooO

"Konbanwa Teme!" I greeted happily in the hopes he'd forgive my disobedience. "I got the firewood just like- U-um…!" My words died in my throat as I took in the sight before me.

It was like looking at a priceless work of art. Sasuke stood among the trees and other foliage in all his icy perfection. Pale skin gleaming lightly with the last few rays of sunlight that fed through the high trees and silky raven bangs falling chaotically over the flawless skin of his slender face… The muscles in his back were contracting smoothly with the slight effort he was using to do something…

"Took you long enough. …Naruto?" The smirk I was sure he was about to flash my way became disfigured into a confused frown upon noticing my heated face. An elegant raven eyebrow rose at me skeptically. "You alright…?"

"I, u-um yeah, I'm fine!" I stammered and managed an apologetic grin. "I got the rest of the firewood." Willing the uncharacteristic blush from my face, I sat the wood down with the rest we'd gathered earlier. I warily glanced at him in the corner of my eye while doing so.

He watched me for a few more seconds before shaking his head lightly and probably dismissing me as an idiot. He went back to what he was doing just before I'd walked up.

I spared another glance his way and finally noticed his black shirt. What was he doing with it off in the first place? Weird, sexy Uchihas…

Wait, what?

"Hey, grab a few of those logs and set them over here." His voice cut through my musings and I snapped back to reality.

"Sorry?"

Sasuke sighed. "You didn't run into a tree or anything did you? Hit your head on a branch?"

I was affronted, "Of course not! Why?"

"You're just acting strange."

"So? That doesn't mean I hit my head!" I glared pointedly at him.

He rolled his eyes. "Just get the wood Dobe. Or do you want to freeze to death tonight?"

Damn his infuriating smirk!! I made a noncommittal sound and grabbed four logs with more force than was probably necessary.

Glowering, I shoved the wood at his chest. He looked more amused than anything else—I could see it in his eyes again—but took the firewood without comment.

Sasuke placed the logs in an outward circle, their tips touching in the center, and performed the necessary hand signs for a Fireball Jutsu. Using hardly any chakra lest he burn everything within an eight foot radius, the Uchiha blew a small plume of fire on the logs and they soon after crackled to life.

I stared into the flames for a minute while Sasuke gathered some small twigs and speared the fish—the rather large and probably juicy fish—with them.

My mouth watered at the prospect of a fresh fish dinner as I silently picked out the biggest fishy of all as my own. I crouched down to get a better look at tasty morsel.

"So…"

I was pulled away from my delicious daydream at his silky smooth voice. My eyes turned up to his. "'So' what?" I looked at him quizzically. He wasn't one to randomly strike up conversation. Sasuke was more the 'talk and I'll eat you' type than the 'let's talk' type.

He was silent and looked everywhere but at my face for a few seconds. Then, "I'm sorry…"

I choked on my spit. "H-huh?? What for?"

He narrowed his eyes slightly, clearly not wanting to talk any further. "Kakashi said we needed to get along to get out of here right?"

I nodded, still a bit too awestruck to speak.

"Well I'm just apologizing so we can get out of here…" He crossed his arms and sat cross-legged across from me.

I blinked. Then burst out laughing. "Y-you're kidding, right?" I managed between breaths.

Sasuke glared icy daggers at me. Obviously he wasn't kidding.

I calmed down slightly, but still grinned like a Cheshire cat. "Heh, sorry, it's just I don't think I've ever heard you say you were sorry before."

He looked away from me, his pride insulted. "Whatever, dobe."

Rolling my eyes I mutter, "You don't have to get mad, teme…jeez…"

I could've sworn I saw the slightest curve in his lips—what might possibly be the rare and elusive Uchiha smile—but it was so fast I didn't have enough time to confirm it.

Smiling, my eyes wandered back to the fire in the silence that followed. I couldn't help but think about all the memories of our old squad while I stared transfixed at the dancing blades of heat.

Team 7. That was who we were back then…me, Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi-sensei. We had all kinds of experiences together; we traveled to exciting places, met different people, trained and got stronger with each other… That last was the best group of memories I had.

Being orphaned and despised as a child I treasured all the bonds I made, especially those of my teammates. But like I've mentioned before, Sasuke's a special case. I know we have a bond but I don't know what kind it is. With Sakura and Kakashi it's easy to tell what the bond there is, she's one of my closest friends and he's my pervert of a sensei. But I just can't understand what Sasuke and I are…

He's fought with me, tried to kill me at least three times, despised me (or at least acted like he's despised me), saved my life on more than one occasion, and whether he intended to or not, helped me become stronger as a fighter and a person.

Now, would you be able to come up with a suitable word for what we are? Yeah, didn't think so.

"Sasuke…?"

He looked up at me, "Hn?"

"What…are we exactly…?" I half expected him to give me something like, "Well I'm a human but I don't know about you" but he surprised me.

"I can't honestly say… I would call us friends but that doesn't really cover it all does it?"

I smiled wanly and shook my head. "Hardly," I pulled my legs in and wrapped my arms around them, resting my chin on my knees as I thought about it, still staring at the fire. 'So he doesn't know either, eh? I guess even he can be baffled sometimes…'

"You know, I think the only thing I can call what we have a bond… But it's even deeper than that isn't it? More vital…" Sasuke's voice was so low I almost couldn't hear it. "I'm sorry I ever tried to tear it apart…"

My heart skipped a beat.

Did he just apologize for…? No, I must've heard him wrong.

I glanced up to see if he was going to be smirking at me, joking again, but almost instantly I knew he wasn't.

His obsidian eyes were staring straight at mine. But they weren't cold, betraying what he was feeling, this time what I saw was real. The raw and unabridged emotion flooded though his eyes and hit me like a ton of bricks. My breath was quite literally knocked out of my chest at his intense stare.

"Sasuke…you're…" It was a bit hard to breathe now.

He smiled sadly. "I know that hardly makes up for what I've done, but I just…I don't know. I just need you to know that I really do regret it…" Sasuke broke the connection our eyes had made and looked into the fire. "Sacrificing our bond for my own gain isn't something I ever want to do again."

I felt oddly torn at his confession, like part of me wanted consol him—tell him I was the one who needed to be sorry—and another part wanted to tell him he should be sorry and that it was an idiotic thing to do in the first place.

But grief overwhelmed resentment.

I slowly stood up and walked over to Sasuke to sink on my knees in front of him and look into his shocked and maybe slightly apprehensive eyes.

"Naruto…?"

I smiled and simply hugged him.

He froze instantly, his body becoming rigid against mine. But I didn't let up.

Sasuke slowly relaxed after a few seconds though and wrapped his arms around me as well.

"Thank you…"

An unfamiliar wetness ran down my cheeks and I clutched onto him tighter. I couldn't believe he was thanking me. How could he? If I'd been stronger to begin with, I could have kept him here and none of…that would've even happened. There would be no need for any of this…

"Naruto?" He pulled away just enough so that he could see my tear-streaked face with his own concerned one. "What's wrong?"

I smiled again and shook my head. "It's nothing."

Sasuke scrutinized my appearance with calculatingly cool eyes.

I felt my cheeks heat up as I realized how close we were for the first time. Our breath mingled and I even caught a whiff of his skin; the scent was almost the same as the forest's but only…sweeter I guess I could say.

His eyes softened at my blush—which only served to make it worse—and he smiled. His hand rose to my face and caressed my cheek gently, wiping away the thin lines of tears.

I forgot how to breathe when his face came perilously close to mine. He seemed to notice my sudden hesitance and backed off slightly, apologizing with his eyes.

I found myself wondering why I didn't want him to back off like he did. Why did I want him so close? Why did I not jump away from him? I didn't know, but then again I didn't really care all too much either. I just knew I didn't want to ever be separated from him.

So I gathered my resolve and tangled the fingers of my right hand in his silky raven locks and pulled him down so that our lips met for the first—and hopefully not the last—time since the kiss we'd shared as genin so many years ago.

OooOooO TBC OooOooO

So? What'd you think? Better? Worse? Please tell me! I'm dying to know! Oh, by the way, I'm not going to include any of the Shippuden content or Sai for that matter so no asking me about it if you don't mind. It's not that I don't want to answer your questions—I'm more than happy to do that—it's just that I'm not going to keep answering your questions if they're all the same thing repeatedly. Arigato for you time and patience!

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