He was standing in the middle of a raging battle, blood spattering his face and uniform, shoulders heaving with every breath he struggled to take. There was a sharp pain in his side and when he pressed his hand to it, it was wet and warm. A lock of brown hair slipped out of his ponytail and into his face and he pushed it away with shaking fingers, smearing blood against his cheek. The air was thick with rot and the metallic tang of spilt blood seemed to settle on his tongue as he breathed through the pain and vertigo. He must have been hit very, very hard in the head since the battle was nothing more than muffled clangs of kunai against kunai to his ears.
Looking around as wildly as his head would let him once he got his bearings he focused his search on golden blond hair. Naruto was standing on a sharp incline, coat torn and flapping in the brisk wind that tore through the valley. He was facing off against a masked man cloaked in black.
He tried to call out to him, but watched in horror as his voice distracted Naruto for that brief moment, and as soon as he took blue eyes off the man, a gleaming black sword was being thrust into his Hokages' back, pushing until it pierced him through. Naruto met his eye before looking down at his chest, red dripping from the tip to hit the mud-covered ground. The blondes mouth opened but no sound came out as he fell to his knees while the masked man ripped the sword from him.
He rushed forward but felt as if he was running through wet cement as Naruto seemed to pitch forward in slow motion, falling into the now blood soaked mud. He felt his heart beat out of time, blood rushing in his ears erasing all sound but for the mad laughter of the masked man.
Time seemed to start again as he stumbled forward, tripping over the arm of a fallen Ino, pale blue eyes staring unseeing at him, throat slashed. Sakura was the next one he saw as he looked away from him former teammate, her pink hair in tangles around her face, stuck to a dead tree with a tanto through her chest.
His stomach heaved at a beheaded Kiba, Akamaru howling beside him, but he couldn't stop. Not with Naruto dying. The looming grey clouds finally broke and a cold rain started to fall, stifling the scent of death for a moment.
Blinking the rain out of his eyes he clawed his way up the slick hill, mud clinging to his uniform, Konoha head band, once tied to his arm, now gone in his haste to get to the blonde, but he stopped short and scrambled to his feet as Naruto stirred and started to push himself up. He wanted to run to him, but his feet felt glued to the ground as he watched the blonde turn around. His breath seemed to turn to ice in his lungs as Naruto turned, the hole in his chest bleeding sluggishly, tan skin a shade of death, and blonde hair matted with blood and dulled with mud when he opened his eyes.
He wanted to vomit. Could feel the bile rising as he stared into the eyes of an edo tensei puppet, seal flattened to the sleeve of the coat with the rain.
Naruto was dead.
He was alone.
He reached frantically for his kunai pouch as the blonde stuttered towards him like some kind of broken marionette, only to find the bag empty. His eyes snapped forward to see Narutos' inches from his. Once blue eyes a cloudy red with narrow pupils, the black seeming to bleed from what used to be white. He had half a moment to watch a clawed hand jerked backwards as if by a string and then plunged forward to his chest. The sharp pain of those same claws ripping out his heart, ribs shattering from the force.
He watched in fascination as his heart beat futilely in Narutos hand.
"Look Shika, now we match." Narutos voice sounded like glass breaking and his feral grin revealed two long canines.
He feebly coughed blood as he looked down. The hole in his chest a perfect match for Narutos. His vision faded as he tipped forward and…
Woke up with a gasp, scream lodged in his throat as he shot straight out of bed, kunai in his hand he didn't realize he grabbed, and a confused blonde rubbing sleep from his eyes.
"Shika... What's wrong?" Naruto asked as he sat up.
He couldn't speak though. Not with the sobs he could feel choking him, the panic sending his heart rate through the roof. The heart that was still beating in his chest.
A dream.
And a shitty one at that.
"Are you alright?" Naruto looked much more alert as blue eyes scanned the room for a threat.
He tried to slow his breathing, giving the blonde a jerky nod and fumbling to place the kunai back on the bedside table. He forced his shaky body back into the bed and gave Naruto a wobbly smile "Just a dream." He got out, if not to remind himself then to reassure Naruto who gave the room another once over and quirked a skeptical eyebrow before settling back down beside him.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Naruto asked as he snuggled against him.
'Oh you know, no big thing. Just that I had a very vivid dream of you dying, being reincarnated, and ripping my still beating heart out while you smiled at me' yeah that would go over so well he would probably end up in front of a Yamanaka for pts treatment. So, he just shook his head no, heart rate finally slowing to a safe tempo as he wrapped his arms around the blonde. Feeling warm bare skin against his, soft hair tickling his nose as he buried his face in the scent of the new shampoo Ino had recommended them, warm breath slowly gusting over his collarbone, and the press of a rough callused hard against his hip pulling him even closer.
Shikamaru felt the contentment wash over him as he listened to his lover breath, heart beating strong and slow under his hand. Alive and well and here with him. The darkness and fear being banished as they laid together in their bed and he watched the sun slowly start to rise over Narutos head on the Hokage monument.
It was just a dream.