Whaaa? TWO CHAPTERS? HALLELUJIER! But in all seriousness, I didn't want to leave you guys with the one chapter, so enjoy!

Chapter 2: Read Between the Lines

When Naruto finally woke up, he was screaming and his shirt was drenched in his cold sweat. He woke up earlier than his usual time and didn't fall back to sleep, he was scared of what he might encounter next. So he put on his clothes and walked to where he'd meet his team.

Naruto sat down and opened up what he brought to read while he waited for his teammates. His eyes were heavy and his body was weary, it called for the warmth and comfort of a bed. Naruto kept telling himself to stay awake and rubbed his eyes. After doing so, he went back to reading, but was confused as the word no longer made sense. They were jumbled and perplexing, he closed the book and read the title, it read "HTRD TSNOEUD CTIER." He flipped open the pages, and every one was filled with gibberish. He closed his eyes and tried to wake himself up, someone was calling his name.

"Naruto!" he opened his eyes and looked up, it was Sasuke. "I was calling you, what are you doing? You're never up this early."

Naruto doesn't answer, he only gives Sasuke a strange look, he doesn't know if he can trust this reality or not.

"Are you okay?" he asks.

"What do you mean?" he hopes this is not a dream.

Sasuke points to Naruto's forehead, "Your headband is upside-down."

Naruto's stomach sank, he looks at his book and it the title reads "THE RED DESTRUCTION." Naruto fixes his headband and responds, "I just had a bad dream, I'm fine."

Sasuke doesn't believe the blonde for a second but drops the subject, he wasn't going to force it.

An hour or so later, the rest of the team arrives. Naruto asks Sakura a question and she responds, but no sounds comes out, only her lips move. Confused, he asks the rest of his team if something's up with Sakura. They all respond in unison the same way Sakura was. The four of them surrounded Naruto and were speaking but there was no sound, no sound at all. Naruto wakes up, Kakashi was calling out his name. He apologizes for sleeping and rubs his head while yawning. They give him an odd look and Kakashi says, "Naruto...you weren't sleeping."

Naruto opens his eyes, "I wasn't?"

He shakes his head. Sakura answers, "You were muttering 'Wake up' under your breath."

The blonde sighs in frustration. He explains again of the nightmares he'd been having. How in his last one, they four of his teammates were speaking, but no sound was produced.

"Can you tell what we were trying to say?" Sai asked.

Naruto closed his eyes and tried to remember, he mouthed what he saw and tried speaking along with it.

"When is a door not a door?" he responded.

"When it's ajar." Sasuke answered, "You were dreaming of us asking you a riddle? Were your other dreams like this?"

Naruto shook his head, "The other dreams are just of that empty cave or of false realities." He sat down and rubbed his eyes with his left hand. He didn't know what was going on with these nightmares, nor why they were happening.

"You didn't get much sleep did you?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto looked up and shook his head again, "I didn't want to have any more nightmares, I'm afraid that if I sleep, even when I'm awake, I'm scared that what I'm experiencing isn't real."

"Yeah, well, being deprived of some much needed rest isn't going to help your situation." Kakashi said.

"If that's all that you're scared of," Sai added, "count your fingers."

Naruto had a puzzled look on his face, what good would counting fingers hold?

"That, or read; not just books, anything, read signs, read letters, anything with words. If you're dreaming, the words will be mixed up or you'll have extra fingers."

Naruto slowly looks at his fingers, five on his left hand, five on his right. He was fine, he was awake.

"See? You're awake, you're fine, you just need to get some rest." Kakashi reassured him and then offered to walk Naruto home. He didn't' have the energy to argue, so he let him. Kakashi told the three others to remain there and that he would return.

"How long have you been having these nightmares?" Kakashi's tone was serious, but calm.

"Just today actually, the first one was of the cave and the 'vines', other than that...I don't really have much dreams or nightmares." he turned his head to Kakashi, "What do you think they mean?"

He sighed, "I don't know, but I want to find out," he turned to Naruto and then forward again, "I'll ask around, see if anyone knows anything, the nightmares, the cave...I'll figure it out, I promise."

He noticed there was only one set of footsteps he was hearing: his. He turned around and saw Naruto staring at a sign, his eyes were wide and filled with panic. Kakashi rushed over, "Naruto? What is it?"

"The words, why can't...why can't I read the words?!" Only a few minutes since his last panic, this was something beyond lack of sleep.

Kakashi stepped in front of Naruto, blocking the sign. He held up his hands, "Naruto, look at me, look at me!"

The blonde's blue eyes met Kakashi's, still filled with fear.

"How many fingers do I have here?" Kakashi tried to remain calm.

"Th-three..."

"That's right, three, how many now?" he held up six fingers.

"S-s-s-six..."

"Count with me, let's count the rest, Naruto." he slowly put up one more finger. In shaky unison, the two said "seven", then "eight", "nine", and finally "ten."

"See? Ten. Ten fingers," Kakashi held Naruto's head gently, he was at the blonde's eye level. "Ten fingers, not eleven, not just nine, but ten."

"Why is this happening...?" Naruto managed before he collapsed into the older man's arms.

"Naruto...I swear I'll stop this," he kissed the unconscious teen's head, "It'll all be okay."

Eyyyyyy, some (unnecessary?) fluff! Ye buddy.

If these guys come off as too OOC, please, don't hesitate to yell at me, I'll fix it right away! If anything, if anyone'd like to beta these, just go ahead and ask, I don't bite...I nibble.

Other than that, just continue livin' it large.

You look beautiful today, I like what you've done with your hair.

*hearts*